June 1, 2008
Woke up around 6 because one of our roommates started snoring and I wasn't able to get back to sleep. Did some stretches to kill time. Went to Daiichi Asahi to get some more delicious ramen for breakfast. Went to Kyoto station to check out some stores before the Noh Festival at Heian Shrine. There were lots of designer labels flying around and I couldn't understand what the fuss was all about. Winston was pretty excited about seeing the Burberry Blue label. Score one for mass consumption I guess. I went back to the hostel early to rest for a bit since I had a bit of a stomach ache. I think it was the bread that I ate in the morning after I did exercises. Never again, it'll be eaten right away or not at all. I think Winston ended up buying a couple of shirts.
Ran into Jen as we were leaving for Heian Shrine and were introduced to Ryan. We head off and manage to catch the last express bus to Heian Shrine. The gates open at 4:30 and the plays start at 5:30. We get there and there's already masses and masses of people lined up to get in. All of the good seats are taken by the time we make it in so we end up sitting on a bunch of wooden flats covered in cloth. The first play is kinda boring but one of the drummers has a crazy robotic hand motion for hitting his drum and I just end up watching him most of the first play since it makes no sense if you don't understand Japanese. Following the first play, the Mayor of Kyoto made a speech and some fires around the stage were lit. The following plays got more interesting although it would have been awesome if I could have understood any of the dialogue. I liked the one with the forgetful daimyo and his assistant the best. Pretty amusing.
The plays end and we head off to find somewhere to eat. We find a place called Chiku-ya to eat since it was recommended in Ryan's guide book. I'm feeling sleepy from waking up early and extra crappy from the bread so I'm pretty close to passing out the entire time we're there and I can't even manage to eat the whole bowl of don buri that I ordered. Everyone else got various types of udon, and our waitress was really slow so it took forever to get our food. I felt on the verge of death for a bit. Stupid bread. I welcome sleep.
Friday, June 6, 2008
I <3 Kyoto
May 31, 2008
It feels really good to have gotten some sleep, although I only managed 3 hours somehow. Some sort of weird jetlag thing? Hopefully I'll be able to force myself into a normal sleep schedule soon.
The hostel's got really nice facilities and we happen to be staying in the newer building so it's all really nice. Didn't really get around to exploring the older side but that doesn't really matter. Went to the washroom and experienced one of those shiny plugged in toilets. The ones for guys have heated seats and a butt spray button. Seriously, it says "oshiri" in hiragana which means butt, and you can even set the water pressure! The womens' and shared toilets also have a "bidet" button and "flushing sounds button". I later found that the flushing sounds button was installed because Japanese women used to flush the toilets all the time when they went because it was embarrassing for them to hear themselves to the washroom. This practice was wasting a lot of water, hence the button.
Walked to Kyoto Station at around 7 to check out the area. It's pretty dead right now and nothing is open at all. Explore an underground mall but once again everything is closed. The rain started coming down a bit harder after we got back from our mini morning excursion. Need to wait until 9 so I can go some money exchanged at the Nippon Travel Agency office right by the northern main exit of Kyoto Station. I feel a bit helpless at the moment seeing as I have lots of travelers cheques and a bit of cash on me but nothing that I can actually use to pay for anything yet.
Went and passed out for a bit from fatigue. Winston came to wake me up and introduced me to a girl he met by the name of Jen. We walked to a restaurant to get some breakfast. Things work differently at some restaurants here, you pay for your food first through a vending machine like ticket dispenser then hand that ticket to the cashier and they bring you your food. I got beef udon. Tasty.
Walked back to Kyoto Station to get to the post office to check if the currency exchange was open so we walked into Nippon Travel Agency or something in Kyoto Station and I got some travelers cheques exchanged for a pretty decent rate. It's Saturday so the banks and post offices are closed until Monday. Travelers cheques are trading at about 2 yen higher than cash so you might want to make a note of that. USD was trading at 102 yen while CAD was at 98 yen strangely enough. 104 yen for my cheques. Sweet. I have spendable currency in my pocket; I'm no longer dependent on on Winston for cash, joy. Winston only has CAD so he's getting pretty screwed on the exchange rate.
After that we went and bought our tickets for the Noh Festival that's taking place June 1st and 2nd, and bus passes for the day at the tourist information center in Kyoto Station. The bus pass was surprisingly cheap (500 yen), and you enter buses at the rear entrance and pay when you leave at the front. Missed our bus so we had to wait an hour for the next to get to Tofukuji Temple.
Got a bit lost right after we got off at our stop and ran into a very nice old Japanese man, who also spoke English and Mandarin. He pointed us in the right direction and got us to follow some ladies who were also headed for Tofukuji Temple. I dubbed him the Wise Old Man. Vending machines were documented on our walk. It was really confusing navigating the back streets of Kyoto before we arrived at Tofukuji Temple. It was pretty cool but most of the buildings at the site were closed so we just took a few pics and left for Fushimi Inari Shrine.
We got a bit disoriented along the way since the bus schedule map was not at all accurate in its depiction of distances between different sites. Found another old man on the street and I asked him how to get to our destination. He says we're heading the right way and we know we're close when we start seeing stores selling shrine related souvenirs. Behind the entrance is a pair of giant fox statues and apparently they supposed to be symbols that protect agriculture. We don't manage to get through the whole thing since it's starting to get dark and all of the Shinto gates block out a lot of light as well. The stairs in the area are covered in bits of moss and slimey stuff so we decide to head back while it's still some light out. Random back streets of Kyoto v.2. I purchase my first onigiri and screw up opening the package and end up losing a piece of seaweed that surrounds the rice. Next time, Gadget. Next time... Jen is amused by our inability to properly open our onigiri.
The bus arrives and we head to a shopping district called Teramachi in the middle of town. Holy crap Batman, this is nothing like a North American mall. It's like the ultimate strip mall with lots of rows of crowded little shops and roads between and connecting streets. Bought a taiyaki thing I think (it was a pancake filled with some creamy goodness). We buy stuff and stop for dinner at a kaitne conveyor belt sushi restaurant. There were crazy things making their way around, like squid, some blue thing that I wasn't even ready to be near let alone eat and some weird tail looking thing. It looked cool but I wasn't about to eat it. Winston and I can't eat that much since our bodies are still adjusting so Jen pretty much destroyed us when it came down to amount of food consumed.
There's an adventure and a half looking for shampoo and some detergent. More bus antics as we just and I mean just miss the number 5 heading back by the hostel. It was right across the street but the light was red so we sat our asses there until the next one showed up.
Things I remember digesting:
-ramen from Daiichi Asahi - A+++. If you're even in Kyoto, eat here at least once. Best ramen ever!
-Aquarius Zero - basically lemon flavoured water that came with a little figurine
-beef udon - hot and tasty
-salmon onigiri - the packaging is tricky to get off
-Pocari Sweat - it's not that great. Has bit of a salty aftertaste
-taiyaki/pancake fish - hot and cheap snack
-sushi:
-squid
-beef
-there were a few more dishes that I forget
-sweetened yams with sesame seeds for desert
Hostel:
http://kshouse.jp/kyoto-e/index.html
There's also the Zen Cafe attached to the first floor of the hostel that's got a buffet from 8AM-1PM.
It feels really good to have gotten some sleep, although I only managed 3 hours somehow. Some sort of weird jetlag thing? Hopefully I'll be able to force myself into a normal sleep schedule soon.
The hostel's got really nice facilities and we happen to be staying in the newer building so it's all really nice. Didn't really get around to exploring the older side but that doesn't really matter. Went to the washroom and experienced one of those shiny plugged in toilets. The ones for guys have heated seats and a butt spray button. Seriously, it says "oshiri" in hiragana which means butt, and you can even set the water pressure! The womens' and shared toilets also have a "bidet" button and "flushing sounds button". I later found that the flushing sounds button was installed because Japanese women used to flush the toilets all the time when they went because it was embarrassing for them to hear themselves to the washroom. This practice was wasting a lot of water, hence the button.
Walked to Kyoto Station at around 7 to check out the area. It's pretty dead right now and nothing is open at all. Explore an underground mall but once again everything is closed. The rain started coming down a bit harder after we got back from our mini morning excursion. Need to wait until 9 so I can go some money exchanged at the Nippon Travel Agency office right by the northern main exit of Kyoto Station. I feel a bit helpless at the moment seeing as I have lots of travelers cheques and a bit of cash on me but nothing that I can actually use to pay for anything yet.
Went and passed out for a bit from fatigue. Winston came to wake me up and introduced me to a girl he met by the name of Jen. We walked to a restaurant to get some breakfast. Things work differently at some restaurants here, you pay for your food first through a vending machine like ticket dispenser then hand that ticket to the cashier and they bring you your food. I got beef udon. Tasty.
Walked back to Kyoto Station to get to the post office to check if the currency exchange was open so we walked into Nippon Travel Agency or something in Kyoto Station and I got some travelers cheques exchanged for a pretty decent rate. It's Saturday so the banks and post offices are closed until Monday. Travelers cheques are trading at about 2 yen higher than cash so you might want to make a note of that. USD was trading at 102 yen while CAD was at 98 yen strangely enough. 104 yen for my cheques. Sweet. I have spendable currency in my pocket; I'm no longer dependent on on Winston for cash, joy. Winston only has CAD so he's getting pretty screwed on the exchange rate.
After that we went and bought our tickets for the Noh Festival that's taking place June 1st and 2nd, and bus passes for the day at the tourist information center in Kyoto Station. The bus pass was surprisingly cheap (500 yen), and you enter buses at the rear entrance and pay when you leave at the front. Missed our bus so we had to wait an hour for the next to get to Tofukuji Temple.
Got a bit lost right after we got off at our stop and ran into a very nice old Japanese man, who also spoke English and Mandarin. He pointed us in the right direction and got us to follow some ladies who were also headed for Tofukuji Temple. I dubbed him the Wise Old Man. Vending machines were documented on our walk. It was really confusing navigating the back streets of Kyoto before we arrived at Tofukuji Temple. It was pretty cool but most of the buildings at the site were closed so we just took a few pics and left for Fushimi Inari Shrine.
We got a bit disoriented along the way since the bus schedule map was not at all accurate in its depiction of distances between different sites. Found another old man on the street and I asked him how to get to our destination. He says we're heading the right way and we know we're close when we start seeing stores selling shrine related souvenirs. Behind the entrance is a pair of giant fox statues and apparently they supposed to be symbols that protect agriculture. We don't manage to get through the whole thing since it's starting to get dark and all of the Shinto gates block out a lot of light as well. The stairs in the area are covered in bits of moss and slimey stuff so we decide to head back while it's still some light out. Random back streets of Kyoto v.2. I purchase my first onigiri and screw up opening the package and end up losing a piece of seaweed that surrounds the rice. Next time, Gadget. Next time... Jen is amused by our inability to properly open our onigiri.
The bus arrives and we head to a shopping district called Teramachi in the middle of town. Holy crap Batman, this is nothing like a North American mall. It's like the ultimate strip mall with lots of rows of crowded little shops and roads between and connecting streets. Bought a taiyaki thing I think (it was a pancake filled with some creamy goodness). We buy stuff and stop for dinner at a kaitne conveyor belt sushi restaurant. There were crazy things making their way around, like squid, some blue thing that I wasn't even ready to be near let alone eat and some weird tail looking thing. It looked cool but I wasn't about to eat it. Winston and I can't eat that much since our bodies are still adjusting so Jen pretty much destroyed us when it came down to amount of food consumed.
There's an adventure and a half looking for shampoo and some detergent. More bus antics as we just and I mean just miss the number 5 heading back by the hostel. It was right across the street but the light was red so we sat our asses there until the next one showed up.
Things I remember digesting:
-ramen from Daiichi Asahi - A+++. If you're even in Kyoto, eat here at least once. Best ramen ever!
-Aquarius Zero - basically lemon flavoured water that came with a little figurine
-beef udon - hot and tasty
-salmon onigiri - the packaging is tricky to get off
-Pocari Sweat - it's not that great. Has bit of a salty aftertaste
-taiyaki/pancake fish - hot and cheap snack
-sushi:
-squid
-beef
-there were a few more dishes that I forget
-sweetened yams with sesame seeds for desert
Hostel:
http://kshouse.jp/kyoto-e/index.html
There's also the Zen Cafe attached to the first floor of the hostel that's got a buffet from 8AM-1PM.
Monday, June 2, 2008
Departure
Winston: Hey Dan, we're graduating this year. Wanna go to Japan?
Me: Sure.
The adventure begins.
---
So our plan is to go to Kyoto, Osaka, Tokyo and any nearby cities/sites of interest while where here from May 30-June 23. We left on the 29th, but time zones kicked in and added 15 hours.
Before departure:
-purchased plane ticket
-purcahsed JR Rail Pass
-purchased travel insurance
-purchased travelers cheques (in USD)
-Travel Stuff-
Visa:
You automatically get a 90 day temporary visitor visa issued at the airport when you arrive in Japan so no worries about having to apply for one unless you're going to be staying longer than 3 months.
Hostels:
Booked hostels online. Information about them will appear as I talk about my stay.
Security Stuff:
You're not supposed to bring liquids onto the plane and if you do its restricted to small quantities but you can put big stuff in your checked baggage. They won't go through your checked baggage either, that's only for if you're going to catch a connecting flight in the states. You also can't lock your checked baggage if you're passing through the states.
I actually brought too much clothing with me. You only really need about 4-5 days worth of stuff that you can rotate through. Also, more clothing equals less space to bring back your awesome Japanese goods.
Now onto the trip.
May 29, 2008 (Calgary)
So I slept over at Winston's house the night before to save him having to come and pick me up before our flight in the morning. We drive to the airport with Winston's dad and head off to get our boarding passes. Our plane to Vancouver was supposed to leave at noon according to the print off we received from the travel agency so we arrived 2 hours early as they recommend on the Air Canada website. I went to reconfirm our flight the night before and our flight number ended up getting change, no big deal. We show the attendant our print offs only to find out our boarding time had been bumped up by an hour and 20 minutes! So we were slightly rushed after we got through the security check (my pants beeped). Uneventful flight to Vancouver.
After arriving at Vancouver International Airport we have to go and find out what gate our flight will be leaving from. We find it and go to get food. I happen to have only travelers cheques and some USD on me when I go to pay for my sandwich. Seeing as the Canadian dollar was stronger than its American counterpart at this time, 50USD = 48CAD. I left my bank card at home. This made Dan sad.
May 30, 2008 (Narita)
The flight from Vancouver to Narita International Airport was about 9.5 hours. Got two hot meals that actually tasted pretty good. Also saved some tasty Manoucher bread that came with our meals. Grinded some job levels in Final Fantasy 3, watched The Firm, passed out for a bit. As we got pretty closd to our destination, the screens showed a real time map of us on the plane and the airport. It was pretty exciting when they turned the screens off because we knew we were about to land. We arrived at 3:25PM Tokyo time. Despite being called Narita International Airport, Tokyo, the airport isn't even in the city! Following the landing we had to fill out a card with some information and get our fingerprints and photo taken. Waiting for our checked baggage took a while so I went to the washroom. Their urinals are pretty cool, but I turn around and there's a porcelain hole in the ground. Well to Japan.
After passing through customs we had to look for the JR ticket exchange to get our actual JR Passes. JR Rail passes are only available outside of Japan and are good for 7, 14 or 21 days. We exchanged our receipts for our rail passes and had to run to catch our train. At this point we were extremely rushed, had not yet exchanged any money, and were without food or water... Caught a local train to Shinagawa where we would board a Shinkansen bullet train bound for Kyoto. At that point we were pretty excited and there was a bit of cool scenery. Just as we get to the platform for the bullet train, one pulls up. Stupidly enough we just get on, before I ask a woman what train it is. It's the KODAMA and not the HIKARI that we were supposed to take. So we get off as fast as we can and 10 seconds afterwards the doors close. Major disaster avoided. Should have just read the digital sign, but I was pretty tired.
The HIKARI arrives a few minutes later and it's a painful 3 hours to Kyoto. Just to spite me, there's a woman pushing a food and drink cart up and down the middle aisle. My stomach cries a little. Legs are cramped from the luggage and my head is buzzing. It feels a lot like pulling an all-nighter seeing as I've been up for almost 24 hours. It feels like I'm in VC again in a different country. This made Dan sad.
We pull into Kyoto Station and there's tons of Japanese people everywhere. A lot of them also have little roller suitcases. We get lost and ask a policeman for directions to the street that hostel is on. The little Japanese I've picked up from years of watching anime tells me that I need to go in the other direction past Kyoto Tower. It's kind of like the Calgary Tower I supposed, except it isn't surrounded by buildings taller than it. The hostel is a 15 minute walk from Kyoto Station.
We couldn't remember when the reception desk for the hostel closed and were afraid we'd be stuck without a place to stay for the night (oops). Luckily for us, we get in at 9PM and the desk closes at 10PM. We check in and get our key cards. Our room has two bunk beds and at the bottom of each is a bunk is a lockable luggage storage compartment. The combination locks that I always carry around with me on my backpack are too thick for the hole on the lock. This makes Dan sad.
We're still stuck without spendable cash and its too late to go to the exchange office. Even worse is that with the time change, it's now Friday night and the banks and post office are closed until Monday. Winston suggested we find a 7-11 which is called 7-11 and I Holdings or something like that over here and manage to get money at an ATM using his bank card. Remember to tell your bank and credit card company that you're going to Japan. We're still starving at this point so we head off to a ramen shop that happens to be open until 1AM. I have never been so hungry in all my life. The ramen is delicious. There's even sliced green onions that I don't really like in it and they taste delicious.
We get back to the hostel and I pass out around midnight.
There's about another 3 or 4 days worth of stuff for me to add, but I'm gonna head off for dinner before I edit my travel notes and get them posted up.
Me: Sure.
The adventure begins.
---
So our plan is to go to Kyoto, Osaka, Tokyo and any nearby cities/sites of interest while where here from May 30-June 23. We left on the 29th, but time zones kicked in and added 15 hours.
Before departure:
-purchased plane ticket
-purcahsed JR Rail Pass
-purchased travel insurance
-purchased travelers cheques (in USD)
-Travel Stuff-
Visa:
You automatically get a 90 day temporary visitor visa issued at the airport when you arrive in Japan so no worries about having to apply for one unless you're going to be staying longer than 3 months.
Hostels:
Booked hostels online. Information about them will appear as I talk about my stay.
Security Stuff:
You're not supposed to bring liquids onto the plane and if you do its restricted to small quantities but you can put big stuff in your checked baggage. They won't go through your checked baggage either, that's only for if you're going to catch a connecting flight in the states. You also can't lock your checked baggage if you're passing through the states.
I actually brought too much clothing with me. You only really need about 4-5 days worth of stuff that you can rotate through. Also, more clothing equals less space to bring back your awesome Japanese goods.
Now onto the trip.
May 29, 2008 (Calgary)
So I slept over at Winston's house the night before to save him having to come and pick me up before our flight in the morning. We drive to the airport with Winston's dad and head off to get our boarding passes. Our plane to Vancouver was supposed to leave at noon according to the print off we received from the travel agency so we arrived 2 hours early as they recommend on the Air Canada website. I went to reconfirm our flight the night before and our flight number ended up getting change, no big deal. We show the attendant our print offs only to find out our boarding time had been bumped up by an hour and 20 minutes! So we were slightly rushed after we got through the security check (my pants beeped). Uneventful flight to Vancouver.
After arriving at Vancouver International Airport we have to go and find out what gate our flight will be leaving from. We find it and go to get food. I happen to have only travelers cheques and some USD on me when I go to pay for my sandwich. Seeing as the Canadian dollar was stronger than its American counterpart at this time, 50USD = 48CAD. I left my bank card at home. This made Dan sad.
May 30, 2008 (Narita)
The flight from Vancouver to Narita International Airport was about 9.5 hours. Got two hot meals that actually tasted pretty good. Also saved some tasty Manoucher bread that came with our meals. Grinded some job levels in Final Fantasy 3, watched The Firm, passed out for a bit. As we got pretty closd to our destination, the screens showed a real time map of us on the plane and the airport. It was pretty exciting when they turned the screens off because we knew we were about to land. We arrived at 3:25PM Tokyo time. Despite being called Narita International Airport, Tokyo, the airport isn't even in the city! Following the landing we had to fill out a card with some information and get our fingerprints and photo taken. Waiting for our checked baggage took a while so I went to the washroom. Their urinals are pretty cool, but I turn around and there's a porcelain hole in the ground. Well to Japan.
After passing through customs we had to look for the JR ticket exchange to get our actual JR Passes. JR Rail passes are only available outside of Japan and are good for 7, 14 or 21 days. We exchanged our receipts for our rail passes and had to run to catch our train. At this point we were extremely rushed, had not yet exchanged any money, and were without food or water... Caught a local train to Shinagawa where we would board a Shinkansen bullet train bound for Kyoto. At that point we were pretty excited and there was a bit of cool scenery. Just as we get to the platform for the bullet train, one pulls up. Stupidly enough we just get on, before I ask a woman what train it is. It's the KODAMA and not the HIKARI that we were supposed to take. So we get off as fast as we can and 10 seconds afterwards the doors close. Major disaster avoided. Should have just read the digital sign, but I was pretty tired.
The HIKARI arrives a few minutes later and it's a painful 3 hours to Kyoto. Just to spite me, there's a woman pushing a food and drink cart up and down the middle aisle. My stomach cries a little. Legs are cramped from the luggage and my head is buzzing. It feels a lot like pulling an all-nighter seeing as I've been up for almost 24 hours. It feels like I'm in VC again in a different country. This made Dan sad.
We pull into Kyoto Station and there's tons of Japanese people everywhere. A lot of them also have little roller suitcases. We get lost and ask a policeman for directions to the street that hostel is on. The little Japanese I've picked up from years of watching anime tells me that I need to go in the other direction past Kyoto Tower. It's kind of like the Calgary Tower I supposed, except it isn't surrounded by buildings taller than it. The hostel is a 15 minute walk from Kyoto Station.
We couldn't remember when the reception desk for the hostel closed and were afraid we'd be stuck without a place to stay for the night (oops). Luckily for us, we get in at 9PM and the desk closes at 10PM. We check in and get our key cards. Our room has two bunk beds and at the bottom of each is a bunk is a lockable luggage storage compartment. The combination locks that I always carry around with me on my backpack are too thick for the hole on the lock. This makes Dan sad.
We're still stuck without spendable cash and its too late to go to the exchange office. Even worse is that with the time change, it's now Friday night and the banks and post office are closed until Monday. Winston suggested we find a 7-11 which is called 7-11 and I Holdings or something like that over here and manage to get money at an ATM using his bank card. Remember to tell your bank and credit card company that you're going to Japan. We're still starving at this point so we head off to a ramen shop that happens to be open until 1AM. I have never been so hungry in all my life. The ramen is delicious. There's even sliced green onions that I don't really like in it and they taste delicious.
We get back to the hostel and I pass out around midnight.
There's about another 3 or 4 days worth of stuff for me to add, but I'm gonna head off for dinner before I edit my travel notes and get them posted up.
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