06/04/18 It is interesting how comfortable you can get in a bedroom of 2 m3 (capsule hotel). It is a bedroom, a kitchen, a laundry and a living room all at once.
Today I won’t be able to avoid the rain, forecasted at least at 80% all day. The first stop is Demashiyanagi station where I can lock my bags before going to the art theatre where I join a tea ceremony, served by geishas then watch their performance called Miyaki Odori. The show is based on the 4 seasons and has multiple scenes where geishas and maikos perform dances wearing different kimonos. The stage changes from scene to scene to display beautiful decors, winter, spring, fall and summer. There are also music performers singing and playing japanese guitar, drums and flute. The geishas move quite slowly in controlled movements and turn around a lot, as traditionally it used to be performed in small and confined spaces. About 30 geishas & maikos were part of the show, all women, performing men roles sometimes as per the tradition, which allows performers from 1 gender or the other, not both in the same show.
After the show, I thought I would beat the crowd by going to the famous Fushimi-Inari Taisha shrine, a massive religious site full of temples, but also the thousands of shrines forming nice tunnels that tourists love so much, hoping to capture nice pictures. While I was obviously not the only one with the idea of going under the rain, I believe a lot of tourists postponed their visit to the site and I had a chance to catch a few spots with no photo bombers inside the tunnel. Nice pic without humans, check! (Amanda, if you read this, it reminded me of a conversation we had about those people who shoot nice scenic spots but you wish they were not on the picture, hiding the beauty behind them ?).
By the time my visit was over, my jacket’s waterproof capacity got challenged, but my feet were still dry, it was time to get my bags back.
As it was still raining and more heavily, I took the plastic bags out (I knew this would come handy one day) to cover the suitcase and my backpack. Now started the fun, I had to take 2 crowded buses to get to the highway bus. While being already drenched. With the 20kg suitcase, ooh yeah, bring it on!
I found the highway bus for Nagoya… on the highway itself! Yes in Japan, they have highways above the ground, and bus stops on the highway. Oh and the fun part, I had to take an extra 50 stairs (with the bags) under the rain already drenched. Well I thought I deserved the pack of biscuits I bought earlier, which will take me company for the 2.5h trip.
