Turning Japanese, I really think so

Let me just kick this one off by saying Japan is a fabulous country. Japan is tied with Vietnam for first place in my opinion... so far.

We arrived on Tuesday Dec. 1st around 1:30 pm. My friend Miki, a former player on the UGA Women`s Lacrosse Team as a foreign exchange student, lives in Japan and met us at the airport. Miki certainly helped out because arriving in Tokyo can be a bit overwhelming, especially with the spider webs of train routes everywhere. After about an hour and a half of train rides into downtown Tokyo we arrived at the Sakura Hostel. We went out for some Japanese Ramen, a beer, and then strolled through the nearby market.

The next day Beth and I met up with Miki and her boyfriend Junpei to do some sightseeing around the Shinjuku area of town. We went into some massive shopping malls and electronics stores, then went to the top of some government building for an excellent 360 view of Tokyo. Afterwards we jetted back to the hostel to get there before our friend Jason arrived from Atlanta. Jason was going to be with us through out the rest of Japan. He got in around 7 pm and we immediately went out for some Sushi.

Jason and I at the Sushi restaurant. As you can see, the sushi is rotating on a belt behind our table. All the plates are color coded. The lighter the colored plates, the cheaper it is. After you are done they count the number of plates you had and hand you your bill. The servers don`t count themselves, each plate has and RFID chip in it and all the server does is scan the stack of plates with a hand-held device, and out comes you bill. We felt like we were in the future.

Thursday was spent in the rain doing more sightseeing, and train riding. Friday was absolutely gorgeous out so we took full advantage. We visited the Meiji-Jingu Shrine in the middle of Yoyogi park. This is similar to central park in New York, from what I hear (since I have never been). After a great day we started planning for an even greater night. The agenda consisted of: Okonomiyaki for dinner (this is where you cook your dinner at your table on a hot iron skillet), meeting up with Miki, Junpei, and a bunch of cool folks from the hostel, heading to Roppongi (Tokyo`s party district), then staying out till 4:30 am and heading to the Sukiji fish market to sample the freshest fish in town, right off the boats. Well... everything went according to plan, except when we finally arrived at Sukiji around 5:30 am, it was cold, a little rainy, and we were not in the mood for fish. We road the long train back to our hostel and got a nap before checking out and heading to Kyoto via the BULLET train!!!

Pretty sure we were evenly matched.

Okonomiyaki for dinner in the Asakusa district.

Riding on one of hundreds of trains. It was Friday night and we were on our way to meet up with Miki and Junpei. From left to right we have Jimmy from LA, Beth and Jason from the wonderful Atlanta, Kim from Soule, and Tim from Australia. We had a great time with everyone on this long night out.

Junpei, Miki and I.

A stunning view of Tokyo and the Statue of Liberty... Wait, what!? Yep, its there alright.

Kyoto, is a city about 300 Km south west of Tokyo and is known as the most traditional city in Japan. We were excited to get a good taste of the real Japanese culture. To make things even more special, we booked a room at a traditional Ryokan style guest house. This is a place where the doors are all paper thin, you sleep on a small mattress on the floor, and there are no shoes allowed anywhere inside the house. We all loved this place the most.

In our bedroom at the Ryokan style guest house. They give you robes and slippers to wear around the house.

Entrance to our room.

The sightseeing in Kyoto was amazing. Temples and Shrines every quarter mile or so, geisha dressed in kimonos, and food that will blow your mind. On Saturday we toured the city by bus, and covered as much ground as we could. Sunday, we headed for Nara, a town about 30 minutes from Kyoto know for its temples and parks that are filled with VERY VERY tame deer. On our way back from Nara we stopped at the Fushimi Inari-Tiasha Shrine. We showed up just before dusk and thought we had missed everything to see. We were certainly wrong. There is a walk way leading up into the hills that is 4 km long with red shrine gates all the way up. Following each gate up the hillside in the dark was an experience not to be forgotten. This was truly something special. The next day we hung around Kyoto again and went to the Bamboo forest and attempted to go feed monkeys but the park closed before we could get there. Kyoto is a great hub for travel in central Japan.

A typical Geisha in the streets of Kyoto.

A view of one of the hundreds of temples and shrines in the Kyoto area.

Moments after Beth bought some Deer Cookies.

Beth and Jason at the Fushimi Inari-Tiasha Shrine.

There were thousands of these gates lining the mountain in a maze of trails.

Jason snapping shots in the bamboo forest.

Beth, cold as usual in Japan.

The last two days were spent in and around Osaka. Before we actually checked out the city, we had priorities to take care of, Kobe beef in Kobe. I had been looking forward to this for the last 25 years. After many different recommendations and run arounds for the best, well priced steak houses, we finally found the place. I had never experienced Kobe Beef before, and Jason had only eaten it once. The chef had a very specific process and many procedures for preparing the beef. We loved watching him cook the steak right in front of us, but it almost seemed like he was teasing us as our mouths watered. Moments later, I placed the first bite into my mouth and savored it for about 5 minutes. The steak was so tender, so juicy, and fatty, without seeming fatty. AMAZING. Although, VERY expensive, it was worth every penny.

OOOOH...AHHHH. KOBE

Just drooled again.

Most people don't have many good things to say about Osaka, but the downtown area is actually quite cool. There are more street lights and billboard sized ads on each building than anywhere I have seen. Somewhat like Las Vegas and Times Square put together. We enjoyed our last night out in Japan by toasting a few more glasses of sake and filling our bellies with sushi.

Today is Thursday and we head to the airport at 4pm to hop on a 4 hour journey to Manila, Philippines. I'm very excited to return to the warm weather but VERY sad to say goodbye to Japan (although I plan on coming back in the future).

Stay tuned...