More from Kyoto

Here is a picture of Kiyomizudera Temple. It's way up on a hill and there's a great view of the city below. There's also a waterfall and people come to stand under the waterfall and pray. The line for the waterfall was insane, so we didn't go down there.

This is the walk leading up to the temple. It's lined on both sides by little touristy souvenir shops. I got a pair of socks with cherry blossoms.

We thought it was funny to see these people all dressed up and buying ice cream. There were a ton of people wearing kimonos in Kyoto, many more than we've seen in Tokyo. In Tokyo it's mainly older women that wear them on a daily basis, but here it was everyone, even the men.

This is a close-up of one of the temple details. The colors were so bright and pretty. This was Saturday, and the weather was outstanding.

Gen with a dragon.

The city view of Kyoto. I've seen pictures taken from here when the trees are in bloom and it's amazing. Those trees in the bottom left of the picture are cherry trees, and we missed the blooming season by about 2 weeks.

The one lonely cherry tree in bloom. There were a ton of people standing under this tree taking pictures.

Ryokan

While in Kyoto, we stayed at a ryokan, a traditional Japanese inn. This is a picture of the room. After dinner the staff pushes back the low table and sets up the futons for sleeping. The ryokan also has its own onsen, or public baths (like a spa). I'm not into the onsen, but Gen is a big fan.

This is our dinner on Friday night. Dinner is brought to the room in multiple courses. This was the first course.

In the upper left corner there was really fresh sashimi. In the lower left corner was a salad of fresh bamboo shoots. Next was a little plate of simmered goodies like baby octopus tentacles and tofu. Then there is chirashi sushi. This is sushi rice topped with slivered egg and seafood. I'm not sure what the correct term is for the beef- it's either shabu-shabu or sukiyaki. Anyway, it's raw beef, mushrooms, and greens, and there was a dish of simmering broth for cooking at the table. It was really good.

Here was the second course. The dish in front is a clear soup with broccoli rabe, mochi (pounded rice balls) and herbs. The upper left corner is baby squid in a miso sauce. I did not like this one. The squid kind of gush when you bite into them. I'm a big texture person and that was too much for me, but the sauce was tasty. The upper right corner has a piece of grilled fish with a topping of vinegared daikon (radish). Then they brought out miso soup and rice, and followed with a fruit dessert. Breakfast was included, as well. It was a traditional Japanese breakfast, meaning totally foreign to me. There was tofu, miso soup, rice, and about 6 different toppings for the rice. It was all really good and the staff was really nice.

OK, this has absolutely nothing to do with Kyoto, but I just has to share while it's fresh. There are some really stange fashion trends here. First is the old ladies (and sometimes men) who dye their hair bizarre colors. Not like in the US where they have slightly blue or pink hair due to an incompetent dye job- I'm talking Crayola purple, blue, green...I even saw one woman who had patches in different colors. And the other really weird trend is grown women who dress like toddlers. Generally I think women dress younger here than in the US. And of course, Hello Kitty and other assorted cartoon characters are big. Women are expected to be cute and young-looking. But seriously, I saw a women on the train today who just took this to a ridiculous extreme. Let me paint this picture from the shoes up: black Mary Janes, pink knee socks covered with hearts and trimmed in lace and pink ribbons, a pink circle skirt covered in strawberries and flowers also trimmed with lace, and the ultimate topper- a white fleece cape trimmed with (you guessed it) lace and pink ribbon, and a hood with BUNNY EARS. I am not joking. And this woman was 35 if she was a day. Why would a (presumably) sane adult dress like this? It is a mystery wrapped in an enigma.

Hanatoro

This is my favorite picture we have taken so far. The trip to Kyoto coincided with the Higashiyama Hanatoro, which is when many of the temples are lit up at night and have extended hours. The water was so clear and the reflection so perfect, it looked like a mirror. It was totally peaceful. I could have stood there all night.

A Buddhist monk. We were at the Chion-in Temple. It is the head temple of the Jodo sect of Buddhism.

Another amazing water picture. It looked as though there were two worlds, one above the water and one below.

This is the gate to the temple. It is the largest temple gate in Japan. The temple was originally founded in the 1200's, but the current buildings date from about the 1700's.

These are bamboo stalks with lights. They were set in a creek and looked so cool winding through the park.

An example of one of the lanterns at Chion-in. All of the temples and parks have different styles of lanterns.

A nightscape at Chion-in. We just happened upon this; we were actually looking for geishas but saw the temple gate all lit up and decided to follow the crowd.

Another one of my favorite pictures. I was hoping that the cherry blossoms would be out, but we were too early. This was one of the few trees in bloom. The pictures of Kyoto during cherry blossom season are amazing, but it's supposed to be really crowded, so I suppose it's good we went a little early.

Kyoto

Thanks for all my birthday wishes! I had a great weekend. We went to Kyoto. Friday was a national holiday, so Gen had a day off work. We left Friday morning and returned Sunday night. We took the shinkansen (bullet train) which is the best way to travel. Here's Gen in front of the train. I'm pretty sure he thought I was a dork for wanting to take this picture. We left our bags with the hotel and went out exploring right away. It had just stopped raining, so I thought some of the more touristy attractions might be less crowded. This is Kinkakuji, or the Golden Pavilion. The whole building is covered with gold leaf. We actually looped around twice to get this picture after the sun came out. We totally lucked out on the weather. It rained almost the entire train ride down and stopped about an hour before we arrived. Saturday was gorgeous. Sunday there was a 90% chance of rain, but it stopped raining right after we finished breakfast and didn't start again until we were in the train station at 3:00.

A phoenix on top of the pavilion. It was built in the 1200's and was originally a residence, but converted to a temple in the early 1400's.

Here's me. The pond is called Mirror Pond.

A small island in the gardens. You can't see it in this picture, but there's a fallen tree that serves as the bridge to the island. Everything is meticulously maintained.

Fierce looking little thing, isn't it? This is a close up of one of the surrounding buildings. I think it was the exit gate (just past the souvenir shops, natch).

I've forgotten what this is called, but it's on the mountain right outside the temple. In the fall during one of the main festivals it is set on fire. I bet that looks amazing. We took about 150 pictures over the weekend, so I'll have lots of posts this week. Check back!

More Food

Two weekends ago we found another food festival. This was near where the 1950's dancers set up shop. The fishies on sticks were in one of the first booths. You're supposed to eat everything, including the bones (but not the head).

BBQ pork. We didn't try this, but it smelled really good.

Apples. Each one of those is 250 yen, or about $2.50. A piece. That's actually fairly cheap for apples that size. I've seen them in the grocery store for 600 yen. Can you imagine paying $6 for one apple? But look at how nicely they're wrapped up.

More BBQ pork, this time on skewers. I had one of these. I can't eat American pork for some reason, but I'm fine over here. It's a good thing too, because pork is everywhere. Gen's favorite ramen noodle soup is almost always made with pork broth.

Gen with his fish and my BBQ. I liked mine better, but I did try the fish. We also got a plate of tiny fried whole fish. You are supposed to eat the head on those, but I couldn't. Gen bit off the head and then I ate the body. I don't like to eat the tail either.

That's me with potato-octopus croquettes. I love croquettes. Fried mashed potatoes, what could be better? We finished off with some fresh doughnuts. I like to pretend they were healthy because they had some kind of whole grain and they weren't doused in sugar. Tasty! As a reminder to my faithful friends and family, my birthday is on Sunday and I will be accepting birthday wishes here and by e-mail. Everyone have a Happy Julie's Birthday Weekend!

Sock Hop

So we're just strolling along, headed back to the station to go home, when we saw the most fantastic thing ever.

Groups of people dressed as 50's greasers dancing in front of the entrance to Yoyogi Park on a Sunday afternoon.

Wow. Seriously, is this not the most fantastic thing you have ever seen? This little gang couldn't get their generator cranked, so they mostly just stood around, smoking and drinking beer, and watching the other gangs dance. How about that hair? What do you think it looks like without all the product in it?

And mind you, these were not teenagers. I would say the median age was about 40. There were 5 different gangs and they kept cranking up their music to drown out the other gang next to them.

This group was hard-core. They had routines and everything. This was the only gang with ladies. I think they should all have girls with poodle skirts. More interesting that way.

I could have stood and watched all day. I think we were there for almost an hour. The Best Day Ever.

People

Last weekend we wandered around in the Harajuku/Omotesando district. People watching is my favorite sport. The picture above is a group of Harajuku girls dressed as doctors from a horror movie, fake blood and all. They were taking pictures with the tourists.

Last weekend must have been a big wedding weekend. We walked around Meiji Shrine and saw 3 or 4 wedding parties.

A baseball team that had come to pray for victory at Meiji.

This one's kind of fuzzy because I was behind some plexiglass, but this is another group of teenagers on Omotesando-dori. They are very fashionable.

Everyone dresses to the nines here, even on weekends. The girl in the white coat is wearing a teeny pink top hat. Little top hats are all the rage in this area. They also have on about a pound of eyeliner. Fake lashes are also popular here. I went to one store and I kid you not, there were 3 aisles of fake lashes.

I saved the best for last. Here we have a guy with pink hair, wearing a coat with pink hearts, topped with a pink hat. Oh, and don't forget the fairy wings. They top off the outfit nicely, don't you think? I love this. And how about the guys in front of him? Can you imagine the effort it takes to get their hair spiked like that? I told Gen he should try for a new look so he could blend in better.

Working on the Weekend

Last weekend Gen volunteered us to clean up Hamarikyu Gardens. They had volunteers from four companies; we met at the Gardens on Saturday morning and got to work. The first thing we had to do was remove these straw thingies from the trunks of the trees. They're put there for the winter. I have no idea what purpose they serve- something was lost in the translation.

After the straw thingie was removed, we had to kill any bugs that had been nesting under it. I say "we," I really mean Gen. He had a good time poking at the spiders. After we finished with this, we had to pull up the crabgrass. Now, I didn't mind the tree work but I maybe complained a little about pulling up the weeds. But it was only for an hour. Gen also had a good time with the weeds because he found the biggest worm that has ever existed. It was disgusting.

After we finished with the weeds, we got a private tour of the gardens. There is always something blooming in these gardens, no matter what season. They have a cherry tree grove that should be really pretty in the spring. I don't know what the flowers above are called, but they smelled great. Our tour guide said that in the Meiji era, oil was extracted from these flowers but now they're just pretty.

The shoguns used to congregate in this park and duck hunt. They built narrow inlets so the ducks would get cornered, then caught them with nets.

A flowering plum tree with the Conrad Hotel in the background. The park is near Ginza, so there are a lot of ritzy buildings around. We passed the Panasonic headquarters on our way to lunch.

Out and About

Here are some more pics from Gen's birthday. We went to Shinjuku and just wandered around.

A cool building. On the whole, I am not impressed with Tokyo's architecture. Most of the buildings are pretty utilitarian and look like giant concrete blocks, but there are some exceptions. Architectural preservation is not a priority here. They are in the midst of preserving the historic Tokyo Station, a really pretty train station near the Imperial Palace, but that is very unusual. Generally if a building is in disrepair it's merely torn down.

Me at the Hanazono Shrine. My head almost touched the top of the gates. It's a new feeling, being tall!

Yesterday (March 3rd) was the Girl's Festival. Households with daughters set up a doll display and the traditional meal is chirashi-zushi (a dish of sushi rice with the toppings cut up and scattered over the top). This display was in the lobby of the Imperial Hotel. That's another example of the lack of architectural preservation. The original Imperial Hotel was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. It was torn down in the late 1960's and replaced with a Wrightian impostor. The hotel is still gorgeous, but I would have loved to see Wright's creation. Of course, Japanese architecture does have to take earthquakes and fires into consideration, which is probably the reason for the concrete blocks. Much of Tokyo was destroyed by the great earthquake of 1928, and then again by the US WWII firebombings. I got a good overview of Tokyo's history from the Edo-Tokyo Museum.