Updatedness

So I haven't updated with whatever I have been doing here for a while. I am not good at keeping a journal I suppose. Gomen Nasai.Semester ended, for me, on Monday, July 24th. Along with a friend of mine, Kirsten, we took the shinkansen (bullet train) from Shin-Yokohama to Kyoto. The shinkansen is extremely plush in comparison to an aircraft. It has quite large seats and is quite smooth on the tracks. I didn't get any sense of the speed I was travelling at. The ride to Kyoto took about two hours.Once in Kyoto, we headed to the hostel to put our belongings up, and headed over to a small Japanese shop. Place had some really good food. They place the food on an open grill type thing. It's like what a quick order cook works with to make hamburgers, etc. This keeps the food hot, and you just take a little more off when you want it. Kirsten had some okonomiyaki which was apparently fantastic. After that we caught some z's. We first headed to the Imperial Palace which housed the Emperor from 794 until 1868 when the the capital was moved to Tokyo. The estate is truly magnificent. The building itself dates from the 1855. The palace, being constructed of wood, had a tendency to burn down frequently. As such, they routinely rebuilt it after each fire.We headed to Toraya Confectionary afterwards and bought some sweets. These are true works of art. You should Google it to see what I mean. We went to Nijo Castle next, which was the Kyoto residence of the Shogun. Unfortunately, it was closed that Tuesday, but all was not lost! We found a great sword shop nearby where we bought many good things! I would recommend checking it out for anybody in the area.After the shop, we headed to Kinkakuji Temple (the Silver Pavilion). It had, what I believe to be, the lovliest garden I've ever seen. The temple was created by a Shogun as a retirement villa in 1482. After the Shogun's death, it was converted into a Zen Temple in 1490. Despite the name, it was never covered in silver.It was only midday by this point so we headed over to the very famous Kiyomizudera (Pure Water Temple). It was founded in 780. One must really make an effort to see it if you ever happen to be in Kyoto. Near the bottom, where the water is, you can taste the water which is said to have healing powers. The Jishu Shrine is behind the temple. It is dedicated to the deity of love. I, most unfortunately, missed it. =P I suppose I will have to make another trip there soon.The next day, July 26th Wednesday, we headed out early to see the Fushimi Inari Shrine. Inari is the god of rice, and foxes are his messengers. You will see many fox depictions here! The shrine has what I would guess are thousands of torii gates. The shrine is on top of a mountain, and the trail leading to the top is covered in the gates. It is a pretty good hike up, but is quite rewarding. I bought some charms here as well. One for myself, to help with romantic relationships. The other is a health charm which I will present as a gift to someone back home.We finally got to see Nijo Castle, and it is a magnificent place. They have manequinns dressed in traditional clothing, so that one gets an idea of where everyone sat. The Shogun's castle was marvelously decorated in each room. The artist was a true genius. The floors really do squeak by the way! You can hear them as people walk along. Unfortunately, one cannot take photos, but I was able to buy some pre-captured phots on sale for 300 yen. The craftsmanship shown is breathtaking.After this, we headed over to Osaka. Let me fist say that Osaka-ben is a bit different from what I'm used too, and is a litle difficult to understand at times. In Osaka, which we were only able to spend less than a day in, we went to Osaka Castle. This was where Toyotomi Hideyoshi had intended to unite all of Japan from. After his death, the lineage was attacked by Tokugawa, and the family line was ended. The castle itself burnt down for the final time in 1655, and was only rebuilt in 1931. The castle goes into detail about Toyotomi's life, and speaks about the original castle. The building is quite marvelous from the outside, and perhaps the most beutifal of all the castles I have seen.We only had a little while left in Osaka, and not being able to see the aquarium in time, we went over to see Peace Osaka. It is a museum that shows the horrors of World War II firebombing on the city. It is quite moving, and does a fairly good job of not putting blame on anybody for what happened. It evokes well the idea that war must be averted lest millions more die in futile fighting. The first room is dedicated to Osaka, but the next room is about what happened in China, Korea, Manchuria, and the Pacific Campaign etc. There are many posters and books detailing how propaganda was used to justify what the Imperialist Government was doing. Afterwards, we had grabbed our bags, and headed back to Tokyo. So that is pretty much the story of what I did. Hope everyone enjoyed reading that, as it took me about an hour to write it.Source