2010.5.1~2

Famous for its refined cuisine, crafts and gardens, Kyoto is considered by many Japanese as where their spiritual hearts reside. The city is not as vigorous as Tokyo or Osaka, the pace is slower and people are dressed less fashionable, but hundreds years of cultural deposition soon reveal their attractiveness once you slow down, lay back and start enjoying the city.

We spent two and half days in Kyoto before leaving for Beijing. We had a wonderful time and loved everything we experienced in Japan. The cultures are somewhat close but sometimes totally different from China. We will definitely come back to visit more places in the future.

We spent two and half days in Kyoto before leaving for Beijing. We had a wonderful time and loved everything we experienced in Japan. The cultures are somewhat close but sometimes totally different from China. We will definitely come back to visit more places in the future.

2010.4.29~30

We spent one day at Hakone on our way from Tokyo to Kyoto. Hakone is famous for its hot springs. At Hakone-Yumoto (箱根湯本), hotels are built on the hill along the river, most of them have public bath houses using water from hot springs and provide exquisite Japanese cuisine, normally meal and breakfast are included in the room price (一泊两食).

After three-day intensive walking in Tokyo, we decided to slow down and spent the first afternoon in Hakone-Yumoto. At night, we stayed at Hotel Okada. Its facility is relatively new, the service is good, and the food is delicious, good-looking, in small dishes but more than we can eat. We chose the Japanese style room (和室) and slept on the tatami. It’s a new and relaxing experience.

The second day, we took the popular round-trip route to see Hakone area. Along the road, on Lake Ashi (芦ノ湖), Hakone Ropeway and from Owakudani (大涌谷), there are a couple of spots we could see the famous Mt. Fuji. There was a surreal feeling, similar to when we visited Syndey Opera House, something we had seen so many times on calendars from our childhoods, now we stood next to it.

Stores in Hakone-Yumoto

A Japanese Garden in Hakone-Yumoto

A Japanese Style Room in Hotel Okada

Round-trip Route around Hakone

2010.4.25~28

Japan is the first country we visit whose language we don’t understand. Luckily, almost all names of the places, subway stations, streets, stores and restaurants, are written in Chinese characters – Kanji (漢字). It makes our lives a lot of easier in this foreign city. We can instantly recognize and remember them, and most of time we can figure out what they mean. Had them written only in Japanese Characters or English, they would look all similar to us and would be much more difficult to remember.

Speaking is a different story. Although the characters are same as Chinese, the pronunciations are totally different. What is interesting is that our appearances are so easy to fit in, so people naturally start speaking Japanese to us, but we don’t know any sentence except “Excuse me” and “Thank you”; on the contrary, some westerns who live in Japan for many years and speak fluent Japanese, but they look so different so people always start talking to them in broken English. If we don’t have a map with us, asking direction is a big challenge; but once we write down the name in Kanji, then we have a common ground.

2010.4.25~28Tokyo is the most unique city in the world to showcase the fusion of east and west, tradition values and modern sensations. There is always a long line in front of Kabuki-za (歌舞伎座), people wash their hands before entering shrines and Statue of Hachiko (忠犬公像) is still a popular meeting place. Loyalty, honesty, discipline, perfectionism, these are still the values to be respected. On the other hand, the high rise in West Shinjuku (西新宿), the futuristic buildings in Daiba (台場), the nightlife in Kabukicho (歌舞伎町), the endless choices and customizations of consumer products and fashionable OL walking on the street all remind you that this is one of the most exciting cities in the world. While Kabuki, Tea Ceremony and Sumo are preserved, modern Japan has developed new cultural phenomenons, such as Anime, Cosplay and Video Games.

Although a lot of Japanese traditions are highly influenced by ancient China, they are better preserved and valued in Japan. The cultures are so rich and the country is relatively small. It makes Japan an ideal destination for tourists.

There are countless temples and shrines in Japan, especially in Kyoto. While temples are for Buddhists, shrines are the worship places for Japanese traditional Shinto (神道教).

Shinto Shrines are marked by its symbolical gate, Torii (鸟居). The most famous, also the most photographed, shrine is Fushimi Inari Taisha (伏見稲荷大社) in Kyoto. Because Inari is a god of business, companies and individuals built thousands of Toriis dedicated to Inari. These thousands of gates in red color lines up one after another along the trails from the bottom to the top of the mountain. The scenery is really one of kind. There is no one single god in Shinto, anything in nature can be worshiped. Shrines normally have a small pool in front of their gate. People must wash their hands and mouth before entering the shrine.

A lot of temples and shrines look very new because the paint seems to be applied recently. At first, I felt the new paints were conflicting with the ancient building style. I later learnt that rebuilding temples and shrines is a tradition in preserving their sacrality.

Meiji Shrine (明治神宫，东京)

Higashi Honganji Temple (東本願寺，京都)

Yasaka Shrine (八坂神社，京都)

Kiyomizu Temple (清水寺，京都)

Yasaka Shrine, Kiyomizu Temple and the shopping district in between are popular tourist attractions. It’s golden week in Japan. People are everywhere.

Fushimi Inari Shrine (伏見稲荷大社)

Two railway stops south of Kyoto Station. I got there before 7AM at morning to avoid the crowd.

Kinkaku-ji Temple (金閣寺)

Ryoan-ji Temple (竜安寺)

The temple was almost closed when we got there. I had no time to appreciate the “ultimate expression of Zen Buddhism”

Most Japanese food taste quite light, (except noodles, they are very salty), and simple. A small portion of salted vegetables (咸菜) or Sashimi can be put on top of rice to make a dish. In fact, the rice itself is an ingredient. It is fresh and fragrant so the whole dish is still rich and flavorful.

If to name one characteristic about Japanese cuisine, it must be their artistic plating. The dishes look so beautiful that you want to cherish them instead of eating them. If the content of the dish is simple, the preparation and cleaning must be time consuming because it takes many dishes to make a dinner. It is said that this is because in the past the resources is relatively scarce so Japanese have to make the food appealing to appetite. But I think pursuing the attractive presentation to the extreme is embedded in Japanese’s blood. The product packaging is always artful, the streets are always tidy and organized, even people are always dressed fashionably.

We arrived in Tokyo at Sunday night (4/25). I woke up at 4AM in the morning the next day and couldn’t get to sleep any longer, so I decided to have a morning walk around the city. Our hotel is only 5-minute-walk to Ginza (银座). With the reputation of one of the most expensive districts in the world, Ginza failed to impresse me. However, I was surprised by the density of restaurants in the area. Every block, every corner, under the bridge, in the subway station, next to the most high-end store or in the 3-feet-wide alley, they are everywhere. Many multi-level buildings are all taken by restaurants. When you have too many choices, it’s actually harder to make decision. Luckily, my sister has a friend who helped us out in Tokyo. We went to almost every restaurants he suggested.

The plenty of restaurants is the direct result of Japanese’ work culture. I never saw these many of people on the street at 10PM in a workday. It’s a norm in Japan for men to work overtime everyday to at least 7PM and then have dinner together with their coworkers after work. They may go back to work till midnight. While humble and quite in the day, they crowd every restaurants, drinking, smoking and talking loudly at night. I’ve heard that wives in Japan would look down their husbands if they get home early, now I know it must be true.

On one hand this is the time that working men can finally relax; on the other hand it shows how much pressure they carry everyday. It’s not unusual to see people having dinner alone in the restaurants, sometimes still working on their jobs. There are small noodle houses that provide no seat at all, so people in a hurry just stand there, finish their bowls and leave. A lot of people fall sleep in the subway while the train take them home at the midnight. This work culture and long commute time effectively cut their connections with the family. It makes a distinct comparison to American working styles.

东京

京都