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Off to Japan

April - May 2018
We are about to spend 3 weeks in Japan - Amr’s first time there, and this is the first time for me using this blog...so let’s see how we go! We meet Carole and John Petrich in Kyoto for the last week, and we all come back to Sydney. Read more
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  • TravelerOff to Japan
    Day 30

    Last day in Kyoto

    May 20, 2018 in Japan ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    This was our last day, and it was beautiful...cool, sunny and perfect weather. We had concert tickets for the afternoon, but we decided to do our separate things till then...Amr and I wanted to see the Nijo Castle and John and Carole had other missions to do. The Nijo castle is nearby, a subway ride, and then within walking distance of the market arcades. So off we went, and it was again really amazing and interesting. It is the palace where the shoguns lived when they were the top people, before the emperors were restored...I think...I get a bit muddled about all the myriad of historical facts we read, but anyway, it was beautiful in the usual Japanese way....huge decorated gates, the building set out on one storey - that serene atmosphere, except in some of the rooms they had murals of tigers to intimidate visitors and underlings to let them know who was boss...you always walk in these places along a “route” and it is very easy as you get to see everything, and don’t bump into people going the other way, and there is an easy flow...after the building itself, you go into the garden, again beautiful and Japanese, all plants and trees trained and pruned to look perfect!

    After that good experience, we walked back and found the market and shopping arcades, had a few sticks of octopus and squid to eat, Amr had a coffee, and we wandered a bit. Passed a shop that seemed to exclusively sell the school satchels we had seen on many of the beautifully dressed children in their formal uniforms...curved leather solid backpacks, and discovered that they cost $US 1,000!!!

    Made our way by subway to the Kyoto Concert hall and there met C and J. We all enjoyed the concert. A work first by Bernstein (suite from on the Waterfront), then a symphony, no. 9, of Shostakovich which was really fun and Shostakovich in a really happy mood! Then after interval was a Bernstein symphony, which featured a solo piano but not called a concerto. Lots of percussion and very good to watch. Great orchestra.

    Then back, and out to dinner for the last time at Isoism, now the third time but we so like it...fresh and tasty, small share dishes...we call it modern Japanese!! It certainly isn’t traditional, but uses Japanese flavours and ingredients. Perfect last day.

    Tomorrow will be a travel day. We get the Shinkansen back to Tokyo, then get the Narita express to the airport and fly back tomorrow evening, arriving Sydney Tuesday morning. The end of a great trip!    Read more

  • TravelerOff to Japan
    Day 29

    Saturday, magical day at Nara

    May 19, 2018 in Japan ⋅ 🌙 14 °C

    It’s 10.15 pm after a really magical day...another excursion, this time to Nara - the ancient capital before Kyoto, before Tokyo....thank you Louise for this suggestion...it was a truly great day. It is late but I want to write up before I forget all the things we did. It is about a 45 minute train ride..we left at 9.33am (on the dot) and left to return at 5.57 pm so we had a good long day there. It rained quite heavily in the night, and the air is now clear and it is COOL, even unto wearing jackets some of the day...bliss. And it is pleasant and sunny at times!

    Nara is a small manageable town to visit. We got a map at the station which showed how to walk to all the main sights...along a pedestrian street of shops before arriving at the first temple, the Kohfukuji temple and a five storey pagoda. This was impressive but you keep walking on through a park with MANY deer hoping you will feed them (they sell deer food, but we didn’t buy any!) to the Nara National Museum...excellent, many buddhas, ritual bowls...all interesting and well presented. Then we had a refreshment stop before heading on to better and better temples and shrines! First the Todaiji Temple, the biggest wooden structure in Japan...we felt we had heard that before but Amr looked it up and the authorities say it IS! Anyway, it was huge, and had a huge black Buddha flanked by two large gold ones. This area was crowded, with school excursions, tour buses, but not so that it was unpleasant. And it is Saturday..we forget the days, but it didn’t feel different from every other day...So by now we felt we had seen it all, and were following the path that eventually would lead back to the station, when we came to the sign to the Kasuga Taisha Shrine, a world heritage site (all these are world heritage sites) so we took that path and this one was also over the top...it has 2000 stone lanterns surrounding it, and inside the building along the corridors it has1000 bronze lanterns...at the end you go into a darkened room where there are lit lanterns that looks magical once your eyes adjust to the dark.

    So what a day!....we walked back to the station looking for a wine bar to relax in...this is a very difficult thing in Japan we have discovered. We could probably have had beer, and many many places for tea, coffee and desserts, but the concept of drinking a glass of wine at 5 pm is a bit alien. We even tried at an Italian trattoria which had wine bottles in the window but were turned away! Finally, having given up and almost at the station we did find a place...it was an eatery of very non Japanese food (pizzas I think) but a very pleasant place to sit, and we did each have a glass of wine before catching the train back to Kyoto. We dined at one of the many restaurants in the shopping/dining area actually in the station building as we weren’t in the mood to go walking and searching, and had a really excellent meal...so a happy end to a great day. Now back in hotel room and watched the Royal Wedding as we showered and got ready for bed!

    I have just remembered a few other things....along the way we did a little shopping! Between temples we came across a Mont-Bell shop which is a Japanese version of Patagonia, Paddy Palin etc, and even I couldn’t resist buying some shirts (walking shirts!) and a jacket, and later after the last shrine we were chatting and saying we should look for a knife shop in Kyoto, when right in front of us up popped a most excellent knife shop. We went in and all bought knives. Ours is a small paring knife, 17 layered steel and engraved with Rosie in kanji! The shop is owned by a family who have been making knives for 750 years (and samurai swords)...so what a happy find!    Read more

  • TravelerOff to Japan
    Day 28

    Friday, an excursion to the Miho Museum

    May 18, 2018 in Japan ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    Today we decided to go to the Miho museum, a small expedition out of Kyoto. The rain is still holding off, but it is hot and muggy and hazy...they say rain will come tonight, but maybe be cleared by tomorrow. Who knows. Can’t believe we were wearing and grateful for the down jackets not long ago in Tokyo!

    Anyway, today entailed a 15 minute train ride to Ishiyama, then you take a bus to the museum. All quite easy. The bus ride was about 45 minutes long through first some urban area then very narrow, especially in a bus, winding roads through mountains and beside rivers and streams, quite spectacular scenery. Then you arrive at this magnificent museum. The architect was I.M. Pei who designed the glass pyramid at the Louvre and also a wing at the National Gallery in Washington D.C. It is hard to describe...light, modern, glass, metal, marble...It is set high up in the mountains surrounded by forest. From the bus stop you walk into the reception pavilion, where you buy tickets and there is a restaurant and shop. Then you walk up a path and through a stainless steel tunnel, over a bridge to the museum itself. The building alone is worth a visit, but there are exhibits of Egyptian, Chinese, Persian, other areas of Asia....all beautifully displayed, signs in English, not so much that you can’t absorb it all...a very good feeling. And today was not too crowded also.. It is I gather rather like the Getty and Frick in that it was the collection of a rich industrialist who donated it to become a museum.

    Finished with lunch of udon noodles and tea and now unwinding before dinner (and pre dinner drinks in C and J’s room!!). Tonight we are going back to the Okonomiyaki place we enjoyed before, and will be better at pressing the right buttons on the iPad for ordering!

    ....Just back from dinner and will add one more photo..great meal, AGAIN!    Read more

  • TravelerOff to Japan
    Day 28

    More pics from yesterday

    May 18, 2018 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    Will see if the photos will download now...pretty sure it was the very weak wifi last night...they have all downloaded fine now, so it was the wifi..it was such a beautiful place I wanted to add more.

  • TravelerOff to Japan
    Day 27

    Thursday, a day out of Kyoto

    May 17, 2018 in Japan ⋅ 🌙 22 °C

    Today was a change - we left the city and went on a 2 hour train trip to Amanohashidate which is listed as one of the 3 most scenic places in Japan! We managed all the many train tickets we had bought yesterday without getting into trouble and arrived at this beautiful place. The journey itself was lovely - always with mountains on each side, and through gorges and beside or over rivers. Through towns and villages, endless rice paddies and vegetable gardens. Amanohashidate itself is an area on the west coast, and there is a sandbar, or isthmus really (except one end doesn’t quite meet up, there were 2 small bridges, so perhaps a peninsula) joining 2 sides, with mountains rising each side. The sandbar is about 2.6 kms and has 5000 pine trees and is just wonderful to walk across. We arrived and first had a little lunch before we set off for the walk. The whole place is very upmarket as it obviously is a popular place to visit, but happily crowds didn’t come today, and it was very peaceful walking along the path with pines and water on both sides. At the other side there is a cable car and a chairlift up to the top where there is a viewing point, and restaurant and temples and shrines. It was a stunning view, even though quite hazy today. It is now extremely hot and working up to rain - predicted to start tomorrow night and continuing on Saturday - and it was also very humid, but thankfully there was a little breeze as we walked across and some shade, so we survived. There is also a cable car up to the heights on the station side, but we didn’t go up that side.

    Up the top it was quite pleasant. There is a saying that at the viewing point you turn your back to the view and bend over and look through your legs at it upside down, and you see the stairway to heaven! Will show the photo! We went down by chairlift which was magic, hanging up there watching the view as you descended. We had a drink at the lunch place - very nice by the water - while we waited for our train back.

    Arrived back just after 7, so went straight to dinner - this time the sukiyaki place we went the first night in Kyoto. Again, wonderful food, cooking it in the pot on charcoal at our table. Now back, content, and a wash is on!!

    Really annoying...only one photo would download...fortunately one of the view...but will publish this now, and try for more later. Don’t know if it’s the wifi, the app or my iPad which has been behaving badly lately and freezing and going blank...    Read more

  • TravelerOff to Japan
    Day 26

    Wednesday May 16 - a very auspicious day

    May 16, 2018 in Japan ⋅ 🌙 23 °C

    We had another lovely day of exploration today..but first was greeted by many birthday wishes which felt very special, and sent them to Liv who shares my birthday....a good start. We set off first to the Kyoto Symphony Hall - an easy subway ride, and got tickets for a concert on Sunday afternoon - playing Bernstein and Shostakovich!! What fun! And the hall is right beside the Botanical Gardens, so we plan to visit that before the concert. After that was successfully accomplished, we got the subway back to the Nishiki covered food market...that was great as those sort of markets always are...wandered there for a bit, then that led into more corridors of pedestrian shops...good for wandering...we all bought a Japanese style robe of lovely colours and designs, and had a break at a funny little restaurant up a narrow steep stairway..we think it is probably more a night time bar place, but it had a nice curry smell and one girl serving who made 3 omelettes one by one, and served some curry and it gave us a chance for a nice sit down and break. Then we went on a mission for C and J who were looking for a shop that sold special cards for a game their grandson plays...and Japanese ones would be very special...shop called Yellow Submarine and amazingly we found it with the help of smartphones..again up 4 storeys, and it did have the cards! Then on to a visit to Blue Bottle (where Amr was remembered), the bag shop for Carole (I think he was remembered there too!) then Carole, John and I took a bus back from there, while amr stayed to look round another department store and would get the subway back...

    We got seats in the bus before it became like a sardine packed area, but the ride took ages in all the traffic and lights, and Amr actually ended up back before me! We have decided that the trains are more pleasant form of transport if they go to where you need to go..another problem with the buses is that you just hop on by the back door, but you have to leave by the front door and pay (either cash, or tap your card) and if you find yourself squashed near the back when you get to your stop you have to push through people to get to the front...fine if we are going back to Kyoto station where the bus terminates and everyone gets off...we live and learn.

    Tomorrow we are going to a place a 2 hours train journey away..I can’t possibly now remember the name, but 2 people independently told Amr it was a must see...a beautiful area with a long isthmus...will describe tomorrow. On the way to dinner we stopped at the station to get train tickets for this, and thankfully we did, as the process took ages...we had a trainee at the counter..very sweet, but somehow getting these tickets was a huge procedure, and we have all ended up with 5 pieces of ticket each for seat reservation, fare ticket each way, with connection on return journey...etc.etc. After that experience, we went to the yakitori place Amr and I had been to last week (the place of the chicken livers) and again had a great meal..and again a success with C and J! Altogether another great day!    Read more

  • TravelerOff to Japan
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    Day 25

    Tuesday, sunny and glorious!

    May 15, 2018 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    Today was really good...sunny and actually hot - sandals and cool pants came back out! Our plan was to visit the bamboo forest, where of course there are also many temples and shrines...but the temples and shrines have become more by-the-by as we have mostly had our fill, even though they are beautiful. So we had a 20 minute train ride to the outskirts of Kyoto on the western side. From the station we followed the trail of people all heading for the bamboo forest...there were many of them, lots of school children, not so many kimono-clad girls today...but the crowds weren’t a problem somehow, not like yesterday. Almost immediately there was the first temple - Tenryu-ji - quite famous and with an incredibly beautiful garden. you could pay just to go into the garden which Carole and I did, but Amr did the temple buildings as well, and John did neither. We had a lovely stroll through the exquisite garden, then all went along the path through the bamboo forest. This was also quite amazing. Then we reached the Okochi Sanso villa - the home of a silent movie samurai actor called Okochi Denjiro (1898-1962) who spent 30 years creating the garden. This was also worth a visit, and we had tea there (not in a ceremony, but in a tea house). The villa is high up on the hills and has a great view down on Kyoto, and to the mountains beyond.

    We walked back down via another path, winding through parkland till we came to a river, the Katsura river, and ended back at Arashiyama, but this time we caught a bus back to Kyoto Station. Very relaxing and pleasant day. While at the station we bought train tickets for the journey back to Narita on Monday.

    So that was lovely, then we had a little down time...John and Carole did some washing, Amr went to some store he wanted to see, I played on my iPad and started to write up the day...then as arranged at 5 o’clock we all met in our tiny room ( they have a tiny room too!) for some wine...and watched sumo wrestling on TV (sound muted!!)....hilarious....I moved my clothes off the one chair, so that someone could sit on it, and 3 on the bed. The bed is queen size...I said king size because it took up such a large proportion of the room! But it is very comfy.

    Well dinner tonight was another hit. John and Carole had experienced something called Okonomi-yaki, where you cook a pancake like thing, with lots of vegetables on a grill at the table, and John found this sort of restaurant very near us. So off we trotted, and got a table straight away amazingly, (by the time we left it was totally full) and had a superb evening, and delicious food. We actually never had the pancake things, as it was lost in translation...you order from an iPad at the table, and by the end we had perfected the art of using this...but we had amazingly delicious food regardless...all brought to us to put on the grill and shared...only one slight disappointment was that chicken livers turned out to be chicken hearts (something else lost in translation) ..we will definitely go back for more experimenting. Now off to bed for a read before sleep...    Read more

  • TravelerOff to Japan
    Day 24

    Monday - sunny, and Petrich arrival

    May 14, 2018 in Japan ⋅ 🌙 18 °C

    Today has been fun. Carole had sent a message saying they would be arriving at 11.34, and being Japan we knew that meant at exactly 11.34!! But we didn’t know what train..bullet train, JR train or one of the other lines, and Kyoto station, while not being nearly on the scale of Shinjuku, is still large enough to wonder where to meet them! So amr waited at the Shinkansen exit and I waited at the JR and they did emerge at the Shinkansen, having connected at Nagoya from the countryside where they had been cycling. Great reunion and excitement. Before 11.34 Amr and I walked to two local temples which was as they always are really huge and impressive...with massive wooden beams and carving. There were monks chanting in one, and we were allowed to go in and listen and that was rather lovely and moving.

    So after Carole and John arrived and had checked into the hotel etc, we had the whole afternoon and it was a beautiful day, so we decided to go to the Kiyomizu Temple which we had waited to see with them, as it sounded and looked very beautiful set on the side of a mountain, and was a short bus ride away...well it was beautiful, but it was spoiled by the milling hordes who also were there...what were they all doing on a Monday?? And another thing that was more prevalent than on the weekend, although we had noticed it then too, was the many cute girlies who were dressed in kimonos posing for many many photos, and taking selfies...when we first saw this, or just the girls wearing kimonos, we thought it was something special, but we learnt that they hire them and take all these photos at shrines and good photo op places!! So it was crowded, with many tour busloads too, which surprisingly we had not felt put off by at all the previous places. After that we got a bus further on into the city (saw one more shrine , also crowded!) and walked round the old parts of the city with narrow streets and interesting little shops etc...But finally headed back to the station and home. Our tiny room has become home!

    Had a lovely meal at the restaurant we loved, which had the vegetables but wasn’t vegetarian, where people were still not over 40! Carole and John also loved it which made us glad...lovely tasty fresh food, and we are now all crashing ready for an early start tomorrow to go to the bamboo forest.    Read more

  • TravelerOff to Japan
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    Day 23

    Sunday - a rainy day

    May 13, 2018 in Japan ⋅ 🌧 17 °C

    We got up very relaxed today - it was predicted to be rainy, so we thought it would be a good day for the museum we purposely didn’t go in on the first day - it is opposite the 1000 gold Buddha temple, but saved it for a rainy day! It was only drizzling when we left after breakfast, but by the time we got off the bus it was teeming. I think Amr and I were the only people we saw in raincoats...the Japanese seem to just use umbrellas, so they can maintain their immaculate and groomed look! Umbrellas are provided everywhere - hotels etc, and at the museum we used one just to get from the ticket office to the entrance (it was serious rain by then). It is the Kyoto National Museum, and has a large collection of art and pieces that they rotate from time to time - today the main exhibits were closed, and there was a special exhibition of the work of Ike no Taiga, who was very famous and lived in the beginning of the 1700s. It was a huge exhibit of beautiful work...calligraphy, screens, fans...and I was glad the rest was not open as I wouldn’t have taken more in anyway. There was a place where we were invited in to do some finger painting - the artist had done much of his work with fingers and perfected it - and they had a workshop letting people try having a go!! Fun (they are so polite with our squiggles!)...

    After the museum we had planned to continue on to another part of town to have a wander and a look, but even Amr suggested that we call it a day - go back to the room, do some washing, read kindles and have the afternoon off!! Such an excellent plan. So we made our way back, stopped in the huge station shopping mall to buy another bottle of the Portuguese wine we had enjoyed, some sweet treats (Amr is addicted to the green tea pastries) and we queued up at the dumpling shop in the station just opposite our hotel - there is always a long queue there, they are so good - freshly made as you watch - pork dumplings, shrimp dumplings, gyozas, pork buns..so that was our lunch, by then about 3 o’clock, the washing is done and all well. Amr entrusted me to the washing amazingly as he wanted to have a sortie to a big electronic store (near the station) a sort of enormous JB HiFi, which I would find totally boring...so we are all happy!

    I again forgot to start with an account of last night’s dinner. Again we hit the jackpot, in fact Amr says it is the best so far. We had passed it each evening, and it always looked full and we had doubts of getting in. It has many vegetables featured in the window, and a sign saying fresh from farm to table or something similar, and we thought it was a vegetarian place, but looked fun and we wanted to try. So we went, and got in straight away, 2 seats left at the bar which was best as we watched all that was happening, and formed a relationship with the chefs! It was absolutely vibrant...I don’t think anyone else was over 40, and we were the only non Japanese, but they had an English menu of sorts, and were very helpful. And it certainly wasn’t vegetarian....they just go for fresh ingredients...we had burdock which we had never heard of, but is a crunchy root, we had it pickled, with duck and spice, a sardine dish (the sardine was one huge sardine by our standards, stuffed with cod roe), a rice pot to die for....we hope to take Carole and John there....hope they will cope with 4 old guijen!!

    No pics from today, but I will put up a few more from yesterday....we are SO lucky that yesterday was our garden day - it was perfect weather and would have been miserable today.    Read more

  • TravelerOff to Japan
    Day 22

    Saturday - a day of gardens and temples

    May 12, 2018 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    We are just back from a huge day - it just turned out that way...we had a reservation for entering the Sento Palace and the Omiya Palace in the Imperial Palace compound. We booked on Thursday and had to provide passports and it was all very formal. We had imagined it was a tour of the buildings, but on reading just before we went we learnt that the Sento palace had burned down in the 1800s and hadn’t been rebuilt because there weren’t any retired emperors any more, and the Omiya palace isn’t open to the public (it was built for dowager empresses)...so we realised that it was in fact a tour of the beautiful gardens that we had signed up for. And they are of course, a perfect example of the beautifully designed and carefully maintained gardens that the Japanese create...but this lot was emperor worthy - lakes, bridges, trellises...serene and perfect. The tours are all in Japanese (you have to go with a group, and a guard keeps following at the rear to make sure no one strays off the path or gets lost from the pack!), but they provided an audio guide in English fortunately. So many gorgeous photos.

    Then, while we were there in these huge grounds, we went to the Kyoto State Guest House nearby...also a lot of security and formality to enter, but you could go round a tour route individually with an audio guide which was excellent. This house is modern - that is built with modern hi tech means, but in the beautiful, tasteful, understated Japanese style. It is where they entertain visiting dignitaries etc and there are amazing banquet rooms, conference rooms and superb tapestries. So that was a treat too. Malcolm would just love to attend a banquet there!

    So now we decided to find the Blue Bottle coffee shop which is in the more main part of Kyoto, at least not near the main railway station. So on our handy hotel smartphone we found what subway station was closest, and found it...very happy, as I had not yet had my caffeine hit of the day. But to our surprise it was not as we had imagined in a busy shopping area, but near many temples and shrines, and was obviously very well placed and doing a roaring trade! So again, as we were there we decided to visit these temples, as the Book said they were great ones! And they were. Again, a main Zen Buddhism centre - a main temple - Nanzenji Temple - and many other minor ones surrounding, all with gorgeous gardens, and this is right beside a mountain, so very picturesque. So we entered the main temple complex (much taking shoes off and on today) which was stunning, with courtyards and gardens, impressive even after the imperial ones! And we plowed on to more gardens, gradually climbing uphill, then found our way walking along an aqueduct and an ex railway line somehow back to the subway and Blue Bottle part...had a break there!!

    Then got the subway to look at some of the shopping arcades, but after a bit headed back, and now having a wine and an unwind, before we go out to dinner. I forgot to mention that last night we did go to the yakitori restaurant we had seen and it was perfect! A little maybe family run place, shoes off, and all cooked as you ordered it. Our favourite was chicken livers, we had a second serve of that, but chicken, eggplant, peppers were all delicious. Now off for another foray!    Read more

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