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Published: February 8th 2010
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bento breakfast!
rice , lotus root, some kind of potato and i have no idea what else On the road the kyoto.... first step, Shinagawa station. We get there about the same time that a thousand or some Japanese are on their way to work, and we are caught in the middle of a sea of black hair all streaming in one direction. You can easily lose your companions with a blink of an eye, and trying to cross the path of the herd is as close as playing human frogger that you can get. With such methodical step, they seem to all walk in unison that after a while it takes on its own militant beat quite similar to that of a song. We did finally make our way to the Shinkensan, and stopped to buy our bento box breakfast, aka, the best breakfast ever! Mine was an assortment of vegetables and tofu and rice, and other delicious things that I had no idea what I was eating.
One thing that is quite apparent in Japan is the extreme politeness. I have never been to a place where everyone is so polite and nice and very respectful. Comparing to other big cities its actually hard to believe that they haven't been jaded especially by
the amount of people that live in such a small area. I have been to big cities, New York being my favorite as everyone knows, and one of the things I love about New York is the efficiency. I dont find them rude or abrupt, I find it effective and productive. But comparing to Tokyo, where there are extremely efficient AND polite and nice, it has really opened up my inner cynic to see that it can be both. It definitely takes some getting use to. Jill and I got into the elevator the other day where a Japanese worker had gotten off as we got on. He turned to face us and bowed ever so graciously and continued to bow until the elevator door slipped close. We stood there staring not knowing what to do with ourselves, and looked at eachother as soon as the door shut. We are so used to bad service and hurried and indifferent people, its foreign to us this concept of manners. Its kind of unfortunate.
We arrived at our hotel, the Westin Miyako, and its amazing. The rooms are really nice, and we are all wowed by the bathrooms. The toilets themselves
have had us acting like school kids. First the toilets have a bidet and sprayer. with a press of a button you get a warm water spray to cleanse yourself. next is the toilet seat warmer. yes friends, a warm toilet seat. very interesting. There is also phones in the bathroom and built in bottle openers attached to the sink. Very convenient.
Another foreign concept to me is the no tipping. We even tried to tip the poor girl who had to lug up our extremely heavy luggage, all 6 of us, and she was tiny. When we tried to give her money, she refused and said she couldnt except tip. This to me is extremely weird, as I come from a tipping industry ( and believe in tipping karma) to leave without tipping makes me feel guilty. I feel like im constantly doing a dine and dash.
So out first stop in Kyoto, a short walk from our hotel was the Nanzen-ji Temple. Very cool,I only wished that I read Japanese so I could know more about the history on it. We stayed there for a bit then headed down Sanji-dori street. Unfortunately we started weaving thru alleys
mt.Fuji
bad picture, taken on train and back streets and ended up getting lost. Thankfully for Yukiya and his Japanese we were able to get back on track. I honestly dont know how people have made it around here without the help of a japanese speaking person because if you get lost, it seems so hard to find your way around. Most of the street signs are in Japanese character so that makes it extremely difficult to use the map.I find myself with no sense of direction here, I only wished that I spoke more Japanese. So with the help of Yuki's translation we found our way, albeit being tired and ridiculously hungry and unable to decide where to eat. one person wanted ramen, the other person wanted sushi, or this restaurant didnt look good or didnt have enough seating for all of us, we some how ended up at this japanese-german restaurant. It was so random out of all the places but out of desperation and Daves desire to have the big mug of beer he eyed in the window. Once perusing the menu, we realized that this was not the place we wanted to eat, and ended up ordering beer instead. This lead to
a chugging contest between Jill and Dave. Jill won, like a pro. I was very proud.we had looked at this korean restaurant earlier and ditched the random german restaurant and headed there. Good choice. We shared a couple hot pots that were amazing and worth the switch. Jill and Yuki left us to go back to the hotel and we continued on to a really fun market that i didnt get the name of. And of course no trip of mine is complete without the ritual shoe purchase. Im going to have to buy extra luggage....... Nisjiki market and the Golden Pavilion tomorrow!
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barbina
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mmmmm.....yummy!
hi guys! im enjoying your blog shannon, can't wait till the next one! i feel like im there with you guys! the food looks so yummy! tell dave i'm laughing at him 'cause a GIRL bet him at a chugging contest! ha!~ha! keep sending pictures they look amazing! love ya!