花見 Hanami

Hanami is, according to Wikipedia, "the Japanese traditional custom of enjoying the transient beauty of flowers, flowers in this case almost always referring to those of the cherry (sakura) trees". 

As we said goodbye to Osaka and Kyoto, I have to say that I was a little sad to be leaving the beautiful Kansai region of Japan. But in the Kanto region, we would soon see a very different side of Tokyo than the sprawling world megacity that I had expected, and even saw firsthand on my last trip to Japan.

Our hotel was quite close Tokyo National Museum. Leaving the museum, we found ourselves in Ueno Park, surrounded on all sides by the most vivid bloom of sakura blossoms we had seen on our trip. It turned out that what we had thought were amazing cherry blossoms in Kyoto had already been on their way out... but in Tokyo, we had arrived right in the most stunning moments of the weeklong peak bloom. 

Ueno Park

As luck would have it, exiting the museum brought us right into the middle of the city's Hanami party! Hundreds of families had spread out blankets and set up camp for the day, enjoying food, drink, family, and friendship together as they took pictures, played games, and admired the delicate blooms. 

our first hanami

An ice cream truck was selling sakura-flavored ice cream with real cherry leaves inside. How could we say no to trying that? After all, there's always time for ice cream!

sakura ice cream

The point of Hanami is to slow down and enjoy viewing the flowers with your friends and loved ones. It's a time to stop and reflect on the beauty of nature. That's what we did. We wouldn't have much time in Tokyo, but I didn't mind stopping for a while at Ueno Park to get into the spirit of Hanami.

sakura and lanterns

伏見稲荷 Fushimi Inari

Inari is the Japanese god of rice, sake, tea, and money, which are four things that I like! Well, three things that I really like. I don't have particularly strong feelings either way about rice.

Inari is one of the most popular Shinto deities, probably on account of being the patron of three really cool things.

In Kyoto, just a 15 minute or so ride on a local train from Kyoto Station is Mt. Inari, a huge temple complex honoring the god, planted with thousands of red tori gates stretching along a 4km trail from the ground to the summit.

the fox is the messenger of Inari

As soon as we stepped off the train at Inari station, I was hit with a freezing blast, as tiny needles of icy rain pelted my face.

The day before had been cool, but pleasant, so that morning, I had foregone jeans and decided instead to wear shorts because I wanted lots of pockets to carry things. Who needs pockets! I was freezing! We decided to make our way to the summit anyway.

After a few minutes of walking, the crowds disappeared. People flock from all over the world to visit Fushimi Inari shrine on Mt. Inari, but they are mostly there to take pictures in the vermillion hallway of shinto gates. But we are survivors. Despite the cold icy wind, we kept making our way up the mountain... but we weren't necessarily happy about it.

obligatory photo of the Tori gates

Finally, we got to the top. We were almost alone at the summit. At this point, we couldn't take the cold any longer. Pinky had her head wrapped in a silk scarf as protection from the rain, although by now it was soaked through with cold water.

My windbreaker did little to protect my frozen face, hands, and legs. Why did I wear shorts!? Well, at least I wasn't the only dummy on the mountain who hadn't checked the weather. I saw one other guy going up the mountain as we were on the descent. He and I made eye contact, and in that moment shared an expression of frozen discomfort with one another.

Mt. Inari is dotted with dozens of little tea houses, warm, dry shelters from the elements. We stopped in one for a bottle of hot tea and to dry off a little bit.

at the summit

Despite it all, I liked Mt. Inari. Last year, it was maybe my favorite place we saw in Japan. Maybe I liked it a little more last year... but it was great to see anyway. There's a very mysterious feeling throughout the mountain. After you get past the crowds on the lower levels, it's quiet and peaceful, and you really do feel surrounded by the forest, looked on by the stony fox guardians.

And of course, there's always time for ice cream! Even though it was cold, a cone of soy ice cream raided our spirits as we waited in a tea house for the rain to slack off before we continued our walk.

always time for ice cream!

Gold and Silver: Kyoto's shining pair of UNESCO World Heritage Sites

Kinkaku-ji Temple in Kyoto is all about GOLD! 

In fact, even the creamy vanilla soft-serve they sell out front is dusted with delicate gold flakes.

a cone of gold-flaked ice cream

The Golden Temple, as it's known, is one of Kyoto's most iconic landmarks, and dates back to the late 14th Century.

Kinkaku-ju, the Golden Pavilion

It was a cold afternoon, and light rain was starting to fall as we made our way along the path curving around Kinkaku-ji's beautiful pond. It's always packed at the Golden Pavilion, but to the architect's credit, the way the path is laid out allows all visitors to get photos making them feel like they are the only ones there.

Just outside of the temple, vendors sold bead bracelets, lucky charms, and of course, all things gold. They even had a particular Kinkaku-ji exclusive brand of sake, gold flakes swirling around inside the light green bottle.

Wanting to get out of the icy rain for a few minutes, we stepped inside the temple's warm dry teahouse. We removed our shoes, and kneeled on the tatami mats.

The room was decorated in browns, reds, and light woods, with a small shrine in one corner. The view looked out over the temple gardens.

Shortly, an attendant in a red and pink kimono brought a tray with two tea sweets and two bowls of hot green matcha tea. She knelt before us and bowed low, serving us from the tray.

"You should eat the sweet first, followed by the tea", she suggested. The tiny chalky sweet was decorated with gold leaf.

tea ceremony

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In the evening, we took the well laid-out Kyoto City Bus system to the opposite side of town from Kinkaku-ji to visit its brother, Ginkaku-ji.

We almost didn't make it!

The temple was to close at 5 pm, and we got inside just in time.

Just outside the temple there is a beautiful pathway, the Philosopher's Walk, lined with pink and white sakura trees and following a picturesque canal.

sakura blossoms

We wanted to linger for a while in the otherworldly beauty, which seemed too perfect to be real, in a way, but there was no time to waste!

the Philosopher's Walk, Kyoto

We entered the Silver Pavilion complex around 4:40. A sign said we could stay until 5:20.

The Silver Pavilion is less impressive than its golden brother. In fact, it's just wood, no silver plating at all (and no silver ice cream either, possibly on account of the fact that ingesting silver can turn one's skin permanently blue).

Ginkaku-ji, the Silver Pavilion

We arrived at closing-time, so we really did have the complex virtually to ourselves.

The temple is imperfect, quite unlike the glittering Golden Pavilion, and in a way, that makes it more perfect. It feels more real.

Ginkaku-ji is renowned for its world-famous gardens. The ground is covered in a thick carpet of verdant moss. A narrow path winds up a hill behind the temple, offering a spectacular view of the city the pavilion itself, and the rocky zen garden below.

Gardens at Ginkaku-ji

We didn't go to Ginkaku-ji last year. We thought Kinkaku-ji sounded more impressive. But context is important. Kinkaku-ji was crowded, rushed, and chaotic, albeit beautiful.

Ginkaku-ji was quiet, tranquil, and altogether beautiful. I feel like it more represents its zen roots than its commercialized brother.

A Tale of Two Castles

In Japan, Pinky and I saw two of Kansai's best-known castles. The were both quite different from one another.

Osaka Castle 大阪城

It was cold, and as we brushed past dark-suited businessmen at Osaka-jo-koen Park, our breath formed in misty puffs in front of our faces. Then, as we turned around to look across a riverbank lined with sakura (cherry blossoms), we saw it... Osaka Castle! 

We had gotten to Osaka Castle before they opened at 9 am in order to get tickets, and I'm glad we did! The eight-story fortress was full of amazing artifacts from the samurai times, including armor, swords, and incredible artwork. For me though, what I liked the most was just looking at the castle from the outside, and imagining how difficult it would have been for an attacking army to try to scale its steep stone walls.

  

We enjoyed an ice cream cone at the castle as we admired not only the great fortress, but the beautifully blooming sakura and the castle gardens as well.

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Himeji Castle 姫路城

Even though we woke up early, we had a slow start. By the time we finally got off our 45-minute Shinkansen ride in Himeji, Japan, the sun was already high in the bright blue sky. We finally arrived in Himeji just before 11 am.

The castle was easy to find; just five or so minutes walk from the station and standing in brilliant white atop a sakura-covered hill.

But how could you miss it? Himeji is Japan's most famous castle.

Himeji, known colloquially as the "White Heron Castle" due to its brilliant snowy coloring, was only recently restored to its former glory. Since we had arrived late, the grounds were already packed. A sign told us the queue to the ticket counter would be two hours. We had other plans for an afternoon in Kyoto, so that long wait would have been out of the question.

Disappointed, we resigned ourselves to exploring the grounds, where a large number of people were enjoying a traditional Japanese music concert, and local food and snacks, while enjoying the beautiful cherry blossoms.

Just as we were about to leave to head back to the station, something caught my eye, something that I had searched for in Japan last year but had never found...

Sake boxes! Traditionally, sake is served in a small, lacquered box. Drinking sake out of a box was one of the challenges that Ryan and I had set for ourselves last year, but couldn't find anywhere we went. Yet, here it was! Stacks of sake boxes sitting right in front of me at Himeji Castle!

Of course, I had to try it!

The local sake was served out of a big padded barrel by a Himeji brewer. We took our box and queued up behind a barrel. The worker then used a long bamboo ladle to fill our boxes up with his sake. They made sure the boxes always overflowed onto your hands. This is a symbol that the brewers aren't cheating you by giving you less than a full portion!

So the trip to Himeji, though we couldn't go up into the castle, was not a waste of time, by any means!

Osaka Means "Oishi"

And "oishi" means "delicious"! Osaka is all about eating!

Pinky and I had arrived in Osaka via Shinkansen Bullet Train in the late afternoon. There wasn't much time for sightseeing that day, but there was plenty of time for eating!

Food in Japan is much more than just sushi. We walked through the Kuromon Market, Osaka's large, outdoor market, full of fresh produce, snacks, and the coastal city's signature seafood.

People in Japan value their cuisine quite highly. They are willing to pay big bucks for good food. We even saw big melons wrapped in fancy packaging going for well over $100. We bought a small box of four of Kansai's famous strawberries, white, juicy, and delicious, with red seeds, for just over $10!

Stomachs rumbling, we stepped behind a faded blue curtain into the first restaurant where we could see an empty seat. We were hungry for all the amazing washoku (Japanese cuisine) that the city had to offer us. We sat down at a polished wooden counter, facing the chef. There were just two small cramped tables and the counter with five or six stools in the restaurant. It was nearly hidden away in the market; a literal hole-in-the-wall. There were bright photos of various beers and sakes taped to the walls, and not an English word to be found amongst the laminated paper menus scattered across the counter. No pictures we could point at either.



Pinky and I looked at each other. There wasn't an English menu in sight, and nobody seemed to be waiting on us. We figured that maybe we were supposed to order directly from the chef. The only problem: though Pinky can speak a little, neither of us could read the Japanese menus!

We were quietly debating about how to slip out without being rude and offending the chef, when a young worker approached us.

"Our menu is out front", he told us.

Relieved, we followed him to the front of the market, where various fish and other seafood were displayed on a bed of crushed ice. It was the freshest "menu" I've ever seen! We ordered from the small English-printed sheet he handed us, and chose which of the seafood we wanted.

We ordered salmon sashimi to start. The salmon was thick, pink, and fatty. This might sound weird, but I was especially impressed with the wasabi... I know, it's strange. But this wasabi was

unlike any I've had before. Definitely high quality. Instead of the typical neon-green paste, this was darker and grittier. I think they might have ground it by hand! In fact, the taste wasn't overpowering either. It might be a fauxpas, but I ate the whole dollop of wasabi in little biting scoops with my chopsticks. What a thought to take away from this delicious sushi dish! 

Next up: a sushi platter. So fresh! Pinky got the coveted (somewhat rare and expensive) sea urchin roe (bottom row, far right, next to the pink ginger). I tried a bit though. It's not bad, but not necessarily something I see the appeal of. Our first sushi meal in Japan was incredible! It was by far the freshest sushi I've ever had.

We also had two huge barbecued oysters, grilled in the back over charcoal and served with a slice of lemon to squeeze on top. Very fresh and juicy!

We were pretty full after dinner, but there is always room for more in Osaka. The sun had set, so we walked over to the Dotonbori Arcade, Osaka's amusement neighborhood, theater district, nightlife center... and a food-lover's heaven-on-earth!

  

The brightly-lit, chaotic street is one of Japan's most famous and iconic landmarks. The neon lights flash all around, and its a cacophony of noise and activity. In Japan, you've got to follow the crowds. We joined a snaking queue at a takoyaki (octopus ball) stand in front of one of the restaurants. There were other, less crowded stalls, but we trust public opinion!

We waited for nearly half an hour before finally reaching the vendor. She sold us a box of eight piping hot takoyaki balls for Y600, and we stood in the corner beneath a flashing digital billboard taking tiny, mouth-burning bites of the rich, umami-packed balls. They were stuffed with bright purple bits of octopus, and topped with dark sauce, green onions, and bonito flakes (grated flakes of dried fish). They were the most delicious takoyaki we have ever had!

That doesn't mean much coming from me, since I've only had it once in my life, but Pinky has, and she loved it! I must say, I trust that girl's taste buds.

delicious takoyaki

Back in the USA (by way of Japan)

Hello, world. Good morning! I am back in the States now. I landed yesterday evening after a long flight from Tokyo. Though I slept well last night, probably because I was just so exhausted, I haven't slept a wink tonight. I laid in bed until about 4am, then finally gave up. So I thought I'd take the time to catch up on my travels from the past week! I have just returned from another year in Thailand via an eight-day adventure in Japan.

Since I can't sleep anyway, I'll begin to upload some photos from the Land of the Rising Sun!

a box of sake at Himeji Castle

I filled a journal with my notes, thoughts, and observations during this trip. I'll be posting my Japan adventure in photos and selections from my journal in parts by city over the next few days!