Kyoto Sightseeing

Forewarning, this is one heck of a post. And I took even more photos this trip than I am managing to upload into the blog, so here's a photo album if you just want to see cool stuff and ignore my ramblings.

Since I worked the English camp over the weekend of the 8th, I was given Tuesday and Wednesday off from work. I decided to make the most of my free time and travel to Kyoto for two days. So I decided to go to Kyoto and check out some of the sights.

I went to a bunch of different shrines after arriving. I first headed over to Arashiyama and went to the  Tenryu-ji Temple. This is a rather tranquil spot, with the shrine having a garden in the back.


Right next to this spot is both the bamboo forest and the Okochi-Sanso Villa. The villa was owned by a famous movie star who built his property into a garden which overlooks Kyoto. While the Tenryu-ji Temple had a relaxing atmosphere, the amount of tourists kept it from being truly relaxed, whereas the villa's entrance fee deters many people, so it was truly quiet and peaceful. There is also a small cafe there which serves guests green tea, which Kyoto is known for.

 The next stop on my list was in the northern part of the city, the famous Kinkaku-ji Temple. I have been consistently impressed with these shrines since even though they have a ton of people going through them, they still remain rather calm and spacious. But this temple deserves the crowds it gathers, it is shiny and pristine.

Also, there's a little coin statue there.

After this stop I checked the bus schedule and realized it would be just as quick time wise for me to walk to the Nijo Castle. So I did just that. I am glad I wandered through the city because I got a much better vibe for the actual feel of Kyoto.

Anyways, apparently the castle, like a bunch of random things in Japan, is closed on Tuesdays. So I wandered onto the Imperial Palace grounds, which has been turned into a large recreation park in the middle of the city. It felt very similar to Washington Park, however the grounds were much larger.

I found a Mexican restaurant for dinner based on my phone`s recommendation of good restaurants nearby. I was surprised to see this, so I wandered over to LaJolla. It was some of the best Mexican food I have had. Speaking to the owner, who was also the chef, I learned how he came to cook such great food. Many years ago he left his job as a cook in Japan to be a beach bum and surf in Orange County. He fell into a ritual of surfing all day, and eating Mexican food for dinner. Over time, he learned to cook the food he was eating every day by talking to the chefs who made his meals. When he moved back to Japan, he missed his usual dinner routine. So he opened up a Mexican restaurant in Kyoto. The business has been going for 20 years strong now. I am glad I stopped in to try it out.

After dinner I ended up wandering the riverbank towards the hostel. Thankfully I made this detour and found a rather impressive street performer. He was a fire dancer who used a variety of items throughout his performance. I compiled some highlights here.



After this I wandered Pontocho Alley, which is a narrow street with  a variety of restaurants. Next time I might actually stop into one of these. This did lead me to a random street that I really appreciated aesthetically. As far as I could gather it was just a residential street, but the shops on one side with the row of streetlamps next to a creek was very much to my liking.

The hostel I stayed in was nicer than many hotels I have been in. It had a very modern aesthetic, comfy beds, and a full kitchen with free breakfast in the morning. All for around the equivalent of $25.

The next day I went to the East side of the city to see the famous sites on that end of town. I started at Yasaka Shrine which is known to be on of the biggest spiritual centers in Kyoto. Unlike many of the other shrines which feel more repurposed as historical sites, this place actually had shrine maidens working on the grounds.

I walked through a stone ground section of town on my way to the next site, which was very interesting. What I presume to be incredibly nice houses lined the streets, yet there were also a variety of Buddha statues around the ward. There was even a map on where they all were if a traveler wanted to find them all. In this section of town I also found the really tall pagoda, which just sits by itself fenced off from the rest of the residential area.

I arrived Kiyomizu-dera Temple next, which is the most toursity of the sites in Kyoto. The entire street up to the shrine is filled with souvenir shops and people. The shrine grounds themselves are large though, so much like the other areas I visited, the crowds were not much of a bother. On the grounds I went to Tainai Meguri. A small section of the area many tourists pass over. It is a pitch black tunnel with an illuminated stone in the middle. According to the official website description and google translate, it is described as “Return to the womb of great merciful mother. When you find a light in the dark you will realize you are newborn again. There is a Sanskrit character that symbolized Daizuigu Bosatsu on the stone. Turn around around the stone and make wish.” It was one of the most interesting experiences I had the whole trip. Would recommend.

After that I trekked over to the Sanjusangen-do Temple. This temple does not allow photography, but has over 1000 identical statues of Kannon, a Buddhist goddess of mercy and statues of other deities. So I hopped online and googled an image for you. Here's HALF of the statues, not including the big one in the middle. Also included is my favorite of the deities,  the Nio.

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE!!! So after this I proceeded to the Fushimi-Inari-Taisha Shrine. This is the big one. A whole mountainside of gates along paths to various shrines and burial grounds. It is massive. The base is incredibly crowded, but most tourists seem to give up a 3rd of the way up the path. I managed to lap the whole thing, and I am glad I did. As the crowds thinned, it became much more scenic and stayed continuously impressive the whole time.  

After nearly getting lost in the mountains, I bused back to the train station, which is a gigantic building/mall and went to the Ramen Street, which is a floor of ramen restaurants in the station and had a good meal before catching my train. While there it was notable that they had a Lego build of the building, I thought this was really cool and I kind of wish all tourist sites had Lego versions of the place at the locations. 

Kyoto is a very interesting city because you have the main roads which are large and feel very modern with hustle and bustle, the historic sites which while filled with tourists, are still very much maintained in their original states, and then the rest of the city consists of tiny little side streets with local storefronts. It is odd to see such radical differences just by turning a corner.

The city is quite "small" geographically speaking. I managed to walk from the north end of the city to the center over the course of an afternoon. It took a few hours and was definitely a few miles, but it was quite interesting to see both the historic and modern parts of town.

English Camp

I apologize for the delay, I have been rather busy recently with work, travel, and just getting my living situation squared away.

To start, shortly after my last blog I helped run an English Camp over the weekend of the 8th.  It is for students all over the prefecture. They sign up and attend a 3 day camp where during the day they work with us on English speaking activities. It was a surprising amount of fun. Since it's completely voluntary, many students were quite eager to use English, and the activities were quite fun. We had a day where the students organized presentations of Japanese culture in English. These included watching and playing a koto, which is similar to a giant lap guitar, learning calligraphy, writing haikus, watching kendo, and playing kendama. I regret not learning how to use a kendama over the many months at APEX when people were playing with them now...  The camp kids presented these cultural activities to a group of British Scouts which came to camp on the 3rd day. Apparently boy and girl scouts from across the world had a big camping trip which happened in Japan this year. Also, sorry for the lack of photographs, much like my school, there are rather strict rules on photographs of students here

in Japan.

Settling into Tottori - Week 2

It has been a rather interesting second week. I have begun working, settled into my apartment, made my first tourist trip, and I have eaten some good food.

To start, over the weekend I went to Higashihama beach, which is right near Iwami. Free! fans will know where that is, although somewhat ironically there is no swim team in Iwami. The beach is in a cove and has some of the clearest water in Japan. There were some very cool rock formations you could swim and climb on, so some fun bouldering challenges revealed themselves to me.
While there we ate at a little local cafe called Aloha. I had hamburger curry, and it was delicious. I don't think it's possible to have a poor meal out here in Japan. Even the convenience stores carry microwave meals that are quite good and dirt cheap.

This same weekend there were also a bunch of local bands playing in an open area near the main train station. Since it was only a short walk from the hotel I had been staying in I ventured over. Many of the bands looked like high school or college age people, but they were quite good. A wide variety of music was played in 15 minutes sets, and then the bands would change. What I got to experience was some J-Rock, some upbeat jam band stuff (my personal favorite, I just don't know how to describe it), and a DJ with a brass section. Who knew you could combine "club" music with (jazz) club music and have it sound really good?  I tried to record some of it, but the audio quality does not do the performances justice. I wish I would have been able to understand the band names so I would have been able to find them later.

I have spent a fair amount of my evenings socializing with the other JETs, since we all live in the same apartment complex, and second group just arrived this week. We have gone out for good food, and they are good company to be around. It's nice to not be isolated from other English speakers and people my own age, since most 20 somethings move away from Tottori to live in the big cities.

The school week has been very slow, it is still summer vacation so students are only at school for club activities and optional study hall. I have been helping a couple students with English speeches they are working on. There is a regional competition coming up in September.  Apart from that I have just been trying to prepare for my first few lessons.  I have eaten at some interesting restaurants over the past few days. A few of the teachers invited me to a traditional Japanese lunch place earlier in the week, which had a wide variety of food on a tray. It was good and the company was fun, even though I could not understand the conversation at all.

A highlight of my gastronomic adventures was a small ramen restaurant, who's name translates to "Carpe Diem" one of the teachers recommended. And seize the day I did, because she challenged me to eat the biggest meal they offered. Up to this point I have been very happy about Japanese food costs, but let down by portion sizes. So I accepted the challenge. I ordered the biggest bowl of pork ramen they offered. However, at this restaurant, once you order they then ask, free of charge, what serving size of toppings your would like. The topping is bean spouts, cabbage, minced garlic, and a pork fat broth/drizzle which comes in 4 sizes: garnish, a little pile, cover the bowl, and a small mountain. Accepting my co-workers challenge, I went for the mound. Check it out:



This was one of the best meals I have eaten out here. Not only was I uncomfortably full (clocked a solid 40 minutes of eating), but that drizzle was one of the best things I have ever tasted. Will definitely be going back, but probably ordering a more reasonable size.

Speaking of food, I also believe I have found my staple fallback restaurant. It is a 24 hour beef bowl chain very close to my apartment. This was a godsend since the food is inexpensive, portion sizes are sizable, and I can go whenever I want!

O ya, I got to move into my apartment in the middle of this week. I spent some time settling in. Thankfully my predecessor, Ivan, has gone above and beyond in helping me settle in to life and work in Tottori. I have really lucked out to have someone I can rely on, which is very unusual for JETs. He left a fair amount of useful stuff in the apartment, so I have not had to shop for much. I have been shopping at Aeon, which is a large department store/mall company which has many locations throughout Japan. Think Super Targets.

My new apartment- Copo Hestia

However, I recently discovered that second hand stores, which are big in Japan, have waaaaay more stuff than US secondhand stores. I regret not shopping there first. I have found surfboards to washing machines to new tea sets to bicycles to cheezy home workout machines all in the same store! It's like a community garage sale inside these places. Very cool and pretty convenient for inexpensive lifestyles.

Now that the week is over I will spend the weekend helping run an English camp.