Day 5 – Sanjusangendo, Himeji, Setting Off Alone, Arriving at Miyajima
I think it was Wednesday morning when I was getting ready in the morning and packing up that I realized I was thinking in Japanese. That might sound a little presumptuous since I’m not that good at Japanese, but just because I was thinking directly in Japanese doesn’t mean I was actually fluent enough that it was a good idea. I actually woke up thinking in Japanese and continued to as I packed up and thought about my plans for the day. Eventually I realized what I was doing and I was pretty amazed at how quickly I’d adjusted, but I also made myself switch to English because I needed to think faster and more concretely. But it made me feel good that it only took a few days of Japanese immersion to switch over. It’s too bad though, that was actually my last day of Japanese (language) immersion. During my time with Eri I never spoke English, and I didn’t when traveling alone either but I just didn’t talk that much in general. Then when I got to school, pretty much everything but class was in English again.
When I packed everything back in my backpack how I wanted it, I made my last trip to the station and went through to the post office to get some cash which actually lasted me the rest of my travels and most of the way through school. By now I was using my four-day expertise to help lost and confused gaijin find trains and ATMs and such. Oh, and how to get to the other side of the station. Kyoto Station is a mix of the station and hotels and shops and stuff and there’s only one place where you can walk through to the other side and “pedestrian crossing” is a solid four kanji word in Japanese.
Anyway, I met Eri and since we had extra time we decided to go to the Sanjusangendo before we left for Himeji. As always, the suggested way of getting there would be bus, but we walked instead because it was “close” and this is when I realized that things were a lot less “close” when I was carrying all of my stuff on my back and the weather was getting even hotter and more muggy. It still didn’t change my methods though and I walked even more when I was alone.
I only have a few pictures from the outside of the Sanjusangendo because they don’t allow them inside. Outside had recently been repainted “red” (actually bright orange) and had small but pretty gardens. I’ve probably said it before, but I love the bright orange color of temples and it was nice to see one fresh. Inside, the temple has 1000 statues of kannon along with 28 guardian statues and of course 2 of Raijin and Fujin. It was a very quiet, somber place and the statues are very old. We couldn’t spend too long though because we had to walk back to the station and catch our train.
I activated my rail pass before we left and it wasn’t very hard at all. The lady stamped the expiration date on it and I gained complete freedom for exactly seven days. Then we hopped on a train and headed to Himeji. I was very excited about going to see Himeji Castle because it’s one of the few places in Japan I knew by name before I even thought about going. It’s also the place where Ryu (from Street Fighter) always fights, so it was neat to see the real place I knew well from videogames and pictures.
Himeji was a fairly big city like any other in Japan but the castle towered over everything in the distance. This is one time we couldn’t get lost, and we just headed straight for the castle. I took a lot of the classic pictures you always see; once again the architects set it up so you can’t help but get good vantage points. One thing I thought was interesting was the arrow holes (?) were shaped like alternating triangles circles and squares. I need to look up more about that, I know it has a loose connection to Aikido (obviously this was first), but I wonder where else that is in Japanese tradition.
Like most traditional Japanese buildings, the outside was gorgeous, but the inside was pretty bare. I think you’re supposed to move things around as you need them and the inside was just rooms with wooden pillars and crossbeams. There were also lots of armor racks. Seeing things like this make me really wonder what samurai actually did though. I know the daimyo here had to have a lot of retainers so where did they sleep and eat and such? And what did they do all day? Maybe sometime I’ll go to a museum where I can see how life really was.
Eventually we made it to the top of the castle and I took pictures out the windows. Actually I took one picture trying to get the ornaments from the roof and the city in the background and I later met a guy in Nikko who had taken the exact same picture. Then an (Italian) American guy came up with his family and we talked a little and took each other’s pictures. The guy kept saying I should know how lucky I am (he thought Eri was my girlfriend). Then when he took the picture for us he said, “Alright, 1, 2, 3, kiss!” I asked Eri later if she could understand him and she said no so I told her what he was saying. I also tried to explain how and why many people are crazy about asian girls. I think a lot of Japanese girls don’t realize they have a certain image overseas.
After we came down from the top of the castle we explored some of the other wings and it was a little creepy because no one was there and we weren’t sure if we were supposed to be. There were some fake women playing a traditional game with rocks and some long halls with nothing but little rooms off of them. Maybe that’s where the retainers stayed. After that we had to hurry back to the station so I could catch my bullet train to Hiroshima.
Eri had asked a train attendant what train I should catch and he told us and gave us a little book with all the bullet trains for the week, but neither of us could figure out how to read it. When we got to the station we met Hiromi one last time and had some fancy fruity drink/slushy things as a last meal together. Hiromi figured out the train book for us which was crucial to my getting around for the next week. It was pretty complicated, but easy to use when you figure it out.
Before I left, Eri showed Hiromi the presents I had given her and I remember this was the first time I understood a full conversation between the two of them. I think part of it was that the beginning was easy to understand and so then I had a good start to keep following it. I’ve noticed that’s a big part in trying to understand spoken Japanese, it’s just small holes in vocabulary and such that make you miss one sentence and then it’s hard to catch up because you’re trying to run to catch up to the conversation train.
We had to hurry to catch my train and it was hard to say goodbye to the two of them. They were so helpful for getting me started in Japan and I didn’t really know how to thank them. Also it was a little scary to know I’d be on my own from then on out and I had less of a plan than in Kyoto. Eri shook my hand when I left but that didn’t seem like enough so I hugged her. Turned out she was one of those Japanese people that’s not used to hugging even good friends, but she understood. (I actually ended up doing my final project at school on Japanese relations with friends and things like hugging). After that I found my spot on the train and started reading my guidebook to decide where my next destinations were.
I passed through Hiroshima to get to Miyajima but it was getting pretty late so I was worried the hostel might be closed. I had emailed to try to get a reservation (since this was the one night I did plan beforehand) but I got no response. Luckily I understood the train announcer when he said Miyajimaguchi so I got off at my stop and of course exited from the wrong side of the station and pondered the map a bit before I went back to the other side. This was luckily one time when I was amazed by the small scale of the map. What I was counting as blocks were actually houses with alleys and the hostel was maybe 1 minute from the station. I do wonder though how the non-Japanese-speaking travelers manage in places like that. Nothing was written in English, even the hostel sign.
When I went in, I seriously thought the hostel had been abandoned. There was random junk everywhere and no lights on or sound in the place. I thought maybe I’d be sleeping in an abandoned hostel by myself… wait actually that part’s kinda true. I couldn’t find anyone so I called out and a little old man came out from a nest he made in the corner behind a bookshelf. I later realized he just lies there all and night (falling asleep whenever) and watches TV until someone calls for him. He took my money and sent me up to my room. Upstairs was even creepier than downstairs. It really looked like and abandoned hospital or mental ward straight out of a horror movie (or Splinter Cell). When I walked into my room and got hit with the suffocating heat, I had a moment of panic when I realized this place was so old there was no way it had air conditioning and I’d be trying to sleep in there. What I hadn’t realized yet, though, was that every Japanese building, no matter how old or how cheap, is equipped with a space-age air conditioning unit with an abundance of features and raw power unimaginable in the Western world. I turned that thing on to manual “strong” and the room was frosty in minutes.
I went downstairs to try to email on the computers but it turned out they were Macs from the early 90s and could barely get themselves booted, let alone load stone-age browsers. Almost all modern websites didn’t work and when I tried to send email they crashed. The guy there asked me why I was rebooting once and when I told him it locked up he put some more money in for me. Eventually I got a few emails off and then went to bed. The sheets were very cozy and I ended up enjoying that hostel as probably my favorite of them all. It was nice to have it to myself and its creepiness also gave it a lot of charm. I’d actually love to go back some day and I wouldn’t be surprised if I did. If I take anyone else to Japan, I’m sure we’ll go to Miyajima.
