Osaka Day 1

I hauled my bags out again this morning, grabbed a bus from Gion to Kyoto Station, and hopped on the Shinkansen for the brief trip to Shin-Osaka Station. From there I had to navigate some more trains to get me to JR-Namba Station in Osaka. I accidentally ended up on a spur out of the central Osaka loop at one point, costing be about 25 minutes. The Yamanote loop line in Tokyo was so simple! Why is the Osaka loop all weird? Plus, all the Osaka stations have an intensely annoying jingle that is supposed to signal an approaching train, but I'm pretty sure it just plays constantly. Anyway, I made it to my hostel by 11:30am or so.

After spending a little time figuring out what to do, I decided a dreary day like today would be a good chance to visit one of the few Frank Lloyd Wright houses still standing in Japan. I grabbed a train headed for Kobe and got off at Ashiya.

After a short walk, I could see the house perched on the side of a hill. It was pretty cool to finally visit one of Wright's houses. I'd been to one or two of his larger buildings, but never one of the houses - likely the building type that he is most famous for. As I walked through the place, I noticed everything I'd seen in our architecture history textbooks: the attention to detail and "total design", the hidden entrance, small spaces opening into larger spaces, a unique motif that is repeated in different places throughout the building, the large overhangs. All that good Wright-y stuff was there. Here are a few pictures from the visit:

Afterwards, I decided to head down to the Osaka waterfront to take a look at Ando's Suntory Museum as well as try to get a look at an interesting underground stadium designed by Nikken Sekkei. The whole stadium is sunk into the ground and covered with a public park. As I left the Suntory Museum, though, it started to rain again, so I had to take pictures of the stadium out the window of my train. It wasn't a bad view, actually:

That evening, it was still a bit rainy, but I met a Korean guy at my hostel who felt like going out to try some local food. He was actually an architecture student as well, so we a little bit to talk about. We went to a place and tried two of the foods the Kansai region is famous for - okonomiyaki (grilled vegetable and meat pancakes made up of many different ingredients mixed together), and takoyaki (fried balls of flour with octopus inside). Both were excellent, I have to say. We tried hitting a bar or two afterwards, but the rain had driven many people away. Eventually we called it a night and headed back to the hostel, where there was actually much more going on than there was out at any bar! A group of about 8 or 9 travelers were downstairs in the lobby hanging out and having some beers bought at the convenient Lawson store next door. I ended up staying down there for a while before finally heading up to bed.

Kyoto Day 2

So while the clouds had lifted late in the afternoon on Day 1 to make way for some sunshine, this was not the case Day 2. Nope, it was a pretty dismal day, although I was fortunate that the rain was mostly limited to sprinkles for the first half of the day while I was out seeing the sights.

The first place I visited was called Kyomizudera. This one was accessed by climbing up a steep residential city street that transitioned into a full blown shopping street closer to the top. Many foods and souvenirs being sold. At the top though, wow. A huge vermilion gate and a towering pagoda are set at the foot of the mountains.

As you climb up the stairs, you find the Kiyomizu Temple, a huge structure that sits on a complex wooden column and beam foundation that allows it to perch on the side of a very steep hill. The views over the city are amazing, and the building itself is impressive as well. Here are some pictures:

Afterwards, I grabbed a quick lunch and then took a bus and a train over to the Fushimi Inari shrine area in southern Kyoto. This shrine, being slightly more out of the way, had a bit fewer souvenir stores, which was nice. I walked though a small town center near the train station and came to a large concrete plaza with a giant torii gate. This particular shrine sits atop a mountain with trails leading up to the top. Many of these trails are actually more like tunnels, because they pass under hundreds of small, red torii gates that are only inches apart from one another. I read that they are all gifts from worshippers.

Inari is apparently the Shinto god of rice, and he uses foxes as his messengers. Because of this, there are many scary looking fox statues on the way up the trail.

Part of the way up, I noticed a trail off to the side that some other people didn't seem to be taking, and I decided to check it out because it looked interesting. It ended up taking me back through a dense bamboo forest. It was very peaceful, as there were no other tourists to be seen anywhere. As I went along, I kept hoping it would connect back up with the other trails, but all I found a long the way were some empty or unattended shops and lots of mosquitoes. After walking for a while and not feeling like I was getting anywhere, I decided to turn back.

I made my way up several staircases on my way to the top. As usual at these mountain shrines, the price of water from the shops along the way goes up by about 50 yen every ten minutes. So, remember to buy your water at the bottom, kids.

As I boarded the train, the rain really started coming down. I decided that it'd be a good idea to head back to the hostel for a bit. I had sent some emails about trying to see Ando's Church of Light, only a 30 minute train ride away. However, after checking my email, I learned that it was closed for the next few months for restoration work. Bummer. Eventually I decided now would be a good time to haul my stuff to the next hostel for the night.

After dropping my stuff off at the new hostel close to Gion and downtown Kyoto, I went and browsed the large shopping streets, protected from the rain by the glass roof. The rain wasn't too bad at this point, just drizzling. I had dinner, and as I started to head back to the hostel, I could see some seriously ominous clouds in the distance. Very dark clouds.

I got home and was getting ready to head back to the Irish bar to meet the bartender from the previous night and her friends. As I talked to my new bunk mate in my new room, he too said he'd been to the same bar the previous night. Turns out he'd left like, right as I had arrived. He said he knew the bartender too. So, me and this Finnish guy named Aki headed over to the bar together. We ended up meeting the bartender, her Japanese friend, and two other married friends who were leaving for Australia the next day. We hung out and played some weird Korean drinking game. They also decided to play that popular Japanese game "Feed weird food to the foreigners". They actually ran out to a convenience store to buy us natto (sticky fermented soybeans - very strange, and surprisingly a popular breakfast food), umeboshi (salty, pickled grape sized plums - not a fan), some kind of dried squid jerky (actually pretty good), and takowasa (soupy raw octopus with wasabi - against all common sense, this is also pretty good).

Later after they left, Aki and I went on to find another place. As we were on our way, the skies really opened up in a torrential downpour. We had walked across the river to that area with all the little restaurants and narrow streets, and we ended up stopping into a bar no bigger than a small apartment living room. Eventually, we made it home, very wet.

...a bit more from Kyoto Day 1

I forgot about a late afternoon walk through the center of town I took on the 1st day, checking out the heart of old Kyoto. I said before that much of Kyoto looks like some other Japanese cities, which is true. But, I should say that the center of town is decidedly different from any other place I visited. Here, I was able to understand a little bit the comparisons I had heard between Kyoto and Boston.

A wide, shallow river runs through the center of town - you can see the water rushing by. Along the riverbanks, restaurants and homes that have their backs against the water open up onto large porches and decks that cantilever out over the walkways along the edges of river. These structures look kind of ramshackle and random, squeezed against each other along the shore. It was pretty nice this evening, as the sun had come out and some of the larger decks had been set up with pillows and tables for dinner service. (Some of these shots are from the next day as my camera battery died late the first day)

When you cross the bridge and go looking for the front door of these buildings, you find yourself on narrow streets not more than 6 ft or so across, with tiny stores and restaurants one after the other on either side, similar (but smaller) to the tiny streets in the North End or Beacon Hill areas of Boston. many have wait staff out front pitching tonight's menu to try to get you to come in. As I walked down this street, I noticed little doorways that were open to long dark passageways between buildings, many leading back to some discreet dining location or bar that you probably have to be a local to know how to find.

The next block over, a canal has been funneled off of the main river, originally used for transporting goods quickly between establishments, but now used more for show, I think. It's lined with trees and a cobblestoned street on one side, while buildings are precariously perched right on the edge of the water on the other side. The whole place is very quaint and attractive, and there are so many little passageways and alleys - you kinda want to go down each one to see what you might find.

Here I also found another building by Tadao Ando (the guy is everywhere), the Times Building. Set along the canal, the concrete building is an interesting series of narrow passages and stairways connecting a series of offices and shops and tiny courtyards. Here you really get a sense of Ando's love of dark little passageways, and the setting along the river allows him to make some really cool little spaces. The exit on the far side of the building is the most interesting part. This large building is set along the water quite conspicuously, but the back entrance is a narrow sliver of concrete that is actually squeezed between a restaurant and a store on another street. The guy just makes cool buildings - it's just what he does.

A few more blocks over are some larger streets with overhangs protecting almost every section of sidewalk from the rain (this would come in handy later). Kyoto was also my first experience with Japanese street malls - huge pedestrian streets stretching for block and blocks covered by a glass roof. They're always crowded and there is always something you want to buy every few minutes - very dangerous.

Earlier, I also visited the Kyoto Imperial Gardens and Palace. Sounds impressive, but unless you reserve a spot for one the guided tours given twice a day, there's not much to see. An enormous park with ridiculously wide pathways holds the grounds of the Palace, none of which can be seen. A massive stone wall stretches around the palace grounds keeping the interior private. For me, the most interesting part about this was the physical reminder of the aloof and secretive imperial government of Japan's past (though certain parts of their current government seem pretty aloof and secretive, too).

Kyoto, Day 1

Attacking Kyoto is a bit difficult, because there is just such a huge amount of places worth visiting that deciding where to go can be challenging. Ultimately, I decided to try to knock off some of the sites farthest from my hostel the first day so that I could take Day 2 a little easier. Plus I'd found out that although I wanted to add a night to my stay at the hostel, they were out of beds the next day, so I would have to lug my bags to a new hostel the next afternoon.

Anyway -

I decided to start with a place that I'd decided I absolutely had to see, and that happened to be Kinkaku-ji, the "golden temple". The temple's setting on the edge of a small pond created a picturesque mirrored reflection on the water. It was still a bit cloudy, but the rain had mostly stopped, fortunately.

As I took the bus through the city, I realized why some people said that Kyoto can be disappointing at first. For the most part, much of Kyoto looks like other Japanese cities, although the building sizes are certainly scaled down quite a bit from the high-rise apartment buildings of Tokyo. The city is surrounded on the East, North, and West by mountains, with the city creeping up the foothills on all sides. The numerous temples and shrines are almost all situated around this city edge at the foot of the mountains. It's amazing how you can be walking through the city landscape and be just around the corner from one of these beautiful sites.

Kinkaku-ji was a good example of this, but once you step onto the grounds you feel like the city is miles away. Here are a few photos:

At one point, you can play a few hundred yen to have some traditional tea inside one of the buildings on the grounds. I decided to go for it. I took my shoes off and went in side, sitting cross legged next to some others. An older woman dressed in a kimono brought over a tray and placed a bowl of green powder tea called "matcha" and a small sugar cake in front of me. She bowed and I bowed and I started to try the tea and cake. A minute or two later two Japanese women next to me offered to take a picture and they also showed me the correct way to be doing things. Apparently I'm supposed to drink the tea first and then eat the cake. Also, I have to hold the bowl with one hand underneath and one on the side, and I have to turn it 2 1/2 times clockwise when I pick it up, and then turn it back 2 1/2 times the opposite direction when I put it down. Here's picture they took of me, holding my bowl correctly:

After Kinkaku-ji I walked about 15 minutes down the street to Ryoan-ji, which I had read has the mother of all Japanese rock gardens. While the rock garden was impressive, the landscaping around this temple was some of the most impressive that I encountered. The grounds were lush with plants, flowers, and water. Here are some photos from there:

I then hopped back on the bus for a short ride down to Ninna-ji. This was a much larger site with many different structures spread out across the landscape. Most interesting was a series of buildings which house large tatami mat floored rooms with decorated sliding paper doors, all of which are connected by narrow covered outdoor wooden walkways. This was one of the first places where the age of the structures was most apparent. At some of the other places, the wood had been painted over or restored to how it originally looked. Here, many of the wood structures just looked ancient, with grey weathered wood texture visible in every beam and column.

At night I went out to Gion again and this time decided that as a solo traveler, I had to just go somewhere and find some others to talk to (the hostel was pretty dead on this particular night). So I found an Irish bar where there would at least be a few people who spoke English. They had a decent Irish band playing, so I ordered a Guinness and I talked to the bartender for a while. She ended up inviting me to hang out at the same bar the next night with some friends of hers. I'll get to that in the next post, though.