Nara

Today was our day to explore the city of Nara, Japan. Nara was briefly the capital of Japan before Kyoto and later Tokyo. It is a smaller city in Japan, but it was a great experience. We began with a delicious breakfast at the Ryokan again and then got ready to leave for the day. Had I known the amount of walking would be so much more than yesterday I would have worn my more comfortable shoes, but I did not, so now my knees and feet are all killing me. Oh well, live and learn. Anyways, back to Nara.

We took the subway train to meet Kazue and then the four of us took a different train for the 40 minutes out to Nara. The train ride was easy and nothing too exciting. We got there without any problems and set off to explore all of the sites within Nara Park. The coolest thing about Nara is that there are literally deer everywhere, and I really mean everywhere. They are very calm and used to people and you can buy deer crackers to feed them straight out of your hand. It was awesome. While at Nara we went to a bunch more temples and shrines and they were all beautiful. The wisteria also happen to be in bloom this week, and they were absolutely amazing to see. I have never seen wisteria before, but I definitely love them already. We wandered around Nara for hours and had a great time seeing the beautiful structures and even saw the biggest Buddha in Japan standing (or sitting rather) around 4 stories tall! The Buddah also sits in the biggest wooden structure in the world. It was all quite impressive. After the shrines and temples we saw a beautiful garden that reminded me of the Japanese Tea Gardens in San Francisco a bit. All in all it was a really nice day, but I was exhausted by the end of it.

After seeing Nara we took the train back to Kyoto and went to the shopping area. They had a ton of bizarre stores along with stores I recognize like Gap, Starbucks, Clarks, etc. It was fun to browse even though we didn't buy anything. We also walked through the market area which was fun to see. My dad and I got fresh squeezed grapefruit juice that was juiced right in the rind with a special machine and served inside the rind with a straw. It was so ridiculous cool and so so yummy! Definitely a highlight even though it was such a small thing.

After strolling through the market we walked home to the Ryokan and had a light snack and chatted/rested for a bit before dinner. Tonight we had dinner here at the Ryokan again and it was very good. A few courses, starting with a sushi style course, then a fish course, a tempura course, and finally dessert. The tempura was my favorite for sure, tough it was all pretty good. Now that dinner is over I am so ready for bed. It may be just 9pm, but I am ready to sleep! It doesn't help that I took a Benadryl just before dinner due to my ritual traveling abroad rash that reared its head today. So its off to sleep! Hope I don't wake up too early. I'm in need of some deep sleeping time!

Wisterias

Largest wooden structure in the world

Enormous Buddha

Garden

In the Garden

Drinking my grapefruit juice 

Exploring Kyoto

This morning began my first full day in Japan. We woke up pretty early since we had fallen asleep by 9:30pm, so we had a slow morning before we had our breakfast come at 8am. Dad had a traditional Japanese breakfast and my mom and I had a western style breakfast that was pretty delicious! After breakfast we met out tour guide Kazue at the Ryokan. Since it was raining we took a taxi to the Kiyomizu Temple to begin our day. Apparently it is one of the most famous and popular temples in all of Japan, and is generally very crowded. Due to the rain we lucked out and we didn't have a bad crowd at all! The special Moon Garden was also open today, and it is only open twice per year for ten days at a time so we lucked out! The garden was quite beautiful, but there were no pictures allowed. We did spend the equivalent of just under $3 to buy some pictures of the garden to take home, which was nice. We spent a good amount of time at the temple area and saw the many shrines and temples on the grounds. It was a really beautiful place, despite the rainy weather.

After the temple we set off to walk around part of Kyoto. We did a little shopping and a LOT of taste testing as we walked by many shops. There were candies, soups, drinks, and so many little things to taste and try along the way. I purchased some tea-bag like soup broth and some spices to make when I get home, as well as some really cool jelly soap and some mango-honey syrup that you can mix with water as a drink or use on desserts! There was so much more I wanted to buy even! We saw some beautiful houses and shops, and even women dressed in traditional kimonos complete with the full white make-up, granted the three girls we saw in full make-up were not Japanese, but from Thailand and Germany! It was a really great walk and I really loved the area. I also discovered this really awesome Kyoto artist that has done a lot of paintings for temples and shops around the city. He has some shops of his own as well, and I was really close to buying a backpack with some beautiful red, black, and gold koi pattern, but as usual I couldn't commit.

Out next stop was lunch, and we went to a noodle place that was really good. We started off with some tea, as we have become very accustomed to here and ordered some tempmusubi, which was basically rice around a tempura shrimp wrapped in a piece of seaweed. It was exactly like Spam musubi, but with tempura shrimp instead of Spam. It was amazing! I then had beef soba for lunch and that was also quite excellent. We chatted for a bit about Japan, and life in general and had a wonderful time.

After lunch we walked down a main street with lots of little shops to the subway station where we took a shuttle to see the Fushimi-Inari Shrine. The shrine is made up of ton of gates and it is so cool and interesting. We had a great time walking around and seeing all the beautiful gates juxtaposed with the bright green foliage. It was quite amazing. Kazume also said a little prayer to at the study shrine for my Step 1 exam, so hope it worked! Kazume left us here as our 6 hours were up, so we explored a bit more and then took the train back to the Ryokan where we rested for a bit. Everytime we get back I swear they have tea and some kind of small treat. It is pretty awesome.

After resting we set out to Gion to find some dinner. It was still pouring, so we all got pretty wet, but we had a nice walk along the river to get there. Oh, and I forgot to say that we did get a reprieve from the rain for much of the middle of the day. Anyways, we ended up eating at a place called Junidanya and I had some of the best tempura I have ever eaten! It was so delicious! All of us liked out respective meals and enjoyed having a real seat and table instead of sitting on the floor. We deeded to take a taxi home from dinner since we didn't feel like getting wet more, and through the language barrier managed to get back to the right place. It helped that we weren't very far away and it was basically a straight shot back!

When we got back I took a lovely shower and now we're just relaxing before getting some sleep. Tomorrow we are taking a trip out to Nara to see some more wonderful things!

Eating breakfast in the room

At the temple looking out at the scenery

The main hall of the temple

A small pagoda on the temple grounds (see in the distance in a pic above)

This Buddha was made from wood collected from the ocean after the tsunami as a tribute to those fallen 

Beef soba noodle lunch

Mom and Dad at the shrine

Me at the shrine

The room at the Ryokan transformed for sleeping

Step 1 DONE and Off to Japan!

I have finally  completed the long and awful test that is the USMLE Step 1. Thankfully I have a few weeks before I have to know how I did on the exam, but it is over, and for that I am thankful.

Now that my endless studying days are behind me I am officially on VACATION!! This morning (or yesterday morning since I crossed the date line, it's confusing) I got up and went to SFO to begin my week trip in Japan. I traveled alone since my parents left the day before me, but everything went smoothly. The plane had a ton of extra seats, so I ended up moving to an empty row where I got to lay down across all three seats! That is an international flight dream come true! Besides sleeping I ate, watched last weeks episode of Glee, and watched four movies (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, Cars 2, The Lego Movie, and Cool Runnings. The flight went by quickly and was not bad at all. I got through immigration and customs without any delays or problems at all and met my shuttle from Osaka to Kyoto. The shuttle ride was about two hours and there was plenty of space, but I started getting antsy from sitting so long. I eventually arrived at the Seikoro Ryokan in Kyoto around 5:45pm and met my parents.

Our room at the Ryokan is very traditional and quite adorable. There are no beds, but they set the room up for sleeping at night. We also eat meals in the room on cushions on the floor. It is the full Japanese experience. After arriving we sat for a bit and then my mom and I walked by the river for a few minutes to just get moving after the long flight. We then had Sukiyaki in the room (Japanese hot pot) with miso soup, rice, some various appetizers, and a small dessert of melon and macha green tea and red bean jelly. The jelly wasn't my favorite, but the rest was delicious, especially the hot pot! We are now getting ready to sleep and we have our walking tour of Kyoto tomorrow, most likely in the rain. Hopefully the weather isn't too awful!

Ready to go!

Mom and Dad ready to get some Sukiyaki in the room at the Ryokan

Dad mixing his egg for Saori who was cooking the Sukiyaki

The sukiyaki! So delicious! 

Studying

So for the past four and a half weeks I have pretty much been studying non-stop for Step 1. I had a few days off during the month, but no more than one per week. Boy, did I ever need those for my sanity! Now the test has creeped up on me in a big way and I only have two more study days left. It is both awesome and terrifying. I do not feel that I am ready to do as well as I would like, which is really disappointing. I am pretty confident I can pass, but thats about it. Hopefully things fall into place over the next few days or the test just happens to cover only things I've really gotten down. Either way, I just really hope some miracle happens really. I generally feel good one day and awful the next. Luckily with that pattern test day should be a good one. Fingers crossed!!