A few times now I have tried not to be the ugly American that only speaks English to everyone. I looked up some key Japanese phrases and did my best to pronounce them. In almost every case I felt more like a fool afterwards. At McDonalds I did my best to order a large coke, by saying "Cola, domo" hoping he would gather I wanted a large Coke. The guy behind the counter looked at me and said "large coke"? Strike 1. With the sumo guy the later that day I tried to use hand gestures to get my point across and his reply of "ok sure" made me feel silly. Strike 2. At the train station twice now I have tried to use my notepad of phrases to try to order and both times the attendant replied in English what I just asked them then told me the times in English. Strike 3, I am out. Oh well, at least I tried.
In Kyoto today we visited the Fushimi-inari shrine. It is a large complex in the mountains dedicated to the fox goddess. There is a 2km pathway leading up the mountain that is lined with thousands of red torii (archways). We walked to the top, saw the city and then headed back. It wasn't quite as bad as the Grand Canyon, but I looked like someone sprayed me with a hose by the end. After that we headed to the train station for lunch at a Italian place (we did yakitori for dinner last night on some side alley of the main street so we deserve "western food"). Next stop was Nijo Castle with the squeaky floors. That wont really make sense unless you stop by there sometime.
Kyoto is pretty heavy in the shrine department so we may take in a few more. There is also a monkey park and a bamboo forest we may check out. We saw some geishas walking around last night and a few monks praying and chanting on the bridges. So I think we have covered plenty of traditional Japanese culture.
