I began my trip in Tokyo, traveled for seven days throughout parts of the main island that i’m on (Honshu) and am back in Tokyo again, ready to fly back on Thursday.

Traveling away from Tokyo these last seven days has helped me paint the more accurate picture that I’ve been trying to paint all this time. Of course one can only see relatively little of a country in just 7 days, but I’ve had some unique experiences with the people that will send me away with heightened spirits. My apologies for not having updated more often, but lack of internet, or slow internet connections at some of these places, and lack of time have prevented me from doing such. So, please allow me to briefly summarize these last seven days in a several part post. 

 

Tokyo to Kyoto:

I blogged briefly on Kyoto in a previous entry, but I will expound upon my specific experiences in the former capital for my one-and-a-half days time.  

We arrived in the afternoon. On shinkasen from Tokyo, the train ride took about 2.5 hours. Our hostel, Ks House was conveniently located only about 6 blocks from the train station (Kyoto station, which I had blogged about.) After settling into our excellent accommodation, we took a walk in to the eastern part of the city. It’s surrounded by mountains on the North, East, and West sides, shown to the left. This makes it relatively easy to navigate, since you can see the mountains from most parts of the city (…unless you’re inside, or you have your eyes shut outside.) Like many parts of Japan, there are many famous temples and shrines to see and take pictures of. If you have been temple or shrine hopping before, you might have felt some fatigue, for it becomes somewhat monotonous after a while. I enjoy seeing the temples, but many of them cost money to visit, and I find the history behind the temples and shrines more interesting in most cases – which I can read without visiting. If I had a lot more time, I would have love to visit more…We did see a couple important landmarks in Kyoto, though. The first might look familiar to you (shown below.)

Yes, the Golden Pavilion, shining boldly in its glory. It was originally constructed as a villa in 1397 for the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (similar to a very powerful general.) Recalling a teaspoon of knowledge from my asian art class, its construction is unique, for there are several different types of architecture used, depending on the level. The top level is built in a Chinese-inspired style, with its bell-shaped windows. Its second floor is inspired by the housing used by samurai, and is where meetings were held. Its bottom floor (as you can see, not lacquered in gold leaf) was inspired by an 11th century (part of the Heian Period) style. I don’t have my art sources with me, so I can’t provide much more information about this until I get back…It has been reconstructed several times due to the Onin War (2 times) and a monk who burned it down in the 50′s, which is a story in itself…

 

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Part of the Kyoto bliss (Sounds like the name of an okonomiyaki restaurant that should be opened in Chicago – Kyoto Bliss)  is walking down the quaint streets. Of course, this requires some steps outside the Kyoto station area, crossing the Kamogawa River… Once this happens, you see well-preserved streets (though not without a modern twist in many cases) that can be very transformative, in the temporal sense.

 

 

 

We also visited a shinto shrine at the northern end of Kyoto, called Kamigamo. We accessed both this, and Kinkakuji, by way of bus (500 yen for an all day bus pass – ~5.00USD)

 

 

 

You may click on any of the above photos to enlarge them

 

 

 

*scribbles*

being greeted by random dog while climbing mountain in Nikko…later saw the dog in a truck…

pink lemonadish drink by Suntory

maple ice cream

Yodobashi headphone section

hal9000 vision tester at yodobashi

subway machine that spit a free ticket at me when i walked by it

ramen museum in Yokohama

friendly australian woman who gave cally a phone card

“this is my love song” – some song i heard in the hostel while typing this blog

women who handed me a bookmark for peace on train

longing for chicago pizza

japanese pastries – yum

freezing in chicago

job please?

love you, mom!