Advertisement
According to the Lonely Planet book, Eat Japan, Kyotoites will happily waste their fortunes on a fine kimono, and Tokyoites on shoes, the Osakans only have one way to squander their riches - on food.
Our time in Japan has been incredible and our next stop was yet another one we awaited with great anticipation....Osaka. It is Japan's third-largest city and if you include the metropolitan area, the number swells to 19 million people, making it the 10th-largest in the world. We are pretty impressed with the number of people in urban areas of Japan, but most likely because in the U.S., the largest is NY City with about the same number. Even the famous Los Angeles has only about 12 million. The fact that Japan has over 120 million people in an area about the size of California continues to amaze us. Our three-hour ride took us fairly close to Mt. Fuji and afforded us yet another great view of this mountain. We continue to really enjoy train travel here as it is quite pleasant and easy to navigate, especially with the help of the nice folks at the JP travel desks in the train stations.
As with many of our stops in Japan, we arrived before check-in time at the hotel and once again they would hold our luggage as we immediately took off to see some of the sights. That
afternoon proved to be quite sublime as the sun was out and the temperatures were fairly pleasant, given that winter was not officially over just yet in Japan. After a nice lunch, we proceeded to the Osaka Castle, which is located within the city with some 500,000 to one million large stones making up the huge walls surrounding the castle. On our way to the castle grounds, we saw many young locals dressed up in traditional attire and of course had to inquire and take a few pictures, Seems the young folks are graduating from high school and this is part of the ceremony.
One of the small disappointments of our trip was our timing. We arrived just a little too early for the Cherry Blossoms. It would have been quite stunning to see the trees in full bloom, but this was not to be for us. We saw a few budding trees and a few blossoms, but alas, we were a couple of warmer days away from seeing all the majestic beauty.
But Osaka had much more in store for us......and the following day would be a great one.
Sumo Wrestling The myriad of sporting events
The Beauty of Japan
Fushimi Inari Taisha Sembon Torii in the world is amazing. We've had the pleasure of watching horse wrestling in Tajikistan, kickboxing in Thailand, tennis at the Australian Open and even turtle races in Cayman Brac (okay, that one wasn't officially sanctioned by a governing body). Our voyages in Japan led us to Osaka, where one of the national sports of Japan was on display.....sumo wrestling. A competition like no other, these rather large men (and they are quite big) square off in a small circle, with the winner declared after one of the wrestlers is either tossed out of the circle or something other than the soles of their feet touches the ground. Being large in size is quite an advantage at times in sumo wrestling, so these guys put on a tremendous amount of weight. As nurses, we thought this was not particularly healthy, but there we were, watching "the beefy boys" as we lovingly called them tussle in the ring. There are 652 professional sumo wrestlers in Japan. We read that sumo wrestlers are not allowed to drive. We suspect that it is difficult for them to get into a rather small Japanese vehicle.
The sport has been around for centuries and
originally was to entertain Shinto deities. It is steeped in traditions that still exist today. There are six tournaments each year and we zeroed in on the one in Osaka. Getting tickets originally proved to be quite challenging as we tried to buy them online while still at home. Seems when the tickets go on sale, many of the tour companies snap them up quickly, making it difficult for others to purchase tickets. After several discouraging tries, we were able to secure tickets on one of the websites. It was part of an all-day tour that also included a sushi making class before the tournament, then a hot pot meal after the tournament. On the appointed day, we met our group at the metro/train station and off we went.
After a brief stroll, we entered a restaurant and were escorted up to the third floor where we received instruction on how to make sushi and sashimi. We enjoyed conversing with our table as we put together different rolls to taste. It was a fun experience....but the main event was next....on to the Edion Arena.
When we entered the venue, we discovered that it held about 8000 people. This was
a major tournament. Our seats were in the upper part of the arena which offered chair seats, which was great for us as the lower seats required patrons to sit on mats. We can tell you that we would not last long in that type of seating arrangement. There are more than a few "divisions" in sumo wrestling and as we arrived shortly after noon, we ended up watching over 50 matches that day. Each match lasts anywhere from a few seconds to about thirty seconds. The ceremonies surrounding the sport are quite fascinating and they were on full display on this day as we took in about five hours of wrestling.
After a long afternoon of wrestling, it was time for dinner and our guide took us to a restaurant that specializes in hot pot meals. If you're not familiar, a large pot of broth is warmed in front of you and the ingredients are added and allowed to simmer for a time. Nabe is the term used to describe the hot pot dishes as well as the pot they prepared in. Typical ingredients include meat, seafood, vegetables and mushrooms. We found the meal to be quite delicious
and was a fantastic way to end our long, but fun day.
Kyoto is known as the spiritual center of Japan and one understands why once you see all of the temples, shrines and UNESCO sites in the area. As the sun goes down on Kyoto and the lanterns and lights come on it is rather magical. Kyoto is defined by its ancient architecture which blends traditional aesthetics, meticulous planning and an elegance that cannot be defined. The old Kyoto neighborhoods of Gion and Higashiyama are breathtaking with the quaint streets along the river, traditional wooden houses, perfectly placed flowers, trees and lightening which gives a peaceful ambiance.
We learned the hard way that if you wanted to eat dinner in one of these districts you needed to make a reservation well in advance. Kyoto is full of restaurants advertising Wagyu and Kobe beef. We were fortunate enough to sample a couple of inexpensive wagyu beef meals and enjoyed it immensely. The high end meat and restaurants will charge several hundred dollars for one of these meals. We passed on that opportunity.
Our time in Japan was an education. One thing we learned is that wagyu is
Sumo Ceremonies
Lots of pomp and circumstance very fatty....so it is flavorful. All that fat makes it very tender but also a little chewy. It is good but we decided we like the U.S. meat just as well. We guess it. is what you are used to.
The Happy Pancake Earlier we mentioned learning a lot from the Japan Facebook. pages we were enjoying. One item that kept popping up was frequent discussions about eating puffy pancakes. What are puffy pancakes? After further research on the internet we saw multiple photos that looked enticing and learned that people were known to stand in long lines for these delicacies. From the descriptions we decided these must be more similar to an egg soufflé than a pancake and decided we needed to track them down. They are sold all over the country but one restaurant chain called "The Happy Pancake" was said to have the best ones. We went on their website to make reservations in Tokyo and they were fully booked for our six days. We checked a couple of other towns we would visit with the same result. Finally, we were able to obtain a reservation two weeks away in Kyoto.
We kept asking
MJ & Dave
The Bamboo Forest ourselves, how good could a pancake be? Would it meet all the hype? We arrived and had to study the menu as there are a multitude of toppings and one needs to take this decision very seriously. Bananas, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, chocolate, butter, whip cream and a variety of syrups.
We decided the lure to these puffy pancakes is the texture... so light and fluffy, they jiggle when you cut them. We tried the plain ones and the triple berry. They were very good. We are glad we tried them... we were glad we had a reservation as we decided .... for us they were not good enough to stand in line for but they were tasty. Several people arrived at our restaurant without reservations and were turned away. They had sad little faces. Make a reservation if this is something you want to try.
The Bamboo Forest In our opinion bamboo is beautiful. When one does research on Japan you will see one of the most photographed places on the outskirts of Kyoto, the Arashiyama bamboo forest. It was on our must do list. It takes several buses to get there and we were surprised by
what we found. For us this famous stop was terribly disappointing, touristy and crowded. Did we mention crowded? To us this felt like a man made tourist attraction you might find in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.
The streets of the small town where it is located is jam packed with buses and taxis attempting to drop off and pick up tourists. It is slow going. We were walking between vehicles slowly making our way to the forest we had greatly anticipated. We finally made it to the entrance and inched along with a few thousand of our new friends trying to enjoy the bamboo and find a great photo op. A few feet behind us we heard some shouting and turned to find an elaborate cart being g pulled by one of the local men, taking the tourists who had paid some unknown amount of money to be carted through the forest. Everyone was expected to move out of the way which was nearly impossible as we were sandwiched like sardines in the small pathway.
Halfway down the path the cart turns off on another path that is just for the carts. We were surprised by the number of people
paying for this ride. It allows the people who have paid the money for transportation to enjoy the forest a bit more. For those people it was not crowded and would offer the ability to take better pictures but their path is only about six feet away from the hoards of people walking. At one or two locations they have blocked off sections for a "photo op" and it allows you to take a photo of the bamboo without hundreds of people I your photo. It gives you the impression you are out there alone.
This was not the serene experience we were expecting or had seen in photos. Plus the forest was much smaller than expected. The walking loop is a bit over a mile. Most people turned around and walked out the way they came after a half mile or so. Curiosity will pull you there as it did us. The bamboo is pretty but for us the forest was disappointing.
Shrines and Castles Japan has many temples and shrines as part of their storied traditions around religion. One of the more unique shrines is the Kinkaku-ji temple or Golden Pavilion. Originally built many centuries
The Struggle is Real
Sumo Wrestling Tournament ago, it is a Zen Buddhist temple in which the main facade of the temple is gold plated. Our tour of the grounds yielded many different views of the temple, which is resplendent in the sunshine of the afternoon of our visit...it really glistens in the sun. The original temple accidentally burned to the ground I 1950 by a mentally-ill novice monk, but was rebuilt to its original beauty. The grounds around the temple made for a nice stroll as the landscaping was simple, but well done.
We also had time to take in the UNESCO site of the Nino-jo Castle. This was built in 1603 for the defense of the Kyoto Imperial Palace and place of residence for visiting Shoguns. We laughed when we read it was renovated in1626 as the U.S. doesn't have anything that age. As with all the other shrines and palaces it is well cared for and a delight to tour. The grounds were lovely with a few budding trees and we enjoyed a snack of eat on a stick from a street vendor.
The famous Fushimi Imari Taisha Semon Torii better known as the
Thousand Torii Gates turns out to be as
stunning as the photos make it look and the bright vermillion color is breathtaking.. We had hoped to arrive early as it is open 24 hours a day and beat the crowds but we didn't arrive until 10am. There are many hiking trails in the area and we are told it takes two or three hours to reach the summit. They warn walking through these Tori gates could take about 45 minutes. We quickly learned it was due to the snails pace the crowds could move through while taking a few snap shots. We've seen photos friends have taken without people in them and could not figure out how that happened and were disappointed we didn't arrive earlier until we reached the end. There are two rows of Tori gates and everyone is funneled into the one on the right. Once you reach the end of the trail the other one is left empty so people can pose at the entrance and get those photos they dreamed of....
Tea is the national drink in Japan so we were surprised to hear that contemporary Japan has a strong coffee culture. This was demonstrated by the coffee shops we found on
Celebrating 30 years
Happy Anniversary in Kyoto every street, train stations and in many office buildings. They have many local shops but seem to have a large number of Starbucks, Tully's and Seattle's best.
Our time in Osaka allowed us to see a few of the desired cherry blossoms in bloom although we were at least a week early. We anticipated seeing additional flowers in bloom in Kyoto because that was the last city we were visiting but they were sparse. In anticipation of seeing the flowers we booked a boat trip on the river in Kyoto. We generally have good luck with weather but not this time. We walked from the subway station in the pouring rain. We needed to show up or lose our money. We felt certain they were going to cancel the trip and refund our money. Oh boy, were we mistaken. The small boat stooping over so we would not bump our heads on the short ceiling. The boat was covered but it was raining hard enough that the water dripped off the arming in a fairly steady stream. Only six of us showed up for our boat ride. I suspect everyone else decided they would rather be sipping tea or
eating sushi instead of a rainy boat ride. It was actually fun and we felt good about ourselves for braving it out. The boat ride was about thirty minutes. We do think if the flowers had been in bloom the view would have been just as good from the sidewalks along the river.
Where we stayed: Soraniwa Terrace Kyoto - this is a great place to stay. We loved the baths in this location. They also offered a rooftop bar with warm water foot baths where you could soak your feet while looking at the city and sipping your wine or beer.
Hearton Hotel Nishi Umeda in Osaka - a very good location near public transportation.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.121s; Tpl: 0.018s; cc: 15; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0322s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Kuan Yin
Karen Johnson
Sumo
Fun fact about sumo wrestlers: The long stiff strings at the front of the wrestler's belt are called sagari, and they mark the only places on a wrestler's body that his opponent is not allowed to grab, namely the groin. There can be any number of sagari from 13 to 25, but it is always an odd number.