Posted on

Japan – Day 10 (Kyoto)

My day started off early, I was actually out the door by 7:30am and walked to Kyoto station to take a train to Arashiyama. First, I hiked over to the bamboo forest because I heard if you don’t get there early it is SWARMED with tourists taking photos. Which is funny, because before social media that place was usually empty, except for people taking engagement photos or whatever professionally. Well, once again the secret is out, and it’s packed by 8am. R.I.P. Bamboo Forest and Nanzenji aqueduct, two cool places now taken over by Instagrammers!

After the forest, I went next door to Tenryuji, a temple on the edge of the mountains with a gorgeous koi pond and autumn leaves. Then I took a walk over the river bridge to Monkey Mountain, which is now marked with lots of signs and pictures of baby monkeys. At least, that’s what we called it 15ish years ago, now it’s known as Iwatayama Park. Back then, it wasn’t advertised much, and the only way I found out about it was a local told me. Then to get there you had to get a hand drawn map, and the entrance wasn’t marked, and you had to walk 20 minutes or so uphill on these stairs that were falling apart with no railings, and finally when you got to the top there was a small shack where YOU went inside if you wanted to feed the monkeys. There were a few benches, and an open area to see the monkeys. The rest was all forest for the monkeys to go to where they wanted. Now they expanded the shack to include toilets and an office and to accommodate that they brought in electrical power lines up the mountain, they built a second path to control the crowds going in and out (because the crowds are crazy now compared to then…I saw more people there just today than I did the other dozen times I’ve been there combined!) and paved portions of it, they put in rest areas and a playground for kids, more benches for people to sit, they do a “feeding” show to lure the monkeys out, and worse they destroyed a lot of the woods behind the shack so tourists could go up closer to the monkeys. So, more tourists (particularly kids), more feeding, less forests, leads to a population explosion. The troop up there used to be about 50, now there are over 120. When I was there before, I didn’t have any concerns about the monkeys. They were happy, healthy, “friendly”, and in great shape. Today, there were several that looked like they had some sort of urinary tract infection going on, three that had back legs they wouldn’t put on the ground like they were broken or twisted, and they were constantly fighting. The keepers (now 5 instead of just 2) said it was because it was mating season, which is true I suppose; but I can barely recall infighting before when they were one troop. Now their population is so big they’ve separated into multiple troops and have less area to live in, which is likely the bigger reason why they were almost constantly fighting. It’s still a great place for photos, but it made me really uncomfortable seeing it now versus my memory of how it was before. I have to say it broke my heart a little, that mountain was one of my favorite places in Japan. I went almost once a month, weather depending, when I lived here. I have so many photos of the monkeys from 15+ years ago, I was looking at the adult monkeys to try and recognize any of them since they can live up to 30 years, but I guess I’m not that good with monkey identification, I didn’t spot anyone I knew. Anyway, I walked back down and hopped on a bus to Kinkakuji, the Golden Pavilion.

If I thought the crowds were bad here before they are insane now, thousands of people were in the park grounds. It wasn’t unexpected, Kinkakuji was always crowded even back then. However, this time double decker mega tour buses were coming 3 or 4 at a time and dumping hundreds of people off all at once. It was a never ending stream, and took some patience to get photos. I got it done and made my way around the grounds to exit, except they changed it. The mega buses must have been enough of a problem that they plowed a big part of the trees at the exit and turned it into a tour bus parking lot. Buses were pulling in and out of the cramped space and there wasn’t really a separate walkway for people. As I was trying to exit, I passed by where the handicap taxis were on the right and they were unloading a young girl into her wheelchair. Just as I and a couple others were about to walk past, a mega bus whipped into the lot and pulled forward so fast we all had to stop in between two handicap taxis where they were trying to unload the girl. As the bus pulled forward the driver paid so little attention what was going on anywhere but in front of him he actually side swiped the handicap taxi, pushing it into all of us waiting on the ground and almost squishing us between the two taxis where we were sandwiched. There was nowhere to go, so when the taxi he hit started being shoved sideways all we could do was jump away and fall into each other. Fortunately the dad of the handicap girl had the instinct to grab her out of the wheelchair before we all were pushed into it, and everyone grabbed each other to support one another so no one actually fell. It was the passengers on the bus yelling at the driver that actually got him to stop, and so we all walked away unharmed even though the taxi took some damage. After we all checked that everyone was okay and the bus was repositioned out of the way, I stuck around for a couple minutes just to make sure we weren’t needed for an accident report or anything, then moved along.

Up to that point I was kind of sad about the crowds, but wasn’t letting it damper my mood and actually felt like I was having a good day; once that happened though I was really sour and although my next stop was going to be Ryoanji I decided I was done with mega bus crowds and wanted to go to Nishiki Market. So I walked to the bus stop and waited almost half an hour for a bus Google Maps said I should take that kept not coming and when it finally did come and I hopped on, it wound up going in the complete opposite direction I needed to go and then ended just a few stops down. I’ve realized that unlike everywhere else modern in the world, Kyoto doesn’t sync its bus system with Google Maps…neither its routes nor timetable, so Google Maps so far has been roughly 40% accurate on getting me from point A to point B. No biggie, just FYI if you ever come here. When the bus route ended, I checked my map to figure out where the heck he brought me. Well, turns out he took me right near Ryoanji. I figured if the transportation gods really wanted me to be at a Zen temple today then I may as well go in. Since it was almost the end of the day it was pretty quiet with only a few dozen people. It was a nice, quiet stroll through the trees and rock garden. After that, I got on the CORRECT bus and made it to Nishiki Market.

It was almost closing time, so I raced through to check it out. I wound up in a cat specific store where everything was cat based. In Japan, cats are welcome and black cats are considered good luck. So there are stores with nothing but black cat merchandise, and stores like this one that only sell cat themed stuff. Of course I had to go in, and I ended up buying like $70 worth of stuff. The two shopkeepers were super friendly, and I hung out for a while just laughing and chatting with them and showing each other photos of our cats at home. By the time my orders were done, the market had definitely closed and only a few stores were left open. I did stop by a grilled crab place that was still open, got some Udon at a cheap stand up shop, and then walked down the regular shopping district for a bit.

It was almost 7pm by then and I was tired, so I headed to where Google Maps again said I should go to get a bus to my hotel. I got on the bus, and it immediately turned the opposite direction I needed to go and went over half a mile before it stopped again. Uggggghh…between waiting for and riding the wrong bus my 5 minute ride to the hotel turned into a 30 minute detour. I had to walk all the way back to where I was to begin with. I had been eyeing the Baskin Robbins there before I took the wrong bus, so this time I decided to go in. I got this mint and chocolate concoction and realized after I started eating it that it had Poprocks in it and not minty things. It was the weirdest feeling, but kinda cool. After eating, I went back to the bus stop and got on the CORRECT bus back to my hotel. I logged almost 15km today, my feet are so done!

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!

Posted on

Japan – Day 7 (Hakone)

I’ve had a bad day, so this is just going to be a long winded bitching whining journal entry. Feel free to skip it if you want.

As a society in America, we tend to only talk about the good things and not mention the bad. Especially on social media and particularly when we travel, we like to show only that we’re having the time of our life even when there are down days. Then we watch everyone seemingly having a blast and feel bad about the boring, everyday life we’re leading at that moment. This is totally not representative of reality, the truth is even on the best days there’s always some down part or some annoyance. And other days the day is just a total waste. Today was one of those days for me.

When I woke up the sun was out, so after breakfast I decided to take a chance and go back to Hakone. First, I accidentally left my keycard in my room, so I had to get another one to get in and get my first one. I kept the first original card and gave the second one back, but that delayed me, so by the time I got to the train station it was already 10:00am. Next I went to check out this “Hakone Pass” I had heard about the day before. The sign said it was for 1-2 days, so I had assumed the $45 dollar price was for the one day with an option for 2 days for more, but actually it was flat out for two days. Why they say 1-2 days and not just 2 days, I have no idea, but I could have bought this pass yesterday and not wasted the $35 I spent paying on my IC card. The $45 pass for the day was still a good deal though, seeing how I wanted to do the cable car, ropeway, and pirate boat lake tour, so I purchased it and headed to the train.

Took the train to the end of the line, then walked over to the bus stop. The line for the bus stop wrapped allllll the way around the station. Since the typhoon damaged the train line to Gora in Hakone, the only way to get there is by bus. So after waiting about 30 minutes for the bus, I was finally on my way to Gora where the cable cars start. We got to Gora and unloaded towards the cable car, only to find out right as we were walking up to it that they cancelled both the cable car AND the ropeway for the day due to high winds. The fact that they didn’t tell us this when we bought our passes in Odawara, considering the bulk of the fee is for those two attractions, is bullshit. With the ropeway down that meant they were also sending all of the tourists in the complete OPPOSITE direction of where we all needed to be to get to the lake. Some people were getting belligerent with the non-English speaking conductor, but I’ve been here enough times to know that it’s pointless to argue or ask for a refund in this country. The Japanese are polite, and give good service, but when things go wrong they won’t do a damn thing to fix it most of the time, at least not without making you pay more one way or the other. Fortunately it’s very rare that things go wrong, which is why I think they don’t have a system to fix things. When something does go wrong, you’re shit out of luck, the entire country has a “no refund for any reason” policy just so you know, and getting worked up about it accomplishes nothing. This isn’t America.

I turned my butt around and went to the bus stop and wound up getting crunched between a group of people with waaaay too much luggage, they blocked the entire back of the bus and I had to practically climb over them when I got to the transfer point to yet another bus. Finally 45 minutes later I was at the lake. So, now being about 2pm we got to the bottom of where the ropeway would have gone if it were open via standing room only bus. I did make friends with a very lovely Australian couple during this little adventure, so when we finally got to the pier we all got some extremely overpriced cafeteria food and ate together.

Then as we were finishing up we noticed the boat was about to leave, so we put our stuff away and practically ran to the boat. The three of us were the last ones on. Once on the boat we all realized exactly why the ropeway was closed, the winds almost knocked you off your feet. Anything not tied down was blowing away, and everyone started doing the Titanic pose on the upper deck as a joke. Despite such a ridiculous transportation day everyone WAS trying to keep a positive mind about it all. The clouds were low and the sky was dark as we left port, but as we approached the first stop the wind whipped clouds actually started to break up and let sunlight through. Lo and behold, by the time we left the second stop the clouds parted for roughly 3 minutes for a perfect view of Mt. Fuji just as we were passing Hakone Shrine. I’m glad I did Hakone Shrine yesterday, the winds and waves were so strong people couldn’t go down onto the platform today. I did the hour tour around the lake, and when we got back to our starting point I asked if the ropeway was still down and they said yeah, so I gave up for the day and got back on the boat. There was no way I was going to take two buses and a train to get back to Odawara when there’s an express bus on the other side of the lake. Luck was against me again though, I got stuck standing once more. Also, even though the bus sign says it goes to Odawara, and the map shows it goes to Odawara, and the guides all said it goes to Odawara…it actually doesn’t, it just takes you to the train station that you have to transfer to in order to get to Odawara. I hate the Japanese bus system…

So while I didn’t die or get sick or anything like that, from a tourist experience standpoint, I basically I spent roughly 5 hours standing in a bus or train to catch a 3 minute glimpse of Fuji which I already saw yesterday. What an annoying waste of a day. Then again, I suppose there are worse ways to spend a day, I did meet some nice people and get a few good photos. Also, just FYI but the promo posters showing Mt. Fuji super close over the lake are completely photoshopped. You can see Fuji yeah, but way off in the distance like okay that’s cool but not amazing. Anyway, I was in a bad mood from all of that so instead of eating in a restaurant I went to the 7-11 and got a sandwich, onigiri, and Smirnoff Ice because when it comes to alcohol this country is stuck about 20 years in the past. I did find a hard cider finally but it’s only 3% so meh.

I went back to the hotel, and since I had kept the first keycard and not the second one the card I had didn’t work, so I had to go back down and get yet another new one. I know, I know, first world problems and all that, but god damnit I was tired and almost getting to that “straw that broke the camel’s back” status. I showered, ate, and made plans for Kyoto for the rest of the night. At one point someone tried to come into my room, so I think they may have forgotten that I switched rooms last night (they tried to put me in a room behind the elevator where my window had a gorgeous view of the inside of the elevator maintenance area…hahaha no. I immediately made them move me to a nicer room). Now my neighbors are being REALLY loud right now…ugh. UPDATE: And someone pulled the fire alarm for no reason in the middle of the night. Nice.

I gotta say, under the right conditions I’m sure Hakone is great. It is beautiful for sure, but the weather is so unpredictable, the prices are outrageous, the crowds are unmanageable, and the transportation system can’t accommodate everyone. So unless you plan waaaaay far ahead, or have the money to stay in an expensive resort on the lake for at least two days, I wouldn’t recommend it. Or, maybe I’d recommend a day trip out here if you check the weather to be sure it’s 100% perfect beforehand. Otherwise, if it’s cloudy or windy or a weekend or holiday or just a day where a bird flapped its wings the wrong way, it’s not worth the time and money. I won’t be coming back. I kinda wish I had gone to Kawaguchi instead, it’s right at the base of Mt. Fuji and their autumn colors look amazing right now. True, it’s harder to get to than Hakone which is why I came here instead, but after these past two days I’m thinking the extra travel time to get over there is worth it particularly when travel within Hakone is so terrible.

Well, shitty days are just part of life even when on vacation, and considering this is my first complete bust since I started traveling on August 9th…I’ll take it. It just needs to not happen again pleeeeease!!