Category: kit kat

Hi everyone. Thanks for all the comments. Quite a few Kit Kat requests… don’t worry… you shall all be looked after 🙂

Will be a pretty brief one today since it was mostly travel. I left you last night after a busy day in Kanazawa. Today I said goodbye to my lovely host and jumped on a train bound for Nagano. Well, it was two trains… a 2 hour journey to Naoetsu, then switch trains for another couple of hours to Nagano. My stop was an hour in Naoetsu, which I thought would be fine given the proliferation of shopping centres and good eating places at train stations. Well, we’ll get to that.

What I completely forgot was how close I was to the Sea of Japan. Kanazawa is close to the coast and I didn’t even think which way I would be going. Within no time at all I had the sea on my left and snow covered mountains on my right. It was amazing.

In fact the whole journey was great. I expected to be head in a book (or Kindle as it were) but I was transfixed by the journey. Which gets me to Naoetsu. Unlike every other train station I had visited, Naoetsu was not much really. A kiosk and some seats to wait on. And that was it. However, every cloud has a silver lining. What was it? C’mon… you can guess.

Yep, Kit Kats! I was in a new prefecture which meant new Kit Kat! And this was the only place I would see them on my travels. Pear flavour. I think I had had it before, but had to buy them. And how are they? Peary. Not my favourite, but not the worst.

The next leg was more gorgeous scenery, although this was an old school local train that did a lot of stopping, so this dragged a little. But by about 3pm I was in Nagano. After a visit to the Tourist Info centre it was off to my lodgings.

Now I knew it was a Ryokan (traditional japanese lodgings) I was staying in, but I also knew that I found it on Hostelworld and that it was on one of the main streets. So I didn’t expect it to be a proper one. Now it is not a formal Ryokan, but boy is it great! I was greeted by the old owners who showed me to my room and served me tea. The building itself is gorgeous inside… lots of old creaky wooden stairs leading every which way. And my room was old school with tatami mats and sliding doors… quintessentially Japanese.

It was a bit after 4pm by the time I had settled in, so not much time for things, but I decided to wander up to nearby Zenkoji Temple, which is highly regarded. I was thinking, oh OK, another temple. But this was great.

Unfortunately it was getting dark by the time I got there and things were closing up, but what I loved was all the little shrines around it, including some ryokans that were part of the complex. Now that would be a place to stay.

Like the castle in Kanazawa, the snow added a different vibe to the place too that Kyoto didn’t have.

Lots of little statues around too making it quite gorgeous. The snow didn’t hurt either.

So with that it was a wander to eat and back to the ryokan. On the way I found some Nagano specialty… Apple. Now I have had apple Kit Kats before and wasn’t sold on them, but got some anyway. Chili Kit Kats are also plentiful here. As it turns out the ones I got from Tokyo are indeed Nagano specialties. Well you learn something new everyday.

First impressions of Nagano are interesting. It seems like a nice place actually… feels like you are near the snow. But it also is lacking people strangely. I thought the place might be busy with tourists and snow folk, but the streets were quite quiet, and even all the shops seemed to be closing up about 5 or 6pm. Maybe everyone moves on to stay on the actual mountains.

Anyway, for me I wanted a base to do day trips. All going to plan tomorrow’s post should be pretty awesome…

I packed a bit into yesterday, bouncing around from temples in Kyoto to pocky men in Osaka, so today was a bit more chilled. I still had some things I wanted to see, but now that I have spent a bit of time here over this trip and last there was really only a handful of things left on the list.

Most these things were a bit out of the way so how to get there? Bike! In Kyoto there are bikes riding around everywhere, so why not act like a local. So I grabbed a bike from the hostel and off I went.

A few things… firstly, it is so liberating to ride without a helmet. Not that I wouldn’t at home if given the opportunity (I don’t trust cars back home) but here it was awesome to just jump on the bike and ride. Secondly, most road rules seem out the window on the bike. I mean a red light is still a red light, but you can ride on the road, the footpath, the wrong way, whatever gets you from A to B. Soooo much fun!

So off I went. Now all these photos today are taken with my little crappy pocket Powershot (and testing out the timer function in a few snaps). I decided to just pop that in my pocket and take random snaps along the way rather than get the trusty SLR out of the bag all the time.

First off was a visit to the International Manga Museum. This houses a massive collection of manga as well as some exhibits of various associated things. This was OK, although there weren’t too many exhibits, and without being able to read them, the vast collection was a bit wasted on me. Happy to have gone, but not to great. Did get a super cool Mighty Atom (aka Astro Boy) mug though. Hope it doesn’t get broken in transit (touch wood).

Next was heading north to the Kyoto Imperial Palace gardens. You can’t get into the Imperial Palace, so it was a cruise around the grounds. Like some of the gardens I have been to in the past few days, they are suffering from being winter, but it was still fun to be on the bike.

Next stop was further north to Daitoku-ji and the surrounding grounds.

Another temple area like many others. Probably not much to separate this one from others but there were heaps more little shrines dotted around the grounds which I was checking out. Although at one point though I think I ended up in someone’s back yard with my bike. Whoops.

Came across part of a nice bamboo forest too, but couldn’t get in.

From there it was across to Kyoto Castle. In the end I didn’t go in… I think the reality was that I was happier just cruising out on the bike than checking out more things. Plus, I have seen a few other Japanese castles (including the king of all of them in Himeji) so was happy enough to pass.

By the time I got back to the hostel about 5 hours had passed. Oh man it was great fun to be out on the bike. Just cool having a rough idea of direction and then riding and seeing where I ended up.

My other plan for the day was to visit the Nishiki Market. This is an undercover market with stalls of varying types, but mainly food, including lots of fresh weird stuff.

Odd Vegies… check.

Benito… check

Crab… check.

Eyeballs… check.

While cruising through there (always on the hunt for Kit Kats too) I came across “Winter Pocky”. Not really sure what makes it a winter version, but it was certainly different. The chocolate on the outside was very different, tasted way more european in its flavour. Was good though (I have just polished off the last as I type this).

Since I was nearby I wandered through the streets of Gion, keeping an eye out for any Geisha rushing around. As it turns out, none to be spotted.

The area is also what I think is the “entertainment” district. Before you get any ideas it certainly doesn’t seem very seedy or anything but seems to be the place for shenanigans. Although I can’t work out if “Love Mermaid Girl’s Bar” is a bar full of girls or for girls. Sorry lads, didn’t go into find out.

From there it was some meandering through the small streets with their places to eat. I can’t tell if it is traditional or touristy, but these small streets are certainly cool.

So bypassing some temples on my way I arrived back at the hostel, fairly early for a change. So given I was a little weary from my riding and walking, I decided to nude up and join the old dudes in the nearby public bath house. Ah nuding up in public… still an odd experience. But way less odd here (is there even a legitimate and/or legal reason to nude up in public back home?!).

And that brings me to now, just chilling in the common room in the hostel. Tomorrow is really a free day. Given I had planned to go to Ise and abandoned that idea (some more advice from fellow travels here suggest it is cool but not really worth the effort from here), I am not sure what to do. I have checked the things off my list I had on there. Maybe I will head to Nara. It would be the first place I really visit that I have been to before. A little loathe to go back to places twice, but I have my rail pass and if it is a nice day again it will be magic to hang out with the deer in the parks. Oh, and visit Todai-Ji, my favourite temple (where I crawled through the nostril of buddha). I shall decide after brekky in the morning I think.

Now maybe you are thinking. No Kit Kats today? Well, I did come across one. Glen e-mailed me to say he found a specially branded Kit Kat in Mos Burger. not a burger flavoured one, but specially packaged. So walking past a Mos Burger, what did I buy?

Yep.

Talk about a day of contrasts. The old and the new.

Didn’t head to Ise today. I am still undecided if it is worth the journey from here in Kyoto. Seems it will be about 2.5 hours each way which is a fair bit to visit a shrine… especially given I am seeing heaps here and will be seeing Nikko (Japan’s primo shrine) before I go home. Hhhhmmm.

So instead I decided to head to the northern area of Kyoto to visit some more temples. These took a bit more effort to get to, but were apparently worth it, so backpack went on the back and off I went. Rather than bus of subway it there i decided to walk it. It was about 6km or so, but when you are wandering past temples and through gardens why wouldn’t you walk? Plus I was in no hurry.

So the first part of my wander was basically the same trek I did on my first visit, the Southern Hagashiyama area (see that earlier post if you want details!). I didn’t really stop at any of the places I had been before… just the odd photo, like the one at the top of the post.

So through that area I wandered, checking out the odd shop along the way. unfortunately the Godzilla mask was way too big (yes I did try it on) so it didn’t get bought.

Seems as though you meet all kinds of characters on your travels too.

So I arrived at my first destination, Nanzen-Ji. This was a pretty cool complex with some nice zen gardens which photos don’t do justice. I did take a moment to sit and zen out and let my mind wander.

From there it was further meandering north, along the Philosophers Path. This was a nice path that wound its way north. I think it would be amazing in season… this time of year it was a bit barren. I felt quite at home there, what with being a doctor of philosophy and all ha ha. Although I would be lying to say I felt any more enlightened whilst on the path 🙂

Conveniently the path ended at my main destination, Ginkaku-Ji, or the Silver Pavilion. Not really too sure why it is deemed the silver pavillion, as the pavilion itself was pretty stock standard. But the gardens and surrounds were gorgeous, with some amazing sculpting of sand in them.

That took me to a bit after lunch, so I decided to contrast my temples with some crazy city action… by heading to Osaka. A bus to the station and then half an hour on the train and I was there. Too easy huh?

Opinion on Osaka seems a bit split. Some people I know adore it, others are nonplussed. To me it just seemed like a big city really. The only thing I knew I wanted to do was wander to Dotombori, which they say is a bit of inspiration of the city in Blade Runner… neon, food stalls, etc.  Quite a contrast from World Heritage listed Kyoto temples.

On my way, I caught sight of this store and my heart skipped a beat…

OH. MY. GOD. A Kit Kat store! I was really nervous going in… was this going to be my mecca? In a word… no. I was stooged. I could see no reason why it should be branded with Kit Kat at all. They didn’t even have any special flavours, not even any of the ones I had found nearby. What a jib.

Anyway, by the time I got there after wandering through some shops and things the sun was starting to set (gets dark early here this time of year, like 5pm or so) and everything lit up. Quite cool. And the area had a crazy vibe. For someone by themselves it is a bit difficult to work out really what to do, but if you were with some people it would be good fun I imagine.

One of the main things I wanted to see was the big neon Glico Man sign. Glico I hear you ask? They make Pocky! If you don’t know what pocky is then tell me and you shall receive.

Anyway, it was great to see it. Seriously, I was quite excited to see the big neon man. Getting a photo in front was difficult but some teenage boys, who were also trying to get photos, helped me out.

By this time I was about done wandering in Osaka. I could easily go back and wander some more there, but I had seen enough for the day. So a bit of a walk back to Osaka Station, another 40 minutes on the train, and here I am back in Kyoto. Tomorrow may be Ise (probably not) or maybe filling some final gaps in Kyoto. Maybe even a trip back to Nara? I will decide in the morning. Exciting!

Oh, my Kit Kat day wasn’t a complete bust. I found these in Osaka Station on my way out. Kobe Pudding. Mmmm… tasty! Another very sweet one, not far removed from the hotcake kit kat actually. And how crazy is this box! Man I love this place.