Today was Day 2 in Kyoto! We decided to nix Nara unfortunately because Kyoto is just way to big and there was no way we were going to see everything we wanted to see. At the start of our day we headed to west Kyoto to go to Toei Movie Land, or Toei Eigamura as the Japanese call it. Its a little village that is fashioned in the way of Edo, old buildings, samurais, ninjas, theaters, cherry blossoms, geisha.Its was small and really cool, and since we went first thing in the morning, it was refreshing how few people there were in comparison to Disneyland. Toei is the parent of company of Toei Animation I think, but am not certain, because I also saw Toei Animation stuff in their little modern building museum. But they also make live movies as well.
The Movie Land park also can double as a set. They can shoot movies indoors and you can tour the set from behind glass while they're not shooting at any time you want, but when they are, you can only get in via a tour group. They also shoot in the outdoor town part I think, because I saw some clips from various movies that I recognized from walking around, and I noticed that some of the trees and the buildings were on wheels so that they would be rearranged, like on a film set.I saw a feudal lord's home, the prison and various methods of torture (that real pictures made me cringe and run away), got my picture taken with a ninja and a samurai who my mother convinced to have him "attack" me with his sword and then we went to the Ninja and Samurai
show (that was literally the name of it in English AND Japanese). The show was really cool and I got all kinds of sweet video during the show. It was about this Ninja (Hattori Hanzo was his name for all you Tail of the Moon fans...so I guess he was a real ninja) who was on an infiltration mission to get some kind of scroll containing information from this Samurai Lord, and the Samurai Lord had three ninja lackeys and a really scary head ninja as his minions to try and take him out....but of course after much sword fighting, fake dying, flips, jumps, cart wheels and ninja stars, Hanzo of course got his scroll. The samurai lord was actually hysterical and had on all this crazy make-up.He came down the steps after the first quarter of the show just to talk to the audience, taking in a normal friendly voice (whereas a minute before hand he had been using a deep ominous
voice for his character) and was walking up and down the aisles making peace signs at people so they could take pictures. Since I was on the aisle and of course looked different from everyone, he walked up to me and asked "Where are you from?" And when I answered in Japanese, he was really surprised, talking to the whole audience about me. There was also a really famous retired baseball player (everyone rushed to him at the end of the show to get pictures) with his grand kids there, so that was kinda cool too, but I didn't catch his name.Shortly after when we were wandering in the village, we found this really neat shop that promised to dress you up as something from the Edo period in just five minutes...and they weren't kidding..I think it was more like three and a half. You can watch the video my mom took here. I stood on a little red triangle in front of a pretty back drop and all of a sudden one lady is tying a skirt without a back (like an apron) around my waist and an obi (a colorful cloth Japanese belt) around my waist. One lady takes my arms and sticks them out straight while the other starts putting stuff that, from the outside would look like I'm wearing a shirt but is really only the collar around my neck while the other lady whips my hair up in a hair net. Suddenly
my arms were being shoved through sleeves, I'm being told how to hold my kimono just so, there's suddenly a Japanese wig on my head that I didn't even get to see and all I really know about my Kimono is that its some shade of red, another lady adjusts my head, there's a flash, and all of a sudden they're whipping it all off me again. O_O
I put my sneakers back on and my picture was all ready, where for the first time I actually get to see what I was wearing. It was a bit pricey, but the end result was awesome so I'm really happy I got to do it! I think they dressed me up as some kind of princess, because all the Japanese people in the shop saw it and kept calling me "kireii na hime-sama" which means beautiful princess. :3 hehe
After lunch we caught a bus to Heian Jingu (Today we just bought a bus pass instead of all the confusion from yesterday), which, in my tour book had been described as 'bombastic', and just from the tori (gate) alone, I'm pretty sure that's an accurate description. You can wander around the grounds for free, but you'll have to pay to get into the gardens. The large map made it look really pretty and it was our first day in the whole of Japan where it wasn't rainy or cloudy, so we decided to go in. The gardens were beautiful and had lots of lakes and cherry blossoms. It was 
very enjoyable to walk through a garden and not need an umbrella!
We tried to take a bus to from there Kinkakuji, but because the city is so large, the buses run so infrequently and it was almost 4:30, the time that they let the last visitors for the day into the temple, we ended up taking a taxi. The
grounds for Kinkakuji were beautiful and and the pavilion was magnificent. It is very famous and I guarantee you if you've ever seen a postcard or a calender of Japan, you've seen a picture of this pavilion. We kind of had to hurry because when they say they close at 5, they want you out of there at 5...as mom later said, at five o'clock "Japan disappears!"...well at least here on the west coast. That didn't seem to be the case in Tokyo.
In all seriousness though, if you seriously want to be able to see all there is to see in Kyoto, give it its due and not be running from place to place, start your days early and make sure that you're there for at least 3-4 days! Also, if you plan to be there at the end of March/beginning of April, book your hotel well over a month in advance!
We ended up taking a bus back to Kyoto Station. We had to take the city bus as opposed to the sightseeing express bus that has less stops, but also stops running at 4:48...which doesn't entirely make sense when the temple closes at 5, but hey we were able to catch a city bus that's all that matters. We actually met a German couple at the bus stop as well! (I've been amazed at the number of Germans I've seen/heard since I've been here...seriously!! I feel like I haven't gone a day without hearing German!)
The lady was looking at the routes and told her husband they were taking the 101 (the sightseeing express) so, not wanting her to wait there for a bus that would never come, I said "Entschuldigueng...aber die 101 faerht nicht mehr". (which means "Excuse me...but the 101 isn't running any more") The lady was really surprised at first...though if that was because I was able speak German or because the bus didn't run any more, I didn't know. We ended up talking with her and her husband the whole way back. They were on a cruise that started in Hong Kong and was going around South East Asia and the boat was currently docked two stations away in Kobe. They were surprised that I could speak German, Japanese and English and that my mother could understand roughly what we were saying in German...so on the bus back the station I spoke German to them the whole time, while translating the Japanese into German for them and then turning to my mother and translating what I had just said in Japanese and German into English for her. It was...a very interesting experience. There were times when I was asking a question in Japanese the occasionally German word would slip in or when I was talking to the German couple a "sugoi" or "sumimasen" would slip in...but I actually handled it quite well...so I wasn't lost in translation!
my arms were being shoved through sleeves, I'm being told how to hold my kimono just so, there's suddenly a Japanese wig on my head that I didn't even get to see and all I really know about my Kimono is that its some shade of red, another lady adjusts my head, there's a flash, and all of a sudden they're whipping it all off me again. O_OI put my sneakers back on and my picture was all ready, where for the first time I actually get to see what I was wearing. It was a bit pricey, but the end result was awesome so I'm really happy I got to do it! I think they dressed me up as some kind of princess, because all the Japanese people in the shop saw it and kept calling me "kireii na hime-sama" which means beautiful princess. :3 hehe
After lunch we caught a bus to Heian Jingu (Today we just bought a bus pass instead of all the confusion from yesterday), which, in my tour book had been described as 'bombastic', and just from the tori (gate) alone, I'm pretty sure that's an accurate description. You can wander around the grounds for free, but you'll have to pay to get into the gardens. The large map made it look really pretty and it was our first day in the whole of Japan where it wasn't rainy or cloudy, so we decided to go in. The gardens were beautiful and had lots of lakes and cherry blossoms. It was 
very enjoyable to walk through a garden and not need an umbrella!We tried to take a bus to from there Kinkakuji, but because the city is so large, the buses run so infrequently and it was almost 4:30, the time that they let the last visitors for the day into the temple, we ended up taking a taxi. The
grounds for Kinkakuji were beautiful and and the pavilion was magnificent. It is very famous and I guarantee you if you've ever seen a postcard or a calender of Japan, you've seen a picture of this pavilion. We kind of had to hurry because when they say they close at 5, they want you out of there at 5...as mom later said, at five o'clock "Japan disappears!"...well at least here on the west coast. That didn't seem to be the case in Tokyo.In all seriousness though, if you seriously want to be able to see all there is to see in Kyoto, give it its due and not be running from place to place, start your days early and make sure that you're there for at least 3-4 days! Also, if you plan to be there at the end of March/beginning of April, book your hotel well over a month in advance!
We ended up taking a bus back to Kyoto Station. We had to take the city bus as opposed to the sightseeing express bus that has less stops, but also stops running at 4:48...which doesn't entirely make sense when the temple closes at 5, but hey we were able to catch a city bus that's all that matters. We actually met a German couple at the bus stop as well! (I've been amazed at the number of Germans I've seen/heard since I've been here...seriously!! I feel like I haven't gone a day without hearing German!)
The lady was looking at the routes and told her husband they were taking the 101 (the sightseeing express) so, not wanting her to wait there for a bus that would never come, I said "Entschuldigueng...aber die 101 faerht nicht mehr". (which means "Excuse me...but the 101 isn't running any more") The lady was really surprised at first...though if that was because I was able speak German or because the bus didn't run any more, I didn't know. We ended up talking with her and her husband the whole way back. They were on a cruise that started in Hong Kong and was going around South East Asia and the boat was currently docked two stations away in Kobe. They were surprised that I could speak German, Japanese and English and that my mother could understand roughly what we were saying in German...so on the bus back the station I spoke German to them the whole time, while translating the Japanese into German for them and then turning to my mother and translating what I had just said in Japanese and German into English for her. It was...a very interesting experience. There were times when I was asking a question in Japanese the occasionally German word would slip in or when I was talking to the German couple a "sugoi" or "sumimasen" would slip in...but I actually handled it quite well...so I wasn't lost in translation!
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