Kyoto and Nara

Hi! It has been a very busy/tiring 2 days. Remember that whole "enjoying Japan to the fullest" thing? So, I've been traveling up and down the JR Biwako line (and by that I mean from here to Kyoto and back/beyond). Yesterday Brad and I went to Kyoto for part of the day, came back and checked in our luggage to be shipped, and then went with some friends to Omi-hachiman to hang out with our history professor at his house (and yes, he is that cool). And today we went to Nara! It was the biggest trip I've taken during this study abroad program - 6 of us went! I had a lot of fun. :)

The night before our huge traveling adventure began, we went out for yakiniku. It was still delicious! :) Some of the beef they serve there is melt-in-your-mouth.Onto the pictures, because I know that's what you're interested in. In Kyoto, we first went back to Fushimi Inari so I could get to the lookout at the top. It was an arduous climb, but totally worth it!After that, we went to a restaurant we learned about through a friend's recommendation: Falafel Garden! It's an Israeli restaurant. It was amazing how easy it was to find - we just went to the station we were told it was closest to, then asked the station attendants. One of the women knew where it was, and rattled off directions in really rapid Japanese. We just caught the main points like "exit 6" and "go right", and walked right to it. XD Kyoto was really a win day, as far as finding things and catching trains was concerned. And we got yummy kebab sandwiches out of the deal.
Our last stop in Kyoto was Nijo Castle, palace of the Tokugawa Shogunate, a family who ran Japan for 250 years. The outside is impressive enough - it's a huge compound with a garden and the castle is sprawling. But the inside was my favorite - I wish I could post pictures but we couldn't take pics of the inside. Each room is full of decorative carvings and gorgeous screens, but the best part was the floors. They're called "Nightingale Floors" because they are designed to creak with every step, to prevent burglars. The cool thing, though, is that their creaking sounds like birdsong! Beautiful. :)

Our Omihachiman trip was fun, too! We got McDonalds (which is way better in Japan than the US, by the way), then ate at our professor's house and watched a movie with him, Taken. It was fun! I just wish we would be able to do it again. :/ There were so many things he wanted to plan for us...we were going to go on a field trip to Osaka and have a huge barbecue at his house and all go out to karaoke as a school after our graduation ceremony (which we were also supposed to have...), but no such luck. :( I'm not really upset about everything that's happened any more, but I do keep getting reminded of things that I was going to do, and then I think "...Oh. Yeah, I don't have time for that now." Just means I have to do it when I come back, right?
Next stop was Nara, yesterday! We had a full group: Me, Brad, my roommate Amanda, Jade, her roommate Rebecca, and Addie. :) It was a pretty long train ride - over an hour and a half - and we had to change trains in Kyoto anyway so we decided to stop by Crepe Ojisan one last time! It was yummy.Once we got to Nara, we walked to Todaiji Temple (which literally translates to "East Big Temple") because it is the most famous in Nara. Nara is the old capital of Japan so it has tons of places to visit. But there are 2 things Nara is really known for:Daibutsu, the biggest Buddha in the country! It's 14 meters tall (46 feet!) and really quite awe-inspiring. You can't imagine the size of it until you're there, and it's astounding. Really really cool!Todaiji also has some other statues inside. They're all pretty neat!And the other thing Nara is known for? The deer.Have some cute deer pics! These deer are awesome! They cross streets en masse at crosswalks (but only when the walk sign is on), and they will bow to you! If you bow to them, some will bow back. It's like the hippogriffs in Harry Potter, and it's awesome. XDAfter oohing and ahhing over the big Buddha and all the deer, we headed back near the station for some okonomiyaki. Okonomiyaki literally translates to "As you like it cooked", which is not descriptive at all. Basically, it's like a savory pancake, but the batter contains stuff like cabbage and green onions (and spices, of course). Beyond that, the possibilities are endless! Here are some of our orders: shrimp, pork, and pumpkin.I ordered "Modern Yaki"(Modanyaki), which is from Hiroshima. It has noodles and usually bacon cooked into one side. You can also get stuff cooked into the batter, like ground pork or beef. It was so good! Watching them cook it in front of us was the best part. I'm definitely making some when I go home!And, after a long train ride home, we made it back here. :) It was our last hoorah for some, as Jade is leaving tomorrow. :( Ah, well. It was fun! And I know I'll be up to Michigan to visit everyone.

Have a great day! Next time I'll be posting Osaka, part II.

Setsubun and Kyoto (again!)

I skipped a day! D: Probably you all don't read this that often anyway, but I was doing so well with my every-other-day streak. Last night I got back too late and was too tired to feel like posting, so I'll make up for it by posting this morning. :)

Starting with Thursday. It was mainly uneventful, though we had Setsubun! Setsubun is a tradition performed to scare demons away from your house. It's sort of a new-year cleansing ceremony. You have people dress up as onis, and then toss soybeans at them to drive them out of your house.

Intimidating, no? I think the boxers are a nice touch. Once the demons have been successfully removed, you eat 1 soybean for each year of your life. They're pretty tasty, though lacking in a little salt. Think of really crispy peanuts.
And yesterday we went back to Kyoto! My friend had her passport stolen last semester, and needed to get a police report in order to apply for a new visa. But, of course life is never that simple. We went to one station (where we were told we could just pick up the report and move on), but were instead told to walk 20 minutes to another station. There, we waited an hour and a half for a little sheet of paper with a handwritten note and stamp on it. We hightailed it back to Kyoto Station to get to Otsu, a large town 2 stops away from Kyoto that also has the immigration office. We made it to the immigration office with just 10 minutes to spare (before it closed), and we successfully got her new visa. It was sort of a frustrating afternoon and we didn't manage to do any sightseeing or get the crepes/Arabic food we planned to scout out. However, it's now taken care of, and I actually enjoyed just walking around the city a bit. Here are some of the things we saw. :)A random building I thought was neat. Each of the white emblems is an insignia of one of the daimyos (the ruling families during the Warring States Era).
Traffic closings are so much cuter when they're supported by red pandas! :D
Toji Temple. We didn't go in, but we walked all the way around it to get to police station #2.

Because we were on such a tight schedule, we didn't end up getting lunch until we reached Otsu at 4. (I had tendon, short for tempura donburi. It's basically a tempura rice bowl)
So, before that, we snacked. And Japan has really weird foods. We collectively decided just to get random things and try all of them. So, I had green tea oreos (which taste surprisingly good), black tea Kitkats (which are growing on me), and salad-flavored pretzel sticks (which taste nothing like salad but are delicious). My favorites, though, were the canned drinks we got out of vending machines. You can actually get corn soup out of vending machines - I was a little skeptical but it's delicious. My favorite, though? This!Yes, it is a pancake-flavored hot drink. It's sort of like a maple syrup explosion. I'm a huge fan! It's a shame we don't have stuff like this in America.

Today is the Matenrou Opera concert in Nagoya - we're going to go do some sightseeing in Nagoya first. :) It should be crazy - I've heard visual kei concerts are an experience. So, I'll have lots to tell next time. Enjoy your weekend!

A Tale of Eggplants, Kimonos, and Crepe Uncles

Kyoto story time! :D But first, our cultural activity from Friday. We played the koto! It's a traditional Japanese instrument. The instructor played a complex piece for us, then let us play a little song. :)

It's actually easier than it looks! You play with something like a guitar pick, and you can modify the notes by holding down different strings. The "bridges" on the instrument set the pitch for each string, and if you hold down the string on the other side of the bridge you can modulate the pitch. Pretty cool, huh?

Now, to Kyoto. I went with my friends Addie and Jess - we left JCMU at around 9:15(AM) and got home around 9:30(PM). The train ride took about 45 minutes, and once we got there it was a little overwhelming. Kyoto Station is huge! It has a long-distance subway hub, a shinkansen hub, AND a local hub, not to mention the shopping mall inside. XD However, we managed to get a bus pass for the day (by far the best deal for Kyoto transportation...pay 500 yen to ride all over the city, and within 2 rides it pays for itself!) and find out how to get to Inari station (home of Fushimi Inari).

Fushimi Inari was our first stop, because it was where we all REALLY wanted to go. And it was awesome! It's like most Shinto shrines, except that it is dedicated to kitsune, the fox gods. Normal Shinto shrines have lions flanking the entrance, but this shrine has foxes everywhere. There are about a million paths you can take once you're inside. There are the main paths flanked with the giant red gates (or torii), and there are also a lot of side paths that lead to little shrines. You could probably spend all day there if you wanted. We didn't get very far up the main path because we took all the side-routes, too. I'm definitely going back to do more exploring. :)

One path in particular was really really long - we walked it for a good 10 minutes. It was a beautiful little mountain path! There was an old woman walking along it who passed us when we stopped to look at a small shrine. Oddly enough, we never saw her again though she was definitely a slow walker and there were no other paths to take. It was like she had disappeared! She was a really friendly old lady...we've decided she's a spirit. :)

After leaving Fushimi Inari, we did some shopping at the next street over (which is conveniently FULL of goodies), and I got suckered into buying a kimono!
Isn't it pretty? It was really inexpensive, too. I was sort of eying it and the shop owner waved me over to a mirror to see how it looked. I was expecting her to just slip it on so I could see it briefly. Instead, she whipped out an obi (the traditional sash), and cinched me into the kimono within an inch of my life, obi and all. And it was so pretty I caved. XD I don't have any pictures of how she tied it because my camera was kind of trapped in my jacket (which I was still wearing), but this will have to do for now. :)
We also had lunch nearby - I wanted to try some of the cuisine the area is famous for. Apparently people in the Inari area eat sparrow, and this restaurant served it. I wasn't quite brave enough to go that route, so instead I had kitsune udon, a noodle soup with strips of fried sweet tofu. It was delicious!
After lunch we went back to Kyoto Station (and saw some crazy characters), then got on a bus to go to Ginkakuji, the silver pavilion that is not actually covered in silver. I really liked walking around the garden - the golden pavilion (Kinkakuji) has a garden as well, just not as pretty. I didn't realize how high we were until we got to the top of a hill and got to see the entire city of Kyoto! What a beautiful view.

On the way to Ginkakuji is a little strip of shops that have lots of souvenirs and things. My personal favorite shop? The bunny store. :3 I'm not sure if this is always here or if it's just because it's the Year of the Rabbit, zodiac-wise. But they're all adorable so it's sort of irrelevant.

After Ginkakuji, we headed to Gion, a famous shopping district in Kyoto. Geishas also work here, and you can sometimes see maiko (geishas in training) walking the streets. We saw no maiko, but quite a few people in kimonos! More than normal, actually...I don't really know why.

And I found this! There is a story about this eggplant coin purse. When I first visited Japan 4 years ago, we went to Gion and saw a little shop with a lot of cute little stuffed animals and things. And they had this coin purse. I really liked it at the time (especially the little eggplant charm!), but decided not to get it. I later wanted to go back and get it, but we never did. My dad came to Kyoto on a business trip and I sent him on a quest to find it, but he was unsuccessful. And then, walking through Gion, we happened to stumble across the shop. And, lo and behold, right where it was 4 years ago, I found the coin purse. :D It's sort of a silly story, but I was so excited to find it.

We headed back to Kyoto station after that, in search of dinner. We were all craving American-ish food, so we found a little pasta place.

This was so delicious. I can't decide whether I really liked it or if I just missed pasta so it tasted amazing.

We spent our last few hours in Kyoto at a big mall across the street from the station. I didn't do any shopping there, but I was introduced to the wonders of Japanese crepes.

It's Crepe Ojisan! Which literally translates to "Crepe Uncle". As you can see, they have about every type of crepe imaginable. Most of them are sweet (chocolate, fruit, gelato, etc.) but they have a few savory ones as well. Their current special was Chicken Pot Pie. o.0 I ended up getting a hot apple pie crepe. Best crepe I've ever tasted.

After munching on crepes for a while, we finally boarded the train. It was a very successful day! I look forward to traveling again. We're planning trips for Osaka and Nara next month (and of course I have Nagoya this weekend and Sapporo next weekend).

As far as life here goes, we're back to normal. :) We had lots of snow last night so the roads are treacherous once more. Classes are going well - finally got an A on a Japanese exam here. Hooray for study parties. :) Japanese is getting less intimidating now, thankfully! Class is done for the day, but there's a lot still going on. I had an internship orientation, and now I think we're baking. :D Hooray for ovens, even small ones.

Sorry, I know this is a super-long post. But I hope you enjoy it. :)

Kyoto

Hi! Just got back from Kyoto a little while ago, and I'm too worn out to post like I would normally. So, instead I'll just upload a bunch of pictures! The stories can wait until next time. :)

Kyoto Station:

Fushimi Inari:

Ginkakuji:

Gion:

Enjoy your weekend! :)