Checked out of our hotel and headed North again to see the Kinkakuji (the golden temple) and the zen rock garden. It's out by the onsen we went to so we dropped our bags off in a locker at Kyoto station and headed out that way.
Both were pretty easy to find and we used the bus to help us get around. It was also an overcast day so it rained a bit but nothing more than what we get back home... drizzle.
The zen rock garden was our first stop and I joked that we were paying to stare at rocks... which we were but it was pretty nonetheless. Plus I believe John Mayer was here a few months back (I saw a picture on his website) so there was that. ;) We walked around the grounds snapping photos and finally discovered what that wonderful smell was, it is a flowering bush. Jeff snagged a few of the little flowers as he has been pressing leaves and stuff like that in his book. He seems to like doing that, who knew.
After the garden we hopped a bus and headed to the golden palace. It is beautiful and very gold! We took a ton of pictures which I hope to post soon (facebook has been pooping out on me). We had a little sit down for tea time and they gave us a sweet and green tea. It's so crazy that our trip is almost over!
Kyoto is now officially over so we headed back to the station to catch our 3:30 train to Tokyo - it's a 2 hour trip. We ate our lunch we bought at the kiosk and then I napped most of the ride.
Once in Tokyo we found ourselves following the same path we had at our very first days here. It's much easier now!! We checked into the Westin and then decided we wanted to eat Neapolitan pizza for dinner which we were both excited for! We headed to Partenope, the same place we had gone last time around. It was just that good!! For dinner we had their buffalo mozzarella pizza, a salad and tried a pasts this time as well. OMG it was soooo good!!! We even finished a bottle of prosecco as well. A few of the staff members remembered us from last time and chatted with as much as they could. Jeff took pictures and talked more with the people who work there. He even gave his San Marzano pin to the server we had from last time. I don't think I can even explain how much fun we had, just know it was memorable!
After dinner we walked out of the restaurant and saw a guy at another restaurant across the street just standing there. I waved to him and he waved back. We went over there for a drink - it was an Indian restaurant. We chatted with the guy who worked there, he was from Nepal and has been here 3 years. His English was great. Then after that we decided to go see if that tiny bar we went to last time was open... it was so we went in and sat down. They only have 8 seats and 4 were free. We ended up staying there till about 3am chatting and drinking with the patrons and the guy working the place. One woman there spoke English due to living in NY for a few years so she helped. We took a ton of pictures with them and they asked us to come back tomorrow at 7:30 for sushi as the older guy is a sushi chef. We are totally going!!! Amazing night!!!
After leaving the the Peace Park, we headed into dowwntown and began our hunt for Okonomiyaki (aka - Japanese pizza). NOTE: Japanese pizza and neapolitan pizza have very little in common. First of all, it is cooked on griddle, not in an oven. It starts out as a fine layer of dough (paper-thin) and then a multitude of ingredients is added. There is no tomoto sauce in case you are wondering. I believe mine was the "traditional" which included, bean sprouts, cabbage, fish flakes, pork, egg, spices and a sauce somewhat like tonkatsu sauce. Once this is piled high, it is pliiped over and pressed into a pancake. Once it is done, it is cut up into small pieces, and served - you eat it directly off the griddle!!! Of course you have to wash it down with a cold draft beer. Man was this pizza good. Super satisfying and fulfilling...wait, that sounds like I just ate a neapolitan pizza! New menu item at Tutta Bella?!? Oshi!!!
Today we were supposed to wake up at 5am and go to the fish market with Ken... That didn't happen as I was feeling a bit sleepy and maybe a wee bit hungover from drinking last night and not ever eating dinner. Ken was ok with that so it worked out well. He did however get up early and head down to get us 3 sumo tickets. Sumo may be one of my new favorite sports!! However we're not ready to get into all that yet.
We met up with Ken in Akihabara, eletric town is what people call it. It is basically neon central or Vegas on crack as I like to call it. Sine we were there during the day we didn't get the whole idea of just how visually stimulating (or overloadd) it really is... Ken had a place he liked to eat so we decided to go grab lunch there, I believe the name was Seven Lucky Gods. I had sashimi and beef and Jeff had their tempura/katsu dish.
After lunch we went to check out a Pachinko parlor and basically to sum it up: freakishly loud and smokey. Then it was time to check out a Maid Cafe. A college friend of mine who lived in Japan had told me about them and I was determined to take Jeff there. It's some sort of anime fetish of sorts... These adorable girls are dressed up like maids and they serve you drinks and chat with you. Jeff and I joked that it was kind of like Hooters, except the girls aren't wearing outfits like that, just cute maid uniforms. The Hooters part is that several girls come over and chat with you. Most didn't speak English but once we said Ichiro they got really excited and knew where Seattle was and knew of his baseball record. Thank God for Ichiro as he has been a conversation topic for us many times here. Not to mention he is on billboards and signs. so anyways, we chatted with a few of the girls, has this coffee dessert drink, then had Jeff get his picture taken (as you can see here) and then we left. We had a blast. We laughed and enjoyed ourselves the whole time. Ken said he walked up once to see if we were done and the looks on our face were priceless - we were just smiling so much and giddy. That really is the best way to describe it - pure fun and cute! The name of the one we went to is @ Home Cafe. Walking down the street you see tons of girls dressed that way handing our fliers, they are easy to find. It was 700 yen each to get in and then our drinks were 500 yen each and Jeffs picture was an extra 500 yen.
After that we headed back to the train as it was time for sumo!! We arrived a bit early as Ken had learned that even though you have cheap tickets for seats far away you can go down front and watch until you get kicked out of those seats. You just flip over the mat for the person, they bow and you move to another seat. We tried this and it did in dead work. I was kicked out of my seat twice and just flipped over the mat, said "sumimasen" (sorry) and then moved to another seat. Noone cared. It was awesome, we were so close which allowed Jeff to get some great shots. The tournament was 3 hours long and I have to say it went by so fast - it was awesome! Women and kids were yelling "ganbatte' which means try hard, they also apparently know all the moves and yell out the names of the moves. Each little bout only lasts a few seconds. The matches were against different levels of wrestlers from the East and the West. It's all very ceremonial and proper. There is a guy who comes out and does this fan chant thing and then the sumos guys meet up and do their little throw salt, get down, stretch, get down again, throw more salt (they do this about 3 times before they lunge forward towards each other). The guy with the fan reminds me of the guy in the states that says "Let's get ready to rumble" - Ken assured me that was not what he was saying... after laughing at that first. :)
After the Juryo division went (they are the equivalent of the minor league) we walked around a bit and then went to find our seats. We ran into a young sumo guy on the way and had our picture with him - he never said a word, just looked all stern and scary... and big!
How sumo works in a nutshell is some offical guy clanks together these booden blocks, the "ref " comes out, the 2 sumo guys drink water and spit it out, they throw salt in the circle, then do their sumo stretch where they throw their leg up and squat down, then lean down to a line, re-start all that 2 more times, and then finally put their knuckles down on this line and then lunge towards each other. Smashing heads many times - it looks painful! the object is to stay in the circle. The guy who falls out of falls down looses.
Once in our seats the big time guys came out along wth the 2 grand champions, Hakuho (from the East) and Asahoryu (from the West). Asahoryu has won like 24 times so most all of the pictures in the place are of him. Both of those guys are Mongolian and not Japanese. There is also this Bulgarian guy who people like. The first grand champion, Hakuho went and actually lost so the crowd threw the pillows they were sitting on. Ken had said that would happen, even though the announcer guy asked them not to. It was funny to see. The other champion, Asahoryu won, barely, as his foot almost went out. Had he lost they would have thrown more pillows since he is such a big deal. I know my description does it no justice but trust me when i say it was an amazing experience and would totally do that again!
Oh, they even had a "sumo grounds crew" - they swept the area often... Much cooler than the Safeco grounds crew!!
Ok so after Sumo we said goodbye to Ken, caught a train back to Ebisu to meet up with Maki. Maki is my Japanese friend I met in Seattle for conversation exchange. She is now living back in Tokyo. We met up with her at 7pm and went to Partenope, the Japanese Tutta Bella, for dinner. Jeff had searched this place out the other day as I believe I mentioned before. There was a wait so we put our name down and went to find a place to grab a drink. We stumbled upon this tiny bar/restaurant that could only hold about 8 people and 2 employees. Maki read the menu for us and we ordered a sake, plum wine and a beer. The people who worked there were really nice and gave up a pork/seaweed appetizer with our drinks. Partenope called about 30 min later so we headed over there. Maki was great at trnslating to the people there for Jeff as he was so excited and had so many things to ask and say. We ordered a cheese plate and mixed salad and then two pizzas, a margherita and a mushroomk/proscuitto white pizza.
Oh man, the food was deliscious! "Oshie!" (delicious in Japanese but probably spelled wrong). The serever told us he got the job there b/c his dream "is to be a master pizza maker". Jeff was amazed and so in awe of everything and everyone there. (Joe, you would be proud!) The margherita had this amazing buffalo mozzarella on it - it was salty which made the flavors so amazing to taste. One funny thing was we had Japanese, Italian and English going at the table. We talked to the manager a bit too and they were happy to hear about Tutta Bella. Jeff gave them his info and a mini menu. It was a great time and I am sure Jeff will have way more to say about this as it seems to be one of his favorite moments sofar.
After dinner we walked Maki bak to the train and said our goodbyes. It was great to see her and I am glad we met. We hope to see here again real soon.
The zen rock garden was our first stop and I joked that we were paying to stare at rocks... which we were but it was pretty nonetheless. Plus I believe John Mayer was here a few months back (I saw a picture on his website) so there was that. ;) We walked around the grounds snapping photos and finally discovered what that wonderful smell was, it is a flowering bush. Jeff snagged a few of the little flowers as he has been pressing leaves and stuff like that in his book. He seems to like doing that, who knew.
Once in Tokyo we found ourselves following the same path we had at our very first days here. It's much easier now!! We checked into the Westin and then decided we wanted to eat Neapolitan pizza for dinner which we were both excited for! We headed to Partenope, the same place we had gone last time around. It was just that good!! For dinner we had their buffalo mozzarella pizza, a salad and tried a pasts this time as well. OMG it was soooo good!!! We even finished a bottle of prosecco as well. A few of the staff members remembered us from last time and chatted with as much as they could. Jeff took pictures and talked more with the people who work there. He even gave his San Marzano pin to the server we had from last time. I don't think I can even explain how much fun we had, just know it was memorable!
After dinner we walked out of the restaurant and saw a guy at another restaurant across the street just standing there. I waved to him and he waved back. We went over there for a drink - it was an Indian restaurant. We chatted with the guy who worked there, he was from Nepal and has been here 3 years. His English was great. Then after that we decided to go see if that tiny bar we went to last time was open... it was so we went in and sat down. They only have 8 seats and 4 were free. We ended up staying there till about 3am chatting and drinking with the patrons and the guy working the place. One woman there spoke English due to living in NY for a few years so she helped. We took a ton of pictures with them and they asked us to come back tomorrow at 7:30 for sushi as the older guy is a sushi chef. We are totally going!!! Amazing night!!!
