5.29 Uji

Genji + matcha green tea everything + beautiful nature = Uji is amazing.

Being a fan of green tea and natural scenery, Uji is one of my favorite places in Kyoto.

Despite feeling hungover and sleep-deprived from the night before, I was rejuvenated by the lovely blue skies and greenery in Uji.
A group of girl friends and I took the train to Uji station and head toward Byodoin (famous temple), passing through the main gate that had Genji and one of his ladies (probably Murasaki) on top.

Since Uji is famous for its matcha green tea, we ate matcha soba for lunch. I personally didn't like it as much as I thought I would have because it didn't taste like anything to me, but apparently some of my Japanese friends love it so I guess it depends on the person. There is a refreshing slight matcha kick at the end of a bite, I suppose.

The matcha ice cream we had near the temple we were going to was to die for! Super rich and creamy, had a deep green tea flavor, and powdered with matcha...!!!











After eating the best matcha ice cream in the world, we went to see the Byodoin. We couldn't enter the actual temple, but we got to see the museum, which had lots of statues, architectural pieces of the Byodoin as it had used to be, etc.





After Byodoin, we started heading back by taking a loop around, crossing a bridge on the way and seeing more pretty sites.

So much nature!

I really liked this spot along the river. I think it was the second place where I said I wanted to die here or have my ashes thrown here (the first being Arashiyama). Gorgeous--Pictures don't do it justice.
We ended the day by going to a small restaurant by the river. The place was an elevated wooden home with a tatami floor and Japanese style seating. We had a nice view of the river as well. The food was a bit expensive, but we ordered the dessert set, which included a small stick of matcha mochi balls, a senbei, and hot matcha tea (all very delicious).

Shops there closed really early though, but luckily we found a souvenir shop that was still open at that time (it was probably 5pm or so..sometime in the early evening) to buy stuff we wanted.
Uji-- definitely a worthwhile place to go for green tea and/or nature lovers.

5.15 Nara

I haven't updated my blog for 5 months and it's already been 2 months since I came back from studying abroad in Japan, but I'm going to try to finish blogging about my study abroad experience!

So one weekend in May, my girl friends and I went to Nara for the first time. Our friend Ryosuke and his friends guided us, bringing us first to the famous deer park. After buying senbei, the flat crackers that the deer eat, we passed by a large pond full of turtles and koi fish as we walked to the park.
The deer park was considerably large, and many deer lazed around letting tourists feed them and take pictures. This one looked particularly sleepy..

According to Ryosuke, this temple is the 興福寺の五重塔.

We also saw Nara's mascot, Sento-kun, across the park in front of a large administrative-looking building. Sento-kun is such a creepy and poorly designed mascot.. I'm not very fond of him, but since he's a popular symbol, we took a picture next to him.

After the deer park, we went to see the Todaiji, which is famous for its large buddha statue. There were two large fearsome guardian statues at the entrance. The buddha inside Todaiji was indeed very large..There was a smaller buddha statue situated to its left. Inside the temple smelled strongly of incense...
There was also a thick wooden pole inside the temple with a hole at the bottom where people lined up to try crawling through it. You supposedly either get good luck or good health if you're able to crawl through the hole in the pole.

This is the outside of Todaiji.



(Below) The main buddha. I forgot if it was a bowling ball or a human head, but one of them is suppose to be able to fit through the nostril of this statue.


(Right)The buddha left of the main statue
Though it was interesting, it was a relief to get out of the crowd and the incense-filled temple!

After Todaiji, we took a break and later went to the Nara Park, where the late afternoon sun cast lovely shadows on the beautiful grassy field.

Nara didn't really have a food it's famous for or any characteristics that was extremely impressionable to me, but I felt that his city had a very calm and slow-paced vibe. There was a lot of historic value, especially with the Todaiji temple, but it definitely didn't seem very Japanese (the buddha statues looked like Chinese ones!). I still enjoyed my Nara trip- it was worth the visit!

5.4 downtown Osaka

I got back to Kyoto around 6am, took a nap for a couple hours, and then took the train to Osaka to meet 2 of my Japanese friends M and S. They took me to see downtown Osaka, which was very lively and colorful. The place kind of reminds me of the movie "Tekkonkinkreet"! I love how unique it looks there..so vibrant, so whimsical.

There's always fugu (pufferfish) around in Osaka! Look at this huge fella.

It was too crowded that day so I didn't get to see the view from the top of the tower, but this is the Osaka tower!

We also walked around this place that's pretty much the Osaka version of Akihabara. There were a lot of anime shops everywhere.. very otaku.

Later we went back to Kyoto and went to an izakaya where another friend was working at. The food was really good there! A few others came for dinner too- it was good seeing all of them again.

5.3 Ikebukuro (last day in Tokyo)--> Yokohama

After a final short jam session with L at her apartment, we headed off to Ikebukuro to meet with her boyfriend K. We had a good lunch at some Italian restaurant, played a couple games at the arcade, and went to a maid cafe. I guess I really have to go to Akihabara to get the real maid cafe experience because the one in Ikebukuro felt like a really normal cafe.. The maids didn't pay much attention to us either (perhaps because we weren't guys). The desserts were really cute though!

I left Tokyo around 4 and went off to Yokohama to meet my friend A(her family lives there so she went back home for Golden Week). Thanks L for having me over in Tokyo! :)
A took me to see Chinatown, which is one of the things that Yokohama is famous for. Having been in Chinatown for many, many years, the Yokohama Chinatown isn't anything too special to me. Compared to Oakland and SF Chinatown, Japanese Chinatown is so CLEAN!! There were a lot of people there and shops had very Asian designs.

After walking through Chinatown, we went to the well-known park in Yokohama, where there was a beautiful view of the sea and the small theme park. The park had a lot of carefully designed flower arrangement plots! I took a lot of pictures there, but here are a few:










After the park, we went to the small amusement park. I wanted to ride the ferris wheel, but there was a 50 minute wait so we went on the water slide instead. We thought the water ride was not worth it after the first drop, but then there was a bigger second drop that we hadn't expected! Fun times :)
Yokohama is so beautiful! Yamanashi was total countryside and peaceful, Tokyo was lively and very metropolitan, but Yokohama was somewhere in between those two extremes.

At night, we went to A's sister's bar, and around midnight we took the night bus back to Kyoto.

5.2 Shibuya

The famous crosswalk in Shibuya. Looks so nice at night (right).

After Yamanashi, L and I went back to Tokyo. L had some work to do so I explored the streets of Shibuya. Since it was Golden Week, the streets were bustling and packed with people. I dared to venture into Shibuya 109, which turned out to be a popular shopping building for young women. I went through each floor, walking around in a circle (the cloth stores were all next to each other in a circular arrangement), barely able to move, hearing all the workers with their annoyingly nasal voices scream things about spring/ Golden Week sales. I didn't take a lot of pictures, but here's a picture of a building with cool graffiti.

After L got off work, we stopped by for a little at Harajuku, but since it was kind of late most of the stores were already closed (or closing).

5.1 Yamanashi

The night after I arrived in Tokyo, L and I took the train to Yamanashi, the countryside. L's friend's host family invited us to stay over at their place there and they took us to see some awesome sights. I love how green everything was! It was definitely very different from everything I've seen so far in Japan.

Host mom and dad's house was a pretty big, traditional Japanese home (first time being in one!). The place they live at has a very calming atmosphere. For lunch, they took us to eat Yamanashi udon :)










Host dad was a civil engineer, so he showed us a path that he made before. We were heading toward Mt. Fuji, but we stopped at this woody area to see the path that he made.

The area near Mt Fuji was pretty chilly, and combined with the stark trees of the woody grove it felt kind of like autumn. Apparently, there are still certain sakura that bloom at this time of year!

We also stopped by a popular tofu place, where we had sample of different flavored tofu!












We parked in front of a really big supermarket, where we could see a clear view of Mount Fuji! I can't believe people who live there can see this everyday.


The market was one of the largest markets I've seen in Japan so far. It smelled like Safeway when we first entered, which made me nostalgic for cheap and abundant US groceries.. There were food samples there too.. I tried some very good steak, a piece of whale meat (I felt bad afterward though..), coffee, and basically anything there was.


Before heading back to the house, we stopped by a temple called Sengen, and I must admit, it was the best temple I've seen so far. Even though Kyoto has a lot of nice temples, this one was 1) not crowded 2) was old= more authentic 3) traditional-looking 4) gave me a real sense of Japanese culture. I loved this place.

Host parents- they were so nice to us!!

For dinner, they cooked us a wonderful Japanese meal (tonkatsu, rice, cabbage, miso soup, tofu...), and took a Japanese bath (as opposed to shower). We stayed overnight there, and in the morning (after a really good breakfast!), host mom drove us back to the train station so we could head back to Tokyo.

4.25 Gingakuji and bar hopping

I celebrated my 21st birthday by going to Ginkakuji (the Golden Pavilion) with a group of people, and at night we went bar hopping (a lot more people came). Good times! I'm thankful for all the people who celebrated with me.