Sunday, July 21, 2024

Thanks to the magic of time zones we managed to live two days between waking up at 6:30 am in Kyoto on June 21st and walking through our front door in Seattle about 4:00 pm, also somehow on June 21st.

To make sure we had the seats we wanted for our transit between Kyoto and Tokyo – two together on the 2-seat side – we had purchased our shinkansen tickets on Friday. Even then we couldn’t find them in the 8:00 am hour of departure in a regular class car. So we sprung for the fancier “Green” car. Mr. Keeper of the Spreadsheet said it was nominally more and not a problem.

We checked out of the lovely Tune Stay hotel about 7:15 am to walk over to Kyoto Station and catch our 8:13 am train. Bless Scott for carrying one of my bags – the one stuffed with evidence of my Japan shopping weakness. We had free checked bags for the flights home, so I consoled myself with that.

Our experience in the Green car was fine and we were glad we tried it, but in the end we decided it wasn’t worth extra money in the future. We will know on future Japan trips to book seats further in advance so we can be picky about their location, but otherwise we are perfectly content in a standard reserved seat. It’s Japan… transit is always clean and comfortable!

Although we had been thoroughly happy with our cheaper (and honestly more convenient) coach bus transfer from the airport to central Tokyo back when we arrived, we wanted to try the Narita Express option since it is so popular. During pre-trip research I had found a tip to get off of the shinkansen from Kyoto in Shinagawa instead of Tokyo because walking to the Narita Express was shorter and easier in the smaller station. Excellent tip! The walks in Shinagawa Station from the shinkansen to the Narita Express ticket counter, and then to the Narita Express platform were very short. We waited about 20 minutes on the platform then found our reserved seats for the ~1 hour ride to the airport.

We are nerds and were several hours early for our flight, and had to wait a bit for bag check to open. Normally we are carry-on only type people, so this whole extra step was annoying. To pass the time we took turns browsing the shops outside security because we definitely needed to be buying more Japan things. After bag check and security we found our way to the Priority Pass lounge. I was a bit apprehensive because online reviews were horrible. But I was pleasantly surprised – we found seats without issue and there was a little food buffet. Free food and drinks in airports is one of the ways we justify that VentureX annual fee.

The flights home on Air Canada were fine. Nine hours to Vancouver + easy and stress-free connection + one hour to Seattle. I was thankful to not have a repeat of the layover stress from our outbound trip and that they didn’t pass out hundreds of tuna fish sandwiches again. Seattle transit home for $3 each, and then we walked into our home sweet home to love on our Zoe girl who we missed very, very much.

Yeah, didn’t really take any blog-worthy photos during our travel day(s), but a pic of Zoe is always worth a million others.

Saturday, July 20, 2024

We decided to spend our last full day in Japan in Osaka. Pro tip: pronounced “OH-suh-kuh”, not “oh-SAW-kah”. We hopped on a slow local train out of Kyoto Station and enjoyed the views on the journey. Once in the city we transferred to the subway to get to Dotonbori.

I didn’t do much research on Osaka, but for some reason thought Dotonbori was just a street when in actuality it’s an entire district. The main streets popular for tourists on and near the river were a visual delight with a lot of fun signs and people watching.

The street food was plentiful and we enjoyed steak skewers and fruit skewers (both fresh & candied).

Around 2:thirsty (hey Brian & Carrie!) we conducted a Google search for craft beer and headed to Stand Umineko, which ended up being one of the highlights of our entire Japan trip, honestly. It was that quintessential small, narrow Japanese space, standing room only for maybe 5 people if you’re from Seattle, 8 people if you’re from NYC. The young guy working there was fun to chat with and when he noticed us looking up steak restaurants for later he enlisted two other local patrons for recommendations. We ended up having 3-4 beers of varying sizes each, with my favorite as the saison from Vector Brewing. Full pints were about $11 which is pricey even by Seattle standards (and certainly by Japanese standards), and we ended up spending about $50 USD here. There is some savings in the fact that tipping is absolutely not a thing in Japan. Overall 100% worth it in our opinion.

After the fantastic craft beer experience we set out to find wagyu for our last dinner in Japan. The recommendations given to us at Umineko didn’t pan out for a variety of reasons – already booked, dress code, prefix menus with items unappealing to Scott, etc. – so we were left to our own devices.

Unfortunately we ended up making a poor decision. I’ll blame fatigue and a failure to preplan. We ended up at a restaurant serving hot pot. Our only hot pot experiences have been Chinese-style in Seattle and we have loved them. They are the only exception to my rule that I don’t pay to cook my own food in a restaurant (i.e., I don’t go to Korean BBQ spots). But this hot pot experience just wasn’t as good, I think because they provide boiling water and the expectation is that you do all your own broth flavoring? In our Chinese hot pot experiences the broth base is already well flavored, so I’m not sure if the plain water is typical for Japanese hot pot or what? Regardless, I did not have the skill nor motivation to make great broth from scratch. So in the end we were mostly just eating boiled thin-sliced steak and vegetables. Yeah, it was about as tasty as that sounds.

The most unappetizing moment came as we were walking away from the restaurant and Scott mentioned that we had paid $200 USD for that experience. OMG.

I’m not naming the restaurant here for a couple of reasons. One, I didn’t take the time to capture the name and I can’t easily identify it using Google Maps. Also, the restaurant was full with locals that looked happy so I’m assuming the tasteless food was entirely our fault. Finally, the prices were posted clearly on the menu so what we agreed to pay was definitely and entirely our fault.

I consider eating meh food while traveling a travesty, so I really need to do a better job of planning restaurant destinations for our trips. Especially those first and last meals that become strong memories of a place.

We caught an express train to Kyoto and headed back to our hotel to get packed up for an early departure towards home the next morning.

Friday, July 19, 2024

We had a bit of a lie in and then caught a long 45-minute city bus to Arashiyama with a plan to catch several attractions in the popular area. I found this article with a recommended order for visiting sites, but did not expect us to get through all of it.

The first stop on the suggested itinerary was the Monkey Park. Most animal-themed travel activities are unethical, and wild monkeys are assholes based on my past experiences in places like Costa Rica and Gibraltar. But since this is Japan and they’re better than most people, I went ahead and did a little online research, liked what I read, and decided it was worth a shot.

One of the things I read online was that after you pay your admission (600 yen/$4 USD per person) there’s a bit of a hike up to the top of the ~~mountain~~ hill where the monkeys live. They were not lying. Well, if the weather had been more temperate it might not have seemed like a big deal. But, alas, it was Japan in July and I ALMOST DIED. Luckily there was a fair amount of shade and a couple of rest areas with big fans that saved my life.

Along the route up the mountain were intermittent signs educating people on the rules of the park. These were increasing my confidence that this was going to be a good experience.

Humans were contained within roped off areas, and most of the hilltop was monkey-only zones. The humans were told repeatedly and supervised to make sure they respected the monkeys and didn’t feed them unauthorized food. There was a small one-room building that humans went in to buy the authorized food and feed it out through windows to the interested monkeys. The monkeys did not act desperate for the food, and seemed to understand that the building was the only place to get food from humans as they did not intentionally approach humans outside of the building. This was easily the best wild-ish monkey experience I’ve ever had.

The Monkey Park also had the added bonus of a nice view with a mildly cooler temperature.

Togetsukyo Bridge was next on the suggested itinerary, which was a short walk from the Monkey Park exit. It apparently has a 400+ year history, but mostly we cared about the pretty walk.

The next agenda item on that suggested itinerary was Tenryuji Temple but we felt “templed out” at this point in the trip. But we did want to check out the famous local bamboo grove and when the itinerary said “Leave Tenryuji through the back entrance” as the route, it didn’t occur to us that you had to pay to get into the Temple area where that back entrance was. So we ended up walking a ways into the temple grounds before we discovered the payment barrier, and had to backtrack a bit and use Google Maps to find our way to the grove. The free parts of the temple grounds did have some lovely spots that we grabbed quite a few photos of… maybe we weren’t totally templed out after all.

We made it to the famous Arashiyama Bamboo Grove.

And after maybe 15 minutes we were done. Scott’s phone said it was 97 degrees F. And the tourists were obnoxious. And we could still remember our peaceful tourist-free walk through the bamboo during our atypical Fushimi Inari visit. Time to cut our losses and get back on a bus toward our hotel. There were several other stops on the Arashiyama itinerary that were of interest, but we know we will be back to Kyoto again in the future.

Once we got back to “our” neighborhood we stopped for dinner and G&Ts at HUB, a British-style pub that was populated almost entirely by Japanese locals. Food was pretty good. Yuzu gin was pretty great.

Thursday, July 18, 2024

Today was for a walk in the mountains, a hike between two villages: Kibune and Kurama. The route includes many points of interest tucked into idyllic nature, and came up as a day trip idea during our pre-trip research. I had asked our Kyoto Free Walking Tour guide about it back on the 13th and he endorsed it. Most people walk from Kurama to Kibune, but I came across recommendations online to do the opposite direction for less overlap with other people, and a more gradual upward slope at the start so that’s what we did.

Google Maps helped us navigate to Kibuneguchi Station via a city bus and the Eizan Kurama line. We encountered this sign when we got off at Kibuneguchi Station and it gives a good overview of the situation. The hiking route we were taking was between Kifune-jinja Shrine and Kurama Station (the dotted line, top to bottom), but our arrival point was the station at the bottom left of this sign with the red triangle.

There was a bus up to the village/Kifune Shrine where the trail starts, but we elected to walk the 1.2 miles along the road instead. It was along a very narrow shoulder, but a few others were doing it as well so we felt safe. Along the way we had lovely views of a river with the occasional waterfall.

About halfway to Kifune Shrine we stopped for cold drinks at Kokon Fujiya and paid the extra ~$6 to sit on the tatami mats on the platform next to the river. It was lovely and worth every penny. One of us was a bit slow getting down and back up again.

We walked around Kifune Shrine, then crossed the red bridge to pay our entry fee of 500 yen per person (around $3.30 USD each) at the booth. The fee included an English language brochure of the route that detailed the numbered sites that we would see, and help me answer the age old question “ARE WE THERE YET???” along the way when I was sweating my ass off.

There were also loaner walking sticks on offer at the entry booth. I hesitated to grab one but a domestic traveler who was just ending their hike recommended it so I went for it. Very good advice! As you can see, the stick doubles as a way to demand an end-of-hike ice cream from your partner to keep your motivation up.

The route started with a nearly consistent uphill climb of 573 m on a forest trail. It was very sweaty, although not as sweaty as our Fushimi Inari experience. Less mozzies, too.

At the Nishi-mon/Western Gate (site #40) we were able to sit for a break on a bench. The hike felt like much less of a slog after that since the climb was much more gradual from there to the highest site (#35), and there were more sites for our entertainment between #40 and the end of the route. The downhill to Kurama felt like a breeze. There’s a cable car option for part of that final descent (or ascent if you begin in Kurama), but we were happy to walk.

We really enjoyed this experience. Scott said it was his favorite part of our Kyoto trip thus far and I agreed. Here’s a massive photo dump of our hike. These are not in order… like, at all. I think they give a great idea of how much variety there is along this trail.

Kurama village was largely devoid of tourists when we arrived. We got that post-hike ice cream that always tastes so amazing.

Then we found this famous Tengu fellow at the Kurama train station before heading back to central Kyoto. My nose naturally veers left, so I tried his upward slope on for size.

Back in Kyoto we headed to the Furukawacho Shopping Street because it housed a restaurant recommendation from our Free Walking Tour guide. While we waited for the restaurant to open we wandered nearby and encountered Wire & Days just two doors down – a little boutique shop of handmade wire tchotchkes. We found a cute thank you gift for our friend/petsitter back home, and also purchased a “WELCOME” sign for ourselves. Lovely shop, and I’m a sucker for souvenirs that you can actually see being made at the same time! I learned later (due to unfortunate circumstances) that their shipping rates to the US are very reasonable, so I would even recommend purchasing online if you see something you like!

Alas the restaurant opened and we discovered yet again that our Free Walking Tour guide gives great recommendations. His favorite ramen spot: Gion Shirokawa Ramen. It was super tasty, and we got several items for about $18 USD.

We finished our evening a couple of blocks down at Beer Komachi with tasty pints in an all too familiar craft beer environment.

This was one of those perfect slow travel days. If we had only done the 2-3 nights in Kyoto like a lot of standard 2-week itineraries recommend, we would have missed out on this particularly awesome day.

Wednesday, July 17, 2024

We had two goals for today: attend the Gion Matsuri parade and pick up my new prescription glasses.

Gion Matsuri is a large annual festival that takes place over the entire month of July. We learned from our Free Walking Tour guide that this festival originated as a way to pray to the gods to ease the suffering from a plague, and ironically it was not held in 2020. Aside from a civil war in the late 15th/early 16th centuries and COVID, this festival has been an annual event since at least 1000 CE.

One of the largest events of the festival – the parade of 34 yamaboko floats – was happening today from 9AM-1PM. We dragged our butts out of the hotel about 11AM and caught a bus to get close to the route. Luckily we found a decent viewing spot despite our tardiness – on a corner where the floats turned, about 4 people deep from the curb. I saw a fair amount and Scott was able to get decent photos and videos. It was fascinating to watch the teams of men pull these very tall floats with nothing but their own strength. And when they got to the corner to make their turn they had a routine using wood planks and impressive teamwork to make it happen despite the restrictive construction of the historic floats.

As fun as it was we were done after watching two floats make this turn. It was crowded and hot, and we were ready for a snack.

We used the underground train station to find our way into the Takashimaya Department Store that was kitty corner from our parade viewing location. On the basement level there were many displays of food for takeaway. We failed to get a photo but here’s one from the internet to give an idea. Imagine around two dozen of these with a wide variety of options.

But this is Japan and they like to make eating outside of your home or a restaurant awkward, so of course there were no seating options in what in America we would consider a fancy food court. We made our way over to the banks of the Kamo River to eat our spoils on a bench. I had some tempura and croquettes – tasty and recommended!

Afterward we decided we wanted ~~more snacks~~ some A/C so we did the thing where you go into a McDonalds to see how it’s different in a foreign country. We tried a sugary melon drink and some macrons. Meh. Of course it was meh, it was McDonalds.

We decided to walk back towards our hotel along the Kamo to enjoy the view and the slight breeze off of the water. Look at that – almost no one and so peaceful.

When we transitioned street-side we came across a fun shop dedicated to rubber ducks. Despite having two life reasons to buy ducks (#jeeplife and cruising), I controlled myself and just bought a commemorative sticker.

Next we went back to the JINS store to pick up my new eyeglasses that I had ordered on the 12th. We each got a pair at this store for $130 total and we love them.

We decided to call it early and chill back at the hotel. The next day we had a physically active day trip planned. Goodnight, Kyoto.

Tuesday, July 16, 2024

We got a bit of late start and headed out at 10:45 am to walk the 1.4 miles from our hotel to Nishiki Market. Along the way we stopped into a shop and found a cute baby shower card for a friend and a small art piece to commemorate the festival that we planned to enjoy the next day. The shopping temptations are around every single corner, I swear.

We arrived to The Market…

…and quickly ducked into City Bakery to fuel up on coffees and pastries. Easy and tasty. On a less hot day I would recommend going out the back door and sitting in the courtyard area. (Not our photo.)

We enjoyed walking through the large and eclectic Market. In some ways it reminded me of our own famous market in Seattle.

Amongst the plethora of offerings we had sake, tempura, and craft beer. The craft beer was from Tango Kingdom Brewery and we enjoyed it at the back of Tango Table. Along with our beers they gave us a snack of these super tasty little fishes that I scarfed down very quickly. Scott had a rare moment of bravery to eat one from his bowl and hated every minute of it. I caught this event on video and will include it in a Japan compilation video that is forthcoming…

I had planned to sample many snacks today but for some reason I wasn’t particularly hungry. Maybe it was the heat. Leading up to the trip we watched several videos about this Market, and I thought I would be brave and eat one of the tiny octopus with a quail egg stuffed in its noggin. But during this trip I decided that I think I’m done eating octopus – not because they aren’t tasty, but because of my conscience (they’re too damn smart to be eaten by us stupid humans).

Exploring The Market also revealed the Nishiki Tenmangu Shrine where we each got amulets that we plan to attach to our packs during our pilgrimage trip next July. I selected Health and No Trouble. Very pragmatic.

My favorite stop in The Market (or maybe this little mall area isn’t considered part of The Market?) was B-Side Label – a sticker shop with hundreds (maybe thousands) of original designs by Japanese artists. There was a fun combo of stickers commemorating places we had/or would see on this trip along with some artistic and/or unhinged things. Here are a few of the ones I purchased as displayed in my journal.

When we were shopped out we walked the 1.5 miles to the Higashi Otani Cemetery. We love cemeteries and had learned about this one during our trip research. This place was epic. It was quiet and peaceful. It dates to the 17th century and has more than 15,000 graves.

Just above the cemetery is Kiyomizu-dera, a Buddhist temple popular for tourists to visit and a stark contrast to the peace and quiet in the cemetery.

Look at me insisting on a classic HILARIOUS tourist pose with Kyoto Tower.

We wandered down the adjacent shopping street, and had one of the popular pickled cucumbers on a stick (not fully pickled). Scott enjoyed, I thought it was overrated.

We caught a bus to Kyoto Station and found our way back into the food hall at Kyoto Tower Sando for a spot of dinner. Tempura for Scott and unagi for me.