Kyoto

Posted on November 23, 2016 by jmatie22

The first stop I made was Kinkaku-ji Temple. The temple is a world heritage site, and overall, very scenic. I also picked up a souvenir that I’m gonna give to mom and dad.

After, I headed to Ninjo-jo Castle. It is huge! Both the inside and outside take a bit of time to walk through to fully appreciate.

After, I headed to Kyoto station where I was going to meet up with my tour group. The station is huge (I’ll post about it separately).

Before meeting with my group, I wanted to try a restaurant called Kyotofu (since Kyoto is known for their Tofu). However, because it was a holiday (its Hatvest day), all the restaurant’s had a line. So I ended up eating something at 7 eleven :/.

In my tour group, I met 3 other people from SF. So basically 25% of the tour was from SF lol.

The first stop my tour group went to was a small Temple called Taikoan.

Apparently there is a difference between temple and shrine. One difference is that the temple deals with the here and living, while a shrine deals with the afterlife. Also, the way you pray in a temple is one bow after you ding a bell. In a shrine, before ringing the bell it’s 2 claps, then ring, then 3 bows (and I think a couple more claps?).

After, we went to a really popular temple called Tofukoan.

The following pic is suppose to represent the Big Dipper. Also, a little odd fact… dragons are considered water animals in Japan.

The following pic is a picture of a zen garden. Didn’t really find my Zen though.


The next pic is a pic of me standing in front of a San-mon. It means three (something). You’re supposed to enter it before praying at the temple (the picture before this one).

Before heading to the next stop, we tried some local Kyoto Pasteries. It was basically rice paste and redbean.

After this temple, we went to Fushimi-Inari-Takisha shrine.

To climb and walk around the whole shrine takes approximately 3 hours. Also, the writing on the back of the gates are basically a business card (people pay several thousand yearly to have their names on gates).

The last stop we went to was Gion. Unfortunately, there was no Geiko’s or Meiko’s (Meiji is a Geiko intraining, and Geiko is a Kyoto Gaisha, as Gaisha is the word for ones in Tokyo).

After Gion, I checked out Pontocho with two of the people in my tour group that were from SF (Kenny and Amanda).

The following ally pic is a place where several bars are located that my tour guide recommended (and the pic after that is the bar he said to go to. Unfortunately none of the bars were open at 6pm. They open at 7pm, so I didn’t stay to have a drink).

After Pontocho, I was super hungry (and cold) so I ended up checking out a Ramen place on the way to the bus stop, which would take me to Kyoto Station).

Osaka at Night

Posted on November 22, 2016 by jmatie22

When I got back to my hotel (around 5pm), I took a 2 hour nap. Then, I was ready to hit Dotonbori.

First stop was taking pics at the Dotombori bridge.

After, I checked out a rally awesome restaurant that sold really good Wagyu beef. It was called Steakhouse Juju. The meal was about 13000 yen (including Yamikazi on the rocks).

After, I went to a club called Giraffe. They had 2 floors of EDM. The club was alright, but I don’t think it was worth 3000 yen to enter. It drink were cheap (only 600 yen).

Osaka During the Day

Posted on November 22, 2016 by jmatie22

After getting off from the Shenkensen, I made my way to my hotel using the subway (which is apparently different from the JR… but it also takes suica).

Going to my hotel required me to go through Dontobori (during the day, which looks a lot different from night).

Unfortunately, since I arrived at 1:30pm, they couldn’t give me a room without charging me extra (official check in time is at 3pm). So I just dropped my bags off, and headed for Osaka Castle.

Along the way to Osaka Castle, I stopped the Crystal building, which is a really tall building (maybe the tallest in Osaka?).

The Castle itself was awesome to look at, and the view from the top was pretty sick.

After Osaka Castle I headed for the oldest Buddha temple, the Shitennoji Shrine.

On my way to Sumiyoshi-Taisha shrine, I stopped by to get this fancy donut.

On my way back to the hotel, i of course went through Dontobori. I decided to get some delicious Takoyaki, since everyone was selling it.

Earthquake, Shinkansen Train

Posted on November 21, 2016 by jmatie22

I woke up this morning at 6am… but not from an alarm, but from an earthquake! Fukushima apparently had a 7.3 magnitude quake (where there is now a tsunami warning). The experience was very interesting, since everything in my room was swaying (and lying down on my bed, it seemed like it was rocking back and forth). After, I couldn’t go back to sleep. I checked out of my hotel at 8:00AM. Here are some pics of my hotel.

Before going to Tokyo train station to take the Shinkansen, I met up with Ben for breakfast. We had breakfast at a place called Jonathan’s Cafe.

After, I took the JR to Tokyo Station. Before getting on board, I treated myself to some food:

SFO -> HND

Posted on November 21, 2016 by jmatie22

Arrived at Tokyo yesterday at 2:35 PM. Clearing customs was super fast and easy. Figuring out the train to Sugamo was also not bad, but had a bit of difficult at first since Google maps didn’t recognize my hotels address (apparently because it’s super new). But after loading my Suica card with 1000 yen (which had a previous balance of 500 yen), I was ready to go!

I met up with Ben at Sugamo station, and we headed to my hotel. We were planning to go to the on-sen at my hotel, but they didn’t open till 5pm, so we check out his place.

After chilling for a bit, we went back to my hotel, and check out the on-sen. For the most part, it was similar to the Korean Spa we tried in New York, but slightly better.