Hakone, Kyoto and Tokyo
Trip dates: November 1, 2016 - November 7, 2016
After we went to Kanazawa, we popped back to Tokyo for a night then headed to Hakone for a night of onsen (Japanese spa) in a traditional ryokan (traditional Japanese guest house), followed by Kyoto for the next 5 days, before landing back in Tokyo for one more day before leaving for Seoul.
Funny enough, our stay in Hakone was one of the first accommodations we booked for Japan since we had wanted a private bath for our convenience. The best thing about our private bath was that the water, which is normally super hot, had cooled just enough by being exposed to the chilly outside air so we could comfortably lounge in there with the sounds of a rushing river in front of us. We tried the private family bath as well but that water was scalding hot! I never made it fully in. The food wasn't the best, but you can't win everything. Sleeping on futons on the tatami mats also ended up being one of our better nights of sleep in Japan, probably because I didn't have to share with Lishan and have her stealing all the blankets.
Random anecdote: our room also had a private tub (other rooms had shared bathrooms), but there was no shower. We had to fill buckets with hot/cold water and dump it over our heads. It was very... traditional, and took many buckets to wash Lishan's hair :)
Next stop: Kyoto. Kyoto is fairly large and has lots to see and do given it's historical significance to Japan (previous capitol, has lots of old shrines/temples that haven't been destroyed in numerous conflicts). We ended up sight-seeing around Kyoto for 3 full days, covering major sights such as the Nijo Castle, Ginkakuji (silver pavilion), Kinkakuji (gold pavilion), Kiyomizudera (known for it's large observation deck), Sanjusangendo (temple with 1000 Kannon statues), Nanzenji, Ryoanji (known for it's rock garden), Kodaiji, Fushimi Inari shrine (all of the orange torii gates), Fushimi Sake brewery tour (sake tasting included!), then did two day-trips to see other stuff in the area (Himeji Castle and Kobe for some beef, and Iga Ueno for some ninja action).
Thoughts on these places in no particular order:
- There are sooooo many temples in Kyoto! Every block, it seems there was another temple, or at least a shrine. And the worst part, you have to pay to go into all of the temples. This adds up pretty quickly.
- Public transportation is fairly extensive in Kyoto. The trains only go in the 4 cardinal directions but there are buses that cover the major attractions. The only problem is that the buses are crowded. We had multiple rides where we were jammed in like sardines or stuck in traffic, but we did have an unlimited bus pass for 2 of our sight-seeing days which was convenient.
- Because many of these temples are so popular, they are packed. We had to jockey for many of our pictures and often just had to live with people in our shots (Fushimi Inari is especially crazy).
- Due to the large crowds, zen rock gardens are not as zen when there are tons of people walking around and chatting - sad :(
- Sanjusangendo temple was pretty neat to see with all of its statues, but it also had one of the higher admission fees and you weren't allowed to take pictures. It was also a little off-putting that along the whole stretch were opportunities to make offerings and buy souvenirs.
- With all the temples that we went to in Kyoto, they started blurring together after a while. Since we were there in autumn, a lot of the temples were starting to have night-time illuminations. We went to Kodaiji Temple for their illumination and it was amazing! There was a laser show over the zen garden, which sounds corny but it was pretty cool to see. The area was well-lit to highlight the beauty of the trees and surroundings, and you still get to tour inside the temple too!
- Ryoanji's rock garden is special in that it was designed with 15 rocks but from any given angle, you can only see at most 14.
- Kyoto seemed more friendly for tourists - there was a lot more English on menus and on signs throughout the city compared to Tokyo. We also saw a lot more tourists proportional to other people, but I guess that tourism in Kyoto is just a much bigger industry there.
- Stuff in Japan shuts down too early - we spent 2.5 hours to get to Iga Ueno which is in the middle of nowhere, but we just missed the last live action ninja show (which had started at like 2:30 PM). Granted, we could have gone earlier but they also didn't publish the show times so we just got unlucky.
- Japan rail pass = worth it. It was so convenient to just book travel at the last minute or semi-ahead of schedule to get the right times/routes and just not worry about the details. There were some long lines for reservations, as you can't use online reservations or the automated machines, but generally was pretty smooth.
Worthy of separate calls outs!
Himeji Castle was super disappointing to us. The approach to the castle is cool since the path is very windy and you can imagine how terrible it would be to assault the castle, but the inside was like a terrible roller coaster. You lined up with all of your closest tourist friends to go up very steep stairs, only to hit the top floor where there's a shrine and lots of people milling/shoving about, just to come back down. We were packed in to the top level like sardines that you couldn't even make it to the windows to see outside (though the view really wasn't all that different from a lower level). There was really nothing else to see inside the castle (as compared to say, Kanazawa Castle or Nijo Castle) and it was also the most expensive place we visited.
Kobe was super worth it. Initially, Lishan asked if I wanted to go and I said it wasn't necessary, but before we left on the trip I got sucked into a YouTube spiral watching Kobe teppanyaki videos. So at the last minute, we figured out a route to stop by Waqqoku, one of the top rated Kobe eateries, early in the afternoon. We luckily scored a reservation that required waiting until 5 PM, which gave us time to get our next set of train tickets. We saw others get turned away without reservations, so I'm just happy things worked out, because this was one of my favorite meals, ever. Ever. It's teppanyaki without a huge show, just careful cooking of different cuts of delicious, melty beef. We did sirloin and tenderloin cuts and it was so, so worth it. Hands down the best beef that we've ever had.
