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Japan – Day 18 (Kyoto)

I got up and packed for the trip back to Kyoto. I wasn’t in a rush, so I took a cheaper local train back. I liked the hotel I stayed at last time, so I rebooked with them and dropped my luggage off at the counter. Since it was near closing when I went to Nishiki Market last time, I walked back over there and took my time strolling through the shopping center. I was feeling jealous of all of your lovely Thanksgiving turkey photos (seriously you guys, you all outdid yourself this year every picture everyone posted looked amazing!) because turkey isn’t really a thing here. So instead I went to an A5 wagyu beef restaurant and had a sirloin steak. It was pretty delicious, I think Kobe beef is still the best but A5 wagyu is pretty dang close! I picked up some souvenirs at the market, then went back to the hotel to check in. I was a little nervous when I walked up and my bag was no longer in the bag storage area, but turns out they went ahead and carried it up to my room for me once it was ready. Since this was my second stay here in two weeks they moved me up to the top with a gorgeous view of the garden across the street. After settling in, I took a seat by the window and watched the sun set over the mountains in the distance.

The only thing I don’t like about Kyoto is that there’s not much night life. There’s arguably only one real “bar” area, and most stuff around here shuts down after dark. One of the few places with things still to do and see is around the Gion district, and since I hadn’t properly explored that yet aside from Yasaka Shrine I decided to hop on the train and take a walk. I didn’t have any luck spotting Maiko, but I did stumble upon a Hard Rock Café I didn’t even know existed so I got my travel pin, and wandered back over to Yasaka Shrine and picked up some street food. Then I headed back to the hotel and jumped in the soaking tub for a bit because dang it got cold FAST. I need to get one of those installed wherever I decide to settle down!

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Japan – Day 15 (Himeji)

Today was the opposite of yesterday, I guess I forgot to close my window before I fell asleep last night so I woke up at 5am freezing and with the morning delivery truck making noise outside. I couldn’t get back to sleep. When my alarm went off at 6am I went ahead and got up, showered, and out the door. I took the bullet train to Himeji, and walked over to one of the biggest and most gorgeous castles in Japan, in my opinion.

Himeji Castle is more of a spring castle, there are so many old cherry trees around it that during sakura season you can barely breathe there are so many people here, and that was 15 years ago so I can’t imagine it now! In the fall there’s not so much of a crowd, but it’s still gorgeous. I walked way up to the top floor, then back down and all around the outside, then back in to the side buildings and corridors. Then I went next door to Koko-en garden, which is definitely gorgeous during the fall with momiji, waterfalls, gigantic koi bigger than I’ve ever seen before, and mini-themed garden patches all hooked up in a maze. I hadn’t been there before, so it took me about an hour to get to it all. I walked through the shopping streets on my way back to the station, and went back to Osaka.

Since I couldn’t eat crab last night I made a reservation for tonight, and put on my comfy pants and a t-shirt and headed to Dotonbori to get fat. It was $50 all you can eat snow crab legs within 90 minutes, they also had a full buffet of other foods and you could order everything from raw crab (crab sashimi) to crab tempura. Well, 90 minutes was plenty of time, and I had to be practically rolled out of there. I’m probably solely responsible for the deaths of like 8 crabs tonight! All I wanted to do after eating that much was go lay in bed, and sleep early, so that’s the plan!

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Japan – Day 14 (Nara)

I was back on the struggle bus getting up this morning. I think I just need to accept that I am not a morning person. I have never been a morning person, I am not a morning person, I will never be a morning person…not even when traveling to far and away places can I drag myself out of bed before 7am, preferably not before 9am. At nearly 38 years old this is highly unlikely to change, and I need to acknowledge that. Oh, well.

So I got up, showered, and jumped on the train to Nara. Nara is famous for the wild deer they have running around loose. It’s a managed herd so they take care of them and fix them up if they’re hurt and watch for disease, but they are still wild animals and there are over a thousand of them running all throughout the park. They are so used to people, they barely flinch when a person or a car goes by and as long as you feed them biscuits you can take selfies and pet them. They’ve even been trained to bow their heads in exchange for a treat, like how Japanese people bow to each other to say please and thank you. Although, it’s kind of backfired because now they think if they bow they automatically get a treat and if you don’t have one to give they get mad at you and sometimes headbutt you! That’s why the caregivers go around and saw off their antlers so they don’t hurt anyone. As with everywhere else, the place was far busier than it used to be, but since it’s such a huge area it was manageable for the most part. The only place that was overly crowded was along the creek where the momiji were lined up, which is basically the prettiest spot, so I didn’t get to really take the photos I wanted. I went over and into Todaiji Temple and checked out the giant Buddha statue there. This is the place that has the hole in one of the pillars and if you fit through it you get good luck, and I was able to fit through it last time I was here…but now I’m about 50 pounds heavier so I didn’t even bother to try. No way am I getting through there now! It was still fun to watch the kids wiggling through, and the occasional misguided adult. After the temple I stopped and got some basic soba noodles at a little local shop. Personally I prefer udon and ramen, but soba isn’t terrible and I felt like changing it up. I stopped at another smaller temple, Kofukuji, but didn’t go in and did some shopping in the little street mall by the train station. Then got back on the train to Osaka.

I wanted to go to the all you can eat crab buffet tonight, but they were booked up. So I made a reservation for tomorrow and went to an Okonomiyaki specialty place along the river by Dotonbori. It was a cute place, they even drew a bunny and wrote the date on it in the sauces for decoration, plus it was delicious!

Then I wandered over to Shinsaibashi, which is sort of equivalent to Chicago’s Magnificent Mile; it’s where all the name brand shops and higher end stuff is located right next door to the cheap and knock off stuff. So it’s really a street for all people to find something. I found a store that sold only pet clothes and bought all of my cats’ kimono. Can’t wait to put the kimono on them and take photos of them looking at me with murderous intent… After buying what will ultimately cause my untimely death later this year, I took the train back to the hotel and called it a night.