Rainy Sunday afternoon
Sunday 2nd November
I already mentioned it: there be raaaains here in Kyoto. At least this morning so much so that I decided to stay in and read my non-galactic travel guide on the subject of Nagoya. Preparations about my next stay, I makes them.
Eventually things got better so I decided to go out and indirectly go to Kyoto’s International Manga Museum. It’s kinda like the National Stripmuseum in Groningen, but then “only” for Manga, which is a lot, by the way.
I got there at some time in the afternoon, bought a ticket and started walking around. In fact, yes, it’s an international museum on account of there being guides in different languages (among which English, fortunately) and on account of there being a selection of Manga’s translated into different languages, among which English and German. Here at least I could read some fine stories, among which 100% Strawberry appealed to me.
The many rest was in Japanese, which I cannot read, except for the pictures, and it’s an impressive collection they have. It even sports nudity and sex, which of course causes me to frown. A lot. Immensely. Well, at least surprise me, because of strict legislation regarding this, I suppose.
Anyways, a couple of hours later I was sore from reading standing up, so I moved along to the souvenir shop and bought a book about Neon Genesis Evangelism, a series I have a unusual bond with. Lucky me for it being avaliable there, yay! 🙂
After that I went on cruising again on my bike. Getting lost in town, stumbling upon strange restaurants, them hopefully serving ōkonomiyaki. After a couple of tries I found the place, which even had an Engrish Menyu. Huzzah!
It was a very stylish food bar with very friendly personnel. The guy who helped me out most, spoke a bit of English, but not much. And I could tell he was a bit too inhibited to try and make conversation (unlike in a similar food bar in Ōsaka), so we didn’t talk much. But it was nice anyways. Eventually the usual smalltalk came up: where from, where been, where to, Van Persie (yes, another Dutch national sakkā, soccer, team player), etc.
Two courses, a kashisu (cassis) and a bīru (beer) later, I got outside and took the scenic route back to my room.
Oh yeah, forgot to mention that before landing at the restaurant, I took a sidestep to the Imperial Palace. I quickly left again because of the humongous waiting line.
While getting lost on my way back, I ended up at several shrines, among which Heian shrine and Kurodani temple. There it be nice and quiet at night. 🙂
Shortly after getting back to my room, Asami knocked on my door, to ask how things were going, which was very nice of her. I told her what I’ve been doing these two days. By the way, it appeared that right after I got home, another shower had started. So, lucky me for getting home in time. Huzzah!
Oh, right after I arrived two days ago, Asami mentioned that she is (in my words), the arty type. The draws in 3D, with a canvas and multiple layers of fabric in front of it, requiring a special light source to make the effect come out. This last information I got all from her, later tonight, when she invited me over to come see her work. She has an exhibition in New York, in a while but she needs to finish the last one of the four pieces. Good luck!
We talked some more, about Japanese legend, the game Ōkami, other things to see here in Japan, the Netherlands and things that I do.
Note: I find that many Japanese regard a computer programmer very highly. They think they’re very smart. Ahem. Well, I know I’m not, I’m just relatively good at what I do in my work, I think. xD
So, this night will be my last in Kyoto and tomorrow it’s onward to Nagoya. Although, maybe I’ll take a detour. Asami suggested I go to Iga, to visit the ninja castle and Ise, to visit the shrine where Amaterasu (the sun goddess, I believe) lies buried, if I’m not mistaken. Must investigate…