Welcome to the Southside

While Kyoto and Osaka aren't exactly representative of the southern-most part of Japan (that title would belong to Okinawa), but they are quite far south relative to Iwaki. Earlier this month, April and I took a night-bus there that had retractable seats that were basically beds. We had originally been fearing this 10 hour bus ride, but it wasn't all that bad and I was actually able to get some sleep.

Bedtime!

Day 1
When morning came, we stepped off the bus into the humid Kyoto air and it was go-time. We had to take a train to get to the station nearest to our first hostel. It was an itty bitty station by Japan's standards.

JR Uzumasa Station

Our first hostel was very quaint, and had a bathroom outside of the actual house. The bathroom was covered though, so you didn't have to worry about mosquitoes literally biting your ass.

I recommend Bola Bola for your stay in Kyoto

Outside bathroom!

So Bola Bola offered daily bicycle rentals for only 500 yen. April and I gladly took up this offer and biked to our various locations on Day 1.

The first stop was Kinkaku-ji

Yes, that is a Cup Noodles vending machine

Ryoan-ji was a mere 2.1 km bicycle ride away from Kinkaku-ji. We visited its famous rock garden and apparently found inner peace... Well, it was pretty beautiful anyway haha.

Inner...Peace...

 There were these workers on bamboo ladders doing some tending to the various plants around Ryoan-ji. It looked pretty cool.

Just a train passing by...

This ramen shop was recommended to us by the owner of Bola Bola and the broth was very different from any other ramen I've had in Japan. It was really thick, and I thought it was soy-milk based, but April said it might be "Chinese-style ramen." Sorry that I can't confirm! The gyoza was pretty awesome too.

Cool guy fishing on the way to Monkey Park

After lunch, we decided head to Monkey Park, where you could apparently interact with these monkeys in a semi-natural habitat. When we got there, we found out that it required to trek up this mountain to get to the actual site. This was fine and all, but April and I were quickly caught up in a thunderstorm during this trek. And the crazy thing, as we continued climbing the mountain, it seemed like the thunderstorm was getting closer and closer... until it was right on top of us. It was at this point that we decided to climb down. And it was a pretty scary hike down with the lightning and thunder looming above, and raindrops pounding down on our rental umbrellas. Actually, the umbrellas were pretty much useless because we still got soaked from the splash-back up from the ground. It was a harrowing experience, so we decided to regroup back at the hostel.

View of the bridge we eventually crossed to get to Monkey Park (which was up that mountain)

After cleaning up a bit, we decided to spend the evening in Osaka, which is about an hour away by train from Kyoto. While we only spent a couple of hours there, we were able to try okonomi-yaki, we saw a river matsuri (festival), we hit up the Osaka Pokemon Center, and we saw that famous sign of that running guy.

okonomiyaki is basically like a seafood omelette stir-fry, and it was delicious

I liked the Tokyo Pokemon Center more because they had a giant pikachu sign. Osaka Pokemon Center didn't even have "Osaka" printed next to the Pokemon Center sign! It was nice to hear the game boy Pokemon Center music again though =D

A random river festival that we happened upon. It was pretty awesome and there were people cos-playing as well.

That running guy sign

Day 2

With a new day came a renewed vigor to see the things we couldn't see due to dat dere thunderstorm. But it seemed as if we were still fighting spots of hard rain here and there. First off, we decided to go to a little area called Arashiyama.

Right next to Arashiyama Station were these cool column things

Soy milk ice cream = safe for lactose intolerant people like myself

A famous Kyoto lunch set. All I know is that the noodles are ramen, and that the bowl in the top right is some sort of tofu.

You could ride around Arashiyama in one of these 

A bamboo forest

Tenryu-ji had many nice views and walkways to venture through

Tenryu-ji's walkways were beautiful.

After venturing through Arashiyama in the morning, we decided to head to our second hostel and visit some areas in downtown Kyoto namely, Gion. And we happened upon another festival! It was Gion matsuri and takes place all throughout July every year. There were a lot of people, and stands upon stands full of good food.

Takoyaki

A different kind of okonomiyaki

Straight up steak on a stick

chocolate banana + shave ice

Gion matsuri takes place all through the Gion distract, but all the food stands were next to Yasaka Shrine.

The crowd.

Day 3
Our last day in Kyoto was short because we also had to make it back to Iwaki at a reasonable hour. Despite that, we were able to visit two more significant sightseeing spots: Fushimi inari-taisha and Kiyomizu-dera.

If you're not familiar with Fushimi inari-taisha, just know that its famous for the +1000 torii that lead up to the inner shrine. Which path should we take? Turns out they both led to the same place -_-

April appreciating the sunlight

 Because of time constraints, we were unable to make it to the top or the innermost shrine where we could get a good view of Kyoto. But I was definitely happy with just seeing all dem torii. Our voyage to our next destination involved an uphill walk, but I think it was well worth it. Kiyomizu-dera was breathtaking and had many shops lining the hills leading up to it.

Front of Kiyomizu-dera

Can you see the shrine in the distance? Apparently, this view is even more spectacular in the fall, when the leaves are different shades of orange, red, yellow, and brown.

View of Kyoto from inside Kiyomizu-dera 

One of the restaurants inside Kiyomizu-dera. They all shared this characteristic open front space and bamboo seats.

The streets leading up to Kiyomizudera were full of shops... and people.

We were able to try some more Kyoto cuisine. I forget what it's called but I remember that it tasted like a cream puff from Beard Papa's, but with ice cream instead of just custard.

After eating some cold soba and waiting out more rain and wind, we made our way back to Iwaki via Shinkansen and local trains. Shinkansen took 3 hours to get to Tokyo, and local trains took another 3 hours to get back to Iwaki station. We would normally take a bus back from Tokyo, but they were all booked up until 10:30 pm and we had work the next day!

Kyoto and Osaka are a MUST-SEE if you want to come to Japan. I think I enjoy being in Kyoto more than Tokyo simply because there are more things to see and do. I definitely want to go back and explore especially more of Osaka and hit up Nara as well. I hope I get to see it in the fall, but that is apparently peak season (everyone wants to see all the sights with the changing leaves in the background). Until next time.

Visitors and Golden Week

I've been very busy since I started working last month and it seems that we always have something going on every weekend. One weekend in April, Mayur and Cynthia came to Japan and April and I met them in Tokyo. I was even able to perform with Cynthia for one song during her gig at a bar that looked eerily close to Hotel Utah in San Francisco.

Sensoji Temple is in the background

Ghost and Owl

And while we were in Tokyo, we were also able to visit a cat cafe. It was... an interesting experience to say the least. We also visited a cool mall with an awesome ceiling and a random Ferris wheel.

They sold chicken to feed the cats. It was really the only way they would approach you, haha.

Cat Tower Heaven 

 Caesar's Palace what? 

Ferris Wheel at night

I feel like every time we visit Tokyo, we always find something to do that we had never done previously. I guess that's totally possible because Tokyo is the biggest Metropolis in the world. Anyways, three weeks later, it was May! And in Japan, that's a very special time because several holidays are lined up in succession such that we get a 3-day weekend followed by a 4-day weekend. This collection of holidays is called Golden Week. For this Golden Week, April and I traveled to Nikko and Nagano.

Nikko

You may not know the name "Nikko," but it's where the Three Wise Monkeys originated: See no Evil, Hear no Evil, Speak no Evil. There were some amazing sights high up in the mountains, including a waterfall, a huge lake, and some shrines and temples.

April and Noel take in the view 

Kegon Waterfall

A cool bridge we saw on the way to the temples (Shinkyo Bridge). 

An awesome restaurant we ate at filled with several thank you notes from weary travelers. The restaurant is called Hippari Dako and the owner is a very kind old woman. If you ever visit Nikko you MUST eat here.  

Gojūnotō (5 story pagoda) 

Tōzai Sukibe (And April) 

A friend of mine

This was what the view was like at the end of a hike we did on our last day in Nikko. We started at our hostel and followed this route on this map that was given to us by our French roommate. The hike was mostly flat and then skyrocketed towards the end to reach this summit. When I reached the top, there was a large family also admiring the view.

Nagano

The following 4 day weekend was spent in Nagano-ken, Matsumoto-shi. This road trip was particularly long, taking about 6 hours to get there. Let me just say that driving on Japanese highways is an amazing experience. The scenery is dotted with greens, purples, browns, and oranges and I can only imagine how much more amazing it looks in the fall. But once in Nagano, we met up with my college roommate and life long friend, DC.

DC!

We tried basashi (raw horse meat). It was interesting.

On our first day in Matsumoto, we visited the famous Matsumoto castle. It is one of the oldest and most famous castles still standing in Japan. Its construction began in 1504 with several additions made by the castle's various owners over the years.

View of the castle

There were many displays inside the castle including weapons and samurai armor used to protect the castles' inhabitants. These guns were just a few of the weapons shown.

A view of the city from inside the castle.

After seeing the castle, we hit up a few other landmarks in Matsumoto including the museum, Nawate Street, and later, the Asama Onsen. 

Nawate Street looking lively. Nawate Street and another local street are famous for their mom n' pop shops and quaint small-town feel. 

Me in a leaf. 

Nawate even had a cotton candy machine. 

Ayumi and Noel portrayed as eyes.

As you can imagine, pictures are not allowed at onsen and so I took none. But it was quite an experience. It was my first time at an onsen and I was with DC, so I guess it was a little bit easier to adjust haha. As you can imagine everyone is naked, but the thing that surprised me was that there were even little kids in there. Another interesting part of the experience was that it was especially crowded when we went (maybe because it was Golden Week) so it was a little difficult to avoid... things. Other than that, the water was mostly relaxing but eventually got too hot for us to handle. After our onsen-ing, we decided to try eating out at at this yakitori shop. It started out good, but eventually the owner basically started talking crap about us to the other customers saying things like "why are there so many foreigners here" and also saying that he did not want to serve us. We blew that place off and ended up at this really nice restaurant who welcomed us with open arms. I don't know why I did not take any pictures here but it was a warm experience, be-fitting of Japan.

On the second day, we went to another onsen in the mountains. It was about a 1.5 hour traveling experience to get there by local train and special bus, but I think it was totally worth it. This onsen had a co-ed area and the water at this onsen was full of minerals so you couldn't see more than a few inches (or centimeters) in. So this time the whole gang was able to hang out together... naked. Well, you were allowed to wear towels so I think most of the girls in this area were indeed wearing them. But some of the older guys just didn't care and were straight up hanging out. I really liked this onsen because the water was not boiling hot and it really felt like a true onsen because we were outdoors in the cool mountain air with straight up mineral water. 

We met a cool Kiwi at the onsen who actually offered to take us all back into town after our onsen experience. We gladly obliged and made a new friend in the process. On the way home from Nagano, we stopped by the Costco in Gunma for a taste of home (and large amounts of stuff). Almonds were the cheapest I've ever seen there, and actually had peanut butter larger than a teacup (Skippy). April was also able to get her Nutella fix.

America!