After Sunshine City, we headed to the Tokyo Dome. It was pretty awesome. So the Tokyo dome is where the Tokyo baseball team plays (they love their baseball there). Around the actual dome, there is a mini theme park with rides, shops, great food vendors, etc… The American influence was evident through our trip – McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC, Subway, even TGI Friday’s were here. American stores like Eddie Bauer, the GAP, and American Outfitters were around. It was so interesting. Anyway, The Japanese apparently love Ferris Wheels as much as they love their baseball. I think every city might have one. I rode “The Big O” in the Tokyo Dome with Christine and Kevin. We shopped a little, wandered in a food store, and were on our way. Christine, Craig, and I went back to Shinagwa to get our luggage from the hotel, and had the BEST meal I had in my whole time in Japan that night. We went to a little hole in the wall restaurant under the rail right off of the station. I had a rice bowl with ginger pork and a raw egg on top… complete with some dumplings, miso soup, and what appeared to be a salad (just shredded lettuce and corn). I took one bite and it was heaven… After my first bite I realized I forgot to take a picture of it, but I couldn’t bear to put down my chopsticks to do it. It was delicious. Yes, I used chopsticks. I tried so hard, and ate very slow but Craig said he was proud of me. A lot of the waiters and waitresses got a kick out of watching me try but I didn’t give up! (If I had to eat all my meals with chop sticks I would likely starve).
After dinner, we travelled back to Yokohama to get on an overnight bus to Kobe to meet the ship. It was an 7-ish hour bus ride and we left at 10pm. The bus was surprisingly comfortable. We had a lot of room and the seats reclined, had a foot rest, you could lift your legs, and (my favorite) it had an umbrella like hood that came down over your head for privacy and so the light wouldn’t bother you. It was fully curtained so when the bus driver turned off the interior lights it was pitch black, and I think we were all asleep in minutes – I didn’t even wake up at the first rest stop, I slept almost straight through and surprisingly comfortably. The only thing was the seats clearly weren’t built for Americans and my hips were squished! LOL
We arrived in Kobe around 5am and headed to McDonald’s for breakfast and to kill some time. The ship was arriving at 8, and we wanted to get to the dock to see it. I am so glad we did because it was BEAUTIFUL!
It was truly special to see the ship arrive in Kobe from port. So gorgeous. After the ship cleared we went onboard to unpack and shower. Then Craig and I wandered around Kobe. Kobe was nice. I wanted a steak so bad but we could only find places that were $65 for a hamburger steak (and a small one at that), and I just couldn’t justify it this early in the trip. We ended up settling for rice bowls and kicking ourselves later when we found the more reasonably priced (but still delicious) Kobe beef was on the second or third levels of the high-rises (remember when I told you it’s hard to remember to look up?). Kobe seemed more expensive, less clean, and less friendly than Tokyo so we wandered around for a few hours and headed back to the ship. I relaxed, watched a movie (Definitely Maybe was pretty cute), and had a really early bedtime that night!
Today was a day that made me truly sad to leave Japan. After struggling last night and this morning with internet (Sorry Ry – I was REALLY hoping it would work for us) and ending up settling for text messages and a little facebook creeping, I boarded a bus at 8:00 am for Kyoto. This was my first trip through Semester at Sea (you can book “excursions” like on a cruise). I have to tell you, it was great not having to plan anything, not having to worry about transportation, and having a fluent guide at your fingertips. Our guide was Hiroko, and she was amazing. She was sweet and funny and brilliant. She told us all about Kobe and Kyoto on our 1.5 hour bus trip (sorry I dozed off, Hiroko!).
First, we went to Nijo Castle. It was built in 1603 and was GORGEOUS. We couldn’t take photos inside but they were brilliant. The emperor who had it built (Shogun) was paranoid – he had the carpenters make the doors in the main entryway chirp like nightingales when you walked on them so no one could sneak in or out. It still chirps to this day. I have no idea how they did it but it was so awesome. There were great paintings and giant wood carvings. He had three rooms where the only purpose was for people to bring him gifts! It was very cool to see and learn about. Japan still has an empress but today it’s just a figurehead and they have no actual power. Back then, they had a lot of power.
The next stop was The Golden Pavillion & Rokuon-Ji Temple. I cannot even describe to you how beautiful this was so I will just attempt to show you:
After, we went to lunch and in a few shops. Confession time: I had McDonalds… we only had minutes to eat and I already told you all how slow I am with chopsticks! It was GOOD!
The third stop on our tour was The Garden of Hein Jingu Shrine. I could’ve sat in this garden all day long and been incredibly satisfied. It was beautiful! I honestly don’t think my brain would be able to compete how beautiful it was if it was springtime. We walked through and took a bunch of photos and just spent some quiet time with nature.
I loved Kyoto! Mary and I managed to find the geishas when we went (as many times as she's been, she'd never found them before) and I was a totally shameless rude American, chasing after them with a camera. I definitely just had to look it up because I couldn't remember but I went to Kobe also! Did you go to Chinatown? It was so fun! I think Kobe was where we were when we went to see and feed the monkeys. We had to walk up all these trails to a little building to feed them. The monkeys scared me (so many rules to make sure they don't attack you) but they were adorable!
ReplyDeleteOh! Chopsticks! Mary couldn't take off the entire two weeks I was there so I spent about half the time going to school with her (elementary school was the best!) and the other half traveling. Her elementary school kids made fun of the fact I had trouble with chopsticks. I only gave up a couple times though, in the beginning (noodles were impossible!) and by the time we came back from our first excursion, I had my own chopsticks with my name on them in Japanese AND English to show off to the kids. I was rocking those chopsticks by the end of the trip!
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