Japan, Day 11 (Part II)

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

After Shugakuin, we headed over to Kinkakuji, the Golden Pavilion. This temple is covered in real gold leaf and surrounded by water. The water is covered with geese and lily pads.

This part was actually kind of gross--there were like 50 koi all in an area of about 3 cubic feet (oh no, that really is the Chemistry class having an effect). That many of them all together in such a tiny space was really sick. But, looking up and seeing the lake as a whole along with the gold building to my left, I got over it.

Just about a ten minute walk away from Kinkakuji is Ryoanji, a temple with the most famous Zen rock garden in Japan. The garden consists only of rocks, raked pebbles, and moss. It is set up in a way so that no matter where one sits to view the garden, they can never see every single rock. I'm not sure I get this place...The people who come in to visit the garden are allowed to sit all along a deck that runs along one side. Everyone just kind of sits there silently. I tried it for a while...Still not sure I got it.

Here's another view...

And another view...It is a peaceful place but I still am not sure I get it.

We tried to then take the bus to our next destination (this is a huge departure from everything else we did that day) and got lost. Just wait, this was unexpectedly one of the coolest places we went and it was worth walking around and getting angry and not being able to find a cab for over an hour.

Uncle Lionel had recommended that we go to a samurai movie studio lot. When we first pulled up in the cab, it looked awful--a huge warehouse with huge pink, green, and blue characters on the front. The tickets, bought at a movie theater ticket booth, were half off because it was so close to closing time.

When we first entered, we just saw the inside of a warehouse that just had movie posters everywhere. I was disappointed until we turned the corner and saw this:

It's a universal studios for Japanese samurai films!!!! It felt like I was at Disneyland, except it was almost cooler because no one was there and we could walk around like we owned the place.

It's too bad I haven't seen more samurai movies, though, otherwise maybe I'd recognize some of these sets. The signs posted around the lot say that the sets are used for all types of movies.

The sign next to this bridge says that it has been used in almost every single Japanese movie. The curved bridges are really stereotypical of Japanese movies, and they said that they just put a different sign up next to the bridge each time, and it becomes whatever they want.

Just like at Disneyland, they have samurai character guys walking around!!!

I guess you can compare this building to that magic show building on Main Street USA. Inside, there was a guy putting on a show about special effects.

I couldn't understand him, but I got the gist of his show. He was showing off how sharp his sword was, and then pretended to cut himself, but it turns out it was just special effects stuff.

Here are some more sets...

Don't you just feel like you're looking at a scene from the middle of old-time Japan?

Dad and I both were starving at this point (we pretty much got kicked out of the movie studio because it was closing). After being taken for a ride by our cab driver, we decided that we were craving gyoza (Japanese pot stickers). We tried to find some good places, but I was really really really sick of the Kyoto Station restaurants.

So, we headed over to the ever-reliable Hotel Granvia and asked the concierge for a recommendation. We just pretended that we were guests at the hotel and he recommended a really cool place.

It was about a 15 minute cab ride away, very close to the path of philosophy near Chionin. This place is definitely worth a trip, especially late at night. The restaurant has a diner-like style. We were able to sit at the bar on stools, and got to watch everything get cooked.

There were three things on the menu: gyoza, pickles, and beer. Everything was delicious. My mouth waters just thinking about this place. The gyoza are cooked to order, so they are always fresh, hot, and crispy.

For a while I thought our waiters were laughing at us for continuing to order more (the cucumbers were served by the plate, and the gyoza were ten to a plate), but then I looked at the Japanese couple next to us, and they each started out with two orders by themselves of everything.

The gyoza place is open really late, so I can only imagine the kind of crowd they get after people finish partying...Here is our cook putting some fresh gyoza onto the freshly oiled grill.

He then dumps some water on them and cover them to let them steam.

It got to the point where all I could do was count the seconds for him to take the top off and come to our table with another order of gyoza. I think we ended up eating at least 30 gyoza each, plus about 3 cucumbers worth of pickles.

I even may have ordered a beer! Dad did have to finish it for me after I drank half, but it seemed only appropriate to have at least one. You can see here how tiny the restaurant was.

Here's the menu--everything was really affordable, which was even cooler, especially in Japan. I know, it's in Japanese, but I think you can get the idea. I think the conversion rate from dollars to yen is about 80 cents to 100 yen.

Mmmm sooo gooood. I think it's time for a midnight snack. Maybe you'll get lucky and I'll post once more.