More Confessions of a Solo Tourist

I started my last blog by claiming not to be very skilled at traveling by myself. I stated I couldn’t find the balance between planning and spontaneity. Then I gave no evidence to back my claim. Bad form.

Well, here it is. I had found a few English tours of Kyoto and nearby Nara online and planned to sign up for them; at least for the bus tour of Nara, which was the Japanese Imperial capital before Kyoto during the 8th century and is home to many temples and shrines, including a very famous, huge bronze Buddha statue. I checked the tours several times in the weeks preceding my trip, but held off making the final reservations hoping that maybe I would meet some of my fellow travelers at the hostel that would be interested. Also to make the reservation, I had to sign up for pick-up at one of the specified hotels in Kyoto and I thought to wait until I got there and could find the nearest pick-up spot. There didn’t seem to be any urgency, though. It looked like I could sign up for a tour the day prior and there wouldn’t be any problems. I was wrong.

My first night in Kyoto, I got on the internet to sign up for the Nara tour only to discover that all of the tours had been booked for the next week or so, as well as all of the tours of Kyoto. Then, I found out that to tour any of the Imperial grounds: the castles, the gardens, and two villas at the edge of town, which I heard are quite something: I needed to make reservations for that too. So, I went online to sign up for that only to find out they were booked until the middle next week.

I confess, my first thought was, ‘I’m going home.’ It’s a childish response, I grant you. But, I’m admitting to it, so that’s adult, right? I didn’t go home, of course, but that was my first instinct. Instead, I decided to see what I could while I was there and plan to go back sometime before I leave Japan and do all of those things.

Anyway, the next morning, I hopped out of bed at 7 o’clock bright-eyed and ready to explore. I kid. I woke up about 9 o’clock, slathered sunblock all over my arms and face (missing my ears as I discovered later in the day), gathered my bus map and headed out with a very vague plan to see the city.

Now, I used to absolutely hate looking like a tourist, and fumbling around with a street map has always seemed to be one of the biggest flashing signs that say TOURIST. If I had no other choice, I would try to very inconspicuously look at the map before hiding it away. To be honest, I still despise looking like a tourist, but I quickly came to acknowledge the impossibility of looking like anything but an outsider in Japan, so I eventually gave in and had my bus map out almost constantly. Almost all of Kyoto is easily accessible by bus and the map I had was actually very easy to use. The bus system is so extensive, however, it can take some time to navigate, especially in the beginning. After about 10 minutes of wandering, I found the bus stop only about half a block from the hostel.

I grabbed the first bus and off I went.

- Jenny