Despite being completely exhausted when I got to the hotel last night, I found myself awake at 12AM, 3AM, and finally 5:30AM. I decided I was not likely to get more than 6 hours of sleep this evening and opted to shower up and head out. I had booked the Kyoto Samurai Experience before arriving in Japan. It is about 15 minutes South of Nijo Castle. The experience didn’t start until 10AM, so I had ample time to set out and explore.
I checked the different options to get to Nijo Castle and all of them were around 25 minutes, whether that was a combination of bus and subway, or trains that didn’t get terribly close to my destination. Rather than taking a bus or train, I decided I would make the 30-minute walk to Nijo Castle and check that out before heading to the samurai experience.
First small shrine I saw walking around on my trip. I didn't realize how often I would stumble upon a shrine well walking around the city. Location: https://goo.gl/maps/3E3zSmCiUHFgezuh8
The neighborhoods on the walk were incredible to look at. I had a hard time distinguishing between houses and shops. It turns out this is by design as properties were (maybe still are?) taxed based on the street frontage they had. Meaning many owners would have small shops in the house’s front and then the living space behind it, leading to some deep lots with homes that are very narrow.
On my way, I was hoping to find something with caffeine to drink and tried out a “コンビニ” (conbini or convenience store) for the first time. 7-11 is very popular here, but they didn’t stock the energy drinks I prefer. I ended up with an iced latte and made my first in-store transaction. It was an awkward experience. This was due mostly because I didn’t understand most of what the clerk was saying. After a few trips to the store, I’ve now learned that if I’m going to use tap to pay on my phone, I still need to tell the cashier ”cardo” so they know I intend to use my credit card.
At 9:45, the Samurai Experience Opened. I was one of 8 participants, there were 5 folks from Australia which was nice since I could finally converse with someone. We got dressed in Hamaka outfits. I was worried that they would not have something my size, but the outfits were rather accommodating in size and quite comfortable to wear one everything was on. We then learned about samurai and how they ruled during the Edo period of Japan. After the history lesson, there was a presentation by 3 of the practitioners there.
One presenter began playing a Japanese wood flute. I was amazed at the sounds it made. It had that airy tone that you may have heard in samurai movies. Another gentleman was playing on a large drum that was around 5ft in diameter. The last gentleman came out and went through a series of bowing and praying before drawing his sword and going through a set of kata. It was way more intense than I was expecting, especially given the small room he was in. After the presentation, we moved our way outside.
After we had received some basic training with a wooden sword, we then took turns 2 at a time, coming up to slice some tatami mats. Holding the actual sword exhilarating, and I was surprised at how much adrenaline I got from the anticipation of slicing some mats. I volunteered to go first and got 5 clean slices on my mat. I figured it was going to be fairly easy for everyone, but only 3 others got clean cuts each time. After everyone had a go at the tatami mats and got some posed photos taken, we all moved back inside for a session of Zen meditation.
The room we sat in had paintings that were 300+ years old. It was a set of 12 panels, with each one depicting a different month moving through the seasons. We took a seat on the floor and the gentleman leading the mediation began ringing a set of “singing bowls”. The sound was far from calming as I thought it would be, however they explained afterwards that the sound is not meant to be calming but instead, the sound gives your mind something to focus on.
After the Samurai experience, I walked around to a few shrines around the area and just wandered about until my feet were sore enough that I was ready to get back to the hotel. After sitting down and cooling off for a few hours, I realized I was actually sunburnt! It was a strictly overcast day the entire day, but I had been out in the sun enough to catch a slight sunburn.
I had booked a night time tour for 6:30pm and was regretting that decision. After a quick chat and a bit of encouragement from my wife, Julie, I made my way over to the meeting point for the dinner tour. I was supposed to meet with a woman by the name of Anne and when I got to our meeting spot, there was a woman waiting there with a dinner tour sign. Turns out she was not Anne! The kabuki statue of Izumo no Okuni that was our meeting point was a very popular meeting point. By the time Anne showed up two more tours had met and left from the same spot. Anne informed me that there was only one other guest on the tour, but he never showed up, so we ended up heading out on our own.
The statue we were waiting by was the inventor of Kabuki. She became extremely popular and started the whole Kabuki movement. But being the 1800s the government thought it was unbecoming of women and changed the rules so that only men could practice Kabuki, and the rule holds true through today.
We walked around the East side of Kyoto and visited the Yasaka-Jinja shrine. Anne showed me around and taught me a little about Shinto and the difference between the Buddhist temples and the Shinto shrines. She walked me through the process of praying at the shrine, which was nice as I had read about it, but had not seen it in practice. There were some lanterns hanging from a central stage that had me curious about what they were. Anne gave a chuckle and let me know they were actually sponsor advertisements! These beautiful lanterns hanging were actually just company names for the different supporters of the shrine.
We left from the shrine and headed to a local standing bar. There was an impressive spread of food for the two of us as the tour usually has 3 or 4 people. Some of it was very good like the deep fried squash cakes, and some of it was not to my taste such as the grilled chicken heart and liver. From the bar we went to a traditional restaurant. By this point though, I was running on fumes and I remember little of the visit. So I made my way back to the hotel and turned in for the night.
