A Shikoku Detour, a Ride on the Bullet Train, and the Tastiest Pancakes in All of Japan

So, clearly I’m a little behind on the updates, but yes, I am still alive. We left Kyoto on June 4th and have been traveling pretty much nonstop since (with extremely limited Internet access — in fact, I don’t even have Internet access now; I’m writing this from a ferry back to Kagoshima from Yakushima so I can post it whenever I finally do get online).

In any case, it’s now been just over a week since we left Kyoto, so I’ll try to do a quick recap to bring us up to speed. In the meantime, please forgive the cheesy photo of my iPod against a window taken from my seat on a train. Unless you work for Apple’s marketing division and are hiring, in which case: please let me know where to forward my resumé. More »

One Fish, Two Fish; Big Fish, Fugu Fish

So we’re getting a little out of order here — today is Day 16, it’s our last day in Kyoto (and the Kansai region); we actually arrived in Kyoto last Friday and have spent a full week here, split between four days in Kyoto three days set aside for day trips to Nara, Osaka, and Kobe. Tomorrow we’ll leave for Hiroshima (with a quick detour across the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge and  through Shikoku to see the tidal whirlpools in the Naruto Strait), spend two days there, and begin our descent through Kyushu and towards Okinawa.

I’ve already written about Nara and Kobe, so I’ll do a quick recap of Osaka — including the aquarium, how I ate poisonous sushi, and Japan’s favorite street food — here and follow-up with a full Kyoto recap on the train tomorrow. More »

Kobe Beef in Kobe City, Holy Cow!

Ah, Kobe. The sixth-largest city in Japan and capital of the Hyogo Prefecture, Kobe is about 74 km southwest of Kyoto. The city is notable for a couple of reasons: mainly that it was one of the earliest Japanese cities to open for trade with the West after Japan came out of seclusion, the major damage it suffered during the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake, and perhaps most famously — its beef. More »

Communing with God Through Venison and Big Bronze Buddhas

Day 12. Still in Kyoto; in fact, we’ll be staying here a few extra nights because it proved more difficult than expected to secure accommodations in Osaka or Kobe and both cities can be easily visited as day trips from Kyoto, anyway. (Which means I’ll save the Kyoto wrap up for until we’re done here)

In the meantime, we did take a little day trip today to Nara City, some 40 km south of Kyoto. Nara, in case you don’t know, was Japan’s capital before Kyoto was Japan’s capital (which was Japan’s capital before Tokyo became Japan’s capital) and is currently celebrating its 1,300th anniversary celebration.

The city is widely considered the birthplace of Japanese culture and features a lot of obvious Buddhist and Chinese influences (e.g., its many Buddhist temples) and is home to many of the country’s greatest cultural assets and national treasures. Among these are the purpose for our visit today — Nara Park’s wild sika deer and the Todai-ji, a Buddhist temple whose great hall is both the largest wooden building in the world and home to the world’s largest Buddha statue — the great, bronze Daibutsuden.

But first, the cute deer! More »

How I Traversed the Japanese Alps in a Single Day

We’re now on Day 11 of Japanese Adventure 2010. When we last checked in, we had just arrived at Lake Kawaguchi at the foot of Mt. Fuji. We were originally going to stay just a single night, but the lakeside resort town was so relaxing we opted for two.

Unfortunately, in the two full days we spent at Lake Kawaguchi, we had yet to get a clear glimpse of Mt. Fuji. Tuesday had been mild but a little cloudy and by midday Wednesday, the lake was caught in a quasi monsoon that thwarted our plans to Fuji-watch from the top of Mt. Tenjo (a small hill on the lake’s eastern shore that has excellent views of the mountain and  lake).

But Thursday morning ushered in some beautiful weather, so we got up early (or thought we did?) to ride up the ropeway that carries passengers to Mt. Tenjo’s summit.

So, naturally: photos! More »