Kyoto City of Mystery

This Saturday will be a month so I'd better get up to speed a little faster. Basically all I've covered is the first day or so after we arrived. The next week pretty much stands by itself and I'll cover it with some random stories.

After we moved into our bar/apartment we needed to get our bearings of the overall area. We were under the impression that we had to register at the City Hall so we went looking for it. In the process we got lost and spent most of the day walking around taking pictures of random stuff. It turns out we didn't have to register at the city hall at all and, due to the public holidays and the weekend, we didn't learn that information until a week after we arrived. I think we walked up the street with the city hall 7 times in our first week here. But that's OK, it's a cool street and that's how we found the Manga Museum.

We were told that recently there was a law passed that limited all forms of advertisement in Kyoto in order to maintain its cultural look and feel. So if you have ever seen pictures of Tokyo, Kyoto looks nothing like it. It doesn't have the neon signs, not much, or the giant billboards on the side of buildings. Many buildings have formal tops to them making you believe that it's somehow important but it really doesn't need to be nor is it necessarily that old. This building is a restaurant, I think. Most buildings look as if they were built recently though. Classic Japanese buildings are built from wood with stone shillings. They also have the classic Japanese toilet that I had in the guest apartment. Public toilets commonly look like that too but you can find some western-style ones. So most of the buildings look modern and, by modern, meaning after WWII. However, they have figured out a way to make this overall eclectic feeling fit with the style of the city. Somehow it works. There are not many skyscrapers and if there are they aren't very tall and they're in the south of the city near the main train station or down the main shopping strip. I think they leave that sort of thing to Osaka and Tokyo. The building you see in this picture was in a private lot in the center of Kyoto. Either it's an embassy or someone had a lot of money to waste. It looked pretty though so I took a picture. A few more things about public toilets. During one of our first days walking around I journeyed into a public toilet. There was a lot of writing and an arrow pointing at a button near the bottom of the stall. I had no idea what the button was for so I pressed it. I honestly thought it was the flush button but it turns out it was the HELP HELP, I'M BEING ATTACKED button. The alarm went off and I ran from the scene. I could hear it down the street and sure enough police showed up within 3 min. I wasn't sure whether to be impressed or embarrassed. The cool thing is that there are public toilets everywhere. Every subway station and 7-11 has a FREE toilet to use. Makes me think of the paid toilets in Europe. We should get with the program and let this issue just be easier. When I get back to Canada, I'm starting an association for public toilets. Who's with me?!!

Not too far from our place are the two main shopping streets of Kyoto. I would compare it to the Eaton' center area in Toronto. Shops, Karaoke, Bars, Restaurants and eateries line up these two streets. Its pretty awesome and really fun to walk around. Lots of lights and people. Occasionally we came across an English menu, which was nice.

Right beside the main shopping street is an outdoor mall, sort of. I thought it was once a normal street with shops that eventually got a cover to it and stopped all traffic. There are larger and smaller versions of this all over Kyoto and the surrounding area. Connected to this is a little market street that sells fresh seafood and produce everyday. Later I read that this shopping street was originally the area where the road from western Japan crossed with the road from Eastern Japan. This market area was filled with temples. The Teramachi mall ended up becoming the center for travelers and I guess it eventually became a market place. There are still vendors there that sell temple-related souvenirs. There are little elements of old temples still there in the corners and shadows.

At one of the largest intersections, three different department stores tower in rivalry to each other. Now, by department store I'm not talking about anything that I've seen before. Nothing in Ottawa even compares. 10-11 floors of stuff, each. Rather then going out into the suburbs they have everything you need in one store with only one exception, electronics. That's right they don't sell electronics in department stores in Japan. Not even coffee makers. So where are all the electronics. Everyone seems to think that Japan has all the latest technology and gadgets, but where are they? We spent the better part of the following week looking for them. OK, occasionally we would come across a camera store on the main shopping streets with a bazillion cameras and attachments and lenses. They really are picky about their cameras. It definitely not the selection that Best Buy offers. I really hope to buy a crazy camera or camcorder but it's too hard to choose when you can't read anything about the camera. I'll come back to department stores and electronics another day. But, bottom line, the camera selection here is crazy.

The pictures above and below are some of the examples of the things we saw on these streets. Japanese are crazy about casinos. There are small and large ones all over the place. But many don't have the games that you would expect, like black jack and roulette. A few days ago I had my first casino experience in Japan. I think that will take a whole page to explain. Slot King is one of the casinos that we passed by. There's a large 18 or over sign in the front doors, usually with a bouncer. All the colors and lights intrigue me.

I'm not sure what's in the other picture but I'll let you know when I find out.

In the center of the city is the old Imperial Palace. I think you need a reservation if you want to visit it and it's only open on certain days. This area around the palace used to house the elite of Japan and was converted into a park not too long ago. The park is gorgeous with different flowers blooming every season, or so I've been told. The area is huge and quiet, people reading and jogging. There isn't enough space to play any sports on the grass, only on the big roads. I think its more of a place to relax and enjoy quiet time. What you see in the picture here is one of the many doors to the park. A lot of things in Japan seem to try to make things light and less stressful, whether it's a happy little mascot here or a fun little tune there. Like the microwave in the crappy apartment. Rather than buzzing it played a little tune. Things like that.


The Japanese take their Manga very seriously. Here is a small section of a Manga store. Nothing's in English. What's really cool is that every volume of every series has a number on it right on the spine. Every book from that series uses one font so it looks nice on the shelf. The compulsive side of me likes that. I only wish my comics had giant numbers on them to tell me what order they came it.

Now, my brother tells me that Taiwan is very similar when it comes to the 7-11 type stores so this aspect may not be as unique as I thought. However, let me suggest a different metaphorical situation. You're walking down the street in the humid (yes Kyoto is very humid) weather, today for instance was 20 °C, wondering where the closest 7-11 is so you can buy a drink. Maybe you need a gas station or something like that. Damn you're thirsty and you don't know what to do (OK, as I type this I'm getting thirsty and I'm going for a Coke). Well, this situation doesn't happen in Japan. At least not for very long. Every 25 meters or less there's a Coke machine. And not just Coke, coffee, juice, ice tea or hot coffee in a can. Yes hot coffee in a can from a vending machine.
They have this company called Boss with Tommy Lee Jones as their spokesperson. It's a coffee company with a hardcore spokesperson with a name like Boss, how can it not be awesome? Their logo has a dude with a pipe. It's pretty awesome.
Drink in these machines usually comes to about a $1.50 or so for a can of Coke. Sometimes you can find tall boy cans of Coke for the same price. Now I don't know how they do it but all the machines have the same prices on them. Either it's a national thing or Coke just controls all of it. My buddy Jay seems to believe that it's not Coke but the beer companies of Japan. Asahi, Kirin, Sapporo and Suntory may be the companies that run this country. I write this because you can buy beer in a vending machine too. Cigarettes also. On the bed, on the floor, on a towel by the door; in the tub, in a car, up against the mini bar - you can get your vice anytime you want.