Ite Kimasu

On the morning of the 20th, we took our time getting moving, had our morning tea at the hotel, then took the subway a couple of stops south to the main Kyoto rail station. The station itself is interesting, a huge complex with dramatic modern architecture. It has attached stores, including a large department store, and in the underground beneath the station there are huge shopping areas that extend for blocks. One of the department stores, Isetan, has an interesting configuration of escalators that follow like stairsteps, one flight after another, in a straight line from bottom to top (maybe 8 or 9 floors), rather than the usual switchback configuration in other department stores. We rode all the way to the top and back, stopping along the way for a little shopping here and there.

At lunch time we went upstairs at Isetan and found a good place for a lunch consisting of soba noodles and tempura. After lunch and a little more shopping, we returned to our room to rest a bit before heading off to dinner with our friends Ken and Toshiko in Nishinomiya.

New friends and old friends in Nishinomiya

About 4:00 p.m., we went downstairs to the nearby underground station of the Hankyu railway, and headed out for Nishinomiya, where we planned to meet Ken at the Kotoen station. This trip is special to us, because Kotoen is the neighborhood we consider our home in Japan. It is the nearest station to Kwansei Gakuin University, and we lived in an apartment near the Kotoen station during our last sabbatical at KGU in 2005-06. After changing trains at Umeda Station in Osaka and again at Nishinomiya-Kitaguchi, both familiar places for us, we arrived at Kotoen a few minutes before 6:00. Ken was waiting for us there, and walked with us to his and Toshiko’s nearby home. In addition to the two of us, they had invited their friends Koichi and Kiyomi—a congenial retired couple who for many years lived in Europe, where Koichi’s business took them. As a result, they speak very good English, and had lots of interesting things to talk about.

As she always does, Toshiko prepared a true feast, and we all sat around the table eating and talking until after 9:00. It was Ken who first convinced us to come to Japan in 1992, and we reminisced about those days, old friends, the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995 (during which time Ken was chairman of the board at the university, and thus had great responsibilities), and our families. Ken turned 79 just a day or two ago, and, although he is technically retired, he continues to teach part-time at a university in Osaka, and to do sell-out parent training workshops for people in the community. He also continues to volunteer as a coach with the KGU American-style football team, which won national championships in earlier days when he was the head coach. Toshiko continues to head a school in Kobe, and they both enjoy golf. We are grateful to them both, not only because they have been good friends for nearly 20 years, but also because it was through them that we made all the contacts that have led to so many other friendships and personal and professional opportunities in Japan. When it’s time to go, we always hate to leave, and we hope, of course, we’ll see them again before too long.

Koichi and Kiyomi live a short distance from Ken and Toshiko, and when it was time to leave, they planned to take a taxi home and suggested they drop us at a nearby rail station on their way. We agreed, and were soon back on the Hankyu, bound for Kyoto. By the time we got back to the hotel, it was after 11:00 and we were ready to collapse. We were asleep by midnight, and slept late this morning (Jan. 21).

A geisha in the Gion area

Today, our last full day in Kyoto, we strolled through the underground passageways from our hotel to the Kawaramachi Station area, one stop east of the hotel. From there, we went up on the street and took a stroll through the Gion district, the neighborhood made famous by the presence there of the geisha culture. Although we were there in late morning, when it’s less likely that the geisha will be out and about, we did see two young women dressed in geisha costumes, and C took a picture or two. Although it’s in the middle of a huge, bustling city, the few blocks of this neighborhood have a quiet, small-town feel, with many picturesque old buildings housing tea rooms, restaurants, and small shops.

These last two pictures will look familiar to Heather, Steve and Jamie

From Gion, we boarded the Keihan railway and went a few stops north toward the neighborhood where Steve, Heather, and Jamie lived for a few months a couple of years ago. We found a little restaurant, Felafel Garden, where we had eaten with them, and had our lunch there. Afterward, we traveled by rail back to the main Kyoto station, where C spent some time browsing through a large sewing supply and fabric store she remembered from a past visit to the underground shopping area. In midafternoon we returned to our hotel via subway, and picked up (this is true, Randy) Krispy Kreme doughnuts in the station under the hotel. We came back, had tea and doughnuts, read a couple of English-language newspapers, dozed, listened to public radio news from home via computer, and relaxed for a couple of hours.

We found we weren’t really hungry by evening, so I (K) went out to a small nearby shop and picked up a couple of things to bring back to the room to eat. As I returned from Shi-jo Dori, the main street through the center of Kyoto, I found myself going back to the corner and looking down the street one more time, just to try to implant it in memory. We have spent time in many big cities: New York, London, St. Petersburg, Chicago, Tokyo, Seoul, Los Angeles, Guadalajara, Paris, Helsinki, and others. But it is in Kyoto that we feel most at home. Despite having many of the typical, unattractive features of any huge city, Kyoto also has places of incredible history and beauty, and a kind of refined feel quite unlike the bright lights and sometimes garish atmosphere of Times Square, Tokyo, Osaka, or Kobe. We know our way around, where to shop, the places we like to return to, and there is a sense that, although times of course change, some things in Kyoto are timeless. It’s a place we keep coming back to, and we hope we will again.

Tomorrow (Saturday, Jan. 22) we will take the Haruka express train to the Kansai International Airport, where our departure is scheduled for 6:35 p.m. Interestingly, given the time difference, if everything is on time we’ll arrive in San Diego four hours before we left Kyoto! Home will look good (but not work on Monday), but we’ll also hate to leave Japan. Ite kimasu (We’ll be back soon).