Reacting with the nuclear!

“The nuclear power plants are having a few issues which are fully under control and pose no risk to the public”…. Switch over to bbc.co.uk…. “Experts are predicting that the nuclear situation in Japan is increasingly worsening and could possibly lead to a disaster like Chernobyl if not managed immediately… Only essential travel to Japan recommended.”

Right! Initially we thought that the UK media was blowing the Fukushima power plant situation out of proportion because let’s face it, the worse the situation, the more the interest… So we went along our merry way relaxing in Osaka…

It’s true there isn’t much to see there in the way of sights but it is a fun city to hang around in, eat good food, check out the shops and admire the Japanese youth culture… By that we mean, check out what the girls and guys wear here… Knee high socks are like a uniform and as for what you wear them with, the shorter the better and don’t forget the super high heels or over the knee boots… How disgraceful… I LOVED IT! Lol … To see more of the Japanese fashion statement check out D* (will check name). It was pretty fun here.

Apart from that, we ventured to Den Den, Osaka’s answer to technology town… Far from impressed… And hung around Umeda, the business side of town (well that’s what they said).. We were lucky enough to have booked a super cheap rate at a business hotel in this district, which we eventually found right behind ‘Girls, Girls, Girls’ and next door to ‘Girl’s Bar’. Charming! Highly recommend it!!

That night in Osaka, we felt the room shake… Oi, oi, not what you’re thinking.. 3 days since the big earthquake, another earthquake hit near Tokyo but we felt it 12 hours away in Osaka… This was on top of the aftershocks being felt in Tokyo on an hourly basis. Despite me trying to convince Rishi it was probably a train taking a detour underneath our hotel (?!(@? He wasn’t buying it either) we knew that the situation was getting worse. The Fukushima nuclear plant was not doing so well in controlling its reactors either, with explosions unnerving everyone in the early hours of the morning.

Our parents (as well as friends sending messages stating bluntly ‘get out of Japan’) were obviously concerned and suggesting that we do not go back to Tokyo for our flight to China but either change it or just buy new ones from an airport near us instead. There was no point arguing anymore, going back to Tokyo didn’t sound safe (although we really wanted to)!

The hilarious irony was that the next day we were doing a day trip to Hiroshima. Yeup, where the first nuclear bomb was used on humans! The peace park has remnants of a building that was damaged by the nuclear bomb but overall is actually a beautiful park and hard to imagine what it would have looked like when the bomb hit. The museum however has some shocking images and depictions of the effect of that horrendous event. Think the pics below give an indication of how “effective” a nuclear bomb can be!

And this was technology over 50 years ago. I dread to think what new discoveries have been uncovered since then.

Walking through the place, my mind was flitting between anger at the effect of war… No-one deserves to have a nuclear bomb thrown on them but as posters in the museum admit, the Japanese were not innocent when it came to inflicting pain and suffering on other nations in that war either. So what is the need to kill people who probably did not even know what the war was for or sign up to be pawns in these evil game played by the leaders of their nations?… The other part of mind was worrying about the effects of the nuclear explosions a few hundred kms away from us if we went back to Tokyo… In these situations there’s no better solution than the fail safe “Daddy, help!”… My dad had been up since 5am calling the airlines and managed to get our flights changed so that we would leave a day early from Hiroshima instead of risking a trip to Tokyo.

Happy to be safe but sad to be leaving Japan early.

We spent our last day in Kyoto, enjoying the best chocolate doughnut (available in Kyoto station), chilling in our favourite hostel (Khaosan) and visiting our favourite indian restaurant (they had really good chai and kulfi!). (sorry for the funny pic Rish)


Sadly, we are leaving today and on our flight to Shanghai… Booo! Think we have really bonded with Japan, so much so that I feel I am abandoning them, not that I know how I would help. I hope that Japan maintains its beauty, its traditions and fantastic vibe… Without a doubt we will be back some day and next time it will be in cherry blossom season! 🙂

Spending the night.. with monks!

What do u call a temple that serves beer?

Fukuchi-inn


We are not being rude, that was the name of the fabulous temple we stayed at, at the top of Mount Koyasan. The temple village takes 2 hours to get to by train, cable car and the bus from Osaka but is worth the trek to experience a night in an actual Bhuddist temple.


We selected our temple because you could book it online, they apparently spoke decent English AND they had an onsen… Another Japanese experience which you must do… So I thought we could knock em both out at once! Lol

For the steep prices you pay, you get a vegetarian Japanese dinner and breakfast and a very authentic royakan style room with tatami mat flooring and futons to sleep on. What shocked us though was that on arrival, after showing us to our room, the host asked us if we wanted a beer!!! Kind of didn’t know what to say, so informed them that we did not drink alcohol.. Ye that’s right, I got high and mighty with the temple monks! …

As we had got there pretty early, we thought we’d take advantage of no-one else being there yet and get into the onsen… Now you may be wondering, what of this onsen that I keep mentioning? Well, they are the Japanese hot spring tubs! Sounds pretty tame.. Yes well the main point which I’m shying away from (excuse the pun) is that you have to get in there naked! … The etiquette is that you shower up, very thoroughly, and then get right into the hot tub in your best birthday suit! … It’s supposed to make you more open and friendly to your fellow hot tubbers! Surprising ei? Before anyone asks, men and women’s onsens are SEPARATE! Sorry guys!

Anywho, after that fun experience, we wandered round the really pretty gardens, sat and enjoyed their zen garden before being served dinner in our room. It is a fun experience having a full Japanese meal served to you in your room where you sit on the floor and eat with chopsticks despite not having a clue what the difference is between one dish and the next! The food was surprisingly good but as expected most of the dishes (and there were a LOT of dishes) were composed of tofu. Rishi was in heaven!

Before heading off to an early night’s rest, we tried out a calligraphy class upon Rishi’s request… That was interesting.. Hmm…

The next morning in the early… early, frosty hours of the day, we joined the monks for their prayers… This is obviously great to see especially because the shrine was so amazing in the morning light but we cannot lie… By the end of it, both Rish and I were trying our best to stay awake and warm! Still highly recommend doing this though.

After our Japanese breakfast, we did consider another dip in the onsen, but thought we’d shared and experienced enough so went to wander the town.

The other temples are good to see.. Pick and choose though as there are many.. However they do not compare to those in Kyoto.. My favourite temple, which is the main sight to see here in Koyasan has to be Eko-in (check name)… It is actually a cemetery temple, so after we walked for 2km through the garden of graves

… surprisingly beautiful… we found the temple. The temple is there to protect the tomb of a person who is said to be the only one who will be able to translate the teaching of the next Bhudda to the world. He may be in a tomb, but is not dead, merely meditating. It is a stunning temple with a big gold tables, covered in gold plates and other gold decoration all lit by candles and from the middle you can see through to a gold Bhudda and the tomb. But best of all was the vibe inside which made it phenomenal. We were there when the monks were praying and you could just feel the fantastic energy. Definitely do visit!

 

Snacks and Tsunami

It’s been a while since the last post… I could blame it on the 5th largest earthquake in the world and the consequent tsunami that swept Japan just a few hundred km north of where we were based but I would be lying…Yes, the craziness that ensued from those devastatingly spectacular events did lead to us changing our plans slightly but the truth is we were too busy to write the post because we were loving every bit of this trip.

We arrived in Kyoto in the evening to our fabulous hostel based just off the main shopping area in the city centre. We had booked a twin room as it was cheaper (aren’t we being good backpackers?) thinking it would be two beds next to each other… It wasn’t.. We had a closet for a room with bunk beds.. Still we were happy. The hostel has a big but cosy kitchen/ lounge area which we literally had to drag ourselves from to go sightseeing every morning and the shared bathrooms and heated toilet seats were super clean too! That evening, we had our first taste of Japanese food at a little alley way vegetarian restaurant which I’m sure was breaking several health and safety rules all at once, but it was totally worth it!

Our first full day in Kyoto we visited Nijo castle and the temples in North-east Kyoto including the famous Golden temple (Kinkakuji temple)… All the sights were beautiful with each temple having its own personality and reason for deserving a visit. Our favourite temple on this day had to be Ryoanji with its zen garden..

You actually felt this amazing serenity as you walked into the garden and sat and stared at the 15 purposely placed rocks. The gardens there were also really lovely and we can only imagine how gorgeous the place would look with the cherry blossoms in full bloom!

The highlight for Day 1 however without a doubt was the bamboo forest in the cute little town Arashiyama.. Check out the pic!

Ok, Rishi is looking at me as I write this and saying, “don’t you mean it was the cake roll or the best mango ice-cream” (with real mango bits in it!!)? And he is probably right, my snacking throughout Kyoto MAY have taken more importance than the sights!! But how can you help it when there is a new random dessert concotion at the entrance to every new temple?! It’s rude not to try the local treats!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anywho, thinking we’d seen some very cool temples, day 2 we set out to follow the Lonely Planet Southern Higashiyama walking tour… The first temple, perched on top of a hill was cool (Kiyomizu). There was a ‘game’ there where you walk with your eyes closed from one stone to another and if you make it to the second stone and touch it, it means you will have find love with ease… Did we reach the other side? Did I touch the stone? Did Rishi touch the stone?… I’ll leave you guessing! 😉

The walking tour is good mainly because of the village streets you walk past and the opportunity to Geisha spot (I’m pretty sure our Geisha’s were dressed up tourists, but we got some pictures which is all that really matters, right?!)

Overall though, we wouldn’t say the walk is a MUST do… It was made more appealing though because we chanced upon a ‘snackerie’ (my name for it) which had hot buns with ice-cream inside them. This served well as my snack for the day.. Well until our next snack of pizza crepes (see snacking pics above)!! Yuummy…

As it was an early end to the day, we went back to our hostel thinking we would do our laundry but instead spent the afternoon chatting to other travellers and anihilating a full pack of biscuits with tea in the space of minutes!! CooookiiiIiieeee muuuuunsstttaaa… Nnnnom nnnnooom nnnoooom!!! I think it’s the times when you sit around doing hardly anything except meeting and talking to random people from across the world that actually makes journies like ours that extra bit special .. And fun! 🙂

Templed out by now? Don’t be silly, Day 3 was Philosopher’s Walk.. Again, what else can I say except it really is so beautiful. You walk along a cherry blossom lined canal and along the way there are tea houses and some temples.

The first temple (Ginkakuji) housed Rishi’s favourite gardens. We also enjoyed exploring Nanzenji where we wandered into a factory behind the temple and also found a mini temple on top of the mountain…

Little did we know but at this time, an earthquake of magnitude 9.0 on the Richter scale had shocked the peace in north-eastern Japan and triggered a tsunami roaring on to its shores… It was only after we reached Fushimi shrine, a very different type of temple most famous for the hundreds of red tori-gates lining a path up into the mountains, did we realise what had happened as we bumped into a lady from our hostel who told us the news…

This may sound odd, but from around 3 o clock through to our time at this creepy temple, which has growling dog statutes and crows in its gardens, we felt this peculiar, restless feeling… Whether that has any meaning I don’t know but it is certainly coincidental.. I’ll keep that open..

Thank you to all those who messaged us to check we were ok! …To be honest, we thought it was just another earthquake. There had been a smaller one (7.7 on the scale) in Tokyo a week earlier but you wouldn’t have known as everyone carried on life as if nothing had happened. We assumed this would be the same… However, watching the devastation and destruction on the news (as I’m sure everyone saw around the World) you could only be mesmerised by the sheer power of the seas and be thankful that you were not at its mercy in this situation. Despite being in Japan you felt helpless, there was nothing we could do to aid those suffering from the onslaught of the seas, so we sat with the others and just watched!

[Will try to add video of tsunami coverage]

We were still in Kyoto the next day and it did take us some time to psyche ourselves up for exploring given what we were hearing about the number of missing in the north and the constant aftershocks taunting Tokyo. However, we eventually got ourselves out and visited Sanjyu sangendo, which Rishi had been ooon about the whole time.. It is a totally different temple. It’s in the city centre so the gardens are basic to say the least but inside the temple there are hundreds of gold statues, many of them with sanskrit names as they are apparently taken from Indian culture!! The Bhudda here is most likely the nicest one we have seen (as yet)…

Spurred on by the beauty of this temple we decided to leg it to Nara (a nearby city), armed with our lonely planet and a sumptuous chocolate doughnut. (Mouth watering).. This is a popular day trip destination because it has the largest Bhuddha statue in Japan. It really is huge.. And also most of the historical grounds are set in a deer park.. The deer wander freely with you… So Rishi fed them biscuits, one by one…awww… My attempt was slightly less elegant than Rish’s, in that I screamed, ran away and threw the biscuits to the floor.. Still counts as feeding, they ate them!! (see videos!!)

Right, anywho, while we were in Nara there was a massive festival happening to bring good luck to the new year ahead. (Spring marking the start of the year).. So we stood for 3 hours, out in the cold so that we could watch a monk light a humongous broom stick (that’s what it looked like to me!) And run with this broom across the top balcony of the temple spraying the firey bits onto us watchers… Hmm… Ok quick positive perception of the 3 hour agony.. Uh, we will take from this the appreciation of the Japanese culture?! … Lol 🙂

Unfortunately, our time in Kyoto was up and the next day we were heading down to Mount Koyasan…

Reading back on the above post, there is still so much to add, like the rice balls we ate from the street stalls and the disney world style monorail through the city plus the indian thali restaurant not to mention the toast and tea breakfasts we made by ourselves in our hostel!! I knoooo!! Hmm, does seem to be very food related… But my point is that I don’t think I can fully summarise the little things that we did or saw that made this part of the trip so much fun… The vibe is so phenomenal here and throughout Japan that you can’t but have a great time…