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.

Turning Japanese...

was as exciting as it was 5 years ago. As P reminisced about everything Japanese, M was fascinated by her first real visits to Tokyo and Kyoto. We tried really hard not to gawk and giggle, but Japan is so damn fun, it was so damn hard not to! Man, we love Japan.

We left South America on a Wednesday and arrived at Narita Airport in Tokyo, Japan on a Friday night...um, what happened to Thursday? We stopped in the US for a quick layover in D.C. and had family and friends greet us. We also had some good ol' American style breakfast, open bottomed cups of coffee and all. After some sad goodbyes (for the second time), we briefly went on a buying binge of english mags and newspapers, then headed for the flight to Tokyo. 2 days of travel didn't matter as soon as we left baggage claim because our love of Japan took over, we couldn't get out of the airport without spending an hour discussing all the items in the "combini" in the airport. Playing the katakana game (like mad gab if you know what we mean, if not, google it) lasted a bit too long as we settled on some canned coffees, inari, and egg sanwiches. Oh, how we love Japan! (even if that meant blowing a month's budget in ONE week!)

So we visited Tokyo...just about all of Tokyo- Ikebukuro, Asakusa, Shibuya, Shinjuku, Ginza, Tsukiji, etc.

We hit up the famed Tsukiji fish market twice because once just isn't enough (totalling 5 times for P!) to catch the crazy stock market like fish market. We saw tuna the size of ourselves, frozen like a brick, then sawed through like wood. Just about everything that lives in the ocean is for sale at this market, what a treat! Sushi for breakfast was a real treat as well (minus the fish for P, she decided she couldn't stomach it at 7 am). We spent our days drinking coffee, people watching, and feeling amazed that everyone was Japanese. Of course we already know this. And we do mean everyone. You can point out the gaijin from a mile away. But it had been nearly 5 years and this really did surprise us...again. Actually, we spent hours sitting in Starbucks (so excited for some real coffee after 4 months of nescafe, I mean "no es cafe") above the famous Shibuya crossing watching the intersection explode with people the moment the crosswalk turned green. M literally took over 100 pics, if you flip through quickly it looks like a video so go ahead and try it out. Crazy Shibuya and Shinjuku were a real treat, we found it difficult to avoid purchasing all of the electronics we saw, especially from the huge Bic Camera and Sakura stores. Asakusa, though a tourist trap, was as always a pleasure to visit with its huge pagoda and Buddhist temple at the end of the street filled with everything Japanese. We ate 14 red bean buns in the shape of birds and pagodas walking down that street alone. Impressive. We also spent a good chunk of time playing video games in Japanese at the Ginza Sony building. And we became Japanese Secret Agents playing the scavenger hunt James Bond game they had set up for us. How do we get suckered into these things?
We stayed in Ikebukuro with a couple and their roomate we got hooked up with on couchsurfing. com. Check it out if you don't know about it. Ikebukuro was a blast as well, a mix of old and new Japan. Tiny roads, lanterns, and ramen shops competing with Tokyu Hands and ABC Mart. Why did P decide this was a great place to get new glasses and an eye exam in Japanese? (She had to get new lenses upon arrival in Malaysia bc she couldn't see!)

We then headed to Kyoto via the super fast Nozomi Shinkansen train. Will fill you in about that in the next blog.

Mata ne!