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Published: September 6th 2006
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Higashi Hongan-ji
Outside of the temple we visited this afternoon. First off let me apologize to our fans for not providing pictures yesterday. We didn't snap a whole lot and we were so tired typing that entry that we just posted it and went to bed. We took quite a few more today so enjoy!! Also thanks to everyone leaving comments, you have no idea how excited we get when we log in to read them. I hope I'm writing exciting entries for you all to read.
From Kyoto we plan to take 2 day trips, one to Nara and one to Himeji-jo Castle. Both of these are full day excursions requiring us to travel approximately an hour or more by train, so we decided to stick around downtown Kyoto and just wander and keep it easy today.
Our train dropped us off at Kyoto Station, which is a massive huge train station. It has 15 levels, and a million trains run in and out of this place daily. Once we arrived at the main concourse we saw a looong escalator which went up about 7 or 8 stories. The architecture in this bldg is really amazing, and once we reached the top of the escalator there is a
Dragon Fountain
This fountain was outside the temple, where you wash your hands and mouth before entering. skyway that walks across the entire length of the concourse. From the description in our guidebook, not for the ones scared of heights, we were hoping for something a little more daring than it turned out to be, but it was still neat. There was a whole team of "stair cleaners" hard at work below us cleaning the outside staircases (8 levels of them). One guy was hosing the steps down, another had a broom and was scrubbing, and yet another had a buffer. Even on the escalator there was a person in front of us who was wiping the side parts down. He would ride up and wipe one side, then ride down and wipe the other side, then ride up and wipe again. I wonder, do they do this every day? No wonder Japan is so clean! I guess you need to create jobs for your billions of people...
On the other side of the Skyway was a big food court so we stopped for lunch and had some Yakisoba (see picture). It was quite delicious, as all of our Japanese meals have been. A lot of the food vendors had machines outside their restaurant with pictures
Here Fishy Fishy!
I think these are called Koi? They were swimming in the pool in front of the temple, and they were huge! The brown one was easily longer than a foot, and very fat! of all their menu items, and you put your money in, push the button and receive a ticket to take to the chef. The place we picked didn't have this.
Also inside the train station is a huge department store and we wandered inside, right near the shoe section. I have no idea if there was a sale on or what, but I have never seen an area so packed with women in my life. This was probably the biggest shoe dept in a store I've seen, and it was crammed!! They sure love shoes here.
Across the street was yet another electronic store, and how can we pass up an electronic store...in we go. More computers, mp3 players, flat screen monitors, cameras, everything technofiles like us dream about. Once again Dev spotted his processor chip and almost fell on the floor. He says it was a "Core2 Duo (Extreme)" for 2/3 of the price that he's seen it online for (it was ~$500). Their display of laptops was very impressive, they had about 15 or 20 that were smaller than ours, and weighed maybe 2 lbs.
The strangest part was when we were browsing video games
Mmm Yakisoba!
Our delicious lunch. We are really going to miss the food here. (I think we feel a splurge coming on in this category, we'll keep you posted...) and there was a back part of the store that was all pink. It looked like a whole section of pink video games with girl anime characters. Ok, so this must be the girl section I thought. We stroll in, and I glance around and found it somewhat odd that it was all males browsing in this section...they must be shopping for their daughters...this anime girl must be some famous anime cartoon...right?? We turn the corner down an aisle, where there is a tv screen...playing...PORN! Japanese PORN! Like the kind of stuff we have to pay to see at home. We both stood there for a minute like. WTF. Then I look a little more closely at all the videos and realize it's all porn! Not only real life Japanese porn but anime porn too!! Oh my. We giggled and looked a little more and then left. No wonder that section was at the back, it definitely wasn't for little girls...
Up the street was a temple (Higashi Hongan-ji) with free admission so we stopped and took some pics and sat quietly inside for
Number card at restaurant
It already comes out soon
and cooking is done.
Please wait in near
Since we will call your number
if the dish of an order is completed.
please come to an accounts place.
It's almost like a little Japanese poem!! a bit reflecting on how lucky we are to be on this trip. Despite the hustle of the city outside, as soon as you enter one of these temples it's amazing how serene it feels. People just kneeling on the tatami mats, gazing around, praying, being quiet. It was a nice break.
The rest of the afternoon was pretty boring. Wandering up and down streets, into shops, I bought some face wash at the drug store. We had a snack at McDonalds, mmm those fries taste the same anywhere!
All day the skies threatened to open up, it was rather gloomy, so we decided to head back before we got rained on. About 5 minutes before we entered the station it started sprinkling and by the time we got off the train it was raining pretty hard. We relaxed in our room while it poured, and once it stopped we went down the street to the same restaurant we ate at last night for dinner. I had a fried chicken dish this time and Dev had sweet and sour pork and we split gyoza. Mmm. This place is so delicious. We are puzzled as to how they get
the food out so fast. Once you order the waitress makes some marks on a slip of paper, disappears to the kitchen, and about 2 minutes later comes back with big steaming dishes of food! Piping hot!! I don't know how they do it. The gyoza takes a bit longer, but it's worth the wait. Delicious greasy dumplings full of pork and other unknowns.
Kyoto is pretty, there are mountains far off in the distance and it's very green. It doesn't feel as big of a city as Tokyo. We like it here, but seeing temples all the time can get old fast, and there doesn't seem to be much of anything else here (don't get me wrong, there are hundreds of temples, maybe even thousands, in this area...but once you've seen 5 it can seem like you've seen them all).
Tomorrow if the weather is nice we plan to head to Himeji-jo Castle. This is the most magnificent of the handful of Japanese castles that survive in it's original form. It dates from 1580! It has been home to 48 sucessive lords (thank you Lonely Planet).
Keep those comments coming! We really enjoy coming back to
Traditional Japanese Room
Notice our futon bedding folded up on the right side. It's actually pretty comfy! the room after our day of sightseeing to see what all our friends have written us. We still have 5 nights in Kyoto before moving onto Osaka. Unfortunately our hostel in Osaka doesn't have internet, so we will be without a connection for 3 days. The reviews on the hostel are also pretty dodgy, so we are a little nervous to arrive and assess our situation. Compared to our other options though it was by far much cheaper, and it's only for 3 nights right??
One more thing. Perhaps you can all start drafting letters to Coca Cola to ask them to start selling more of their Japanese beverages in Canada. The melon soda made by Fanta is to die for, as is the grape and orange sodas. There is also another one called BubbleMan II (don't ask, it has spacemen on the label, and a penguin with a spaceman head) which I think is made by CocaCola and it is also sooo delicious. There are so many different drink options here, you can never grow tired of boring cola!
Kim, today I saw Herbal Essences shampoo in the drug store but theirs all say "contains Olive". Do
Beautiful Screen
This screen takes up the entire length of our wall, it's very pretty! ours contain olive at home? I don't think so. Very neat.
Oh and we found out what SuperPotato is. It is actually a very very famous video game store, known for carrying extremely rare copies of old games (like gold cartridges worth $5000) and for having incredibly knowledgeable staff. There are two locations in Osaka, which are said to be bigger and better than the one in Akihabara. We are anxious to get there, and perhaps make some purchases.
Thanks for reading! Enjoy these pics and until next time...
Rin n Dev <3
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Martin
non-member comment
Engrish!!!
I really enjoyed reading the Engrish card you got at the restaurant that is awesome. The Drangon Fountain is pretty cool as well. martin