Until next time...

I had until 1pm before I needed to head for the airport to catch my flight, and it was a gorgeous clear (if cold) day, so I headed back over to Yoyogi park since it's only one stop from my hotel and really pretty in the fall.  Some trees had already lost their leaves so I got to walk through beds of autumn leaves, and the ginkos were in their golden glory.  There's a really cool little lake with fountains that's quite pretty as well.

Then I grabbed some baked goods for the train and it was off to the airport.

The train was actually delayed at one of the stations.  Not sure the cause, but given the sheer number of trains there are it must be a trick to get things back on schedule.  I had plenty of time to catch my flight and watched Empire Strikes Back on the plane.  I actually slept, too!

Now I'm back home and laundry is done, mail is picked up, and there is some food in the fridge.  Not a bad set of Fridays.

Until next time, Japan!

Home!

Hmmm....

Walking through the leaves

Walking through the leaves in Yoyogi park on a fine Autumn day.

And the fog clears up...

Foggy morning in Tokyo

Meji-jingu, Yoyogi, and shopping

Mellow day that included a trip to Meji-jingu shrine.  This is in Tokyo by Yoyogi park and I remember how beautiful the path through the trees is.  And the shrine is a shrine and not Disneyland.  A nice change after the crowds of Kyoto!

Then it was next door to Yoyogi to see how the trees are doing.  The ginkos have made a nice golden carpet but the maples aren't there yet.  It was COLD!

Plenty of shopping to get out of the cold, and then Thanksgiving dinner!  What else but pie, of course.  Specifically smiling Australian meat pies, one chicken & mushroom and an apple.  For the record, they were fantastic, although I recommend letting it cool since "heating it up" seems to test the heat shields on reentry (and you could burn your mouth if you're not careful).

Farewell Kyoto, Hello Tokyo!

Yesterday I said farewell to Kyoto and got on a bullet train for Tokyo.  The temples are beautiful but I was pretty templed-out and ready for a dose of Tokyo.  I took one last walk around the station and climbed up up up the stairs to check out the view and get a little exercise before the 2-1/2-hour journey.

It's always fun watching the scenery go by at 200+ mph.  Somewhere along the line we passed Mount Fuji, but by the time we got in the mountains it was rainy and we couldn't see it.

I'm staying right by Shibuya, which is home of course to the famous Shibuya crossing.  My room wasn't ready when I arrived, so I headed over to a cafe with a view of the crossing for a really nice crab salad.

After checking in, I made my way over to the National Art Center, which is rather happily connected directly with a metro station.  Happily because by this point it had started raining, plus I had never been there before and this made it easier to find.  The building is impressive, and one of the shows was of contemporary Japanese artists.  It was a juried show, and huge.  I was impressed by the sheer number of pieces, but after a while I detected a boring sameness to them.  Different subject matter, but very much a shared aesthetic and composition. Blame it on the jury? It was interesting to note how the composition stuck out as being very different from Western art but the fact that things were very centered, especially portraits of people.  Smack in the middle of the canvas.  Much like the temples and shrines.  This was really surprising given that the paintings in those ancient shrines are anything but symmetrical.

They also had a nice cafe.

Then it was back to Shibuya and I just wandered around losing myself in the Tokyoness of it all.

Another day, another temple

This time it was Kiyomizu-dera temple, which is a shorter bus ride followed by a longer walk up a steep hill, but that's because you get a beautiful view at the top.  The roads are always a little confusing, and if you go early then it may be less crowded, but that means you can't follow the crowd.  You can, however, follow the person in front of you who keeps checking their smart phone, thus cutting down on your international data usage.

Once you get past the mass of modern-day electrical wires and on to the temple grounds, you look up to see the tower surrounded by trees with only the sound of gas-powered leaf blowers to remind you of the modern world.  That and the parked cars.

But once you walk up some more steep hill (now it's steeper) then you're beyond the blowers and the vehicles.  You are now on a wooden platform perched precariously on the side of a slope with 5 million other people.  It's a great view of both the mountain and down into Kyoto proper, although I must say that some of the general politeness can evaporate when it comes to viewing Autumn leaves.

The leaves were shy of perfect:  Some trees had already turned and some hadn't turned yet and some were confused with green middles and red edges.  Freeze too early?  Not enough cold?  It was quite a view today, I can imagine it's stunning when the leaves are really at their best.

This temple is quite like Disneyland, not only are there a lot of little sub-temples and kiosks (as it were), but it is also merchandised beyond belief.  You can buy candles and good luck charms and more charms and little pieces of paper to hang and wooden things and incense and you name it and you can buy it.  I was actually rather startled when some folks started chanting - oh yeah, it's a temple.

It does have its moments though.  In addition to the spectacular view, there's also the luck stones.  If you can walk from one to the other with your eyes closed, then you will have good luck in love.  That's of course if you don't fall down the stairs. This seemed to be the primary source of entertainment for the high school-aged students who were here.

After soaking up the variety of temples, it was back down the slope to check out the shopping area and grab some lunch.

I couldn't take one more temple, so it was over to Nishiki Market to see what that's all about.  It's the Kyoto version of Pike Place but with much weirder things, mostly fish who've had a bad day and are now filleted, on a stick, or otherwise no longer swimming.  Also a wide variety of other things that I couldn't even identify.

It's about a mile long and connects with a modern-day shopping mall.  Then it was back to the hotel to drop off the heavy backpack and find some dinner.  Tomorrow it's Farewell Kyoto, Hello Tokyo!

Osaka aquarium

Indoor recess today due to sub-par weather.  I decided to check out the Osaka aquarium.  This requires three separate trains but is still less crazy than a temple in Kyoto.  The aquarium is in a huge building by an even bigger Ferris wheel.  The line to get your ticket is of course huge and by the time I got my ticket it was twice as huge.  You have the opportunity to get your picture taken with a shark wearing a Santa hat, but I bypassed that and headed for the aquarium itself.

It's super-crowded of course because they have a little space for watching super-cute otters hanging out in a tree.  Apparently the small-clawed otters can do some climbing and this one was sitting on some branches being cute.  Then there is the giant salamander and it's, well, giant.  This is followed by a display of little crabs on a stairwell.  They're not on the stairs, you are.  Adventures in animal viewing!

Part of the theme here is the Ring of Fire and therefore they have a capybara - the world's largest rodent.  Looks like a muppet.  Then there's the giant isopod which look like lice the size of footballs.  Eww.  Then we get on to the fish: Rock fish, squid, sardines, sunfish.  They have a nice variety but I must say that the enclosures are way too small for some - dolphins need way more space than that and so do seals and sea lions.  They are quite proud of their whale fish but the big one is, well, the size of a whale and is really past tank-size.  I think 10 years ago he was probably fine but now he's just way too big for a tank.  They are fascinating to see though, and this is the first time that I've seen a big one up close.

They have a very nice collection of crabs, and also quite a few jellyfish.  Many of them are poisonous and a few are food - that must be one hell of a trail-and-error.  There were a few species of jellies that I hadn't seen before, and that's saying something.

Then there's the touch pool with stingrays and sharks.  For real.  Along with the good advice not to touch the sharks' mouth.

They also had a really nice shark exhibit of different shark jaws, although rather annoyingly set up with lights and mirrors.  I think the goals was to make it so you see your face in its mouth, but in reality you had a good chance of being blinded by the reflection of a spotlight. Cool to see them all though, and they also had a nice collection of teeth.

And yes they also had ice cream.  Oh, and on your way out there were the Christmas penguins.

Then it's back on all the trains and back to Kyoto station and time for dinner.  Soba and tempura, and it was fabulous.

Good morning Japan!

I'm sitting in Starbucks Kyoto listening to Frosty the Snowman when this guy rolls by outside.