Journal #20... Goodbye Kyoto

We have had our breakfast at yesterday's shop, checked out of our hotel and taken a taxi to the railroad station.  I think I have to say some thing about this station before I write about the trains.

It is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.  The design was decided by a cont st and a professor here in Kyoto won.  It is very modernistic and received a LOT of criticism at first but perhaps after 20 years he is forgiven for not being more traditionally nap....and maybe not!  

It is very open with steel shapes and escalators going up everywhere.  Please Google  Kyoto Train Station to see what I mean. Michael has many great photos of the station but they are all on his phone and I left the do-hickey  that transfers data from the phone to my iPad!

It has beautiful shops and malls and stairs and many escalators to take you onto the top where they do a wonderful panoramic view of the city.  Next to the escalators are many stairs.  In the day I noticed that there were a kind of rope lights at the front of each step.  It looked like a gradual rainbow.  I commented and Carol said we'd come back at night.  We did and Michael and I got pictures.  Again it doesn't show justice but with the lights and it constantly moving with figures and designs, it was quite a spectacle. I am not certain if our B&B will have wi-fi but write to us anyway. We love ❤️ mail!

 

Riding the bullet train is such a treat.  It is so quiet and smooth and goes at speeds over a hundred at least.  It has always been EXACTLY on time.  How wonderful if we could have easy and usable transportation like this in our country.  It would take many cars off the road whether they are self drive or not.  In the future we won't have a choice no matter how much it costs!  

Out the window I can see a light fog that lays between the mountains giving the dimension we see in painted Japanese scrolls.  Along the ground are many small fields of tea separated somewhat by natural groves of pine.  There is an occasional mound with a small Pagoda or shrine on top. Beautiful!  I will try to remember those visual  snippets  when I get home. Michael has 

 

Journal #21... On The Way To Kamakura and Beyond To Hase

Today was a big travel day.  I had written all about our time on the bullet train so our next stop was to get on smaller slower train.  We had own car as it had only twelve seats and we were the only ones.  It was very comfortable  but when we stopped we could see that everyone else was crowded into a long double decker car.  We stopped and transferred to a train which was much like a subway car but ran above ground and faster than the last train.  Finally landing in Kamakura we transferred to our last train.  It was old but cute.  We will have to take a picture of it tomorrow on our way to Kamakura.

When we arrived in Hase we walked the block and a half to the B&B House.  We learned how to change our shoes to go in the house, but I have so much trouble keeping the leather slippers on and climbing the stairs I am opting to only wear the slippers for breakfast or in the living room and go in socks up to our bedrooms. The floors are wood and beautiful and smooth and the two twin beds have down comforters as huge and soft as pillows.  It was really cold so I climbed in bed and that comforter kept me toasty warm.

By the time we arrived in Hase it was after 2:00 in the afternoon and we were sooooo hungry.  We found a restaurant Carol knew.  We noticed there was a true Japanese area... sans shoes and on knees for the whole meal.  Since there was no hole in the floor we knew our knees would never hold out so we opted for the " Gai-Jin", foreigner, section. These are images of the "kill your knees" area:

Since it would be lunch and dinner and since my sweet roll and  milk didn't hold, I ordered a big meal for 1700 yen.  There was salad, miso soup, cold noodles to dip in a broth with soy and onions, a small but good and fresh salad, tempura of shrimp, sweet potato, and eggplant and rice with soy sauce.  They also serve a tiny dish of something pickled.   I loved the tempura and salad.  But the other was just ok and I left some of each.

From there we walked up the hill to Hase Kannon .  It is a shrine with Buddhas that protect children.  When a baby dies the parents buy a small statue that they take there and at times of the year they decorate the statues with pinwheels, flowers, bibs, etc,  they ask Buddha to love and protect them in their next life. Michael took pictures of the rows and rows of those statues. And we both took pictures of the area.

The grounds were so beautiful!  There were statues with flowering trees, moss-covered areas with stone lanterns, lovely gates with old trees and bamboo mini groves and of course several beautiful koi ponds.  I thought of Lucas and Olivia's beautiful cups and magnets they designed with koi.  It seemed that every where we turned their was a Kodak moment!

It was very cold and I hadn't dressed warmly enough.  We stopped at the 100 yen store, their Dollar Store, and bought a bag of coffee candy and an alarm clock for a buck each.  I don't think we will need  an alarm as it is now seven o'clock at night and we both are about asleep.  I hope I sleep better than last night.  My feet and back hurt!  I took some Advil and will call it a night,  I hope I don't wake at 3:00 again. 

 

I'm in a nice warm bed and can hardly keep my eyes open so......

                                                                                           .......  Goodnight from the sleepy travelers

 

Journal #22...  Hase

I CANT BELIEVE IT.  WE SLEPT FOR ALMOST 12  HOURS!!!  I don't know if it was the Advil, the warm cover, or the rain falling on the flat roof.  Probably the reason is we haven't slept well all the other nights and we have very busy days with lots of walking and lots of discoveries.  

This is a beach town and is usually warm.  The stores sell bikinis, towels, shells and home goods with the beach motif.  There are lots of ice cream and Hawaiian ice places just like the beach places in California, but with the cold many have closed or not busy.  On the way back to the  B&B House Carol asked if we wanted an ice cream and I said I was too cold.  I have never turned down Ice cream even in a snow storm.  At the 100 yen store, Michael offered to buy me a Snicker and I declined.  I was either really really tired or senility is closing in!

We look out our window this morning and can see that there are guys surfing in the rain proving that surfers are crazy world wide.  They ARE wearing wet suits and Michael can see with binoculars that one is wearing fins.  How does he surf with those?  A peninsula juts out in the water to our left and we can see two big hotels there for the beach tourists.  We haven't seen many non-Asian tourists, except at temples and then very few.

We had a wonderful breakfast fixed by our landlord,.. It really was the best breakfast I have had since I came to Japan... ice cream waffle included!

This is the home where we stayed...

While we were eating Michael looked out the window and said, "SNOW".   Yep, yesterday was the first day of spring and this beach town was snowing!  Very unusual, was the landlords take on this.  Oh well!  It is what it is.  I'm putting on another pair of socks, Michael's coat vest and my raincoat...that makes FIVE layers!  I hope that keeps me warm enough to walk to the Big Buddha!  We will catch the Kamakura line to Kamakura first to see what Carol has in mind for us there and then come back to see Big Buddha here in the afternoon.  How could it be more inspiring than yesterday's shrine?

 

Enough said,    Grove and the gang

 

Journal #23... Japanese and Their Vending Machines

The people here have a huge fascination of vending machines and they are all over the country.  Mostly they have tea drinks or some thing I don't know.  I am interested, but not enough to by a Cal Piss or Cal Sweat!  They just don't hunker up the words "delicious and refreshing " in my mind. 

I have purchased a peach Coca Cola and it was yummy.  I have the empty bottle for      Patty.  I'd get a full one for her to taste but am trying to keep the weight down on the plane home.  The way I'm eating I think I will use my allotment and then some!

 

 

 

Journal #24... A Snowy Day   

I think I have already written about the snow day.  If I haven't please let me know so I can write about it while I still remember.  All these days just mesh together in one marvelous day.

Until I hear different news...     Grove

 

 

Journal #25... A Sunny Day In Yokohama

Well that does it!  In Hase we had a rain day, then a snow day and finally a sunny day!  It is though Japan gave us the WHOLE enchilada!

After a wonder breakfast....I sent a picture....we got on the train and went on past Kamakura to Kita Kamakura.  There must be ten or more Zen shrines there and when we visited one of the main ones, it was a huge complex with old buildings with gardens everywhere we looked.  Everything was so lovely and serene and scepter for the many many stairs to climb to the different venues, it would certainly lend to a lot of meditation.  

While we were there, Michael was looking at a little shrine, when a lady came up behind him.  He stepped over to the incline and BOOM! he landed flat on the stone steps!!  I was certain he had broken his hip and his elbow for it was even difficult for him to get up. And although he tried to not show pain, he was definitely feeling it.  After walking for about a mile, my back was beginning to feel it and I figured his butt and shoulder wasn't much better, so C and I talked him into giving it up and catching the train to Kamakura for a special lunch of Wonderful hamburgers. They were much like the ones that Joey serves at the brewery.  I had an avocado burger, Michael had a bacon, cheeseburger and Carol had a slider with onion rings. Suzuki-son had given us each a coupon for 200 yen off.  It was all really delicious and filling by then we decided to catch the train to Yokohama.

Yokohama has been rebuilt around the bay and everything was super modern.  We took the moving pathway around taking pictures. Soon we were at a huge shopping complex.  For 800 yen we took the fastest elevator in the world up 69 floors to the top where there was an awesome 360 degree lookout.  

Coming back, the elevator left us in the middle of shopping.....just like Disneyland.  It took awhile but we were back on our way to trains and the exit to Chinatown.  It brags that it is the largest Chinatown in the world.  Surely they don't think it's bigger than places in Hong Kong or Beijing !  They like to brag here about highest, fastest, biggest, but I don't think some of it is based on fact!

I will send photos of the bustle and bright of China town.  We found a nice place that accepted credit cards and had a lovely dinner of cashew chicken, fried rice and dumplings and were soon backtracking to Hase.  

By then it was dark and we backtracked to the BB House for Cheetos and wine ( don't knock it until you've tried it) and then a hot bath for Michael.  By then his rear end stuck out like a Kardashian's and was black, blue, purple and more!  I offered some Advil, but I think all the wine we drank did the trick.  Everyone slept great,

Next stop, Tokyo!

The three travelers

 

 

 

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