Day Six - 8/28/09

On the sixth day my brother and I rested in our hotel in Osaka, mostly because we had been going straight for five days at this point, we hadn't received our luggage from the Takuhaibin (luggage delivery service), and it was seriously hot out.

Our original plan was to wake up early and go up Mount Rokko, but with the heat and the fact we hadn't changed in over a day we decided to relax in our nice hotel room and wait for the luggage to show up so we could change and head out for the day.  We waited until noon for the bags to show up, and we decided to make our way over to Osaka Castle.

We walked from the Tanimachi train station (which is southwest of the castle), and I stopped to take a photo of a what looked like a very old house next to a very modern building.  Although we didn't investigate why the house was sitting there next to the train station and a large new building, the photo shows a nice contrast between the new and old.

After a ten minute walk, we arrived at Osaka castle.  The view from the outside is impressive, across a large moat the walls were built up and many of the castle buildings were visible.  We walked across a bridge over the moat, and followed the crowds through the complex towards the castle.

Across a second bridge over a secondary moat, we reached an imposing gate where the castle was just visible.  This was a perfect photo opportunity, so my brother took a photo of me standing under the gate.

A short five minute walk later, we were outside of Osaka castle, so we purchased a ticket and headed inside.  While the castle did survive the air raids in World War 2, it was recreated in 1931, and repaired and refurbished in 1997.  Even though it wasn't the original, I still found it to be worth visiting and a very beautiful spot as well.

The tour of the castle starts on the top floor which is where there is an amazing 360 degrees view, and then you walk down the stairs to learn about the history of Osaka castle and its owners, as well as artifacts from the period.  Actually you will be walking up and then down lots of stairs unless you have a disability that requires you to use the elevator.  It's not that bad though, but it was a pretty crowded stairwell.

After the castle, we relaxed on the grounds for a little bit and explored around, bought ourselves a compulsory ice cream, and took a photo in one of those "stick your head through it" models.  I was dressed like a Geisha eating my ice cream at Osaka castle.

We walked away from Osaka castle southeast in the opposite direction from which we came, and we spotted a very small monument basically among the trees.  From there we kept walking southeast along the paths, and the area became seemingly remote due to the large number of trees, though we were still in the middle of Osaka.

As we walked further along the path, we started hearing orchestral music, which was a strange thing to be hearing in the middle of a forest in the middle of a major metropolitan city.  We kept getting closer to the music, and eventually we reached an outdoor amphitheater, also known as the Castle Music Hall where an orchestra was rehearsing.  While we didn't hang out to listen to more songs, it was a relaxing way to walk back to the train station from Osaka Castle.

After Osaka Castle, we headed back to our hotel.  When I booked our room at the Swissôtel Nankai Osaka, one of the many perks we got with the deal I found was a free bottle of sparkling wine.   At first we assumed that we could just drink the bottle in "The Lounge", which is really just the lounge bar, but it turns out we had to order it to our room for room service.

Did I mention that we were going to head to the Hanshin Koshien Stadium for the Hanshin Tigers versus the Yomiuri Giants (aka Tokyo Giants in English press), the Red Sox versus Yankees of Japanese baseball?

So we got room service, got dressed, drank a bottle of Brut prior to the game, took some photos with our gear, and headed to the stadium for a little Japanese baseball.

We ran into a acquaintance of my brother's on the way to the train, who, along with her father were headed in the same direction as my brother and I.  We chatted about living in Japan and the cultural differences as well, though both of them had been living in Japan for quite some time.

We reached our stop, said our good-byes, and then said hello to the thousands of others who exited the train with us for a night of baseball.  We explored a bit around the stadium for some dinner options, before settling upon a small restaurant known as "McDonald's".  Yeah, I had McDonald's twice in Japan, but the second time it was more for my brother's desire for another "Mega Tomago" before they stopped their limited time offer.

Following dinner, we headed into the stadium to watch a baseball game.  When you compare America and Japan, a lot of what you see is the same, but different.  They sold beer around the stadium, but instead of scruffy overweight men yelling "beer heeeere" you have young women yelling in Japanese.  The same is true of hot dogs and nachos, except in Japan you have hot dogs and soba noodles.  The beer was tasty, but I was more a fan of the shochu and green colored ice, which was sweet, tasty, and got me good and buzzed.  Speaking of which, I spilled beer all over my brother's lap when I nearly dropped my camera, at least it wasn't the shochu.

The fans are quite a sight as well.  The sections of the stadium are generally segregated so that each team's fans have certain sections.  In some of these sections, there are section coordinators that lead with the fervor of militaristic societies.  There are flags, trumpets, drums, and everyone has their designated props to follow the leaders as they parade through the numerous songs and chants.  I was impressed by a nearby section of Giants fans dressed in the same red outfits; and their section leaders, who I don't think saw any of the game since they were always facing the fans, were constantly leading the crowd with drums and a trumpet.

The game itself is basically the same as in America, and it was a fun game to watch.  We were routing for the home-team Tigers to when, and were very happy when they squeaked out a win against the Giants.  All in all it was a fun experience, and one I think anyone visiting Japan should experience as well.

After the game, we headed back with the masses onto the trains, and made it back to Osaka to meet up with my brother's girlfriend and her friend.  We walked around a bit to try and figure out what we were going to do, and settled on going to do karaoke.  In any large city in Japan, karaoke places seemed to be everywhere, and you rent a room and can order drinks to the room.  Just like in America, the song plays on a television screen while images that may or may not relate to the song play in the background.  It was all good fun, and we had a great time before my brother's girlfriend and friend took off for the night.  Tired from what seemed like a long day, we headed back to our room to get some sleep before heading back to Tokyo the next morning.

Here's a view of the baseball game from our seats.

Night of Day Five - 8/27/09

Osaka was, well, kind of boring.  I'm sure there's a lot going on that I didn't get to see, but even the most active part (Dotonbori) of it was filled with hostess bars, massage parlors, and whorehouses.  However, we still managed to have a good time in Osaka (without any payment for pleasure, unless you count karaoke or the video games).

Either way, like the rest of Japan, it had good restaurants.  Actually Osaka has been called the "nation's kitchen" in Japan, at least Wikipedia tells me so.  After dropping off our bags in our room at the Swissotel Nankai, we sat down for a drink in the hotel's lounge, aptly called "The Lounge."  The deal I got for the hotel was quite good, it included two free drinks at "The Lounge" and a free bottle of sparkling wine (more on that tomorrow), among other hotel coupons.  I had two reservations and hoped that I'd get double the coupons, but that wasn't in the cards.

My brother was hungry in "The Lounge" and ordered what he thought was a meat, cheese, and fruit plate with a few pieces of bread for 1800 yen (about $18).  It turned out to be the smallest meat, cheese, and fruit plate you've ever seen anybody pay $18 for, so we finished our free drinks and headed out to find a restaurant.

On Anthony Bourdain's visit to Osaka, I had heard about the takoyaki at the Pizza Ball House restaurant which I thought to be near the Dotonbori area.  However, we couldn't find it, even with the iPhones, so we ended up another place.  I had a okonomiyaki with squid and other things and while it was good, it was awfully filling.  I've heard it's an Osaka thing to eat until you're utterly and completely full... well I certainly was.

After the restaurant, we walked around the Dotonbori, admiring the Glico man, and all the purveyors of the world's oldest trade, before heading to an arcade (game-station). 

First my brother and I played a traditional gun game which gives you five minutes of play before you have to start filling it with 100 yen coins constantly, and then we looked around for something else.  We found it in a purikura photo booth.

In this photo booth you take photos of yourself with a green screen behind you, you pick a setting for your photo shoot, take a few photos, edit the images to add text, clip art, etc., and then you print out stickers of your two best shots.  Did I mention that this is mostly used by girls?

Hilarity ensued, while I haven't scanned the photo stickers yet, I've taken the liberty of taking a photo of the two photos we chose.  Sorry it doesn't look that much better, but yes I am trying to eat the fish in the left photo, and yes that is takoyaki on my brother's shoulder in the right one.

Then we walked around the arcade my brother's girlfriend and I tried to play Super Mario Brothers songs on the drum game.  While she can read Japanese and I certainly can't, somehow we ended up in hard mode, guess which one of us chose that one...  It was fun anyway though.

We walked around a bit more in the arcade, admiring the fighting and racing games that were still quite busy, before heading back to our room to get some rest for Friday.  Also remember, my shorts still have Mega Tomago sauce on them.  Our suitcases wouldn't be arriving at the hotel till Friday...

Day Five - 8/27/09

On Thursday, we checked out of the Hotel Granvia and started heading towards our next destination, Osaka. We planned on making a few stops that day, and we didn't feel like carrying our bags around so we used a Takuhaibin (luggage delivery) service at the hotel to send our luggage separately from ourselves. This seemed like a good idea at the time, but it takes a day usually to get luggage between places, so be sure you keep everything you need for the next 24 hours in what you carry around (we didn't).

From Kyoto, we took a train to Fushimi, where we visited the Fushimi Inari-taisha, which contains a number of paths lined with gates. While I had never visited Central Park during the "The Gates" exhibit, these gates in Fushimi reminded me of the pictures that I had seen of it. According to the Wikipedia entry on The Gates (which of course is uncited), the exhibit was inspired by the tradition of Japanese torii gates. Anyways, all this means is that I skipped the copycat and saw the original.

From the shrine, we headed down towards a town, across one train tracks into a playground and tried to figure out our next steps. Turns out we were hungry, and it was time for our visit to a McDonalds to get a Mega Tomago. My brother had me order, which was an unsuccessful disaster, and he got it all on video so he could laugh and embarrass me.

It wasn't as big as the photos suggested it would be, and it was honestly a lot like a Big Mac with the egg portion of an Egg McMuffin and some extra dressing on it, but it wasn't bad either. Unfortunately I got some of the dressing on my shirt and shorts, and like I said earlier we did not have our suitcases with us so I was walking around for the rest of the day/night with Mega Tomago sauce on my shorts.

From McDonalds, we headed to the Gekkeikan Okura Sake Museum, which was not where they made Sake, but they had a number of exhibits on the history and process of making Sake. Had we planned better, we might have been able to get a tour of an actual Sake factory, but we didn't and yet it was still informative and fascinating.

First the museum had a fountain that contained water that they had used (or were using) for making Sake (Fushimi has some of the cleanest water in Japan). The second portion of the tour was the part I was most interested in, the process for making sake. While I probably could have learned this all on-line, with the actual tools next to the explanation things really made sense. The third part of the tour showed ancient and then more-recent sake related items and photographs. The final part of the tour was a quick tasting, along with two cans of the museum's sake, which was later confiscated by the Japanese airport security.

From the Sake Museum, we headed back towards the train station, and along the way my brother spotted a tatami floor maker. He showed off a bit of his work to us (see photo), which was pretty cool for my brother as he hadn't seen it being done before.

We got on a train to Nara, and made it there shortly afterwards. We walked out of the station and stopped in a small little cafe on the corner for a rest with a quick iced coffee and a chocolate croissant. Although you think of tea when you think of Japan, they are actually one of the biggest coffee drinkers in the world, and you can find really good coffee anywhere.

We continued up the hill and made our way to Kofuku-ji, and we took a few photos before heading back to the main road. Nara is famous for the many deer that live there, and there are a number of vendors that sell biscuits that tourists purchase to have them feed the deer.

There are a few observations that I noted about this:

1) The deer are aware that there is food for sale
2) The biscuit vendors are aware that the deer are aware that there is food for sell
3) The typical tourist generally is not aware of previous two points
4) The deer are regarded as messengers of the gods in the Shinto religion
4) The deer have antlers

So the biscuits are wrapped with two pieces of paper, and when the vendor twists the biscuits to unwrap the paper, it makes a distinct cracking noise. A noise which the deer are fully aware of, and if they aren't already harassing another biscuit feeding tourist they generally will head in your direction. Once they are close enough, they may prod you with their antlers to feed them. Generally the ones that prodded me were the ones that got the most food, as I didn't want to find out what happened past prodding. Obviously this behavior works out well for the deer as well.

It was really fun to feed the deer. Just be ready for an unexpected feeling of fear. Also, see the photo to the left, which is an actual sign they have posted near the deer. Since I can't read Japanese, I'm guessing they have gotten rowdy in the past with tourists, and (potentially) utilize the awesome power of red lightning emanating from their skulls.

From the deer we kept going up the street to Todai-ji, which houses the Daibutsu-den (Great Buddha Hall). The Daibutsu-den is the world's largest wooden structure and it houses the largest Buddha statue in the world. It's quite impressive. There's an additional number of large statues, and a hole in one of the pieces of wood my brother claimed that if you pass through it, you could fit in the Buddha statue's nose.

I purchased a charm for my wife at the temple to help prevent future traffic accidents, and we made our way back to the Nara train station to meet up with my brother's girlfriend and head to the Swissotel Nankai in Osaka.

Night of Day Four - 8/26/09

For Wednesday's night dinner, we were treated to dinner. You see my brother's girlfriend is originally from the Kyoto area, and her mother arranged for us to have a dinner at Ganko along the Kamagawa (river). We arrived a few minutes early, changed our shoes, and we were led to our table by a traditionally dressed girl (who let us take her photo, and then took a photo for us).

We sat down, and were treated to an appetizer course that had many, many different types of food (it was a little bit intimidating, but I was/am trying to be brave with trying new

food, experiences, etc.). We tried nearly everything, but a very large wasp moved in on our table and after few minutes of trying to avoid it we had to have the staff help us out. One of the girls in the kimono tried to shoo it away and it nearly flew up her kimono. Another guy came over and tried to trap it in a bowl with a wet tow

el, but it managed to escape and flew

off into the evening sky.

After that, we ordered some sake (the meal was all you can drink as well, which we took advantage of) and another beer. Unfortunately they took a the appetizer course away at that point, but we had tried everything by then and I wasn't too disappointed.

The next course was composed of pike, shrimp, trout, and yuba (which I don't like much). The pike is a regional fish of Kyoto, and while my brother didn't enjoy it, I found it to be very tasty. The shrimp and trout were good as well, but as I mentioned the yuba (tofu skin) is not my favorite. Ok, it reminds me of old people skin, which is not an appetizing thought at all.

At this point, it's difficult to remember what we had next. Again, it was all you can drink.

However, we believe that it was more pike, but this time with plum sauce. I enjoyed it, and actually then ate some of my brother's serving.

By now, it was time for a whole fish with the skin still attached. My brother and I were wondering if this was dessert, and he didn't eat it but I found it to be really tasty.

It wasn't dessert, following the whole fish we had a traditional Japanese dessert with tofu, fruit, and some sugary syrup, which we both enjoyed. After many servings of sake and beer, we headed out and grabbed a taxi back to Kyoto station to meet up with a Japanese friend of my brother's who he met in Boston. He's a pediatrician now in Kyoto, and he was obviously super-smart and super-friendly.

We headed out from the station to meet up with my brother's girlfriend and her friend at Slowly (which was very close to Kyoto station), a bar full of international beers. Given that it was the summer, I enjoyed a Red Stripe. After that, I called it a night for me and just hung out until we left the place and headed back to our hotel room.

Day Four - 8/26/09

On day four, we rented bicycles from the Kyoto Cycling Tour Project for a tour of Kyoto. We rode our bikes through the pedestrian area of Kyoto station (and were asked to stop... and we did... briefly). After a ride north along the Kamogawa (Kamo River), we stopped for some refreshment at a convenience store. My brother introduced me to a sports "drink" that was really more of a sports "gel", and I grabbed the lemon protein one which was rather tasty, but awfully strange at the same time.

Then we continued on and found ourselves in a small street that led to the Ginkaku-ji Temple. There were many open storefronts selling a special candy that Kyoto is famous for called yatsuhashi. While it did taste good (I only tried the fresh kind), it wouldn't survive the length of my trip so I had to let it go. It is possible I may be able to pick up some baked ones before I go.

We hiked up the street with our bikes, and then found a spot to park the bikes on a road perpindicular to the alley. This is actually quite a problem in Japan, they actually have people driving around on scooters looking for bikes not parked in the proper spots, and they call it back to base and sometime later a truck shows up and takes the bike to the impound. Luckily this didn't happen to us here, but I witnessed it happen later in the day.

We made our way through Ginkaku-ji Temple, past the "magnificent" hedges, amazing sand sculptures, and beautiful scenery. It was quite a place to be in, and certainly one of the most natural spectacles I've ever encountered.

We returned to our bikes, which were still in the place we left them, and started riding south along the same street towards and stopped at some small but interesting shrines nestled in the hills.

We then reached our picnic bento lunch spot, Nanzenji. We enjoyed a lunch prepared by my brother's girlfriend of sushi, and I found that I do not like umeboshi (pickled plums). I figured it's a plum, didn't realize it was a pickled plum, and put it my mouth thinking it was going to be sweet. Turns out it was sour, salty, and spicy, but I did manage to put it down.

After lunch, we walked up behind the aqueduct to Nanzenin, and then we walked along the aqueduct to what looked like a large building with a bell inside, but it was locked up and it remained a mystery.

From there, we headed back down towards the center of Kyoto, and stopped to take some more photos looking both ways to Heian Shrine. We stopped by another gate for a photo, and then made our way over to Kiyomizudera Temple.

Again we cleverly hid our bikes, and then followed the masses around the temple. There were many interesting sights, including a bell that we rung, a very large stage, and a man and his bunny.

We returned to our bikes, grabbed a drink from a vending machine, and drove down back down the river, through Kyoto station (we rode the whole time), and we got the bikes back intact.

This was a pretty amazing and unique way to visit Kyoto, and everyone had a great time.

Night of Day Three - 8/25/09

After a shower and a short rest, we headed out to meet up with some of my brother's friends from the JET program. I requested yakitori, and we had to pass on the first place we went to that didn't have room, but the second place had a large variety of yakitori. They had your good old-fashioned chicken on a stick, and onion-flavored chicken, but also shrimp, "winner" (really they meant "wiener"), and banana (definitely my favorite. A few beers and some sake later, we ordered the last of the banana and headed our separate ways for the night.

Day Three - 8/25

(Sorry for the lack of updates, we've been awfully busy and I have not had (free) internet access in my hotels up until now.)

On day three my brother, his girlfriend and I headed to Rokuon-ji temple complex on the outskirts of Kyoto. First we saw the Kinkaku-ji (golden temple), which was a beautiful tem ple. I took lots of photos (see link), so check them out. We enjoyed some ice cream, and my camera was dropped but it survived with a very small scratch.

From there we walked to Ryoan-ji (temple), where we viewed the famous rock garden. It was very relaxing, and we walked around the grounds.

Then we walked towards a small train station, where we caught an even smaller train. We switched trains, and made our way to Arashiyama, where we had a wonderful tofu lunch (the area is famous for tofu). Turns out I like tofu, at least outside of miso soup. The only thing that wasn't my favorite was the tofu dessert, which was was covered with a flour-like substance that I couldn't identify and didn't really enjoy.

From there, we walked across the street and up a road to Tenryu-ji, where we viewed the grounds and structures and took many photos. From there we took a path through a bamboo forest, and then back into town. We crossed the "Moon Crossing Bridge", stopped to rest, and then we took a long bus ride back into Kyoto.

Night of Day Two - 8/24/09

On Monday night, after the drive, we went out to eat a late lunch / early dinner, and had Chinese food at one of his old haunts from when he lived near Kyoto. Dinner was cheap and good, we had some fried shrimp covered with a sauce, along with some soup, beers, and gyoza. After that, we walked around a shrine, and then met with his friend Wik and had even more gyoza. This place sold a lot of gyoza, and if you ate 140 in an hour you would get it all for free, as well as an extra 100. While tempting, none of us took them up on the offer. I took some video of how they make the gyoza, as well as some photos of the very large loaf of filling.

Afterwards, we went out to an "English Pub", which wasn't special but we drank and met up with one of Wik's friends and headed over to their old haunt on the second floor of a non-descript building called "Ing". Ing is owned by this fellow and his wife, and it's all about drinking and rock-and-roll. As soon as we walked in, the owner put on a live Radiohead CD that I had given to my brother, and my brother had given it to the owner, it was pretty cool stuff. It was a great place (no pictures sadly), and we had plenty of drinks there before the night was done and we headed back to our hotel.

Driving to Kyoto

We drove to Kyoto yesterday with one of my brother's friends and his girlfriend. Driving on the highways in Japan can be rather expensive, so having a large number of people in the car helps keeps the cost down. His girlfriend is from Kyoto, and on the way home she is pickup up some stuff to deliver to their apartment back in Kasukabe so on the way back my brother and I will be taking the Shinkansen (fast train).

On the way, we went to a convenience store. There was no melon soda to try, but I got a Suntory CC Lemon recommended by my brother and some packaged coffee (much like a Starbucks one). They DID have melon soda candy, which is awesome and now I want more. My brother bought some food for me, which looked like a ball of dough and contained pizza like items inside (cheese, sauce, meat). I took photos of all of this of course (see the link).

Since we're driving through the mountains, there were so many tunnels. The view of the mountains is a bit obscured by the clouds. We entered Kyoto after seven hours of driving, drove by Nintendo's main office, and then got dropped off at the Hotel Granvia Kyoto.

Here at last!

The flight was long, but I managed to sleep a bit and stayed hydrated. It's now Monday morning in Japan, and I don't seem to have any jet lag effects so that's good.

In all, I took 1 taxi to the airport, 2 planes to Japan, 2 airport trams, 1 bus from the airport to the train station, 1 train to another station, and 1 car ride to my brother's place. I think I'm just missing the use of a rickshaw or bicycle...

I have a lot to talk about but unfortunately I'm heading out the door with my brother, his girlfriend, and his friend to drive to Kyoto. I've put up some photos so take a look at those instead. When I get to Kyoto I'm sure I'll have a bit more to talk about.

Going to go have breakfast now before we leave. Here's a link to my photos.

And I'm off...

About to leave for the airport. Been up all night chatting with my brother, getting some work finished up, and watching an episode of The Soup. Here we go, I'm all ready, and really excited.

Going to Japan

So I'm going to Japan in nearly a week to visit my brother and explore a totally different and fascinating land. I'd also like to try and update this little outpost on the internet with my photos and findings.

I feel prepared. My brother has lived in Japan since April, and he had spent two years in the JET program a few years back. We've been communicating and planning via Skype very often, and I've done a lot of research on my own.

For preparation, I've used www.japan-guide.com, which is so informative and extensive if you're planning a Japan trip and you haven't been there just go now. The WikiTravel site for Japan is also very good. For travel accomodations, I've used Travelzoo and www.hotels.com, both good sites for travel deals, and we're staying in some really nice places so I'm excited. For travel accommodation reviews, I've mostly used the reviews at TripAdvisor, which also has a lively travel forum as well. For adventure planning in Tokyo, I highly recommend the book Little Adventures in Tokyo: 39 Thrills for the Urban Explorer by Rick Kennedy, and get a map too (I got the Tokyo City Atlas: A Bilingual Guide - which seems useful in case the person you're showing the map to doesn't speak English). For food(ie) reviews, I suggest Chowhound as well as Bento.

This is not to say that I've planned my whole trip out down to the minute. I have a lot of options, some of which I will do, and some of which I may do. We'll see where the day takes me.

I leave in just over a week. Looking forward to it.