Shrines and temples, temples and shrines

Good morning world,

We've been in Japan just a week, but it feels like so much more. Our first night was spent with a local couchsurfing host named Hitomi in Tokyo. After our long trip here, she graciously allowed us to shower AND fed us -- a welcome experience, to be sure. Later, she took us out to a small, traditional japanese bar where we shared drinks AND bird stomaches with her coworkers, attempting to communicate with their broken english and our horrible Japanese. It was highly entertaining -- not including the bird stomaches (and chicken "sashimi", which we declined).

The next day was our first full day in Tokyo, which included a pre-organized tour with a local guide. After a bit of confusion, we met up with our guide Sakiko, and began a long day walking through the pouring rain -- for it is rainy season in Japan. We had a whirlwind tour -- literally, she's a fast walker -- to see more shrines and temples than we care to remember, but also many open air markets, parks, and streets of shops selling everything imaginable. Our first visit to a ramen shop was satisfactory -- nothing beats warm food on a cold rainy day. Upon leaving our guide, we returned to Hitomi's and made dinner for her and another co-worker, and slept incredibly well.

The next morning, bags and all, we visited the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo. We arrived too late to see the real action, but can only imagine the place at 5 in the morning -- every type of fish imaginable, packed with local owners of restaurants and supermarkets, buying what they need for the day or the week. Wandering around with our bags got the best of us, and so we stopped into a local sushi bar for some of the freshest fish we've probably ever eaten. Delicious, accompanied by air conditioning and miso soup -- couldn't ask for more. Post-fish market, we spent a hazy day wandering around seeing more sights, before making our way to the home of our next hosts, Rich and Joan. After arriving at their apartment door and exchanging a few hellos, it turned out they were not expecting us until the next day but were glad to accomodate anyway. We learned some of our most important facts on a brief tour of the neighborhood that evening -- Lawsons is a store that sells everthing for 100yen (equivalent to a dollar store), and grocery stores sells things at discounted price after 9pm. A long shower, brief game of scrabble and our first ice cream treat later, we once again slept very well.

Next day we once again donned our packs for another trudge through the city. We began the morning by buying tickets for an overnight bus to Kyoto that evening, and spent a while walking in circles around a large train station looking for lockers in which to deposit our bags. Successful, we ventured outdoors, where to our joyous surprise it had stopped raining and was well on the way to becoming a gorgeous day! We visited a park with a waterfall wall, and had our first musical jam session, World Traveler Kirschner on the mini-bongo drum and W.T. Scott on the harmonica, an unlikely duet. We then went toward the sumo museum, having realized the benefits of free entertainmeny, and stumbled upon a one-man band and a lovely little park in the character of kokoro, or heart. We kicked it there for a bit, bought some lunch, and ate it in a schoolyard. It was so beautiful -- lush vegetation, small pathways, water features and statues-- wish our schools had been like that. The rest of the day passed peacefully, wandering around another park, watching the sunset and visiting a cemetary after dark, and finally returning to the train station to find our bags, which proved difficult as the station was so friggin big, all the maps were in japanese, and we didn't exactly remember where we had left them. Success was eventually ours, and we checked onto our bus for the trip to Kyoto...

...where we arrived at 545am, one hour earlier than expected, 4 hours before the tourist information center opened, 3 hours of sleep, and once again loaded up like little american pack mules. So we stumbled around the city, and fortuitiously came upon a temple that was having an early morning service which was apparently open for all. We slipped off our bags and our shoes and sat outside the door, experiencing the spoken japanese and also the unspoken energy flowing through the place, which we understood more than the sermon given. Once again, it had stopped raining when we again ventured outdoors, and we spent some time sitting in a park, feeding pigeons and reading. A return trip to the tourist information center got us a few maps and a better plan for the day, and we saw ever more temples and shrines and modge-podged a lunch together that left something (many things) to be desired. Fact #1: concentrated miso soup should always be made into soup. Fact #2: It should never be used as a noodle topping.

We reached the home of our third hosts that evening -- Gary and Lek. Showering was once again the highest luxury, and they fed us the most delicious thai-inspired salmon spaghetti and got us drunk on a lovely, sweet apricot liquor.

The next day we did laundry -- how do we even begin to describe how nice clean clothes are? A late start to the day brought us back to Kyoto, where we set out to visit a number of high interest places (a castle, temple, rock garden) and instead spent our day in the small places in between -- another cemetary tucked away on a forested hill; a statue garden of buddhist persuasion with intense energy; an entirely accidental yet fortuitous side entry into another temple that avoided the entrance fee; and another park we stumbled upon with a view overlooking Kyoto city -- a view well complimented by a very inexpensive bunch of bananas. We walked nearly 10 miles that day, ending the evening on a cozy street of expensive bars and restaurants, Geisha-spotting (unsuccessful). Exhausted again, we returned home to dinner and sleep... but not before exchanging much needed back-rubs.

And now it is today, and we plan to spend the day biking around (Emily's first real jaunt on a bicycle) and cooking up a few meals. Osaka tomorrow, and then to Kumamoto. Ferry to China on the 5th.

Shoutouts: to the Rents, whose anniversary is on Sunday -- we love you guys. To all bicycling whales reading this message, we (a person and a Falafel) miss you.

Keep reading, keep thinking, and keep commenting! This is World Traveler Kirschner and World Traveler Scott, signing off. Peace.