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Published: December 21st 2015
Japanese Bento Box
This is the original Bento Box.This was my last day in Tokyo so we had to get out of the city to head south. Hauling your luggage across subway stations in the middle of rush hour is painful. Its quite the workout and the quickest way to have everyone hate you for taking up so much space on the subway.
You'll notice in this video how quick this bullet train is.
Okay, maybe it had to slow down to pick me up, but don't feel bad for the built up anticipation. Here is an official video of bullet trains.
After finally getting on the bullet train, we headed south past the famous Mt. Fuji, and I noticed the quick change of scenery from Tokyo down to the rural side. The homes look more distinguishable, but there the towns are much more focused on industrialization. Large nuclear power plants and factories stretch across the horizon in some of these cities. 2 hours later, we arrive in Kyoto.
Kyoto preserves much of its historical charm and beauty in its many temples and shrines, its parks and gardens, and its old wooden houses with their gray tile roofs. It is also the former
capital of Japan and for more than a thousand years the center of traditional Japanese culture. Ralph and I hopped on a tour bus to give us a half day tour. It took us towards the mountain side to give us a look at the famous Kinkaku-ji Temple or Gold Temple. The temple's walls are made entirely of gold and as you can see in the photo, are you thinking of what I'm thinking?
After the quick tour of the temple, we headed to another temple towards the mountains called Kiyomizu-dera which is a Buddhist Temple and the entire structure does not have a single nail that holds the wood together. It sits on top of a cliff overlooking the city of Kyoto. Walking through the temple grounds, we went through the town that supports the temple and these houses and shops are very much traditional Japanese designs. The bus ends up bringing us back to the station where we catch another bullet train down to Osaka.
Osaka is the 2nd largest city in Japan and has somewhat of the same vibe of Tokyo. We unwind back at the apartment with the nice view and head out to
the streets of Osaka. The place is brightly lit and heavily saturated with shops and restaurants. We end up at a Yakitori place. Yakitori involves skewering the meat with a type of skewer typically made of steel, bamboo, or similar materials. Afterwards, they are grilled over a charcoal fire. I won't disgust you all, but I ate some weird parts of the chicken. Cough* Cartilage Cough*.
After dinner, we end up walking around the city of Osaka before headed back to the hotel as we have another planned trip on a bullet trip going south towards Fukuoka. Lights out!
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Reza
non-member comment
Why Wasn't I Invited
Looks like you're having a great time bro! Would have been nice to get the invite - work is overrated. Keep posting; I'm really enjoyin your BLOG. Also, please add my bro (kmsabahi@gmail.com) to the distribution. He was just in Japan and would enjoy your BLOG. Cheers...