As promised, though a month late, here’s the other half of my last post about life in Japan! If you didn’t see it, there’s a final post about my exhibit on bonnets, which is the fruit of my hard work this past summer at Smith with Kiki Smith in the theater department.
So in November, during Fall Break (shush, I know it’s January!), Becky, Jenna, and myself got up at a rather disgustingly early hour and got on a train towards Osaka to catch up with the Panda Train, which stops at several locations in Wakayama Prefecture, last but not least being Shirahama. A few weeks prior, when attempting to figure out what we wanted to do for fall break other than excessive shopping, eating, and touring around Kyoto—which is the usual remedy for school anyway—we procured the idea of staying in a traditional Japanese inn (ryokan). Of course, if you’re looking to stay in a traditional ryokan, including the wooden structure erected in the woods with a magical natural hot spring and far off mountains to contemplate, you certainly can’t do it on a students’ budget. I think it was a yearning to be at Smith in November, when the cold weather is just setting in and the fresh scent of the fallen leaves is fills the air. I digress. We went to the Doshisha Coop where we searched and searched for a ryokan that was affordable, but had a hot spring and some nice, natural surrounding views. This landed us in Shirahama during a November heat wave in a hotel by a small, beautiful beach with soft white sand, a stunning sunset, and a Caribbean blue ocean stretching out to the horizon.
We arrived too early to check into our hotel and so, after dropping off our bags, headed out in our fall clothes in summer weather to explore the small, mostly closed shopping area around the hotel. If you’ve been to the Hamptons or Montauk or anywhere on Cape Cod in the winter, when the tourist season has long gone, you can imagine the somewhat ghost town feeling of the area, which is also a summer hotspot for many people in the Kansai and surrounding areas. Pictures of Shirahama beach in the summer show that it is completely covered in those looking to catch some sun and waves. The water is relatively calm and warmer in November than the Atlantic on Cape Cod in August. While the few other visitors still donned their winter gear, the three of us immediately took to removing our shoes and socks and frolicking in the water! We eventually made it in to our hotel room, first spending about an hour marveling over just how nice it was! Entering the genkan, you remove your shoes and find yourself in a small hallway with a mini fridge and a door to a toilet. The sliding doors to the right open to a large tatami room with a small table and four floor chairs. Beyond that is another seating area with comfortable arm chairs and sliding widows that mostly boasted a view of the hotel in front of it, but the beach was visible to the left. In the distance to the right was also a tori gate leading into the forest. (Upon further inspection it lead to nowhere, how disappointing!) To the left was a closet full of bedding and beyond that a small bathroom complete with a cozy wooden bathtub. We were so exhausted from waking up early that we cobbled together the beds as best as we could muster and spent the next few hours snoozing.
When we awoke, we ventured out once more to buy some Yellowtail wine at the local Family Mart and went back to the hotel for dinner. The wonderful part of the package we bought was that breakfast and dinner were already paid for and so we ate to our hearts content (really our stomachs fill!) of a variety of foods, mostly Japanese, though some American inspired dishes, including some very rich cakes and custards. We then spent the evening enjoying our nerdy sides and watched choice episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series whilst partaking of our Yellowtail and, in truth, being quite silly as young ladies are known to do.
The next morning we awoke just in time for breakfast, which was even more delicious than dinner the night before, and proceeded to walk to Adventure World, a large amalgamation of an amusement park and a zoo. There we were privy to elephants, red pandas, penguins, polar bears, flamingos, pandas, and dolphins to name a few. There was even a small dog park, which I patiently waited outside of while Becky and Jenna lost their minds to wagging tails and drooling tongues. We managed to spend the entire day there wandering about and purchasing precious items such as panda shaped meat buns and polar bear hats. We especially enjoyed the dolphin show and got pretty up close and personal with them (ok, through a glass, but I’ve never been that close to dolphins before!).
That night we went to the naturally heated salt-water bath, soaking in the deliciously hot water and letting whatever stresses we had float away. We were also able to sit in the sauna for a while, clearing our sinuses and breathing in the wonderfully hot air. Full and warm, we slouched back to the room to watch some Avatar: The Last Airbender, a children’s show, yes, but terribly fun to watch! The next day we went to the submarine tower, which allows you to view the tropical fish, lured close by food, from underwater. By that evening, we were back at home in Kyoto.
With break still in full swing, a few days later I headed off for the first time to Fushimi Inari, one of the most famous shrines in Kyoto, with my friend Megumi. Many people on my program have been several times but it took me until November to finally get there! It was most definitely worth the wait. You start at the bottom of the mountain it is perched against and pray to Inari; you then begin your ascent. The first part is flat, as you traverse the maze of walkways encased in orange hallways made of tori after tori. If you wait just long enough for someone to pass out of sight, you can get a wonderful picture, free of fellow tourists—this is a rarity in Japan. There is an austere air about the place and almost immediately the city sounds disappear. You then make it to the stairs, which seem to go on forever. Climbing and climbing it took us about forty minutes to truly reach the top. Every time you think you’ve gotten there, there’s another set of stairs awaiting you. The tori gates never seem to cease, though they thin out towards the top. The most magical part of Fushimi Inari are the small restaurants that hang off the side of the mountain, allowing those eating their noodles to simultaneously view the fall foliage. The noodles aren’t great, but the view is.
That night we ended up seeing New Moon and being obnoxiously loud in the theater, which I only sort of feel bad about. I go out to see movies to connect with the crowd around me, so seeing movies in Japan is very strange for me. Everyone keeps very quiet, even at hilariously funny moments. In New York, for example, even weeks after opening, people come to the movies and make comments, laugh out loud, and generally connect with the rest of the audience. Seeing a movie isn’t just about watching the film, it’s a community experience. If you’re not going to connect, just watch it at home!
After fall break, time certainly flew. Two weeks of classes and one week of finals later would see us enjoying winter break! We went on a few field trips, visiting some monks in Mibu, who told us stories about the history of the Shinsengumi. We also went to the Gekkeikan sake factory to learn about the history of the area, which was rife with trade (namely in sake) during the Edo period and is certainly a beautiful part of town. Other than that, school impressed itself upon us and thus the majority of touring must wait until after winter vacation.
That sounds like such an amazing vacation <3 <3
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