Freezing, high speed cultural breezes

A glass of pop and a slightly improved bloke greeted me at our door. We had a lovely evening in La Terrazza and were commented on how sweet it was that we were holding hands. I explained to the other guests it was because we were newly weds.  Ohhhh they got very excited about that asking how long. They had a good laugh when I said 28 years.

The night was not the best for either of us and it was evident Nick wasn’t going to be able to make it on today’s excursion either. There was little either of us could do. The meds had to take their course and who knows when they’ll properly kick in.

So I flew solo again with one of the guests asking after Nick, which was lovely. Our guide for the day was Madoka.

First up a 45 minute drive to the High speed Shinkansen Bullet train to Shin-Osaka station. We’ve all seen the pictures and a lot of folk will already have been on these trains, but there’s no doubt about it, even when they come into and go out of the station, they do so at speed. We were in carriage 15 of 16. Our train most likely left on time and my watch was probably to blame for being a minute early. The 13 minute ride literally flew by. The trains go 300 km/186 miles an hour. Seats turn around so you’re always facing the direction of travel or if you’re travelling with four of you, you can turn the seats so you’re facing each other. The interior looked very like a plane with the seats very upright. The speed felt very real. I thought there might not be such a sense once travelling, but there was an immense sense of speed, I suspect because the carriage sits relatively low to the ground. I don’t know why, but I was surprised there were no seatbelts. We left sunny Osaka at 10.18 and arrived in a drizzly Kyoto 13 minutes later.

Next stop, the golden pavilion from yesterday. I was really pleased we’d had such lovely weather yesterday as the gold didn’t quite shimmer as much as it had done the previous day. I wandered the site slightly smugly that I’d got the prime shots yesterday.

Next stop a much needed lunch in Rokusei a very traditional Japanese restaurant in the Shozean resort in Kyoto. Servers were mostly women in Kiminos. We all had to remove our shoes. I was on a table of Americans. Lunch consisted of plain rice, tofu many ways, vegetable tempura, a local beer and green tea.

Our next stop was the Heian shrine, or the shrine of peace, built in 1895 on the occasion of the 1100th anniversary of the capital's foundation in Kyoto and is dedicated to the spirits of the first and last emperors who reigned from the city. Heian is the former name of Kyoto. The shrine's main buildings are a partial replica of the original Imperial Palace from the Heian Period, built on a smaller scale than the original.

Within the grounds was the Ni-no Maru garden sadly with very few blossom out. The weather was so cold, the buds are barely coming out. This garden focuses on late flowering cherry blossom, which tend to blossom after the main cherry blossom season. It was very thoughtful of our guide to say she was not going to talk to us during this time, but to just walk around it in our own time and with our own thoughts. As we headed back to the coach after a very peaceful walk, there were a few flakes of snow mixed in with the light rain. The temperature says it’s 10 or so degrees but the wind chill is biting and it feels nearer low single figures.

Our final stop for the day was Nijo castle, another UNESCO World Heritage Site, built in 1626. This was yet another stunning building. The problem was, the cold. It was sunny, but it’s the wind chill that gets to you and then we had to take our shoes off to enter the Shogun’s Palace. What hit me immediately was the sound of nails on chalk board. We were walking the “nightingale corridor”. It was really unnerving as I thought I was the only one hearing it. We were walking on wooden boards that had an infrastructure below the boards with nails positioned at an angle to create this noise. The theory is that as a visitor entered the palace, the Shogun was prepared for said visitor.

The rooms inside the palace were utterly stunning. Mainly gold painted with pine trees. Some had tigers in them and that was where the Shogun had tricky conversations where he needed his subjects to feel uncomfortable. There were less controversial rooms. The peony room and cherry blossom room. The sad tragedy is that no one is able to take pictures even though the wall coverings are copies. The originals are hidden from public view. So it was a shame not to be able to share this imagery. You’ll just have to visit it yourself. After the visit to the Shogun’s rooms we had some free time. There was a garden to visit…Or not. By now, having had my shoes off for 20 minutes in a cold environment, I couldn’t actually feel my feet and we all struggled getting our shoes back on. So instead of finding the beauty of the garden, I found the beauty of the toilet. More to the point, the beauty of the heated toilet seat. Where I lingered a few seconds more than was necessary. The slight problem is that the Japanese don’t seem to use hand driers or hand towels, so having warmed up your derrière, you’ve then got cold hands. The warm bus beckoned and I was surprised I wasn’t the only wuss who had opted out of any more culture today.

On our hour and a half  journey back to the ship, our guide gave us a copy of the Sakura song, a song I remember singing as a kid when we had a Japanese student stay with our family. We all had to join in with our guide singing this well known singer.

I met up with the sickly one in the Arts café for the best hot chocolate and a mini scone with jam and clotted cream. I finally thawed out at that point.

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