Korea
Japan
Hong Kong
But there are so many other places I may wind up... (hopefully not jail or dead).
I am using this space as a blog, and as a way to dump the dailies I take from my camera (Panasonic GH1 and Samsung TL320). I want those who are interested to get a daily-updated, unfiltered view of my crazy Asian adventure.
Badass forest adventure, Japan - Day 3
Had to wake up hella early this morning to make our 10am check-out time. We wanted to go to Kyoto today, but didn’t know what to do about our bags! Lugging all that crap around a giant-ass temple would suck! Luckily (and I didn’t know this until I asked), it seems like most hotels in Japan let you store your baggage behind the counter until you return at the end of the day! Freakin sweet!
So off we went for Kyoto, and the infamous 1000 gates! (Sorry, dunno the name. I think its called “Sendo-dori”).
They weren’t kidding on that thousand-gates name. Shit went on for days! I lost count around 631. It was hard to snap some good pics because there were so many people there and they were always blocking the shot. Luckily I ninja’d one out real quick before some douche from the UK bumped into me.
The gates are surrounded by this forest, so thick and lush, getting more and more thick as you go.
The gates go uphill for DAYS, and occasionally intersect with little shrine villages, each of which offer tons of more stairs to climb and places to explore.
About…half way? up the climb, we came across a small lake! The color of the water was badass, and there were hella Japanese ducks playing around trying to bone each other or something.
Witness as the ninja duck spreads its wings in an attempt to intice his pirate mistress.
Alas she is not amused.
After an assload of more climbing we came across a main shrine or something? It offered a great view of the city.
We were then posed with 3 separate paths to take; up, down, or sideways.
Of course we’re stupid so we went up.
Which was actually a sweet idea. I discovered some path off to the side that lead to….more gates? Who the hell knows, I just took it.
What followed was about a 30-minute walk downhill, deeper and deeper into the forest.
There were stairs, so never felt totally lost. Just amazed how deep down we kept going.
Eventually we found two or three houses smashed between trees and temples and overgrowth, and the downhill hike bottomed out. We were then posed with two options; take the narrow road out to possibly civilization, or hike back up the hill in a slightly different direction and see what else there was to discover.
Of course we went up. And we climbed for days! Until we eventually reached the summit, or thereabouts….and found special white gates! Fuck yeah bonus points bitches.
Then, we were kinda out of options as to where to go. The path ended. Looking across the mountain it appeared to me that we hiked down into a valley, and then back up the other side of the mountain, so it only made sense to head back to that other side of the mountain, right?
With a general direction in mind, we kept on walking, but the forest just got more and more dense, like it hadn’t seen people in years! We were lost. Officially lost. But it was awesome :) Surrounded by so much natural beauty, it actually felt like an adventure!
After a half hour? hour? of wandering, we saw our first signs of people off in the distance. This one woman was wearing a purple jacket, ahaha. And then….gates! We’d finally made it!
Coming back down the mountain through the gates took like 30-45 minutes. Shits that long! Downhill! When we finally made it out, we treated ourselves to some bomb-ass katsu-don made by this silly old Japanese dude. MMM MM!
Later that night we met up with my friend Naoko, a conversation partner I used to have back at UCSD.
She was really nice and took us out for Japanese pasta and a legit izakaya! We sat in the ground and everything.
Shit was good times ^_^
Oh and, we hung out outside the restaurant for a bit and BANG’d people. It was so fun! If you don’t know what I’m talking about, watch this
Osaka people are so good-natured :) I really like the people. Naoko said they all have a good sense of humor, that is why something like this can be so prevalent in their society. Nice!
Oh and, a word of advice for travelers: Kyoto is only 30 minutes away from Osaka. Do yourself a favor and just book your hotel in Osaka. David and I stayed in a bomb ass place for only $30/person. Our one night in Kyoto? Its was like $150 total!
As always, here is the camera dump
