In the footsteps of Tokugaya Ieyashu

Sekigahara 1600

This was the place and time when Tokugawa Ieyasu's army beat the crap out of lord Ishisa's retainers. This lead to the unification of Japan as we know it. As a kind of afterparty, the Nijo castle was built in 1603 as the official residence of Tokugawa and duly visited by yours truly.

Alas no pictures of the inside as this was forbidden.

To keep in the spirit we also visited the imperial palace in Kyoto. Here only the inner courtyards are accessible and some beautiful gardens :

Bicycling in Kyoto

The good thing is that a bicycle is really very convenient to discover Kyoto. We found a store were it gets cheaper to rent a bike the longer you rent it. By contrast our hotel failed miserably: they charge 1500 yen/day no matter how many days you rent it. Our shop starts at 1000 yen, then 800 for the next day, etc. The last day we only pay 400 yen.

Things that suck:

• You have to drive on the walkway (where the pedestrians walk) so forget about speeding through the city. Still it beats walking.
• You cannot park your bike on the street (against a pole, a house, a fence,...) or else your risk that city workers remove your bike. You must use a bicycle parking (200 yen) and these are scarse, small and thus almost always full. Wake up Kyoto!!! A bike does NOT pollute your city. Note that if you ask it, some restaurants/shops will allow you to stall your iron horse in front of their establishment. Today we did not go to several restaurants because of this problem.
• On some walkways it's clearly marked that a part is reserved for bikes. The habitants just plain ignore this. Idem when you frantically ring your bell. 

Our own hotel refuses us to park our bikes downstairs even though there is plenty of space. That's also Japan I'm afraid...

In case you wondered how we got fed this evening: first we parked our bikes at the private parking of the rental shop. Then we walked 12 minutes back to our hotel to wash/change clothes. Some more walking took us to a Japanese restaurant where we managed to eat all this :

Mata kondo!

Kyoto

When Kannon-sama arises in your mind, 

then you are in Oneness with Kannon-sama

Kiyomizu-dera

"dera" means temple. We expected to hear temple bells and hear monks chanting or reciting. However, the temple grounds were flooded with people (most of them were Chinese) and it resembled more a marketplace than a sacred ground. If you're familiar with the scriptures of the New Testament, check out the passage where Jesus flogged the merchants and threw over their vending stalls to get an idea of the atmosphere.

Apart from that, quite a nice place to visit:

Fushimi Inari Taishi Shrine

I forgot to mention: We loaned bikes for 5 days. Since Kyoto is basically flat, this is the best way to get around without paying a lot for busses and local trains.

During the hottest part of the day,  when every sensible Japanese is staying at home, at work or at least in the neighborhood of an airco, we went to the place with the hundreds of Tori (gates). Once more way too many people, but after a bit of climbing, you get rid of the noisy crowd.

Tofukuji temple

This was the best experience of the day: a quiet Zen garden in the middle surrounded by a lot more gardens. This is the first time we experienced a bit of quitness :

Eating and drinking

As mentionned earlier, going out to eat in Japan is a lot cheaper than in Belgium. Having gone (almost) native, we eat our breakfast in front of our hotel in a typical Japanese "restaurant". On entry you have to deal with the vending machine in order to choose the meal (this can be breakfast, lunch or dinner) you want. You then get tickets which get processed by the waiter. Within minutes you can start to eat. My breakfast today was: a bowl of rice,  soup, grilled salmon, some undefined vegetables and seaweed. My wife had also a bowl of rice, a omelette, the same undefined vegetables, soup and seaweed. With that you get as much cold tea as you want.

In the local supermarkts such as the 7/11, or Familymart, one can buy ready-made dishes. Either to eat cold or else to micowave. The local beers (e.g.: Kirin, Asahi, Saporro, Yebisu,...)  all taste the same and they only have the equivalent of horsepiss: nothing above 5% alcohol and only "blond" beer although I heard that there also exists some "black" beer. I miss a good trappist, but under the current weather conditions, I must admit that a cool beer does wonders to restore one's spirit.

Kobe

We took the train to go to Kobe where we will stay at the residence of my friend's mother. Once more getting free Wi-Fi is difficult, something one wouldn't expect in such a technologically advanced country.

Fortunately I'm now in the lobby of Arima Grand Hotel were I have an excellent connection. The reason we're here, is for the "onsen": a hot water spring used as a bathing place. As this is done wearing nothing but one's pride, I can only show "safe for work" pictures:

Here is a "how to take an onsen" manual:

Anyway, Kobe is a nice town and famous for its steak (prices can be up to 40 Eur for only 100 gram!). 

We had some and indeed, the taste is fabulous. It's even so good, my wife proposed to a bull

I was more attracted to these lovely shapes:

The youngsters in the street have ton's of social interaction:

So far for today.

All this typing has made me hungry. What shall we eat today?

Himeji

Himeji castle

One of the must-sees in Himeji, is the recently restored castle. It's about 20 minutes by foot from the station. Many films and TV-series have been made here (do you remember lord Toranaga and Anjin-san?)

Next to the castle are 9 beautiful gardens. Buy a combo ticket to visit both at reduced price.

Enjoy this state-of-the-art photo of Shogun Kurisu and Princess Katareen:

Eating at the mall

It's very difficult to hungry in Japan for more than 5 minutes if you wander through the malls. It's literally crowded with small restaurants. Quite often there is someone from the staff tempting you to go inside and stuff yourself.
We settled for a Okonomiyaki: one sits around a hot plate and the waitress throws a kind of hot pancake filled with vegetables/fish/meat on it:

 

Totemo oishi desu (very tasty)!

If you are in for it, have a Belgian Manneken waffle sprinkled with green tea powder:

Monkeys on bikes

In case you brought one: it's strictly forbidden to let your monkey ride a bike in the mall:

If you do not heed this warning, a little girl with a cute hat will shout at you

And everybody will be pissed off!

First taste of Japan

After a 13 hour flight we safely arrived at Kansai airport were our photo and fingerprints were duly taken.

First thing to do was to get our railway passes. As a bonus, Japanese Railway gave us 14 days of free internet access:

We also had our first experience with a Japanese toilet, but more about that later.
The weather is hot and humid and almost every house seems to have airconditioning.

Using the "Shinki" bus, we got to Himeji: our first stay.

Our Japanese friend took us to a nearby sushi restaurant. Just take what your want from the rolling band... When leaving, the dishes are counted and you pay accordingly:

Today we visited Shoshazan Temple. No nails were hurt building this temple:

Don't forget to wash your hands before entering the temple, also no shoes allowed inside the temple :

By the way: Tom Cruise was here for the making of the movie "The last samurai".

Preparing for Japan!

Hello there!

Isn't it so that in your country you also have this custom to say to foreign friends that they are welcome to stay at your house when they visit your country? Sometimes this is said out of politeness and sometimes it is really meant. 

After knowing a Japanese harpsichord player who repeatedly invited me to visit Japan, I finally decided after many years to accept her offer and visit her in Himeji. To prepare myself, I enrolled in a Japanese course. Fortunately my teacher was very experienced and had tons of patience. Still, after 1 year (the course takes 6 years) I'm only at the level "Me Tarzan, you Jane!".  I'm lucky that I mastered very well the expression "wakarimasen" which means "I have absolutely no clue what you're telling me!". I'm sure it will come in very handy.

This is the book we're using:

Which reminds me: I urgently have to learn how to ask for directions in Japanese. It's in lesson 18 but we stopped at lesson 16. Anyway, the direct flight takes about 13 hours, so there's still enough time left to learn the difference between left and right (the hand which has the thumb pointing to the right is your left hand).

Time to pack. Now, where did I leave my toothbrush and my spare underpants?