We're leaving on a jet plane...

• Took the subway/JR special express to Kyoto station (trust me, if you can do luggage forwarding service, it might be worth it - imagine lugging around 2 full-size luggages down stairs in the middle of Union station at rush hour..)..and onto Hotel Okura, right in the middle of Kyoto and a central starting point to visit the many sites around here.

• Had our Kobe beef 1 year anniversary dinner (!!!) at Ashiya (down a very small alleyway in Kiyomizu) and it was worth every penny! The courses served around the actual beef were typical north american fare (salad, baked potato, etc.) but the actual beef was so tender and was like butter when biting down on it. I now know why this type of meat is on the high end scale and is probably the best cut of beef i've ever had, hands down. Ashiya is a family-run restaurant and our waitress, the grand-daughter of the mama-san (who by the way played 3 practical jokes on me!) is in geisha school..

• Kinkakuji Temple (Golden Pavillion) - Took the 59 bus to the Golden Pavillion temple; place was packed with tourists. Basically, it's a temple covered in gold leaf paper surrounded by water and you can't actually go into it but rather just walk around and take nice pictures.

• Ryojani Temple (Zen rock garden) - This is one of Japan's most famous rock gardens and its only 25x10m big. Interesting to see and there is a viewing area in which you could sit and contemplate stuff i guess but i guess with all the other tourists there, it was hard to do that. Still, a defiinte must-see.

• Kiyomizu Temple - huge temple in the Kiyomizu area, about 15 min cab ride from our hotel. Probably the most popular temple in Kyoto and well worth the visit. Again, ton of tourists here and 90% of them were schoolkids on day trips or something. Here, you get an awesome view of Kyoto and on the narrow street to get up to the temple, there were many food stalls and little shops to buy good souveniers.

• Fushimi Inari Shrine - Shinto shrine in Kyoto, dedicated to Inari, the God of rice. A TON of red torii gates here and this temple is located on a hill so to get to the top, the path is lined with hundreds, if not thousands of torii gates and its ALL UPHILL. Wow, it was hot getting up and i think i read that the path was like 4km long...with two washroom stops..lol. This place was also featured in Memoirs of a Geisha.

• Saw our first Geishas today! (4 of them walked right by us!)

• I love how the retail store employees bow to the store before they go into the backroom. Everyone is so polite and helpful and do their best to try and communicate with you even though their english is almost non-existent

• Arashiyama - very, very nice quiet river-side town sort of like a Niagara-on-the-Lake town

• Gion district - Had dinner at a small place called Yagembori - AWESOME, must go here and service is excellent! Wasn't quite the pub-feel we were looking for but the food was amazing (probably the best toro (fatty tuna) i've ever had) and when conversing with them, i gave compliments to the chef in Japanese and when we left, the whol restaurant walked us to the door! The daughter was going to Winnipeg in September for studies too. After we went to an izakaya by our hotel called Manzara Honten - place was ok but the tax driver went the ten extra miles to make sure we found the place (he didnt speak english at all!).

• Somehow i accidentally went over my upload limit for pictures for the month for the site..will have to re-update with pics in June.
  

Off to Hakone in the morning (right by Mt Fuji) for a ryokan experience (and kaiseki meal)..woohoo!

• Took the shinkansen (Nozomi) from Tokyo station to Shin-Osaka (2.5 hrs on a bullet train!). Once we got to the Shin-Osaka train station, we had to navigate our way to the subway with 2 pieces of luggage and catch the Midsoduri line about 7-8 stops to Namba station. Going to look into the luggage forwarding service for the next couple legs of the trip..

• We're staying at the Cross Hotel right in the Namba area (amazing hotel and location), about 2 blocks from Dotomburi - this whole area is filled with tons of shopping and boardwalk-like walks with lots of neon signs and huge plastic models (of octupus, clown faces, etc..) on the fronts of the restaurants. Great place to people-watch and nice and lively at night. There's also a big hostess-bar type area one street away running parallel...jokes.

• Tried the Okonomiyaki (like a pancake)..not a fan...similar to the Takoyaki tried earlier..

• Floating Garden Observatory (Umeda Sky Building) - this Umeda Floating Garden Observatory is a doughnut-shaped structure in between two towers, about 45 floors up. Close to the top, you take a glass elevator up and then a glass escalator to see 360 degree views of Osaka. About 700 YEN (7 CDN) to go up the building towers.

• Standard business wear for Japanese women - black suit with above-knee skirt, white shirt with collar butterflied out...seriously we saw so many of them today and Japanese men in fitted black suits, white shirt and tie. Saw a ton of these at the floating garden office towers..

• Day trip to Himeji Castle (as seen in The Last Samurai) - WOW. Actually i don't even remember this in the movie but this castle is about 6-7 floors up and towers over the city of Himeji. You have to remove your shoes when going up the main tower and step on classic nightinggale floors that creak when you move abruptly on them (sort of an early alarm system for intruders...). It is a 400-yr old castle that has never been destroyed in any wars and thus is designated a UNESCO World Heritage site.

• Rinku Premium Outlets - lol, yeah we had to...about 30 mins by local train, close to Kansai airport. Lots of unique stores and the usual brands but the funny thing is that i am an XL (usually) in Japanese sizes, so it was pretty hard to try anything on..hahah. What's great is that each store has it's own style and after a while, it actually gets a bit tiring/overwhelming to see new store after new store and thinking what the heck is 'in' and what is 'out'? Overall, it's easy to see why Japan has a huge variety of fashion and wearing absolutely anything (or combination thereof) can work and nobody gives anybody weird looks about what they're wearing...and trust me, we've seen some off-the-wall stuff already..now if only i can sneak a pic of them lol.

• Namba Parks - very cool modern shopping centre that is connected to Namba station and Swisotel Osaka. Will be going back there for sure to check out some stores. The usual stores like Diesel and even Onitsuka Tiger are very well laid-out and everything is in perfect order. Oh boy, might do some damage if we go back..

• Checked out a local pub next door, Pig and the Whistle - very english-style pub and funny because it had lots of non-Japanese guys with Japanese girls there. One thing about Japan, and i asked the bartender, is that there is NO tipping. So a pint of beer cost me 700 YEN (7CDN) and it works out the same as in Canada!
  

Off to Kyoto, the capital of Japan until the 1800s and tons of temples and shrines, old-school Japan. Maybe we'll catch a geisha or even a ninja!

• Tsujiki Fish Market - walked down to the market from our hotel around 7am (10 mins) and it was quite a sight. We didn't get to see the tuna auction (its been recently closed to the public) but we did get to have the biggest sushi breakfast we've ever had. Seriously, the pieces were huge and some new pieces were horse mackerel and red clam. A nice bottle of sake in the morning also hit the spot..

• Took the Ginza line to Shibuya and this place is THE place for the young and trendy of Tokyo (try Shibuya 109 store, common style though there were millions, short shorts and black knee-high stockings, dresses with black tights underneath..). Shibuya crossing is definitely a sight to see/experience and it was just cool to watch from the 2nd floor Starbucks all the people crossing in all different directions before the light turned red.

• Shibuya has a million different stores/designers and it was very easy to see why this place is the place to go to see the latest fashions..on the racks and on the streets. Department stores had a ton of one-of-a-kind designers on several different floors..overwhelming to say the least.

• The BAPE store was pretty cool.

• 300ml bottle of sake at the corner store was 3.71CDN..love it.

• Dinner at Gonpachi in Nishi-Azawa (near Roppongi subway exit), not too bad, caters mainly to foreigners looking for that izakaya-style feel. Waitress spoke the best english so far..a big difference from the last places we went where it was no english spoken. Checked out ALife bar/lounge after..super weak, hardly anyone there and they were plying 90s old school rnb jams..

Onto Osaka in the morning!

• Took the subway for the first time today - went to Agahashi-Ginza station and rode the Asakusa line 2 stops to Daimon to walk to the Hamamatsucho Bus terminal. Joined a Viator half-day tour of tokyo and it wasn't the greatest. It was good to drive around half of Tokyo and stop at some places and then we didn't have to go back anymore which was cool since this vacation itinerary is 99% on our own..

• Tokyo Tower - red and white eiffel tower-like structure - We've seen the CN Tower and the Seattle Space Needle and honestly, this was pretty much the same thing.

• Asakusa - cool temple (Senso-Ji) in the middle of the city and this place was packed with people today. Today is a national holiday (Children's Day) and there was a little procession with kids walking in yellow robes and kids on a float. We also tried these Takoyaki - octopus and shrimp dough balls from the local vendors...once was good enough.

• Imperial Palace - we actually didn't see the palace, nobody is allowed to for fear of criticism and if we can see the palace, then other radicals can also (as i was told..). Walked around the outer part and the actual grounds are separated by a 40-50 foot moat.

• Ginza - walked through a tiny bit of Ginza close to where we are staying and it's like a Bloor St/Yorkdale-type area with TONS of retail stores/high-end department stores and restaurants. Funny, we went to a restaurant that had plastic food outside so we figured we would just point-and-choose upstairs...lol, no luck. There was no pictures and nobody spoke Japanese. Suffice to say, the waiter pointed to one item, said 'chicken'..and we ordered two. Grilled chicken bento box for 8.50CDN.
  

It's 00:55 JST and we're all settled in our hotel in Ginza, home of the luxury shopping mile. For my sanity, i think i'm just going to update our trip with short point-form notes...short attention span, short notes

• Arrived Narita airport under cloudy skies at 14:45 JST. Clearing customs and picking up luggage took all of about 15 minutes (Pearson's got nothing on this airport..). Watched 4 movies over here (National Treasure: Book of Secrets, Cloverfield (annoying) and 2 Japanese flicks - Flower in the Shadow and South Bound (way better)). Guys beside me on the plane was a professor from Guelph on his way to Manila as part of a project he's pushing to identify all the fish species in the world by DNA analysis...not bad.

• Took a bus to our hotel and drove through a bit of the Tokyo core; intimidating at first to say the least since its HUGE and full of buildings with signs in Japanese, luckily most of the eateries have picture menus. Can't wait to try our first ramen/udo/soba noodles..!

• Purchased my first drink from the vending machines - Sky Time Yuzu citrus drink (similar to lemonade)

• How is it, out of my full suitcase, i forget to pack a sleeping shirt lol...guess i'll get one of those 'Tokyo Police' or 'I survived Godzilla' souvenier shirts or something...

• Body clock a bit off as i'm almost fully awake now but we have to join our half-day tour of Tokyo at 08:40 tomorrow

• The Japanese toilets with the front and backend wash (a la bidet) are awesome. Seriously, i wouldn't mind getting one in the new house
  

Anyways, we had a long day, almost 24 hrs of travelling so time to catch some zzzs before the adventure begins. Oh and when i get up for it, these posts will have a couple pics to make it less boring...