August 18, 2008: Miyajima

We woke up really early, and left Fukuoka at 6:30am on the morning of August 18^th to head over to Miyajima. One bus, 3 trains and 1 ferry later, a total of about 9 hours, we arrived at the island of Miyajima.

Miyajima is a beautiful, small, island close to Hiroshima that contains the O-Torii Gate (Grand Gate) and the Itsukushima Shrine. The O-Torii Gate is a torii 200 meters from the Itsukushima Shrine, in the water. If you go during high tide, the bottom of the torii and the shrine are covered by water, but we went during low tide, so it was surrounded by the sea bottom, mud and shells.

Wild deer run free on the island, and they are very friendly. There were warning signs posted around the island telling visitors to beware of the deer because they will steal paper or cloth you might be holding or wearing. Luckily we had no problems with them and we actually made friends with a few of them!

The island was just amazing and beautiful, surrounded by mountains. We all really enjoyed ourselves there.

We left Miyajima and took a train to Hiroshima, checked into our hostel and went out for a sushi dinner.

August 15-17, 2008: Fukuoka

After finally arriving in Fukuoka, after more than 12 hours on trains, Ken, Caelan, Jessie and their friend Keith (who lives in Fukuoka) picked us up from the train station. They took us on a walking tour of Fukuoka. Our first stop was the Genkou-Bourui Stone wall at Hakata Bay. The stone wall is the remains of a wall to protect the city against the Mongolian invasion in the late 13^th century.

After visiting the wall we walked through downtown to get to Fukuoka Tower. As we were walking it started raining, not too hard at first. It was kind of refreshing since it had been so hot.

After taking these photos it started torrential raining!! Unfortunately none of us had umbrellas (and I’m not sure they would have even helped us), so we were all soaked to the core. It felt as if we had all taken a shower with our clothes on. Even our underwear was soaked. I had to run into a store to get a plastic bag to protect my camera.

Right in front of the Fukuoka Tower there is a layout of Buddha statues surrounding a center stone. If you stand on the stone and talk, your voice will echo, but only in that spot!

We arrived at the tower and took the elevator up the tower, still soaked, and now freezing from the air conditioning. The view of the city was very nice. Fukuoka looks like a more modern city than the other cities we have visited, and it is right on the water.

The plan was to sing karaoke after visiting the tower, so we all changed into dry clothes, us from our backpacks (which we had left in a locker at the train station) and everyone else bought new clothes. We spent the rest of the night singing karaoke, in traditional Japanese style, in a private room.

We saw the weirdest thing on our way home that night. We saw a group of middle-aged Japanese men in business suits standing outside a bar. They all picked one of the men up and began throwing him up in the air and catching him. They did this a few times. After asking a few people what the purpose of this was I found out that Japanese men do this to very drunk men in an attempt to sober them up! Personally, I would not want to be thrown in the air multiple times while drunk, I don’t think it would have a sobering effect on me, it might actually make me much more sick!

After Karaoke we headed over to Keith’s house and put down cushions on the floor so we could sleep 8 people in his small apartment: 2 on the couch, 2 on the bed and 4 on the floor.

The next day was the day of the big beach party, but it was raining really hard again. We decided to go anyway because we heard the party was moved indoors. We were, again, soaked to the core on the way to the party, so much that when we arrived we had to wring out our clothing in the bathtub to get all the excess water out!!

When the rain lightened up, a few of us went to the beach to swim. The beach was so beautiful!! There were mountains surrounding the beach in every direction. I left the party shortly after swimming because I didn’t want to stay wet for the rest of the night, and I had no towel or dry clothing. We spent the rest of the night watching Sex and the City at Keith’s house.

The following day we wanted to have another easy day because we were still tired from the constant touring around. So we went back to the beach, but this time the weather was beautiful and sunny!

Ken was still recovering from his 5 jellyfish stings from the day before. Luckily he was the only one stung though. We spent the day playing in the water and tanning.

This beach was a different one than the one we went to the previous day, but it was still gorgeous. There were beautiful mountains everywhere, and a castle on the top of one of them, overlooking the water!

After the beach, we rested a bit at Keith’s house, and then we went out for an Okonomiyaki dinner (egg pancakes) and then we went to a traditional Japanese style bar called an Izakaya. The Izakaya was pretty cool. Everyone must remove their shoes to enter, and walk shoeless to the very short table. You have to sit on the floor, but there is a hole under the table to put your legs in. Each table has its own booth, surrounded with curtains for privacy, and there is a button on each table that you press for service.

After, we went back to Keith’s house to sleep. The 2.5 days in Fukuoka were the most relaxing days of the entire trip so far. It was so nice to finally swim, and sleep in and have no time restraints! We left his house at 6:30am the next morning to head to Miyajima.

August 14-15, 2008: Train Adventure to Fukuoka

On August 14^th, the plan was to leave Kyoto for Fukuoka, a city on the southern island of Japan. Caelan was visiting a friend there and we were all going to join them for a few days. It was supposed to be a beautiful area with beautiful beaches and we were hoping to relax for a few days on the beach.

Ken wrote down the train schedule and all the cities we needed to make transfers in for the ride from Kyoto to Fukuoka, so we hopped on our first train and started our journey. Little did we know that there are actually 2 Fukuoka’s in Japan, one 6 hours north of Kyoto and another 12 hours south of Kyoto. We wanted the Fukuoka south of Kyoto, but got on the train for the Fukuoka north of Kyoto thinking we would be there in 6 hours. Luckily Ken realized we were going in the wrong direction and we got off the train. We went to a ticket booth to try to revise our plan, which was now going to take 12 hours instead of 6, plus the additional time of reversing our mistake of going north instead of south.

We had two options as follows: take the normal train for more than 12 hours and pay $20 (CAN), OR take the fast, Shinkansen, train for 3 hours and pay $130 (CAN). Ken wanted to see Caelan so he bought a Shinkansen ticket, and Steph, Fieke and I decided to go the slow, more economical, route. At this point it was already around 3pm. We said goodbye to Ken and us 3 girls set off on our journey. We stopped at a convenience store and stocked up on sushi and beer for our trip.

The plan was to take the train to Hiroshima, stay at a hostel and then continue in the morning. We called a few hostels and hotels and they were all full. We decided to go anyway and find one when we get there.

We arrived in Hiroshima a bit before 11pm and set off walking with our huge (and heavy) backpacks to find a hotel. We tried about 4 hotels and they were all full. The receptionist at the last hotel told us we wouldn’t find a hotel here because there was a huge festival (bonfire he said, we think maybe he meant fireworks) going on and all the hotels in the area were full. We decided to stop looking and we hopped back on a train headed for the city of Iwakuni, hoping to find a hotel in a smaller city with no festival going on.

We arrived around midnight in Iwakuni and set off again to find a hotel. We were turned down by at least 4 hotels again, and one hotel receptionist actually escorted us out of the front doors of their hotel. We had a feeling that not all the hotels were full in this small city, and we were really frustrated that no one would give us a room. The only logical explanation was that they didn’t want foreigners. Ken and Caelan had told us stories about them being turned down at hair salons and other places because they were foreign.

We must have looked pretty desperate by the time we walked into the Iwakuni Plaza Hotel, because the receptionist, after looking all three of us up and down, told us he had 3 single rooms for us!! And breakfast was included!! This was the happiest moment of our day!

We all slept very well that night!

We left the hotel at 8am the next morning to continue the rest of our journey to Fukuoka. After 4 trains we finally arrived in Fukuoka at 2pm. We had just spent more than 12 hours on trains in the past 24 hours.

August 12-14, 2008: Kyoto

On the morning of August 12^th we were supposed to wake up at 4:15am to catch the 5:15 train for Kyoto. We set two alarm clocks for this purpose, but somehow managed to sleep through both alarms!! I woke up at 6:15am and quickly woke everyone else up.

We all quickly got ready and caught the 7:15am train instead. The trip from Shimizu to Kyoto took about 6 hours on 5 different trains. When we finally arrived in Kyoto we needed to find a hostel, so we found a payphone and called a few numbers from our guidebooks. We finally found a hostel called Higashiyama Youth Hostel. It was a bit more expensive than some of the others, but the cheaper ones were all full.

It wasn’t until after we checked into the hostel (and paid for it) that we realized the strict rules! It had specified bath times, a 10:30 curfew, lights out at 10:30, specified wake up times and eating times, etc. No wonder it was one of the only vacant hostels!!

We left our bags at the hostel and went exploring. We first went to the Heian-Jingu Shrine, also called the shrine of Peace and Tranquility and it was built in 1895 to celebrate the 1,100^th anniversary of the founding of Kyoto. The shrine gardens were beautiful and made use of ponds and flowers creating a stunning garden view.

We then took a walk through the streets and found a street with 4 small temples along it. It is amazing how well they all fit in and blend into the street. All the new architecture was built around the temples so not to disturb the beauty of them. We did not enter any of these temples.

Later that evening we went to Kyoto tower and took the elevator to the highest point freely accessible. Unfortunately that point is not very high, so we did not have a very good view of the city. Close to the Kyoto tower we found a karaoke bar, and spent the rest of the evening singing karaoke.

Karaoke bars are very different here than they are in Canada. Actually, the Japanese invented Karaoke! The way it is set up here is there are individual rooms, each with a TV, couch and table, and groups come to sing in their private room with their friends. This way only your friends can listen to you sing, instead of a bar full of strangers! Each room has a telephone in it, and you use it to call the bartenders to order drinks or food, which are delivered to your private room. At the end of each song the TV informs you how many calories you burnt while singing.

We had so much fun! We were all dancing and singing our little hearts out, while our very embarrassed waiter kept coming into the room with our food and drink orders. We wondered why he looked so embarrassed whenever he entered our room. When we peeked into the other karaoke rooms and saw some Japanese sitting politely on the couches singing quietly, we realized quite quickly why he was so embarrassed watching us screaming the songs while jumping and dancing on the couches.

The next morning we woke up at 5:30am to get an early start on our day, and hopped on the subway. Things were going great on the subway until all the lights went off on the train, then the doors closed, and the train started moving slowly into the tunnel. We looked around and realized we were the only people on the train and the train had just been put out of service!! Luckily the conductor saw us, and after laughing at us, got the train going again and we got off at the next station.

Our first stop of the day was Fushimi-inari Taisha. This was an amazing sight because there were tunnels made from hundreds of Toriis next to each other, each representing a different temple or shrine in Japan.

I tend to praise myself for always being so prepared and organized. This is why I travel with two digital cameras… just in case!! For some reason, my organization and preparedness did not follow through that day, or maybe it was just a stroke of bad luck, but as we were finishing off exploring Fushimi-inari Taisha BOTH my camera batteries died!! I was left carrying around two dead cameras for the remainder of the day and was not able to take any more photos. Luckily Fieke had a camera and is a good photographer, so I trusted her to take photos for both of us for the rest of the day until I was able to charge my cameras that night.

Our next stop was the To-Ji Temple. This temple was a very very tall temple. It has the highest pagoda in Japan (57m high) and it was established in 794. Most of the original buildings have been destroyed, but were rebuilt in the 17^th century.

After exploring that area, we went to the Kiyomizudera Temple, also called the Clear Water Temple. It was established in 780 by a Buddhist priest, but most of the present buildings were built around 1633. The temple is on a mountain and gives a beautiful view of Kyoto. Since it is on a mountain most of the temple is supported by large wooden pillars that hang out over the mountain. This is also the location of the Otowa-No-Taki (Sound of Feathers) Waterfall. It is believed that if you drink this water your sickness and illness will be cured. People believe the water has therapeutic properties, and there was a long line of people waiting to drink from this water.

On our way out we found a restaurant called The White Lover, and we stopped there to have a bite to eat. Following lunch we continued on to the Chian-In Temple. This temple is famous for having the largest entrance and the largest bell. We were so tired, and hot, that we couldn’t walk up the hill to explore the bell, but we saw and admired the enormous entrance!

We then went to the Kinkakuji Temple, also called the Golden Temple. It is an amazing sight. The whole temple is covered in gold. One of my cameras had a tiny bit of life left in it, and I wanted to save the photos for something spectacular, and this seemed to perfectly fit:

For dinner we met up with Ken’s Japanese friend Oayi and her husband. We went to a nice restaurant that served us 11 courses!! This meal was a huge luxury, considering we had been eating rice balls and vitamin water out of convenience stores for the majority of the trip!

The following morning we went to the Arasiyama Monkey Park on Iwatayama Mountain. This was my favourite place since arriving in Japan. The monkey park is a mountain, caged off so the monkeys do not escape. When you enter the park, you enter the caged region, so there are no barrier between you and the monkeys. It was amazing (and a little scary) to see the monkeys running free. The only caged area was for humans. It was a small hut at the top of the mountain where people could rest and escape from the monkeys. It was also used to feed the monkeys through the caged windows.

There were strict rules to follow for our safety, for example: never look a money in the eyes (they find it threatening). Also, we needed to eat all the food in our bags before entering so we wouldn’t be attacked for our food!!

The monkeys were absolutely adorable, we saw some mothers with their babies, and others eating, while other younger ones were playing and running around.

We left the park, ran back to the hostel, and then hopped on a train headed to Fukuoka… or so we thought.

August 11, 2008: Backpacking Plan

I’m leaving in about 4 hours to go backpacking through Japan with Ken, Fieke and Steph. The plan is to visit Kyoto, and then go to the city of Fukuoka to stay with some of Ken’s friends, then to Hiroshima, then Osaka. We should be back at Ken’s hose on the 22^nd or 23^rd. I won’t be blogging during this time, but when I get back to Ken’s house I’ll catch up with my blogs and write blogs for each city we visit. I miss you all!!

August 9-11, 2008: Tokyo

On Saturday (August 9th) around 7pm we left for Tokyo. The train ride is about 3 hours from Ken’s house, so we arrived around 10pm.

Our plan for the night was to go to the dance club Womb and then stay at a Love Hotel. Love Hotels are used primarily for unmarried Japanese couples as a private place to spend some “quality alone” time together, as most Japanese live with their parents until they are married. The rooms come in different themes and can be rented for a few hours or a full night. The lobby of the hotel contains photos of the different available rooms with buttons where you can book the room you want. There is also sometimes someone at the reception, but they are covered to provide more privacy for the couple. We wanted to stay in a love hotel because they are cheaper than regular hotels, and because we thought it would be more interesting than staying at a hostel.

When we arrived in Tokyo we went straight to the love hotel district to find somewhere to sleep for the night and leave our bags while we went dancing. We had absolutely no luck whatsoever. We went into every single love hotel in the area and were rejected from all of them! Some of them did not allow 4 people in a single room, so we split up into two and two. When we looked for two rooms we were told by some that no foreigners were allowed, at other places no women were allowed, and another place told us that two women were not allowed to be in a room together and the rest of them were full.

We gave up on love hotels and split up. Fieke and Ken went to Womb (the dance club) and Steph and I checked into a regular hotel. We decided on a meeting spot for 8am the next morning, and then Steph and I went out for food and a few drinks at a different bar. The next morning when we met back up with Fieke and Ken they told us about their adventurous night. After dancing at Womb they couldn’t find a hostel or love hotel to sleep in so they took a nap on the street and then went to a karaoke bar to eat breakfast before meeting up with us.

Together we all started exploring Tokyo together! First we went to the Yoyogi-Koen Park and walked around there. It’s quite large and very pretty. There are some fountains in it, and there were a lot of people running and exercising.

Attached to the park is the Meiji Jingu Temple. It is also very pretty. This temple was very similar to other ones we’ve seen on the trip so far, except that since we were in Tokyo, it was packed with other tourists.

The Jingubashi bridge is right next to the park and temple, and it is famous for being the hangout spot for some interesting Japanese characters.

We were pretty hungry after walking all morning, so we stopped to have some Om-rice, which is a Japanese dish of an omelet filled with rice with sauce on top. We didn’t do too much the rest of the day. Ken and Fieke were so tired they kept falling asleep. We walked around Harajuku (a shopping district), and then we took the subway to the Tokyo Tower.

The Tokyo Tower was pretty cool, it looks similar to the Eifel Tower, but it’s orange, and it’s a bit taller (the Eifel tower is 320m high while the Tokyo tower is 333m). We took the elevator to the main observatory so we could see the view of the city.

We were supposed to be meeting Ken’s friend Miyuki, who works at the tower at 5pm, and had about an hour to kill. We took a walk in the area and visited to Zojoji Temple.

With Ken’s friend Miyuki we took the subway to Tsurukawa station and ate dinner at a Japanese curry restaurant called CoCo Curry House. It was pretty good, it tasted different than other curries I’ve had. We then waited for almost two hours at Starbucks while Miyuki went to her apartment to clean up before having us over to sleep. Ken and Fieke were half asleep while Steph’s stomach was hurting. We amused ourselves by checking out the Pachinko hall down the street. Pachinko is a mix between pinball and slot machines, and the hall is setup like a casino. There were rows and rows of Japanese playing on these machines, and winning small shiny balls. When you are finished playing, one of the security guards pours all the balls into a counting machine and gives you a ticket. You can then exchange your ticket for one of many prizes like snack food, household products, cheap watches and beer.

When we finally arrived at her apartment we were all in shock. Papers, bottles, clothes and garbage covered the entire apartment. There was not one area where the floor or countertop could be seen. We spent the next hour or two helping her clean her apartment so we could make room for a mattress for us to sleep on. Needless to say we were all absolutely exhausted when we finally got into bed!

We woke up early the next morning so we could go to the Tsukiji Fish market in Tokyo. It is the worlds largest wholesale fish market. It was set up with rows and rows of vendors selling different types of fish. The area was huge, and very busy and full of life!

Once we fully explored the fish market we took a break at the Marunouchi Shopping Center Building and had a drink at a restaurant on the top floor called So Tired, before continuing on to the Imperial (Emperor’s) Palace. This is where the Emperor currently lives. It is surrounded by large walls, and no one is allowed within the walls. We walked around and also saw a very nice fountain display.

We then proceeded to the electronic district and spent about an hour exploring Bic Camera, which is a very large electronics store. We also had a chance to explore the Sony Aquarium, which didn’t actually contain any fish. It was a display of TV screens and 3D videos of exotic fish. After the full day of exploring we decided to make our way back to Ken’s house to prepare for our backpacking trip.

August 8, 2008: Kamakura

On the morning after climbing Mount Fuji (August 8th) we had plans to spend the day at Kamakura. We were all sore and could barely move and we wanted nothing more than to spend the whole day relaxing in an onsen (thermal bath). We knew that if we didn’t to go Kamakura that day we might not have a chance to do it another time, so we decided to suck it up and go.

Kamakura is about 1.5 hours from Jessie’s house by train and it is the location of the Kotokuin Temple (Great Buddha). The Great Buddha is a 11.31 meter tall gilt bronze seated statue of a Buddha which was constructed in the 1200s (construction began in 1252). The original temple was constructed around the Buddha and enclosed it inside, but numerous disasters destroyed the temple and left only the Buddha standing. It was incredible to see! It’s enormous!!

Once we finished exploring the Buddha we made our way to the Hase-Dera temple. It was beautiful. It contained an enormous beautiful garden, and then stairs up the mountain to reach the temple. The Hase-Dera temple is known as the 4th station among the 33 holy places in the Kanto area.

After the Hase-Dera temple we went on a mission to find the Zeniarai Benzaiten-Shrine. We got a little lost and had to ask a group of Japanese schoolgirls. At first Ken only asked a few girls, but as they were talking to him more and more girls surrounded him! They were giggling and talking to Ken in Japanese. Once they pointed us in the right direction and as we were walking away they yelled “I love you” back at us. I think Ken made a pretty big impression on them!

The Zeniarai Benzaiten-Shrine is reached through a cave in the mountain, and it is famous for its money washing waters. It has been said that if you wash your money in this water you will have financial success. We actually saw people placing their money in baskets and washing it in the water. Very interesting.

After leaving the Zeniarai Benzaiten-Shrine we made our way to the Sasuke Inari Jinja Shrine. It is a small shrine up the mountain. It was empty when we went as it is not a tourist destination and is not on the tourist map. Ken knew of this shrine from the last time he was in the city. It was very pretty and natural. There was a lot of moss growing on the rocks and sculptures which made it blend in with nature.

The last place we visited in Kamakura was the Tsurgaoka Hachimangu-Shrine, which is located in a large square with a long walking road leading up to it. We went during the lantern festival, so the whole walkway was covered in painted lanterns. There were also some ponds on the grounds, which contained enormous water lilies!

We were so tired at that point that we couldn’t stay and wait for the lanterns to be lit, so we decided to head back to Ken’s house. Getting back to Ken’s house took us about 3 hours, changing trains plus a half hour walk. We arrived at Ken’s house exhausted and fell right into bed.

Soon after, Steph and I received a visitor, a very very large spider the size of the palm of a hand!! We screamed so loud and ran into Fieke’s room and jumped onto her bed. The boys heard us and came out to investigate. They locked the spider in the kitchen and assured us that it couldn’t get back into our room. Nervously, Steph and I went back to our room and got back into bed. About half an hour later it had crept into the corner of our room! We screamed again and Fieke came running. She tried to catch it but it was too fast. She offered we could move into her room for the night, but we decided we would stay in our room, and move our beds closer together and away from the wall where it was crawling. We went to sleep shortly after, and never saw the spider again.