Hey all,
In one sentence, the trip back to Japan was amazing! Not just good or great, but absolutely wonderful. It's definitely a different experience trying to Japan on the cheap as opposed to Mom and Dad helping out, but it's nice to know that I was able to do it both ways. Anyways, that's enough preamble, I know you all want me to get to the meat of the trip so let me begin...
Saturday, February 13:
The men (Alex, Dave, and myself) arrive in Busan in the early hours and head straight to the jjimjibang for some quick R & R before our long seabound journey began.
Sunday, February 14:
Valentine's Day, and what better way for the 3 of us to spend it than together with each other on a vacation to Japan? If you can beat that, go ahead and try. Our ferry left at 3 pm from Busan and this ferry was not what we were expecting. I suppose the only other ferries I've been on are car ferries going across Lake Michigan between Michigan and Wisconsin and this was definitely not your typical ferry. It was more like a cruise ship, which was awesome. Our room had two sets of bunk beds, not very big, but still very manageable, especially when I came in with the expectation that I was going to sleep on the ground if anywhere, so definitely a nice surprise. Most of the staff on the ferry were Korean, but there were also a few Russians and Ukrainians and our friend Tony, the Lebanese engineer (more about him later). The ship had a duty free shop, a convenience store, and plenty of vending machines, so we were ok for food and snacks. As most wise men would, we positioned ourselves at the spacious table on the second floor, where we stayed for the majority of the ride over. Later in the evening we made our way down to the main room for the night time entertainment, which included Alexei, the Russian trumpeter, who played the theme song from IRIS, our favorite Korean drama, and some "Girl from Ipanema" for good measure. Next, was some bellydancing, followed by a magic show and finished by the Korean equivalent of the Carpenters. After the show we retired back to our "lounge" on the second floor, where we made friends with another Alex, who is an English teacher in northeast Seoul and Chang, a recent high school graduate who lives in Osan, roughly 20 minutes from me in Suwon. All in all the ferry was very relaxing and a great way to travel if you have the time to spare.
Monday, February 15th:
Around 10 am we arrived in Osaka and made our way from the ferry terminal to the train station where we embarked towards Kyoto. We got to Kyoto a little after 1 and headed straight to Nishi Honwangji and Higashi Honwangji. I definitely experienced a little bit of deja vu, which was fine, but also quite enjoyable. It's nice to know that even though I've only been to a city for 3 days previously, I am still able to remember where everything is and get around. To be fair, Kyoto is pretty easy to navigate, it's laid out in a grid, much like a Western city, unlike the majority of Korea, where street signs are rare. From the temples we made our way to Sanjusangendo, which we didn't see the last time. It's a huge Buddhist hall with over 1,000 smaller Buddha statues and a few big guys. Unfortunately taking pictures weren't allowed so mental memories were the best we could do. The garden and surrounding area were also magnificent and thankfully we could take pictures so you can all see. Eventually we made our way to our hostel, the A-yado Gion, located right in the heart of Gion a.k.a Geisha central, which was as good a location as we could ask for. The hostel was very nice, great showers, nice bathrooms, good lounge, friendly staff, which made the experience that much better. For dinner we headed towards Gion Corner and Alex and I had some yakitore, while Dave tried some traditional Japanese tofu dishes. Afterwards we rallied the troops at the hostel to go explore Kyoto nightlife on a Monday night, which was fun. We wandered around Pontocho for a while, which gave us great views of the city along the river. We headed home a little early so we could gear up for a big day of touring on Tuesday.
Tuesday, February 16th:
Woke up early, crammed in some granola bars and PB and bread and hit the ground running. Our first stop was the Kiyozima Shrine and Temple (another first) via the Yasaka Shrine. Kiyozima was gorgeous, the temple was built sans nails, meaning that each wood board intertwines with all the others in a crazy and unique architectural scheme, the likes of which I've never seen before. The Shrine was very crowded, many Chinese and Korean tourits traveling because of the New Year, but we managed to weave our way thru the crowds and see everything in a timely fashion. Lunch meant a quick stop at 7-11 for ramen and then back to the streets, where we met some Korean English teachers also taking the bus to the Golden Pavillion (Kinkauji) on the other side of Kyoto. The Golden Pavillion is definitely quite the sight to behold! I'm guessing most of you have seen Dad's pictures of it by now, but if you haven't you can check out mine as well, just incredible even if it's a thin layer of gold coating the building. From the Pavillion we made our way to Nijo Castle (one more first), which was very cool. I liked it better than the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, more accesible and the landscape was gorgeous. For dinner we grabbed some udon and cruised the streets of Gion where we found many delicate and beautiful geishas, even a few that were willing to take pictures with us, which was great! We made our way to Kyoto Station later at night to board an overnight bus bound for Tokyo, which is where the 2nd part of these travel adventures will continue. Same Bat time, same Bat channel.
iPod A-Z song update: "To Ramona" by Bob Dylan
Links:
I'm sure everyone has seen this already, my only questions are why is Al Jardine there and did you ever think you'd see Jeff Bridges, T-Pain, and Gladys Knight in the same room?
And now for an actual unique link, a tribute to my favorite dog:
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