Blogs from Kyoto, Japan, Asia - page 88

Not wanting to waste a moment of my dwindling spring break, yesterday I returned to Kyoto (once again with shopping as the primary attraction) and what a contrast it was from the snow of Mount Myoko! Apart from the obvious lack of white stuff everywhere, the biggest difference was the number of American and European tourists floating about! Every second person we walked past in Kyoto was tall, fair skinned and speaking english! This was very strange coming from the english free zone I have been in this week. One would think that this would be a relief, and a good thing, but to be honest, being a "domestic" tourist in the Japan Alps was much more fun. Sure, it's frustrating to be as literate as a pre schooler and to be limited to communication on ... read more

Osaka!!! The night life in Osaka is MAD. There are no obvious pubs in osaka. On a road in one of osakas night life districts you could be looking for a pub for hours and then look up and see a sign saying "beer guzzlers" 4f. We decided to try out this particular place due to the name. Inside beer guzzlers every body moved up to make space for us at the bar. There must have been no more than 8 seats and no room to get out once we were in. We were soon talking to a turkish football hooligan about the world cup, so we decided to get a beer. The price was fairly reasonable at 250 Yen for a pint. It was only when we got our drinks that we realised we had ... read more

The first day... I felt like a very important person when we were picked up at our hotel in Hakone by a tour guide and a cab. We were driven for about 35 minutes through picture perfect rolling hills on a beautiful sunny morning, and led straight to our seats on the Shinkansen. Normally I travel on an extreme budget, so I really enjoyed the preferential treatment! We traveled through the most bizarre weather changes...sunshine, light rain, heavy rain, light snow, heavy snow...we hit it all! Our next two days were spent in the cultural capitals of Japan, Kyoto and Nara. Nara was the first permanent capital of Japan for 75 years before it was moved to Kyoto. There are 17 World Heritage Sites in Kyoto and 8 in Nara....so our days were filled with much ... read more

Well, if we spent all day sitting, today it was walking, exploring Kyoto Station and the neighborhood of southern Higashiyama, filled with traditional Japanese shops and temples. We started off at Kiyomizu-dera, a famous temple and home of the Hosso school of Buddhism. We came up upon the painted pagodas and old buildings, where I gave offering and prayer to the Buddha enshrined there. Afterwards, we paid to descend down into Tainai-meguri, which is a pitch-black area that you only feel your way through, twisting and turning until you suddenly see a large, round stone where you offer a prayer and give the stone a turn. Doing this offers a prayer to Daizuigu Bosatsu, a female Buddhist Bodhisattva who has the power to grant any human wish. After touring around the grounds for awhile, we meandered ... read more

I awoke and checked out of my hotel, before walking around Kobe for a bit longer. I had heard great things about the famous and rare Kobe Beef, so decided to check it out. Kobe beef is very rare - restaurants that stock it have signs in the window advertising its limtied availability and its price while good by UK standards is far more expensive in Japan compared to other beef. I found a restaurant where I was seated infront of a hotplate which extended the entire length of the restaurant while my own private chef came over and cooked the beef exactly to my liking on the hotplate, with chips of garlic and butter. The beef was served with the standard Japanese fair - rice, pickles, miso soup as well as some noodles and a ... read more