Sunday, April 29, 2007
April 12, one day sightseeing in Kyoto and we’re already sick of temples.
Oh, and I'm trying a different image host for these pictures so they're...um...well, they're huge.
The plan for today was to walk through ‘eastern Kyoto’, a place as jam-packed with cultural properties and epic thousand-year-old blah blah blah that it’s a little bit numbing. Okay, a lot bit numbing. I had picked out some stops along a long, meandering walk through the city and we had our plan in hand, so the first thing we did was check out of our hostel and walk to Kyoto Station, nearby. From there we took a bus to our first stop, Ginkaku-ji temple. We were on the bus at ‘morning go to school’ time and so as we drove, it began to fill up with millions and millions of schoolgirls, all wearing the same uniform and, therefore, all going to the same school. There was one stop in particular where there were probably, no exaggerating, fifty students all waiting for the bus. The doors opened and people just kept on coming in and coming in until we just couldn’t fit anyone else. I was a little worried, actually, because if our stop happened before theirs, there was a good chance we just wouldn’t be able to get off of the bus. Luckily, they all drained out a few stops before us, and we got out and walked toward the temple.
Oh, and by the way, we were on the bus for a good 15 or 20 minutes. This will become more interesting later.
We started first at the philosopher’s path. Jess decided that simply ‘standing in the picture’ was no longer interesting enough. I think she’s probably right. The philosopher’s path is one of my favorite sights from the trip. We hit the timing dead on, and all of the cherry trees along this ancient, wandering path were in full bloom. It was spectacularly gorgeous, and really nice to just put Jess on my arm and walk along.
Our first temple was called ‘Ginkaku-ji’, an old temple with a really interesting garden. Parts of it were just pattern sand, like the abbreviated cone above. The rest was very specific, simple, and elegant, with lots of little rivers and trees in a field of moss. I got a picture of a display that evidently explained (in Japanese) the different kinds of moss to be found around the garden. I liked it mostly because it had three different classes of moss, and two of them were ‘VIP Moss’ and ‘Moss: The Interrupter’, which sounds like a great prime-time gardening drama.
We were joined at this stop, and on many subsequent stops, but another million schoolchildren on a field trip to see some temples along the philosophers walk. Each school group had a leader carrying a flag to keep everyone together. Jess and I made a point of setting a different pace from the school trips because otherwise we’d be swamped by schoolchildren and, no doubt, blinded by camera phones.
There was also a great view of Kyoto from the top ends of the garden. A nice place to spend a morning.
Next we continued along the philosophers walk to a temple called Honen-in. The guidebook did a good job of mixing up all the big, famous, extremely busy temples with smaller, quieter, but equally interesting ones, and this was one of the quieter ones. It was set up in the woods, seemingly away from the world, and was simple and unpretentious. We liked it a lot. Also, I’m not sure who did that rock stack, but it wasn’t me, and I was afraid to go anywhere near it in case I knocked it over.
The next stop was called Eikan-do, where we got to go up into the actual temple and look around at all the rooms. They had a statue of the Buddha ‘looking back’, and there’s a story around that that I found pretty interesting. I’m sure ‘the internet’ could tell it better than I could, though, so I’ll let you look it up on your own. No pictures, though, they don’t tend to let cameras inside of temples, which is a shame, but I liked the place a lot.
Fourth temple of the day was Nanzen-ni, a huge temple complex with a lot of interesting sights…that you had to pay to get in to. We didn’t really feel the need to pay admission for anything else that day, though, so we eschewed any of the details, though I did snap these pictures of the ‘triple gate’ entrance and a place where they burn incense. That right there? That is a whole lot of ash. I was impressed.
We walked through this garden called Muran-in hoping we could kick back here and rest for a while, but it was a pretty small garden, though quite pretty, and we didn’t really want to just lounge in the middle of it because there was really only one path through. So instead we skipped the next ancient, epic, crazy temple and decided to rest for a while. At this point we were feeling a little tired of temples and shrines. Sure, they’re pretty, but there is such a thing as too many temples, it seems.
So instead, Maruyama Koen (park), a good place to rest your feet. It was a pretty big park with lots of shops selling ice cream and various munchy foods. Also, tons and tons of schoolchildren grouped together like honeycombs. Jess took a nap while I walked around and checked out food. I ended up getting some fried octopus balls and some strange, but tasty, desert…things…on a stick. That’s what Jess is eating. We also got some nice soft-serve ice cream and just hung around letting our legs recharge.
After that, we walked out of the park through a shrine complex. Lots of shrines of all sizes, very neat.
And then on the way out, we walked through Gion, the old geisha district. Pretty neat place, but I’m sure it lights up a lot more at night when all the rich businessmen come to be very traditionally entertained. We saw a few geisha walking around, too. Well, geisha or meiko, trainee geisha. One of them wears shorter sleeves, but I can’t quite remember which. Serious footwear, too. That’s got to take some practice to walk around in.
We stopped at a place that sold quality Japanese crafts and did some shopping for gifts, though nothing really caught my eye for myself. Neat stuff, though. We also strolled through a shopping arcade and saw a lot of pachinko parlors, a lot of clothing stores, and a place that sold croissant-wrapped hot dogs. Jessie liked.
Then we took a subway a mere two stops back to Kyoto station. That 20 minute bus ride at the beginning of the day? We walked back. We crashed early, again, got some dinner and I reconsidered my plan for the next day. Less temple-centric.
-N
Oh, and I'm trying a different image host for these pictures so they're...um...well, they're huge.
The plan for today was to walk through ‘eastern Kyoto’, a place as jam-packed with cultural properties and epic thousand-year-old blah blah blah that it’s a little bit numbing. Okay, a lot bit numbing. I had picked out some stops along a long, meandering walk through the city and we had our plan in hand, so the first thing we did was check out of our hostel and walk to Kyoto Station, nearby. From there we took a bus to our first stop, Ginkaku-ji temple. We were on the bus at ‘morning go to school’ time and so as we drove, it began to fill up with millions and millions of schoolgirls, all wearing the same uniform and, therefore, all going to the same school. There was one stop in particular where there were probably, no exaggerating, fifty students all waiting for the bus. The doors opened and people just kept on coming in and coming in until we just couldn’t fit anyone else. I was a little worried, actually, because if our stop happened before theirs, there was a good chance we just wouldn’t be able to get off of the bus. Luckily, they all drained out a few stops before us, and we got out and walked toward the temple.
Oh, and by the way, we were on the bus for a good 15 or 20 minutes. This will become more interesting later.
We started first at the philosopher’s path. Jess decided that simply ‘standing in the picture’ was no longer interesting enough. I think she’s probably right. The philosopher’s path is one of my favorite sights from the trip. We hit the timing dead on, and all of the cherry trees along this ancient, wandering path were in full bloom. It was spectacularly gorgeous, and really nice to just put Jess on my arm and walk along.
Our first temple was called ‘Ginkaku-ji’, an old temple with a really interesting garden. Parts of it were just pattern sand, like the abbreviated cone above. The rest was very specific, simple, and elegant, with lots of little rivers and trees in a field of moss. I got a picture of a display that evidently explained (in Japanese) the different kinds of moss to be found around the garden. I liked it mostly because it had three different classes of moss, and two of them were ‘VIP Moss’ and ‘Moss: The Interrupter’, which sounds like a great prime-time gardening drama.
We were joined at this stop, and on many subsequent stops, but another million schoolchildren on a field trip to see some temples along the philosophers walk. Each school group had a leader carrying a flag to keep everyone together. Jess and I made a point of setting a different pace from the school trips because otherwise we’d be swamped by schoolchildren and, no doubt, blinded by camera phones.
There was also a great view of Kyoto from the top ends of the garden. A nice place to spend a morning.
Next we continued along the philosophers walk to a temple called Honen-in. The guidebook did a good job of mixing up all the big, famous, extremely busy temples with smaller, quieter, but equally interesting ones, and this was one of the quieter ones. It was set up in the woods, seemingly away from the world, and was simple and unpretentious. We liked it a lot. Also, I’m not sure who did that rock stack, but it wasn’t me, and I was afraid to go anywhere near it in case I knocked it over.
The next stop was called Eikan-do, where we got to go up into the actual temple and look around at all the rooms. They had a statue of the Buddha ‘looking back’, and there’s a story around that that I found pretty interesting. I’m sure ‘the internet’ could tell it better than I could, though, so I’ll let you look it up on your own. No pictures, though, they don’t tend to let cameras inside of temples, which is a shame, but I liked the place a lot.
Fourth temple of the day was Nanzen-ni, a huge temple complex with a lot of interesting sights…that you had to pay to get in to. We didn’t really feel the need to pay admission for anything else that day, though, so we eschewed any of the details, though I did snap these pictures of the ‘triple gate’ entrance and a place where they burn incense. That right there? That is a whole lot of ash. I was impressed.
We walked through this garden called Muran-in hoping we could kick back here and rest for a while, but it was a pretty small garden, though quite pretty, and we didn’t really want to just lounge in the middle of it because there was really only one path through. So instead we skipped the next ancient, epic, crazy temple and decided to rest for a while. At this point we were feeling a little tired of temples and shrines. Sure, they’re pretty, but there is such a thing as too many temples, it seems.
So instead, Maruyama Koen (park), a good place to rest your feet. It was a pretty big park with lots of shops selling ice cream and various munchy foods. Also, tons and tons of schoolchildren grouped together like honeycombs. Jess took a nap while I walked around and checked out food. I ended up getting some fried octopus balls and some strange, but tasty, desert…things…on a stick. That’s what Jess is eating. We also got some nice soft-serve ice cream and just hung around letting our legs recharge.
After that, we walked out of the park through a shrine complex. Lots of shrines of all sizes, very neat.
And then on the way out, we walked through Gion, the old geisha district. Pretty neat place, but I’m sure it lights up a lot more at night when all the rich businessmen come to be very traditionally entertained. We saw a few geisha walking around, too. Well, geisha or meiko, trainee geisha. One of them wears shorter sleeves, but I can’t quite remember which. Serious footwear, too. That’s got to take some practice to walk around in.
We stopped at a place that sold quality Japanese crafts and did some shopping for gifts, though nothing really caught my eye for myself. Neat stuff, though. We also strolled through a shopping arcade and saw a lot of pachinko parlors, a lot of clothing stores, and a place that sold croissant-wrapped hot dogs. Jessie liked.
Then we took a subway a mere two stops back to Kyoto station. That 20 minute bus ride at the beginning of the day? We walked back. We crashed early, again, got some dinner and I reconsidered my plan for the next day. Less temple-centric.
-N
Labels: Food, Japan, Kyoto, Shrines, Temples
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Hey, all,
Just a quick note that I won't be able to update much this weekend, as I'm going camping! Camping in California is a little less 'rugged' than camping in California, but that's a different, longer post. I'll write more about Japan when I get back. Ta!
-N
Just a quick note that I won't be able to update much this weekend, as I'm going camping! Camping in California is a little less 'rugged' than camping in California, but that's a different, longer post. I'll write more about Japan when I get back. Ta!
-N
Thursday, April 26, 2007
April 11
Morning! We had requested our breakfast a little bit later, so we occupied our morning with the baths again. This time, I found the open-air hot springs. (Still divided by sex, people). So we showered off and soaked in the tubs for a while. Eventually we realized that not only were the men’s and woman’s baths right next to each other and exposed to the open air, but that we were both alone in our respective hot-tubs. So we talked back and forth as we sat and relaxed and absorbed the warmth and rejuvenation. The view was spectacular too. Then we got out, dried off, walked down the hall, I walked back, picked up the key, and then we went up to our room. I had lost our room key for the hostel at some point too, so from here on in, Jessie was always in charge of room keys.
We waited around for a while then went down for breakfast. We had the choice and Jessie went, of course, for western style while I went, of course, for Japanese style. We went down in our Yukata again, but I’m pretty sure we weren’t supposed to; the other people we saw in the breakfast dining room with us were in their regular clothes. Lucky us, though, there was only a couple other people there, and we mostly had the place to ourselves.
Wardrobe malfunctions notwithstanding, we had a really nice breakfast. They just kept bringing and bringing and bringing my stuff, and I got to try all sorts of little Japanese bits and pieces. Pickled vegetables on their own are pretty intense, but when you eat them with rice they’re actually quite tasty. Jess had some eggs and coffee and toast and a big smile. I’m glad she got something good to eat.
Anyway, after that we strapped on all our gear and left the Hotel. I loved it, Jessie liked it, and those hot springs were really, really nice.
Took the bus back to the station, then got another bullet train down to Kyoto, where we would spend the 11th and the next two days. We were 3 hours on the bullet train, which gave me time to look over some walking routes for the next day. We got to Kyoto, (cherry trees in bloom down in Kyoto too. Sweet!) got off the train, and walked down the street to the first of two hostels we would be staying at in Kyoto. (I couldn’t find a place that had a room for 3 nights straight. Once again, quite glad I booked ahead.) It was actually a pretty nice place. Small, but we got the room with a view of the temple complex right across the street. Very pretty.
We had some time, so we walked out and checked out that same temple complex. (Largest wooden structure in Japan.) The main building was having it’s roof repaired, but we got to see some of the side buildings as well as part of the inside of the big one. Very neat.
My favorite sight in the place? This rope, made out of hair. Of course I took a picture of Jessie next to it.
We walked to another temple down the street, but we were wearing hiking boots and didn’t feel like going through the elaborate process to take them off just right then, so we just walked around the outside.
About this time, Jess started to feel a little queasy, so we stopped at a mart to get some sprite and munchies (sprite’s good on the stomach) and then at a café where I had a sandwich and Jess got some pizza toast. (Pizza is good on the stomach, too). Then we just came home and fell asleep. Not much sightseeing, but still a pretty nice day.
-N
Morning! We had requested our breakfast a little bit later, so we occupied our morning with the baths again. This time, I found the open-air hot springs. (Still divided by sex, people). So we showered off and soaked in the tubs for a while. Eventually we realized that not only were the men’s and woman’s baths right next to each other and exposed to the open air, but that we were both alone in our respective hot-tubs. So we talked back and forth as we sat and relaxed and absorbed the warmth and rejuvenation. The view was spectacular too. Then we got out, dried off, walked down the hall, I walked back, picked up the key, and then we went up to our room. I had lost our room key for the hostel at some point too, so from here on in, Jessie was always in charge of room keys.
We waited around for a while then went down for breakfast. We had the choice and Jessie went, of course, for western style while I went, of course, for Japanese style. We went down in our Yukata again, but I’m pretty sure we weren’t supposed to; the other people we saw in the breakfast dining room with us were in their regular clothes. Lucky us, though, there was only a couple other people there, and we mostly had the place to ourselves.
Wardrobe malfunctions notwithstanding, we had a really nice breakfast. They just kept bringing and bringing and bringing my stuff, and I got to try all sorts of little Japanese bits and pieces. Pickled vegetables on their own are pretty intense, but when you eat them with rice they’re actually quite tasty. Jess had some eggs and coffee and toast and a big smile. I’m glad she got something good to eat.
Anyway, after that we strapped on all our gear and left the Hotel. I loved it, Jessie liked it, and those hot springs were really, really nice.
Took the bus back to the station, then got another bullet train down to Kyoto, where we would spend the 11th and the next two days. We were 3 hours on the bullet train, which gave me time to look over some walking routes for the next day. We got to Kyoto, (cherry trees in bloom down in Kyoto too. Sweet!) got off the train, and walked down the street to the first of two hostels we would be staying at in Kyoto. (I couldn’t find a place that had a room for 3 nights straight. Once again, quite glad I booked ahead.) It was actually a pretty nice place. Small, but we got the room with a view of the temple complex right across the street. Very pretty.
We had some time, so we walked out and checked out that same temple complex. (Largest wooden structure in Japan.) The main building was having it’s roof repaired, but we got to see some of the side buildings as well as part of the inside of the big one. Very neat.
My favorite sight in the place? This rope, made out of hair. Of course I took a picture of Jessie next to it.
We walked to another temple down the street, but we were wearing hiking boots and didn’t feel like going through the elaborate process to take them off just right then, so we just walked around the outside.
About this time, Jess started to feel a little queasy, so we stopped at a mart to get some sprite and munchies (sprite’s good on the stomach) and then at a café where I had a sandwich and Jess got some pizza toast. (Pizza is good on the stomach, too). Then we just came home and fell asleep. Not much sightseeing, but still a pretty nice day.
-N
Labels: Japan, Kyoto, Senkyoro
April 10,
The fact that I did this day correctly is a source of personal pride for me. Here’s the scenario.
There’s a day-trip out of Tokyo that is so common that there’s a ticket for it. It goes like this: You take a bullet train from Tokyo to Odawara, south along the coast. Once in odawara you take a train to Hakone Yumoto station. Then things start getting fun.
Next up is a train that runs up the side of a mountain. It’s a long, slow, winding thing that actually has to use switchbacks at several stops in order to gain the elevation it needs. The view up the side of the mountain is supposed to be great. From there, you get off the switchback train and get on a sloped train, a rail that goes up a consistent 20 degree slope further up the mountain. At the end of that ride, you get on a gondola that goes up and over the sulfur-stained side of a mountain, steaming with volcanic energy. Normally you’d take a gondola for the next part too, but it was under repair, so you hop on a bus that goes down the mountain and onto a lake, then you take a boat across the lake, get back on the bus, and go home. In our case, however, we get back on a bus, go back to Odawara, and then take a bus from there to a hot springs resort, a very neat place. More public transportation than you can shake a stick at, and a whole lot of Kanji that I can’t read. Of everything this entire trip, pulling off the Hakone loop was the only thing I was really worried about. Here’s how it went.
We packed up in the morning and left our Tokyo Hostel, strapping on our backpacks and heading over to Ueno station, one of the big transportation hubs in Tokyo. From there we took a bullet train down to Odawara and purchased our Hakone Free Pass, the ticket that pays for every single step of the Hakone loop. It’s actually a pretty neat thing to have, because all you have to do is flash the ticket at a driver and they instantly know what you’re doing and if you’re in the right place to do it. It’s like the ticket leads you around. Cool.
Oh, and by the way, everything within 50 miles is called some variation of ‘Hakone’, so It’s easy to get confused.
Anyway, the slow train, the one with the switchbacks, was pretty fun to ride. It wound its way up the valley and we got to see a wide expanse of trees, city, and the occasional cherry tree in full bloom. Very nice view.
‘The orange book’ recommended one stop along the way up the mountain, at a placed called the Hakone (Ack!) open air museum. We got off at the recommended stop only to discover that the book got the stop wrong and that we were well out of walking distance of the museum. It wasn’t a total loss, though, we bought some ice cream and walked back up to the train. Two stops later, we saw the museum from the train, got off, and walked over.
The Hakone (Ack!) open air museum was one of my favorite sights of the trip. Check out these pictures! There were tons and tons of interesting and amazing sculptures of every shape, size, style, and genre. We walked around the whole place and saw a bunch of Picasso art, both paintings and pottery, at the appropriate pavilion. I liked it quite a lot.
We had lunch there then got back on the train which took us to the ‘straight up the slope’ train I mentioned before. The entire car was sloped and it just followed this odd section of rail up and up and up the hill. Saved us thousands of calories of elevation, I’m sure.
Then came Jessie’s favorite part of all, the gondola ride. We slipped on and were soon cruising up the side of the mountain. Then, the mountain ridge falls away and we are strung over this huge, volcanic-looking valley hundreds of feet below. It was really impressive. Jess was pretty much giddy.
Unfortunately, the rest of the gondola, which normally goes down to the lake, was under repair, so we took a bus down to the lake. From there we got on…uh…a tour boat, of a sort. Really felt like we were boarding a ride at Disneyland, but it was a nice jaunt anyway. The boat had an automated tour-guide in Japanese, along with occasional commentary in English. There were some interesting sights, but it was mostly nice just for the boat ride. Jessie chatted up a little girl sitting in front of us on the boat and we gave her one of our cute little American keychains.
Then, the tricky part. We got on, then off, a bus that I thought was going the wrong way (wrong), then on another bus which eventually got us back to Odawara. Then I had to find the bus that would take us to our Hot springs Resort, Senkyoro.
I had written down the Kanji for Senkyoro in The Blue Folder and if I hadn’t, I never would have found the place. I was looking through bus timetables at Odawara and recognized (somehow) the Kanji I had written down. We were able to find the right bus, then, and navigate our way to the right one.
Lucky: The Hakone (ack!) free pass that we had purchased for the loop also covered the (50 minute) bus ride to Senkyoro. Unlucky: the turnstile ate Jessies pass. Lucky: I still had mine. Lucky: bus drivers in Hakone (ack!) are so used to seeing tourists with the free pass that I just had to flash mine and Jessie could just follow along behind. It’s not cheating! The turnstile wasn’t supposed to eat her pass, it’s valid for a few days!
We got on the bus and I kept my eyes *FIRMLY* peeled for the kanji that would indicate our stop. Jess slept (so cute!) Spotted it, pushed the button, and got off. The Hakone loop and Senkyoro bus ride…accomplished.
And to the winner went the spoils. This was our ‘splurge hotel’ for the trip, sporting, as it did, Japanese-style dinner and breakfast, Japanese-style baths with warm water fed from volcanic hot springs, and a pretty big room.
We walked up the driveway though the parking lot. Lexus, Lexus, Audi, BMW, etc. There were some nice cars there and even more nice cars pulling up while the staff came out to welcome all newcomers to the hotel. Then we come tromping up the driveway in backpacks and boots and they come out to welcome us just the same. I really doubt having backpackers come by was a rare occasion (we did get bus directions from their website), but we did feel a little silly. Felt sillier still when we sat down and the ladies tried to heave our backpacks up onto a hand cart so they could take them up to the room.
We got up into the room and changed into the provided Yukata for rest and relaxation before dinner. The lady that showed us to our room also poured some tea for us. It was nice, but not really comfortable, I kept feeling like there was some sort of custom I was supposed to be following that I wasn’t aware of. Good for the experience, though.
I liked dinner, Jessie, not so much. She was such a trooper, though. The tried a little of everything, even RAW foods, until her stomach just couldn’t take the strangeness anymore. I, essentially unconcerned by anything that’s even reportedly edible, ate everything, and there was a lot of food. Something like 7 courses of intricately arranged fish and...other stuff…dishes. Strangest: whole cuttlefish. I ate one, but I’m not a huge fan of squid, so I left it at that.
Jess eventually did get some edible desert, and we got some rice (with peanut sauce!) for her too. Good stuff.
Then we got to hit up the hot springs. If you want to see what they looked like, click here, they have some pictures on the website. In the evening we went into the shared baths, where we scrubbed off the grime of the day and then relaxed in nice, hot, mineral-filled water. We definitely took our time and came out feeling very relaxed. At that point, they had come by our room to change the table for our beds, so we pushed the futons together, entwined our arms, and fell into some serious, serious sleep.
-N
The fact that I did this day correctly is a source of personal pride for me. Here’s the scenario.
There’s a day-trip out of Tokyo that is so common that there’s a ticket for it. It goes like this: You take a bullet train from Tokyo to Odawara, south along the coast. Once in odawara you take a train to Hakone Yumoto station. Then things start getting fun.
Next up is a train that runs up the side of a mountain. It’s a long, slow, winding thing that actually has to use switchbacks at several stops in order to gain the elevation it needs. The view up the side of the mountain is supposed to be great. From there, you get off the switchback train and get on a sloped train, a rail that goes up a consistent 20 degree slope further up the mountain. At the end of that ride, you get on a gondola that goes up and over the sulfur-stained side of a mountain, steaming with volcanic energy. Normally you’d take a gondola for the next part too, but it was under repair, so you hop on a bus that goes down the mountain and onto a lake, then you take a boat across the lake, get back on the bus, and go home. In our case, however, we get back on a bus, go back to Odawara, and then take a bus from there to a hot springs resort, a very neat place. More public transportation than you can shake a stick at, and a whole lot of Kanji that I can’t read. Of everything this entire trip, pulling off the Hakone loop was the only thing I was really worried about. Here’s how it went.
We packed up in the morning and left our Tokyo Hostel, strapping on our backpacks and heading over to Ueno station, one of the big transportation hubs in Tokyo. From there we took a bullet train down to Odawara and purchased our Hakone Free Pass, the ticket that pays for every single step of the Hakone loop. It’s actually a pretty neat thing to have, because all you have to do is flash the ticket at a driver and they instantly know what you’re doing and if you’re in the right place to do it. It’s like the ticket leads you around. Cool.
Oh, and by the way, everything within 50 miles is called some variation of ‘Hakone’, so It’s easy to get confused.
Anyway, the slow train, the one with the switchbacks, was pretty fun to ride. It wound its way up the valley and we got to see a wide expanse of trees, city, and the occasional cherry tree in full bloom. Very nice view.
‘The orange book’ recommended one stop along the way up the mountain, at a placed called the Hakone (Ack!) open air museum. We got off at the recommended stop only to discover that the book got the stop wrong and that we were well out of walking distance of the museum. It wasn’t a total loss, though, we bought some ice cream and walked back up to the train. Two stops later, we saw the museum from the train, got off, and walked over.
The Hakone (Ack!) open air museum was one of my favorite sights of the trip. Check out these pictures! There were tons and tons of interesting and amazing sculptures of every shape, size, style, and genre. We walked around the whole place and saw a bunch of Picasso art, both paintings and pottery, at the appropriate pavilion. I liked it quite a lot.
We had lunch there then got back on the train which took us to the ‘straight up the slope’ train I mentioned before. The entire car was sloped and it just followed this odd section of rail up and up and up the hill. Saved us thousands of calories of elevation, I’m sure.
Then came Jessie’s favorite part of all, the gondola ride. We slipped on and were soon cruising up the side of the mountain. Then, the mountain ridge falls away and we are strung over this huge, volcanic-looking valley hundreds of feet below. It was really impressive. Jess was pretty much giddy.
Unfortunately, the rest of the gondola, which normally goes down to the lake, was under repair, so we took a bus down to the lake. From there we got on…uh…a tour boat, of a sort. Really felt like we were boarding a ride at Disneyland, but it was a nice jaunt anyway. The boat had an automated tour-guide in Japanese, along with occasional commentary in English. There were some interesting sights, but it was mostly nice just for the boat ride. Jessie chatted up a little girl sitting in front of us on the boat and we gave her one of our cute little American keychains.
Then, the tricky part. We got on, then off, a bus that I thought was going the wrong way (wrong), then on another bus which eventually got us back to Odawara. Then I had to find the bus that would take us to our Hot springs Resort, Senkyoro.
I had written down the Kanji for Senkyoro in The Blue Folder and if I hadn’t, I never would have found the place. I was looking through bus timetables at Odawara and recognized (somehow) the Kanji I had written down. We were able to find the right bus, then, and navigate our way to the right one.
Lucky: The Hakone (ack!) free pass that we had purchased for the loop also covered the (50 minute) bus ride to Senkyoro. Unlucky: the turnstile ate Jessies pass. Lucky: I still had mine. Lucky: bus drivers in Hakone (ack!) are so used to seeing tourists with the free pass that I just had to flash mine and Jessie could just follow along behind. It’s not cheating! The turnstile wasn’t supposed to eat her pass, it’s valid for a few days!
We got on the bus and I kept my eyes *FIRMLY* peeled for the kanji that would indicate our stop. Jess slept (so cute!) Spotted it, pushed the button, and got off. The Hakone loop and Senkyoro bus ride…accomplished.
And to the winner went the spoils. This was our ‘splurge hotel’ for the trip, sporting, as it did, Japanese-style dinner and breakfast, Japanese-style baths with warm water fed from volcanic hot springs, and a pretty big room.
We walked up the driveway though the parking lot. Lexus, Lexus, Audi, BMW, etc. There were some nice cars there and even more nice cars pulling up while the staff came out to welcome all newcomers to the hotel. Then we come tromping up the driveway in backpacks and boots and they come out to welcome us just the same. I really doubt having backpackers come by was a rare occasion (we did get bus directions from their website), but we did feel a little silly. Felt sillier still when we sat down and the ladies tried to heave our backpacks up onto a hand cart so they could take them up to the room.
We got up into the room and changed into the provided Yukata for rest and relaxation before dinner. The lady that showed us to our room also poured some tea for us. It was nice, but not really comfortable, I kept feeling like there was some sort of custom I was supposed to be following that I wasn’t aware of. Good for the experience, though.
I liked dinner, Jessie, not so much. She was such a trooper, though. The tried a little of everything, even RAW foods, until her stomach just couldn’t take the strangeness anymore. I, essentially unconcerned by anything that’s even reportedly edible, ate everything, and there was a lot of food. Something like 7 courses of intricately arranged fish and...other stuff…dishes. Strangest: whole cuttlefish. I ate one, but I’m not a huge fan of squid, so I left it at that.
Jess eventually did get some edible desert, and we got some rice (with peanut sauce!) for her too. Good stuff.
Then we got to hit up the hot springs. If you want to see what they looked like, click here, they have some pictures on the website. In the evening we went into the shared baths, where we scrubbed off the grime of the day and then relaxed in nice, hot, mineral-filled water. We definitely took our time and came out feeling very relaxed. At that point, they had come by our room to change the table for our beds, so we pushed the futons together, entwined our arms, and fell into some serious, serious sleep.
-N
Labels: Gondola, Hakone, Japan, Senkyoro
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
April 9
Further excitement! Being as we had our awesome, awesome, awesome JR pass, we took the opportunity to do a quick little side-trip out of Tokyo, to a town with some interesting sights called Nikko. Fantastic. We actually woke up at 5:30 and got to the metro rail before it opened, but only by a few minutes. Jess got some warm coffee-beverage to warm up.
We got to the JR station and bought breakfast there, I got a bento box, which is…uh…a bunch of Japanese stuff. I liked. Jess got sammich.
Our first bullet train! Those things move fast. We got on real quick-like, which was good because the train stopped for roughly 60 seconds, and then it was gone. Do not be late for your bullet train. There is no final boarding call.
Zoom! Vroom! Transfer to another train! Zoom! Nikko!
We first walked through the temples. These were some freakin’ TEMPLES! The first was this gi-gnormigous wooden structure that held some neat Buddhist (I think) artifacts. Chief among them were three huge golden statues of three different aspects of Buddha. Really pretty but, as was often the case, we weren’t allowed to take pictures. I saw them though; they were great. And the building? Huge.
The next was a shrine to Ieasu Tokugawa, the guy that ultimately finished uniting Japan. It is famous for being elaborate on top of elaborate on top of crazy. Just check out some of these pictures! Every surface was engraved or carved or gilded or all three, and the shrine just went on forever. Smaller buildings, but an infinite number of them.
This is a horse donated by the Dutch government to the Japanese to the temple as a show of goodwill (more important back when they were exclusive trading partners). They use it for some of their ceremonies.
And then engraved on the wall above the stable, three familiar monkeys. Evidently, these are the *original*, which is sort of mind-bending. It all started here, folks. Wow.
More awesomeness all over, I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.
We stopped for lunch at a place that served noodles (Udon) and some sort of soy-milk bi-product called Yuba. Good stuff, actually.
Next, a hundreds-of-years-old shrine. I liked seeing these little portable mini-shrines. Pretty. There was also a 400-year-old lantern there. Do you own a 400-year-old lantern? I didn’t think so.
Finally, the Taiyu-in Mausoleum, the resting place of the third Tokugawa shogun, Iemitsu. (I’m reading out of the guidebook, here). Famous for its gates. It was drizzling at this point, so we busted out our ‘emergency ponchos’. They’re great, and they fold up small enough to fit in your back pocket. Oh, and the Mausoleum was pretty spectacular, too, we especially liked the statues housed in the gates. Check out that grimace!
Overall, the temples were amazing to the point of ridiculousness. Seriously, it was all too much to take in. Glad we went, though, those places were just wild. Jessie liked all the trees.
Next we wanted to hike to a nearby waterfall we’d heard about, one where you could hike up *behind* the falls. Yeah, wild, I know. It took some work, but eventually we figured out the bus system and then walked the 2.5 km off the main road to find this place.
Along the way, little statues. We don’t know why they put little aprons on them, but they do.
So the trail up to the waterfall ends in this big, wooden viewing platform. We hopped the railing and I stayed at the bottom while Jessie climbed up behind the waterfall. The trickiest part was actually navigating a bunch of slippery logs strewn around the base of the viewing platform. I took a whole bunch of pictures, but these are my favorites. Though, to tell the truth, I was also down there to act as a lifeguard. Luckily, I didn’t have to, because Jess was very kind to her overprotective boyfriend and did not fall to her doom.
We walked back to the main road and sat to wait for the bus back to the station. We saw a monkey. (!) I’d read that there were wild monkeys around this place, but still, crazy! Monkeys just …hangin’ around.
After that, hopped back to Tokyo, grabbing dinner at some random restaurant we found near the hostel and picking up some ice cream bars at a ‘mart’ for desert. Tasty. Then, we slept, and dreamed, presumably, of waterfalls and temples.
-N
Further excitement! Being as we had our awesome, awesome, awesome JR pass, we took the opportunity to do a quick little side-trip out of Tokyo, to a town with some interesting sights called Nikko. Fantastic. We actually woke up at 5:30 and got to the metro rail before it opened, but only by a few minutes. Jess got some warm coffee-beverage to warm up.
We got to the JR station and bought breakfast there, I got a bento box, which is…uh…a bunch of Japanese stuff. I liked. Jess got sammich.
Our first bullet train! Those things move fast. We got on real quick-like, which was good because the train stopped for roughly 60 seconds, and then it was gone. Do not be late for your bullet train. There is no final boarding call.
Zoom! Vroom! Transfer to another train! Zoom! Nikko!
We first walked through the temples. These were some freakin’ TEMPLES! The first was this gi-gnormigous wooden structure that held some neat Buddhist (I think) artifacts. Chief among them were three huge golden statues of three different aspects of Buddha. Really pretty but, as was often the case, we weren’t allowed to take pictures. I saw them though; they were great. And the building? Huge.
The next was a shrine to Ieasu Tokugawa, the guy that ultimately finished uniting Japan. It is famous for being elaborate on top of elaborate on top of crazy. Just check out some of these pictures! Every surface was engraved or carved or gilded or all three, and the shrine just went on forever. Smaller buildings, but an infinite number of them.
This is a horse donated by the Dutch government to the Japanese to the temple as a show of goodwill (more important back when they were exclusive trading partners). They use it for some of their ceremonies.
And then engraved on the wall above the stable, three familiar monkeys. Evidently, these are the *original*, which is sort of mind-bending. It all started here, folks. Wow.
More awesomeness all over, I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.
We stopped for lunch at a place that served noodles (Udon) and some sort of soy-milk bi-product called Yuba. Good stuff, actually.
Next, a hundreds-of-years-old shrine. I liked seeing these little portable mini-shrines. Pretty. There was also a 400-year-old lantern there. Do you own a 400-year-old lantern? I didn’t think so.
Finally, the Taiyu-in Mausoleum, the resting place of the third Tokugawa shogun, Iemitsu. (I’m reading out of the guidebook, here). Famous for its gates. It was drizzling at this point, so we busted out our ‘emergency ponchos’. They’re great, and they fold up small enough to fit in your back pocket. Oh, and the Mausoleum was pretty spectacular, too, we especially liked the statues housed in the gates. Check out that grimace!
Overall, the temples were amazing to the point of ridiculousness. Seriously, it was all too much to take in. Glad we went, though, those places were just wild. Jessie liked all the trees.
Next we wanted to hike to a nearby waterfall we’d heard about, one where you could hike up *behind* the falls. Yeah, wild, I know. It took some work, but eventually we figured out the bus system and then walked the 2.5 km off the main road to find this place.
Along the way, little statues. We don’t know why they put little aprons on them, but they do.
So the trail up to the waterfall ends in this big, wooden viewing platform. We hopped the railing and I stayed at the bottom while Jessie climbed up behind the waterfall. The trickiest part was actually navigating a bunch of slippery logs strewn around the base of the viewing platform. I took a whole bunch of pictures, but these are my favorites. Though, to tell the truth, I was also down there to act as a lifeguard. Luckily, I didn’t have to, because Jess was very kind to her overprotective boyfriend and did not fall to her doom.
We walked back to the main road and sat to wait for the bus back to the station. We saw a monkey. (!) I’d read that there were wild monkeys around this place, but still, crazy! Monkeys just …hangin’ around.
After that, hopped back to Tokyo, grabbing dinner at some random restaurant we found near the hostel and picking up some ice cream bars at a ‘mart’ for desert. Tasty. Then, we slept, and dreamed, presumably, of waterfalls and temples.
-N
Labels: Japan, Nikko, Temples, Waterfalls
April 8 Another successful day. We got up early again but mostly lounged around the Ryokan and took another bath, though this time in larger, sex-divided, shared baths. We were lucky, though, and had the places to ourselves. Jess got to warm up under the steaming spray of hot showers. Good way to kick-start a day.
We walked around the neighborhood for a bit, looking for a place to eat. Unfortunately, it looked like nothing was really open. We saw this awesome roller coaster across the street, but it looked like the place was closed too. So instead we ate at one of my favorite places in Japan. ‘The Mart’. It goes by many names: 7 Eleven, Lawries, and some others I can’t remember, but they’re all essentially interchangeable. They have a fairly wide arrangement of candies, sandwiches, and simple Japanese staple food, and that’s what really makes them so much fun. It’s all well and good to check out the high-level restaurants from the country you’re visiting, but every once in a while it’s nice to buckle down and just much back some ‘grub’. Gotta get the full experience, y’know? Anyway, I found a ‘sandwhich’ that I’d heard of before with noodles in the middle (can’t remember the name), and melon bread for desert. I’ve been reading a comic about Japanese breadmaking due to my recent obsession with bread. And yes, there is a Japanese comic about everything. Jess, on the other hand, had a corn dog. What can I say, she’s an American.
We saw a lot of Tulips, too, which Jess really liked because she’d never seen them ‘wild’ before. After some light strolling, we took the Metro back to Asakusa to drop off our big packs while we took the day pack out to meet ‘E’.
E is a guy that worked at Raytheon for a while, and that I ran into on occasion, and who is now getting his Doctorate at Tokyo University. We’d been in touch for a while and we decided to meet up for a while and check out the Tech district, Akehabra. It’s was some pretty cool shopping, lots of strange Japanese video games and Comic stores, lots and lots of electronics; mostly cameras that are too elegant for me, cell phones that are too complicated for me, and digital dictionaries that I don’t yet need. Definitely fun browsing, though.
We had lunch at a little restaurant where Jess had a Salad and I had some sashimi.
Earlier we stopped at a KFC so Jess could get some nuggets. Silly.
We left the electric district to find a Temple complex and got distracted by a kitty, who let Jess pet him again, and an awesome playground. Jess and I goofed off in the tetrahedron of fun and then went down an amazing slide. It had rollers! You really flew down that thing. Fantastically fun time, though Japanese swings, it seems, are not built for American hips.
Found the temple (shrine?) complex and just looked around for a while, getting some neat pictures of the cherry blossoms and marveling at the altars again. E also introduced us to the proper way to throw coins and offer prayers at shrines. Good practice, and a nice way to get rid of change. We also walked through an old Confucian temple, less bright and shiny, with black stain all over the walls, but Jess liked it because it hat a lot of trees.
After that we went back to Asakusa, where our hostel was, and also, just down the street, where you could fine the Asakusa temple complex, one of the most famous sights of Tokyo. Pretty touristy, with all the alleys and streets leading up to the temple selling Japanese trinkets and gifts, but certainly a fun place to do some shopping. We came back here at the end of our vacation to do some shopping for gifts to bring back.
We bought some treats with sweet bean paste in them that were being made fresh. Those things are DELICIOUS when warm. Next we walked into the main Senso-ji temple complex having arrived, evidently, on Buddha’s birthday. Lots of visitors and excitement all over, it was fun. I got my fortune told, which you do by shaking up a container full of sticks until one comes out. Then you read off the number and look for the drawer with that number in it, and pull out the ‘fortune sheet’ on top. I got a ‘best fortune’! I’ll take a picture of that later for posting, I still have the sheet! And worry not, if you don’t like you’re fortune, you can tie it to a rack off to the side to ward off bad luck. I kept mine.
Then there was some sort of ceremony involving a cart with a traditional-style koto drum /wood block/flute band, a guy with an umbrella, and several girls dressed up as what I believe were either herons or cranes. I didn’t understand what was going on, but it was pretty fun to watch. After that, we wandered around and had some dinner and talked about Japan with Elliot. I also had my first run in with the *amazing* Japanese style toilet seat at the restaurant. Heated, with ‘spray’ and ‘air dry’ options. I also learned what the Kanji for ‘stop’ was, if you catch my drift. After that, we wandered back to the hostel and conked out. Sleepy us. Blame the jetlag.
-N
We walked around the neighborhood for a bit, looking for a place to eat. Unfortunately, it looked like nothing was really open. We saw this awesome roller coaster across the street, but it looked like the place was closed too. So instead we ate at one of my favorite places in Japan. ‘The Mart’. It goes by many names: 7 Eleven, Lawries, and some others I can’t remember, but they’re all essentially interchangeable. They have a fairly wide arrangement of candies, sandwiches, and simple Japanese staple food, and that’s what really makes them so much fun. It’s all well and good to check out the high-level restaurants from the country you’re visiting, but every once in a while it’s nice to buckle down and just much back some ‘grub’. Gotta get the full experience, y’know? Anyway, I found a ‘sandwhich’ that I’d heard of before with noodles in the middle (can’t remember the name), and melon bread for desert. I’ve been reading a comic about Japanese breadmaking due to my recent obsession with bread. And yes, there is a Japanese comic about everything. Jess, on the other hand, had a corn dog. What can I say, she’s an American.
We saw a lot of Tulips, too, which Jess really liked because she’d never seen them ‘wild’ before. After some light strolling, we took the Metro back to Asakusa to drop off our big packs while we took the day pack out to meet ‘E’.
E is a guy that worked at Raytheon for a while, and that I ran into on occasion, and who is now getting his Doctorate at Tokyo University. We’d been in touch for a while and we decided to meet up for a while and check out the Tech district, Akehabra. It’s was some pretty cool shopping, lots of strange Japanese video games and Comic stores, lots and lots of electronics; mostly cameras that are too elegant for me, cell phones that are too complicated for me, and digital dictionaries that I don’t yet need. Definitely fun browsing, though.
We had lunch at a little restaurant where Jess had a Salad and I had some sashimi.
Earlier we stopped at a KFC so Jess could get some nuggets. Silly.
We left the electric district to find a Temple complex and got distracted by a kitty, who let Jess pet him again, and an awesome playground. Jess and I goofed off in the tetrahedron of fun and then went down an amazing slide. It had rollers! You really flew down that thing. Fantastically fun time, though Japanese swings, it seems, are not built for American hips.
Found the temple (shrine?) complex and just looked around for a while, getting some neat pictures of the cherry blossoms and marveling at the altars again. E also introduced us to the proper way to throw coins and offer prayers at shrines. Good practice, and a nice way to get rid of change. We also walked through an old Confucian temple, less bright and shiny, with black stain all over the walls, but Jess liked it because it hat a lot of trees.
After that we went back to Asakusa, where our hostel was, and also, just down the street, where you could fine the Asakusa temple complex, one of the most famous sights of Tokyo. Pretty touristy, with all the alleys and streets leading up to the temple selling Japanese trinkets and gifts, but certainly a fun place to do some shopping. We came back here at the end of our vacation to do some shopping for gifts to bring back.
We bought some treats with sweet bean paste in them that were being made fresh. Those things are DELICIOUS when warm. Next we walked into the main Senso-ji temple complex having arrived, evidently, on Buddha’s birthday. Lots of visitors and excitement all over, it was fun. I got my fortune told, which you do by shaking up a container full of sticks until one comes out. Then you read off the number and look for the drawer with that number in it, and pull out the ‘fortune sheet’ on top. I got a ‘best fortune’! I’ll take a picture of that later for posting, I still have the sheet! And worry not, if you don’t like you’re fortune, you can tie it to a rack off to the side to ward off bad luck. I kept mine.
Then there was some sort of ceremony involving a cart with a traditional-style koto drum /wood block/flute band, a guy with an umbrella, and several girls dressed up as what I believe were either herons or cranes. I didn’t understand what was going on, but it was pretty fun to watch. After that, we wandered around and had some dinner and talked about Japan with Elliot. I also had my first run in with the *amazing* Japanese style toilet seat at the restaurant. Heated, with ‘spray’ and ‘air dry’ options. I also learned what the Kanji for ‘stop’ was, if you catch my drift. After that, we wandered back to the hostel and conked out. Sleepy us. Blame the jetlag.
-N
Labels: Akehabra, Asakusa, Japan, Playground
