Trip Memories- 旅行の思い出

It's the night of New Year's day, and I'm finally back in Amakusa. The trip sure was tiring (the average distance we walked each day was around 17K), but we're finally back safe and sound.

Sam and Sayaka unfortunately suffered from some illness during the trip, so it was all for the best that we came home on the afternoon of the 30th.  Sadly, this also meant that we missed the snow fall on the 31st that would have created some great opportunities for photos, but since we had no way of knowing and since we were already exhausted, we can't feel too bad.  

Please check out some of the photos here. （リンックをクリクすると、京都の旅行の写真が見えます。）

While I got a lot of good pictures on the trip, some of the best memories we/I had on the trip weren't ones I captured on film. For example, consider our second day in the city:

After going to Kinkaku-ji the famous gold covered temple in northern Kyoto, and after visiting a few neighboring UNESCO world heritage sites, we walked through a strange complex of temples called Myoushin-ji 妙心寺 to get to a train station.  After a trip to the bathroom, it started hailing and raining.  We only had one umbrella between the three of us, but as we were passing a cafe on the way to the station, an elderly man おじいちゃん stepped out and handed me a handy compact umbrella.  I tried to refuse at first, but he told me to go ahead and take it and not worry about giving it back.  Now I have a new umbrella! It's amazing where and when you'll be touched by the kindness of other people.

Continuing the theme of 'encounters-with-kind-strangers' (sort-of), there's a story attached to our journey back to Sam's place in Nagasaki.  Upon getting off the train at Nagasaki station we crossed the street to wait for the bus to Sam's neighborhood (about 10 minutes away by car).  A punk-ish, twenty-something Japanese dude with fake glasses, spiky hair, and more than a few ear piercings saw that we were a little confused by the bus schedule and pointed out that we missed the last bus.  Since he had to go to the same neck of the city as us, he decided to walk a couple blocks and then get a cab with us.  Sure, I understand that he was probably looking to get a deal on his cab fare, and there was the possibility that he was probably drunk too, but it was nevertheless and interesting encounter.  He did a pretty good job talking in English now and then, and in the car he tried to explain elements of Japanese culture to me (as if it was his duty to explain the mysteries of Japan to us foreigners), and at the end of the car ride he gave us both a big man-hug and told us we should go out drinking sometime.  Interesting fellow...

Finally, one of the best memories of the vacation was on the day we visited Nara.  After walking a fair amount around the park area where most of the temples are located, we headed back to the shopping arcade streets that led up to the train station to grab lunch.  Along the way, we saw a huge crowd of people gathering outside one particular shop.  What could possibly so good/interesting that would draw so many people's attention and cause traffic jams in the narrow street?  FRESH MOCHI OF COURSE! I had spotted the giant wooden hammers and stone basin in a store window on the way to the temples that morning, and now two buff guys were hammering away at a steaming mass of freshly cooked mochi rice.  After adequate pounding, the sticky mess was thrown into a machine, powdered with flower, and filled with anko paste (sweet bean paste), and sent out to be rolled into perfect balls of dessert-y goodness.  People started pushing and shoving to get in line for the still-warm treats, and a extra salesman was sent out in the street to direct traffic around the hordes of people lining up to buy mochi.  We jumped in line and got two pieces fresh off the line.  They were so warm that they practically fell apart as we bit into them, but it was the best mochi I've ever head.