Japan: October 2014

So I know I'm rather late on this...but when one of your best friends comes to visit you 7500 miles across the globe, it shouldn't go unrecognized!

Two months ago in August, Shannon came to visit for THREE WEEKS!!! Wooooo. What a great three weeks--we ate some of the best food we've ever had, saw some of the most historical sights, and bonded in a foreign country =). I hope you are able to get at least half the enjoyment of our journey via blog, as we did traveling around Japan.

Shan flew into Tokyo which worked out because I happened to be in Tokyo for work when her flight got in. We stayed at our good ol' college friend Timmy's (he lives in Tokyo) for a night, and my boss was kind enough to show us a few things around Tokyo before heading back to Osaka.

<-- Beers with Timmy for Shan's first night in Japan and a small festival shrine at the Tokyo-Edo Museum -->

Unfortunately during the week I still had to work, so Shan did a bit of her own thing during weekdays. But in the evenings we went on a couple adventures, and spent the weekends seeing Osaka and Kyoto. One of the girls from my apartment building, Yukko, helped us navigate Kyoto and see a couple really awesome temples. The first was Kinkaku-ji, a Golden Temple. The second was Myoshin-ji, which was a complex of many temples. My favorite within Myoshin-ji was the main temple, which has a dragon painted on the ceiling, with a single eye that is always looking directly down at you, no matter where in the building you stand. The details of the painting, and the details of the structures inside were phenomenol. Unfortunately taking photos within that main temple was strictly prohibited, but I was able to get some shots of other temples within the Complex.

Kinkaku-ji Temple

Inside one of the temples at Myoshin-ji

The four of us girls at Kikaku-ji

A red temple in Myoshin-ji

That week we went to dinner with some girls from work. It was nice for everyone to meet, and interesting to see the cultural difference between two Japanese friend's relationship and two Americans. But, my favorite topic of conversation may have been when we spent a solid 5 minutes trying to figure out what was REALLY on the menu. Future note to anyone travelling to Japan: the Japanese phonetics put on the English words "duck" and "dog" are extremely similar....confirm before eating. To clarify, we had duck, not dog =). The rest of the week consisted of shopping local around my apartment, getting conveyor-belt sushi, ramen, and cold udon, doing some solid ab workouts to offset the good food, and drinking creamy chocolate liquor, to in turn, offset the ab workouts =). On Friday we went back into Kyoto and got Yakatori with my team from work. Like the dinner with the girls from the apartment building, this one was equally entertaining. I believe the first few comments were: "I recommend beer. Ok? Do you like chicken neck? I think it's delicious!"

Taking a break from the chicken neck and chicken tail to take a nice pic. Great team!

So happy to have Shan visit Japan =) And even happy to be able to bust out our stylish umbrellas =)

The following weekend we did more exploring around Osaka. We went to America-mura and did some good shopping, had a delicious brick-oven-baked pizza, and walked up to Dotombori.

Dotombori!

We also went to Osaka Castle which is gorgeous on the outside, and a little less historical on the inside. It has been remodeled and turned into a museum, so it was a good history lesson, but not the same image as it would have been years ago. In the evening after Osaka Castle we went and had traditional Osaka food (Okinomiyaki!--had a pic of this in an earlier blog!) and went to see Tsutenkaku Tower. The street leading up to the Tower was awesome--exactly what you picture when you picture a bright and colorful lighted clustered street in Japan. The Tower wasn't real tall, but it still gave a nice night time view.

Osaka Castle!

Tsutenkaku Tower

After another solid week of good eats, abs, and creamy chocolate liquor, we went to a well-known and magazine-ranked (some magazine?) traditional Japanese restaurant, again with some co-workers. I think my favorite miscommunication this night was after explaining sour kraut as a new years American tradition to one of the guys, and noticing he was looking up "sour cloud" on his phone. Another good one was trying to come up with the name of the food called "Konnyaku" and explaining it as some kind of vegetable-like noodle that comes from either a potato or a flower (or, I might have said potato flower...) and he was thrilled to have come up with the answer to what the food was--BROCCOLI!!! These two miscommunications are by far my favorite thus far, and had Shan and I laughing pretty hysterically =).

Beers, sake, noodles, sushi, and a great group of friends!

The last four days of Shan's trip luckily overlapped with my summer holiday. The first day of the summer holiday we spent at Universal Japan, where we drank just the right amount of beers, and sent just the right amount of absolutely ridiculous snapchats--ok, maybe way too many snaps...we know we know. But what kind of snap is better than a snap of poor English shirts, beers, dancing dinosaurs, dancing men, creepy dolls, chicken drumsticks, calf bracelets, children in shopping carts, and oh so much more. We may have played the perfect role of "American" this day.

Since Shan was flying out of Tokyo, the day after our USJ extravaganza, we took the Shinkansen into Tokyo and went straight to Tsukiji Market to meet two girls who work at NPC Tokyo for sushi for lunch. Tsukiji Fish Market is the largest wholesale fish and seafood market in the world, and the sushi we had at this restaurant on the outskirts, that buys it's fish during the big auctions every morning,was 10x better than any other sushi I've ever had in my life (even other Japanese sushi), and I have no confidence in ever find sushi better. The shop specialized in Tuna, and had this guy sitting out like an advertisement:

We actually got to eat a nice couple pieces of this Tuna =)

We sat at the sushi bar and called out to the sushi chefs whatever we wanted. We got to watch them cut HUGE fish down to pieces that would fit into those small sushi cubbies you can see there along the bar. Honestly might be the freshest and most delicious meal I've ever had.

Everyone at my work in NPC has been so supportive of my travelling and adventures of seeing all I can in Japan. Our second day in Tokyo, a co-worker and his wife offered to show us some of the best spots in the city. We went to another Market where the streets were lined with small shops selling everything from shoes and bags to meat and spices to live turtles and postcards with cats riding waves and skateboards, in Kimonos of course.

Famous Japanese Mushrooms
with an awful smell.

Holy Meat!

Love these cat postcards

After the market we went to Asakusa district, where we saw Senso-ji temple and got some good souvenir shopping in. This is the "Thunder Gate" which leads to the temple, and in the picture you can see the "Kaminarimon" which is a giant paper lantern.

Asking for luck and
health and fortune
and love <3.

For lunch, Ito-san and his wife generously treated us to one of Tokyo's most famous dishes, eel, and at one of the most famous places to get it. A small shop that had only 3-4 tables and was by reservation only. I didn't realize before this, how delicious and savory eel was. It was also served with "bone chips" which were small crunchy narrow chips made from the bones of the eel. Omoshiroi, and again so good.

Last but not least, we went to Harajuku, and one of its busy shopping streets, Takeshita Street. Here's a pic of Shan and I with our awesome tour guides and friends!

Our last day in Tokyo we got some oishi ramen, went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building for a nice night view of the city, got Mexican (yep, we got Mexican), and had a few drinks at a bar in Roppongi. Roppongi is known for its bars and clubs, but we skipped the club this time and kept with the smaller scene =). It was a sad time when we had to part ways on the train the next day--me heading back to Osaka, and Shan back to America!

From the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building

Peace out Japan <3

Well everyone, thanks for reading. And Shannon, thanks for coming to Japan =). The timing of the visit was perfect, just over a month since I had been home for Erin's bridal shower, and a month before going back for the wedding, and for the last time until March! To spend time in a foreign country with a friend is something I hope you all have the opportunity of doing. Creating memories to be cherished for a lifetime =). If you have the opportunity to do it, don't pass it up. Life will most certainly be more complete.

As usual, I'll leave you all with some random pictures, as if the blog isn't long enough as it is ;-).

A view from the top of Osaka Castle. These dragon sculptures are
often placed, one facing each direction, onto castles to protect from fire.

The Billiken. Everywhere in Osaka, especially near Tsutenkaku. Actually created in 1908 by an American art teacher. He brings goodluck.
"The God of Things As They Ought to be"