I'm not even kidding here, I'm absolutely addicted to this Japanese sweet bran bar thing that I can only call, "The Fruit Cream Bran." Behold:


( Read more... )

Mike and I went back to Osaka today just to walk together and look around. We braved a pachinko parlor, to witness the madness. They are sort of like arcades here, and by far the scariest things I have seen in Japan. It’s overwhelming just to look at them from the outside- flashing bright neon lights everywhere, inexplicable cartoon mermaids ( Read more... )

Dedicated to my sister, who wanted to see some pictures of these. I wrote out some of the English words in the pictures written with Japanese letters. "Guessing-what-English-word-those-sounds-could-possibly-be-making" is a game that Mike and I play all the time.

( Click here Ally )

For all of those unfamiliar with livejournal, you need to click on the link at the bottom of some of the entries to see the pictures I've posted. It has come to my attention that folks are getting confused looking for them.

Went out to dinner on Monday night with some of Mike's friends from Kishiwada. I can't remind the Japanese name for the style of food- I'll update this when I get a chance to ask him. Everyone sits around a table that's at about shin level (you put your legs under the table, where the floor is sunken), and there's a big bowl of raw vegetables there ( Read more... )

We packed and left our bags at the hostel for our last day in Kyoto. We took a bus to Ginkaku-ji, the “silver temple.” This temple had, by far, the most immediately impressive rock garden. It was raked meticulously into a perfectly formed mountain and plateau of sand, representing Mount Fuji and the ocean.

( Last day in Kyoto )

After the exhausting second day biking all over the city, we took it easy on the third day and got a late start. There is an outdoor flea market on the 25th of each month at the Kintano Tenman-gu shrine, so we took a (hellishly) full bus there. The market was PACKED with people selling all kinds of things: octopus balls (“takoyaki,” a Kansai ( Read more... )

We rented bikes again, and set out for Kinkaku-ji, the “golden temple.” On the way, we were distracted by another large temple, To-ji, so we parked our bikes to walk around for a few minutes. Mike realized that he left something at the hostel, so I had a while to myself there.

( Second day in Kyoto )

Mike and I left for Kyoto on Monday afternoon, planning on spending 4 days there together. We checked into a hostel in southern Kyoto the first night, and took a walk through the Gion district (where most of the geishas are...although we didn't see any). We walked through one temple at night, arriving there sort of accidentally. Everything was ( Read more... )

First of all, sorry for not updating in so long. Mike and I were in Kyoto all of this week, so I had almost no internet access. Sumimasen for that ( Read more... )