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!