Day 7 - Kyoto... and Kobe!

Today's adventures started near our hotel in Kobe.  After packing up our luggage to forward to our next destination, we headed out for the International Manga Musuem.  The museum was just a few blocks from the hotel, which we reached in minutes.  The museum was once an elementary school in Kyoto, donated by the city to the organization that funded the creation of the museum.

The International Manga museum was like a lending library and art musuem, all rolled into one.  The central exhibit on the second floor described the history of Manga in Japan, some of its styles, techniques and affectations, and tied it all into comics in other countries.  Scattered throughout the building were bookshelves lined with classic Manga from the 60 and 70s, as well as current titles from this year.  Visitors can stroll up to a shelf, pull out a Manga and immerse themselves for hours on end.  Karl spotted a few titles he recognized, but sadly for Western visitors, all of the Manga on the lending floors are in Japanese.  Still, it's a good excuse to get one to brush up on their Kanji!

After a few hours at the museum, we were off to our next stop: Kobe.  While not a scheduled stop on our tour, we were pretty close and Mona found several things we could see and do.  From Kyoto, we took the JR rail line to Sannomiya, about an hour away.  From this station, we could visit the Earthquake Memorial, dedicated to the remembrance of the devastating earthquake that leveled much of the city in 1995.  The rain began during our train ride, so once we arrived, our first task was to find a 100-yen store, to purchase a pair of cheap umbrellas.  The Information booth at the train station had a very friendly English-speaking guide, who told us where to find the 100-yen store, grab a bite of eat, and provided a few maps of the Kobe area.  With umbrellas in hand, we ate a quick lunch at the bus stop (sitting locations for eating in public places is strange very hard to come by in Japan)!  After walking in the wrong direction for a few blocks, a convenience store clerk pointed us in the right direction, but indicated were far southwest of our goal.  A taxi driver got us to our destination quickly, which kept us out of the rain.  Located near the east part of downtown, the simple Memorial featured a single, burning candle and placard.  Later on, we'd figured out that there was a separate museum dedicated to the earthquake, but was located far from the memorial site.

We walked back towards the direction of the train station, now off to see the local Chinatown.  Kobe hosts one of the few Chinatown areas in all of Japan, so this would certainly be unique!  The Chinatown area connected to a long row of other Japanese shops, letting customers easily shift from Japanese to Chinese influences with ease.  We passed vendor after vendor, selling all manner of Chinese foods: steamed buns, treats and other delicacies.

From there, our next stop was Harborland, a shopping and entertainment district located on the waterfront.  Like Odaiba, Harborland also features a large Ferris wheel, but it's also home to the Anpan Man Children's Museum, a hands-on museum themed after a long-running children's TV show.  Harborland featured so many shops in its malls, we never seemed to find the end of them!

After having our fill of shops, we set our sights on our hotel and headed back.  We wrapped up the day packing our luggage, readying ourselves for our train ride to Hiroshima.

Day 6 - Kyoto

Thanks to the overnight rain, our next day in Kyoto would be blessed with excellent weather.  Our accommodations included a lavish continental breakfast spread, a mix of western and eastern breakfast foods.  After enjoying a hearty breakfast, we met our guide for the day, Mr. Takeshi Suzuki.  As the day went on, we learned Mr. Suzuki was a former English teacher and had many years of experience under his belt.  After discussing the various places we wanted to see today, we hailed a cab and set out on our adventures.

The first stop of the day: the Imperial Palace grounds in downtown Kyoto.  Upon arrival, we had to apply for a permit, as only the first 100 guests can attend one of the few daily tours of the grounds.  As we met up with our tour group, we wandered throughout the southern part of the grounds, and got to see much of the restored archictecture, as some of the older buildings had been destroyed by fire and rebuild (other buildings had been actually removed from the grounds).

Next up, we would grab a taxi to Nijo Castle.  This castle was a residence used by the Shogun in feudal Japan, both as living quarters and as a place to meet guests to conduct business.  The exterior gate was being renovated, and is expected to be completed in a few years.

From Nijo Castle, we would walk to the Golden Temple, a Buddhist temple built by the Shogun.  We learned quite a few interesting details about the grounds and what would transpire there.

In very short order, it was time for lunch.  We walked a few blocks from the temple and found a good noodle shop.  While awaiting our order, we were seated next to a group of middle school students.  They seemed unusually excited to be seated next to foreigners, and in a few moments we learned why.  Apparently, they had an assignment to practice their English and ask foreigners some questions.  We were only too happy to oblige them!  In return, Ramona also asked them a few questions and introduced herself in Japanese (with some timely corrections from Mr. Suzuki!).  To end our time with our excited students, Ramona gave them her business card.  They genuinely seemed to treasure the card as they thanked us as they left.

With a good lunch behind us, we were once again on our walk.  This time, we would cut through the grounds of Ritsumekan University, a private university in Kyoto.  We hadn't seen much of the college system in Japan and this was a good opportunity for us.  The buildings didn't seem very different from the college campuses we were familiar with, right down to the comically messy professor's office we peeked into.

Exiting campus, we continued on our way to another nearby shrine.  This was another Buddhist temple, famous for its zen rock garden.  After discarding our shoes at the door, we walked to the perimeter of the garden.  The stones were arranged in a particular pattern of significance to the Buddhist faith.  To us, the challenge was to view all 15 stones in the garden at once.  Unfortunately, one stone was always obscured by another.  Suzuki-san indicated the lesson was "to strive for perfection, but know that perfection was unobtainable".

From the temple, we caught a train to the West of Kyoto and headed for the Bamboo grove.  This was an area adjacent to temple, set aside for growing Bamboo.  And grow it did!  The Bamboo stalks here grew well over 15m high.  Suzuki-san told us that new Bamboo grow to over 12 feet in less than six months!  At the end of the grove, we circled back to an outdoor shopping mall strip, across from the train station.  We ended our day with Mr. Suzuki, getting a few details for the locations we would visit tomorrow.

Through the wonders of Facebook, Karl had stayed in touch with friends from his Japanese class at Eastern Michigan University.  One of his friends, Danielle Alexander, had moved to Japan after college, and was teaching at a school between Kyoto and Osaka.  As luck would have it, she finished her work day early and was available to meet us!  We took the train back to Kyoto Station, looking to meet Dani in the central atrium.  Sure enough, we met her soon after reaching the atrium.

We chatted and caught up on things as we exited the station.  Across the street, the Kyoto Tower and it's 360-degree view of Kyoto beckoned.  Atop the tower, we talked as Dani pointed out many of the sights of downtown Kyoto.  In the clear light of the evening, we could see all the way to the mountain ranges and snapped pictures of many of the sights we wouldn't have time to see.

After leaving the tower, we crisscrossed the adjacent streets, in search of dinner.  We happened across a restaurant with a large grill for cooking okonomiyaki, a savory Japanese pancake/omelette, filled with all kinds of awesome things.  Grabbing a seat at the grill, Dani quickly ordered for us in Japanese.  After living here for nearly a decade, her Japanese was more than up to the task.  Dani filled us in her upcoming wedding plans, the house she and her fiance had bought, and many details about her upcoming trips.  As the last of the okonomiyaki was eaten, it was time to find a place for dessert!

Heading back to Kyoto Station, we knew the fashionable food merchants in the basement would have awesome desserts for us.  Karl chose a strawberry shortcake and Dani chose a Japanese green tea cake.  As we had discovered consistenly across Japan, finding a place to sit nearby was next to impossible.  Dani suggested we try the roof.  Sure enough, we found a place there to sit and enjoy our desserts.

The hours seem to fly by.  Before too long, it was time to share our goodbyes and put Dani on a train for home.  Unlike us, she had to actually work in the morning!  As she disappeared through the subway gates for her train, we set our sights on our hotel - and bed.

Day 5 - Hakone to Kyoto

The began like many others had: in search of coffee!  Our ryokan had a coffee machine in the lobby, so we availed ourselves of a cup to start the day.  We had a myriad of things to do, and a short timetable, so we skipped the breakfast offering from the ryokan and worked on packing up for the next leg of our journey.  After assembling our luggage, we bid farewell to the friendly staff at the front desk and climbed the hill to the bus stop.  In just a few moments, the Touzan bus appeared and carried us to Odawari station, where we would board a high-speed (Shinkansen) train from Odawari to Kyoto.

Arriving at the platform a few minutes before the train was scheduled to arrive, Karl hoped to get a picture or video of the trains speeding through the station.  Sadly, he missed two opportunitties, due to the trains' sudden, yet almost silent appearance.  When our train quietly "whooshed" not the station, we took our seats and found ourselves hurtling through the countryside.  As this was a "short" route with several stops, the Shinkansen was not scheduled to exceed 150mph, not that we could tell the difference between 120mph and 150mph....

Until today, the weather in Japan had been warm and sunny.  Today's forecast included rain for the region, which was sure to add a little complexity to the execution of the day's plans.  Still, the rain was probably welcome to the locals, as it had only rained a few days in the few weeks Karl had been watching the weather.

In just over two hours, we traveled the 240miles from Hakone to Kyoto.  Kyoto, once the old capital of Japan, is known as the most popular tourist location in Japan.  In just a few short moments, we saw considerably more foreigners than we'd seen in Tokyo.  Moreover, we saw many large groups of middle school students, most likely on a school excursion to Kyoto.

Our tour company booked a Japanese tea ceremony with an English-speaking guide for us at a specific time, so we made our way from the train station to our hotel.  While we could take a bus or the subway, we opted for a taxi, to ensure we'd have plenty of time.  In contrast to the classic ryokan we left, our driver delivered us to the front door of the modern Kasamura Kyoto hotel, which could easily pass for an American Hyatt or Westin Hotel.

With a quick change in wardrobe, we were out the door and headed to the subway stop, also conveniently located 20 feet from the hotel lobby.  We took the train to Higashiyama station, just a few blocks from the tea house.  After a short walk, we arrived at our destination.  Our hostess greeted us and led us to a tatami mat-lined room.  The air smelled faintly of incense, from an  stick burning near the door.  We were invited to join a few other guests (a pair of 20-something girls from Switzerland) sitting on the floor.  After a few minutes, our hostess discussed the various preparations for hosting a Japanese tea ceremony, including items such as the fan, tea cups, and so on.  After the introduction, another younger hostess performed the movements of the tea ceremony, gracefully drawing water, heating it, pouring the tea powder, whisking the tea with water and serving it.  Afterwards, she discussed the movements themselves.  After taking a quick picture of her and the arrangements, we concluded our visit to the En Tea House and were back on the rainy street.

We walked back across town to our hotel, and could see Kyoto Tower illuminated in the evening sky.  The tower was adjacent to Kyoto Station and made it easy to enter the malls and shops at the base of the tower, which connected to the shops beneath the station itself.  In the basement of Kyoto Station, the grocers had many upscale food shops.  Delicate tea cakes, ornate box lunches and all manner of foods were available.  Since we couldn't find a seating place to eat, we opted to try the restaurants on the 11th floor.  There, we found an Italian restaurant that served a variety of Italian dishes.

After our meal of spaghetti and steak, we were certainly ready for bed.  Returning home on the subway, we were soon fast asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillows!