Colin's Photos, Day 10 (October 3): Kyoto

Over the last 3 days, we went to Kyoto and stayed a ryokan (traditional Japanese inn) run by a delightful older Japanese couple.

On the first day, we took the bullet train to Kyoto and got a great view of Mt. Fuji out the right side of the train. At Kyoto Station we met up with our friend Deanna, who happens to be traveling in Japan for several months, and had Okonomiyaki (a Japanese "pancake" made of cabbage and toppings, typically meat, vegetables, and/or seafood that is fried at a griddle on your table). We checked into our ryokan and then spent the evening in Gion, the entertainment district along the river where geisha & maiko & traditional Japanese culture are performed. The district is a bit overrun by tourists (including ourselves) but hopefully you can get some ideas of what it's like from the photos.

We had a great dinner of wappa meshi (stuff cooked in a round wooden container) in a hole-in-the-wall restaurant Yuri found, which we had all to ourselves.

Colin's Photos, Day 9 (October 2): Hamarikyu Gardens

Here are my pictures for Day 9. This was a short day for me as I was doing some trip-planning logistics until mid-afternoon. Went to Hamarikyu Gardens, where I met up with Yuri and Dana. The gardens contain a teahouse and formal Japanese garden on the site of what used to be a feudal lord's estate. There were some good water birds and jumping fish in the pond surrounding the teahouse, and a *ton* of ravens.

We got some matcha & sweets from the teahouse, which were quite yummy (at least for me).

Bamboo, monkeys, torii, and a desperate plea (10/5 - Dana)

I had a mostly solo day today.  I woke up nice and early yesterday so I thought I would try to get out early again and go see the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove before it got too busy.  It was beautiful, but even at 8am I found myself thinking “I bet if I just follow this huge tour group, they’ll lead me to where I want to go.”

After wandering through the bamboo grove I found a shrine — not unusual in itself because Kyoto is full of shrines and temples, but this one was very specific.  I gathered from the Google translation of the sign that this one was for… hairdressers? 

Sure enough, the amulets being sold were all combs and scissors and there were some thematic prayers on the ema hanging in the shrine.

Then I sat down on a bench outside the shrine to take a little rest, and looked at my phone.

There was some disturbing news from home in the group chat for the parents in my daughter’s grade: lice are going around school.  I immediately started feeling itchy from 6,000 miles away.  Everyone in the chat was freaking out.

Then I realized that I was in the place where you pray for things related to hair.

The shrine wasn’t open yet so I did a few more laps of the bamboo grove and came back at 9.

I posted this picture to the group chat with the comment “I’ve done my part.”

Then I wandered back through the bamboo grove, through a park with warning signs about staying away from wild monkeys, along a river and over a bridge to the Arashiyama Monkey Park.  After a 15 minute uphill hike, I found the monkeys!

I happened to be there at feeding time.

There were also nice views of Kyoto.

I posted this picture to the group chat and added “Hopefully we will not all be doing this soon.”

After the monkey park I wandered through a VERY touristy area back to the train and headed to Fushimi Inari-Taisha to walk up, around and down a mountain.  I’m sure Colin has amazing photos, so I won’t bother sharing mine.  Colin doesn't have this picture though!

Finished off the day with a Shinkansen ride back to Tokyo — we’ll see if I can stand up when we get there.    Colin’s iPhone thinks that the hike up and down the mountain is equivalent to 50 flights of stairs.

Views: Moonviewing

Lisa: 

Dana:

Mary: 

That is not how hot dogs work OR how hamburgers work, what are you doing, stop.

Wherever you go, no matter how far, you're always near...

 Okay, not quite, but close.

Whenever I travel internationally, I always try to get a picture of myself with a Hershey bar, a reference to the Hershey's Chocolate World song of the 80s and 90s.

Ekiben

The train system in Japan is amazing. It is clean, on-time, and extensive. Even when it is difficult, the station staff are helpful when they can be and clear when they cannot be. 

On the subway, there is no eating or drinking - a change for those of us who eat breakfast on the T most mornings. But for longer trips, many strains offer meals to be purchased for eating on the train. These are ekiben: train station (eki) bento (ben).

Here's my railroad themed ekiben from Nikko to Tokyo (plus a yuzu beer):

And my seasonal ekiben from Kyoto to Tokyo:

Colin's Kyoto-Tokyo meal came with a chemical heating pack that warmed his gyuudon but not his tsukemono (pickles)!

Okonomiyaki time lapse

Yes mom I'm also on this trip.

I have been informed that I have not been making enough blog posts. I'm currently on the bullet train to Kyoto so I guess I have some time for documentation.

Inari that I ate on a train

A tasty parfait from Korea town (it says "Seoul tiramisu")

Fried tofu skins (yuba) in Nikkilo.

this mediocre unadon was delivered by a robot cat

i was at a very pretty place.

cats

Just because I have gushed about birds, I wouldn't want to give you the impression that I am not also (always, forever) enthusastic about cats.

Here is (some human with) Pan-chan, the black and white kitty named because they look like a panda.

(photo by Colin)

Later that evening we were sitting around in our AirBnB when we heard a cat insistently yowling. I went outside to investigate and found Pan-chan standing outside our door meowing insistently and looking down the street.

A little old lady came walking towards us, fussing at the cat and saying "whenever I leave the house, you get like this!" She told me Pan-chan's name and explained that she had 9 cats in her apartment (across the street), many of whom she'd taken in when people abandoned their cats to go back to the office. Pan-chan was one of them and now would always get worried whenever she left the house. 😭

On Enoshima, we visited a little shrine (more like a park) and the only thing Mary knew about it was that every review of it featured photos of cats. So if course we had to go.

There were at least four cats there, maybe more. This friendly black cat was delighted to receive pets (from me, at least; it seemed a bit more skeptical of the dude in the park who clearly wanted to collect cats for petting). It got a whole rumbly purr going and eventually flopped over.

Look at this happy cat receiving happy pets.

While I was petting black cat a tailless orange cat who'd been a little more standoffish before came over, hopped over my arm, and then settled into a loaf near me. I gave them some pets too, of course.

(photo by Mary)

Here's a closeup of orange friend.

Black cat does a self-itch.

This other pretty orange cat hung out at the shrine and wanted nothing to do with me.

Here's a cat we saw while walking through Koreatown yesterday. It had no interest in pets. A cute little girl came by and was like "neko-chan!!"