Kyoto day 5

Our last morning in Kyoto, we packed up all of our bags and checked out of the hotel.  Again, they agreed

to hold our bags for us until we left the city which made things much easier.  

We started the morning with a massage.  Jeff has had shoulder problems since he had a mountain bike crash last march and my neck and shoulders have been angry with me.  The first massage was so good it just seemed like a fantastic way to finish up a vacation.

After getting turned in to relaxed puddles we had to muster up a little energy and headed off to the train to go to the Fushimi Inari Shrine.  This shrine is at the top of one of the hills surrounding Kyoto but the the routes up are covered in torii gates.  It is estimated that there are over 10,000 torii gates at Fushimi Inari.  The original shrine was build in 711.

The bottom of the walk was very crowded (reminded me a little of the bottom of Fuji but much easier walking) but thinned out pretty quickly the higher we went.  Jeff and I went to the top (but had a soft ice cream on the way down).  It's around 4 km each way.  There is a great viewpoint of the city at the half way point but sadly there is no view from the top.  It was a nice walk and it felt good do a little hike.  It was a lot of stairs.

These are the smaller densely spaced gates near the bottom of the hill.

As you get a little higher up, the gates get bigger but the spacing is a little wider.  You can also see that these gates are a little older as the vermilion paint has faded a bit.

The view of Kyoto from the half way point.

The shrine at the top

Stone (cold?) fox.  There were stone foxes of various sizes all over the mountain.  They all held something in their mouths.  They are regarded as messengers and are often found at Inari shrines.

In this picture you can see the carvings on the gates.  These are generally the name or the company that donated the torii gate.  The size of the gate is determined by the size of the donation.

After our lovely walk we headed back to the train station, ate a late lunch, grabbed our bags and headed back to Higashi-Hiroshima.  It was a really nice trip.  There was a ton of things to see and do in the Kyoto area.  We were there for such a short time that we barely scratched the surface.  I can see why Kyoto is such a popular destination for people to visit.

Kyoto Day 4

After the previous day's laziness we decided to get up early and get moving.  We headed towards some lesser traveled temples again.  The day started out with a train ride and then a walk through a bamboo forest.  There were quite a few people at the beginning of the walk but they thinned out rather quickly.  We came across a pond there there was a heron that seemed content to pose while I took his picture.

We went to Gioji Temple at the recommendation from our friends the previous night at dinner.  It was great.  It was off the beaten path and beautiful.   Unfortunately, my lack of knowledge on my new camera showed with these pictures and I'm not really happy with the lighting on them.  It was dim and green and serene and many of the pictures feel over exposed for me.  Here's what I got that I feel best captures this place.

Fallen leaves on the moss.  Everything was covered with different types of mosses.  They had pots off to the side showing all the different varieties of moss, I think there were about a dozen.  

The maple trees over the mossy ground.

A small fountain.

A little old lady sweeping the leaves off of the moss.

 I apologize now for my indulgence in my love of fall leaves.

 We then headed off to Diakakuji Temple.  It was a very pleasant surprise.  We knew nothing about it prior to going but it was free admission with our ticket from Gioji so we decided to make the trek and check it out.  It was a huge complex of buildings that were linked together with covered wooden walkways.  The whole thing was shoes off.  The floors were perfectly smooth, not sock snares.  The complex was used as a vacation home for some of the emperors of Japan back when the capital was Kyoto.  The best part was the nightingale floor.  Some of you might have read some sort of historical fiction or book with ninjas in it that talks about a room or a building with nightingale floors.  They are wooden floors that are designed to make noise when walked on.  They make a small squeak or chirp.  Jeff and I waited until no one was around then took turns trying to be ninja and walk on the floors without making any noise.  Both of us managed to walk a little quieter with practice but neither of us succeeded in silence.  It was a ton of fun!

This is from our walk between temples.  It was pretty farm land.

Rooms connected by covered wooden flooring.

This long hallway is where we tried to walk quietly.  We both decided that we probably shouldn't try to change our profession to Ninja.

After exploring the inside, we got our shoes back and took a walk around the lake behind the temple and some bamboo groves.

Across the lake back towards the temple.

Bamboo.  These are about 4-6 inches across at the base.

Jeff with the bamboo curving over the path above him.

We then headed back to the train and went towards Kinkakuji, the Golden Pavilion.  This was one of those places that pretty much everyone sees when they go to Kyoto.  I expected large crowds but not to be overly impressed.  I was wrong, well, half wrong.  It was crowded but it really was stunning.  I think we hit the lighting just right and lucked out but the temple seemed to almost glow.  It is gold leaf that has been lacquered over.  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Another heron that was feeling photogenic.

Wow!  What a day.  Sorry for the long blog, it's making me tired just remembering it all.  We headed back to our hotel, got cleaned up and went out to dinner.  We found a tiny Italian place that was great.  It actually tasted like Italian food not Japanese food with some tomatoes.  This is from our walk to dinner.  

Kyoto Day 3

It was raining in the morning and the forecast was wet all day so we decided to pamper ourselves a little bit and get massages.  Both Jeff and I have been having a hard time adjusting to Japanese beds.  They are very firm and not good for anything other than sleeping on your back, which neither Jeff or I do.  The massages were great (so good we decided to book another one for Tuesday morning).

We found a restaurant that served Dim Sum which is a favorite of both Jeff and I and a huge treat.  We can't get it in Boise or in Hagashi-hiroshima so to find it was a real treat.  If you are unfamiliar with Dim Sum it is actually Chinese dumplings.  Some are steamed and some are fried.  They have different things inside of them such as pork, shrimp or vegetables and they are delicious!

After stuffing ourselves, we decided to do a little shopping.  I thought Kyoto might be a good place to find some presents to take home to friends and family.  We had a nice day, stayed mostly out of the rain and picked up a couple of things that we were looking for.

We met some friends for dinner (yep, we had friends from Hiroshima vacationing in Kyoto the same weekend as us) at a Mexican food restaurant and it was so good!  It tasted like home.  Some things are really hard to get in Japan and good Mexican food is at the top of the list.  The chef spent 20 years in the US in southern California and that is where he learned to cook.  His English was great and we had a great time with our friends.  It was a good day.  Sorry for the lack of pictures.  I didn't even carry the camera with me.  It was just too wet.

Kyoto Day 2

We decided to get up early and beat the Saturday morning tourist crowds. Japan is not really an early morning country so it's pretty easy.  Our hotel had a continental breakfast that was an interesting mix of western and Japanese foods.  There were breakfast pastries, eggs, fresh fruit, yogurt, curry, rice, soup, salad and noodles.

A quick walk to the train station, a change to the subway and we got to Daigo-ji Temple.  This is one that I had seen pictures of and really wanted to see.  it was an added bonus that the fall leaves were starting to turn on the Japanese maples (my favorite type of tree).  I totally love fall leaves.  I apologize in advance for the abundance of fall leaf pictures on this trip.

Looking at one of the temple buildings through fall leaves.

The big pagoda

This is what I really wanted to see.  So beautiful!  

The bridge over to the shrine.

The other side of the bridge

Just one more picture cause it's worth looking at again!  This one you can see the hills in the background.

 This was a great stop.  It's a little off the beaten path and with our earlier arrival it was very quiet and not many people here.  This was one of my favorite spots in Kyoto.

Next we went to Byodo-in Temple.  A quick subway ride and a train and we were there.  This is a very large temple and was much more popular.  I tried to keep the droves of people out of the pictures but it was a little bit of a challenge.

This is a huge structure, there was also a museum on the grounds that showed how they restored it.  It was very interesting to see the pictures but unfortunately most of the captions were only in Japanese.

We then went back to Kyoto and took a short break in the hotel before heading out to see the To-ji pagoda lit up.  I saw some pictures of it at night and it was really pretty.  When we got to the temple we were told that the grounds closed at 5:30.  No problem, sunset is around 5:00.  As we are waiting for the lights to come on, we were reading a pamphlet we were given with information about the pagoda.  It is the tallest pagoda in Japan and it has burnt down and been rebuilt 4 times!!!  I couldn't help but think of this from Monty Python and the Holy Grail "When I first came here, this was all swamp. Everyone said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built in all the same, just to show them. It sank into the swamp. So I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So I built a third. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp. But the fourth one stayed up. And that's what you're going to get, Lad, the strongest castle in all of England." 

The grounds were really quite pretty and we kept waiting for the lights to get turned on but sadly we were asked to leave before they were turned on.  At 5:32 the lights turned on and I could see the very top of the pagoda lit up but the rest was blocked by the fence and trees.  Bleh!  I was a little irritated since I specifically wanted to see it with the lights on.  Why kick people out and then turn on the lights?  Oh well.  Here are the pictures I took while waiting.

Pretty reflecting pool in front of pagoda.

Huge pagoda!  Now equip with a lightning rod to try to avoid future fires.

 After getting kicked out of the temple, we went walking to find dinner.  I was hoping for something light after the previous nights fried gut bomb.  We found a place that had large salads and that was good for me.  Jeff had some steak and the normal Japanese fixings.  We were pretty tired by the time we got back to the hotel and slept well.

View from pedestrian bridge when walking to find dinner.

Kyoto Day 1

If you ask 10 people in Japan (expat or Japanese doesn't matter) 9 out of the 10 will say their favorite place to visit is Kyoto.  Kyoto was the imperial capital of Japan for more than 1,000 years.  It is known for having many shrines and temples in addition to fantastic food and beautiful gardens.  It is pretty safe to say that Jeff and I were super excited about this trip.  Our most difficult decision was choosing what to see.  We had 5 days, but that is really only enough time to see a fraction of the sites.

We decided to take the Shinkansen (bullet train) which takes only 2 hours from Higashi-Hiroshima to Kyoto.  The trains are super clean, fast, spacious and all around awesome.  The things to see in Kyoto are fairly spread out so I found a hotel a short walk from the main train station and a subway station (I booked the hotel over 2 months ago.  Hotels fill up quick in Japan.  Walking through the train station to our hotel we passed an information center that said "no hotel vacancies in Kyoto").

Our first stop in Kyoto was the hotel, it was way too early to check in but they held our luggage for us and then we set out to explore.  Jeff and I spent the afternoon wandering all over Kyoto on foot.  Walking down streets that looked interesting without much of a plan.  We had a lovely time and got a good feel for the city. We found some unexpected nooks and crannies.  Jeff found a drum shop that made him really happy.  Here are some pictures from our wanderings.

This was a canal we walked past that had restaurants along the water.

This was a tiny street we enjoyed walking along.  It was filled with shops and restaurants.

The river

We decided to walk through a shrine around sunset.

Vermilion lamps through the temple grounds.

Japanese tourists taking photos by a torri gate.  (Many Kimono shops rent Kimonos for the day.  Many tourists, both Japanese and foreign wore Kimonos while sight seeing.  Most of the temples and some restaurants offer discounts to people wearing traditional outfits.)

Lit lanterns at the shrine.

After much exploring we got hungry.  Jeff found a fantastic little tempura (lightly battered and fried) restaurant.  They had 3 set meals.  We opted for the smallest one which was still huge.  We sat at the counter while the chef prepared our meal.  They spoke some English which was really nice since they told us what to dip where (there were three dipping options).  The food was excellent.  Mostly tempura vegetables and seafood with rice, a salad, miso soup and sorbet for dessert.  There were a couple of things that were a little on the "I'm not sure I want to eat that" side of things including an entire small fish (head, fins, guts, bones - eat the whole thing) and the head of a shrimp (legs, shell and all) but we tried everything and most of it was excellent.  We left tired and stuffed and took the easy route and got a taxi back to the hotel.

I managed to get a non-smoking room* at the hotel which was a huge bonus but the room was tiny, I mean REALLY tiny.  The bed was somewhere between a twin and a full (two pillows when laid flat overlap in the middle) with the bed pushing up against the wall on one side and about 2 feet of space between the bed and the desk on the other.  Jeff and I are very small for Americans but it was still interesting if both of us were trying to do something in the room at the same time.  After a couple of days we gave up and one of us would pretty much just sit out of the way if the other guy was getting dressed - lol.

With that being said, it was a clean room and well maintained.  Our only really complaint was that it was hot.  Starting in September, they turn off the cooling in the hotel room.  You can run the heat or the fan.  No cooling and the fan puts out a little bit of heat.  We were on the 9th floor and it got pretty hot in our little room (especially since it was impossible to both be in bed without sharing a little body heat and Jeff is a furnace.  If we opened the window it was a little loud from the street noise.  Not ideal but we managed to sleep.

*Smoking in Japan:  Japan is a little like the US was back in the 80's.  You go to a restaurant and there is a smoking section and a non-smoking section but the restaurant is tiny and nothing actually separates the two sections.  Very few hotels have non-smoking rooms.  I really hate cigarette smoke but prior to this trip we only had one night in a hotel in Japan that was a non-smoking room.  The do a very good job airing out the rooms but you can still smell the smoke.  Fortunately, most public spaces are non-smoking like trains, train platforms, and shopping areas.  They sometimes have a smoking room for people to go to.

Opening a Japanese Bank Account

Apparently I have been far too useful at my volunteer job at the YMCA since they have been really insistent on wanting to pay me.  Last week they helped me change my Visa from a "dependent" to "part time work".  This was an amazingly easy process and only took about 30 minutes.

Next they insisted on me getting a Japanese bank account so that they could deposit my earnings.  They don't do checks in Japan and they can't direct deposit into a foreign bank.  So far Jeff and I have been happily using our American bank card to take out money.  Our account has a foreign transaction fee waiver and it works at all 7-11's (yes, there are a ton of them in Japan including one right next door to our apartment) and Bank of Japan also accepts foreign bank cards, so there has never been a need to open an account until now.

I was told on Tuesday that I needed a chop (stamp of my name) and that it could be three characters long.  She asked what I wanted, my initials or my name.  I said my name and was surprised today when it literally says "SKY" with the letters going downwards.  I somehow thought it would be my name in katakana or hiragana, but nope - lol!

Aaron volunteered to help me get my account set up (thank goodness).  His Japanese is very good, he's been living in Japan for around 14 years.  We get to the bank and sit down and they look at my residence card and ask if I have a stamp.  Yes and yes.  They said it's okay if I write in romaji (basically spell out Japanese words with English letters) but they have to be all capitals.  Okay, no problem.  So, I fill out a couple of pieces of paper.  One was to register my chop and essentially say that it is mine and legally binding (no signatures, you just use your chop).  The second form was to open the account (you only need 1 yen to open an account in Japan, which is about a penny)  and required my address (exactly as it was written on the residency card except romaji instead of hiragana) and my name and some other minor info.  I filled out everything according to the instructions that Arron translated for me and then we started waiting.  The bank closed, they rolled down the doors and we waited.  It wasn't that long of a wait but it seemed like forever due to it's awkwardness.  Note: the bank closed at 3:00 PM, strange!  Finally they motion us over and I was given my bank card and an account book. Nice!

I walked back to the YMCA and was pretty happy about things and then my phone rang, which is weird since no one calls me in Japan.  It was someone cheerfully chirping Japanese at me very rapidly.  The only parts I understood were my name and sorry.  I apologized and politely explained that I had no idea what they were saying in Japanese as and that I don't speak Japanese.  There was another stream of rapid Japanese to which I repeated myself.  Eventually there was an awkward hold and then a male voice explained, with some difficulty, that I had a mistake on my form and needed to go back to the bank and that they would "open it back up just for you".  So I walked back to the bank (sadly, without a translator this time).  The lady who looked over my paperwork was standing out front repeatedly bowing and apologizing (uh... I'm the one who made the mistake here?) and when I apologized since it really was my mistake she looked like she was going to panic so I stopped.

I had managed to use my fantastic powers of dyslexia to write Chou not Chuo in two places so I had to fill out all of the forms again.  Then upon another inspection, they decided that my upper case "U" was not correct because it had a little bit of a tail and that is not a proper "U".  So as they apologized several more times I filled out the forms a third and (hopefully final) time.  This third from was meticulously inspected since at this point I figured they must think me a total idiot (and I wouldn't disagree with them).  They deemed it acceptable and I was escorted out.  Everyone still at the bank bowed to me as I left and the poor lady who was stuck dealing with me the most just kept bowing.  So I bowed back.  Then she bowed then I bowed, then she bowed.  I thought I'd try a nod?  Nope, she bowed.  At that point I just ran away.  I think that was what I was supposed to do anyway.  Yep, Japan is an adventure.  But!  I now have a bank account.

Halloween in Japan

Japan is just starting to do things for Halloween.  Our local grocery store had a tiny section of Halloween candy and for the 2 weeks leading up to Halloween the store employees wore either head bands with ears or bat wings or other silly things or witch hats.

Some of the schools in our area had things for the kids to do.  We got a flier in the mail for a "Trick or Festival".  I think they meant to say Trick-or-Treating but some how missed the treat part.  The YMCA put up a ton of decorations.  I spent several hours assembling a witch on a broom and spreading fake spiderwebs all over the place.  They went all out and had several mechanical decorations including a spider that was about 8 feet across from leg to leg and swiveled back and forth.  The kids love the decorations.

For adults there were a couple of places that had costume contests and people seemed to get really in to dressing up.  I thought it was interesting to learn that several people though that Halloween was a actual "day off from work" type of holiday and not just a something we do after work (or maybe wear something to work) kind of a day.

I have a tradition of having a pumpkin carving party.  This is something I started my third year of collage and I have not missed a year since.  I was super excited a couple of weeks ago when I saw pumpkins at Costco so I bought 4 of them.  They were little pumpkins maybe in the 10" - 12" tall range which is much smaller than the average American pumpkin.  They we still big enough to carve.  In the states I usually try to do pumpkin carving sometime before the actual day or earlier in the day so people can go trick-or-treating with kids or to costume parties.  I figured in Japan I didn't really have to worry about there being competing parties.

I cooked up a batch of chili, I thought a little comfort food would be nice for the other expats, made guacamole, pico de guillo and brownies.  Including Jeff and I we had 5 Americans, 2 Japanese people and a Greek.  Unfortunately, it seemed like Costco was the only place that had pumpkins that were not the tiny ornamental ones.  I was glad I had the extra.  Fortunately with the extras that I had we had enough pumpkins for every one to carve one.  It was the first time the Japanese couple or my Greek friend had carved a pumpkin and they found the whole thing very interesting.  I even toasted some pumpkin seeds so that they could try them.  It was a lot of fun for everyone and a successful pumpkin carving party.