Overseas Adventure Travel
Japan’s Cultural Treasures
April 17 through May 2, 2023
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Page 1 - Tokyo and Hakone Day 1
Page 2 - Hakone Day 2 and Kanazawa Days 1 & 2
Page 3 - Kanazawa Day 3 and Kyoto Day Day 1
Page 4 - Kyoto Days 2 & 3
Page 5 - Kyoto Days 4 & 5
Kyoto, Japan – Day 4
We were leaving earlier than normal to hopefully miss some of the crowds in the Arishiyama area we visited a couple days earlier. The bus pulled into the parking lot, and we were once again walking along the river, but this time we would be crossing the bridge to the other side of the river. When we got close to the other side there was a channel with touring boats along it.
The reason we were there was to go to a shrine on top of the hill to meet with a Zen Buddhist monk. We were warned in the OAT itinerary and by Katy that we would have to climb 200 steps to get to the shrine. She said we could take our time and stop as frequently as we wanted to. The walk was enjoyable with the views along the river. We did have a pretty good incline in the road to go over which kept the heart rate up.
After 25 minutes, we finally reached the stairs. Unfortunately, the path we took were up the stairs on the left side not the trail in front of us.
A little over halfway up we came to a small building with a bell. A sign said that we could bang 3 times using the rope pull. I enjoyed making the bonging noise.
It wasn’t long before I was at the shrine. It was a small one. It only took about 11 minutes to get there. Much better than I expected.
The views looking down to the city of Kyoto were lovely.
Katy and the Zen Bhuddist monk, Mr. Obiyachi, were sitting at the front of the room ready to start our discussion. In front of us on our tables was a cup and stirrer for matcha tea.
Mr. Obiyachi stood up in front of the group with Katy translating for him. He told us a lot about Zen Bhuddism and discussed meditation. It is a beautiful religion and philosophy. He showed us how to meditate and we all participated in the exercise. It was relaxing.
He then poured water into our cups, and we drank the tea with a delicious treat that was next to the cup.
This was a unique activity, and we were fortunate to be able to meet with Mr. Obiyachi. We proceeded to go back down the steps and trail back toward the bus. I liked the moss on the stone walls along the path.
The sidewalks in the town were loaded with people.
For lunch we were going back near the Nijo Castle. After getting off the bus, we first walked over to the Shinsen-en Garden. It is a beautiful small area. It was once part of a much larger emperor’s walled pleasure garden. But now it is about a tenth the size of the previously 33-acre garden. Much of that land was used for the Nijo Castle. As we crossed over the bridge, there were many koi opening their mouths looking for food. One large yellow one was too good for that activity and just swam around showing off his unique pretty color
I liked the colorful carriage with what looks like a phoenix on it.
We went to a nice place for lunch nearby. Some of the tables had a sunken floor under them for our legs. The fried chicken was the best we had eaten the whole trip.
After lunch we went to have an Ikebana flower arranging experience. Our instructer, with Katy’s translation assistance, described the art of Japanese flower arranging. It wasn’t doing much for me, but Cathy was thoroughly enjoying the information.
When she was finished with her talk, she passed out containers with frogs to hold flower stems. She then passed out three bunches of different types of flowers. She gave us an assignment to arrange the flowers in an Ikebana way. Cathy went right to work clipping away stems and putting the flowers into the container. I gave moral support.
The teacher critiqued each couple’s work. She was very pleased with what Cathy had created.
We were on our own for dinner. We were interested in a Benihana type teppanyaki experience. I looked at Yelp and didn’t find anything that was appealing. Katy recommended a place, but it was a bit too far to walk. When we looked at the hotel’s restaurant guide on the screen in the lobby, we found the Gozanbo Tepanyaki Restaurant on the 15th floor. That sounded perfect! It was a very nice restaurant. But they only served wagyu steak, lobster or abalone. I guess we would have to suffer through another wonderful wagyu steak dinner. I hadn’t planned to have wagyu steak again, but when in Japan, why not.
The chef placed the very well marbled wagyu steak in front of us to show us what he would be cooking. The vegetables he would cook also looked great.
Soon we received some interesting and delicious appetizers.
While the chef was preparing and cooking, we were served a carrot soup. It was so sweet that it tasted like corn soup to me. Quite good!
After watching the chef do his thing, it was time for the main course. Three different sauces accompanied it, as well as a small salad. We were glad that all the miscellaneous dishes we had been served were small quantities, since there was an amazing meal in front of us to consume.
While we were enjoying our dinner, the chef cooked the rest of the steak. I guess they wanted to make sure that the steak was still warm when we were eating it. This was how much we each received for our second helping. The menu shows the meat quantity in grams. We each ordered 100 grams, which is about 3.5 ounces. What we received in the two helpings sure looked like more meat than in a quarter pounder. It was certainly a large enough portion for me.
Once again, the wagyu steak was just outstanding. We are really getting hooked on it. After we ate the main course, some miso soup was served in lovely bowl. We couldn’t eat it. We were just too full, but it did look good.
After we finished the meal, we were able to order coffee or tea. We were then moved to a different section of the restaurant for dessert where there was a great view of the Kyoto Tower. It was a wonderful way to finish an amazing meal.
We headed back to the hotel knowing we only had one more day in this wonderful country. We looked forward to making the most of it.
Kyoto, Japan – Day 5
We had a big day planned and Katy wanted to start out early at 8:00 AM to beat the crowds. We were taking a train to the Fushimi Inari Shinto shrine. I was thrilled that we were going there, since I wanted Cathy to experience this place that I so enjoyed visiting in 2015. The train station was right across the street from the shrine grounds. There was a massive torii gate at the entrance.
There are many lovely orange buildings on the grounds. There were also many statues of foxes on the grounds. They are regarded as messengers of the gods in the Shinto religion. The foxes wear red bibs as a sign of their divinity.
We continued walking the grounds enjoying all the beautiful structures.
There was a row of lattice work where people left small torii gates with their names and/or prayers on them.
The main shrine had many people there praying. We weren't allowed to take photos into the shrine.
Katy stopped at a map of the grounds showing where we would be walking through the many torii gates on the grounds. We would only be taking the lower loop, which would be plenty. To see all of the around 10,000 torii gates we would have to take the full 2.5 mile trail up the mountain that would take well over 2 hours.
We started the walk through the torii gates. There were a lot of people already at the shrine. These gates are purchased by contributors. As you are walking through the gates, there is no writing on them. If you turn around, you can see the names of the contributors and the dates they were donated.
We came to a part of the trail where there were two sections of gates. This was a great place to take photos, since most people were going to the right side leaving the left available for shots without others in them.
We all took turns letting Katy take our photos in the gates.
We came to the top of the first section of gates where there were other things to see. Once again there was a place to leave your name and/or prayers, but this time people left them on cute fox faces.
Katy told us that if we walked up a bit further, we would see a lake. There was also an area with small shrines.
We came through the last section of gates on our trail and saw cement lanterns along the wooded path.
There were also more statues. One fox had rice plants hanging from his bib. The other was of a strange animal, also with a red bib.
As we were leaving, the place was much more crowded. We were so glad we came earlier.
We got back on the train and returned to the hotel. Our next activity was a sushi making experience. We would only have to walk across the street to the building under the Kyoto Tower. We went up to the second floor and went into the facility.
We had trays of fish and rice in front of each of us, and a cup of seaweed strips. We knew what we would be having for lunch.
Our teacher was a 51-year-old sushi chef who had been in the business for 33 years. He knew what he was doing. He told us about how he learned about making sushi from his father and grandfather who were also sushi chefs. He had some interesting stories and was very informative about the business. He showed us one of his 20+ knives and explained how he had to sharpen the ones he used every day. It takes about ten minutes per knife. I wish there had been time for him to demonstrate his knife skills. To me, that would be the most interesting thing to see about sushi making.
He showed us how to make the sushi by taking out 16-19 grams of rice and rolling it into a ball. We had scales in front of us to get the right amount. Getting the right amount was my biggest challenge of the whole process. He then showed us how to shape the rice, lay the fish on the rice, tap it down and shape it around the rice. After doing a couple of them, it became pretty automatic. After we finished our job, we had a tray of sushi in front of us. We were then allowed to eat the lunch we just created.
He told us how he made thousands of the pieces of sushi a day and demonstrated how quickly he could do it. He made us look like we had been doing the job in super slow motion. He made a few more trays of sushi for us to supplement what we made. We had plenty to eat. We were able to ask him questions when we finished eating. He told us that he spends about half of his time teaching people how to be sushi chefs, but he still makes plenty of sushi. He was very nice guy and had a great personality. As we were leaving, I asked him if I could take his photo without his mask. He took off his mask and posed. It will help us to remember what a great guy he is.
We were back at the hotel before 2:00 PM. While I was working on my Facebook post for the day, Cathy was looking to see if there was something we could do before we met for our farewell dinner at 5:00 PM. She found a great place to visit, the To-Ji Temple. It was close by and the pagoda we could see from our hotel window was there. We could have walked to the pagoda in about 15 minutes, but since we didn’t have too much time, we took a cab. There were several buildings on the grounds, but my main objective was to see the pagoda. We had a nice view of it from outside the fence. The original pagoda was constructed in the 9th century. The current one was built in 1643. It is 187 ft tall and the tallest wooden structure in Japan.
When we went to the ticket office, there were three levels of tickets we could choose. We took the cheapest one because it included all the buildings we wanted to see. If we had more time, I would have liked to see them all. It was a nice shrine.
The first building we went to was Kodo, the lecture hall. It was built in 1491.
Since I hadn’t researched the shrine before our visit, I didn’t know what to expect. I was very surprised when we saw many beautiful statues lined up inside. They were very impressive, but we weren’t allowed to take interior photos. I was able to find a photo online, so you can get an idea of what we saw.
The next building we entered was Kondo, the main hall. The original hall was built in the 8th century but was burned down in 1486 and reconstructed in 1603. I liked the double roof style.
Once again, we were so pleased to see such beautiful statues on display inside. I was so glad Cathy found this shrine for us to visit. Once again, I found a photo online.
We then walked over to the five-story pagoda that was built in 1644. I enjoyed seeing the wood that had supported this structure for almost 400 years. They don’t make them like they used to.
There were signs saying that it wasn’t open, but Cathy saw people entering, so we went to the door. In the brochure it says that the pagoda interior is normally not opened to the public except for special occasions. We certainly lucked out. The interior was so pretty, although it could use some restoration. There were beautiful paintings and wood carvings on the walls and statues in the middle of the pagoda. It was a small room, and we were glad there were just a couple other visitors in there at the same time. It made it much easier to take everything in. I was able to find a photo online that shows the center support structure and statue. You can also see the state of the artwork that could use some restoration, but they are still beautiful.
We left the shrine and found a cab to take us back to the hotel so we could get ready for our farewell dinner. Once again, Katy had us wait in the taxi line. She gave the drivers the address written on a piece of paper as well as specific directions. She also gave us the directions written in Japanese. We were the third taxi to leave for the restaurant. When he dropped us off, we were the only ones there. I waited for a couple minutes to see if the other taxi arrived. When it didn’t, I texted Katy a photo of a restaurant where we were standing and told her the situation. She said she would be there in 5 minutes. She was at the other end of the narrow street. The taxi took us to the wrong place. Soon enough we saw Katy moving very quickly toward us. I think she ran most of the way. We then walked back to the restaurant through a very crowded street.
We went to the Mimasuya Restaurant. It was a very nice place with a great view over a river.
Katy gave us a quick rundown of everything we had done over the two weeks. We had done a lot. She then held up a sign saying, “Once in a lifetime encounter”. She gave a lovely heartfelt talk about how much she enjoyed this group and would miss us. She certainly echoed our feelings too.
The meal was very good, with a very nice selection of Japanese food for our last dinner in Japan.
It was a great meal to finish up the trip. Everyone would be leaving the hotel at different times in the morning. Some heading home and others heading to other trips in Japan or other parts of Asia they had arranged. Everyone took the opportunity to say good bye to their new friends they had met on this wonderful adventure.
Kyoto, Japan – Day 5 and Trip Home
Katy had arranged for a van to take us to the Osaka Kensai Airport. We would take a one-hour flight from there to Tokyo’s Haneda airport. I was looking forward to seeing the Kensai Airport because it was on an artificial island. I took a photo of it while on the bridge connecting the airport to the mainland.
It was a nice airport and quick flight. Surprisingly, it wasn’t crowded at all. The first thing we did after landing at Haneda was to get a hamburger. We loved our Japanese food, but a hamburger was calling us. We found a place called Meat Stars 29. It was so good.
When we took off from Haneda, the captain told us that due to tail winds our 12.5-hour trip would only take 11.5 hours. Not that it mattered since we had a long layover in Detroit. The screen in front of our seat showed that we had 163 mph tail winds. Now that is a strong tail wind. It was easy to make the last flight to Fort Lauderdale. We had a wonderful flight and it’s always good to get home.
Recap
We couldn’t have been more pleased with this trip. Our trip experience leader was truly outstanding. Our fellow travelers were lovely people and we got along so well. The places we visited and experiences we had were just awesome. The Japanese people are so sweet, polite and respectful. It makes for such a wonderful experience. Japan is a must visit country. If you haven’t visited there, you should add it to your bucket list. You will thank me for it.
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