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! 

6/11 Exploring Miyajima

So Miyajima is absolutely gorgeous, 10/10 would recommend to anyone traveling to Japan.

We had to be up and ready by 8:30 a.m.. After a hasty dinner and barely catching the bus, we rode up to the Mount Misen ropeway. I really did not know what to expect, as the only thing I knew about Miyajima was the great Torii gate that it's famous for. We took cable cars to reach a higher up station of the mountain.

A shot from inside the cable car.

Today was super foggy, so although we couldn't get too much of a view we joked that we were approaching the mountain that "is shrouded in great mystery" due to the fog. Once getting off the cable cars, of course we began to take lots of pictures of each other. 

Please ignore my unkempt frizzy hair I tried to control. It's quite humid in Japan. 

My selfie stick got a lot of work today. 

We then walked up the path to see a bunch of temples and shrines. I screwed up several times in bowing and praying, but hey I tried. I was tempted to buy a good luck charm from a Buddhist temple but I decided to wait. We also hiked up to the summit. On the way down, four of us took a detour to see a shrine that was by the edge of the mountain. We stopped at this huge boulder to enjoy the scenery. It was really calming, and the only thing you can hear was the birds. I'd love to go back up there again. Here are some pictures from the hike up and down-

Work it

After getting down from the mountain, we went back to the main torii gate and shrine. I couldn't take too many pictures with my actual camera because it died on the way down from the mountain. I did get a bunch on my phone though. While exploring the shrine, an adorable couple and their baby asked if I could take their picture. After doing so, I asked Grace to take mine in front of the shrine and the couple asked if I wanted one with Grace. I called two of the guys - Riley and Sherman - over to take it with us and then afterwards took their picture too in front of the shrine. This couple was so nice and it made my day! Their baby was also adorable as heck. Here are some pictures from the torii gate and shrine - 

Barrels of sake

This is a side note: peace signs are contagious. Expect a lot of them.

So I started writing this last night, but then started a game of Uno with some people. I didn't get to sleep until late again, which is the reason for the late upload. Sorry about that! We will be traveling to Kyoto today, so see you there!