I was going to title this day one, but that's not accurate. Day one involved nothing but travel, so I've now summed it up very succinctly! We spent 7 full days in Japan & I don't even feel like I've been! The weather could not have been better if I had been able to set it myself and cherry blossom season makes everything even more beautiful. There are a million things to see and do. We flew into Fukuoka and took the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Osaka. After spending the night in Osaka, we started our sight-seeing in Kyoto with the aide of a Japanese guide for the day. Public transportation! Sigh. This was the frustrating part of our trip. Getting anywhere involved a long process of walking to the subway, mapping out the subway route, finding the correct line, getting to the correct train line, then getting on another subway, then walking to where we wanted to go. This took up much valuable time! But what can you do? You have to get around somehow. Taxis are expensive and not really any faster. So we finally arrive at Kyoto, and just across from the station is Kyoto Tower. We decided to go. No big deal. It's a view of a city.
If you look closely toward the right of the picture, in the center, you can see a pagoda, Toji Pagoda. It is the tallest in Japan. Stretching to the left is the Buddhist complex of Toji. |
| Cheesy photo op! |
After our descent, we subway/walk to the Kyoto Botanical Gardens. Japan in cherry blossom season is two things: busy and beautiful! The cherry trees are scattered around everywhere; I could see them dotting the hillsides as we landed and splattered across the landscape every time we rode the train. They really are fabulous. The Japanese have a tradition called hanami, which is a cherry blossom viewing party/picnic. They buy bento, and eat under the trees. Everywhere we went large blue tarps were spread out by the city for this purpose and were full of people. I wanted to do this at the Gardens, but was denied.
The walk to the Botanical Gardens led us along a path with cherry trees, some of them the weeping cherries which are really pretty also. The gardens were not disappointing! Spring is a grand time to be in in a garden, especially such a cultivated one! Here's a bouquet:
This was also the day we ate our first real sushi, which in America we've always called sashimi. I really liked the eel, but the rest of it was just okay. Too chewy. But I ate sushi...in Japan. Cross that off my 'bucket list'!
Next stop was a major tourist attraction: Kinkakuji, the Temple of the Golden Pavilion. Originally built in 1390s as a retirement villa for a shogun, it was destroyed in a fire in the 1950s and shortly thereafter rebuilt. Before the fire only the roof of the upper levels were covered in gold; when they rebuilt it they covered the entire second and third levels. It is supposed to hold the Buddha's ashes, but if you remember from my trip to Haeinsa Temple in Daegu, the statue there is supposed to hold some of his bones, so who knows? The glitz of the gold building has its visual attraction, but the surrounding pond and gardens were more beautiful to me.
After this it was time to head back to the hotel, which involved the whole walk-taxi-subway-train-subway-walk routine. This became the norm. Dinner was at some random place we walked by and decided to go in. I had some great ramen, eaten with chopsticks, which I have learned is a Chinese dish that has become very popular in Japan, as well as Korea. And here I always thought it was something Americans had thought up to have a cheap knock-off Asian style quick dish! Theirs is much better than our version though!
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