11 posts tagged “travelblogue”

Val threatened to kill me if I did not upload and send her some pictures from my Japan trip back in May, so with the fear of death I did so. Now that they are uploaded appropriately to flickr, I feel like I should post them here... since all I've done so far is post monkey nipples.

So without further ado,
Here are some pictures from the Fushimi Inari Taisha (shrine). Fushimi Inari is a really famous Shinto shrine in Kyoto; and consists of thousands of vermillion torii gates one after another going up and down a hill. There are a LOT of them. I did not even walk the entire hill, I think I only made it through about half of them.

It's really, really beautiful here, and my favorite of all the shrines I visited.

You heard me! (More pictures from Japan!)

I typed "Monkeys Kyoto" into Google and came up with - Monkey Mountain. So my "hill o' monkeys" was not far off.

When you arrive at Monkey Mountain, you first go through a vermillion Torii gate where there's a little shrine. Luke drank beer while I waited for him to finish said beer and took pictures of the fountain where you wash your hands.

Monkey Mountain is located in Arashiyama, a tourist spot in the far northwest corner of Kyoto. It's a pretty little area with lots of tourist shops selling Kyoto sweets (like Nama Yatsuhashi), cell phone charms, and a soft-serve ice-cream window. Luke ate a matcha cone and I had matcha and vanilla.

One of my favorite photos from Japan are these little guys, also in Arashiyama. Aren't they cute?

You climb a hill to get to the monkeys. It seemed like a very big hill, and it was hot outside, and no one was wearing any reasonable clothing for the weather (Luke told me it's because people in Japan dress for the season and not the temperature - it was 80+ degrees outside but it's still Spring, so everyone was wearing jackets and sweaters and long sleeves) so I was dying in my lightweight jacket.

Also, outside of the monkey area along the hill are various signs telling you about the monkeys. We were tired from walking, neither of us being athletes (and it was hot! and the hill was steep!) so we spent a lot of time examining the signs. It was a good excuse for a rest.

One had warnings about the monkeys. Don't feed the monkeys outside (you can feed them in the monkey house) or show them food or feed them. Or stare at them. It was a weird rule, but we decided that it's probably a sign of aggression in monkey behavior and might result in a monkey attack.

The other sign which told about the characteristics of the Japanese monkey (Nihon Zaru, or the Japanese Macaque and - side note - I always thought a Macaque was a bird, so now I feel dumb) had a very scary picture of the monkey's teeth. I resolved to definitely not even appear like I was even thinking about staring at any monkey. Don't stare at the monkeys.

And finally, after much climbing (and complaining) we reached a plateau at the middle of the hill (it's a big hill!) and there were SO many monkeys. I was amazed at how many monkeys there were - upwards of 150, is what Elisa told me later.

Tiny baby monkeys and big mama monkeys and fighting monkeys. And monkey nipples - lots of weird inward pointing monkey nipples. I was delighted. And (see previous post) there was an absolutely amazing view of Kyoto from the Monkey Mountain. The monkeys get really close to you - no cages - and there was one instance where one was practically sitting on my foot.

I did my best to keep my eyes averted ("Please don't stare at the monkeys") and took many, many photos. After we'd had our fill of monkeys, we slid down a slide (there's a slide that goes partway down the hill, and it was awesome. All hills should have slides as the exit strategy) and headed back to town

So enjoy the rest of the monkey pictures (and the monkey map). If you ever visit Kyoto, you should go to Monkey Mountain. There's a hill, and hiking involved, and if it's spring, you'll probably want to keep your sweater on, but it's worth it. Also because of the view, and of course, monkey nipples.

My post on corn soup (and talking to Jen) reminded me of the single most disturbing food item I saw while in Japan. It was in Wendy's, it's a sweet red bean "burger" and it is topped with cheddar cheese. The picture is enough to convince you that this is one burger you don't want to put in your mouth.

You can find the Japan Wendy's menu here. They list the hot drinks but unfortunately do not have a picture of the aforementioned corn soup.

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More appealing than the red-bean paste burger is Japan McDonald's Tamago Double Mac. It's two burgers topped with an egg. I love eggs (as does Japan, sorry Jen!) and I thought this looked edible.

I really really like corn. I like it in soup form, particularly. I was thrilled to learn that Japan loves corn, too! Some corn oddities I discovered:

• You can buy corn soup at Wendy's in Japan. It's actually categorized as a "hot drink," and they have a corn soup machine right in the front that spits it out.

• You can also buy hot corn soup from vending machines. They come in a can. I tried to buy one but it was, inexplicably, out. Of all things to be out of!

• People also drink corn soup cold. You can get it in a vending machine or a convenience store. There are convenience stores everywhere!

• I like the powdered corn soup that you make in a mug. My particular favorite brand is the Knorr corn soup. They probably have it at your local Asian market, if you happen to like corn as much as I do.

On both my flights (Air Canada) they showed a number of weirdish movies and television shows and I was wondering, who picks what gets shown? I mean, clearly, they have to be prepared to be shown on a flight. Edited for content so it's safe for all ages... the TV shows have all these intros for Air Canada (en Route) and ads and so forth. On my way to Japan, I watched (literally):

Eragon (I barely watched this; Casey saw it with Jordan and said it was horrendous. It looked horrendous.)
Dreamgirls (I barely watched this as well. I remain uninterested in the film and probably won't see it unless forced)
Big Fish

and they showed a number of television shows. The Office (!), the episode where Michael grills his foot in the George Foreman; the Twilight Zone, a crazy episode where a woman is being stalked by "Mr. Death" and he finally finds her (v. melodramatic); and an episode of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations about Osaka. That one made sense. I learned about okonomiyaki (which I actually ate in Osaka, more about that in my "specialties" post that I have not yet written) and takoyaki, which I never ate but saw, everywhere.

On my flight back, I watched (with more interest than on my way there):

Freedom Writers (while watching, I cried several times, which I prefer to blame on PMS)
The Joy Luck Club, oddly - and I wondered if they'd selected this movie because it has Asian people in it (and about Chinese women, in particular). Granted, there is a difference between being Chinese and Japanese (obviously, but still - do the people of Air Canada know or care?), and hands-down most of the people I was flying with were Japanese. Also, it is in English, with French dub available but no Japanese dub or subtitles. This was the case for all the movies, which I think was unfair. It seemed like a vast majority of the people I was flying with were not only Japanese but were not great speakers of English. This was at least the case with both of my seat mates and with many of the people sitting around me.

The television shows they showed included Futurama, one of my most favorite shows; and a number of odd documentaries, one about construction work. I avoided the documentaries, they were pretty inconsequential as documentaries go.

Some questions that I think should be addressed:
1. Why does Air Canada insist on using a two-pronged head-phone plug in for its movies and tv shows? They provide the headset (for free) with the two prongs, but I tried using mine and the quality was terrible. I ended up using just the left earbud of my own personal headphones. Also, they told us we could keep the headset. Great. A two pronged headset. I left mine on the plane.
2. They were clearly aware of their audience, at least in part. The A.B. episode about Osaka was not, I think, a coincidence. However, considering how much effort they put into making their announcements in all possible languages of their passengers (English, French, Japanese) and their Japanese-style meal options, why not include Japanese subtitles on the movies? I know they exist. You can find plenty of movies with appropriate subtitles. I looked around while the movies were playing and few people were watching them; I blame this on the language barrier.
3. Who picks the shows and movies for each flight? The level of entertainment quality of my flight back was far lower than my flight there. Only two movies instead of three, and one movie from the nineties. And not a very good one at that. Plus less entertaining television shows. Futurama is nice, but an odd choice. And - documentaries about construction work? Really?

I realize my ticket was ridiculously cheap and I was lucky to have such an affordable flight. And that I should have just been sleeping, anyway, like everyone else. But I found so much of their entertainment choices confusing. Not to mention those stupid headsets. Worthless.

So far... took a subway rail to gate in Seatac. Rode tiniest, noisiest plane (Dash 8-3000) to Canada. Ate Burger King and sat wondering what Japan would be like. Also - funny man at exhange office pressuring me to take more cash. Waiting for next plane at Vancouver Airport....

.... Have memorized the following phrases:
o-tay-a-lie-wa? = bathroom?
sumei masen = excuse me
kampai! = cheers!
sugoi oishi = amazingly delicious
(in retrospect - used Sumei Masen all the time. Said sugoi oishii all the time, but mainly jokingly. Never used bathroom or cheers.)...

.... Purchased some Canadian candy - wine gummies (contain no wine); giant kit kat peanut butter (do we have that in the States?); some crazy looking "mixed-up" smarties in wacky packaging...

... 20000 yen in my wallet and 17 hours to go... funny how I'm only 3 hours away (from Seattle) but it already feels so much farther...

... do we have sour cream and bacon chips in the US? Because they sure do in Canada...

(on the plane) I am coming to the realization that I better get used to feeling like I am on the outside of an inside joke being told by an entire country. I wonder if that's how foreigners feel in America. So far, big plane, small seats. Everything in English, French, and Japanese. Announcements take a long time! Recognize some (quite a lot) of French, but comprehension not great. Feel like seat neighbor is laughing at my katakana chart - but I would laugh too... About to take off, can feel the buzz in my ears, dramamine kicking in (or is that nerves?), and sometimes I have to keep myself from smiling too hard... 12 hours to go...

Ate dinner with Luke, Luke, Luke's girlfriend Dora, Dora's friend Abby. Merry Island, fusion style cuisine (went previously with Luke and Elisa). Had mojito, bouillabaisse, spicy coconut curry, and went to Wendy's. Had smallest Frosty ever (190 yen!) and listened to everyone talk about TFA. Walked around town under bright neon lights surrounded by Nihonjin dressed for the weekend. Girls in short short skirts and big teased hair; crowds of boys with bleached streaks in hair as big as the girls. Said goodbye to Luke, Dora and Abby.

Went to several bars with Keith and Luke. First bar called Hatch, white walls, white lights, tiny narrow room white benches burned-out lightbulbs in baskets fourth floor overlooking city. Last table. Surrounded by girls with doll faces, chirping Japanese, drinking cocktails. I had rum and coke (rumu coku), and Keith ordered for me. We were so big compared to the room, the other patrons. Everyone there for birthdays but us. The girls gave peace signs while the waiters snapped their pictures, everyone sang happy birthday in Japanese. We talked about the appearance of being foreign.

Next bar smallest hole in the wall, six chairs, long narrow counter, whole wall of music. Listened to Blonde Redhead's new album and drank rum and cokes; Keith got tipsy on some Corona, Luke drank gin ("on the rocks"), surly barman with shirt about seeing gruesome images over and over desensitize you to the violence. Except not in those words at all. Tiny bathroom had a squat toilet with no bar to hold! Bartender smoked cigarettes and joked in Japanese with Keith.

Left Keith and ran drunkenly to subway. Listened to music at Luke's apartment. Sipped apricot liqueur and fell asleep in the first two minutes of The Office. Woke up with slight hangover.

So, I brought my "travel journal" to work today. I put that in quotes because it's my general journal but I never write in it; it mostly contains travel revelations and scraps that I found during my stay in Japan. I'll be pulling excerpts from it but nothing is going to be in any kind of practical order. Just a warning.

It's funny, I have so much I want to say and I haven't been able to catch up with myself to say it all. That probably doesn't make any sense, but I'm falling-over exhausted now. Being back in Seattle has been a little disorienting. In Japan, I was always so hyper-aware of my surroundings. Everything was new and interesting, and I spent a lot of time just looking around me. Interacting with people - aside from my hosts, and their friends, took a lot of thought and concentration and energy. So it's like something is missing now that my environment no longer require so much attention; and I miss being constantly challenged by and involved in the world around me.

However, it's also nice to be back. I missed Thai food! which I eat on a weekly basis, and which they don't really have in Japan. Also, pho! which I eat at least twice a week, and they don't really have that also. And, Mexican food. I had some "chicken tacos" at a restaurant and while they were not horrific or terrifying, they weren't really Mexican. And tacos in the loosest sense of the word. Though, again, totally edible.

Finally, this song. Luke's such a great source for music, and I would have probably passed by the new Dntel album if he hadn't been playing it so often while I was there. This song is my new favoritest.

More about Japan to come. Maybe a nap first.