Konnichiwa - Japan Part VII (Tokyo Part II & Hakone)

Well friends, we've arrived at my last blog post on Japan. I know that 7 individual blogs about a single country might seem excessive, but I just had so much to say about this amazing country. This final installment features the last 2 days of our trip that we took in April 2012. Earlier in the trip we visited Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, and Hiroshima. During the last 2 days, we traveled back to Tokyo and then spent a day about an hour south of Tokyo in the town of Hakone. 

Home seemed light years away yet with fewer and fewer vacation days to think about, we started to remember reality. We awoke in Hiroshima morning, ate our breakfast of cinnamon croissants and made it to the Shinkansen for our 6:30AM train back to Tokyo. This 5 hour train ride went surprisingly fast (literally. The train was going about 200mph). We used the down time to catch up on some sleep, I read over my lines for the play I was in back home, and we enjoyed the scenery outside the window. About an hour outside of Tokyo, we were able to see Mount Fuji off in the distance. We arrived at Tokyo Station around 11:45AM and dropped our bags once again at the Hotel Metropolitan Marunouchi (where we stayed before), and headed out into the city. 

Having eaten sandwiches and other Japanese mini mart snacks on the train, we headed straight for Ueno Park. If you remember from the our earlier days in Tokyo (read about them here), Ueno Park was empty and the trees were barren. Here's a picture in case you forgot. 

Ueno Park on Day 1

Having seen cherry blossoms all over Hiroshima and Miyajima, we were excited to see if the trees in Ueno park has bloomed too. This time the cherry blossoms were in full bloom and the park was mobbed with people. But what a sight to see!

Cherry Blossoms in Ueno Park, Tokyo

Cherry Blossoms in Ueno Park, Tokyo

It was beautiful everywhere, and people on the sides were picnicing. Then we walked the mile or so to Asakusa (again) to junk shops that were also closed the last time we were there. I bought some more souvenirs plus some ice cream and a veggie meat pie from a street vendor. Then we did a bit of window shopping in Ginza (Tokyo's equivalent to 5th Avenue, NYC). We passed every designer from Armani to Prada and even browsed a multi-story Louis Vuitton (Quick side note. Japanese ladies love their designer bags. The majority of women that we saw walking around the major cities carried a designer bag. The most popular being Louis or Burberry). As much as I wanted to tell myself "when in Rome..." the prices of at Louis Vuitton, even in Yen, were just as expensive as the USA, so if I'm ever going to drop that much cash for a purse, I can do it in the states just as easily. 

Instead we came back to Tokyo Station, checked into our hotel, relaxed a bit, and found dinner. After dinner, we went back to Ueno Park to see the blossoms at night with the lanterns lit. Still just as crowded as the daytime, but a memorable sight. 

Ueno Park at Night, Tokyo

Then we found some breakfast in Tokyo Station for the next morning, and called it a night. Tomorrow would be our last full day in the trip, and also...Easter Sunday. While planning, we took a moment to consider that things might be closed, but since Japan is not a Christian nation, and since Easter is not a state holiday, no one but us had any idea it was Easter.

Our last day was quite an adventure (as if we didn't say that about every day)! We got an early start to catch our 7:30AM Hakuri Shinkansen to Odowara (about 1 hr south of Tokyo). In Odowara we bought unlimited transportation passes for Hakone. Hakone is an area with natural volcanic hot springs that you can tour in a loop using a multiple forms of transportation (train, ropeway, and ship). We started out on a local train that went forward and backward when the tracks “switched back”. We got off two stops before Gora (the main stop) to walk about a mile to the Hakone Kowaki-en Yunessun hot springs hotel. They offered an onsen where you could wear your bathing suit. (Most onsen throughout Japan were gender specific and nude. Not wanting to miss this traditional Japanese experience, but also being terribly shy and modest, we searched out one that was both co-ed and permitted bathing suits. We were delighted to find this place. The only oddity about it was the big sign above the help desk that said they didn't permit anyone with tattoos. Weird, right?)

The complex was enormous. They had numerous pools both inside and outside that each featured something different. The largest indoor swimming pool looked like one you would see in any hotel or public swimming pool, only the volcanic thermal activity underground heated the water naturally, so the temperatures felt more like a hot tub than a regular swimming pool. A salt water pool kept us afloat in another pool, and a sweet honey water pool tingled our senses. One pool especially creeped us out. Have you ever seen those pools filled with little flesh eating fish? This place had one! And there was a huge line. But once again...when in Rome...right? So, we stood in line (it actually moved quite quickly) until it was our turn to stick our feet into the ankle deep tub of carnivorous fish. Some ladies sat in the water with their feet and lower shins completely covered in these little beasts. The entire experience creeped me out a little too much, so I held my feet in the water just long enough for a few fishes to nibble, freaked out and then pulled my feet out of the water....and repeat. The only let us stay in that pool for about 5 minutes, and that was plenty of time for me. I'm glad I tried it once, but it was soooooo weird.

Outside, they had even more of these specialty baths, and the ones that had attracted us to the facility in the first place. Each small pool featured a different liquid. They had coffee, wine, green tea, charcoal and sake. Some were neat, but they were mostly foul smelling baths with bright neon colored water. 

Wine bath - the water in reality was neon pink and not dark red

We still had great fun even though we only spent 1-2 hours there. One of the coolest things from this place were the watches that they gave us. The watches served as locker keys, but they also acted as a bar tab. So you didn't have to walk back to your locker to fetch your wallet for lunch, you could walk into the food court and use your watch to pay. Then at the end, you turned in your watch and paid your bill.

After the hot baths, we continued our day around the Hakone loop. We took the same train from the morning to Gora where we caught the ropeway that took us up the mountain. At the top we could see Mt. Fuji and walk around the volcano with sulfuric gasses. 

Mt Fuji

We hiked around a bit, and chuckled at the signs that warned us of the poisonous gas that came out of the mountain and not to stay in this area too long. 

Toxic gas seeping out of the mountain

Since it was Easter, we spent 500Yen (about $5.00) for 5 black hard boiled eggs cooked in the sulfur water. Have you ever seen a black egg before? It started out as a white egg, but once they cooked it in the poisonous sulfur, it turned a dark black color. Inside the shell, however, it was just a normal cooked egg. LUNCH! Yum!

Sulfur cooked eggs - for Easter!

We did some souvenir shopping, took the ropeway over the mountain, and then took a pirate ship across the lake. Yes, a pirate ship. Think I'm kidding?

Hakone Pirate Ship

Once on the other side, we took an incredibly crowded bus back to Odowara and then the Shinkansen back to Tokyo. We dropped our treasures and wet bathing suits off at our hotel, ate our last noodle bowls and tempura for dinner, walked around the neon lights and gaming parlors of Akihabara one last time, bought some breakfast and settled in for our very last sleep in Japan. 

We were so sad to see this trip end. There is so much we love about the Japanese culture and the people. Everywhere we went, we found them so very kind, respectful and helpful. I highly encourage anyone to visit Japan who is interested in taking their first steps at exploring Asia. Having now been to Japan and other parts of Southeast Asia, I recommend that your first trip to the Asian continent be a place like Tokyo or Singapore over Thailand or Malaysia. Not that I don't recommend visiting those countries, but for the timid traveler like myself, Japan is a great way to get acclimated to this part of the world.

To sign off on my blog about Japan, I'll leave you with some funny signs that we came across throughout our 2 weeks in this amazing place. Sayonara friends! Stay tuned for my next blog series on the exotic Persian nation of the United Arab Emirates. 

Saw this inside a Starbuck bathroom

Posted in our hotel bathroom

Seen just about everywhere we used a public restroom. Really? Toilet paper for sale?

For those of you who need the sound of running water to lend a hand....

A sign of encouragement outside a temple.

That extra little "to" made us chuckle

We're pretty sure this sign was about cameras. ;)

I don't even know what they were trying to say here.

Thanks for reading!

- Foxy the Traveler

Konnichiwa - Japan Part VI (Miyajima)

Welcome to Part VI of my blog series on Japan. On our first day in Hiroshima, we spent our time touring historic Hiroshima, visiting the Peace Memorial and Hiroshima Castle. Our second day in the Hiroshima region, we journeyed off the coast of the main island to a smaller island called Miyajima. We "slept in" until about 7AM that morning, but since we went to bed the previous night around 8PM, we had plenty of sleep. (Remember, we were up around 4:30AM to catch the train from Shin-Osaka to Hiroshima, so we were exhausted that evening. 

After going one stop in the wrong direction, we made our way to Miyajima by taking the JR ferry. I've mentioned before how great the transportation system is in Japan. This continued to be true in Hiroshima. Our JR passes weren't only good for city metros and intercity trains, but also for this ferry ride that took us to a completely different island. 

As our ferry approached the dock of Miyajima, we saw this awesome tory gate in the water. The ferry driver explained that in low tide seasons, you can actually walk out to it, but alas, it was underwater as we approached. 

Like Nara, the presence of tame deer shocked us! We saw them everywhere, and they passed us without any hesitation or alarm. Unlike Nara where little old ladies sold deer "cookies", we didn't see any deer food for sale, but the deer still didn't fear people like they do in the USA. We also noticed that finally, the cherry trees were blooming everywhere! The first 7/8 of our trip had barren trees and mostly cloudy skies, so it really excited us to see some blooming trees, even if only for a few days. 

We made our way to the Miyajima ropeway (think ski lift sans snow). Miyajima has a small town at the base of the mountain, and then hiking trails throughout the rest of the place. We'd been walking all over Japan for almost two weeks now, so our feet hurt every day, and our legs ached (want a secret way to lose 10lbs in 2 weeks? Eat only rice and noodle bowls for your meals, and then do nothing but walk for miles and miles everyday. I'm kidding! Although this is what we did, I don't recommend it for a long term diet solution. Haha!). On a normal day, we would have welcomed a nice long hike, but fatigue kept us from channeling our inner adventurers. Instead, we took the ropeway to the top of the mountain and enjoyed roughly a 1.5km hike down. 

One of the first things we noticed as we began our descent were the signs warning us against vipers. Vipers? Yes, the slithery, venomous snakes. Uh...on second thought, maybe we don't want to go for a hike. I don't like snakes anymore than Indiana Jones! But we convinced ourselves that we're only in Japan once, and that as long as we stick to the established path, we'll be fine. We actually did see a snake (not entirely sure what kind), but it was off in the grass and moving in the opposite direction of us. It's a good thing too, because if it were moving toward us, I would have completely freaked out. 

For those of you who are metric to english conversion experts, you know that 1.5km is roughly a little over a mile. And since we were walking downhill the whole way, we didn't expect the hike to take us too much more than 20-30 minutes. That is, of course, until we got lost. 

Up to this point, we didn't have many problems with the language barrier. Ordering in restaurants proved to be our biggest challenge...until we went hiking on Miyajima island. We assumed incorrectly that all paths led down. Well, maybe not incorrectly, but we misunderstood how to take the shortest path down. We had no reliable map, and all of the signs we encountered along the way, looked like this:

But as long as we kept heading down the mountain, we assured ourselves that we would eventually reach the bottom. After a full 90 mins of hiking downhill, our legs shaking, and our tummies rumbling, we saw this sign and completely lost all fatigue. Our laughter became uncontrollable and the sign forever cemented our love of this place. Now what you have to realize is that up until this point, we constantly chuckled at the misinterpreted signs throughout Japan. Wanting to be helpful, they would often try to translate Japanese signs in English, but they would lose just a few words that made the whole translation terrifically comical. This sign took the cake as our favorite. 

We finally reached the bottom, and the only thing on our minds was where to find food. We picked up some french fries and shrimp cakes from a food truck along the path back to town. We then stopped to visit the worlds largest rice scoop on our way to get some ice cream (chocolate and cookies and cream or as the Japanese lady said, "cookie and vanilla"). 

World's Largest Rice Scoop

We headed back toward our hotel around 3pm, and stopped at the massive Fukuya department store for some souvenir shopping and to find dinner. Aside from the horrifying dinner we had in Osaka, our dinner this particular evening was also pretty bad. We wound up at an Indian restaurant purely by accident and ordered chicken curry. This literally meant a bowl full of goo, about 4 small bites of chicken and a bunch of rice. It's not that it tasted bad, it just wasn't much food besides the rice. 

See anymore chicken in the dish? Nope? Me either!

After dinner, we picked up some breakfast for the next morning and headed back to our hotel. A high speed bullet train the next morning would take us back to Tokyo for the last 2 days of our trip. I would say they were 2 of our favorite days, but the whole trip was so amazing, it's hard to say which days we liked the best. The last two days, however, were pretty awesome! You can read all about them HERE. 

Thanks for reading!

- Foxy the Traveler

Konnichiwa - Japan Part V (Hiroshima)

When visiting the grand country of Japan, travelers have a big decision to make after visiting the central part of the island. Most tourists spend a decent amount of time (if not they're entire time) in Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, and Nara. After that, you can choose to either turn north or south to continue exploring. We visited in 2012, just a year after the Fukushima nuclear meltdown, so staying away from the north wasn't only a personal decision but a government one. I would have chosen the south anyway, so that we could spent some time in Hiroshima, the city destroyed by the United States during World War II with an atomic bomb. I've mentioned before that I'm a huge history buff especially WW2 history. Hiroshima, for me, was a "must see"!

We woke up at 4:45AM the morning of Thursday, April 5 and caught the Sakura Shinkansen from Shin-Osaka to Hiroshima. The trip only took 1.5 hours because this high speed bullet train at times reached speeds up to 200 mph. The ride was so smoothe, we only realized how fast we were going by how quickly the scenery whipped by us. After arriving at the Hiroshima station, we walked to the entrance of our hotel that connected directly to the station and, once again, asked them to store our bags. (If you haven't realized this already, this method of storing our bags at the hotel worked out so well for us. We often arrived in a new city early in the morning. Unable to check-in until 2 or 3pm, every single hotel we stayed at graciously stored our bags. We've found this to be true all over the world. Don't hesitate to ask your hotel for this convenience if you ever find yourself in a similar situation.) The Hotel Granvia Hiroshima was by far the nicest hotel we stayed in out of the entire trip. Every major city had a branch of this popular hotel chain, but in cities like Tokyo or Kyoto, the going rate for a single night soared into the $500s or $600s. Hiroshima was overall much cheaper, and we got a room for 2 nights in this hotel for only $180/night. Given the significance of how much less we paid for this hotel, I'm positively certain we could have stayed in Hiroshima for a ridiculously cheap amount, but it was worth it to us to spend a few extra dollars (while still staying under my $200/night budget) and getting a really nice room. (And by really nice room, it was still tiny! All hotel rooms in Japan are tiny...like really tiny, but we probably had 25-30 more square feet in Hiroshima.) My trip advisor review basically says the same thing. 

By 9AM, we dropped our bags and made our way to the Peace Memorial. We took a short street car ride that dropped us off right at the A-Bomb Dome, a world heritage sight, in memory of the first atomic bomb. Looking at it, I always thought that it was a cathedral, but as it turns out, the structure opened in the early 20th Century as a building for arts and education exhibitions. Located 160 meters from the hypocenter where the pilot of the Enola Gay detonated Little Boy, it remained the only structure left standing due to its steel frame. Instead of tearing it down, Japan spent time and money reinforcing the weakened structure to prevent it from collapsing between 1950-1964, and then they built a peace park and memorial around it. 

A-Bomb Dome - Hiroshima, Japan

As we walked through the Peace Memorial from the A-Bomb Dome to the museum, we had a rather unique encounter. An elderly Japanese lady approached us and asked us if we spoke English. Prior to this, our encounter with all random strangers in Japan had been most pleasant, especially all of our experiences with older Japanese women. Additionally, we read in travel books prior to coming to Japan that it was not uncommon for Japanese people who lived through World War II to seek atonement from visitors. Very strange, right? On any other trip in Europe or elswhere, the guide books cautioned us against gypsies, pick pockets, scammers, street peddlers, etc. but never did we ever expect that there would be strangers wandering the streets just trying to be friendly. But when this lady approached us, we kindly stopped and chatted with her. She asked us questions about where we were from and how we liked the food. Then she introduced us to her grandson and said that he was studying English in school and hoped to travel to the USA someday. I know what you're thinking. This whole situation is incredibly weird. I know! It was weird for us too even while we were standing there. Not throwing all common sense out the window, I kept one hand on my cross-body purse the entire time (which had our cash, passports, credit cards, etc). My husband had his wallet in his back pocket, and he said that he always kept an eye out to make sure no one came up behind us. All travel cautions told us that this encounter was not honest or genuine, but they stayed at a decent distance from us, and her grandson couldn't have been older than 13 or 14. 

Then she asked to take our picture with her grandson. What? Wasn't this situation already bizarro enough? But being the stupid American tourists that we are, we agreed. The grandson clearly looked embarrassed by his grandmother, so he stood a good couple of feet away from us for the picture. Thinking that if ever they were going try and scam us, it would be during a picture, I make sure to clutch my bag extra tightly. Then...THEN, as if we weren't utterly confused already, the old lady wanted to give us gifts for our kindness. We politely refused, but she insisted.  

*Quick side note about Japan. If you've ever been to Las Vegas, you know that as you're walking down the strip, there will be guys handing out cards that advertise peep shows and exotic dancers. In Japan, they have similar same guys who are handing out ads (not ads for women, but for shopping stores, etc) but instead of the ads being on cards, the ads were printed on mini packs of tissues. We collected as many of these as we could and saved them because public restrooms often had toilet paper for pay or had no toilet paper at all. These little tissue packs really came in handy. Ok, back to the story...

The lady gave us these little tissues packs wrapped in cloth cases and a pin made from newspaper. 

Gifts from a random Japanese stranger

After giving us these gifts, she walked away. The entire encounter was only about 5 minutes at the most, but it left us standing there completely baffled. What just happened? We checked our pockets and nothing was stolen. We told ourselves that maybe it was as the travel books said. Here was this little old lady just trying to spread some goodwill with tourists? The only thing that made us question that is because later that day as we exited the museum, we saw that same lady chasing some other western tourist down the street saying, "excuse me sir, excuse me sir..." It was most bizarre. In hindsight, she had all the makings of a scammer though we didn’t have anything taken. Were we used as training for her grandson? Was it not a scam? We’ll never know. But this was by far the most unusual thing to have happened to us while traveling.

Memorial to the A-Bomb Victims

We then walked through the peace park to the peace memorial museum. We enjoyed the museum very much; the exhibits really impressed us! The first section gave us a bit of Hiroshima and Japanese history before the war, went through the war itself, explained the history of atomic/nuclear weaponry, and then the specifics of the bomb dropping and the rebuilding of the city. That first section was comprehensive enough that there didn't even seem to be the need for another section. We were sorely mistaken. The main portion of the museum centered around the effects of the bomb and the aftermath. Display cases featured artifacts that fused together during the blast, destroyed clothing fragments, and pictures of school-aged bomb victims. Later in the exhibit, we learned more about the aftermath of the war and the subsequent effects that bomb victims continued living with years later from cancer to discrimination. Hiroshima became a taboo place to live, and a-bomb victims became second-class citizens because they reminded the rest of Japan about the shame of the war. 

What I appreciated more than anything else about the museum was the truly unbiased approach the Japanese took with the exhibits. Being a student of historical methods and having sat through class after class about the importance of unbiased history, I've also learned that when you have personally experienced something, bias is inevitable. In the last exhibit, the Japanese use the museum to make their best attempt to convince visitors of the need to rid the world of all nuclear weaponry.  The Peace Museum could have easily attacked the United States and denounced them for this unforgivable action which thrust the world into the nuclear age and decimated two cities and hundreds of thousands of innocent lives. (Much like the museum in Paris that barely mentioned role of the United States in the war against Nazi Germany.) Instead, throughout the last exhibit, Japan took full ownership for instigating the US involvement in the war. They acknowledged that their imperialistic ways and attack on Pearl Harbor sealed their fate. I was honestly shocked that they didn't place any blame on the United States. Not that this surprised me. Everything we had learned about the Japanese people so far, and everything we've learned about them since has only reaffirmed what an honorable and genuine people they are.  But I'm getting side-tracked. 

After the museum, we got lunch on the go from a 7-11. Sounds strange, but it was very authentic and delicious. We really hadn't had too much sushi up to this point and our trip was more than halfway over. The most remarkable thing about this lunch wasn't the food itself but our venue.  We couldn't find any trashcans. This is true of the whole country. They very much follow a "take your trash with you" motto. We found the 7-11 in a train station where they had lots of seating in the middle with free wifi. (Kind of like a food court in a mall.) Unlike an American food court with trashcans everywhere, here, we couldn't find a single one. Not a single one! We ended up carrying our lunch trash around with us for the majority of the afternoon.

7-11 lunch in Hiroshima, Japan

Next we made our way to Hiroshima castle. Although the bomb in August 1945 leveled the original, Japan promptly rebuilt the castle in 1951. We toured the museum on floors 1-4 and enjoyed the observation deck on floor 5. We then took a break with cocoa and milk tea from a beverage machine inside the observation deck. 

Hiroshima Castle

From the castle, we walked to a Japanese tea garden called Shukkeien. Some cherry trees were finally blooming! Here, we saw yet another wedding taking place, and we read all sort of plaques about those who took refuge here after the bomb. We fed the fishes in the koi pond along with a ton of Japanese children and then walked back to Hiroshima station. 

Shukkeien - Japanese Tea Garden

In a previous post, I mentioned that the Japanese shopping malls were often multiple stories high and that they had both groceries and prepared food on the lower levels. That evening for dinner, we decided to give ourselves each Y1000 (or about $10) to buy an assortment of prepared food from this market called Fukuya. Since our Hiroshima hotel room was actually large enough for a table, we brought our “treasures” back to eat at the hotel after checking in.  

Dinner from the Fukuya department store in Hiroshima, Japan

We had one more full day in the Hiroshima area, but instead of spending it on the main island, we took a reprieve from the cities, castles, and temples, and traveled out to the island of Miyajima for a day of nature and hiking. We didn't know what to expect, but the signs cautioning us against vipers (yes, vipers!) made us a little leery. But more on that HERE to keep reading. 

Thanks for reading!

- Foxy the Traveler

Konnichiwa - Japan Part IV (Osaka & Nara)

Springtime in Japan is very much like springtime in the United States, often rainy and unpredictable. We visited Japan in early April and for the first half of the trip the weather was mostly cloudy with spurts of sunshine. After Kyoto, we spent one full day in Osaka during which we experienced our first truly rainy day...and then some. 

We took an early bullet train (Shinkansen) from Kyoto (read about Kyoto Day 1 and Day 2) to Shin-Osaka. We chose to stay in Shin-Osaka because the Shin-Osaka station connected to more major cities than Osaka. Our hotel, just a short walk from the station, stored our bags for us until we checked in later that day. Read my trip advisor review about the Honkan Shin-Osaka Station Hotel. Overall, for being one of the most inexpensive hotels we stayed at ($70/night) we thought the value was fantastic!

Unlike Kyoto, our JR rail passes worked perfectly everywhere in Osaka. After dropping our bags at the hotel, we took the train one stop from Shin-Osaka to Osaka. Umbrellas in tow, the rain cleared a bit as we approached Osaka castle. Japan rebuilt Osaka Castle in 1945 after being completely destroyed during World War II bombings. You can see from my pictures what a dreary day we had. In my picture album, I have these pictures below beside a postcard of Osaka Castle with trees in full bloom beneath a cerulean sky. 

Osaka Castle

Osaka Castle

After the castle, we took a walk through Shitennoji Park then found ourselves some delicious seafood pasta for lunch at a small cafe. As we walked through the streets of Osaka we noticed the skies becoming increasingly unfriendly looking. Armed with only tiny umbrellas, we knew this would do us no good against the wind gusts. Suddenly the heavens opened and torrential rains came down from the sky. We first took cover under some tori gates of a temple. After about 20 minutes, an elderly Japanese lady came out and wanted to close the gates. Unable to communicate, she made some sort of gesture implying that we were welcome to stay after she closed the gates, but we politely bowed and took our leave. Our second place of shelter was under the awning of a Japanese nursing home. We stood there with several others for about 15-20 more minutes (all the while the rain was pouring as heavy as ever with insane wind gusts) until a large bus pulled up and started unloading residents as if returning from an outing. Between the all of the staff helping the residents and the barrage of wheelchairs and walkers, we took our cue and continued on.  The last place we hid was under the awning of an apartment building (getting completely soaked each time we ran from cover to cover). The high winds deemed our umbrellas completely useless. As we stood there, we chatted a bit about how few people we saw on the streets. Where did everyone go? Why weren't there more people running and hiding under protective covers like ours? As the rain let up a little bit, my husband recommended making a run for it to try and find the nearest train station. Like Tokyo and Kyoto, he suspected that Osaka too had an entire underground world beneath the city. We didn't even run for a few minutes before we found the entry to the subway. And sure enough we discovered a shopping complex of gigantic proportions. One could walk from station to station completely connected by underground tunnels with restaurants and boutiques for one's convenience. So THAT'S where everyone went! Smart! :-)

*One side note about the rain storm. We saw images of the storm on the news that evening. Apparently we weren't the only ones who couldn't use our umbrellas. The evening's feature showed pictures of the city streets with hundreds and hundreds of discarded umbrellas stacked in piles. No horrible crime, political scandal, or social unrest...not in Japan...just umbrellas. Lots and lots and lots of umbrellas (opened umbrellas at that) left by citizens and tourists trying to escape the unexpected monsoon-like storm. 

After the weather cleared and we dried off a bit, we made our way to Dotonbori Street near Namba. A street only for pedestrians, Dotonbori had restaurants, all manner of shops, and Pachinko parlors (aka enormous multi-story arcades with games ranging from ski-ball and pac-man to actual gambling games).

Dotonbori Street, Osaka

Dinner that evening was the most unfortunate of the entire trip. Compared to our delectable, traditional Japanese dinner the previous evening in our Kyoto Ryokan, our dinner in Osaka was barely edible. Our method of ordering usually consisted of pointing to pictures on the menu, pointing to plastic food displays in the front (which were surprisingly elaborate and accurate) or on the rare occasion, the waitress either spoke a little english or brought us english menus. In Osaka, we simply pointed to pictures in a completely Japanese menu. I thought I simply ordered a bowl of ramen with an egg and some pork strips on the top, and this is what they brought me. 

Ramen dinner in Osaka

The first thing that struck me as unusual was the fact that the main dish came in a metal bowl. Strange right? After proving myself a true tourist by photographing our dinner, I saw something else that caused some alarm...condensation on the outside of the bowl. Condensation?! Maybe it was just wet from being clean or something, right? Fearing the worst, I placed my hand out the outside of the bowl and then pulled in back in absolute horror. The bowl was...COLD! Cold? COLD!?! Maybe it wouldn't be that bad. Just because it was cold didn't mean it was bad, right? Nope. Not only was the entire dish cold, it was....wait for it...pickled! The broth had a strong vinegar base consistent with the pickled vegetables they served us at almost every meal. It really was one of the most disgusting things I've ever eaten. My husband graciously shared his dinner with me and attempted to eat my pickled ramen, but even his iron taste buds could only stand a bite or two. 

After dinner we made our trek back to Shin-Osaka and called it a night. We spent two nights at the Honkan Shin-Osaka Station Hotel in Shin-Osaka but only one day in Osaka itself. On our second full day in Osaka, we took a day trip to the nearby town of Nara. What started off as a sunny, mild day, became blustery and quite unpleasant as soon as our train arrived in Nara. It only took us about an hour by train to get there, and we still greatly enjoyed the day despite the chilly, windy weather. 

Positively, the most remarkable thing about Nara was all of the tame deer. In the eastern United States  where I'm from, we're certainly no stranger to deer, though they're mostly jumping in front of cars or dashing away from you if you get within 25 feet of them. Nara deer were not afraid of people or cars. In fact many street vendors sold deer "cookies", and you could see the deer casually walking all over the city. For someone from the mid-Atlantic region, this sight baffled and amazed me. 

Feeding the deer some "cookies" 

Tame deer walking the streets of Nara

The chance of seeing tame deer enticed us to spend a day in Nara, but the temples intrigued us too. We started at the Kofuku-ji temple, but scaffolding covered the main part of the temple as part of an ongoing restoration project. I loved the Toda'ji temple that housed the giant Buddha. I took some pictures of the funny, poorly translated signs (which are everywhere in Japan and make up 2 full pages of my scrapbook) and then we walked across the yard toward the entrance. 

Toda'ji Temple, Nara

Giant Buddha in Toda'ji Temple, Nara

The picture doesn't do justice to the true size of this magnificent statue. After the Toda'ji temple, we walked around and saw some more shrines, enjoyed some hot tea in a strange but warm and cozy rest station, and found ourselves some delicious hot lunch in a small cafe. Our friendly waitress spoke surprisingly good english and helped us learn the difference between a few food items which helped ease our food ordering in the future. 

After lunch, we walked around a few more shrines and found a covered shopping street with a fun 100Yen store (the equivalent of a dollar store in the US). We got Y420 worth of yummy snacks, enjoyed some confectionery refreshments at a Mister Donut and then made our way back to the train station. We stopped first at Osaka and spent some time in a multi-level shopping mall before heading back to Shin-Osaka. Multi-level shopping malls are everywhere in Asia. The mall is often at least 7-10 stories high with a specialty item on each floor like electronics, apparel, cosmetics, etc. Then they usually have at least one or two lower levels with prepared food and grocery items. We often found our breakfast for each morning in these mega shopping malls. 

Our next morning had a super early start, so we grabbed a quick noodle dinner (hot this time) in Shin-Osaka and turned in by 8pm. A super high speed train the next morning took us to Hiroshima, the site of the first atomic bomb. Look for my Japan Part V blog coming up next for a most bizarre experience that still baffles us to this day. Until then friends thank you so very much for taking a few moments of your time to read about my silly adventures abroad.  

Thanks for reading!

- Foxy the Traveler

Konnichiwa - Japan Part III (Kyoto Day 2)

Welcome to our second full day in Kyoto, Japan. After another difficult night and morning in our tiny, windowless, musty, smokey room we checked out of the Hotel Hokke Club and stored our bags at the reception desk for the day. Read about our first day in Kyoto and the yucky hotel we stayed in here.

For Kyoto Day 2, we finally had a beautiful, sunny day. Still on the chilly side, I was just happy to have some sunshine. We wasted no time getting a jump on the day and set out for one of the most beautiful temples of the entire trip: Kinkakuji. Kinkakuji sounds a lot like Ginkakuji, does't it? Ginkakuji is also known as the Silver Pavilion while Kinkakuji is also known as the Golden Pavilion. Surrounded by a picturesque pond, we really enjoyed our time at this temple. Definitely one of our favorite places in Kyoto!

Kinkakuji: The Golden Pavilion

From Kinkakuji we tackled the Kyoto bus system and saw the Ryoanji Rock Garden, Ninnaji and  Daikakuji Temples that were all in the far northwest corner of the city. It didn’t even feel like we were in the city anymore. The rock garden made us laugh. See the picture below. Imagine an outdoor swimming pool that's only about 2 inches deep and filled with little tiny rocks raked in perfectly measured rows and circles around a couple of large rocks. Then add 5-6 positively packed rows of bleachers filled with people sitting and staring at these pebbles. Don't get me wrong, we enjoyed seeing it. The amount of time it must have taken the monks to rake the stones with such precision amazed me, but I didn't need to stay for more than 10 minutes looking at it. When we first arrived, we  couldn't find anywhere to sit. We stood for a few minutes and then took the seats of a couple as they left. We probably sat there for about 10 minutes more amused by all of the people than by the rocks. The people around us sat in absolute silence. What mesmerized them about this place? How did these rocks inspire a contemplative or meditative state? I'm sorry to say that we really found the whole thing incredibly amusing. Without being overly rude, we sat quietly giggling to each other about how little understood about the significance of this place. By the time we left, the only other pair to leave was the couple that gave us their seats. No one else got up or even looked like they were going to move. To this day, I still don't get the allure. 

Ryoanji Rock Garden

I highly recommend the Ninnaji Temple. The large complex had multiple buildings with furnished rooms that really gave you a good example of ancient Japanese living. Most of the other temples only allow visitors to view the shrines for prayers, but at the Ninnaji Temple we explored from building to building across wooden platforms...in our socks of course.

After visiting our last temple and taking off our shoes for the um-teenth time, we finally make our way back to Kyoto Station around 3pm. We hadn't eaten lunch yet and survived the day so far on some snacks I had in my purse. My husband took advantage of this opportunity to try the Octo-balls we'd been seeing everywhere. Why are they called Octo-balls? Because they give you 8? If you look at the picture below, you'll notice there are only 6. Hmm, why else would they be called Octo-balls? Maybe the pictures below will help you figure it out. 

Fried Octo-balls!

Sign above the Octo-balls stand!

Why yes friends, you have probably correctly deduced that the Octo-balls are, in fact, made from octopus. I don't know if I've mentioned it yet so far in my blog series, that I am probably one of the worlds pickiest eaters. My parents still tease me that when I was a kid, I would only eat Campbell's chicken noodle soup. I like to think I've come a long way since my chicken noodle soup days, but fried octopus balls? I'm sorry. I'm still WAY too picky (or perhaps timid) to try those. Later in the trip when my husband ordered this delicious Japanese seafood pancake, you could even see the octopus tentacles. Eeeek! That was just too much for me! I am definitely not a brave travel eater. 

After our unique dining adventure, we went for a walk in "downtown" Kyoto to find our Ryokan for the night before schelping our bags all over the city like we did when we first arrived. Ryokans are the Japanese version of a bed and breakfast with extra finesse. In addition to a place to sleep for the night with breakfast the next morning, most Ryokans include a traditional Japanese dining experience and access to an onsen or bath house. You can read my full review of Ohanabo on Trip Advisor here, but this place was incredible! We specifically chose it because it was within walking distance of Kyoto Station. They had different types of rooms available including ones with and without private bathrooms. We booked a room with a private bath but in hindsight, it wasn't necessary. The onsen at Ohanabo was immaculately clean and very private. 

Ohanabo Ryokan - Kyoto

I'm glad we took a walk to find our Ryokan before going straight there with our bags. We found the street easily enough, and I recognized the exterior from pictures on their website. Once we got there, they had a very small sign confirming that we found it. Across the street from Ohanabo was another temple that we hadn't seen or heard too much about. The exterior was absolutely enormous, so big that I couldn't even capture the entire structure in a single photograph frame. I took two pictures of each half and put them together in my photo album. This temple (who's name I sadly never wrote down) was badly damaged in the 2011 earthquake. Scaffolding coated the interior and you could scarcely see anything other than a shell of the structure.

Temple undergoing repairs.

After dropping some yen in the restoration fund, we collected our bags from our smokey hotel and checked in at the Ohanabo Ryokan. What an incredible experience. We enjoyed a traditional Japanese dining and sleeping experience...on the floor. Our evening began by donning authentic Japanese clothing, pre-dinner green tea followed by a scrumptious fare of classic Japanese cuisine. 

Enjoying some green tea before dinner.

Traditional Japanese dinner on the floor

After dinner, they cleared the table and chairs and set up fluffy floor mattresses, down feather quilts, and the most bizarre pillows. Instead of pillows that we're used to in the United States that are filled with stuffing of some sort, little beads filled these pillows. My husband and I were both skeptical about the type of night sleep that we would have, but we slept very comfortably. I don't know that I would want to spend multiple nights sleeping on the floor, but the experience for one night was perfect.

In the morning, we ate a traditional Japanese breakfast of smoked salmon, cooked tofu, salad, cooked egg squares, little cakes, miso soup, assorted pickled vegetables, tea, and steamed rice downstairs in their communal dining rooms. We opted not to wear our Japanese garb in the morning and noticed that no one else in the dining room wore them either. About half way into our breakfast, another western couple entered the room wearing the Japanese clothes and suddenly looked embarrassed when they saw no one else wearing them. Kudos to them, however, for sticking it out. 

After breakfast, we collected our belongings, checked out, and headed to Kyoto Station to catch the Shinkansen to Shin-Osaka. Instead of using our tickets, we caught an earlier train. On the Shinkansen, they have rail cars dedicated to passengers with specific tickets. They also have rail cars for untimed tickets with seats that are first come first served. We easily got seats in the open car, and got to Osaka an hour earlier than we planned.

Look for my next blog about our days in Osaka and Nara. Click HERE to keep reading. 

Thanks for reading!

- Foxy the Traveler