Thirteenth Day in Japan. Travelling home.

We got up this morning and took the subway to the Imperial Palace. We didn’t tour the palace. Instead, we walked around the gardens.

Dana is an expert in getting upgrades on United. A couple of days ago she used some of her miles to upgrade to Polaris. She offered me her Polaris seat. That was super thoughtful and generous but I declined. I told her I was more than happy flying in the steerage section of the plane. She offered to help me put in a bid to upgrade to Polaris but I told her that I was fine flying economy. The bid got down to 30,000 miles, about $360 and Dana helped me pull the trigger. No way was United going to accept such a low bid on a Polaris seat that a week ago they were offering for $6,000. To my surprise, yesterday afternoon United accepted my bid and now I have a fully reclining seat in the Polaris section of the flight back to Denver and access to the United Club lounge. Thank you Dana.

This is the gratis fully stocked bar and buffet in the United Club! I can hear my dear old Dad saying: “Son, you are farting through silk now!”

Champagne. I need to lose the spare tire.

That’s it from the airport in Tokyo. I will upload a postscript to this blog post after I land in Denver.

We were thirty minutes late departing from Tokyo but we landed thirty minutes early in Denver.

I hope you are having a great day wherever you are.

Twelfth and Final Full Day in Japan.

Today we are taking the train from Kyoto to Tokyo. Tomorrow afternoon, Saturday afternoon in Tokyo, we fly back to Denver.

This morning I got up early and enjoyed the onsen at the hotel one last time. It is a real treat to start the day with a good scrub and a soak in the hot water of the onsen.

At about 9:00 we took an Uber out to the Philosopher’s Walk. This is a mile long walk along a beautifully shaded tree lined canal. In the spring the pink and white blossoms of the cherry trees paint a pastel canopy over this walk. In the fall the red maple leaves 🍁 vibrantly proclaim the coming of winter.

We stopped at a cafe along the path and had an early lunch.

Rice, miso soup, a salad and chicken with pickled vegetables. Very good.

After lunch we picked up our bags from the hotel and took the subway to the train station. We caught the 1:20 PM Shinkansen from Kyoto to Tokyo.

The Shinkansen is amazing. There is a Shinkansen that leaves Kyoto for Tokyo every ten minutes and the trains are full of passengers. This train reaches a top speed of 186 miles per hour. Amtrak is lucky if it can hit 60 miles per hour on its long distance trains.

Dinner was at Sushi Masashi. The sushi was out of this world.

Pickled vegetables with snow crab on top.

What a great last meal in Japan. That’s it for today. I hope you are having a great day wherever you are.

Eleventh Full Day in Japan.

We started the day by visiting the Kinkaku-ji Temple.

They call this temple the Golden Temple for good reason.

The next temple we visited was was the Ryoan-ji Temple.

This is a small temple that has a beautiful lilly pond.

We had lunch at a restaurant on the temple grounds.

You select your meal by punching a button on this machine. You then pay for the meal you selected and the machine spits out a ticket. You give the ticket to your waitress and she brings you your meal.

I had a chicken and rice bowl that was very good.

After lunch we went to a traditional tea room for a tea ceremony and a matcha making lesson. Sara and Dana absolutely love matcha.

What a nice place for a tea ceremony and a matcha making lesson.

This is the stove where they heat water to make the tea.

Our hostess demonstrating the tea ceremony.

Matcha is made from powdered green tea leaves. You put the green tea powder in you cup and fill the cup about a quarter full with hot water. You then take a small bamboo whisk and mix the water and green tea powder. After the water and green tea powder are mixed you rapidly whisk the mixture until you get a little bit of froth on the top. You are now ready to drink your matcha. You slurp your last sip of matcha as a sign of respect and to let your hostess know that you really appreciate the delicious matcha.

Dana, Sara and Dad enjoying their matcha.

After we finished our matcha we took an Uber to a sake brewery.

We took a tour of the sake brewery. We had to wear hairnets, lab coats and disposable paper booties over our shoes. The brewmaster was a retired investment banker from New York City who was also a sake sommelier. After the tour we sampled a number of sakes with the brewmaster curating our selections. Did you know they make sparkling sake?

Kobe beef filet. This is the best steak I have ever had by a long shot.

Cream cheese cake with raspberry sorbet.

That’s it from Kyoto. Tomorrow we head back to Tokyo. I hope you are having a great day wherever you are.

Tenth Full Day in Japan

Today we are going to do a day trip to Hiroshima. It is about two hundred miles between Kyoto and Hiroshima. We took the Shinkansen high speed train and we traveled that distance comfortably and conveniently in an hour and forty minutes. Every twenty minutes there is a Shinkansen departing from Kyoto bound for Hiroshima with the same frequency on the return trip. Each trainset has about sixteen cars and each car is full of passengers. What an experience.

We got on the train in Kyoto at 7:20 and arrived in Hiroshima at 9:00. Our first stop was the Peace Memorial.

This is the A-Bomb dome. It is a building that was near ground zero when the Enola Gay dropped the atom bomb on August 6, 1945. The wreckage of this building has been preserved as part of the Peace Memorial.

We then walked over to the Peace Memorial Museum and spent two hours exploring this museum and examining the ten separate exhibit spaces.

I did not take pictures of the exhibits in this museum. The initial exhibit space graphically illustrates Hiroshima before August 6. Hiroshima was one of the few Japanese cities untouched by the American fire bombing raids. Following the initial exhibit space there are a number of exhibit spaces that document in graphic and gruesome detail the complete and total devastation and destruction of the city and its inhabitants caused by the atom bomb. Approximately seventy thousand people died immediately after the bomb’s explosion and another seventy thousand people died in the days, weeks, months and years after the explosion as a result of their physical injuries and radiation exposure they sustained when the bomb exploded.

The purpose of the museum is to illustrate the destructive power of an atomic weapon in the hope that such a weapon will never be used again.

After we finished our time at the Peace Museum we took an Uber out to the Miyajima Island ferry.

This is the ferry. It is a ten minute ride to the island.

This is Miyajima Island. It is reputed to be one of the most scenic spots in Japan.

The waters around Miyajima Island are chock full of oyster farms. When we got to the island it was time for lunch so we found a restaurant and had an oyster feast.

Fried oysters, grilled oysters, stewed oysters and oysters au gratin. Delicious!

There are tame deer roaming all over the island aggressively begging food from the tourists.

After wandering around the island for a couple of hours we retraced our journey back to Kyoto.

We were in the mood for Italian for dinner so we decided to check out the ten seat Italian restaurant next door to our hotel.

Great meal!

That’s it from Kyoto. I hope you are having a great day wherever you are.

Ninth Full Day in Japan.

Last night the staff at the hotel set up our futon beds on the floor of our room. This is very traditional sleeping arrangement. It was a little odd but it was comfortable and I slept well.

After we got up this morning we had a traditional Japanese breakfast, fruit, a small omelette, grilled fish, sashimi, rice, pickled vegetables and miso soup. I am not accustomed to such a big breakfast but it was delicious.

After breakfast we visited the onsen at the hotel. The hotel’s onsen has an indoor and outdoor pool. I was sitting in the outdoor pool when it started to gently rain. It was so peaceful and relaxing sitting in the warm water while the rain gently fell.

We checked out at 11:00 and at 11:30 we took the shuttle bus to the train station.

Display of wooden sandals, geta, at the train station.

The hotel did not allow guests to wear shoes in the hotel. You left your shoes in the lobby and slipped on the hotel provided rubber flip flops. I wear size 14 shoes and the largest pair of flip flops they had were size 10. These flip flops were not at all comfortable.

Yesterday we left the hotel to check out a few of the public onsens. I exchanged my uncomfortable inside flip flops for size 10 wooden outside sandals. I walked about one fifty yards in these wooden sandals and my feet started steaming at me to lose these wooden torture chambers. I limped back to the hotel and exchanged my size 10 wooden sandals for my size 14 wide running shoes. I can’t imagine how anyone can comfortably walk around in those wooden sandals.

At 1:30 we took the train back to Kyoto and checked back into our hotel. After resting up for an hour we are off to dinner.

I didn’t document the entire eight course meal but I have pictures of some of the highlights.

This is one of the main courses. Each course had multiple dishes.

This is the desert course. The pineapple crème brute was awesome.

All in all it was another outstanding meal.

That’s it from Kyoto. I hope you are having a wonderful day wherever you are.

Eighth Full Day in Japan.

We got up this morning, checked out of our hotel and took the train to Nishimuraya.

The trains here are world class good. They are super clean and when they are scheduled to arrive they arrive and when they are scheduled to leave they leave. There is a 300% sales tax when you buy a car so most people can’t afford a car. The buses and trains are well used.

Nishimuraya is an onsen resort town. It is in the mountains and is very green.

We have a traditional set of rooms. There is a sitting area looking out onto the beautifully landscaped garden. There are two rooms in the main area. One room is a dining room where they will be serving us dinner.

This is the dining room that will be converted into a bedroom after dinner. You can see the other bedroom in the upper left hand corner of this photo. The floors are covered with tatami mats. There are on outdoors shoes allowed in the hotel. You leave your shoes in the lobby and are issued very uncomfortable indoor flip flops.

After we checked in we put on traditional yukata, Japanese style robes, and visited two of the nearby public onsens, or public baths. Sorry, but no pictures at or anywhere near the onsens.

The staff gave me a pair of traditional wooden clogs to wear while we walked around town and visited the onsens. These wooden clogs were so torturously uncomfortable that I walked back and begged them to exchange the wooden clogs for my tennis shoes.

The first onsen was outside and was surrounded by a tree canopy. There was a waterfall of warm mineral water cascading down a rock face into the pool. It was flat out amazing.

The second onsen was in a cave. It was a little dark for me and the rocks on the floor of this onsen made for treacherous footing for this old man.

After the two onsens we went back to the hotel and relaxed before dinner.

What a great dining experience.

That’s it from Nishimurya. I hope you are having a great day wherever you are.

Seventh Full Day in Japan.

I got up early and decided to visit the onsen in the hotel. An onsen is like a big shallow hot tub without the water jets.

Onsen rules. There are a lot of rules in Japan and everyone knows the rules and follows the rules. The onsen was an invigorating way to start the day.

First stop of our day was Saihoji Temple, the Moss Temple.

This temple is located in a quiet part of Kyoto and is so beautiful and serene.

A series of pictures of the garden at the Moss Temple.

After our visit to the Moss Temple we visited the Jizo-in Temple.

We then visited the Matsuo Taisha Shrine.

Rice paper wrapped sake barrels at the shrine.

After a hard morning of touring temples and shrines we found a very authentic Japanese lunch counter.

Beautiful hydrangeas outside the lunch counter.

After lunch we took a boat ride.

Not a lot of whitewater on this boat ride but enough to make it interesting.

This is the boat. The downriver journey took ninety minutes.

Before dinner we stopped at a tiny craft beer and sake tavern.

I had a glass of sake and it was very good.

Dinner was at Ryo-sho.

First course – Vinegar rice with tile fish.

Second course – Tofu in a special soy sauce. I am not a big fan of tofu but this was delicious.

Fourth course – Sea bream sashimi. We also got bonito sashimi but I didn’t get a picture of the bonito.

Fifth course – Grilled fish. The fish is called hairtail.

Sixth course – Corn spring rolls. These spring rolls were awesome. They were so good I hugged the chef and begged for seconds.

Seventh course – Hairy crab and seasonal vegetables.

Eighth course – Wagyu beef with a poached egg. I love wagyu beef.

Tenth course – Slice of mango with vanilla ice cream.

And a cup of matcha to end a memorable meal.

That’s it from Kyoto. I hope you are having a wonderful day wherever you are.

Sixth Full Day in Japan.

Today we did a day trip to Osaka. The public transit in Japan is world class. There is a subway station a block from our hotel. We rode the subway to the main train station in Kyoto and then took a train to Osaka. The whole trip took about forty-five minutes. When we got to Osaka we walked over to the Osaka Castle.

In the foreground you can see the wall of the castle. In the background you can see the top floors of the castle.

This is the Osaka Castle. It is a history museum and has seven floors, each dedicated to an era in the long history of Osaka’s role in the history of Japan.

We spent the morning exploring this beautiful museum and learning a great deal about the history of Japan. Civil war and conflict between regions and clans has been a hallmark of Japanese history and culture for thousands of years.

After we finished exploring the museum we walked to the Kurimon Ichiba Market for lunch.

This is the Kurimon Ichiba Market. This long alley is lined with small shops selling delicious small bites.

Octopus balls. Not what you might be thinking. Octopus don’t have balls like Rocky Mountain oysters. Octopus balls are dough mixed with octopus and then fried. They were delicious. I also had an order of dumplings.

This is my father, Bob Hansen. He spent a year in Korea during the Korean War and two weeks of that year in Tokyo on R&R. He stayed with a family while he was in Tokyo. He somehow figured out that Japanese women love flowers. So he showed up at the front door of his host family’s house with a massive bouquet of flowers. He was treated like royalty during his two weeks in Japan. My father was very smart and had a very high EQ. He loved people and everyone loved him. I miss him every day.

After lunch we walked over to the Shinto-ji Temple.

This is a pagoda at the temple complex. We climbed up the stairs to the top floor in our stocking feet. No shoes allowed in a pagoda. There was an overweight and out of shape guy at the top who seemed to be in some distress after climbing the five flights of stairs to get to the top floor. I hope he got down without having a heart attack.

There is a river walk in Osaka, kinda like the one in San Antonio.

Ferris wheel on the river walk with people inside those round pods.

Dinner tonight was Italian.

On the left, white asparagus wrapped in prosciutto. On the right, burrata cheese and tomatoes.

Pasta with a sauce made of veal and gorgonzolla cheese.

Blood orange sorbet. The menu said gelato but it was sorbet.

That’s it from Kyoto. I hope you are having a great day wherever you are.

Fifth Full Day in Japan.

This is our first full day in Kyoto. We arranged for a tour guide to drive us around today. Mana, our driver, picked us up at 8:30 and drove us to our first stop on today’s tour.

This is the Fushimi Inari Shrine with its Red Tori Gates.

There are over 10,000 Red Tori Gates stretching up the hill for over a mile.

After we finished at this shrine we drove over to the Geisha District. This is where the geishas trained before they could enter into service at the emperor’s palace.

There is a Kiyomizu temple complex at the top of the hill overlooking the Geisha District.

There are temples and shrines all over this temple complex.

Next we went to the Sanjusangendo Temple.

Inside this temple there were over one thousand intricately carved Buddhas in a hall that was over one hundred yards long. No pictures allowed.

Lunch stop at the Nishiki Market. This row of food stalls stretched out for over a city block. I found a stall selling delicious teriyaki chicken bowls.

After lunch we went for a walk around a bamboo forest.

Did you know that bamboo can grow over one hundred feet in six weeks?

Our final stop was a small temple that had over one thousand small stone Buddhas scattered around the grounds.

Dinner tonight was at Lurra. It was the best meal I have ever had.

This is the kitchen. We are sitting at the bar watching the chef and his staff prepare our meal. Kear, the chef/owner, is the guy on the left side of the photo.

Barbecued baby corn tostada with chicatana ants and ancho chiles.

Sea urchin with fresh cheese and macadamia nuts.

Au gratin onion with morels and green asparagus.

First desert. Kinda like a strawberry shortcake.

Sara, Dana and I agree that this was the best meal and best dining experience we have ever had or ever will have.

Good night from Kyoto. I hope you are having a wonderful day wherever you are.

Fourth Full Day in Japan

This will be our last full day in Tokyo. This evening we take the bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto.

This morning we did a group tour of the Tsukiji Hongwanji Temple and the Tsukiji Fish Market.

This is Jim our tour guide. He graduated from UC Santa Barbara forty years ago and immediately moved to Japan. He got a job as a sportswriter for an English language newspaper in Japan covering, among other things, Japanese Major League Baseball.

This is our group. We had people for LA and London and The Three Musketeers on the right hand side of the group picture.

Our first stop was the Tsukiji Hongwanji Temple.

Visitors are required to purify themselves before entering the temple by rinsing their hands and mouth with water.

Dana and Sara at the purification station.

Hydrangeas in full bloom outside the temple.

After we finished our temple tour we walked over to the Tsukiji Fish Market. At one time this was the market where vendors, working in tiny stalls, sold fresh fish to restaurants and households in Tokyo. About twenty years ago a new fish market was built and the old fish market was turned into a bustling food market. We did a food tour of this market, stopping at various stalls to sample their wares.

First stop was a stall that served skewers of Wagyu beef and octopus. The octopus was good and the Wagyu beef was great.

The next stop was grilled scallops. The seafood here is so fresh and the grilled scallops were delicious.

The next stop was sushi. From left to right, shrimp, regular tuna and fatty tuna and salmon. I love sushi.

Finally, dessert. This is a white strawberry mochi.

After the food tour we stopped at a tea parlor and had matcha. Matcha is like a green tea and there is a type of ceremony that you need to go through to properly prepare matcha.

Enjoying our matcha after the tea attendants walked us through the matcha preparation ceremony.

After we finished our matcha we took a bus to the Team Lab interactive art experience.

My favorite room at Team Lab was a large mirrored room full of orchids hanging from the ceiling. The orchids slowly moved up and down and the colors and the sweet scent were very relaxing.

Looks like The Bean in Millennium Park in Chicago had babies.

After we finished at Team Lab we went down to the train station to take the bullet train to Kyoto.

Shinkansen – bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto.

That’s it from Kyoto. I hope you are having a great day wherever you are.