In fact, I have been back home in Germany for over two months now. Uni has started again, and the everyday life has me back... Not that I want it this way, but you get used to it.
But let me now, bit by bit, bring you up to date on what happened since my last entry.
After staying in Kyoto for 5 days and looking at all kinds of awesome temples, hiking into the eastern mountains without map, guide or idea where I'm going, rolling around on the street, seeing a few Geishas or Maikos, meeting all kinds of interesting people, buying a Cap big enough for my head and hair, a Holga plastic camera, and generally having a good time, I found a WWOOF host. Not near Kyoto, but on Shikoku. "Well, better than nothing!" I thought, and went on my merry way.
But let's leave that for another time. Let me tell you about Kyoto first! Can't leave out all of the details after all!
The first day I got there, with Sarah from France, her Japanese friend and Hannah from Finland whom I met on the ferry from Shanghai back to Japan, I first checked into my hostel. An odd place: Like so many buildings in Japan, it was really narrow, but still somehow managed to cram everything in. Seriously, the place was maybe 4 or 5 meters wide, but 20m deep and had 5 floors. Odd, but comfy, except for the beds.
I met the four of them again and we went to check out the Nishiki food market.
That was nice, except for the fact that most of the food was fish, and you know how much I like fish. They had some cute shops too though, where they sold all kinds of stuff that tourists like me would buy.
We went to the Kyoto International Manga Museum after that, which was interesting, in a way. They had all those really old paintings that were the beginnings of contemporary Manga pop culture. Apparently it all started with storytellers on the street, who used these kinds of images to illustrate stories they were telling to children or adults... I don't remember all the details. It was interesting, but not all that mindblowing, really. Couldn't take any photos either, what with copyrights and all that.
I walked home from there, which took maybe 20mins... Kyoto isn't all that big, and I like that.
The next day, I met with Hanna to go to Arashiyama, in the north west part of Kyoto. We looked at some nice temples, including the allegedly most beautiful zen garden in the area.
I just love the attention to detail in this kind of Japanese architecture:
That looks to my amateur eye like whoever built this really paid attention to detail, and took great care in their work. This would be an exception where I come from, but in Japan, it seems to be the rule instead. I find that impressive.
After that garden, we took a stroll through the nearby bamboo forest. Wow, bamboo forests are incredible! They look great, and when there's a breeze blowing, they sound great too - why, you wonder? Well, bamboo is rather flexible compared to other kinds of trees, and when there is wind, they hit one another up above, and that sounds very eerily interesting.
And then we had lunch. Really nice Soba, at a traditional Japanese restaurant place. I still miss that kind of place around here... *sniff* And of course, the food was excellent, too.
After that, we walked to a temple nearby, whose name I forgot. I believe it was the headquarters of one buddhist sect in Japan, but I don't remember which, either. Yeah, I'm getting old... They had quite nice things there though! I had read a lot about so-called nightingale floors, but never actually stepped foot on one. They are designed to squeak, no matter how carefully you walk across them, to warn the important leaders about approaching assassins. Interesting! A piece of real ninja lore, right under my feet! :D
One of the shrines there was painted entirely red, and it looked quite nice in the golden evening sun.
So much for the first two days in Kyoto. The rest will follow soon™!
