Back Again

I'll be the first to admit this final post is a bit belated, I returned from Japan on Sunday, but I needed to go ahead and finish out the blog for this trip.

Tokyo was a lot of fun, although Emily and I kept encountering closures.  First the Tsujiki Fish Market (which I mentioned was largely our fault for not reading it is closed on Wednesdays) but then the NHK Studio Store was closed too!  No vast amounts of domo-kun merchandise this trip!

But we still had a lot of excellent food as a consolation.  After spending the day walking all over Tokyo, we had some all-you-can-eat sukiyaki.  Traditionally, after the meat or veg is cooked in the pot, you dip them into a bowl with a beaten egg and some seasoning.  Well, I figured when in Tokyo...  No illnesses reported so just deliciousness all around!

This final picture is on my return trip to the Hombu dojo to buy a few gifts.  I didn't practice this day since we were leaving Tokyo in a few hours.  I'll definitely be going back though!

Well that's it for the Japan travel blog!  Until next time!

Tokyo

Greetings from Tokyo!  Emily and I left a few days ago from Kobe and took the Shinkansen.  The trip only took 3 hours and was very nice.  I can't believe how smooth the ride was!  You also get a ton more legroom on the train than on an airplane.  I don't know why anyone wouldn't want to travel by high speed rail.  Except, of course, that it is pretty expensive!  (We'll be taking the bus back.)

After an extremely confusing ride around the Tokyo Metro system, we finally made it to our stop.  Not as close as we possibly could be to the Hombu dojo, but not too far away either.  Just a simple 30 minute walk away!

We decided to do some sightseeing and started off with going to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building.  You can take a free ride up to the top floor for a good view of Tokyo.

 The view. . .

 The next day, we headed out to the Tsukiji market . . . unfortunately without fully reading my guidebook to find out it is closed on Wednesdays.  Oops.  At least there were still good photo opportunities.

We then headed over to Asakusa and the famous Sensoji temple.

 Another fountain . . . (this isn't the main focus of the temple fyi).

This brings us to today!  Today I went to the Aikido Hombu dojo to practice.  It was a lot of fun, although very warm!  Unfortunately Doshu is out, but Waka-sensei taught the class instead.  I'll be going back tomorrow for one more Aikido practice and then we'll be heading back to Kobe!

Out for a Walk

Kobe has a lot of fun things to do, one of which is going up to see the Nunobiki Herb Garden.  So the other day, Emily and I headed out for a day of walking.  It is up in the mountains so to get there, you take a cable car.  Here we are ascending up the mountain.

The view from the top is pretty nice.  It was also much cooler up here.  You can see all of Kobe and part of Osaka.

The garden itself was very nice.  It is mainly a long pedestrian road that winds down the mountain with plants and flowers lining the way.

About halfway down the mountain, it changes to a mountain path which leads you to a waterfall.  This was more of a hike.

You can see what most of the path looked like...

After a long day of hiking, the perfect way to end the day was having a yakitori fest.  I'll eat almost anything that's on a stick, and this place did not disappoint!  We had one of every type.  Yum!

Kyoto

Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan!  After a pleasant 1 hour trip on the train, we were there.  Since we were only spending one day in Kyoto, based on the helpful advice we got at the information center, we decided to see the top three sites in Kyoto.  We started with the Kinkakuji, also called the Temple of the Golden Pavilion.

 As you can see, it isn't called golden for nothing.  That's real gold leaf folks.

Since this picture is way too perfect, I'm letting everyone know that Emily is my girlfriend.  ^_^

The grounds had a lot of neat buildings and this very interesting tree, which I thought of being a mega-bonsai.

Our next stop was Ginkakuji, the Temple of the Silver Pavilion.  Surrounding the silver pavilion are sand mounds.  This one is shaped to resemble Mount Fuji.

Unfortunately, the Shogun working on this pavilion (who wanted to imitate his grandfather's Golden Pavilion) passed away before it was coated with silver.  So, it looks just like a simple building.

 The grounds were really pretty though!
Our final stop was to Kiyomizudera, the Kiyomizu Temple.

The tradition is that many temples have a place to wash your hands and take a drink of water.

The temple was a lot of fun, and had very impressive views.  I also got to try the water from Otowa Falls, which was quite pure.  After this fun adventure, Emily and I went to have donburi.  A good way to end the day!