Japunzel

Yesterday I got back from a week of visiting my relatives in Västmanland, Sweden. Today I'm going to Denmark. Then tonight Germany. Then tomorrow Belgium. Then the day after, Netherlands. And in october, I'm going to India, to attend a wedding.

 

When adding my trips to Japan and South Korea earlier this year, it's been many years since I travelled this much. I'm not rich or anything, things have just lined up pretty cheaply for me. India has always been on my list of countries I want to visit but it was never that high up on the list. But a colleague from my mom's time volunteering in a village just south of the Himalayas is getting married. And so my mom is actually paying for me and my sister's ticket.

 

Speaking of new horizons, have one of my favourite pictures of the beautiful Kyoto, Japan.

 

 

And here is one of the old castle in Seoul, Korea.

 

1. Okonomiyaki - the delicious kale pancakes! Can be modified to any taste but I prefere with cheese and egg.
2. Edamame beans - Boiled soy beans in their pods. Usually served cold in Tokyo, but I prefer them hot and salted.
3. Deep fried soft tofu - They are relly good at tofu here. So soft it breaks when you touch the inside and melts in your mouth. Often served with bonito, dried fish flakes.
4. Egg sushi
5. Seaweed soup

 

1. Kitsune Udon - Deep fried tofu with thick wheat noodles in soup. Unfortunately not really vegetarian since it's based on miso soup which usually has fish or at least bonito in it.
2. Pancakes - American style pancakes are sold everywhere and they usually combine it with delicious fruit and not-actually-cream, or banana and syrup. Common breakfast but not really good for sustainance.
3. Toast/Morning Set - This is the breakfast that saved me. Toast doesn't mean a pathetic slice of bread, like in continental breakfasts. This is a huge slice of white bread, with butter and usually with jam and/or egg. And sometimes it includes a hot drink. Works every time, even in sleazy shady cafeterias you can't go wrong with toast.

 

Tokyo Top Three Desserts:

1. Ravioli-shaped pie with cheese filling, caramel sauce and vanilla ice-cream - This was as random as it sounds. But really tasty!
2. Honeytoast
3. Fish-shaped cake with icecream filling

 

Top Tokyo 5 bars

1. arraku, Golden gai
2. New York Bar, Hyatt Park
3. 10cc, Golden gai
4. CoCon, Golden gai
5. Albatross, Golden gai

 

Favourite drink in Japan:

Plum wine, on the rocks - Sweet as marmalade.
Sake - Doesn't taste too much, but goes well with the food and good company.
Asahi - Most beer in Japan is very weak. Asahi is too, but it does have flavour. 

We heard that the path lined with a thousand torii gates were a sight worth seeing, so we got on the train to Fushimi.

The train station was close and we easily found our way to a temple decorated with two huge fox statues. From there started the path, and with it, the gates.

All the shops before the temple sold fox-themed gifts, just like in Nara they were deer-themed. It seems the disctricts each have their spirit animal.

There were also warning signs about monkeys, but the only animals we saw were cats.

Up, up and up the mountain we went (and occasionally down only to go up again). The gates were all of varying ages, some so old they had rotten away, some looked as new as yesterday. The forest was wet and even though the sun couldn't properly shine on us, it was warm climbing all those stairs.

 

My last post ended with those hungry deers nibbling at my clothes in Nara. Have a picture!

 

We fed the deers for an hour or so (they were pretty much insatiable and new ones kept coming all the time) while slowly making our way into Nara town. We heard of a few famous temples (yes, MORE TEMPLES, always more temples!) and a beautiful garden on they way there.

The garden was next to a bigger garden with an entrance fee, but the smaller one was free for foreigners. It was beautiful so I recommend it. A little waterfall, stone garden design, beautiful flowers and cherry trees everywhere.

 

We then reunited with some people we lost in the deer chaos (I can really recommend buying a SIM card here to get internet in your smartphone. Great for checking Google maps and keeping in contact with fellow travellers and family back home) and headed to the great temple.

 

 

The temple is alled Todai-ji, meaning the great eastern temple. There were originally seven great temples around Nara but they took turns burning up (giant wood structures as they were) and getting rebuilt slightly different. The temple was truly great in size, it also holds the world's largest Buddha statue. It used to be golden but is now of bronze. A single hair curl (symbolizing enlightment) is the size of a very large head. We were very lucky to get a free english speaking guide who took 5 minutes to talk about the history of the place before we got in. It used to be a lot bigger but everytime it was rebuilt the size diminished. The had golden ornaments on the roof looking like fish scales, this to symbolize that it was under water and therefore wouldn't burn down. Doesn't seem too reliable so far.

On the way back from the beautiful temple we ran into a lot more deers and saw them actually chase after tourists, and we saw baby deers learning to bow.

 

After all this commotion and walking we were pretty exhausted and luckily we found a place with udon/soba (noodle soup).

I have ultimately left Japan and am now in Korea!

For some reason I can't upload pictures to this website as of now, I'm trying to fix it.

 

But I wanna tell you about the town I've come to love, Kyoto!

That first night we went up the mountain. It was the best thing so far on this trip. The air was heavy with water and scents of the forest, it smelled of pine trees and cherry blossom and moss. Lights were aimed at the shrines and temples, as well as a few beautiful trees.

Monks were walking about, or drumming, or hitting gong gongs. Loads of tourists participated in rituals involving incense cleansing and water cleansing. Prayers were said and written down, words of wisdoms sold by the shrine maidens. Waterfalls and moths and koi fish created an ambient sound that the tourist occasionally couldn't silence.

Of course my camera died right there, so I didn't have much time to take many pictures.

I can't tell you how or why it was so amazing but it was like balm for the soul after a long day of travelling and all the busy life of one week in Tokyo.

 

On the way down from the mountain we found the perfect shopping street, filled with weird japanese "candy" and kimonos, as well as wooden geisha dolls and fortune cats. At the end of our 5 days in Kyoto, this was where I bought most of my stuff, the souvenirs and gifts for others. And on the mountain is where I felt alive, in all and every way.

 

The first proper day in Kyoto, we finally could sleep in. While the others were off to yet another temple we slowly got started and started walking around town. We found a steet parallell to the river with a cute little canal and cherry blossoms and old buildings, only two stories tall, and walked along it hunting for breakfast. We cowardly opted for another Tully's. After a 30 min walk we wanted to know what we were getting the first morning. In this case, pancakes.

 

Then we walked around in a partly in door shopping mall but not for long, we had a deadline. Us girls had made plans long before we came here to get dressed up as a Meiko, a Geisha in training.

IThe process took hours, getting prepared, make up and trying on kimonos and underskirts and belts and whatnot. We were 5 girls doing this together and it was so much fun! We got to pick kimonos ourselves, and what positions we wanted pictures taken from. Apart from that there was nothing to do except sit down/stand up and enjoy being pampered. Three of the guys came along for the ride too, but their process was much shorter. They were merely dressed up as traditional japanese men, no make up or hair. I'm not sure they even got to pick their robes.

 

We got to go out for about 10 minutes after the photo shoot to take pictures with our own cameras and phones. Our other friends were there and took lots of photos. Some japanese people walked past and looked at us with smiles and adoration. They told us we were "kawaii" and "beautiful". Soon a crowd gathered as we were partly blocking the tiny street. The people stopped and one by one they seized the opportunity to capture our looks. Suddenly people stood next to me and we agreed to let them photograph us with their friends. We weren't really prepared for this attention and it was hard not smiling. But with ruby red lips and skin painted white your teeth will always look more yellow than corn (and for that reason some geisha blacken their teeth to not show at all).

That's when my man comes up to me and whispers "It's happening! I think he proposed!" I look over to two of my friends who are separated from the group and sure enough, she's wearing a new ring.

Afterwards we went out to a chinese-japanese restaurant and celebrated their engagement. All in all it was a perfectly spent day.

The day after wouldn't prove worse. We had previously heard of a town where there'd be deers roaming the streets, bowing to humans. I had dismissed this as an exaggeration in at least three ways but stayed curious as we took the train to Nara. And o m g. I was not disappointed in any way. The first things we saw were traffic signs warning for deers. We assumed it was a tourist thing. But then seemingly from no where, there was a deer, right in front of me. And then there was another. We saw a stand where one could get little biscuits for them and after buying that we were utterly surrounded. And they bowed. They nodded their entire neck in an elegant bow, sometimes letting you bow first, sometimes taking the initiative themselves. They could be pretty pushy.

A few times I felt them nibbling on my clothes (my cardigan was the same color as their biscuits).

 

I'll tell you more about Nara in my next post..

Second to last post was so huge because I hadn't written in a few days. You can't expect a lenghty one now as well, but here's a sliver. I'll get back when I have time, most likely tomorrow and not later tonight.

 

I forgot to tell you about Ueno Park! The last whole day in Tokyo, I went to Ueno Park. It was the height of the cherry blossoms and it has beautiful scenery with a little temple and shrines and ponds and koi fish and everything. It was just me and another friend so maneuvering through crowds and deciding where to go was alot easier than with the whole group.

We strolled around and took like a billion cherry blossom picturea and went for a ride in a swan-shaped boat in the pond.

 

 

We left Tokyo two days ago, and took the bullet train to Kyoto. The trip would normally take between 6 and 9 hours but was completed in less than 2,5 hours. Everyone was very excited. We lost a friend in the chaos while boarding, and she had to get on the next one. But that left just 10 minutes later so all was well.

 

Kyoto is much warmer and more humid. There are mountains on 3 sides of the city (at least!), which I didn't expect. The buildings are all much lower and more beautiful, it feels like a city that has grown with logic and dignity instead of "how do we fit more people into this very small space", like in Tokyo. I instantly loved it.

 

Great birds soared in the sky and a wide but shallow river goes through it, like in Rome. The first night we just had dinner and then headed up the closest mountain, where a temple that was supposed to be partically beautiful in the night light. And I will tell you more about it later...

Saturday we went back to Harajuku.

 

I realiized I missed a few things I had previously looked at. So I went to the Lolita store and bought myself a wonderful wig. It was pink and blue and looked like spun sugar made into curly tresses. It was not of this world.

 

The rest of the afternoon I chilled out at the hotel, being in Harajuku is very exhausting. There are like a million people and they all gather around the same million things in a very tiny space.

 We went out for dinner and then went out to a sky bar at the Park Hyatt Hotel. Among the clouds (okay, on 52nd floor, but close enough) we enjoyed the night skyline, sipping champagne drinks and pina coladas.

 

Sunday was nice. We started with a quick trip to Harajuku, me and my man were a bit late. We've been out very late every day and up early every day so sleep has been scarse except for occasional afternoon naps.

In Harajuku we went to a huge toy shop, where they had the cutest japanese toys I've seen so far (and that's saying alot). Half a floor was dediated to Star Wars and another to the wonderful movies of Studio Ghibli. I bought a few things for myself as well as some gifts for friends.

 

From Harajuku most of us went to a hipster area that none of us could remember the name of. There were lots of cute second hand stores and it was a pleasant place to walk around. We had lunch at an italian place and I had delicious cheese pizza with roasted walnuts and honey... In a store called Flamingo I bought a sparkling pair of earrings and looked at really cool stuff from the 70's.

 

In the evening we went out for slightly fancier sushi than previously. I had roughly the same as in previous sushi places; egg, eel and salmon. The tuna was appearantly very nice but I settled without. Tried chivebud sushi as well. All in all it was good but not much nicer than the cheap place. Maybe the atmosphere.

After the sushi we went to Goldengai again, this time we decided to try a lot of bars in one night. First one was Evi, and it was NOT nice. We paid more for drinking there with an unwelcoming owner than in that fancy sky bar. We moved on to a place called CoCon or something simililar. That night there was no cover charge and drinks were cheap. On top of that the staff was friendly and generous and let us come up with our own drinks. Then we met up with some of the people in a bar called Albatross. That place was decent too, despite cover charge.

 

Right now it's 2AM and I'm writing this in bed.

Tomorrow some people are going to a fish market at 5AM but I am not joining. Not very intrigued by fish in any shape or form, and I definately need my sleep.

Tomorrow we're also leaving Tokyo and getting on one of those levitating magnet trains to Kyoto. I'm really looking forward to seeing such a fantastic invention with my own eyes, and curious about Kyoto. Feels sad to leave Tokyo though.

 

Tomorrow I'll upload some pictures and make a Tokyo Top Five. Good night!

Long post! :D

 

So, I last left you talking about the maid café.

 

I was surprised to find out the served food and not just desserts and drinks. But it turned out it was just barely food. Firstly it was meat in everything. Food options were rice and chicken omelette, hamburger and something similar, like deep fried chicken. There was no way I was gonna eat that so I decided to have ice cream instead, and eat proper lunch after. The others told me the food wasn't very good either so I clearly didn't miss out.

 

The maids themselves were very cheery and not so good at english. Trying to ask for veggie food did not go well. Everytime a meal arrived they came up with a little "spell" that would make the food more delicious, like "Delicious, delicious, cute, cute, MEOW!" It was cute first but got old around the 7th time. Again, we were 11 people.

 

The best thing was maybe the drawings the maids did on the omelettes. Everyone got to wish for a favourite animal.

 

In the end I did not enjoy the maid café as much as I thought I would, it definitely wasn't price-worthy and I would never recommend eating food there, vegetarian or not. The ice cream was ok, but still pricey. The rest of the experienca wasn't very overwhelming either.

 

After that I went back to the hotel to nap before dinner. We went to a place that served okonomiyaki, which is like an omelette with various ingredients but usually kale and cheese. It was super delicious with cheese and egg!

On the table was a hot stove where we cooked the omelettes ourselves. Fun and tasty! It was "all you can eat", but it turned out to not be alot, these things are very filling.

 

 

After this we got a free dessert, a pastry filled with ice cream. Then we exploded and didn't do anything else that night.

 

I just have to summarize the past two days.

 

• Wednesday we were in Shibuya, another Tokyo prefecture. First thing we see is a little staue of a dog and lots of japanese people posing next to it. It was appearantly a dog that for 20 years followed its owner to the train station and then waited for him to come back. When the owner died, the dog went to the station and kept waiting for its owner to return.
  
  We then had breakfast at a Starbucks there, I had blueberry scone and tea and it was very ordinary. Then we went through an entire shopping mall just for girls, Shibuya 109, but I just bought some necklaces. The sizes are REALLy small here so shopping clothes is pretty hard.
  
  We had dinner at a real, albeit fast food, sushi place, where the sushi came on tiny plates on a treadmill. It was very nice but as they were short on vegetarian dishes I had seaweed soup and cooked salmon sushi. I will put up pictures of this later cause you'll definitely wanna see it.
  
  Then we went looking for an infamous bar street nearby our hotel: Golden Gai. We curiously and anxiously looked aroundat the low houses and decided on a place that explicitly said they welcome tourists. We had one great mojito each in that cozy place before rushing on to our next appointment.
  
  The hotel lobby helped us get a room reserved at a big karaoke place. It was great! We sat there for 2,5 hours singing and drinking cocktails and eating honeytoast, which is a very interesting concept. It's like half a loaf of really white bread, then you spray cream on it and place fruit and honey on top. Again, I will put up pictures, possibly later tonight.
  
  After leaving the karaoke place in high spirits we went back to the cozy bar in Golden Gai with the mindset on staying for an hour or so. But then we met some other people there, an american and his japanese friend and we didn't leave until much later.

• Thursday meant going to Akihabara, a part of town known for their game arcades, vending machines and electonic shops. Indeed, the signs in the subway indicated "Electric Town Exit". We had breakfast there at a tiny café where you ordered and paid by pushing buttons and a machine (preferred paying method was the subway card, very useful!).
  
  After spending some time in the arcade I felt I was done, so I had some more tea at the café. I hoped for veggie burger for lunch, but we had lunch plans at a maid café. Which I will tell you about later....

I gotta run, I'm off to a prison themed restaurant..!

 

After the shrine visit this afternoon we went home and rested a bit.

We had seats reserved at "Robot Restaurant", a theme restaurant that seemed out of this world. We had however been warned that we should eat beforehand.

So we went to just a place near the hotel that seemed nice. I very much enjoy the slight panic in the waiter's eyes when we say there are 11 of us. Cause they always work it out. Tonight we got a little room to ourselves and even though it was an izakaya (more like a bar with food service), there was so many vegetarian dishes to choose from. I had edamame beans, grilled rice balls, grilled tofu that melted in my mouth and fried rice...

 

Then we hurried to the Robot place and ..wow, we were not prepared. First we were shown into a lounge with psychadelic lights and all shiny surfaces where a band played smooth music while seemingly dressed up as Daft Punk in all metal armor.

 

 

 

And then we went down 5 floors into a sub-basement where we took our seats and were served bento boxes, I got a vegetarian version. Not much to write home about, but it looks neat.

And then started the show, with dancers, drummers, all influenced by either robots or japanese tradition.

 

 

Ending this post with flying bunny mural here in Shinjuku.

So! Didn't have much time to write yesterday since we landed in Tokyo so late, but we didn't do much more than go out for a walk and a curry. Japanese curry is nothing like indian curry, it's brown and to my disappointment with small bits of meat (still a vegetarian).

The flight was pretty smooth except I was stuck between two swedish 50 year old men who kept comparing everything to Bangkok. We were offered a lot of drinks and got a piece of turkish delight as well.

 

We live in the Sjinjuku prefecture which is the entertainment area as I understand it. But we also suspect it's the home of the red light district. It's not quite as red as the Amsterdam red light district however. I've seen no women on obvious display. Just doors with explicit pictures leading to basements and a suspicious amount of massage parlors. After wandering around a few blocks we went back to sleep. 

 

Today we met up in the hotel lobby at 9, and headed out for breakfast. Somehow it was decided that we should head to the Harajuku prefecture. Decision making becomes very interesting when you're 11 friends. We stopped at the first place there but it was perfect. We paid for breakfast service, meaning an expensive drink (tea for me!) and a free toast with boiled egg. The toast was to everyones surprise gargantual. I added a yoghurt and breakfast was done.

 

 

Next to the café was a purikura, a special kind of photo booth where friends go to take perfect pictures together. It heavily edits the photos automatically to give everyone perfect skin with clear shiny big eyes. And then you can personalize them. We spent probably an hour down there and I defenitely need to do that again.

 

 

Then we split up and walked down Takeshita street and it was filled with adorable shops, all with unique clothes and accessories, some rather extreme, some very average. I was happy I didn't bring more money or I would not have much left. 

 

 

After two hours of shopping we found a chinese place and I think we all had noodle soup. It was exactly what I needed. All the impressions are very exhausting and I'm still a bit jetlagged.

 

Then we spent some time walking in Yoyogi park, and visited the Meiji shrine, the biggest in Tokyo. I'll update with pictures later tonight, hopefully before we go to dinner and watch the robot show!

Leaving in 10 minutes. So nervous!

 

I only realized this morning what I'm about to do. I just hope the other 10 people I'm travelling with (all friends) are more mentally prepared. Personally I enjoy denying it until the last minute. Gives me less resefeber.

So first plane goes from Copenhagen to Turkey (where I spent a week a few years ago) and from there on to Tokyo. Half the group lands in Beijing instead. I'm not sure who's got the better deal, but sources say Turkish airlines are very generous with drinks on long flights. Ah, well.

See ya on the other side!

So right now I should be on a plane going fast east. I'm not. I'm still stuck in Sweden, because the pilots at Lufthansa are on a strike. We knew this might happen and we have been booked on new flights, leaving Sunday afternoon instead. Fingers crossed.

At least I got a new hair cut, so I got that going for me which is nice. I'll put up a picture or two when I've stopped freaking out. Or tomorrow. Whichever comes first.

 

Kanye West - All falls down

Yes... This blog has not only survived more than 3 years, it just came ablaze.

In three days, on Saturday morning, I'm off. First flight goes to Frankfurt, and from there I head east to the land of the rising sun, Japan. I'm away for three weeks and since I'm pretty sure I won't be able to accurately tell people what it was like once I get home, I started this up again.

Glad to be back, glad to have you back. To keep y'all readers coming, have a picture of my adorable cat.

 

Now I should really start on that packing business, leaving town tomorrow so tonight's my last chance. And then comes the million dollar question. What books and how many do I bring??

Today's song: Karmin - Look at me now
(that girl sure can rap fast)