Kyotosaka

left: Silly goon in Daitokuji moss garden

I just spent one week skating through the tangled mess of temples, apartment buildings, gardens, pachinko parlors, and ramen shops that is Kyoto and Osaka. These two cities have fused together to create a wide expanse of urban sprawl that has made Quiet run for its dear life. Inside some of the inner innards of a few select Kyoto temples, visitors can experience near-complete silence. Beyond temple walls, however, Kyoto and Osaka honk, grind, clunk, and hiccup just like any other metropolis.

Rich, another JET in Ueda, and I drove down to Kyoto together. I spent three days skateboarding around Kyoto and getting lost. Lost in a good a way, in an exploratory way. I love how Kyoto is a place where you can wander around aimlessly all day and stumble into temple after temple that is four or five times older than any building standing in America. Sure, many of the temple structures have been re-built in past centuries, but the temple grounds have largely remained unchanged.

left: Coolest bike I saw on the trip. Skateboard is there for scale!

This was my fourth trip down to Kyoto since I came to Japan and it's now official: Kyoto is one of my top three FAVORITE cities on Earth! (The other two are New York City and Barcelona.) I always used to say, "A city is a city no matter where you go." But now I don't say that anymore. Because it's not true. Because Kyoto is so different from any other city I've ever visited. It has a tangible energy to it that is born from its security, quaintness, natural beauty, really really old stuff, small buildings, and its river that cuts through the eastern part of the city. If you've never visited, do so.

left: Temple I wandered into while skating

I stayed with Kazuo again. Just like every other time I've stayed at Kazuo's guesthouse, I had an awesome time on this visit. It's amazingly cheap, the food is spectacular, Kazuo is the nicest dude this side of the Mississip, and the place has a great communal vibe. I'm excited for him because his fledgling business is expanding (he is almost done renovating the house next door to make the guesthouse twice as big) and he is now married with a baby on the way.

left: Osaka Castle

After Kyoto, Rich and I took trains to Osaka to visit Marisa and Adam, my two friends from university (I can hear Adam correcting me now, "It's college!" I know, but university has come to sound so...right!) Marisa and Adam just moved to an apartment right outside Tennoji Park, an area that is a few minutes by bike from Namba, the epicenter of Osaka's night life. Their new place is dangerously close to $1 sushi joints, ramen and udon shops, and good bars. In two days, I ate a lot, drank a lot, threw a Frisbee around a lot, stayed up so late the sun scared me to sleep one night, and did a little sightseeing. It was good to catch up with people from Jersey, to be around my own kind!

left: Beautiful roof tiles

I don't want to talk about the seven hours I spent driving what should have been a five hour ride coming back to Ueda. It's done, over with, finished! Let's never speak of it again.

Pics from the trip can be found here.

cheers,

A