On the question of bread:

I am not a fan of white bread. It's usually tasteless, dry, and uninteresting. But the white bread in Japan is very different: the texture is moist (or, as the OP calls it, "limp"), and it actually has some flavor. Different people, different tastes.

rizzuto - also different habits. At home I eat a lot of whole grains, if I eat carbs at all. All this white rice and white bread and noodles is not really agreeing with me...

Bento boxes at stations are a tradition in Japan. Each station has its own speciality. They are one of the joys of our family trips on trains. You may not always know what it is but it will be delicious. Hope you find some good ones.
Weather should be cooling down soon, this is usually the best time of year in Japan.
The skirt stuff is nonsense, you did the right thing!

There is brown rice (genmai) all over Japan. Soba and buckwheat noodles are everywhere. Just gotta know where to look

Maybe one of our editors can tell you from their vast travel experiences where to locate some.

How big were the whirlpools? Did you get on the bridge to see?

Since you are in Takamatsu you may want to try looking for some Sanuki Udon,I know more noodles. At least these are wheat noodles

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5408.html

Aloha!

OK, HT. If you go here: http://kwilhelm.smugmug.com/Travel/R...World-2010-11/ gallery Shikoku and password shikoku, you'll find my (unedited) whirlpool pix. I went by boat, I didn't see anyone on the bridge, and it looked a bit high for good views. There's a bus from the station that gets you right to the boat, but it takes over an hour. Much faster to drive yourself, I would think, as we went round by the airport.

Off to eat noodles for breakfast...

Good news. KimJapan and a friend met my train in Kanazawa this afternoon and took me off to the doctor's, where they kept me company and translated. My ankle is sprained, not broken, and should be better in a couple of weeks. Meanwhile I have new sticky white plasters (with different medicine), and a heavier bandage, properly wrapped. My ankle feels happier already. This is an especial relief, because after I visited the Ritsurin Garden yesterday (perhaps a bit ambitious even at a dead slow speed), it had swollen up dramatically. I am very grateful!

Ooooof. I'm not sure if I'd classify that as "good news" or "not-the-worst-possible news." Certainly a good thing that you got some proper medical attention, and that you are no longer in the dark as to the actual status. Best wishes.

Thanks to KimJapan for helping out our intrepid traveler. I'm glad you know what you are dealing wiht now. Take it easy.

On RO#1, I think Kyoto has too much historical stuff buried underground, which is why they only have 2 not-too-useful subway lines, and I also find the traffic really bad.

On RO#3, when you get to Hong Kong (which drives on the left side like Japan and the UK), you'll find that people stand on the right side of the escalators and walk on the left.

I'm so glad to hear that, thursdaysd! I hope you continue to see improvement.

<b>gertie3751</b> - the bento box I bought at Shin Osaka station yesterday was MUCH better than the one on the shinkansen to Kyoto. I guess the moral is "don't buy your bento on the train" although it is more convenient.

<b>kathie</b> Yes, having KimJapan's help made such a difference, and I really enjoyed meeting her and her friend and family.

<b>22-24 Sep - Limping Around Kyoto, and more Random Observations</b>

I started my first full day in Kyoto by visiting the Daini Nisseki hospital. I had asked the front desk people at the Palace Side for a nearby doctor specializing in bad feet, but this seemed to be a general hospital, and indeed, not to have the emergency room my medical insurance required. (KimJapan tells me that US-style emergency rooms don't exist in Japan - how to explain that to my insurance company?) Little English was spoken, but after I filled in the registration form, we established that there would be a long wait, and that I would have to pay a 5250 yen new patient exam fee. This wasn't what I had in mind, and since it was pretty clear I had a sprain, not a break, I decided to explore other options.

Instead of waiting to see a doctor, I took the subway back to the station to try to buy the train tickets for the rest of my trip. I do mean try... In Tokyo, I could have bought a Seishun Juhachi Kippu for 115 yen, good for five days of rail travel. I hadn't bought it then, because I wanted to check whether it would save me money (it didn't cover reservations). Now, in Kyoto, I was told that it had been discontinued Sep 10th! Plus, none of the three separate ticket offices I visited wanted to sell me tickets for other parts of the country. Finally, I gave up and visited the Nippon Travel Agency, where a helpful and efficient young woman sold me a pile of tickets, and also figured out for me the bus I hadn't realized (duh!) I would need to get from Wakayama train station to the Wakayama ferry terminal.

While I was at the train station - really two or three stations, with JR regular lines to the north, shinkansen and Kintetsu lines to the south, a full blown department store and plenty of restaurants - I visited the T.I. and picked up a bus map and transport passes. I lunched on the 11th floor on tempura.

R.O. #5. Hold on to your tickets. For both regular and underground trains you need to feed your ticket into the entrance/exit gates on the way out as well as the way in.

After lunch I played tourist and took a bus to Nijo Castle.This was so different from the English castles I grew up visiting I had a hard time registering it as a military site - until I took a good look at the massive stone walls. I took another bus (the Kyoto bus map is really helpful) to the nearby Nishijin Textile Center, but this was more of a tourist trap than I expected. I did admire a kimono parade, and found my way up to the rather desultory craft demos on the third floor, but didn't shop.

For dinner I tried a tiny okonomiyaki place round the corner from the hotel, but was disappointed to find the "pancake" was fixed for me in the kitchen, and again, was short on apparent protein (two smallish shrimp). I'm sorry to keep harping on protein, but I have border-line hypoglycemia, and adequate protein intake is mandatory. This time I filled up with quite good trout back at the hotel. Next morning I switched from NeoPatrick's pleasant coffee place down the street to the hotel's buffet for breakfast - the cost wasn't much different, and the hotel provided unlimited coffee and orange juice along with cereal, yoghurt and fruit, besides the watery eggs and limp bacon.

R.O. #6. Bus fares are complicated. Unless it's a fixed fare bus, or you have a pass that covers your entire route, you won't know your fare until you get off the bus. (I'm sure locals know, but we're talking travelers here.) You board at the back, taking a numbered ticket from a machine as you do so. You leave from the front, feeding the ticket and the correct coins for your fare into a machine by the driver. To figure the fare you check a display board at the front of the bus, which will show the fare that corresponds to your numbered ticket. However, the further you travel, the higher the fare, and you don't know the total for sure until just before your stop.The machine will give change, but in unpredictable combinations of coins, and you have to get the change before paying the fare.

Next morning I spent time on the phone following up leads from helpful Fodorites in the search for another medical option. However, it basically came down to the same hospital I had already visited. I actually rested for the remainder of the morning (it was raining) before heading back to the department store at Kyoto station for packaging for the gifts for my Welcome Guides. This time I ate (Chinese, as it turned out) on the Cube side of the station, with an excellent view north over the city. Then I went north by bus to the Daitokuji temple complex. It didn't look far on the map, but buses in Kyoto can take an unbelievably long time to get anywhere, especially if the route requires right turns.

R.O. #7. The few Prius's I've seen on the roads look like full-size cars here. Most vehicles look boxy, cut straight off right behind the rear wheels - probably for easier parking.

I got off one stop too soon for the main temple complex, but that meant that I actually wound up at Koto-In, the temple I was most interested in seeing. I loved it. Both the approach, down a long, shaded avenue, and the buildings, elegantly simple, but most of all the atmosphere. Here was the serenity I had expected from Kyoto. There were even a few trees with leaves showing autumn color.

Glad you are enjoying Kyoto. It's a joy isn't it. I do miss it.
Your comments on buses and such reminded me of my first few months in Japan: I couldn't read anything, didn't know what I was eating, couldn't figure out the system, was always on the wrong foot and in the wrong shoes at the wrong time. It took me a good 2 years to get the hang of it even slightly. You are doing well.
Good to hear you got your ankle sorted.

Thursday,great to hear that you're enjoying Kyoto.Do take care of yourself.You have a long haul ahead.
Brings back my '05 memories there.Visit the Funaoka Onsen,if possible, near Kurama-guchi Dori(if I'm not mistaken),a lovely old bath house,a wonderful experience.Any plans of going to Takayama ?

Thanks gertie.

inquest - my posts are way behind reality - I'm currently in Kanazawa, and will be in Takayama in a few days.

<b>23-24 Sep - Better Days in Kyoto</b>

Actually, one of my best experiences in Kyoto was Koto-In, which I mentioned in my last post. I could have stayed much longer, sitting on the verandah and admiring the mossy ground, the feathery bamboo, the trees showing the first hints of fall color, and soaking in the serenity, but I needed to be back at my hotel at 4:00 pm.

The Welcome Guide group I had contacted (there are several in Kyoto), had been unable to provide a guide for the days I wanted, but my correspondent had said that although guides usually went off duty at 5:00 pm, she would be going to a Full Moon Viewing ceremony, and would take me along if I wanted to go. (I think I had asked, in the lengthy questionnaire I had filled in, about any special activities for the Autumn Equinox holiday on Sep 23.)

I warned her about my bad ankle, but she suggested that we should go anyway, and checked with the front desk at the Palace Side for a bus route, so that I could avoid the steps at the train stations. We were headed for Arashiyama and the Daikakuji temple, originally a "detached" Imperial palace, and with plenty of chrysanthemum blossom decorations (hiding nail heads, for instance), to prove it. Fortunately, I took my hiking stick along to do duty as a cane, as I did more standing than I was ready for, but it was in all other ways a magical evening.

I saw few other foreigners. A handful of Japanese women honored the occasion by wearing kimono, although most people were in western clothes. Thanks to the rain and overcast skies during the day, my WG said that there were many fewer people than the previous year, which was fine with me. I bought us both bento boxes for dinner, and we sat on benches (actually, looked more like tables to me), to listen to a violinist playing well-known western music in one of the halls. (Moon River was one of the selections!)

The Buddhist ceremony started at 6:30 pm, and right on time the clouds parted to show a perfect white moon, equally perfectly reflected in the lotus pond behind the celebrants. Afterwards we rode a dragon boat round the pond, eating a sweet cake and drinking the bitter tea ceremony tea.Then my WG walked me round the imperial buildings, and we traded moon myths - green cheese for white rabbits.

R.O. #8.There seems little consistency among hotels when it comes to yukutas. The Toyoko Inn in Tokyo had a notice asking you not to wear one outside your room, while at the Dormy Inn in Takamatsu both men and women wore them to breakfast. Usually they come free with the room, but the (touristy) Palace Side in Kyoto charged 100 yen for one (per day if you wanted a fresh one each day). Mostly a yukuta is a single garment, which sometimes fits me and sometimes was designed for a person with a completely different body shape, but in Takamatsu (again) it was a pair of short trousers and a short jacket (tying on the right).

My last full day in Kyoto I started out by bus to visit the Nanzen-ji temple, only to find that the bus stop put me closer to Eikan-do, which I enjoyed much more. (Perhaps because I was too tired by the time I finally reached Nanzen-ji to fully explore the site.) Eikan-do had a brand-new elevator, with sprays of small maple leaves etched on its metal doors, to get me up to the main hall and the Buddha Glancing Backward. On the way from Eikan-do to Nanzen-ji I actually encountered a person-pulled rickshaw, but, unlike those I saw later on at Ginkaku-ji, it would have saved me very few steps.

I limped slowly on towards the east-west subway line, which, mirabile dictu, had escalators and elevators, and delivered me one stop closer to a Lonely Plenet recommended restaurant, Asuka, which provided me with a pefectly fine tempura set for lunch. Afterwards, I switched back to the bus to reach Ginkaku-ji - or as close as I could get by public transport, which wasn't very close.

I'm sorry if some people find this heretical, but I was very disappointed with Ginkaku-ji, which I thought totally not worth the effort it took me to get there. Perhaps if I had been up to trekking up the hill beyond the main buildings I would have felt differently. Perhaps if it hadn't been overrun with other tourists... Perhaps if I hadn't had to trek uphill through tourist central (all souvenir shops and cafes) to get there... (I did find a nice, quiet, residential street to get back down.) As it was, I felt that I had visited the temples in the wrong order, with the best (Koto-In) first, and the worst (Ginkaku-ji), last.

The day had not been good for my bad ankle, so after an exceedingly slow bus ride back to Kyoto station I retreated to my hotel to pack, and to eat an uninspired dinner. I would leave for Koya-san in the morning.

<b>Status</b> - Currently in Matsumoto, return to Tokyo tomorrow. The magic white plasters from the doctor in Kanazawa (plus a better bandage) really seem to be helping my ankle. I'm still limping, but faster. Plus I made it up, and down (much harder), most of Matsumoto castle today, which I couldn't have done a week ago. My journal is up-to-date, but I'm way behind on writing, so this post is mostly a copy of my blog entry, minus the pix.

<b>Sep 25-26 - Not So Serene at Koya-san</b>

It was not exactly Koya-san's fault that perhaps the best parts of my visit were getting there and back. The train rides were memorable - once we left Hashimoto the little local wound its way laboriously up through forested mountains, the sea of trees broken only occasionally by rural communities where the farmhouses clustered together amid the rice fields. At the end of the tracks I switched to a cable car, rising almost vertically higher still, and then to a (rather expensive) bus, which delivered me to my temple - if you spend the night on Koysa-san (aka Mt. Koya) you do it in a temple.

But good mountain scenery was only one of my hopes for the visit: I also looked forward to at least serenity, if not spirituality, from my temple stay (along with some good vegetarian food), and an atmospheric, even eerie, visit to the famous cemetery, Oku-no-in, where all Japanese Buddhists hope at least a piece of their earthly remains will be buried, to await the arrival of the future Buddha. These additional expectations were not met.

Part of the problem came down to scheduling: I arrived at my temple, the Rengejo-in, at 15:00, check-in time, to discover an unexpected 17:00 meditation, followed by dinner, after which the buses stopped. In the morning, a 6:00 religious ceremony would be followed by breakfast and check out, leaving me little time to catch the bus that would be the start of a marathon trip to Tokushima. In the end I skipped breakfast, which gave me a rushed 40 minutes at Oku-no-in - in bright sunshine, rather than gathering gloom.

I had known about the 6:00 ceremony, but not about the meditation - if I had known I might have tried to get to Koya-san earlier. The other problems were in no way my fault - except perhaps, by selecting the wrong temple, but it's hard to know which is the right one, especially when the first requirement is that they will accept a single foreign traveler. Initially, things looked good. The temple was quiet, the gardens were beautiful, and my room came with tatami mats and a kotatsu heater.

But, but, but... I returned from a brief trip to the village - just to look around - to find a tour bus disgorging its passengers! I would be sharing my temple experience with a fair-sized tour group (of Israelis, it turned out). Not at all what I had in mind. Plus, this particular group had no idea how to behave during meditation - people kept getting up and leaving, making a lot of noise in the process. Then a large guy moved next to me, and when his knee stayed touching mine I destroyed all the serenity I had built up in rush of anger (jabbing him with a sharp fingernail did get the knee removed, though).

Meditation was followed by a lengthy sermon, which ensured that dinner was served cold - tempura, tea and soup were all stone cold.... I had expected it to be served in my room. Instead, we ate in a large dining area, although I discovered the next morning that the Japanese guests had their own section, apart from the foreigners. (I did not appreciate being segregated.) I imagine the Japanese were spared the long talk by the 90 year old mother of the current head monk, mostly about the hardships of life in Koya-san during the war. I couldn't quite tell whether the Americans were being regarded as responsible, or as saviors. Of course, I might have found it more interesting if I could have heard it better, or if I hadn't been having trouble sitting on the floor with a bad ankle (I got a stool for the meditation, but not for dinner).

I had actually enjoyed the meditation (until the incident of the intrusive Israeli), but I found the morning ceremony a complete waste of time. In fact, I thought the whole thing might well be a fake for foreigners - until I noticed that there were Japanese guests there. The room was festooned with dangly gilt things, quite unlike the one next door used for the monks' private observances. The session ended with another long sermon, all in Japanese.

I had met a couple from Amsterdam on the train up to Koya-san, and when we met again on the train down we compared notes. They hadn't been entirely happy with their temple, Eko-in, either. Although the food was served in their room, it didn't have a heater. However, I think I would have preferred Eko-in, as it was much closer to the cemetery, and an evening walking tour was offered.

Rengejo-in is a Fodors' recommendation, and it's certainly true that the room, the gardens and the Japanese bath were all fine (but in the morning only cold water was available). I would suggest that anyone considering a visit to Koya-san find out exactly what schedule their intended temple keeps, how big it is (i.e. is there room for tour groups!), how the food is served (do you ant it served in your room?), and whether there are heaters. But even though I didn't have the experience I expected, I wouldn't want to discourage anyone else from going.

What a disappointment, especially when you were looking forward to the temple bit. There really does seem to be a disconnect between what you (or I or many, many individuals who might make the trek to the temple) are expecting, and what the people who arrange for and allow the tour buses are thinking. Any tour bus is going to be disruptive -- you could have a bus full of Carmelite nuns and there'd still be plenty of noise and movement.

Sounds like the trip to/from was worthwhile.

I'm sorry that your experience of Koya-san was so different than mine! I stayed at Shojoshin-in, right next to Okuno-in - no sermons, no required meditation, great food served in semi-privacy (screens separated diners from each other), gorgeous gardens. . . .

Glad to hear your ankle is improving.

So sorry your Koya-San experience was not up to your expectations. Like others, I'm glad to hear that your ankle is improving. I'm looking forward to the next installment!