The path to Okunoin Temple, lined with a half million tombs.
Peter and I spent one night at the Sekishoin temple on Mt. Koya. To get from Kyoto to Mt. Koya, we took the shinkansen (bullet train) to Osaka, then took a subway to a different train (the JR lines, which we rode most of the time, do not go up to Mt. Koya). The train ride was about 90 minutes long, and after that we took a 10 minute cable car ride, followed by a 15 …
While in Japan, we visited many beautiful temples and shrines, especially while we were in Kyoto. The temple pictured above is the Kinkakuji (Gold Pavilion) Temple, and the outside of the building is coated with real gold. Temples like this one that are popular with tourists often charged an entry fee (generally around $5), and then had signs directing tourists on a specific route through the temple grounds.
While in Japan, we had the opportunity to ride several forms of public transportation, all without being able to read Japanese. Many of the signs were written in both Japanese and English, and most of the time individual stops were broadcast over loudspeaker as well, and so we listened to the stops to keep track of where we were, and know when to get off. We spent a lot of time on trains ( wrote a lovely post here with step-by-step advice on taking the trains), but at various points of our trip we rode on subways, buses, and …
Now that I’m back, and recovered from jet lag (and the flu I picked up on the way home), I figured I’d do a few blog posts on the highlights from the trip my husband and I recently took (to Japan). First up is the Tsukiji fish market, a bustling market where it is possible to buy almost anything that lives in the sea in the early hours of the morning. Well, most mornings. We thought that it would be a great idea to visit the market the first day in Tokyo, seeing as how we’d likely be awake anyway …
Pictures from my trip to Japan are up on flickr. I took lots of pictures early in the trip, but didn’t take as many pictures as I expected at Worldcon — the few that I did take at the convention are in the ‘Yokohama’ set.
After a very long day of traveling yesterday, I’m now back in Austin. I’ll be making several posts about the trip as soon as I’ve had a chance to sort through some of the accompanying pictures.
I’m massively jet-lagged. I woke up about an hour ago (after having slept 12 hours) and I really want to go back to bed and sleep. Hopefully I’ll be able to distract myself by unpacking the last of the boxes (Peter did lots of unpacking before I got back, mostly only the kitchen boxes are left) and sorting out the photos I took in …
I’ve been in Texas for a week, and am still only partially unpacked, but tomorrow I’m off to Japan for Worldcon. My husband and I are sightseeing in Tokyo and Kyoto beforehand, which I’m quite excited about. I’ve never been to Japan before (or anywhere in Asia, for that matter).
Added to my list of things I’ve learned this week:
– lifting heavy things is not good for people with wrist problems
– crickets, in addition to being icky, are noisy
– brand new mattresses are really really comfy
We’re still not unpacked enough for the apartment to …
