Japan Doesn't Want to Let Us Go (Part 1)

Friday morning, we were up just about at the crack of dawn, or at least that's when our bodies seemed to think it was. We packed up all of our things, checked out of the hostel around 7:30am, and made our way to Kyoto station. There, we hopped on the 8:02 Hikari shinkansen bound for Shin-Osaka.

There, we had about a 40 minute wait until the Hikari Rail Star came for us.



Cinnamon is demonstrating how she feels about being in Shin-Osaka. We have a bit of a grudge against Osaka dating back to the last time we were there. If it says "Loop Line," it should go in a loop!



We grabbed some food (but not from here... this was just next to where we were standing), and waited.



The train we were waiting for is the Hikari Rail Star 553. I never chronicled Osaka in our last blog, but let me explain here why we hate the Rail Star. Normally, the shinkansens running between Tokyo and either Shin-Osaka or Hiroshima (sometimes Okayama), of which we take the regular Hikari, are 15 cars long. The first 5 cars are free seating, meaning you don't need a reservation in order to ride. Of those five cars, one of them (car 3) is a smoking car. We always try to show up early so we'll be able to get a seat. This has never been a problem on a Hikari train.

However, the Hikari doesn't run past Hiroshima for some reason. Instead, you get the Hikari Rail Star. It's only an 8 car train, of which 3 cars are for non-reserved seating (with car 2 being the smoking car). When we were in Japan last time, we had to go from Shin-Kobe to Hiroshima, and the only trains that were coming within the hour were the Rail Stars. Long story short, Cinnamon found a seat on the train, and there were none left for me, so I had to stand between the smoking and non-smoking cars with about 7 other people for 45 minutes until a seat finally became available. It was not fun. This is why we decided to pick up the train where it begins its route... and it's a good thing, because it was already overfull by the time we left Shin-Osaka!

About 3 hours later, we made it to Fukuoka. We needed to get to the international ferry terminal, and Cinnamon knew you could get there by bus. Only we couldn't find the right bus, so we ended up taking a taxi. That cost us roughly $12 for about a 10 minute ride. But at least we got there--and with plenty of time to spare!



It's a very unimpressive place.


When we got there, it was about 12:45, and we couldn't check in until 2:15, so we sat and ate the snacks we bought in Osaka.





I had a peanut sandwich (as if that wasn't obvious). I think these things are awesome. Sure, it's kind of a waste of bread, but you never have to worry about things sliding out of your sandwich. This one was made of Cinnamon's favorite--peanut cream. It doesn't have the stickiness of peanut butter. Instead, it has the texture of whipped frosting or mousse or something. I like it, though.





Cinnamon here is explaining how the ferry works, what with its fancy-shmancy jetfoil and all. (Please consult this link to the official ferry site if you want to learn just what that is). "It's all 'shhhpshhhhh!,'" she says.





It takes just 2 hours and 55 minutes to go from Fukuoka, Japan, to Busan, South Korea! It felt like we had to wait that long just to check in, but finally, the time came! Then we got to go upstairs and wait to board... with about 30 old Korean ladies returning from a tour of Japan. They were loud.





I've got all my stuff ready: boarding pass, passport, customs form and disembarkation card for Korea! Let's get this show on the road!


Finally, they let us go through the boarding gate. ...Which only led to another waiting area, and a place where you could buy duty-free goods. Half an hour later, we were allowed to board the ferry at last!





You can tell we're running on very little sleep, can't you? Also, there wasn't really anywhere to put your luggage, so it's all piled up around our feet, but at least there was ample legroom for it.





Here's the view from the window, looking out on the port. And on the left is Hakata Port Tower (not to be confused with Fukuoka Tower).





In about the time it took me to take the previous two pictures, Cinnamon went from smiling... to this. And she would continue to look like this for the next 3 hours. It was not a good ride at all. Every account we had read about the ferry said that due to the jetfoil design, you could hardly feel the motions of the boat, so it was a very smooth ride.


Lies. All lies.


We must have chosen the worst possible day to take the ferry, because the ride was very choppy and bumpy, and you could feel every little swaying motion of the boat. For three hours. Cinnamon, who was already not feeling very well that day, was pretty nauseous, and even I had my moments when I didn't feel so great. Needless to say, we were very glad when we finally made it to Busan!


Just like an airport, once we got there, we had to go through immigration (which went rather quickly, as the majority of the people on the ferry were Korean and thus in a different line than we were), then security, then customs. 

Finally, we were officially in South Korea... which meant we had to hit up the ATM in the ferry terminal so we could get some won. Korean won is worth nothing. 10,000 won (which was their highest denomination bill until the 50,000 was introduced about a year ago) is worth about $10. So if you want to take out about $100 from the ATM, you get 10 10,000 won bills. As you can imagine, their change isn't worth much (especially their 1 won coins).


There was some kind of older (maybe mid-30s) woman who offered to help us find where we wanted to go, since we apparently looked lost (though I highly doubt it). We were supposed to meet Ashley at the subway station nearest the ferry terminal, but this lady had no idea which station was the closest... despite saying she lived in Busan. Needless to say, we declined her help and managed to make it to the station very easily, after only about an 8 minute walk.





This sign was pretty helpful! Except this "meeting place" was located right between two exits, which put us in a cold crosswind.





We're at Jungang-dong station. It should be noted that I can't read nor understand a word of Korean. 





This station (all of them, actually) had turnstiles, which was very strange to us. (Japan's ticket gates look like these). While we were waiting for Ashley to show up, we saw at least two people duck underneath them to get through. It was kind of hilarious. 


At long last, she showed up, and we got to ride the subway to Myeongnyun-dong station, where she lives. There were quite a few differences between Japan's subway system and Korea's, but I won't get into that here. If you're at all curious, (which you probably aren't), you can always ask. And after putting our stuff down at Ashley's place, we headed back out and took the bus to... possibly Nampo-dong, where we were eager to try some Korean yakiniku, called bulgogi. 





These are the prices for the food, but I couldn't tell you what kinds of food they're offering here.





Unlike with Japanese yakiniku, you automatically get all these little side dishes. There was some sort of sauce, a spicy salad, kimchi, a non-spicy (possibly mayo-based) salad, onions in some sort of sauce, daikon radish slices, and in the basket, romaine lettuce and sesame leaves. 





Here's Ashley, putting our meat on the grill! Oh, and about 15 cloves of garlic!





They give you a pair of kitchen shears with the meat so you can cut it up into smaller bits as it cooks.





I think this is technically what you're supposed to do with it... or something close to it, anyway. It was pretty good, but I still prefer Japanese yakiniku. I did, however, discover I am not a fan of kimchi. Too spicy and pungent for me. Then again, I don't like cabbage when it's not soaked in sauce and fermented, so that was probably a no-brainer.


The most amazing thing was this entire meal (including 3 bowls of rice and a small pot of soup not pictured) cost roughly $12. No, that's not a typo. All three of us ate our fill for just twelve dollars. It's outrageous!


Afterward, we braved the rain (as it seems to follow us wherever we go--even when we leave the country) and headed to Cold Stone for dessert. Yes, they have those in both Japan and Korea. By the time we finished, it was about 11:30pm.



On the way back to Ashley's place, we stopped by a 7eleven attached to her building, and I bought this Chilsung Cider. (They call it cider, but it's pretty much exactly like Sprite). Back at her place, we tried to plan out our Saturday in advance. In the end, we were up until 2am, and we didn't get a whole lot accomplished, but we were tired, so it was off to bed!


Up next, Gyeongju!

Shops and Flowers

[This is the second post of the day, so please make sure you don't forget to read the previous one below this, where you can see our pictures of Fushimi Inari shrine!]

We left our hostel around 11am so we could do some shopping. It was chilly and rainy, which naturally just made things even more fun!

There are several covered shopping streets in the downtown area, so we were focusing on those. Cinnamon was looking for a tiny store where she had bought a silver ring on our last trip, as she misplaced or lost it somehow. However, it was not to be. Either the store is incredibly elusive and we completely missed it during our repeated walks up and down the streets, or it's no longer there. This was disappointing, but there's not much that could be done. We did luck out and find a gift to bring our friend Ashley (for you B&N folks, that would be Ashley Madison, who formerly worked in the cafe), who we were going to be visiting in South Korea the next day, so at least it wasn't all for naught.

After wandering the streets for a while, we headed over toward the Gion area. It turned out to be not all that interesting. Most of the stores were selling traditional gifts and/or foods, and looked pretty expensive, so we didn't linger for long. Instead, we headed back to the covered streets and went to the Star Restaurant for lunch! This was the place with all those strawberry parfaits. We didn't have any of them, though. Instead, I had omurice with ketchup sauce (which wasn't bad), and Cinnamon also had omurice, but hers was the "cheese gratin" kind. 

Once we had warmed up and filled our tummies, we finally mustered up the energy to head back out into the cold and do some more walking. Our legs and bodies wanted to protest, as mine were a little sore from our hiking the previous day, and the cold, dreary weather just made both of us want to curl up under the covers. That's no way to spend our last day in Kyoto, so we pressed on, headed toward the Imperial Palace!

It wasn't more than a 10 minute walk there, and was very easy to find, so we headed into the garden. The paths were made of tiny little rocks, which were a huge pain to walk on, as they constantly shifted underfoot and gave our ankles quite a workout. But then we came upon this!



It's a plum tree in bloom! So naturally, I had to take about 50 pictures of the blossoms (okay, 97, but who's counting?). Flower photography is what I do best, after all (much to Cinnamon's displeasure)!



So many blossoms!



I like this one. It has a very Japanese look to it (or so I think). Plus, you can see the mountains in the background!



And I thought I might as well include Cinnamon in the picture. She was looking pretty bored. Also, her camera batteries died the day before at Fushimi shrine, so she couldn't participate in the photo fest.



There were actually quite a few people out and about taking pictures. I don't know why you'd want to pass up an opportunity like that--the blossoms were gorgeous!

Finally, we made it to the Imperial Palace itself! ...But you can't get in without making a reservation (which we did not do), so this was as close as we could get.

And then we came upon even more trees in bloom! The map we saw later, near the garden entrance, said these were apricot and peach groves, so... I think this is an apricot flower? They were kind of all mixed in together, though.

I don't really know which flower this is, but it's my favorite picture. I like that it looks like it's blushing. So pretty~ Wish I had taken more pictures from that tree.

It started sprinkling as I was in the middle of taking pictures, so Cinnamon was nice enough to by my "umbrella man", as I called her, and hold her umbrella over me so my camera lens didn't get wet.

And thus, I was able to get more pictures!

...Like these!

Cinnamon liked this gigantic tree, so she gave it a hug. It's huge!

Then she started getting fed up with me and left me, taking her umbrella with her. She has no patience for my flower photography perfectionism. I won't stop until I get a perfectly clear (or near enough) picture! 

Here's one final shot of all the trees in bloom before I finally put my camera away and opened up my own umbrella to keep dry. 

We finished wandering through the garden (or at least the part we were in), and headed back to our place after stopping for snacks at the conbini. After we had eaten our ice cream, Cinnamon declared she wanted french fries, so we walked across the river to McDonald's and indulged her craving. 

We had to get up extremely early (like 6:30am early) the next day in order to catch the shinkansen to Fukuoka (about a 3 hour ride) so we'd have enough time to get to the ferry terminal to check in at 2:15pm. That may sound early, but had we waited for a later train, we would have gotten into Fukuoka too late. But that's a story that will be told next time. Two updates in one day is quite enough for me. I'm headed to bed!

Back to the Mountain!

Now that we're finally back in Tokyo, I should update with what we've been doing this past week. It's only fair that I make it through Kyoto this time, since that's where our last blog ended (because we got lazy). I'll try to make a few posts in a row just to move things along, so please be sure to read them all!

If you remember, we were going to Fushimi Inari shrine. And we wanted to go at night for that "creepy" factor, since spiders kept us from going last time.



So we're here on the train! (That train looks like ours, but is actually right next to the one we're on). As expected, Kyoto's trains are much older than Tokyo's, and shorter, too. This one was only 4 cars long. Most all the ones in Tokyo are at least 10.





As you can see, Cinnamon's having a grand ol' time taking up the entire bench.





We're listening to our tunes on the train ride, in case that wasn't obvious. 





Finally, we made it to the shrine! Does this look familiar? It should!





We hiked and hiked, up and up and up the stairs and through the thousands of torii gates.





At long last, we made it to the top as the sun was beginning its descent over the mountains.





It's only 764ft. to the top, but after climbing all those stairs, our legs were telling us it felt much higher! But at least we weren't all sweaty and gross this time around.





One more view of the city from the top of the mountain. Everything looks so tiny and far away.


Supposedly, or so I read, it's good luck to see a cat at a shrine. You'd think our luck would be pretty awesome, then, since we saw six!





Here's the first one, just chilling off the main path. I don't have a picture of the second one, as there was a Japanese couple taking a picture of it and petting it (it was much friendlier than the other ones).





Cats 3, 4, and 5 were all together!





And finally, cat number 6!





I believe these are all fortunes tied to lines of string, though I'm not really sure if that serves a legitimate purpose or not.


After making it to the top of the mountain, there's a smaller loop you can make around that has more torii and some smaller shrines. So we kept on going around that.





The sun had set and darkness was beginning to encroach, making the lights along the path come on.





Here's a fox statue decorated with fallen camellias from passersby. There were several huge camellia trees around the mountain--easily 25 feet in height! I didn't even know they could grow that big!





We came upon this neat little area with a (man-made) waterfall. The water was pouring into a bucket underneath. I'm fairly certain this is for religious pilgrims to stand under and cleanse their spirits or something to that effect. In any case, I'm sure it'd be really cold!





This is facing away from the waterfall. You can see all the water from it is running down the sides of the pathway. Pretty neat!





We also came across these little boards. I guess you're supposed to draw a fox face on them or something? I'm really not quite sure. But I thought these two sets were very cute!





Most of the other ones looked pretty goofy. Or like they were drawn by five-year-olds.


Once we made it out of the loop and back to our starting point, we were greeted by this spectacular sight.





I'm a little upset this picture came out so grainy, but I'm thankful it wasn't terribly blurry. Thank heaven for image stabilization!


Our mission complete, we set out for the bottom of the mountain, taking extra care in the darkness. It really wasn't all that creepy, but there were still quite a few people out and about, so I guess that helped. I could see how it could be creepy if no one was around and it was really pitch black out, though.


At the bottom of the mountain, we made a quick stop at the bathroom, and since apparently people are curious about the strange Japanese toilets we have here, this is your run of the mill Japanese or "squat" toilet. These are typically found in train stations and the odd public bathroom (say, in a park or on the side of the road or something).





For some reason, this bathroom thought people needed a little instruction. Mystery solved! (And for those of you who are wondering, yes, there's a flushing lever or button/sensor, it's just not attached to the toilet itself).





Once we finally made it back to Kyoto proper, we were hungry and cold, so we decided to head to Coco's for some hot curry! The ones in Kyoto are bigger than most of the Tokyo locations (in that they have an upstairs seating area), so when we got there, we headed upstairs... and were extremely disappointed to find a pair of British guys talking very loudly. We tried to sit as far away from them as possible, but we could still clearly make out their conversation (which consisted of politics, economics and history). It really ruined our whole dinner experience!


Afterward, we made a stop by the conbini for dessert, then headed back to our hostel for the night. We still had one more day of Kyoto shopping ahead of us! But that's for next time...