Japan Day 3- Fukuchi-in Monastery

 I got up one more time and walked/jogged along the Kamo River and saw my old dude playing wiffle ball. Thought again "could I live here"? I remember in my days working up in Tri-Cities Washington i loved jogging along the Columbia River. Brought back similar feelings. I should get out more at home and jog along the Provo River. 

We left on a long bus ride to a place called Mt. Koya. It took most of the morning. We made a few pitstops each pit stop was at some type of rest stop/convenience store. One item that is absolutely ubiquitous throughout Japan was the vending machines. Funny enough before we left we had two specific targets on vending machines. One was from my neighbor Duane who served in Japan and told us to buy some corn chowder hot from a vending machine. The other was Mike's friend who had visited a few months prior to buy some Grape Red Bull (apparently only available in Japan). These targets became our obsession on every vending machine we saw. I did see and learn quickly that the vending machines in many cases do in fact offer both hot and cold options (the hot was mainly for coffee). We unfortunately learned that both these items were likely seasonal and we didn't find them anywhere- not a vending machine nor a 7-Eleven/convenience store- despite looking basically at every opportunity. I did have a cup of corn soup one morning served with breakfast and it was honestly pretty good! Bummer we could never find it in the vending machines. 

The pit stops had both vending machines and regular convenience store snacks. We joked that we just shouldn't stop because we would all just load up on treats we didn't really need. Lots of tasty pastries and ice cream! 

We stopped for a lunch that had some warmers. I found that if the lunch had the warmers that was a bonus. Typically just a soup or broth with items in it and they'd light a little torch underneath and let it all heat up during your meal. Much easier to enjoy heated food than pure cold/room temp food was my finding especially when eating things i'm not familiar with. 

By our lunch spot was a cemetery called Okuno-in. It was a large cemetery up in the mountains in the thick of a bunch of super tall and old cedar trees. This was a stunning cemetery and honestly most of us found ourselves discussing "why aren't our cemeteries back home up in the mountains like this?" One unique item was many of the shrines were sponsored by big Japanese companies (Nissan, Komatsu, etc.) and if I understood correctly employees of those companies could come spread their ashes at those shrines in that cemetery. 

At the back of the cemetery (area prohibited from pictures) was a bigger temple and that area housed the Kukai (aka Kobo- Daishi) who is the Buddhist master founder of Shingon Buddhism founded here. They still take out 2 meals per day to his mausoleum while he remains in an eternal meditative state. There were other Buddha's there that we could pray to (and take photos of hence the below). You would splash water on the Buddha which is symbolic of cleansing and say your prayer. The entire area, the trees, the shrines, and the grave shrines were amazing to see and super peaceful to walk through. 

This entire area had multiple shrines/pagodas. We toured the Konjubi Temple that had more fabulous rock gardens and then walked up through a bunch of pagodas. The Konpon Daito was my favorite. You couldn't take pictures inside but it had 5 massive Buddha's inside and some incredible artwork. 

We arrived in the early evening at Fukuchi-in Monastery. This was truly a unique experience we had a small traditional room on tatami mats. The bathrooms were all communal you didn't have your own bathroom in your room. You had to wear slippers throughout the monastery so you just left your shoes at the front door. We left all our main luggage on the bus and only brought in an overnight bag. 

One big tradition we learned about here is "Onsen". Onsen is essentially hot springs and is a very popular activity in Japan. This monastery had some onsen baths and we were encouraged to partake in the experience. One key factor in onsen is you are not clothed- no bathing suits allowed! It was separate sex locations so any initial nerves there were removed. Honestly it was just enjoying a hot tub soak but you weren't allowed to wear your bathing suit. Rachel was quite nervous about doing it for herself and once she went down to the baths she said she actually had a great relaxing experience! I of course participated in onsen I do basically every Friday morning at the gym (with bathing suit at the gym for clarity's sake!) but am always interested in a good hot spring soak. Good times!

We were all given Yukata's (a more casual Kimono is my understanding) to wear during our stay and our entire group dressed in their Yukata for our traditional dinner in the monastery. We sat on the ground and our food was on little trays. One funny item from this dinner was we were trying to formally go around again and introduce ourselves and our backgrounds to the group. . . .the worker kept coming in to our room yelling out the drink orders interrupting several times trying to identify where he should deliver a given drink. 

We walked around the area/town after dinner (it was probably only like 8:30 at night) and it felt like 2 AM the entire area was basically dead. There were additional monasteries in the area from what I can tell so we weren't expecting a hopping nightlife but it was interesting to note how quiet it was at such an early time. 

This day had a ton packed in. On the surface most these days appear to only have 2-3 target location visit but each site had multiple items to take in! 

Japan Day 2- Kyoto

 Started the day with a nice jog along the Kamo River. Super peaceful with a wonderful walking trail all along both sides. Saw some old guy each day out hitting wiffle balls it made me consider retirement in Japan! 

First stop of the day was the Ryoanji Temple. It had a wonderful rock garden these things are so super detailed and kept clean of even miniscule leaves and debris. The temple rooms all reminded me of traditional Japanese dojo rooms (at least what i've always had in my head). Wonderful art on the walls/sliding doors throughout. Definitively a great spot for meditation; made me feel like you could just zen out there. We walked outside the main rock garden structure through the gardens and some additional cool shrines and monuments. There was also plenty of Sakura trees all still in bloom. 

Next up was the Kinkakuji Golden Pavilion. This was an interesting experience this temple was super commercialized. Tons of people and felt like it just had one too many coin boxes and fortune-purchase opportunities. We all made comments on how different and peaceful it was at the Ryoanji Temple compared to this one, even if this one was beautiful. 

I had my first Japanese ice cream from a vending machine here. Delicious! Think of like a klondike bar but also covered in an ice cream cone! All the best of an ice cream cone including the cone with none of the mess! We need these in the US. I probably had one daily from here on out. 

We went to what felt like a smaller area of town- my itinerary says it was the Ohara area- and we had to walk up this massive hill passing by a bunch of small vendors. We arrived at our restaurant and had our first "bento box" lunch. The setting was actually super pretty. We sat with James and one of our travel members named Susan and had a good lunch getting to know them. The food was a bit rough for me i was able to handle probably about 1/2 of it. I think had it been hot I probably could've handled some additional items but I feel like I tried to stay within what I knew I could reasonably handle. 

We then walked over to the Sanzen-in Mozeki Temple. Back to super tranquil gardens and shrines. At this one up in the top of the garden you could purchase your own little Buddha for good fortune so there were rows and rows of them. 

We left on the bus back down the hill and went into town to the Sasaki Shuzo Sake Brewery. Interesting experience to walk through a Sake brewery in what seemed to be the middle of town. Sounds like in Japan there isn't really zoning laws or anything like that so people are doing commerce and living right on top of each other. Right across the street was a little apartment. I remember it because a little kid walked out and it was the first little kid I had seen on the trip. 

Sake brewery was interesting they had a super cool Japanese-calligraphy style banner in their warehouse. No idea what it says but it was awesome! Of course they took us upstairs at the end to try some out. I had some delicious water. ;) 

We finished the afternoon back at the hotel with a presentation from James our National Geographic expert. He showed us several pictures he's taken over the years including along the US/Mexican border and had extensive stories in Malaysia. It was truly fascinating to listen to his presentations and hear the stories and backgrounds. I wish i was a skilled photographer. 

We were on our own for our final night in Kyoto. We were all already looking for a traditional food option after the bento boxes that day and the traditional meal with the Geisha's the night before (haha not a good sign!). We were pretty tired too after our first two days. . .probably still not quite caught up to the time change and the drag from the flight over either. We went to Benjamin's Steakhouse which is a US based Steak House similar to Ruth's Chris. The funny part of this experience was we were all basically sitting dead at the table, not talking, half asleep, until they brought out bread to all of us. We started eating our bread and suddenly everyone had some energy and the table started chatting. Mike noticed that the bread was the catalyst for our renewed energy and we all laughed and it became a theme of the trip looking for bread!

Food was good it was a taste of American food but the fun of it was the memory of the bread waking us all up. 

Kyoto came and went so quick! Blink and it's over. We tried to walk to a garden in town after dinner but it was closed and we ended up walking in the dark for a long stretch. Never felt unsafe or anything. . . quite honestly its crazy how dead it can feel in the city when you're still in a big city! 

I don't think I got any pictures of 7-Eleven! Hopefully I find some later. I know we were marco-poloing our kids showing them that even on the other side of the world everyone needs their convenience stores. The 7-Elevens did not have the sacred Grape Red Bull that we were seeking the entire trip (appears it's exclusive to Japan but also only seasonal) but they did have some delicious baked goods and of course our needed Coke drinks. 7-Eleven was the primary convenience store (besides vending machines) in all the bigger cities we saw.