Day 17: First Look at Japan's Kitchen

Osaka is the food capital of Japan, hence its nickname in the title of this blog. Although I knew we would be a bit tired from traveling from Takamatsu to Osaka today, there were two things I really wanted to do: See Osaka Castle, and eat okonomiyaki in Dotonbori, Osaka's famous restaurant district. And do those things we did!

Osaka Castle is a long walk (~15 min) from the nearest station and has been reconstructed several times. The inside is simply a modernized museum, so mom and I decided to just walk until we could get close enough to take pictures. The castle was breathtakingly beautiful... The roofs are light green, the walls white, and golden tigers & fish adorn the outside. I've always loved pictures of Osaka Castle, so even though we didn't go inside, I'm really glad we took the time to walk over and see it in person. It was definitely worth fighting the humidity and crowded trains.

Osaka is the third busiest city in Japan. I personally found it just as busy as Tokyo, at least tonight. Mom and I took a subway to Namba station where we walked a couple blocks to Dotonbori. Dotonbori is easy to describe: Lights, food, people. I wanted to eat okonomiyaki (likened to pancakes, but so much better) here because this is the birthplace of the dish. We finally found a cute restaurant, albeit a bit smokey, which had good prices and an English menu. We ordered two different types of okonomiyaki to try and discussed the griddle in the middle of the table. Turns out they make it in their kitchen and then set it on the table's griddle to keep it hot and fresh. It. Was. AMAZING. Oh my goodness. Cannot describe... The first one had the normal ingredients (cabbage, batter, sauce) plus egg and soft noodles; the second was similar but with pork on top that had been lightly scorched. Mmm... I couldn't decide which was my favorite. So glad we went, even though the crowds were intense. We even rode in a "women only" car on the local train to our hotel. Never seen so many women in my life, haha. :P

Today was great, albeit tiring, but tomorrow is going to be long as well. We're making a day trip to Hiroshima. I should have some great pics to show for it. ;)

Day 16: Ritsurin Garden & The Ogre Island

Takamatsu is famous for a very large Japanese strolling garden called Ritsurin Garden. This morning, my mom and I took a one-car local train (they call them "one man" trains) to Ritsurin Garden. There was a cool breeze at Takamatsu station, but when we stepped off the one man, the humidity really smacked into us. We paid entrance to the garden and received very pretty admission tickets. I saved them in a ziploc bag where I've been collecting cool papers and receipts to bring home. :) Anyway, there were quite a few people at the garden, but it is large enough that it didn't feel crowded. The garden has a few main features. One is the use of a large mountain behind it as "borrowed scenery," one of the important asthetics of Japanese gardens. The second is seasonal flowers. Right now, the flowers in bloom are Indian lilacs, which were a beautiful shade of hot pink; water lilies; and Indian lotus, which has light pink flowers instead of white and HUGE leaves! The many ponds in the garden had tons of koi and smaller fish, as well. Another feature is the garden's main teahouse. When we reached it, there was a performance of some koto music (Japanese harp) going on, but later the teahouse was full of people drinking green tea. We didn't stop to join them, instead continuing on our way. I really enjoyed the garden, although the one we went to in Tokyo was really good, too. They both had things which made them unique. Oh yeah, and this time we came prepared with umbrellas to use as parasols, which we've discovered is the cool thing to do. :P

Returning on the one man train, we stopped in Takamatsu station and had lunch at a fast food chain called Lotteria. We tried their shrimp burger and I peronally found it better than McDonald's. It had tartar sauce & cabbage inside- any of you fried fish people would have loved it!

At 3 we walked to the ferry port and boarded a ferry bound for Megijima, a small island a mere 15 minute ride away. Megijima is famously known in Japan as the ogre island from the folk legend, Momotaro (Peachboy). The island and the sea were so beautiful. We walked along the island's beach for a few minutes before reaching a shrine with a large crowd. Curious to know what was happening, we joined the throng. It was some kind of festival, we think... About fifteen people carried a portable shrine (see picture) over the heads of a bunch of people, then some guys who were bound to the top of a wooden thing were "dunked" to the ground over and over. It was very weird... But interesting, haha. After that we walked back toward the pier to catch the next ferry. Only problem was, there was a giant line!! I asked the security guy if it was for Takamatsu, and he laughed heartily as he said yes. -_- The next ferry came and filled with people, but we didn't make it, so we sat on the concrete pier and enjoyed the sea breeze... for about forty minutes. Oh well, it was an experience, and that's what this trip has been about. ^_^

Day 15: Takamatsu, City by the Sea

We left Matsuyama behind today to go to our shortest stay of the trip (2 days), a smallish town along the coast of Shikoku called Takamatsu. The trip between cities only took two and a half hours, which was really nice after the long journey to Matsuyama a few days ago. The scenery along the way was really beautiful, just like before. I'm really growing fond of having the sea so near! One thing I've noticed in Japan that I did not know before is that there are bamboo forests EVERYWHERE. I just assumed there wasn't much bamboo, since it is native to China, but how wrong I was. Now I can easily pick out bamboo's light-green, fluffy top amongst evergreens. :)

When we arrived in Takamatsu, we went straight to our hotel and were able to check in early (the fact we hardly spoke two words to the guy who checked us in was a bit amusing). The hotel room is very large because it has the capacity for three people. There are so many nice things in the room, like free green tea that I'm drinking right now, and a good working aircon. :P It was a little cooler today, I think because Takamatsu is right beside the sea. Anyway, this afternoon we walked across a large plaza to do some shopping, then picked up dinner at a konbini.

About six-thirty, we walked from our hotel about six minutes to the ferry port, which was bustling with people. Another ten minutes brought us to the Takamatsu Lighthouse, known for its red glass casing. It was quite pleasant on the way there because there was a cool breeze, but coming back it was pretty humid and there was no breeze to help.

Hard to believe we have been in Japan two weeks already. There are so many observations I want to write about, but I'll save that for a post after we get home. ^_^

Day 14: Adventures in Shikoku

This morning we had quite an adventure... The owner of the guesthouse, Matt, gave us a map of the area and told us about a "nice walk" to a temple. First we would come to a shrine with a few stairs leading up to it, then walk around a bamboo forest, then to a "kind of spooky" cave which leads to the temple. Boy does that man have a lot to answer for!! The walk to the shrine took at least 10-15 minutes. From a few blocks away we could see what appeared to be a giant stone wall... and was in reality 135 stone steps. -_- (Mom counted.) I said on no account was I going to climb them, but once she did it, I decided to just bite the bullet. The shrine at the top was pretty, but definitely not worth the total workout. Phew... Next, we wound up a hill to the gumdrop mountains and through the candy cane forest. Just kidding... haha. In reality we walked alongside the bamboo forest which looked SUPER dark inside before FINALLY reaching the entrance to the cave. It was so tiny we almost missed it. In we went... and apparently "kind of spooky" actually means "super dark and really Indiana-Jones-esque." It was just a long, straight tunnel, but it was so dark that we used the flashlight on our phones to see the ground. Man, I'm glad I did it, but that was pushing it a little. -_- We were proud of ourselves when we finally made it out and found ourselves inside the temple complex. From there, we walked all the way back to the guesthouse. I didn't want to be mean, so I didn't mention to Matt how much he underestimated everything... haha. :P

In the afternoon we took a local train to a nearby town called Hojo where we walked to a small ferry terminal. We were headed for Kashima, a small blob of island just off Shikoku known for its wild deer. In fact, it's so close that the ferry only takes one minute! The ferry was so cute I had to take a picture. There weren't very many people on the island. We grabbed a cold drink from a vending machine and began walking around the perimeter. Unfortunately, there were signs and barriers, so we didn't get to walk around the other side. Instead we walked back towards the ferry and past it to a beach where some families were swimming. We sat down and had a snack with the cool sea breeze blowing calmly. It was much cooler there than in Matsuyama- probably 85 instead of 92. :P Sitting there it felt like being at the ocean back home, except with palm trees and dragonflies. I was glad we made the trip out despite the difficulty of finding Western style bathrooms. :/

Well, today was full of adventures. Tomorrow we travel to Takamatsu for our last days on Shikoku. Then on to Osaka!

PS(We're still waiting for our roman to show up. See picture below.)

Day 13: The Mountaintop Castle, Matsuyama-jo

We were really tired yesterday so we were able to go to bed early and get up at a good time today. It took us a while to eat breakfast and get out for the day because the couple who owns this guesthouse is super friendly and talkative. :) The man, Matt, is originally from Texas and told us about his time teaching English in Korea and Japan. His wife, Noriko, is native Japanese but has really good English. They are really knowledgeable about Shikoku, so we'll probably ask them for more advice tomorrow before we move to our next city.

Once we did make it outside, we headed for Matsuyama Castle. Matsuyama has a streetcar system that is really cool. It's basically like a loop line with several branches, and the streetcar itself is like an old, one-car trolley. It costs 150 yen (~$1.50) to ride each time, but it really is super convenient for getting around the city. Anyway, we hopped on the streetcar towards the castle. After getting off at our stop, we walked a few minutes before arriving at our next destination. The castle is on top of Mt. Katsuyama, smack dab in the middle of the city, and there are three ways to reach it: 1) hike; 2) chair lift; and 3) cablecar. We chose the last option. It was a small tram that only took a minute to reach the top, but the view of the city was incredible! Once at the top, we still had to walk further to the castle. We passed through several gates with huge stone walls before making it to the open flat area where the main castle tower sits. In that area (before reaching the castle buildings) is a viewpoint with benches in the shade. When I say viewpoint, I mean it- the view of Matsuyama city, the surrounding mountains, and the Seto Inland Sea was indescribable. It was almost a 360 degree view... so amazing. After we explored the castle, we sat on a bench there and ate ice cream. Mom said it was magic moment number two for her, three for me. ^_^

The inside of the main tower was nicer than I expected. I liked this castle better than Matsumoto's because it only has 3 stories instead of 6, and it's more flat so it feels more "castle-like," I guess. :P The top floor had another amazing view of the city. We could even see one of the islands in the Seto Inland Sea that we might visit tomorrow. The castle also had lots of good information in English about the founding of the buildings, plus explanations of how it was built (~1600), destroyed (~1750), and reconstructed (~1850).

We decided to go shopping once we made it all the way back down to the city. There is a long (covered, thankfully, as the sun was very bright) shopping arcade opposite the streetcar stop, so we explored there for a while. We even ate lunch at a beef bowl restaurant, which took some attempts at broken Japanese to figure out, but we made it. :D

Later in the afternoon we went back to our hotel, stopping to shop at the covered shopping arcade nearby. Today happened to be the start of an annual summer festival, so there was music playing and food stalls set up. I stopped by one of the stores and bought a pair of Japanese style sandals to go with my yukata. They're beautiful, but not really made for the shape of my foot. -_- We also bought a regional speciality called "taruto," which is basically like a small sponge cake shaped like a Japanese letter (no) and filled with red bean paste. Mmm. :)

This evening we visited the arcade area again to see what was going on at the festival. The actual event was taking place outside of the famous Dogo Onsen, which I finally got pictures of! We listened to some taiko (Japanese drumming) and Hawaiian singing. All in all, though, it wasn't as magical as the one we went to in Matsumoto. ;P

Phew, okay, that made up for yesterday! Tomorrow morning we plan to talk a scenic walk around this area of Matsuyama to a temple through a bamboo forest and cave, then in the afternoon ferry over to one of the small islands nearby. Should be a nice last day in Matsuyama, even with the heat.

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. :)