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rkoldI'm slowly adjusting to being back in the US but the house is still a disaster and I have tons of vegetables and other items to go through from 2 weeks worth of CSA deliveries. I'm determined to work on dinner and I'm trying to get the stove to heat the house.
I got the most lovely package in the mail the other day from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bramblyhedge containing several surprise gifts, the one nearest and dearest to my heart being DVDs of Under the Mountain one of my favorite programs as a child. I'm so excited to watch it again. Between that and the gift DVDs from sumeragiskank of Soapdish and Watership Down my life is very happy indeed. ♥
Thursday morning I'd booked a super early train from Tokyo to Nagoya so I could catch the 10:30 JR Rapid to Ise-Shi. I haven't so much time in Nagoya station, unlike say ShinOsaka or even Kyoto so I wanted to be sure to give myself lots of time to get to the right track and to put my small wheelie and backpack in a locker. For those curious my huge suitcase was traveling to Kyoto via Takyuubin. Fuji-san was not visible in the slightest from the shinkansen. However on the happy side, I discovered that the transfer in Nagoya was extremely easy giving me about 20+ minutes in the station and the chance to discover that Nagoya's bathrooms near the shinkansen are incredibly nice and modern! My "rapid" train to Mie consisted of only 2 cars and didn't seem all that rapid. Upon arriving at Ise-shi I had hoped to get some sort of bus pass thing that Erin had told me about but couldn't find a ticket office or even a tourist office so set out in the direction the map made the outer shrine part of Ise look. The walk was quite easy, but as I got nearly to Ise it started to drizzle. I ducked into a nearby shop and bought a 300 yen umbrella thinking I would both be protected from the rain and have another souvenir from Japan. I crossed the street and started wandering around the shrine taking pictures and trying not to get so soaked as the rain picked up. Unfortunately, my 300 yen umbrella proved to not even be worth that much when the spokes started detaching from the plastic. By the time I finished touring the outer shrine and was waiting for the bus to go to the inner shrine (It was about 2+ miles from the outer shrine) even the inside of the umbrella had ceased to function and was flapping around useless on the pole. I don't think I have ever seen an umbrella die so completely and so quickly and of course it was trash and I had no place to throw it out. ;;_;;
I got to the inner shrine and started to walk past the entrance torii when it started to rain again, even harder than earlier and all I had was a mess of a umbrella. I walked back to the shopping street and bought a 500 yen umbrella from a shop and got the shopkeeper to accept my trash umbrella. Outfitted with a new umbrella I headed to Ise inner shrine. One thing I should note about Ise is unlike most shrines and temples in Japan, a good portion of the shrine is closed to the public and one isn't even allowed to take pictures of it. Ise is still a really sacred place to the Japanese even if they don't necessarily believe in Shinto in the same way they once did.
Both the inner and the outer shrines have very similar architecture though the grounds for the inner shrine are larger and there is a lovely river next to the shrine one needs to cross. The inner shrine also had a huge collection of cocks (the avian variety) making me feel like they were following from Tokyo. I met some foreigners and one of them claimed Ise was particularly nice in the rain but I'd have to disagree. Getting soaked even with an umbrella is not overly fun and was one of the reasons I didn't even consider trying to see the married rocks of Meto-iwa and the shrine located near them, even though I would have liked a stamp from there.
Other than its shrines, the Ise area is also well know for Tobu and pearls. My mother has wanted a pair of pearl earrings for a long time and this seemed an ideal time to get her a pair despite the rapidly declining value in the dollar. I then caught another bus back to the station but ended up in other Ise station so then had to slog through puddles to get to the Ise-shi station to catch the next Rapid. I suspect I fell asleep on the train back >>; I then grabbed my suitcases and headed to visittriplepunch :D We met at the station near her house and she introduced me to her awesomely cool girlfriend. The 3 of us went to karaoke and then hung out at her apartment.
The next day I took most of the day off to just hand with Sue and Masa. ♥ I think after the rain and train trips of Ise I needed it. lol We watched some DVDs they'd rented of US TV Shows which we watched dubbed into Japanese with English subtitles. We also went to a really good Italian restaurant near where Sue lives and took a few fast dolly piccies. Around 4 or 5 I said good bye to Sue and Masa and headed back to the station to go to Kyoto.
misspaulette and I had been secretly planning over the last week an early surprise birthday party for chocolate_chip ! On Paulette's advice we were going to a parfait place that Emily liked and she had invited some of Emily's other Kansai friends. :D We were also planning All Night Karaoke! ♥ Luckily, it did turn out to be a surprise and I think I've never seen such an enormous variety of parfaits in my entire life. All night karaoke was.. exhausting. I'm really glad I did it because it was just lovely having a chance to butcher all sorts of songs I never would have tried otherwise and it has convinced me I need to practice and try again some of the songs, preferably when my voice is not hoarse and I don't sound like I'm coughing up a lung. ;;_;;
At 6 I headed back to my hotel in Kyoto and slept until around noonish when I took a shower and got moving so that I could meet Emily and Paulette at Tenshi no Sato. The Saga Arashiyama station had been completely renovated and now actually crossed the tracks and shot you out practically right in front of Sato. I got their late and then joined the waitlist for FCS so I could order a doll for a friend. I got to see the huge Genji exhibit in person as well as the lovely One Offs. My favorite hands down was a Yo SD Kanon which I put in forfuture Nunnally! I then went back to wait for my FCS spot ..and waited... and waited... and waited... I didn't even make it outside for pictures because at 4:30 they asked me to please sit down and wait and then took close to an hour to get to me. *sighs* The 3 of us then headed back towards where I was staying and got Italian for dinner ♥ while making plans for Osaka Comic City before breaking early so we could all try to catch up on some of the sleep we were still missing from karaoke so we could meet at 7:30 am on Sunday morning.
Morning Glories growing over an overpass in Tokyo
The entrance torii to the outer shrine of Ise Jingu
I love how the shrine looks like a back drop lol
As you can see most of this building was closed to the public
By the time I got to the inner shrine, Naiku it was pouring
Japanese cocks
Japanese koi
Japanese people were washing their hands in this river, I guess it is even more traditional than using one of those fountains most shrines have?
The other foreigners I met.my legs look so thin, wow, I hope they usually look that good!
Space aliens! Ghosts! This picture is just here to give some sense of how much it was raining. >>;
The hillside during a break in the rain
The boys meet Sue's girls.Edna and Lelouch bonded
Sue and Masa! :D
Me and Sue! :D
Masa and me! :D
My apple pie and chocolate parfait
Yes, those prices are just what they look like. (These are of course plastic food models)
It must be ordered ahead of time, but the famous $100 parfait. (Also obviously a model)
In other news I am up to date on Gundam 00. Mr. Bushido sends me into gales of laughter. I now need to catch up on Vampire Knight and decide if I want to keep watching Kuroshisuji.
I got the most lovely package in the mail the other day from
bramblyhedge containing several surprise gifts, the one nearest and dearest to my heart being DVDs of Under the Mountain one of my favorite programs as a child. I'm so excited to watch it again. Between that and the gift DVDs from sumeragiskank of Soapdish and Watership Down my life is very happy indeed. ♥Thursday morning I'd booked a super early train from Tokyo to Nagoya so I could catch the 10:30 JR Rapid to Ise-Shi. I haven't so much time in Nagoya station, unlike say ShinOsaka or even Kyoto so I wanted to be sure to give myself lots of time to get to the right track and to put my small wheelie and backpack in a locker. For those curious my huge suitcase was traveling to Kyoto via Takyuubin. Fuji-san was not visible in the slightest from the shinkansen. However on the happy side, I discovered that the transfer in Nagoya was extremely easy giving me about 20+ minutes in the station and the chance to discover that Nagoya's bathrooms near the shinkansen are incredibly nice and modern! My "rapid" train to Mie consisted of only 2 cars and didn't seem all that rapid. Upon arriving at Ise-shi I had hoped to get some sort of bus pass thing that Erin had told me about but couldn't find a ticket office or even a tourist office so set out in the direction the map made the outer shrine part of Ise look. The walk was quite easy, but as I got nearly to Ise it started to drizzle. I ducked into a nearby shop and bought a 300 yen umbrella thinking I would both be protected from the rain and have another souvenir from Japan. I crossed the street and started wandering around the shrine taking pictures and trying not to get so soaked as the rain picked up. Unfortunately, my 300 yen umbrella proved to not even be worth that much when the spokes started detaching from the plastic. By the time I finished touring the outer shrine and was waiting for the bus to go to the inner shrine (It was about 2+ miles from the outer shrine) even the inside of the umbrella had ceased to function and was flapping around useless on the pole. I don't think I have ever seen an umbrella die so completely and so quickly and of course it was trash and I had no place to throw it out. ;;_;;
I got to the inner shrine and started to walk past the entrance torii when it started to rain again, even harder than earlier and all I had was a mess of a umbrella. I walked back to the shopping street and bought a 500 yen umbrella from a shop and got the shopkeeper to accept my trash umbrella. Outfitted with a new umbrella I headed to Ise inner shrine. One thing I should note about Ise is unlike most shrines and temples in Japan, a good portion of the shrine is closed to the public and one isn't even allowed to take pictures of it. Ise is still a really sacred place to the Japanese even if they don't necessarily believe in Shinto in the same way they once did.
Both the inner and the outer shrines have very similar architecture though the grounds for the inner shrine are larger and there is a lovely river next to the shrine one needs to cross. The inner shrine also had a huge collection of cocks (the avian variety) making me feel like they were following from Tokyo. I met some foreigners and one of them claimed Ise was particularly nice in the rain but I'd have to disagree. Getting soaked even with an umbrella is not overly fun and was one of the reasons I didn't even consider trying to see the married rocks of Meto-iwa and the shrine located near them, even though I would have liked a stamp from there.
Other than its shrines, the Ise area is also well know for Tobu and pearls. My mother has wanted a pair of pearl earrings for a long time and this seemed an ideal time to get her a pair despite the rapidly declining value in the dollar. I then caught another bus back to the station but ended up in other Ise station so then had to slog through puddles to get to the Ise-shi station to catch the next Rapid. I suspect I fell asleep on the train back >>; I then grabbed my suitcases and headed to visit
triplepunch :D We met at the station near her house and she introduced me to her awesomely cool girlfriend. The 3 of us went to karaoke and then hung out at her apartment.The next day I took most of the day off to just hand with Sue and Masa. ♥ I think after the rain and train trips of Ise I needed it. lol We watched some DVDs they'd rented of US TV Shows which we watched dubbed into Japanese with English subtitles. We also went to a really good Italian restaurant near where Sue lives and took a few fast dolly piccies. Around 4 or 5 I said good bye to Sue and Masa and headed back to the station to go to Kyoto.
misspaulette and I had been secretly planning over the last week an early surprise birthday party for chocolate_chip ! On Paulette's advice we were going to a parfait place that Emily liked and she had invited some of Emily's other Kansai friends. :D We were also planning All Night Karaoke! ♥ Luckily, it did turn out to be a surprise and I think I've never seen such an enormous variety of parfaits in my entire life. All night karaoke was.. exhausting. I'm really glad I did it because it was just lovely having a chance to butcher all sorts of songs I never would have tried otherwise and it has convinced me I need to practice and try again some of the songs, preferably when my voice is not hoarse and I don't sound like I'm coughing up a lung. ;;_;;At 6 I headed back to my hotel in Kyoto and slept until around noonish when I took a shower and got moving so that I could meet Emily and Paulette at Tenshi no Sato. The Saga Arashiyama station had been completely renovated and now actually crossed the tracks and shot you out practically right in front of Sato. I got their late and then joined the waitlist for FCS so I could order a doll for a friend. I got to see the huge Genji exhibit in person as well as the lovely One Offs. My favorite hands down was a Yo SD Kanon which I put in for
Morning Glories growing over an overpass in Tokyo
The entrance torii to the outer shrine of Ise Jingu
I love how the shrine looks like a back drop lol
As you can see most of this building was closed to the public
By the time I got to the inner shrine, Naiku it was pouring
Japanese cocks
Japanese koi
Japanese people were washing their hands in this river, I guess it is even more traditional than using one of those fountains most shrines have?
The other foreigners I met.
The hillside during a break in the rain
The boys meet Sue's girls.
Sue and Masa! :D
Me and Sue! :D
Masa and me! :D
My apple pie and chocolate parfait
Yes, those prices are just what they look like. (These are of course plastic food models)
It must be ordered ahead of time, but the famous $100 parfait. (Also obviously a model)
In other news I am up to date on Gundam 00. Mr. Bushido sends me into gales of laughter. I now need to catch up on Vampire Knight and decide if I want to keep watching Kuroshisuji.
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Cool scenes!
Date: 2008-11-04 05:59 am (UTC)Re: Cool scenes!
Date: 2008-11-06 03:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-11-04 06:26 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-11-06 03:11 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-11-04 06:56 am (UTC)We will be visiting you one of these days on the US leg of our North American tour (ie the "meet the in-laws" trip). This will probably be in two or three years, so you have time to prepare. :D
those giant sundaes look super yummy, but I'll take a normal-sized one, thanks!
(no subject)
Date: 2008-11-06 03:15 pm (UTC)I so hope you do visit and now I don't have to even be embarrassed about you coming here since Palin lost! XD;;
I thought they were all a little overpriced, but then this is Japan so what can one do. The Italian place near you was soooooooooo good! ♥
(no subject)
Date: 2008-11-04 09:43 am (UTC)I am just so thrilled and I think those will be the next DVDs I watch with Kennis since I've not bought FMA yet. >>;;
The minute I saw them I knew I had to get one for you (I also got myself a copy, or course, & really looking forward to seeing if it's still as scary as I remember *g*).
I actually have a new DVD of FMA that's been sitting in my cupboard for months! ^_^;;; I love the series but am just so bad at keeping up with it. *lol*
I really want to go to Mitsumine, it's just 2+hours from Tokyo and I believe now involves a bus trip since the ropeway that use to go to the shrine is no longer being run. ~.~ But I am determined to make it there at some point so I can have all the places in X. XD;;;
A noble quest indeed. XD
And now about the photos: GOLDEN FISH! Wow. I've never seen a fish so gold. And the icecreams...look positively lethal (especially that last one) but oh how glorious and divine. *_* Icecreamuuuuu... <3
(no subject)
Date: 2008-11-06 03:20 pm (UTC)I downloaded all of FMA except the movie back when it was first airing and I've been rewatching it on my ipod. It makes for entertaining train trips in Japan. I only wish I had gotten it working for some of my longer trips. >>; I ended up watching Under the Mountain without Kennis a few days ago, and wheeeee SO CREATIVE! And the kids aren't even horrifyingly bad actors!
I got most of the other ones a long time ago. Some of them I've spent a lot of time in like Nakano, Inokashira, Ginza, Ikebukuro, and Rainbow Bridge. lol I sort of want to someday go back to Koya to get more temple stamps now. >>;
I think they're a little overpriced. >>;; But yes very pretty fishies!
(no subject)
Date: 2008-11-04 03:51 pm (UTC)And why are Japanese cocks a lot cooler than ours?LOL the sundaes.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-11-06 03:22 pm (UTC)Are the cocks cooler? I've never really seen any in real life before. lolI think they're overpriced but they make for interesting photos.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-11-06 03:44 pm (UTC)I've seen a few and they're a lot un-cooler here...They really boggled me. Why would anyone order those sundaes? @_@
(no subject)
Date: 2008-11-05 12:04 am (UTC)I love the pic of the koi. I tried to convince my mom we needed a koi pond in the back yard, but she said no. XD
And I got your post card today! It's lovely, thank you! *hugs*
(no subject)
Date: 2008-11-06 03:24 pm (UTC)I would love to have koi but I imagine the huge eagle and cats and raccoons in the area would think it was a new fish restaurant. >>;;
*hugs* I'm so glad you got it! :D