Hanatoro

I went to the Hanatoro festival in Gion last night, and this is some of what I saw:




Popular shrines and streets were illuminated with thousands of lanterns, as street vendors served taiyaki, hot sake, candied fruits, meat skewers, and roasted chestnuts, and various performances took place.

Some Photos

Arashiyama

I went to the Iwatayama Monkey Park again today. It was cool going back again, prepared for the swarm of monkeys. Though I took about a hundred photographs, and several videos, here's just a taste of what I saw. Also a bit of the town, too.

Click to see on Youtube in HD.






More later

River

These guys are in the river down the street. Check out the full HD res version on Youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVVy6sUvbpI



This was shot around here:

View Larger Map

Awesome Food

It feels great to be back in Kyoto. It was only two years ago that I was last here, but it feels nostalgic to come back to this wonderful city. Knowing the lay of the land certainly helps in my enjoyment, especially when it comes to food. Everything was just as I remembered.

I started with my "usual" miso soup, rice, and hot tea for breakfast down at the restaurant I frequented during my last stay. There is no traditional breakfast that makes you feel better than this one does.


For lunch I tried out a new place - Paris21e over on Shijo Dori in downtown Kyoto, it had extremely delicious thin slices of sirloin steak in expertly seasoned sauce, cooked perfectly medium rare (they never asked how I wanted my steak, they simply made it the best way possible). The salad had some of the best dressing I've ever tasted (lots of lemon juice) and the "potage" was warm and delicious. The meal was finished with a dessert crepe.

For dinner I went back to the kaitenzushi place I used to frequent. Conveyor belt sushi that's super fresh and super cheap. 8 plates of Nigiri and all the hot tea I can drink, and I get out of the place for $10 flat, there's nothing much better than that. If you ever visit Japan, make sure to stop in at a kaitensushi (conveyor-belt sushi) place.
This is why I LOVE Kansai; It's all about the food!

Edit: Also, Beer vending machines FTW!

All checked-in and cozy. MAN it's good to be back in Kyoto.

Gotta love Japanese vending machines:

Gin and Tonic in a can.

Back Again

This marks my second trip to Japan. This time I will be staying twice as long, and seeing places I hadn't before, such as Hiroshima and Hokkaido. Below are my flight and travel itineraries so that those who feel inclined may follow along. In the posts to come, I will be updating with photographs and footage.
By the end I hope to compile a short film about my travel, which will be edited and posted on this blog afterward.
Please enjoy.


ITINERARY

Departing:	Los Angeles(LAX - Los Angeles Intl Terminal B) on Mon, 15 Mar 2010, 1410 hrs
Arriving:	Tokyo(NRT - Narita) on Tue, 16 Mar 2010, 1755 hrs
Flight:	SQ11 (B747-400) Economy Class
Departing:	Tokyo(NRT - Narita Terminal 1) on Tue, 13 Apr 2010, 1845 hrs
Arriving:	Los Angeles(LAX - Los Angeles Intl) on Tue, 13 Apr 2010, 1300 hrs
Flight:	SQ12 (B747-400) Economy Class

March 15th-16th - Fly into Narita

March 16th - Train to Kyoto Station

March 17th-22nd - Kyoto
-Arashiyama (Iwatayama Monkey Park)
-Gion/Shopping District
-Inari Temple
-Nara

March 23rd - Train to Hiroshima

March 24th-25th - Hiroshima
-25th Miyajima

March 26th - Train to Osaka

March 27th-30th - Osaka

March 31st - Train to Tokyo

April 1st-2nd - Tokyo

April 3rd (Afternoon)- Train to Misawa

April 4th - Misawa

April 5th - Train to Hakodate

April 6th - Train to Misawa

April 7th - Misawa/Aomori

April 8th - Train to Tokyo

April 9th-12th - Tokyo/Traveling
-Akihabara
-Shibuya
-Ueno Koen
-Ghibli Museum - April 9th

April 13th - Fly Home!

THIS MARKS THE END OF SPRING 2010 TRIP

This is just to say that everything past this post is from my 2008 Japan trip, and not my Spring 2010 trip.

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Iwatayama Monkey Park

This was one of the most amazing things I've done in Japan, and thus in my entire life.

First, I went to Arashiyama, an old style town built around a river (but I will put all that in the next post). In Arashiyama is the Iwatayama Monkey Park, with promise of seeing wild monkeys.



I thought it might be interesting, so I payed the 560-Yen admission to the park, and started to climb the mountain along the path.



and I climbed...



and climbed...



and climbed...




Until I got to the top and realized that I had been greatly under-informed about the monkeys.















That's right, the lot of 120 monkeys were EVERYWHERE, just sitting, walking, eating, and playing amongst the humans that come to see them. It was simply amazing to interact with wild monkeys like this (and a bit exhilarating when one of the alpha-males chased me off; a bit camera-shy.)

I'll post video soon (it's not uploading right now)

Bancho Dance-oh

This really made my day.

*edit* Oh yeah, this post is totally dedicated to Erin.






For those of you who don't know, these guys are the epitome of the "bancho" or "tough-guy" stereotype (pompadour and all). Why they were in a circle dancing to Japanese 50's-American style music is beyond me but boy am I glad they were.

Aomori Prefecture

Aomori prefecture was simply beautiful. Unlike the old-town city of Kyoto or the crazyness that is Tokyo, Aomori is filled with a very beautiful natural environment. It's so neat to see the huge rice fields being worked on by resident farmers.
I'm gonna keep the photo-count short on this one, because the connection here is slow, but rest assured that there are plenty more to be seen for those who are interested after I get back.