A Road Trip of a Different Sort, Part Deux (and Last)

Where we left it:

“The five of us paid our respective bills and were off into the night, destination unknown but hopefully warm. We had a place to stay.”

If you’d like to begin at the beginning, just scroll down… 

It was just after 2300 hrs when we walked out of the wine bar and one of the guys told TSMP we had to hurry as the busses and trams quit running at midnight. We walked up the street to a trolley stop and stood… huddled and freezing in the cold night air… waiting for a trolley. 


We didn’t wait long. A nearly empty trolley soon arrived, but not nearly soon enough for my liking. It was COLD, Gentle Reader! We rode the trolley for what seemed quite some time…possibly 25 minutes or so, with very few stops… until we reached the end of the line. The city had faded into a suburban landscape and we were on the outskirts of town, in the foothills that surround Kyoto. We got off the trolley and followed our hosts as they quickly walked up a small road that led into the foothills. The road was narrow and quite steep and our pace was quick. I was nearly out of breath when we reached the top of the hill. One of the young men opened a gate, walked into a small yard, up a few stairs, and opened the door to a small house, gesturing for TSMP and me to follow. We left our shoes in a small entry way and went into the house.

It was a very small house…consisting of perhaps three rooms but I only saw two, one of which was the bathroom. All five of us were in a common room which was maybe 12 x 12 feet…if that. The room was traditional Japanese, which is to say it had tatami mats and was very sparsely furnished. The dominating feature was a low table in the center of the room (quite similar to the illustration, but not nearly as elegant), covered with a large quilt. The rest of the room was bare for the most part, and TSMP and I put our knapsacks against one wall and waited for a brief moment for what came next. One of our new friends went over to the table, pulled the quilt back to expose a rather large red light bulb affixed underneath the table, and switched the fixture on. I was semi-surprised to see the table was positioned over what looked like a footwell…which was exactly what it was. Our two male friends then sat down at the table with their feet in the small footwell and motioned TSMP and I to join them. The young woman had gone into the kitchen upon our arrival and was still there… so TSMP and I took our places at the table, which was large enough to sit at least six people. Once we were seated with our feet in the footwell… quite comfortably, I should add… we pulled the large quilt covering the table around our upper legs. It was then I noticed it was quite cold in the room and our friends hadn’t taken their coats off. TSMP and I left our coats on, too… she in my borrowed USAF parka, and me in my field jacket. It couldn’t have been more than 45 degrees in that room, if that.

It was about that time our young lady friend returned from the kitchen, carrying a large lacquered tray with five cups and a large steaming pot of green tea. She kneeled at table side and poured five cups of tea, passing each one to its recipient and took her place at the table. Conversation began almost immediately between TSMP and our three new friends, rapid and punctuated with lots of “So’s!” and “Ah’s!” and little bits of laughter here and there. Every so often TSMP would translate some of the conversation for me but I sat silent and smiling for the most part, largely oblivious to the actual content of the discussion. But it all seemed good…there was a great deal of smiling and nods of approval being passed around amongst and between the five us…among “other things.” 

It turned out our hosts were students at a university in Kyoto, so TSMP and they had lots in common. It also turned out that I didn’t mind the chill in the room, even though the room didn’t get any warmer during the course of the night…at all. But everyone’s feet were quite warm. That red light bulb (which was actually a low-intensity source of radiant heat), in conjunction with the shared warmth from our five pairs of feet under the table and the quilt around our thighs made for a very warm and intimate experience. TSMP later told me such an arrangement was quite common in Japanese homes, and this wasn’t the first time she’d “been there and done that.”

Conversation continued on into the night until the tea was gone and most of the company began to yawn and nod off. It was nearly 0200 hrs when TSMP and the young woman rose from the table and went into the other room, returning with a couple of heavy quilts. TSMP explained we were going to sleep in the common room. And we did just that…. on the tatami mats, with folded clothes from our knapsacks as pillows, fully dressed and under heavy quilts. It was wonderful.

We awoke in the morning around 0700 hrs to more green tea as we each took our turns cleaning up in the small bathroom. TSMP and the other girl had some semi-intense conversation, which resulted in TSMP jotting down a few notes in her small notebook. And then…less than an hour after we woke up… the five of us were off to the trolley line where we caught a trolley back into the city. Our friends got off the trolley before we did, and the good-byes were brief but intense and heartfelt. TSMP and I were grateful indeed for the kindness and hospitality our friends showed us. I only wish I had thought to take pictures…

It’s at this point the tale turns conventional in most all respects. The notes TSMP had taken while she and our young woman friend were talking were all about finding a hotel, and that was our first order of business after we ate breakfast. We were very fortunate. We found a small, inexpensive ryokan in a fairly nice neighborhood in the central city. The first thing we did after checking in was bathe… in a proper Japanese tub, with lots and lots of hot water.
 

It was good to get clean, not to mention getting warm. And one does get warm, both during and after a Japanese bath, let me tell ya, Gentle Reader… You emerge from the bath looking for all the world like a main course at Red Lobster. The Japanese bath and its rituals could be the subject of a separate and lengthy post all on its own (this will do, for now), but suffice to say most Americans are stunned at the temperature of an average Japanese bath, which is many degrees above what we consider reasonable and comfortable. Like the saying goes: “you get used to it.” And once you no longer have access to Japanese baths…you miss it, too.

And then it was out into Kyoto to do touristy things. And there are many, many touristy things to do in Kyoto. This was TSMP’s second or third trip to Kyoto and she knew where the high points were…and so we went, concentrating on the architectural treasures of ancient Japan, without forgetting or ignoring the food, the beer, the sake, etc., etc.!
 

These pics are from Kiyomizu-dera, which means “Pure Water” in Japanese…

Main Gate viewed from rear

Fountain of health, longevity and success in studies. I forget which stream I drank from...probably "health." It sure wasn't "success in studies..."
 

Monk praying inside shrine

I did mention we were traveling “on the cheap,” didn’t I? Proof…

Mickey Dee's

We stayed in Kyoto for three days or so, IIRC. Then it was on to Nara, which is even more ancient than Kyoto. Here’s TSMP surrounded by one of Nara’s most endearing attractions… the tame deer that roam Nara Park.

TSMP and some very pushy deer

From The Wiki:

Tame deer roam through the town, and especially in Nara Park. These deer might be considered "tame" if the visitor does not have any "shika sembei - Deer Biscuits" when they see them.

The people at the ryokan in Kyoto helped us find accommodations in Nara and we arrived in Nara with reservations for another ryokan, thanks to the friendly and helpful owners of the place we stayed in Kyoto. I might be slow at times, but never let it be said I don’t learn from experience. Our stay in Nara, lasting for perhaps two days but no longer, was uneventful and ordinary. We did lots of sightseeing, ate lots of good food, and generally enjoyed ourselves.
 

We didn’t hitch back to Tokyo… once was enough for both of us. No, we caught the milk-train back to Tokyo instead, a journey that took an incredible 12 hours… in third-class accommodations…which is to say hard, upright plastic seats. The Shinkansen, by contrast, makes the same trip in little more than four hours. And costs four to five times more than the milk-run. So, in keeping with our economic status at the time, we opted for the cheapest way out.
 

TSMP at Nara Station

We arrived back in Tokyo in the early evening and took the local train back to TSMP’s apartment, where we immediately and unceremoniously fell into bed. We were beyond tired…we were exhausted. We didn’t bother to eat, we didn’t bother to do anything…except sleep. We unpacked the following morning while sharing our adventure with TSMP’s room-mate (another Sophia U exchange student), who had to be extensively back-briefed.
 

All told, TSMP and I did a week in Kyoto and Nara, food, lodging, and transportation included, for around $200.00. That doesn’t sound like much today…and it really isn’t, in fact. But keep in mind: the year was 1975, and 200 bucks in 1975 is equal to about $770.00, today. Still…that’s pretty danged cheap for two people spending a week on the road in Japan. You couldn’t do that for that price today. I wouldn’t even want to try…

We still had a day or two of Christmas vacation left, but that was soon over and it was back to school for TSMP and back to work, for me. But, Wow! What a great time we had…

I'll close with this... just a simple street scene, taken in Nara.