What The Heck Did I Buy? Japanese Tea Edition

Being a tea drinker, I was excited to visit Japan and pickup some local favorites. When traveling, rather than buy (what I assume to be) overpriced tea at tourist friendly shops, I prefer to roll the dice and shop at the local supermarket. I managed to convince a supermarket employee in Osaka to show me to the tea section, though once I got there, I had absolutely no idea what I was looking at. Yes, I could tell there were a variety of green teas, but beyond that I was clueless. I didn't know a hand signal for "what do you usually drink when you just want a 'normal' cup of tea?" and Google Translate wasn't working. So I had to wing it.

Which brings us to today's mystery. I picked up a box of, what I thought at the time, must be tea. I realized the box contained a number of slim packets which were much easier to carry home than the whole box, so I tossed the outer packing. I ended up with a handful of packets like these guys:

Yesterday I opened one up and found it contained bright green powder:

I know that the Japanese drink powered green tea, so I wasn't shocked by the appearance.

I poured some boiling water over it, let it sit for a minute or two and took a sip.

Let's see, how to describe the flavor? In a word: yeach. Seriously, this was not tasty. I'm pretty undiscerning when it comes to tea (as I sip on my 100 black tea packets for $1.00 from Giant tea!), but man, this was beyond what I can drink.

Which makes me wonder, what the heck did I buy? It looks like tea, but maybe it's not? Or maybe I'm preparing it wrong? I'm telling you, this tastes more like powdered seaweed than tea. In retrospect, I did pick up this drink at the front of the store and not in the tea section. But it must have had some picture on the box to indicate it was tea, right?

If it really is Japanese tea and it's just an acquired taste, then I'll be glad to stick with it. But if I'm attempting to drink toilet bowl cleaner instead of tea, I'd like to know this little factoid.

So, Internet, you tell me -- what the heck did I buy?

Update: My Dad quickly responded with:

Your packets Japanese translate as:

Kyushu material green juice
3 Ingredients of Species

And he's definitely on to something -- check out this photo attached to Yeh barley juice Kyushu wild green juice dietary fiber supplement fine powder:

It's not quite clear which flavor I bought (3 ingredients of species!), but it looks like I just made myself a steaming cup of dietary fiber juice. Yum!

Thanks Dad!

In my defense, I now recall the box had a cup of green liquid on it. So I knew it was a drink, I just didn't know what type of drink it was. I also picked up some other packages of 'tea' from the tea section of the store, and am now a little more eager to try them. What with them being actual tea and not 'dietary juice fiber' (which may have been barley, cabbage and gourd powder!).

And this is the secret to successful traveling: don't kick yourself for buying the wrong drink; instead, be thankful that you've got another story to share next time the topic of tea comes up.

Caption Me: Doing Laps Edition

I'll go first: Fine, I'll have one more snack. But just one more...

Not it's your turn...leave your captions in the comments.

Japan Adventure - Day 9 (The Last Day)

Ahhh, the last day. We arrived in Tokyo late Thursday evening, so by the time we had checked in and I had taken care of some e-mail it was past 1am on Friday morning (officially, Day #9). As I lay in bed drifting off to sleep, I felt a most remarkable and disconcerting feeling: our room (on the 36th floor) was gently rocking back and forth.

That can't be right, right?

The whole experience probably lasted only a few seconds, and Shira slept right through it. But I was more than a little alarmed. I got up and hurriedly checked the web. While there was no news on the Japanese Government Weather and Earthquake site, Twitter did indeed confirm my suspicion: we had just experienced an earthquake. I wasn't the only traveler more than a little alarmed by the experience (though, not so alarmed that I took any real action. I figured no loud sirens meant there was nothing to be concerned about.)

This morning the Japanese Weather and Earthquake site did have a log entry for seismic activity 1:48 AM JST that was indeed felt in Tokyo (though it was a "1" on the JMA Seismic Activity scale). When I asked the front desk about it, they had no knowledge of the quake. Apparently, it's just us tourists that are bothered by these things.

We didn't have much time in Tokyo this morning, so we spent it wandering the area around our hotel and doing some last minute shopping. We had breakfast at an overpriced coffee shop, which included bread and bean-paste-spread and delicious chocolate-chiffon cake. Cake for breakfast? Heck yeah, this is my last day of vacation, I'm living it to the max.

Here are some parting thoughts on Japan...

What *Didn't* Surprise Us

• People, especially children, were polite and kind. For the most part everybody went out of their way to help us (except for a supermarket employee in Osaka, who didn't want to play my game of "let's figure out Japanese tea" - but I can't fault her for that). We even had two ladies stop us on the street in Hiroshima to chat with us. They wanted to know if we were tourists and how we were enjoying their city. Shira and I kept waiting for an ulterior motive, but it never came. I think they were just being nice / curious.
• The trains ran on precise schedules and were easy to navigate. In the large stations, the signage would often alternate between Japanese and English. If we did have a question, any station attendant was glad to direct us to the right track number.
• Residents of Japan really do wear surgical masks the same way we might wear a baseball cap. Apparently it's part health tool, urban camouflage and fashion statement. By the end of the trip, they were almost invisible.
• English is found where you really need it (in the train station, on some menus, etc.), but you can't depend on the residents being able to speak it. And why should you? This is Japan, after all. See the point above about people being nice. Between the language section of our guidebook, our magic food card, and lots of smiling, we got our point across just fine.
• The city is spotless. We saw few if any homeless people, and there were absolutely no pan-handlers. I can't recall traveling anywhere in the world that didn't have at least a few pan-handlers.

What *Did* Surprise Us

• The water served in restaurants was among the best tasting and purest we've ever had. I know this may seem like a random point, but it was that good. It also made the trip a lot less expensive (I'm looking at you Europe and the UK) in that we didn't have to order a drink and could just enjoy the water they served us.
• I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the Japanese take their toilets *very* seriously. When we arrived at our first hotel, the toilet had an armrest full of options. I jokingly took a snapshot of it assuming that it was just our hotel being extravagant. Not so. The hotels we stayed at, many of the restaurants we ate at and many of sites we visited had just as sophisticated toilets. Heck, the toilets at the aquarium were equipped with a music option. The Powder Room in one of our restaurants had a hands free model: you walked into the room and the seat magically lifted up, when you left, it flushed. Perhaps the interest in toilets goes along with other hygienic practices like not wearing shoes inside, or getting a warm towel handed to you when you sit down for a meal (or even the surgical mask fad mentioned above)? All I know is, I like it. America needs to step up our toilet technology if we want to compete in the 21st century. We're way behind. Ironically, as sophisticated as these are, you will also find non-Western squat toilets. In fact, we often found places that gave you a choice.
• Apparently, the Japanese don't do napkins. Either they offer the flimsiest of napkin options, or none at all. For a guy who regularly covers himself in food, this isn't ideal. The solution: I purchased a handkerchief for $3.00 and used that as a napkin. That may be the solution that many Japanese use, and it makes sense. Why waste all those paper napkins. I know that the bathroom at one of the large train stations we passed through had no paper towels or hand dryers. When Japanese men or women would come out of the bathroom, they'd produce their own hand towel, use it and return to their pocket or purse.
• They like their stamps. At quite a number of attractions there were stamps available for kids to use to memorialize their trip. I think there's a tradition of using stamps in Japanese culture, so this may be connected to that. Regardless, if you're traveling with kids in Japan (which I think would totally work), make sure they bring along a blank journal to fill with stamps.
• The hotels are generous with amenities. In all 4 hotels we stayed at (which were high quality hotels mind you), they provided free WiFi, free water and an extensive set of toiletries for your use (toothbrush, toothpaste, razor, shaving cream, comb, etc.). More impressively, they restocked them every day. Every day we'd use the complementary 1 liter water bottle, and find it replaced when we got back to the room. I'm not sure what any of this means, but I wish American hotels would be so generous.

What was Somewhat Surprising

• Bikes. It's Asia, so we expected there to be lots of bikes. But man, the amount of parking and their utility was beyond what I expected (double-decker bike parking was seen). It seemed like I could have purchased a shiny used bike for as little as $80. In both Kyoto and Hiroshima the standard was to have a child carrier in the back, and either a child carrier in the front or a basket. We saw a few folks riding around in spandex, but the vast majority of riders were regular folks just getting from point A to B. There's just something impressive about a mom, wearing high heels and a skirt, shuttling her two kids around like it's nothing. Probably because to her, it is nothing. Adults almost never wore helmets, though kids sometimes did. One last point about bikes: I've always been told that the proper way to size them is to have the seat high enough so that your legs are full stretched out to reach the peddles. Nearly all the bikes we saw had the seats way too low by this standard. Perhaps this arrangement works better for the stop and go city driving these folks were doing? Or maybe I've been doing it wrong all this time.
• Food: it had its easy and hard parts. In some respects, eating was tricky because there are just some Japanese cuisines that don't have vegetarian/fish options. One night we must have walked into three different restaurants and were effectively turned away because they had nothing that we could eat. On the other hand, the restaurants knew exactly what we were talking about when we asked for a vegetarian / fish option and were glad to work with us to find an option. Heck, one restaurant just had a sign on their menu: we have no vegetarian meals. On the easy side of things, many restaurants had English menus, which made ordering much easier. But, Shira was convinced that the options on the English menu were limited when compared to the Japanese menus. In the end, it was impossible to starve while in Japan, but there were definitely times when finding food was on the trickier side.

For most of this trip I've been racking my brain trying to figure out if Japan is any more or less foreign than other places we've visited. Sure, the written language is impenetrable, but we were in such tourist friendly places that it didn't really matter. And did a Spanish menu in Buenos Aires really mean anything to me? (No, not at all.) Sure, we got tripped up by a number of conventions (ooops, we walked into the Thai restaurant without taking off our shoes first), but these were relatively few and far between. In the end, the question is probably irrelevant. What makes travel fun and interesting is embracing the location you're in, and being willing to look like an idiot. Once you can do that, everything else (except trying to buy Japanese tea in a grocery store) is easy.

View Photos

Japan Adventure - Day 8

I'm writing this post from our train, a Shinkansen (or bullet train), as we go from Hiroshima to Tokyo. We're traveling at 169Mph. While they both allow and encourage eating, the train is spotless. There's no dining car, but every once in a while a lady with a cart full of goodies comes by to offer us snacks. Every seat we've sat in has a note telling us to turn off the ringers on our cell phones, and that if we must take a call, it should be done so at the end of the car (outside a set of doors). A train full of cell phone free cars, how novel (and pleasant!).

Out the window I see various small towns zip by. In many respects, they could pass for any American town. There's houses, apartment buildings, shopping centers, malls and baseball diamonds. I think I just saw a bowling alley roll by. The houses do appear to be packed in more closely than back home. The big difference between here and the US (besides the Japanese script on the signs) is the presence of rice paddies. Each town seems to have them, and they often make up the green space within and between towns. From the train they look like green rectangles delicately filled with water that have rows of plants popping up in them. I suppose it's like driving through the Midwest and seeing cornfield after cornfield.

Dinner tonight has been another culinary adventure. On the way out of town we hit a grocery store and made our way to the prepared food section. I showed one of the store employees our card that says what we can and can't eat and pointed to a number of different meals. She then checked them out and reported back to us which were vegetarian friendly and which either contained meat or had a meat sauce. So far we've cracked open two of the meals and the results have been...well...unique. I assume we're eating vegetables and tofu, but other than the carrots, I can't really put names to anything. There's the crunchy purple things, gelatinous purple things and blocks of tofu like things. But it's an authentic experience, so I'm loving it.

We started our day with a tour of the Hiroshima Mazda plant. While the Mazda history was interesting, and the various vehicles on display noteworthy, it was the view of the assembly line at the end that proved to be the best part. It was like out of a movie. We watched as a dashboard was raised from an elevator and swung into place, a worker then bolted it in. A few moments later, the elevator disappeared and popped back up again with another one, and the worker repeated his task. We saw a glue robot apply a line of glue to a windshield, and then saw a worker snap it into place. As we finished our section of the assembly line, cars were being lifted into elevated racks, so that workers could access them from below. The whole experience was like a watching a giant Rube Goldberg machine at work, where the output just happens to be a new Mazda. I can't imagine the amount of engineering that goes into making a place like this work.

After the Mazda plant we made our way back to Peace Memorial Park to take in the sights that we missed our first night in town. This time the park was packed with people, including many school groups. At the Children's Memorial we caught a group of school children singing and presenting a collection of paper cranes (I assume they folded them), which were added to the thousands that are already present there. (The cranes are symbolic of the wish for peace, and are folded in memory of a 10 year old girl who died of leukemia 10 years after she was exposed by the bomb.). From there, we made it to the nearby museum.

A quick note on Japanese school children: good lord are they polite! Seriously, if I bump into *them* they turn and bow repeatedly. If they think a group of them are blocking my shot, one alerts the group and they all scatter. It's like they respect old people or something.

The museum takes one through the history of Hiroshima, up to the fateful day of the bombing and into the aftermath. It's really well done in nearly every way. They present declassified government memos which explain how the US chose them as a target and the logic the US used in deploying the bomb. They have two models of the city, one before the blast, one after, and the results are predictably stunning. The bomb nearly leveled the entire city. They have artifacts from the explosion ranging from a watch stopped at 8:15am, to a steel girder that appears to have effortlessly been reshaped by the blast. The most gut wrenching part of the museum takes you through the lives of the survivors both immediately after the blast and beyond. Not since the Holocaust museum have I see such devastating suffering.

The part of Hiroshima that I find most remarkable is this: they are devastated by our attack, and what's their next move? To make themselves into a city of peace and a beacon of hope that nuclear warfare will be abolished. There's no hatred or animosity towards the US, there's only a plea for peace. The museum makes clear that the atomic bomb was inhumane, but they also accept responsibility for starting the Pacific war and that war itself is devastating.

Someone noted before our trip that with a visit to Hiroshima, and our past visit to Pear Harbor, we'll have seen the symbolic start and finish of the Pacific conflict. They were right, and this hallowed ground, like Pearl Harbor, is a definite must see.

View Photos

Who says you can't buy happiness?

Apparently you can, and for only 130 yen from a Japanese vending machine. What a deal!

Japan Adventure - Day 7

Day 7 was supposed to be our hiking day, so naturally, it was raining. Still, we took the ferry to the island of Miyajima, and set course to hike to the top of Mt. Misen.

Shira arrived in Japan with an umbrella, but I figured I'd pick one up if I needed to. One of the things you realize quickly is just how essential an umbrella is to most Japanese. When the sun is out, or even if it isn't, many women have them up for sun protection. Quite a few bikes had an odd protrusion that only made sense when when a lady rode by in the rain: ahhh yes, that's an umbrella holder. So naturally, I spent a few bucks and picked up an umbrella for the hike up the mountain. To be out in the rain without an umbrella is to truly stand out as a foreigner.

Before the hike we had to walk through various shops and restaurants. I was able to fortify myself for the trek up the mountain with fish meat and soybeans on a stick. It was actually quite good!

The hike itself was challenging (only about 2.5k, but all uphill, mainly through steps), beautiful and completely peaceful. It wasn't until we approached the summit that we started to see a handful of people.

The island of Miyajima is crawling with what are effectively domesticated deer. They wander within a few feet of tourists and will eagerly eat out of your hands if you let them. It's quite a sight to see. On the way up the mountain Shira caught sight of what must have been some type of pheasant in the woods. Man, it was gorgeous. There was a mommy (assuming the mommy's plumage was more plain than the daddy's) and a baby, too. Unfortunately, it was raining and I had the wrong camera out to capture this guy. But trust me, he was stunning.

As we approached the summit of Mt. Misen we started to encounter more and more shrines and finally we arrived at the hut where Kobo Daishi lit a flame some 1200 years ago, that's still burning to this day. Impressive stuff. By the time we reached the summit and finished exploring the various shrines at the top the rain had stopped.

We made our way down the mountain via an alternate route and came across even more shrines; some as small as just a baby Buddha statue and a few coins tossed next to it as an offering. This, combined with the many rock piles made for an interesting hike.

At the bottom of the mountain was yet another temple to check out. After all the temples we'd seen in Kyoto, you'd think we'd have seen it all by now. But Dasiho-in Temple still had some wonders to show us. Like the 500 Rakan statues spread out throughout the paths which all contain unique facial expressions, or the Seven Deities of Good Fortune (insert joke about the Seven Dwarfs here), or the Ichigan Daishi which will allow you to realize your one wish if you pray hard enough for it. And there was more, too, but I'll spare you the complete details.

We finished our hike in the best way possible: Shira had blueberry "ice cream" (hard to say if it was actually made with milk, but it was tasty) and I had "fish meat" with cheese on a stick. I couldn't identify the fish or cheese used in this treat, but all in all, it was good.

Miyajima, even in the rain, was a hit.

View Photos

Japan Adventure - Day 6 (Hiroshima)

We arrived in Hiroshima as the sun was going down, but that didn't keep us from heading to the Peace Memorial Park, the location that essentially marks ground zero for the World's first atomic bomb strike.

The first structure you encounter is the A-Bomb Dome, which is the skeleton of a building which managed to "survive" the strike. (Most structures in the city were incinerated in the blast.) It's absolutely striking and my photos can't really do it justice.

From there, we walked around the Peace Memorial Park, taking in a number of other monuments, including the Peace Bell and Atomic Flame (scheduled to go out when the last nuclear weapon is disposed of).

Photographically, arriving with the light disappearing was somewhat frustrating. But it made for the perfect ambiance for taking in these important monuments. There was essentially nobody else around, so we had the place to ourselves.

Our plan is to come back in a couple days and take in all the sights again (including the museum), but as a first glimpse, our evening stroll turned out to be ideal.

View Photos

Japan Adventure - Day 6 (Osaka)

Day 6 was supposed to be a simple travel day from Kyoto to Hiroshima. However, train travel is so dang effortless in Japan (at least with the JR Rail Pass), that it was a no brainer to split our trip up with a stop in Osaka. Specfically, we wanted to hit the Osaka aquarium.

Just how easy is train travel in Japan? Well, you walk into a railway office, and tell the ticket agent where you want to go. They then reserve you a spot on a specific train, and tell you what time, track number, car number and seat number you'll be sitting in. All you have to do is show up to the right track, and queue up next to the car number printed on the ground. Easy.

The Lonely Planet guidebook said that Osaka's Aquarium ranks as one of the best in the world, and I'd have to agree. It's a modern aquarium like, say, the Baltimore one we're familiar with, but it's even larger. While they had the usual otters, dolphins and rays that we're used to, it also contained a number of animals I'd never seen before.

Take the giant spider crab, which looks like it belongs on the set of a Sci-Fi movie. Or the impressive collection of Jellyfish which are essentially a living art canvas. And then there were the squid that looked like beings from another planet. Though my favorite animal in the aquarium wasn't even a fish, it was the Capybara. This guy is a rodent, and in his pictures, he looks like you'd expect a rodent to look. There's just one catch, he's absolutely ginormous. Seriously, you can't believe how big he is still you see him in person.

Lunch today was *hot* udon with eggplant tempura, a side order of edamame and rice wrapped in deep fried tofu (oddly, served cold). It was definitely a winner. Though, for dessert I ordered a crepe with banana, whipped cream and chocolate sauce. It was beyond heavenly. Don't worry, this morning I had a random bean-paste based snack for breakfast; don't think I'm not getting my fill of Japanese treats.

Also on the food front, I can report that the Japanese have mastered the American style breakfast. This morning I had pancakes and toast that would give Denny's a run for its money.

Onward to Hiroshima!

View Pictures

Japan Adventure - Day 5

Day 5 was spent exploring the Arashiyama area of Kyoto. We started with a hike up to the Arashiyama Monkey Park, twatayama, where the guidebook explained to us we'd find monkeys running around with us while we could feed them from within a cage.

This was only partially true, it turned out. Yes, you could go into a building and feed the monkeys while they stuck their hands through wire mesh, but it was also possible to leave the building and just observe the monkeys in their natural habitat. It turned out to be great fun. Though, I think Shira was just finally excited to see a site that didn't involve a temple or a shrine.

Speaking of shrines, as we left the monkey park, we noticed yet another shrine, this one decked out with both rice paddles and wooden tiles. Written on the rice paddles were various wishes (one hoping to get into law school, another hoping that his girlfriend would fall back in love with him). For $5, you could purchase your own paddle or tile, and write your own wish on it. (Of course, this being Japan, it's all on the honor system.) So, in the spirit of our lock-bridge in Paris, we purchased a tile and left a wish. I'm not sure how long these tiles hang out there before they are collected, but if you're in Japan, feel free to stop by and visit our wish at the base of the Monkey park.

Lunch on Day 5 was quite the adventure. We went for Zen Buddhist Vegetarian cuisine, which was served in fairly formal Japanese style. The two Japanese ladies having lunch next to us, sat on their knees the whole time and had their tray of food resting directly on the mat they were sitting on. The restaurant knew this was a bit much for us, and was kind enough to bring out little TV trays to rest our food on. Still, I have no idea how they sat in that same position for an entire meal without their legs falling asleep.

As for the food...well, just wow. I won't lie to you; eating that meal was a bit like being on a Game Show. In front of us were a number of dishes, with only the rice being recognizable. I couldn't tell if the food was hot or cold, spicy or sweet, solid or gelatinous. Each bite, nibble or slurp was a roll of the dice. Most of the items were quite good (the large round, solid objects in broth, for example), with only a few of them being completely inedible (what appeared to be seaweed salad with a very heavy dose of slime, as well as an especially gelatinous square with a dab of green on top). Overall, the meal was truly unique and I wouldn't have traded it for anything in the world.

Dinner was in many respects the opposite of lunch, as it was almost effortless. We asked the restaurant for a Thai suggestion, and they not only provided one but called ahead to make sure they had vegetarian options. They told us what bus to get on, and gave us a detailed map to the restaurant. When we got off at the correct bus stop, a nice Japanese man noticed our confusion and asked if he could help us. He pointed us in the right direction, and then after a few moments, we realized we were actually headed to the same restaurant. We walked there together, kibbizting along the way. When we arrived at the restaurant, they had both an English menu and a vegetarian-English menu, as well as a waitress who more or less spoke English. Even the seating was perfect, as we sat out on the deck during a perfect Kyoto evening and ate wonderful Thai food. It was magical. The only catch was that we had to take our shoes off at the entrance to the restaurant and wear borrowed slippers to walk out on the deck. Turns out, they don't have a pair of size 11 slippers, so I had to make do with a comically smaller pair.

Let's talk toasters for a second. On the way back to hour hotel, I wanted to step into another store on the scale of Bic Camera that we visited the day before: Yodobashi. While there, I was curious what kind of options they have for toaster ovens (the one we have at home is on its last legs). When we looked at Best Buy they had 4 or 5 choices at most. In Yodobashi they had, and I've got photos to prove it, 60+ different models to choose from. And, we're talking in configurations that I could only dream of (double-decker trays, anyone? half-rounded tray for cooking pizza?, and so on). A quick Google Search showed that that the Japanese do indeed have a fondness for toaster ovens (apparently they are compact and often do double duty as the primary oven in the house). But, consider the puzzle selection on the Toy & Hobby floor. In Toys-R-Us there's what, a wall of different puzzles you can choose from? Here there were, and again, I have the photos prove it, 6 large aisles of puzzles to choose from. I'm telling you, they take shopping to a level we just can't appreciate.

Today was our last day in Kyoto, with our trip continuing on to Hiroshima first thing in the morning. I leave Kyoto just in absolute awe of it's history and the temples that it offers. I can't recall ever being to a place where houses of worship were both in this quantity and on this scale. It's truly something you have to see to believe.

View Photos

Japan Adventure - Day 4

For Day four of our Japan adventure we decided to head out to the Lonely Planet Guidebook's top rated temple: Shoren-in. While we could have taken a train or bus, we opted instead to walk. The amazing part is that while walking to this temple, we must have passed 4 or 5 other massive temples along the way. Some of these are easily multi-block structures. But no, we stayed focused. Well, mostly focused.

We ended up exploring Chion-in, the temple right before our final destination. This particular site turned out to be almost comically large. Every time we'd turn a corner we'd find yet another set of steps to climb, which would take us to a new set of buildings to explore. Along the way we came across the largest bell in Japan, as well as a number of other interesting sites.

We finally made it to Shoren-in, and found the grounds to be surprisingly small compared to many of the other temples we'd seen that day. Unlike other structures though, this one allowed us (for a few bucks) to go in and make ourselves comfortable. It turns out, Shoren-In is rated so high because it's the perfect place for quiet contemplation, not because of its massive size.

From Shoren-in, we made our way to the sprawling Heian-jingu shrine and toured its gardens.

While I didn't eat anything on a stick during day 4, we did have cold udon noodles with tofu and vegetables. I think I'll be sticking to eating my udon hot, but it was still interesting to try this delicacy. We broke down and visited a Persian / Indian restaurant for dinner. Oh, to eat naan, curry and falafel - it was delicious!

After putting in (according to my Galaxy S5's pedometer) about 29,000 steps for the day, I finally pleaded with Shira to let us take the train home rather than walk it. Of course the Kyoto metro system is easy to navigate and spotlessly clean.

We hit one final 'temple' before heading back to our hotel: Bic Camera. Bic Camera isn't just a camera store, it's 7 massive floors of retail space that sells any and all things electronics. This place makes Best Buy look like a bunch of amateurs. It's shopping overload on a level I can't even begin to describe.

View Photos

Japan Adventure - Day 3

Today we explored Kyoto on foot, no minor feat considering how large the city is. The plan was simple: we'd start at our hotel and essentially walk North. By the end of the day, we should be near a vegetarian restaurant the guidebook suggested and should have hit a number of interesting sites along the way.

Our first stop was the Higashi Hongaji temple. From the street, the temple didn't look like much. But, step through the gates and you realize the grounds are huge and the buildings massive. Inside, they are down right stunning, with an alter area that defies my description.

To my further amazement, this experience repeated itself again at the next temple we stopped at, the Nigishi Hogan-ji. Again, the buildings were absolutely epic. This time we caught the tail end of a service, which contained wonderfully soothing chanting.

From the temples we made our way to the Nishiki Market, which was an eclectic combination of market stalls. In one stall, you could buy fresh veggies, the next raw sea urchin, the next cooked sea urchin, the next a pair of shoes, and then next may be a tiny sushi restaurant. It was a wonderful collection of sites, sounds and smells. For a snack, we stopped at a stall which offered what appeared to be mushroom and potato cakes on a stick. What we ended up eating was some gelatinous, fish tasting item that defies explanation. There are many wonderful foods in Japan that we've tried, this wasn't one of them.

From the market we made our way to Nijo-Jo castle. Like the temples earlier in the day, the outside of the castle was quite plain. But step inside, and you're quickly treated to a bright, colorful and gorgeous outer gate. The inside of the castle itself and the surrounding gardens were also quite beautiful.

After much walking and exploring, it was finally time to track down that vegetarian restaurant. And of course, when we arrived at the address and stopped a passing Kyoto resident, we learned that the restaurant was no more. D'oh. Luckily, there was another vegetarian restaurant a few blocks away, so we had dinner there instead.

Throughout the city we found an number of smaller, working religious shrines. While not on the scale of the temples we visited, they are quite interesting in their own way. It's fun to try to figure out what's going: I think that woman just said a prayer, dropped some coins in a slot, and then rung the bell. And that woman over there, rubbed the forehead of a stone lion, and then rubbed her own forehead, then rubbed the cheeks of the lion and then her own cheeks. And are those small sheets of paper filled with prayers and then tied onto that structure? I suppose I could Google all this to find out what it means, but for now it's more fun to just observe and try to piece this together on my own.

View Photos

Japan Adventure - Days 1 and 2

We're in Japan! We landed yesterday after an uneventful (and dare I say, pleasant) flight. After 13 hours on the plane, our top priority was navigating to our hotel, getting dinner and hitting the sack.

Thanks to Shira's planning and an organized airport and train system, getting to Tokyo was painless. And thanks to T-mobile offering free data while we're here, we were able to use Google Navigation on our phones to find our hotel.

We had dinner at a noodle bar, and between our guidebook's phrase section and an English menu had no problem ordering. The noodles were good, as were the mixed vegetable skewers. But the winner was an edamame like dish that was sauteed heavily in garlic. Yum!

We only had half a day in Tokyo before we jumped on a train to Kyoto (where I'm currently writing out this post).

There're only about 1,000 things to do in Tokyo, so figuring out how to spend a morning isn't exactly trivial. In the end, we settled on checking out the Fish Market and Hama-rikyu Gardens.

The Fish Market was highly recommended by the Lonely Planet guidebook, but it also warns that it's not really a tourist attraction--it's a working market. And they were right, folks zip around in fork-lifts and it's a wonder I wasn't run over while snapping photos.

The market is huge, and before we found any fish we found fruit and vegetables. While oggling the selection, I suggested to Shira that we pick up some grapes. After all, we weren't sure where our next meal was coming from. So, she grabbed a neatly packaged bunch and went to pay. I walked off, and snapped more photos. She eventually returned without the grapes. What happened, I asked? Oh, she explained, the grapes weren't $2.70 like we thought, but $27.00. For *one* bunch. Apparently, we didn't just find the fruit section, we found the fancy fruit section.

Eventually we did discover the fish section of the market and it didn't disappoint. There were all manner of sea creatures on display, many of which I couldn't begin to identify. The market is huge, but we saw more than enough carnage for Shira to declare our visit over. Seriously, there are quite a few photos that I simply can't post, as this is a family friendly blog.

It was about 10:30am after we finished the market, and time to eat again. So, we took our hotel concierge's suggestion, and got Sushi at the "outer market" next door to the Fish Market. Purely based on proximity the market, it had to be fresh, right?

(I have to pause now to say that our train conductor just came into our car to check our tickets. This is the second or third time he's come into our car, and each time, he bows before entering, and leaving. And I'm not talking a quick bow, but one where he pauses, closes his eyes and bows. I'm not holding my breath for Amtrak to implement this policy, but it's one that I find oddly comforting.)

After the market we made our way to Hama-rikyu Gardens, which were fantastic. They won me over immediately by offering an audio tour included in our $3.00 (per person) admission. The gardens are both beautiful and filled with history. It was a terrific site to complement the rough and tumble fish market.

And now we're heading to Kyoto to continue our adventure.

So far, Japan is living up to much of the hype. The trains are spotless and run on time; the people are warm and friendly; even the image of packing the trains to capacity proved itself true when we took a rush our train this morning. Getting around and communicating hasn't been a problem. Though in Tokyo, I wouldn't expect it to be. The two most important phrases I've used are: a-ri-ga-to (thank you) and oy-shi-kat-ta (that was delicious!). Everything else has been accomplished with pointing, smiling, bowing and English.

Most importantly, we're having a blast!

Day 1's Pictures and Day 2's Pictures