i never expected a photo shoot

yes indeed, this evening needs its own entry b/c what an evening it was! other "put on a kimono" options we looked at were pretty pricey, so we did decided to go with what our guesthouse offered. and it was worth every penny.

met at the reception at 7pm as planned and were escorted down the lane to another building owned by our guesthouse. 3 people (the guesthouse owner and 2 assistants - all while wearing kimonos themselves) were needed to dress us. they pulled out a binder for us to browse and pick out what color and pattern kimono we would like. there were hundreds of options. i didn't particularly care which i choose, but settled on one with some red in it b/c that's usually flattering on me. i'll do my best to describe the process of putting on a kimono, should you never have the chance to experience it yourself. it took over 30 mins to get me into one, so it was really quite the process. and thanks to jos, there's some wonderful photographic documentation.

i picked the color and pattern i liked and the ladies promptly started digging through the closet to find it, as well as all the coordinating pieces. and there were a lot of pieces:

after ditching my sweater and jeans, we could begin. first up, a white under robe (nagajuban) with a stiff collar in blue, made to compliment the kimono itself:

the owner started wrapping several rope things around my waist to ensure that the collar and robe stayed perfectly in place:

next was the kimono itself:

followed by more ropes, more pulling and more tugging to hold everything in place:

the obi, probably the prettiest piece with a beautiful brocade, was next:

but before they started wrapping it all around me, this cummberbund like thing (obi-ta) was placed around my waist. it had a pillow thing (obimakura) on the back which helps to keep the obi strait and unwrinkled. and holy cow they pull tight:

the owner continued to wrap the obi around me, and added more and more sashes (obiage) for both placement and decoration:

and more tight rope, thank goodness i don't have to wear this daily:

final look to make sure everything is in place:

and that the obi is perfect:

oh, and can't forget the toe socks (tabi) and funky wooden platform sandals (geta):

done!

soooo, after that (see what i mean, a process!) it was jos's turn. and while she was being poked and prodded, one of the assistants was playing with my hair to try to put it up in a bun. unfortunately for her my hair is super fine and slippery, so it didn't to cooperate that nicely. oh well.

we next went behind a pocket door into another room for our tea ceremony. we kneeled on woven floor mats and watched as the owner performed the various rituals while preparing the powdered green tea (matcha). while she was doingthat, one of the assistants was explaining what she was doing and the meaning behind it all. we ate our sweets and then were presented with the tea. struggled through an exchange of japanese pleasantries, and then it was our turn to try preparing the tea. i went first, and tried my best to do what the owner had done - but it's pretty complicated so of course didn't get it totally right. jos went next and was actually able to stir the tea into its frothy goodness (i was not - it was hard!), and that brought the ceremony to a close. pretty neat experience.

but the night was not yet over! just when we thought we were done, the owner and assistants swept us outside and so began the modeling session and full on photo shoot. they had us pose with various objects like umbrellas and a tsukubai fountain in various buildings and even in the street. it was hilarious. my cheeks were hurting from smiling and laughing so much. and it struck me - i hadn't laughed and smiled that much in a while. and i had forgotten how good it felt. enjoy the results:

what a day, huh?

nara's even lovelier than kyoto

decided to use today to make a day trip to nara, which is just southeast of kyoto, and is chock full of temples, shrines and other cultural highlights. grabbed a quick breakfast in our kitchen and chatted a bit with a couple from new zealand who were in japan visiting their son while he studied abroad in tokyo. we were able to give them some pointers on kyoto, and they traded tips for tokyo. made a quick stop at the reception to book our reservations for the kimono dress up and tea ceremony. for only Y1000 each, it was a good deal and would at least give us some stories to tell!

got a train down to nara in about 45 mins and began our walking tour that was outlined in LP. funny, saw another girl just a few feet ahead of us with her nose in her LP ha, and throughout the day saw a few more people following the same tour. ah, guidebooks. the tour was about 5k, but didn't feel remotely that long b/c there were so many stops along the way to break it up. with a couple quick stops in convenience stores looking for more flavored kit kats, we were on our way. and talk about being off to a great start - first up was isui-en, which is supposedly nara's finest garden. unfortunately for us, it was closed for the holidays. garden: fail. onward.

headed towards nara-koen park and todai-ji, but took a look first at nandai-mon, which is the massive main gate of the temple. flanked on either side were huge nio guardians that (per LP) are 2 of the finest wooden statues in all of japan if not the world. they were indeed impressive. and also massive (notice the size theme here). behind the gate seemed to be a bustling alley of shops, so we climbed over the threshold and went to explore. we were quickly engulfed in a sea of deer. and we thought miyajima was bad! i've never seen so many deer in one place in my life. turns out deer are considered sacred animals and messengers of the gods, as well as national treasures of japan haha. it soon felt perfectly normal to be walking amongst the deer, like it was something that everyone does every day. did some browsing in the shops and managed to find a sake set for myself. then grabbed a quick bite to eat b/c wasn't sure how many options there would be once we really got into our walk.

back across the gate, headed to todai-ji temple, which for me was the highlight of the day. on the grounds stands the daibutsu-den hall (the largest wooden building in the world) which houses the daibutsu (great cosmic buddha - one of the largest bronze figures in the world). it was stunning. i could have looked at it four hours, trying to notice all the little details that make it such a work of art.

unfortunately time did not allow for it, so circled the buddha to glance at the other statues and art, and eventually came across this tall wooden pole. it has a hole in its base, exactly the size of one of the great buddhas nostrils, and legend has it that if you can squeeze through it, you will be ensured enlightenment. it's tiny, so only kids were really attempting it. but i must admit - guaranteed enlightenment sounded pretty good to me, and had there not been so many people milling about, i would have totally tried it. alas, i was too scared i'd get stuck, so no enlightenment for me. at least not today =)

after one last look at the buddha, headed back out on our tour. walked through the 'incredibly atmospheric stretch' which, while nice, was a bit of an exaggeration on LPs part. found our way to nigatsu-do hall and took in the views. walked by sangatsu-do hall but didn't enter b/c didn't feel like paying the fee. next was tamukeyama-hachimangu shrine, which LP describes as 'gaudy' but to be honest - i've seen way worse. walked by wakakusa-yama mountain and soon were surrounded by hundreds of lanterns as we approached kasuga taisha shrine. the shrine was pretty average, but the lanterns made it memorable. as did the italian guy yelling "americano! this way! americano!!" we assumed he was talking to us, but we were not quite sure why. maybe he thought we were lost, despite the fact there was only one way to go. stopped next at wakamiyajinja shrine and picked up some green tea ice cream, which we had to cleverly hide from the deer, before heading back towards town.

our last stop on the tour was kofuku-ji temple. i thought the 5 story pagoda was the prettiest building. we were able to rest here for a while (thankfully my blisters were behaving) and then entered the national treasure hall. not sure if it was fully worth the Y500, but the standing senju-kannon (lord of compassion, goddess of mercy) statue was an incredible site to see.

back to nara station to catch a train back to kyoto and finish our sight-seeing day at fushimi-inari taisha, a shrine originally dedicated to the gods of rice and sake. food and drink - what more could you want?! as the importance of agriculture declined though, the foods were replaced to ensure prosperity in business. the shrine was full of fox statues, which like deer are considered sacred animals (messengers of inari, god of rice. err, business). the coolest part was the thousands of torii (archways) leading up the hill to the inner shrine.

grabbed a bite to eat and chilled back at the guesthouse for a while before it was time for our evening of playing dress up at a tea ceremony. which entirely needs it's own entry in this blog...

kyoto, kyoto, i love you, kyoto

kyoto is great. just in case you wanted to know.

after an early start, bid farewell to miyajima and caught the local train back to hiroshima. we reserved some seats in a non-smoking car, though unfortunately you could still smell smoke as the car behind us permitted it. the seats, however, were super comfy. arrived in osaka with 6 mins to make our connection to kyoto. the precision of these connections is crazy. i felt like i was back in germany. it was a short, 15 min ride to kyoto, and once we arrived we decided to make our reservations to tokyo since we'd be traveling on new years eve and traveling on/around holidays can prove challenging. which it did.

oh how badly i felt for the poor soul that was lucky enough to help us. every other time we made a reservation, we just pointed to what we wanted from our JR booklet, they nodded and gave us tickets. easy-peasy. this time though, the train we wanted was sold out, and the ticket guy had a hard time conveying that to us - or we had a hard time understanding. either way, after about 5 mins i realized what he was trying to say - so i picked another train. but as the guy was printing tickets for us, i realized that there were no connections from kyoto to osaka that early, unless we wanted to pay an extra $13. which really isn't a big deal, but when you spend $300 on a rail pass, you want to get as much use out of it as possible. soooo, back to the drawing board. picked another train that left later than we liked, but what can you do. finally settled, i think the guy was very thankful to be done with us haha. after a brief bowing contest, we were ready to explore kyoto.

first though made our way to the tourist info center, which was in the same complex as the train station/mall. but what a maze! we wandered for a bit until a very nice man must have seen the confused looks on our faces and led us most of the way there. we really wanted to know about any theatre shows, but unfortunately we missed the big kabuki festival by 2 days. the lady also checked nara for us, but also out of luck. guess we'll have to see what tokyo holds. we did manage to pick up 2 good maps though, and set out to find our hostel. despite the maps we still managed to get semi-lost on the narrow back alleys, but eventually found our way and checked into ikoi-no-ie guest house. we payed a pretty penny for this place, but i was glad to see the accommodations were very nice. the kitchen and common area were great, and we had a private room that was in the traditional style tatami mats on the floors with futon mattresses. they even gave us yukatas (kimono-like bathrobes) in our rooms. fun!

dropped our stuff and went out to find the kyoto gosho, or imperial palace. the tourist info lady said it was closed for the holidays, but we thought we'd go anyway to see if we could get a glimpse. thought wrong, b/c all we got was a view of a really really big wall. ha. regrouped and headed to pontocho-dori, a traditional street along the kamogawa river that's lined with shops and restaurants. along the way passed the nashinoki-jinja shrine and the tako-yakushido temple, which was actually inside the market. wandered around some and got some souvenirs. still no luck with the buddha beads. i've seen loads, but none are exactly what i'm looking for. afterwards headed to the nishiki food market where we were once again overwhelmed by crowds, sights and smells. found our way back outside and headed to our guesthouse to eat dinner and settle into bed. still seem to be haunted at totally random times by thoughts of a past relationship; i can only hope that the painful memories will continue to fade with time.

next day stopped by the reception desk to enquire about a sign we had seen advertising a tea ceremony and kimono dress up, and decided to think about it first. it could be an interesting experience. first up today though was the kinkaku-ji, the golden pavilion, in the rokuon-ji temple. realizing that most of these temples charge admission which adds up quite quickly. either way, the pavilion was indeed golden. and it was also overrun with tourists, which makes me wonder what it's like during high season haha. the trail was very well marked, so followed it, and the suitcase totting masses, around the grounds.

next we walked our way over to ryoan-ji temple, which is famous for its zen rock garden. another admission fee, but at least it was something different. like visiting the churches of europe, all these temples begin to run together after a while. we had to take our shoes off to enter, and though the garden was currently under construction (of course it was), it was still a site to see. i just sat at the edge for a while and soaked it all in. perhaps prettier than the zen garden was the landscape garden, which took up most of the temple grounds.

made our way back to the train station, passing myoshinji temple on the way. back at kyoto station made our way next to toji temple, home to the highest pagoda in japan. the temple itself was made up of several halls all filled with buddhas, and more reminders of my past failures. still, with each encounter i begin to feel more at peace. by this time we were absolutely famished since hadn't eaten since breakfast. unfortunately the area we were in was not super happening and we walked forever to find somewhere to eat. the first place we stumbled upon was a smokey bar that had 2 things on the menu, but not knowing when our next option would be found, we went for it. i got an "omelette" (aka a rice ball covered in egg and ketchup) but at least it was edible.

jumped on the subway for the first time (we are big fans of walking), but my feet were really beginning to hurt and we had a considerable distance to go. headed to the gion district to try to spot a geisha. walked up shinbashi-dori, which lonely planet says is one of the most beautiful streets in all of asia. it was a lot shorter than i had imagined, and while nice, i'm sure it would be more lovely when things were actually in bloom. made a turn down hanamikoji-dori, which LP says is often a hot spot for geisha while they make their way to tea houses. no luck here either. entered the kyoto craft center - which was less crafty and more high end items. then headed over to yasaka shrine, which was covered with cheesy stalls and banners - all of which i can only imagine is in preparation for the new year festivities.

headed north and came across chion-in temple. though it was closed we could still see the main attraction - the temple gate. it's the biggest temple gate in all of japan, and it's truly massive. wandered around gion again killing time and trying to build up an appetite, and wouldn't you know it... a real, live geisha went swooping past us. she was beautiful, in a rich royal purple kimono, white make up and little sandals that seemed to make her float. LP says you should never EVER run after one hoping for a photo, but that's exactly what this tourist across the street from us was doing. in fact, she made the geisha stop and pose, "just one photo, please, just one photo!" i was embarrassed for her, but at the same time it allowed me time to snap a photo from behind. a bit blurry, but still. one of the coolest experiences i've had while traveling.

found our way back to the market, and did a bit more shopping. we found these gorgeous pieces of fabric that you can frame and hang up as art. i bought a few, and later came across what i had been looking for the entire time: a ukiyo-e style picture of the great wave. my trip is complete =) time to eat, so stopped at a stand in the market that had these round fried ball things for cheap. seemed fine for me, but thankfully jos asked first what they were - fried octopus - which was fine for me, but not quite up her alley. fortunately they also had a noodle dish for her, though there were pieces of octopus in that as well. i doggie bagged mine, and we began the long, painful walk home.

had stopped in several stores looking for dr. scholls, but no luck. decided to try just one more time - and success! found some pillow feet (or something) which hopefully will help. once back at the guesthouse, discovered a couple nasty looking blisters. busted out my coffee wagashi (traditional sweet - kyoto's food specialty) to ease the pain, but it was awful! the texture was bearable, kinda jelly-like, but the taste - ugh. i felt like i was eating straight up coffee grounds. ah well. tomorrow's another day.

hiroshima, your scars are beautiful

so hard to get out of bed. the air was nice and cool, and the duvets were so warm and inviting. but we eventually decided that if we wanted to see anything in this city, we best get moving. there were 2 main ways to get from miyajima to hiroshima, back on the local JR train or a tram. with a little calculation we discovered the tram would take pretty much forever. so away we went - using our JR passes! - to a city that will forever be known for one thing.

once at hiroshima station we caught a local tram that took us directly to the a-bomb dome stop. we could have walked and probably just followed the tracks, but i didn't have a detailed map of the area and that always makes me a bit nervous. anyway, the tram worked well enough, and within minutes a massive skeleton of a building became visible. it was the a-bomb dome, the most haunting reminder of what happened back in august of 1945. the bomb detonated almost directly above the building, killing everyone inside instantly, but for reasons unknown left the building standing despite leveling everything else for miles around. controversy followed - to knock it down? to keep it as a memorial? UNESCO actually registered it in 1996, despite both chinese and american misgivings. however, i can say i'm glad they kept it. what history would have been lost to not have such a monument. let us never forget..

we made our way over to the peace memorial museum so that we would have plenty of time and wouldn't feel rushed. it was a bit crowded for my liking, but moving nonetheless. i got an audio guide, not so much b/c the displays were lacking english, but b/c entry to the museum was only Y50 (like 50 cents) and i wanted to give it more haha. the museum was very well done and i feel was pretty unbiased. it went into all aspects of the bomb: why it was created, tensions between japan and other nations over the course of history, WWII itself, logistics of the bombing, how nuclear energy is made, and of course the acute and chronic effects of radiation and the bombing on hiroshima and its people. most moving were the personal stories of the children, most of which were on military assignment to demolish buildings to create fire lanes - and so the fact they were outside that day led to more injuries and deaths than had they been inside a classroom learning. so incredibly tragic.

feeling a bit overwhelmed afterwards, we decided to decompress at a restaurant. outside a sign said "lunch dinner dessert" so we figured it was tourist friendly. inside, though, the waitress tried to explain that we could have fish or 'ca-roque'. she sounded like a croaking frog and we had no idea what she was trying to say. flustered she finally brought out a dinner menu and pointed to indicate she meant 'croquette' haha. so i got fish and jos got 'ca-roque'. and it was good. we followed this by a quick stop to 7-11 for dessert and discovered flavored kit-kats. OMG. this time it was strawberry and coffee, and we quickly made it our mission to see what other flavors we could find as we travelled across japan.

fueled up, we headed back over to peace memorial park and stopped at the various monuments: hiroshima national peace memorial hall for the atomic bomb victims (long name, but it showed pictures and personal accounts of victims and survivors); the cenotaph (names of all victims); children's peace monument (inspired by sadako sasaki & her 1000 paper cranes); the korean a-bomb memorial (dedicated to korean slave laborers who were 1/10 of all killed); the mound (containing ashes of 70,000 killed and cremated b/c couldn't be identified); the bell & clock towers of peace; and my favorite - the flame of peace, which will burn until the last nuclear weapon is destroyed.

we continued our walk towards hiroshima-jo (carp castle), but made a pit stop at carp stadium which had a display of paper cranes people still send from all over the world. there was even a room that allowed us to make our own paper cranes. now, i'm pretty crafty, but the origami directions made NO sense whatsoever and i quickly became frustrated and gave up. jos pushed on, but she too eventually had to admit defeat, even after trying to get the old man supervisor to help her. at least she made a fortune teller; mine resembled a dead frog. guess no world peace for us!

back outside to the reconstructed castle. we stopped to take pictures but decided not to go inside so we could hit up miyajima island instead, which was a wise decision. we got a bit lost trying to get back to the train station without a map but eventually made it back to miyajima, where we discovered that we could use our JR passes for the ferry too. score again! on the island we were bombarded by deer. for real. they were sooo domesticated, had no fear and would literally stalk people.

stopped first at the floating gate of the itsukushima-jinja shrine - which is one of the most photographed sites and ranked as one of the 3 best views in all of japan. the shrine itself was closed unfortunately but was impressive to see anyway. up the hill to senjo-kaku and its pagoda, which by this time it was pretty dark, though the moon above in the background made for a pretty site.

back toward the pier we stopped at a crazy souvenir shop and then tried to find dinner. most places were boarded up and closed (not high season) so we wandered until we found one that had oysters (this regions specialty). at first we weren't sure if it was open, but jos was brave enough to poke her head in and the lady welcomed us warmly. we had to take off our shoes and sit at a very low table that was cut into the floor. pretty cool. she was all cleaned up for the night, so we felt badly for making her dirty her kitchen again. i don't think she minded though, and i ordered quite a bit of food to try to make it worth her while. extra rice, sake and fried oysters. jos even tried one (so proud of her!). they were delicious, tho i'm not sure jos agreed ha. found some custard filled cake things for dessert and headed back to the mainland. quite a satisfying day.