Kyoto Day 1

Yesterday we arrived in Kyoto after a minor mishap in the subway system in Osaka. For some reason, Lynsey and I thought we needed to get on a second subway line in order to get to Osaka-shin Station. We hopped off, and Scott had to follow. We ended up missing our Shinkansen (bullet train), but were able to hop on a slower JR line straight to Kyoto. When planning our trip, I did not realize how close Osaka and Kyoto actually were. We also left Osaka at the perfect time because the G20 summit was getting ready to kick off. None of us had any clue that it was happening in Osaka until we got there and saw signs for it and warnings that different places and train lines would be closed because of it.

The hotel that I booked for us in Kyoto is quite swanky. We keep joking that they are going to find a way to kick us out. As we’ve done everywhere else, we dropped our bags and hit the ground running. Kyoto is home to thousands of temples and shrines. It’s a big city but feels much smaller than Osaka. It has an old soul feel to it.

Our hotel is just outside of downtown Kyoto and very close to the Kyoto Imperial Palace Park and Nijo-jo Castle. When planning our trip, I got rather overwhelmed with everything there is to do here and didn’t come up with a game plan. We’ve been flying by the seat of our pants, and Scott has taken over with the logistical planning.

We decided to go ahead and go to the Kyoto Imperial Palace Park first. We walked around the grounds and went into the Imperial Palace itself. The complex sits directly in the center of the Park. We took the scenic route to the entrance. Despite the park being smack in the middle of the city, it’s rather tranquil as you walk through the paths surrounded by trees and bushes. The Imperial Palace was free to get into, but did require you to go through a light security screen. You cannot go into any of the buildings, but they do have plaques describing their different uses. What I’ve learned about these castles is that every room has a specific purpose, and your rank determined which rooms you could enter. The Imperial Palace was a huge complex with sprawling buildings. We took our time going through it despite the fact that it was beginning to rain harder the further we got through the designated path.

We then headed to Shimogamo Shrine with the intention of finding lunch along the way. We ended up at a fast food place called Lotteria. There was no English menu, so we just went based off of pictures. Either we were really hungry or the food was pretty good because we were all happy with our selection.

The path leading into Shimogamo Shrine was quite peaceful. As we arrived at the Torii at the entrance to the Shrine, a man driving a maintenance-like truck stopped and gave Scott an umbrella. We must have been a sight to see with the three of us looking like drowned rats. The umbrella really came in handy for keeping our camera dry! The shrine was beautiful, but we didn’t stay long.

Next, we headed to Ginkaku-ji. Ginkaku-ji turned out to be quite a haul from the Imperial Palace Park and Shinogamo Shrine, and the rain that started there had not let up. Ginkaku-ji is a temple with beautifully raked gardens of sand. It sounds rather strange, but there must be an art form to it. The temple has a beautiful pond in front of it with white sand raked in front if it. The sand is supposed to be symbolic of a mountain and a lake. There is a rather peaceful walking path the cuts through a hill and overlooks the pond and temple. I did manage to slip on the pathway but caught myself. I believe Scott was more worried about our new camera than he was of me!

While we were at the temple, the rain did let up for a little bit, so we were able to start the process of drying out as we made our way back to the hotel. Unfortunately for us, the rain did pick back up again about halfway back. The staff must have seen us coming because they met us with washcloths to ‘dry’ ourselves off with.

For dinner, Scott found a place nearby that sounded pretty good. None of us had it in us to walk a long distance for dinner as we had covered about 13 miles by the evening. I’m not sure what type of restaurant we went too, but we had a hot plate in the middle of our table. We thought the food was going to be cooked right in front of us, but instead, it was brought out on foil and placed on the hot plate to keep it warm while we ate it. We got a mix of veggies, Kobe beef, and mushrooms. Each dish came out separately, and each of them were delicious.

Nara

            For our last day in Osaka, I left Scott and Lynsey in charge of deciding what time we were going to leave for Nara, since I was a bit of a cranky pants. They decided we would leave at 6:30 for the trip out to Nara. I was really excited to go here, as there were lots of temples, shrines, and the Great Buddha. Upon arriving, I was disappointed to discover that each temple required a fee to get in. I was expecting it to be more like the other countries I’ve visited in SE Asia where nine time out of ten you can just show up and go in without having to pay fairly large fees.

We grabbed breakfast at the train station in Nara, visited the Tourism Information Center, and decided on the route we wanted to take to get to Todai-ji where the Great Buddha has his home. First we stopped at Gango-ji Temple and the Five Story Pagoda. We walked around the grounds and admired how beautiful it all was. We decided against paying the fee and going in to see the museum. I think after the museums in our first three full days in Japan, we were ready for a bit of a break from them.

Next, we made our way to a second temple that we again decided against going inside. We then headed for Nara Park where we began to see the sights of the famous Nara deer. They are absolutely everywhere and all shops sell little crackers to feed them. As a result, anything you are holding in your hand is deemed fair game by the deer. One even came up and tried to take the map that Scott was holding behind his back. It was rather comical as the deer was rather insistent that it wanted the map.

An infamous Nara deer

Building where the Great Buddha is housed. 

The path through Nara Park was beautiful as it was lined with trees. 

The Great Buddha

The gate at Todai-ji was absolutely enormous and swarming with people. The original Great Buddha statue was cast in 746. The Great Buddha is beyond impressive. It reminded me a lot of the reclining Buddha in Thailand because of its sheer size. It stands 16m high (not including the base) weight 437 tons. There are two smaller Buddhas on either side of the Great Buddha. I say that they are smaller, but they are still enormous. At the back of the temple but still flanking the Great Buddha are two huge wooden statues. They are called Nandai-mon and are Nio guardians. They were carved in the 13^th century. They do look very life-like and are quite fierce.

Nio Guardian

Next to one of the Nio guardians is a pillar with a hole in the bottom. It is said to be the same size as the Great Buddha’s nostril. Anyone who can crawl through it is ensured of enlightenment. Of course, there was a long line of kids waiting to try their turn at receiving enlightenment. 









We stopped at one more temple called Kasugataisha Shrine. This was unique as it had stone lanterns lining the paths around it. We were lucky to have found a side entrance into the shrine complex because it was quiet and relaxing. Once we entered into main area we encountered all the same people that had been at the Great Buddha earlier. 

We decided that we were rather templed out and went in search of lunch. For the second time in less than a week we ended up at an Indian restaurant. It wasn’t quite as good as the first one we went to, but we were hungry and it served its purpose. We ended up in a little market spot that had a shop with traditional Japanese cloth. Scott and I bought two while we were there, one for ourselves, and one for Sandy. We also stopped in a shop that had origami crane earrings. I’m believe they are made out of tiny pieces of paper before being put through some process to harden them, so they won’t get destroyed by use. As I told Lynsey, my husband is a bad influence!

We headed back to Osaka with the intention to do some laundry and just relax for a little bit. We’ve been averaging about 30,000 steps or well over 10 miles of walking every day, so all of us were a bit tired. We hit the ground running as soon as we arrived, and it definitely caught up with me by the time we made our way to Nara. Osaka has not been our favorite spot so far, so we did not feel like we were missing out on very much. We’ve gotten mixed up on the subway system and lost around our hotel. The area, Dotombori, that’s advertised as being the place to go for food and nightlife, was rather too gaudy for my taste.

We did venture back out into Osaka for dinner that night. We ended up right where we had been the previous night where Scott tried his Tako-yaki. We ate at a Chinese restaurant and just got some dumplings and steamed buns for a lighter meal.

Himeji-jo

Yesterday, we took a day trip from Osaka to Himeji with the purpose of visiting Himeji-jo and the surrounding grounds. We left early enough to join the commuters on a local JR Train going to work. It was packed, but again, you would never know this based off of how quiet it was. Our original plan was to eat our breakfast on the train like we did when going to Miyajima, but we couldn’t get a seat. So, we ate upon arriving in Himeji while waiting for the local Tourism Information Center to open. We finished our breakfast, grabbed a couple of brochures, and set off for the castle. It was a short walk and we could see it in the whole time from the station and the walk.

In my opinion, Himeji has been the most impressive castle we’ve seen. It’s definitely the biggest of the three we’ve gone through. Once you enter the grounds it’s impossible to see the castle at certain times because of the walls that surround it. The walkway up to the castle is maze-like, and was designed this way to confuse enemy soldiers if they chose to attack. Upon getting to the entrance, you are given a plastic bag to put your shoes in. The stone steps leading into the castle are the original ones and date back to the early 1600s when the castle was completely rebuilt by Ikea Terumasa. 

Himeji-jo is not set up like the previous two castles we visited. There is not a museum contained within it. There are information plaques located around the floors to explain the significance of certain elements. I enjoyed getting to see the castle as it would have been, and not cluttered with displays and technology like Hiroshima Castle and Osaka-jo. I did enjoy learning about the history of those two castles, but I really liked getting the feel for what Himeji-jo would have actually been like when it was being used to run a kingdom.

The stairs from one floor to the next were quite steep and reminded me of the temples in Bagan and at Angkor Wat. We saw weapons racks located all around the castle where swords and guns would have once hung. The fourth floor had windows to allow better ventilation when guns and cannons were being fired. There was also a walking deck by the windows to allow for surveillance. There were also little rooms higher up in the corners of certain floors that samurai used to hide in for a sneak attack if the enemy ever got up that far.

Himeji was covered with black cloth during WWII, which allowed it to survive the bombing. There is a captivating photo that shows Himeji Castle standing while the rest of the city lies around it in ruins.

After touring the castle, we make our way to Koko-en Garden. This was not Scott’s cup of tea, so after exploring a couple of the gardens, we made our way back to the train station by passing in and out of a few gift shops. We are currently hunting for different cloths and fabrics that have depictions of the castles we’ve been to. We were able to find a beautiful one amid a lot of interesting items for sale.

After getting back to Osaka, we went on a bit of a wild goose chase looking for different stores and restaurants. First, we went in search of Tower Knives a store that specializes in Japanese made knives. They are incredibly expensive, but beautifully made. Scott and I ended up purchasing an all-purpose knife from a different location later on in the evening. Our second wild goose chase for the day was looking for a place called Beer Belly. We did find it, but unfortunately it was closed. Instead, we found a different little bar to sit and relax in for a minute.

For dinner, we headed to an udon spot in Dotombori recommended by Lonely Planet. I was the only one who liked their dish, and the only part I enjoyed was the noodles. The duck that came in it was very strange. Since Scott didn’t eat very much at the restaurant, he decided that he wanted to try Tako-yaki, an Osaka dish. They are doughy dumplings stuffed with octopus. We watched them make them as Scott ate his and it was a fascinating process. They have these giant cast iron plates that have round holes. It looks like they wipe it down with oil, add batter, the octopus, and more batter. Then they use a chopstick looking thing to continuously stir and spin them without even looking like they are moving their hands or arms. Scott claimed that they were delicious and Lynsey agreed, but I was not brave enough to try them. I have my line of things that I will not cross, and this was one of them.

The last part of our night was spent on the biggest wild goose chase of them all. We took the wrong exit out of the subway station by our hotel and got completely turned around and lost. We stopped to ask for directions twice. The first time I could not understand the man, and the second person sent us in the totally wrong direction. By the time we made it back to our hotel, I was quite cranky. I did get over myself rather quickly and sent myself straight to bed for some much needed R&R.

Osaka-jo

This morning we spent time getting from Hiroshima to Osaka. With the help of a few train station workers and one very friendly older gentleman, we navigated our way through the confusing Osaka Station to arrive at our hotel. We dropped our bags and went in search of food and Osaka-jo, a beautiful castle.

Since we had to navigate it by ourselves, without the help of a local, Osaka’s train and subway system is very confusing. I’m sure that Tokyo’s is even more confusing, but we were lucky to have Danna guiding us! After a mishap of going in the wrong direction on the first subway, we got ourselves sorted out. Our JR passes have come in handy more than I thought they would. I thought they would only be for the bullet trains (the Shinkansen) going long distances, but we’ve discovered that there are many local JR trains that we can get on without having to get tickets for.

After a brief lunch we arrived at the Osaka-jo complex. We discovered that it is a good thing we got to Osaka when we did because the G20 Summit is being held here later this week and the castle is being closed to tourists. The complex was massive and astoundingly beautiful! The boulders that were used to build the walls surrounding the castle were huge. There was even a map inside the museum to show where the megaliths were located around the complex. We saw one as we were walking out. Scott stood next to it, so we could get a sense of just how huge it actually was.

The castle itself is surrounded by two moats and is up on a slight hill. The height of it forces you to look up to see all eight stories of it at once. It didn’t seem to matter where you stood, you inevitably had to look up in order to take the entire structure in. The castle and again the engineering that had to go into it to build it mesmerized me. Just like the castle in Hiroshima, Osaka-jo is set up as a museum and gift shop. I believe this is because both castles were either destroyed or damaged during WWII and were rebuilt or fixed. The layout of the floors was slightly confusing as the stairs were numbered one thing and the landings a different number. We even skipped a level as we wound our way through the museum. The museum contained information on the history of Osaka, the feudal lord, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, whom built the castle, his life, and more samurai weapon and outfit displays. The top level was also an observation deck just like the Hiroshima Castle.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi is not only known for building Osaka-jo but also for unifying Japan. Construction began in 1583, and the castle was the largest in the country at that time. Osaka-jo was burnt down twice, both after Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s death. The first time was in 1615 during the Summer War and the second was in 1665 after the main castle tower was struck by lightening. To know that this castle was rebuilt each time it was destroyed speaks of the determination and tenacity of the Japanese people. I cannot even imagine having the imagination to create such a structure now, let alone hundreds of years ago without modern technology.