picture posters

So it seems to be that time of year where you receive a million and one emails from online stores with different sales and offers. Most of mine are deleted (the christmas presents are already bought – so no more spending for me!) however a recent snapfish.com.au email took my fancy when they were offering 40% some of their best sellers – which included posters.  You could blow up one of your existing photographs up to 50x75cm (if you’re mega pixels will allow) for $24, and anything smaller was even cheaper. So, despite my self-imposed spending ban, I purchased 5 posters. Below are the photos of the posters I bought – I am not sure quite where they will fit into my house yet, but I’ll be sure to take photos when they have arrived and they are hanging in the house.

the gondolas from my trip to Venice

a view of the trees in the dandenongs

the fushimi inari shrine in Kyoto

a small church in Santorini

one of my favourite photos, the paper cranes from a Japanese temple .

The cranes photo I ordered in 50x75cm, the biggest you could get. All the others were 50x60cm. I am hoping this assortment of bright colours can add some ‘pop’ to my home. Most of these images were adjusted slightly in picnik.com – mostly just adding a boost of colour to all of them to improve the brightness. Hopefully the posters arrive before I head home for Christmas! Or else I will be waiting until I head back to work in the middle of January next year.

geisha and monkeys

Day five

Day five held with it rain, monkeys and geisha. An interesting mix, but a fun day none the less. We traveled quite far out of Kyoto to go see the monkeys to the east of the city, we even had to pay extra on the bus as it was considered a long distance journey. The day started with rain, rain and more rain – but we soldiered on and visited some temples and the bamboo walk. Both were amazing to look at – but the rain dampened our spirits, and the photos.

temple – try to not look at the overcast sky

the bamboo walk

After the rain subsided we headed up to the mountain for the walk up to the monkeys. The signs were a plenty in directing us in the right way. One good side effect of the rain, was that the walk was relatively quiet, not many tourists were out and about. We got to the ticket gate for the monkeys, and were perplexed when we had to buy a ticket from a vending machine, only to had it over to a lady at the office right next door? I though Japan was supposed to be efficient? Any who – we headed up the mountain (or was it a hill?) and 20 mins later were met with the monkeys! I was surprised that you could literally walk amongst them as they were quite tame. You had to head inside a small hut if you wanted to feed the monkeys, as I imagine when you have food it’s good to have a barrier between you and the 120 monkeys on the hill. For 100 yen you could purchase some mandarins and feed them through the wire. I was amazed at how well-mannered these monkeys were – as soon as they saw you had food they climbed up the wire and placed their hands out to receive the food. Unfortunately at this time it started raining hard, so Jane and I waited inside the hut for 15 minutes or so to see if it was going to subside – unfortunately it didn’t. We decided to venture back down anyway and we slowly (as the mud was slippery at this point) headed back down the mountain.

to the monkeys

a sign half way up – push the button if you’re scared, yet somehow the button has been removed – handy

feeding the monkeys – they were very mild-mannered

the rain came – and so did our exit

We then ventured back to central Kyoto away from the rain and back to the underground of the main central station. It was coming up to lunchtime and we had begun to search the multitudes of plastic food models for either a sign saying English menu available or something we could recognise. We had our fill of guess what you’re eating, and although both of us love japanese food, we did want to eat something where we knew what it was. We settled on a tempura restaurant which had an english menu for us to choose from. We both went for tempura vegetables and seasoned rice – which was one of the cheapest meals on the menu, but still came on a beautiful tray.

vegetable tempura and seasoned rice

We had planned to go to a traditional tea ceremony at 3 – however we had some time to spare. We decided to wander the shops inside the Kyoto station, and we stumbled across something quite marvellous.

could it look more delicious?

After we decided we had walked sufficiently that day to allow ourselves one (it wasn’t a long justification process) we ordered our own.

yum – oh so delicious

We waited as they made the waffle fresh and then piled on the cream, custard, banana and lastly the chocolate. Perhaps the best 300 yen I spent!

With enough time sufficiently wasted gorging on said waffle delights we started on our way to Gion corner for our tea ceremony. The rain was still coming down, however it had calmed to a light drizzle when we arrived in Gion corner. On arrival we were seated on smalls stools in front of a podium on which the head Geisha prepared the tea in a traditional fashion. This included blessing the instruments and swirling the tea in a particular direction. On completion we were all given our own tea and had to turn the cup twice before drinking (can’t remember why?). The ceremony ended with photo opportunities with the three Geisha girls. All in all, for 500 yen, it was great to see the Geisha up close and experiencing the traditional ceremony.

the geisha preparing the tea

the geisha girls

That night was our last night in Kyoto so we again consulted the Lonely Planet for restaurant recommendations and came upon a sushi train restaurant. The restaurant was easy to find, and on arrival we saw that all plates for 136 yen – which only improved the find. We were ushered upstairs to find a busy restaurant with the sushi chefs working in the middle of the conveyor. The waitress gave us an english menu which included pictures of what should be on the belt – although mildly helpful most of the sushi that intrigued us wasn’t included on the menu, so there was some guessing going on.

the conveyor belt sushi restaurant

tuna nori roll, cucumber nori roll

chicken katsu nori roll, and what I think is beef on rice

All plates chosen were delicious – the beef one in particular is supposed to be a Kyoto speciality? For what the Lonely planet called ‘average’ sushi it certainly beat any australian sushi we have back home. The rain had finally stopped and we ventured back full and tired – ready for our adventure to Tokyo tomorrow.

temples and shrines

Day Four

Breakfast at a french patisserie – who would have thought we were in Japan. Our day started with heading off to the central train station to begin our journey and happen to find a bakery with an assortment of delicious pastries.

maple bread, raisin scroll and hiding behind the paper is a twisted doughnut

After the perfect start to the day we moved on to the fushimi inari shrine – which is possibly the most post card like location I went to on my trip. We took the bus down to the location, as it was quite a bit south of central Kyoto. The bus system in Kyoto was probably the most efficient and easy bus system I have ever had to use. Firstly the bus map we received on our arrival was our godsend – it includes every stop on every line, so you can exactly plan when you were getting on and off. Secondly, each bus had an LCD screen which displayed what the next stop was – so you could never miss where you your stop. So on our bus adventure began and we headed down to the shrine – and even though we had prepared exactly when to get off, we still had a lovely old lady making sure we knew where to go, and when to get off.

map to the shrine

entrance to the shrines

postcard perfect!

you could buy one of these wooden triangles and write your wish and then hang it on the wall

The shrine also contained this section with two heavy rocks on stone platforms. The sign to the left says that you need to make a wish, and then lift the rock. If the rock appears light your wish will come true – unfortunately my rock still felt heavy! Better luck next time.

the sign next to the rocks

no luck! still felt heavy to me

Luckily on our way out from the shrine we were able to catch the end of some sort of dancing ceremony. We weren’t able to take any photographs or video, but it was pretty cool to watch the traditional dance. In many of the shrines we went, they displayed rows and rows of folded paper cranes that were hung onto the wall of the shrines. I have a great love of the origami crane, I even have it tattooed onto me, so you could believe my excitement of such a display.

paper cranes at the shrine

We then left from the south and headed over to start our suggested lonely planet walking tour. We began at another temple and managed to bump into some girls dressed in kimonos – they started laughing at us when they realised we were trying to secretly photograph them.

laughing girls in kimonos

Our walking tour then took us through Gion – home to the geisha. The streets reminded me of Memoirs of a Geisha, they had quaint little stores and cobbled streets. We didn’t manage to see many geisha unfortunately – they must have been hiding in their houses, since it was lightly raining. We stopped at a few shops a long the way and I bought an amazingly delicious green tea cake, which, in true japanese fashion, was beautifully presented in a wooden box.

We were nearing lunch time, but we had one more stop to make before we could search for lunch. We headed north to go visit the Kyoto handicraft centre. We didn’t quite make it – we stumbled across a little sushi shop where we managed to grab amazingly fresh and tasty sushi for around $5!!  Yum! By this stage I was getting used to all the free green tea we get at every meal. Each tea was slightly different from the last, some with a sesame taste, others with something quite indistinguishable.

390 yen! madness!

And then we were off to the handicraft centre – where we came out with a handful of bags - a casual kimono, japanese art and miscellaneous japanese items! With our day plans ending much sooner than we planned we decided to walk through the imperial gardens. A few of the trees had begun to blossom – and you could just imagine how amazing it would be to walk through in the spring. I had fun trying out the focus features with my new camera!

the first of the blossoms

We again headed back to our ryokan for a mid afternoon pit stop before heading out to dinner. We decided to take some advice from the lonely planet and find  restaurant recommended for soba and udon noodles. The restaurant was easy enought to find and when we arrived we were directed to the back of the restaurant and we ordered hot soba noodles (still unsure of the cold noodles idea). We also ordered hot sake, and udon noodle nori rolls.

restaurant signage outside

noodles in the front and udon nori rolls in the back

yum! luckily its good manners to slurp in japan

And that calls the end of day four.

from osaka to kyoto

Day 3

We awoke early on Monday to start our journey from Osaka to Kyoto. We had seej everything we wanted to see in Osaka, and thought time would be better spent delving into all the temples of Kyoto. It was an easy enough journey as we could leave straight from our nearby station (Shin-Osaka) and head on the shinkansen to Kyoto. The ride was only about 30 minutes so nothing too long – and before 10 in the morning we arrived in Kyoto!

jane and I on the train to Kyoto

the shinkansen

Once at Kyoto main station we had to journey on the subway to Kitaoji station – the closest subway to our Ryokan. We later found out that the bus is the way to travel in Kyoto – and the bus stop was just outsite the ryokan, we didn’t end up using the subway again after that. The Ryokan we stayed at was Rakucho Ryokan and was the best place we stayed the entire trip. We had a double room – which included two ‘beds’ which were mattress on the floor (surprisingly very comfortable, heated blanket and all) and a little table with tea. You also got slippers and a casual kimono to wear around the ryokan.

entrance to the ryokan

inside our room – loved the little table for tea!

Once we had settled in, and got over the awe of the room, we headed off to explore Kyoto! First stop was a lolly shop on the way to the station, the Japanese are fanatical about presentation and packaging, and it really shows in their shops. I ended up buying a packet of hard lollies, which at first were quite tasty, however they had an odd aftertaste. I didn’t end up finishing them – they were pretty though.

By the time we had arrived in the centre of the city, and had a bit of a look around, and had an unsuccessful attempt to visit the shrines in the south (due to some mis-reading of the train lines on our map), it was time for lunch. And as always, you don’t start looking for places to eat until you’re really hungry, and than it becomes a frenzy to find someplace, anyplace that will feed you! We ended up deciding on what looked like a rather posh restaurant, however they had a meal advertised for 1,500 yen that looked like a mix bag of different things. What the different things were we had no idea – but it was worth investigating. So we ordered our lunch and were presented with:

Now what exactly was this meal? Well that took some investigating. In the top right hand corner we had tempura vegetables in a cute little basket, then below it the pot contained some sort of thick soup – it reminded me of cauliflower cheese in its taste. Then we had the box – inside was savoury rice, tuna sashimi, grilled salmon, egg and then the rest is still a mystery. Some things went down a treat, others (like the green blob in the middle of the box) were unfortunately not quite so appetising. This presentation of what was essentially a AUD$20 meal just amazed me though, you almost don’t want to eat it!

After lunch we went on a walk to the Nishiki Markets , and on the way we discovered a small shrine/temple in the midst of the shops. Looking at the lonely planet later that day we discovered this specific shrine was to pray for educational success. At this was our first temple/shrine we looked on in awe at the processes involved. First there was the running water tap which you had to wash your hands through, and you could also drink. (Apparently these are called purification fountains)

Then at the shrine, you could insert a coin, ring the bell and make your prayer or wish.

All in all it certainly made me excited for the next day – in which we had a whole day’s worth of temples planned! We then headed to our original destination, the markets – which was full with the hustle and bustle of market activity. Half the food there I couldn’t identify, mostly seafood I imagine, but they did have some choice sweet treats. Jane purchased some Japanese sweets, which were apparently jelly like in texture, and extremely delicious.

japanese sweets

We ended what was a tiring day with a trip to the local supermarket – which proved quite fruitful. I bought some Pocky – which although not native to Japan, they certainly are delicious! I also took a bit of a gamble and bought an everyburger - it was placed in amongst the chocolates so it couldn’t have been too bad.

the every burger

the mysterious every burger – it was a biscuit, with a chocolate centre, and seasame seeds on top

Unfortunately no dinner was had on this night – we were full of snacks and decided against it (there may have been some KFC chips consumed…). Our first night in the ryokan was pleasantly comfortable – who knew that sleeping on the floor could be so restful.