Osaka, Kyoto, and Nara

Japan has a couple of new start-up low cost airlines, and you can get round trip tix for less than $100, sometimes as low as $50 between Okinawa and the mainland. So we decided to "get away from it all" (LOL) and check out some real Japan over the kids' spring break. We flew Peach Air from Okinawa to Osaka. We only used public transportation the whole time- planes, trains, buses, and subways. We stayed in a hotel in Osaka, and then used the subways and trains to travel to Kyoto and Nara (both former capital cities of Japan). So it was pretty interesting. The kids thought traveling on the train was pretty cool- that is, when it wasn't rush hour and packed in sardine style.Our hotel room was pretty small, but nice and cozy. Holly and I slept in a double bed, the kids slept on the tatami mat, and we brought the pack n play for Isaac.


 

Small room... But, how many of you have ever had a remote control for your toilet???

The first stop on the tour was Osaka castle. It's a beautiful building, but not original I think rebuilt in the early 1900s due to fire. The walls however have been around for about 700 years. They used REALLY BIG rocks in the walls.

There were, of course, angry samurai around... and mentally challenged super heros, naturally.

We just caught the end of the cherry blossoms. According to historical records, we should have been there right at peak blossom season. Unfortunately, they bloomed about 2 weeks earlier than normal- the earliest in recorded history. But we still got to see some...

The next day it rained all day, so luckily we had planned in the schedule a trip to the Osaka Kid's Plaza. There was tons of stuff to do there, and the kids had a blast. For example, the giant bubbles were a hit.

 

  Isaac enjoyed playing the drums.

And he mastered the American football toss pretty easily... Click on the link below for video.

 

Isaac's Football "Toss"

 

 

Down in one of the subway stations, we found food-a-palooza. This place was amazing. When we first walked in, I thought it must be a department store with tons of make-up and jewelry counters and what not. But, shortly realized that it was all FOOD. Treats, cakes, pies, pastries, bakeries, meats, fresh fruits, vegetables, fried foods, baked foods, prepared foods, salads, breads, sushi, and on and on as far as the eye could see. It was amazing. And all underground. 'Course we were mainly interested in the treats... I think we spent more here than our airfare.

 

 

 



 


Yes. That's a $30 cake.

Next stop: Kyoto. There's probably a thousand or more temples and shrines that you could see in this area. We only saw a few. This one is the Fushimi Inari Shrine- The shrine of 1000 torii gates. Erin started to count them, but kind of lost interest after about 200.

  

Sanjusangendo: Instead of 1000 torii gates, this one housed 1001 human-sized Buddah statues. Sorry, no pictures allowed inside, but it was pretty cool. Each statue had 11 heads and 42 arms (representing 1000 arms).

 

This is the Imperial Palace, where the emperor used to live. They only open it to the public twice a year, and we got to see inside it.



Next Stop: Nara. This here is the biggest wooden building in the world! That's what it claimed. I'm not sure the accuracy of that claim, but the building was very big- and it appeared to be made of wood. I was impressed. It housed a very huge Buddah statue. I'm sure you can't really tell from the pictures, but trust me when I say it was big.

Oh yes, the school kids were always oggling over the kids. Brianna as always happy to oblige her fans. Hard to take them anywhere...

Oh and did I mention the freely roaming sacred deer everywhere? and the antlered Buddah?

 

Holly said that she saw a sign that this one was named the Buttcrack Pagoda, but I never saw it.



 

Last Stop: Arashiyama- actually still part of Kyoto..

 Kinkakuji- aka the golden pavillion.

In case you're wondering where he's been...

We hiked up a small mountain to the Monkey Park. Kind of like the deer, but monkeys instead. At the top, you could feed them. Seemed a bit backwards though- the monkeys were on the outside and the people were on the inside. When we left, they stopped me and told me I couldn't take a monkey with me. But once they saw the curly hair, it was okay.

 

 

 

Well, that's about it. Just one last bit of important information if you should find yourself travelling in Japan, and find yourself in a non-western style commode. Do not get in contact with the stool. Either of them.