Japan Day 5: Kyoto-o-o

I'm getting close to the end of our journey to Japan.  During the week, I couldn't believe how fast everything was going.  In retrospect, it seemed even faster.

So, my next favorite thing about Japan is similar to the waving, but I will still say it -- it was the bowing and just how polite everyone is.  Granted, there are some mannerisms that are part of Japanese culture that may be considered rude here -- like the pushing.  (I say it's all part of the efficiency that I liked yesterday.  People just want to get there fast.)  I'm still bowing to people just out of habit.

And, even though there was a Day 6 to our trip -- I'm going to cut out of the recaps a little early since Day 6 consisted of one long plane ride home.  So, I will give you a bonus favorite thing about Japan.  The street names.  they were amazing.

So our last day, we got to visit my favorite destination of the trip. The Kiyomizu Temple.  A gorgeous temple on a hillside overlooking Kyoto.  I'm telling you, gorgeous.

We have a ton of other pictures -- see Flickr -- because that temple is so photogenic.  So many Cherryblossoms!

I'm realizing that we probably went to the Ryoanji Temple the day before, but I'm going to pretend we went to it the last day.  The Ryoanji Temple is known for its rock garden.  While I did take pictures of the rock garden, the shadows were not cooperating with my camera.  As a result, the pictures of the rock garden were not as exciting as they could be because you couldn't see the detail of the patterns in the rock.  

Instead, I'll give you pictures of what I like to call the "Lorax Tree Grove" from the Ryoanji gardens.

We also visit the Kinkakuji, which aside from sounding like a Pokemon, is also known as the Golden Pavillion...because it's covered in gold leaf.

We also visited a Sake Museum and tasted some Sake.  It was really interesting to see the process that used to bring about Sake back in the "old days".  It was also really interesting to drive through the narrow streets and see some of the old buildings in this part of Kyoto.

For the last part of our trip, we were dropped off on a main street in Kyoto and just wandered around for a couple of hours.  Jamie expertly led us back to a street that we had seen while in the bus that was very old-fashioned and also was the hub of the Geisha scene in Kyoto.  It was fun to wander around and see Geisha shuffling about or texting on their phones.

Throughout the trip, Jamie had been very open and adventurous when it came to trying new things.  He happily ate a traditional Japanese breakfast every morning (usually rice with dried fish, tamago, natto, pickled radish) and was excited to try out the street food.  On the way back to the bus -- in order to spend the last of our yen, Jamie made the best purchase of the trip.

Incidentally, this is my favorite picture from the whole trip.  So happy!

Grilled mochi.  (That links to some random guy's personal blog where he photo-documented his own personal adventure with grilled mochi.  Thanks, random guy who takes nice pictures of grilled mochi!)  So good.  Mochi, for those of you who are unfamiliar with it, is a sticky rice cake -- imagine what it would be like if you took a lot of rice and kept squishing it between your fingers until it was gummy.  They then took this mochi and grilled it with soy sauce, sugar, honey and maybe a little sake?  We got the last skewer to the chagrin of many of the Japanese people behind us.  

Which brings us to the last picture of the trip.  We ended up walking alongside the river enjoying the sunset.  It really was a perfect way to end our visit to Japan...

We got up super-early the next morning, made our way to the Osaka airport, and made the long journey back to the States.  While we were sad to be leaving, it was nice to have a day to "recover" from the time difference...although, to be honest, I don't think I've finished "recovering".  That's what weekends are for...

A big thank you, of course, goes to my parents for making this trip possible for Jamie and I.  We quickly learned that the most expensive things to purchase in Japan are 1) Houses, 2) Hotels, 3) Highway Tolls and 4) Gas.  As tourists wanting to see everything we could, we needed to partake of three of the most expensive things...we truly appreciate being able to experience Japan without having to sell an organ...Thanks mom and dad!

Japan Day 4: Kyoto and Nara

Another favorite thing of mine about Japan is that it is very clean.  I rarely saw any trash on the sidewalks despite the fact that there were also very few trash cans.  Our guide informed us that this was because Japanese people rarely eat while they are walking or traveling.  This made sense to me, except for the fact that there were an incredible number of vending machines everywhere.

Not just any vending machines, but vending machines that sold everything under the sun: sodas, green tea (hot or cold), cigarettes, energy drinks, cameras, beer, sake, Haagen Daas ice cream...

According to our guide, if we ever got lost or needed the help of the police, we should give them the serial number of the nearest vending machine as the best way to find us.

We started our next day with a trip to Nara to see the Todaiki Temple which is the largest wooden building in the world.  It also houses Japan's largest Buddha statue.

The city of Nara (where the Todaiji Temple is located) also is home to a ridiculous number of deer.  Which are everywhere.  And the deer are polite enough to bow when bowed to...although this was not caught in pictures...

After a tea ceremony, we visited the Heian Shrine, participated in a traditional tea ceremony, and caught part of a show at the Gion Corner.  

It was exciting to visit Kyoto because of how different it is from Tokyo.  As an "ancient" city, the architecture there is so different -- many traditional buildings, lots of wood rather than the tall glass and steel buildings of Tokyo.

This was also around the time that I finally got over the jet lag -- unfortunately, it was also our 2nd to last day in Japan.  Funny how that works...

Japan Day 3: On Top of Mt. Fuji

It goes without saying that any American tourist that goes to Japan needs to come back with stories about the toilets in Japan.  I am no exception, and I can say that the fancy toilets in Japan are a third favorite thing of mine. Sure, it wasn't so much that they were incredible toilets -- nor did I really take advantage of all of the services they could provide -- it was more the novelty of them.


For some reason, Jamie was determined to take a picture of our toilet in every hotel.  Apparently, this is the only one that came out...unfortunately, it was one of our less complicated toilets.  And for the record, neither I nor Jamie were the ones who turned the "Spray Strength" all the way to the maximum.

The stories of the toilets that had heated seats, would make the sound of running water while you relieved yourself, or that would clean your bottom for you are all true.  In fact, every hotel that we visited had these fanciful toilets.  As did most of the public toilets that we went to.  In addition, most of the public restrooms I visited also had a nice little toilet seat sanitizer dispenser that you could put on some toilet paper and wipe on the seat.  Those were some spotless public toilets.

That being said, I think it's funny that in the same bathrooms where they had these fancy "western" toilets, they would have twice as many "Japanese" toilets that were little more than holes in the ground (although many did have a button you could press to make the running water sound.)  Another example of Japanese hospitality?  Or do they think all us "westerners" are wussies that need a throne to use the restroom (slight pun intended.)

Enough about toilets!  Our third full day in Japan started with an early morning trip to the Tsukiji Fish Market.  Unfortunately, foreigners aren't allowed in the fish auction, but we got to go through the vendor stalls and eat some pretty fresh sushi and snap pictures of all sorts of crazy food items.

Sadly, I did not have my good camera for this portion of the trip (or the following day) because somebody did not pack the battery to my camera which was charging in the last hotel room we had been staying in.  I may have been a little grumpy at my husband since he insisted that he had packed it when I asked, and the Tsukiji Fish Market was the thing I was looking most forward to in our trip.  I mean, it provides fish and produce to 90+% of Tokyo!  Millions of people!  It was pretty spectacular.  And, as my dad says, a photographer is only as good as their camera so my pictures were pretty lackluster until the next to last day of our trip.  Sad times.

Fortunately, we did bring an extra camera on the trip so I used that one until the hotel people could ship our charger and battery to our hotel in Kyoto.

I still don't know what those noodle-looking things are -- maybe noodles?  But at 150 yen it seemed like a bargain!

From there, we hopped on the Tokaido Shinkansen (the Bullet Train) and went a couple stops -- just for the experience.  We were cheesy tourists demonstrating the basic American Tourist-in-Japan pose.

Then we got back on our bus to head up to Mt. Fuji.  Which, by the way, was absolutely freezing.  Being overwhelmed with work before leaving for the trip, neither Jamie nor I took the time to actually looking at what the weather was like in Japan before leaving.  As a result, neither of us really packed for very cold weather.  Not smart.  When we got to the Fifth Station (which is a little more than halfway up Mt. Fuji) the temperature was -10 degrees Celsius, which Google tells me is about 14 degrees Fahrenheit.

Mt. Fuji in a brief moment when her "hat" (what our guide called the clouds that usually cover her peak) came off.

Jamie at the Fifth Station pulling off my favorite cheesy (and more advanced) American-in-Japan pose.

Yes, the fountain was frozen solid.  I didn't have sleeves.  Brrrrr.

From there, we went to Owakudani which are volcanic thermal springs.  Most of the people on the bus were frozen solid and did not want to spend too much time there -- it was also pretty stinky -- so we only had about 30 minutes there.  Jamie and I were the only ones who decided to brave it up the mountain in order to snap some photos and breathe in some nice, big lungfuls of hydrogen sulfide.  Our reward?  Some eggs that had been hard-boiled in the bubbling mud and springs.  Their shells turn black from the hydrogen sulfide, but they are perfectly normal after they are peeled.  Except that they supposedly add 7 years to your life when you eat them.

Gases from the thermal seeps coming out of the mountain.

We took the trip to our hotel which was in the middle of nowhere.  However, it had access to the thermal springs and provided the opportunity for us to go into the Onsen (Japanese Baths).  Jamie was the only one awake and brave enough to venture out and enjoy some public nudity.  I'll let him tell you all about that adventure...

Japan Day 2: OK Tokyo

I have decided to start each post about our trip with one thing that I really liked about Japan.  I guess yesterday's could be the Sakura that were everywhere.  Incidentally, it's nice to get a double-dose of Sakura since they were blooming when we got back into D.C. too.

Today's thing has to be the waving.  In Japan, tourists are welcomed and sent off with waving.  Lots of waving.  I'm not talking about a curt flip of the hand, I mean full-out arm-flapping waving.  Also, the people doing the waving are not just shopkeepers or bell hops, but also random people in the street waving at your tourist bus.  We had a line of hotel people wave at our tour bus until we were completely out of sight.  Even the baggage handlers working on the airport runway stopped what they were doing to wave at our plane as it departed.  To me, that is true generosity: to wave knowing that you will not be able to see the return wave (or planting trees in whose shade you do not expect to sit as the saying goes.)

So.  Tokyo.

The second day was jam-packed.  We hopped out of bed bright and early and snapped a picture of the Tokyo Tower from our hotel room as the sun was rising.

Then we jumped onto a boat that cruised along the river towards Asakusa.  We got to see the many bridges that connect the different parts of Tokyo.

  

Of course, Asakusa was jam-packed with people -- everywhere in Tokyo is jam-packed with people.  We made our way through the crowds, to the Sensoji Temple.

From there we walked to lunch before hopping on our bus again to make our way to the Hama Rikyu Gardens.  Which were absolutely lovely and I would have loved going...except for the fact that I had already been the day before when Jamie insisted that we walk a few extra miles in the rain to get there after we got back from Ueno Park.  So I was a little bitter.  But it was still beautiful...

We then head to Ginza (which is sort of like the Rodeo Drive of Tokyo).  It's Rodeo Drive on steroids.

Incidentally, if you would like to just see a bunch of our Japan pictures at once check out my Flickr account.  Oh!  And comment on the pictures -- I like knowing that there may be someone out there who actually is looking at my blog/pictures!

Kon'nichiwa.

We're back from our whirlwind trip to Japan! The time went by so quickly and we were able to see so much in that time that I can't believe we have to go back to work tomorrow!

I am nervous about the jetlag -- I didn't get much sleep on the plane ride over and was absolutely konked out by the time we arrived in D.C. The 13-hour time difference meant that while we left 12 hours earlier in Japan...it was only one hour later in our new time zone. Jamie and I had planned on getting up at a normal hour so that we could get back on schedule as we could this morning. Instead, we somehow slept through the alarm and woke up at an embarrassingly late hour. As in the latest either of us have ever slept in our lives...by a few hours. When we finally woke up...it was almost 2...PM. Sure that would be 1am in Japan time...and I had only gotten about 1.5 hours of sleep the previous night...but still. Shameful.

As if to shame us more, of course, it was a beautiful day outside.

And of course, I have to get up for work in about five hours and I am not the least bit tired.

Since we were in Japan for such a short amount of time, our days were packed full of things to do and see. As such, by the time I got back to the hotels I just collapsed into bed. So...I didn't prepare any posts while I was gone. Still, since this blog has really become most valuable as a tool for me to look back and remember such times, I figured I should at least try and go through my week in Japan here. So I'll try...bear with me. And if you can't, just take a look at the pretty pictures and skip to the next post instead.

Jamie and I left D.C. on Saturday afternoon and arrived in Japan on Sunday morning. Combatting jetlag as best we could, we vowed not to nap and instead jump right into things. We navigated the Japanese subway system -- which is nuts -- and headed to Ueno Park to see the cherryblossoms. Granted, there were cherryblossoms everywhere in Japan, but not in the concentrations we saw at Ueno Park. It was wild.

We walked around the park and got to see some shrines and street vendors. One observation about Japan is that it is a very colorful place.

We hopped back on the subway and went to the opposite side of Tokyo to visit Shibuya (which is basically the nightlife center of Japan.)

And while there, we crossed the "busiest crosswalk in the world" according to something Jamie read.

Mind you, this is the crosswalk at a not-busy time (Monday evening).

Anyway, it is ridiculously late for me to be going to bed on a weeknight and tired or not, I need to give it a try. I'll update again soon with more pictures and with some of my favorite observations about Japan.

Set to Jet.

There are about a hundred different things I should be doing right now...none of which is "update my blog."  But update I will.  Maybe it's procrastination from packing.

That's right.  Packing.  Jamie and I are headed to JAPAN tomorrow afternoon!  My school is out for Spring Break and Congress is on recess...hurrah!  Of course, we get to travel with my parents which has many great benefits including having someone fluent in the language and the fact that if Jamie and I had to pool together our savings for this trip it would have been a much shorter voyage.  Maybe something along the lines as a trip to Alexandria or something.

It is pretty daunting to think of the fact that we will be traveling so far for so little time.  It gives me a headache to think of returning to work the day after returning.  But so worth it.  I will be sure to take lots and lots of pictures.  While, I will not be able to blog from Japan (without paying exorbitant quantities of yen), I will try to make a point of writing something down each day and do a series of back posts when I return to the U.S.

But now, for something completely different.

Jamie and I went to the National Opera to see Porgy and Bess yesterday.  It was wonderful.  While I was familiar with the storyline and the music, I had never seen the actual opera.  It's nice when the male lead is a Bass-Baritone like my man, and not one of those Tenors.

While the show was fantastic, there was one mishap.  Unfortunately, the mishap had to happen at the most cringe-inducing time too.  On the final note, of the final song for the female lead (Bess), with hands in the air and hitting that high note, one of the walls came crashing down.  The man in the song saw it coming down and immediately rushed to safety...not thinking to pull her out of the way.  The audience was gasping/screaming and Bess was too wrapped up in her song to realize until the last second that she was about to get a three-story piece of plywood falling upon her head.  She crashed right through it, leaving a Bess-shaped hole in it and the curtain came rushing down.  The show went on after a 30 second pause.

Fortunately, Bess was okay and only looked embarrassed by it when it came time for the curtain call.  I was mad at that guy for not pulling her out of the way in a great show of heroism.  But, I'm sure it all happened so fast that he couldn't do much...

Jamie, bless his heart, turned to me immediately after the wall came down and said: "...um.  I don't think that was supposed to happen."

Okay.  So I now I should pack.  Prepare yourself for some pictures of authentic, Japanese Cherryblossoms when I get back.  I love getting a double dose of them in Japan and in D.C.

Oh Dubya.

While I love my dad and think he is the cat's pajamas we do not generally see eye to eye when it comes to great American leaders.`

Remember when W wiped his glasses on some random lady's shirt and then laughed about it on camera? No? Thank goodness for YouTube.

This is like that, except now he's a former President...wiping off a HANDSHAKE...on another former President...Bill Clinton.

Head-Exploding Cuteness.

Such a proud auntie. I literally got this video a minute ago and I cannot wait one more second to share it with the adoring masses.

Just One of Dem Days.

It's been one of those days where everyone (well, not everyone, but definitely more people than I could count on one hand) asks me "if everything is alright?" While I know I feel dead-tired...apparently, I look dead-tired too.

Must be time for some acapella simulator. You know you want to try it. It's way cool.

Go Time.

This has been all over the interwebs lately, but I figured I shouldn't let that stop me from posting it here. After all, I've made something of a habit posting Ok Go! videos here...(in case you are feeling nostalgic, they are here and here.)

This latest one features one crazy, CRAZY Rube Goldberg machine. And this time, we are given some hint as to how many countless attempts and do-overs they must have done to get it just right. Bless their hearts and paint-covered faces...