72 hour kansai photodiary!

just got back from a quick trip out to kyoto and osaka! time for some pictures:

randy and i left tokyo station at 7am on thursday on the shinkansen nozomi to kyoto. we were planning on saving money by taking the overnight bus, but seeing that we didn't book our tickets until the day before, we had to dish out the extra yen for the bullet train. still though, that's a fun ride. if i didn't set my alarm clock though, we would've most likely woken up in hiroshima. first impression of kyoto upon stepping out of the station: "if you said we were still in tokyo, i'd believe you..."

first stop: kiyomizu-dera! it was a bit too crowded to really enjoy as much as i wanted to, but still pretty cool.

from there, it was off to heian jingu.

made a pit stop for some of that bomb kyoto food.

after getting lost and walking all over the city, we finally found the right bus to get to kinkakuji. i honestly believe that this is the most beautiful place in the world.

from there, we had just enough time to walk over to see the rock garden at ryoanji. supposedly it is the quintessential zen spot. upon first glance, i was kinda disappointed to pay $5 to see a bunch of rocks, but after sitting down and just soaking it in, i was converted into a believer. pictures will never be able to serve this place justice. this was easily the highlight of my trip.

hung out with traci (who was so kind in letting us crash for the night). we had some amazing falafels, despite my complaints that i didn't go to kyoto to eat falafels. later, we went out to this dope spot called a-bar, where i met/was reunited with elisa! what a small world.

the next morning, we went out towards ginkakuji then took the tetsugaku no michi, which is a mile-long walk next to a river. apparently, we were walking in several philosopher's footsteps (thus the name). so, randy and i sought out the answers to life.

although we didn't find world peace during our hike, we did randomly explore some perpendicular streets, including this hidden spot. i swear, kyoto just kept continuing to amaze me.

after enough philosophizing, we wanted to visit eikando temple, which is more famous for the changing colors of leaves. in fact, they just bumped up the admission to $10 since it is the autumn season. but i think we were about a week early, because everything was still way too green. here's the outside of the gate, just to prove we went there.

this thing at nanzenji was HUGE.

here i am strolling through gion. nope, not cool enough to hang out with any geisha.

our last stop in the kyoto region was at fushimi-inari, which is famous for its thousands of torii gates. we wanted to make it to the top, but failed miserably. seriously, it's tough!! i also tried to do my best memoirs of a geisha running through the gates impression.

from there, it was off to osaka! for november third, i think they went a little overboard on the christmas decorations at hoop in tennoji. it took us awhile, but we finally found yamachan, which is THE takoyaki spot according to miho. best takoyaki i ever had, no question. less than $3 for ten, fresh off the grill, made by a cute japanese girl.

found a hotel room for under $20. even though it was tiny, you can't argue when it's that cheap.

all we really did in osaka was eat, drink, and shop (and lots of it). but honestly, nothing wrong with that. although this wasn't the cheesecake factory i'm used to...

...and this was slightly disturbing (dope shop tho)...

...graffiti done up on a wall, osaka-style...

...and finally the osaka bape store!!

it's really hard to explain what osaka felt like. the trendy parts felt a lot like tokyo, but it seems to have a less western influence (maybe because there aren't as many of the roppongi gaijin-types). the ghetto spots seemed ghettoer. the trains were older (but a lot less crowded). people stand on the other side of the escalators. my best comparison is that it seems like tokyo in a parallel universe, similar to the "wrong" 1985 that marty goes back to in back to the future 2.

i didn't really have any problem communicating with folks, but i was doing a lot of eavesdropping. i really can't understand that kansai-ben at all.

finally, we caught the 10:50pm overnight "premium dream" bus back to tokyo. quick trip, but definitely good times. can't wait to go again!! oh, one final comic moment. on the jr bus, when we arrived in tokyo, the PA was this automated voice speaking in japanese for about 5 minutes straight. following that, she switched to english and said "we will soon be arriving in tokyo. please give your ticket to the driver when you get off the train." to which randy and looked at each other and asked, "is that really all she said?"