Back to Kyoto

One of the first places that my host family took me to was the city of Kyoto, right next door to Osaka. You can see my blog bost about that here: Visiting Kyoto

As I said in my previous post about Kyoto, it is a city rich in history. There are hundreds of old shrines and temples all around Kyoto. In my second trip to Kyoto, I visited one of the most famous temples called "Kiyomizu-dera". The present buildings at the temple were constructed in 1633, but the interesting thing is that not a single nail was used in building the temple. The temple takes its name from a nearby waterfall. Visitors can catch and drink the water from the waterfall, which is believed to have wish-granting powers.

Most of the buildings and houses around the temple are of a traditional style.

The gate to the temple.

The waterfall I mentioned earlier.

The view of Kyoto from the temple.

Japanese Food

If I had to sum up Japanese food in one word, it would be, "exotic". Now of course foreign food would be considered exotic to any traveler, but for me, Japanese food takes a fine balance between "exotic food" and "comfort food". I had eaten a lot of raw fish during my stay in Japan since it is a staple of the Japanese diet, so much so that it became a kind of comfort food to me. But that is just one example of what I had eaten in Japan. The pictures should illustrate this better.



Just your run of the mill sushi.



Tempura, basically just an assortment of fried things on sticks.

Good ol' ramen.

Taiyaki, which is a large cookie filled with red bean paste.

Yakisoba, which are fried noodles.

Okonomiyaki, which is similar to an omlet.

An assortment of odds and ends and I have no idea what they are (except for the rice, which is pretty obvious).

Soba, cold noodles.

Sashimi (raw fish) and chicken.

A rice-filled omlet. These are popular all over Japan.

Raw whole squids

Grilled beef. But not just any beef, REAL KOBE BEEF!!

Rice and fixin's.

Uuuuh....

More Tempura

Uuummm....

Takuyaki! This is a local specialty in Osaka. They are little fried balls of batter with octopus pieces mixed in them.

Beef stew.

More sushi!

Salmon eggs sushi.

Shrimp.

Squid.

Kobe Port Tower

It's hard to believe, but come the day after tomorrow, I conclude my summer-long stay in Japan and return back home to Woodland Park. It feels like these past 6 weeks have flown by. I will definitely miss Japan and my host family, but I also cannot wait to share stories of my experience with people back home.

As I had planned, I've stayed very busy these past few days, trying to get every experience I can out of each day. I may only be able to do a couple more blog posts while I'm still here in Japan, but rest assured I will heavily update this blog with pictures from my trip after I get settled in back home.

Moving on...

So a few days ago, last Friday, I went with my host brother to visit the port city of Kobe, which is a neighboring city of Osaka. The highlight of our visit to Kobe was going to the famous "Kobe Port Tower" to admire the Kobe cityscape at sunset. The views from the observation deck were spectacular, and I'll get to those pictures soon.

Downtown Kobe.

Getting close to sunset, so we were on our way to Kobe Port Tower.

The tower looks amazing after sunset!

The observation deck.

And here is that spectacular view I promised ya...



Here's Kobe Port from just outside the entrance to the tower.

Heading back to Osaka.