A portal for communiqués about my coming wanderings through the world... notably, a trip to Southeast Asia and the inevitably droll posts documenting my first year of law school. In other words, check back in 6 months, give me 5 minutes, and you'll be all caught up.
Outside Kinkakuji Temple, also known as the Golden Pavilion, outside Kyoto, Japan.
Outside Kinkakuji Temple, also known as the Golden Pavilion, outside Kyoto, Japan.

Kyoto, Japan
Kyoto, Japan

Bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto
Bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto

Kyoto: A bullet train ride into the past

It’s hard not to be cliche when it comes to travel writing. After all, unless it’s spelunking beneath the Arctic tundra, someone probably had the same experience a long time ago. Add to that the pack mentality that most travelers fall back on and you have a whole lot of people experiencing, then blogging, about the same stuff. This is especially true when it comes to the pedestrian observation of past meeting future—the glass pyramid at the Louvre and mega yachts docked outside centuries-old Italian villas are frequent, easy targets. So, in deference to the Travel Channel, who seem to have the market cornered on this kind of opining, I’ll proceed.

I took the shinkansen, or “bullet train,” to Kyoto using my unlimited JR (Japan Railways) pass, which was nearly $300 for seven days. It may not sound like a bargain, but it’s the cheapest way to see the rest of the country. I definitely got my money’s worth; I probably saved a few hundred dollars over individual tickets. The bullet train is perhaps the finest example of Japanese efficiency and refinement. Any accomplished Amtrak rider would stare in amazement as a small army of cleaners invade a train, turn all of the seats 180 degrees for a trip in the opposite direction (traveling backwards at 180 mph can make the strongest stomach queasy), and replace each perfectly clean white linen headrest cover—all in two minutes. It’s a marvel, and such an effort in the U.S. would lead to constant departure delays. But sure enough, each bullet train departs right on time. Bear in mind they schedule trains to the second, not the minute. It takes just over two hours on this veritable rocketship to travel the 320 miles to Kyoto.

Kyoto was the capital of Japan until the 19th Century when it was moved to Tokyo. The city’s long history is extremely well preserved, due in no small part to America’s decision to spare it from the carpet bombing inflicted on nearly every other large city in Japan. Hundreds of ornate Buddhist temples and shrines in other cities were eviscerated and subsequently rebuilt in the postwar period, but Kyoto’s treasures (not to mention, of course, it’s citizens) were spared the destruction. Interestingly, Kyoto was taken off the list of

potential targets for the A-bomb because the U.S. knew it would be needed as a center for a reorganized Japanese government, since Tokyo had been all but leveled.

The number of temples in Kyoto is staggering, and I knew I could only hit the highlights. Kinkakuji, commonly referred to as the Golden Pavilion, is one of the many UNESCO World Heritage sites I hope to fit in on this trip. Like a lot of the other temples I’m running through, it’s fun to gaze at, but not especially enlightening. I’m finding in the early days of this trip that the most meaningful cultural experiences are found in the out-of-the-way places: capsule hotels, bullet trains, and political conversations with Scandanavians. I’m collecting as many memories from my fellow travelers as I am from the cultures I’ve immersed myself in.

Return to Nippon

This being my second visit to Japan, I knew I would have to go out of my way to find the cultural shock-and-awe that I experienced the first time around. Tokyo feels surprisingly familiar to me, but I think that has more to do with having lived in NYC than the fact that I was here for a few days in 2006. Give me a subway map in English and I’m good to go.

I found a cheesy quote in a tourist book about tourists seeing destinations and travelers experiencing them. `Do as the locals do’ was the basic sentiment. Fair enough, I thought: I never cared much for sight-seeing anyway. Even after making my way through a list of must-do activities, I found that I still met a fair amount of Westerners partaking in the most authentic Japanese experiences. Witness the 5 a.m. camera mob inside the Tsukiji Wholesale Market, the world’s largest fish market. Even though I shared sushi with a couple of Swedes that morning, I felt like I had seen something pretty unique when I took this video of an auctioneer peddling the morning’s catch. (Uploading soon.)

One place I didn’t see any tourists was the Big Lemon Capsule Hotel, a sleeping arrangement that’s surely unique to Japan’s large cities. Since the residents of Tokyo are accustomed to being stacked on top of one another, it only makes sense that a similarly space-efficient hotel would gain popularity. Capsule hotels are like a combination of your high school gym’s locker room and endless rows of upgraded submarine bunks. The changing rooms and bathrooms are shared, but 3600 yen (about $30) gets you a coffin-like pod with surprisingly soft sheets, a tiny TV with local stations, and an integrated console with buttons for a reading light, fan, radio, and an alarm clock. Throw in a beer vending machine down the hall and you’ve got yourself accommodations for the evening. Try as I might, though, I couldn’t find the shower. (Photos for this to come as well…until then, follow this link to a website about this hotel: http://www.yesicanusechopsticks.com/capsule)

More to come…

Tsukiji Fish Market, Tokyo. This was taken around 5 a.m., just before the daily tuna auction… a sight to see.
Tsukiji Fish Market, Tokyo. This was taken around 5 a.m., just before the daily tuna auction… a sight to see.

Flying over Alaska. It was clear skies from 37,000 feet almost the whole way.
Flying over Alaska. It was clear skies from 37,000 feet almost the whole way.

A JAL 747 pulls into a gate at JFK Airport in New York. This was my home for 13 hours and 55 minutes. Fortunately there was some halfway decent food, a good in-flight entertainment system (Tetrix is just like Tetris!), and some interesting seatmates. Oh, and the flight attendants were uniformly gorgeous.
A JAL 747 pulls into a gate at JFK Airport in New York. This was my home for 13 hours and 55 minutes. Fortunately there was some halfway decent food, a good in-flight entertainment system (Tetrix is just like Tetris!), and some interesting seatmates. Oh, and the flight attendants were uniformly gorgeous.

Phase IV: Law School


Went to Lawrence today to check out apartments for law school. Yep, finally decided to go to KU. The scholarships helped make this decision—the much more expensive Notre Dame ran a close second—but I really just waited to see how each team did in the NCAA tournament. If you were paying any attention, my decision didn’t end up being that hard given this criteria!