Asia Mega Tour II - Nijo Castle Picture Taking

Yesterday was our last day in Kyoto. The weather was still cool but at least 10 degrees warmer than the day before in Nara, no wind, and some sunshine (at least in the early part of the morning). We only had a few hours because we were checking out of our hotel and then catching a train to Osaka where we are going to be in an Airbnb so we can do a bunch of laundry before we head on to our next stop.

We had enough time to visit Nijo Castle. This was built by the first Tokugawa Shogun upon his coming to power in the late 17th century and remained the Shogunate's Kyoto base. With the light being nice it was a good time to focus more on photography.

Since I only really take pictures during our travels, I lose a lot about what I've learned from Wife during the interim. Then as we begin our trip in earnest - after the initial acclimation to traveling again - there is more time to focus on doing more than just taking story shots. In the case of this trip this was also moved along by the workshop we did earlier. I will go into this a bit more later in the post with the pictures.

After we finished with the castle we took the short subway ride back to the hotel, finished packing and caught a cab to Kyoto Station for the very short train ride to Osaka. My experience with Airbnb is that when you are getting a good deal on a larger apartment in a big city, you are most likely not going to be in the city center. We are in the Namba-Nipponbashi area of the city. It is definitely not the upscale area though exceedingly interesting in its own right (more on that with the next post).

Our taxi driver had a bit of a problem finding the place (even though I had directions in Japanese). But he went way beyond the call of duty, getting out of the car and searching on foot until he found it. We had some adventures with the washing machine when it got stuck in the middle of the cycle and then froze and wouldn't allow us to open the door and empty out our clothes. This was at about 10 PM. We had visions of having to buy a new wardrobe. But overnight something cooled off and we were able to get the clothes into the dryer (which is not a machine but a fan that blows hot air into your shower area where you hang the clothes up. It worked pretty well).

Les Photos

A shot three subway stops from our hotel is Nijo Castle

The guidebooks tell us the entrance is just up the street from the subway stop.

The guidebooks evidently don't realize the main gate is under construction forcing us to walk halfway around the castle

This does give us a chance to get a good shot of the main moat

Wife and I finally getting to the entrance

A panorama of the outer courtyard 

Wife has written a detailed description of the inner chambers that were very interesting, cold (you had to take off your shoes) and didn't allow photography, so I'm not going to repeat that.

Instead I spent a lot of time taking pictures of architectural detail and the gardens. Wife coached me on cropping my pictures so you can all put in a nice comment like, "Wow de-I when you listen to Wife's advice on cropping, your pictures are so much better!" or something to that effect.

Architectural Detail

Garden shots

Old Trees

(a subset of garden)

The Japanese love and revere old trees. Where we will prune branches to make things safer or to make a tree more healthy, the Japanese constantly are looking to assist the tree in going whichever way it wants to. This can mean putting on all kinds of supports to keep it and its limbs up. This just an example of it getting started.

Walking with plum trees

While the cherry blossoms have done a superior job of promoting themselves, the plums which bloom a number of weeks earlier are beautiful in their own right

Under Wife's expert tutelage I have even learned how to take pictures of myself

I don't appreciate your skepticism that Wife actually took these pictures.

And now another installment of SIGNS OF THE WORLD

We've said this before - you will be calm. you will not rush or some not nice red thing will happen to your hand!

And that goes for running too! Stop trying to play semantics.

And please, if you are going to have a flame, dress it appropriately.

Asia Mega Tour II - About Eating In Japan

Well I never thought I'd say this but I will. I am not that fond of Japanese cuisine. Maybe it is because we are just eating sort of daily food. My father who did business in Japan for decades raved about eating in Japan. Maybe it is a whole different thing when you are in the high level, expense account world. But our experiences have been that the flavor profiles and texture profiles preferred here are just jarring to our preferences.

Yesterday we had a food tour and was hoping that I would discover that in our ignorance we were just ordering the wrong things or choosing restaurants poorly. However what the tour ended up doing is confirming the very basis of Japanese cooking - the use of dashi (a fish based stock) and mirin (a sweet wine) as the fundamental basis of their sauces and dishes. Then there is a love for things that are very bland that accompany the strong fish/sweet flavors. And the the fact that much of the food comes out sort of tepid. I have to say that I just don't like it. I think this is the first Asian cuisine eaten on site during our travels that I've not liked.

On the Food Tour

Here we are at the Nishiki Market just as everything has opening up

This used to be the big fish market in town. Now it is becoming more and more oriented toward the tourist trade. It still has tons of shops that produce and sell products for the discerning Japanese gourmet though.

Before we went to the market our guide showed us a shrine that she said was one of the oldest in Kyoto. It turns out is was built buy the same guy who was exiled to Daizifu and had the shrine there built. Remember the bull that was associated with giving you intelligence?

Here we had the bull to ourselves. Wife caressed it for a LONG time so since she's already smarter than me I'm in big trouble now.

Shops here specialize in just one thing and do it very well and at the highest quality.

This one was dedicated to dried nuts and beans

This one to all kinds of dried vegetables

Dried Fish and Cured Fish

What does one sample at the dried/cured fish place?

A whole grilled salted fish - entrails and bones included

Scronch, Scronch - Pretty good. If you like English fried kippers you'll like these

Moving on - Chestnuts

Various kinds of things to be fried like fish paste cakes and age tofu

The prepared chicken place. So tempted to get some fried chicken but settled for a skewer of chicken neck meat. It was tepid (sigh) like so much here.

Traditional pickles pickled in the lees of sake

Other kinds of pickled vegetables

Our guide Robin, a young lady from Ireland who has been working in Japanese kitchens in Kyoto for two years.

We finished off with a traditional style Kyoto meal.

Robin assured me this was of a higher caliber than what we may have been eating.

My meal was all based on soy products, yuba - the skin from making tofu, and tofu itself

Wife opted for Sukiyaki

Without going into great detail, I will just say that this meal confirmed that I just don't like the combination of flavor profile, textures, and heat profiles that the Japanese seem to embrace. There were a number of dishes that I enjoyed but an equal number that just did not appeal to me.

A Day Without a Temple is a Day Without Sunshine

Actually we didn't have any sunshine event though we did to to another temple. This time we headed out of the tourist heart of the city south to the Toji Temple. This is notable because its buildings are still the ones from the 17th century when so many others have been rebuilt or replaced dating to the late 19th early 20th century. We also had a treat as there were a number of old Buddhist statues and other art on display inside the buildings. Unfortunately, as has so often been the case, picture taking was not allowed :(.

It took a subway ride and a long walk (in part because I navigated wrong) to get there in the grey cold

Oh, under construction. How unusual for a de-I trip.

I took us a while to find the actual entrance

And meet the patron monk

And making use of the lessons from our photography workshop

A Study of Pagoda and Japanese Garden

And no post is complete without SIGNS OF THE WORLDi

I think this refers to a variety of anti-social behaviors...or it might be safety related to the subway. But I mean really look at that guy leaning on the fence. He's a slob. He's got no posture at all.