Day 1 – Travel to Kyoto [Pictures]
BJ broke his foot earlier in the weekend so he needed to use Gerald’s truck (automatic) while we were gone. Therefore, he had to drive us to the airport. On the way, we stop at my rents for them to hook me up with a copy of my birth cert and Mom makes us breakfast of eggs, coffee, and potatoes.

Yep, I’m still on the TSA’s list. 20 minutes and a phone call later, I’m checked in and waiting on the plane. Somehow, I got through with all my liquids and a razor, but Gerald was forced to trash his Axe body spray stuff. While waiting I picked up a few gifts for people in Japan. I read that you’re supposed to do that. Got a little crystal etched thing of the DC monuments for our tour guide in Toyko.

Pleasantly surprised by my new Shure headphones. In a back to back test against my Grados, they were severly lacking, but the noise cancellation more than makes up for that on the plane. It was actually eerie to take off and hear nothing but music.

In the middle of the flight, a guy from Montevideo approaches me, asks if the seat next to me was taken (I had 3 to myself), and for probably an hour I struggle to explain his itinerary. I was pleasently surprised by how good my Spanish still was. It turns out he was actually a runner. He showed me his photo album, explained that he ran 100km races and that is what he was heading to Korea for. After a bit, he asked if I would move to another empty seat so he could nap. I obliged, and that was the end of that. I actually found the results to his race! Andres Echazannela finished 65th w/ a time of 9:44:32. Roughly 9:25 per mile? Not bad, but the winner finished about 3 hours before him. I’d like to see what I could do, but I really have no desire to put my body through that.

Grabbed some Burger King in San Fran. Figured it’d be the last American meal I’d have for a while. Actually got lectured for my liquids; didn’t know they had to be in a one-quart ziploc. My gallon ziploc was too big; what a joke. They still didn’t catch the fact that I had a razor.

Reviewed my Japanese lessons, but the headphones were starting to bug me. They’re too intrusive to be worn for 10+ hours. They served some nasty food and didn’t give us enough liquids, but I managed to make it.

Get off our plane pretty late as there was a delay in San Fran, exchanged some cash, and picked up cell phones. The cell phone thing was a debacle so now we’re running even later. Our hostel closes at 11pm and we may not make it. Additionally, the Rail Pass offices close at like 8pm. We’re really hosed at this point. After brainstorming where we should sleep, we get to Nagoya Station to find that they still do issue passes after hours! Glorious! After a few minutes, we figure out the trains and are on our way to Kyoto.

We arrive at Kyoto around 11pm. 15 minutes later (in the rain) we’re in front of our hostel (Chita Guest Inn). We knock, ring the bell, wait, and a few minutes later a lady answers the door and tells us “no.” After gazing at us harder she says “American?” and we’re in. The place is small, bathrooms are on another floor, and we can only shower at specific times (common among hostels it seems), but is a place to sleep and for $30/night, I can’t complain.

Day 2 – Travel to Koyasan [Pictures]
Got up pretty early as I had a serious journey ahead of me. Did the Japanese showering thing w/ using my towel as a washcloth. It does not work too well. You can’t dry off properly with something that is already wet!

I head out of the hostel w/ Gerald, we head to the convenience store where I pick up an egg salad sandwich w/ cucumber (need to make this at home, it was money) and then we part at Kyoto station.

Hop on the shinkansen to Shin-Osaka, figure out that Shin-Osaka and Osaka stations are different, hop on the train to Osaka (Osaka is part of a city loop, Shin-Osaka is where the shinkansen stops), hop on the loop line to Shin-Imamiya, note how cool looking the Kyocera Dome (formerly Osaka Dome) is, grab a Koyasan Free Sabic (was more expensive since I didn’t see much in Koyasan, but I preferred having everything done at once), miss a train (I swear it didn’t show, it was a slow track and you can bet I was watching when it was close to my time), end up waiting 30 extra minutes, and finally I’m off to Koyasan.

I arrive at Koyasan about 4 hours after leaving Kyoto. En route, I got to see a lot of the Japanese countryside, which is simply amazing. Mountains shooting out of nothing, waterfalls, beautifully pruned/shaped trees. At the final station I have to hop on a cable car that takes us up the mountain. Got some really good views on that. At the top I hitch a ride on the bus, don’t realize that you have to hit a certain purple button to get the bus driver to stop, waste another 15 minutes, and finally I’m at the temple (called a shukubo when you can overnight at them) I’m staying at. Too early to check in, I leave my bags, and head out in the rain to check out the graves and Okunoin. The mist and rain are great for the pictures, but unfortunately you can’t take pictures of the REALLY cool stuff. The shrines at the end of the walk were simply amazing. They had tens of thousands of lanterns burning, some of which had been burning for a thousand years.

I finally head back to Shojoshin-in, check in, and find my room to be pretty awesome. A great view, a nice table w/ a tea set, and did I mention an awesome view?

I’m called to dinner at 6pm and led down to a room where there are two other couples already sitting. One, an older couple from Paris, the woman speaks decent English. The other, a pair of girls from England; the one was living in Japan etaching English, which I found that many people seem to do. They also make more in Japan than they would in America. Dinner was huge, but I can’t say I liked it all. Honestly, I was close to vomiting since it is polite to eat everything you’re given. Some of the textures and flavors were just too far out for me and I had to leave some behind. As a note, it was a vegetarian meal as that is what the monks eat.

After dinner, I put on my jacket and hat and venture outside. I walk around a bit, but the rain picks up and I’m forced back to my room. Exhausted from a ton of travel, and climbing a mountain and exploring all over it, I hit the sack at 10pm.

Before sleeping, I realize that I won’t be able to get to Suzuka until about 4pm tomorrow. I’ll have to sleep on it, but I may just end up staying in Osaka for the day (cut 3 hours off) when I get there.

Day 3 – Koyasan and Suzuka [Pictures]
Woke up around 5:30am, packed, and headed down to the morning ceremony. There is a woman already praying in the temple, and she is later joined by the head monk and another guy who showed up fashionably late. They hit some giant upside down bells, rub prayer beads in their palms, and recite what seems to be an entire book of numbers over the next 45 minutes. When all is done the monk explains wat we’re to do (we were just watching before), we’re asked to come up to a table in perfectly acceptable English (the Japanese are so humble that he still excuses himself for having poor English), toss some incense in a little burner, and pray for our ancestors and family. Not knowing what to do, I slowly walk up, kneel down facing the monk, bow to him, turn, bow to the table, and say a little prayer. As an agnostic and only having a light grasp on Buddhism (read a small book on my way to Japan), I don’t know who I prayed to, but it went well regardless.

I head back to my room, wait around, and finally give up on waiting. Apparently, I was supposed to just head straight to the place I ate yesterday for breakfast. Everyone is already there munching down. Oh well! Breakfast was much better than dinner, but I forgot to write in my journal exactly what we had; after breakfast I hustled out of town.

Hop on the bus, cable car, and then the local train. An American woman needs some help from me so she’s sticking close. There was a large French group and one of the guys spoke really good Japanese so I’ll just kind of folow them back to Osaka (we started out on a slow local train so it’d be beneficial to switch at some point).

A little bit of confusion back at Shin-Osaka, but I don’t think I lost any time due to it, just some energy from having to run around. Hop on my train and I’m on my way to Nagoya! The trains actually go so fast that looking out the windows can actually be a bit unsettling at times. Do they ever have crashes? Have they ever had crashes? They would surely be catastrophic. Funny, I had to hit the men’s room on the train, and the urinal room actually has a window on it! Why would people need to see my back while I’m taking a whiz? Weird.

I got to the track at 3pm. Saw the last qualifying group and an ITR challenge group. Not sure if it was worth the effort, probably should have just stayed in Osaka. Live and learn. My shoulders were killing, my legs were toast (had to walk about a mile from the train station to the track), but again I ate very little this day.

Suzuka is a fairly large area, but the population appears to be very low. Kind of how we have our tracks out in the middle of nowhere. I’d liken it to VIR or something of that sort.

Met up with Gerald, piled on the train, and headed back to Osaka for sleep. I can’t really recommend Business Hostel Chuo – New Annex to anyone as my room was not only ridiculously tiny, but had some “man juice” on the wall. Sick. Otherwise, it was a decent place; free internet and no curfew.

We ended up walking around our area of Osaka for a bit. Found a shopping mall that was vertical (had around 20 floors), and eventually were coerced to enter a pretty decent bar by a doorman. I had some edamame and a beer while Gerald had some decent chow. On our way back I picked up a Crunky Bar, which proved to be awesome.

Day 4 – Suzuka [Pictures]
When I said Suzuka was a small town, I didn’t lie. As such, it doesn’t have all that many trains running to it. Apparently the rail system doesn’t have the surplus cars to make avialable when an F1 event is there so this was fun! Huge lines to get on the trains, and when it finally arrives people are packed in so tightly that the conductors actually push people in as the doors close (just an extra little squish). I pushed really hard, and being a solid 50lbs and 6″ larger than everyone there, managed to squeeze it. Gerald, on the other hand, didn’t try hard enough and it was impossible for me to get off so we lost each other until we arrived at the track. Unfortunate, but the cell phones came in really handy. What really paid off was my awesome understanding of the rail system. Whiule many people packed in on the trains at Nagoya, I knew (via online research before heading there), that there were local trains that ran from Nagoya to Yokaichi, where we could then hop on a train that merged with different less popular lines and only be stuffed for 10 minutes. Score one for the Americans! Regardless, I had t hold my backpack over my head and stand on one foot the entire ride… It was that packed.

While I waited for Gerald, I checked out the Honda area, where they were giving away some pretty good swag and showing off the new Civic Type R, which failed to impress me. I then head over to the official marketplace, where I picked up a pretty nice Suzuka Circuit shirt, and some Chinese Pork Roast noodles. I’m not big on seeing fat on my food, but this was delicious. And then? I took a nap in a grassy area, met with Gerald, parted to our seats (I took a lot of pictures, many of motorcycles on my way), and watched the race.

They started out with a few parade laps by (I forget their names, I’m a typical American when it comes to F1), and then parade laps with the current drivers. The race itself was awesome. I typically bore of watching F1 on the TV, but it was infinitely better in person. The sounds, the smells, the speeds; incredible. I can’t wait to attend another race. The finish was too bad, as it was Michael Schumacher’s DNF ended his chance of beating the rising star, Fernando Alonso. At the same time, it’s good to see someone taking his place as Schumacher’s career comes (came by the time I write this) to an end.

After a few hours of transportation nightmares (I kid, it wasn’t as bad as getting there), we arrive back in the doodoo hole in Osaka. My legs were dead, my brain was dead, and I go right to sleep.

Day 5 – Kyoto [Pictures]
This day starts a little slow as we’re tired, sore, and just really not that motivated. We start the day with some pastry from a shop called “London” (I can’t find a link anywhere, but it seemed like a chain) where they had amazing stuff at a great bargain (I paid 250 yen for 2 items). We return to our hostel to find that my laundry still isn’t done drying! After 3 cycles in the drier and a lot of time catching up on the internet, I give up and we set off to Kyoto.

Once arriving in Kyoto, we journey to our hostel (get a little lost on the way/take the long way), drop off our bags, and head to what my little Kyoto book says is the best tour (Southern Higashiyama) to take if you’re in the area. We hop on the bus, and arrive at Gojozaka bus stop. From here, we head up the street, which is lined with all sorts of pottery shops. Apparently the pottery found here can only be found here, is very cheap, but also very high quality. We find gifts for everyone, and continue our journey upward.

Farther up the hill, we arrive at a series of temples. The first one we enter is probably the oddest thing we do of our entire journey. The temple is called Tainai-meguri, which upon entering, we are figuratively entering the womb of Daizuigu Bosatsu, a female Boddhisattva. Once in her womb, you enter a 100% pitch black series of hallways. You’re led by a guide rope that is attached to the wall, but it is very easy to trip or lose your sense of direction. After maybe a minute of walking, you come upon a masterfully lit large white stone on a pedestal (you can’t see anything but the stone), which you are too rotate one time and make a wish, which the Boddhisattva you’re currently inside is able to grant. Wild? Yes. Worth the 100 yen and amazing? Yes.

After this small temple, we visit the main temple, Kiyomizu-dera, where I do some serious healing in the incense. At this point we’re pretty much on top of the city, and there are spectacular views in many directions. Yes, in that picture is the Kyoto “Needle,” which is hated by most locals as it destroys the city’s skyline.

From the temple, we head down a bunch of streets, past a million shops, around a really well kept street that the book recommended, to Kodai-ji, which was really only worth the long walk up tons of stairs to see . It is now getting pretty late, the sun is going down, and people are disappearing. We cut off some stops on the trip, head up to see the Otani cemetery, which was really odd. Perched on a hill, tons upon tons of headstones, giant crows, and no people. It was really kind of odd. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel like walking around so the only pictures I took of this failed to capture the size and congestion of it.

From there, we journeyed through Maruyama-koen (koen means park), home of Kyoto’s most famous cherry tree, which didn’t really impress me. I’d have taken a picture to prove this, but it said no pictures in front of it :shrug: Fine! I won’t take any pictures of your unimpressive tree that for some reason was able to make it in to my guide book. Since we were short on time we didn’t really have time to catch a breath. On our way through, we came across a street performer who really was quite excellent. I have no idea what he was saying, but his juggling and general “performance” skills were great.

Out of the park, we’re back at the street we started on, but a solid mile north of the starting point. We catch a bus that Mr. Gerald said was the right one, I take his word for it, and then we both pay for it. 2 hours and a full bus tour of the city later, we hop off at the train station (beautiful building, by the way), grab some grub at McDonald’s (I had a shrimp fillet sandwich that was amazing), and walk back to our hostel. We check-in, head to our room, and Gerald relizes he left his back at the station. Crap! Exhausted, I let him go by himself (we’re big boys, but this is a foreign county, we don’t speak the same language, we’ve been lost before, and it’s dark) like a bad companion, and that is that. He arrives back in one piece 45 minutes later so we’re all good

The hostel we’re staying in is called J-Hoppers. I really can’t say enough good things about this place. While it was our only dorm-style stay, it was the best. On that note, they do have more private rooms, but we’re cheap so we got what we paid for. The price was great; the staff was incredibly friendly, knowledgeable, and skilled in English; it was incredibly clean; they offered internet service in exchange for people’s digital photos (they got about 2gb worth from me; and it was founded buy a guy who motorcycled around the world! If you’re staying in Kyoto on a budget, this is the place to be. They regularly update a white board with what is going on in the city, the weather, and a bunch of other stuff I have since forgotten.

Day 6 will come later… I will also have a bit to say about: the trains, the cars, the people, the toilets, the country, the food, the drink, and the language.