Stairway to Heaven, Part 1

When my alarm rang on Saturday morning, I got out of bed and hustled to get ready. I had plenty of time, but I was determined to get into the city early to avoid potential complications. At last, I was going on vacation. I left the house around 10am, and took the train into Kyoto. 

Surprisingly, everything went smoothly, which got me to Kyoto Station nearly two hours before the bus left. I killed time by working through my Japanese copy of Phoenix Wright while relaxing in Porta Underground. Finally, around 12:30, I decided to go upstairs and wait for my friends. The first to get there was Nick, wheeling a small suitcase behind him. Apparantly, my meeting place was bad – unbeknownst to me, there are multiple entrances to Porta, so my instruction to “meet in front of Porta” was kind of useless. 

Next to arrive was Cara. We had relocated to a more visible location in front of the main JR gate, but I went to check the Porta entrances again, where I bumped into Cara. Last to arrive was Tala – due to my ambiguous meeting place, it was hard to find him. But eventually we did, and with plenty of time to spare.

We made some preparations for the bus – Nick went to buy a new DS game, after which we bought some snacks for the bus. When we got back, Cara had gone to buy something as well, but time was running out. By the time we were all back, it was just about departure time. We cut it close, but we made it to the bus stop on time, and with no difficulty, got on board.

The ride was by no means a long one – total time of just under three hours. We took one rest stop along the way, where we picked up some donuts. They were good, but Mister Donuts is neither Krispy Kreme nor Dunkin Doughnuts. On the way out, we were offered a sample of…mushrooms. To be specific, matsutake mushrooms (one of the most prized mushrooms in Japan). It was really good – it had a very rich flavor, almost meaty. I’d be more than happy to eat those again. Of course, they’re also pretty expensive, so it’s not something I can see coming out at dinner.

When we arrived in Amanohashidate, the first thing I noticed was the air. Kyoto is a fairly clean city, but the air out there was so clean and fresh. Looking at the map I had printed out, we walked from the station to the ryokan. I had anticipated it taking five minutes, but it was actually much closer. In fact, the entirety of Amanohashidate was more compact than I had thought – we could see the ocean from where we were staying. 

Check in was really simple – the obasan who ran the inn brought us a form to fill out, and we were set within half an hour. Before dinner, we decided to scope out the town to get a feel for our surroundings. We crossed the street to head for the ocean. But before we got there, we saw something else that captured our interest – a shop that was selling dried fish and squids, which were hanging out front. We took some pictures, at which point the shop keeper told us in Japanese to take lots of good photos. Calling himself the “Ika-ojisan”, he told us about bigger squids caught in the area that aren’t sold in shops because they’re so big. Squids of that size get sold to sushi shops, he said. I really enjoyed the “small town” feeling that makes people comfortable to talk with strangers. 

We walked alongside the ocean, over and under overgrown trees, around a bend until we came to a dock, near the bridge leading to the land bridge. There, by the water, was a strange stone ring. We read a signpost that explained that it was “The Ring of Wisdom”, which it might have been used by ships in the past, but that nobody actually knows why it’s there. We passed by the main street in the town, and through a temple, only to wind up back by Ika-ojisan’s shop! It turns out we made a big loop around the town.

Since we still had some time, we decided to check out the land bridge. We walked past a shop selling yaki-ika, and onto the beach. We played around for a while, and then then looked at a bunch of stone monuments placed around here and there. Finally, it got dark enough that I figured it would be better just to come back the next day, and we headed back for dinner.

We were served a true feast – fried ebi, oyster soup, grilled fish, sashimi, rice, and more. It was possibly the biggest non-izakaya meal I’ve eaten since getting to Japan. And it was REALLY good. I ate till I was bursting. We had a hilarious dinner conversation, winding up talking about how dumb animals are. Especially turkeys. Nick was talking about weird pets his elementary school teachers had, including hissing cockroaches. Tala provided us with a fantastic example of what these beasties sound like, leading to further laughs being shared.

We bought discount tickets for Chie no Yu, the local onsen. It means “Hot Water of Wisdom”, and I could always use more wisdom (or onsen). We walked over (again, taking about two minutes), and hopped into the bath. We had some hilarious discussions over the hour we spent in there. There were actually three rooms – the actual bath, some outdoor wooden tubs, and a hand-and-foot bath. We liberally made use of all of them. Coming out, I felt both refreshed and drained at the same time. I mean, I guess that’s what really hot water does to you. But man, it was nice! In the Japanese fashion, I drank down a bottle of milk before leaving the bathhouse.

 After a quick stop at the ryokan to pick up some refreshments, we went out to stargaze. We walked back towards the ocean, and found a nice spot away from the bright streetlights. We drank a little and chatted while looking up at the night sky. The weather was clear, and I was able to see more stars in the sky than I have in years. It was beautiful, and reminded me of just how vast the universe is. We had some real heart-to-heart storytelling, and I felt like I was able to let my problems melt away. Even now, I feel that I’ve left some sort of weight behind.

Oh, but there was one creepy thing too. There was a buoy in the water that seemed to be moving like a person, but we all ignored it. Finally though, it DID start to move. It came closer, until we saw that it actually was a human being – a fisherman who was standing in the water up to his waist who decided to call it a night. It startled the living daylights out of me, because I had thought we were alone. Still, it takes more than that to spoil such a good night.

We went to bed pretty late, since we wound up talking after getting home too. Maybe a bad idea, since the next day would be packed with adventures far beyond what I had imagined possible.