Kyoto (8/17/07 – 8/19/07) and Osaka (8/19 – 8/26/07):



Friday – 8/17/07
Having spent 2 weekends in Tokyo (one of which was spent at Mt. Fuji), my co-worker, Holly, and I decided to venture to Kyoto for the weekend on our way to our “new” work cities (mine being Osaka and hers being Katsuyama). We took the Shinkansen (Japan’s Bullet Train) to get there and it was pretty sweet. The ride is extremely smooth, you have LOTS of leg room and it’s a really user-friendly (booking tickets, etc.). It was definitely much easier than flying all over the place. Plus, since I had to work in Osaka for a week and a half, I was able to get work to pay for my Japan Rail Pass, which allowed me to use any JR rail (both the Shinkansen and local trains) for free. The Rail Pass is somewhat expensive, but actually cheaper than buying tickets individually.
So the ride took about 2 ½ hours – almost the entire time was spent sleeping (big surprise right?). I arrived in Kyoto around 9pm Friday night which didn’t really leave us much time to do anything outside of grabbing some dinner. We walked around our hotel to check out what was nearby and ended up at some restaurant called Mary Island or something. It was actually REALLY good! We went to bed early that night knowing that we had lots to do the next day and we wanted an early start.

Saturday – 8/18/07
Kyoto is the old capital of Japan (and literally translated so) as well as being one of the few cities that was actually untouched by WWII. It definitely was a tourist city, but had a mix of city-life as well as maintained the cultural aspects (temples, shrines, castles).
So we woke up around 9ish (ok, so not much of an early start) and it took us a while to find a place to eat breakfast. Tired of eating hotel breakfast, we ventured out to see what was close or on the way to our first stop, Nijo Castle. We crossed the street and smelled something soooo good. It smelled like bread, but we couldn’t figure out where it was coming from! After searching for about 10-15 minutes in every direction, we finally gave up and went back to our hotel to grab breakfast. Once we finished with all that, we finally got on our way to see the castle. We decided we needed to get some walking in since we didn’t do enough in Tokyo. Little did we realize HOW HOT it was going to be!! We had to take multiple water and ice cream breaks on the way there and back. The heat also made it a bit difficult to enjoy our sight-seeing spots, but we did our best and took lots of pictures (probably not as many as I could have though!). The castle itself wasn’t THAT impressive, but the gardens were beautiful! Here’s the link to my Kyoto pictures:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=vd2ejfo.1igx11qw&x=0&h=1&y=-z7hpbo

So we decided that we needed a break from the heat and walked back to the hotel to get a little AC and rest before heading to our next destination – Kiyomizu-dera Temple (one of the finalists of the Seven Wonders of the World). On our way back to the hotel, we got a little distracted….shopping! I haven’t really done much shopping on this trip 1- because it’s pretty expensive in Japan, 2- the girls here are tooo tiny and the clothes don’t fit me, 3 – I didn’t allow for much room in my suitcase to bring back a whole lot.
But the shopping arcade (as they call them here) was shaded and looked like a good place to find postcards and other nick-nacks. We definitely got distracted and ended up staying here for at least a good 1 ½ hours before grabbing some pizza buffet for lunch (not my idea, but it really hit the spot!). So after lunch we finally made it back to the hotel where we took a short nap before heading back out into the heat. This probably wasn’t the best idea because we ran out of time and were only able to see 1 other “tourist” spot. The Kiyomizu-dera Temple. We also wanted to go see the Sanjusangen-do Temple, but everything closed by 5pm, so we were outta luck. The Temple we saw was really nice though!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiyomizu-dera

It had a gorgeous view of the mountains and was really peaceful despite all the tourists. After hanging out there for a while, we headed back down this long winding hilly street (full of souvenir shops I might add). We walked back to the hotel since we had some time now before going to our “cultural show” recommended by the hotel. Turns out we walked a little over 10 miles that day! We got back, napped again and got ready for the show. It was supposed to be a 45-min view of various Japanese cultural activities such as a Tea Ceremony, Geisha dance, flower arrangement, some musical piece, a comedy skit and a puppet show. It sounds good right? Unfortunately Holly and I were pretty disappointed. They did the Tea Ceremony off in a corner where most people couldn’t even see. The flower arrangement was such a joke, I could have done better…literally all she did was take her flowers, cut the stem and put them in the vase. It didn’t seem like much thought was put into the arrangement and it didn’t even look that nice! The music was good and the Geisha dance was good, and I liked the comedy performance, but the puppet show was something else! I was so confused despite the fact that they provided us with a synopsis of the plot. It was so ridiculous I couldn’t help but laugh. Anyways – the show definitely wasn’t worth the cost, but I’m still glad we went. Maybe we had high expectations, I don’t know. So after the show, we wandered around trying to find some place to eat. I think we just got in a bad mood after that so nothing seemed appealing. After about 30 minutes of walking around and being indecisive, we finally settled on some random restaurant just to get some food in our stomachs. After a discouraging night, we headed back to the hotel so we could get up early on Sunday to head out to Nara before departing from Kyoto.

Sunday – 8/19/07
We actually got up early today (I think it was around 6am), so we could check out of the hotel and catch a train to Nara to go see the Great Buddha and Holly wanted to feed some deer. I’ll get to that in a minute. Nara was over an hour train ride from Kyoto, but housed the Great Buddha so it was a must-see. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tōdai-ji

You can’t tell from the picture, but this statue took hundreds of tons of bronze, mercury and vegetable wax to create. The head is not the original due to fires and earthquakes. The original was created in 752, but the most current head dates back to 1692. I was surprised to see deer EVERYWHERE! I thought that they would just be restricted to a park or some area, but they were literally everwhere….on the sidewalks, hanging around all the temples, etc. You could buy some deer food to feed them but I refrained due to a bad experience feeding monkeys in India when I was little. Good thing I did too because Holly didn’t know what she was getting herself in to! She tried to feed one and 4 more came up to her. Then they got really anxious so a couple of the deer nudged her with their horns and started getting a little aggressive. I don’t think it was as fun as she expected, but we got some good pictures and now she has another story to tell J. We were pretty short on time today, so this was a rushed trip but still a good one. We had also stopped to see the 5- story pagoda (picture), which was pretty amazing too. Nara was definitely a good stop for us to make during our weekend in Kyoto. We got back to Kyoto and Holly still wanted to see one more thing…the Golden Pavilion (Kinkaku-ji). It was about a 45-min bus ride from the Kyoto Station, so we took our chances with only having about 30 min there (in order to get back to the hotel to get our luggage and get back to the station to catch our trains). We ended up having plenty of time there because the Pavilion is really the only thing there. So we got our pictures and headed back with enough time to grab some Starbucks before leaving Kyoto. Speaking of Starbucks, they are ALL OVER Japan (at least in the big cities). On every corner, just like in the states. The sizes are a little smaller, but the prices are fairly comparable to those back home. They have a few variations, such as Green Tea flavors, but in general it’s the same. I think I saw more Starbucks than McDonalds!
So I arrive in Osaka around 6pm Sunday night and grab a quick dinner in our hotel so I can unpack and settle in for the following week.

8/20 – 8/24: Osaka
Unfortunately this week was extremely busy at work for me since I realized early on that I needed to be back in Tokyo earlier than expected. I was back to working public accounting hours (12 hr days) – boooo! But the affiliate in Osaka was really great and helpful, so it made things easier. Who knows – maybe I’ll come back to work in Japan after my 2 years of audit is up! Tuesday night the affiliate took us out to Korean BBQ, which was just as yummy as when I went in Tokyo. The only problem is that they have this thing in Japan where it’s “all you can drink” and you just pay by the hour for unlimited drinks. I got peer pressured by the Affiliate to have some beer since everyone else had some…it was good, but really filling! I definitely ate wayyyy too much and drank a lot too, so after 2 hours of eating and drinking, I was ready for bed!
The rest of the week was spent working late and just heading back to the hotel, so nothing exciting there. Friday night I was in need of a good time, so the Affiliate took us out for Karaoke (or Kalaoke as they say)!! We had a private room and about 20 people. Food and drinks just kept on flowing and at 9pm on the dot, we started karaoke. It was pretty serious stuff! They had really nice TV’s and this amazing karaoke machine that ranks you among other karaoke-ers in Japan as well as remembers your favorite songs etc (if you’re a member). They definitely take their karaoke seriously, but are REALLY good at it! A lot of the songs were love songs, but Team Japan out-sang Team USA hands down. We even broke out the tambourine and got the rest of the group involved in our songs. Some of Team USA’s favorites were: Sweet Home AL (my choice!), Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, Meatloaf – I would do anything for love, Dixie Chicks – I’m ready to run, and Jackson 5 – ABC.
By midnight, I was exhausted, so we headed back to the hotel so I could meet up with Christina and Kathleen (2 other co-workers who were in Osaka for the weekend) early Sat. Morning.

Saturday – 8/25/07
Happy Birthday Kristen Keating!
Today I woke up at 7am anxious to get the day started. Christina, Kathleen and I grabbed some breakfast at the hotel and headed out to take the train to Himeji. We’re getting pretty good at using the local subway and train systems! We got to Himeji around 11:30 am or so to check out the Himeji Castle – one of the most famous (supposedly the “grandest” of Japan’s 12 remaining feudal castles).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himeji_castle

I wasn’t too smart and drained my camera battery the night before at Karoke without recharging for the day, so I was only able to get a few pictures in before my camera died. Christina and Kathleen took lots of pictures, so I’ll share those once I get them. This castle was way more impressive than the Nijo Castle in Kyoto, hands-down! The Nijo’s gardens were much nicer, but this castle was 6 stories tall and covered a huge land area with surrounding walls.
(pictures) We spent a good few hours here and then headed back to Osaka around 2ish, stopping in Kobe along the way for lunch. Christina wanted to get Kobe beef from the source, so we stopped at a local restaurant and had some sushi, tempura and beef (we’ve been eating LOTS over here). The beef is apparently much cheaper there as well as really fatty, which is why it’s so good. She enjoyed it and we proceeded to get back to Osaka as we were all thoroughly exhausted from the long day and dealing with the heat.
After getting back to the hotel around 6pm, I was done for the day!!
I couldn’t bring myself to leave the AC of my hotel room and as there isn’t much sight-seeing to do in Osaka, I didn’t feel too bad about resting and staying in for the night.

Sunday – 8/26/07
Back to Tokyo I go! Now on the Shinkansen back to Tokyo, it’ll take about 3 hours in total but it’s a pretty relaxing ride so I don’t mind – I have my Ipod to keep me company J. I actually have some work to do too, so it would be good to get that over with. I headed back a little early so I can take my boss (who is currently in Tokyo by herself) to the Harajuku area of Tokyo since Sunday is the best/most entertaining day to go.
Japan has definitely been my favorite country so far, despite the heat and I know I’ll want to come back at some point. I thought it would be a little more difficult to be away from home for 5 weeks, but the past 4 weeks have flown by! Mostly due to craziness at work, but it’s not too bad. We’re going to try to go to a baseball game this coming week, which should be interesting since they’re so big over here. I’ll be ready to get back home on Friday to see my girl Neha and to start packing up my apt (again) for my final move for a few years hopefully. I’m also excited for my parents to come up and help me move/get settled and spoil me with some good home cooking!! Not like I haven’t been spoiled enough on this trip!
I’ll try to add one more entry before I leave to go back to the States to recap on my final week in Japan…I may work on it during my 13 hour plane ride home!
I hope everyone’s doing well!!! Please email and keep in touch!!

Our Mt. Fuji Adventure: 8/3 - 8/4/07

Our Fuji Experience/Adventure

Note: Here's a link to my co-workers' pictures for more entertainment
http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=11lb44x5.3pai9dxt&Uy=-5iw65f&Ux=0

Friday – August 3, 2007:
So Friday was a crazy day…We had lots to do at work plus we were leaving early (4pm) so we could make our 5:50pm Highway Bus to Mt. Fuji – 5th station. But let me back up to the beginning…organizing this trip was a hassle from the start!

On Wednesday I went to our Hotel Concierge to find out the best way to get to Mt. Fuji. My friend Raman had mentioned that he took a bus to get there so I thought it would be easy to do the same. Understanding that August is holiday time and the peak hiking season for Japan, I knew things would get booked early and therefore wanted to take care of arrangements in advance. This concierge was not very knowledgeable (possibly new), so after she called the Highway Bus service, she told me that the times I wanted to go – either Friday evening or anytime on Saturday – were ALL booked! Obviously I was extremely disappointed. But I was also determined to go, so I asked for alternate ways to get there. She told me that I could take the train and then catch a bus to go to the 5th station and printed off directions for me to take. See below:
Taxi to the Tokyo Station (take _____ line) --> transfer at _____ (take ____ line) --> arrive at _______ to take the bus to the 5th station (but not the Kawaguchi station that we wanted).
Pretty confusing huh? There was also no time table or schedule on it and I couldn’t find anything online. Thursday I asked our PwC translator, Mia, to help me decipher this and she helped a great deal. I still didn’t know anything about the bus, so Thursday night I called the concierge and asked for more details. It was a different concierge and a much more helpful one at that. She informed me that I wouldn’t be able to take this route if I was doing the “night hike” because it would take you to a different 5th station that was not open at night. Good thing to know!! We could’ve been in for who knows what if we tried this route. So she was great and called this Highway Bus place again and made a reservation for 5 of us to take the 5:50pm bus. This would give us plenty of time to reach the 5th station of Mt Fuji and hike to the summit by sunrise (4:30am). The bus ride is about 2 ½ hours long so we would have reached Fuji by 8:30pm. Supposedly it takes about 6 hrs to climb to the top, so we would have reached by 3am at the latest. And given the right conditions…I bet you’re wondering what happened now huh? Well, it gets better (or worse)!

Apparently there was some confusion (and lack of organization/planning) on some team members’ behalf and the other 4 people that were going to Fuji with me (Shannon, Sonia, Holly and Eric) ALL had to check out of our hotel (Hotel Okura) and check into another hotel (the Intercontinental) for the weekend. They didn’t have a reservation for the weekend and by the time they checked in to the Hotel – it was booked up and couldn’t extend their reservation. I had checked on all this before we left Chicago, so I was good to go. At 4 pm they had to come back to Hotel Okura to get their things, take a cab to the Intercontinental to check-in and THEN take another cab to the bus station at Shinjuku. Of course they hit Friday rush-hour traffic and ended up missing the bus, but I’m getting ahead of myself. I came back to the hotel at 4pm to change and finished packing my things. By 4:30pm I had left to go to the Shinjuku station and reached there by 5:10pm. Luckily my cab driver spoke a little English and was actually pretty funny (or was he a little crazy?). But I reached there with enough time to buy our tickets. The ticket office wouldn’t let me just by my own ticket since the reservation was for 5, so I had to buy all 5 of our tickets (round trip). This ended up being pretty expensive, but I didn’t have a choice…luckily I had enough cash on me – the cost was 26,000 yen in total (5,200 yen per person roundtrip via Highway Bus for anyone’s future reference). The rest of the group was supposed to be there by 5:30pm and when they weren’t I got a little worried. Of course I knew they would be late and that’s why I went to the station separately…nothing was going to keep me from Fuji-san! I tried to call using my cell phone that we got for our time here and of course it didn’t work. I should have tested it before-hand, but at $1.50 per minute I didn’t want to use it except for emergencies. Everyone elses had worked previously, so why wouldn’t mine? Luckily I found a nearby pay phone and had Shannon’s #, so I called to find out where they were. Stuck in traffic of course. Well 5:45pm comes and they still aren’t there. I checked with the bus guy and they wouldn’t even wait 5 extra minutes. These guys are serious about being prompt. I checked with the ticket office and they wouldn’t let me leave the other 5 tickets for the rest of the group to pick up, so I ended up just letting the bus go without me. Thankfully I found someone to help me translate to the ticket office and was able to change the tickets for a later time (but not without a fee of course). The next bus was leaving at 7:50pm – I wasn’t happy about it, but at least everyone would have been able to go and the tickets wouldn’t have gone to waste. The other 4 arrived 5 minutes later and were actually surprised that I hadn’t left them. I thought about it but couldn’t do that to the group. So now we had time to spare and checked out the area for some food…ended up eating pizza. We made the next bus and even came across a group of American students who were studying here for 4 weeks.

Now comes the real adventure – ON Mt. Fuji:
We arrived at the Kawaguchi 5th station around 10:15pm and added a few extra layers on since it was colder than we anticipated. Typhoon Usagi had been nearby and affected the weather more than we would have liked.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-japan-typhoon,0,405263.story

- Eric getting "geared up"

At the 5th station, it was sprinkling a little, but as we proceeded with our climb, the weather got significantly worse. I just had some workout pants over shorts and a fleece over a short-sleeved shirt as well as a scarf and a toboggan. I had also bought a headlight (recommended by Raman and VERY useful). Also quick side note on that. If you plan to hike Fuji at night, you’ll definitely need a head light, but they are significantly cheaper in Japan. I bought mine in the States for 3x the price. OK, so back to the hike. There were lots of other people doing the night hike, so we definitely weren’t alone. We started our journey and it wasn’t TOO bad at first. Just some drizzle but a little windy and chilly. It took us about 30 minutes to get to the 6th station, so we thought we were doing pretty well. Getting to the 7th station was a little tougher, we actually had to use our hands to do some climbing (my gloves that I brought got soaked through so I had to buy some new ones at a station for 300 yen). I’m not exactly sure how long it took us, but all the huts along the way were closed unless you were spending the night there due to the rain. Another bummer – we had all bought walking sticks at the 5th station for 1200 yen so we could get our sticks stamped at each hut along the way. I’ve seen my friend Raman’s and really wanted one of my own. Little did we know that they wouldn’t “stamp” your stick if it was raining outside. - sign telling us "no stamps"

- our "view"

Stamping meaning they actually branded your stick with symbols marking your trek up the mountain. So we had one “stamp” from the 5th station, but couldn’t get any more for the entire night .

As you can see from the pictures, we were bundled up but still pretty miserable from the weather…stupid Typhoon! By the time we got a little past the 8th station, all 5 of us were completely useless. We could have kept going, but I was so soaked and freezing that I worried more about our health at that point. We were at 3200 meters and the summit was 3700 meters. It had taken us about 1 hour just to go 100 meters and we knew we wouldn’t make it to the top by sunrise as it was already 3:45am by now. I had felt like we were in that Discovery Channel show “Man vs. Wild”…except luckily we had found a place for some shelter. The lady at this station told us it would take about another 2 ½ hours to get to the top and at that point we caved. Since we weren’t even able to see the sunrise because of the fog and weather conditions, we figured our time was served best by trying to keep warm in the shelter. They really banked at that station because we ended up paying 6300 yen per person to stay in a room with 20-30 other people…on top of blankets basically. Just each having a blanket of our own to cover with. I had to buy new clothes because I was so soaked and all my spare clothes and everything in my back pack was completely drenched. They didn’t have much left, but I was able to get a black jumpsuit and some new socks as well as a small towel to dry off with. I didn’t sleep for the 2 ½ hours that we were there for because I couldn’t stop shivering, but finally by 6am, the shivering slightly subsided. The whole night before I didn’t stop for bathroom breaks, but by morning I couldn’t hold it any more. There was a bathroom at the hut where we stayed and I can’t even begin to tell you how absolutely disgusting it was. There were stalls, but similar to India and China – just a hole in the ground. I could have dealt with that, but the stench was something else…a smell that I hope no one ever has to encounter in their lifetime and one that almost made me throw-up. I got out of there as fast as I could, but I couldn’t get rid of the smell for sometime – no matter how many wet wipes and cleansing clothes I used.

Saturday - August 4, 2007
In the morning Shannon and I thought we could continue our journey to the top, but the wind said otherwise. It was so foggy, you couldn’t see 10 ft in front of you and then I almost got blown off the mountain and we decided against going any further. On top of that, all my clothes were still wet from the night before, so all I had to wear was my jumpsuit that I bought at the hut - definitely not enough to keep me warm. I was able to get one stamp at that hut before heading back down. , but I can’t even begin to tell you how disappointed I am that we didn’t make it to the top. I had such expectations of making it to the top to see the sunrise…but Mother Nature had other plans for us. I’m really amazed that we made it as far as we did with the weather conditions we had to deal with, but wish that maybe we had gone another night (or even the next day) so we could have reached the top and I would have my stamps. I already know one person who’s going to tease me about not making it, but when it came down to it, my health was obviously more important and I knew I had pushed myself as far as I could go.
As we worked our way back down the mountain, the fog was still there, but the wind helped push some of it away…and by the time we got back down to the 6th station, the weather was almost perfect. I turned around and looked back up the mountain – almost tempted to trek back up so I could get my stamps and see the top, but my body wasn’t having it. - the huts between the 6th and 7th stations...

- group pic at the 6th station

I was tired and sore all over and just wanted to take a hot bath and sleep in my hotel room. We came across a few adventurers who pushed themselves to make it to the top for the sunrise and they told us that there was nothing to see…literally. The fog was so dense that they couldn’t see the sunrise and the weather was still horrible. They were actually quite disappointed, as they couldn’t even get a “stamp” – not a real one anyways. They could only get an ink stamp. But at least they could claim that they made it to the top.

- back down at the 5th station (starting point)

- Fuji-san, I'll be back.

This entry just gives you a taste of what I went thru, but it was definitely an adventure and an experience. Maybe one day (when there’s no typhoon in the area) I’ll venture back up the mountain to reach the summit and get my stamps. For now, all I have is this story.
We caught our 12pm bus back at the 5th station and I reached my hotel by 2:30pm. By 4:30 I decided it was time for a nap, which turned out to last until 9am Sunday morning. And here I am in my hotel room, finally catching up on some rest. My co-workers are out exploring the city, but I knew that there’s always next weekend. We’re staying in Tokyo and have 4 days to explore, go out, shop, etc… One thing I’ve learned is that I need some balance in my life. I can’t do everything and need to know when to take some time out to reflect and recouperate. With all the traveling that I’ll be doing over the next year, I could get seriously burnt out if I try to do everything. For now, I’ll just enjoy the things that I get to do and write about my experiences.

5 weeks in Japan

Just a quick update before I leave for the next 5 WEEKS!

I'm heading out this Thurs - 7/26 and my team ("Team Japan" as we like to call ourselves) is stopping in Beijing to see the Great Wall on our way to Tokyo. I'm pretty excited about it - I think we're gonna go to the Si Ma Tai portion of the Wall.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Wall_of_China
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simatai

We get to Tokyo Sunday night (7/29) and have a pretty busy 5 weeks of work.
I'll be staying in Tokyo for the first 3 weeks (7/29 - 8/17) and then in Osaka for the last 2 weeks (8/17 - 8/29) and returning to Tokyo for the last 2 days (8/29 - 8/31)

For my first weekend in Japan, I plan to hike up Mt. Fuji via the "night hike" - starting my climb around 9pm to reach the summit in time for the sunrise at 4:30am. Don't worry, I'm not alone - a few of my co-workers are coming with me! After hanging out at the top for a bit and enjoying the sunrise, we'll head back down the mountain and get back to our hotel in Tokyo where I'll probably pass out for the rest of the weekend.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mt_fuji

Our second weekend in Japan will be spent in Tokyo as it's a long weekend, Oban, and we have 2 days off from work - woohoo!! I'll just be exploring the city, etc.

The third weekend I'll be heading to Osaka early and will probably spend most of my weekend in Kyoto since it's pretty close in distance.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyoto,_Japan

For my fourth and final weekend, I'm flying to Hong Kong to visit my friend Vishnu and hang out in the city.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_kong

I'll be back in Chicago on Sept. 1, just in time to start packing up again to move into my very first condo!

So that's my brief itinerary for the next month or so...I'll try to keep you updated weekly after each of my weekend adventures with pictures and all!

FYI - Japan is 14 hours ahead of CST.

Take care and I'm usually online so keep in touch!
Ambika