Before leaving Sydney, we booked our Kyoto tour where we purchased our JR pass (Pitt Travel Sydney). There is a choice of a full day or a half day (morning or afternoon tours) at $68 per person . With two teenagers, Ariel and I decided to go with the afternoon tour to avoid rushing from place to place.
Since we had a JR pass, we opted to join the tour at Kyoto.
We arrived at Kyoto at 10am. We had about 3.5 hours to kill before joining the tour so we opted to roam around the massive Kyoto Station.
First stop was the Kyoto Central Post Office. As a random thought, I wanted to send a few postcards to some special folk around the world. I haven’t done this in previous travels. I bet them special folk will be surprised, pleasantly I hope.
Ramen oh-my-goodness
Then we roamed the massive Isetan Department Store. And stumbled upon a fast food at the 10th level of pure ramen heaven. It’s a ramen-only kind of fast food. And they were cheap too.
We joined the tour bus in New Miyako Hotel. Note to self. Stay in this centrally located hotel for our next visit.
Meet Yoshi.
Our elderly tour guide talked like an encyclopedia of countries. He apparently has 3 foster children in the Philippines. Knew that Mactan Island is in Cebu and showed off his University of the Philippines baseball cap.
He has a story for each county.
Japanese life according to Yoshi…
Wet Leaves. The term used to refer to retired Japanese men. You see, all their working lives, men are married to their work and to the companies they work for. Working hard day and night including partying with work colleagues (read: karaoke bars). They go home to sleep. In effect, they live “divorced” lives from their wives. So when they retire, without any hobby to occupy their time, the Japanese ex-professional finds himself “sticking” to his wife because he has nothing else to do. He goes with her everywhere. Hence, they have become “wet leaves”. Hard to sweep off. The wife finds this suffocating.
Narita Airport Divorce. According to Yoshi, there is a high incidence of airport divorces in Japan. When the husband and wife farewells a newly wed daughter to her honeymoon at the airport, after ensuring that the daughter is safely sent off, the wife faces the husband and exclaims like so.
“I am divorcing you. I want to spend the rest of my life without you!”
The long suffering Japanese wife decides to leave a loveless marriage as soon as the last child leaves home.
Oh I didn’t even talk about the Kyoto tour. My dominant thought that day was Ramen and Yoshi, you see. But I will try to go back to the tour in Part 2.
Another look at ramen…
myGloryBox Japanese Takes 