[ by Stian ]
Japan has always been a long life
dream, only second to New Zealand, for me to visit. Though it climbed up to
first position right after I did get to explore New Zealand, so I was
very excited about this trip. As I only had 2 weeks and would be
spending time with great friends from back home, who was only to stay
for 9 days, the plan was to spend most of our time in Kyoto and Tokyo,
and the surrounding areas of these two cities. Kenneth was supposed
to catch up with us after a few days, but he opted to stay in
Australia a bit longer, and we first met again when at the airport in Tokyo, when it was time to leave Japan again.
During my 2 weeks I got to
experience a great deal and I had lots of fun. I
really fell in love with the country, and Japan became another
country I feel that I definitely have to return to (this list is
turning out to be pretty long now). In this blog entry I will though
focus mainly on the cities of Kyoto and Hiroshima, while I will do
Tokyo in the next entry:)
INTRODUCING KYOTO
Kyoto is a city in the central part
of the island of Honshu, Japan, with a population close to 1.5
million. The city was formerly the imperial capital of Japan for
more than one thousand years, until Tokyo became capital in 1868.
There are though some disputes going on with some claiming that Kyoto
is still the legitimate capital of Tokyo, while others claim Kyoto
and Tokyo are simultaneously capitals of Japan. With temples, parks,
bustling business districts, markets, from regal estates to the
tightly-packed neighborhoods, Kyoto is one of the oldest and most
famous Asian metropolises today. Before my arrival to Kyoto the only
thing I knew about the city was that it IS the major center for
historical and cultural sites of Japan.
Arriving Kyoto
Arriving Japan was an amazing
feeling. I was finally about to get to do some real sightseeing and
have some real fun again. I flew in to Osaka international
airport, and from there found my train that was going to Kyoto.
Finding my way to the hostel was not so easy, as I thought I was
clever and therefore got off at the wrong stop. I was though pretty
sure that I was at the right stop and started to walk around to find
my hostel. I walked, and I walked and I walked... I asked some locals
for help, but most of them did not know where I was supposed to go,
and some other pointed me in the opposite direction and told me
«faaaar away», though I did not believe them. After a while I DID
realize that I was the one who had made a fool out of myself and the
locals for once actually were right. So with my huge backpack I
started walking faaaaar away in the damn hot sun, and after a while,
soaking wet, I did find my hostel, the K's House Kyoto.
Accommodation in Kyoto
As I arrived before check-in I just
hang out in the common area, as I did not feel like walking around
the city tired and sweaty. The K's House Kyoto hostel was
actually pretty nice as well, as the common area was large and had
lots of places to sit and even a nice kitchen. And best thing of all:
I had very good WiFi-connection again! I arrived to Japan a day
before my friends. As they were only having a 9 day vacation they
were booked into a much more expensive hotel, but as I have
to really be careful with my spendings I was forced to choose the
cheaper option of a hostel. I actually do prefer hostels too to be
honest, the only problem was that it was located about 45 minutes by
walking from my friends' hotel... but at least I got to see a lot of
the city center on my way to meet them every day then;)
The arrival of Company Trondheim
The second day was a shitty, rainy
day, but it would still be the BIG day for me as I would be seeing 6
of my fantastic friends from back home again for the first
time in more than 4 months. Since I had booked this trip, suddenly
several of my friends from back home felt like joining me for the
time while in Japan, which was very very nice. So I had the pleasure
of hanging out with Erik, Terje, Frode, Morten, Håvard and Jarle for
the next 9 days.
It was great seeing the guys
again....Though I think it was Erik who made the infamous comment
«Wow! Stian. You look exactly ....the same, as when you left»
obviously referring to my lack of tan, despite having been traveling
through summer-countries for 4 months now. I should have slapped him
for reminding me that tanning is a lost cause in my case, but I was
to happy to see them anyways, so I just let it pass, haha;)
Dining and drinking in Kyoto
The first day by myself I went for
lunch at a local restaurant inside the Yodobashi Dept, a big shopping
complex close to the main station. I suddenly realized that
Japan, even though more westernized, might be just as problematic as
China when coming to ordering food, cause it seemed like no one spoke
a single word English, and the menus were all in Japanese as well. At
least the menus contained photos of every dish so I just had to point
at the photo of what I desired, and I did get my food in the end.
Unfortunately I have no idea what the local name of the dish was, or
not even what the name of the restaurant was, as everything was
written in Japanese and no one spoke English...ah well. The rest of
the day I stayed at the hostel as I was very tired, which was
completely fine with me.
The first evening with my «gang»
we had dinner at a restaurant called Suishin Restaurant,
which was pretty close to their hotel. The service at this
restaurant was unfortunately horrible. We were seated by a table, but
that's were the service ended. We tried to get the attention of the
staff, but they seemed to be totally ignoring us. When we finally did
get their attention and gestured with our hands that we wanted to
make an order, they did not understand anything at all. It turned out
that no one talked any English at all, but eventually we got hold of
one of the waiters, who then took upon the challenge of taking our order.
He used and Ipad to take the order, and even before he had finished
taking all the orders, the food was arriving to our table, so the
kitchen was at least effective. The food was nice as well at least,
thankfully. When we were about to pay we did though experience the
same problem, as it seemed like all the staff totally ignored us
again. I was suggesting that we should just leave without paying, at
least we would have gotten their attention and probably got the
chance of paying then...
After dinner the majority of the
group went back to their hotel as they were tired and jetlegged,
while I and Håvard found ourselves a very very nice bar called Mimadeli Bar & Restaurant. This place
was located close to the center of Kyoto, in one of those narrow
alley-streets. When we arrived we totally fell for the charming
exterior of the bar and the interior was just as great. We had a few
beers here and enjoyed the time really well, as the staff at this
place turned out to be excellent, even though only one of the guys in
the bar seemed to speak some English. We really liked this place so
much that we decided to bring the rest of the group back for dinner the next day, as we at least knew that ONE of the guys of the staff
spoke some English. For dining though, it turned out that this place
offered mostly traditional seating, meaning sitting on the floor
while eating. This turned out to be a problem for some (because of
back-problems), but they did have a couple of tables downstairs, so
for dinner this evening we split up as group – so some of us sat on
the floor, while some got to sit by the table. Of course my half
ended up with the waiter who did NOT speak English, but at
least he was helpful and tried to recommend stuff to us and the food
we got was pretty tasty, so we were pleased. The fried wasabi-chicken
was though my favorite: I have to admit though that sitting on the
floor through an entire meal is NOT ideal, not even for me. So I will
prefer a regular table the next time;)
My most challenging meal in Japan came
when Håvard and Jarle wanted to have sushi, which I have never tried.
As I was in Japan though, I was at least willing to TRY, as that's my
aim this year – to try things I maybe usually would not have tried.
So we ended up at Shari Restaurant located in the famous
Pontocho-dori area. Thankfully they had an English menu as well, so
we knew what we would be getting. I went for the «kind» combination
set of eggplant-appetizer, fish soup, tofu, 2x sashimi, 3x sushi,
namafu, beef+radish and stir fried chicken. I have to say that I did
not mind the sushi actually, though I can spare myself the sashimi
next time...
The last day in Kyoto I got to taste
katsucurry for lunch, which is a very typical Japanese dish, and
tasted pretty good as well. For dinner I had omerice with beef
stew at the Restaurant Star – which I believe is very
typical «trash food»-chain of restaurants for the Japanese. I chose
to try it cause I have never seen this combination of omelet and rice
and beef stew before... and it looked funny, but I have to say it was
not the best I have had. It was pretty tasteless all over to be
honest. The restaurant was located in the Teramachi-dori street, which was basically in the heart of the shopping area in the center of Kyoto.
SIGHTSEEING IN KYOTO
As Kyoto is the most historical and
cultural important city of Japan, there are of course numerous
attractions and sights to see here. We only got to see a few as
we had very short of time, but we do feel that we got to see the most
important ones though. Also, as Kyoto is not TOO big of a city –
it's pretty easy to get around as well so almost all the attractions
are within easy reach.
Myohoin Temple and Nishi-Otani Mausoleum
We decided to split as a group for
one of the days, so it was only I, Håvard and Jarle doing
sightseeing together one of the days, while the rest went to see a
castle somewhere in an other city... This
is the nice luxury of being a large group, as we do have the
opportunity to split and do things we want to do, without depending
on all the others (as it's most likely that there will always be
someone grouping). So, it was an extremely beautiful and hot day and
the three of us had decided to go to the famous Kiyomizu Temple, but
on the way we dropped by two other sights that looked pretty nice on
the way. It was the Myohoin Temple and the Nishi-Otani
Mausoleum, and a pretty large Japanese cemetery close to the
mausoleum. I tried to look for information about these places on the
Internet but I was not able to find anything in particular... so I
guess the photos will have to be enough. There are a whole bunch of
small temples and beautiful old structures around Kyoto, so I do not
really expect to find information about all of them in English
anyways.
Kiyomizu-dera
One of the most famous sights in
Kyoto is the Kiyomizu-dera, which is an independent Buddhist temple,
located in the hillside of the Otowasan mountain in eastern Kyoto. The official name is actually therefore Otowa-san Kiyomizu-dera. The
temple is part of the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto (Kyoto, Uji
and Otsu Cities) UNESCO World Heritage site. The temple was founded
in 798, and it's present buildings were constructed in 1633.
According to Wikipedia there is not a single nail used in the entire
structure. The name Kiyomizu is taken from the waterfall within the
complex, which runs off the nearby hills. Kiyomizu means clear water,
or pure water. In 2007, Kiyomizu-dera was one of 21 finalists for the
New Seven Wonders of the World. However, it was not picked as one of
the seven winning sites.
The main hall, the Hon-do, has a
large veranda, supported by tall pillars, that juts out over the
hillside and offers impressive views of the city. Large verandas
and main halls were constructed at many popular sites during the Edo
period to accommodate large numbers of pilgrims. According to
Wikipedia, the popular expression "to jump off the stage at
Kiyomizu" is the Japanese equivalent of the English expression
"to take the plunge". This refers to an Edo period
tradition that held that, if one were to survive a 13m jump from the
stage, one's wish would be granted. Two hundred thirty-four jumps
were recorded in the Edo period and, of those, 85.4% survived. The
practice is now prohibited (thankfully).
Beneath the main hall is the Otowa
waterfall, Otowa-no-Taki, where three channels of water fall into a
pond. Visitors can catch and drink the water, which is believed to
have wish-granting powers. We wanted to do as the locals
ourselves, but wow, it was so crowded at this particular area so we
chose to opt out of it. The temple complex also includes several
other shrines, among them the Jishu-jinu Shrine, dedicated to
Ōkuninushi, a god of love and "good matches". Jishu Shrine
possesses a pair of "love stones" placed 6 meters apart,
which lonely visitors can try to walk between with their eyes closed.
Success in reaching the other stone with their eyes closed implies
that the pilgrim will find love, or true love. One can be assisted in
the crossing, but this is taken to mean that a go-between will be
needed. The person's romantic interest can assist them as well.
Kiyomizu-michi, Geisha district and Pontocho-dori.
Located right next to the
Kiyomizu-dera is the Kiyomizu-michi. Michi means road , and this
street is pretty amazing. This particular day it was extremely
crowded, but we managed to get through anyways. There are plenty of
souvenir-shops and places to eat and drink here. I really
liked the architecture, which was really nice. I did try to buy
something that reminded me of the dim sums I had in Hong Kong, but
they were by far not as tasty as the ones I had in HK unfortunately.
At the end of the Kiymoizu-michi we then headed down the Matsubara
Dori, and then onto another street where we admired the architecture
and the local life. At one point there was a guy covered in blood
coming up to us and asked us something, but when he realized we
did not speak Japanese he walked on. He really looked like he had
been beaten thoroughly by someone, or that he had been in an accident. As he just walked on we guess he was doing OK, despite the
condition. It was a bit awkward anyways.
We then found our way to the
so-called Geisha-district, which is recognizable by the fact that the
entrances and the windows of the buildings are covered, and there was
a barely visible poster by the entrance that reviled that this was
not a regular/family friendly establishment. We did not get to
see any Geishas though as we were there pretty early in the
afternoon. A guy at the hostel told me that he and some others had
gone there in the evening and taken photos of the Geishas, but the
Geishas had NOT been happy with them and chased them away. So
unfortunately I have no photos of Geishas (wish I did have though).
We ended up eventually in the
Ponto-cho, which is (according to the information board on the site)
one of the most outstanding and prosperous gay quarters of Kyoto. It used to be a sandbar in the Kamo-River, but after reinforcement of
the river bank in 1670, houses were constructed along the embankment.
It was sometime later that the 600 meter long and 50 meter wide are
became known as Ponto-cho. In 1712 a lot of inns and tea houses
served by hostesses were allowed to be put in this street, and the
area became a prosperous gay quarter. The main Geisha-street is
located just across the main street from Ponto-cho, and every spring
there is a traditional Geisha dance held at the Ponto-cho theater
which is considered a very popular annual event of Kyoto and attracts
both a large number of locals and foreigners to attend every
performance. Ponto-cho is indeed a very very nice narrow street,
which is worth checking out, though we did not get a particular gay
vibe of the street. Overall walking in the streets of Kyoto is indeed
a very nice experience. On every corner you find picturesque sites
and people are friendly and polite everywhere.
Kinkakuji Temple (Golden Pavillion)
The last day in Kyoto we all went to
see the Kinkaku-ji, «The Temple of the Golden Pavilion». This
temple is the one you see on almost every postcard from Kyoto, so of
course we had to drop by. Kankaku-ji is a Zen Buddhist temple and a
garden complex designed during the Muromachi period and is an
excellent example of the classical Japanese garden design The
correlation between buildings and its settings were greatly
emphasized during this period. The aim of the structure is to
integrate the buildings with the landscape in an artistic way. The
garden designs were characterized by a reduction in scale, a more
central purpose, and a distinct setting. A minimalistic approach was
brought to the garden design, by recreating larger landscapes in a
smaller scale around a structure.
Kinkaku-ji is designated as a
National Special Historic Site and a National Special Landscape, and
it is one of 17 locations comprising the Historic Monuments of
Ancient Kyoto World Heritage Site. It is also one of the most
popular buildings in Japan, attracting a large number of visitors
annually. When you arrive to this place as a visitor it is easy to
understand why, cause it really indeed is an amazing garden. Funnily
enough the current pavilion was constructed in 1955 only, after a
mentally disturbed monk burned down the original one in 1950, after
claiming that no building should be more beautiful than God,
and as he was of the belief that the people worshiped the building
more than their religion. The site of Kinkaku-ji was originally a
villa and belonged to a powerful statesman. Kinkaku-ji's history
dates to 1397, when the villa was purchased from the statesman, and
transformed into the Kinkaku-ji complex. The villa was only a few
years later converted into a Zen temple. The complex itself consisted
of several buildings, but the rest burned down during the 10 year
long Onion War in the 1400s.
Nijō-jō
Nijō Castle is a flatland castle
which was completed in 1626, and located in the center of Kyoto,
literally just across the street from the hotel where my friends were
staying at. The castle consists of two concentric rings of
fortifications, the Ninomaru Palace, the ruins of the Honmaru Palace,
various support buildings and several gardens. The surface area of
the castle is 275,000 square meters, of which 8000 square meters is
occupied by buildings.
We chose to go here as it was very
close to the hotel and made it very easy for the rest to go back to
the hotel afterwards and relax before departure to Tokyo later in the
evening. It really is a nice castle-complex, though I have to say
I have seen more interesting complexes as the details on the buildings
are more minimalistic here compared to other places.
HIROSHIMA
The third day in Kyoto (which would
be the second day of Company Trondheim) we decided to go to Hiroshima
as it is not so far away from Kyoto. By traveling to Hiroshima I got
to experience the famous Shinkhansen Nozomin, but WOW
it's an expensive trip. Overall, traveling within Japan is VERY
expensive. My friends had purchased each their own Japan Rail pass before arrival,
which they could travel for «free» with anywhere in Japan, during
their stay. Two and a half regular ride with the train in Japan
covered the cost of this pass actually... so I definitely should have
had one as well as back and forth Kyoto-Hiroshima was 2 rides, and
then I also had to go to Tokyo as well... So I was about to spend
twice as much on traveling expenses compared to my friends, which is
pretty annoying to realize, as I am the one fighting the budget.
Though, I had expected Japan to be way more expensive than any other
country, so I was not surprised. I of course could have just stayed in
Kyoto, but I chose to join for Hiroshima as it is a very interesting
city with lot's of history and we all really wanted to see it.
Introducing Hiroshima
Hiroshima, meaning «wide island»,
a city with a population of 1,2 million inhabitants, is best known as
the first city in history to be targeted by a nuclear weapon. This
happen when the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) dropped the atomic bomb "Little Boy" on it at 8:15 a.m. on August 6, 1945, near the end of
World War II. The city has since then therefore taken on a mission to
inform the world about the severe damage nuclear war can cause, and
this is also why we chose to go to Hiroshima, to explore the
war-history of the city.
Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park
The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park is
a memorial park in the center of Hiroshima. It is dedicated to
the legacy of Hiroshima as the first city in the world to suffer a
nuclear attack, and to the memories of the bomb's direct and indirect
victims (of whom there may have been as many as 140,000). After
arrival to the city, this park became our first stop.
The location of Hiroshima Peace
Memorial Park was once the city’s busiest downtown commercial and
residential district. The park was built on open field that was
created by the explosion. Today there are a number of memorials and
monuments, museums, and lecture halls, which draw over a million
visitors annually. The annual 6 August Peace Memorial Ceremony, which
is sponsored by the city of Hiroshima, is also held in the park. The
purpose of the Peace Memorial Park is to not only memorialize the
victims, but also to establish the memory of nuclear horrors and
advocate world peace.
The most notable construction on in
the memorial park is the A-bomb Dome, which is the skeletal ruins of
the former Industrial Promotion Hall. It is the building closest
to the hypocenter of the nuclear bomb that remained at least
partially standing. It was left how it was after the bombing in
memory of the casualties. The dome is listed as a UNESCO world
heritage site.
Other things to see in the park is
the children peace monument and the rest house (though we did not go
inside the rest house). Also the memorial cenotaph, which holds
the names of everyone killed by the atomic bomb, and the peace flame,
which was lit in 1964 and has burned continuously since then – and which
will remain lit until all nuclear bombs on the planet are destroyed
and the planet is free from the threat of nuclear annihilation, are both worth seeing. Then
there is as well the national peace memorial hall, which is an
underground construction, with a clock on the roof showing the time
8:15, the time of the dropping of the bomb.
Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum
The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum is
located in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. It was established in
August 1955 and the museum exhibit presents the facts of the atomic
bombing, with the aims of contributing to the abolition of nuclear
weapons throughout the world, and of promoting world peace. It is the
most popular of Hiroshima's destinations for school field-trips from
all over Japan and for international visitors, too. Fifty-three
million people had visited the museum from its opening in 1955
through 2005. The number of visitors is over one million per year.
I am not much of a museum guy,
unless it's modern art, or museums dedicated to specific
ethnic/native groups that I find interesting, but this museum was a
must see for me. This museum do portray the horrific outcomes of
the atomic bombing very well and there is a lot of artifacts, remains
and photos displayed throughout the building, as well as an educational
part of how an a-bomb works as well as the effect of radiation is
described. We also got introduced to the whole process which took
place in the US, before the US decided to drop the bomb – including
the choice of cities (as there were many potential Japanese cities
that could have been bombed instead of Hiroshima and Nagasaki). It
really is a horrible part of history to witness, though I was a bit
surprised, cause I was expecting to be even more affected than what I
was. I have to say that the Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh had a
stronger effect on me to be honest...but this still is a very good
museum and it is very educative and emotional. Especially when you
see the kids toys, and how the radiation affected the toys – you can
then only imagine how it affected the kids:(
Dining in Hiroshima: Hiroshima Style Okonomiyaki
As we were in Hiroshima only a few
hours we did not get to do much dining. We ended up having lunch
the Italian restaurant San Marino, where we had a salad and then
pasta, which was nothing to shout hooray about really. Hiroshima is though known for their okonomiyaki, which is a Japanese savoury pancake
containing a variety of ingredients. The name is derived from the
word okonomi, meaning "what you like" or "what you
want", and yaki meaning "grilled" or "cooked".
Okonomiyaki can be found throughout all of Japan, but it is prepared
differently depending on it's origin. So my okonomiyaki was of course
Hiroshima-style, one of two main styles. Toppings and batters tend to vary according to
region as well. I had a kimchi-and green onion okonomiyaki, which was
pretty ok. It was different, and kind of messy to eat, but tasted
nice:) The other main style of okonomiyaki is the Osaka-style. The
main difference between the two styles is that the ingredients in the
Osaka style is all mixed up before fried, while in the
Hiroshima-style they are layered (and not mixed all together).
People of Kyoto and Hiroshima
I have to say that I did find the
people of Kyoto and Hiroshima to be very nice, even though a lot of
them don't seem to speak English at all. I did not get to know any
local people in particular though as I did not do couchsurfing, or
did not use any app's, as I just wanted to hang out with my friends.
The only negative thing I have to point out is that Japan seems to be
a racist country, and this time it was us, the white foreigners, who were the victims. We were not aware of this before arrival, but in Japan
there are many places which are NOT foreign-friendly. We wanted to
check out this gay-club, and the website said it was
foreign-friendly, but when we arrived we were told it was full, but
it was clearly not, so they refused us entry. So it was not so
foreign-friendly after all. Ah well... this is though, as I
understood, accepted behavior throughout Japan, which is a bit sad.
So we never got to experience the gay scene in Kyoto, as we did not
care for looking for another place, as it was late this one
evening and most places seemed to close up.
But all in all: I LOVED KYOTO:) Very
nice experience indeed:)
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