Kyoto

It is slightly hard to concentrate on writing a blog post when rumbling along at over 250 mph on a bullet train but I will try to stop looking out of the window and get a bit more up to date.

We are on the train from Osaka to Fukuoke having spent the last week in the Kansai area of central Japan, Kansai is kind of like the Midlands, it is in the middle and it is where all the good stuff is, the capital might be just down the road but the Midlands is where the action is. Kansai includes the areas around Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe and other historic areas such as Nara. We will catch up with these areas in another post but first we spent a few more days in Kyoto.

On March 1st we spent the day at Fushimi-Inari Taisha it is one of my favourite places on the planet not just in Japan, I came here in 2004 and have wanted to come back ever since. The temple complex is set across a hill with pathways lined with red tori, there are small shines dotted across the hill as well as a lot of stone foxes. The complex is dedicated to the Gods of rice and harvest and is now an important site for business people. There are always people at the shines pondering something to do with a business venture and this really adds to the atmosphere, but mostly it is very beautiful.

After the amazing weather we had it was time for a bit of cold and damp but we made the most of it and spent the day in the Gion area of Kyoto checking out the traditional style narrow streets, shops and temples. We also bumped into a few more Geisha.

The weather was nice again on our last day in Kyoto so we had a long walk to one of the oldest Shinto shrines in Japan, the gardens were beautiful and there was a wedding going on so there were a lot of smiling faces around.

Kyoto is a pretty special place (so much so that the Allies decided not to bomb it during WW2) it is a culture city like Paris or London, you can walk around it, the people are very friendly the food is good and there are so many gardens and parks that you can easily forget you are in a city. We couldn't stay forever so we packed up and got on a train to Osaka.

Arashiyama

Our second day in Kyoto and I have already fallen in love with the city. It doesn’t feel like a typical city, it has a very subtle and gentle feel to it. Kyoto is very much a city that has retained its history, which is very different from a lot of places we have visited and it exudes culture and tradition. My favourite thing to do here is to simply walk along the streets, experiencing the sights, smells, and sounds. There are many narrow hidden streets full of quirky little shops and eateries. The blossom is starting to arrive, there are small streams everywhere, there are many many beautiful geishas. It also helps that the sun has appeared again.

Check out the cool sock gloves!

Tunuki- Japanese school children have a very rude song about him! 

We decided to visit Arashiyama, a town at the base of Kyoto’s western mountains.  Catching the bus there was a breeze, not like the confusing tube maps of Tokyo. In Arashiyama we wandered around the many shops and parks. The highlight of the day was the amazing bamboo grove. The narrow walkway through the bamboo forest appeared out of nowhere and was like entering wonderland, as the bamboo  swayed in the wind it made the most incredible sound, it is hard to believe that it is just grass.

Big bamboo or really small lady?

Matt ❤ bamboo 

 

Kyoto is famous for its delicious food and it has not disappointed. Every meal we have had has been sublime. Matt’s Japanese has come in handy on several occasions, most notably when he decided that out of all the restaurants available to us we should go to the Tonkatsu (pork) restaurant! The waiter and other diners were highly amused as the crazy white people proceeded to order dishes, in dubious Japanese, without the pork, in a famous pork restaurant. However, the food arrived and it was delicious, filling, and best of all minus the pork- well done Matt. An added bonus was that we only had to pay for one meal as no pork means it wasn’t a real meal! Hurrah, maybe this was Matt's plan all along?  

View from the top of the mountain.

Japanese poem on a rock. As you do. 

Vending machines are EVERYWHERE!

Kichijoji to Kyoto

We spent our last day in Tokyo wandering around the park in Kichijoji a suburb of Tokyo. The weather was so much better and there were lots of people out enjoying the park, walking their dog and browsing in the quirky shops, so we did the same (except for the dog part obviously).

There was a ceremony happening in the shrine so drum sounds drifted through the park.

The pond was a full of huge Koi Carp who had it in for the ducks. The ducks didn't seem to notice who was biting them.

It was even warm enough for painting in the park

Kichijoji is a little way out of central Tokyo so by the time we had stopped off for some food it was time to find our over night bus to Kyoto. We only had a vague idea where we were supposed to catch it from so we headed over early, this was a good idea as we had to be directed buy a brilliant JR rail employee who spoke no english with the use of our map that has no street names on it! We still made it to the stop a little early so we stopped by 7eleven for the heating (it seems so long ago that 7's were islands of aircon) and a hot lemon tea from a vending machine. On a side note hot drinks in cans from vending machines on street corners are the most brilliant things ever when waiting for a bus and should be imported to the UK by next winter, I am not sure how we live without them.

We were not sure what to expect from our night bus experience as it was cheap and the stop was at a normal bus stop rather than at a bus station. No need to worry, with typical Japanese efficiency the bus company attendant appeared from nowhere 15 minutes before the bus was due to depart, 10 minutes from departure the bus arrived, then bang on departure time we were off. The bus stopped for three toilet breaks in the night at exact 2 hour intervals and we arrived in Kyoto 20 minutes early at 0550.

This was a bit early to check into the hostel so we stopped and had a bowl of Ramen. After dropping our bags at the hostel we spent the day wandering the palace gardens and bumping into places that I recognised from the last time I came here.

The palace gardens are beautiful and look suspiciously like someone did a painting of them before actually laying out the gardens.

I always smile when I see the trees with crutches

There is not much blossom about yet but a few buds are breaking through

Kyoto is so full of beautiful, peaceful spaces it is very different from Tokyo. There is a lot of history to see here as well (there are 17 world heritage sites here!), but we are just enjoying wondering the parks and quiet streets full of surprising buildings.

Art and arctic winds

I am not sure whether we have gone soft after all this time in the heat or it is just bitterly cold here but yesterday was very cold again, I don't think February is Tokyo's best month.

So we decided to do an art gallery,  we had a brisk wander through the palace parks again to the Momat, one of Tokyo's many modern art galleries. We had spotted a poster which seemed to suggest that there was a big Jackson Pollock show on and were rather pleased to find it open. The Pollock exhibition was really good and very inspirational, if you want to know my opinion on what Pollock's work is about ask me when we get back as I found it educational walking though his work from art school through to his final pieces. The signage in the Pollock show was not in English but in the permanent collection the signage was good and we had an interesting time looking at 20th century Japanese art. The we enjoyed hot chocolate from a can, yes enjoyed!

Gallery done we headed across town to Shinjuku to the Tokyo Government towers to get a free bird's eye view of the city.

Tokyo doesn't really have a skyline as it is too big and has several centres so it makes for an different landscape than New York or Hong Kong.

The towers obviously had a gift shop like all good tourist attractions so we had a quick look around before we headed off to get food.

Amy is Excellent Beautiful

Matt is Truth Capital

I really wanted a Lightsaber Umbrella

Last night in Tokyo so we are off to brave the cold then Jump on an overnight bus to Kyoto.

Miraikan

Quick bit of background, Aimee and I love space stuff, Aimee has never been to a planetarium, so we have tried on a couple of occasions to get to one, we failed again but it was a good day out.

Yesterday the weather was really rubbish here, very cold, windy and raining so rather than trudge about in the cold we opted for a museum day. We found out about the miraikan (and its supposed planetarium) in our guide book and navigated 3 trains to get there.

The experience was a slight disappointment to start with as the planetarium show was fully booked and instead we had to pick a 3D film about world heritage sites at the end of the day. While we waited we went to check out the rest of the exhibits. We go to a lot of science museums and it has to be said the the exhibits here are some of the best that we have seen, almost all of the signage is bilingual, nothing was out of order and there was a wide range of hands on stuff. There was also a lot of exhibits on cutting edge science which was really cool, like a holographic mirror (although I did guess how it was done which amused the guy working the exhibit).

A simple fish, no he is a descendant of the first fish bred in space!

Talking of cutting edge I couldn't believe it when we spotted there was a live demo of Asimo, the little robot chap that you see on the telly from time to time when they have managed to get him to do something new.

Geek out! It's Asimo!

I can't really say a lot about this as it blew my geeky mind check out the video.

Genuinely still can't believe we have seen him.

We rounded out the day with the 3D show which was good, there was some really nice helicopter shots in New Zealand, but I was still thinking about how to get my hands on my own Asimo.

We finished off the day in the Akihabara, Electric town, with a meat free meal.

Off out now as it is not raining.

Sunny with a chance of a meaty encounter

Thought I would fire off another blog post while Aimee scrubs her teeth.

Tokyo is huge fun, we are cold and often confused but the sun is out and we are grinning all day.

Yesterday we checked out some Palace gardens, the shops in Ginza and the lights of Ropponggi.

Aimee doing what she is told

Trees often look like art in Japanese parks

I might be too excited to see the sun in this picture

I love Tokyo central business district it is not always pretty and not showy but the streets are wide and the buildings functional

We might see spring after all ... there were the odd buds blossoming

No we are not in Paris, Yes it really is painted orange

Tokyo tower from Ropponggi

The tower from Ropponggi hills ... not real hills but a sort of city in the city concept, all very futuristic

So we love Japanese food but ... it is very hard to order because often the menu looks like this ...

Food lotto

If you are a none fussy eater this is no issue but with our veggie ways this is a bit tricky and my digestive system payed the price yesterday for a bit too much rich meaty gravy I think. Oh well, we got someone to help us with the pronunciation of 'we don't eat meat' yesterday so lets hope breakfast is free of our meaty friends.

ps: There is no chance that either of us will be going back to eating meat we are definitely not having cravings after tasting the fleshy broths.

Shibuya and Harajuku

Err so we woke up a bit late, I sort of forgot to set the alarm, it was cold, it was really raining but we finally got to the local JR line stop at about 11.30. We are on the eastern edge of Tokyo, well sort of the edge of the middle really, Tokyo is so massive that it is really hard to describe where you are in it at any point in time. Like London and LA, Tokyo has a lot of centres and even more sprawl, it seems to never end, no wonder the public transport system is a bit confusing. We are starting to get the hang of the transport here now and have never actually got lost but it has been a bit 'jump on the train and hope' a couple of times. There are about 8 different maps to the Tokyo rail system each with different line colours, a different layout and sometimes even different spellings.

Those noodles are cold and get dipped in a bowl of soy and wasabi. It is really good.

The rain stopped some time while we were eating brunch so we were able to enjoy wandering around Shibuya discovering why Tokyo is one of the worlds fashion capitals. When we tired of looking at clothes we can't fit into our back pack we stopped for a coffee to people watch ... at Shibuya crossing, if you don't know it by name you will have seen it in a movie.

Every 4 minutes or so

It was difficult to move ourselves from that view but we had more to see.

Aimee waiting to cross at Shibuya

Hachiko. The meeting spot, a bit like Birmingham's Bull

The street vendors in Tokyo are a little different

We always find the Disney store

Although this one was a bit different, can you see the hidden Mickey's?

After checking out Shibuya we walked a couple of blocks to Harajuku and even more mad shops. Harajuku has a really odd mix between Teen-pop culture, Hip hop Tokyo style and High fashion shops.

The shop sold pretty girly clothes!

Getting a bit chilly, better find some food

Then on the way home we spotted this giant snow ball, how very odd. We are going to try and get an early start again tomorrow lets see how it goes.