I’m behind in my posting because I’ve been so busy!! I spent two FULL days in Kyoto (which was not enough) and am spending the day today in Osaka before I fly to Taiwan tomorrow. I also spent a day and a night in Kōya-san, but that will be its own post.

There are so many beautiful things to share, so I’m just going to throw some photos at you. My first day in Kyoto a man in my hostel overheard me asking about breakfast places and he offered to walk with me to his favorite bakery. It turned out he is Korean/German, teaching at a German school in Seoul, and training in Tai Chi with a grandmaster in Kyoto. A few of his co-workers were also in Kyoto and he invited me to join them for his tour. It was raining most of my time in Kyoto, but with a borrowed umbrella it wasn’t so bad:

This is Fushimi Inari shrine, and it’s literally thousands of red torii gates that covered the path up the haunted mountain, to the inner shrines.

Next he brought us to a very small Zen Buddhist temple. My guide explained that all of the arts in Japan developed around the tea ceremony. He showed us where we should sit in the tea room to have the intended view. The gardens are built with so much precision and planning, every room I went to had a beautiful scene framed by the doors, often centered around three upright rocks representing heaven, earth, and man between. Samurai would spend a day preparing before battle be gazing out on these scenes and calming their hearts.

Kiyomizu-dera Temple. The most impressive thing is the support under the porches. ALL WOOD.

That last picture is of a cemetery of “jizo.” I’ve seen these little statues everywhere, and often they are dressed up. Upon prodding from a friend, I found out a bit more: “Jizo is believed to watch over and protect children in the afterlife. The bibs are placed on the statues by those who have lost children, with the prayer that Ojizo-san will watch over them as a surrogate parent, and also for the long life of living children. This folk custom is so popular that bibs are sometimes seen on other Buddhist statues as well.” I’ve seen all kinds. Here are a few more:


This one had so many bibs you couldn’t see the statue anymore!

The next day I wandered out to Arashiyama district for a walk in the old bamboo grove there:

I also stopped in at a monkey feeding station there!!! It was so much fun, just watching them, I could have stayed for hours if I didn’t have other things to do!

Here in Osaka I did some errands this morning and then went to the Peace Museum and to see the Castle. It was rebuilt, but still quite impressive.

And now a bit of food!!
If you remember mango-yaki from my Tokyo post, here in Osaka they have okonomi-yaki, similar but with less sauce and shaped more like a pancake. It’s mostly cabbage and a little egg and whatever meat you want, cooked on both sides and then smothered with mayonnaise and sauce. Mmmm!
Step 1: Form Pancake

Step 2: Add dried fish flakes

Step 3: Flip over

Step 4: Add sauce and eat!

Some “welcome” tea and red bean paste snack:

Kushikatsu: fried whatever (meat or veg) on a stick, with yummy sauces

If you didn’t know, Japan has their own kind of curry. You can eat it with rice or, my favorite, in a savory donut!

Aand, KitKat bars! Each region in Japan has their own flavor! I tried as many as I could find, which sadly did not include some of their most adventurous (like edamame soybean, pear or wasabi). Top-btm, left-r: Red bean sandwich (yes, weird), dark chocolate, Hojicha toasted tea, green tea, strawberry, cinnamon cookie.