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Japan – Day 21 (Kyoto)

Well, I was a bit bummed today. I was going to go back to Hikone and see the teachers at JCMU, but I got an email from them this morning that the reason their schedules were clear this week is because it’s finals week and the students are all doing their conversation finals in the afternoon. I completely forgot about that, I think I mentally blocked that out; but as soon as I read the explanation I had like PTSD flashbacks of giving those presentations and how they were back-to-back and just uggggghhh, oh nooooo, yes I understand. Poor kids, and poor teachers. I’m frustrated at myself for not checking in at JCMU earlier, I could have gone last week, but hindsight is 20/20. I seriously thought none of them were there anymore!

With my plans for the day dashed, I started thinking of what else I could do today when I heard thunder outside so I opened the blinds and sure enough it was POURING outside. Maybe not going to Hikone wasn’t a bad thing (15 minutes walking to Kyoto Station, 1.25 hours on the train, 40 minutes walking to JCMU in pouring rain…) So I pretty much just stayed in the hotel and played video games and relaxed on my bed.

Finally around 4pm the clouds broke just in time for sunset. I was getting hungry at this point, so I got dressed and walked to Kyoto Station to pick up my train ticket to Tokyo for tomorrow then went down into the sublevels for food. I was looking for donburi of some sort, but ended up finding a taco place! I can’t recall ever seeing a taco place here, so of course I got some chicken tacos. Then I went a little further to a gyoza place where they make it all from scratch and got some of those.

After eating, I decided I didn’t really want to go back to the hotel yet, and I’ve read that Fushimi Inari is cool (and kind of creepy) at night rather than the crowded daytime hours, so I got on the train over there. I’ve been before and it wasn’t on my list for this trip because even back then it was so crowded you could barely move, but it hadn’t occurred to me before to go at night since it’s open 24/7. Sure enough, there was hardly anyone there, and it was really cool and creepy. I didn’t climb all the way up to the top of Mt. Inari, my legs were actually pretty sore from all of the climbing at Mt. Hiei yesterday, but I got halfway up to the viewpoint that overlooks Kyoto then made my way back down with a nice couple from Taiwan. At one point a shrine cat spotted us and walked in front of us for a while until we reached his exit, so we all patted him before going the rest of the way down. I got back on the train and walked to the hotel, then started packing up for the trip to Tokyo tomorrow.

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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 13 (Osaka)

I woke up super comfy and didn’t want to move, so I dozed for a couple hours before finally getting up and showering. I stopped and got some coffee and a scone, then made my way to Osaka Aquarium. The specialty of this aquarium is its whale sharks, at least until they get too big for the tank at which point they release them and move one of their younger research sharks to the tank in a continuing cycle. There are currently two whale sharks in there now, one being Kai who has been there several years and is about to get released into the ocean for continued research. I looked through all their exhibits, but sat and watched the big tank for at least a half hour. So many fish and sharks in a massive three story mega tank! The setup of this aquarium is really cool, and it’s my favorite.

After wandering the aquarium for a couple hours, I made my way to Osaka Castle and took some pictures ofthe outside (I’ve been in it before, it’s very modern since it was rebuilt in the 1930s and upgraded after it burned down way back in the day) and checked out the gardens and street performances. It was about to start raining, so I headed back to the hotel and stopped at the store to pick up supplies for the next week. I laid in bed and watched the grand finale of the sumo wrestling tournament that’s been going on, then went down the street for some ramen. I spent the rest of the night planning out this week and trying to decide what I’m going to do for the few days of December that I’m here. I’m thinking I’ll head back to Kyoto on the 29th and stay through the 2nd then go back toTokyo for a few days before leaving. Where is the time going? I’ve got less than 2 weeks left!