All about the food!

For my final post about Japan, it would be unfortunate if I didn't do a separate post about food. Now that I think about it, I am regretting not doing a separate one about Beijing, Vietnam and Thailand from our last trip, but oh well. It's not like I don't mention food in every single one of my posts. Let's face it. I am a fat person in a skinny person's body.

So that being said, here is a lovely gallery of some food highlights from the trip!

Dinner one night...tempura!

Oh 7/11 breakfasts, how I miss you! This was a variety of ground meat, egg and something else (fish maybe?) on rice with other stuff. Like a meatball. And a hardboiled egg. and probably some other fish thing. All of that magic for about $3!

Fiddleheads, some kind of cooked pork, and plum wine. Always plum wine. Sweet, sweet, delicious plum wine.

 

Conveyor belt sushi? Heck yes! We ate something like 19 plates of sushi for about a dollar of plate. It was silly not to pig out!

Yosha's breakfast of choice: Starbucks (which she swore was better than back home) and more 7/11 mystery magic.

Curry was everywhere. It was generally garam masala-tasting and included some kind of salad to keep our scurvy away for another day.

OKONOMIYAKI!!! These are generally pancakes made with lots of lovely stuff. Generally egg, cut up cabbage, some noodles, and a kind of sweet/bbqish sauce.

We (ok Yosha, but I was a very close second) were very much into mochi. A lot. The obsession continued when we found mochi that you could buy from a vending machine. It didn't ooze freshness like the stuff we had freshly made at the cherry blossom festival but goodness it was deelish!

nevermind writing stuff in the sand on the beach. We wrote it on okonomiyaki that we made ourselves one night after touring around looking for geishas in Kyoto.

Another convenience store delight

This was my dessert at the ninja restaurant. He was so cute, I almost didn't want to eat him! Almost. Except for the fact that he was a perfectly-sized piece of cheesecake.

Typical Japanese fare. I can't even remember where this was taken. Some kind of mixed little plates of goodness.

Takoyaki, or deep fried octopus balls!

REAL sushi! When we think Japanese food, we typically say sushi, but really I think most people mean sushi rolls. Avocado rolls, California rolls, spider rolls, etc...those aren't Japanese. It doesn't mean it's bad. It's just not authentic. This was a home-cooked sushi dinner made by Nonaco's parents. It was such a wonderful treat to have shared such a delicious dinner in a genuine Japanese home.

Some black bean and tofu spicy dish. Yum!

Another set meal...deep fried chicken cutlets with some other dishes. And beer. Oh yes.

My mouth is watering right now thinking of this steak. This is real steak, from Kobe. See the marbling perfection? This is what steak should look like. Worth every one of the $140 I spent on that meal.

I would be lying if I didn't say this trip included a lot of desserts. Because it did. We somehow had no trouble justifying any piece of dessert that we wanted. In typical Japanese style this beautiful little pastry even included its own ice pack. I wish I had enough vocabulary to tell the lovely woman behind the counter 'Don't waste your time. This little gem won't make it past the next block'.

Sushi fresh from the Tsukiji fish market. If I were an elderly person without teeth, I could have just used my gums on this dish and on the Kobe steak, that's how mouthwateringly amazing and tender these dishes were.

 

 

 

Tokyo part two! Even more belated!

Wow I don't know where the time goes! It has been over a month since my last post, which makes it almost two months since I have been back. I guess life just takes over. Since coming back, domestic life in my new apartment with Sean has sort of been the priority. Plus riding at a new barn, riding a new horse, getting a new car...I don't know where the days go!

Anyways, before I completely forget...

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Monday we went up Shimokitazawa for some wacky vintage clothing shops. For those who know Toronto, "Shimokita" as its sometimes known is similar to Kensington market: lots of random fun, with a number of great cafes and shops. We picked up a few things then headed to Akihabara, the electronics district. Anything electronic can be found here, plus if you're into flashy lights and anything anime/manga it's a great spot! We loaded up at a duty free shop. I managed to find a toilet seat warmer/bidet/bum sprayer but it was around $750-800. Sadly out of the realistic travel budget, plus it would have been irritating to haul around an electronic toilet seat all over Tokyo.

On Tuesday we went to the Tsukiji fish market, which is well-known for its tuna auction. We thought of trying to make it to the tuna auction but it starts at 5 am, and it's best to show up around 3:30 am. Since the subway stops running around midnight, we would have had to take a taxi or hang out at a 24 hour restaurant from midnight onwards. In the interest of keeping our energy for the rest of our trip, we skipped the auction and met Makiko at the market to check out the fish and other wonderful treats. After walking around, we asked a gentleman directing traffic where are a couple well-known sushi restaurants. He warned us that the sushi would be expensive and the wait would be a few hours (random Internet searching had prepared us for this) and suggested another restaurant nearby that was close and cheap. He indicated the way but as Makiko, Yosha and I all seem to be somewhat challenged when it comes to directions, we couldn't really find our way. He flagged us down and escorted us to the restaurant, which was down a side alley and then down another tiny street. In the restaurant there were only two tables in the back. For 1,300 yen (about $15) we got the freshest sushi you could imagine. If I lived on a diet of Kobe beef and Tsukiji-market fresh sushi I could live in this country without needing teeth: I could just chew everything with my gums! it's that melt-in-your-mouth tender and delicious! (Never mind the fact that I would likely very quickly get scurvy). It was definitely pretty awesome that Makiko could join us. Not only is her company appreciated and insight incredibly valuable, if it weren't for her Japanese skills we maybe would have ended up waiting hours and paying too much for sushi instead of being in a more intimate setting supporting a small family-run establishment.

Tuesday night was our last night in Tokyo stayed with Anura and Thilina. I hadn't expected to have so much fun staying with them but we had a blast (they work for Yosha's second cousin). It was funny being the minority for once, since they spoke Sinhalese and Yosha understood everything they said so would randomly giggle sometimes at what they said. We learned a lot from each other and shared a lot of laughs in the process.

 Wednesday was our last full day in Japan, and we definitely ended on a high note at Tokyo Disney Sea! Makiko got us tickets and we joined her and her two friends Haruka and Ayana, then Nonaco joined us after 6. It was great to see her and to talk about all of the things that we had seen since we last parted ways at the beginning of May after spending the weekend with her and her family. Her parents made us a booklet of some of the pictures of us in kimonos, which was a beautiful souvenir of our trip.

DisneySea was designed more for adults and is about 10 years old. I had been to Disney World in Florida about 5 years ago. I don't remember it that well, but what amazed me was the attention to detail on everything at disneysea. Everything from the buildings, lights, signs, benches, bathrooms was designed for the area. Mediterranean harbor made me feel like I was back in Venice watching the gondolas pass (minus the Japanese gondola guys saying "ciao!"). I couldn't stop saying sugoy ("wow!") at everything, and it definitely made me feel like a kid again, reliving the little mermaid/Aladdin/Mickey mouse memories! It is crazy to see consumerism at its finest here though. Almost everyone had something Disney, whether it was silly character hats, loud shirts or Mickey popcorn buckets. At the end of the night the store staff couldn't keep the items stocked quickly enough. Especially anything to do with Duffy and Shellie May, two bears that Mickey gave Minnie. Duffymania is HUGE here! It's definitely a japan thing as we don't have it back home. We ended the day watching the amazing fantasmic show on the water. There were most of the Disney characters sailing by, complete with songs and fireworks. Nonaco gave us a gorgeous book of some of the photos from the kimono photo shoot at her family's place earlier in the month. The photos are incredibly and it's definitely a gift Yosha and I will both cherish for years to come.

Last night we stayed at a Hilton near disneysea. It was a great end to the night. this morning Makiko met us at the hotel to say goodbye. I had time to reflect on this trip and the effect it had on me. I really appreciated the opportunity to travel to a country that I thought would be so different. In some ways it was: the language; the fact we don't drive on the same side of the road; different main religions (Christianity (mostly) vs Buddhism/Shintoism); fashion; height; and lack of diversity. But I was surprised too at how similar we are when it comes to values of respect and consideration for others. I will definitely will miss this country and would put it at the top of my list when suggesting Asian counties to visit.

I am incredibly thankful to have taken this trip with Yosha. We had such an amazing time and got along really well. We have a similar style when it comes to traveling so we work really well together. We giggle nonstop about silliness so it was a culturally enlightening trip but almost more importantly it was a really FUN trip!!

We leave soon to board our plane for home, where I will be moving on to a new phase in my life moving in with my amazing boyfriend Sean in our new apartment in beechwood. It was tough being away from him but I fortunate to have had his support on this trip even when it was really hard to be apart!

Thanks for following along on our adventures! I will certainly post one more of just food pictures, because that is something that deserves a post on its own!

Inside the tsukiji fish market

Outside the amazing restaurant where we had mouth-wateringly delicious sushi

Makiko, Haruka, Yosha and I hanging out with the characters of Toy Story

Outside the Indiana Jones ride. Yosha and I went on this thing three times!

MICKEY!!!!
 I don't care if it was a Japanese dude inside the costume. For that moment I was brought back to my childhood!

Makiko and I kicking butt with one of the characters of the Incredibles

Duffymania is everywhere! Even as panna cotta! Tasty lil bastard!

Tokyo part one (belated post, I know!)

I love Japan and how efficient the train system is. You always know exactly which train you're on by the time. On the train ride to Tokyo I asked one of the train staff if we would be able to see Mount Fuji from the train. He said: "yes, reft side". I asked approximately what time? So he pulls out a train schedule and says: "12:47". I made some joke about how it's too bad it couldn't be more accurate but he just kindly blinked and checked another person's ticket.

That's one thing we have come to love about Japan. How everything seems to always be precise. From the chef cooking Kobe steak and wiping down the grill with purpose, to the server in a pub giving us our burgers and seemingly taking a sense of pride when he told him the food was good, like he was him who put the love and care into the food, to the teenager who walked us to the mall so we could find our steak restaurant...these are the interactions that I will remember long after we have left this country.

We made our way to the station to meet Yosha's second cousin's cousin (or something like that), Thilina, who met us at the station. One benefit of the lack of diversity in Japan is that it's pretty easy to describe yourself to someone coming to meet you at a popular stop. Just look for the tall white girl and Sri Lankan girl :) it was entertaining watching Thilina try to get my huge 50+ lb suitcase out of the backseat of his Mazda rx8! Even though the place is a good hour outside of the downtown core, between a bus then train, it's nice to have a place to hang our hats for a few days!

On Saturday we went to an area of town known for their kitchen stuff. There were tons of stores that sold an amazing variety of kitchen stuff: everything from knives, bowls, takeout containers, restaurant staff uniforms, and plastic food! From there we met Makiko at the sumo stadium. It was such a great experience! We saw a few sumo wrestlers walk in before their matches. The bouts are really short. Essentially the goal is to shove your opponent out of the ring without you stepping out of the ring or touching the ground with your hands. There were a number of wrestlers from Japan but also from Mongolia and china, and a couple from countries like the Czech Republic and Bulgaria. One thing that amazed me was the high standards of sportmenship the wrestlers seem to have. Whether they won or lost, they remained expressionless. There was none of this throw your hands in the air and swearing nonsense we typically see in North American sports. The highlight of the night was a bout between the Japanese wrestler with the perfect record to date and a very strong Mongolian wrestler. The crowd was cheering, encouraging the Japanese wrestler and were totally into the match. In the end the Mongolian wrestler won the bout, but the intensity of the wrestlers could easily be felt in our nosebleed-level seats. It was great having Makiko there to explain everything to us. On our way out we saw a few sumo wrestlers walking out on their own (it's not like they need bodyguards). One of them walked beside Yosha. It was cool to compare the difference in size: while they were about the same height, most sumo wrestlers are between 350-400 lbs!

From the sumo match we went for dinner with Makiko and her friend Haruka, who did a master's degree in linguistics at U of T so we had lots to talk about, between the four of us who all spent some time at some point in Toronto. The restaurant was awesome: they take you through a ninja training camp, where you go through hidden staircases and dungeons to find your way to your seat. I had an amazing beef tenderloin dish, chosen from a menu that was rolled up like a scroll, and the girls had a ninja-themed eight-course tasting menu. One of the highlights was definitely the magic show. At one point a "ninja master" came to do card tricks at our table. Say what you want about magic: there is nothing that brings out the kid in you more than a magic trick! (Though admittedly there is very little that doesn't bring out the kid in me!)

On Sunday we took part in a morning bus tour of the city, where we saw a few of the major sites of Tokyo: the Tokyo tower, the imperial palace grounds and the senso-ji temple, a temple that enshrines a golden image of Kannon, the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy. According to legend, she was miraculously pulled out of a nearby river by two fishermen in 628. (Note: it remains to be seen if the ancient image of Kannon actually exists, as it's not on public display).

From the tour we went to Yoyogi-Koen, a park where all sorts of wackiness come together. One of the highlights was a group of rockabilly dudes grooving to the song Footloose. They had some serious moves to go along with their amazing outfits of black jeans, perfect pompadoured hair, leather jackets and leather pointed shoes that were layered with electric tape since the shoes had worn down so much from the twisting and dancing.

From there we went to Harajuku, the shopping Mecca. There was a huge range of clothing stores, from high end Louis Vuitton/Dior/Fendi to funky accessory and shoe stores. Unfortunately one of the downsides of being taller here is that the shoes and most clothes don't quite fit...which I suppose isn't necessarily a bad thing as I would be tempted to empty my bank account here. It was great to see Tokyo fashion at its finest. I'm not quite sure how to define fashion here. General wardrobe staples seem to be lacy socks with shoes or sandals, flowery tights or skirts mixed with a random mishmash of colors. Yosha and I like to play the "what doesn't fit here" game when we people watch, as there usually seems to be one piece of clothing that is slightly off, at least but conservative government-town Ottawa standards!

Outside the sumo stadium

A sort of blurry shot of a sumo wrestler up close

At Senso-ji temple

Tokyo Central station

Sketchy neighbourhoods, funky boots, and old vs. new in Osaka

We left Kanazawa for Osaka on the 21st. One thing that we have really been enjoying in Japan is the train system here. The trains are always on time, the schedule is always available and we rarely have to wait more than a few minutes for the next train. We have gotten a lot of use out of our JR pass, which we have taken almost all over the country! It was definitely worth around $630 we spent on it, as the ticket from Tokyo to Shin-Hanamaki alone on the first full day in Japan would have cost over $100! 

After we checked into our hostel, we spent the afternoon walking around the shopping streets. One street has everything you would ever need if you owned a restaurant: more knives, bowls, glasses and plastic food than you could imagine! We also checked out some flashier parts of the shopping area and had the local speciality, takoyaki, deep fried octopus balls!

Perhaps our view of Osaka is slightly skewed by the fact we just left two really touristy cities, and our hostel is probably one of the grossest hostels I have ever stayed in, and that says a lot since I have been fortunate enough to travel in a number of European and Asian cities. The shower smells like urine, my tiny room had holes in the walls, the linoleum floor in the hallways was peeling off, and the characters in the neighborhood are slightly sketchy. I am reminded again of the expression "the cheap always pay twice" since the hostel is about half the price of other hostels. So instead of doing three nights in Osaka with a day trip to Kobe we decided to get a refund from the hostel for our third night and spend the last night in Kobe before heading out to Tokyo on the 24th. If nothing else it makes for a funny story!

Wednesday was a better day. After a surprising great night's sleep between the sketchy hostel, the bean bag pillow and the super thin futon mattress, which left me groggy from oversleeping for the better part of the day, we checked out the Osaka castle, which was pretty neat. The highlight of the castle was being able to wear a samurai helmet, probably the heaviest thing I will ever put on my head, and an overcoat for $3. I figured it was money well spent! From there we went up the Umeda sky building up to the 40th floor for an amazing view of the city. The elevator ride up was interesting; at one point it's all glass so you can see everything outside as you go up. From there we could go outside and see for miles up until it gets too hazy/smoggy to see much more. Very cool!

It was a bit of a slower, lazy day (the thermometer at the top of the tower indicated it was 32.5 C) between the heat and me oversleeping/Yosha under sleeping from the people talking too loudly in the common area. I didn't mind a lazier day though: it was nice to enjoy the weather and take our time to relax, between eating ice cream before going to the castle or dipping our feet in a pool on the way to the tower. We are on holidays after all!

One benefit of staying in a more colourful neighborhood is the variety of stores. We have a couple stores that sell clothes for labour-type jobs so I was able to buy a pair of boots that I have seen on rickshaw runners. They are denim-ish mid-shin length boots that have shaped toes like the teenage mutant ninja turtles. Very cool! The sizes are in centimeters here so I am on a mission now to try to find a pair for Sean. 

We left yesterday for Kobe, where the hostel was considerably nicer. Our sole purpose in Kobe was to have some Kobe beef. We went with a Lonely Planet recommendation to try it as Misono, the original teppanyaki restaurant. (note: Teppanyaki restaurants in Japan are not like the ones back home where they do a big show with fire and such. It's just a chef who grills meat and veggies in front of you and constantly wipe the grill with a cloth). Ohhhhh mmmyyyyyy ggggoooodddnnneessss that was the best meal I have ever had, and likely will ever have. The food was cooked to perfection, and everything in the meal was amazing. I even enjoyed the onions, which I rarely like! The steak was so marbly and fatty, with a rich buttery taste that melted in my mouth. Dessert was the ripest honeydew melon I have ever had along with vanilla ice cream, mango sorbet and a piece of cheesecake. There was a hefty price tag of $140 to go with it, but we figured it was an amazing place to have steak and I feel like we got what we paid for! 

So today we leave for Tokyo, and leave to go home on the 30th. On the agenda so far are a sumo match, going to a tuna auction at stinkin' early in the morning, shopping!!, DisneySea, hanging out with Makiko, Nonaco and another one of the their friends, and causing some more trouble. It will be super fun, but I can't believe the trip is winding down! 

A few photos from the last few days: 

In Osaka, with two Japanese comedians (the one on the right reminded us of one of the old men from the Muppet Show!)

Takoyaki, a specialty from Osaka - deep fried octopus balls (I am going to do a special blog on food  at some point before we leave)

Osaka at night

Osaka Castle

From the Umeda Sky Building in Osaka

The view of Osaka from the top of the Umeda Sky Building (we were on the 40th floor)

The escalator ride up to the floating garden 

Temples, clubs and ninjas!

We have exhausted our supply of transportation karma in Kyoto! We started out so well...with no planning we saw what we wanted to see, caught the buses on time...and then our luck started to run out. We found ourselves on our last full day in Kyoto missing buses by less than a minute on a number of occasions. This morning we somehow got on the rapid train (on the advice of one of the ticket vendors), found ourselves realizing we missed the stop a number of stops later, getting on a local train back and getting so involved in sudoku that we missed the stop! We caught it on the third try and had a lovely morning walking around the fushimi-inari taisha, a shrine complex dedicated to the gods of rice and sake in the 8th century. The entire complex sprawls across the wooded slopes of Inari-Yama. We took the pathway (yay MORE stairs!) up almost to the top and were amazed at the richness in colour of the thousands of red torii (gates).

After an uneventful return we made our way to Nagoya to meet our friend Rheanne. It was so great to see her again after almost a year and a half. She is always great to provide funny stories and more information about the country. On our way to the Nagoya castle, while drinking a lovely alcoholic drink she introduced us to called chuhai, she talked about some of her experiences teaching English, some of the challenges of the education system and some insight into the Japanese culture. For example, there is a fairly high population of Brazilian-Japanese people because a number of years back, brazil needed help with their computers so they hired a large number of Japanese workers to come to brazil where they settled down eventually and got married to Brazilian women. A number of them came back to Japan married so there are mixed Japanese-Brazilian kids. In Nagoya we noticed signs are written in Japanese, English and Portuguese. We also learned that Japanese mothers are very competitive; Tuesday is the one day a week that kids bring their own lunches into school (they are all on a meal plan) so Monday night all of the mothers spend hours making bento boxes for their kids and will arrange food into different shapes like hello kitty veggies, pieces of hot dogs shaped into octopus, that kind of thing. We learned as well that it's less important what kids learn in university than it is where they go. It is all about working hard to get into a good university. Once they are there it sounds like they don't work as hard as we do in Canadian universities, and that most skills are acquired on the job.

We noticed as well that kids are always in their school uniform so asked about this. It seems that kids up to high school must wear their high school uniform from Monday-Saturday because if they misbehave, people need to know which school to go to so that they can complain about their behavior and the children can get reprimanded. In the train kids are taught to be quiet.

Being in Japan has definitely given me a new appreciation for quietness. On trains everyone most people are quiet. When we take the bullet train there is an announcement not to talk on the phone. I think I will go home with a newfound appreciation for silence. There doesn't seem to be the mindless chatter and space taking that we have at home.

Japan seems to have a love affair with France. There are a number of French bakeries in each city; I see French a lot in stationery stores, shopping malls and various store names....which is funny because I doubt most Japanese people can speak French! We also found out about Paris shock syndrome, which is what some polite Japanese tourists suffer when they discover that Parisians can be rude or the city does not meet their expectations. There is even insurance for it. Funny eh? Maybe the insurance money could be put to better use, like cultural awareness...? http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6197921.stm

We walked around Nagoya, checked out a festival, had my picture taken with a Japanese guy in a cheerleader outfit wearing a red clown wig, hung out with the mascot from Nagoya's football team and went to Oasis 21, a sort of spaceship-looking glass installation that has water in the middle like a pond, making it feel like you're in a completely quiet part of the city.

We had dinner at an Aussie bar (side note crocodile nuggets kinda taste like chicken nuggets and kangaroo pie tastes similarly to minced meat) then got ready to go out...after a nap of course! We went to a club called IDcafe where there were 5 floors of music. I haven't had that much fun at a club in years! It was PACKED! There was an amazing energy, with a lot of people dancing, jumping around and singing along (especially during Nicky Minaj's "starships" song, which played three times on three different floors!) Almost everyone there was Japanese and mostly guys. What was great was that we could dance and have a great time without being hounded by guys on the dance floor grinding up against us. I randomly struck up conversations with a number of people, which was hilarious and a ton of fun!

After a slow morning we made our way to Kanazawa. We have been spoiled with the Shinkansen (bullet train) so the three hour regular train felt slow, noisy and not as smooth...kind of like via rail!

Our guest house in Kanazawa is wonderful! It's really close to the train station and its with a couple who completely renovated their house about 6 months ago and turned it into a guest house. It's clean, modern and brand new. Best of all we are the only ones there so we have it all to ourselves. To top it off, we have REAL PILLOWS!! :)

It was a pretty lazy day, between waking up hungover, making our way to Kanazawa and feeling sleepy. We had more tasty conveyor belt sushi and watched Iron Man 3 in English with subtitles. Movie theaters are cool here. You can pick your seat AND drink beer in the theatre!! :)

The downside is that instead of quirky trivia before the previews they showed reminders of what we can't do, like "no smoking", "no handy phone" and "silent please", along with elevator music. As if once wasn't enough, they played the series of don'ts five times. Other than that the movie was super amazing!

Today we spent the day walking around Kanazawa. Kyoto was an amazing city but Kanazawa is a very close second. There seems to have been a lot of work put into designing the city for tourism. There is a lot of green space and flowers; they have an amazing loop bus that loops around all of the major sites; and of all of the cities we have visited, I find that the quality of English here seems to be superior to the other cities we have visited. We checked out the Kanazawa castle park and took part in a great tour of the castle grounds.

From there we had a lovely picnic lunch in Kenrokuen garden, one of the top gardens in Japan. The park is impeccably maintained, with the trees regularly being trimmed in funky shapes, and streams and ponds flowing all along the park.

From there we went to the ninja temple, which was a temple that was completed in 1643. It was designed a hideout in case of attack, and contains hidden stairway, escape routes, secret chambers, concealed tunnels and trick doors.

We toured around a part of the city that that was once inhabited by samurai. This district featured winding cobblestone streets lined with tile-roofed mud walls. Very cool! This wasn't far from a shopping street that I was in love with. I almost squealed with excitement in some of the stores that sold super cute stuff like little doll dresses complete with bows and lace, very cool Victoria-style jackets, funky accessories...I keep telling myself that's what shopping in Tokyo is for but it's hard to stop myself!

Tomorrow we leave for four days in Osaka. The reviews on the place we are staying at are mixed but we are only there for a few nights and its cheap so we will see what happens! 

I am forever grateful to have such an amazing travel buddy as Yosha. We have a great relationship when it comes to travelling. We plan everything sort of, talk about what we want to do, giggle and talk all day...we are having a blast! Tonight I tried on one of the honey masks that I bought at the convenience store. It's basically a mask cut out that you stick on your face. I think we almost peed ourselves laughing at how ridiculous I look. Picture the scene from Mrs. Doubtfire where Robin Williams sticks his face in the pie, then sort of mix in the Mexican wrestler from the Koodoo commercials and that`s how silly I looked! 

Here are a few photos from our last days in Kyoto and our day in Nagoya. Photos from today will be on their way shortly! 

New friends...kids from school asking us questions to practice their English

At the top of the water temple

One of the temples at the water temple. The view was definitely worth the walk!

At the Fushimi-Inari shrine

Along the path...this was basically the entire trek! 

With Rheanne in front of Nagoya castle

Making friends with some random dude in a cheerleading outfit. Soooo Japanese...

Fondling Grampus, the mascot for the Nagoya football team. Do you blame me? He's so darn cute!! 

Horses, more monkeys, more stairs and yes, even more temples!

For all that we are on holidays, our days are far from just slothing around, eating sushi and drinking plum wine. Ok, that's part of our day, but not the whole day! On Wednesday we joined the hoards of people who checked out the Aoi Matsuri parade. This festival dates back to the 7th century and commemorates the successful prayers of the people for the gods to stop calamitous weather. It was amazing to see the variety and colours of costumes on the approximately 600 people who participated in the parade. It was great to see the different horses participating in the parade too, and the equipment they had on. I didn't realize how much I missed being around horses till I saw them in the parade!

From there we headed out to the silver temple. It was quite the adventure getting there as we originally planned to go to Kuramadera, a temple on a mountain that you reach by cable car, but as this may surprise you, Yosha and I hadn't quite planned out our route so we weren't really sure how to get there. We managed to take some random buses and make our way to the silver temple, a beautiful temple built in 1482. The temple itself didn't totally wow me but the garden in the temple and the view were breathtaking.

After some exploring we managed to make our way to Kuramadera. It was definitely worth the wait! It wasn't nearly as busy as the silver temple. the hike to the top was gorgeous; the path was lined with vermilion lanterns and the path veered its way through the woods so we were constantly in the company of trees. I am thankful that Yosha and I spend a decent amount of time at the gym. Some of these walks have been quite challenging, up and down hills and up more steps than I would ever do on the stair master at the gym! Thankfully the walks help to reduce some of my guilt from the endless sweets, baked goods and mochi!

We stopped at the department store food court on the way home. I grabbed a bento box and Yosha had various yummy sticks of fried meat. Well, almost all yummy. At one point she asks me what kind of meat she had and once my taste buds decided it was liver on a stick they quickly were not happy with the assault!

Yesterday we went to check out a bamboo forest in Arashiyama, at the base of Kyoto's western mountains. The bamboo forest was more of a wide paved path so it didn't quite feel like we were in a bamboo grove after all. On the plus side the area is also home to about 160 snow monkeys. At this park they make it clear not to look at the monkeys in the eyes. On our last monkey park visit we didn't realize that until afterwards when we read a sign. It hadn't really mattered since the monkeys were so quiet and approachable. At this park we definitely felt like we were in the wild. At one point walking up to the rest area where most of the monkeys are, we must have looked a monkey in the eyes because it charged at us. They are small but I'm not messing with them. Have you seen their teeth?! Anyways, we were able to feed them apples through the fence inside an enclosed area, which was a beautiful experience because they would gently grab the apples from our palms. Ok, enough about the monkeys :)

For dinner last night we decided to take a break from the typically Japanese fare and have pizza. I don't know if it was the pizza or if it was sleeping in the dorm and being constantly interrupted but neither of us slept well.

Today has been a pretty slow day. We visited the golden pavilion, originally built in 1397 as a retirement villa. In 1950 it was burned to the ground and in 1955 rebuilt. From there we went to check out another temple, which ended up being the same one we saw the other day on our way to Kuramadera. In our defense there are close to a thousand temples in Kyoto and all of them have names in Japanese followed by English nicknames! At least we knew how to make it back to the bus stop back to Kyoto train station!

We finally got it together and checked out the water temple, which was absolutely worth it! The buildings were gorgeous and the view of the whole city was incredible! We were even interviewed by some junior high students who wanted to practice their English.

On the way back we had an early dinner and caught the sun setting from the Kyoto tower. Such a beautiful view and a great way to end our last full day in Kyoto! Tomorrow morning we are going to check out one last shrine and then head out to Nagoya to meet up with my friend Rheanne, who I haven't seen since last year in Vietnam and before then in Dubai! I feel like a celebrity jet setter going out to party with an old friend in random parts of the world!

From Nagoya we are going to spend a few days in Kanazawa to explore some gardens and samurai and geisha districts. It should be fun! :)

Some photos from the last couple of days. 

During the parade. I liked the horses the best, even though there were some that were a little too ribby and hippy for my taste

An ox pulling a wagon (he had help) during the parade

One of the gardens in the silver temple

Another part of the garden in the silver temple

The first of many shots of stairs....

More stairs...

Weeeeeee even more stairs!! take TAKE, stairmaster!!

Yosha in the bamboo grove

Hiding in the Japanese maple

I had these critters eating out of the palm of my hand!! :)

I could have stayed with these guys all day they were hilarious!

Ok last monkey picture...the beautiful city of Kyoto is in the background