{"id":3562,"date":"2001-01-28T16:18:00","date_gmt":"2001-01-28T16:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sch1auh0s7.site.nfoservers.com\/wp_lew1slau\/?p=3562"},"modified":"2022-04-25T16:33:56","modified_gmt":"2022-04-25T16:33:56","slug":"kyoto-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lewislau.com\/index.php\/2001\/01\/28\/kyoto-japan\/","title":{"rendered":"Kyoto, Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Towards the end of January I had the chance to visit Japan with my brother Philip. It was a holiday simply to get away from all the worries in the past few months, as well as a chance to see each other after two years apart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The passing of our mother made me want to weave a better web amongst us brothers, Philip, Kevin, and I, simply because the original bond, my mother, isn\u2019t here anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure mom would want us to stick together, through good and bad times as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this trip, Philip and I travelled through Kyoto, Osaka, Shusenji (in Izu), and Tokyo. These are the pictures that describe our fun times during this two-week trip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fast forward three hours after arrival in Tokyo – we took the bullet train (shinkansen<\/em> as the Japanese calls it) immediately to Kyoto, one of the main cities in Western Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There’s Tokyo Tower in Tokyo, and then there’s Kyoto Tower <\/em>in Kyoto… I always thought that Tokyo Tower looked like a cheap imitation of the Eiffel Tower, so I personally like the Kyoto Tower better.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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My good friend Hironori Kanasaki (whom I met in Minneapolis and is now living in Osaka, the neighboring city to Kyoto) came to pick us up from the station.

Hiro was in charge of arranging all our travel and hotel plans for this trip – DOMO ARIGATO GOZAIMASHITA!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Starving as we all were, we dropped out suitcases off at the hotel and immediately went to one of Philip’s favorite restaurants in Japan – KANI DORAKU.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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This is a restaurant specializing in crabs<\/em>. Raw crabs, cooked crabs, grilled crabs, crab soup, crab hotpots…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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crabs crabs crabs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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What we ordered…

Crab hotpot (crab pieces cooked in soup) for the main dish…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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And also grilled crab legs…

As for appetizers —<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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we have crab sahimi<\/em> – raw crab legs. This was the first time I had them, and I swear – it’s the best raw ANYTHING I had ever have in my life so far… melts in your mouth, and naturally sweet. Anyone who gets a chance to eat these should never pass it up!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Hiro enjoying the food.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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More crab legs for grilling…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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And the main dish, crab hotpot… the food was so good I had to put my camera down in fear that all the food was going to disappear before I get to eat them…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Takako Niitsu, my friend from R.I.T. (Rochester Institute of Technology) also joined us for dinner… here we have (from left to right) Philip, Tako, and Hiro.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Over the years I have seen Tako own numerous cool-as-hell cars, from her modified Toyota Corolla GT-S to her Mitsubishi FTO, then to her Honda Beat…

Then I discover Tako’s means of transportation in Kyoto – her bicycle! Just giving you sh%# Tako…

For all of you who don’t live in Japan, owning a car is more of a hassle than a benefit – the efficiency of the mass transit system all but eliminated the need for an automobile when living there.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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My brother Philip with Tako<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Another shot of Tako’s new ride (literally)…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Someday my friends and family will all quit smoking… someday<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Next morning… I was severely jetlagged… woke up at 5:00 am and woke Hiro up to walk around the streets of Kyoto…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Everywhere you turn, you see a temple<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Hiro my private tour guide<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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And another temple.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Traditional Japanese housing in Kyoto<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I didn’t realize until later that the last shot of the traditional Japanese house was ruined by the presence of three things:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1) power lines over the house
2) bike parked out front<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For my next vacation I am taking a survivor-style, outward-bound<\/em> vacation…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No electricity, no gas, nothing…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shoot – how am I going to charge my digital camera and laptop then…? Forget about that idea \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Interesting building on the way back to the hotel to wake Philip up…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The sign out front says “TOOLS” in Chinese characters… wonder what they really sell…?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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After dragging Philip out from his bed, we decided to take a short walk around Kyoto…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The first temple is Kiyomizu-dera<\/em> \u6e05\u6c34\u5bfa, or Clear-Water Temple…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The temple from below…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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… and right underneath.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Philip and Hiro, deciding who should pay for the entrance fee to the temple… yes an entrance fee <\/em>– imagine when you decide to go to Sunday church and someone out front asks you to donate $2.00 before entering…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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“I can’t believe you have to pay to get into a temple – a temple<\/em>!”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Side view of the main structure of Clear-Water Temple.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Found out from the brochure that there are actually more-than-one Clear-Water Temples in Japan.

Oh – so now we have a franchise full of temples…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Towards the end of January I had the chance to visit Japan with my brother Philip. It was a holiday simply to get away from all the worries in the past few months, as well as a chance to see each other after two years apart. The passing of our mother made me want to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3576,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","wpcat-1-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/lewislau.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/image033.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewislau.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewislau.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewislau.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewislau.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewislau.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3562"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lewislau.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3614,"href":"https:\/\/lewislau.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3562\/revisions\/3614"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewislau.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewislau.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewislau.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewislau.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}