April 15, 2014

April 15, 2014

After breakfast, we packed our bags and boarded the bullet train back to Tokyo. This is our last day in what the Chinese referred to as Nippon (Land of the Rising Sun). We are ready to return to the land of sunshine and warmth. We loved seeing the cherry blossoms but we are tired of the rain and cool weather.

Aimee said she is making tacos tonight. I can’t wait. Food was my biggest issue. I might not be the most objective since my stomach hurt part of the trip. We found the food to be rather bland, over reliant on fish, and lacking in meat and fresh vegetables. Sushi was the only dish that came with wasabi (a very tiny dab). Where else is fish on a stick, or bag of dried sardines and almonds, a comfort food?

I think the Japanese must also have difficulty choosing food they like. Virtually every eatery had displays of plastic food in the window. It can’t all be for the sake of tourists. The other reason for the plastic food display could be language. Japan probably has the most complex writing system. They have three alphabets. The 2000 Kanji pictograms are used for the adopted Chinese words, but they have two other phonetic alphabets, one for Japanese words and another for foreign ones. Add in the Latin letters they intersperse and I bet there are more functionally illiterate citizens than they admit to. Hence the need for food pictures.

Aimee says what they lack in food, they make up for with politeness and…..toilets. In her mind the Japanese toilets are to die for. She wants one at home. When I sat down on one with its many switches, lights, knobs, music, and heated seat I was afraid I might actually get ejected and sent into space.

In Tokyo we switched trains to the Narita Express that takes us to the airport for our evening flight home to Tucson. Thanks to the International Date Line, we arrive before we leave. LOL

April 14, 2014

April 14, 2014

After breakfast we rode the train south of Kyoto to Fushimi Inari. We have seen Japanese torii literally everywhere. Every nook and cranny has some kind of Shinto shrine nearby. Inari is the god of rice and business. At this shrine people have donated thousands of vermilion-colored torii. So many that they form a tunnel up the forested mountain. Aimee and I walk about halfway up. I was a little bummed. My camera flash decided to break today making photography difficult in this speckled light situation. Still it is a very cool site.

Back at the main Kyoto train station, we had a Chinese potsticker lunch.  Feeling refreshed we walk east to find Sanjusgendo temple.  A 400-foot wooden hall houses some of Japan’s oldest statues.  It contains a thousand of the thousand-armed goddess, Kannon.  These life-size wooden idols were carved in the 13th century.  Twenty-Eight guardian deities line the front.  I didn’t know Buddhism had so many gods.

Farther east we walk uphill through a fairly modern cemetery exiting at the Kiyomizu Temple. It is not that interesting except for the nice balcony overlooking the city. We return down a tourist avenue doing a little window shopping. Lots of girls are running around in kimonos taking photos. I think they are bridal groups out for a fun afternoon before the wedding.

Late in the afternoon we took the train to the Arashiyama area. Nestled near the mountains next to a river, this less-populated part of Kyoto makes for a scenic stroll. It looks like it will be beautiful when the fall colors arrive. Across the river we pay to climb Mt. Iwata. At the top we are greeted with a great view of Kyoto. We are also met by red-faced Japanese macaques. They run wild in Japan. They are also called snow monkeys because they are the only primates besides us that live in northern climes. Here controlled feeding of the macaques encourages them to stay close. You can buy a bag of apple pieces for a dollar to give the monkeys. Feeding is behind a screen so you don’t get accidentally bit and so the monkeys don’t associate food with humans. Their hands are like mini human ones and the little babies are precious.

After getting our fill of macaques, we stroll back across the river and down a bamboo-lined street. Bamboo is such an odd and wondrous plant. A member of the grass family, it grows the most wondrous stalks. In pre-industrial society bamboo must have been a godsend. So useful. Instant natural pipe of every diameter. No wonder the Chinese were the first to have indoor running water and natural gas heat.

Back at Kyoto train station there are several penthouse restaurants. On the 10th floor we found a Yaki restaurant facing the city. We had a Caesar salad (our first in Japan) and grilled skewered chicken. I wanted nothing to do with the combo options.