japan day 8 -- kyoto: Kinkaku-ji (Temple of the Golden Pavilion)

we've pretty much wrapped up the city portion of our vacation and are now in the heart of japan's historical capital.  we visited a lot of temples yesterday, each of which deserves to be highlighted in its own post.

our first stop was to kinkaku-ji, which we've visited over 10 years ago.  i can quote the pamphlet but it would seem very disingenuous.  from what i've gathered it's a buddhist temple and the temple is obviously beautiful.  but what i enjoyed the most were the grounds and gardens -- tranquil, mossy and serene.

plant on the left is japanese andromeda 

japan days 6+7 -- ogimachi, winter wonderland

we were in ogimachi yesterday and the day before.  ogimachi is way up in the japanese alps and is a UNESCO world heritage site, mainly for the village's way of living and for their thatched roofed structures.  the village mostly farms rice and buckwheat during the warm season and (likely) intentionally avoided the modernization that happened throughout japan.

i bet it's so beautiful when everything is green and lush and the sakura (cherry blossoms) are blooming.  it's pretty cool to think that many of the homes -- still liveable by the way -- were built hundreds of years ago.

i'm not sure pete can fit into that truck

no trip to the countryside is complete without totoro

japan day 5 -- osaka

where my homeys at?  found this sign at ame-mura

yeah, baby! that's how i'm feeling right now.  not really.  we're sitting in a drafty 200+ year old japanese style farmhouse where we'll be spending the night, but, interestingly enough, it has wi-fi.

so it seems that in japan finding things by happenstance is much better than planning ahead of time.  for instance, our hotel in osaka is right across the street from ippudo ramen (so good) and two doors down from my favorite niku-man shop.  niku-man is steamed bread with meat stuffing, similar to char siu bao but with ground pork.

i would almost call osaka our old stomping ground, except that we'd only visited once during our semester studying abroad.  nevertheless there's a lot of nostalgia here with doutonburi (one of the main tourist walking areas) and ame-mura (american village where they love american hip-hop culture and 90's gangster rap).

in osaka, it's all about street food, particularly takoyaki (savory pancake balls with a small piece of octopus inside) followed by okonomiyaki (savory flat pancakes) and perhaps fugu (blowfish).  thus a lot of the images here are of food-related stuff.

top down.  chrome spinning.  in ame-mura

for you thugs out there....

takoyaki at kukuru on doutonburi

fresh takoyaki

two of kukuru's takoyaki makers

btw, the crab moves 

we had to fight the crowd to get over to doutonbori

a little fugu (blowfish) action for the daring

plastic food to display the restaurant's fare 

glico, a popular snack company

the narrow side streets always have the best things 

a happy buddha and fugu display on the left and an okonomiyaki guy on the right

time to go to the hotel.  i'm tired.

japan day 4 -- last full day in tokyo

at shibuya crossing

ok, so i'm ready for a change from the tokyo metropolis.  this post is full of selfies (sorry, it's very unlike me but that's mostly what i have today).

we spent the day shopping in shibuya and daikanyama.  dare i say that daikanyama is my favorite tokyo neighborhood....  it's a mix of the very modern and old.  the buildings are low and the streets are tight.  the ambience is very chill, kinda like tribeca.  and the shopping is very good.

tomorrow, we head to osaka.

daikanyama:

japanese camelia in bloom

the old

the new

and i can't forget to include some pics of shibuya crossing.

japan day 3 - tokyo neighborhoods

from an alleyway in kanda, toyko.  sorry, not such a great day for pictures.

we spent most of yesterday morning looking for a ramen place that was closed for the new year holiday (still).  and then we went in search of certain stores in omotesando, harajuku, ogawamchi and aoyama.

seriously, everything is hidden in behind a main street and google map japan is just plain wrong.  the best bet is to have no plans, a good pair of walking shoes and walk down the side streets that the fashionable young people are pouring out from.  that's how i found hysteric glamour and milkfed, but we couldn't -- for the life of us -- find 45rpm.

japan day 2 -- snow monkey pool party

long story how we got to the jigokudani snow monkey park.  let's just say yesterday's peak moment was getting on the 7:24am Asama super-express bullet train from Tokyo to Nagano (1hr and 20min) and just went completely downhill from there.

here's a picture i managed to snap from the train.

and here's the snow monkey pool party.  it was cold and snowy.  the monkeys basically lounged around the "hot tub".  cool trip, but very difficult to get to.  i'd recommend going with a tour group if you want to check it out.