Kyoto, Nara, and Osaka Oh My!
I love to travel, let’s just start there. There is just something invigorating about getting away, seeing new places, experiencing new things and trying to squeeze in just a little bit of relaxation in the middle of all of that. At this point, I’d like to think I am the queen of doing as many things as possible really all the time. In fact, it’s a new disorder I’ve coined and labeled myself with, also known as “multi-dimensional processing disorder.” I suffer from this both at work and at home, so it doesn’t appear to discriminate. So, without fail, the disorder has reared it’s head again on vacation, go figure. Clearly, the only way I’ve been treating it so far on this trip is with the consistent imbibing of tasty adult beverage. So, for the past few days we’ve had the opportunity to travel through Japan to Kyoto, Nara, and Osaka. I’ll give you the cliff notes version, with pictures included, so that when I get back and we have the “where in the world was this photo taken contest,” you all can be adequately prepared to participate in said competition. We took the bullet train (which takes about 2 hours to get to Kyoto, which would be about 6 hours in a car otherwise-this train is nice, sort of like flying on a commercial aircraft), then we rented a car and visited the two other locations from there.
Kyoto: We spent the majority of the day seeing several different temples (shrines) and rock gardens varying in type, design, age and use. Each one of these has prayer areas where you burn incense and pray, as well as various water features (where you do some hand washing, water drinking ritual-it was freezing, so we engaged, but only because I didn’t want to have bad luck). At one of these locations I threw what would be a Japanese penny in one of these bowls and made it in (Hello Thunder basketball, clearly I’ve learned a few things from those guys), so I think that means I’m supposed to have good luck all year long. Matt and I then obtained our 2018 fortunes, his was ok, mine was fabulous, so I’m going to stick with the notion that I’m going to have great luck in 2018 (too bad I wasn’t where I could have bought a lottery ticket or I would have, as I was on a roll this day). I’ve got some pretty significant things that are going to happen this year, and together, we have some pretty strong goals we’ve laid out, so I’m feeling quite confident going into 2018 under my current “luck” situation. We then went shopping in the Nishiki Market, and then Matt and I finished the evening at a lovely little Jazz bar called, Hello Dolly, where we ran into a couple from Florida, who by Matt’s luck was also a pilot and they got to chat it up for several hours about their hobbies. This was fantastic, you want to know why? Because I’m pretty tired of talking to Matt. I mean, I love the guy, but man 20 days together at this point with minimal interaction with other people besides him (especially in Japan since we are lacking some basic survival skills like reading and speaking the language here). Let’s be honest, I really am an introverted person, so I really just wanted to be alone for a day or so, hell, I’d take a few hours at this point. It’s fine, we survived, no one died, so onward and upward. We finished the evening in Kyoto, doing what I’ve coined “geisha hunting,” because Matt’s mom so desperately wanted us to find these “working girls” to take a picture with them because she feels like that is authentic Japanese culture. Here’s the deal Kinuko, we’ll go find the geisha’s (in some specific neighborhoods in Kyoto at ungodly hours of the night) because we don’t want to regret a thing, but we refuse to take pictures with them and exploit them on our blog, nope, just not gonna happen. We saw 4 of them, they are beautiful, but I just can’t imagine being bought from a “training school” to “entertain” Japanese men (who are not your spouse) until they die, that’s really just too much of a lifetime commitment for me. But, back to learning about other cultures and ways of life, this one clearly is a choice, not mine, but someone’s so I can totally appreciate them doing what they want to do. They say that’s the key to happiness, let’s hope these ladies have that in their life.
The next day we made our way down to the town of Nara, where we were ambushed by the local deer that all hang out around this specific temple. It was cute at first, as we all had these little wafer biscuit things we were feeding these wild animals, but when you stopped, they came at you full force looking for more. Those things would get in your purse, start biting at your coat, head butting you, etc. Determined is what those deer were, which included violating my personal space completely. Go away deer, go away. We visited the shrine, which was made up of extremely large Buddhas before we found some of the best ramen I’ve had thus far. We did a bit more browsing around the local shopping area when Matt and I decided to visit a cat cafe, so that I could get my cat fix. These are always so funny to me, and even more so since we were in Japan, where the idea for these started, so I was excited to take Matt to one where he could have endless cups of a variety of beverages (from one of these crazy vending machines Japan has literally on every corner)while I got to play with the cats. Let’s be honest though, Matt actually is more of a crazy cat person than I am. We only have one cat at home, so I really don’t feel like we have reached problem level just yet.
Later in the evening we checked into our Ryokan (traditional Japanese hotel) where we both tried our hand at wearing a kimono, with the assistance of Matt’s aunt. Let’s just talk about the kimono for one second. I mean, I could really get behind the comfort factor here. You are basically wearing a bathrobe and house shoes around everywhere. Now where I’m a bit uncomfortable is the idea of wearing it around in public spaces like to go to dinner, etc. But, these folks do it, and Matt’s uncle wore his proudly as we went down for a multi-course traditional Japanese meal. These meals were totally going to be like that show “Fear Factor,” as I’m just re-thinking about some of the stuff I tried during this “adventure.” The food, most days is completely unrecognizable for me, so I just start trying things until I either get sick or find something I like, so overall the food situation has been fairly difficult for me to say the least. I’ve only had to eat at a McDonald’s twice on this whole trip, once out of convenience, the other for my sanity. So, for your viewing pleasure, I’ll upload the terribly awful video of me eating a little fish (with the eyeballs still on it). I’ll go ahead and check that one off the bucket list, as I have no desire to do it again.
The last day of our little mini trip included a quick drive to Osaka where we went to the famous Osaka Castle. I’ve really enjoyed getting to see all these different aspects of the Japanese culture, as we are learning more and more about how these people live, now and historically. The little mini adventure was a great chance for all of us to get away following the wedding festivities and spend time just getting to know one another (with interpretation of course).
I’ll let Matt tell you all about our last two days in Japan, which included going to his mom’s childhood home and visiting the famous Tsukiji Fish Market for the freshest sushi around. You won’t want to miss that post, it’s going to be good!
