Exploring Tokyo: Part I – Tokyo Station & Korakuen

About a week ago, one of my teachers was away on a business trip which gave me some extra time to look around Tokyo. I took this opportunity to look around two of the better known spots in Tokyo: Tokyo Station - famous for its location among powerful financial institutions, Tokyo’s stock market, and luxury shopping arcades; and Korakuen – home to the Tokyo Dome and a number of Amusement Park-like attractions.

Downtown near Tokyo Station

So, starting at Tokyo station on a beautiful mid-October day (the weather has been very mild with temperatures still hovering in the upper 60s today) I did some exploring near the station and in two popular shopping buildings known as the Marunouchi buildings.

Backside of Marunouchi Building

The majority of stores were women’s clothing boutiques, but there were also many small curiosity shops selling small souvenirs and stationary. I managed to find a hybrid shop (which was half Sharper Image half men’s hygiene products) and bought a new cologne entitled “Tokyo: by Kenzo” which I’ve been using almost daily since!

Before leaving, I managed to snap some photos of Tokyo station, one of Japan’s first western-style buildings, which was based off a Dutch design.

A quick ride on the subway and before I knew it, I had arrived in Korakuen, best known for its Tokyo Dome City – a collection of popular western stores and restaurants, the Tokyo Dome baseball stadium, theme park attractions, and popular hot springs spa – LaQua. See for yourself

I started things off by walking over to the “Virtual Sports Plaza” which is basically a simulation sports arcade where you can test your skill & aim in soccer, pitching, tennis, golf, and more. Or maybe hitting a few in the batting cages is more your style? – not for me, I hadn’t swung a bat in about a year and couldn’t hit at all in the 70 mph cage! I had more encouraging results with the pitching games but after trying a few of the different games I came to the simple conclusion that it’s more fun to do the real thing…

By far the most enjoyable part was my visit to the LaQua Spa.

After paying the one-day entrance fee I was given a locker and access to different temperature hot spring baths and 3 saunas of varying degrees. Out of the 60 or so people in the men’s only section I was one of 3 foreigners enjoying the day at LaQua. Overall, the hot springs were incredibly refreshing and I felt like I really got my money’s worth.

To finish off my day of adventure I stopped off at the CPK for a familiar taste of home. The pizza was exactly the same as they make them back in the US at CPK and it was the perfect way to cap off a day of self-indulgence.

Kyoto Trip: Part 3

For two straight days we were walking all day long and it was really hard waking up early the last day in Kyoto, but we knew that we had to make the most of it.

The first order of business was a visit to the Kinkakuji Temple or as its better known in English, the Golden Pavilion. Again, this would be the 2nd time for me since I had also seen the Golden Pavilion over New Years. The Golden Pavilion was by far the most crowded of all the temples we visited during our time there, for good reason - it's very picturesque. Let's do a little retrospective...

Tree designed to look like a ship

Next stop: Ryoanji Temple - one of Kyoto's notable Zen temples, notable for its rock garden. The garden consists of raked gravel and fifteen moss-covered boulders, which are placed so that, when looking at the garden from any angle (other than from above) only fourteen of the boulders are visible at one time. It is traditionally said that only through attaining enlightenment would one be able to view the fifteenth boulder. (Wikipedia) Which is true, I remember counting only 14 rocks when I was looking at it.


At this point my camera's battery died, so I used a mixture of Chris, Harry, and Nick's photos to fill the gap. While we were still at Ryoanji we all took some time to ourselves and separated off. It was a great time to sit quietly and think while enjoying the peaceful landscape around me.

Not pausing to rest or eat, we jumped on the bus to Nijo Castle which had been built by the order of Tokugawa Ieyasu, Japan's 1st shogun. They used a special design in the floorboards which create a chirping noise similar to a nightingale, used as a security measure to alert against intruders.

Nijo from the Outside (no pictures allowed inside)

After looking around the living quarters and interior of the castle, we explored the outer gardens and climbed up one of the guard towers.

Approaching the exit we encountered a small string quartet playing some beautiful classical music. Harry, Craig, and I sat down and enjoyed 3 songs or so before leaving; they had a beautiful vibrato throughout!

Running out of time, we made a quick stop off at the Nishiki food market in downtown Kyoto as we made our way south to Sanjusangendo, the temple we missed out on the first evening. Nishiki was packed with people and there were countless stands selling various prepared and unprepared food. We grabbed a quick bite and caught the bus over to Sanjusangendo.

Nishiki Food Market

At this point we were really cutting things close with time, but we made it to the temple with just enough time to look through it before getting over to Kyoto station in time for our train home. The inside was amazing considering that there were over 1000 nearly identical wooden carvings made by different artisans in a short period of time. No pictures were allowed to be taken inside but here's one I grabbed off the web.

They're all wood-based covered in gold leaf.

Well that was it, quite a surreal ending to a wonderful trip. Thanks for all the memories and planning guys!

Kyoto Trip: Part 2 (Nara)

The next morning, our group decided to split up a little bit for the day. Harry & Craig wanted to stay back in Kyoto and walk around on their own for awhile while Nick, Chris and I chose to jump on a 45 minute train to nearby Nara: the original capital of Japan. Nara is well known for its famous temples, large park area, and huge population of deer.

On our walk over the the temples we stopped at the local "Mos Burger" (think MacDonald's - slightly better, slightly smaller burgers) for some sustenance. Also nearby was a small Phiten store where I caved in and bought another necklace!

We eventually made it over to the Kofukuji temple complex, a Buddhist religious site with 2 pagodas, one major temple, and 3 sub temples.
3 story pagoda
sub temple
1 story for each elements: fire, water, air, earth, and sun

As we continued on our walk we came across a large group of people looking at a big tour bus. Upon closer inspection, we discovered that there was a filming going on for a commercial - most likely for a luggage company. The star was a famous Korean actor known for his roles in Japanese day-time dramas.


Next on our list was the Isuien Gardens, well respected for its beauty and tranquility. While it certainly was beautiful, there was a local rock band competition going on in Nara for the weekend so there wasn't too much tranquility!

Various spots inside the Isuien Garden grounds.

Following the gardens was the main event: Todaji Temple. Todaji Temple is another Buddhist site home to one of the largest Buddha statues in the world (this one made from bronze, mercury and vegetable wax). It holds the record as the largest wooden building in the world. The path leading up to it was unlike Kyoto - there were almost no souvenir stands and the road was full of deer. There were almost as many deer as people walking around and they had all become tame since people would commonly feed them.

The architecture was very impressive and the sheer size of the Buddha statue was amazing - they say up to 6 monks sometimes stand in his hand while cleaning it!

After that we had a leisurely paced walk through Nara Park on the way to the Kasuga Grand Shrine. Nearing the main shrine grounds we walked by over 3000 stone and bronze lanterns - which the Grand Shrine has become known for.

Following our visit to the Kasuga Grand shrine we started to work our way back to the train station where we planned to stop off in southern Kyoto before heading back to the ryokan. On the way there, we past by the Sagi Pond full of families rowing slowly in rental boats for the evening.

The sunset comes beautifully as we prepared to jump on the train.

Nara's Train Station.

Our next target was the Fushimi Inari Shrine, dedicated to a Shinto Fox god. The locale is famous for its hundreds and hundreds of tori (gates) mostly donated by businessmen.

It was pitch black when we began following the trail of tori up through Kyoto's southern hillside. Luckily, the Shrine is open 24 hours and is well lit throughout the two hour long circuit it takes to get to the top and back down.

Our walk that night really had a magical feeling to it. Dead silent and slightly cool outside walking through the seemingly endless stream of tori was a mystical experience and I hope that I'll be able to make it back once more in my lifetime. For me it was the highlight of the entire trip and I know Nick and Chris really enjoyed it as well. Close to the top of the trail they had some beautiful overlooks which gave you a panoramic view of Kyoto, we made sure to get some photos and savor the moment.


Get ready for the trip finale...

Kyoto Trip: Part 1

We're backlogged about 2 weeks on the blog so I'm going to try and bring everyone up to speed as quickly as possible....

So, two weeks ago my usual travel buddies (Nick, Craig, Harry, and Chris) and I, finally made the trip down to Kyoto for the long weekend. We had the Monday off due to a Japanese National Holiday - "Sport & Health Day" where everyone is encouraged to go outside and engage in some physical activity. The Friday right after we were finished with classes, we collected our bags and got over to Tokyo station to board the Bullet Train (Shinkansen, as they're called in Japan). We would be spending 3 nights and 3 days in Kyoto and sleeping at a small Japanese style inn (ryokan) that Nick made reservations at - good work buddy!

The bullet train from Tokyo takes about 2 1/4 hours until it arrives in Kyoto and it's a really smooth ride. Some of the guys commented that the bathrooms were really luxurious, but I slept for most of the ride down. We got to Kyoto around 8 pm and headed over to the subway that would take us up to our ryokan. Kyoto station itself was remodeled and expanded in 1997 with a very futuristic design - leading to many complaints from the residents who wanted a more traditional style to mirror the history of the city.

I personally think it's a cool design and very distinct; also it's interesting to have a little clash of style, considering Kyoto has mostly old buildings. Anyway, we found our way to the ryokan with some great directions Nick wrote down and dropped our things off before going our for some dinner. entrance to our ryokan
interior

We ended up getting 3 nicely sized rooms with 2 decks and an individual bathroom all for the low price of $40 a night. We had plenty of space and the location was very close to a bus stop so it was very easy getting around the city during the day. The manager spoke English very well and recommended a nearby izakaya (Japanese-style pub) for dinner.
It was a small little restaurant with space for only 20 or so but they had great Tempura & side dishes for reasonable prices. After dinner we decided to walk around the area for about an hour before heading home and getting some sleep.

Saturday we got an early start and set out to visit a number of famous shrines & temples. First up was the Heian Shrine (recommended by Mom & a number of travel books)which is a Shinto shrine dedicated to the first and last emperors that reigned from Kyoto, Emperor Kammu and Emperor Komei. We looked around the interior for awhile before entering the garden grounds behind the buildings.
The gardens were magnificently maintained, and we had a clear day to enjoy them with temperature in the low 70s. They had a number of small ponds filled with these huge cod-like fish called koi. Besides us tourists, many Japanese families were out enjoying the gardens with their little kids for the weekend.
They even had a small traditional tea house nestled in the garden. Craig, Harry, and I all ordered some natural Matcha - powdered green tea.

As we neared the end of the trail, we saw a large gathering of people attending a classical-style Japanese wedding.
Bride & Groom

Up next was the Silver Pavilion - Ginkakuji Temple, only a short bus ride away. The path up to the temple grounds was cluttered with various omiyage (souvenir stores) such as: craft shops, confectioneries, ice cream parlors, and fabric merchants.

The Silver Pavilion - which by the way isn't actually silver because they never finished construction due to fiscal difficulties - was actually under renovation when we went. Unfortunately, we weren't able to see it in its full glory but we still got some nice views of the cityscape from the hills.

temple grounds

view from the hills above

Our last major destination for the day was the Kiyomizudera, one of the most celebrated temples in Japan, over 1200 years old, and a World Heritage Site. I had actually visited the temple over new years with Dan & Masa but it's definitely worth seeing again, so I had no complaints.

entrance

On the area right below the temple they have a few restaurants and praying areas for visitors. Probably the most famous part besides the main temple itself are the 3 waterfalls. Each visitor is allowed to drink from one of the three spouts, promising either health, longevity, or success in studies.
On the way out we ran into some young Japanese temple-goers, one of which had a samurai sword and shirt on. After talking with him briefly, he allowed me to try on the shirt and take a picture with the sword! I managed to scare a few people in the process when I pulled the sword out of its sheath but no one was hurt.
We hurried over to the Sanjusangendo temple, which is known for housing 1000 + human-sized wooden carvings of Buddhist figures, but it had closed for the day. We went back to the ryokan to rest up and vowed to return before leaving Kyoto.

After dinner we went downtown to meet with an old classmate of Nick's who had graduated and was working as an English teacher in Kyoto. He showed us around a few bars and told us some things to check out in the city.

Me & Craig

Very busy day, and just the tip of the ice berg. Up next - day 2