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.)

Kinkakuji - The Golden Pavilion - Kyoto, Japan

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…

Phoenix on top of Kinkakuji

On the Streets of Gion,Kyoto - No, not a title for the next blockbuster film

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)

Kamigamo Shrine, Northern Kyoto

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!

I woke up with a fever this morning, but, as the saying goes, “A Dan’s gotta do what a Dan’s gotta do…” or something like that…

Students congregating after school, partaking in ancient rituals like eating ice cream and crepes

Cally and I took the Shinkasen to Kyoto today. Bullet Trains are awesome, because

1. They’re extremely fast
2. They have a lot of leg room, even if you’re not in a “green” or first-class car
3. They have a cool name
4. They’re free if you have a JR Pass (described in a previous post)
5. Did I mention they’re fast? They go 285 km, or about 180 miles per hour. It’s about 230 miles from Tokyo to Kyoto, and we got there in almost under two hours. 

(While trying to delete the photos on the camera that were already uploaded to the computer, I became “delete-happy” and deleted the several photos that were not yet uploaded to the computer…oops!)

If you didn’t know, Kyoto was the old capital of Japan from 794 till 1868, when Tokyo was deemed the new capital. From my understanding, it wasn’t really touched from World War II, so many temples and shrines remain: a must see if you come to Kyoto. Its layout makes it a lot more easy to get around because it’s very linear and block-like, unlike Tokyo. It’s also enclosed by mountains on the, West, North, and East sides, so they make for good reference points. They were cleaning our room at our hostel when we got here, so we left our luggage there and explored the East Side of Kyoto for a bit…Of course there was one thing that had to be taken care of first: sustenance in the form of edible (and enjoyable) food. This has been somewhat of a challenge for me both this year and last year… Allow me to explain.

So there are several types of places to eat in Japan. First up, we have this type of place, what I will refer to as Foodz A.

Foodz A arguably offers the most authentic of all the types, and can’t be found anywhere else in the world. Depending on your tastebuds and willingness to try things, you’re likely to be pleasantly surprised (if not by the food, then by the atmosphere) when visiting these types of places. The prices can vary greatly, but you’ll most likely get what you pay for.The downside to this type is potential lack of comprehension and intimidation. The storefronts for Foodz A restaurants generally look something like this (pardon the blurry image):

As you can see, it has some information on the front, but it doesn’t give you (the foreigner who doesn’t yet know 2000 kanji) much of a clue as to what they offer, how much it is, and whether or not your meal is served by a samurai master who will cut off your fingers to use for sashimi if you don’t follow correct Japanese restaurant protocol. For these reasons, I’m usually pretty intimidated by the prospect of entering these places. This is something I’ve been trying to get over in the last few days.  The problem is that many of the traditional places might not employee workers that speak English. I assume that if a Japanese restaurant doesn’t post a sign outside with at least our familiar system of numbers for prices (1,2,3 instead of lines and other kanji,) it will be much more difficult for a gaijin (foreigner) to successfully complete the experience the restaurant has to offer. Of course, I exaggerate somewhat, but some Japanese dishes are relatively involved. For example, Cally and I went to an okonomiyaki place the other night. At some okonomiyaki places, you’re the essential part of the cooking process. They bring the ingredients to your table, and you have to cook it at the hot plate, flip it, check consistency, add the appropriate sauces, etc. We had a lot of fun, but the initial task-at-hand was intimidating, until we finally reached the task-at-mouth part. 

The second type, Foodz B is a bit easier. These places are the best of both worlds, for the obvious reason exemplified in the picture below.

These places are, at least in my limited experiences, very common. If they don’t have the detailed plastic models (apparently there’s a plastic food model “district” in Tokyo somewhere where you can purchase all sorts of food models) in the window like they do in the photo above, they’ll at least have pictures so you can see what it is you have the option of eating. The upside to this is that you roughly figure out what you’ll put in your mouth. The downside is that it makes more difficult to get out of your comfort zone (as the saying goes, “Never judge a food by its plastic display model…”)

Foodz C:

Cally and I have visited Foodz C places a total of three times this trip: McDonalds for lunch (they pretty much offer the same things, if a little less, and the drinks are smaller), Denny’s for breakfast (morning menu contains a couple rice dishes, your standard fare of pancakes, french toast, waffles, eggs, though everything is twice as small than in the U.S.), and MOS Burger for dinner yesterday. These places are chain stores, either international or national, and offer a quick bite to eat. It’s your typical “go up to the counter and tell them which meal you want” deal. The food can be appetizing, but it’s probably the most comfortable type of place to eat as a foreigner. MOS Burger can only be found in Japan, and while its menu is similar to mcdonalds, the quality is a bit higher, plus they bring your fast food to the table. Excelllllenttttttt…..~

There are obviously more types than I can mention/know that exist, but those are a few general categories. If anyone who has been to Japan has a recommendation of a restaurant I have to visit… I would like to focus specifically on some awesome Japanese foods I’ve had the opportunity to try here, but I have a fever(ish) and have to catch a bullet train to Hiroshima momentarily. I’ll post more about Kyoto tonight and share some awesome pictures I took while exploring the city. Here’s a preview, below, of a Shinto shrine in Northern Kyoto we visited yesterday.

*scribbles*

bus roller coaster ride from golden pavillion 

giggly kids

sake at zen cafe

met person who worked for JET

sick

breakfast buffet

kyoto okonomiyake experience in uber-small restaurant