Posted on

Japan – Day 12 (off to Osaka!)

I woke up already feeling a bit burnt out, so I decided today was going to be one of those “do nothing but you’re really doing something” type of days. I laid in bed for a while, then got up and strolled over to Starbucks for a mocha and chocolate chunk scone, and sat and people watched for a while. I headed back to the hotel and packed up, and my plan was to do more stuff in Kyoto but I decided I kinda would rather just get over to Osaka before the trains got too packed. So I ditched my plans and hopped on the train (which ended up being packed anyway because this is Japan!) That left me with no plans at all, so after dropping off my suitcase at the hotel I pulled up Google Maps to see what was around within walking distance. There was a local park, Ogimachi Park, just a 10 minute walk to the north, so I decided to take a walk north. The park isn’t a tourist destination, it’s for locals, so there’s a walking path and a big empty dirt/gravel area in the middle where kids were playing soccer, families were playing catch and badminton, friends were tossing Frisbees, and a high school or young college age dance troop was practicing their routines.

I parked myself in the shade under a tree (it was a gorgeous, sunny 70 degree day with a light breeze), pulled out my much neglected book, and watched the dancers practice in between chapters. There was about 40 of them, and they first started with a full routine they all knew that was loud, energetic, and really fun looking. When I say dance troop I’m not talking about jazz or ballet, this was like acrobatic dancing with flared hands, high jumps, whipping their heads back, twisting and turning, every part of their body moving into the next step…like dancing and gymnastics rolled into one. It was really cool to watch their performance and practice their new routine. When traveling, I can get so wrapped up in the GO GO GO of it all that I forget to just sit and appreciate where I am, and have gratitude for the experience I’m having. This was one of those moments where I was having more fun just sitting in the dirt watching these kids having a blast than I’ve had the past two days walking 15km+ knocking out tourist hot spots, and I really needed that moment without even realizing I needed it. After an hour or so of practicing their new routine I pulled out my camera to record because honestly they were just SO into it and it was really funny, and one of them saw me recording and called me out so a bunch of them turned to wave and did their next practice round with EXTRA energy for my benefit which was cute. It instantly put me in a great mood that lasted for the rest of the day. After sitting in the park reading and watching for a couple hours it was time to officially check into my hotel, so I walked back and got my room.

Now, back in the day I really wasn’t a fan of Osaka. There were so many people, and they were so rushed, and I found them to be really rude compared to Kyoto, and I hated the crowds, so I tried to avoid it. But there was one thing that I went there for specifically, and that was the ribs at Hard Rock Café. Man, those ribs would just fall off the bone they were so good! So that was the first thing I looked up, and I noticed they were not where they used to be and I was a bit worried that maybe they’d changed a lot over the years. Regardless, I took the train over and ordered ribs. My worries were unfounded, the meat practically fell of the bone just like I remembered and it was delicious, still some of the best ribs I’ve ever had. After eating basically noodles and rice for a week some real meat was appreciated! The good thing about their new location is they’re on a main street, which just happens to be having their Festival of Lights. It’s similar to Chicago how they put lights on all of the trees and bushes and stuff for the holiday season, except instead of just a mile stretch with all white lights they do about a 3 mile stretch with different colored lights. I only walked the mile from Hard Rock Café to Dotonbori, and the lights were a rainbow of colors in that section.

Once at Dotonbori, which could be called Food Lovers Heaven since it’s like half a mile of straight restaurants, street food, and bars, I found the Glico Man and the giant creepy moving crab again. As I was strolling through, I noticed a boat tour was about to leave so I grabbed a ticket and jumped on that because, why not? It was a short ride, but gave an interesting 360 view of the Dotonbori shopping area. It’s on my list to eat both fugu (poisonous blowfish) and crab while I’m here since that’s what this area is most known for, but after eating my weight in bbq meat a couple hours prior I wasn’t hungry at all. So I jumped on the subway back to the hotel and called it a night.

Posted on

Japan – Day 9 (Kyoto)

I was going to see my monkey buddies today, but the weather was spotty with random rain showers and climbing up a dirt path mountain is the last thing you want to do in Kyoto when it’s raining! So instead of going northwest, I went northeast with my first stop at the famous Kiyomizudera. The momiji here were at peak, and everywhere you looked was gorgeous. I was only planning on spending an hour here, but I ended up staying for three as I took a ton of photos of the gorgeous foliage. The main temple is completely under restoration, which was a bummer, but not a big deal since there was plenty to look at. A stray rainbow even popped up behind the pagoda at one point, which was great!

Tourism in Kyoto has definitely skyrocketed since I was last here, and some groups have been particularly rude and practically bully other tourists out of the way for their photos. I’m not talking about if someone gets in their shot, I mean someone is taking a photo and they will literally push people out of the way or tell them to move because they want the same location. I first noticed this back when I was in Yellowstone, I was baffled by their behavior at first, but it’s apparently an international problem with these people. They come in on multiple mega-buses and SWARM the tourist attractions and shove everyone else off. I’ve run into them enough times now that when they do try to bully me or others I push them right back, or if they shove I’ll just stand there and not let them take their photo until they politely ask (the only good thing about being a short and stout dwarf class is that you can stand your ground pretty well), or worst case tell them clearly and loudly: NO they can wait their turn. They back off quickly, of course. I never had a problem with these groups before and was rather indifferent towards them, but the Japanese are so polite and there are a LOT of bad eggs with these groups of people (based on my worldwide experience at this point, I’ve noticed it everywhere I’ve went) they’re honestly starting to piss me off. There’s nothing you can really do about it though, hard to be mad at tourists when you yourself are a tourist, right?

After grabbing some udon and relaxing on a tatami mat and watching the foliage and people cleansing in the water fountain for a while, I packed up and headed over to Yasaka Shrine. The foliage here was nice too, and it’s a huge temple, but not quite what I was looking for today so I moved along to Nanzenji temple. Along the way to all of these places I kept stopping at other less popular shrines and temples like Kodaiji Temple, Maruyama Park, and Chion-in. Everything is alive and colorful this time of year! Also since I had my big camera out people would come to me to ask for photos, this is not unusual and the same as in America and I think it’s hilarious. Like reverse paparazzi. So I spent a lot of time taking photos of other people and families with their cameras, so many cute little kids and Japanese babies almost make me want to reconsider not having children. That being said, I didn’t make it through my full itinerary for today. Ah well, that’s why I made sure I was staying in this area for 2 weeks!

After Nanzenji I braved the bus back to the hotel, since it was rush hour we were all jammed in right up against one another. Welcome to Japan! Back at the hotel, I jumped right into the hot deep soaker tub and tried an interesting pear cider which was pretty dang strong, and a weak alcohol orange soda of some sort. Then I spent some time clearing out photo memory cards because they’re already full! That’s the opposite of a problem though.

Posted on

Japan – Day 8 (off to Kyoto!)

Kyoto my love, my second home, my lifeblood, I am in you! I got up, ate breakfast and checked out of my hotel in Odawara. I had an hour to kill before my Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto, so I walked over to the local castle just to check it out. It wasn’t an old castle, the original one had been demolished during the Meiji era and the castle that remained was reconstructed in the 1960s with more stuff added through 2016. Still, it was alright. I grabbed the “lunch of champions” at Lawsons before heading to the train station: salmon onigiri, egg sandwich, pop, and a Pikachu donut for dessert; then took my seat for the ride out. The guy that sat next to me was really friendly, and we chatted the entire way out.

Once we arrived in Kyoto and checked into my hotel, I walked across the street to Shosei-en garden, which had some lovely momiji trees. This actually worked out pretty well, even though the fall colors in the Tokyo area weren’t all that great, down here the gingko are at peak, and the momiji are just coming up to peak. So if all goes well I’ll be seeing colors everywhere for the 2 weeks I’m in the region! After wandering the garden for a while I started heading to Kyoto Tower, but spotted a huge temple out of the corner of my eye and changed course to go check it out. Once I got there I realized exactly where I was. Higashi-Honganji Temple was the very first temple I visited my very first time in Kyoto. The nostalgia is real y’all, and I got to say hello to the most gorgeous dragon fountain I’ve ever seen once again after 15 years. After wandering around for half an hour they announced they were closing and kicked everyone out, so I continued on to Kyoto Tower and went up just as the sun went down over the mountains. I hung out up top chatting with a guy from Detroit for a while, then headed out to Kyoto station.

It’s funny, when I was here before they were still working on the station extension and half of the outdoor terrace feature was still empty or under construction. You could go up to the top, but there was nothing there. This time they had it all finished, with restaurants and shopping and a gigantic Christmas tree, and the stairs up the 10 floors lit up in tune with music like a continuous rainbow and seeing it finished now was really cool. I went to the top where there were restaurants, but each one had a line out the door so I went back down and found the tourist information center. The last time I was here it was a little desk once you exited the train, but that’s now a building information center, and the tourist center is much larger with a fancy room to itself off to the side. That being said that’s all that changed, the people working the tourist information booth were still super eager to help, pulling out maps and plans and bus schedules and event schedules and giving you so much information on what to do, where to go, and how to do it that it was almost overwhelming…and I practically lived here before! I took everything, I’ll have a backpack tomorrow and will bring stuff with me just in case. I thanked them for all of their help then went back out to find food.

I ended up at a ramen shop not far from my hotel that was really good, then stopped at 7-11 to pick up snacks for the next couple days. For some reason this 7-11 actually had an alcohol selection that didn’t just include beer, so I decided to experiment with some of these new options (Strawberry Pocky flavored malt beverage, anyone? Delish!) and there were a bunch more to try out that I left behind because I didn’t want to look like an alcoholic by grabbing them all at once. After getting back to the hotel I jumped into the deep soaking tub and had my drinks while trying to plan out the next few days.

I think tomorrow I’m going to get up and head straight out to the northwest to visit my favorite buddies out at Sawayama, monkey mountain. I used to go out there at least once a month when it was warm enough back in the day. Then I’ll make my way north hitting all the various temples until I get to the Golden Pavilion. I’m sure by the time I get there it’s going to be packed, but I want to see my monkey friends first thing. I can’t wait! After the day I had yesterday, I’m so much happier being in Kyoto now! Oh, plus I noticed today that my pants kept sliding down. So I pulled out my belt to check and I’ve lost almost 4 inches on my waist since I started traveling in August!