10pm local Warning: Extremely hyperbolic cynacism to follow. (ie: the usual bullshit I write) Most guidebooks tell you that you need to allocate a lot of time to see what Kyoto has to offer. Well they are technically right, but still completely wrong. That's because of two things the guidebooks don't tell you: 1: See one temple/shrine you've seen them all. 2: The guidebooks spend all their time telling you to look at shit that doesn't matter. The temples are quite dull... Sure they are ornate, a brief respite from the city, and they are theoretically old, but when you think about it what do they really tell you about Japan? A while ago some guy/cult exploited a whole lot people to build some incredibly useless shit. What's interesting about the temple is the story of some craftsman who carved the wood, or the infrastructure that was created and built to get the wood there in the first place, etc. From what I've learned many of the temples are replicas anyway, most subcuming to fire, earthquake, or change in tastes long ago (some all of the above.) Imagine trying to learn about Americans by going to see the Washington monument, the Statue of Liberty or any other historic landmark. So buy a National Geographic magazine, or better yet use the internet and you find photos that are even cooler than seeing it in real life. They sold pictures at the temple that put the real thing to shame. A good photographer using tricks with depth of field, light, and good timing can add up to a picture better than your eyes will have the chance to capture. Ok, so I know you're probably not buying that argument... Maybe you just want to sight-see and don't give a damn what the Japanese are up to. Or maybe a bunch of templesand a zen rock garden are the image of Japan you want to hold... so be it. But I'd encourage you to at least try to see what the Japanese are up to on a daily basis. This is the hard part for guidebooks to cover because they just can't. What you can do is immerse yourself in the culture and hopefully come away with a vague idea of Japan (same applies to any county) that is at least based on reality. Seeing how they work is hard for a tourist. I got a brief glimpse thanks to my job. It was very educational, and probably deserves it's own post... Or maybe just ask me about it because I rarely blog about work. So stick your head in a Pachinko parlor... You might not understand how anyone could put up with the audio/visual assult inside... But you might want to think why there are a hell of a lot more pachinko parlor than temples, and there's one in almost every town and most seem very busy. Today I did just that. I also took a 52km bike ride (that's about 32 miles as the Queen of England would reckon it) all around Kyoto seeing all the "must see" locations from my books. Some of the things I learned: There are groups of folks living at least part time in little tenament communities under all the bridges on the Kamogawa River. All surprisingly clean, not the down-out homeless you might expect to see at home. I saw them fishing, playing cards, cooking over wood fires, collecting strange shit, and generally hanging out with no one to answer to. I almost found the idea of living under a bridge attractive. Later in the evening a surprising number of locals were out practicing various musical instruments along the banks (mostly jazz, most horns) I saw a mom and her little boy having a great time at a temple angling for crayfish with a worm tied to a bit of string. I saw a new house being built and noticed significant differences in constuction technique. I saw bikes parked all over the god damn place not locked to anything, yet the were not being stolen. I saw that the Japanese almost religiously adhere to the Walk/Don't Walk signs. I saw men cleaning away picking up any scrap of debris along the river with tongs. I witnessed that the Japanese are really in love with engineering their environment (according to one source only 3 rivers out of thousands in Japan are undamed or "improved".) Also, every desk attendant calls me Mr. Mark, and so on... as you soak in the culture, even little things you might not have consciously been aware of come together to help you understand the Japanese and you fellow man. Now I still only scratched the surface, but I guarantee I learned a lot more about Japan in that on day, than most would in a week of sightseeing. Now, I suppose you are the one that get's to decide what your goals are and how you want to set about achieving them. Mine might be different than yours so take with the apprpriate amount of NaCl. Next post about the bike trip itself... It was a blast.