Woke up at 7:30am(??) to eat breakfast in the hotel lounge (@ anteroom kyoto).
Simple but yummy! I love smoked salmon toast.
We met our lovely tour guide Yuuko-sensei and headed out on our long day of touring at around 9:15am.
Since we all visited the same places today, I’ll post just my favorites!
My nicer photos & videos are still on my SD card…in my camera.
The tldr is that we visited & saw lots of shrines & important religious/cultural landmarks today (Kinkakuji -> Arashiyama Bamboo forest -> Fushimi Inari)! These are all places I’ve seen lots of shows & series referencing, as well as just seeing gorgeous photos of them online in general; it was incredible to see them for myself now, and our guide did an amazing job giving us succinct descriptions of each locations’ history & significance.
This bridge wasn’t mentioned as part of our tour, but I noticed the name on a sign while we were walking through Arashiyama and asked our guide, Miss Yuuko, about it. I had recognized the name surprisingly from a Kuraki Mai song before ever actually seeing photos of the bridge, and she and I sang a bit of her songs together while we walked around?! I have never been so glad of my knowledge of J-musicians until today.
After our tour ended, we were taken to KCG’s campus and straight to the theater room to watch Mugen train together and to meet with more important faculty!
This is my 5th time watching this film, and I swear it hurts me more each time. It took all my energy to not audibly sob like how I normally do at home, and I think this drained me more than after all the walking from earlier today (I miss u every day rengoku).
Maybe a little weird of me but I took the chance during one of the less engaging scenes of Mugen Train to make a quick trip to the restroom outside, and it was really nice!! While the stalls were small, it was clean and I really liked how the restroom was designed?! The view out the big window inside was lovely.
After the movie (and trying to hide my waterfall of snot & visible tears), we all headed to yet another food court within the station nearby for dinner.
I got udon. Again!
Kakeudon again, this time with ebi tempura and a singular inari, to celebrate our trip to fushimi inari taisha today.
I’ve finished typing this post exactly at midnight, and we’re set to wake up in about 7 hours for another early day tomorrow!
Today was the big “lets see Kyoto!” Day! The day started early around 730 for breakfast and our tour guide showed up around 8:30 to give us a precursor of Japan.
After our little lecture we drove to Kinkaku-Ji temple! You’ve probably seen photos of this temple from the Internet but it is a gold temple in the middle of a water garden. It was beautiful. We took many photos.
After Kinkaku-Ji we headed to Tenryu-Ji. It was this pretty palace that had zen and regular gardens. It was very photogenic.
After that we went to the Arashiyama Bamboo forest!!! This is a very popular spot on social media and it was so pretty. We walked around the forest and down to the main drag for lunch. We were able to walk down this really pretty river with boats and a lot of people in kimonos. For lunch, I got karaage ( fried chicken), fired masked potatoes, and some soft serve ice cream for dessert. It was getting pretty warm and sunny out so I felt my face starting to go a bit red.
After lunch we boarded back on our tour bus and headed out to Kiyomizu-dera. This was a beautiful temple that presided in the older part of Kyoto. Before the temple were a lot of stairs up through the town and all the small local shops. There were so many people. I’m planning on going back there for my free day on Friday!
When we got to the temple we all took a deep breath and walked some more. From the angle of view we were able to see all of Kyoto and the mountains in the area. The temple itself was beautiful as well. The temple had a lot of fountains with purified water for people to wish upon. I was taking some photos for Fabian when an older Japanese gentleman offered to take photos of us. He was really nice and complimented our Japanese :D! On our way back down the stairs I ended up buying a kitsune mask, some more star candy, and a cute Kirby token that said Kyoto! Here’s the photos:
Our last stop of the day was at Fushimi Inari Shrine. This shrine is well known for its many many Torii gates. Torii gates are typically red gates symbolizing our connections to the deities according to Shintoism. This particular shrine had foxes as the messenger to the spirits so there were different types of fox statues everywhere. Depending on what the fox was holding depended on the blessing. We ended up only walking about 1000 Torii gates but there are so so so many more the higher you go up the trail. We turned at the first point we could since everyone was getting tired and the day was close to over. Not only was this really cool to see but also very aesthetic and crowded. We were lucky enough to get some good photos while we walked.
We then piled into the bus one more time to go to KCG for the first time. We had an anime screening and met with some more professors at the school. We watched Mugen Train from Demon Slayer. I love that movie and I’m glad a lot of the class seemed to enjoy it. We also go to see the old computers KCG had. I’ll definitely take a closer look at that at some point.
After the movie we all got together and went to dinner at Aeon mall. We all had some food, talked about our day, and walked back to the hotel exhausted. I took a quick shower. Fun fact the showers in our hotel at traditional. This means that there’s a floor that drains and a bathtub. You use the faucet and out water in a bowl to wash your body outside the tube. Once you’re clean you can use the tub to bathe. Ok that’s all for today! See you tomorrow!
Day 3 was temple day in Kyoto. It started off early in the morning with breakfast at 7am and a bus to catch at 9:30. Stop number one was the Kinkaku-Ji Shrine, which was built by a shogun in 1397 by a shogun, as explained by our wonderful tour guide, Yuko. This is a very popular tourist attraction due to the uniqueness of the shrine. The architecture of the building was meant to flex the wealth of the shogun at the time, and each floor was built in a very specific way. The first floor was build in the style of the rich during this period, and represented the emperor. It is the only floor not to be covered in gold leaf. The second floor is in the style associated with samurai and represents the shogun. The top floor is in the style of Zen temples, and represents Buddha. The temple represents how the shogun views the hierarchal structure of Japan, since at the time the shogun was more important than the emperor.
Kinkaku-ji Shrine
After visiting Kinkaku-ji we went to Arashiyama Area for lunch. Before lunch we visited the bamboo grove, which was so cool to see. This grove was right near a river and connected directly to the Arashiyama Area, so it was a really pretty walk between the two.
Arashiyama Bamboo Grove
After visiting the grove we had about an hour to get lunch, which was, as always, really good. I got soba noodles at a ramen shop. After lunch we grabbed some ice cream across the street from the station where we were meeting to head to the second temple, and it was also delicious.
The second temple was the Buddhist temple Kiyomizu-dera. Of the three this was probably my favorite since it was absolutely gorgeous and overlooked all of Kyoto! The architecture was also really interesting and the history of the temple was fascinating. The government had to ban people from jumping off of the stage over the mountain because people would do it so much because they thought that surviving meant their wish would come true. The actual stage was supported by interlocking beams and used no nails throughout the entire thing. After making a loop through the temple we headed back to our meeting spot and then had around 30 minutes of free time to see the shops that lined the road leading up to the temple.
Kiyomizu-dera Temple overlooking Kyoto
The last temple of the day was the Fushimi-Inari Shinto Temple. I really liked the architecture here, especially the Inari fox statues scattered throughout. We didn’t get a chance to go through the entire shrine walk since it would have taken almost 2 hours, but the 1000 shrines we walked through were so cool. There was a portion of the shrine in which we lifted rocks while imagining something we wanted to do or accomplish. If the rock was heavier than you thought it was going to be, then the thing you wanted to accomplish would be require more work than anticipated. If it was lighter than you thought then the task would be easier than you anticipated. This trend continues for if the rock was the same weight as you thought it would be.
Overall really fun day with lots of things to see. Though it was very stressful because we were constantly rushing places.
Our first full day in Tokyo, Esther and I explored Shibuya since that’s where our hotel was. We crossed the Shibuya Scramble, saw Hachiko, and wandered the streets. My wallet hurt a bit after going to the Once Piece store, Nintendo Tokyo, Shibuya Parco, and many other stores.
5/19 – Harajuku
The day after, we went to Harajuku! This was my personal favorite place I have visited so far, and has been a lifelong bucket list item of mine. The most fascinating thing about Harajuku (and all of Tokyo so far) was the street fashion. It does not even compare to clothing in America, with almost everyone you see being well dressed, classy, and with an amazing fashion sense. I could people watch and admire outfits here for hours. We did some shopping and visited the iconic Takeshita street. It was a gorgeous district and I would love to visit again.
5/20 – Shimokitazawa
Then, we visited Shimokitazawa! Before heading there, we made a quick stop at FromSoftware’s head office in Tokyo. As a huge soulsborne fan it was so cool to see where some of my favorite games were conceived, even if the studio itself was closed to the public. Next, we took a quick train ride to Shimokitazawa, the vintage shopping district. The fashion here was also insane, and I purchased a really cool semi-designer piece for a good price! That night, we also visited Shinjuku and got to experience the nightlife scene in Tokyo.
Overall, these early days were filled with exploration and wandering, and I had a great time doing my own thing and experience the city for myself.
For the first time, I was able to sleep in until 8! Previously, I had been waking up at 5 or earlier. We made our way to a bakery where I ate french toast and other bake goods. I also had a delicious smoothie and tried yuzu juice.
After, we checked out of our hotel and split up into groups. I was a part of a large group that went to the aquarium that was attached to the mall connected to our hotel. We were immediately welcomed by a swing boat type ride which we of course had to try.
While many of the earlier exhibits were more sparse and appeared to create a flashy vibe opposed to showcasing the animals, there were some interesting animals there.
This fish looks like he is eating sand.
Some of the later exhibits featured larger animals.
However, the most impressive exhibit by far was the penguin one (no biases here). I’ve never seen a penguin exhibit featuring different species of penguins in one exhibit space. They had King, Gentoo, African, and the rare Northern Rockhopper penguin native to only a few remote islands in the middle of the Atlantic. Truly a treat to see!
There was also an otter show where the otter did various tricks such as sorting garbage, speaking, and eating a shrimp larger than its head. However, we had to leave before seeing the penguin show in order to get to Kyoto…
I had to buy a bag from my favorite anime of all time, Pingu. A true masterpiece.
After riding the Shinkansen and playing more Hearthstone, we were greeted by KCG staff in Kyoto. They kindly guided us to a restaurant where we were treated to a traditional 10 course meal (+desert). This was a very new experience for many and not all of the food was everyone’s favorites, however, this was an amazing experience to experience the foods of a different culture. Personally, this compared to the Chinese banquet dinners that my extended family puts together for Chinese New Years so I was willing to try most foods. Familiar foods of Tempura, Sashimi and Sushi were also served following ice cream for desert. We also had the opportunity of making sushi under the direction of the head chef where I went first and had a great amount of difficulty putting on my glove (and ripped it). All things considered, I think I did a decent job.
We made our way to our hotel afterwards and am about to retire for the night as of the writing of this. Stay tuned, the Kyoto action has only just begun!
I arrived in Japan midday on Thursday the 18th. I didn’t even have to leave the airport before noticing how different it was. Besides the bidet, I didn’t know the toilets would run water to cover up any sounds and would spray perfume when they sensed you. The toilet almost had its own remote control. I also didn’t know that this would be the last water fountain I would ever see in Japan.
After getting briefly stuck in the airport due to a currency exchange issue, I had to figure out how to navigate the subway system since I hardly use them. To my surprise, all of the subway signs were in Japanese as well as in English. I was also taken back by the heat and humidity there, which was 90° with 75% humidity. I got to the hotel eventually and tried to sleep off my jet lag before sightseeing the next day.
The next day, I wanted to get acquainted with the city a bit more so I decided to go to Tokyo tower to get an almost birds eye view of the city. In order to get an achievement card from the tower, I made my way up 600 steps to the top. The next day I visited the park next to my hotel, which seemed to have some sort of festival going on. In the park there were also some shrines and a pond that I walked around before getting dinner at a food truck and heading back to the room.
My journey started in San Francisco where my flight to Haneda airport started at 12 pm. The flight was overall pretty smooth with the exception of having the middle seat… At least I bought the wifi which was definitely worth the $18 for the whole flight. The flight was filled with me starting Honkai: Star Rail and competitive games of Hearthstone.
Upon arriving, I successfully navigated the train system to get to the hotel I booked (since I got to Tokyo early). However, I took the wrong exit out of the station and ended up in the backstreets of Roppongi where I wandered through a park. It would have been a much more welcome experience had it not been raining…
The next day, I went to Asakusa where apparently the Sanja Matsuri (festival) was happening. Supposedly, this is one of the largest festivals in Tokyo! I met with Belle and Megan who happened to be visiting on the same day. Jessica joined us later. I also got a drew a fortune in which I got a regular one. The festival was busy at first, however, by 2 pm the crowd became unbearable and we decided to split up.
Later that day I met with my dad who was on a layover and we went to the Rainbow Bridge (which there were no rainbows to be found. What a scam!). However, walking across the bay to Daiba was really pretty at night. However, the bridge was very windy and there was a lot of walking involved so by the time I got back we were exhausted. Next time I would like to take one of those ferries on the water.
From here, you can see both Tokyo Tower and the Tokyo Skytree if you look closely.
The next morning my dad and I went to the Tsukiji fish market and had sushi for breakfast. However, the restaurant was really crowded and busy in the morning so I didn’t get any good pictures. For a Sunday, where the fish market was supposed to be closed, there were still many shops open and people moving about. I did also find a sushi vending machine… Not sure how good it would be though…
My dad and I said our goodbyes and I went to drop off my bags at the hotel. Later that day we went to a hololive event in Akihabara.
Lastly, the day ends with us exchanging our train ticket vouchers and having a meal at the food court at the hotel where I got one of my favorite foods, Kitsune Udon (udon with sweet fried tofu). I can’t wait for what’s to come!
Ever stumbled into one of the largest festivals in the city you’re visiting by pure chance? It’s pretty incredible.
We started Day 3 with another visit to the Tokyo Skytree, both to visit a small coffee shop that we wanted to eat breakfast at and to clean up any loose ends we might have missed in the massive mall. After we had our fill of expensive boutiques and character stores, we decided to explore the other side of Japan: the traditional shrines.
Visiting the shrine was actually an afterthought to the ramen shop that we wanted to visit for dinner, a place that looked like a small local store that turned out to be full of tourists like us. But the food was good! As someone who’s never had real ramen before (and ordered a dipping ramen instead of the more traditional pre-mixed bowl out of a need for control) it was definitely an intimidating experience, but it really was delicious. As we were eating, we heard a group of men chanting outside as they slowly passed the shop… but we didn’t think anything of it.
To end the night, we decided to visit the Senso-Ji temple, a Buddhist temple that was sprawling and breathtaking. It wasn’t super busy because it was so late at night, but there was a drum performance happening which we stopped to watch amongst all of our picture taking. We did notice that there was a banner displaying the dates from May 19th to May 21st, and were surprised by the idea that we had managed to visit the shrine during a festival! We decided to go back tomorrow to see the shrine during the day, and look at what festivities they might have during this celebration.
We could never have been prepared for the gravity of what we had so luckily stumbled into, which turned out to be Asakusa Sanja Matsuri: one of the biggest and greatest festivals that Tokyo had to offer.
To say that there were a lot of people there was an understatement. Towards the beginning of the day (up until 11:30, maybe noon?) we were able to get up close to a lot of the main attraction, which was a parade of shrines being carried throughout various parts of the temple grounds with lots of chanting, deaf-inducing whistle blowing, and good atmosphere. But once we had left the main area and began to wander through the side streets, which were packed with stores and restaurants, the crowd became an ocean. The festival is said to attract over 1.8 million visitors in its 3 day runtime, and I truly believe it now that I’ve been in the middle of it.
Getting to see something so integral to the culture and religion of Japan was truly fascinating, and we are incredibly lucky to have accidentally walked into it on a whim. It was also fun to walk through an area that we had previously seen closed up and ghostly the night before, now alive with people and chock full of goodies to buy (which I obviously partook in). But eventually my social battery had reached its limit of being shoulder to shoulder with strangers, and we hurried back to our respective hotels to recharge as we had on days prior.
For dinner, we decided to head to an American-themed diner for a look at Japan’s perspective of our culture (and also, admittedly, for a bit of familiarity amongst a lot of exhaustion for new foreign food on my part). It felt like being tossed 30 years into the past, and the atmosphere was cozy and fun despite not being something I think I’d ever find in the U.S. today. I had a cheeseburger and fries which was a very enjoyable meal, and we exchanged a conversation with one of the waiters who was curious about why we were in Japan (and probably why we were choosing to eat American food in Japan when we certainly have enough of it back home).
We ended the night by walking along the Sumida River and taking a peek at a couple of smaller shrines, though we could only access one of them as the others were gated off due to the time. It’s nice to experience such a saturated area of culture and then contrast it with the ability to quietly experience the edges of it solo, without the fear of being judged for being unfamiliar with the details.
Tomorrow begins my daily blog posts, which I am praying I will be able to keep up with. I am visiting the Pokemon Cafe tomorrow, which is my most anticipated event, so I’m sure there will be lots of pictures! I’ll end with some more miscellaneous pictures from the festival (I could create a photo album of pictures just from today, seriously.)
Day 1: We were gonna go to Ueno but Belle and I ended up waking up at 4am.. the time difference really hit. We were up for a while seeing if there was anything to do but nothing was open until like 930-10am. We met up with Jessica and walked around a bit. We ended up going to a Starbucks connected to the Sky Tree and getting some coffee.
Photo creds to Jessica
After an hour, the SkyTree opened up! We ventured in and spent our WHOLE DAY there. There were so many stores and shops, as well as desserts and foods. Literally any thing you wanted to buy or eat was there.
For example there was the Kirby Cafe, Pokemon Center, Snoopy Store, Marvel Store, Hello Kitty Store, Kirby Cafe store, book stores, clothing stores from Uniqlo to lolita to Diesel, food that ranged from ramen to a cheesecake drink. It was a fun but overwhelming experience. It was like a dream but also a nightmare as I stumbled through my coin purse trying to count.
Me being wayyy too excited about Kirby
After shopping around for hours we were exhausted but we still wanted to see the view from the sky tree itself. We planned our adventure to the sky for 630pm so that we all had time to go home and take a little nap.
After we had awoken, it was time to go up! It was really cool and the elevators up to the viewing deck had different themes of the seasons. The views were really cool but sadly it was cloudy. We did see the transition from day to night time though! After this excursion, we all went home and passed out again. Also fun fact, we ended up going around the Sky Tree’s 11 anniversary! Also the top deck was Disney themed.
Ritchie really enjoying the Sky Tree and it’s views!
That was all day 1! Already so much but we continue.
day 2: We wake up once again at 4am, it’s rough but we play Zelda and try to sleep. This day we actually had a plan for breakfast! We all ( being Belle, Cam, Jessica, Liam, and myself) planned to go to Hoshino Coffee in the sky tree. We met up ( after some difficulties) and went for breakfast. We really wanted the big soufflé pancakes but those were only on holidays so we mostly just got some French toast. It was ok, I felt bad for the staff because there definitely weren’t enough seats for us.
After breakfast, we walked around the Sky Tree again! This time finding more stores and showing Cam and Liam the crazy food market and dessert options. I ended up buying some dango! It was really good and seems ritchie liked it too. It had the consistency of mochi but was sweet in flavor almost like brown sugar.
As one could guess, we did some more shopping. This time I got some baby books to practice Japanese! It was Pokémon themed how could I not?! It was funny because we also found Minecraft books and diary of a wimpy kid in Japanese. It was cool to see! After that we got some food and headed back home for our siestas for the day.
After a nap, Belle, Jess, and I went to Asakusa for ramen! It was a cute shop with mostly foreigners but it was yummy! We looked around the area and stumbled upon the Senso-ji Shrine. It was night time so the lights were all on and it was pretty empty but it was super pretty.
We saw some signs that a festival was happening and decided to check it out the next day. It was an accident that we stumbled on to one of Tokyo’s largest festivals that happens every year on this weekend.
Before we get there however, I NEED to talk about the Asakusa Don Quixote. It was CRAZY. Literally anything you could need or want was in the 4 story building. From bicycles, to chargers, to clothes, to beauty products, to food, to alcohol it was all there. It was also very cramped but cool to go through.
The lit up Don Quixote store
After Don Quixote we dispersed and went to bed.
Day 3: If you think it’s crazy now, just wait. Belle and I woke up at a normal time today!!! Seems our bodies are finally adjusting. After being in bed for a bit we headed out back to Asakusa for the festival. At this point we thought it was gonna be a little crowded but manageable but oh boy we’re we wrong. It was around 10am when we arrived at the temple and it was already packed. We also saw a lot of girls in Kimonos and a lot of traditional clothing. We met up with Skylar and explored the area.
Walking into the temple at around 10amRitchie having a fun time seeing and participating in the festival!
Apparently we ran into the one of the biggest festivals in Tokyo ( as I said before) but I was not expecting what I saw. There were tons of people and apparently the event draws around 1.8 millions viewers. There were little shops everywhere with food and fortunes to get. We all got our fortunes and all got normal fortunes. At least it’s not a bad one!
After that we saw and heard drums and chanting. The festival is about 3 temples and their shrines. Therefore, there were mini shrines that went around with chanting and clapping to celebrate. Accompanied with that were these carts with taiko drums from different families.
One for the many many shrines moving about the dayA taiko cart!
The crowds would shuffle around to see all the different mini shrines and drums. It was amazing and I felt so lucky to have seen it. Jessica ended up join with us at about noon for the rest of the day.
After getting a bit tired from the crowds we walked around the festival area to see all the stores. There were a lot of different stores with food, souvenirs, kimono rentals, and more. As a snack I got this 500 yen pancake with mozzarella cheese in it. It was very yummy.
We walked around a lot, bought some gifts, and once again needed a little break from the action. It had been a long day at that point of walking around and seeing so many cool things. We all went to our hotels and rested for a little while.
After a little break, Belle, Jess, and I went to this cute little American themed diner. The staff seemed so happy to see foreigners and even tried to speak English to us! It was funny to see how American culture is perceived and our food. I got Mac n cheese and it was ok. Definitely not my good ol’ box of Kraft! After dinner we did some walking to local shrines in our area and a walk down by the Sumida river. It was a nice temperature outside for a walk. We saw one temple that still have ladles and water out so we practiced cleaning our hands properly. We walked around, planned for tomorrow ( Pokemon Cafe!) and went to bed.
Wow. That was only 3 days and so much has happened. I would love to go into every detail but then this would be more like a dissertation than a blog. I’ll leave you with some more photos I took as we went around. See ya next time!
