Japan Part 2

The ride to Osaka took about 5 hours. I found it convenient that they served beer on the shinkansen. Japanese beer selection was strictly limited to Sapporo, Asahi, and Yebisu. I couldn’t really tell the difference between the three of them but they were refreshing. We arrived in Osaka late and checked in to a hotel. The next morning we went to see the Osaka Palace. This was where the guy in charge used to live. It has since been converted to a museum about the feudal history of Japan. It had two massive moats built from stone, each piece carved into shape and weighing a billion or so tons. The palace was originally built in 645 so I’m guessing the moats must have been built around that time. They were massive. The palace stood in the center.



It was an interesting experience waking up in a city and traveling directly to a building that has existed for over 1,300 years. I’d never been to a place that had a history of more than a few hundred years. There was a balcony around the top of the palace, five stories up. From there we could see the inner and outer moats and the circle of trees creating a park around the palace. Here within a modern industrial city there is a patch of their ancient history, preserved and converted to a museum. The view was amazing.



After visiting the museum we walked around the park and I continued to admire the moat. Then we did some shopping in a Korean market that was tucked away in some tight alleys. I ate a Korean omelet with tentacles in it and a pastry shaped like a fish and filled with red bean curd. I’m now a fan of red bean curd. Then we were off to Kyoto.
In Kyoto there were numerous shrines and temples for us to pick from. We decided on taking the philosopher’s path from our hotel to a nearby temple (the Silver Temple). The path went along a waterway which was very low but teeming with gigantic fish. At some point I realized that I’d noticed a number of cats and I started looking for them. I realized that there were cats swarming around this area. On a bench under a sunbeam there were cats piled on top of each other just lounging around. I didn’t try to frighten them away but I got pretty close to take pictures and they didn’t seem to care, although they kept an eye on me.





This was the time of year in Japan when schoolchildren are sent on extended field trips to explore Japan. There were children in uniforms swarming through the silver temple. They were lively but didn’t disrupt my experience, and they were extremely cute. The temple itself was a two story building set in the middle of a pond and we walked along a rail on the shore. There were rocks protruding from the water which were piled high with sunbathing turtles. We also visited the Golden Temple which was a similar design. The Golden Temple was about 700 years old but it had been burned to the ground in 1955 by an angry monk and was rebuilt precisely as it had been. This event was acknowledged but in every other way the temple was treated as if it were the original, as if the burning down of the structure did not constitute a need to start over. The complete destruction could be thought of in the way that a broken window or loose door hinge would be.
We also visited the Ryoanji rock garden which is the one which made rock gardens famous. The site had other rock gardens as well, meticulously groomed into elaborate patterns and shapes. The Ryoanji itself was a powerful experience. I felt like “garden” is a misnomer for these things because a garden is something from which lush diversity springs up and things grow in organic, ever changing patterns. The Ryoanji has been kept exactly the same for over 600 years. It was a completely different experience than that of a garden. It was calming and fulfilling. We stayed as long as we could.



After a rush to the train station we were headed for Fukuoka. There was a lot of traveling time on this vacation but the rides were smooth and comfortable and the distance we could cover was well worth it. We travelled the 400 miles from Kyoto to Fukuoka in less than four hours. We arrived in Fukuoka after midnight. I decided to stay in one of the capsule hotels I’d heard so much about. Jenn couldn’t join me (no girls allowed) so she checked in to a Comfort Inn. The capsule hotel was like an upscale hostel. I was issued a locker key to keep my things in. The capsule itself did not have a latching door, only a thin screen to pull down when I was ready to sleep. The capsules were stacked two high just like bunk beds with the difference being that in this case each resident had their own personal space. The capsule was spacious with plenty of head clearance. I imagine a claustrophobic might not like it but I found it very comfortable. It had its own climate control, television and radio. There were showers and sinks laundry service. And no shoes allowed anywhere, those were stored in lockers in the lobby.
I dropped my stuff off and met back up with Jenn and we went to find a late night dinner. We walked through a more red light type district ended up at a ramshackle ramen stall by the waterway. I ate a lot of food in Japan and it was an amazing experience, but this ramen was the single most delicious meal I had. The older, extremely intoxicated gentleman sitting to my left began pouring beer into my glass, which I quickly learned is commonly done between friends and friendly people. I thanked him energetically and he began speaking to me in semi-slurred Japanese. I kept smiling and telling him in Japanese that I could not understand him and that I did not speak Japanese. It didn’t even slow him down. He would laugh and then resume talking. Soon the two guys running the stall were also trying to explain to him that I couldn’t understand, to no avail. I did get a picture of him though, as well as a picture of him and me together.



We spent quite a while at that stand. The food was incredible and the atmosphere was something entirely new to me and I wanted to hold on to it for as long as I could. I had starting getting used to my surroundings. My brain had finally gotten used to the fact that nobody was speaking English. Eventually we headed back downtown and parted ways to our respective hotels. Our next destination was Kurokawa, which I’ll save for next time.