Another quarter, another travelogue!
Every year China celebrates its National Day (the Chinese equivalent of Independence Day) on October 1. Better yet, the National Day holiday is accompanied by not one, not two, but
seven consecutive days off!!! (*Disclaimer, you actually have to make up 2 of those days on the weekends). Like Spring Festival, National Day represents essentially a week of chaos where the entire country travels, either to their hometowns or to a vacation spot. To follow suit, we decided to return to the Kansai region in Japan - specifically, Kyoto and Osaka!
This year was an especially special National Day because it was China's 70th National Day, which of course meant giant parades!
By the time the parades started, we were already at the airport, but we were still able to see part of the show since almost everyone at the airport was watching it on their devices!
We arrived at Kansai International Airport at about 5PM where we struggled quite a bit to figure out how to convert some cash get train tickets (despite this being our second time to this airport!). The process to convert cash was particularly mind boggling and really highlighted to me the emphasis on process that is so firmly ingrained in the Japanese mindset. You get a form from the line, then after filling out the form, you get into a second line line to hand it to someone in the window to get a first level inspection and receive a receipt, and then you get back into yet another line for the window right next to the second employee to hand in the receipt and receive your cash! Not sure what the process optimization engineer was thinking when he came up with this scheme!
Nearly two hours after landing, we finally got on the Hello Kitty-themed express train to get from the airport to Kyoto, where we would spend the first three days of our holiday:
Once we got to Kyoto, we figured we better get a bite to eat before getting on the subway to our guesthouse, so we picked up some Udon from a shop at Kyoto station:
Finally, we made our way to the Ukyo Ward of Kyoto, where our guesthouse owner graciously picked us up since it was raining and took us to the Shizuku Ann Guesthouse for our first local Japanese living experience, complete with sleeping on a tatami mat floor! We were a bit surprised to realize that the owner basically hung around all day in a tiny room inside the same house, but he was nice and helpful!
The next morning, while Cherry held class in the morning, the kids and I took a stroll over to a (somewhat) nearby 7-Eleven (there are 7-Elevens everywhere in Japan - it's actually been a Japanese company ever since 2005!) to grab some breakfast:
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| Apple Coke! Really tasty! |
After eating, we headed to our first attraction, the Toei Kyoto Studio Park, where many Japanese period movies were once made. The key attractions here, aside from the cool period atmosphere, are the various Samurai and Ninja shows and experiences!
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| A very cheesy but acrobatic samurai show! |
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| I found out that I'm not a very good swordsman... |
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| Riding a Meiji era traincar! |
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| Enjoying the view |
That evening, we headed back to the guesthouse to find some Sushi for dinner. Unfortunately, Google Maps isn't very good at finding restaurants in Japan, but fortunately we ran into a shopkeeper who told us about a rotating sushi restaurant nearby - the place was so good and so inexpensive (only about $1USD per plate) that we ended up coming back here two more times! For reference, a typical meal for the four of us here actually cost LESS than a meal of ramen or udon noodles!
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| I love these 80s style Japanese houses! |
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| Searching for food, when a trolley car passes by! |
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| How do these work? |
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| I think this meal was less than $20 dollars! |
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| This is the place! We came back several times! |
The restaurant is largely automated. Most of the sushi comes by on a slow moving conveyor belt. However, if you don't find something you want, you can place an order using the touch screen at the top, and it will come flying to your table on a fast moving belt. Once your table starts getting too full, you deposit your empty plates in a slot which counts the plates, and, as an added bonus, it rewards you with a short cartoon after every 5 plates, and better yet, awards you with a capsule toy when you eclipse 25 plates!
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| The kids were fascinated with Japanese capsule toys! |
After dinner, we slowly strolled back to the guesthouse to rest for the next day!
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| Ramen Graffiti - looks delish! |
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| Love the retro look of these taxis! |
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| This photo is actually in color, but it looks like a cool Black and White! |
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| Practicing my night photography |
Stay tuned for our ride on the Sagano Romantic Train!
