Demachi Masugata Shotengai // My New Home ^_^

When I moved house almost 2 weeks ago I had no idea know what to expect from my new local area. I knew its location on the map, I knew that it was fairly central in Kyoto, and that was all that mattered to me. Turns out it was a wonderful choice for more than just the location. My favourite thing about living here has been a total surprise; the Demachi shopping arcade just outside my house. 

I think this place is an absolute gem in Kyoto. I pass through it every morning on my way to Kamogawa river, and it feels like I'm being transported back in time. Each shop has its speciality; fruit & veg, tofu, mochi, fish, tempura, beans, all sorts. Instead of heading to the nearest supermarket  for everything I need, I find myself dashing back and forth between the shops buying things one by one and slowly trying to make myself familiar with each one.

Actually, this is a much cheaper way to shop in Japan. For fruit & veg in particular, the supermarkets have unbelievably high standards and only buy/sell the very best products for crazy high prices. I think that this sucks for the farmers, the consumers and the environment. Demachi market on the other hand doesn't have to meet these standards and buys straight from the producers; life suddenly becomes much cheaper, you still get great food, and you're helping to keep the wonderful local community alive. Win win win. 

But aside from the cheaper cost, I just love the atmosphere in this street. The shop-owners are always popping out to chat to each other and recognise many of the faces that go past. I live in Brighton back in the UK which is known for being full of creativity and vibrancy, but I've never experienced anywhere with a community quite like here. I guess lots of places used to be like this, when we didn't have convenience and department stores at our disposal. It's awesome that Demachi market keeps doing what it's doing and I feel very happy to be a small part of it. 

Demachi Shotengai actually inspired the setting for a well-loved Japanese anime called Tamako Market. It follows the adventures of a girl whose family owns a mochi (rice cake) shop there. I'm 2 episodes in, and although it might be aimed at an audience a *little* bit younger than me, it's still really adorable and easy to watch. I love spotting parts which I recognise from real life - you can see below the flag bunting and the 100yen shop which are both real features. 

Anyway, rather than brushing off the anime as childish pop-culture the market seems to have embraced it - you can see little touches everywhere, in particular the hanging posters on the street. Fans of the anime come to the market to see the real-life setting, and in one of my favourite restaurants there's a guestbook with notes and drawings from the visitors. It has given the market a little bit of a celebrity status and the shop-owners seem happy to use that to their advantage.

Some of my favourite shops...

 

1) This fruit and veg shop. 

Anyone who has lived in Japan will know that 280yen for a big bunch of grapes, or 150yen for a bag of 10 carrots is amaaazing. If you haven't lived in Japan then that's really boring information for you, but it makes me very happy. 

2) The 100yen shop. 

100yen is roughly 75p, so it's like Poundland in the UK but even better. It sells stationary, kitchen equipment, household goods, food, decorations, anything you can think of. OK I know this is a huge chain in Japan and not exactly one of the quaint local shops I have been talking about, but as a broke student this place will always have a special place in my heart.

3) The okonomiyaki, takoyaki and taiyaki stands 

These don't 100% count as Demachi Shotengai since they're just outside, but I still consider them part of the street. Okonomiyaki is hard to describe, but it's kind of like a.. fried cabbage potato pancake. It used to be what poor people in Japan ate because it's just a mish-mash of easy ingredients - kind of like bubble and squeak in the UK (potato, cabbage & any other roast dinner leftovers fried together). But then they add things like squid or seaweed to make it more... Japan. Takoyaki is octopus fried in batter. Taiyaki is fish shaped pancakes, usually filled with red-bean paste or custard. I tend to avoid the takoyaki since I still can't get my head around octopus, but if I need a quick and cheap lunch then okonomiyaki and taiyaki do the job perfectly and are only 400 yen together (less than £3 and much better/more filling than a UK meal deal). 

So yes, as you can tell, I love my new area. Obviously my location in relation to Kyoto city was the main selling point but actually, I could stay within the 10 minute radius of my house and probably be happy for the rest of the year. 

This link has loads more information about the history of the market so I'm going to leave it here and come back to read it when I'm not drowning in work and to-do lists:

http://likeafishinwater.com/2014/04/18/demachi-masugata-shotengai/

Day Out in Arashiyama

Arashiyama is a district in the west of Kyoto which is hugely popular with tourists. Eager to see what all the fuss was about, me and my friend headed their on a day off from university. Our first stop was one of the most famous sights in Kyoto - the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove. Having seen tons of Instagrams and read countless blogs about how the bamboo grove 'feels like another world', I armed myself with my camera and expected to be instantly transported to a Ghibli-esque land. I have to say, I was a little bit disappointed. 

Don't get me wrong, it was fun. I love the sound of bamboo moving in the wind and how small you can feel stood in the middle of the towering trees. I haven't seen bamboo so densely packed or well looked after anywhere else. But... firstly, I was disappointed by how short the path was. It's only 500 metres, which at a normal pace would take like 5 minutes. Obviously, it's really beautiful so you want to take your time and soak up all the magic, but that's kind of hard to do with how busy it is. You have to be constantly alert for cyclists or rickshaws running past, and navigate your way carefully past all the selfies/photos. Hence I don't really have any photos of it to share, despite it being one of the most Instagrammable places in Japan (I also left my ISO setting on way too high so I am partly to blame..). I completely understand why it's recommended to come very early in the morning; I can imagine how at that time, with the light just coming through the trees and no other people about, it could feel otherworldly. But for me, it was more of a pleasant stroll than an event in itself. 

However!!! The rest of the day in Arashiyama more than made up for it. At the end of the bamboo grove we visited Jojakko-ji temple, which actually felt more magical with its mossy hills, lanterns and beautiful view of Kyoto. After that we headed down to explore the main street of Arashiyama. According to InsideKyoto, the main street is 'nothing but a tourist circus' and time would be better spent in the bamboo forest. I would disagree. There was such a lively buzz, a lot of really unique shops and tons of things to look at. My favourite shop was the 'craft museum of Arashiyama' which sold hanging mobiles and other handmade crafts that were an absolute treat for the eyes.

Next on the list was the Arashiyama Monkey Park on Iwatayama. So I actually wasn't sure how much I wanted to do this bit of the day. I know Japan doesn't always have the best treatment of animals so I thought it might make me sad, it was getting a bit late and cold, and it was a big old hike up the mountain to reach it. But it was only about 500yen so we went for it, and I am SO glad! Firstly, the monkeys (Japanese Macaques or snow monkeys) aren't confined at all. It seemed like a kind of similar set up to the deer in Nara, where they are reliant on the humans for food so choose to hang around but aren't forced to be there. There were no fences and no cages. I really enjoyed watching them... though from a safe distance, since they kept getting into fights and were definitely capable of getting quite aggressive. 

But the monkeys weren't the only attraction; the top of the mountain also had the best view of Kyoto I have seen yet. And that's saying something, because I already seem to have viewed Kyoto from about 20 different angles around the city. We were there at about 4.30pm so the light was just starting to fade and (sounding like a broken record here) it was really really magical. Once the sun had set it started to get super cold so we headed down, spent a little bit of time looking at the peaceful Togetsukyo bridge then headed back to the station. 

We hadn't really eaten all day so I finished off with a warm Chinese style dumpling to get me through the journey home. It was an exhausting day but so much fun and I definitely think that Arashiyama deserves all the hype it's got - though not for the place it's best known for. Unfortunately this visit was just before the leaves started changing so we didn't get to see any of the beautiful colours, but maybe I'll head back for sakura season and try to catch the bamboo at a better time of day.

Autumn at Hieizan

Whenever I used to get nervous about coming to Japan, the best way to relax myself was to go on Google images and look at pictures of Kyoto in autumn. It's fair to say I was pretty excited for the season to start. However, the most beautiful viewing spots in the city centre also come with the cost of being mad busy around this time of year. Luckily for me, a friend offered to drive to the (much quieter) top of Mount. Hiei 比叡山 to do some maple leaf exploring!

Hieizan lies North East of Kyoto, between Kyoto and Shiga prefecture. At the top of the mountain is Enryaku-ji, a huge Buddhist monastery which is the headquarters of the Tendai branch of Buddhism. It's location in the North East is important, since this direction is bad luck in Fusui (the Japanese version of Feng Shui) - building the monastery at the top of Mount Hiei thus protects Kyoto from all the bad vibes coming that way. 

Enryaku-ji was founded in 1788 by a monk called Saicho. At this time the 6 main schools of Buddhism, based in the old capital Nara, were becoming increasingly corrupt so the Emperor wanted to support and encourage new branches - Tendai became the main one (though this branch didn't remain free from corruption either..). Tendai Buddhism was more accessible to the general population than previous branches had been, and pretty much all of the Big Dog's in Japanese Buddhist history studied at Enryaku-ji monastery at some time or another. In more recent news - it faced a huge scandal in 2006 because it accepted a ton of money from the Yakuza (like the Japanese mafia) to host a ceremony for their former leaders. Not very Buddhist of them. A lot of temples are really struggling to find money these days, so I guess it was desperate times. So yes, it's a really important place if you're into Japanese religion/history. But even if you're not into any of that, it's still beautiful!

Enryaku-ji is made up of 3 large areas, which I think would be hard to fit into 1 day if you really want to enjoy it all. After an amazing drive up the mountain we started with the biggest area which is called Todo:

Lovely maples, lovely buildings, all good. However it was still a little busy so we wandered off the path for a while and came across a smaller closed-up temple called Honen-do. Honen is super important in Japanese Buddhism since he founded the popular Jodo-shu/Pure Land branch, so it was surprising to find that a temple where he studied was so quiet and inconspicuous. Even though it was closed, the old lady looking after it noticed us and invited us in which led to my favourite part of the day! She sat us down, explained the history of the temple to us and then made us tea. But making tea isn't a straight forward thing in Japan. First there was the green tea and biscuits, then there was matcha and red-bean wafer sweets, then some type of black tea. She said she wanted to make us lunch too but didn't have enough ingredients. I don't think I'll ever get over how welcome some Japanese people can make you feel. She also let us practice calligraphy! Since I can't even read kanji let alone write it, I assume mine was awful, but it was really fun and relaxing anyway. It was a completely random find but we ended up spending hours there - the best kind of day :D 

When we finally dragged ourselves away we were really hungry so got some soba noodles and more tea before moving on. 

The final part of the day... the lovely old lady recommended the Yokawa area of Enryaku-ji which is the least visited. She said it would be quieter, and that it had the best momiji (maple leaves) at that time. She was definitely right! It was so peaceful there and the colours were insane. By this point I was a bit history-d out so just wandered round enjoying the views instead of reading up on what everything was.

It was a really great day and I'm so glad the autumn leaves lived up to my hours of Googling imaging. Enryaku-ji is quite a hassle to get to (easiest by car but there are expensive tolls, alternatively you can get the bus or cable car) but I think it's worth it and can fill up at least a day. The old lady at Honen-do was very enthusiastic about seeing us again so I guess I'll have to return!

Pointless Jobs in Japan

Japan is home to some of the most unnecessary jobs I can think of. 

We drove through a toll booth the other day, the kind where you press a button and a ticket comes out to pay off later in the day. Pretty straight forward - but nope - there was a man stood there being paid to push the button for us and hand us the ticket. 

The week after that I accidentally found my way into a fancy department store, and in the lift there was someone being paid to push the button to my floor for me. 

On my 15 minute walk to university (a fairly rural route), I pass about 10 security guards stood at various gates to who knows what. They're so regular that we now say good morning to each other, but I've still never seen them do anything. There seems to be a crazy amount of security for a country with one of the lowest crime rates in the world. On my campus there are also security guards paid to watch over every bicycle stand for the entire day, making sure they're all parked with permission and stood perfectly in line.  

Finally, the one that I've noticed since day 1 - crossing guards. They stand with these red baton/light sabers at traffic light crossings and... do the exact same thing as the traffic light. I could maybe understand this in densely populated areas, to stop people crossing when they shouldn't, but they are everywhere and however much I try I just can't see why that would be useful above primary school age. 

a crossing guard in Kyotanabe

I'm sure if I thought hard I could come up with plenty more. I find Japan's determination to hang onto jobs like this really interesting. The country is so famous for its advancement in robot technology etc. etc., yet there is no move to replace a single human job any time soon - even when a capable machine is literally stood there alongside the human, like the traffic lights and toll booth. There's also all the problems in Japan's economy at the moment; from that point of view, getting rid of unnecessary jobs seems like a no-brainer. But I didn't want to jump to criticism too much, so I asked my Japanese friend why he thought they were there, and he came up with 2 points... 

1) Almost all the people working as security, crossing guards etc. are men above retirement age. I'm not sure about the details, but I've heard Japanese people mention many times how bad the pension scheme is here. I guess these jobs provide a supplement when the pension doesn't cover the families cost of living. Being Japan, and particularly for the older generations, this responsibility falls on the man.

My answer to this was that maybe they should scrap the jobs and improve the pension scheme with that money, but then it came to point 2... 

2) It gives them a responsibility. A reason to leave the house everyday and stay active. From what I've learnt in my classes Japan in increasingly interested in the idea of workfare, where in order to get welfare someone has to do a job which is seen to contribute to society (however mundane). It doesn't need to be particularly useful, because it's more for the do-er than the receiver. Japanese society does have this crazy intense work ethic - like working until 9pm+ every day kind of crazy - so I can see why completely retiring from a job which has consumed so much of your life could be a shock to the system. There's also the fact that their life expectancy is so long; old people stay agile for much longer, and they're living in a society where everyone should be seen to contribute in some way.  Thinking about this, I found it less of a surprise that people past the age of retirement continue to work in jobs like the ones mentioned.

Personally, I'm undecided about whether I like it or not. These jobs aren't harming anyone, and if it does give the employee a sense of purpose and keeps them active and healthy then that's great. But if they're forced into it because the government gives them no other choice with such a poor pension scheme, or they've been overworking themselves for so long that they can't stop, that's not so great. I'd really love to interview one of them some day, but 1) the obvious language barrier and 2) it would be hard not to sound patronising and criticial (but why are you here???!) when I'm just genuinely curious to see their point of view. 

5. FEELINGS

I've officially been in Japan for 2 months, and earlier today I came across a blog post I wrote (but never posted) towards the beginning where I talked about all the things I was struggling with. I talked about the pressure you feel when you've been told for so long that something will be the best experience of your life - it meant that anything less than perfect felt like a total failure to me. Being in a new country is really bloody hard and for the first few weeks I definitely had a lot of anxiety that I would never get the hang of it. But I am VERY happy to report that 2 months in and my confidence has increased x10000. Kyoto has started to feel like my home and that makes me happy beyond words :D

Without wanting to sound like too much of a cheesy finding-myself traveller, the thing that I've learned the most here is how resourceful we can be. I tend to be a very lucky person and good things are usually handed to me with little effort on my part, but coming to Japan has made me realise that if things don't happen that way the world doesn't fall apart. I'm just working harder, puzzling things out and coming out with experiences that I can be even more proud of because I've been active in making them happen.

I still get very exhausted and homesick sometimes - apparently around 3 months is the peak of that so there is more to look forward to - but that's all OK. On December 1st I'm moving house. Currently I live in an apartment in Kyotanabe, a suburb city, about an hour away from central Kyoto. I've met some amazing people here and grown really attached to the community, but it isn't the place I believed I was applying for and since I'm here for only 1 year I want it to be the best it can possibly be. It's going to be a long, stressful and very expensive process moving to the centre but I've got so much to look forward to once I'm there!

Basically, I'm good. Having wanted to come to Japan for so many years I had set the bar ridiculously high in my head, and I really worried at the start, but overall I think this country is actually exceeding my expectations. I know it's early days and I don't want to speak to soon but yeah, that's my life right now :)

4. Exploring Southern Kyoto

When I'm left in my own company, I feel like I should be constantly productive - learning Japanese, sending emails, sorting through the many many complications that come with living abroad. If I don't do these, then I get so angry with myself for wasting time and not making the most of the year; it gets pretty exhausting when you forget how to enjoy being alone. After a couple of weeks of this building up, I decided to have a day free from studying and other duties to explore Kyoto by myself. It may not have ended up the relaxing experience I intended, but it was a really great adventure anyway ^_^

I decided to head to a temple in Higashiyama-ku called Tōfuku-ji - one of the Five Great Zen Temples in Kyoto (the Kyoto Gozan). As with all the big temples in Kyoto, whole days could be spent taking in all the different sections and details. Unfortunately, most temples close around 4.30pm and I was coming after class so the whole day was not an option for me. I only had time to see the Northern area of the temple grounds, which included Tsutenkyo Bridge and Kaizando Hall. Since I was so late in the day it was fairly quiet, and I spend a nice hour or so wandering round pretending I was in a Studio Ghibli film:

 

I really loved the layout of Kaizando Hall, which you can see in the photos. They split the garden into two distinctive halves - one side is covered with lush green shrubs and the other side is that very simple dry landscape garden (white gravel raked to symbolise ripples in water). It creates a sense of harmony, or at least that's the vibe I was getting. Tsutenkyo bridge, which you can see in the last photo, is a very famous viewing point for the maple leaves in Autumn. They were only just starting to turn when I visited but it was still quite amazing.

Once Tōfuku-ji had closed, I headed about 5 minutes south to a very small and inconspicuous sub-temple called Kōmyō-in which I would never have found without the recommendation of a friend. Unfortunately this had also closed by the time I arrived, but they had left the side door open... it's nice that they don't need to bother locking doors since trespassing in Japan is so unlikely, but since I'd gone all that way I thought I'd take a *peek* into the garden. I hope I didn't offend the Gods there and I made a little offering so they would forgive my curiosity <3

This was the lovely view. Next time, when I'm less afraid of being shouted at in angry Japanese, I will get a much better look at the zen garden and see inside the building. Since it's so hidden away I think it'd be much more peaceful than some of the famous ones like Ryōan-ji.

So after that I was about ready to head home, but Fushimi-Inari was only about 15 minutes walk away and the taiyaki (fish-shaped filled pancakes) stand there was calling my name so I thought I'd made a quick visit...

Fushimi-Inari Taisha, a shrine consisting of thousands of Torii gates, is one of the most iconic places in Japan. I'll probably do a whole post about it at some point, but because of it's popularity it is quite unbearably busy even late in the day. To escape the mass of people walking through the gates, I took a mysterious side route through a bamboo forest. After about 30 minutes it started getting dark, but I had gone so far that I wanted to see what was at the end of the path. I found out far too late that actually I had chosen an alternative route to the top of Mountain Inari, which took me about 2 hours to reach the peak of. About 3/4 of the way up, in total darkness and with a bag full of school-stuff and heeled boots on, I had a serious think about my existence and a little cry. Not quite the quick detour I had planned for.

The peak of the mountain is actually quite underwhelming - the view is completely obscured by trees and it's just another shrine, which by that point you've seen thousands of. Feeling accomplished but a little bit pissed off I began my descent on the normal route and was finally met with the most beautiful view of Kyoto city by night. It was so late that only me and a few other stragglers were there, and because it was so unexpected it was a really magical thing to see. As usual, my poor camera skills haven't done it ANY justice but here's an idea:

After another long climb back down I was seriously ready for a good sleep. This has probably been one of my favourite days in Kyoto so far, and it was so great to be reminded that my own company is enough sometimes. Hopefully there will be many more adventures like this to come :))

3. Heian Shrine

This day started in a pretty bad way. First, there was the language test that the university insisted I attended despite knowing that I didn't speak any Japanese... which they then sent anyone who didn't know any Japanese straight out of. That was followed by a welcome orientation conducted almost entirely in... Japanese. I'm really wishing that I had worked harder to learn the language before I came out here - everyone else seems to be miles ahead of me and I do feel quite out of my depth at the moment - but on the plus side I'm super motivated to work as hard as I can now.

We then spent a while in Kyoto trying to sort out my friends student Visa. This should have been a fairly straight forward process, but as we were quickly learning, there doesn't seem to be such thing as a straight forward process here. I was feeling quite dejected by this point, but my friends (who are luckily 1000x more knowledgeable about Kyoto than me) knew of a great shrine nearby and we headed there to end the day on a much happier note.

This is Heian Shrine (平安神宮). It was build in 1895 - very recent for Japanese history. Less than 30 years earlier, the capital had moved from Kyoto to Tokyo, and the people of Kyoto were very anxious about the city losing its importance in Japan. Projects like this were part of the 'Kyoto Revival' to help reinforce its status and signify a new, equally prosperous era for the city. Temples like Heian Shrine aren't just single buildings, they are entire... complexes. So much thought clearly goes into the placement of all the structures/gardens and you could easily spend a whole day wandering round finding new things. That photo of the water with leaning cups is a temizuya, they have them at every shrine and you use the cups to wash your hands/mouth to purify yourself before approaching. Aside from being a religious ritual, it's also super refreshing in Japanese humidity. Anyway, after looking at the buildings we paid 600yen to enter the gardens. This was my favourite part BY FAR:

These gardens really were amazing. I would walk through one section with a particular style (for example the first area was very dense, green and mossy), think I had finished the whole thing then come across a huge new section with a completely different aesthetic. It was like walking through a maze. At the end, we sat on the bridge which you can see in one of the photos overlooking a huge lake and spent a long time watching the koi fish and turtles swimming around. I'm really glad that I was with friends who seemed as happy as me to go round at a slow pace rather than getting bored and rushing through it. By the time we were out it was closing time, and I was feeling much more chilled than I had been a few hours earlier :p I'd like to visit again in Autumn when all the leaves are turning, and apparently Heian Shrine is also one of the best places in Kyoto for cherry blossom viewing in Spring. Although having said that, what I loved about visiting on this day was the quietness and stillness of it - something I don't think I'll experience again in the peak seasons.

I'm 3 weeks into life in Japan and there still seems to be no end to the problems we are having to deal with to get settled here. But despite everything that Japan is lacking, places like this make it so worth all the hassle!