The Japan Trilogy - Part 2: Kyoto and Hiroshima

Kyoto

After three wicked days in Osaka it was time to hop on a Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto. Funnily enough, none of us seem to remember much from the journey.

It's scientifically proven to be impossible to stay awake on a Shinkansen

And no one can sleep on a train as well as BJ

Airbnb is a great way to find great accommodation while travelling and it worked very well for our group of 9. Even though some of the room descriptions read "3 bedrooms, 9 beds" we were able to make everything work.

One of the rules in Japan is that everyone gets a pair of slippers.

And when you get to the washroom you get to exchange your house slippers for another pair of slippers. 

While we're in the washroom, let's take a few minutes to appreciate toilet technology in Japan. 

Most toilets are designed so that when you flush them, the water used to refill the tank is first made available for you to wash your hands with. This leads to an immense reduction in water usage and should be standard for every toilet ever

Toilets come with a wide range of options to make your bathroom experience more pleasant. Heated seats, a soundtrack of noises for public washrooms, and a vast array of spray options; these toilets aren't messing around. 

This toilet can probably fly

A very helpful bilingual map to make sure your bathroom experience is truly unforgettable. 

While waiting for everyone to finish taking photos of toilets we kept up to date with all our favourite athletes in the grand sumo tournament

The easiest to distinguish sumo wrestler was the lone foreigner in the tournament, the Russian.

When there are no sumo tournaments on TV another popular show is called "Why did you come to Japan?", a show where people go around interviewing foreigners to ask them, wait for it, "why did you come to Japan?". Steph and BJ, as well as Eric were interviewed for this show. We're still checking Youtube patiently awaiting their debut. 

Eric explaining why he came to Japan. 

Cole has a Masters in and works in Artificial Intelligence. So I'm not really sure if he's intrigued by this robot, or if he is trying to court it. 

In Kyoto we explored a beautiful palace.

Panaroma

Google tells me that Japan doesn't even break the top ten shortest countries but I beg to differ

Lucas, John, Cole and Eric

Post-palace snack

You know you're in a local restaurant when you order and pay for your food from a vending machine in the front of the restaurant like this one

Oh the things you can find in Japan

I lived with 5 of the guys on this trip for 4 years so you could say we know each other pretty well. We've travelled to many countries together and at Eric's wedding last summer we all whispered "I do" when he did, so we're pretty close. But there was one very Japanese experience ready to take our friendship to new heights. Onsens. An Onsen is a Japanese tradition stemming back to the days when communities shared a public bathing house. It remains a huge part of Japanese culture, and it is very much a naked activity. We all went to an onsen in Kyoto and immersed ourselves into the Japanese tradition. At the entrance we rented a really tiny towel which we assumed was for covering yourself while in the Onsen. Clearly that's not the purpose of the tiny towel as not a single Japanese man was covering himself while in the Onsen.  The Onsen was set up with a large number of hot tubs and one cold tub. There were naked men shaving and brushing their teeth everywhere (we didn't do this) and my neck still hurts from aiming my eyes upwards the entire time. The hot tub, sauna, cold tub combination was pretty relaxing and you could quickly understand why Onsens remain such a popular activity in Japan. 

If you're expecting photos of our time at the Onsen to follow like I usually post after explaining an activity, you should be ashamed of yourself. Did you not read the description of Onsens?

If you ever find yourself in Kyoto I highly recommend renting a bicycle. The city is perfect for a bike ride with lots of temples and sights to see, and in Japan you can bike on both the sidewalk and the road, which really makes it the best option for getting around. 

Watch out Kyoto! Here we come

Steph is the master of bicycle selfie

Lot's of these things in Japan

Lucas and Ross visited a temple without us (mornings are tough) where there were literally thousands of these orange things!

Lucas

Ross

There were 3 people from Calgary on our trip and I learned all Calgarians share one thing in common.

Here's Steph in the way of my photo

Here's Beej in the way of my photo

And here's Cole in the way of my photo

I'm sorry, who's cafe?

In Japan the gas pumps approach from above

There were plenty of cool places to visit on our bike trip.

Some Japanese Kimonos, and an old aqueduct in the background

My artistic ability in ideas for photos has improved immensely after 5 years living in Asia

As a teacher, this class trip with a trillion students looks like a nightmare

These delicious snacks are called melopans

Morgan, John and Eric approve of melopans

Everyone hates construction. That is, everyone who doesn't live in Japan. Remember rule number one in Japan? It doesn't have to make sense, it just has to be cute. Construction zones are no exception to Japans ability to make everything cute.

After our bike ride we were each treated to a cup of matcha by our very helpful bike rental lady

Another very worthwhile activity in Kyoto is to check out the local market. Expect lots of food that is both exciting to look at and incredible to eat. 

Lucas leading us (those who braved the early morning) to the market

I personally did not try any, but Kobe beef is a very famous delicacy in Japan. Most notably the cows are raised with daily massages and are prized for their high fat content. Certified Kobe beef in Japan will be marked by the gold plate in the photo and my friends who tried it on this trip described it as steak that basically melts in your mouth. As I have many aunts and uncles who are farmers I was very tempted to try it, but I elected to avoid spending a lot of money on a steak, and bring back a million green tea flavoured kitkats for my students and teachers to enjoy. I think they were happy with my choice. 

The best bang for your buck in my opinion was the grilled unagi (eel)

These crabs have longer legs than most people in Japan

So much weird stuff to look at at the fish markets

Japanese markets are obsessed with strawberries and other fruit gargantuan in size

The grilled fruit was delicious!

I'm not sure if you can find better tuna than in Japan

These salmon/tuna/something else sampler dishes made for a delicious meal 

Bon appetit! (As bolsyn in Kazakh)

Strawberry mochi for dessert!

One great decision when travelling to Japan is to get a JR (Japan Rail pass) which gives you unlimited access to many of the trains between cities. Having a JR pass meant it was super easy for a few of us to take a day trip from Kyoto to a very well known city, Hiroshima. 

Having a JR pass means lots of naps for Beej

After our train ride we enjoyed delicious cold soba noodles

A castle

An ancient Japanese war helmet

An ancient Japanese warrior/its actually just Ross

On August 6th 1945 an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Long term effects of this incident can still be seen today including gene mutations and cancers. The area was devastated and today serves as the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, with the most iconic building being the Genbaku Dome. The bomb exploded directly above this building and miraculously, as the blast came parallel to the building, it was one of the few structures that remains standing.

Morgan calls this my "teacher on a school trip" pose

Genbaku Dome

A few members of our group visited Hiroshima before we went and John described it as "not as depressing as I thought it would be". To elaborate on what he meant, instead of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum reminding visitors that Japan was a victim in the use of nuclear weapons and focusing on the mistakes of the past, the entire purpose is to promote peace and focus on a brighter future. The museum gives a historical recounting of the race between countries to arm themselves with nuclear weapons and emphasizes the importance of humanity never repeating these actions again. One interesting thing I learned was about letters written by scientists working on the Manhattan Project warning against the devastation of using nuclear weapons.

After Hiroshima it was back to Kyoto and for our last meal in this city, the obvious choice was conveyer belt sushi. The line was out the door when we arrived and we strongly considered leaving, but I'd be shocked if there is a country in the world where lines move quicker and more orderly than Japan. We were seated in minutes. 

We did have to split into two groups as few places in Japan are designed for groups of 9 people. My table of 6 was upstream of the 3 of us who split off and unfortunately for Lucas that meant all of the unagi (his favourite) got scooped up before any made it down to him. Sorry buddy, I owe you a solid. 

Eric's very modest stack of plates

Morgan's legendary tower of sushi plates

Thanks Kyoto and Hiroshima! Next stop, Tokyo!