So as I said, I, along with 150 or so other students/faculty, sailed with the ship from Yokohama to Kobe, which took away a day in Japan, but I am not sorry I decided to do it. First of all, I needed a day off from the travelling, I was more tired than I can say. Second of all, it poured. All day. At sea, and apparently, on land. Plus, since so few people sailed, we had this amazing 5 course dinner in the main dining hall, and my friends and I got all dressed up for it. It was fun!
We got into the Port of Kobe at 7 AM the next morning. Thankfully, customs was a breeze since we'd already been through the whole process in Kobe, so my group and I slept in a little and got off the ship at our leisure. We exchanged some money, got a map of the area and subway system, and hopped on a subway to go immediately to Kyoto. Once there, we got on a bus and went to the Kiyomizu Temple, which is this beautiful, expansive temple built on a steep hillside. To get to it, we had to walk up a a steep road, lined with little shops, which was a little touristy, but had some cool stuff. We walked around there for a long time despite the cold, just taking in the view both around and below up (we were high up and could see much of Kyoto). There were people lighting incense and putting them in this big potlike thing and it smelled amazing, and there were several beautiful buddah statues which I watched many people touch and bow to. There were also some beautiful fountains with long ladles laying across them that people used to pour water on their hands before entering the temple. On the way out of the temple we saw a geisha from far away, but we couldn't approach her because she was with a tour. Luckily, as we walked back down the road, we saw two walking the opposite way, and they let us take pictures with them! I was so excited, they were beautiful.
After a lunch of ramen noodles (can't seem to get enough of them!), we wandered around for a few hours, up and down some interesting streets, and in doing so, we were able to get away from the touristy areas and see the way Japanese people live. Going up the narrow, brick side roads, there are many people who own small shops that they live above. One thing I noticed that was different about Kyoto was that many people, women especially, walk around wearing traditional Japanese clothing, such as kimonos and the socks with wedge sandles, their hair up in buns. There is a much larger connection to their cultural history here than in Tokyo, which is much more modern and trendy.
After awhile, we headed back to Kobe and got on the ship to get ready to go out that night. We were on a misson to try the imfamous Kobe beef. Apparently, what they do is feed the cows beer and massage them, which makes the meat taste a certain way. It is carmelized and very fatty, and evidentally, DELICIOUS...but predictably expensive. Eventually we opted out of Kobe beef and went into a cool restaurant where we had to take our shoes off before we sat down. Since the menu was only in Japanese, but it had pictures, we had to do the "hmm, that looks interesting, I wonder what it is," point-and-order method, which we had done several times during our time in Japan. It's a hit or miss method, and that night, for my friend Bailey and I, it was miss. We ordered what looked like popcorn chicken, and turned out to be what tasted like the cartilege part of a chicken wing, the part that most people don't eat. We laughed it off and ordered other things, along with plenty of sapporo. Hey, it's part of the experience!
After dinner, we went to this tiny bar that comfortably fit the 7 of us, the bartender, one other patron, and that's pretty much it. It was a great, tequila/darts/dance party kind of night, and that's pretty much all I have to say about it.
I got up far too early after the interesting night I had, and went to Himeji with two other girls to go to the Himeji Castle. The castle is, of course, huge, and all white. The architecture was incredibly detailed, I took several pictures of the roof shingles, which all had interesting designs on them. I took a picture with a man dressed as a real ninja, which made my day, and he let me hold a ninja star while my two friends held swords. After seeing the castle, we went to the Hemeji garden, which was so peaceful and gorgeous I didn't want to leave. The sun had come out by this time, and the trees and little waterfalls were lovely. There was also a pond with literally hundreds of coy, which were HUGE and so diversely colored. We got to watch them get fed, and it was a feeding frenzy! So cool.
We got back on the subway and got closer to the ship, and walked around just to use up the rest of our yen before getting back on the ship. This included going into pastry shops, which had some delicious junk food, and buying myself a warm hat, which I am DEFINITELY going to need when I am on the Great Wall of China. BRRR. We got back to the ship just half an hour before dock time, whew!
A couple hours later, we sailed away from Japan, which was bittersweet. I had an incredible time. The people, the food, the music, the CULTURE. Amazing. I would love to go back again if I ever get the chance.
No comments:
Post a Comment