Japan Take 2

Sorry for the delay. All this traveling is hard to write about!

So, back to Kyoto. We bought the most expensive transport we could find, because everyone ought to try the Nozomi Shinkansen and we were thoroughly amazed as we felt like we were flying, only ground level. 2 hours to Kyoto is very impressive. We arrived at the massive station which is a tourist attraction in itself and immediately darted to our hotel. The hotel was so Japanese, one single sheet of plastic making up the entire bathroom, optional flushing music on the toilet, robes to sleep in waiting on the bed, slippers way too big for our feet, toilet paper folded into perfect triangles, and every live Japanese game show you could imagine on the TV. We headed out to the Ginza section and did some Geisha spotting. We felt like paparazi as we snapped some photos as they strolled by. We felt satisfied with our sighting so we left to find some food, if you want to call it that. Eating in Kyoto turned out to be a bit more difficult than expected and we had to settle for way too many egg sandwiches from the combinis. P also convinced M to try some Okomomiyaki, which she had fond memories of from her days in Japan. Okonomiyaki is sort of like an omlette made from cabbage, eggs, some chopped up veggies,noodles, mayo, and BBQ sauce. Needless to say, we didn't feel so hot after that meal and P remembered perhaps she didn't like it so much afterall. We then headed to an onsen in the northern part of the city, quite a distance from our hotel in the south. The onsen was lovely, full of old naked Japanese ladies indoors, so we headed to the outdoor pools to avoid the stares. We were about finished with the onsen when 2 young women came and joined us in the outdoor pool. They were full of giggles and eventually worked up the guts to speak to the gaijin in the pool. They both spoke "engrish" more or less and we wound up spending way too long in the hot bath chatting. Or more like us making conversation and them responding with some endearing noises, squeals, ooohs and ahhhs. It was a blast, until we realized it was 11:30PM and we likely missed the last bus back south. Our new best "friendlies" told us that it was no problem and they would be really happy to drive us. They drove us to the other side of the city without hesitation with many more giggles and noises. Man, it was a good time. We love Japan!

The next day was spent temple hopping to the beautiful shrines and temples spread around town, of course inclduing Kinkakuji, the famous Golden Temple. We also spent quite some time smhoozing among tons of Japanese tourists on ths streets leading up to Kiyomizu Shrine. P tried hard but really couldn't resist the shopping and wound up with a good number of souveniers. We spent 2 days temple-ing our little hearts out, then caught some great conveyor belt sushi at the station before getting on the overnight bus back to Tokyo for one more day, and one more visit to the fish market, before our flight out. Japan sure did keep us busy. But man do we love it. We can't even count the number of conversations we had about moving back (or P convincing M this was a great idea)! Can't wait for more Japanese adventures the next time we make our way there. Check out the link for all of our Japan photos.