Sushi

For our final full day in Japan, we traveled by subway and local train to visit the Fushimi Inari Shrine at the base of Mount Inari. Dating from the 10th century C.E., this shrine is most noted for more than 10,000 torii, or ceremonial gates, all painted orange (or "vermillion" as the promotions all say).

As one climbs higher up the mountain, the gates take on different sizes. It's pretty interesting for the first 1,000 or so, then it gets a bit repetitive.

People come to this Shinto shrine to pray for whatever it is they are wishing for. If the wish is granted, one purchases a torii that is inscribed with a name and dedication. That gate stands until it rots or until the donor is no longer supporting it, then it is removed and replaced by one donated by someone else.

Perhaps more interesting (at least for one member of our family) is that the "messenger animal" for the god of this shrine is the fox. There were statues of foxes everywhere, as guardians of the shrine. The Shinto priests were even selling wooden fox faces that you could write your prayers on, then leave at the shrine for the gods to read and perhaps answer.

As one climbs higher, there are stone altars adorned with miniature symbolic torii and sometimes with candles or incense burners. Many of the altars also had carvings or statues of foxes. But most are not cute, cuddly foxes. As guardians of the shrine, they all look pretty fierce.

After spending a bit too much time at Fushimi Inari, we got back on the local train and returned to Kyoto Station. Across the street from the station is a commercial building where we found a small sushi school on the second floor.

The sushi chef had prepared rice, fish, and other ingredients for us. After telling us something about his life and work, he began giving us a lesson in sushi preparation.

Of course, the difficult parts had already been done for us: Selecting and slicing the fresh seafood, preparing the rice, etc. But he led us through the final assembly. Then we got to eat our creations.

Sushi has never had much appeal for us, but this was really very good. The chef prepared some extras for us so that we could enjoy more. He said that he sometimes makes more than 2,000 sushi in a day as a chef.

Our tour essentially ended with the sushi experience. Several of us went back across the street to the rail station and ascended the six very long escalators that rise to the observation deck.

There were very few people who rode all the way to the top, and the "Happy Terrace." But the view is fine. One can see all the way to Osaka.

The view from up here was probably not quite as good as that from the nearby Kyoto Tower, which is nearly twice as high. But it costs ¥900 (about $5.80 U.S.) to go up to that tower. The rail station observation deck is free and open to the public, even without a train ticket.

From the rail station we took our last subway ride up to the Imperial Palace. We thought we were being clever and using the last of our transit cards, right down to the penny. We didn't realize that this stop was in a different zone than our hotel, so we were each 40 Yen short (about 25 cents each). Once we figured out the machine, we were at least able to get rid of some of our spare change to make up the shortfall.

The palace was the residence of emperors for more than 500 years until the capital was moved to Tokyo in 1869. It is surrounded by more than nine square miles of large, grassy and tree-filled park. In earlier times, there were homes here for lesser members of the royal family.

Even inside the inner wall, the area is spacious, with large gates, imposing waiting areas, a huge audience hall where the emperor received guests, and large ceremonial halls -- some used only once or twice a year.

Interestingly, the actual living quarters of the emperor were not all that large. But they were adjacent to a very beautifully laid out garden with a large pond.

It was about 25 minutes walk back to the hotel in pleasant sunshine with a cool breeze from the north. We stopped at the 7-11 across from the hotel to buy some snacks and get rid of the last of our Yen. At 5 p.m. our group met for our final happy hour and debriefing. OAT gave us each a Japanese fan as a gift for completing 20 trips.

Our farewell dinner was at a restaurant just across the street. It was a traditional Japanese meal with many courses. Most of the food was very good, but we each passed on a few items.

We head to the airport at 8 a.m. tomorrow morning and begin the long trip home.

Hiroshima

The group activity for today was visiting (yet another) Buddhist temple here in Kyoto, along with lessons from a monk on Zen meditation. I'm sure that it was beautiful, but we've done Zen instruction before. So we ditched the group today. This was not a spontaneous decision. We had the bullet train tickets days ago.

We made our way back to Kyoto railway station on the subway more quickly and easily than we'd planned. This is the first workday back after the holiday week, and we were ready for big crowds of commuters. We were surprised that the metro wasn't crowded at all. We were also surprised to see lots of school kids -- many as little as kindergarten or first grade -- who were moving through the station, obviously on their way to school, but completely without adults supervision. What independent kids!

Because we got to the station so early, we went to the ticket office and moved our tickets to an earlier train, getting into Hiroshima almost a half hour earlier than planned. We had little trouble finding the tram from the rail station to the Peace Park, but there were conflicting messages about at which stop to get off. We probably walked a bit more than necessary.

The Peace Park is beautiful. The dome monument -- the ruined shell of what used to be the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall -- dominates the space.

We walked through the park directly to the museum, where we bought tickets (very cheap) and audio guides (only a couple bucks apiece, but probably unnecessary as everything was in English anyway, and often the audio was just reading what was already on the display).

The museum was very crowded, but with few Japanese. Mostly Europeans and Americans. But aside from the Holocaust Memorial in Israel, we don't recall a museum as quiet as this. There was no talking. It was a very somber place, with emphasis on individual stories of the victims, both immediate and later due to radiation.

There was mention of the fact that Hiroshima was a major military base and an industrial center for war material, but the museum focused primarily on civilian victims.

After the museum, we crossed the Peace Park once again, this time in a more leisurely fashion. There were bus-loads of school groups on the grounds.

Mary had scoped out a restaurant for okonomiyaki -- a sort of Japanese pancake topped with cabbage, meat, and seafood that is a local specialty in Hiroshima. We found it quickly, but it was closed. No reason was given. Google Maps helped us locate two other okonomiyaki restaurants nearby, and both of them were also closed. We don't know if it was some sort of restaurant holiday or what.

We continued walking to the Hiroshima Castle, hoping to stumble upon a restaurant for lunch along the way. We had to settle for an ice cream cone from a stand on the castle grounds. But the "raw chocolate" cone was really quite good, even if very different from chocolate ice cream in the U.S.

The castle was built 1589-1591, but was leveled down to nothing but the stone foundations by the atomic bomb in 1945. The "faithful reproduction" was built in 1958 and the exhibits inside still have a very 1950s feel to them. It's overdue for renovation.

From there we walked toward the Shukkeien Garden. Built in 1620 as the grounds for a villa by a wealthy family, it was opened to the public in 1940. 

The atomic bomb attack destroyed most of the trees and other features. However, many survivors came here because there was water in the pond. So many died here that the garden became a cremation and burial site. Reopened in 1951, the garden now includes memorials to the dead. 

There are giant koi fish in the garden pond, and when a woman started feeding them there was a tremendous thrashing of fins and tails as dozens tried to get their fish pellets.

We continued walking from the garden on to the railway station. We were still looking for restaurants along the way, but found many close in the afternoons between lunch and dinner. It was now after 3 p.m.

But in the railway station food court, we finally found a place that was open and specialize in okonomiyaki! So we got our Hiroshima specialty meal after all. With the spicy sauces added, it was very good and quite filling.

Again, we were at the station earlier than our 6 p.m. train tickets, but we had no trouble exchanging them for a train an hour earlier. We made it back to our Kyoto hotel a bit weary from a long day of walking. But overall, our adventure in independent travel in Japan was a success.

Nara

Today our motor coach motored us a little more than an hour to the south to the city of Nara, which long ago preceded Kyoto as Japan's capital city.

The Todai-ji Temple is a UNESCO World Heritage site and is said to be the largest wooden building in the world. It's built completely without nails, only joined wood.

It houses the Daibutsu -- the largest statue of Buddha in Japan -- a bronze that is 52 feet tall. The bronze was once covered in gold leaf, but a fire destroyed that.

In addition, there are several other huge statues, most made of wood, that stand as guardians to the temple.

There's also a giant bronze lantern on the grounds that is thought to date back to the temple's founding in the mid-eighth century C.E.

And there is a pillar with a hole in the base, said to be the same size as one of the Daibutsu's nostrils. Children climb through it and are supposed to earn good luck by doing so.

One wooden statue is a representation of a long-dead monk who was said to have had healing powers so great that just touching his statue can bring relief from illness. We're still waiting for the results.

The most unique feature of the park surrounding the temple is the herd of deer that roam free here. These deer are so tame that you can pet them. And if you buy some of the flat biscuits they love to eat, you can be very popular with them.

Unfortunately, they can be pretty aggressive if you happen to be feeding one when another thinks it's his or her turn, or when you run out of biscuits when one of them wants more. One followed Mark and grabbed his shirttail in her mouth to pull him back when he walked away after giving out his last biscuit.

The deer are thought to be messengers of the Shinto god Kasuga, so they get special treatment. They have their own "house" where they can go to bed at night, and another where does go to give birth to their fawns. It's also interesting that the messengers of a Shinto god reside on the grounds of a Buddhist temple. The two religions exist side by side here, with most Japanese practicing both.

We had to walk a bit to get to our lunch restaurant in Nara, but it was worth the trip. The narrow streets and old buildings are a lot like Kyoto, and as we crossed a bridge over a small stream we even got to see a stone boat!

But on the way back to the bus, three members of the group set off walking at a faster pace and got ahead of the group. They thought they knew where they were going, but missed a turn and got lost. Mariko somehow tracked them down, eventually.

We drove back to Kyoto and visited a museum dedicated to tea culture. A "tea master" and her helper staged a much abbreviated tea ceremony for us. Then we were equipped with a bowl and some "matcha," or ground or powered green tea.

We were guided in the mixing of the matcha. The only bad part was that we actually had to drink it. Whether prepared by the "tea master" or by us, it's pretty vile stuff. Definitely an acquired taste. We learned that it takes about 10 years of study to become a tea master, which made us appreciate grocery store tea bags all the more.

After tea, we were released for free time the rest of the afternoon. Some returned to the hotel, others went to an art museum. We elected to go to the Gion district of Kyoto, along the Shirakawa River.

Gion originated as an entertainment district to accommodate the needs of travelers and visitors to a local shrine. It eventually evolved to become one of the most exclusive and well-known geisha districts in all of Japan.

The district still caters to the needs and desires of travelers, but today more with bars and restaurants than with geisha tea houses. (The only geishas we saw were on the street, trying to entice tourists to buy tickets to a show.) From the district it was an easy walk back to our hotel.

Dinner in the evening also involved a bit of a walk, but it was one of the best meals we've had on the trip, including multiple courses of sashimi, tempura, sushi, and even ice cream for dessert!

Gardens & Temples

Motor coach travel across Kyoto, even on a Sunday morning holiday weekend, does not move quickly. Relatively narrow streets make for traffic congestion in all conditions. But we finally arrived at our first destination, the Tenryu-ji Temple and adjacent Sogenchi Garden.

This temple is on the site of the first Zen temple in Japan, established in the 9th century C.E. The Tenryu-ji iteration of the temple was established in 1339. However, it has been destroyed by fires eight times over the past 700 years. The most recent fire was in 1864, so most of the buildings date back to around 1870.

The gardens, however, remain much as they were laid out by the temple's founding abbot in the 14th century. A key feature of the garden is a number of stones in the pond, near the waterfall, that are set up vertically. Symbolically, they represent carp (or koi fish) attempting to climb up the waterfall.

According to legend, a koi fish that reaches the top of the waterfall turns into a mighty dragon. Thus, the carp represents striving for success in life. The carp flags flying on flag poles all over the country have the same meaning.

The garden is adjacent to the Arashiyama bamboo grove. This forest of bamboo is one of the most photographed sites in Kyoto. Our tour leader spent WAY too much time ambling slowly through both the garden and the bamboo grove. We spent two hours here, and could have seen it in 45 minutes, tops.

The bus drove us on to the "Golden Pavilion," or Kinkaku-ji, officially known as the Rokuon-ji Temple. Originally a villa for a Shogun in the late 14th century, the man got religion late in life and left the villa to Buddhist monks in his will. The garden pavilion, built to receive emperors and foreign dignitaries and covered in gold leaf, was turned into a temple.

At the site, absolutely no mention is made of the fact that the 14th century pavilion was burned by an arsonist in 1950 and rebuilt in 1955. Strangely, there seem to have been very few records of the exact specifications of the original. Some have argued that the present reproduction isn't accurate.

Entrance to the temple is reserved to the monks alone, so the crowds only see the exterior and the surrounding gardens. Again, we spent way too much time here. The only explanation was that it is usually much more crowded than it was today, and so extra time is allotted in the itinerary. We spent a lot of time sitting in front of the gift shop, waiting for the bus departure time.

Lunch was a bit of a drive away, in a tiny little restaurant, off the beaten track. The food was good, but nothing memorable. The best feature, however, was that the restaurant was just a short walk to Nico-jo Castle.

The castle, complete with moat and stone walls reminiscent of Medieval European castles, was constructed 1601-1603 on orders from the first Shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu. Tokugawa united Japan under his rule after a period of civil war, reducing the Emperor to only a ceremonial role for the next 266 years.

Because the Shoguns ruled from Tokyo, and the imperial residence was in Kyoto, the castle's main function was to keep an eye on the Emperor. But the Shoguns actually only came to the castle personally on three occasions over that 266 year period.

The first visit was in 1603 when Tokugawa dedicated the castle and was officially proclaimed as the first Shogun. The last time was in 1867 when the last Shogun came to officially proclaim the restoration of imperial rule. The only other visit was in the 1620s when the daughter of a Shogun was married to the Emperor in Kyoto.

Photos are not permitted inside the castle, but what we saw was basically a series of large tatami rooms where samurai lords awaited audiences with the Shogun, and a similar series of rooms where the Shogun actually held those meetings.

The waiting rooms were designed to intimidate. The audience hall was designed to keep the Shogun above and beyond his visitors. Other rooms were occupied by various scribes and secretaries.

After the castle, we followed Mariko and several others on a short Metro ride to the Nishiki Market. This is the "Mall of America" for Kyoto, but with much narrower walkways and lots more people. We enjoyed a nice dish of ice cream (real, not fermented rice) and enjoyed free samples of everything from honey to bean paste.

From the market back to the hotel was a 20 minute walk, or less. Most of our group gathered for "happy hour" at 6 p.m. The 7-11 across the street sells cheap wine and beer, as well as various snacks that are a surprise when opened because the labels are in Japanese.

After happy hour, we walked up the street looking for a pizza joint. We found one on the third try. Two surprises were that there were so many pizza places, and that the first two were too full to be able to serve us at 7 p.m. on a Sunday night. Nevertheless, we ate well.

Michie's House

Checking out of our Kanazawa hotel rooms this morning, we tried checking our bags at the front desk. But the best they would do was to allow us to leave them in a corner of the lobby. Not very secure. However, when we came back a while later, we found that at least 50 other (mostly Japanese) hotel guests had done essentially the same thing. Theft, or crime in general, is not a big problem in Japan.

Our tour leader, Mariko, divided us into groups of two or three and put us into taxi cabs. Each cab driver was given an address for a Japanese home. Our driver wasn't entirely certain of the address, but he went to the door for us to verify that we were in the right place. We had no idea where we were going, other than that we were visiting the home of a Japanese person or family who had agreed to host us for a couple hours.

It turned out that our hostess was Michie, a retired elementary school teacher about our age. Her English was quite good, so we had no trouble conversing. We left our shoes at the door, of course, and she welcomed us into her very Western-looking living room. There were two small sofas, coffee table, a dining room table and chairs, and some other furnishings. We sat on the sofas and she served us cherry blossom tea and mochis with bean paste filling.

We talked about our careers, our families, and travel. Michie has traveled quite a bit herself. She has a son who, with his family, used to live upstairs. They now live in the house next door.

Michie was proud to show us her home, beginning with a nice galley-style kitchen. A unique feature was a storage cupboard under a trap door in the floor.

A second ground floor room is a traditional tatami room. It is the size of six mats and has almost no furniture other than a small shrine and a nook with a scroll painting.

Upstairs was a rather large room with a bed, small sofa, and kitchenette. This was the area in which her son had lived. Her own room was smaller and much more sparsely furnished -- only a bed and a desk. But she did have a spacious walk-in closet.

Finally, what used to be her daughters' room is now a guest room in which she stores her collection of kimonos. A formal kimono that she had purchased for her older daughter's graduation hangs on the wall as a decoration. She told us that she had paid nearly as much for it as she paid for her car. She uses the car almost everyday, but her daughter has only worn the kimono on three occasions.

Michi showed us several other kimonos and explained a great deal about them. Different kimonos are appropriate for different seasons and different occasions. A kimono she wore to her daughter's wedding would be highly inappropriate at the wedding of a friend or coworker, and a winter kimono would not be worn in the summer, etc. She probably has at least a dozen, and they are all very expensive.

Finally, Michi tried to teach us a sort of card game that is played with miniature cards with twelve suits based on the twelve months of the year. We only got through one abbreviated hand when the taxi arrived to take us back.

Lunch was included at a restaurant in the food court of a large shopping center very close to our hotel. We wished we had known about this place earlier, because there were all sorts of reasonably priced eating places in what they called a "food resort."

We had a little over an hour and a half to kill before we had to be in the station to catch our train. We spent some of that time in the shopping center. There was a big crowd around some sort of person in a cartoon character costume. We thought it was for kids to have their picture taken with the character, and some were.

But we soon discovered that adults also wanted their photo taken this way. People in their 20s and 30s had brought their plush toy versions of the character to "meet" the full-sized character. Some were in cosplay costumes related to the character. The adults were bigger kids than the kids!

The shopping center was crowded, but nowhere more than the Pokemon store. People of all ages were scooping up plush toys, shirts, caps, etc.

There was also a large music store with instruments of every kind, from grand pianos to Suzuki violins for little kids, as well as enough drum sets and guitars to outfit a number of rock bands.

Marveling at the interest in cute characters, we left the shopping center and returned to one of the venues for the music festival. We heard a pretty good cellist, though his instrument was more Asian in appearance than the cellos we see had home. It had a shiny lacquer finish, and the sound seemed less rich and mellow than a classical cello.

We also sat in briefly on a woodwind quintet that was definitely not professional. However, they were easier to listen to than the bagpiper or the polka band we happened to pass by on the way from one venue to the next.

The train to Kyoto was not a bullet, and we had to make one stop to change trains along the way. It's a holiday weekend, and the trains are as crowded as the shopping centers. When we arrived in Kyoto, the mass of humanity in the railway station was nearly overwhelming.

Our Kyoto hotel seems quite nice, and after a brief orientation walk around the neighborhood, we enjoyed a group dinner together before calling it a day.