Winter in Japan

Proper sushi bar, Tokyo.

As a two week paid vacation peeks from around the corner of my workweek, I have begun to get more and more excited.  This trip could be one of the most unfamiliar trips yet; it's neither a familiar itinerary that matches up to the trodden tourist trail I trekked throughout Asia nor is it a vacation in my most familiar homeland.  This time, it is a two week bisection, north to south, of Turkey.  Starting at the Black Sea, we'll meander southwards until finally winding up in near where the Mediterranean and Turkey meet in the southeast. 

Two years ago round this time I took my first solo trip.  I had traveled before but never on my own, so this was a first time experience.  Offered a precious week of vacation (for there were only two the entire calender year), I could not afford to pass up the chance to get out.  Of course, at the time, getting out meant leaving my home on the southeastern coast of Korea.  The natural destination was right across the water: Japan.  

My first trip alone was one that taught me a lot about myself - times alone, times with new friends, but mostly times away from what I had become familiar with and what I knew.  Landing in Fukuoka, furtively taking night buses between Fukuoka and Kyoto, Kyoto on to Tokyo and Tokyo on to Hiroshima.  Running out of cash and realizing one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world doesn't take credit or debit cards, period.  Sleeping in a capsule.  Confronting the legacy of the atomic bomb.  Eating horse.  Eating sushi.  Keeping clean and having a shave at a hot spring.  Keeping warm in cafes when my clothes weren't enough.  Celebrating Lunar New Year.  Winter in Japan.    

2011.01.29 - 2011.02.04

Kyoto skyline.

Kyoto cats, chowing at a Buddhist monastery. 

Kyoto skyline, round 2.

Absolution before the temple.

Kiyomizu-Dera Temple, Kyoto.

That's a polar bear.  Please do not enter it.

Fish knives, Tsukjiki Market, Tokyo.

Tokyo.

Pub grub, Tokyo.

R's and L's.

Big whale, Tokyo.

That's a DeLorean, Doc.

A-bomb dome, Hiroshima. 

Disappointing bottom stat.

Before and after the bomb, Hiroshima.