6/16 Oh Hi, Shinjuku

So Tokyo is big. Very big. 

We took the shinkansen to Tokyo, and we're currently staying in Shinjuku. Shinjuku is a ward in Tokyo, and according to Wikipedia is known for being a "major commercial and administrative center."

Basically, there's a dang skyscraper every 20 feet. 

We first made our way to our hotel. We're currently staying in a capsule hotel, which is pretty interesting. From what I heard, capsule hotels has just barely become available for women. Women get their own floor that requires a key code to get in. Also, there's an onsen here but only men can go to it. Rude, if you ask me. 

Anyway, that's a side note. 

The capsule hotel is actually pretty nice. My only complaint is that we have to keep everything in the locker room, so if I need something in my little capsule I have to climb down to get it. Plus the AC isn't the best. Other than that, it's pretty cosy! 

I didn't take any pictures with my actual camera, mainly because the streets were so crowded and I didn't want to risk taking more than I needed with me. 

Oh yeah, we're staying in Shinjuku on a Friday night. So when I say crowded, I mean it was crowded.

The group split into 2 - four of the guys went on their own and the other four of us plus our teacher decided to find somewhere to eat. We found this inexpensive restaurant that's on the same street as our hotel. The food and atmosphere of the place was great! It was done in a more Japanese-y style, but you used an iPad to order your food. I had some chicken and shu mai. The meat and wrappers in the shu mai were blended with each other, and the food just melted in your mouth. 

I thought I'd be losing weight while in Japan. Guess not. 

This was probably the best restaurant I have eaten in while in Japan so far. 

After we ate, we decided to explore Shinjuku a little bit. I think it's because I was already somewhat tired from all the traveling in the past 3 days, but looking at all the buildings and lights started making me a bit dizzy and some points. Still, it's definitely something worth seeing!

Oh yeah, ever heard of the Robot Restaurant? I first heard about it during a Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown show on CNN. Well, the Robot Restaurant is a 5 minute walk from the hotel I'm staying at. If it wasn't $80 to get in, I would honestly probably check it out.

Also, here's a funny story: So we're walking around with our teacher. She mentions to be careful because we might accidentally stumble upon the red light district. Well, I remembered seeing advertisements for host clubs and a few more adult places that we passed by, plus we're a five minute walk to the robot restaurant. I said "actually sensei, we might be in the red light district right now." Right then I notice a currency exchange place with the words "Welcome to Kabukicho!" written on top and I said "yep, we're in the red light district."

If you don't know, Kabukicho is one of the more well-known red light districts. And red-light districts are where all the adult things happen. We later passed by this one store with a large poster of a naked lady posing very erotically. Don't worry, all her private parts were censored out. I'm not too sure exactly what that store was selling (I don't know the legalities of prostitution in Japan).

We all turned around and got some boba instead. 

After this our teacher went back to the capsule hotel and we decided to explore around some more. We didn't stay out for too long though before getting exhausted and heading back to the hotel ourselves. 

And so that was it for today! I'm now back in my little capsule and relaxing a bit from the day. Talk to you tomorrow! 

6/16 Fushimi Inari Shrine, Himeji Castle, and an attempt at Koreatown

So today was interesting. 

We decided to see the Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto first, so we caught the train going there right at 9:40. We were a bit worried that we'd have difficulties finding the shrine once getting off the train, but then we found out that the train station is built right in front of the shrine. So it was pretty easy finding it since all we had to do was cross the street. 

The Fushimi Inari Shrine is where the 10,000+ torii gate pathways are located at. All of the torii gates make for a pretty impressive view. Unfortunately, everyone and their mother thinks the same way because this place was packed. I was excited to get good shots of the gates but there were hoards of people trying to do the same. Here's what I managed - 

So yeah, this place is definitely pretty. Once we got out of the first few hundred torii gates and the pathway up the mountain, the crowd died down a bit. Most people stayed near the main shrine at the bottom of the mountain. Although we wanted to hike up the mountain to see more, we also had Himeji Castle planned out so we couldn't stay for too long. 

Also, this shrine loves foxes, as foxes were believed to be messengers of the gods. There are fox statues everywhere and most of the souvenirs are fox-related. I got a fox mask car ornament, Riley got a fox coin purse, and Grace got a small fox plushie. 

 

Off to Himeji!

This is where the group split into two. You know how I said some of us are more prone to get lost than others? We lost one of the members and had to find them, which caused us to be late to the shinkansen. Two of the guys decided to just board the one we missed, so the rest of us had to stay and wait another hour for the next one. We finally did make it though!

Himeji Castle was amazing! At first I was a bit hesitant on it, mainly because it cost 1000 yen (about $10), and I'm already starting to get a little panicked about my money supply. I thought the $400 dollars I brought would be fine but I'm having to be a bit frugal with money now. Everyone figured the $10 would be worth it so I decided to buy a ticket anyway. 

It was worth it. 

Himeji Castle is even better than Osaka Castle in my opinion. The inside of Osaka Castle was built into a museum, but Himeji Castle kept it's original interior (with some renovations to keep it from falling apart of course). 

This. This is a castle. 

While Osaka Castle had an elevator to go up, Himeji Castle still had it's stairs from way back in the day that you had to climb up. You had to take off your shoes before entering, and all of the different rooms and halls were preserved to how it was when first built.

A small shrine built at the top of the castle

The armory room

10/10 would recommend Himeji Castle. Just make sure to bring some comfortable shoes and a fan 'cause it gets hot. 

While at Himeji we decided to split into two more groups. The two guys who went ahead already left the castle and were on their way to Kobe. Two stayed behind to wander around Himeji a little. That left me, Courtney, and Riley to make our way back to Osaka and into Koreatown. 

Koreatown was probably the most disappointing thing on this trip so far. 

We got there at around 6:30 p.m, but apparently all of Koreatown (except for a gambling place and a few restaurants here and there) close by 6:00. So nothing was open. The street itself was pretty, and you could tell that this isn't a main tourist attraction because nothing was in English. There wasn't too much of a crowd, which served as a good break from Kyoto and streets in Osaka. That was basically it though. All the fashion and k-pop stores were closed. 

My friend and current Kyoto roommate Courtney is a huge k-pop fan. The fact that everything was closed was very distressing. 

Here's Courtney in varying stages of distress. 

Luckily we did find a decently priced restaurant to eat at and they played k-pop on the TV. Again, absolutely nothing was in English so I had to break out Google translate to figure out what all the food options were. I just got the first thing I saw that had the word "chicken" on it. It was actually pretty good. 

Finally we made our way back to Kyoto, with Courtney leading the way whilst on autopilot. Her navigation skills are very, very helpful. 

And so now I'm back, safe and sound in my hotel room! Tomorrow we all head to Shinjuku (which is in Tokyo) to stay at the capsule hotel. Wish me luck! 

6/15 Osaka

So today was our free day, and we went to Osaka!

It was a little stressful getting there. Before today, we basically  had our teacher telling us how to get places when she's not with us herself. Today we basically had to figure out almost everything ourselves. 

Luckily, Osaka is a pretty big tourist destination with information desks that has workers who speak English. Once getting off the shinkansen in Shin-Osaka, we asked one of these information desks on how to get to Osaka Castle. There was still a bit of confusion getting there, but we got there! 

The castle was pretty amazing. There are some small rivers that run around the castle, so we took some pictures before crossing.  

After getting to the castle itself, we had a hard time trying to get pictures of us with the castle in the background. We looked like ants when trying to capture the whole thing! 

Entering the castle only cost us 600 yen, which is about $5.40. Definitely worth it! Most of us decided to walk all the way to the top, so I got some good cardio in from walking up about 8 flights of stairs. The view from up top was amazing! Osaka is so huge and it was really cool to see it from above. 

After this we moseyed are way down, going through all the exhibits as we went. We then went to Dotonbori for food. Dotonbori is basically this huge shopping street that is infamous for having copious amounts of food. This is where I first heard of the term "kuidadore" or "eat until you drop". We had some BBQ for lunch and then gelato for dessert. 

You had to grill your own meat. 'Twas great. 

We then explored some more of Dotonbori. There were so many places to eat, and I swear at least 30% of those places are dedicated to takoyaki. Takoyaki is basically fried balls of octopus, and it's one of Osaka's famous dishes. This street really liked to boast that. I don't know how many street stands and restaurants we passed by that sold takoyaki, and on top of that many of the souvenir shops sold key chains and what not that was shaped like takoyaki. By then my feet began hurting too much and we kept trying to keep track of everyone in our group (some people in the group have a higher tendency to get lost than others), that I wasn't able to try any. That's the main thing I regret. I might just buy 7/11 takoyaki at some point. 

Finally we got back to Kyoto via shinkansen, and now I'm relaxing my tired feet. Tomorrow is another free day, so we'll be visiting the 1000+ torii gates in Kyoto and then the Himeji Castle. 

6/14 Nara

So these days are getting busier and busier! It's a bit harder to find time to update, so please excuse me for these late posts :)

Yesterday we headed off to Nara, which about an hour drive on the bus. Nara is the place where I've probably been the most excited for, mainly because of the deer. I read beforehand that the deer in Nara know how to bow, and will bow to you in order to get food. 

Well, the deer definitely delivered!

After getting some lunch at the supermarket (and me getting some food for my mom - something with tentacles 😋), we headed off to this park with a tour guide. This park had a bunch of temples, shrines, and deer, and the deer were so cute! The tour guide instructed us to hold up their food in the air and wait until they bowed three times. The deer would fast walk towards you if you had food, and if you held the food up they would hastily bow and look at you expectantly. Here are some pictures - 

This isn't the clearest of pictures, but this deer knows what's up. 

We walked up to this temple where the tour guide had specifically Courtney, Grace, and I all pose behind some of the poles of the temple. I couldn't catch a complete reason why, but I guess this temple is catered more towards women. There were miko (Japanese priestesses) running the shops and some of the flowers of the trees were symbolic of fertility. 

Here's me being all feminine in a feminine temple. He had us pose this way - it was actually pretty funny.  

The temple itself

After walking through a few more temples and gift shops, we headed off to the main temple. This temple is the biggest wooden building in the world - Todaiji temple. Here is where you can find huge statues of buddha and other bodhisattva/gods. I actually didn't catch exactly who/what these statues represented. We also got to crawl through this hole in a pole (which I believe is supposed to be the buddhist's nose) to gain wisdom. Unfortunately, my memory card ran out and I wasn't able to take too many pictures. I did get some pictures on my video camera, but my shirt decided to show all of my bra off so I won't be showing those. 

Todaiji temple

It was a great day.

After that the group went back to Kyoto. Us girls started our laundry and we all had omelettes for dinner. It was a great day :)

Today is our free day so we will be heading towards Osaka. I'll try and update a little earlier this time. No promises though!  

 

6/12 - 6/13 Hello Kyoto!

Today we said goodbye to Miyajima and traveled to Kyoto. Before leaving Miyajima, we decided to see the torii gate one last time and to pet some of the deer again. We ended up chilling with the deer for a while and took pictures with them.

"'Twas lit." - Riley 2017

After this it was mainly more traveling. We took the shinkansen to Kyoto, which took about 1.5 hours. After getting settled in our hotel, we decided to go explore a nearby temple and do some shopping. 

So this staircase in the mall has a really cool light show. Courtney was excited. The mall this was in was insane. There are about 11 floors of escalators that we just using again and again just to get down after checking out the top. 

This is from the roof of the insane escalator mall.

Kyoto Tower

So onwards with today!

We had to get up super early, as our bus tour started at around 8:15 a.m. The bus tour took us to a bunch of UNESCO Heritage sites - Nijo Castle, Kinkaku-ji Temple, Kyoto Imperial Palace, and Kitano Tenmangu Shrine. Of course these places were beautiful. My only complaint is that all of these sites were so crowded. You had to keep up with the group so there wasn't much time to stop and really look at something. Also if there was a quick stop, the crowds made it difficult to take pictures of stuff. I managed though. Here are some pictures from the tour - 

The Kinkakuji Temple (Golden Pavilion)

People were trying to throw coins into the hole that's in the center to try and make a wish. I tried to throw a 1 yen coin. I failed. 

So after the tour was done, we all got food and relaxed at the hotel for a few hours. Luckily we had enough money in the budget to visit Kyoto tower, so that's what we did next. This tower is freakin' big - you could see all of Kyoto from it. 

Here's a shot from Kyoto Tower. 

We also got some group pictures from a free photobooth downstairs. By photobooth I just mean a backdrop and some props. 

We're a weird bunch.

Afterwards we explored the mall some more and I got me some Mister Donut. Courtney, who is my roommate for our stay in Kyoto, insisted I watch this anime called Yuri On Ice so that's what we did. My legs and feet are still recovering from the hike in Miyajima and all the walking around we did in Kyoto, so it was nice to have a more chill-out day. See you guys tomorrow!