Sayonara, Japan

Tokyo

Traditional Kyoto

Osaka

Kyoto

I can't even begin to compose a montage of my stay here in Japan. There are just wayy too many pictures to describe Japan and it's quirky ways.

I'm somewhat sad to leave because this place has so much more for me to discover and experience. Although saddened, I think it's an appropriate time to leave since I could see myself going over my travel budget here from dangerous purchases of unnecessary cute paraphernalia and extra tasty store-bought goods. I will return and I will bring lots of cash with me next time!

I leave for the motherland tomorrow and back into the summer weather. I'm excited to wear less clothing again instead of wearing the same long-sleeved tops. I just hope it's not too humid.

Updates when I touch the motherland!

Reunions with Santa Cruz girls!

Over the past two days here in Kyoto, I have been so spoiled to reunite with some sweet Santa Cruz girls!

This is my former 108 McMillan Dr. a.k.a the whale house, housemate Jennie Takagawa. Or as I like to call her, Keiko or Jennie-san.

If you were to rewind to a few years back while we were living together, you will find us playing with plastic balloons in my room with our Brazilian-Chinese 108 frequenter, Pat, not studying for finals or midterms and instead making cute avatars on Yahoo, searching for thousands of sheep in our canyon backyard, throwing pie-auctions to fund a so-cal road trip, eating a lot, burning a lot of food and possibly screaming about the discovery of arachnids lurking about in dark areas of our house. She's currently enrolled in the JET program and teaching in Hiroshima. We've been keeping in touch throughout this trip waiting for our reunion with one another! Lara and I met up with Jenny in Osaka today to have a quick dinner with her before she left to Hiroshima. She's recently extended her stay with the JET program for another year. I seriously bow to this girl for being incredibly brave and so inspirational in taking this leap in her career.

I'm so proud of you! I know it gets lonely sometimes, but just take this time for you and allow yourself to appreciate the process of the lost in translations and craziness that is Japan. I miss you, Jennie. It was great catching up with you. =)

Yummy dessert

Before departing

Before we saw Jennie, we began our day with another one of my friends from Santa Cruz, Mimi! She's currently living in Osaka with her family and misses the US like crazy. I met her while I was taking one of the many excruciating accounting series classes and saw her often during those dreaded toastmaster meetings for Bob's class. She's become one of 106's (my household from the last two years of college) good friends as well.

She was nice enough to show us around a bit and took us to a sushi restaurant outside of the Hankyu-Umeda station. The sushi here was tasty!

Yesterday, she also took us out to another restaurant here in Kyoto. I was excited to have dinner indoors for once and not having to be confused about the menu. Mimi took care of the translations for us =P.

It was nice to see a familiar face in so long! I think the last time I've seen her was when we graduated from college.

I'm really thankful to have friendships with people from other countries and reunite with them in their home country! It's so cool to meet up with them and see where they've been living over the years.

It's so good to see these girls again. =)

No Prince to be found at Nijo Castle

Walking throughout Kyoto calms me. Although it's been quite cold, I find tranquility in walking the streets of this traditional city. As we've been traveling, I always try to find a comparison between cities in terms of it's city spread or just the overall ambiance it has with another city or area. With Kyoto, I couldn't find one. This city is so unique, one that I have never been to before... and I like it!

I really enjoy the traditional architecture here as well. It's so beautiful peeking into alleyways and feeling the sense of time travel. Many of the homes and businesses in the Gion district (where we are staying) are made of wood complimented with Shoji doors and dividers. We've also come across many women and (some) men in traditional Japanese dress.

Today, we resided in a beautiful castle! Alright folks, this is not the type of castle you're imagining. I'm not going to go into depth about the contrasts between medieval castles and traditional Japanese ones, since I'm not prepared with facts, but I will show pictures of this gorgeous place!

Duh, a moat to prevent enemies from entering

Castles always have gardens here

Castle doors

An aerial view of Nijo castle

As we wrapped up our castle visit, we wandered a bit more and came across another shrine:

Kyoto has incredible history and an outstanding number of shrines and temples: 74 temples and 30 shrines. As ambitious as some travelers would like to be to hit up all these sights, I'm sure by the 20th temple, they'd be exhausted. I'm pretty content with the few that we've seen so far.

I love, love, love matcha green tea goodies

Over the past few days here in Japan I have been in an unrelenting pursuit after matcha, green tea goodies! We've entered almost every convenience store while we've been city sprawling. Japan has got a great variety of flavors in candy and so many delicious snacks on their convenience store shelves. I cannot resist them! They're what I've been substituting as major purchases since the cash will be low very soon!

Today, after many convenience store visitations, I have struck the jackpot, look what I've found...

Giant Pocky!

Soft serve ice cream

Ice cream

Hi-chew, KitKat, Pocky and other goodies

Green tea Madeline!!!!

I love it here. =)

Kiyumizu-Dera & Yasaka Shrine

Kyoto is one of the 7th largest cities in Japan and popularized by their abundance of shrines and temples. Kyoto also boasts several historical landmarks recognized by the UNESCO's World Heritage List. I think I'm going to make a list of my own of sights listed on their website to visit once I get a proper income and find time for future travels.

Today, we went to 2 of Kyoto's known sights, Yasaka Shrine and Kiyumizu-Dera Here are a few photos of the Yasaka Shrine:

The first orange temple I have ever been to!

Takoyaki (octopus balls), one of Japan's famous foods

Inside the shrine area

A few tourists here to visit this shrine on a chilly winter day

Along with a beautiful wedding

This place was decorated with lanterns

After spending a few minutes at the shrine, we wandered into the garden area where we were greeted by beautiful green mountains. Kyoto is actually located in a valley, in the eastern part of the Tamba highlands mountain region and somewhat remote-- so remote that I was surprised to see these guys:

Hawks! Devin, one of our roomies at our hostel was telling us a funny, but frightening story about how he nearly got clawed by one of them as he was eating his lunch at the park the other day. I'm sure they're very vicious animals, so I will not be testing them.

We also saw this little girl feeding the flock of pigeons in front of the gardens

I couldn't help but marvel over the beautiful landscaping they've made here. I can only imagine what kind of beauty blossoms here in the spring and the colorful transitions of autumn

The walks to and from destinations are always enlightening. I love observing the people and modes of transport here. It's somewhat therapeutic and always leaves me questioning where everyone is going.

As we continued on to our next destination, we came across a geisha photo shoot. I wasn't sure if these were real geishas as I have been told that there are tourist opportunities to take part in traditional dress and become a geisha for a day. It was still spectacular to see them in their outfits!

Waiting outside of Yasaka Pagoda

Artwork found along the walk to Kiyumizu-Dera

The path to Kiyumizu-dera was stunning. The changes in architecture and quaintness of my surroundings gave me a sense of time travel as we continued our path. Many tourist shops, dessert cafes, and restaurants rest along this walkway. I'm pretty sure we sampled almost all of their mochi here. Ohp!

This is Kiyumizu-dera, a beautiful wooden temple rested along the slope of a mountain and popularized by the waterfall in which runs through it

The weather was extra crisp up here, painfully crisp. But that did not stop tourists from coming to see this historic monument of ancient Kyoto.

As mentioned, a waterfall does run throughout this temple which is one of the major attractions (and in the actual name of the temple, mizu, meaning water). It is told that these three streams of water grant health, longevity and wisdom, two of which are invited to be consumed and if chosen 3, bad luck with be casted upon you as it assumes selfish behavior.

We chose health and wisdom, of course

Another attraction are the love stones. These love stones are made for significant others to chose their destined paths as lovers or otherwise. Two stones are placed on opposide ends of the sectioned area of the Jingu shrine (north and south, leaving space in between). It is told that the lover seeking affirmation about a relationship must begin at one of the stones and walk with their eyes closed and must reach the other stone successfully without help. This will indicate that they will find love, or true love.

There's quite a bit to see at this temple and unfortunately, because the weather was so cold we weren't able to appreciate every area of it. I'm am, however content with the idea of peace that these temples and shrines bring and feel very honored to see these historic landmarks in my lifetime.