February 13th, 2005
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Returning home in a seat and fighting sweet fatigue
I’m on my way back to Tokyo now, coasting in on fumes, so to speak. I had an espresso and a genki drink at Tully’s with Seiko, because while I could very easily doze my way back home, I figure it’ll screw with my sleeping tonight, so I’ll just try to tough it out and make sure I hit the hay before midnight.
I was feeling pretty bad on my way out of Takanohara, but Rodney’s porridge patched me up and I had a nice lunch with Seiko at the Merry Island Cafe (another shot from the past in Kyoto). There’s a twenty-five cent word (as my grandfather would say), called kami hitoe. It’s basically a very elegant way for describing a sensation of great pain coupled with deep love– two intense feelings only a shade apart. That’s pretty much Kyoto in a nutsell as far as I’m concerned. Every element of the city is draped in tradition, romance, and wonder. That’s essentially the Nobue I see, so visiting is never without some degree of regret or longing. Still, it’s not a bad experience and I feed on this as much as I can. Kyoto has been and always will be one of the most complicated cities in my life. It’s in my tentative plans to migrate there after the inevitable toll Tokyo will exact on my verve.
During lunch I came up with the idea of going to the zoo (assuming Kyoto had one) [it did], almost as a joke. However, the rewards of spontaneity held true and it was well worth it. It was pretty small, but that was about what we needed, given the flaky weather and our time constraints. Zoos always excite and depress me at the same time. On one hand, I love seeing the animals. I love watching them, watching their eyes; studying their grace, taking note of their sounds. Fascination of life is such a satisfying thrill for me, I’m happy to spend hours just following the joints in their legs and the instinct fresh on their faces. On the other hand, it hurts me to see them in captivity. Even if it wasn’t so apparent how depressed some of them are, it’s all too easy to imagine how tortuous an eternity of instinct to fly must suffer in a cage. The penguins want buckets of dead fish no more than I do an uninspired livelihood of charity. Every sentient creature longs to make its way by its own wits.
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As I anticipated, my favorite animal was of course the tanuki (Japanese raccoon), a poor old fellow with cataracts milling idly about on arthritic legs. I was also lucky enough to experience the rare “treat” of confirming that a cat is indeed a cat, when a distressed lion loudly coughed up (and subsequently reconsumed) a hairball.
Before we went to the zoo Seiko and I visited Heian Jingu (a Shinto shrine quite famous but until now unseen by me). Seiko did a wonderful job explaining hina matsuri, a festival to honor the imperial wedding.
After the zoo we planned to go see a movie (I was really hankering for some popcorn), but Seiko had some take home translation work to do so we cut it off early and went to a Tully’s to unwind. I’m not in the crowd of affluent coffee shop junkies (firstly because I’m not affluent). These kind of places are so popular in the states now, I guess it’s just a latter day drug store/soda shop, though there seems to be a little more pretention involved.
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But as Rodney said, I’m on vacation, and thusly I managed to burn through about 48000 yen in three days, which at first is kind of startling, especially since I didn’t pay for a hotel or most of my meals. But, that’s the Shinkansen for you. You get a little upset for spending a hundred twenty-five dollars for a mere two hours’ travel, but the alternative is an overnight bus for over half as much.
All in all, it was pretty sweet. I got quality time with Rodney and Noriyo, Nobue, and Seiko, and I also had a nice time at an outdoor mountain onsen (hot spring). I also wrote a hell of a lot (as you’ve probably noticed). This is really great, though every time I come back it’s never long enough. Three days is pretty short for a trip away to pretty much anywhere. But still, it was a blast and I’m not going to let the fact work returns tomorrow ruin it.
