I think I alluded to this a couple times through this piece so far, at least when talking about the various rain-related challenges I had on the early parts of my trip causing me to audible a few times. Well, this trip had an audible even before it started, which was in the aftermath of the Kumamoto earthquake, even as the city itself and msot of the sites came back online, major damage to the Shinkansen tracks leading Southwards from Kumamoto created a elongated cancellation of Shinkansen heading down to Kagoshima. That was where I was supposed to spend a day but a 90-minute ride on the Shinkansen becomes a 3-4 hour journey on normal trains or car, so away went Kagoshima. That left me with the ability to fly this morning to Osaka, to eventually head up to Kyoto, the final stop on our trip. The day itself was supposed to end there either way, beut instead of a nighttime arrival, I was able to buy myself an extra city.
I first went to Osaka in 2013, where as i've said a bit, serious home sickness set in around that point. Probably didn't help that I went to Osaka first in Japan, a place that while it has great food and nightlife, there aren't a whole host of sites. So few that I'm not even sure where I did go this time I did in 2013 or not.
I only had half a day or so total before a combination of both (a) wanting to head to Kyoto for the evening and (b) rain expecting to come through Osaka around 5pm. The flight from Kumamoto landed early (9:45 vs 10:10) and after a quick jaunt down to teh city from Itami airport using the Airport Limousine Bus, I had mroe time than expected. The main site that I wanted to check out was the Osaka Castle and associated grounds, a large expanse of greenery, moats, walls, and of course the eponymous castle. It is probably the main site of Osaka, and at this point the sunny, bright day made it all quite lovely.
The grounds are massive, with a series of gates and turrents and walls that lead you to the main castle in the middle, with a large courtyard in front of it. The castle itself is not as striking as the one in Kumamoto (the blue tint of the Kumamoto one is the tibreaker) but it is seemingly larger and more imposing. Much like with Kumamoto, they turned the inside of the castle into a museum, in this case with two floors full of "national treasures", a series of really great prints, fans, scrolls, drawsings, etc., The only downside was you can't take any photos - and they man it. I have never seen a place with more "no pictures" signs then this. And while I don't fully udnerstand what this was (and the prevalence of no picture museums and exhibits) I get it here as the pieces were truly incredible.
The higehr floors were less museum adn more about views and the views were nice, mostly of the large expanse of parks, gardens, buildings, etc., that make up the Osaka Castle grounds. On the whole, there is a good reason why the Osaka Castle is the main site of Osaka - both because it is great, but also because as noted, there aren't too many other places. The one notable part of this visit though was how many tourists, and particularly Western tourists there were. Had gotten so used to being with mostly locals and, I guess not unsurprisngly, other Asian tourists when touring Kyushu.
The next stop was a quick conveyor belt sushi lunch at a fancy looking strip mall in a park a block South of the Osaka Castle. Somehow, this was my first conveyor helt sushi restaurant of my time in Japan. Won't be the last, as that's the plan for lunch on Saturday. The next stop was supposed to be the Tenyaggu Shrine, but there is massive ongoing construction tehre that turns it into a non-site. Luckily it was more or less on the way back towards the main area of Osaka.
The last stop was the Umeda Sky Building, which is just awesome. It's a 50-story tall building with these interconnected glass outdoor tunnels, stairs, etc., connecting various floors on teh top, leading to two observatory floors with 360 degree views. The lower one is indoors and has the usual things like a cafe (an excellent cappuccino), shop, etc., but the top outdoor floor is incredible. From here, Osaka is massive, but also more green than I remembered - especially aroudn the two sets of rivers that run through the city. While, there aren't a whole lot of sites, the modernity of Osaka, and the few things I do remember from last time (the food, particularly in teh Dotonbori area), I do understand why it is a stanaard part of the Japan itinerary.
Nearby to the Umeda Sky building was a graet craft brewery as well named Mother Tree. They had a vast selection of their own brews, and then cans avaialble for sale (their own plus many other craft Japanese brews). I chatted up a group of four Aussies who were just starting their time in Japan, giving them a few tips but mostly also secretly hating that they are at the beginning of their vacation and I'm naering the end of mine.
That hit home with the train to Kyoto - the last actual stop of this trip (not counting lunch on Sunday in Tokyo). Going in I have high expectations for Kyoto, a magical, wonderful city that currently I have is my #3 city to visit. The first night itself at minimum doesn't have me changing that opinion at all. We first went to our AirBNB (I'm back with my parents for Kyoto) in the Gion area, which was great except on the 2nd floor (walk-up only). From there we headed to the main area of Kyoto to walk aroudn a bit, soak in the alleys and sites and what not, until our dinner at Ibushigin Kayuza - the one repeat meal from last time.
Ibushigin Kayuza is a "sake and smoke" izakaya - basically an izakaya that serves foods with some smoke element - some live smoked in front of you with the cloche and whatnot (the little amouse bouch of clams, a brilliant braised pork belly) or a bit more subtle (smoke infused sashimi). Either way, the food was great. They have a full bar, but their specialty is sake, which we sampled about 5-6 of. Overall, it was a really nice meal and entry point into Kyoto. As was talking my parents for a stroll aroudn the roads running parallel to Pontocho River, be it the famed small confines of Pontocho Alley, or the neighboring road with teh canal with tons of bars and nightlife. There were two cocktail bars I went to last time that I wanted to go back to with them but both had 30-60 minutes waits, and frankly neither are special enough to wait that much time. At this point, they bid me adieu and left me to roam this part of Kyoto.
The final stop was assured (Barcode, a great foreigner-heavy karaoke bar) but the stops there would be varied. I first went to Bar Caamm, a famed whiskey bar on the North side of the main canal road. This bar is noted for having over 400 whiskey choices, though this means most are from places that aren't Japan. Still, they had an extensive Japan list as well. I tried a couple and then tried out a more varied place in Kazuya which is quite an experiecne.
Kazuya is up two flights of stairs and their thing is to take you back to a pre-electricity age. There are no lights, everything lit by candles. There is no menu - you tell teh two bartenders what you want. Luckily, there are fans, but on the whole it is minimalism, but not in the cocktails, which were wonderful. The whole experience was unique, and wonderful/ Because Kyoto is so international and foreigner heavy, a lot of the bars skew that way (think Thailand, or the tweezery cocktail bars, that again aren't as good as the counterparts I went to in Tokyo), but in between there are these places like Kazuya, that for now seems like a hole in the wall known mostly by locals, but probably isn't too far away from being a foreigner spot as well.
What definitely is a foreigner spot is Barcode, but it is a lovely time. The crowd was mostly European, but on this today also more Japanese than I'm used to, and a Filipino group. Overall, teh crowd was great, the songs people requested and sung were all to my liking for the most part, and as is almost guaranteed in Barcode, you get to chat with folks over hte mic - including making friends with a lovely German couiple who are on a three month trip through Japan, spending a month of it in Kyoto. They were fascinated by my trip, "Oh, you are seeing so many places!" and me by theirs, "Oh, you have three months!". Two different ways of traveling, but all roads lead to Kyoto and on this night, to Barcode.
