{"id":3672,"date":"2001-01-30T22:33:00","date_gmt":"2001-01-30T22:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sch1auh0s7.site.nfoservers.com\/wp_lew1slau\/?p=3672"},"modified":"2022-04-25T23:27:12","modified_gmt":"2022-04-25T23:27:12","slug":"kyoto-japan-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lewislau.com\/index.php\/2001\/01\/30\/kyoto-japan-2\/","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

Next morning… we have decided to tour the famous temple, Kingaku-Ji, the Golden-Corridor-Temple. Yes the entire structure is covered in gold foils… The famous Japanese author Mishima Yukio even wrote a book about it…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Philip the sleepy-head always wake up at 10 instead of the\u00a0agreed<\/em>\u00a0upon time of 8am…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The red gate that represents all Japanese shrines, in front of the bus stop…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Checking the bus schedule…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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This was my first time riding a bus in Japan… everyone’s trying to figure out exactly how far away the temple is…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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After the 20 minute bus ride, we finally arrived…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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I wonder if they put it in the middle of this man-made lake to prevent people from\u00a0scraping\u00a0<\/em>the gold off the building…?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Hiro\u00a0slam-dunking<\/em>\u00a0the temple…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Philip said that he’s\u00a0never<\/em>\u00a0taken so many pictures in any trip in his life… digital camera rules – imagine processing so many pictures after the trip, and finding out how my stupid hands-in-front-of-lens has ruined 80% of the shots…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Such as this shot – I am sure no one else but me can understand why I even bother taking it… but having my CoolPix in hand, I can just snap away, knowing that with my 64MB card, I can probably take another 200 more… hehe.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Souvenir time – Philip and Jamie buying stuff for all their colleagues back home…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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This is a Zen Buddhist shrine, where people go to meditate and open their “mind’s eye”…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The famous Zen rock garden… where people sit in groups for hours, just waiting for it to bring forth enlightenment…

I rather stay home and watch “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” on DVD…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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At the entrance of the garden they tell you there are 14 rocks… me and Hiro counted again and again… 13 was our final count.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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It has to be a typo on their brochure! I only counted 13!
… I get it… 13 + me, who must be dumb as a rock to believe in what the brochure says…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Hiro is in full – meditation mode once he walked in…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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This is the sign that explained it all…

The fourteenth was\u00a0in my mind…

<\/em>Hell if they wanted to play games like this why not count the darn pebbles and tell people there are 13,043,947,857 stones…

It sure was pretty though…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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“I’m like a bird, I’ll only fly away…”

Okay let’s fly back to our hotel… too much walking for one day.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Tako met up with us one more night (tomorrow we take the train out to Osaka, where Hiro now lives)…

we ate at one of Tako’s recommended Shabu Shabu (beef hot pot) places – my favorite kind –\u00a0all you can eat<\/em>!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Shabu Shabu (pronounce it – the name of the meal is derived from the sound of the meat cooked in boiling water).

Since it was all you can eat – I prepped myself for a few hours prior to dinner… eating in small portions, hehe.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Yum Yum!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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I think the final tally was 20 plates of meat (each plate has 8 – 10 slices of fine beef), numerous plates of crab legs, and vegetables…

It was soooo good that my mouth is watering right now, a month later, thinking about the food.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Tako, who was my\u00a0Westbrooke Commons<\/em>\u00a0neighbor when we both attended R.I.T. in the 90s<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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After dinner we shopped at the Japanese version of the one-dollar-shop… Interesting items follow:

a pretend fat frontal torso – for Halloween?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Looks like Budweiser, Tastes like crappy beer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Next to the one-dollar-shop – a vending machine selling…

GIRLS’ PHONE NUMBERS!

A culture brewing dumb people who no longer have the ability to date – dropping themselves down to the level of putting coins in a machine in hopes of finding your mate’s picture and number in a plastic ball…

LOSERS.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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As my friends would say, “MEH!”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Next morning – en route to Osaka! On the way to the train station Philip joked that he should have checked my room since he thought I would surely have left something behind in my room… I told him to shut up…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then we checked our train tickets, and suddenly I realized I’ve misplaced my eyeglasses! Karma comes back and bites me in the a$$ for telling Philip to shut up…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hiro and I jump into a cab… yelling at the housekeeping lady to check again… it HAS TO BE IN THE ROOM!!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then I find it hanging right off the collar of my v-neck sweater.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Meanwhile, Philip watches as train come…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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… and go…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Okay – all set, ready to go!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Take a picture of me looking cool while drinking this juice…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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how is my hair?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Okay now I will pull the straw out and drink my juice\u00a0in style<\/em>…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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OOPS.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Arrival in Osaka… some funny looking sculptures on the way to our hotel.<\/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":3681,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3672","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\/image024-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewislau.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3672","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=3672"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lewislau.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3812,"href":"https:\/\/lewislau.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3672\/revisions\/3812"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewislau.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewislau.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewislau.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewislau.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}