In the Train Station
Some snacks, you can purchase little seaweed rice rolls at most convenience or little shops pretty much anywhere. One was awesome, the other was kinda fishy.
The taxi's all had pretty interior white coverings on the seats.
We knew that, as far as Japan went, we wanted to hit up Kyoto and Tokyo as our main targets this trip. What we didn’t know was that there was more to Japan than meets the eye. With tons of small villages that would be great to visit as well as interesting historical sites, Mt Fuji, some freediving history and a clean country, with respectful people, Japan is likely going to need some more time in the future. We headed from Tokyo airport directly to Kyoto, deciding it was smart to just keep traveling rather than spend a day traveling there later and add extra time checking in and out of places. Working on some of the blog on the train ride and checking out the scenery of Japan countryside, we arrived to our AirBnB place in Kyoto around 8pm. The location was ideal for travel, only 10 minutes walk from the train station, but not in the middle of the hustle bustle, which didn’t matter because we intended to ride bikes everywhere for fun as well as to get in more things that we wanted to do. Knowing that I was in one spot for a few days I happily unpacked all my clothes into drawers, which felt great. We also did some laundry, some research, and get prepped with a plan for the next couple of days.
Many people in Japan walk around with umbrellas to carry around their own portable shade. And of course rain. Funny though as they seemed to use them more for sun protection than rain! =)
In the morning we were off and running going towards the bike rental place, fully packed with the go pack, snacks, water, rain gear for the rainy day and excited attitudes. The bike shop was closed, but we located an open one and headed towards Fushimi Inari Shrine. This temple is very famous for it’s thousands of “gates” or archways that create paths through the forest. They are huge orange wooden rectangular arches with Japanese writing on them. They follow along a river for some of the time and then twist and wind through shrines and a few quiet restaurants and viewpoints. The idea is to follow the path up the mountain, enjoying the scenery along the way and praying at a shrine or two if you feel compelled. Candace had looked up instructions on how to experience the temples respectfully and the right way with bowing at the right locations, not walking in certain areas, and how to cleanse with the water and ladle properly. We used this info as we climbed higher and through more and more archways, hundreds upon hundreds. We caught a great view from a viewpoint quite a bit higher up before we headed back down. It was cool just being in the forest.
Imitation Sputnick!
View -
Once at the base, Candace encountered a drooling cat (haha) and we got some local snacks including some sort of dessert ball heated and lathered with bbq sauce, and steamed rice on a stick wrapped in pork. Both unique foods surprised us with how tasty they were.
We really liked Kyoto, the feel of it, the people, and the city itself feeling more purposeful and with order than that of Hong Kong. When people say that it is the spiritual capital of Japan, you can really feel it. There is a sense of peace or that everything has it’s place in Kyoto.. Our bike ride continued and our next stop was Eikan-do Zenrin-ji Temple. When we arrived there, it had already closed for the day so we cycled along our route we had made and continued to The Philosophers Path. This path follows a large stream and winds around heading north and south with nice trees and surroundings. As we biked we encountered an interesting old man sitting on the stone with his mat along the side of the path with his incense, interesting attitude and smile. Not knowing why, I just happened to glance as his cool jeans which looked painted in all white with scenes of eagles, suns and forests and asked the guy about them. He led us to his shop across the road from him where he paints them himself and sells other trinkets and souvenirs. We ended up sticking around long enough to find out that, unbelievably, some jeans he had painted actually fit me (most things in Japan either shoes or pants are all too small or short for someone like me 6 ft 1, and shoe size 11.5 or 12. Many stores I saw had shoe sizes up to only 10 for example) and that I liked his art on that particular pair as well. Amazing find.
Continuing along the path, we finished up the Philosophers Path and then headed west back towards the river. We found the river to be the best thing to bike along when possible to get anywhere north and south because there were no stoplights to slow us and because the bike / running path along it ran under all the roads/bridges. Plus it was just nice to look at. Heading south we came to a special place that I had found for dinner off of Gion-Shijo Dori and one street in from the river, Yamato Oji Dori, just a bit north along that road on the left, a lit up sign and Italian Japanese place with just one square room once you enter.
It was unique and not like any dinner we’ve had before. It was, if you had to describe it - like I said - five star Japanese-italian. There were 4 tables in the one room in the restaurant. 2 people working the 4 tables - the Chef himself and his assistant. They had great service. The food chosen from option A or B for the table and was served over the course of about 2 and a half hours and 7 or 8 dishes. Each dish was unique and a work of art, all designed to be unlike anything the consumer has previously had. Some of the dishes were amazing, a couple ok, and for the finale they brought out raw steak on a super hot stone sizzling and cooking it. You ate the premium meat while it was cooking - your choice to take it off or leave it on or cut a piece and flip it sideways to cook it on that side a bit and then another way and then eat it. Totally cool way to do it, though it did splatter a bit at first when it came out. Dessert was good, and I had the best beer I’d had on the trip, not that I had many different kinds, but it was 7% with a unique flavor that was great and one of the smoothest finishes I’ve ever had, it literally disappeared after 10 seconds as though I could have been drinking water. It was called Baladin Open Classica. “la birra artigianale”. As we left, a couple from Amsterdam was leaving too after enjoying the experience and they relayed a spot they had eaten at the day before and we decided to check that out the following night.
PICS FROM THE DINNER:
We biked home along the river, our bikes connected with ion lighting that activated when the wheels moved and illuminated the way. We showered up, grabbed some sleep, and were ready to beat the traffic to Nijos castle in the morning, one of the main reasons I had come to Kyoto and Japan.
Arriving minutes after opening, we purchased an audio tour and entered the castle grounds. The castle, completed in the year 1626, had huge gateways to enter the place and the stone walls were so thick, it was like a castle from Europe except that the wall was 30 feet thick rather than 5… I could only imagine how many cannon balls it would take to get through the thing, if it even could. We entered the palace once inside the grounds of the main gate pretty much right away and took our shoes off with respect as we entered. The palace was situated into 5 main large chambers - one in the front designed to be a sitting or waiting room, mostly for visitors of the Emperors attendants/staff. Then a second chamber a waiting room for more important matters and to sometime see the emperor. Then the grand hall beyond that where main audiences with higher officials and business was conducted. After that a secondary hall, designed likely to be a meeting place to take the important delegates for a more private meeting with the Emperor after the main audience. Then the emperors quarters.
Each room was adorned with paintings on the wall depicting one of the four seasons, changing as you walked through the palace from season to season. As you went through the rooms and, if you were familiar with the seasons of Japan, you could tell which was which like autumn or spring, etc. Also it was cool to see the intricate carvings and scenes played out as they simulated what it looked like to have their gatherings and customs. The garden grounds outside of the palace were beautiful and in one area they depicted the island far away from Kyoto thats said to have helped an emperor achieve enlightenment.
I just thought it was cool to be able to see structure and organization of how business was done, with waiting rooms, learning about different titles of officials, how interactions with the emperor went down, private meeting chambers and so on. However, the coolest part was the floors. The floors, called nightingale floors and named after the birdcry, were literally designed to make noise when stepped upon them. The wood floor was constructed this way so that samurai and guards of the Emperor would awake from slumber if assassins or enemies were within the palace and approaching. The idea being that the noise from the floors was impossible to prevent with any sort of bodyweight upon them and thus they would prevent any potential “sneaking up” that could be dangerous.
Gardens Panoramic -
We thought this name was funny
Little shop along the river after leaving Nijos Castle
A bunch of random stuff while biking along throughout the day -
Food from Mcdonalds in Kyoto -
We had a tea party at a tea shop inside some of the gardens gardens before heading out of the grounds and trekking across town by bike back over to the Eikan-do Zenrin-ji temple that was closed the other day. This was the coolest place on the trip yet. It was like man created a location utilizing specific types of nature, handcrafted into beautiful combinations, settings, and serene landscapes. We initially entered into the temple, took off our shoes, and began exploring the small maze of buildings as we ascended up the hill and taking in the landscape between buildings, the interesting rooms, and the symbolisms on the inside. This place was off beaten path compared to other attractions, which is why I chose it. We had silence as we explored the peaceful grounds. It was also our first experience with using a cup of water to pour into a manmade gap and contraption designed to replicate the sound of bamboo clicking when it spilled upon the unseen rocks below in the “instrument”. We were soon putting our shoes on and touring around, through, underneath, and on a different route through the areas we had walked, finding these grounds to be just as beautiful. Soon we were higher than before and able to turn back at a viewpoint to see the city of Kyoto in a great vista. Exploring the grounds further we found a graveyard, then a temple with monks praying their evening chant. We listened a bit and then headed out around to a man-sized waterfall coming out from an underground spring. Exploring a peninsula in a large lake, then walking back towards the entrance, we took one last look back at the temple grounds from the entrance and headed out of the temple, truly feeling like we had just sat and perfectly meditated for an hour. Clarity and peace, calm and relaxed. I didn’t expect, nor know, that such a thing could happen just from walking around a place for a while. It was awesome.
360 Panoramic in graveyard-
Panoramic
We want this in our back yard-
We biked west back to the river and headed down south to find the restaurant that was the recommendation from the night before across from the Museum of Kyoto shopping building. It was pretty impossible with their directions, but I linked up to a free wifi spot to use with my phone along the way and soon we were there at a Tapas style Japanese restaurant. Shoes came off upon entry, and we found a comfy place along the window on the second level, sitting on seats on the floor, which Candace loves as she says its her level. Cool atmosphere and the food came out quick with a ton of dishes. We must have had about 7 dishes that we split, all small and Tapalike.
We then had to check out a “Sake Bar”. Made from rice, Sake is one of the few alcohols that goes happy with Candace and we had heard about these cool Sake bars so we decided to “when in Rome” in Kyoto. The first thing that we ordered at this particular half Sake Bar, Half hostel (it was actually really nice), was a 3- sample of their finest Sake from the region where the owner grew up. Looking back, it was silly though because we probably should have went with their mid-grade stuff since, we tried that next, and even that was at a level way beyond anything in the USA. The sake was cold and like tasting wine, sweeter than any sake we had previously sampled. Many places in the states serve warm sake, but here we found that doing that would only deprive the fine sake it of its more delightful characteristics.
We chatted with our interesting waiter dude who grew up in Australia until the age of 3 and then went to some international school in Iran, spoke some Spanish and German as well as Japanese and English. We had some herbal Infused sake which was Candace’s favorite, tasted like cinnamon sake, and came with a sake that was “herbal infused” -> some lemon and soda and herbs. Having had our fill of Sake, we headed on home, stopping at a off-the-path ramen place on the way. I had seen the place the day before in the evening while biking home. It was busy then and it busy tonight so I decided to randomly stop. Here now was really an authentic Japanese hangout. We we entered it was loud and everyone was laughing and super energetic. We smiled and confidently “stood” at a table/counter. There were no seats and everyone stood as they hung out, ordered, and the waiters yelled, literally, back at the chefs, like you saw in the movie Kill Bill when Uma was visiting the Hattori Hanzo dude and he was yelling back for the chef to prepare this and that. People were smoking inside and, whereas in many other places over the last day or two in Japan we had felt like there was some little wall or guard up when interacting with the polite Japanese, these locals paid us no mind as they loudly engaged in their animated conversations. We ordered some food that the dudes next to us had ordered, pointing at the pictures as there was no english on the menu, and ended up getting some ramen and a couple of interesting dishes. We tried their sake and brought our energy level up to everyone else bustling about the place as we enjoyed our time in this little side Ramen bar Japanese hangout spot.
We left, wondering if we were the only tourists to eat there in the last month, and returned the bikes to the shop that we got them days before, walked home, packed and got ready for our morning train to Tokyo for another 3 day stay in an even bigger city in Japan!
Some interesting Breakfast before train to Tokyo
No comments:
Post a Comment