Our Kyoto Home

A scene from our Kyoto neighborhood

At the direction of the Secretary of War Henry Stimson, Kyoto was removed from the atomic bomb target list in World War II because of its cultural significance.  Because of it was spared, it has some of the most well preserved palaces, gardens, religious sites, and architecture in Japan.   We thought visiting historic Kyoto would be a nice complement to the more modern Tokyo.

Though we’ve stayed in some unique places – like a mud farmhouse converted to a boutique hotel  in Yangshuo, China and at a villa in a rice field in Ubud, Indonesia – I think our lodging choice in Kyoto may have been our most interesting yet.  We stayed in a Japanese family’s home.

The family had converted part of its home into a “guest house” (many guest houses are low-end that cater to the backpacking crowd; this one did not – I assure you, we carefully research these things!).  The guest house was nestled in a neighborhood just down the hill from one of the popular temples.  From the outside, you wouldn’t guess that it was anything but a home. The guest portion of the house comprised four rooms with a shared bathroom (I was a bit leery of this, but even though all the rooms were booked, we only saw a couple of people). 

To make it even more interesting, we opted for the “Japanese style” room:

Yes, you’re seeing that right, the room had nothing in it but straw mats on the floor.  There were also some large, square pillows for sitting.

We slept the Japanese way – on the floor with a “futon”.  The futon consisted of a few mats for padding and some blankets all covered with white duvet that had mesh on it, so you could see the comforter underneath. 

 

Unlike a hotel experience, this gave us a glimpse of how people in Japan really live.  Most notably, we learned that shoe etiquette is of prime importance in the Japanese home.  When we entered the house, we immediately removed our shoes and were given slippers.  The slippers were worn until we got to our room; at that point we removed them and wore just socks or had bare feet.  To go to the restroom, we had to put on our house slippers then removed them and put on a different pair of slippers at the entry of the bathroom.  

The owners were an older couple who were very polite and kind.  But, like most Japanese people we encountered (even in the high tourist areas), their English was very, very limited.  Their son was there some of the times we came and went; his English was a bit better, but we still communicated quite a bit by pantomime.  When we were having a particularly hard time understanding one another, Dave tried an alternate approach.  He tried to speak Mandarin to the son.  It resulted in one of the most hilarious conversations I’ve ever witnessed, going something like this:

Dave:  Ni shuo Puthonghua ma?  (Do you speak Mandarin?)

Son: What?!  Do I speak Chinese?
Dave nodded
Son: Why would I speak Chinese?  I’m Japanese.
Dave: Yes, I know you’re Japanese, but I thought you might speak Chinese.
Son:  Are you joking?  Oh, I get it, you are kidding.
Dave: No, I wasn’t kidding, I just thought you might speak Chinese.
Son:  You’re not kidding?
Dave: No.  That’s okay never mind.

As you might imagine this exchange was followed by some uncomfortable laughter…and then we got the heck out of there as fast as we could, absolutely mortified that he probably thought that WE thought something like “If they look Asian, they must speak Chinese" (or worse).  Chalk one up for one more tick in the “barbaric American” stereotype column.  Still, I commend Dave for giving his Mandarin a shot...and it provided a great memory!  :) 

Anyway…though the slipper thing, sleeping on a futon, and not having furniture felt a bit odd at first, within about 24 hours I was ready to come back to HK and sell everything except for some floor mats and pillows.  Everything felt so clean and refreshing - just like the rest of Kyoto!