Japan – Fuji Yoshida

After our time in Kyoto, we made our way to the town of Fuji Yoshida, which is one of two main center from which people tend to embark on their climbs up Mt. Fuji. We didn’t have the time, equipment, or energy to do the climb, so the best we were hoping for was a few good photo opportunities. Unfortunately, there weren’t any really great opportunities, but we ordered pizza and that was ok.

During the day, we traveled to the cable car which takes you up to a viewing platform for Fuji, but unfortunately everything was clouded over. We couldn’t even see the mountain. Luckily for us, there was a horrifically translated sign that made it worth the trip.

We couldn’t even figure out what they could have possibly meant, and for a while we stared at each other in disbelief. I’m not sure when the last time I saw downhill feces was, but I’m pretty sure it was never, and I’m thankful for it, too.

Here are the shots that we did get of Mt. Fuji, some of them aren’t too bad.

Japan – Inari

Not much to say about Inari. It’s a short train ride from Kyoto. The scene is now more famous, I would imagine, due to its appearance in the Holywood Blockbuster “Memoirs of a Geisha” (I say, read the book). Basically, you go to Inari, and start walking up the hill, and there are Torii. Like, there are 9.231 * 10^e Torii.

Japan – Uji

From Kyoto, we also made a bit of a side trip to a town called Uji. We wanted to head to Nara, but the weather wasn’t cooperating, and Uji was home to Byodo-in, a famous temple built somewhere around 998AD. A beautiful and quaint little town, you would never expect there to be a population of 400,000. It felt more like a Canadian town with a population of about 8,000.

We had a really nice Japanese Curry for lunch there in a restaurant that was situated in someones house. The scenery was beautiful, and the temple was outstanding. Other than that, there isn’t a lot to say, so we’ll let the pictures do the talking.

Japan – Kyoto

All in all, I can probably safely say that Kyoto was all of our favorite city in Japan. Tons of culture, friendly people, loads of stuff to do, endless shopping, cafes and restaurants and Astro Boy:

One of the things we enjoyed most about Kyoto was breakfast that was served up by the little cafe at the guest house:

Coffee and thick white toast with honey. It was super. Kyoto also happened to be the first city we were in where we actually managed to find a sushi restaurant. Overall, I would say that there are probably more sushi restaurants in the downtown Vancouver core then there are in all of Japan – a shot of Carly enjoying her time at the revolving sushi place we found (the sushi revolved, not the restaurant)

Carly and Krista also attended a traditional tea ceremony while in Kyoto, here’s a shot of Carly happily stirring, or mixing, or whisking… or whatever it is they do.

There was also a great restaurant we ate at where we got to BBQ our food at our table. Yes, what you see below is a large stack of different beef cuts, of which I devoured pretty much the entire thing.

Running through Kyoto is a nice river to walk along, we stayed about 2 blocks away from the river. Just on the other side there is a cafe called ‘efish’, which is owned by Shin Nishibori, who’s a quite famous designer working for Apple Computer. We went there for some coffee’s one night, and had a great time. The place screamed of design, and had great ambience.

Kyoto is packed with more temples than you can possibly count, and we didn’t go to any of them. I guess we were mostly just busy with other stuff, or we got templed out on our previous journeys through SE Asia. At any rate, below are some amazing paintings (circa 1600) that are currently part of an art preservation and restoration project in Nijo Castle. And a few shots from inside Nijo castle as well.

There were starbucks everywhere, and we visited quite a number of them. What was interesting to me was that their special beverages (latte, americano, etc.) were all priced about the same as they would be in Canada (exchange rates taken into consideration). But straight up brewed coffee was approximately double the price. Odd.

Yes. Our packs were heavy. And it was hard to hug.

All in all, we had an amazing time in Kyoto, and I would love to go back someday and spend a few weeks just in the city itself. Maybe one day.

Japan – Kobe (briefly)

We were only in Kobe for about 4-5 hours. Enough time to walk around, see some crazy rockers pounding away on their guitars and drums in the streets, get some cakes from Patisserie Tooth Tooth (yes, it’s famous, and that’s really what it’s called), and eat the best steak that I have ever had in my entire life.

So um, here are the rockers in the street:

And here is our dining experience, photo-style

This restaurant came recommended in Lonely Planet as their top choice for Kobe Beef, so we decided to splurge, and we didn’t regret it. I can’t even really begin to describe how fantastic the food was, other-worldly. Like, in heaven, I hope that we get Kobe Beef for breakfast… every day… forever.