At about 4:50 am- ridiculously early again- I was up and packed. One of my bags was filled with snacks and my last carton of an iced chai latte. I woke up my friend around 5:15, trying to make sure we were out the door on time. I placed my bag into the basket of [...]
My last day in Kyoto was reserved for Universal Studios Japan in Osaka, nicknamed USJ. USJ is accessible from Kyoto via train. Just be careful not to get on the Osaka loop train which doesn't go to USJ. Instead there is a train that announces it goes to Universal Studios. The second train we boarded [...]
Kinkaku-ji also known as the Golden Temple was our last stop on our rather intense sightseeing day. We managed to make it in right before they stopped letting people in which was quite awhile before their 5pm closing time. Kinkaku-ji is a Zen temple and the retirement villa of shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu. It inspired the [...]
Our next stop on our busy tourist day was Nijo Castle. Which was undergoing some construction. After paying to get in, 600 yen, we went in Ninomaru palace which was a hauntingly beautiful experience. The castle was built in 1603. Ninomaru palace is where the shogun would live and work while in Kyoto. The corridors are Nightingale floors [...]
On our way down the hill from Kiyomizu-dera we ended up at Gon Dai Yuu Gojozaka for lunch, a nice two story noodle shop. I ordered Wagyu Niku-Udon which was 900 yen. It's a Japanese beef udon that I ordered cold which was a new way to experience udon for me. When your udon is cold [...]
Kiyomizu-dera is a independent Buddhist temple that was founded in 778. We went as early as we could manage on a Saturday morning. We wandered around up the hill looking at shops and sampling Yatsuhashi 八つ橋, along the way, deciding to do souvenir shopping on the way down. Most of the buildings of Kiyomizu-dera were built in [...]
I realized after I left Tokyo last summer that I had managed to not eat any sushi. And as a person who isn't particularly in love with sushi this was okay but not a good thing. I like sushi but in the US it's just too expensive for something that doesn't make me full. So [...]
When I was small, like super small, back when vhs and video rentals were a thing, our local Kroger use to sell movies and rent movies and amongst all the VHS's for sale I found "My Neighbor Totoro" and managed to talk my dad into getting it. It was the only copy, with it's case beaten [...]
One of the things I told my friend I wanted to do was to see the bamboo grove and soon found out she had a field trip there while I was visiting. First I was disheartened but her teachers gave her the okay to bring me along, so we got up early and caught the [...]
When my flight ended up being so delayed we were worried about fitting in everything we wanted to do. But after a quick google search discovered that Fushimi Inari-taisha was open 24 hours, meaning after our dinner of okonomiyaki we could just go and see it at night. Fushimi Inari-taisha is a Shinto shrine located right [...]
