Kyoto

Kyoto

We’re on our fourth stop on our big Asia trip and I’m not the least bit tired out! So far, I have crossed the biggest street crossing in Japan, eaten at the largest fish market in the world, climbed Mt. Fuji, and soaked in an onsen. That must be a record! Now we’re on to Kyoto…

DAY ONE- THE RAMEN FACTORY (MAKING OUR OWN RAMEN)

Straight out of an onsen, we traveled to Kyoto, checked into our hotel, and made a mad dash for our first stop: The Ramen Factory. We rushed from the subway to be on time. We were so excited. Our family loves to cook and bake, so we loved the idea of getting a cooking class on ramen.

When we first walked in, my whole idea about dinner changed. I thought that we would be getting pre-made dough as many other people worked along side us. At the RamenFactory, you make your own ramen meal fromscratch (no pre-made dough). It was so much fun!

We cooked our own chicken, pounded our own dough, even stirred our own broth. It was delicious because we got to add spices and flavors by taste. My favorite part was when I used a blowtorch on my chicken and I was able to get that perfect char. I would have never been able to do that at home. I nearly hid under the table when it was my brother’s turn. It was, no doubt, the perfect way to introduce us to some Japanese ramen culture. The ramen was lip-smacking!!! No wonder Ramen Factory’s motto is, “No Ramen, No Life”!!! After some yummy ramen (if I do say so myself), we headed back to our hotel, The Hotel Gracery Sanjo.

It wasn’t the most amazing, 5-star stay, but it got the job done. It was very close to everything. There was even a 7-Eleven accessible from the north tower, which was super convenient.  We went straight to bed after the long day full of trains, ramen, and soaks in onsens (was that even today?).

DAY TWO- WANDERING AROUND KYOTO (ASSORTED TEMPLES)

After some yummy ramen, we woke up bright and early, ready to get ahead of the crowds. Our breakfast was fast and tasty. It is so nice just to have a light meal consisting of 7-Eleven yogurts and pastries. We wanted to soak it all in. After the 7-Eleven breakfast, we headed to Kiyomizu-Dera. Kiyomizu-Dera is a temple on stilts. It is a Buddhist temple founded in 778, but all of the buildings that are standing now are from 1633 or later. Most of the earlier buildings didn’t survive because they were made of wood and so burned easily. There have been many fires over the years in history, so most structures didn’t survive and were rebuilt …but they are still stunning (and old). On the walk up, we were able to browse and shop in many touristy stores.

It was great for getting small trinkets to remind us of Kyoto. Me and my brother collect keychains, so we found some that we liked and decided to come back later. Once we reached the entrance to the temple, we got tickets and washed our hands to cleanse ourselves. We took off our shoes to enter the main hall of the temple, which housed many sculptures of Buddha gods with many hands. I tried to count them all, but there are SO many hands!!! We continued down to flat land off the stilts and looked up. Ideally, we would have been able to say, “Wow, that’s a lot of stilts!” Unfortunately, the stilts were under construction and we could not see anything. We continued back to the entrance of the temple and went back down the street full of shops. We took a turn into the preserved streets of Ninen-zaka and Sannen-zaka. There are many tea houses and shops. You can see that this is a less traveled road, so it is a nice place to see some traditional Japanese culture without the crowds. We even saw some geisha from behind. You can rent a costume and get makeup done like a geisha, so we got to see many walking the small side street. We continued on to Maruyama Park. This park is very scenic. It has many things that you would expect from a Japanese traditional park. There are lots of koi fish in the ponds, rock gardens, cherry trees, perfectly sculpted bushes. This park has one difference- it was the first one of all of the public Japanese traditional gardens. In 1886, Maruyama Park opened and the rest of Japan modeled parks after it. A man also came up to us to say hello and practice his English. The locals are SUPER nice here, and this is just one example. After wandering around the park a bit, we headed to the Shoren-in and Chion-in temples. They are very close to each other and fun to explore. You can go inside a few rooms of each temple and see the monks dusting or praying to the statues. It is very peaceful and not crowded. When we started to get tired out, we headed to a tofu place around the corner. We have a favorite sushi place called Echigo (see Three top eats in LA). One of the waitresses there is from Japan and she recommended this tofu place. The restaurant is called Rengetsujaya. It is a ten-course tofu-based meal — andarguably the best meal of my life.

My favorite course was the delicious tofu gratin. It was creamy. The top was perfectly cheesy and gooey. It was crispy on top and at the bottom, the gratin was filled with tofu goodness. It was my first gratin ever, so I have high hopes for other gratins to come. We finally finished our meal.

We headed to the Fushimi-Inari Shinto Shrine. It is a shrine that impresses you no matter what.

The shrine is full of pathways lined with old red shrine gates, called torii. Many red gates, some seemingly new and some weathered to orange. In front of a big gate entrance sat two foxes, the messenger of the god Inari, who is the Shinto god of rice and harvest, commerce and business. The Fushimi-Inari Shrine was built to worship Inari. It is so amazing to be walking on the endless paths of red and green, a balance of religion and nature. It gives you a sense of time. How have these gates survived? Just touching them, it seems, could break them. It mirrors the big idea of religion. It is old and fragile, weathered and battered. But people still care for it, love it, nurture it. That thought just blows me away. We only walked for 30 minutes and then returned. We were feeling pretty wiped, so we decided to go back to the hotel for dinner, blogging time, and then bed

DAY THREE- DAY TRIP TO NARA

Now, you may ask, how many 7-Eleven breakfasts can you have? My answer is: a LOT. I just love being able to walk into a convenience store and go, “hmm…maybe I’d like that”.

So many glorious meals come from “maybe I’d like that”. We took the JR (Japan Rail) train line to Nara. We were there pretty early, so we immediately got started by watching the deer pass by as we made our way to the Kofukuji Temple. Deer live on this island. They roam free. They have always been respected because they are said to be descended from a sacred deer. We got into the vibe of deer, temples and natural beauty. The temple itself is very pretty. A volunteer told us about the numerous statues. There is not much to see, so we continued on to the floating pavilion of Ukimido. One thing to be careful of while walking to Ukimido: all of the deer droppings! Once we reached the floating pavilion, we walked across the wooden plank path over the water to the gazebo structure. There were great views and it was a nice stop to catch our breath. After some well-earned Pocari Sweat (see Tokyo post), we headed back to the main town for lunch. I must admit, we got a little- okay, a lot- lost on our way to therestaurant

We went to Terakawa, a restaurant run by one man who specializes in tapas. It was like walking into someone’s home. He can only serve 12 people at a time and you can hear timers going off for when he needs to run back into the kitchen. He even wrote us a note on his business card. We ordered omakase (chef’s choice of what to serve you).

We were served small but heaping plates of sushi, tofu, beef, and soba noodles. Yum!!! The sticky rice harmonized with the creaminess of the tofu. There were a few perfectly placed baa-booms coming from the richness of the conger eel sushi and even some gentle notes came from the local potato salad served on saltines (who would have thought that saltines could elevate a dish?). All in all, the tapas were perfectly orchestrated to balance each other out and fill in the blanks. It was amazing – a great local experience as well as a delicious one. After lunch, we were given directions to Todaiji Temple. On the way , we grabbed some deer cakes and fed the deer. They are very friendly and when we were done, we held up our hands and the deer backed off.

We continued on to the temple. The deer walked along with us and grabbed at our maps with their mouths. We reached Todaiji and we were even impressed by the skills of the man who tore our tickets. It was Kung Fu level!!!

Once we reached the main temple, we got our first glimpse of the big Buddha statue number two (see the first big Buddha in Tokyo). Covered in gold, with the most peaceful lookon its face, its right hand was welcoming us in. The middle finger was slightly pointed outward. It took my breath away. There were metal lotus flowers on the dais in front of the Buddha which symbolize how life and beauty can spring up from unexpected spots like a swamp in the case of the lotus flower. Near the lotus flowers, there were offerings of fruit. As I was drooling, I figured that all of the fruit probably goes to the Buddha. No fruit for me. We checked out the other statues lining the hall and we examined their life-like faces. We then headed back to the hotel for dinner and then bed.

DAY FOUR- MORE WANDERING KYOTO (MONKEYS, AND THE BAMBOO FOREST)

We woke up in the morning ready to witness the cutest monkeys ever. After a hasty breakfast at- you guessed it-7-Eleven, we traveled to a different part of Kyoto by subway, where we hiked up a mountain. I came into the climb thinking, “It’s a hill. Since when can I not climb a hill”? Since now. In the sweltering heat, my muscles tired easily. It was about 100 degrees, so I had to drink a lot of water. The climbing was worth it. We got the top and then entered a shack that was like a cage where you got to feed the monkeys. It was so different than the states. The monkeys were roaming around free and we were in the cage!!! We kept trying to feed a baby one, but the food kept being stolen by other older monkeys. We supposed that the baby was still teething. All of the monkeys were so cute!!! We then walked back down the mountain and got a treat for us, not the monkeys. It is amazing what some peach water can do!!! (Thanks again, Japan’s vending machines!!!) After a short walk and a bite to eat, we reached the bamboo forest. Can you guess what it is? I thought I knew what I was getting into. I imagined millions of colossal bamboo shoots rising into the air. Their green leafiness surrounding me. I got about a hundredth of what I was imagining. I mean, sure, a patch of bamboo that you could walk through. It was insanely crowded and there wasn’t much to see. It took five minutes to walk through, so it wasn’t a big time loss. Everyone talks about how great it is, but to me, this isn’t a must see. We returned to the hotel and got a full nights sleep.

DAY FIVE- (THE SILVER PAVILLION, THE PHILOSOPHER’S PATH, NIJO CASTLE, THE GOLDEN PAVILLION)

In the morning, we headed to the silver pavilion. In case you were wondering, it has nothing to do with silver. The only reason that the Silver Pavilion is called the Silver Pavilion is because there is a Gold Pavilion, so they wanted a silver one. It reminds me of the yin-yang. That perfect balance of silver and gold. It also reminds me a bit of the Percy Jackson Heroes of Olympus series, but I won’t get into that. When we saw the Zen rock garden at the silver pavilion, we were blown away. Many little pebbles were shaped and raked into patterns that made you want to touch it to see if it was real (though you could not touch). We walked around scenic gardens, lush forests, and gurgling waterfalls. It was peaceful and calming to be in a slightly smaller throng of tourists. We didn’t take long, though, because we wanted to walk the Philosopher’s path. The path is close to the pavilion and it is overlooked by most tourists. It was so nice to be away from most other tourists on a secluded path. The path was where a famous philosopher walked when the questions of philosophy got too hard or confusing. I can understand how he was returned to sanity by walking on the path. The path is calm and peaceful and it skirts many small towns with beautiful old styled stores and houses. We broke off to Nijojo Castle. Nijo Castle was indoors (thank god). It helped us recover from the heat, though the castle itself didn’t have AC, but just being at the castle was a fun, interactive experience. There were rooms set up as if it was actually in olden-day times, but with wax models, not people. We explored the gates surrounding the castle with an audio tour and decided to get an ice cream treat. After cooling down a bit, we headed to our last attraction, Kinkaku-ji. On the way, we headed inside a restaurant nearby, Kinugasa Zen. We saw many locals going in and we also saw that it had good reviews on Trip Advisor. It was delish! The tempura was sublimely crunchy. The noodles were not bland. They were filled with flavor. It was an overall nice meal of noodles and tempura. It was great, and we did discover how amazing cold noodles could taste. They are a bit slimy, but still great and refreshing in the 100- degree heat (Fahrenheit, of course). After the great noodles, we headed around the corner to see Kinkakuji. The most famous part of this Zen temple is the golden pavilion (yin-yanging with the not so silver pavilion). The golden pavilion is really golden, unlike the silver pavilion, and its goldenness is AMAZING. It shines in the afternoon sun and shows off the gold leaf covering of the two top floors. It is absolutely spectacular. It seems just right that the Golden Pavilion ends our time in Kyoto. As we headed to Osaka, I realized that Kyoto is so much more than an old village. It has so many layers… I couldn’t be more impressed.

 Parent Corner

As Dora mentioned, one thing we tend to do before traveling is to talk to everyone we can who has spent time in the places are planning to visit.  In this case, our good friend Stephen Schiff took the time to write us a long email about all of his ideas and advice for traveling through Asia. Enormously helpful! Then, he happened to be talking to his friend John, who travels to a lot Japan with his husband Michael. Michael happened to have just written up a whole “how to visit Japan guide” for his friends – and Stephen passed it along to us. It was with this guide that we were able to navigate so easily from the Tokyo airport to the hotel on the subway… and his insights on Nara (from a friend of his who grew up there) helped us arrange the perfect day visit. All of this is to say it certainly doesn’t hurt to ask around for advice before traveling!😀

Also, Dora mentioned the JR (Japan Rail) lines.  There is something called a Japan Rail pass that tourists can purchase before their trip to Japan.  Depending on the length of your stay in Japan and the number of JR trains you plan to take, purchasing this pass can save you some money.  If you google Japan Rail pass calculator you can click through and punch in your planned train travel and see if it works for you.  The shorter your stay and the more trains within the JR line that you plan to take the better your chances for savings.  For us, we were going to be in Japan for such a long time and taking many trains that were outside the JR line so it didn’t make sense.  However you buy your tickets, the trains are beautifully maintained, spotlessly clean, and run on time.  The orderliness of the boarding is an absolute joy.  And unless you are traveling during Cherry Blossom season or another high tourist time, you do not need to buy your tickets in advance.  We were traveling in July and had no problems showing up and purchasing tickets on the spot.

STAY TUNED FOR MY NEXT ADVENTURE IN OSAKA!!!

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Dora