Nara and Fushimi

On Monday Jimmy guided 5 of to Nara and Fushima, both towns being accessible by train. Robin didn't go along because she wasn't feeling well and wanted to spend the day resting in the room instead of climbing temple stairs and shrine steps, so she could join Jimmy, Elizabeth, and me for dinner before Jimmy caught a train back to his home town on Yonago in the Totorri prefecture.

But first, a couple of random photos that got left out of the last posting (apologies for the haze effect — I didn't realize there was a smudge on the camera lens):

Another photo of the small side street bar that has a seating capacity of four.

As Jimmy walked us from the subway stop to our hotel, he pointed out a "love hotel." This was the only signage to identify it. The sign was next to a car entrance. When you pull in and park a curtain drops to hide your car and license plate. You get a room and pay for it by pushing buttons on a vending machine. You never have face-to-face contact with another person. Two convenient rates available: "Stay" for 6,200 yen, or "Rest" for 3,200 yen. If someone is expecting you home in time for dinner, or if you need to get back to the office, you should choose the "Rest" option.

Before Jimmy caught his bus back to Yonago, he went us to the Kyoto station and helped us buy the bus tickets to Yonago that we'll need tomorrow (Thursday here). He also made sure we knew where to catch our bus. In the station (above), if you don't want to use the escalator you have the option of using the stairs. Robin took the stairs. You can see how popular they are, especially going up. The escalator was crowded, but not as tiring.

Nara

The Nara temple complex is huge, and it's about a 30 minute uphill walk from the Nara train station. Once you get there you're greeted by deer who expect cookie treats that vendors sell (150 yen for a pack of 5 or 6 cookies). Elizabeth was popular here.

Jimmy and Nara deer. At one point Jimmy bowed to a deer, Japanese style, and the deer bowed back.

Elizabeth offers cookies to deer who seem bored with the same old cookie thing.

Yeah, deer. If you have cookies in your pocket or bag, they'll try to snatch it from you.

This is a street of food vendors that stretches from the Nara temple park to downtown Nara. It didn't seem crowed in the park itself because it's so large, but when the crowd narrows down to one small street it got a lot cozier.

This temple is the largest wooden building in Japan, which is saying a lot. It houses the largest wooden Buddha in Japan. It's 850 years old or something like that. It is awesome. You can tell it's a Buddhist temple instead of a Shinto shrine because it's not orange.

After washing his hands in a special trough, Jimmy finishes cleansing himself with incense before he enters the temple.

A view of the wooden Buddha inside.

Yashimi

In Yashimi, the main attraction is a path going up the mountain made of hundreds, maybe thousands, of Shinto gates. Shinto gates and Shinto shrines are always orange. There's probably a Shinto branding manual that specifies the exact PMS (Pantone Matching System) orange color, but I don't know what it is. 

Jimmy, our guide for the day, gives the universal tourist guide hand signal for "you have two minutes to go to the toilet before we leave to catch the train."

Following kimonos through the seemingly endless Shinto gates.

Kyoto

When we arrived at the train station in Kyoto I was surprised at how large the city is, and, specifically, how modern the train station is. This downtown train station pretty much outdoes the train depot in downtown Santa Fe.

The Kyoto central station. The escalator keeps going up for about twenty floors to the roof where you have nice views of the city. Robin is known internationally for hating to stand still on escalators so she walked all the way up, with her luggage.

More shrines and temples. I don't know the difference between a shrine and a temple, but the orange color definitely means it's part of the Shinto Buddhist religion. The Shinto teachings are very flexible. I just realized that I've been partly Shinto for a long time and didn't know it. 

Besides temples and shrines, there are lots of palaces and castles. This is the entrance to a Shogun's palace who ruled this area 1000 years ago or so.

This is part of the moat that surrounds the huge palace estate. It must be really hard to build a moat this nice. 

Another Kyoto shrine site that features a gold shrine (covered with gold leaf). 

Did I mention that Monday was a national holiday? Everyone in Japan was at this particular shrine, celebrating the 3-day weekend and the Spring Equinox. According to our guide, most Japanese think the golden shrine is bit too much, but as you can see, the crowds were still willing to visit. However, there's a very good chance that at least half of these tourists are Korean or Chinese. With a handful of European types thrown in.

When we got back to the hotel, Jimmy was waiting for us, having just arrived from Totorri. He made reservations for us at a Japanese restaurant that was recommended by a friend of his. When we got to the restaurant the waiting time was an hour and a half, so he took us exploring for a bar on some nearby side streets where the really cool stuff is.

We found a small bar/restaurant that had four stools, so we filled the place up. Great sushi, good beer.  Expensive. We stayed there drinking and chatting until time for our other reservation. Robin returns bows of goodbye and thank you as we leave.

The restaurant for dinner specialized in weird stuff on a stick. Jimmy ordered a variety of things for us, including chicken hearts on a stick. I was amazed at how good his Japanese is. Of course I wouldn't be able to tell how good his Japanese is, but as far as I could tell it was exerrent. 

Jimmy shared our hotel room for one night. The next day he served as a tour guide for 5 of us on a day trip to Nara and Fushimi. Pictured above are Bob, George, Anne, and Jimmy. Jimmy did a fabulous job of navigating us through the train systems going and coming. And through the temple sites (Some very cool stuff for the next blog). Some of the group needed to be back at the hotel by 4 p.m. and Jimmy got us there at 3:58. 

I hope to post some Nara and Fushimi photos later this afternoon. Tomorrow we say goodbye to our group and take a 3-4 hour bus ride to Totorri prefecture, town of Yonago (I think), where Jimmy lives. On the schedule: karaoke, golf, back yard octopus BBQ, and God knows what else.

Soooo Busy

We've been very busy and I'm several days behind on posting daily photos. There's something very tiring about visiting shrines and temples, mainly the fact that those Shogun guys insisted on building on steep terrain with thousands of steps. And that's in the relatively flat parts of Japan. If the Shoguns had settled in West Texas, or South Texas, shrine walks would be much easier.

Two days ago, our last day in Kanazawa, our group broke into five different groups and were put into taxis and taken to local homes for a two-hour home visit. Everyone absolutely loved their hosts and had a great time. The home we visited was hosted by Michie and her friend Sanae.

Sanae pours brown tea for us.

Mochi, a popular dessert in Japan, made of sticky rice. This is Cherry Blossom mochi, filled with sweet bean paste. The Cherry Blossom leaf that's wrapped around it was marinated for three months.

Michie's friend, Sanae, also served as a home visit hostess. Both of them were unbelievably sweet, friendly, and gracious. Very good English also.

The back of Sanae's obi.

Sanae

Michie's wall clock was cool. On the hour the clock face split in half and rotated 360 degrees while playing music. 

Michie takes our picture.

Michie and Sanae taught us how to play a Japanese card game, the Flower Card game. I won. Robin came in second. Michie says she has played a lot and she thinks I'm the best player she's seen. She thinks my ancestors must have been gamblers. Like I said, they were unbelievably sweet.

A taxi picked us up at their house and delivered us back to our hotel. We packed up and spent the afternoon traveling by train to Kyoto, a city with over 2000 temples and shrines.

Some more great times after that, including a 24-hour visit from Jimmy, Robin's son who lives in Yonogo, a city on the west coast of Japan. More about that tomorrow.