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!