Japan – Part ii –

best trip of my life… blah blah blah… once in a lifetime experience… blah blah blah… will never forget… blah blah blahhhhhh…. 

Okay more pics. 

We were only briefly in Osaka. Just one night and one day. There is so much there we didn’t get a chance to see, but we did see the Glico Running Man!

We had a lot more quality time to spend in Kyoto, and it was well worth the train ride. Unlike Tokyo, Kyoto was smaller, quieter, and older. A lot of the memorable temples of the trip were from our time in Kyoto.

^Look at that handrail. Who detailed that?? 

By the time we got back to Tokyo, we were already exhausted. So we took a day off to re-charge in TOKYO DISNEYLAND. I mostly put my camera away and enjoyed the day. And after that, we only had a few days left to explore Tokyo.

Tokyo, for me (although others in the group would disagree) was the highlight of the trip. I see how you could easily spend a month there without seeing everything. Or even feeling like you had seen anything at all. It is dense and fast paced and it was all too easy to get lost in the rush of it all. Before we knew it the trip was over and we had barely put a dent in our travel plan book.

People tell you about how amazing the food is when you go to Japan, and I don’t think they are exagerating. But if you have dietary restrictions coupled with the language barrier, it can be tough finding the perfect bowl of ramen you’re craving. Luckily a friend from grad school played local tour guide and hooked us up with the bomb ramen spot. I would say it lives up to the hype.

But maybe better than any of the restaurants we ate at was the plain old convinience store foods. 7/11 and Family Mart dominated every few corners in the city, and they had THE BEST onigiri. I think I had one tuna and one random onigiri for breakfast almost every morning.

Yes I know, “Tuna for BREAKFAST? EW!”. No. You are Ew. When you are in Japan, you eat as much Tuna as you can. You are ew.

I could probably write an entire post about the architecture of Japan. I won’t caus I’m tired. But what I will say is the simple, sublime miniamalist architecture we all drool over in our architecture blogs/magazines of choice does exist in Japan, however it is not nearly as prevalent as I thought it might be. Don’t get me wrong, the city is filled with noteworthy architecture. But with so much built environment surrounding you, it is ineveitable that most of it is not in my opinion photo worthy.

We did see some sick building though…. 

We are almost done here, I’ll just keep rolling. 

Okay, so that is 2 parts of Japan trip. I’ve only got one left and then I’m sure I’ll forget about this blog and go back to doing whatever it is professional architects do. 

Seeya in part 3.