Gardens and Ninjas

Day 4

BIG day today..... we are going to Kanazawa.  The name "Kanazawa", means "marsh of gold", and is said to come from the legend of the peasant Imohori Togoro who was digging for potatoes when flakes of gold washed upmarsh.  So we are off to look for gold!!!

Kanazawa is also well known for its old traditional Geisha, Samurai and Ninja districts.  Sounds like just the place for us.......

Kanazawa is about 2 hours from Kyoto so we were up and out nice (!) and early..... getting to Kyoto train station for 8am.  Unfortunately, this meant we were also amongst the crush of poor people going to work. However, the train to Kanazawa was less crowded and we got a good seat so I could watch the Japanese landscape go by.

We are making our way through mountain areas with some fantastic scenery.  We stop at one station - Kagaonsen and spotted this.......

It's absolutely huge!! We tried to Google it, but all we found out was that it a Godess Kannon holding her child.  She is about 73 meters tall and was glistening in the early morning sunshine.  We only saw her for 2 minutes before the train moved off again.... but she was quite a surprise!!!

We are now at Kanazawa and bought our all day bus passes. First stop is Higashi Chaya-gai.  This is where the Geisha perform and there are a lot of Tea Houses.  The streets are narrow and the tea houses are very traditional - some of them are hundreds of years old. They are still used for entertaining and are quite exclusive but the Shima House is open to everyone so we could go and have a poke around there. Here we met a lovely Geisha lady who chatted to us for ages.  Apparently she spent a lot of time in the UK and studied English at Oxford University.  She was really nice and asked if we wanted to see the Geisha performance........ but it was on Wednesday - not today!!! 

Aaaargh!!!!!!

We wandered round here for a while and came across a gold leaf shop (remember the gold story??). Well this shop sold everything and anything covered in gold leaf ..... Jewellery, boxes, handbags, cakes, tea, sake with gold leaf and some makeup products. It was amazing.  We were directed outside to this small building in a small garden area.  The small building was literally covered in gold leaf - inside and out. Obviously they don't let you in there and I tried to take a photo - but hasn't really worked.  There's some money there!?!?!??

So moving on from here, we decided to tackle the gardens and castle. Kenroku-en Garden is one of Japan's top three gardens and is HUGE!!!!  This garden is gorgeous and lives up to its reputation..... And goes on for ever. The gardeners are starting to put poles on the trees - this is to protect the trees 
from heavy snowfall... Impressive!!!  We spent AGES in here just wandering round. Mam and Dad would love it here. I doubt we would get Dad out!! There's also little tea rooms and a tat stall (isn't there always a tat stall??). 

Time is moving on so on to the next stop .... Ninja-dera. Scott was looking forward to this one. However, when we got there, we were told we needed to make a reservation - but they let us join the next tour - Whoo hoo.  Now they tells us we have to have the guided tour and it's only in Japanese - doh!! But  they gave us a book that explained everything the guide was talking about.  Basically there are 23 room and 29 staircases and a number of hidden passages - all designed to protect the Fuedal Lord.   There were so many different ways to hide and also sneak up in the emery and cause them great pain - all pretty amazing stuff.  Local legend has it that there is a tunnel going from this temple to Kanazawa castle, but no one has been able to prove it..... It's a long way!!! 

At the end of the tour, the back page of our booklet tells us that this is a place of worship and that the Ninjas owning this temple  are a myth .... WTF???? Meh - what do they know.... There were too 
many trap doors for this not to have Ninjas!!!!!

Next stop - Samurai Town. It's starting to get dark now, but Scott wanted to see the Ninja and Samurai districts. They looked a lot like the Geisha district - wooden houses, but we found out that this area has nine of the original houses and are all replicas. Ahhh - never mind, they still looked good. 

We are now flagging a bit and we still have that 2 hour train journey home, so we decided to make a move.  It seemed to take forever to get back and it was after 9 when we finally made it home. I picked up some Onigiri from the Lawsons - that's a rice ball covered in seaweed and mine had salmon in the middle. Scrummy ...... Just enough to keep me going after a long day.

Time to pass out now..... Scott and I made a deal before we came out that if we did have a long day, the next day would be quieter .... A deals a deal, so quiet one tomorrow - Osaka!!

So until next time..... Oyasumi Nasai xoxox

Tea for two.......

Day 3

First of all..... Can I just ask, whoever turned up the heating in Kyoto, could you possibly turn it down a notch or two.... It is really really warm here at the moment ..... Got to 21 degrees today and I think I may have possibly got sunburn in November!!!!!  This is not good for someone who avoids the sun like the plague........

Anyway.... Onwards and upwards! We were out early this morning for our double header trip - we were off to Uji and a visit to the Fushimi Inari Shrine. 

Uji is only about a 15 minute journey from Kyoto, so nice and easy to get to.  Uji is well known for it's green tea and is home to what is believed to be the oldest tea shop in the world..... Tsuen (it's been serving tea since 1160). 

This is where I was going to stock up on some nice new tea to bring home and Uji didn't disappoint.  From the moment we got off the train, there were a multitude of shops and stalls selling and serving tea (bit of a nightmare for Scott being a coffee drinker haha). 

You can't really see them, but there are tea ladies on the gate.......

The main attraction here - apart from the tea, is the Byodoin Shrine - which is a UNESCO world heritage site. The shrine is surrounded by quite a large garden and as we found out today - is very popular!!!  It is also on the 10 yen coin......

There is also a museum and the last picture there is the Pheonix Hall  In the hall is an image of  Amida - and he is covered in gold leaf ... Quite impressive but you can't see that as I wasn't allowed to take photos. We spent quite a bit of time in here before moving on..... Mainly to try and find some shade as I was now starting to get sun-stroke!!!!  

This is a perfect opportunity to stop and sample some of the green tea offerings..... But in the form of ice cream!! 

We then moved on to the other side of Uji, by crossing a huge red bridge.... stopping to look at the views (plus there was a nice breeze from here to cool us down) ..... 

Over the river is the 'Tale of Genji' museum.  The Tale of Genji is a Japanese classic book and is considered to be the worlds first novel.  I had read the book a long time ago and fancied seeing the museum .... But it's closed on Monday booooo!! Never mind.....

We had a lovely walk along the riverside and went to the Ujigami Shrine....here there is a 'Ring of Wisdom' so I jumped through it - twice just to be sure ..... I now feel very wisdomous!!!!

We took in more of the surroundings and continued our walk along the river..... I think Scott has fallen in love with Uji.... And I don't blame him, it is gorgeous.

We made our way back to the train station via the tea shops and browsed (and maybe bought) the tea selections.

As we were already on the Nara line, we decided re-visit the Funishimi Inari shrine.  This is the place with the thousand of tori gates going up the mountain side.  Each gate has been donated by a company or a family and some of them go back decades.  

The last time we were here was in 2011 and it was fairly quiet - but today it was heaving!! There are signs all over saying that this shrine was voted the No1 spot to visit on Trip Advisor ..... And it seemed everyone was doing just that!!!

I'm sure Scott is in almost every photo as he seemed to photo bomb everyone .... Not his fault, he's just a lot taller than everyone else.  

After going through some of the gates.... We didn't do them all as they go right up the mountain and we were pushed for time (!) ....we sauntered back down towards the train station via the tat shops .... Great places - they sell everything!!! But I held off from buying anything as I am saving myself for later, plus I was laden down with tea!! Don't want to push it too soon .... Still got a ways to go yet!!!

Gat back to the apartment where we've both crashed.  Scott is trying the bath tonight to see if he can loosen up his back!! Should be interesting..... 

He also has a lot of planning to do as tomorrow is a big day .... Not only is it a Bullet Train day, but we are going to Kanazawa (about 2 hours out of Kyoto) and I plan to see a lot of things!!!

It's going to be an early start for us tomorrow.... So early night tonight .... 

So until next time .... Oyasumi nasai xxx

........ Octopus anyone????

Day 2

Well as expected..... It bloody rained ALL DAY!!! However, we now know the Japanese weather center gets it right and does a better job than the UK!!!!

We were both up early again (damn you jet lag) so we had a leisurely morning whilst deciding what to do.  It's definitely an indoor day today.  We were planning to go to Uji today .... But most of the things in Uji are outdoors and according to the forecast, the weather is going to be bright, sunny and warm for the rest of the week, so we have jiggled a few things round.

So today is Nishiki Market and checking out the designer shops in Gion.

Nishiki market is about 2km long and is all under cover (see we do know what we are doing).  The place is stuffed full of fresh food stalls - Lots of fish, veg and sweet stuff and also a load of craft shops and a lot of wine stalls!! Can we see why we came???  It the. Leads onto the Teramachi Arcade which is more coffee shops and clothes for the young and trendy ..... Hmm - maybe not going to spend too long in there!!!

The best part is that there are loads of samples around.  This is good and bad..... good because we (well mainly me - he's not that brave) get to try some different food stuff and bad because the labels are all in Japanese (obviously) and it can go wrong sometimes!!!!

It's impossible to pass a stall and not try anything..... And I had already made up my mind that I was going to do just that!! I'm going to try everything...... I may regret this in the morning!!

First stall.... An amazing array of veg in various colours and in various pickled type state.  I think I had daikon - a type of radish but that was the only thing I could recognise.  I did have something that was bright blue.  It was a bit crunchy and was a little spicy but I will never know what it was.

I then accidently hit the spicy crisp stall.  Well - in their defence, the crisps were not spicy, it was the spicy sprinkles they were putting on them.  The bright blue something that I had earlier no longer left a lingering taste in my mouth as it was now on fire!!!!!  

OK - so that's why there is a green tea stall next door giving out samples..... Grab a freebie there to help cool the flames!!!

Not only is there samples of almost everything, but there are stalls cooking hot food...... So I grabbed a sweet potato, carrot and pumpkin cake (on a stick) ...... Nom nom nom - delicious!!!

I'm now back to hitting the 'buffet tables' of samples and basically trying very thing which Scott stands back and let's me get on with it.  He does point to some stuff and gets me to try it 'for him' though I'm not too sure what that means!!!!! 

Moving on slowly ..... It was very busy. I think everyone had the same idea of what to do on a rainy day haha!! We then came to 'that' stall..... The one I promised I wouldn't pass this time ..... The octopus on a stick stall!!! 

This time Scott is feeling brave and goes for it...... Two octopi on a stick please...... The nice lady (who asked us if we were up for the challenge!!!) told us there was egg in the head.  I thought it was a misunderstanding between her English and my Japanese, so I politely nodded and off we went with our food.

One octopus on a stick!!! 

Scott wanted to eat his in one of the side alleys just in case it didn't stay in..... First taste and I was a leg biter..... The tentacles did stick to my tounge  a little but I can honestly say it  was not unpleasant at all.... It didn't taste too bad .  I then went for the head - and she was right.... There was a small hard boiled egg in the head.  I guess once they scoop out the octopus head innerds ... They need to fill it with something to make it look like a octopus head... Hence the boiled egg!! Gave the head a rather strange taste!!!!

So now I'm needing a rest and maybe a coffee to swill all those samples around.

Pickled cucumber!

Sushi samples 

Scott has discovered the joy that is Daiso .... Or the 100yen store.  There is one at the end of the road and we have been in there every night since we got here..... He's loving the place and has bought alsorts of crap for the apartment!!!  I'm getting a little worried about his addiction..... Especially when he found one in the Teramachi section of the market - and it is much bigger than ours!!! He was desperate to go in to see if they had anything different ...... Well I suppose I have Tokyu Hands, he can have Daiso!!! 

Now back to the apartment for food

We are now sorting out what we are going to do on a bright sunny day tomorrow........ Think it's going to be Uji for lots of green tea and temple hopping.

Until tomorrow ..... Oyasumi nasai xxx

We're BACK!!!!

Well - after a mammoth 24 hours, we finally made it to Kyoto. We are back in Japan - yeah!

The journey was OK - We flew KLM this time as we were flying into Osaka rather than Narita.  We are spending these two weeks in the south of Japan, so it seemed more sense to fly into Osaka.

The journey was ..... Well as bad as it was the last two times...... Long and sleepless!!! KLM looked after us really well.  The in flight movies were OK and managed to watch a couple of them. We both tried to sleep - but it was not happening for us. 

Arriving at a different airport gave us some lovely new challenges. Osaka airport (Kansai International) is on a man made island, so it initially looked like we were going to land on water .... But we didn't.  One of the first things we noticed was how warm it was - it's very warm here at the minute ... Touching about 18 ~20 degrees - and I brought a coat!  Everything is signposted so we easily found the train station and bought our tickets for the 75 minute journey to Kyoto station. 

We got the Haruka Icoca tickets ...... These come with pre paid cards for the subway and trains.  Didn't think Scott would be too impressed with the Hello Kitty card, so I got him a different one - the Thunder and Wind Gods .... He's happy with that one!!

So far so good...... But then we need to get from Kyoto station to the apartment downtown. There is a subway stop about a 2 minute walk from the apartment so we jumped on that ..... However, we didn't take into account the amount of stairs we would have to climb up with our suitcases - where are the escalators when you need them???  At one point a young lady asked me if she could help..... I think my suitcase weighed more than her but she insisted on helping - lovely lady!

Scott found the apartment really easily and actually met Hiroshi san at the door. He took us into the apartment, showed us around, then left us to get on with it. I wanted to lie down a sleep - but it was only 1:30 so we needed to stay awake - unpacking, shower and 
walk it is then!!!

The apartment is lovely and has everything we need.  It's in the seventh floor so we get some good views of Kyoto and the surrounding hills.... I'll take a photo later.  

It's located down a back alley way.... However, with the amount of cars that come down there, it's like we are staying on the A1.... Fortunately as we are so far up, we don't hear any of the noise. 

We are right downtown and within spitting distance of a subway (the one with all the bloody steps!!!). We were eager to get out there and start to explore...... So shook off the jet lag and got out there. 

We didn't stray too far - but Scott knew exactly where he was going ..... The bloke is like a bloodhound and an elephant .... Knows his way round and never forgets!!! It's been two years since we were last here, but he has remembered where everything is!! 

We needed some supplies ..... In typical English fashion I really needed a nice cup of tea!!! So the hunt was on for a shop.  Of course we are in Japan, so we are never more 
than 2 minutes from a combini (local shop) and there is a Lawsons right by us, a 7 Eleven, a K and a Fresco .... Perfect!!  

Shopping done - milk first and then some food..... Lovely fresh sushi for me and a big pot of noodles for him. 

It was at that point that I started to get really REALLY tired - so back to the apartment.  By now it's almost 7pm and I am dropping. We've now been up for 26 hours - lost a Thursday - gained 9 hours and flew half way round the world .... zzzzzzz's are definitely needed.  

I finally passed out about 9pm but woke up at 2am and couldn't get back to sleep.  Managed to drift off again about 3 and had another couple of hours. Scott was no better, however we both felt much fresher this morning. Now to start the holiday . . . . .

Gion Odori .....

Day 1

We've taken it easy today and stayed around Kyoto. One of the things I really wanted to do in the next couple of days was go to the Gion Odori. This is Autumn Geisha Dance but was only on until 10th November so we had to be sharp.  With Scott's bloodhound instincts we found the theatre really easily and off I went to book my tickets - notice I said MY tickets .... Scott was not playing with this (He has a real problem with Geisha Ladies singing) so I was on my own!!! 

The dance didn't start until 1:30 so we had some time to kill.  We found a lovely street (Shirakawa-minami dori) which is a gorgeous street lined with willow trees.

We noticed there was some commotion in the middle of the street - and when we got there, there was a young girl dressed as a Geisha with her parents taking photos.  Although she seemed quite shy, she was happy for the throng of tourists to take her photo ....which was just as well as every man and his dog were surrounding her ..... And shamefully that included me!!!! 

She did look really pretty though.....

I decided to leave her alone as the group of people surrounding her was getting bigger by the minute. Still had another hour to kill before the Gion Odori so we wandered along to Murayama Park. There always something going on in here and today was no exception.  

First thing we saw was a wedding .... The bride and groom were just walking towards the shrine for the service .... Again the bloody tourists were all over them taking photos ...


(Ahhhh sushhhh - I am a tourist after all!!!)

I only took the one photo and watched a bit of the ceremony........

We stopped for a quick coffee in the park so Scott could work out what he was going to do and where to go.... He was going to sort out our Train passes - so I was trusting him to go out alone and not see or do anything exciting without me!!!!

It was now time for the Gion Odori.  Unfortunately photos are not allowed - but I paid for the dance and the tea ceremony ..... So I got a nice cup of matcha and a sweet (and got to keep the plate as a souvenir). The theatre (Gion Kaiken) was lovely...... I was allowed to take a shot of the place before the dance started . . .  .

The performance was brilliant ..... The Geisha move so perfectly and their actions are so precise. The whole thing lasted just over 2 hours but I could have stayed there all afternoon and watched them.

So now it's back out into the wilds of Kyoto city.... It's Saturday afternoon and it appears Saturday afternoon is the same world over...... The place was heaving of people shopping and meeting friends - but Scott had a surprise for me...... While he had been left on his own, he had found TOKYU HANDS!!!!!  Whoooo hoooo!!! Tokyu Hands is the best department store ever!!! And it's the place I go to stock up on all that wonderful Japanese stationery. 

Ahhh a whole floor full of pens, pencils, books and all those items that are cute and all the things you didn't know you needed until you saw them.  If you are after an eraser shaped like sushi or a pens that writes in three different colours .... This is where you'll get them.  Scott does not need to know how much I have spent ..... Plus it's just down the road from us so I'll be back mwhahahaha!!!!!

Unfortunately, the jet lag has kicked in again and once again I am dropping, so back to the apartment for an hour to rest our weary bones. 

After a nice coffee - we hit the combini for our tea..... And I found they do pots of Ramen that can be heated in the microwave for 3 minutes..... Perfect meal for Nic!!!! Scott went to the meat counter and hoped he had bought chicken (he did!!) and added a pot of noodles to it .....

Having tea sort of finished me off.... But we decided what we are doing tomorrow..... According to the weather forecast it's going to rain all day, so we are planning an indoor day...... Wonder if Scott will let me go back to Tokyu Hands?!?!???

Until tomorrow ........ Oyasumi nasai xx