Kyoto Day 1

Our trip to Kyoto started at 3:50am on Saturday, that's when I had to wake up.  Not. Fun.  For some reason we can't remember, we decided to take an early departure from the Shinagawa station, an hour by train from our apartment.  Well, this meant we had to leave our place by 4:30, so we could catch the 5:08 express to Shinagawa.  Our Shinkansen (or Bullet Train) was scheduled to leave at 6:23.  I, with my irrational fear of public transportation, literally stayed up all night freaking out about missing this train.  Poor Timmy thought I was going crazy, especially when I got up at midnight and plotted out our entire train trip down to the minute.  :-)

Anyway, we made it to the station and our departing terminal with time to spare!

We figured that with a 2.5 hour train ride, we would be able to catch some Zzz's on the train.  Um, well, evidently when you're so tired you can't get comfortable, this plan doesn't work out so well...

The train was actually very spacious and comfy!  We ended up arriving in Kyoto around 8:30, where we found the subway and made our way to our hotel.  With check-in not starting until 12:00, we dropped off our bags and headed to the Kiyomizu-Dera Temple.  On our way, we crossed the Kamo-Gawa river, where a very, very long group of people were walking along the side. 

My guide book had said to look for the Tainai-meguri when we got to the Temple and that it would be located just to the left of the main entrance.  Well, we ended up at the wrong temple.  I doubt this comes as a surprise! :-) But, after asking around, we found out we were only 10 minutes from Kiyomizu-Dera.  

It's located at the top of a hill in East Kyoto and is surrounded by a huge cemetery.  During our walk, we passed many people carrying flowers and incense to specific markers throughout the entire cemetery.  

Once we got to the temple, we immediately found Tainai-meguri, which is actually quite an interesting experience.  Once we took off our shoes, we descended into complete darkness with only some "buddha beads" along the wall to lead our way.  Once we got to the center, there was a circular tablet, that is spun while the spinner makes a wish.  It's all supposed to represent the descent into a female bodhisattva's womb.  Interesting...

This temple is unique because it actually sits over the hillside and is supported by hundreds columns.  Plus, it's huge. 

It was pretty crowded, but since we don't practice buddhism, we just looked around and stayed out of the worshippers' way.  Another popular spot is the waterfall underneath the large temple.  It is said that the waters, when drunk, have therapeutic properties.  

Like all popular tourist attractions, they had silver "holy cups" for sale for 400 yen.  Probably 99.9% of the people in line just used their hands.  :-)

Here's a picture from the bottom of the temple grounds, as we were leaving:

The road to the temple is lined with touristy shops selling things like fans, chopsticks, and a lot of pottery.  The lane is actually referred to as Teapot Lane.  I would have taken a picture, but about this time, Tim and I were feeling like this:

So instead of continuing our trek through Kyoto, we headed back towards the hotel for lunch and a short nap.  Ha! Short nap! That's funny.  THREE hours later we were refreshed for our evening stroll to Maruyama Park.  

Situated in front of the park, is the Yasaka-jinja Shrine, which we decided to wander through on our way to find the huge cherry blossom tree this park is known for.  We had started to realize that something huge was going on in Kyoto, and it just so happened to be a Spring/Cherry Blossom Festival! So the city was more crowded than usual!

But, when we got to the center of the shrine, we noticed that a large group of people were gathered around a stage, so we joined the crowd and waited.  

What were we waiting for?! Geishas!

Here's a video of the Geishas performing in a rare public appearance...

It was incredibly fascinating because there are so few geishas left in Japan, only about 1,000.  And they're treated like celebrities! Once the performance was over, they had to have a police-escort back into the nearest building.  

We ended our evening with dinner at Miyata Grill, the best steak in Japan!  We had it recommended to us by friends, but even TripAdvisor ranks it #1 out of 727 restaurants in the city. 

And it was SOOOOOOOOOOOO good! Mr. Miyata loves when foreigners come to his restaurants and has each one sign a bill from their country of origin.  He also speaks wonderful English and could not stop giving us food and drinks (even Tim drank Sake!).  Yes, we paid an arm and a leg (and then the other arm and leg), but it was totally worth it!  

Here we are saying "We Love Miyata Grill" with Mr. Miyata.  :-)

Read More

A preview of things to come...

For the last two days we got to explore Kyoto!

I would love to post all of our pictures, but there are over 400...

I would also love to share all of our anecdotes, but I think the palace, shrines, cherry blossoms, and geishas deserve more love and attention than I have at the moment...

Soooo....instead, I hope this picture (one of my favorites from the trip) will suffice for the time being! :-)

Yes, that is the famous Golden Pavilion!

Look forward to a few posts about this weekend in the coming days!!!

Read More

Playing Dress Up: Japan Style

I had the best experience yesterday! I got to play dress-up with Kimonos! :-)

This is a program that the community center on base offers every few weeks.  Well, I had found the information a while back and told one of the other wives about it, so she (because she's awesome) made all of the arrangements!

In this first picture, our teacher/dresser (and this is how it sounds, not how it's spelled) Chicago is laying out all of the kimonos we can choose from:

I ended up picking out a yellow kimono with orange, green and blue flowers, an orange and gold obi, and green accessories.  It sounds weird doesn't it?  Well, it looked fabulous!

It was also important for us to put on accurate footwear, the Tabi:

After we had all picked out our kimonos and accessories, Chicago asked for a volunteer to go first.  I'm sure no one is surprised that I volunteered to be the model! 

To start it off, I had to put on the appropriate undergarments.  Well, I'm technically not supposed to show this, so I'll just post an "in-process" photo that doesn't show much...

Yeah, I still had on my jeans and tank-tops, no worries.  

After tying the undergarments on with shreds of fabric, then came the kimono:

Which was, again, tied on as tight as possible at the waist and under the bust line.  The goal with a kimono is to straighten the body and eliminate all the curves we Americans are obsessed with emphasizing.  Also, she's lining up the front so that it's perfectly overlapped.  The left side is always over the right side on living women.  Not until death does the right side go over the left.  That is important to remember! 

The kimonos were actually a little long, so by tying the kimono at the waist, Chicago could shorten it to my height.  Then she added the Obi...

The board, an Obi-ita, is added to the front of the Obi to flatten it even more, keep the Obi from creasing, and create a more uniformed column look.  

The Obi can be tied in a few ways, but mine was tied in a "box bow," Chicago also demonstrated a "butterfly bow."

The accessories were the Obiage, a sash that went along the top of the Obi and kept the bow in place, and the Obijime, the rope tied around the middle of the Obi.  I don't have a good picture of the front of my Obi, but here's an example of one of the other ladies':

The knot of my obijime was a traditional style that represented Happiness, but the other ladies had more contemporary knots that look really cool without having a lot of meaning.  

My final product...

And after everyone was dressed, we had a photo shoot with some accessories Chicago brought:

 

A few more notes about the kimonos:

• My kimono was a "high-class" kimono because the pattern differed on the right and left-hand sides.  In fact, the right side was pretty plain in comparison.  The other women's kimonos had a uniform pattern over the entire fabric, making them more casual. (Take a look at the final product picture to understand what I mean...) 
• The kimonos and all the accessories were 100% silk.
• In Japan, a good quality kimono can cost up to $10,000 U.S. dollars.  Yes, U.S. Dollars! We paid $23 for this experience...I think we got a pretty good deal! 
• It is a very traditional practice to dress someone in a kimono, there are many rules/traditions/etc. that go into making sure everything is absolutely perfect.  From collar position, to hair, to shoes and other accessories, everything has a meaning.  I don't think there is anything in the mainstream or traditional American culture that compares...if you can think of something, let me know! 

Read More

Random Happenings...

Random #1 

Tim's work recently finished up their mustache growing contest.  I have to say that I enjoy these competitions because it forces Tim to shave off his beard!  Love it! 

Day 1 of the contest = Clean-shaven

Day 14 = 'stache

They had four winners, but unfortunately Tim wasn't one of them.  Thankfully, he didn't even come close to Most Prepubescent.  The winner of Most Creative basically shaved a lightening bolt into his goatee, the Creepiest 'Stache went to the head of the project and the Best Overall had a 'stache similar in style to Tim's, but accessorized it with a cowboy hat and aviators.  It's silly and there are no prizes, but for some reason, the guys do this on every project.  You might be wondering "What about the ladies?!" Well don't worry about them, they get to judge the contest.  

Random #2 

We went shopping today in town and we found some awesome things! First, I finally found an umbrella Tim and I both like...

My favorite part is the handle:

In case you haven't noticed from my pictures, umbrellas are super popular here.  We've seen entire stores dedicated to umbrellas and most department stores, like the one we bought our at, have large sections devoted to displaying and selling them.  I've wanted to get a "proper" umbrella the entire time we've been here, because while it might not be a Japanese designer, it is a totally Japanese thing to have.  

We also stopped by the local Gap store, where I found awesome socks...

THEY HAVE WATERMELONS!  Yessssss....add one more to the collection.

Random #3 

We successfully made pancakes! :-)  And they were delicious! 

Although, they would have been more delicious if this...

...wasn't molasses.  :-( 

Read More

A visit from the Parents: Part 3

Day 7:

Finally Timmy got a weekend, so all four of us got on the train to Tokyo on for the final days of T&P's visit.

Our hotel was located in Urayasu, located almost halfway in-between the Disney Resort and Narita airport, our two big destinations that weekend.  After dropping off all of our bags, we headed to Akihabara (of course) and didn't take any pictures (did you expect more?).  This trip had a purpose though, T&P graciously packed our Wii, but we forgot that we switched our cable to HDMI.  Our current TV situation doesn't work with the HDMI cable, so we had to find a new, original cable.  That was a lot explanation, wasn't it?  Hmmm...sorry 'bout that.

After finding what we needed, we headed to Ueno to check out the park area and grab dinner.  We found a great market area and saw some early cherry blossoms.  It was awesome!  I had to take the next picture in honor of my Lion parents...you follow me everywhere! :-)

There were quite a few traditional-looking buildings, temples and shrines within the park.

And as we were heading towards the main street for dinner, we heard the familiar Japanese sirens and saw some emergency vehicles.  This picture is for my nephew, who I think of every time I see/hear an EMERGENCY...

Yes, the light bar is raised up off the roof.  That only happens when they're parked and I don't know why.  Weird. 

We ended the day with dinner at a Korean BBQ place.  It was DELICIOUS! Thankfully, they also had an English menu, so we didn't have to be worried about ordering cow heart or chicken livers.  Yessssss.

Day Eight:

After a breakfast at the hotel, we caught the bus and headed to DisneySea.  Unfortunately it was raining, but we hoped that this would shorten the lines a bit.  We. were. wrong.  What was our first warning???

This was taken at 10:00am.  In the event that you're not familiar with FastPass terminology, a FP gets you into a shorter line, therefore bypassing the standby line.  This sign shows us that at 10:00am, the next FastPasses available are for 9:30pm and the current standby line is 180 minutes! THAT'S 3 HOURS!  Yep, they were all like that.  :-(

Luckily, this park is a good one for wandering around, looking in shops, and just randomly exploring.  And even though Tim & I had been there before, it was all still pretty unfamiliar.  We did manage to get on all of the rides at least once.  One of these was the two-story carousel located on the "Arabian Coast." The theme is Aladdin!

And, unlike our last visit, we had time to watch the mid-day show. 

Do you see all of those umbrellas!?  They were driving Timmy crazy, because they were all at eye-level and he had to spend most of his time avoiding losing an eye.  

I think I mentioned all of the crazy popcorn last time, well we actually tried some this time around.  We ended up trying Strawberry, Chocolate, Black Pepper, and (finally) Caramel.  I had literally been hunting the park for the Caramel, but we didn't find it until about 15 minutes before they shut down! It was meant to be...

Our longest wait for a ride was 2.5 hours for Journey to the Center of the Earth.  The line felt like it never moved, we were all starving, and we were all soaked from the rain. Yes, the line was inside, but when you're wet and cold, it's really hard to stay positive.  Ya know what I mean!?  Once we finally got on the ride, Tim and Patti LOVED it!  I think it's still, easily, our favorite.  (I mean no disrespect to Tower of Terror, but the shoulder straps kind of kill it for me...plus I think it's shorter.)

We finally got dinner following this ride, and we were able to watch the evening water show from our booth inside the restaurant.  The rain had let up a little, so we headed outside to watch the firework show.  I won't lie.  It was a disappointment.  We had to back up enough to see over the main buildings and even then, it was difficult to see.  They obviously share the show with Disneyland, which means the real show is in Disneyland and you can just happen to catch it in DisneySea.  Boo. 

We pretty much closed down the park, but we managed to get a final picture in front of the signature globe.  

The next day we headed to the airport, walked around a bit and had lunch with the parents before catching the DOD bus back to base.  We spent the evening at a spaghetti dinner/game night with some of our friends/Tim's co-workers.  

All in all, we had a WONDERFUL week with our visitors and we're looking forward to hosting Tim's sister in a few weeks! :-)

Read More