Afternoon, day 1

I spent the time between hotels wandering the endless shopping streets of the Kawarimachi district, at one point coming across the temple where Oda Nobunaga met his firey end. 

Eventually I ended up in CHICAGO. No, that's not an exaggeration.

CHICAGO (all capitals because Japan) is a vintage clothing store that has a huge collection of used Japanese clothing: kimono, yukata, hakama, etc.

Somehow I refrained from liquidating my retirement fund to buy them all. In fact, I didn't buy anything for myself but I maybe going back today. 😅

After lunch (squid curry...tastier than it might sound) I got my bag from my old hotel and eventually, after walking in circles because Google Maps was... unhelpful, I caught a bus that took me to Hotel #2.

This place is a little nicer.

I've lived in apartments smaller than this room. It also has an in-room washer/dryer (one machine!) which is critical because it is crazy hot and humid and I am sweating constantly. I went through four outfits yesterday!

After a quick shower and change I was off to the famous geisha district of Gion where I was dressed in a kimono to experience a tea ceremony with a geisha.

One of these is me, one is a professional geisha. I'll let you guess which is which.

I bonded with a woman from California who was the only other person there that seemed to know anything about Japanese culture and we took lots of pictures for each other. The geisha was very talented but the real pleasure was our hostess Dodo-san (her real name) who was the friendliest person ever and very patient with a bunch of foreigners who totally messed up important cultural rituals.

Afterward, I wandered Gion, which reminds me of nothing more than the worst tourist districts of San Francisco.

Kyoto has hills, y'all.

I got to the big shrine at the top just before it closed, so I didn't see much, but as I was leaving I stumbled upon a vast necropolis, which was neat.

Pictures don't do justice to this place.

It was getting lateish by now so I got back to the hotel for yet another shower and change, then went to get some dinner. With all the walking I'd done I planned to go only to the okonomiyaki place around the corner. But it was full, so I went a little further to a well-reviewed seafood place. However when I got there the actual restaurant seemed to be closed. There was however, still dinner available in the form of the sashimi vending machine.

Sashimi.

Vending Machine.

I am not making this up.

What the fuck, Japan.

I didn't quite have the courage so I went a bit further to get some ramen instead...by now I'd managed to get a good half mile from the hotel so I am getting some exercise for sure.

The ramen place was down an alley, and you ordered via machine which I promptly failed to use properly (I have a PhD).

It was pretty good.

By now I was so exhausted that I couldn't remember that all the stuff I had done that morning was in fact, the same day, so I headed to a nice soak in the huge tub in the hotel room. But first, a quick stop at the 7-11 for a juice box of sake!

And thus endeth the first day