Day 12 - Nara/Kyoto

This morning we had breakfast at the Kyoto station - they have all these amazing cafes with bread goods that I have never tasted before. I will miss all these yummy treats when we leave!!! After eating we hoped a train to Nara for a little day trip. The train ride was maybe an hour, not very long. We rented some bikes so we could get around pretty easily and get it all done in a reasonable time.

Riding through the town was fun. I had pictured a small town but it looked just like all the other ones until we ventured into the park, then it looked like what I thought it would. There were deer there too, actually they were everywhere. some would come p and nibble on your shirt or pocket in hopes you'd feed them - crazy!

First on our list was to see some shrines and the giant Buddah all of which were in this giant park... it's a lovely area and really easy to navigate on the bike. The Buddah was my favorite, it is so large and just amazing to see. I think Jeff and I each took 50 or so pictures.

After seeing the shrines and riding through the park we decided to ride through the shopping/food area. We stopped for lunch at a small cafe and had some yummy food as always. Then it was back to the station to retunr the bikes and catch our train at 5:40pm.

Tonight we decided to visit another onsen but a nicer one outside of town a bit. After chilling in the room for a bit we packed up our bath supplies and headed to North Kyoto around 8pm to a small neighborhood. We wandered and wandered trying to find this place... We asked a woman and she said to go straight... so we did... but then Jeff thought that we had either gone to far or were going in the wrong direction. We cut into the neighborhood and wandered... no luck. Jeff asked a girl for help and she told us to hold on by gestering to wait a min and went and got her father (Gaijin! Gaijin!), he came out along with the son and mother in their PJ's to try and help us. They also said to go back to where we were and go straight... Ok, back to where we where. I then told Jeff about how my friend Christine told me that the Japanese will help you no matter what sometimes even if they don't know and it's good to ask 3 times and go with the majority. So I went into a Family Mart and asked the guy and he also said to go straight but added "Supa!" and made a big motion... I said ok and straight we went...

Then low and behold, 4 blocks down by a large supermarket was the onsen! Horray!! This place was amazing. It looks like the Nordstrom on Onsens. It's fancy, clean and very relaxing. Get ready for it... It cost only $10 to get in for the whole day... They are open till 1am! It has a men and womens side and eeach side has 10 or so tubs/pools/relaxation areas. This place was so swanky but filled with families and everyday people. (I will say that people did look at me a bit more here. There was one other foreigner there and said said hi to me... Noone else did.) They just go there to relax. It also has massage chairs all over the place and massage available. Jeff and I signed up for that which was 6350 yen a person, roughly about $65 for an hour. When I was up for my massage the woman showed me a piece of paper she had written down "where is tender place" - I showed her my shoulders and lower back. She worked it out for sure, it was an amazing massage and I was fully clothed on a mat.

We walked out of there after 2 hours having spent maybe $150. You couldn't get out of Nordstrom Spa for that little for 2 people for all that we did. I wish we could have stayed longer but we were worried that we would have no train available back to our hotel.

We headed out of there at about 11ish and thankfully the JR rail was running but the subway wasn't. Once back in Kyoto we had to walk aways back to our hotel but that was ok. It was pretty late when we got back so it was Family Mart for dinner... sandwiches from the cooler. You may laugh but the food that comes out of those places here is just as good as most places. We have had no bad food here yet. :)

Another great day!!

I'm trying to upload pictures so stay tuned!!

Shochu from the Moon Light

One experience I forgot to mention in Sendai was my gift of Shochu from the Moon Light. After the tug-of-war ended, Tarah headed back to our hotel while I wandered around taking in the sights. I found a little bar near the JR station and decided to take a peek. I walked in and found the bar keep and one patron. They were pretty excited to have an "American" in their pub. The bartender's name was Lei'a and the drunk old guy introduced himself as "John." I ordered a Shochu and I was handed my drink along with a beer and a plate of tomatoes/cucumbers/mayonaisse. Within a minute, a microphone was thrust upon me and the karoke machine cranked out "Rocky Mountain High" by Olivia Newton John!?! I had to sing for the two friends I had just met, but I didn't have the heart to tell them that Oliva Newton John did not sing that song. After another round, "John" had a taxi pick him up and I was ready to head back. In typical Japanese form, Lei'a handed me bottle of house Shochu as a gift and wished me well. What a great way to end a visit to Sendai, Kyushu. BTW - that John Denver is full of shit.

We Made It!

Jeff and I got up and made it out the door by about 9am and were on the bus by about 9:15am, a bit later than we had originally planned. We got to the airport at about 10:30, mind you our flight left at 11:30am! We tried to get there with more time but I swear every single handicap person decided to get on the bus which made it take forever... Once we actually got there we were so stressed and did everything we could to try and get through the gates faster, no luck. The woman at the gate told us not to stress her out or start her day off wrong... We also got a lecture about arriving earlier - WE TRIED! After much stress and time, we made it through securirty, ran toi the tram, then bolted up 3 flights of stairs taking them 2 at a time (thank god for all that exercise) and then finally arriving at our gate!

The flight from Seattle to Vancouver was on a 50 person Dash 8 airplane... I had the joy of being assigned to sit next to "Larry Petersen", the space hog! Firs I am sure you are wondering why his name is in quotes. He was a persian man with a thick accent named "Larry Peterson"... right. Jeff and I decided he must he in witness protection. As for the space hog part, it's a small plane and he decided to take up 90% of the space under the seats for his bag so I had no room for mine, I even said something to him and he ignored me, full on ignored me. Thankfully the plane didn't fill up so I moved to another row, Jeff joined me.

Our flight left a few minutes late b/c "Larry" had some issues with his seat assignment, apparently he and some other guy were both assigned to that seat - which apparentloy isn't possible. He ended up getting the seat, the other guy had to ride in a different one, and we finally took off.

Once we got on our flight bound for Tokyo we were happy to find out we had an exit row with tons of leg room. There was a woman eyeing our extra middle seat for quite sometime. I told Jeff to cough and look sick so that she wouldn't come sit with us. Having that free seat is like gold so we were hoping to keep it all to ourselves. Bad I know but I think you would have done the same... It's a 9.5 hour flight, that extra seat was a bonus... It wasn't a full flight either, there were plenty of free seats all over. I did see the woman later ask a flight attendant about moving and the flight attendant told her she shouldn't b/c "they're together" YAY, thanks stewardess!!! That put an end to it and we didn't have to do a thing.

There was a lot of turbulance at the beginning of the flight so the beverage and food service was delayed. After quite sometime they decided to just feed us anyway b/c people were pretty hungry. We had the chicken, my favorite was the dessert - chocolate mousse. Jeff started off with a bloody marry and I had some white wine. Drinks were free!! We had a few more throughtout the flight and they served us dinner too, beef and rice.

One thing that is so cute is that most of the Japanese people on the flight have slippers they are wearing around. The kick off their shoes and then slip into their airplane slippers and scout around in them. The bathroom door also seems to be a source of confusment for them as pretty much every person goes and fumbles with it before finally figuring it out or gives up until they see someone come out.

We landed around 3:40pm, breezed through immigration and customs, then had to figure out where terinal 2 was so we could pick up our rail passes. I did have to ask but the guy was supoer nice and helpful.

We found terminal 2 and the pass place. I showed the lady my google map to get to our hotel and she laughed, apparently google maps did not give me the quickest route. She did though.The train was pretty easy to figure out once she told us which direction to go, everything is labeled in english which is beyond helpful!! Our train ride from Narita to Shibuya was abot 1.5 hours and we rode backwards (oh and I think it smelled port o potty like)... I wasn't feeling so hot at the end, can't say I liked that. Once at Shibuya we transfered trains and that wasn't to bad. We arrived at Ebisu and that is where the confusion kicked in. It was rush hour so there were alot of people... We still aren't sure how to get out of the station, we just kind of followed other people out yet they were scanning something to exit... not sure what though. Then we got all directionally challenged and I kept reminding Jeff of my compass and he kind of poo pooped it at first buit then after a brief stressful stint got it worked out. I kepot saying I hoped we'd see the Westin sign in the sky but was skeptical since the buildings were pretty tall... But then off in the distance when I was about to silentloy freak out I saw the beautiful Westin sign and we both sighed a breathe of relief. We relaxed a bit and took our time walking there.

The hotel is beautiful and by far will be the nicest place we stay... I think. Now it is time to shower and clean up a bit then head out for "dinner" - we re trying to get on the schedule here so it won't screw us up on time... Ok, that's it for now. Time to get clean up and then explore. More later!!!