Japan: Kyoto Day 2- Torii Gates Day

Ok, so ever since I first saw pics of Kyoto, I've wanted to see the bright orange torii gates of the Fushimi Inari Shrine, so naturally, that was going to be our first day.  We made the (extremely wise) decision to leave the stroller in our hotel room for the day, stuffed Aliana (she is a chunk, if you haven't already noticed) into her Moby wrap, headed over to the station and hopped on the JR line to the Inari stop.  As soon as we got on the train, it started raining, but I was determined not to let that slow us down... about 7 minutes later we arrived at our stop and followed the bright orange posts to the shrine.  

Just about as soon as we found the first row of gates, the skies cleared, and I was a very happy girl.  

I was amazed at the detail on each of the posts, and how beautifully the green all around us complemented the bright orange of the gates. 

Ok, so bear with me, I went a little nuts on gate pics.

but really, how could I resist?  They were beautiful.  We all loved them.

These were cool, but we don't know what they were about... any thoughts?

As we were walking up the mountain through the gates, we came across a bunch of Korean tour groups who loved taking pics of Aliana.  One group even gave her a fan (we were all drenched with sweat at this point), so the following is her Memoirs of a (Shy Baby) Geisha photo shoot.  (piece of trivia- a scene from the movie was filmed here!)

As we were climbing the hill, a Korean tour guide who wanted to practice his English offered to take our picture, so here is our token family photo:

Here I was trying to keep a mosquito off her toes.

At this point, Aliana decided she needed a little refreshment and so did we.  We fortunately found a little tea shop a bit further up and Mike and I had sodas while Aliana nursed. 









We eventually made it to (what we decided was) the top of the mountain, where you could see the sprawling city of Kyoto...

...and then headed back down, stopping at a few shrines on the way...

Aliana loves hangin with her crazy daddy.

 We quickly decided to head back to Kyoto for lunch at the station... and in the A/C.  Again, we lucked out with a wonderful tempura and sashimi lunch on the floor, and Aliana enjoyed her pureed pears.  

Sometimes, it's so great not to be a baby.

 


A few hours and a nap later, we headed back out to explore Kyoto on foot, and came across a beautiful temple. 

Aliana loved taking a break on the cool temple floor.

and then we got told by one of the guards that there were no pictures allowed in that area of the temple... at least it was post photo-shoot.  

Aliana did so well in Kyoto.  I think she was ready to see the orange gates, too.  She handled the sweat dripping from her face without protest, whereas her mom was a bit more vocal about it....  

Aliana's eating habits have changed a bit on our travels... At home, we just make all of Aliana's food, as we have yet to find cheap baby food options in Korea... we're not so sure what Korean babies eat- kimchi?  We spent a fortune on a ton of imported baby food to take with us on this trip - the same brands we know in the states, and bought enough for a week, but Aliana really hasn't liked it very much... a few bites and she's over it.   The afternoon that these pictures were taken, she just wanted to take her spoon with her everywhere.  As we were crossing the street, an older Japanese women looked incredibly concerned about Aliana's spoon- maybe worried that she'd gag herself with it?  I certainly wasn't going to take it away from her.  She was holding onto it for dear life. 


...that is, until she dropped it off the ledge of the temple.  

Mike had to climb down past some very confused construction workers to get it back.  


We spent the rest of the afternoon strolling through the streets of Kyoto while the heat of the day began to cool...


More tomorrow!

Japan: Kyoto Day 1

So in the morning, the stroller became, as it often does, a luggage cart, while Mike carried Aliana in the Moby wrap. 

After a quick breakfast we headed off to the Tokyo train station to catch the bullet train to Kyoto.  We considered taking the subway (for about 3.2 seconds) to save some money, but then realized that it would have been next to impossible with 3 train changes, 2 suitcases, 3 carry-ons, one baby and a stroller.  So we stuffed ourselves into a taxi yet again.  This was a wise choice.  We've decided to stop keeping track of how much we are spending while in Japan.  There is just no point to that.  This place makes Switzerland look like a cheap place to visit.

We bought our tickets for the bullet train (which cost about the same as a flight to Japan from Seoul, but oh yeah, I'm not keeping track...) and while waiting to board, I witnessed the true beauty of the Japanese in the Shinkansen (bullet train) cleaners' choreographed movement through the train cars.. I watched them in their pristine peach uniforms blow through the cars, cleaning them from top to bottom in less than 5 minutes.  I wish I had some pics of this- it was quite a sight.

Aliana loved riding the bullet train.

We boarded and took up more than our share of overhead baggage space... due to the stroller, of course.  Good thing we don't understand Japanese.  A few people around us were not happy with our sheer amount of stuff.  

Loving Kyoto

The train sped through Japan and when we arrived in Kyoto, Aliana was more than ready for her afternoon nap.  We must have been an entertaining sight to all of those around us as we left the station for our hotel... Aliana screaming all the way and Mike and I laughing simply cause there was nothing else we could do.  We begged the hotel for an early check-in and all went directly to sleep for a few hours.  Hooray for Kyoto.

Important note: if ever you find yourself traveling through Kyoto with a baby, the Kyoto train station is where it's at.  Seriously.  So many restaurant and shopping options under one roof, and so close to great hotels that it makes it easy to run back for naps or early bedtimes.  We were psyched to head up to the 11th floor of the station for an early dinner, and then back to the hotel for Aliana's 6:30 (6:30pm) bedtime.  Then came my favorite part: Mike and I traded off babysitting duties so we could make use of the hotel's free natural hot springs on the 9th floor.  They were fabulous.  Note #2: if you are ever traveling through Kyoto, stay at the Kyoto Dormy Inn... and don't let the name decieve you- it's nothing like a dorm.   It was a great place to be for 3 nights- and with a baby, you spend quite a bit of time in the hotel, so it had better be decent and this place definitely was.  (and within a teacher's budget!)  It's about a block from the train station and has a beautiful spa where you can soak in hot pools lined with bamboo and large stones, surrounded by soft Japanese music under the Kyoto sky.  We've definitely embraced the sauna culture in Korea, but the Koreans have got nothing on Japan.  The Japanese just know how to do it... with all the beautiful details and thought given to every tiny space, it's a different world.

And then we each went down to get our free ramen.  The hotel provides Japanese pyjamas and slippers for you to wear around the hotel, so off we went, clean and relaxed, in our pyjamas to get our free ramen.  Every night from 8:30-10pm, the hotel provides a large bowl of ramen to everyone who wants it.  You go into the restaurant area and get your number from the ramen lady and when it's ready, she calls your number and you pick up your tray.  It was yummy and we went to bed.

Japan: Tokyo Nights

Ok, so technically, Tokyo was two nights and one day, but due to Aliana's schedule upset, it's seemed much more like one long night.  It started out harmlessly enough... we got up Saturday morning, and miraculously she slept longer than her usual 5am wakeup call... (which is not too upsetting since that's when I get up anyway), and let her parents do last-minute packing.  

Things were good.  The stroller enjoyed being shoved into taxis and buses and an airplane while the rest of us enjoyed our Business Class airplane ride.... no, that's not the norm (lots of extra frequent flyer miles wanting to be used!) and from the looks we got from the rest of the 1st class passengers when we took our seats near them, it wasn't the norm for many other people either.  I mean REALLY, a BABY in BUSINESS CLASS?  What is WRONG with these people??  Well, she was good.  She won over the flight attendants and it was only a 2-hour trip after all.  

If only the rest of the day went this smoothly.  

I had heard so much about trains and travel in Tokyo and how easy it all was... well, those people clearly were not traveling with an infant.


Not that it was impossible, it's just that the 1.5 hour train ride into Tokyo from Narita with all of our stuff and a hot, tired, hungry baby was... challenged by the fact that we could not find our hotel... I'd gotten some misinformation from the website about the location of the hotel and we ended up at the wrong train stop.  So there we were, wheeling our two suitcases, 3 carry-ons and our stroller through the streets of Tokyo until a very kind Japanese construction worker brought us to a police station where about 7 policemen poured over maps of the area trying to decide where our hotel was.   Finally, we just hopped in a taxi, (all right, hopped is the wrong word with all of the stuff we had with us) who also ended up stopping at a different police station where after 10 minutes of sitting in a hot taxi with the meter running, the taxi driver finally felt confident about the location of the hotel and we drove around one more corner and found our hotel.  right behind the Japanese equivalent of a 7-11.  


The rest of the night went better as we met up with a friend for dinner after navigating our way through the Tokyo subway, which was pretty uneventful and easy after living our pre-baby lives in NYC.  

Sleeping was tough as the hotel concierge nearly laughed in our faces when we asked if they had a crib... and when we got to our room we realized why.  Ok, duh.  We're in Japan.  Our room made my NYC studio apt look like a townhouse. 

So we didn't sleep much.  Aliana decided she loved sleeping in the bed with Mommy and Daddy so much that she would alternate between serenading us all night and kicking us to make sure we were staying awake to listen to her.  

 

Thank goodness for our laptop and Baby Einstein DVDs, or Mike and I never would have been able to get ready for the day.... which we decided to do at about 4:30am, when we gave up trying to sleep and instead try to catch the fish auction at the famous fish market.  Umm... nope.  Aliana didn't like that idea so much so she decided when we finally boarded the subway that she would rather have breakfast right there on the train.  And everyone else on the train had to be aware of that, too.  Here she is, enjoying her breakfast.   

It wasn't until we arrived at the stop for the fish market that she decided she wanted her morning nap.  So, when we got off the train, I nursed her right there in the subway station and she went to sleep.  We miraculously got her transferred to her stroller asleep between the train arrivals so she wouldn't wake up (we were SO thankful for our beat-up old stroller then!) and headed out into the morning light.  

I was born in the year of the dragon, so naturally, I needed a picture here.

Mike and I took that opportunity to grab a much-needed coffee, and then found our way to the market.  By that time, of course, the auction was done and over with, so we checked out a temple right next to the market.

...and then enjoyed a breakfast of the absolute freshest sushi we've ever had.  

Fresh, fresh, fresh!  The clams were spitting at us.

We had a good time wandering the streets around the market....

 ....and then headed back to our hotel where we all took a very long morning nap.



The rest of the day consisted of a lot more subways and cursing our decision to bring the stroller as we spent most of the day searching for elevators in and out of subways, but we saw some of Tokyo in between.  It's a good thing Aliana is so cute.  She's somewhat of a celebrity in Asia with her huge blue eyes, and while we are snapping photos of the sights around us, those around us were snapping pictures of her.  

Two paraders who just wanted to flirt with Aliana.

We also ran into a bunch of parades around Shibuya, although I'm still unsure as to what the parades were about... all I know is that the women were all carrying these huge (heavy-looking) floats while the men were walking behind them... (what's up with that?) although everyone had huge smiles and looked like they were having a great time.

who wouldn't want to parade through the streets of Tokyo in underwear and socks?

No one is going to rain on his parade.

Aliana is caught up in the action.

Happy women float-bearers.

Two beautiful Japanese women

Some boys more interested in their cars than the parade...

It was a long day of checking out the city and we headed back exhausted and hungry and enjoyed another great Japanese meal- we were so very grateful to find a traditional Japanese restaurant where we could sit on the floor, so that we could change Aliana and let her kick around on her back.  She loves that.