Kay oh Ray: We went to Japan! (the first part)

Here lies the story of our trip to Japan. I’ll cut to the chase with one disclaimer: if I look like I’m melting and/or baking in any/all of the pictures, it’s because the temperature was between 35 and 37 degrees every day, with extremely high humidity. That’s my excuse, anyway.

And, with that, I give you.... JAPAN.

Getting there......

Tim and I boarded a short morning flight from Busan direct to Kansai International Airport. After landing in Japan, we efficiently procured Japanese Yen (a depressing transaction when trading with Korean won which is almost half the value) which we used for our first Japanese purchase of railway passes and tickets.

Japan Rail etc.

A note to make is that Japan has extremely extensive railway coverage. In addition to the national ‘Japan Rail’ company, there are also several private companies in each area with their own trains and routes. After hemming and hawing for weeks, I finally decided on a 3 day pass that covered our area in Japan (Kansai) using all railways except Japan Rail (JR). Five days of train travel later, I still haven’t decided if it was the right choice, so if you plan a trip to Japan, make sure you research the various passes available for train travel in each area.

Day one

We purchased a separate day pass for Japan Rail which allowed us to take the Haruku Express train directly to Kyoto, our home base for trip.

The train ride was relaxing, nearly empty, and a great way to get a taste for the Japanese country and city-scapes.

The train brought us to Kyoto Station, located in central Kyoto, and a really impressive building with rails for JR, Kyoto Subway, and other private lines. There was also a ‘skywalk’ which was a little disappointing after lugging a suitcase up 8 floors of escalator.

one of many escalators to the top of kyoto station.

the skywalk: a whole lot of walking, not much sky.

We took the subway from Kyoto station to our hotel which was conveniently located at the transfer station for the 2 Kyoto subway lines, and soon set out to find something decent to eat.

it's all greek to me. the subway ticket machine.

The rain was threatening, which matched the near 100% humidity and 35 degree weather which lasted for most of the trip. After finding a little udong (fat noodles) restaurant, we stepped outside to discover the downpour had begun, and waited a long while for it to subside.

rain, rain, go away.

That night we had our first experience with genuine Japanese sushi at a restaurant close by called ‘Ganko Sushi’. A quality over quantity kind of place, we enjoyed some melt-in-your-mouth tuna, as well as some saki.

Nara

On our first full day in Kansai, we decided to head to Nara, the ancient capital of Japan, and still a very popular tourist destination known for its temples and parks, and most importantly - deer.

We somehow found our way on to the Kintetsu Nara line from Kyoto station and arrived in Nara early in the afternoon. Following a walking tour guide we found in our trusty LonelyPlanet guidebook, we started out at the station and made our way to Isui-en garden - after being attacked by some feeding deer along the way.

Green, lush and peaceful, we even found a bit of an escape from the humidity while walking along the stones under the beautiful foliage and around the calm ponds.

We left the garden and walked through Nandai-mon, the gates to Todai-ji temple, home of the largest wooden building in the world. There are very few things that have ever made such an impression on me as both the wooden warrior sculptures in the gates, and the wooden temple itself. Like many things, pictures don’t translate the size and impressiveness of these statues which were carved in the 13th century.

With my eyes still bugging out of my head from the statues, we continued on to the temple to see this giant building made of wood. Wow. Just literally and massively breathtaking is what this place is.

Inside, and the whole reason for the building (1709), is 16m Buddha, made of a an incredible 437 tonnes of brass and 130kg of gold.

the story goes that this hole is the same size as the buddha's nostril. if you can manage to fit through it, it's 'good luck'.

We spent the rest of the afternoon sauntering sweatily through the woods of Nara-koen, visiting temples, complaining about the heat, and feeding deer. Probably one of, if not the most, magical moment of the trip was when we came across two fawns in the middle of a wooded shrine. We watched the babies run and play - ok, they were frolicking - through the woods before we heard the strange sound of a deer calling, and saw their mother on the other side of the path. As we stood maybe 2 metres away from the animals, they greeted each other with a kiss before they all settled down for a little feeding and nap. Oh my deer!

The golden pavilion - and biking!

Though it was a little tough to keep up with ourselves, we continued the sight-seeing on Saturday with a couple of bikes that we borrowed from the hotel’s free service. Kyoto is an extremely bike-friendly city with bike lanes on most sidewalks (whether they’re used is another matter) and lots of bike parking lots. The bikes all have interesting locks located on their front wheels that don’t require attaching the bike to anything as they keep the front wheel from turning.

With our bikes underneath, and hopes that the wind would stop some of the heat/sweating (it didn’t), we got to Kinkaku-ji aka ‘The Golden Pavilion’, with little trouble. The current temple building is not particularly old (rebuilt in 1950) but it does follow the original design and is certainly worthy of being called one of Japan’s top sights to see.

We climbed on our bikes again for the return trip to our hotel but not before buying some sushi for a picnic lunch in the Imperial Park.

We had just finished eating when the clouds erupted in an afternoon thunderstorm and, not having mastered the Kyotite art of bicycling and holding an umbrella, we took shelter for a few minutes before the next part of day.