Kyoto Revisited

Today we visited Kyoto. Unexpectedly it rained ...a lot... I had checked the weather forecast before coming since I was worried about the rain chasing us out of Yokohama, and it had said clear skies for the weekend. :( Can't trust the weather forecast...


Before going to Kyoto, we made a quick stop by the house. It's looking really good.

We also made a stop by the panya (bakery) for some yummy pastry breakfast. Don't the pastries look amazing? I chose some corn pastry thing, and Greg got a hot dog like thing. We'll try different things tomorrow.

After taking a direct line to Kyoto and a trip that took under an hour (surprising!), we ended up at Kyoto Station. This station has an ascending line of escalators that goes up so high. I forgot it was this station when we came last time, otherwise I would have taken Alice and Louise there. :( It's hard to see the escalators going up in this picture, but they go farther than you can see in this photo.

The first temple we went to see was Sanju-sangen-do, the temple of the 33 Buddhas. My mom recommended we take a taxi, but because I had gone around Kyoto a bit before, I felt comfortable enough trying to find it by walking. It was actually really close to where our hostel was! Of course just when we came to the point where I didn't know exactly where to go, it started to rain fairly hard on us. :( Because I thought it wasn't going to rain, I hadn't brought my umbrella and was trying to use my map as an umbrella. Didn't work so well. :\

But we did make it to the temple eventually. Here is the outside of the temple and the inside of the temple grounds. We weren't able to take pictures inside, but it is a sight to see. There are a thousand Buddhas lined up with 28 Buddhas featured in stone at the front of the shrine.

Next we went to Yasaka Jinja as a starting place for going up to Kiyomizu-Dera. This time we did take a taxi to the temple. Here is part of the inside of Yasaka Jinja.

The walk on the way to Kiyomizu-Dera is dotted with shops that are well-suited for getting omiyage (souvenirs). I admit I bought quite a few myself. :P Here are some pictures along the way.

Along the road to Kiyomizu-Dera. I think there were fewer people out today because of the rain, but still a fair number, and some in kimono.

Often the maps along the way are hand-drawn and quite intricate.

At one point Greg took a detour to check out the top of these steps. Apparently Kodaiji Temple was over the hill. We were running a little late and I wanted to make sure we made it to Kiyomizu-Dera so I didn't join him at the top of the stairs.

This was the outside of one of the shops. I thought the monks and "writing" (smiles) were cute.

Here is the top of the stairs leading down to more shops on the way to Kiyomizu-Dera.











I've tried hard to resist buying too many cute things that just end up sitting around. Now my method is to take pictures. These were cute little ball figures on the end of straps (for cell-phones).

And we finally made it to Kiyomizu-Dera despite the rain!

Kiyomizu-Dera sits on the top of the mountain and so provides an amazing view of the city. Even though it was rainy, it provided interesting atmosphere for viewing the city. Sorry the shots are dark. I was trying to capture the mountains in the background.

And a view from the side of Kiyomizu-Dera on the mountain.

For dinner we ended up eating in Gion in a donburi place. I had a wonderfully delicious donburi with egg and mushroom. I asked them to take out the fishcake. It was so so good! I wonder if other donburi places have similar dishes. If so, I wish I had known sooner! I would have eaten more of them...

We walked to Kawaramachi station, and it was raining again. Hard to walk around when there are a lot of umbrellas around! And oftentimes other people's umbrellas will drip water down on you sigh.

While we were waiting at the station, I was amazed at how tall this lady's Converse-like shoes were, wow.

While in the subway, there was a map of Kyoto in which all the shrines and temples were depicted. I wish I had this map when I was going around!
Here is a funny little sign outside of a business in the Sannomiya station. What is it saying? You have to leave your sake outside? Or you have to leave your dog outside?

There is a shop that sells just-made waffles in the station that we pass on our way to taking the JR. Greg was craving it all day so we dropped by and got one each on our way home.

I wanted a maple one, but they ran out, so I got chocolate. Yum! I am going to miss the Japanese food so much...












And finally, here are some night pictures of the hotel!

Overall not a bad day. Was kind of tired throughout and this cough is not going away. :( Several times I would have pretty debilitating cough attacks. I feel bad about disturbing other people. But I got good shopping done and it was nice to be in Kyoto again.

Traveling to Kobe

Today we went to Kobe! Though before we made it to Kobe, it was pouring rain and thunder and lightning in Yokohama. I was worried that it would be raining in Kobe area, but it looks like rain is expected only for today and Monday and we should have clear skies over the weekend. Whew. Here is a picture from the balcony of my apartment in Yokohama. You probably can't see the rain, but you can see how wet it is on the ground. The umbrellas were pretty soaked by the time we made it to the bus.

When we got to the train station, I accidentally only bought the express part of the ticket and not the fare ticket. So after getting the fare ticket, I thought we were late for the train we paid to take. It turned out that all the trains were running late. We found out later that there had been a 6.8 earthquake and so the trains had stopped running. We were waiting at the platform for nearly an hour and ended up buying a number of snacks and drinks. Here is a picture of the people waiting for the train, including Greg.


















Once we got on the train, we checked out the bento box that we bought from the mini-konbini at the station.  The display looked prettier and it wasn't as yummy as I thought, but it wasn't bad.
 

And so we arrived in Kobe! Here is our shinkansen about to leave the station.

It's so good to be back in Kobe. Even though we aren't able to stay in the house, I booked us a hotel close to the house. [Pictures to come.] We pass through a mall on the way to the house from Shin-Kobe station. We never really took a look around there before, but it might be an interesting place to explore. We discovered a carriage and horses made out of lights and checked it out. I didn't take any pictures of it because I got distracted by the store next to it that sold all things cats. I made the pictures super big so you can see the items in the store.

































I particularly like the top left and right shirts.































Cute!

After checking into the hotel, I showed Greg around the area. We went by the house and said hi then walked down to Sannomiya. It was really busy on the streets at night. We decided to eat at this ramen restaurant that seemed to feature cats. Here is the outside of the restaurant and the lights above our heads inside the restaurant.



















And a picture that they had hanging of... more cats!













 And here is one of the pages of their menu that had little chicks all over it. This dish is egg and rice. ..man I should have ordered this. This is like what I used to have for breakfast during the Hayama orientation.











I ordered the "yasai ramen" (vegetable ramen, meaning it had carrots, onions, spring onions, and corn in it) and asked them take out the chashu and add egg. It was pretty yummy though a little salty. I really like having egg, either boiled or fried, in my soups. Yum yum I like ramen a lot! Vegetarians have a hard time eating ramen because its base is often meat- or fish-based. I want to be able to eat meat though in situations where it's less awkward to just eat meat, so I've relaxed a bit on what I eat and don't eat. Can't quite bring myself to eat chunks of meat, but this is okay for now.
 

Farewell Dinner: Tofu Restaurant in Yokohama

Yukiko had a small farewell dinner for me in a fancy tofu restaurant in Yokohama. Unfortunately she got sick and couldn't make it. :( So it was just me and her graduate student, Kazuki.

Here is the outside of the tofu restaurant and the inside once you enter. Isn't it pretty?


The restaurant was on the 29th floor of the Sky Building in Yokohama. Here was the view from our table. We got to watch the sun set while we ate. It was really beautiful. We could see the trains coming in and out and the cars driving on the highway. Apparently this highway leads to Tokyo. It's amazing in a city of so many people to see so few cars. Everyone takes public transportation during the weekday then drives on the weekend.














In this restaurant, it's common to order a course set instead of ordering individual dishes. Yukiko picked the best course for us (probably with the least amount of meat). Here is the list of all the dishes. Isn't it nicely laid out?

















The first course came out like this. Isn't it pretty? I almost didn't want to open it and eat it. But I did. It was a mochi-like tofu with miso on top, spinach and a little tofu flower (possible fish/kamaboko?), and yuba (tofu skin). I was also impressed with how thin the chopsticks get at the end, I imagine to more easily cut the tofu and eat it.

 

Even the beer came out pretty.

After the first course was a tofu salad and a tofu dish whose name I forget in Japanese... It's not a soup but it's really soft and almost soup-like. It had mushroom in the bottom of it and some other small things that seemed like potato, that texture. The tofu salad was a little plain until I added soy sauce and sesame seeds. Then it was really yummy.

For the next several dishes Kazuki and I got different things. He got a tuna-tofu dish while I got a tofu-yuba dish. His looked really intricate, I wanted to take a picture of it. I also liked the design of the bowl.

 

In the next dish, I got another tofu salad. It was really tasty with a vinegar-sesame type dressing. The top part was a wonton-nest. I liked this one a lot.

The next dish was a mochi one with little bits of レンコン (renkon - a kind of radish). It was interesting.

Around this time I was starting to feel a little full. It's been a lot of tofu up to this point! But it all tasted so good that I was torn between wanting more and taking a break. The next two dishes were vegetable tempura with salt and these mochi-dessert like tofu bars with miso. They were really good.

Two more dishes to go before dessert! The next one came out still sizzling and on a leaf. It was really tasty, flavored with miso and a pepper, but it was really hot.

This last dish was the only one to come with rice. The rice was topped with konbu. It also came with a yuba soup and 漬物 (tsukemono - pickled vegetables). A nice ending to the meal part of the meal.

And finally dessert! I chose the mango ice cream. It came with a tea that smelled like coffee but was good. Overall a good meal in a good restaurant. The dishes were beautifully laid out and delicious to eat. ...but I may have to take a break from tofu for awhile.