Blogs from Kyoto, Japan, Asia - page 84

Another day of sightseeing in Kyoto is over. I really like this town. It's got a friendly and peaceful atmosphere to it despite all the people, Japanese and foreign tourists. The restaurants in Korea and Japan are different from the western ones. How, I will try to cover here... Tools: You eat with chop sticks, of course, but scissors may also be used to cut up impossible twines of noodles. Right after you've been seated you recieve a hot and wet towel to clean your hands with. Bill: You get the bill right away when you've made your order, or sometimes even before! Whatever you order after that will be added to your bill as you go along. When you have finished, you take your bill and go to the counter (usually by the exit) and ... read more

Written on Saturday ----- Vegan Meal --------------------------- We had a Vegan meal today that was nothing short of amazing. Funded by the generous Mrs. Bing, we ate at an extremely beautiful restaurant that was in / was a Buddhist a temple. Apparently in China, Buddhist monks developed a vegan style of cooking over centuries that focused on creative preparation, color, and of course, exquisite taste. What was served to us was the luxurious version of that. After entering the temple, we took off our shoes and padded around the soft wooden floors to the inner gardens, where we were given an indoor room with glass walls. We arranged ourselves and sat down at the tables, enjoying the meticulously prepared meal that was brought to us course by course. It lasted around three hours, and had (I ... read more

Food ----- Food has been the concern of the week. Now in the third week of being in Japan, us guys have essentially used up whatever American nutrition we've stored in our bodies and are relying on Japan to maintain our vitality. Unfortunately, we're having various problems with that. For me personally, the first issue was that I realized I wasn't getting enough fruit (or vegetables). Or things that don't come from the sea, in general. I like to keep an eye on my nutrition, so that I can at least know who to blame for my heart failure, but over here I have *no* idea about the content of my foods. For example, I'd like to imagine that I've grown proficient at identifying basic nutrition through taste - the fatty taste of oil, the sickly ... read more

Another day, another place. I have left Tokyo to travel by rail to Kyoto, Japan's old capital, and a place with more temples, shrines and history than seems possible. It is a shame to have to leave Tokyo, it sort of felt like home after three weeks there. One of the most highly (and densely) populated places on earth, with over 22 million people crammed into a relatively small area,yet they have one of the lowest crime rates of any country. This does make Japan a really great place. Virtually no crime, clean, efficient transport that arrives on the minute it says to within a couple of inches of where the doors of the train are marked on the platform, every time! Plus Tokyo does not deserve the reputation of being ridiculously expensive, as was my ... read more

After my last exam on Wednesday, Mom and I took the trip that I had agonized about while we were planning her visit. I felt, rightfully so, entirely responsible for how things went and whether she enjoyed it or not. Let's just say maybe she didn't have much faith in my planning because after much consideration it was decided that we should take a tour to simplify things. So we set off from Tokyo on the shinkansen (bullet train, yay!) and it took only a little over 2 hours to get to Kyoto. Our hotel wasn't too far away and soon we were exploring markets and generally wandering around. What especially struck me was that Kyoto seemed TINY and so laid back compared to Tokyo. That first night we took a walking geisha girl tour, which ... read more