Kyoto Day 1, A Long Day

When we arrived at Kyoto, I noticed that the colors of the buildings were gray or brown. There were no bright colors. The season made the trees leafless. They were all looked gray. I felt that the city was calm and cold.

Even the journey was not too long from Kansai to Kyoto, but some of us had an urge to go to the toilet, including me. So we stopped at Nishi Hongan-ji Temple. It was a huge temple. I went straight to the toilet. The toilet was not in a building. It was not totally closed. There was a ventilation so the air from outside could get in. What happened next was my first experience in a winter. As I sat on the toilet, suddenly I started to tremble. The toilet was so cold. I felt it spread to all parts of my body.

So, I made it quick and went out of the toilet.

Before we boarded to the bus again, we took some pictures. In front of the temple, accross the street, there were many people. It seemed that there was a bazaar or something. Then, we continued to the place where we would have lunch.

We had lunch at New Hankyu Hotel. That was our first experience dine in Japan. Since they served pork and we as moslems didn't eat pork, Ibu Miyo helped us to identify which food that we could eat and which ones we couldn't. The food labels were in Japanese and we were illiterate. They served European food. For me it was okay. I saw that everybody was okay except one, Bapak Abdul Mutholib.

After having lunch, we checked in the hotel. We stayed at Karasuma Hotel.

Since from Jakarta, I thought that I would share a room with Ibu Halimah because only us were women. I was totally wrong. Each of us had one room. I felt doubt inside. I was in a strange situation, away from home and I had to be alone by myself. But, I was shy to admit that I was afraid and I was sure that MOFA had arranged that, so I accepted the key without saying anything. Ibu Halimah changed her room so her room could be next to mine.

The room was not too large but I liked it enough. What might be a surprise for me was the toilet. The toilet seat was warm and completed with an electric buttons. One of the buttons was the one that could make sound of flush, so our room mate couldn't hear if we urinated.

I was really amazed.

After we took rest for a while, we were gathered in a small meeting room. We were introduced to Mr Daisuke Hasegawa. He was from MOFA. He was the one that would accompany us during our visit. He spoke English but not Indonesian. We were briefed again and he called our names one by one. He reminded me that I had to do a presentation in front of students in Tokyo. Yes, I had prepared that before I leaved.

We went to Kiyomizu-dera Temple. It was very beautiful. The gate was red and shining reflecting the afternoon sun. From the temple we could see the city. It was made of wood. We met some girls wearing kimono. So, I asked them to take a picture together.

That day, we had our dinner at Isetan. It was a mall integrated with a railway station.

When we went out from the bus, it was so cold. It was windy. Ibu Miyo guessed it was about 3 degree. In the mall, I saw that Japanese people especially the young ones were fashionable. We went to the seventh floor. There were many restaurants. I noticed that every restaurant displayed the food dummies behind the glass windows and put the menu in front. We had to wait for a while because the restaurant we chose was full. While we were waiting, we chose the food that we wanted from the menu provided in front of the restaurant. And, if we wanted to know how it looked like, we could see the dummies.

At last we had the seats. I ordered soba something... I didn't remember. I sat with Ibu Halimah. Now, I started to get in trouble. For Indonesian tounge, Japanese food was tasteless.

I needed chilly sauce. I tried to find it on the table, but I couldn't. Ibu Miyo was not closed to us. So, I had to call the waitress by myself. From that time and so on during my stay in Japan, the important word to be remembered was "sumimasen", meant "excuse me". I called the waitress by saying "sumimasen" and asked for chilly sauce. She took it from the kitchen. The soba was so so for me. I prefered something fried to something boiled.

After we dined, we went back to the hotel by taxis. The bus only dropped us. It was only rented until afternoon. One taxi were allowed to bring 4 passengers only. It was different with Indonesia, one taxi could bring as many passengers as it could. The fare was 600 yen for one trip.

Before going to bed, I took a warm shower. It was so relaxing. Then I was ready for bed, nighty night...