vacay days 19-20 : day trips.

sunday morning we took the shinkansen to hiroshima, but then immediately jumped on another train + ferry ride to the island of miyajima, where the famous floating itsukushima shrine. we were lucky enough to arrive at high tide when the ground beneath it is completely submerged like you see in all the pictures. when we left several hours later, it was low tide and you could actually walk right up to it. from there, we took the island's ropeway up to mt. misen, then hiked to the peak. the views were breathtaking. after we got back to the foot of the mountain, we grabbed some quick eats (grilled skewered meats, grilled oysters, grilled squid on a stick!) and headed back to hiroshima. there, we checked out the a-bomb dome and peace memorial park. it's a pretty stark and devastating reminder of the past. i can't imagine living there, either as a japanese or american. we munched on some hiroshima-style okonomiyaki (your basic okonomiyaki but with noodles cooked into it!), then back in kyoto, we had dinner at nippon omen. despite how tasty it was, i was unable to tell the difference between omen and udon.

monday we day-tripped it to nara, the old capital of japan. it felt like a pretty small town, where the main attractions are the todai-ji temple and its massive buddha inside, and the "tame" deer who wander the city and will bow to you for food (at least that's what we were told; however, when i pulled out the crackers we'd bought to feed them i was basically attacked/chased by a small herd of deer - i did eventually get one to bow). we did quite a bit of walking around nara before heading back to kyoto. despite all the tasty foods we've been having, we haven't had sushi since our first day in japan when we went to tsukigi fish market, so we decided to do the cheesy/touristy, yet delicious and affordable option of conveyor belt sushi! so delicious. so cheap. so happpyyyyy!

anyhow. tuesday is our last day in kyoto. wednesday we go head back to tokyo, and thursday we head back to los angeles. can't believe this crazy trip is near its end!

vacay days 14-18 : whirlwind kansai.

it's been few days since i've posted, as we've been running around the kansai area. i'm too lazy to go into too much detail for five full days, so here's a quick summary.

tuesday!
shinkansen to kyoto. visited kinkaku-ji (the golden pavillion) and kyomizu temple. walked through southern higashiyama, and shopped for traditional japanese goods on sannen-zaka and ninen-zaka. bought a sake set and some tea cups. walked around the shopping district by our hotel at night.

wednesday!
trained it to kinosaki - a small town in northern kansai famous for their onsens (natural hot springs). it was raining so we just hung out at our amazing ryokan (traditional japanese hotel), nishimura honkan. we were served snacks when we arrived, then a huge five or six course kaiseki dinner in our room. the two hot springs in the hotel itself were really really nice. it was my first time actually doing it (in the past, i would have had to go with my mom, which is a bit uncomfortable for me, especially with the whole naked thing). i was lucky to have it to myself most of the time, but once i was in a tiny one and was joined by four old japanese women. awkward.

thursday!
one last dip in the hot spring, then train ride down to osaka. wandered around the minami area in the afternoon, i'm really not that big a fan of osaka. especially compared to kyoto and tokyo. something about it just rubs me the wrong way. then went out to koshien stadium to watch the tigers game. i like the stadium much better than tokyo dome, although the all-dirt infield is quite strange. in the seventh-inning stretch, everyone blows up these balloons and releases them. it's nuts.

friday!
went to osaka-jo (castle) and then over to the tempozan area, where we went on their ferris wheel (supposedly the biggest in the world - and my first time on one!) and the kaiyukan aquarium. quite possible the best aquarium i've ever been to. i spent so long watching the sea otters (my favorite). and their central multi-floor 'pacific ocean' tank is just ridiculous. also, had an amazing tonkatsu dinner at dojima hana in the kita area.

saturday!
shinkansen back to kyoto, where we spent the day in the arashiyama area. quite possibly the coolest thing ever was going to the iwatayama monkey park/sanctuary, where you can just wander amongst lots of japanese monkeys - though they warn you to not look them in the eye. we also did a bit more tourist-y shopping, and stopped by the tenryuji temple and gardens, as well as walked through the bamboo forest. we dinnered back near our hotel - shabu shabu at kashin, and grabbed dessert at crepe ojisan. yummm!

vacay days 11-13 : rounding out tokyo.

saturday morning we explored the imperial palace east gardens (the rest of the palace is closed to the public for most of the year =/ ) then headed west to walk around omotesando / harajuku / takeshita dori. it was packed, and japanese girls are really wacky. from there, we checked out the neighboring meiji jingu shrine, where we saw a couple traditional japanese wedding processions. quite the juxtaposition from where we'd been 10 minutes earlier.

for lunch, we headed down to ebisu and got the kyushu style honten kasane aji ramen at ippudo, i bought a sweet chien ming wang action figure at a toy store that specialized in american toys, and then had stopped at frames in daikanyama for a rest and some sangria. a good chunk of our afternoon was spent in the starbucks overlooking shibuya crossing, just watching the insane number of people that cross the street from five different corners, and all the funny things the japanese wear.

that night we went to roppongi to try the kogashi (black) ramen at gogyo. mind-blowing. then we headed to shinjuku just to see the craziness and walk through the golden-gai a bit. it's a series of about 5 very small alleyways containing over a hundred tightly packed bars, each holding only about 7-10 patrons. it's nuts. we stopped in one that we had read about to be foreign-friendly (many places in shinjuku are not) called la jetee and had a beer.

sunday we slept in - the first time i've slept in in several weeks (yes, since before i went on vacation) - and grabbed a coffee and sandwich at doutor. it was raining, but we decided to head back to asakusa again to see it during the day. i found a store specializing in studio ghibli stuff and bought a sweet totoro fabric panel. while walking the nakamise shopping area between the kaminarimon gate and the sensoji temple, we found delicious azuki (sweet red bean) filled pancakes. we also later munched on some tako (octopus) pancake balls.

after stopping at the nissan and sony showrooms in ginza, we bounced over to jingu stadium, home of the tokyo yakult swallows. unfortunately, it had been raining all day, and the game was cancelled. normally, you can't get the money back on tickets until the next day, but we must have looked super lost, dejected and confused, because they gave us our money right away in the main office. plus they gave us each a gift (a little jar of jingu stadium dirt). and then they offered to let us see the stadium, so we got to go on the field and take some pictures. awesome.

since we got our money back, we decided to go do a nice dinner instead and settled on an izakaya place called en on the 42nd floor of the shiodome city center building. it had a pretty great view (and would have been better if it weren't raining) and the food was really great. we had an order of sake, and quite a few yummy eats:

kougen-cabbage and crab salad
deep-fried whale meat in tatsu style
grilled long eggplant
grilled skewered scallops with sea urchin and soy
seared fatty tuna with garlic soy
miyazaki hyuja chicken on hot pebble
broiled sea bream collar with rock salt
rice flour dumplings with azuki

and yes, i had whale meat, and it was delicious.

monday morning we went to shibuya to take care of a few errands, and went shopping in a couple variety stores (the loft and tokyu hands). after grabbing a beef bowl at sukiya, we spent the afternoon doing laundry and packing, before heading to tokyo dome for the yomiuri giants game against the orix buffaloes. japanese baseball is nuts. first, you can bring drinks, including beer, into the stadium. when you enter, you just have to let them pour it all into paper cups for you. there are tons and tons of food options. they have designated smoking areas, which are really glass cages. and instead of the walking vendors being men, they are cute dolled-up girls in shorts/skorts and bright shirts and hats. and most of them are "beer girls" with small kegs on their backs. as for the game itself, when a player hits a home run, he gets a stuffed animal. and the fans have many different chants that they do for the entire game, and whole sections are standing and chanting, being led by fans playing trumpets. the whole thing is crazy. and amazing.

vacay day 10 : tokyo 360.

woke up early and went for a run around the imperial palace. we were under the impression that it would just be a couple miles, and were somewhat embarrassed at how tired we were and assumed we were super out of shape due to the vacation. however, we just mapped the run, and it was just under five miles, so we feel better now (=

last night, we looked into how to get tickets to the ghibli museum (ghibli as in studio ghibli, as in hayao miyazaki movies!) and found out the only way to get them in japan was to purchase them from a machine (known as loppi) at lawson convenience stores. and it's all in japanese. so it was quite the adventure in trying to get these tickets, even with the detailed instructions we were able to find online. luckily, people in japan are very helpful.


we went to iidabashi for lunch with a kimiko's friend icchan and her son hayato. she took us to soba neriya bunraku, a soba kaiseki place. we met with her because she's the one that got us tickets to three baseball games at three different stadiums in japan. we brought two little shrek toys for her son, who's a year and half old, and super duper cute. i so wanted to pinch his freaking cheeks.

made a quick stop at shibuya crossing to check out the hachiko statue, and shibuya crossing. however, not being the weekend, the crossing wasn't nearly as busy as we expected, so we left and will be returning on sunday for the full effect.

before going back to the hotel, we went to the tokyo metropolitan government building, which has two observation towers that give you nearly 360 views of tokyo, and even mt. fuji if the day is clear enough (it wasn't). it was pretty awe-inspiring. there was also a toy store up there and i bought a bunch of totoro goodies.

at night, we went to experience "high culture" as pushed onto recommended to us by mr henderson, who got us tickets to suntory hall for the tokyo philharmonic orchestra. tonight they performed mozart's concerto for flute and harp in c major and mahler's symphony no. 5 in c-sharp minor. it freaking blew my mind. plus the concert hall was absolutely gorgeous. since we arrived early, we grabbed a glass of wine in the lounge of the adjoining intercontinental hotel, and afterwards grabbed dinner at aux baccanales. the food was amazing, but it was strange as we were essentially kicked out at 11.30p for closing, which we've never had happen, ever, in a nice restaurant. but i guess that's the price you pay for dining out in a country where tips are not paid.

vacay day 9 : nikko.

took the train out and spent the day up in nikko, where there are several shrines and temples, and lots of moss-covered things. it actually reminded me a lot of the cove in how to train you dragon. the temples and shrines were gorgeous, it was such a bummer that we couldn't take pictures at all inside. especially at the rinno-ji temple, where there are three 8 meter tall wooden buddha/deity statues covered in gold. mind-blowingly beautiful. the weather was cool, foggy and drizzly, which really worked out with the mossy ancient environment. there were tons of schoolchildren there on field trips, and one of them had assigned their kids to go up to foreign tourists and ask them questions in english. we, or rather dan, were approached twice. it was quite amusing.

before leaving nikko, we found a little stand by the train station selling some sort of fried snack filled with red bean. it was basically a tempura battered and fried ball of red bean paste, with salt sprinkled on it (same awesome effect as sprinkling salt on carmel) - so good!

we got back to tokyo around 6.30p, specifically asakusa. it was raining pretty hard, so we did a quick walk of the senso-ji temple, before grabbing a quick bite of okonomiyaki (a savory japanese pancake, filled with meat(s) and cabbage) at sometarou. it's a first for me, and very yummy.

vacay day 8 : fish, electronics and sumo.

woke up bright and early (4am!) to go watch the tuna auctions at the tsukigi fish market, then wandered around the wholesale part of the market taking pictures. the place is insanely huge, and even though i'd been before as a kid, it was still quite and experience. around 7a, we stopped at a little hole-in-the-wall sushi joint called yamazaki right by the market and had some amazingly fresh (and new!) sushi. the new stuff we tried was the shako (a sort of clam/shrimp? with roe still in it), akagai (red clam) and ootoro (same as toro, but "prime" or a fattier better piece - holy cow it was so freaking good!!!!).

we wandered akihabara, aka electric town, for a bit. it was mind-boggling of course. found a pretty awesome collection of lomography cameras at one place too. they literally had everything (holgas - including stereo, pinhole and tlr; dianas; etc etc). for lunch we stopped at a department store food court, where i felt a bit ashamed because we went to a chinese place called xi'an. i ordered their dan dan toshomen, at which point i saw the chef making SHAVED NOODLES for it!! i guess japanese toshomen = chinese dow xiao mien. absolutely worth it, and SO GOOD.

we spent the afternoon at the sumo tournament going on in tokyo right now. very interesting stuff, and it got progressively more interesting the higher the rank of the wrestlers we saw.

final stop of the night was ikebukuro to try out a ramen place called tonchin, which is famous for their tonkotsu-style ramen. you order and pay at a little vending machine, then hand the ticket to a waiter while you wait for a seat, then when you sit down there is little-to-no wait for your food. and oh-em-gee, that ramen was so freaking good. i love japan for so many reasons, but food is really up there.

ALSO, update on the bug bites. my left leg is INSANE. yesterday, all the bites were really swollen, and became bruises. today, the swelling is down on the bites of my left leg, but my ankle is completely swollen up (ie, i have a cankle, ugghhh) and the best i can deduce is that the swelling / bad blood flow has just moved south due to gravity (especially with all the walking we've been doing), or i sprained it a little (or both!). it's gross. i hate this. stupid effing mexican mosquitoes.

vacay days 5-7 : from coatepec to tokyo.

getting from coatepec back to LA took a taxi ride, a bus ride, and 2 flights. a quick 16 hours in LA meant un/re-packing for japan. from LA to tokyo took a shuttle ride, a flight and a train ride. we left coatepec at 7am local time sunday. we arrived at our hotel in tokyo at 5pm local time on tuesday. exhaustion.

we forced ourselves to stay up a bit to encourage getting over jetlag, so after checking in, we took the subway to ginza, walked around a bit, and searched out yakitori alley. it is a small hidden alley under yurakucho station, with about 5 shoppes emitting lots of grill smoke, with doors that require ducking and no english anywhere. thus, i have no idea the name of the place at which we ate, but it was deeee-licious. we got their A-set of 6 chicken skewers, including the heart, gizzard, skin, neck, and thigh. amazing. there was also a muji store right outside the station, and muji literally does everything now. it's like a cross hybrid between american apparel and ikea.. but better.

vacay day 4 : a mexican wedding.

first off, thank effing goodness for bug spray. but i'll get to that later.

we had a little breakfast at the hotel and then explored a little more of coatepec before getting ready for the wedding.

the wedding itself was nice as far as i could tell. catholic and in spanish, so i had little idea of what was happening at all.

the reception was held directly afterwards at some gardens several blocks away. unlike all the wedding receptions where the food is many courses and takes awhile to get through, the so-called mexican tradition is to push through the food as quickly as possible so that the entertainment and partying could begin. so, all the food was finished by 4.. and i pooped out a little after 9 and things were still going strong.

the party took awhile to get started though due to the bi-cultural nature of the guests. at first with the band, everyone on the dance floor was mexican. then when they moved to italian tunes, it was all the italians. eventually, due to drunkeness and increasingly eccentric dance floor party favors, everyone joined in the fun. well, most everyone.

holding the reception outdoors, in a garden, in this sort of humidity wasn't the best of ideas as the bugs were out in full force. due to my experiences from the night before, I bug-sprayed up before and during, and still ended up with around 20 bites. some others though i saw were just covered in *hundreds*. it was not a pretty sight.

pretty exhausted at this point, and have a full day of traveling to do tomorrow to get back to LA.

-- jenn. (via palm pre)

vacay day 3 : the road to coatepec.

testing blogging from my phone..

we grabbed breakfast at the gran cafe again today - i'm in love with gordas with mole sauce. actually, i'm just straight up in love with the mole which is nothing like any mole i've ever had back in the states.

a charter bus picked us up at our hotel, then picked up a huge group of italians at the airport (if i haven't mentioned it before, labe, the groom, is italian) then had an amazing seafood lunch somewhere in veracruz.

after a 2+ hour bus ride through some pretty undeveloped parts of mexico, we arrived in coatepec and checked into the hotel provided. it's pretty awesome, and our room is loft-style. we roamed the city a bit, though it's really more of a small village. my feet were attacked by ants but i managed to get away with only 2 bites.

the 'rehearsal dinner' was served buffet style in the courtard of our hotel. it's such a random mish mash of italians and mexicans, and i'm the only one who doesn't know at least some spanish or italian. not that i mind as i've just occupied myself taking pictures.

it's been a lot of fun meeting so many international people. the wedding and reception tomorrow should be interesting in the very least.

-- jenn. (via palm pre)

vacay day 2 : veracruz

in the morning, labe and norma picked us up and took us to breakfast at the gran cafe, famous for their cafe lechero (not quite sure the difference between that and a cafe con leche). afterwards, they dropped us off at san juan ulua, an old fort in the middle of lots of industrial stuff, before they left to take care of more wedding stuff and we spent the day wandering and taking pictures of veracruz. it makes me thankful for all the hot and humid summers spent in taiwan, otherwise i would find this weather absolutely unbearable.

after san juan ulua, we went to the old historic city center, grabbed lunched at a little cafe (i had a campechana pulpo, mmm) and went to the city aquarium. it's weird since it's inside of a mall, but had a pretty good and interesting array of sealife to see. including a tiger shark, some manatees and some dolphins. we then walked back to the hotel, right along the gulf - and i realized its my first time seeing the gulf. normally i'd want to go put my feet in, but norma warned us to never ever do so due to pollution and what not.

we went to a big, yet late, dinner with all of labe's family that arrived late last night at an argentinian restaurant. i was the only person who didn't speak italian or spanish. meh, the food was good (=

vacay day 1 : travel to veracruz.

today was the first day of my 3 1/2 week vacation!

we left LA in the morning, flying to mexico city, then to veracruz, arriving around 7.30pm local time. my goodness it is humid, and i only brought shorts (since it's supposed to be in the 90s while we're here), but i've already begun to be attacked by mosquitos, so my legs are destined to fulfill their old nickname from my summers in taiwan - hong doh twey (aka, red bean legs).

labe, whose wedding we are attending, picked us up at the airport, then his wife norma joined us for dinner. we ate at a place called los giros, and had amazing amazing tacos. i had the lengua (tongue) and molleja (sweetbread) tacos. soooo deRicious!