Hiroshima & Miyajima

We bought a Willer bus pass for 4 days, so besides Tokyo we could choose one more destination (it's a quite convenient thing, this bus pass; it only costs 12000 yen and you can go anywhere you want in 4 chosen days. Japan rail pass is a bit better, but two times more expensive). We chose Hiroshima, and one of Japan's most known sights - Miyajima.
We arrived in Hiroshima at 6:30 A.M. tired as hell (always reserve your bus tickets early, otherwise you'll be left with standard ones, and you can't really sleep in those), but after we left our stuff in the hostel we went to see Mazda museum. Last year we were in Stuttgart in Mercedes museum and it was ineresting to compare those two. While Mercedes museum is gigantic and the building itself is magnificent (it even has it's own tornado in the main hall...), you can see the actual production line in Mazda factory. You can also see the whole "Mazda town", as we called it, because they take you on a tour around the factory in a bus. Besides, it's free and the guide speaks good English; you only have to make a reservation the day before. Unfortunately we couldn't take photos of the production line, but we could get in some of the cars:



After the visit to the museum, we went in search for food. We wanted to try the famous Hiroshima okonomiyaki, and we ended up in a fantastic place where a nice obasan chatted all the time with us and three college students (the obasan asked Jarek how old he thinks those girls were and he said 16...). She taught us how to eat okonomiyaki Hiroshima style (don't use the chopstics, use the thing that you cut the food with, and clean the teppan /the hot metal part of the table/ with it after you eat).



Hunger satisfied, we went to see the Atomic Dome, Peace Park and Peace Museum. I can't really describe my feelings well, so let's just leave it at that.


The next day we took a tram to Miyajima - I felt really good on a tram, just like home - and it took us almost an hour to get there; it's almost 20 kilometers for the city center. Then we took a ferry to the island, where we saw the Itsukushima shrine - one of Japan's most famous views. The torii in the sea is really bigger than it looks in the photos, and it is said that if you go under it, it will bring you luck.


We also met some deers, which are a lot nicer than those in Nara (but still, they tried to eat some of our stuff).


Then we decided to climb Mount Misen, the highest peak on the island (we figured that the cable railway is for wimps, plus it would cost us 1800 yen); when we reached the top it started to rain, so we boarded the ferry completely drenched in water. The beautiful view from the top was obscured by the mist and clouds, but at least we got some excercise.


We went back to the city center and Jarek wanted to try some ramen, so we went into the first bar we saw that was selling it, and again hit the jackpot. The food cooked by an eldery couple was delicious and Jarek got what seemed like a bucket of soup. A middle-aged man sitting next to us laughed as Jarek tried to drink it all, and when he was leaving he bought us a beer, probably for appreciation of good ramen.


We left Hiroshima wet and tired, but really happy and amazed by the place and the people living there. I think we will go back there some day...

I can't believe it's already been over a week since I came back to Kyoto!

Our first day in Kyoto started slowly - at the beginning we sat at a bar, chewing breakfast like llamas and next we went to Imperial Palace's gardens to sleep on a bench. After a overnight bus trip I think it's justified, but we must have been a weird sight:

After sleeping until 12 AM we went to see one of Kyoto's most well-known temples - Kinkakuji, the Golden Pavilon. Barely avoiding a group of wild Chinese tourists, we managed to see it in relative peace. (Photo taken by a very confused Japanese: us in front of the Kinkakuji)

Photo: first plum blossoms at Kitano Tenmangu.

In the evening we went to Funaoka onsen - a very old public bath in north Kyoto (and very cheap - only 410 yen!). After teaching Jarek basic know-how (take the little bucket at the entrance, wash yourself before going into the bath, try not to atract attention to your tattoo) I told him I'd meet him in an hour. He asked me "why the hell would I spend an hour over there?" - I told him "you'll see." I left after an hour and waited alomost 15 minutes for him to emerge, totally blissful expression on his face. His only comment was "an hour is not enough..."

When I was working one day Jarek was running around Kyoto on his own - he just picked a direction and went straight ahead. He ended up climbing Mount Daimonji...

Our next trip was Arashiyama. One of the things that I love about Kyoto is that when you want to go shopping and be trampled by a huge crowd you can go to Sanjo or Shijo area, but when you want some peace and quiet and contact with nature you can go into the mountains and after a few minutes there's not a soul in sight. So we saw most of the "touristy" places - the bridge and the bamboo grove, but then we went up the river and that's what we saw:


Also the torii path in the Inari Shrine was an amazing sight:



It was snowing yesterday, which was perfect, because we had planned a trip to Kiyomizu Temple and it's said that it's the best place to admire Kyoto when it's snowing. The temple itself is known for it's wooden terrace where many unhappy couples commited "shinju" - double suicide, but you can also have a great view of the city from the said terrace. Next we went in the direction of Yasaka pagoda, down on the cute narrow streets of traditional Kyoto. We'll have to go back there sometime...

We also visited two museum and were really lucky, because now is the time for student's end-of-term exhibitions, and the entrance was free. We went to Manga Museum and Traditional Craft Gallery. Manga Museum is just basically a huge manga library - they even have all-year tickets and I can understand why. The Crafts Gallery was a fantastic place and we enjoyed the works of the students - I am still amazed that people can make such things with just a couple of simple tools. (Photo: your very own mini zen garden)



Today's evening was spent in a lovely restaurant, celebrating Mindy's and Gary's wedding. We had lots of great food and I'm eternally grateful to Mindy that she invited us, otherwise I'd probably never even dream of entering such a restaurant. Good luck you guys!

If you love me let me go (back to my boring Tokyo)

I had to wait for a while before writing about mine (or ours, in that case) trip to Tokyo. That city is gigantic, ovewhelming, and fascinating; still, I'm glad to be back in my cozy little Kyoto.

I took the (K)night bus and at 7 A.M. I was at Tokyo Central Station. I took a train to Narita Airport and spent a very nervous hour waiting for Jarek I finally met him and startled all Japanese present by jumping on him and then spinning him around like a crazy person. Weird gaijin, really. He was totally exhausted, but very excited and this fueled him until around 19:30, when he promptly passed out.

The next day we started the exploration; we lived in a cheap hotel in Asakusa, so first we walked around this district, and then headed for Akihabara - a place Jarek was dying to see (and so did I, but you wouldn't catch me admiting that :)). We saw and did a lot of geek stuff - you can get any manga, anime, action figure or techno-gadget there, so we spent quite a lot of time running around like crazy. We even went into a sex-shop once, not knowing it was a sex-shop. It was 6-stories high. (Photo: Jarek with Son Goku and Jarek... Hmm...)

Next we walked to Maru no uchi part of the city - you can get a cramp in your neck, because all the buildings are so tall...
As I said, we walked all the time - at first we thought that Tokyo is a little bit smaller (at least it looked like that on the map), so we figured - why pay for the subway? Big mistake. My feet hurt until now.

The second day we visited the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka - we saw a great short movie that you can see only there, plus bought a few Ghibli-related souvenirs - I can never get enough of Totoro! (Photo: me with Totoro and Jarek with a robot from "Laputa - castle in the sky")

After the Museum we took the subway to Shinjuku and walked south to Shibuya and Harajuku. That last one is indeed a place where all the weirdos go, even we felt out of place... (Photo: a fine example of Engrish in one of the Harajuku's shops and two girls dressed as... something.)

The last day was spent mainly on Odaiba - a man-made island connected with "mainland" Tokyo by Rainbow Bridge. It took us about 30 minutes to cross that bridge, and then we got to the "city of future" - you really feel like you've transported a few decades to the future. We visited the Miraikan Museum of new technologies and I met the cute baby seal robot. We also saw a 3-D movie about the beginning of the Universe, and the cool thing about it was that the screen was round and above our heads (the seats were tilted so we were practically laying down), so it looked like real sky...
There was an "installation" (I don't know how to call it, really) that gathered your pesonal info and then composed a song for you - it also took a sample of your voice to use in the song, but it was only after I heard a nice, Polish "DUPA" ("ass") in the speakers did I realise that the damned machinery was actually using my voice it recorded! (Photo: Rainbow Bridge)

Then we moved to Omote-sando to admire some contemporary architecture. I really liked the GYRE and Jarek's favorite was Tod's (photo below).

We finished with visiting Akihabara once again, so Jarek could buy himself some geek stuff, and then boarded the night bus to Kyoto.

Tokyo needs more than a meager 3 and a half days, but I'm glad I was able to see it at all. Perhaps I will return someday and get to know it better - it certainly deserves it...

Freezing my butt off like a boss

Everybody told me that winter in Kyoto is particulary nasty - it chills you to the bone. I've experienced temperatures in my life that would make the people living in here freeze on the spot, but still living in an old house with thin walls is quite difficult. For a country so technologically advanced, you will have problems with heating and paying with credit cards in Japan. There have to be some drawbacks, right?

During the night temperature drops to about -2 Celsius degrees, and without heating it's enough to make you uncomfortable. The Japanese use different methods to warm up; gas stoves, fan heaters, air conditioning, electric blankets... I lived in the blissfull world of central heating all my life, so I never knew how to keep myself warm like that. I have an electric futon in my room, but while it was all right in November, it's too cold just with that now, so I took the ceramic fan heater from the cellar.

But how to heat a 70 square-meter room with nothing but a meager portable heater? Not to mention that there are gaping cracks in the old-fashioned windows (which have only one layer of glass, instead of two like in Poland) and when the wind blows just a little bit they rattle and wake me up. I will not even mention waking up and changing clothes in such conditions (the clothes are also ice-cold) - you just don't want to get out of the futon in the morning.

So yesterday I did some laundry and decided to put my clothes in my wardrobe (which is probably bigger than some flats in Kyoto; about 15 square meters. I sometimes envy the people in those warm, cozy flats...), close the doors and put the fan inside to dry everything quickly; it turned out that the wardrobe is well-isolated and it takes just a few minutes to warm it inside with my little heater. I had an epiphany - from this day forth I shall sleep in my wardrobe!