A.W. Gamble

Well, our time here is done and tonight I am leaving for Tokyo on an overnight bus.  It seems strange that we no longer have a room here at K’s House Hostel, but it’s even harder to believe that we have already been here for a month.  I know that it’s cliche, but it flew by, faster than I knew was possible.

Tomorrow morning we will arrive in Tokyo way too early and I’m sure I will have gotten far too little sleep.  I will have tomorrow and most of the next day to explore Tokyo and then I’m off to Hawaii.  I’m a little bit sad to leave Kyoto because it is finally starting to feel familiar, but I’m ready to be moving on. 

I’m currently trying to load some  pictures to my site but I’m having difficulty putting them on so I’ll keep trying.  Otherwise I’ll post whenever I can.

Lately we have been hanging around Kyoto looking at temples within the city, which still leaves many options!  The city is littered with temples and shrines, many of them in the middle of residential neighborhoods that have grown up around them.  It is hard to keep my blog updated with any real detail because many of the places we visit are very similar so I feel as though to explain one is to explain them all.  I can’t even remember the names of most of them.  That’s not totally my fault though because the language is very different and doesn’t really lend itself to memorization.  One stand  out in the last week was the Golden Pavilion, which is exactly what it sounds like.  The structure is two stories tall with a very ornate roof on top and all of the walls are covered in gold leaf.  It is very beautiful, especially with the reflection from the water in front of it.  Apparently the original structure was burned down when a monk was so possessive of it that he burned it down.  The new version is only built at 2/3 the scale of the original so it was cool to imagine it being even bigger. 

Besides seeing temples and shrines there have also been gardens adjacent to many of the buildings at nearly every site.  The gardens are either green or rock gardens.  The rock gardens are very cool.  There are usually around 15 rocks placed throughout the flat rectangular garden.  Supposedly from any vantage point a person should never be able to see every rock.  The large rocks also sit upon a base of gravel that is meticulously groomed and raked into very cool patterns.  It seems impossible to do when you see it finished. 

Japan seems to have everything and that was proven last week when four others and I rode bikes to go see monkeys.  I had no idea I would get to see monkeys in Japan but it made my day.  The bike ride was all the way across town and took nearly an hour.  The monkeys were worth it though.  They were scattered loosely as we approached along a path up the mountain.  Finally we got to the hut where you could feed them and they were all hanging around outside of it.  Almost all of them were paired off and one was combing through the other one’s back and head for whatever it is they look for, maybe split ends.  Inside the hut we could buy bags of peanuts or apple to feed to the monkeys.  It was both fun and a great photo op.  When I was done photographing I bought a bag and looked for a monkey to feed.  I was inside of a hut with windows covered in chain link fencing and monkeys were hanging on the outside of it, many with their arms outstretched and looks on their faces that said they weren’t asking for food but were expecting it.  I was worried as I reached towards them with a peanut in the palm of my hand that they would scratch me as they frantically went for the food.  Instead they very carefully plucked the nut from my hands with very deliberate fingers.  Everything about them was strangely human. 

The rest of the time here in Kyoto has been very cool and I am looking forward to the weekend to sleep in a little bit.  I have posted pictures so take a look.

I had some time to explore my website today which means that both my blog and my photo gallery have new looks.  I’m excited about the change because now it feels a little bit more like it’s actually mine.  The new layout is not my favorite because of some of the placement of items.  If you’re looking for the Gamble Gallery, as I’m sure a handful of you are, the link is now on the bottom of the page in the middle. 

Otherwise weather has been off and on here and today was a pretty lazy day.  After waking up at the crack of 1pm some others and I went to get some lunch and then off to the Garden of Fine Arts, or something like that.  It wasn’t the art we were after, because they were all replicas and outdoors, but the building.  It was designed by the famous Japanese architect Tadao Ando.  I was very pleased with it, first because it was a nice place to spend a nice day, and second because a photograph from just about any placement and at any angle would turn out pretty well.  I have posted photos from that and from Ise in the gallery.  Tonight has been pretty easygoing and tomorrow is supposed to be good weather which is good because I think we’ll be going to the tallest wooden structure in Japan. 

I’ve been in Japan now for about four days.  Before I talk about what I’ve done while here in Japan, I want to talk about first getting to Japan, because that was a fun day.

The fun started at 5:00am when I woke to catch my cab to the airport.  I think I slept at most four hours that night but somehow the terrifying thought of travelling alone in a foreign country kept me awake.  I was travelling solo because I purchased the plane tickets for this leg through a separate company and had the day wrong in my head the whole time.  I was glad for the opportunity to feel incredibly uncomfortable and helpless because it is from these moments that I start to feel comfortable and competent.  My cab ride was about 45 minutes.  I can’t imagine what it would have been if there were more than five other cars on the road.  If I were a cab driver in China, I would definately take the graveyard shift because besides not being able to read the street signs, everything else would seem like being in a normal city. 

I got checked in at the airport alright after the ticket counter opened.  Beijing’s airport is very cool, but it’s one that you have to see from the air to really appreciate.  It’s just too big to really understand from the ground.  I got to my gate a full hour and a half before my flight so I sat and typed on my computer about my experience in China.  I’ve stopped keeping a written journal because it is so slow.  I think I like the idea of a journal more than I actually like it.  My handwriting is really bad so it is frustrating to write, wondering if even I will be able to read this in five years. 

I flew All Nippon Airways, which was a first for me, but I was very satisfied with them.  They offered movies on demand which is really all it takes for me.  They did have one other thing that impressed me, and kind of scared me as well.  Mounted into the nose of the plane was a camera that was broadcasting the plane’s view while we taxied, took off, flew and landed.  My first thought was, ‘great, now if we crash I can watch it from the comfort of my seat.’  Fortunately I watched Ocean’s 13 instead. 

I got into Tokyo around 1pm and then stood in customs for probably 30 minutes.  They let me into the country, big sigh of relief, and then I was off to try to make something of the mess that is Tokyo’s transit system.  Luckily I was able to ask for a ticket in english so that first part was easy, but while waiting for my train I went into a tourist office to get some maps.  I actually laughed out loud when she handed me the train map.  It was clear that it was going to be no help whatsoever. 

I boarded my train and departed Narita airport, on time as every train in Japan is, and was on my way to Tokyo’s central station.  I think that my day would have gone much smoother if I had known before arrival where I was staying.  The plan was to stay with some other kids on the trip who were getting into Tokyo on the same day.  They were going to get a room, tell me through facebook where they were staying.  My first goal downtown was to find internet.  This turned out to be much more difficult than  I had imagined.  I finally got it free courtesy of the Shangri-La Hotel from a nearby building.   I found that they had not contacted me so I decided to just go on to Kyoto where our group would be meeting the next day.

Traveling to Kyoto means taking the bullet train which I had been looking forward to for the entire trip.  Unfortunately my train was around 5pm so it was dark for most of the ride.  It really just felt like I was on a plane except every time we passed another train the car would sway severely to the side.  I would think that it was crazy turbulence, but then I would remember where I was and calm down again.  I arrived in Kyoto and through a little struggle found my hostel and was able to get a bed for the night.  There were already several people from my group there.  My night was not over though because I had to eat.  At this point the only food I had that day was on the plane before noon.  It was now about 8 pm and I was starving.  I was getting very excited because I had accidentally found a McDonald’s near our hostel while I took my roundabout trip.  Fast food is a great way to feel better about being in a foreign country.  I know that the sign said McDonald’s, but to me it said, “Tiny piece of America brought to Japan just for you Alex.”  But below that it also said, “Visa not accepted,” so I would have to wait until I could somehow get cash to have my reunion.  Instead I settled on MiniMart.  They offered sandwiches, they don’t say which kind, but I just picked a color I liked and went with it.  It turned out to be tuna, but I was so hungry it tasted very good. 

This is the story of my first day in Japan.  Every day since then has been better than the one previous.  I hope to tell about them soon, but for now I’m glad to end my blog drought with this.

This entry happened in Nanjing a few days ago but this was the first time I sat down to write about it.  It’s a little bit long now that I’ve seen it all down, but here’s the story.

During our second day in Nanjing Sara and I decided to check out getting a hair cut, nothing fancy, just a trim.  We found a salon called Chic just down from our hotel.  We were hesitant to enter because it was very young and very hip.  Also we knew absolutely no chinese so it would be hard to communicate.  We entered and the first thing Sara said was, “English?”  They stared at us for a little bit and then yelled for someone in the back.  A young man came out who was able to speak a little broken english and he ended up translating for us.  He said that our hair cuts would be 60 yuan, or about US$8.  We agreed and then they started by washing our hair.  I’ve never had my hair professionally washed and didn’t think that this service would ever be necessary, but once they started it was amazing.  It’s like a head massage with hot water.  I didn’t know that my scalp could even feel such things.  I think I might get another hair cut just for the shampooing. 
    After my hair was washed and partially dried I was taken over to my stylist who was waiting for me.  It was strange at first and I felt bad for the guy who got stuck with me, the american, because I had no clue what I wanted done.  I’m not one to get anything crazy and I’ve always struggled with what to tell a hair stylist about what to do.  I don’t know what to call it, just make it shorter.  I should have known from looking at each of the worker’s haircuts that I wasn’t getting out of there with just a trim. 
    The stylist started by combing my hair straight down.  He then pushed it all to one side of my face in a sweeping fashion and looked at me as if waiting for my reaction.  I shook my head no and then he pushed it to the other side.  Same thing.  No.  He then pulled it all up.  By now I was starting to realize that this was not going to be like any haircut I’ve ever had before.  I finally gave up with this last offer and I accepted.  With a direction to head in he started to cut my hair.  To his credit he did the whole thing with scissors.  Because of the language barrier I was never really sure what was agreed upon and so each new thing he worked on could have been his last as far as I knew.  I just watched him work and hoped that he was going to keep working. 
    Once the hair was an acceptable length, which was another quasi-secession on my part they took me back to get my hair washed again.  This time to get rid of any extra hairs.  And there were a lot because he used the thinner quite a bit.  I was surprised that after he used it he went through with a comb and the tips of his scissors and meticulously removed the already cut hair.  The second hair washing was quite a bit shorter than the first.  After they took me back to my chair, for what I didn’t know, and then the stylist tried once again to understand what it was I wanted.  If I had known myself I could have told him, but I had no clue.  I would have been happy to leave the way I was but that would have been an insult to such a skilled stylist.  We somehow ended up on a faux-hawk and so he set about getting that done.  He first dried my hair quite a bit with a hair drier, and then with the drier still on used it towards the bottom of my face pointed up to get the hair going up in the front.  While he was doing this he was rubbing gel into it to get it to stay.  In the end it was very impressive and I got a haircut I was pretty happy with.  More importantly I got a story. 
    I’m pretty sure that my chinese haircut wasn’t just a story for me because afterward, with their camera, they took a photo of me with my stylist.  It was only after they did this  that I asked them to take one more but with my camera.  I will never forget my chinese haircut, but maybe they will never forget their American haircut.