Photos as promised!

We had an amazing dinner that kept us out late, so the promise of sleep was hard to resist. But I feel bad for not updating more frequently, so here are some photos from the past couple of days.

Here's a shot of some typical streets in the Gion area of Kyoto. This area is known for its historic geisha district and a cluster of temples and shrines. The smaller streets of this area are filled with tourists and residents. 

For the tourists, two of the main attractions are the Kodaiji and Kiyomizudera temples. The Kiyomizudera temple is situated high on a hill and begs to be photographed. I couldn't resist the typical shot overlooking the city. I think it was worth the long trek up the hill. 

Here's an image of the steps leading to one of the many temples of the Gion area. There appeared to be a wide variety of people visiting these temples. The old, the young, and a sprinkling of foreigners. 

Here's a view of a Kyoto street. Sri took this photo on the steps to the temple gate in the previous photo. Despite having many busy streets, Kyoto was filled with sleepy alleyways and pedestrian passageways that weave the city together. 

For once, I really would like to write more, but we must visit Yokohama National University tomorrow and that means getting up earlier. For now, this post will have to do. Goodnight from Shinjuku.  

Systems Offline...

We had some issues with the internet in our hotel so we weren't able to post the pictures. However it is now, obviously, back up and we will post some more pictures.

Day 2...Feet Dead

Please excuse any grammatical or spelling mistakes. I don't feel the need to fix them. 

For the second day we decided to stay in Kyoto area. After a delicious breakfast at a local cafe we caught a subway to Higashiyama Station. The area itself felt more like a quite town with areas that that seemed pretty run down. What I really liked about it though was the fact that maps were plentiful and we always knew where we were. That being said we managed to take the long way to everything and ended up backtracking for half of the trip. We went up hills, down stairs and through allies to places that we could have gotten to by just following the routes on the map. Unfortunately for me I had Jarrett leading the way. I am joking of course. We first checked out many temples including the Chorakuji Temple and Kodaiji Temple. What I especially enjoyed about the trip out to these temples was the area itself which was really maintained old looking town. We even saw an old lady filing in little holes that were on the ground with a toothbrush. That is real dedication. The

 Kodaiji Temple was especia

lly fun. Quite honestly I can't really go into the cultural impact of it all since most of it was in Kanji. I managed make out some of it but it wasn't enough for me to fully comprehend the significance. What I can tell you is that it was maintained extremely well. We eventually found our way to a small restaurant where we had delicious Donburi and managed hold a very small conversation in Japanese. 

After quite a bit of walking up and down stairs we finally ended up on top of a hill to another temple that overlooked Kyoto. Hopefully we will post some more pictures soon but this will have to do for now.

Greetings From Tomorrow!

こんにちは (Konnichiwa)! From the moment we stepped into our hotel here in Kyoto we were overwhelmed by the politeness of the Japanese people. No matter what you do or who you talk to you are greeted in the most pleasant manner. Ah but I digress.

Our day started out in the subway station where we took Shijo line to Kyoto station. For breakfast we decided to go inside of the nice little pastry shop. That was where I had my first real experience of ordering food. Thankfully, I managed to order what I wanted with my broken Japanese. From there we ran to the JR train that takes us to Nara, which is a small city full of temples and shrines. Our goal for the day was to cover as many important spots as possible. From the tourist information center we determined what the most important sites were and made our trip easier. 

-Sri

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Jarrett here... Kudos to Sri for writing the first two paragraphs of our new blog yesterday (1/7). When we came home last night, I couldn't find the energy to crank out a few words on our jotter. I have some more energy now though, so I'll try to wrap up our summary of Nara. 

From the JR Nara station, we had a little bit of a walk to the main historic sites of Nara. As the first permanent capital of Japan, Nara has an intimate town area bordered by a large park where the majority of the historic sites are contained. This park is known as "deer park" since there are literally thousands of deer roaming around the grounds as messengers from the gods. Interestingly, the deer seem to have taken the place of city pidgins as they wander the grounds looking for handouts. 

Throughout the day, we took in the historic temples, shrines, Engrish, and Japanese fast food. A more complete summary with names and pictures should come soon! Maybe after dinner? We've spent the whole day touring Kyoto, and we're pretty hungry. Picture post from Nara soon! 

-Jarrett

Introduction...

Hello there, welcome to the Japan Jotter. 

For 14 days past January 5th, this will be the reflection space for Jarrett and Sri's trip to Japan. Essentially, it will be a dump for our photographs, odd stories, and maybe some normal stories. Please don't expect regular updates or organized writing. As the name implies, this is a place for us to jot down anything and everything so it will probably read like one of my college notebooks. 

Much like the planning that we've done for our upcoming Japan trip, we decided to create this travelogue at the last minute.  Personally, I don't have any expectations for this site as I've had trouble keeping cobwebs from collecting on my personal digital spaces. However, there may be some hope for this blog. Sri has a much better record than I when it comes to the discipline of blogging, and as co-author I'm confident he will provide a much needed kick in the pants to stimulate a hearty dialogue. 

With that spirit, I'm happy to christen the Japan Jotter. Onward with the spirit of new blog optimism, caffeine, and pre-travel excitement... 

By the way, we leave on the 5th. That's pretty soon.