Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is not particularly my favorite holiday. Like, the Macy's parade is great. But mostly Thanksgiving is just, like, the sign that I can start celebrating Christmas.

This year's was nice though! I mean, I didn't get the day off like I would have in the States, but I had a pretty nice day at work and then got to spend time after work with good friends and good food. We went to one of my favorite restaurants and had delicious Indian food. Nothing says Thanksgiving like sag paneer and garlic naan!

This year I am thankful that I have had the opportunity to meet so many amazing new friends, that I live in the best place in the world, that I found the softest blanket ever in Passport the other day, that I don't have to drive, that delicious Indian food is about a ten-minute walk from home, and that I live close to Disney magic.

Please enjoy some fall colors in Hikarigaoka Park, Christmas art and decorations in Shinjuku, and a picture of my most excellent Thanksgiving dinner!

光が丘 Autumn Colors!

The gingko trees in Hikarigaoka are very pretty right now! The bright red fall colors in Kyoto were lovely, but I like the bright yellow at home too!

Day 4: Kyoto (Daitoku-ji and Arashiyama)

My last day in Kyoto was not quite as templetastic as the day before, but was still pretty great! I first visited Daitoku-ji, which is a huge temple that has lots of subtemples. You could spend a lot more time there than I did (and I was there for quite a while), but I really enjoyed what I saw. I especially liked Daisen-in, which had a really fantastic zen garden, complete with really good explanation of what everything in it and the patterns in the sand meant. Super interesting! But no pictures allowed, sorry!

After that, I headed to the Arashiyama area, which was where we visited the bamboo forest and monkey mountain before. I visited the big temple there, Tenryu-ji, which has a really lovely garden (and which is bordered by the bamboo forest). I also visited Nonomiya-jinja, which is a shrine in the bamboo forest. And then I ate matcha ice cream and bought souvenirs and headed back to Kyoto Station where I ate soup and bought more souvenirs and then got on the shinkansen and came home. It was a lovely, lovely, lovely vacation!

Enjoy five pictures of Tenryu-ji (the first and the last four) and six at Daitoku-ji.







And now, your moment of zen.

Day Three: Kyoto (Tetsugaku no Michi, Fushimi Inari, and dessert)

My third day in Kyoto was templetastic, a lot creepy, and very delicious!

First, the templetastic. My friend had recommended a temple that is very close to a lot of other temples, along a path called Tetsugaku no Michi (the Philosopher's Path, named for a philosophy professor who walked along it and meditated every day or something), so I decided to just hang out in that area and visit a bunch of them. A good decision! The first temple I visited, Nanzen-ji, turned out to be one of my favorite temples I've ever been to. It was really peaceful and beautiful, and there was a cool aqueduct and some cool screens (no pics allowed, sorry) with tigers and leopards on them (at the time, they thought leopards were female tigers!) and a nice zen garden. Next I visited Eikan-do (my friend's recommendation), which was also really fantastic. Very peaceful and beautiful! They have a Buddha in an unusual pose there (again, sorry, no pics allowed), looking back over his shoulder to make sure he's not leaving you behind or something.

Then a small shrine, Otoyo-jinja, which I had to myself. There were some cute animal statues there! Then back the temples with Honen-ji, which was very pretty, and Ginkaku-ji (the Silver Pavilion, although it never received its intended silver coating), which is one of the more famous places in Kyoto. It is similar (on purpose) to Kinkaku-ji (the Golden Pavilion), which we visited last time. It is being renovated, but since I was close, I decided I should check it out anyway, and I'm glad I did! The renovation wasn't, like, covering up the entire building or anything. And there was super interesting sand!

Next, the creepiness! I had been planning on leaving that area and heading to another big temple, but by the time I finished, there wasn't time to get there before it closed (sometimes inconvenient thing about temples and shrines: they close early), so I decided to go to Fushimi Inari shrine, which is 24 hours. We visited last time (the place with all the torii), but did not have time to climb all the way up the path, so I really wanted to finish it. Unfortunately, it got dark while I was climbing. This was cool at first; there are some lights on the path, and it was kind of great to be walking through all the torii in the dim light. And then everyone around me disappeared. And then it got really dark. And then there were weird noises in the forest. And then I got super super super freaked out and had to give up and turn back.

Finally, deliciousness. After the scariness of Fushimi Inari in the dark, I needed some happiness, so when I got back to Kyoto Station, I headed for that matcha dessert place we had visited last time. There was a much shorter wait this time! And I could enjoy the nice view of Kyoto and eat a delicious parfait and relax and not feel creeped out anymore! A nice end to a (mostly) nice day!

Enjoy four pictures of Nanzen-ji, six pictures of Eikan-do, two pictures of Otoyo-jinja, one of Tetsugaku no Michi, two of Honen-in, and two of Ginkaku-ji.

Day Two: Osaka (Osaka Castle and Floating Garden Observatory)

After finishing the aquarium, I headed for Osaka Castle. I meant to quickly snap a few pictures of the outside and check out the museum inside and then go eat takoyaki at a certain place (at a different station). My plan was foiled! But it was okay!

While I was walking up to the castle, I stopped to read some sign about it, and this man started talking to me. He pretty much decided that we were going to hang out and he was going to tell me all about the castle and the grounds (mostly in Japanese, with the occasional English word and quite a few gestures). I would have found this extremely sketchy anywhere else in the world, but he just wanted me to enjoy Osaka! It was fun! I looked at a lot more of the grounds than I would have otherwise, and I learned things! The museum was really interesting too; it would be cool if the inside of the castle looked like it really used to, but since it doesn't, the museum is definitely great. There were a lot of cool screens (including some depicting gruesome war scenes!) and interesting stuff about early Western influence on and/or opinions about Japan.

Afterwards, my friend-of-the-afternoon bought me takoyaki and then we went to a shrine across the street and then he showed me a kendo training center nearby where we could watch them practicing, and it was awesome.

After we parted, I headed back to Osaka Station intending to get the train back to Kyoto. As we reached the station, I spotted the Umeda Sky Building again, and I changed my plan. "It is on your left," I told myself. "If you remember what direction it is in, you have to be able to find it when you get out of the station." So I did, although it was difficult because I had to make a lot of turns to get out of the station, and then once I got out, although I could see the building, it wasn't a direct route to get there. But I made it and went up to the observatory which was SO AWESOME. I'm so happy I couldn't find the building during the day because the view was so great at night! And the ground up there had glow in the dark bits and there was random cool lighting and it was really lovely. I stayed there for a while enjoying the view (inside and outside) and then headed back to Kyoto. It was a lovely lovely day in Osaka!

Day Two: Osaka (KAIYUKAN)

Yesterday I went to Osaka. My first plan was to go to the Floating Garden Observatory at the Umeda Sky Building. I saw the building from the train. I could not find it when I got out of the station. At the time I did not know what the building was called, only what it looked like, so I couldn't even ask anyone. Eventually, I gave up and moved on to my next plan, which was to visit the KAIYUKAN, the big aquarium in Osaka. It was so so great (even though, you know, there are fish at aquariums, and I am scared of fish)! There were a lot of great creatures to look at, like otters and dolphins and itty bitty crabs and ginormous crabs and penguins and manta rays and whale sharks. SO COOL!

Enjoy a video that includes some awesome whale shark action!

And enjoy some pictures of awesome creatures! And some random penguin art!