Home Again Home Again

For our last day in Tokyo, we headed to one of the main train stations to do some final souvenir shopping.  Our tracking skills were still a bit off and we had trouble finding the markets.  After wandering through the Shrine Accessories shopping streets (we did see some miniature orange torii gates…), we finally found the markets.  Unfortunately, we didn’t have much time left, so we found a restaurant and had our last Japanese-style meal before heading back.

With our luggage in tow, we wove our way through the transportation system one last time.  Two subway trains and 2 express trains later we arrived at the airport.

Our return trip included an overnight stopover in Texas.  And it’s true; they really do “Go Big” there…

(The World’s Largest Wind Chime)

Our final flight home was without incident.  There was no inclement weather to impede our return and, in fact, both of our flights got in early.

Now home, we look forward to the rest of our summer spending time with friends and family and sharing stories about our adventure in Japan (after we get some sleep…). 

Thanks for joining us as we shared some of the highlights.

Kyoto back to Tokyo

Today we headed back to Tokyo because we fly out tomorrow.  It’s hard to believe our voyage is coming to an end.

The train ride back was grey and raining and once again we missed glimpsing the elusive Mt. Fuji.

Once relocated in our final apartment, we explored the new area.  Not much was open in this quiet section of Tokyo, so we decided to head further into the city.

After all these weeks of successfully maneuvering through the convoluted Japanese metro and train systems (*only once did we get on a subway going the wrong direction), we finally somehow managed to get stuck in a metro station without a ticket.  We got on using our train pass, but they wouldn’t let us out without a metro ticket.  After much discussion with a few metro officials (including a translator), we finally found one that let us out.

At last set free, we found a restaurant to celebrate our last night in Japan, Japanese-style, of course.

Our return trip to the apartment was without incident.

A Temple and A Shrine

This morning we went to the Daigoji Temple. 

Once again we were not permitted to take photos inside.  We explored the many rooms of the temple and admired the delicate artwork on the sliding doors.  At one of the shrines we made prayers for Yuriko and her family during this difficult time.

The extensive grounds were very beautiful with a pathway through a mature forest, a serene garden with waterfalls emptying into ponds, many small idols and statues, and ancient buildings in the traditional architecture. We took our time exploring all the wonderful sights.

From the temple, we went to the Fushimi-Inari Shrine.  This shrine is devoted to the god of rice, but is well known for its many torii (gate or archway).  There are over ten thousand. We didn’t count (we read it), but it sounds about right because we did walk through the majority of them.  They cover a 4km hiking path up to the top of Mt. Inari.  The majority of them are painted bright orange (some are stone).  The view of Kyoto from the top of the mountain was stunning, but it was a long hike on a humid afternoon and by the end we glad to see the last of the orange torii.

It just so happens that Lukas wore his Fushimi-Inari Shrine Torii Camouflage today too (can you spot him?)

In the evening we strolled through the local streets, shopping for souvenirs.

Rainy Beach Day

I’ve been monitoring the weather to ensure that our day trip (2 hour train ride away) to the beach would be a nice sunny day, not primarily because a Beach Day needs to be sunny, but mostly because the beach we were going to is famous for its views.  Needless to say I was quite disheartened when the partly sunny forecast I’d been monitoring suddenly changed to rain yesterday afternoon.  Our days left in Japan are numbered, so there were no alternative days left in our itinerary.  So, this morning, armed with umbrellas, we headed off to the beach. 

The views along the long train ride were quite beautiful. We went over bridges spanning deep, narrow canyons, through hillside tunnels, and past green, rice paddies to arrive at Miyazu Bay on the Sea of Japan in the town of Amanohashidate… in the rain.

First we went up the cable car to see the view.  Fortunately the cloud cover wasn’t too bad; we could still see the sandbar and bay.  Part of the “tradition” in Amanohashidate (which means “Bridge  in Heaven”) is to view the sandbar upside down.  There are special platforms with railings to help you balance while you bend over and look at the view from between your legs – they even sell pastries and other sweets in the shape of a person bending over.

I think today with the rain and the clouds, it wasn’t really necessary to bend over to get the perception of heaven.

After lunch we took a boat ride across the bay to go up the cable car on the other side.  By then, heaven had really set in.

We had hoped to ride bicycles back across the sandbar, but decided walking was a better idea.  The weather did not deter the kids from wanting to go in the water. And, of course, we had to put our toes in the Sea of Japan, but there were jelly fish in the water which was the only thing that prevented them from swimming (certainly Not the rain).  We had a nice meandering walk back along the beach, collecting shells, sea glass, and starfish along the way.

You can follow our route here.

In the end, the rain wasn’t such a bad thing.  It certainly kept the tourists away, giving us this little slice of heaven almost all to ourselves.

A Lot of Buddhas and a Maiko dancer

We spent this morning with 1001 Buddhas, 28 guardian deities, and 2 gods.  Rows upon rows of 5 foot tall, gold-leaf covered, wooden statues of Buddha and one giant Buddha were guarded by statues of mythic deities and flanked at the ends by the gods of Thunder and Wind in the Sanjusangen-do temple.  Regrettably, we were not permitted to take any photos inside.  One hundred and twenty-four of the 42-limbed statues were made in the 12^th century; the remaining 876 were made in the 13^th century when the temple was renovated, because you can never have too many Buddhas.  They were extremely well preserved and very daunting.

Since we seem to be spending a lot of time on trains, we thought it would be appropriate to visit the train museum.  It is a work in progress, but currently houses many full sized steam engines dating from the early 1900’s, including a working one and a turn table.

The museum has plans for expansion to include more modern trains, including the Maglev train by 2016 – I guess we have to come back...

For a treat today we visited the Cacao Market.  This is a store full of all things chocolate. And that’s not the best part – Really – there is a secret door, with a secret code to a quaint basement café where you can order delicious drinks and desserts – chocolate, of course. So awesome!

To get back in the Japanese mood, our last stop of the day was at the Maiko Museum.  Here we saw videos of the Maiko dancers and Geisha, and displays of various kimonos and parts of their costumes.  We even got to pose for a picture with a real Maiko dancer.

Monkeys, Bamboo, and a Temple

We started out the day in Arashiyama. 

Our first stop after a long hike up a mountainside was to visit some monkeys that roamed freely on the mountaintop.  There was a cage set up for the humans to go inside and feed the monkeys on the outside.

My monkeys had a fun time watching and feeding these monkeys.

Upon our descent, we wandered along a path through a Bamboo Grove.

We were dwarfed by this spectacular forest (no panda sightings though ;-) ).

Not far from Arashiyama, we stopped to visit the Ninnaji Temple.  I don’t know if it was the time of day, or just that this temple was slightly off the tourist path, or if it is always like this, but it was so peaceful.  We all enjoyed the gardens and buildings and wished we’d had more time before it closed.

Afterwards, we had dinner and wandered around the Kyoto train station.  There was an amazing light show of pictures and words on the big, outside stairs spanning from the 2^nd to the 11^th floor.

It was mesmerizing.

Osaka

Believe it or not, someone turned Alia’s camera in to Lost & Found! So, this morning we went to Osaka (about 30 min by train) to retrieve it. We used this as an opportunity to explore Osaka.

During our train ride this morning, we were in the first car and had a “Conductor’s Eye View” of the tracks ahead.  It was fun to watch the stations come and go as we zoomed by on the Express Train.

It was a grey and drizzly day today – a perfect day for Instant Ramen Noodles – The Museum!  Yes, there is a museum dedicated to those long, curly noodles you like to just add hot water and slurp on a cold winter day or when camping.  There really wasn’t a whole lot of information in the museum, just the biography of the gentlemen, Momofuku Ando, who created Cup Noodles.  But that didn’t really matter; the important part was that we got to invent our own instant noodlely creation from cup label design, to mixing a unique combination of flavours, to securing our sealed product in a pillow of air.

After our hot lunch of Cup Noodles, we went to the Umeda Sky Building where we spent some time out of the rain, looking down on the city.

The kids did get some time to play in the rain before dinner.  And after dinner, we worked our way through multi-levels of indoor shopping before heading back to Kyoto.

Hiroshima to Kyoto

We zipped along the Japanese Rails again today and relocated in Kyoto.

Our new apartment is in the Gion district, which is an older part of the city with more traditional buildings. It is known for the Geisha and Maiko culture.

After getting some directions, we spent the afternoon exploring the area.

In the evening, we walked through the grounds of the Yasaka Shrine.  It was very pretty with its orange paint and many brightly lit lanterns.

Peace

Today we went back to the Peace Park.  

We visited the Peace Museum which chronicles the devastation of both land and lives from the atomic bombing on August 6, 1945.  The sense of destruction is bleak, but this commentary is necessary for the betterment of future generations - Lest we forget.  The exhibit also offers distinct positive advocacy for peace and encouragement to move forward.

This was exemplified by a volunteer making Peace Cranes.

She helped the kids each make one, which they placed at the Children’s Peace Monument later in the day.

After the Peace Museum, we visited the Hiroshima Castle, which was reconstructed after World War II.  The original castle was established in the Samurai Era.  We found one wandering the exhibits inside.

We had hoped to also visit the Mazda museum today, but were unable to make an appointment.  As an alternative we went to the Transportation Museum.  It was a short, but fun visit.

Just outside this museum we stumbled on The Blue Moon American-style Diner.  We couldn’t resist.  Inside was a mass conglomerate of everything Americana.  While we dined on Burgers and Fries (served with chopsticks), we watched Roadrunner and Peanuts reruns, and car race mishaps, with American Pop radio playing in the background.

With our bellies full and nostalgia satisfied, we headed back to the hotel.

Hakone to Hiroshima

Today was very foggy and rainy – a perfect day to spend four hours on a train.

The weather reflected our emotions as we parted ways with our cousins.  They headed back to Tokyo and we set out to continue our tour south to Hiroshima.  We have wonderful memories of our time together exploring Tokyo and playing in Hakone.

Once again we boarded the Maglev train, this time bound for Hiroshima.

Our trip was very smooth and almost uneventful, except for the unfortunate loss of Alia’s camera.  We had it on the first train, but noticed it missing near the end of the ride on the second train.  We think it must have slipped out of her bag on the first train.  We have a call in to Lost and Found, but do not expect to hear anything.  Fortunately, she had uploaded all of her photos; we were just sad at the loss.  But don’t despair – this is Japan – land of the Nikon and digital cameras, so we had no trouble purchasing a replacement for her.  Her photo blog will go on!

Luckily our train did manage to out run the rain and although it was overcast when we arrived in Hiroshima, it was dry.  We dropped off our luggage in our hotel and set out to explore. 

We are not that far from the Peace Park, so we wandered through looking at the various memorials and tributes to the souls that lost their lives.

The amount of destruction was devastating, but even more apparent is the revitalization and dedication to  promote peace.