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Published: February 8th 2008
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Coffee the size of your head
This is how much coffee $3 will buy you Monday, Feb 4 Jason arrived in Japan surprisingly easy, although he had the fun of rolling his luggage a couple miles. For those of you who are Lost in Translation fans, we decided to find the Park Hyatt hotel and have a martini at the bar. We got off the train, got directions from a train station attendant, walked around in circles for about 3 miles, then stumbled on the hotel. After Jason and Jess had two beers and two Bellinis we paid the $40 tab and left.
Tuesday, Feb 5 The next morning we got up at the crack of dawn, still slightly jet lagged, and headed for the train station. We had a relaxing 2 hour train ride to Kyoto where we got the chance to see Mt. Fuji as we whizzed by going 150+ miles per hour. We decided to leave our crappy $800/night room and splurge in a spacious 90 square foot Kyoto hostel. My first communal hostel experience got two thumbs up. After a huge sushi lunch, we started our 1/2 day whirlwind tour of city. We managed to navigate the bus system pretty well and visited the golden temple. Great photo ops there. After
Saki Casks
Way prettier than the stainless steel keg design that we caught the next bus to shrine #2 which included a $5 entry fee to see a rock garden. I think the rest of the group enjoyed it, but I figured I've seen enough "rock gardens" aka rock lawns at the lake of the ozarks. We took our last bus of the day to head towards Gion, the area with the famed Geisha. We looked around, but it was apparently not Geisha hunting time. We went back to the hostel for a short nap before we headed out for dinner.
That night we made our way back to Gion. We traversed our way down some back alleys and low and behold spied a couple of Geisha getting out of a taxi. Jess tried to snap off some pics, but she wasn't quite quick enough. The clothing and makeup that they wore was incredibly breathtaking. We attempted to eat on the street where the Geisha lived but a steak dinner runs about $200. We ended up in a local Japanese restaurant. No english, no pictures, no idea how to order. Jason ended up with some questionable uncooked crabs. Mike Davenport knows about questionable uncooked crabs.
Wednesday, Feb 6 Golden Pagoda
The whole thing was covered in gold leaf. The next morning we chose to hit one last shrine before taking the train back into Tokyo. It was the best one by far. There were thousands of Torii (gates) brightly colored and lining the path up a mountainside.
Arriving back in Tokyo around 2pm, we finished the day with a hunt to find dinner sushi. One would incorrectly think sushi restaurants would line the Tokyo streets like white on rice. We headed for Ginza, an area not unlike times square. Skyscrapers towered above us with brightly lit neon lights, huge tv screens blaring ads, and stores like Gucci and Dior. We had a travel guide that listed the address of a Sushi train restaurant. After asking a police man for directions we miraculously found it and stuffed our faces with sushi. Delightful. After that, a tapas restaurant, a few bottles of wine, an unsuccessful search for a karaoke bar, and an Irish bar...we stumbled back to the hotel.
Thursday, Feb 7 Morning we saw the east gardens of the Imperial Palace. Afternoon we had lunch on the 52nd floor of the Sumitomo tower. Night was on a cozy 7.5 hour plane ride to Bangkok.
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kartina
non-member comment
weird...
It's geisha hunting season back in Kansas City. Your loss.