Week 153: Turkey Sandwich

So I had a few days free of vacation, and Turkey was one of the quickest places to go to.  So why not?  Well, the weather's a bit cold, and rainy.  We had a buddy that was coming back from the US on his home trip, and we tried to plan it so we could meet up, and he could just extend his layover by a couple days, and the weekend.  Unfortunately, we missed our timing a little bit, and he was a day late.

It wasn't a terrible thing, it gave me and the other guy, Jacob a chance to scope out the place, know where our housing was, and to get a general gist of our surroundings.  It was a pretty good spot, kinda in the middle of the nightlife, the main mall street.  Best of all, it wasn't incredibly hard to stumble back to in case of getting lost later on.

So we did what any normal person who had been stuck in Saudi Arabia for a while would do.  We got a large bottle of scotch (gold label Johnny Walker) checked in, and had a few drinks to warm up for the day.  By the time we got settled, the rain had gotten a little better, and the day started warming up.  We walked down the main street, the Istiklal cd south until we found something that peaked our interest.  In this case, this meant beer bar, and tower.  The beer bar, the Eskici Pera just so happened to have a happy hour, and wifi.  Oh, and a hilarous boob sign.

It makes a good point.  I had a beer though. 

Just enough for us to find how to get to the Galata Tower.  So the Galata Tower was built back in 1348, 67 meters tall, and was originally built to replace an older one destroyed in a previous war, but with the same purpose.  Fire-spotting.  We didn't see any fires while we were on top, but got some pretty good pictures of what Istanbul had set for us.

I don't remember exactly what we did that night, I'd imagine something with beer, checking out some of the nightlife (people stayed out till late, even on a weekday) having a beer and a live band.

The next day we decided to take a taxi out to the northern side of the city, near the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge bridge.  We got dropped off at the wrong place, so we got an "opportunity" to do a little detour up the pier, which had some large boats, and pretty gorgeous views.

At the end of the walk, we found a higher recommended breakfast spot, with a good view of the Asia side of Istanbul.  Was the breakfast good?  It wasn't bad, the Turkish Coffee was pretty good, and the sausage was really greasy.  Good for a cold day, on the brink of rain (again.)  The birds liked it.

Within five minutes of the restaurant was a giant fortress.  Nearly no visitors, as the rain was starting to drizzle, but this wouldn't stop us!  We weren't going to be come back any time soon, so what's the harm of a little rain.  We had discovered the  Rumelian Castle.  This pretty huge castle sitting on top of the side of a hill, was built back in 1452.  It lost its strategic importance once a larger fortress was built closer to the black sea, a couple of hundred years later.  It did sink one ship this one time.  That's the only history I could find.  We did see a big tour ship go by, singing some football chant.  The echoing from the castle was pretty neat.

The bridge that you see in the background of the other picture is one of the bridge that separates the Asia side of Istanbul from the European side.  We didn't venture over to the Asia side, as there wasn't much to see, it's kinda where people live, and that's really about it.  The business side, tourist side, and party side can all be found on the Europe side.  Plus you may have to pay to take bridge over.  Not worth it in such a short time frame.

After lingering around a little bit, we headed towards a good happy hour, as we waited for Andrew to finally arrive from the airport.  We were in the esteemed Ortakoy area of Instanbul, known for beautiful views, good food, and lots of people trying to get you to go into their restaurants/bars.  As we walked around the area, people from everywhere were yelling, telling you how great their food was.  They must have seen it written on our faces, everyone was telling how great their happy hour was.  It's not always a terrible thing to be the kid everyone wants to have in their restaurant.  It was pretty fun, some good food and drinks, while we watched the world go by around us.  Cats licking themselves, while people sold children birdseed to feed the army of pigeons and some dogs who just tried to keep dry.

We finally met up with Andrew for the night, got him caught up with what he missed, and went somewhere fun for dinner.  It was very similar to what we eat in Saudi, mixed grill and kebobs, but it was good.  Despite the look on Jacob's face, it was a nice way to end the night.  We hit the nightlife again, but I went to bed a little early, the weather was starting to catch up with me.

We finally had all members to do our whirlwind 6 stop tourist trip in Istanbul.  We had some confusion regarding pickup, going from "we'll pick you up," to "no, you need to be at the pickup spot, a kilometer away, hurry up you're late."  Not good for the guys who decided to partied hard last night, and may have been a bit hungover.  Ok, a lot hung over.  Not a tour for the weary for sure.

So the itinerary:

Blue Mosque (Closed, boo!) Hagia Sophia and Topkapi Palace, the Hippodrome, the sunken palace of Basilica Cistern and the dazzling Grand Bazaar.

Each of the places had their own unique parts, the view of the Blue Mosque was pretty amazing, so I was glad we were able to see it, at least from the outside.  The Topkapi palace was the home of the Sultans for about 400 years, decorated as you'd expect for a king.  The Hippodrome was the sports area of the town, build way back in the 300's.  The Cistern was exactly like it sounded, an underground Cistern, where water was collected way back in the day.  It was neat to see some Medusa statues.  All were pretty neat, honestly nothing too mind-blowing.  For me it was too cold, rainy and bleary outside to really grasp how amazing these buildings were.

The one highlight (surprise, we were inside) was the Hagia Sophia.  At least for me.  The Hagia Sophia had a pretty remarkable past.  It was created in 537 as a Orthodox Christian Church, converted to a Catholic church from 1204 to 1261, back to Orthodox until l453, and then converted to a mosque from 1453 until 1931, where it was converted to a museum.  What I found really interesting about this building, aside from the fact that it was ridiculously big, was the fact that efforts were being made to restore the paintings that were covered over when it was converted to a Mosque.  What was the result became a rich mixture of both Christian and Muslim symbols.  Maybe to me it was a symbol that maybe we can all get along.  Maybe it was the fact that I was dry for the first time all day.  In either case, it's a breath-taking place that if you ever get the chance to see, you must.

The grand bazaar was pretty big, but we were veterans, nothing there that we couldn't have haggled anywhere else in the world.  Plus at this point the guys were starting to fatigue.  The van dropped us back off near the apartment, and we headed back to the house for a well deserved nap, I was personally impressed the guys were able to hang on that long.

We woke up for dinner to go to one of the "cool places" to eat in Istanbul, the 360 restaurant. Upscale, really high up in a building, fancy looking mashed potato spirals and weird acrobatic dance shows.  I was very lost in the ambiance.  Posh, with a hint of circus.  Anyways, the food was edible, we were able to see how the fancy folk spent their time, and we headed out to the less fancy bar scene that we had been hanging out at.  Much more our style, and cheaper too.

Istanbul appears to have quite a bit of potential.  There were so many places that could have been green if it wanted to be.  It did not have the stereotypical "really nice on the outside, but poorly executed" that I've come to expect from the middle east style of living.  I'll have to come back when it's a little less cold to truly give an opinion of Istanbul, but overall it was a definitely worth the 3 day excursion.

http://hudang6234.smugmug.com/Europe/3-Dec-14-Turkey

Week 148: Konichiwa Japan!

Things are never quite the same when you recall them.  Many times you'll embellish the parts that you remember the most, while the other parts seem to fade away.  The nice things about photos is that they're much more objective.  The tricky part comes in 6 months later, and you don't quite remember why you took a picture of a thing you did.  Well, that's what makes it fun.  Let's see how many times I can mention that I saw Godzilla.  You might be able to see through that.

This really happened.  Really!  Ok, not really.  

The one thing that will always stay with me about Japan is how things can really be busy, full of people, and yet still be in complete control.  It's nice.  It's the exact opposite of where I work.  I arrived in Japan, on a fairly rainy day.  I have an uncle that lives there about 45 minutes outside of Tokyo.  It's a little town called Teraodai.  The car was quite small, as you'd expect in a small country.  Halfway through the ride, we stopped at a rest stop, looking for a sim card.  They didn't have it there, but they did have the stereotypical giant vending machines, with very strong flavored teas.  I got one that seemed to have a hint of sesame oil in it.  And man, a little goes a long way.  Not necessarily in the way I would have preferred or expected.  But something that tastes like that has got to be good for you.  I had already been massaged with sesame oil once, might as well massage myself from the inside.

Once we arrived to his place, we went to the first of many sushi places that I would go.  This one was a conveyor-style sushi place, similar to the ones you see on television.  It was everything you'd expect to see.  Awesome.  Each plate is color coded based on price.  If you want something that you haven't seen on the belt, then you punch it into the touch screen.  Once your food's ready, your monitor will start flashing, with your table number, and some high pitched anime style voice tells you to check the conveyor belt.   Great system.  Apparently the restaurants trends how much food goes through the belt, so that it doesn't go bad.  I was told that the food is only allowed to go through once, in which it has to get thrown away.  That seems like a large waste of food to me.  We did our best though.

There was one that I did had some trouble with.  It was the natto sushi roll.  Natto is fermented soy bean.  Flavor wise, similar to string cheese, combined with a hint of fermented bic pen ink flavor.  So a bit cheesy, with a stink, and a very bitter ending.  Sounds great?  It tastes just like it looks.  But of course, like you would think, it's incredibly good for you!  Man oh man.  I think it's good because it clears you from head to toe.  Thank goodness for high tech toilets.

So after a very delicious meal, we headed over to one of my uncle's favorite spots to relax, the Japanese bath-house, also known as a sento.  I was originally a bit nervous to go, but then I realized two things.  One, I'm in Japan, so there's a stereotype there somewhere, in which i'm not too worried. Secondly, the town I'm in is basically a retirement area, so meh.  So off we went.  Pretty cool place, there's shampoo, body wash, as much as you like.  There were multiple zones of spas to relax.  There was a cold zone, mineral water zone, and chlorinated water zone inside.  A sauna as well.  If you were to go outside, there were big hot pots (only one person (thank goodness)), and a heated rock that you could lay on.  That was the nicest one for me.  You're outside, laying on a hot rock, watching the stars, while hot water flows down the rock behind you.  It's better if you put a towel over your crotch, but it was not required...  The guy next to me (separate rock beds) started snoring, which took me out of my "zen zone."

Anyways, it was going pretty well, but I happened to go to one in which tattoos were not allowed.  But they let me hang out there for a while, about an hour and a half before I was pointed out by an nervous guy.  Well, I was on my way out anyway.  I forget it's still a very conservative country.  Well, after a belly full of sushi, and hanging out in a hot spring, it would a easy time to sleep.  

The next day was touring day, we went to a few temples that were near to my uncles place.  Lots of traffic slowed us down a little bit, but being able to see an 800 year old Buddha statue, and seeing how immaculate a temple and its gardens can be was totally worth it.

The next day, we took a very interesting pit-stop through town.  My uncle is very active with the community, especially with the Buddhist community.  Today, he and the volunteer group visited a newly purchased house.  The family was afraid that there were some bad spirits, so I got to see a house blessing/ghost removal.  I can't tell whether it worked or not, but it was pretty interesting.  The chanting was amazing.  Well, let me qualify.  Amazing means 45 minutes of chanting.  I could barely tell that people were breathing in air to chant some more.

After the ghosts were happy, we headed out to an organic restaurant, kinda a random place, but the food was spot on.  Nothing I would have expected.  I had a beer only brewed there, and it was very good.  I did have some stuff I needed to get, so we also went to the mall, and checked out their "dollar store," I of course bought a bunch of random stuff that I didn't really need, including a bunch of instant Ramen.  I wouldn't pack it until later.  Which was good, since I bought a ridiculous amount of it.  I told my uncle we needed to be on the hunt for a soba restaurant, and that we did find.  It wasn't quite what I thought, the broth really was the hero of the meal.  I also ordered a bottle of sake, assuming my uncle would have some.  He didn't drink any.  That made the meal quite enjoyable.  

The next day, we took a tour into Tokyo, coming in via the very efficient and quick metro line in. The one thing that caught me off guard for a city that big was how quiet of a city it really was.  Cars drove, with no honking, people walked around but talked in quiet voices, it was almost eerie.  Well, it was until you walked into the touristy areas.  That made it pretty easy to tell where we were. The central station was in a more English styles.  One of the more amazing things was that all the work that was done above ground was done without any interruption to the underground portion.  The underground station was freaking huge.  I purchased what was called a J-rail pass, which allowed me to take the express trains wherever available.  This ended being pretty much wherever I needed to go, including multiple cities within Japan as well.  It would be very convenient throughout the trip, as I spent quite a few days going though the subway system in Tokyo.  Glad it was easy to use, and that there was an app as well.  I was going to spend the next few days with some friends in Tokyo, so I had to bring my suitcase.  The subway had a fair number of lockers that you could rent.  Many people apparently have the same idea.  We had to walk around a good 45 minutes through three levels of subway to find a locker.  Glad we found one though.  It would have been a pain to carry around.  The harder part was making sure that I could find the suitcase afterwards.

The first stop on the way over was to head over to the Emperor's Palace.  The palace itself is surrounded by a huge park, full of trees lined up in perfect rows, a huge pebble section heading to the entrance of the palace.  (We assumed that it was so that people can't sneak up on the guards without them hearing)  The grounds were huge, perfectly manicured, with ponds everywhere.  Of course you can't go anywhere near the actual palace, but it was majestic.  If you were to jog around the entire park, it would be a fair jog around, more than a 5k run. We walked by a bridge that the emperor uses once a year (apparently an actual tourist attraction), saw an amazing view of central downtown, walked though some epic old tower doors, and walked back to meet some friends for dinner.

We found the suitcase fairly quickly, and my friends as well.  We headed up for dinner, my uncle knew of a Vietnamese restaurant near the area, and we headed there.  A few of my friends hadn't really eaten Vietnamese food, so that worked out for them.  The food was actually quite tasty for being far from Vietnam.  My uncle had brought some friends there, so they treated us very well.  The chefs and the waitress were Vietnamese actually, which helped with the food.  We walked through the technology center, so that I could purchase a sim card, and I bid goodbye to my uncle for a few days, as I stayed with friends in Tokyo for the next few days.  

So what would it be like to work for a major oil company and a design firm in Tokyo?  The answer is a ridiculously nice apartment, with a great view of the city.  Two bedroom apartment, and my guess is somewhere around 10k a month.  Probably more.  Oh, so for a side note about toilets.  The toilets in Japan are high tech, and it puts our analog toilets to shame.  The toilet that I had the pleasure of using automatically raised the lid when the light came on, had 3 different spray pressure settings, direction control, heated seats, and a dryer.  It made using the bathroom a pleasure.  I'm spoiled.   Aside from the awesome toilet, the view was pretty good too.  I'm perfectly content with sleeping on a couch, to wake up to this. 

The agenda for the day was to head out to Tsukiji Fish Market.  It's exactly like it sounds; fresh, crazy and loud.  The smells and colors are something to definitely see for yourself.  Of course, if you're looking for random food to eat, it might be good for that too.  Fresh grilled tuna, scallops was what I chose to eat.  When I say "crazy and loud," it's all relative.  Pretty calm overall, I think the loudest people were all the tourists in the area.  There were a lot of em too.  I bought some seaweed from here, and took pictures of all the big fish.  I got some weird looks from people, but everyone was very friendly.  The fresh fish areas were pretty busy, but the food stalls near the edges were packed.  People were eating on the curb, everywhere.  It was one of the few places I saw, where the line didn't look as super organized as everywhere else in the country.  

One of the souvenirs that was recommended to me, was to get a knife from Japan. The steel tends to be a bit sharper, generally is hand made, and reflects what you'd expect from "high quality Japanese steel." So of course I had to get one.  Of course I was too worried to bring it with me back to Saudi, so I shipped it with my friend, and it's definitely one of the items on my "can't wait to try it" when I head back.  I went with a carbon steel knife, as it is easier to sharpen and maintain an edge, but requires you to wipe the blade and keep dry, or it'll rust out.  Sigh, until we meet again my lovely sharp knife. I look forward to accidentally cutting my finger a few times.  The knife shop that I ended up going to was kinda in the docks, and the company had been making knives since 1845.  Pretty impressive.

We were a bit of a way on the opposite side of town, and it was a gorgeous day. We needed to seize the day, and went to the closest recommended spot near us.  Which happened to be a very pretty botanical garden, the Hamarikyu Garden.  Gorgeous garden.  Not much to say for two guys walking around a garden on a week day.  I hadn't seen my buddy for a while, so it was nice to catch up.

So daylight wasn't complete gone yet, and we were to meet up with some friends for dinner in Yokohama that night.  What to do?  Hey, let's go to that place where they did the Tokyo Drift Scene across the Tokyo crosswalk.

Afterwards, we headed out to Yokohama via the train, it was a fairly short trip.  Once we got there though, it was a bit difficult to provide markers to meet up.  "We on this one street with these words we don't understand."  Directly off the giant train station, we went to check out a Panchinko casino, which was one of the loudest things I've ever walked into.  Including hanging around industrial equipment.  I guess they need to pull all the smoke out really really quickly.  I was told that it's illegal to exchange the winnings directly for money.  So what you do is get a giant gift, like a stuffed animal, and they you find a person who will just so happen to buy that silly gift for cash.

I might keep this one though

We ended up walking around the arcade, (which was packed with people) watching people who were waay too good at Tekken, or playing really weird games which require fabric gloves, so that you don't wear out your fingerprints.

We did the most Japanese thing we could think of, we had some authentic ramen noodles, and then a western-style beer bar.  Pretty full day, and pretty cool.

So the next day, we decided to go full nerd, and fulfill all our childhood video game stuff, including the famous "Final Fantasy Cafe," the less popular "DragonQuest Cafe," and a revisit to the King's Palace, since my buddy hadn't been there yet.  So the final fantasy bar requires reservations, and there were some fears that there may other random fans that might be there on a random weekday.  The answer was no.  Thank goodness!  It was exactly like you'd expect. Every food item on the menu, (not very tasty) had some tie to a final fantasy item.  There were some pretty plastic looking weapon displays, but hey, it's all final fantasy anyway right?  I had a muggle cake, and a bahamut drink.  Very sugary.

Now that we were hopped up on sugar and ice cream, we walked over to a fairly popular temple, and walked the grounds.  Just like every other temple I visited in Japan, it was just quiet, clean, and precise.  We also walked by a confucianist temple, which surprising was a bit more in disarray.  I wasn't sure if it was on purpose or not.  Oh, and there's a pony.

The Dragonquest cafe wasn't the most exciting place to go to.  It was actually really small.  But they had beer.  We went to go find more beer while waiting to head back home and go to to one of the best sushi restaurants in Tokyo.  According to Tripadvisor, the number 2 restaurant in Tokyo.

So Kyubei apparently is incredibly exclusive, and they don't cater to westerners, unless you really insist.  According to the story, my friend requested reservations, and went through the following scenario:

1st request:  Sorry sir, you have to have a permanent residence in order to eat here.  "I live in Tokyo, here's my address." Oh, ok, please wait one minute.
2nd request:  Sorry sir, you must have a local phone number in order to eat here.  "I do, would you like it?"  Oh, ok, please wait one minute.
3rd request:  Sorry sir, the time you requested is not available.  "I can eat at anytime."  Oh, ok, please wait one minute.
4rth request:  Ok sir, we can squeeze you in at 8pm, but if you are late, we give up your reservation. " "Thank you finally."

But oh man, was it worth it!  There are only three set menu items, it's up to you regarding what level. I went midlevel.  The chef made it a point to tell us how to eat it, whether you should dip it in soy sauce, or not.  Fresh, and I mean that morning fresh.  The best flavor item I ate was the unagi.  Sweet eel.  Perfect temperature, incredibly fluffy texture, which after a few seconds melted in your mouth. The eel sauce was balanced, not over power, but a pefect compliment.  An amazing blend of sweet, savory, and salty.  However the most interesting part was the fresh shrimp.  So the shrimp comes out of a tank of course.  And it's up to you as how to eat it.  Well, it's either cooked, or fresh.  Of course I'm going to have to eat it fresh.  And boy is it fresh!  the sushi chef pulled the shrimp out, pull off the head, tail, and put it on to a plate.  Sprinkle it with a little bit of salt, watch it move and wriggle, and then enjoy.  Pretty epic, and delicious.  Worth every penny.  Lots of pennies though.

This was the last night in Tokyo, before heading out to Kyoto for a few nights.  I decided to do some night photography, and it turned out pretty good.

So the next day I got to go on my first bullet train, on the way to Kyoto.  It was kinda what I expected, incredibly smooth, and almost unrealistic in speed.  It also had wifi, which is pretty nice.  I stayed at the Kyomachiya Ryokan.  A good combination between Western and Japanese hotels.  The bed was Western, and the room was fairly large.  The bathroom was super tiny.  The shower was probably 3'x3'.  Actual size was probably 6'x6'.  I arrived in the afternoon, so I still had some time to go find something to seek out and take pictures of.  Lucky for me, there was a temple right across the way.  It was quite beautiful, and large.  The temple was called Nishi Honganji.  Less busy compared to the others, but a bit far away from the touristy ones that most people go to see.

There was a second spot in the temple, fenced off,  that I was able to visit too.  However, no photos were allowed.  The buildings there were very similar in design, however the garden arrangement was more compact than the more spacious temple outside.  I found a local soba shop, and searched for my next temple.  The closest one that was of interest was a little ways away.  It was called the Sanjusangendo Hall, but I was ready for a hike.  This was a very different looking temple compared to the Nishi Honganji.  The color contrast was pretty significant.  All walls were a dark orange, with a central hall, with 1001 individually carved deities.  It is a combination between Buddhism and Hinduism, which I didn't really get until afterwards, but really cool.  All the major deities had descriptions in English too, so I was able to follow along.  Of course, no photographs.

By this time, the sun was starting to go down, but I figured I would be able to find one more temple. Unfortunately, it wasn't accessible by the way Google thought.  There was only one way, which was on the opposite side of where I was.  But it wasn't a terrible walk.  I ended up walking by a woman's college, through a cemetery, and the actual temple that I was trying to find just came out of nowhere, as I was walking, feeling defeated.  I walked by right as the evening prayer started, and the chanting was very mesmerizing.

I went back, right when the evening lights were starting to change, and the weather was getting cold. I took the opportunity to take a picture of the Kyoto Tower, changed into some warmer clothes, and tried my luck trying to spot a Geisha in the Gion district. The thought here is that Geisha get hired on the hour, so it was best to find them right at the beginning of an hour, or on the half hour. I got a little lost trying to find the right bus, since it was all in Japanese, but eventually made it to where I needed to go. 

Seeing as I had arrived in the district on the quarter hour, I stumbled into a random restaurant. the menu luckily had some English on it, as there were no pictures, and the a la cart part of the menu was all in Japanese. It didn't really help that the waiter didn't really speak English either. We eventually came to an agreement on a set menu, and the food was awesome.  The restaurant was a Izakaya style restaurant, which is pretty much like a bar with food.  The food portions are not too big, almost like tapas.  The drinks weren't too bad either.  I just had a Sake, and some awesome slow cooked ribs.  Afterwards, I walked to one of the few temples that was lit up at night, which was kinda eerie, but peaceful in its own way, had some weird sticky rice ball dessert thing dipped in peanuts and honey, and then headed back home from a pretty busy day.

I had Googled a tour guide trip through Kyoto the following day.  It was more of a local tour, rather than your stereotypical top 10 destinations in Kyoto tour.  This gave us much more time to understand the culture, and some of the nuances of temples that you might not notice, if you were on a big tour.  For example, we learned about how some of the joints in the temples were built specifically for earthquake movements.  Also what some of the symbols on the roofs meant.  Many of them were the symbol for water, in homes to detract fire.  The tour was a 6 hour tour, and we hit a bunch of spots, so I'll mention some of the highlights that I remember.  Being a cheap tour, there were some small stops here and there to try to sell you some stuff, but it wasn't really high pressure.

We visited the big temple of Higashi Honganji, where we saw a bunch of little kids who were more interested in chasing the pigeons than the giant temple that was in front of them.  We visited a hand-made paper fan shop.  We went to a Shinto shrine, and did the traditional prayer, with hand clapping, bowing, and got to ring the bell.  We also go to understand what each bow meant, and what the significance of the clapping was.  Awakening the spirits, if you may.  We learned more about burials, at a cemetery, and the ridiculous costs to have land for that purpose. We walked by a no longer used Japanese "pleasure house,"  we saw where the original Nintendo building was, and ate some decorated sugar candy.  We also did walk by a supposed Yakuza house, full of cameras, and some people looking around, while doing gardening.  We ended the walking through the suburbs, and checking out some handmade pottery.  Not a bad local tour overall.  A very varied group of people, quite a few Australians and Germans.

That was the end of the official tour, but we were able to check out one very touristy, but absolutely gorgeous temple, the Kyomizudera Temple.  It was a gorgeous view, right at sunset.  One of the things that we saw was a large number of people in Kimonos.  We walked by a few Kimono shops, and learned that the cost of an actual Kimono was in the thousands.  With that in mind, it became apparent quite quickly that there were many tourist fake kimono rental places.  Also, we learned that as a tourist group, we're terrible at telling whether people are Chinese tourists, or Japanese people at a special occasion.  Basically if you're walking around with cell phones, you're probably a tourist.  People who wear the Kimonos, such as the Geisha apprentices (Maiko) are not allowed to carry the cell phones around.  Other people wear them for celebration, and wouldn't go to a tourist trap for the celebration.  It was mostly Chinese tourists.  The temple was incredibly packed, you almost had to elbow your way through the crowds, but overall, it was gorgeous, and totally worth the crowds.

I headed back for a night tour of the lifestyle of the Geisha.  The tour was a walk around Kyoto, visiting some of the places where real life Geisha still go, whether it be a home, or school, or hair shop.  We also got to see where the apprentices train as well.  It was a pretty interesting tour.  We did get to see a few Geisha, or Maiko in real life.  For people wearing tiny shoes, they can sure hustle. My camera isn't too good in the dark, so I didn't get any good pictures, but hey, what can you do? After the tour, my tour guide showed us a really cool place to eat ramen, where you just order from a vending machine, and you give the guy a receipt.  Food just magically appears.  It was a pretty cool deal, and very tasty.  My friends from Tokyo happened to just come in that night as well, so we hit up some of the nightlife, and I got ready for a train back to hang out with my uncle for the last night in Tokyo.

I had a couple of days left in Japan, and spent them with my uncle, and his kids.  My uncle and I did a trip up to as close as we could get to Mt Fuji.  It was really cold, and the walking path is definitely closed during this time.  But apparently people do make that trek during the summer months.  It's one of those treks where you start walking at 9pm, and show up at sunrise.  A lot of older people make that hike too.  Pretty impressive.  I was cold, and used the bathroom instead.  We had some spicy ramen one more time, which I think really was a Korean restaurant, but eh.  The last meal was some actual hibachi with my uncle and his kids.

What can I say about Japan, that can't so easily described by any of these beautiful photos?  It's a magical place that I absolutely want to visit again, when it's warmer outside.  It's a land that is able to balance history and modern lifestyle so well.  It's an efficient city, ever focused on perfection, even when it's not necessary.  It's a protected society which only the few and elite can ever hope to imagine.  It's a culture that is indescribable at times, where people dressing up as anime characters on a train is normal, but looking someone in the eye while bowing is a mortal sin.  It's an intriguing place that you just want to learn more about.  But at its simplest, it's a great place to be, and an unforgettable place to visit.

http://hudang6234.smugmug.com/Asia/31Oct14-Japan