Choices

Several months ago I overheard a father chastising his overweight and pouting son at the grocery store.  “Life is all about choices” he said.  The kid was upset his dad insinuated all those hot wings and potato wedges might not sync with whatever weight loss conversation they clearly just had.  It was sad and a little bit funny.  I mostly just wanted them to get out of the way of the mac n’cheese.

There were a lot of decisions to make when building my Japan itinerary.  In some ways it felt like a trip I’ve been preparing for twenty years.  Japan was the mecca of all things geek when I was a kid.  They got all the new video games a year in advance.  They had cool cartoons.  Their phones could watch TV when mine just played snake and brick breaker.  I guess like most people, somewhere along the way you grow up a little.  I now wanted to see temples and eat sushi instead of everything I would have sought out as a kid.  In the end, Japan reminded me you can have your cake, hot wings, butterbeer, or sushi and eat it too.

I knew Saturday was going to be all about Kyoto.  It’s their former capital, and one of the few ancient cities that survived WW2.  Early Saturday morning I took the 30 minute train from Osaka to Kyoto.  My first stop was Arashiyama.  It’s is a small town with a few historic sites.  It’s famous for this wooden bridge, and what is supposed to be amazing colors in the fall.

 The bamboo forest evidently has monkeys, but I didn’t see any.

My last stop in Arashiyma was the Tenryuji temple (built in 1339).  Everything about these places scream perfectionist.  Do you remember in English class how teachers would tell you an author deliberately chose some ordinary word, or how a normal expression was actually a deep metaphor for their troubled lives?  Here you’re convinced that kind of meticulous decision making is real.  It feels like everything was done with purpose.  

After a quick subway, walk, bus ride, and another walk I made my way to Kinkaku-ji.  This "Temple of the Golden Pavilion" is covered in pure gold, was built in 1397, and is easily the most jaw-dropping sight of the journey.

There was some more walking, green tea soy bean ice cream, subway, and a bus before I reached Fushimi Inari.  This temple to the goddess of rice is home to 32,000 orange gates that line the path up the mountain.  While not as beautiful as the golden pavilion, I had more fun walking around here.

I felt like Indiana Jones after all that temple hopping Saturday.  Despite Osaka's size (19 million people), it didn't have a ton of tourist things to do.  So on Sunday rather than seek out the recommended museum, I went to Harry Potter!  I found out from signs at the airport Universal Studios opened up in Osaka.  Rachel isn’t a Harry Potter nerd, so this was my chance to see Hogwarts.  The park was packed.  I spent a few hours going through every shop, waiting in line for the main ride, and drinking as much butterbeer as I could.  I know there are more “Japanese things" I could have done, and maybe should have done.  Oh well.  It’s exactly what I needed after all this travel, and I couldn’t be happier about the choice. 

It was an amazing trip, and maybe the highlight of this whole experience.  I can’t recommend Japan enough.  I unfortunately didn’t make it to Tokyo, but it’s a good reason to come back someday.

Next up is food pictures, but this is already too much reading for one post!