We went to Japan! (the second part)

After the rain


We took a little shelter at the hotel before setting out again on the second trip of the day. Anyone who knows me really well will be surprised at this, because I don't tend to like starting new activities after 2pm.... I'm a morning person!  However, our time was limited, and our activity list was lengthy, so we decided to go to Arashiyama, a small town outside of Kyoto known for its monkeys and bamboo grove.  

Monkey Mountain
A few transit flubs later, we disembarked in Arashiyama, a beautiful setting along the Oi river at the foot of rolling hills and a mountain with monkeys near its peak.  The Iwatayama Monkey park was a short walk away, and a bit of a trek up the mountain, but well worth the effort.  Just before we hit the clearing where the monkeys congregate, we heard a large noise in the brush, and looked up to see a pair of 30 lbs primates barrelling down the hill 15 feet away from us. 

Signs warned not to show the monkeys food, touch them, or 'look them in the eye'.  I'd by lying if I said I wasn't worried about getting my eyes gauged out by a wild monkey paw.... 

In the 'monkey area' were dozens of snow monkeys of all ages, ooo ooo oooing, as we all know monkeys do.  It was possible to feed them ( peanuts or apples) but only from inside a caged structure where they reached through the chain link to grab the food. 

I found the older guys pretty revolting, but the couple of babies that we saw were enough like Curious George to appease me.  The view was also nothing to scoff at.....

We made it back down the mountain, eyes intact, to see the bamboo grove, something that had been raved about by many other travellers, but that we both found quite underwhelming. Maybe we made a wrong turn? Or maybe we're just j j j jaded....

Biwa-ko
Sunday, our second last day of the trip, turned out to be my favorite of all.  Surprisingly (or not), this wasn't because we saw anything spectacular or experienced anything supremely cultural.  In fact, I'm sure that where we spent our day is on very few tourists' to-do lists, and I actually had trouble finding much information about it. However, I wanted a beach day, and a beach day I got. 

As Kyoto is not on any form of coastline, beaches were not easy to come by in the area.  Luckily, Japan's biggest (and oldest) lake, Lake Biwa, was an easy 40 minute train ride away.  We packed up our suits, bought a tarp from a beach vendor, and set up shop on the shores of warm, clear waters, atop a white, pebbly coast. 

Swimming and napping in the sun can be pretty stressful, especially when there are so many beautiful mountains in your view, but, somehow, we survived. 

Tim stole the camera away for a few gorgeous shots:

a baby turtle!

I also took my favorite picture from the whole vacation, just before we left for the day. 

after watching these japanese boys horse around for an hour, they finally got tired and sat in the water just like any other boys.

Sushi belt

That night we undertook the very Japanesely efficient task of eating at a conveyor belt sushi restaurant in downtown Kyoto.  The place was packed, mostly with locals, and had a great vibe, though it was a bit stressful to feel like you were eating from an assembly line. I had eaten about 10 pieces of sushi before I realised it wasn't a race.

The system was pretty simple, but interesting:  grab a dish from the belt that looks good and leave the empty plate in front of you.  When you are finished, the staff tally up your bill by counting your plates.  If you have an extra drink, staff give you a special plate that represents the price of the drink.  

Following the sushi (3 activities in ONE day? Who AM I??), we took a stroll to the other side of the Kamo river straight into the setting of Memoirs of a Geisha:  Gion.  Gion is a very popular tourist destination as it is home to one of the most well-known geisha districts in Japan.  We didn't spend much time in the area, but enough to get a very romantic and mysterious vibe that I'm sure many people feel when walking through the streets, hoping for a glimpse of the elusive, white-faced geisha. We didn't spot any, but I'm sure we just weren't looking hard enough

Minamiza theater

For our final full day in the land of the Rising Sun, I had fully planned to go to Hiroshima. This had been at the top of my list since planning the trip, months ago. Unfortunately, when I looked further into the journey from Kyoto, and finally figured out the prices, the tally ended up being about 270$ and 5-6 hours of travel.  With that, we opted to go to a closer and cheaper destination: Osaka. 


Osaka
The day showed no mercy with more 36 degree weather, bright sun, and super high humidity.  Once in Osaka, a city of about 3.7 million (a figure which drops to 2.6 million at night, due to Osaka's status as an economic center of Japan), we hopped aboard a 120m high ferris wheel, just to check out the lay of the land. 

Osaka's aquarium is world renowned for having one of the largest tanks in the world, housing a whale shark, among other petrifying looking creatures.  Among them, spider crabs......

For our last stop in Osaka, we paid a visit to Osaka castle (a substitute for Himeji castle, Japan's best, which was under construction at the time).  The castle was beautiful, but slightly marred by a large elevator shaft built onto the side.  

In one of the most hilarious moments of the trip, I read about a time capsule that had been buried in commemoration of Expo '70, which the creators hoped would be recovered by people living in...... 6,1970.  That's right, in FIVE THOUSAND YEARS.  

Back to Gion, back to reality
After one more night in Kyoto, we woke on our last morning to pack and prepare for the journey back north.  I made a quick sight-seeing run back to Gion, as I'm in the middle of reading 'Memoirs of Geisha' and wanted some visual aids.  

I set off in search of 'Shinbashi', famed as 'perhaps the most beautiful street in all of Asia'. After finally finding it, I managed to stumble upon a movie set, and was quickly ushered through, obviously before I managed to snap any photos. Oh well!

far off view of the film shooting

I left Kyoto, unwillingly, with possibly even more on my Japanese to-do list than when I arrived.... guess we'll have to go back!

paws, fighting to stay.

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.  

and then came the rains.

To be continued..... very soon:)

kyotites on their way to work.

stairway to zen.

view over nara.

waiting their turn, like good deer.