Thursday, May 03, 2007
April 14, the Kobe vegetarian tour.
Here’s a quote from my journal:
“Okay, let’s get this out of the way. I didn’t try kobe beef. I’m sure it’s spectacular and all, but I didn’t get around to doing it. Why?
1) Couldn’t find a restaurant near the Hostel.
2) It’s just beef, I doubt I’d *appreciate* it.
3) If I really wanted to, I’m sure I could get some elsewhere in Japan, or even LA
4) It’s expensive
5) Of course I’d like it! I like eating! You’ll slow down and taste anything if it’s supposed to be ‘great’.
Sure I would have tried it, but it’s relatively low on my list of things to do in Japan.”
I did get some eventually, but that’s a later entry.
So we woke up at the stupid, uncomfortable, awful hostel and rearranged my joints back into proper working order. Then it was off to the station and then to Kobe.
Our first order of business was to lock up our enormous backpacks in coin lockers (we did this a lot, really nice to get rid of all that weight). After that, we hiked up behind the station and into the undeveloped mountains behind Kobe in search of, reportedly, waterfalls.
Boy did we find them! There were four of them within 20 minutes of the station, and some of them were fantastically pretty. Let me tell you, though, that was a seriously steep 20 minutes. It’s rather intimidating to look up at this enormous, huge, tall waterfall, then do some walking and later discover that you are higher than that waterfall was. That burns right in the quadriceps, let me tell you.
But yeah, waterfalls and nature. This was Jessie’s favorite stop of the trip.
And while we were hiking, what did we find? Could it be another gondola right, right next to the rail station? It is! We shuffled over there and got ourselves some tickets, taking a fantastic gondola ride up the mountain. There wasn’t anything like the first one, with that huge span over the volcanic valley floor, but it was still nice to get a view of the city and a ride up the mountain. We also got to see the very waterfall we had hiked past mere minutes before.
The top of the gondola ride was just a neat little place with some things to see, but we only bothered to walk through the ‘fragrance museum’, which was neat because they had lots of different smells to smell. I’m sure if we could have read the text that the history of perfume would have been gripping, but, you know, Japan.
After that we took some metro lines to near where our hostel was supposed to be. Then I got us hiking the *wrong way* to our hostel. Nice. Jessie got me back on track. Glad to have her along.
We got out and walked around near the hostel, but none of the recommended sights were near, which was okay by me because none of them seemed particularly gripping. (Chinatown? We have one of those back home. America town? Now you’re just being silly.)
Instead, it turns out that our hostel was near Sake breweries. Very neat. We got to try some sake, see the tools used to make sake, both in the past and today, and then walk through a tour to see how sake is made. Unfortunately, we walked through the tour backwards, so as near as I can tell; sake is taken out of bottles then allowed to ferment until it is steamed rice. Then they soak it until dry, polish it until the outer husk is back on, and then plant it in the ground. I don’t know where the alcohol comes from.
Our tour through…whatever neighborhood of Kobe we were in finished up with some local flavor. We saw some sort of Japanese percussion orchestra practicing, then a bunch of people playing baseball in a park, a guy walking some cute puppy-dogs and a supermarket, where we bought dinner. We took our meal back to the hostel and ate it in the main room while we watched some Anime with the other guests and the host. Then sleep.
-N
Here’s a quote from my journal:
“Okay, let’s get this out of the way. I didn’t try kobe beef. I’m sure it’s spectacular and all, but I didn’t get around to doing it. Why?
1) Couldn’t find a restaurant near the Hostel.
2) It’s just beef, I doubt I’d *appreciate* it.
3) If I really wanted to, I’m sure I could get some elsewhere in Japan, or even LA
4) It’s expensive
5) Of course I’d like it! I like eating! You’ll slow down and taste anything if it’s supposed to be ‘great’.
Sure I would have tried it, but it’s relatively low on my list of things to do in Japan.”
I did get some eventually, but that’s a later entry.
So we woke up at the stupid, uncomfortable, awful hostel and rearranged my joints back into proper working order. Then it was off to the station and then to Kobe.
Our first order of business was to lock up our enormous backpacks in coin lockers (we did this a lot, really nice to get rid of all that weight). After that, we hiked up behind the station and into the undeveloped mountains behind Kobe in search of, reportedly, waterfalls.
Boy did we find them! There were four of them within 20 minutes of the station, and some of them were fantastically pretty. Let me tell you, though, that was a seriously steep 20 minutes. It’s rather intimidating to look up at this enormous, huge, tall waterfall, then do some walking and later discover that you are higher than that waterfall was. That burns right in the quadriceps, let me tell you.
But yeah, waterfalls and nature. This was Jessie’s favorite stop of the trip.
And while we were hiking, what did we find? Could it be another gondola right, right next to the rail station? It is! We shuffled over there and got ourselves some tickets, taking a fantastic gondola ride up the mountain. There wasn’t anything like the first one, with that huge span over the volcanic valley floor, but it was still nice to get a view of the city and a ride up the mountain. We also got to see the very waterfall we had hiked past mere minutes before.
The top of the gondola ride was just a neat little place with some things to see, but we only bothered to walk through the ‘fragrance museum’, which was neat because they had lots of different smells to smell. I’m sure if we could have read the text that the history of perfume would have been gripping, but, you know, Japan.
After that we took some metro lines to near where our hostel was supposed to be. Then I got us hiking the *wrong way* to our hostel. Nice. Jessie got me back on track. Glad to have her along.
We got out and walked around near the hostel, but none of the recommended sights were near, which was okay by me because none of them seemed particularly gripping. (Chinatown? We have one of those back home. America town? Now you’re just being silly.)
Instead, it turns out that our hostel was near Sake breweries. Very neat. We got to try some sake, see the tools used to make sake, both in the past and today, and then walk through a tour to see how sake is made. Unfortunately, we walked through the tour backwards, so as near as I can tell; sake is taken out of bottles then allowed to ferment until it is steamed rice. Then they soak it until dry, polish it until the outer husk is back on, and then plant it in the ground. I don’t know where the alcohol comes from.
Our tour through…whatever neighborhood of Kobe we were in finished up with some local flavor. We saw some sort of Japanese percussion orchestra practicing, then a bunch of people playing baseball in a park, a guy walking some cute puppy-dogs and a supermarket, where we bought dinner. We took our meal back to the hostel and ate it in the main room while we watched some Anime with the other guests and the host. Then sleep.
-N
Labels: Japan, Kobe, Kobe Beef, Sake, Waterfalls
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
