Day 12: Scenic Shikoku

Today we spent five hours traveling from Kyoto to Matsuyama. Matsuyama is a city on Shikoku, the smallest of Japan's four main islands. Shikoku is a bit isolated and most of its cities lie along the coastline. On the south side is the Pacific ocean, while the Seto Inland Sea spans the north side. The train we took today took us on a winding route along N and NW Shikoku, some of the time right next to the Seto Inland Sea. It was so beautiful! Plus, unlike Kyoto, the clouds were moving away, so I was able to get some really great pictures.

By the time we made it to our hotel, we were so hot, sticky, and tired. The lady who owns the hotel (it's a Japanese style guesthouse, actually) greeted us with excellent English and some cold green tea. :) Originally we had planned to visit the famous Dogo Onsen tonight, but we're both so exhausted we may just go to bed soon. Traveling doesn't normally wear me out this much, so I'm pretty sure it's the heat. -_-

Well, tomorrow is a new day. We plan to visit Matsuyama Castle and do some shopping. Hopefully it will be a more interesting blog than today's. :P

Day 11: Golden & Silver Pavilions and Gion Corner

Today we visited two of Kyoto's World Heritage sites, Kinkaku-ji (Golden Pavilion) and Ginkaku-ji (Silver Pavilion). First, we bought a city bus day pass and hopped a bus to Kinkaku-ji. I had read reviews that it wasn't worth seeing, while others claimed it was a must see. I think I agree with the latter: The pavilion was so beautiful! The garden and pond beside the pavilion were stunning as well. The pavilion's 2nd and 3rd floors are actually covered in gold leaf, which looked amazing against the blue-grey sky. I had also heard that Kinkaku-ji can get super crowded, but today it was only somewhat busy. I was able to take pictures from the best spots without elbowing anyone. :P

On the grounds of Kinkaku-ji were many ice cream & shaved ice vendors. We stopped and enjoyed some dessert despite all the bugs trying to maul me. Japanese moquitoes are apparently invisible like ninjas... they desperately want to kill me. -_- Oh well, that's the price one pays to sightsee in the summer. :)

We moved on to Ginkaku-ji, the silver pavilion. It was called that because they intended to cover it with silver leaf, but somehow that never happened. So it's simply a lovely wooden building in splendid gardens. We were so hot and tired (I'm serious about wiping sweat every minute- it's humid!!) that we didn't explore the whole grounds, but what we did see was lovely.

About 5 pm we arrived back at the hotel with dinner from 7-11. I had pork cutlet curry rice which was just as good as restaurant food. My feet were sore from walking a ton, but we decided to brave the heat once more to go to Gion Corner. Gion Corner is a show geared towards foreigners which gives a taste of several Japanese arts. It consists of koto music, tea ceremony, flower arranging, kyogen (a type of comedy play), kyomai (Kyoto-style dance), gagaku (Imperial court music), and bunraku (puppetry). Every part of the show was excellent. My favorite part was the maiko dancing while mom enjoyed the koto music. The comedy play was really funny despite being all in Japanese! Also, the show took place in Gion, a historical district in Kyoto famous for its tea houses where geisha perform. Unfortunately, we didn't happen to spot any geisha as we walked along. 

Kyoto has been a really amazing experience, but now it's time to move on. Tomorrow we will spend quite a bit of time traveling as we go from Kyoto to Shikoku, the smallest of Japan's four main islands. That's all for now. ^_^

Day 10: A Tour of Kyoto

Today was so much fun and we did so much!! I will try not to write too much while still describing what we did and saw.

This was the day we had set up to go sightseeing with a Kyoto native, Maki (who we met in the US before), and her friend, Miho. They met us at our hotel at 11 and we headed out into the city. After walking about fifteen minutes, we arrived in Pontocho, a famous narrow street lined with many restaurants. Maki had reserved a room for us at one of them. It was a very cute traditional building with a sliding wooden door at the entrance. A nice older man led us upstairs to a giant tatami room! It was much too big for four people, but we didn't complain, haha. :) We all ended up ordering the same thing, the tempura set. The food was brought to us by the same gentleman on beautifully laid out trays. There were several dishes: Steamed rice, miso soup, pickled vegetables, tiny sardines for use as rice topping, eggplant with herring, egg roll, celery with tofu, and the main dish of course- shrimp & vegetable (sweet potato, burdock, eggplant) tempura. I ate almost everything on the tray and it was all delicious. I even ate the pickled pumpkin which I normally don't like. :)

After lunch we took a bus to Sanjusangendo temple. This one is famous for its long, narrow main building filled with one thousand approx. 4'-tall statues. These were quite impressive. The building itself was really amazing, with large wooden beams and pillars. It was nice to go inside out of the rain, too, because it was coming down quite hard in the morning. Unfortunately, pictures were not allowed inside.

I had been wanting to buy a yukata, or cotton kimono, since we got to Japan, but hadn't found any good, cheap ones. Maki and Miho took us to a place called the Kyoto Handicraft Center, where there were many beautiful yukata! I found a blue & pink one that I just had to buy. It was a good price, too. The saleslady helped me try it on. Mom said it was the perfect color for me. I also bought socks and the obi (belt) to go with it. ^_^

Next, we took a bus to Heian Shrine. This was the site of the ancient palace back in the Heian period (~700 AD maybe?). Now it is a large, open complex with several beautiful buildings painted orange and white. One can only imagine how splendid it must have been years ago!

We stopped briefly at a McDonald's to refuel before heading to Kiyomizu Temple, another very famous sight in Kyoto. We walked uphill on a narrow street with souvenir shops on both sides to reach the entrance of the temple. It got quite crowded towards the top, which added to the atmosphere. The temple is famous for its large balcony which appears to hang out into the forest. There was a splendid view of Kyoto from the balcony.

Making our way back down the mountain, we made one last stop at Yasaka Shrine. The orange and white buildings were so beautiful. My mom and I were joking that we should repaint our rooms with that color scheme. :)

We walked a lot, but it was definitely worth it! We so enjoyed being taken on a tour of Kyoto by Maki and Miho! So far, Kyoto is my favorite city in Japan. One more day before we have to say goodbye. :(

Day 9: Nijo Castle

Today we walked about half a mile from our hotel to Nijo Castle, a large palace from the era of the shogunate (1600s) located right in the middle of Kyoto. We bought our admission tickets and made our way across the outer moat and through the first gate. It was a beautiful (but hot) day. Following the crowd, we found ourselves face-to-face with the outer palace. The castle complex contains two palaces, but only the outer can be entered. No pictures are allowed inside, so I'll try to describe it. The whole thing is wood inside, excluding the magnificent & famous walls of the inner rooms and the tatami flooring. The walls were painted with various scenes such as tigers, pine trees, hawks, and peonies. The hallways have wooden floors that "sing" thanks to nails hidden underneath. With so many people in the palace at once, it sounded like birds were sitting in trees outside singing! The inner rooms were open for viewing from the hallways only. A couple were set up with "mannequins" dressed in Edo period clothing. One was a large reception room where the shogun would have met with feudal lords. The figures were so life-like it was a bit startling. :) After leaving the palace itself, we wandered through the rest of the grounds. There were several gardens, an inner moat, and more gates. It was nice to stroll along even though I had to wipe sweat from my neck and face every minute or so! Thankfully there was a cool breeze.

For lunch we headed to another chain restaurant where you buy a ticket from a machine and then hand it to a waiter. There was a friendly old Japanese man who tried to communicate with us a little, haha.

We had planned to head to the Golden Pavilion (Kinkaku-ji) in the afternoon, but it was so hot that we didn't have the energy. Instead we checked out a store similar to Big 5 near our hotel and picked up dinner at 7-11. I took a picture of some of the treats we've been discovering: Milk tea (kinda like chai), melon bread (filled with honeydew-flavor cream and AMAZING), and rice balls.

By the way, last night I was surprised I had made it through Fushimi Inari with no bug bites. Well, today I woke up with about 12. -_- They really love me, haha.

Day 8: Journey to Kyoto & Fushimi Inari Shrine

Get ready for a long post... I just realized I can type on my tablet in the hotel room and only go down to the lobby to publish the post. :D So here we go, haha.

We woke up early (not on purpose, lol) and packed up to check out of our hotel in Matsumoto. I had my usual breakfast of rice ball & coffee bought from the konbini the night before. As we were leaving the hotel and walking across the plaza to the station, we saw performers setting up Japanese taiko drums. They were getting ready for a festival tonight. Unfortunately, we had to keep to our schedule, so we didn't get to see it. We did hear them warming up, though!

Our journey to Kyoto first involved a limited express train. The train route wound us straight through the middle of central Japan to Nagoya. The scenery was so beautiful. There were hundreds of rice paddies, and I finally figured out that the lighter green leaves mixed in amongst the evergreens was bamboo!! It was everywhere... Tall, thin bamboo with large fluffs of green at the top. Very beautiful. The area the train traveled through is called the Kiso Valley and it follows the Kiso river. Thus, we saw this river many times as we rode.

At Nagoya we transferred to the bullet train bound for Kyoto. It really poured on the speed and got us there in only 38 minutes! From there we took a subway and then walked a couple blocks to our new hotel. This one is similar to our last in that it's a large, middle-class hotel with lots of amenities. They offer free bike rental which we might take them up on over the next few days. Anyway, we checked in and cooled off in our hotel for a while. We were tired from the heat, but decided not to waste the opportunity to see our first sight here in the ancient capital of Japan.

So we hopped a local train to see the famous Fushimi Inari shrine, best known for its thousands of red torii gates heading up the mountain. The entrance to the shrine is right across from the small Inari train station. We followed some other Americans to the shrine and I started snapping pictures. Shrines in Japan are Shinto, the native religion of the country, while temples are Buddhist. The shrine buildings were all painted a stunning red-orange and white. The clouds had moved on, too, so it made for an even more stunning picture! There were a lot of foreigners there... At one point I even said "sumimasen" (excuse me) to one of them. Slightly embarrassing, but I've gotten so used to saying sumimasen that I don't even notice who I'm saying it to. :P Anyway, we walked up some stairs past shrine buildings until reaching the entrance to the paths lined with torii gates. There were several paths with torii of different sizes. It was so amazing to walk along underneath them! It didn't feel like being in the forest, except for the deafening cicadas. XP I took some video walking up and down under the gates... definitely a magical moment.

Well, it was a good day. Tomorrow we will probably go to Nijo Castle and the Silver Pavilion, but our plans aren't quite set in stone yet. I have a lot I want to see in Kyoto so we'll see what happens. Thanks for taking the time to read this. :)

Day 7: Biking to Daio Wasabi Farm

Originally our plan today was to go up into the alps to a lily garden, but because we did less yesterday than planned, we decided to go to the Daio Wasabi Farm instead. It is the largest wasabi farm in Japan and was the filming location for one part of Akira Kurosawa's "Dreams." We took a limited express train to Hotaka station. It was already quite hot at 11 am, like around 90 degrees and sunny. As soon as we exited the small station, a man approached us and asked if we needed bicycles. He was just the man we were looking for, since we planned to rent bikes and ride to the farm. He spoke good English and showed us how to use the bikes. The lock and kickstand were quite ingenious... You have to see it to believe it. :P The bikes were very comfortable and easy to ride. We rode for 10-15 min to the farm through rural one-lane streets and rice paddies. At one point, we were riding with expansive paddies on both sides, alps before and behind us, and it was a truly magical moment!! Probably my second favorite memory so far.

The farm is free to enter. We parked our bikes and followed the other people into the complex. It felt a bit like a park or garden. We strolled alongside the riverbed where the wasabi is planted directly between rocks. Black tarps are used to block the intense sun from the plants. We were excited to take pictures with the waterwheels as they were in the movie I mentioned above. The water was so clear and fast, we wanted to go swimming in it! Unfortunately, that's not allowed. :) We walked through a couple gift shops selling wasabi everything before sitting down to eat a light lunch. We had a regional speciality called oyaki, steamed buns filled with various items, and I tried the wasabi soft serve, which was surprisingly good. After that we rode our bikes back to the station and caught a local train back to Matsumoto with about 200 high schoolers in uniform. :P

Tomorrow we leave Matsumoto for Kyoto. It's a bit sad to leave the alps area so soon, but I am so excited to see the ancient capital of Japan! Everything so far has been amazing, though. ^_^

Day 6: Matsumoto Castle

Today we woke to fluffy grey clouds giving way to beautiful blue skies. Matsumoto station has a temperature gauge on it, and this morning it was around 24 C (~75 F). Later in the day it got to 34 C or about 93 degrees F!! It was (is) very humid so we had to drink a LOT of water. Thankfully the water here is very clean and cool, and vending machines selling water bottles are everywhere.

We headed to Matsumoto Castle in the morning. The grounds were lovely, and the first glimpse of the castle was very exciting. Matsumoto Castle is one of very few original Japanese castles. It was built in the 1500s and restored in the mid 1800s due to lack of maintenance and a dangerous tilt. Now the castle is held in place by concrete hidden under the stone base. Just before the castle was a tent offering free English tours. We approached it and a super nice Japanese lady offered to take us on the tour. Her English was quite good and she was very informative. She even helped us take some pictures with a samurai. ;) At the entrance of the actual castle, we took off our shoes and carried them with us in plastic bags. The interior of the castle is mostly wood, so it felt good on my socked feet! It was dark inside so pictures were not easy to take. We wound through the castle, climbing up steep stairs almost like ladders, until we reached the top (sixth) floor. The view of Matsumoto and the alps was really spectacular. On the way down, we got to go inside the "moon-viewing room," an expansion of the castle made for partying. :P The whole walk up and down the castle was tough, but it was so worth it. No wonder Matsumoto Castle is considered a national treasure!

The rest of the day was pretty chill. We ate lunch at McDonald's and tried their "ebi filet-o" or shrimp burger. We both agreed it was really good!

Tomorrow morning we are venturing to the Daio Wasabi Farm. Thanks for reading!

Day 5: Relocating to Matsumoto

Today we left our cute traditional room in Tokyo and caught our first bullet train. It was so smooth and quiet (most of the time) and the seats were incredibly comfy! I don't know how fast ours got because it was a short ride- about an hour and fifteen minutes- but it did get going pretty good for a while. The scenery from Tokyo to Nagano changed from all city as far as the eye could see to fields of rice interspersed with neighborhoods. At Nagano station, I snuck a picture in with our train before we transferred to the Shinano "Wide View" limited express train for Matsumoto. This felt sorta similar to an Amtrak train with larger windows. It was raining then even though the forecast said only 20% chance of rain, and it continued even after we reached Matsumoto!

Our hotel had our room ready early so we checked in right when we arrived, wet luggage and all. The hotel is right across from the train station and close to many restaurants and convenience stores. I was surprised and impressed with the room size and how many amenities have been squeezed into it. :P We have our own bathroom, view of the alps, fridge, and large tv, although it only has Japanese channels. :)

We ate lunch at Mos Burger, a burger chain maybe comparable to Burgerville. Mom had an American style burger while I got the "Mos Rice Burger", where the bun is made of rice and the filling is a bunch of fried veggies and shrimp. It was delicious! Afterwards we did some shopping at a local department store and were helped by an adorable Japanese lady who understood a little bit of English. ^_^

I think my favorite part of the day, though, was experiencing a traditional Japanese festival! At 7:30 this evening we walked about half a mile to a shrine where there were lanterns lining the streets and around 30 food & game vendors set up. Mom said it had the feel of a fair in America. There were so many types of festival food- octopus dumplings, okonomiyaki, shaved ice, crepes, etc. We shared a small okonomiyaki-like pancake with egg cooked inside and Japanese fried chicken. Both were amazing. So glad we braved the crowd! They even had people doing traditional Japanese dancing & playing court music. The atmosphere was unforgettable. :)

Tomorrow we will go see Matsumoto's most well-known sight, Matsumoto Castle. Good night!

Day 4: Kamakura & Yokohama

Today we decided to do a day-trip south of Tokyo as the forecast called for rain and thunder storms. We made our way by train to Kamakura first. Here in Japan the high temperature of the day occurs between 11 am-1 pm, so by the time we arrived at Kamakura station, the air outside was like a sauna (one thermometer read 100 degrees where there was no breeze). We're both getting used to the heat, though! Sweating constantly is not so bad as it was our first couple days. Having handkerchiefs to wipe sweat and hand fans makes a HUGE difference, too. I see a lot of people using both. Anyway, we took a cute little electric train from Kamakura station to Hase station, and from there it was a 5-10 min walk to the Great Buddha. Along the way were many shops and restaurants, plenty geared towards foreigners. I probably saw more foreigners along that road than total so far in Japan! We paid 200 yen (about $2) to enter the small temple complex where the buddha lies. The bronze statue was originally cast in ~1250 AD and was enclosed by a temple. However, years later a tidal wave destroyed the temple, so now the buddha is open to the elements. It was quite large, though only the 2nd largest in Japan, and interesting to look at. Being a Tuesday, it wasn't very crowded, even though this is a major tourist spot. It was nice to stroll around the grounds. We sat down with drinks among the green foliage for a few minutes and enjoyed the peace despite a choir of cicadas serenading us. (They are everywhere here.)

After visiting the Great Buddha, we took the cute train back to Kamakura station and then hopped a local line for Yokohama. It was a very busy place there and we followed the sea of people to the shopping district that was our destination. The Landmark Plaza, where we ended up shopping and eating a late lunch, is a large mall connected to the Landmark Tower, the 3rd tallest structure & the tallest building in Japan. We found a nice Japanese restaurant to eat at and relatively successfully ordered in Japanese. :)

Two last comments and then I'll call it quits for tonight.
1) It may just be me, but at least 10 times a day, no matter where I am, I feel like I am swaying. Japan does have daily earthquakes, so maybe I'm feeling little tiny quakes or something? :P
2) On our way back from Yokohama, we experienced our first storm. We just made it onto a train and it began to POUR. BUCKETS. Not only that, but there was really strong lightning and thunder. The train actually sat at the station for about 5-10 min so the storm could pass!

(Monday) Day 3: Akihabara

Right now it is Tuesday morning. We were so tired last night we went to bed right after dinnertime, so this is the post I would have written last night for that day.

In the morning, we packed up and moved out of our first hotel. It was, again, an adventure to get from one side of Tokyo to the other with three suitcases, but we made it. We dropped off our luggage at our next place and left to find some lunch. Our new neighborhood is called Ikebukuro, a very nice business district with tons of restaurants and convenience stores. We found a small restaurant with plastic food models in the window that looked tasty. Inside, there was a machine where you order and pay for your food on a touch screen. I could read the names of the meals, but it was nice that everything had pictures, too. I ordered katsudon (pork cutlets with egg & onion on rice) and mom got a set that included rice, salad, hamburger patties, potatoes, green beans, and miso soup. The waitresses were super nice and helped us get a table. One asked me if I wanted a spoon and I said, "Kekkou desu", which basically means no thanks. She looked surprised and happy that I could speak some Japanese. I guess I don't look like I should be able to?  :P

After lunch, we hopped back on a train to the famous electronic district of Akihabara. Everywhere you look there are anime pictures, electronics stores, and capsule machines where  you can put in coins and get figures or other trinkets of your favorite anime or video game characters. We went inside a store called Animate (guess what they sold) that was around 6-8 floors high. They had so much manga and anime stuff it was kinda amazing. After that madness, we went in another store called Don Quixote, which sells literally everything. We got some passionfruit-flavored Kit Kats but they are almost gone now... Yum.

When we got back to our new place, it was time to check in. This place is called Kimi Ryokan and is a traditional Japanese style inn. The rooms are tatami mat and we slept on futon that I found really comfortable. They provide a lot of nice amenties here too, like free hot water and green tea, plus a microwave and kitchen. They even gave us yukata (cotton kimono) to wear, although I haven't tried mine on yet.

Okay, that was basically our day yesterday. We slept a lot so we're ready to have a good day. We're planning to see Kamakura and Yokohama today. See you later!

Day 2: Hama Rikyu Garden and Shinjuku

This morning we slept in for quite a while, which wasn't surprising I guess, because of that thing called jetlag. :P Anyway, we decided to change our plans a bit since it was later than anticipated and took a train to Shiodome, a business district of Tokyo. After walking for a while, we reached the Hama Rikyu Garden, a traditonal Japanese garden built back in the era of the shogun (~seventeenth century). There was a free English audio guide offered at the entrance by an enthusiastic man, so we picked that up. It took us on a 90-min walking course of the whole garden. Even though it was hotter today than yesterday, the garden was so beautiful that we didn't mind sweating too much. It wasn't crowded, either. From the garden, we could see the skyscrapers of Shiodome all around us, as well as Tokyo Tower and the Rainbow Bridge. Some friendly fishermen waved to us from their boat. :)

After the garden, we were both wiped, so we found a McDonald's to grab some dinner. I had a "chicken crisp" which is basically a mcchicken. It was really fresh and the chicken was way better than any MDonald's in the US! Mom had fun pointing to the picture menu to order. ^_^

Before dinner, we took a local train to Shinjuku, another business district. A ton of walking in an underground passageway (the McDonald's was down there) led us straight to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building (TMG). The TMG has a free observatory on the 45th floor. It offered a really great view of Tokyo; unfortunately, Mt. Fuji was shy today, so we were unable to see it.

Oh yeah, after returning to our hotel, we walked to the Sensoji temple again so we could see it illuminated at night. See below.

Phew! Feels like we did a lot today. Just one more comment: People in service, like cashiers, are SUPER FRIENDLY, but people walking along the street just bump into you without caring. So weird! That's Japan, though. :P

Day 1: Sensoji Temple & Edo-Tokyo Museum

Today we woke up bright and early for our first day in Tokyo. The weather was pretty nice- 79 degrees, partly cloudy, and humid. We had our first convenience store experience, which was really cool. In fact, I was so tired that we ended up getting all three meals at the "konbini" as they're called here. The rice balls are AMAZING. :)

Anyway, after breakfast we headed over to Sensoji temple, one of the oldest and most famous sights in Tokyo. The number of people there was daunting but that's basically how it is nearly everywhere here. We're trying to get used to staying to the left- up stairs, down stairs, on sidewalks, getting on trains... Basically very different. Back to the temple though, the gates leading up to it and the temple itself were really beautiful. We didn't go inside but I got a lot of pics leading to it. The entrance street is lined with tourist shops with all kinds of things- mainly keychains & phone charms. On the way out, we grabbed some softserve- green tea and red bean- before going up to the 8th floor of a tourist info center, where there was a really good view of Tokyo.

After the temple and lunch, we took 1 subway and 2 trains to the Edo-Tokyo Museum, which was basically all about Tokyo's history. There was a replica of a kabuki theater and the first ever telephone booth in Japan. It also had info about the great Kanto earthquake of 1923. Speakng of which, at 3 this afternoon we were in our hotel and experienced our first earthquake here! It was small though, thankfully. Actually, mom felt one at 1 am but I slept through it.

It was a good day. Unfortunately, we are both jet-lagged and exhausted. And wary of the cockroach who scurried out of our room under the wall. -_- Ok, well, I'll see you  tomorrow!