Japan - Osaka - Day 13 & 14

- Tuesday, October 13th 2015 -

 Ahhh, the final days of Japan.  What a whirl wind it's been!  I'll always remember the actual trip favorably, no matter what happens!

Today we got up and headed on out to the Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan.  Train wise it wasn't hard to get too, I let Emma navigate the train part.  Walking though, I was able to spot the signs pointing us in the direction of Kaiyukan.  We stopped at a Lawsons and stocked up on snackage and headed off after basically everyone else walking.  There was a huge giraffe made of Lego's outside of the building a little ways, and fountains as you got closer.  It was really neat!

Only downfall about the visit was... can you guess?  School field trip!  Excited kids did not remember their indoor voices, and apparently it's ok to tap/smack/hit the glass to get animals attention...?  Anyway, other than not being able to really hear much other than the ambient noise of happy children, it was a very cool experience!  We even got to pet some stingray and sharks!  There's 70 photos below, so I'm just going to do a cut right off the bat.

This little guy had crawled up his enclosure and was nearish to the top!

Japan - Mt Koya & Osaka - Day 11 and 12

- Sunday, October 11th 2015 -

Today we left Kyoto and headed up into the mountains for Mount Koya (also known as Koya-San).  We were staying at a Buddhist monastery called Shojoshin-in.

That morning when we came down for the Kyoto breakfast, there was a line out the door and past the elevators for the buffet.  We went up to the main desk and asked if we could get money in return for our uneaten breakfast.  Having a time table to be up and out by, we didn't really have time to wait on this breakfast.  The Daiwa staff was wonderful and gave us back our 2,000 yen (around $20) and we headed down the street to the cafe we had the first day in Kyoto.  Delicious pastries with maple syrup were had, and more coffee.  Then we headed on back to the hotel to finish packing and getting ready. We didn't have a particular train ticket time, but it was a long journey and we wanted to arrive there with some daylight.  Using the Kansai "thru" pass, we headed off to the station!

Unfortunately we bumped off the time tables provided very quickly, but we still managed to get out to Koya-san without too much waiting around.  The Namba station is HUGE!  I commented as we were wandering around it "This will be our hub next time".  The amount of tickets we had made things a little confusing, I misplaced my Limited Express ticket and apparently needed that to get through to another line.  Anyway, everything was found, and the staff around the station was very helpful in finding our way around. To give you an idea, this is what our transfers looked like.

Hankyu kyoto line ltd Express to Umeda
At Umeda, transfer to the Osaka City Subway Midosuji line (main street!)
Take the Midosuji line to Namba
From namba, find the Nankai Koya Line Express and take that one to Hashimoto
Change trains at Hashimoto to the Nankai Koya line
take the Nankai Koya line to Gokurakubashi
From gokurakubashi take the Nankai koya-San Cable car to the top (Koya-San).
THEN!
From The top of that, take the bus bound for Okunoin-mae and get off at Okunoin-guchi.  The Inn was just up the street from that bus stop.  But what a list of transfers!  Multiple times the transports were crammed full with barely any breathing room.  The bus up into Koya had lots of twisty turny roads.  It was beautiful, but I didn't get any pictures of the journey.

Checking in wasn't difficult, and it's basically like you'd imagine.  Take your shoes off outside, walk through this huge wooden building and up some really really steep stairs in slippers that don't work well with socks... oh, but we didn't have to haul our luggage up, there was a luggage elevator!  Toilets were at the end of every hall, most of them western styled.  There was a public bath, and a gender separated bath (where you wash yourself outside of the tub, and then climb into the tub to relax).

Our room had a lovely view of a garden, a cute tea set, and more beds on the floor.  Anyway, we dropped off our things and headed out.  I wanted to see the Okunoin Cemetery.

Bus stop and to the cemetery!

It was cold outside and getting ready to rain, if the weather had been a little nicer I might have tried harder to go see it at night. 
Check out some information about it here: http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e4901.html

Beyond the cut is more photos and Osaka day 1

Japan - Kyoto - Day 10

- Saturday, October 10th 2015 -

 Today was the day before we headed off to Koya-San for the Buddhist temple.  We had some time before really NEEDING to organize our bags, and there was one thing left that I really really wanted to do.  Fushimi Inari Shrine, known for having 1000 tori gates!

Getting there was pretty easy (I let Emma navigate) and it was literally right across the street from the station.  The place was very busy, but for being a huge facility anyway, it was fine!

Obligatory touristing photos!




















Ok honestly this is just 101 photos of tori gates and pretty shrine scenery, there will be commentary where I feel but enjoy the show.

Japan - Kyoto - Day 9

- Friday, October 9th 2015 -

This was probably my favorite day in Kyoto.  Our plan for the day was to head out to Arashiyama and see what happened.  We knew we wanted to visit the Monkey Park, but that was all we really had officially planned!
This next post is VERY picture heavy, there's like.. 70 photos.

ONWARD!

So, I'm not sure what I did to incur the wrath of Emma, but my first photo of the day was this;

 I do remember her being very unamused with me.  Which does make me think we had the Irish Pub last night, as usually she's unamused when I make her get out of bed.  This day I'm 99% sure was one of the days she was dragging, and I'm my usual "I'M UP! I FEEL NOTHING!" attitude (in reality I do sometimes feel draggy in the morning,  Just not often.)

A couple of train transfers later, we arrive at the Arashiyama station, which is decorated in anime and has a ton of adorable shops right at it (and a foot bath).

of course I photograph the anime boys.

At the train station you're able to buy bike rentals (and other things) so we bought a bike rental for about $10 and got a free footbath ticket with it.  The bikes didn't have to go back until  5pm so we had all day!

Pedaling on a bike that's got a strange setup compared to what you're used to is so much fun.  Basket in the front with all my things, more upright, and of course, crowded Japan!  WEEEEEE! Lots of giggling and minor screams happened.  Emma got bored with my leading slowly and eventually took over. Phhft.
We pedaled our way off to the Bamboo Forest!  Which, as warned, was teaming with people.  Still, it was really pretty and fun to ride though.

Super out of focus, oops.  Picked the wrong one to upload.

The bike locks on these things are brilliant.  You have a key and just move a little lever to lock the tires.  Super fast, efficient and easy.  Our first stop while bike riding was a little shrine called Nonomiya.

Of course I didn't hold still ever while photographing today. Go me.

It was small and cute, but we didn't explore all of it.  Wanting to hit the road again and see MOAR!  While bike riding we were approached by this one area who had keepers at all 3? or 4? entrances. All of them were friendly, and all of them tried to persuade us to go inside and spend $30 on seeing the grounds and 'a couple of sweets'. Bah! It did look lovely, but no thanks.

Wandering around more and not really having any direction, we came across some random birds!

You probably can't see them in this one, but in the full resolution one I have you can. We went down that road a little, but turned around and went another route. 

The other route took us to a lovely .... garden?  Honestly I have no idea where we ended up.  The sign wasn't in English.  Still, we paid the entry fee and went for what would end up being one of the prettiest walks I think we took!

The gate to 'wanna do it?'

After committing to the entrance fee. Which was only $5, and in my opinion, worth it!

Follow the cut, as there's lots of pretty garden photos coming up!...and monkeys.

Japan - Kyoto - Day 8

- Thursday, October 8th 2015 -

 Today takes a lot of effort for me to blog about.  It's not super crazy or chaotic, but it's one of the days that for some reason, I just don't want to write about.  So, apologies in advance if this one is dry and less fun than the other ones.  This was also I believe, the point I stopped blogging regularly on facebook.

We woke up at a decent time so we could conquer breakfast.  Unfortunately breakfast wasn't as good as I was hoping, as it was fairly traditional, meaning... lots and lots of pickled things and seaweed.  There were some interesting things like beef stew and curry for breakfast, but for the most part it was a total experiment and everything was, at most, lukewarm.  Considering we were paying 1000 yen ($10) per person per meal, I honestly don't think we ate what we were paying for.  Oh well.

Our tour guide came to get us at 9am.  Her name is Ms Noriko Sato, and she didn't speak the best English.  Still, we were able to ask her enough questions to get Kyoto sorted, and she soon led us away to begin our sight seeing tour.

Approaching the gates.  See all those yellow hats?

First up was Kinkaku-ji Temple, basically the Golden Pavilion.  If you google it, you'll see exactly what it was. Breath taking, beautiful, golden place.  It had an entry fee, and we had to charge Ms Sato's IC card (transport card), which meant today was going to be painful on our wallets.  Oh well!

Gardens! kinda looking a bit thirsty...

Unfortunately I don't have a billion photos of this place, there was a field trip going on with TONS of children.  They're well behaved, but in the way for any of those lovely pictures I tend to go for.  Still, I did manage to snap a few where there's not quite so many dozens of kids about.  Our tour guide wasn't a very big fan of children or tourists, and her patience seemed a bit low. Emma and I were fine with it, so? Kids are here to enjoy and see their culture, fine by me.  Tourists? Well, I'm a tourist as well!

Kinkaku-ji Temple

The temple is known for its crystal clear reflection in the lake, along with the beautiful gold leafing that covers its exterior.  Unfortunately it happened to be gardener day as well, so the gardeners were trimming the island detail/trees and shrubs placed all along.  I still think it's beautiful, and the gloomy skies made it even more beautiful.  The backside of this building has chains going up it and a little tower up by the phoenix on the top, lightning rod!

Obligatory tourist picture. I look pretty rough.

Coming up is some garden photos, Ryoan-ji Temple, and Ninna-ji Temple.  There are hundreds of temples and shrines in Kyoto, a lot of them being World Heritage Sites.  Which meant our tour guide got in for free, and we had to pay.  Nice that we didn't have to pay for her, but still, ow!  Some free sites are always appreciated...

Japan - Kyoto - Day 7

- Wednesday, October 7th 2015 -

We bid our farewell to Hakone today, making our way to Kyoto.  Once again using the Hakone Free pass and a bus, we arrived back to Odawara Station.  We took the Shinkansen Hikari, which is apparently a very very fast train, the ride being just over two hours long.  I even napped a bit on the ride, as most of the time we were in cities and watching out the windows there really tires your eyes.

While leaving Hakone though, and first boarding the train, you could see Mount Fuji beautifully.  The skies cleared up and the weather got warmer again. The train passed through many tunnels, leaving the mountainous scenery behind for awhile.  Finding our hotel was super easy, but we arrived at 1pm and check in wasn't until 2.  So, we left our luggage behind with the very helpful staff and went to find lunch.

Lacking my usual insane sweet tooth, I passed up the Apple Custard pastry displayed on the right of this picture and got a chicken breast massive sandwich.  Food was delicious and we had chocolate milk with icecream on it as our drinks.  They even give free toasted bread out with a ordered drink, and that was tasty as well!  Emma getting her usual cola, and I went for a delicious Vietnamese cinnamon coffee with whipped cream on top.

The location of this hotel, the Daiwa Roynet Hotel was amazing.  There was a Lawsons, 7-11, and the train station within a stones throw of where we were at!  Our forwarded luggage was there waiting for us so when we came back after lunch and got checked in, everything was ready for us!  Emma had done a quick outfit change, as Hakone had been cold and Kyoto was very toasty.  With still a few hours of daylight left, we pulled open the map and chose a place that was 'close'.

Well.  Kyoto maps are deceiving, what looks close is actually pretty far.  And I'm directionally  challenged.  We decided to go to the Nijo Castle. Which should have been "Just up the road".  We took a rather indirect route, and made a note that this was why there were buses.  We still didn't end up really braving buses.  Probably not a bad decision since it's not like we hadn't walked a lot yet that day, and there's a flat fare fee of 260 yen per ride.  Adds up when you're not going far, which unfortunately, we often didn't go far (we had to just change stations or whatnot).

Anyway.  We arrived about an hour before closing time, and as we walked in they were doing last call for the actual castle entry.  So we made a B-line for that and got to explore the very pretty little castle.  Information was bilingual, if not trilingual most of the time so we could read and find out what things were about, unfortunately photography wasn't allowed inside of the castle.

The details around the castle were breath taking. This decorating one of the arch ways to get into the grounds.

Above is the entryway to the castle that you can't photograph inside of.

Follow the cut for the gardens

Japan - Hakone - Day 6

- Tuesday, October 6th 2015 -

We got up bright and early, having bathed that morning and munched our tasty breakfast.  The company at the table never got the hint to leave this girl alone.  What kind of question to a clearly Asian woman is "Do you speak Finnish?" out of the blue?  Why would she speak Finnish, leave her alone. Her short replies generally mean she's not interested.  Men!

Our bus stop (Sengokuhara) had some others from our accommodation at it.  They'd done everything we were planning on doing today, yesterday, so we went ahead and followed them down the mountain.  Making sure to get on the right bus that way and being pointed in the right direction to where we wanted to go.

Our first stop was the cable car, which sounds like a gondola or a tram out west, but it's not.  Much more like an incline I suppose.  I didn't get many pictures from the car as the windows kind of warped things and it stopped frequently, a main mode of transportation apparently.

Unfortunately, Mount Hakone was acting up and the rope way (actual cable car/tram/gondola) was closed due to it.  Though, I do like the story of "I couldn't go on it because a volcano was having a hissy fit".

At the top of the cable car, there was a substitute bus running to take people back down to where the ropeway would've let you off.  It smelled strongly of sulfur.  The scenery we drove past was pretty neat.  An area covered in smoke that we could only guess what was causing it.




Where we were dropped was the Pirate Ships.
Well.  They're not REALLY pirate ships, more like ferries that are decorated.  Still, it was a beautiful view and a little fun.  Short trip.

 

Our lovely view while waiting for our ride.

Mega healthy lunch of curry bread, milk tea for me, CC Lemon for Emma, a croissant and a  rather unsatisfactory cake for me.

 

There's our ship!

Follow the cut for the rest of the day ~

Japan - Hakone - Day 5

- Monday, October 5th 2015 -

Today we left Tokyo, heading to our next destination; Hakone.
For our trip to Hakone, we took the rail line to Shinagawa, and from then went to the Shinkansen Kodama!  Bullet train, woo!! We arrived early enough to get to see a few speed by, it was so cool! 

 The bullet train ride only lasted about a half hour, taking us to our next transfer point, Odawara. Starting in Odawara we'd get to use our Hakone Free pass, which is a tourist travel pass that lets you use pretty much all forms of transportation for 'free' (pre paid, really).

Super unfortunately, almost none of my photos from this day are actually sharp.  Not sure why.  I know I failed at standing still SOMETIMES. 

so green!

 It's a great idea, since the bus ride to get to our destination was quite a few stops in, that particular bus made over 20 stops!  Hakone was much more spread out than either of us thought it would be.

our Yutaka and towels!

Our room.

The patio!

 Either way, we eventually landed at our bus stop and hopped off.  The "Fuji Hakone Guest House" sign being pretty clear behind us, but my map saying go down a dark alley, and there signs posting us that way as well.  We got checked in, filled out some paperwork and shown our room, number 7.  Being told it was an upgrade and nicer than the other rooms.  Our heater had issues, but otherwise it was an amazing room.  Traditional Japanese! There was a mens toilet and a womens toilet, but the shower was shared, an indoor and an outdoor bath as well.  Our host suggested we take a walk to the end of the street and explore one of the shrines.  So off we went!

View down the hall from our room. 

Leaving the Inn.

hi ho, hi ho, it's down the street we go.

So ahead is just a bunch of pictures of the place we found and the cemetery attached to it.  Not too much to say other than ooo pretty.  So click the cut to continue.