Goodbye Japan
This post will tie up my Japan journey and put a nice ribbon on it. I would do an origami but I didn’t stay long enough to learn to make those.
I was getting tired of Tokyo a bit, having spent over two weeks there I wanted a change of scenery and the grass just looked so much greener in Osaka. So I booked my ticket aboard one of their bullet trains to Osaka. I figured I could use it as a jumping off point to explore rest of Japan.
So I took this train all the way to Maine. I mean Osaka but Maine rhymes better. However as it turned out my analogy wasn’t too far off. I didn’t think a city with 8 million people could be so dull but Osaka (and later Sydney) proved me so wrong.
Up until now I felt like Tokyo had soul and a personality, Osaka felt bland, boring and unimaginative. People felt a bit less wordly as well. You won’t find almost any pictures of Osaka in this post actually because there’s really nothing of any interest or importance to show except food.
We are going on a day trip to Kyoto!
Kyoto is absolutely stunning city and a must on any trip to Japan. In fact I suggest starting the trip with Kyoto, going to Osaka then on to Tokyo. That way it builds up rather than deflate.
So this is the Fushimi Inari Taisha, it is the main shrine of Inari. Of course everyone knows what Inari is so I won’t even need to explain that.
Inari, roughly means spirit, and this shrine is in honor of foxes, fertility, tea and most importantly rice.
Don’t believe me, then check out the foxes below.
At this point you’re probably asking yourself: But Sanel, what does the fox say?
To which I would respond: Get the fuck off my blog right now with your internet memes.
Never to be the ones to use gold sparingly…
You can get your charms or wishes engraved and blessed…
And finally the awesome path! It goes on for 4 kilometers (500 miles!) to top of the Inari mountain. There are thousands of little mounds for worship along the way. It’s quite peaceful and tranquil once you get past all the tourists. Or so I was told by peaceful tourists returning because I was too tired to walk 4 km up a mountain.
And it goes on for miles…
As you probably guessed by this point I was getting tired of the shrine and hungry. I made my way nearby for my first taste of Japanese Udon Soup. It was fantastic.
I only had time for another quick trip to a shrine that day so I made my way to the next spot. It doesn’t look like much from the distance, but as I tell my partners, you have to get real close to it… I mean real close... Ease off on the teeth damn it!
So at this point I’m thinking (and you are probably too), are all these buildings orange? Didn’t we just see an orange building?
Fortunately for everyone involved there’s a BBB (Big Black Building) right behind. And especially me after climbing up a steep fucking hill for over a mile (it’s only about a third of a mile but I went the wrong way up a wrong hill)… I have an allergic reaction to hills, and some day when I die from climbing up one I want my shrine erected on top of one so you all have to suffer coming up to say your goodbyes too.
Japanese love the orange color. I don’t know why but I’m pretty sure once genetic engineering is legal they’ll all turn orange.
There’s a beautiful view from the top though.
I couldn’t resist so I had to pose for a photo-op here.
More shots.
That’s some bright orange!
Once you get past all that you finally get to the main shrine and it’s totally black and totally huge and totally awesome.
I took a look around to take in the vista, and thank god they had another orange building out in the distance. I was worried this would be it, but no need to.
Once I made it there it did lend great views of the main temple.
Back to Osaka
That kind of wrapped up my day trip in Kyoto, from there it was back to Osaka to enjoy the constant rain, the cold and lack of night life.
Osaka does have ah-mazing food though. That night I experienced my first shabu-shabu. You pay 3000 Funny Money or about $25 US Monopoly Money and they just bring out unlimited amounts of meat for you to cook!
You start with the basics. Some water, ginger, scallions and peanut sauce. You use the water to boil all the veggies first.
Once the veggies are boiling and have given the broth some flavor it’s time to bring on the meat! Oh the meat!
Thinly sliced pieces of heaven on earth from the most adorable cows ever. You dip it in boiling water for about 10 seconds to kill the germs that are on the meat from when the cow shit itself when they shot it in the head to slaughter it and you’re good to go!
That was pretty much all I could handle of Osaka so I went back to Tokyo. I realized that grass was not indeed greener but instead it was astroturf!
2 Fast 2 Furious: Tokyo Drift
I was finally back in the civilized world of Tokyo. What’s a better mark of human civilization than stepping inside a spaceship? That’s exactly what happened when I went to the flagship Prada store in Tokyo.
Ah the smell of civilization and aliens smells of $120 bottles of cologne.
Man did I miss Tokyo and did I fall in love with it hard. I’m not even kidding about that. One of the greatest cities I’ve visited, there’s just something for everyone.
My new apartment had a beautiful view of the Tokyo Skytree (see my earlier post on that — Frodo did complete his quest to the second tower after all).
Great during the day and even more amazing at night, you can see the moon there next to it too! It’s really unfair, they get the rising moon and the rising sun there.
Rest of my trip I just decided to indulge in amazing booze. I’m really good at that.
After the bar above I decided to book a truly special drinking experience in Tokyo. This bar is called Bar Gen Yamamoto. It’s run by Mr. Yamamoto pictured below and he is a cocktail craftsman unlike any on the planet.
Why is that? Because he takes ingredients found only on a single tree or plant in the world and creates unique cocktails that are not available anywhere on the planet and are never the same or seen again.
The menu is a four- or six-course menu covering various cocktails. At $75 for 6 drinks for something that is truly world-class experience I could not recommend it any higher. When I return to Tokyo I will make a trip back to see him again. Reservations required but if you call him he speaks fluent English and can get you set up easily. Get a hold of him at +81 3–6434–0652.
Sayonara Tokyo from Gen Yamamoto, I will return again some day I promise!
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