Japan Part IV: The Finale, Finally

Okay, it's been a month since we got back from Japan, so I need to finish up these posts! Here's the last bit about our trip to Kyoto. Our second full day in Kyoto, we rented bikes to get around. Kyoto is very bike friendly and I felt just like a local. On our way to the bike rental place, we stumbled upon Nishiki market, where you can buy pretty much any Japanese food you've ever thought of, and a few you haven't.

Foreign veggies (literally).  We didn't buy anything.

Next, we rode our bikes to the Silver Pavilion, which is a temple on the outskirts of Kyoto. Like I said before, Kyoto is famous for its Zen gardens, and the Silver Pavilion had some very lovely ones. This cone made of sand is meant to represent the volcanic mountains (like Mt. Fuji) and inspire meditation. Mostly, I wanted to touch it.

If the guy who made this gets paid by the hour, he must be loaded.

The Golden Pavilion (which we didn't visit) is actually covered in gold leaf, but the Silver Pavilion was never covered with the silver leaf it was intended to have. Considering how quickly silver oxidizes, it probably would have been difficult to maintain, anyway.

The Silver Pavilion.  Real silver not included.

View of the zen garden from above.

After we visited the Silver Pavilion, we rode our bikes down the Philosophers Path along the canal, which was really quiet and pretty. I read about this shrine in one of our books, but it must not be popular among foreign visitors because there were few English signs. Fortunately, I managed to find it when I saw a Japanese sign with a drawing of a little mouse.

The "mouse" shrine.

I'm cute!  Worship me!

The shrine is famous for its mice, but it has a few other animals too.

Worship me, or I will kidnap your little dog and unstuff your straw friend.

Next, we went to Nanzen-ji, another huge temple complex. This was the gate out front.

This gate would keep me out, for sure.

You had to pay for almost everything in this temple, so we picked a garden that sounded kind of cool, with a lake inside that was the shape of a dragon. Only the "lake" was more of a pond, and by "dragon", I think they meant "square". We dubbed this guy the Rip-Off garden.

I paid 300Y and all I got was this picture (and a 2 minute walk).

After that, we bailed on Nanzen-ji and rode down to Gion, which is one of the most traditional areas of Kyoto. Supposedly, this is where the geisha (or geiko, which I have been told is the preferred term) live. We didn't see any geiko walking around, but I loved the old wooden buildings along the canal.

One of the oldest streets in Kyoto.

Riding back towards the bike rental place, we passed by this shop selling Fugu, the poisonous puffer fish. They are quite expensive (and the restaurant was not open yet) so we did not eat any.

My rented bike and a tank full of pufferfish waiting to be eaten.

Our final day in Kyoto, we stored our bags in a locker at the train station and went to a shrine called Fushimi-Inari before heading back to Tokyo. It was a weekend, and the shrine was full of worshippers. It was possibly one of the busiest places we visited outside of Shibuya Station!

Ethan beneath a tori, the gate to a shrine.

I found the shrine itself to be pretty gaudy, but the thousands of torii leading up the mountain were pretty cool. I guess people pay to have these erected in honor of family members or something. Sort of like "sponsor a road" I guess.

Fushimi-Inari is well known for having thousands of Torii.

They led all the way to the top of the mountain.

Fushimi-Inari also seemed to be some sort of fox shrine, so there were lots of statues of foxes around.

This statue also serves as a purifying fountain.

Finally, we got back on the Shinkansen and headed back to Narita airport, where we discovered that I had booked our return flight for March 12, not February 12. After some panicking and some tears (both on my part), we managed to contact a Qantas agent who was able to change our flight to the one departing that night, and we ran through the airport to get to the flight just in time.

As usual, I've gotten tired of posting about our trip, so even though there was a lot I didn't cover, that's the end of these posts. I really loved our visit to Japan, and I can't wait to go back. But now it's time to appreciate all Australia has to offer before we return to the U.S.

Continued Reading Plans

 We now interrupt this series of Japan posts to bring you a post from my ordinary life.

As I mentioned in January, I've designed a monthly reading plan in order to cross some books off my To Be Read list and expand my horizons a little.  February was biography month, and I chose My Life in France by Julia Child.  This book was ghostwritten by her grandnephew, Alex Prud'homme, but her style and character come through very well.  I found it funny, beautifully descriptive, and inspiring.  Julia found her calling as a cook almost by accident.  Her love for food, in particular, French cuisine, is apparent in the book but the book never gets too technical or boring.

For March, my book selection is something that was published in the last year.  My TBR list is pretty slim on recent books, but I have a few from 2011.  This requires a little organization on my part, as of course the Sutherland Library doesn't have any of the books on my list, so I actually had to buy a book for once.  I've chosen Genius of Place: The Life of Frederick Law Olmstead.  Olmstead was a landscape architect who designed the grounds at the Biltmore mansion, the grounds for the Chicago World's Fair, and Central Park.  I've been interested in him ever since I visited the Biltmore mansion when on a college visiting trip as a senior in high school.  Plus, it has the added benefit of being another biography, which is a genre I really haven't explored until recently.  I hope it is interesting, especially since I paid for it!

Japan Part III: Ninjas* and Manga and Bears, Oh My!

Well, I was going to try to cram all of Kyoto into one post, but there are too many pictures so I'll have to do two. We started our stay in Kyoto by visiting a traditional Japanese ryokan, or guesthouse. We were given a cotton yukata to wear, and then served kaiseki, which is a formal meal that places a lot of emphasis on presentation in addition to taste. Our hostess was dressed in a kimono and obi, and told us what we were eating and showed us how. The meal was delicious! After dinner, we went back to our room, where the table had been removed and our futon beds had been placed on the floor. One thing about the Japanese: they seem to like their beds and pillows a lot firmer than Westerners. I liked the bed okay, but I could have done with a softer pillow.

Ethan in traditional dress, enjoying tea in the Ryokan

Then the ninjas came in, and it was a battle to the death

Garden at the ryokan

The next day, we went to Arashiyama, which is on the western side of Kyoto. We visited our first temple, Tenryu-ji, and took a walk through the famous bamboo forest.

Ethan enjoying one of the shrines at Tenryu-ji temple

The Japanese are well known for their beautiful gardens, specifically planned to mimic nature and encourage meditative thought. Even though we were there at the end of winter, the gardens we saw had enough evergreen plants and bushes with berries to make them visually appealing.

These little bear statues were everywhere

Koi, hoping for some crumbs

The bamboo forest was very peaceful. Although the path was only a few hundred yards long, it still felt like you were travelling to another time or place.

Looking up into the bamboo forest

Journeying through the bamboo forest.

We left Arashiyama and headed back to the main part of Kyoto, where we decided to visit the International Manga Museum. Manga is the Japanese form of comic art, which is very popular worldwide. Although they were in between temporary exhibits, there was a permanent exhibit on the history of manga, which started out as social/political commentary in the late 1800s. Some of the more interesting pieces were manga books from the 1940s, which were war propaganda and had covers depicting Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill as monsters.

The manga museum also had thousands of manga books in their library which you were allowed to read. Most of them were in Japanese, but they did have a few English and other foreign translations as well. I was happy to find my favorite manga, Fushigi Yugi, but I did not stay to read the books. Due to copyright restrictions, photos were not allowed in most of the museum, but we were allowed to photograph the cafe, where visiting artists have autographed the walls. It was pretty neat and some of the drawings were quite detailed and beautiful.

Art in the cafe at the International Manga Museum

To be continued...

I have quite a few more Kyoto pictures, but thanks to my friend Erica, I found out my other links aren't working. Once I get the links worked out properly, I'll post again for everyone to check out my albums.

*No actual ninjas are demonstrated in this post.

Japan Part II: Epic Skiing Adventure

After our disappointment at the lack of snow in New Zealand, I was cautiously optimistic about skiing in Japan -- particularly since we (I) had chosen to stay on the main island, instead of going to Hokkaido where the powder skiing was. However, after traveling through many miles of barren farmland, I was relieved to see an appropriate level of snow as we approached the village. Ah Alaska, how we miss thee!

Yay, snow!  And we don't have to shovel.

It had actually been pretty warm recently in Nozawa Onsen, so there was a lot of runoff. Streams were running through culverts in the town, and I wasn't sure if that was water from the hot springs, normal springs or snow melt. No matter though. As you can see here, there was plenty of base for us to ski on.

Road cut through the town.  That's a lot of snow.

Part of the reason I picked Nozawa Onsen is because the village has 13 hot springs (onsen) with free Japanese bath houses to visit. Visiting an onsen is an interesting experience and is definitely different from visiting a hot spring in a western country. Unlike in America, in Japan you enjoy the onsen completely nude. The bath houses are segregated by sex, but you still are hanging out in the hot spring with complete strangers. Before getting into the hot spring, you completely wash yourself at these taps outside the spring, and then soak in the spring like a hot tub. I had visions of hopping from hot spring to hot spring around town, but soon discovered that I could really only take one at a time -- they were too hot!

One of the bath houses.  I didn't go in this one.

Ethan was too tired the second night, but I got over my fear of being naked with strangers and visited two separate hot springs. The first was all tiled with fluorescent lights overhead, while the second one was in a traditional looking wooden building with more stylish lanterns on the wall. In spite of the fact that the second spring looked cooler, I kind of liked the first spring better, because I shared it with a bunch of local old ladies who obviously used it for their evening gossip session. I have no idea what they were talking about, but I like to imagine it was about their grandchildren, who in the town said what to who, and how the quality of vegetables has really gone downhill lately.

Back entrance to the bath house I liked best.

Nozawa Onsen was a cute little town, with very narrow streets, lots of restaurants and cute little stores. They obviously catered to the skiing crowd. The stores all had these wooden steamer boxes filled with buns. We bought one, suspecting it was filled with azuki (a sweet bean paste) but were surprised to find vegetables inside. Later I looked up the word azuki and the second night we had an azuki bun for dessert.

Shopping at night.

Near the bus stop.

While we were there, we had a mild earthquake. I would guess it was about a 3, maybe a 3.5. Nothing for us experienced Alaskans. Ethan was in the lounge room of our guest house, using the WiFi when it occurred. He looked up, but no one else seemed to notice. The next morning at breakfast, a couple of Kiwi guests asked us if we had felt the earthquake. Of course we said yes, but the British girl hadn't noticed it. Ethan had to tell her it had occurred when she was sitting next to him in the lounge room! The Kiwis seemed surprisingly shook up by the earthquake (ba-dum-dum, I'll be here all night, folks), given the fact that New Zealand is pretty seismically active. In fact, the girl seemed to think it was a pretty big one. Maybe their part of the house shook more, I don't know.

Someone got creative with this snow bank.

I didn't take any pictures of the ski resort, but it turns out I made an excellent choice. Although it wasn't all powder skiing, there was plenty of untracked, deep snow off-piste to make Ethan happy, and the groomers were nicely covered with a recent snowfall that made me happy. The resort was not busy by American standards, and we were able to ski together all day, meeting at the lift and riding up together. It's been a long time since we've been able to do that, so I was really happy that the resort worked out for the both of us.

Ethan waiting for the bus in a snow squall.

We only spent 1.5 days skiing, because our time was limited and I really wanted to see a lot of cultural stuff. So after our quick trip, we left Nozawa Onsen and headed to Kyoto, for more traditional Japanese culture. 

To be continued... 

 For more (not a lot more, but more) pictures of Nozawa Onsen, go here.

Japan Part I: There Goes Tokyo! (Go Go Godzilla!)

Last August, after our misguided attempt to ski in New Zealand, Ethan suggested we go to Japan for a ski trip in February. I have wanted to visit Japan for about 10 years, so this was a double win for me. As it turned out, due to time constraints, we did mostly sightseeing with just a little skiing thrown in. But the trip was absolutely, unequivocally awesome, and I can't wait to go back for a longer ski trip in the future. Our first stop was Tokyo, where we spent 2 days. After an uneventful flight, we dropped our bags off at the hotel and went out to explore the city. We found a little noodle place, where I ordered by pointing at the picture on the wall, and then headed out to check out the Imperial Palace.

The Imperial Palace, or at least part of it.

You can't go inside the Imperial Palace, but you can check out the grounds around the area. I thought it was awesome, as this was the first traditional Japanese building I had seen since our arrival.   But it was only a taste of what was to come.

Ethan standing in front of a bridge over the moat.

Loads of people were enjoying a pleasant winter's day in the gardens surrounding the palace. There seemed to be some sort of race going on, and people were walking their dogs and doing other relaxing Sunday activities. I can't say I haven't seen dogs in unusual outfits outside of Japan, but I was fascinated by these dogs. Who has the time to put pants on their dog? And why, on God's good earth, would you do that?

Dog in pants!!  I don't want to know how he goes to the bathroom.

Next, we went to Ueno Park, where we were hoping to see Elvis impersonators wandering around. Sadly, Elvis had left the park (or had never arrived), but Ueno Park was still pretty cool, with shrines, fountains, and lots of museums. We also got a surprise when we took a shortcut away from the mosquito incubating lake and ended up in what can only be referred to as "Boobie Alley". Whoops.

Pardon me, but can you direct me to Boobie Alley?

The next day, we had tickets to the Ghibli museum, which was built by the creator of Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and other beautifully animated films that I adore. This was a highlight of my trip; something I really looked forward to, and I almost completely screwed it up by losing our prepurchased tickets! Fortunately, I found them in my Lonely Planet guide.

Check out the spiral staircase on the right.

We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the museum, so you can't see how awesome it was, but it was fantastic. It was so cool to see the original artwork behind the films, and the museum had spiral staircases, lifesize "movie sets" and a great exhibit on motion pictures with a carved wooden display that appeared to move when it spun. All the small details in the museum made it seem really magical, like you had entered another world based on Miyazaki's imagination.

One of the beautiful details, a mosaic drain in the courtyard.

Next, we met the daughter of an American friend of mine in Shibuya station for coffee. By this time, it was absolutely pouring. I had purchased a rather crappy umbrella and a giant raincoat that Ethan named "The Human Condom" at Family Mart, so we ended up only damp, not soaked. Shibuya Station is Tokyo's busiest train station, and contains the busiest intersection in the world. I couldn't wait to see it, as until that point, Tokyo had been unexpectedly uncrowded for a city with 12 million people. While I didn't manage to capture the station at its busiest, it was pretty crazy. There were so many people that they had pedestrian only crossing times, where all the lights changed and everybody crossed every which way at once.

This was after peak hour.

We met Ella by this statue, which is a popular meeting point and has an interesting story. In the 1920s, every day this dog would greet his master at the train station. Even after the man died, the dog faithfully returned to the station daily to wait for his master, until he eventually died 11 years later. I think that kind of loyalty deserves a statue!

Fievel could learn something from this guy.

After coffee with Ella, she rushed off to a going-away dinner and we got caught up in the hubbub and went shopping. We didn't stop by too many stores, but we did visit one called Loft, which was full of everything you can think of and many things you haven't.

Shake, shake, shake, shake your booty! (A "party costume")

As the daylight faded and the rain stopped, Shibuya station began to glow with 1,000,000 watts of pure commercialism. Now this, this was the Tokyo I expected. It was loud, flashing, overwhelming, and spectacular. I can't say that I would want to stay in a hotel there, or even spend too much time dealing with the crowds, but standing in the middle of the station was a definitive Tokyo experience, like standing in Times Square is for New York. At that moment, I really knew I was in Tokyo.

 

The next day, we got on the Shinkansen (a.k.a. the bullet train) and headed to Nozawa Onsen for the ski portion of our vacation. 

Shinkansen arrival

To be continued...

For more Tokyo pictures from our trip, go here.