Week Two in Japan

Sunday, March 23rd

We took the JR line from Kanazawa to Kinosaki-onsen on early Sunday morning.  Kinosaki-onsen is a small town, population 4,000, and there are several hot spring baths throughout the town.  Brittany and I reserved a night at a ryokan, which gets you access in all the hot springs as well as a nice dinner and breakfast in your private reserved room.

The pretty waterway in Kinosaki-onsen

The cuisine in Kinosaki-onsen is known for it's snow crab.  Mmmmm.

Cotton kimono ready to roll to the hot springs.  We walked around town to the various hot springs in this and wooden sandals.  I wish we could show you what the hot springs looked like, but, well, everyone has to be completely naked in the baths and that simply would not go over well.

Dinner came in waves.  There was snow crab, savory egg custard, snail, sashimi, miso soup, shabu shabu (where you cook meat and veggies and tofu in boiling water) white rice and tea and possibly more things that I just can't remember.

Monday, March 24th

On Monday morning, we woke up, soaked in some more hot springs, had breakfast, then boarded the train headed to Kyoto.

Breakfast.  There was tamago (something like sweet scrambled eggs) seaweed, miso soup, ham salad, shabu shabu with tofu, white rice, and tea, and more things I don't know how to name.

Here is a rock with the spring water running up through it.  The rock was steaming hot, as you can see in the picture, and the compounds in the spring water were turning the rock amazing shades of red, yellow, and green.

Here is what our room in Kyoto looked like - an 8-bed female dorm, which each bed being its own room with walls on all sides except the end.  Each bed had its own locker which was big enough to fit our luggage.  It was nice to have our things under lock and key during the day.

My room/bed.  So cute!  And equipped with a teeny shelf, a plug in, a light, and a hook and hanger.

Our first meal in Kyoto.  It's called tonkatsu, and it is fried pork tenderloin served with shredded cabbage salad, rice, miso and tea.  I also got a crab and cream croquette, which was delicious.

After dinner, we headed out to do a little sight-seeing near our hostel.  Look at this massive orchid!

Kodai-ji Temple lit up at night

Another cool Kit-Kat flavor unique to Japan.  This one was some sort of tea-flavored.

A buddhist statue in Kyoto.  There were many statues like this one around the city that you were supposed to rub for good luck.

Tuesday, March 25

We spent the first half of this day figuring out the bus system in Kyoto, then the second half on a mission to see as many temples as possible.  We were quite successful.

The rock garden at Ryoan-ji

Kinkaku-ji, also known as the Golden Pavilion

A roof peak at Daitoku-ji

Beautiful orange structures at Shimogamo Shrine

Amazing white sand art at Ginkaku-ji, also known as the Silver Pavilion

Awesome pom-pom tree.  This one's for the peeps at KGF.

Beautiful view at Nanzen-ji

Wednesday, March 26th

This day was the second and final rainy day of our trip.  Sight-seeing is sure a lot more fun without the rain, and we were grateful to only have two rainy days our whole trip!

The beautiful bamboo grove at Arashiyama.

After the grove, we headed back to Kyoto Station for lunch, and we stopped to marvel at the architecture.  The station is much more than a station - it is a hub for the subway, bus system, train system, and is also a department store, filled with restaurant, food, clothing, and housewares.

For lunch, we decided to try a Japanese hamburger.  It was tasty and a little bit saucy and tasted like the bun was rice-based.  Overall, I give it a B.  No burger comes close to the ones grilled up at the Wilmes household.

I couldn't help but take a picture of this mannequin at the department store.  This look is VERY Japanese.  Yes, it is for a man, and yes he is wearing a preppy suit that are shorts, and the look topped off with a man-bag.

This guy was hanging out at the pond near To-ji.  He was using his feet to catch tasty morsels as they went by.

Brittany trying to stay dry, with the five-storied pagoda behind her at To-ji

That night, we checked out the Nishiki Market, which was filled with all sorts of foreign and unnameable products such as this one.  What was in it and what it was covered with, we don't know.  A man laughed at me as I took the picture, because he could tell how puzzled I was.

These were tiny octopus with a hard-boiled quail egg inside the head.  They were being given out as free samples.  We passed on the offer.

That night, on a recommendation from the staff at our hostel, we tried teppanyaki, which is essentially a savory pancake, filled with meat and vegetables.  In the picture, Brittany is stirring up the sautéed veggies we decided to have as an appetizer.

After dinner, we headed to the arcade to try out some Japanese games.

Thursday, March 27th

We started this day by going to Nara, a nearby town that is famous for its temples and its "wild" deer.  Our main attraction was to visit the Todai-ji Temple, which is the largest wooden building in the world and inside it, the country's largest bronze statue.

On our way to Todai-ji in Nara Park, we found some cherry trees blossoming, and the natives were going nuts taking pictures of them.  It was awesome how excited everyone was for the flowers to be blooming.

The infamous deer, getting a treat from a man with crackers.

Todai-ji Temple.  Incredibly, it has been burnt down several times and reconstructed, and the current building is actually only 2/3 the size of what it was previously.  And it's still the largest wooden building in the world.

Buddha inside Todai-ji

This is the size of his hand.  Notice Brittany standing behind it.

In one of the wooden beams in Todai-ji, there is a hold cut through it the size of the Buddha's nostril.  If you can fit through this small space, they say you will reach enlightenment in your lifetime.  In this picture, I am partway through the hole and calling out for Brittany's help while she happily snaps pictures.  I did, with her assistance, make it through.

After Todai-ji, we hopped back on the train and stopped at Fushimi Inari Taisha, a shrine with thousands of orange gates leading up a small mountain, with tens of thousands of tsuka for private worship along the way.  We climbed to the top, a trek that had us breaking a sweat and busting out the bottles of water.  We were proud of ourselves until we realized there were ladies around us doing the same hike in high heels.

Beautiful orange gates at Fushimi Inari Taisha

All done with our hike, back at the entrance.

Geisha!  This was our only sighting of true, legitimate geisha, with their beautiful clothes and makeup and hair.

The sunset from Kiyomizu-dera

On our walk home that day, I spotted a Japanese maple.  Believe it or not, it was the only one I saw the whole trip.  Not exactly what I expected!

Friday, March 28th

Friday morning, we headed back to Tokyo via the shinkansen (bullet train).  Once we arrived in Tokyo, it was time to stock up on souvenirs and get ready for the day of travel up ahead.

The streamlined end of the shinkansen

We spotted Mount Fuji from the shinkansen!  We asked the food cart lady to be sure we had the right one.  It's by far the most beautiful and impressive peak we saw in Japan.

I had tonkatsu (fried pork tenderloin) for dinner.  It was served with shredded cabbage, rice, ramen noodles and tea.

We had teppanyaki for dinner again in Tokyo.  We agree that someone should DEFINITELY open up a teppanyaki restaurant in Portland.

Our table was the only table that had assistance in cooking our meal, but we didn't mind.  They cooked it and cut it up and covered it with delicious sauce and spices.  It was my favorite meal of the whole trip.

This is a map inside the teppanyaki restaurant that shows where all of his customers are from in the world.  Impressive.

Saturday, March 29th

Saturday was the day that we both hopped on a plane leaving Tokyo.  Mine bound for Bangkok, Brittany's bound for Portland, Oregon.

The view from our room at the Hilton Tokyo on the 33rd floor

Another picture of the view

In the airport, I spotted some more interesting Kit-Kat flavors.  This one is green tea cherry blossom.

This one is chili flavored

This one, rum raisin

And this one, strawberry cheesecake.

Our trip to Japan was everything we hoped it to be.  The food was fantastic, the sights amazing, and the culture fascinating and weird, yet familiar.  Little did I know what I had coming for me when I hopped on that plane bound for Thailand.  The culture and lifestyle here is as different from Japan as I can imagine, and they are both absolutely wonderful in their own ways.  I'm excited to put together a blog soon about my first experiences in Thailand.  Keep your eyes peeled...