After a good night's rest, we left the Osaka Love Hotel district and struck out for a day trip to Kyoto via then Shinkansen (about a 10 minute trip), though not before stopping to take some pictures of the cool architecture of the Namba subway station in Osaka.
Discovered a tasty beverage at the convenience store...yum! Sadly, I don't think it's available in the U.S. ... booo!
The Kyoto train station was pretty sweet too...more pictures of that on Nov. 6th...
Our first stop in Kyoto was Fushimi Inari Shrine, a Shinto shrine known for it's thousands of small torii (shrine gates) that form a tunnel lining the path leading up the hill behind the shrine. I hear that it's gorgeous, but due to an unfortunate spider incident (think GINORMOUS green and black MONSTERS), I didn't get to walk through them. But I did see the shrine, and it was wonderful. Inari, by the way, is the god of rice, sake, and prosperity, and his messenger is said to be the fox (kitsune), who is said to love the fried tofu that wraps Inari Sushi (my favorite kind too!)
Next we tried to go to Kiyomizu-dera Temple, a Tendai Buddhist temple located at the top of a long, steep hill. Unfortunately, by the time we arrived, it was closing, so we only got to see the entrance shrine. Boo on that. The little shops surrounding the area were great to look through, though. Incidentally, in one of those shops is where we learned of Obama's victory =) Anyways, unfortunately, the pictures are difficult to make out.
From there we walked towards Gion, which is pretty much the best-known Geisha district in Japan. We explored a bit of the main street as well as the little side alleys we found; after snapping some cool pics of the architecture, we headed back to Osaka for an evening of merry-making with Ian and Andrew's other friend Krieger.
KARAOKE!!! I wish I had taken some pictures of this, but Japanese karaoke ROCKS!!! Basically, you get a little room to yourself, complete with comfy booth-like seating, a center table, and a big screen up on the wall in front of you. It's just you and your friends singing, so no need to be embarassed. Oh, and the alcohol they serve up helps too =) Two hours of karaoke later, it was time to call it a night.
Andrew and I found a new love hotel to crash at, Hotel Diva; I liked this one better than the first one. The other hotel we checked out was Hotel 6, which had a very promising exterior...but the rooms didn't compare. They did have a little "poem," which I've posted for you. It made me laugh.
Hotel Diva
Hotel 6
3 comments:
Hello Andrew & Teni – greetings from the UK to Japan . It looks like you are having a really good time - I've always wanted to visit Japan - it looks really cool.
Why am I contacting you ?
In a somewhat random act of artistic interaction I have come across your blog next to mine at this precise point in cyberspace and time. Have a look at my blog – I have placed a link on it for your site under the heading "My Dog Ate Blogs" – take a look.. If you fancy being a permanent part of this blog just say yes and I will put a permanent link for you on my site in “My Dog Has Eaten These Blogs and Says Yum Yum” – I have regular visitors from 37 countries (and counting) .
In return all I would like is a link somewhere on your site.
Have a look and see what you think.
By the way - if you want to print out any of my images - feel free - some are quite nice ( I hope) – just tell your friends where you found them.
Hope you find my site interesting as well.
Best wishes from Plymouth UK !
(Steve Clement-Large : My Dog Ate Art )
GREAT STUFF
This really brings back memories, I've been to almost all of the places you've gone to so far (well, not those specific hotels, but those districts in Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto) and I've got some really similar pics. I really like your photos, you have a good eye, and especially the poem and the sign about not playing with fire or doing other dangerous things.
KEEP POSTING!!
And thanks for creating a very pleasant distraction in my day.
-Eric
Love the poem. Thanks for sharing.
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