OSAKA AND KYOTO

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So last week (depending on when you read this), I took Friday afternoon and Monday morning off to give myself a bit of an extended weekend. Another fun trip was on the to-do list, so I gave myself some breathing room to go down to Osaka and Kyoto for some exploring with the extra bonus of meeting up with Erin, a CBYX friend who is living in Kochi City teaching English.

But before I could get to the fun of adventuring, some stress and business. As soon as I sat on the train to work, I realized I forgot my phone charger at home. I was planning on going straight from work to the train station, but being the frugal person I am, I decided against that in order to go home, get my charger, then head to the station. Well, that just cut down the time I had at work. Not bad usually, but I actually had stuff to do that day. (Rare, I know...)

That morning I had a meeting with the company's Connectivity 'team', aka one guy, to discuss stuff for my project. Well, after the meeting, I realized two things. First, I've been putting the cart before the horse for a good part of my project. That hasn't been helpful, but better late than never, right? Second, there is no communication between my project and the other relevant groups within the company. I'm definitely putting that one full on my boss. What we covered in the meeting was essentially what I did at the very beginning of my project. I'm stoked to be done here...

The meeting ran a little long, so I had to hustle back to my office, type a few things and an email out, and then finally get the heck outta dodge. Long story short, I made it home, got my charger, and got to the train station, with a little bit of time to spare. Let the relaxing and adventuring begin.

Once you get to the Shinkansen specific area, it gives you quite a different feel. It's a lot more relaxed, a lot quieter, and just gives off a better vibe. In preparation for my new journey on the bullet train, I did as you're supposedly required to do; I bought myself a bento box and a beer for the ride.

I waited on the platform, saw one train come and go, but then my chariot arrived. I got on the sleek N700 Shinkansen on the Nozomi SuperExpress line (whaaaaat) and found my seat. Before I could even sit down, the train was already leaving the station. Talk about efficient.

I was giddy like these little kids the entire way down.

Sidenote: that's slowly become my happy dance, be it eating something delicious, going for a ride in an awesome train, or wherever else gets me happy.

But yeah, this thing was AWESOME. Sorry Deutsche Bahn, but ICEs can't hold a candle to Shinkansens. (I'll come back to this later)

In my beautiful window seat on the sunny day I got comfy and enjoyed my delicious bento box selection, coincidentally just as we rolled by work and I said bye for the weekend. But seriously, what a ride!!! Shinkansens are unbelievably smooth, ridiculously fast, and just all around awesome. I was a little worried the whole time though, cause it went by almost too fast, which made me think the ride was going to be over before I could even fully enjoy it. But regardless, I wish I could jump on one of them everyday. What an absolutely pleasant journey!!!

Quicker than I could think, we arrived in Osaka. It was seriously too fast. But I departed my awesome ride, and got ready for some exploration. First up, I headed to the Osaka Sky Garden, a pretty cool looking skyscraper, that was apparently named one of the top 20 buildings around the world. It was cool, and the veranda around the top gave a great view over Osaka with the sun slowly dropping towards the horizon.

From there, I went to my capsule hostel and checked in. To be honest, I was pretty excited to sleep in this capsule hostel. I had it in my mind that this was something unique to Japan, so I was excited to give it a go. More on the overall experience to come, but I checked in, got my stuff situated, but then hit the road to go do some more exploring. Night time in Osaka, a good time to wander around.

To start, I needed food and beer. Through a quick googling, I headed to a place called Beer Belly, quite the appropriate name. There, I enjoyed some delicious pub fare with some Minoh Beer. The highlight was their Stout, pervious winner of the World Beer Cup's Stout and Dry Stout category. It was heavenly. Truth.

Trying to be responsible, I asked the bartender if I could buy the pint glass for my collection. He refused, and said they don't sell glasses there. If I wanted one, I'd have to go to their brewery in Minoh (totally out of the way from everywhere) and get one. WTF? Why are people unwilling to take my money for a damn glass? What has this world come to?!?!

Upset, I snagged the coaster to spite the cool-turned-mean bartender, and hit the road. I did a good bit of wandering around, and, with my busted camera and crappy tripod in tow, got a little practice with my night photography. I got a few good ones. Tired, and ready for sleep, I headed back to the hostel and hit the sack.

As I said, the capsule hotel was a good success. It was definitely an interesting experience, and honestly, it's a perfect solution for traveling. A simple place to sleep and clean up is all you need, and it fit the bill perfectly. Plus, they had an onsen in their basement, which I took full advantage of to provide a nice and relaxing way to start the day. The only downside was the pretty weak mattress. But that aside, it was pretty awesome. Utility at its finest. Win.

After getting freshened and cleaned up, I headed off to meet Erin, but grabbed breakfast at Eggs 'n Things on the way. Every time someone walked in, the leading waitress says 'Ohaiyo Gosaimasu', and then the entire remainder of the staff echoed it. Necessary? No. Weird? A little bit, but that's how it is. But as a plus to the ambience, they were playing some Jason Mraz and it was a very Hawaiian-esque atmosphere. A great place for an omelette and some fried potatoes.

While I was there eating, I was sitting across from a mom and her son. They ordered some pancakes, which came with a foot-tall tower of whipped cream on them. The kid's face when they came out was absolutely priceless. Pure shock and wonder, I wish I coulda gotten a picture of it.

Satiated and ready for a good day, I headed to the main station. There, I met up with Erin!!! We wasted no time, and got caught up as we started wandering around and headed first to the Osaka Castle. We went through it and had a good look over the city as well as saw some cool artifacts and stuff. Afterwards, we sat around at a plaza nearby the Castle, ate some snacks, and got a total kick out of all the little kids chasing after the pigeons. It was awesome. Apparently chasing pigeons is a big deal in Japan, and it was on full display for our enjoyment.

From there we headed down to Tennoji Park, walked around a beautiful garden, and then got some Takoyaki. With a good bit of exploring under our belts, we figured it was time for something to drink. Using the Osaka Craft Beer Map I got the night before (well, at least something I remembered from it) we headed to Yellow Ape Craft to drink a craft brew and people watch on the street. I got a delicious Rauch Bock and hers tasted like the beautiful offspring of a lemon and an orange mixed with a bunch of hops.

From there, we picked up our bags from the station and jumped on a train to head to Kyoto. A quick half hour and we arrived ready for a new city to explore. We got in and found our airBnB, a nice quaint little place near the Imperial Castle. After we threw our stuff down and got off our feet for a bit, we started moving and shaking.

First we headed down to the main market area. The main market was closed, but we found a nice street close by, and I finished up another part of my Christmas shopping. From there we tried to find this Pontocho area, a quaint street of cool restaurants. Well for the second time in as many months, I got a bit turned around and led us the wrong direction. I didn't go as far out of the way as in Korea, but we eventually found the street and it turned out to be pretty great!

We didn't stop and eat, but admired the cool place with tons of people and cool-looking restaurants all over the place. We decided to just chill out by the river for a bit, which was super cool, and a good place to take a break. From there, we walked down a main drag towards some temples on the mountainside. Yasaka Shrine was lit up and pretty, so we walked through and enjoyed the tranquility.

Just a short walk away was the Kodaiji Temple. Erin heard that it was specially lit up at night, and oh boy was she right. They had a laser light show on one of the sand beds, (I might post the video I got of the light show) and the rest of the temple was lit up as well, including the bamboo grove, which looked absolutely awesome. The place was really cool, and even gave some glimpses over the rest of the city, as the Shrine was on the side of the mountain.

We had a truly successful first few hours in Kyoto. From Kodaiji, we slowly meandered back to our AirBnB to rest our feet and our bodies for more adventuring to come.

We awoke to a very rainy Sunday. The cloud was really grey, the rain was pretty heavy and constant, and it was a clearly typical fall day. But, despite the soggy conditions, it turned out to be an awesome day, and the rain just added to the great atmosphere with the clouds and the fog all around. We set out to begin another great day in paradise.

First up, Kinkakuji, aka the Golden Temple. Let's just say it's named that for a reason... It was super extravagant, and even had a golden chicken on top. I could only imagine how many BBC Listserv points I would've won if I left with that thing... But the place was very scenic, and as I said, the rain and fog really added to the overall feel of the place.

Next was Ryoanji, another Temple in the area of Kinkakuji, and turned out to be even more beautiful. There were fewer people, which is quite the plus, but the layout of the place was very tranquil, subdued, and peaceful. There's also a world-renowned rock garden in one of the buildings there. As Erin said, "that's my kinda garden."

From Temples to Castles. We grabbed a bus headed toward the center of town to go check out Nijo Castle. The bus was clutch, and I'll cover that later, but we got right up to the castle with our public transport, and opted for a little lunch. We found a little inconspicuous cafe near the castle and popped in for some coffee, sandwiches, and a Beatles-fueled atmosphere. Along with our meal we had some good deep conversations, including what we've discovered about ourselves so far in Japan, which I'm still trying to come up with a good answer for...

Back to reality, we had a great lunch, watched the rain and some passers by, then headed into the castle. Nijo Castle was also quite awesome. A huge 'museum' of the shogun's former residence, with multiple palaces and buildings, including a large buttress that gives off a good view of the city and surrounding mountains, and a small garden where we were able to glimpse into a Japanese wedding party.

Castled, Templed, and Shrined out for the time being, we needed some craft beer and a place to chill. I read the Kyoto Brewing Company's site that morning, and it showed that their tasting room was open that day. How auspicious!!! So we headed down that way.

After a quick bus ride and a short walk, Erin found a closed building with KBC's logo on it; it ended up being closed. :-/ there was some definite disappointment and a lot of sadness. Turns out I read the website wrong, as they were open the previous day but we're closed on that day. What. A. Bummer.

Not letting our spirits get down and too dry, we headed off to another place, Bugalow, recommended to me as a good craft beer hub in Kyoto. Oh boy was that a good recommendation, as they provided some DEEEEEELICIOUS food and craft beer. Here's what we had: Lamb curry and bread, spicy steamed lamb, hot sausage and mash, and spicy chicken in Chinese pepper sauce. Along with a mouth-watering Coffee Stout and some other great local beers. Holy shit was all of that delicious. And the beer matched it all perfectly.

Satiated and contented with happy taste buds, we went back down on our new favorite bus line to the Toji temple, as it too was advertised to be lit up at night. Holy shit, this too was soooooooooo pretty. Just amazing. Again, with my crappy tripod and busted camera, I got a few good shots of the place. There were two big buildings you could go into, and both of them had some awesome statues. Most of them were Buddha statues. But in one of the buildings there were also a good number of statues of Buddhas warriors. Overall, we hit the jackpot again on our night time wandering.

But after a full day of walking around and exploring, we were really struggling at the end. Eventually we dragged our way back to our airBnB, plopped down, and watched a really intense drama about some Japanese companies. It was intense. And we saw a commercial where Tommy Lee Jones could breathe fire. Completely pleased with such a great day, sleepy time, she come.

That Monday, we had another relaxed morning. Made some breakfast, got all packed up, and headed to the train station. It was a sad goodbye, but it was an absolute pleasure traveling with Erin.

After a short wait and getting my bento box and beer I jumped on my Shinkansen headed back to Tokyo, and again, what a great way to travel. I could see myself coming back to Japan if for nothing else than to ride Shinkansens for two weeks. We'll see...

But the ride back was beautiful. Foggy and cloudy, but that fog and cloudiness was hugging all of the mountains and trees along the tracks. That paired with the full change in foliage made it a perfect fall train ride home. Absolutely beautiful.

Sadly, all good things come to an end, as I got back to Tokyo, I headed straight to work for another week on the job.

A Badass Travel Partner

CBYX truly does pick some of the highest caliber people you can find, and Erin is no exception. I was really glad we were able to meet up and travel together, as I learned a lot more about her and got to see how cool of a person she is.

She's a great human being making some plays in the world and helping people out in the process. And from the sounds of it, I'm super stoked that she's been gaining such a great experience in Kochi and getting to know the new country and culture here. Of course it's not always easy, but she seems to be living, learning, and growing like a champ.

Erin, I had a great time with you exploring, drinking great beer, eating great food, and having some great conversations with you in Osaka and Kyoto. I'm super glad we were able to meet up and I can't wait to hear what other adventures you get into here in Japan!!!

But Pretty Things...

One of the cool things that Erin and I connected on was our desire to capture the world around us and the experiences we go through as best we can. Also, as we found out, that usually means we're the ones lagging behind trying to get a cool picture and slowing things down to get the full experience.

Well, she filled me in on one particular time in her travels where this got in the way of things. One of her friends was trying to move on from one place to the next, but Erin was trying to stay. Her response to something on the order of "Hey, let's go..." was "But pretty things!!!" There is no better way to describe the desire to fully enjoy and soak up the experience and sights during traveling.

But pretty things...

Buses in Kyoto

Our adventure on Sunday really took advantage of the Kyoto Bus Company, and oh boy did they deliver. Everywhere we wanted to go, regardless of where it was, there was a bus that took us from right where we were to right where we wanted to go within a half an hour. Not only was it essentially set up for us, but it was a flat fee per ride. Great access and great prices. Sooooooooo BAUS.

One weird thing though, was the weird English language dub on one of the buses. It sounded unbelievably robotic and weird. I'm pretty sure the speech function on any platform could do better, but for some reason the one they went with was awkward and a bit scary...

Speaking of sounds, every bus driver had a very distinct speaking voice, all of which varied tremendously. One of them sounded like a drunken child that couldn't stop slurring his words. However, another sounded just like a DJ on a radio station that played nothing but smooth jazz, and he just finished his recording career and moved to the broadcasting booth. Something fun to listen to on our trips throughout Kyoto.

Frisbee Invitation

So this coming weekend I'm playing with one of the teams here in Tokyo (Kuru) at the 2015 GAIA Ultimate tournament here in Japan. Apparently it's right at or close to the base of Mt. Fuji, so we'll get to play with that in the background. It should be awesome. Also, I shaved my beard to go with the rest of the guys on the mustache theme, so it's gonna be awesome.

Well I was recently invited to play with a couple of different teams at Japan Mixed Nationals, a tournament taking place on December 5-6. It is possible that I could make it, as I'll be in China and still in Asia. However, if I wanted to make it, I'd have to either skip out on some of the training module we'll have in Beijing or get there late on Saturday. Regardless of which option I went with there, I'd also have to pay over $400 for a flight back to Tokyo, and then over $100 for a train ride down to the tournament.

I hate being so frugal sometimes because it definitely gets in the way of some cool experiences. But I just don't think I could stomach that. It'd be an amazing opportunity to play there with some great people in a high-caliber tournament, but that's just too expensive for me. It sucks though, cause I would've love to have played, and say that I played in Mixed Nat's in Japan. Next time... :-/

Shinkansen Addendum

So as I mentioned earlier, I think Shinkansen might be my favorite travel experience there is (besides flying business class). The platform experience is orderly and stress-free, the seats are spacious and have tons of leg room, the windows are quite big with plenty of room to gape at whatever's passing by, the whole thing is super clean, the ride itself is unbelievably smooth, and of course, the trains go fast as a banshee out of hell.

I also said that Shinkansen knocks the ICE experience in Germany out of the park. Although that is true, I was confronted by my boss on this and made aware that it really isn't an apples to apples comparison.

The Shinkansen system here in Japan has its own dedicated track system. All tracks that Shinkansen trains ride on are only meant for Shinkansens and only used by Shinkansens. Whereas in Germany, ICE trains use the same tracks as all IC trains, Regionals trains, and the kicker, all Cargo Trains. This is a big reason why the schedules are so different, and especially why the ride on an ICE is nowhere near as pristine as it is on a Shinkansen, where huge portions of the tracks are above the whole world, as seen below in this blurry photo where the Shinkansen tracks are literally above all other tracks and everything else.

The ICE system unfortunately does not have that luxury, and suffers a good bit in comparison because of that. With that note, knowing that there are some stark differences between the two, Shinkansen still kicks ICE's proverbial ass in terms of overall experience. For realz, if you ever get the chance to ride a Shinkansen, do it.

Damn Brown-Nosers

Something I've learned here in Japan is that I cannot stand people that put sucking up to the people above them in high regard. Just because someone is an executive or an upper level manager doesn't mean that they're god. For christ's sake, they're a human being just like you and me, they should not be placed on some dumbass pedestal where you freak out every time you see them. It's absolutely ridiculous, especially when it hinders you from doing a decent job at your own work. Snap back to reality for a damn second, will you?

This is pretty prevalent in a lot of my colleagues, and it really pisses me off.

Extrovert Reduction

I read this article the other day, and was quite intrigued by it. It's about a total extrovert who becomes an expat and, through time, she loses some of her extroversion. Due to the tons of people constantly around her, she seeks out some 'me' time every now and then to calm things down and get back on track.

For me, I think this is fairly true for me, but in an opposite sort of way. I've always been a pretty stark introvert. I always need a good dose of 'me' time to keep my world in track. But, ever since living in Germany, I've seen some more extroversion come out in myself. Granted, it's still small and not a huge part of me, but it's there. I seek out good doses of social interaction more often now, and am not a total recluse when I do. It's pretty interesting to see the other side of the coin on this, and it's been cool to see what it's done for me as a person.

On that Note...

I took myself on a date this weekend. Friday night I backed out of some plans and just took a night for me at home. I really needed it, and it was a huge refresher. I put together my to-do list for the weekend, and got to it. After an early night, I hit the sack, and started my productivity on Saturday.

Saturday was great and productive. To reward myself, I headed over to a craft beer bar less than two minutes from my front door, and really treated myself to an excellent evening. Book in hand (Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, by Haruki Murakami, (Thanks for the recommendation Yan!!!)), I left no stone unturned and no glass half full in the quaint and awesome little hole in the wall. This dope track got things going quite nicely.

I started the evening with a tall glass of the Shonan Brewery Schwarz, a great dark beer, paired with a half order of french fries and Liver Terrine. Ohhhhhh baby was that a good combo. Along with the ketchup, they had some kind of cheese dipping sauce to go with the double-fried french fries that was quite scrumptious. The beer itself paired excellently with all of the foods, and was summarily drank right in line with all of the vittles.

Next up came my "Special Meat plate of Iberian Pig". I finished off my Schwarz, and so elected for another one from the same brewery, the Lemongrass Hopper. I'm not sure what kind of beer it was, but it was light, a bit fruity, not very hoppy, but excellent on the palate. The Iberian pig was also delicious, and eaten right up.

To finish the night, I took a quick trip back to the States with the Almanac Horchata Almond Milk Stout. Stouts just really are the bees knees, and this one fits great into that classification. Food wise I wasn't quite done, so I ordered the "Headed Black Tiger of the oven grill", and a three cheese sample of blue cheese, hop-in-cream cheese, and stout cheese. First things first, I definitely though the Black Tiger thing meant a real tiger, but it was a couple of Black Tiger Prawns with some cheese glaze and grilled to perfection paired with some toasted breads. Mmmmmmmm. Second, the stout cheese was delicious, and definitely tasted like a stout, and dayuuuuummm is blue cheese good.

What a delicious night. On top of all of the scrumptious foods, after I got home, I finished my book. To admit though, I was a little disappointed with the ending, I feel like it didn't really conclude, but more just vanished. The rest of the book was great though, and I definitely recommend it.

As I've mentioned before, translations here are absolutely hilarious.

Landmark Backyard

I gotta say, it's pretty damn cool having the Tokyo Tower to look at from my balcony. It's a pretty remarkable structure, and a really cool emblem reminding me where I'm at in this crazy journey of life.

Not only that, but it's a pretty cool structure to look at at night. When it's rainy and cloudy, you can usually tell the severity of the rain by if you can actually see it or not. And when it's rainy at night, the tower is all lit up in in a tungsten orange glow that makes the whole sky light up in orange. It's quite a cool sight.

And after the attacks in Paris, Tokyo stands with France. We are one species, regardless of who you are, what you do, where you are, or when you were born. We're all in this together...

Next Up

One more full week at work, and my boss is gone in Germany this week. So it might be ok. But next weekend I head to play with Kuru at GAIA 2015, a big tournament here in Japan. I've even got my mustache ready to go. Not bad, huh?

Original Publish Date: November 15th, 2015