Kyoto: Kiyomizu dera

Woke up, ate a great breakfast and headed up to Kiyomizu Dera...a MUST SEE if you're in Kyoto!!  This place is truly amazing and there are so many fascinating things about it.  The temple was built in about 798 and is now an UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The cutest part of the day was when students that were traveling for school would approach Bryan to practice their English and read from their questionnaire.  I was just standing on the side and smiling. 

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Huge pagoda at the entrance to Kiyomizu Dera

Kyoto: Nishi Hongwanji

I'm changing it up for Kyoto.

We were in Kyoto for just 1.5 days...and we took a boat load of pictures.  I'll be posting by place/event instead of by day.  Enjoy!!!

Nishi Hongwanji is a Buddhist, Jodo Shinshu temple.  I was raised a Jodo Shinshu Buddhist and my family in Hawaii are still practitioners of this religion.  I've always wanted to visit Honzan (aka, Nishi Hongwanji headquarters in Kyoto) and was beyond thrilled to find out that it was located next to our hotel.  It was truly a magnificent place.

Kyoto: Tokyu Hotel

We stayed at the Kyoto Tokyu Hotel.  This hotel (hindsight) was the nicest hotel of the three that we stayed at during our vacation.  Though it was smaller than our hotel room in Okinawa, it carried the contemporary, simplistic design aesthetic that we like.  I was impressed.

Okinawa Day 10 --> Kyoto Day 1

Our last day in Okinawa was bitter sweet.  It meant that our Okinawa adventure was ending and leaving all of the great people that we met during the trip.  But the upshot of it was embarking on a new adventure in mainland Japan.

After having my last Blue Seal beni-imo soft serve, Bryan and I boarded the plane with our traveling amigos, Ryan and Keith, back to Tokyo.  After parting ways at Narita Airport, we picked up our JR rail passes and headed out for Kyoto.

Kyoto Meal #1: Royal Host.  I had the Indian curry.  I probably could have done a better job ordering dinner.  Oh well.

Okinawa Day 9: Rehearsal, Performance, Uchiage Party...and Eggplant Spaghetti!

Today was the second performance at the Ryukyu Shimpo Hall (newspaper company).  We had rehearsal and the performance on the same day.

There no better way to prep for a performance than Nasu (eggplant) spaghetti.

(Bryan, Terence and Jodie)

Hanging out backstage in between numbers.

(Yuko, Jodie, Hiromi, me)

(Mutsumi, Fumi, Chikako, Yuki)

Pics from after the show.

(us)

(Akiko, Keith, Joey, Melissa, Ryan)

(me, Jay, Terence)

At the after party at Keiko Kina's Ohana.

(Maui members)

(me, Alice)

(Kosumi, Tomo, Bryan and I)

Okinawa Day 8: Free Day #2- Kimono, Anniversary & Meet'n'Greet

Who knew buying kimono would take so long.  I think we started at 10am and finished after 1pm.  It was a flurry in the beginning because there was a whole bunch of us that needed kimono.  Then after one hour, it was just the eight of us...I felt bad for my dad who was just hanging out on the side.  A true roadie!

But after all that, we all (except my dad) walked away with something.

The only way to recover from three hours is eating.  We embarked down Kokusai-dori for a good place to eat.  We found a cute restaurant on a side street and ordered three soki soba (spare rib noodle soup) and one gurukun (white fish popular in Okinawa).   It was a great way to celebrate Mom and Dad's anniversary.

The evening concluded with a dee-lious lobster dinner with Sugiko's family.  Sugiko is Terence's fiance (Terence is my older bro).  We met her parents, older sister, and two nieces.  This was the first time that our families met.  It was a lovely evening and I'm very excited for them to be a part of our family.

Okinawa Day 7: Kahi Meguri Tour

Today was a special day.  Today's tour was one of the selling points of going on this trip.  Our sanshin sensei, Choichi Terukina used to work at a travel agency and occasionally did this special tour.   Kahi Meguri means stone viewing...and that's exactly what we did.

These large, monument-sized rocks with etched poems on it are located all over Okinawa.  At times, these poems would evolve to songs and those songs evolved to dances.  I believe we viewed eight sites all over the island.  It wonderful to hear the stories behind each engraving, especially to songs that I knew or knew how to play.

Okinawa Day 6: Itoman Haari and Peace Memorial Park

Today's tour was very emotional.  It started off with a trip to Itoman for their Annual Itoman Haari Festival.  Haari is a boat that resembles China's dragon boat.  And every year, various towns and villages that are located along the water have their own haari races.  Our music group had the chance to form a team and it made up of 10 paddlers and one gong player.  I opted not to paddle.  Our Afuso Ryu team looked pretty good for never have had practiced together.

After watching the races and eating yummy festival food, we boarded the bus for an emotional afternoon.  We toured Himeyuri Monument.  The monument is erected above the caves where female students and teachers, who acted as nurses during the Battle of Okinawa, hid and ultimately perished.  It was so emotional to be there.  It felt like their spirits were still there...lingering.

After the monument, we stopped by the Peace Memorial Park.  The park is located at Mabuni Hill, the site where the last fight of the Battle of Okinawa occurred.  The park is dedicated to all who were lost during the Battle of Okinawa- Okinawans, Japanese, Koreans, Americans, everyone.

The afternoon concluded with a special screening of the Japanese-language film, Gama- Getto no hana.  In keeping with the theme of the day, this film was about an Okinawa woman who's husband was forced to join the Japanese army and needed flee with her family for shelter.  If I wasn't in a room full of people, I would have crying my ass off.