Tales From the Land of the Rising Sun: Part 3

 I can't start off talking about the full second day without highlighting the hotel we stayed at in Kyoto. We woke up and made our way to the first floor for the complimentary breakfast. The main course was ordered off of a menu. While the staff prepared that dish, there was an open buffet style for everything else. I'm talking fresh fruit, yogurt, freshly baked breads, juices, coffee, teas, basically the whole works. And none of it was instant food like you find in standard hotel breakfasts in the US. For the main course, I ordered the omelet and it was delicious. As Ryan and I enjoyed our meal and discussed the day, he asked me to guess how much the one night cost. I guessed under $50 as this was Japan, but it was around the $50 mark. For the room, the breakfast, and the hotel itself, it would easily cost over $200 USD a night back home. And once again, the hospitality of the staff was unmatched. 

Since we were headed for another city later in the day, we checked out of the hotel and stored our stuff in lockers near the train station. Then it was off to one of the most famous shrines in the land. The Fushimi-Inari. This shrine is located way up on a mountain. The main path greets you with a massive orange gate. As you lift your eyes toward the mountain peak, there before you are hundreds of smaller orange gates. Known as torii gates. Around 800 to be exact. They were all donated by the people of Japan. It's unlike anything I've ever seen before. Now Ryan and I did not walk through the gates all the way to the top. We wanted to avoid the main throng of tourists. Armed with a travel tip Ryan picked up prior, we walked the back streets up to the mountain side. At one point we had to re-route due to construction, but our re-route was blocked. There was a police officer below us where we needed to go and we debated going down. After a bit of pondering, we decided to ask if we could pass. Ryan was taking a sec to think of the proper way to ask in Japanese, but I just blurted out "Konnichiwa!" which is "hello" in Japanese. The officer, slightly startled, turned around. I made a motion with my hands to go down the stairs and said "can we go down? in English. He gave us permission with a very friendly smile. We thanked him profusely and trekked on. 

Our path took us to the edge of the mountain. We left the pavement and entered into to forest. But it was not a normal forest. Before us were the biggest and thickest bamboo shoots I had ever seen. They scraped the sky, blocked the sun, and were majestic. For the next 10 minutes or so, we walked along the bamboo on what was an easy descent. As we walked higher, I took in the serenity of the forest, the beauty of what the locals created on the side of the mountain, and simply the fact that I was a stranger in another land, exploring all it had to offer.

Eventually we stood before the challenge we knew was coming. The final climb up the steepest part of the mountain. Hundreds of wooden stairs with earth in between challenged us. So we continued our ascent. The sun had found a way through the canopy and the warm air opened the pores. I didn't mind the heat as I prefer it to the bone chilling cold, but the sweat and the exhaustion that came with the stairs were taxing. We got to a point where we just had to stop and take a long breather. As we caught our breath, a handful of people who also knew about the backway caught up to us. They were really nice folks from Missouri. They were having a rougher time making the ascent than we were. But we bantered for a bit and Ryan encouraged them to press on because the end goal was worth it.

We parted way and continued on. After what seemed like a short eternity, we reached the shrine. It was a mild surprise to not see the throngs of other tourists we saw at the main torii gate. It seems like many people were content with observing the gates rather than making the full ascent. Which worked out great for us because we were able to enjoy the sights with more serendipity. Now even though we reached the top, one of the best parts of the journey required a slight descent along the main path (not the side of the mountain we went up). We took a few moments to view the shrine, then we headed down.

It wasn't long before we came upon a breathtaking view. With the orange torii gates leading off to the left, there in the distance was the city of Kyoto. The trees of the mountain lacing the bottom, the man-made structures laid out like an ocean, and the mountains in the distance. I have a weakness for incredible views and the climb to get here was so worth it. Now with most locations like this that attract tourists like ourselves, there are more things to experience than just the natural beauty. Like soft, cold, delicious, ice cream. And it was so good. So there I was, on a mountain, with an incredible view, eating ice cream. It was great.

Because we had gone up, we eventually had to go back down. We wisely chose not to take the hard route back. We chose to join the other tourists and walk the gate path the whole way down. We made a bunch of stops along the way as there were souvenir stands frequently along our path and Ryan was on the hunt for specific things. By the time we made it to the bottom, we were famished. There was a local joint nearby called Dragon Burger. It tickled our fancy so we went in. We ordered and shortly after the burgers arrived. They were a bit smaller than I'm used to, but the combo of them, the fries, and the cool, crisp, tea...it was all delicious. Japan even does burgers right.

We had one last big stop in Kyoto before heading to our next destination. The Kiyomizu-dera temple. If you ever seen the scenic shots of Kyoto online, or the big, orange pagoda on a wallpaper, this was the that place. We didn't take anything easy the whole day, so why stop now? We decided to once again, make the trek up. But this time, it was a matter of walking up paved roads. As we walked, we had left the general city behind and passed through local neighborhoods. Then, we suddenly found ourselves high on hill, with a cemetery built into it. There had to be thousands of stone sides by side, flowing with the hill. And they overlooked an incredible view. I haven't seen a resting place anywhere like it. 

Our serene walk to the temple ended when the steps to the main temple finally appeared. Like the Fushimi-Inari shrine, crowds suddenly appeared out of nowhere. But it made sense. This temple and its pagoda are icons of Kyoto. The travel websites, magazines, videos, wall papers for your phone or PC, pretty much anything to make Kyoto catch your eye includes these structures. The eye-popping orange, with hints of green can put you in a trance. The close up view was incredible, but there was another we were here to see.

We traversed the steps and took a brief look at the first temple. Then, we drifted back into the flow of humans and followed them around the main deck. While people drifted in and out of the stream, I kept moving with and around them. I had my sight set on one thing. To get to the observation deck. I've been to many incredible vantage points in my lifetime. And while this view was not atop a tall tower, nor from a cliff face, it still held a scene worth the cost of a plane ticket alone. Picture this. You are standing on a wooden deck, high above the tree canopy. The trees swarm out beneath you, and for a distance, all you see is green. The green see eventually meets the concrete shore, home to many steel structures. For miles you can see the bustling life of man. But dwarfing all of that as a towering backdrop are the mountains and all their grandeur. But the real kicked, standing off to the side as the eastern border, that great orange pagoda in the distance. If I had the skills of an oil painter, I would paint this scene. But since I don't, my words will have to be the paint on the canvas. Such beauty is a marvel.

This would be our last thing we did in Kyoto. It was time to say goodbye to the ancient city and head out to our next destination. Kobe. Home of the Wagyu Kobe beef. Stay tuned.

Tales From the Land of the Rising Sun: Part 2

I woke up with a mild headache, but not because of the hotel environment. It was a jetlag headache...fun. But I couldn't let that hold me back. We had a country to explore. We packed our belongings and headed down to the main floor. Yet again, no staff in sight. We went to a larger kiosk and began the checkout procedure. Once Ryan deposited the room key in the machine, That large T-rex that was dormant the first night roared to life...literally. It thanked us for our stay and hoped to see us again. That hotel was quite an experience to say the least.

Our stay in Tokyo was brief, but that's because we were saving it for the end of the trip. Kyoto was our destination and we were about to embark on a world famous mode of transportation. The bullet train. Now I knew about them for many years and had seen videos here and there, but to experience them is something else. Let me paint you a picture. Kyoto is roughly 6.5 hours from Tokyo by car. That's basically Cleveland to NYC or Cleveland to Chicago (depending on how slow you drive). The common option is to take a plane. That consists of buying a ticket months in advance (about $160-$200), getting to the airport a couple hours early, going through TSA, waiting to board, the time it takes to board, the 1.5 hour duration of the flight, and finally, the time it takes to deplane and leave the airport. Now imagine walking up to the ticket counter the day you want to leave. Then you choose the available times you want to leave, some of which can be 30 min from ticket purchase. You pay $90 for a ticket. Then you go straight to the platform when it's time to depart. No security checkpoints and your train is there and ready to go. You get straight on and find your seat. The train departs literally at its departure time. And your off. The world becomes a slight blur as the train gets up to close to 200mph. You gaze out large windows at the passing countryside. Before you know it, 2 hours have gone by and you've arrived. What is such a pain in the butt in the US makes long distance travel a cake walk in Japan. Bullet trains are an incredible first world mode of transportation and there needs to be a way to eventually make them work here.

Two hours later we arrived in Kyoto. A city with so much vibrancies, color and history. The city is over 1200 years old which was nuts when I thought about it. America is still a baby compared to the rest of the world and being able to say I wandered city founded over 1000 years ago was pretty sweet. 

We couldn't check into the hotel until 3PM so we began a daily travel routine consisting of the following steps: 1) Leave hotel and get transportation to the next destination. 2) Arrive and find some lockers to stow our carry on luggage for a chunk of the day. 3) Find food and then explore. 4) Get luggage from lockers and go check into the hotel. 5) Take a rest break. 6) Go back out, explore, get dinner, and explore some more. 7) Return to hotel to get some sleep. Rinse and repeat. The lockers I mentioned are a very convenient for this type of travel. The ones we found usually cost $4-$6 for the majority of the day. When you bounce to a new city each day, but can't check into a hotel, those lockers are clutch.

After we got off the bullet train and set foot in Kyoto, we found some lockers just outside the station. Lucky for me, there was a geocache nearby. So once we stored our bags, we went across the street and over to the base of some stairs. A short search later and I had found my first geocache in Japan. It was a nice size container as well. Travel had us famished, so we decided for a familiar place, but with a new cultural experience. We headed straight for the Golden Arches themselves...McDonalds. I decided to compare what I normally get in the US with how it's served here. I ordered a McDouble, a McChicken, fries, and an iced tea. Let me tell you. This is now the second country I've been in that does McDonald's food better than we do. The buns on the burger and sandwich were golden and fluffy and not brown and smashed. And they tasted excellent. The fries weren't soggy like they sometimes are here.  The iced tea was different too. It's Earl Grey instead of the black tea we use here. Add in the Japanese hospitality where the workers were constantly keeping everything clean and taking care of you, McDonald's Japan does it right.

With full stomachs, it was time to begin exploring. We decided to start with the Kyoto Pokemon Center because being 90s kids, we grew up with the loveable pocket monsters and in our 30s, we still haven't outgrown them. In the game, a Pokemon center was a place to heal your Pokemon after battle. Here, it was the largest store of Pokemon paraphernalia anywhere. If you wanted shirts, hats, cards, figurines, keychains, stickers, plushies, and basically any type of Pokemon collectibles you could think of, you could get it here. While this was our first visit to one of these centers, we planned to stop at one in each city we went to. A must do for any Pokemon fan.

Next we made our first cultural stop of the trip. The To-Ji temple. It was founded in 796 and was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1994. This was my first time seeing ancient temples and a pagoda in person. The pagoda was built in 1643 and was destroyed and rebuilt 4 times, the 4th being its current state. Standing at 180ft high, it is the tallest wooden tower in Japan. It was a marvel to be standing at its base and seeing it tower high above me. It was quite peaceful wandering the grounds, amongst the trees and the pond, simply realizing that I was on ancient grounds, seeing the wonders people from over a thousand years ago created. And this wouldn't be the last. I should also note that you could enter a number of the buildings and shrines without charge. If you've never seen large Buddha statues up close, they dwelt in places like this. And they were big.

Since Kyoto is loaded with places of cultural relevance like To-Ji, we went to explore more. We decided to catch a local bus to our next stop. It only cost 200 yen ($1.30) USD and was supposed to be quick...but we got caught in something very unexpected. We were about halfway to our destination when we came upon a large crowd of people in white robes. Hoisted on the shoulders of a cluster of them was what I would describe as a carriage without wheels, but in a square shape. It's actually called a Mikoshi, which is a palanquin used for religious ceremonies. We thought we were going to pass right on by, but suddenly, police appeared and stopped traffic. For the next 10-15 minutes, the people in robes marched around the intersection, chanting and carrying the Mikoshi. Traffic was stopped. Surprisingly, nobody on the bus said a word. Even the bus driver sat there in pure patience. I couldn't get a good read on what he locals were feeling, but I was a mix between fascinated and annoyed. While it was a random cultural experience that was very interesting to witness, I'm not a fan of anything that holds up traffic, especially when I'm stuck in it. But since We weren't in a rush to be anywhere and in a foreign country, it wasn't the end of the world. The things you see in Japan.

We eventually made it to the next temple and it was smaller than the To-Ji, but still interesting to see. Then it was back to the hotel for a brief rest before heading back out to get a bite to eat. I'm glad I brought my windbreaker that deflects the rain pretty well as the skies had opened up. The rain wasn't heavy, but it was enough that the windbreaker was a gamechanger. And since the restaurant wasn't far, from the hotel, we decided to walk it. Once we arrived, I noticed right away that even though it was small, this place was a popular tourist spot as I noticed most of the diners were foreigners. We were taken to a table on the second floor that overlooked the main floor. The server spoke some english as was a pretty chill dude. The menu was on the smaller side and most of the food was actually more western than Japanese. I wasn't super hungry so I ordered what was called Mexican Potatoes. These turned out to french fries covered in beef and a sauce. Almost like poutine, but not quite. I did end up spilling some of the sauce on my pants, which left a couple of stains. That was not ideal as I didn't have any stain remover on me so this pair of shorts didn't get worn the rest of the trip.

After dinner, we went and explored a bit of modern Kyoto at night. We stopped by the Kyoto Tower, which was all lit up in multiple colors. It looks very similar to the Seattle Space needle and it was probably modeled after it as the Space Needle was built in 1961 and the Kyoto Tower was built in 1963. This was one of the only high points we actually did not go inside nor up. But it was still cool to see lit up in the dark. We ended up wandering up to an observation deck nearby to get a higher view of the area, and high observation points are always a plus in my book. Eventually, we decided to call it a night and head back to the hotel to get some rest, as we had big plans for the next day of our Kyoto adventure. First day in Japan was a great success.