Day 2: Part 3 - Gion and surroundings

Have you ever seen Lost in Translation?  I watched it before I went to Japan, and my husband - who had lived in Japan - swore that all the little cultural moments in the film were true.  Cute things everywhere? Check.  Vending machines everywhere? Check.  Out-of-sync references to American culture? Check. American film stars in ads ON VENDING MACHINES?




Tommy Lee Jones shills Suntory Boss products... like a boss.

Side note: I became addicted to vending machine coffee while in Japan. First off, I'm addicted to coffee anyway. Also I'm a snob. Second, as Americans we hear "vending machine coffee" and instantly feel the urge to vomit. But no. Japanese vending machine coffee is the stuff dreams are made of. It's a can of coffee that can either be hot or cold - that's right, the vending machine will provide it hot or cold to your caffeine craving little hands - and is available in many varieties. I particularly liked the Suntory Cafe au Lait that was available on just about every other street corner. My only regret now is that I did not ditch all of my clothes and just pack my suitcase full of Suntory on the way home. Back to the trip report!

Gion is one of the more popular tourist areas of Kyoto.  If you're looking for a Geisha encounter, this is likely where you'll have one.  Also, this part of the city is heavy on cherry trees, and we found ourselves on several jaw dropping streets, like this one.




Walking to and through the area, you really get a feel of "old" Kyoto.  There are little winding streets and alleyways, it seems like just about everything ends in a temple. I was very pleased to find several streets covered in red lamps, too.


 




At the top of the Gion district is another temple, and it was running some kind of night market while we were there. It was packed full of people, with lots of different stalls selling all kinds of items.  We didn't linger long, but kept walking.

A view of the main street in Gion from the temple steps.

My first stop on the main street was, well, it was Starbucks. I'm sorry I'm sorry! But sometimes I just need the vanilla latte I know and love. Also, I like going into Starbucks in other countries to see how they're different or the same.  There were definitely a few items here that were different, but I didn't get any pictures unfortunately. The young man who rang us up was very excited to practice his English with us, but lamented that he still had a hard time saying "vanilla" as there is no "L" sound in Japanese. He was, however, extremely proud of his ability to say McDonalds. It was a delightfully adorable conversation, and when we walked away Adam pointed out that I must just have one of those faces that says "Talk to me! I'm friendly!" as no matter what country we're in, I always end up making friends with strangers.




We stopped by the Geisha theater to see if we thought it would be a good idea, but decided against getting into the show.  In retrospect, I wish we had as we never did encounter any Geisha or Maiko while we were there. I guess there are people who will stake out Gion for hours and essentially stalk Geisha houses, but it felt just too creepy to me. Not to mention, if you see a Geisha on her way somewhere, she's ON HER WAY SOMEWHERE. She has a job to keep and doesn't really have time for your tourist paparazzi business. Ok, rant over.

Not the best picture of the theater, sorry. 

It was getting to be dinner time, and we had read about a great tempura place in one of our guidebooks. We had also read to be careful when approaching restaurants in Kyoto in particular. It is perfectly acceptable for restaurants there to decide what clientele they do and do not want, and that may include not wanting any foreign visitors. From what we had read, if it's in a guidebook or has an English menu posted outside, it's probably a safe bet. If you approach a restaurant and are told they're "full" even though you can clearly see they are not, it's a nice way of them telling you to get lost. Which is exactly what happened when we found the tempura place. It was a huge let-down, as the guidebook had sold it very well and it was a really long walk to get there, but we picked ourselves up and started looking for alternatives. 

We settled on an izakaya called Bamboo, which turned out to be awesome.  They put us back in a semi-private room and had some of the most attentive service I've ever experienced. By the end of the meal, I was glad our guidebook had been wrong!

Our semi-private room at Bamboo

After that, we were starting to really feel the exhaustion, so it was off to bed!

Day 2: Part two

We took the subway to Fushimi-ku, home of the fabled Fushimi Inari-taisha.  If you've ever seen a film set in Japan that featured gates upon gates upon gates, you were probably seeing this temple.

First, though, we walked through the little town at the base of the mountain which is home to the temple. It was bustling, and I was surprised to see so many women in ornate kimonos. I found out later that traditional Japanese dress is making a bit of a comeback among the younger people in Kyoto.

I took lots of pictures of the shops, and my first of what would be many encounters with plastic food.




I don't know how they do it, but just about every restaurant has plastic replicas of their food made to display outside to tempt you in. And these aren't flimsy looking, either - they're practically works of art! Some of them look downright tasty.

There was also the more traditional street stalls selling... I'm not sure what, but it was crab based so I was having none of it.





And Hello Kitty, because Japan.





After a bit of a climb, we reached the entrance to the temple.









I was so intrigued and had to read up on the foxes later. Foxes are considered messengers in Shinto tradition, and are often depicted carrying keys in their mouths (the key is for the rice granary). I know I also read why they are wearing bibs, but now I can't seem to find it. Anyone know?







We set about exploring the main temple complex for a bit. Adam made a quick call to the ancestors:




















The main temple complex is just below the peak of the mountain it sits on.  Above and behind it, torii gates stretch up and over the mountain peak, and then back down again.  We didn't do the whole loop - it's really quite the trek - but what we saw was spectacular.
















There were a lot of stone lamps throughout the complex, and quite a few feral cats. It was only a matter of time before the cats claimed the lanterns.




We were there for several hours, and still could have spent another few there. But it was getting dark, so we headed back into town.

Next up: We explore Gion!

Day Two: We awake in Tokyo, sleep in Kyoto (part 1)

We had a very nice breakfast at the Hilton Narita, and I was surprised how refreshed I felt. I was expecting major jet lag, but apparently my nighttime Tylenol timing had been just about perfect. The hotel, being just outside the airport, was probably one of the more tourist-y spots we were in all week, and I had fun watching people. I also have a note that says “Chocolate croissants” so I think they must have been pretty good!

We went outside to catch a shuttle bus back to the airport and it was cold and windy outside. I was actually feeling pretty good about that after a day of hot airplanes and stuffy airports. We got back to the airport and transferred to the main train station so we could catch a bullet train. This was my first real exposure to Japan and I noticed one of my expectations was absolutely true right from the start: there were cute things everywhere. We talked to a ticketing agent who’s station was decorated with little origami versions of Totoro, and there was even a floor sweeping machine playing a cute midi version of Danny boy. 

I was excited to ride the bullet train, and after a few false-starts (waiting in the wrong line to get on the wrong train) we found where we were supposed to be. There was an enormous school group from Australia waiting around us and they were just adorable teenagers. Their teachers were loud pains in the butt, but the kids were polite and nice. 

The sky outside was still enormously overcast, but as we sped along we got to see glimpses of the suburbs. The train didn't feel particularly fast, but if you tried to watch objects that were fairly close to the train you got an idea of just how fast they were fading out of site. 

We pulled into Kyoto at last! 

The main Kyoto station is underneath a very large upscale shopping mall. Malls are a little different in Japan - they're usually pretty fancy, and on the top floor they have a bunch of good restaurants. We headed up that way and found a tonkatsu place.  I ordered pork tonkatsu which was stuffed with cheese. It was sinful. Adam said he'd never seen cheese in tonkatsu before, but honestly I don't know why you'd ever make it any other way. And although I had my trusty (stolen) Korean Air fork on me, I didn't use it. I was brave and used the provided chop sticks. It went pretty well!

The roof of the mall was converted into a park, and we spent a few minutes enjoying the views. 

After a bit, we went down to the ground floor to try to catch a taxi to our hotel. I'd been in Japan less than 24 hours, and I was about to have my first encounter with the truly surreal. Yes, even more surreal than a floor sweeper playing Danny Boy.

I present: random vegetable people!

Nope, I don't know either. But they were very friendly!

I was glad my research on Kyoto had prepared me for how downtown Kyoto is just not a visual spectacle, because it wasn't. 

But as we sped towards our hotel, we started seeing glimpses of the fabled beauty of the city below. More on that in a second. 

Typically we use Hilton points to try to stay for "free" on our travels, but Kyoto was almost fully booked by the time we got around to trying to find somewhere to stay. This was the height of cherry blossom season, and not only does the city see an influx of international travelers, but people from all over Japan come to Kyoto to see the trees bloom as well. We finally found a place boasting "Western Style Rooms" at a reasonable price, so we snagged it, not expecting much. 

The Hotel Tozankaku turned out to be an excellent choice. It was very comfortable, although their "Western Style Rooms" were clearly designed by someone who had once seen a Western hotel room from a distance. Two tiiiiiny little beds and an a retro-fitted Western bathroom. But as I said, very comfortable and the staff were incredible. There was one hallway of Western rooms, the rest of the hotel was a traditional ryokan, or Japanese style inn, where you sleep on tatami mats and have communal bathrooms. 

In Japan, Adam is very tall:

We dropped our things and ventured out into the neighborhood. It was just about swimming in cherry blossoms, and there were temples everywhere.





Rather than stay local, we decided to spend the rest of our day in Inara, home of the famous vermilion torii gates. 

Next up: Part 2 of day one, in which there are many gates, some kimonos, and a cat or two.

Japan: Intro and Day One (Travel Day)

In October 2014, we started planning our trip to Japan.  This would be my first trip to Asia, and for Adam it was a long-overdue return. He had been stationed in Japan from 2001-2004 with the US Air Force. Once we'd booked our tickets we had started to plan - with only about a week in the country, where would we go? What would we see? It's always hard to pick and choose what you will dedicate your little bit of time to on a vacation, but in the end we decided to concentrate on Kyoto and Tokyo. Sadly, that meant that Adam wouldn't get to revisit his old stomping grounds up north in Misawa, but we are still holding out that we'll get back to Japan some day.

If you know me, you know I'm on a mission to experience everything Disney in the entire universe, so of course we spent some time at Tokyo Disneyland. I’ve done a recap of the Disney portion of the trip already because priorities. You can find that report here: http://www.mouseowners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=101303

For this trip, we left our son home with his Grammy; something about a 3 year old on a 15 hour flight just didn't sound like fun. Wait, nothing about a 15 hour flight sounds like fun.  Anyway. Our dates were April 2 through April 13, 2015. We flew directly from Washington-Dulles to Seoul, Korea, then transferred to a relatively quick flight to Tokyo. 

Of all of our international trips, this one probably had the longest list of things I was nervous about. I was nervous about not only not speaking the language, but also not speaking anything CLOSE to the language. I have some knowledge of French, which gives me a little bit of help with other Romance languages, but zero help with Japanese. I was nervous about seafood, which is predominant in Japanese cuisine, but which I do not eat. At all. I was nervous about chop sticks, because I'm pretty bad at using them. I was pretty scared about Japanese toilets. But the first fear I was going to have to face was that flight. I love to travel, but I hate flying. And I'm slightly claustrophobic. The idea that I was going to have to sit in one place with no fresh air or much room to stretch for fifteen hours while hurtling through the sky in a metal tube seemed like a basic nightmare. 

Grammy and our son dropped us off at the airport a few hours before our flight. It was hard to say goodbye to him knowing that this was the longest we'd ever been apart, and that we were going to be SO far away, but we knew he'd be in excellent hands. As far as grandmas go, Grammy is one of the best. Security was a relative breeze, and soon we were on our plane.

This was my first time flying Korean Air, and I'd heard that their service and amenities were legendary. They lived up to the hype. The only complaint I had was that the movie selection was a bit dull. I ended up watching Paddington (cute) and one of the Hobbit movies (meh) and then tried to get some sleep. Adam watched 6 movies - SIX - pretty much back to back. I was impressed.

While on the flight I frequently got up to stretch and get what little exercise you can get on a passenger plane.  I also realized I had forgotten the pack of plastic forks I had bought for this trip. Yes, I bought plastic forks for this trip, don't you judge me! I'm very uncoordinated! So I did what any rational person would do. I stole a fork from my meal tray.

Somehow, amazingly, we arrived eventually in Seoul. Despite my attemps to kep my circulation going, my legs did not remember how to leg and I wobbled my way to the Korean Air lounge to wait for out next flight to Tokyo.

This flight was scheduled on a 747, which I was really looking forward to since we booked seats on the upper deck. Sadly, the plane we got was still a 747, but we were seated in the very nose of the aircraft on the lower level instead. When I say we were in the nose, I mean it. The cabin around us sloped inwards right in front of us and it freaked. me. out. Did not like. At this point, I popped my two nighttime tylenol figuring they'd kick in right about the time we got to our hotel in Tokyo.

Customs on the Japanese side was an easy pass, and we made the last shuttle to our hotel! For such an incredibly long day, we sure hadn't done much (except commit theft in international airways). We were ready for sleep, and we were both out within minutes of hitting bed.

Up next: we do stuff and I have pictures to prove it!