[[[Note: This is the part where I started writing at the end of the program but had no time, and then started traveling and wrote on the train but never was able to put anything up. So you get the special privilege of reading WAY TOO MUCH all at once.]]
(Actually from 7/20)
As we approach the final week, there's an enormous amount of stuff I have to do to prepare for the final exam, the final presentation I'll be giving in front of the whole program and guests, and the travel itinerary for the following two weeks. So clearly I did none of that and traveled to close-by cities instead, the kind of day trip I promised myself I would do but haven't for nine weeks.
After Gion Matsuri in Kyoto on Friday night, I visited two of the districts within Osaka that are pretty famous but I've barely seen. Started off at Tennouji, saw a bunch of historical temples, then visited Namba and the infamous ドン・キホーテ(the sound of the store is Don Kihoute... Don Quixote? I don't really get why.)
I spontaneously trekked over to Kobe Sunday morning. I started off with the 白鶴 White Crane Sake factory tour (with free tastings!) and then made my way to Kitano, the district of Kobe that used to be the western style mansions for early western traders, diplomats, and missionaries. Also a surprising number of mosques and halal supermarkets, although maybe that's a more recent thing. The lavish 異人館 (literally "houses of different people") are built on the highest land near the base of the mountain. Oh hey there western imperalism!
The western buildings and abundant churches on the mountain were oddly reminiscent of Hakodate, where I spent last summer. But by the time I got off the gondola at the top of the mountain, all the architecture had turned into some bizarre semblance of a swiss mountain house? Confused. Thinking to enjoy the great outdoors, I took the hiking trail back down, but apparently no one else ever uses it--I clearly followed what the sign said was the hiking trail, but it was so overgrown that I often didn't know where the trail was. I'd then come out of the deep wilderness into some pleasant pocket where nice elderly couples were enjoying picnics, before plunging back into deep mountainy jungley doom. I have no idea how the pleasant old people got there. After a climb a full two hours longer than I had planned for, I came out on the edge of civilization- with a clear, cool river trickling beneath the subway tracks! Salvation.
I thought I'd stroll the streets looking for a nice dinner place but gave in to the first Nishinoya (the McDonald's of rice bowls) I saw. Didn't realize until after the meal how disheveled I looked, with a dirty sunburnt face, over-scruffed beard, and hair still dripping from the river. Maybe that explains all the weird looks I got.
And then... discovered I gave myself massive blisters from walking up and down the mysterious mountain of doom in inadequate shoes. Let's see how I continue to aggravate them over the next two weeks of walking around Japan!
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