After spending our first two nights in a hotel in Kobe, we checked out and took the train towards Kyoto. We planned to stay in a hotel in Kyoto for one night, allowing us to enjoy the city for two days.
Unfortunately, problems started for us on the morning of the first day. My son complained of a stomachache, and I spent ages sitting on the platform at Juso Station while my wife took him to the toilet.
Eventually we made it to Kyoto, with my son still not feeling well. My wife instantly got lost, because of a mistake she had made when setting up her Google Maps app on her phone. She had accidentally turned off the compass function. So instead of an arrow always showing north, the direction we were walking in was unclear.
“I don’t understand how we can be lost,” I said. “The streets of Kyoto are set out in a grid pattern.”
“I think the hotel is this way. I’ve got it now!” said my wife.
For a while we were too far north of our hotel, then too far south. All the while my son was grumbling about not feeling well. We decided to take a taxi to the hotel instead.
After resting in the hotel for a while, we tried to adjust our plans to take account of the fact that my son was not feeling well. We went out to a coffee shop for lunch and I sat by myself with a sandwich and coffee while my wife took our son to the toilet again.
My son eventually emerged, feeling a little better. So we decided to take a taxi to one end of the Philosopher’s Path, a pretty and not too challenging path that runs alongside a river. Then we would walk to Ginkakuji.
The walk started pleasantly enough. The sun was shining and the path was very quiet. Then my son started feeling unwell again. He was getting a fever and said that he couldn’t walk any further.
We wanted to take a taxi back to the hotel to let my son rest, but unfortunately there were no taxis nearby. We decided we could probably find one if we got near Ginkakuji, but that was still about a ten minute walk away. But my son couldn’t walk at all.
So I gave my bag and white cane to my wife, and carried my son upon my back. Because I couldn’t check the ground with my cane, and the ground was covered in cobbles, I was worried that I would trip up and hurt myself or my son. So with my wife’s hand on my shoulder to guide me, I took giant steps forwards, lifting my feet high up and down with each step to avoid tripping.
It was slow and painful progress. It must have looked ridiculous to any people who passed us. Because my wife was holding my cane, it looked as if I were being guided forwards by a blind woman. My son kept sliding down my back or strangling me by wrapping his hands directly around my throat. I was leaning forwards and taking comically huge steps, as if I were stepping over invisible cats that only I could see.
Thankfully, we passed a little tea house on the Philosopher’s Path, and we could stop for a rest. Again I sat alone while my wife took my son to the toilet. We stayed in the tea house for an hour until my son felt a little better.
We did make it to Ginkakuji for a quick tour, and then took a taxi back to the hotel. It was just as well that we went back because next my wife became feverish. I drank a bottle of red wine on my own while my wife and son lay in their beds and shivered. So much for our grand plans to see other places in Kyoto.
The next day we took the shinkansen back to Tokyo early. By now I was getting a high fever and was in the worst condition of the three of us. I shivered and staggered off the shinkansen and onto the Yamanote Line.
So Kyoto was a bit of a disaster. My son and I tested positive for influenza
when we went to the doctor’s back in Tokyo.
My wife was very annoyed because, although she had the same symptoms,
she tested negative and didn’t get any Tamiflu.
But Kyoto was not the main place I had wanted to go to anyway. We went to the tastiest restaurant in Japan
(my friend Takumi’s izakaya in Himejima in Osaka), we went to the room of
smells (Nunobiki Herb Garden), the place of one million steps (Himeji Castle),
and the room of sound (Jam Jam jazz bar). For a blind person who can’t enjoy
“sightseeing,” all my other senses got a good workout.
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