...didn`t really work all that great...
This experience has been very intense and strange and kind of hard for me to write about. And there hasn`t really been access to a computer (though now I`m in Kyoto at a youth hostel type place) and I`m using a japanese keyboard so I apologize for any strange punctuation marks.
My pictures aren`t working on this computer either, siiiighhh.
Tokyo is a city of great subways, some pretty buildings, Ueno Park is nice, and the Prada building on Omatesando street is incredible. But under those pretty things, it basically has no soul. And for a global city, it is very very homogenous, which really suprised me. People STARE at me because I`m gaijin (foreigner) and there have been several incidences where people have refused to seat me and (my friends with me). It`s all done with a smile and a bow, though. I think Tokyo has issues because it has suffered a lot in the past through fires, earthquakes, and having the shit bombed out of it in WWII.
Being in Kyoto is much better. It has more of a bohemian feel and is beautiful. It feels very grounded and is surrounded by beautiful mountains. There are over 1600 temples and shrines and Kyoto and it was founded in 794 CE based on Chinese principles of geomancy. Many of the Shinto shrines here are at least as old as Chaco Canyon. People here are much more open and friendly (or at least appear to be). I guess I realized how homesick I was yesterday when we had lunch at this hippie falafel cafe run by an Israeli man. We walked up to the outside and I got really excited and happy because it felt like home or places I have called home in the past. The building is super cool because it`s a renovated machiya (townhouse) and has a garden in the middle and the food was super good.
More later about yesterday`s pilgrimage to the Buddhist temple at the top of Daigo mountain in the rain, the meeting with the monk, Shimizu-san, dinner and a classical guitar performance at a place called Cafe Nifty....
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