Today’s plan was to meet with an online friend and fellow photographer / blogger / Nikon addict Jeffrey Friedl, who lives in Kyoto.  Jeffrey is an accomplished author (he wrote a successful book about programming regular expressions) as well as a prolific blogger and photographer.  He graciously offered to pick us up at our hotel at 10 and take us up into the mountains for the morning.

Before that, however, I was up early again.  I am finding it extremely easy to get up and get going here in Japan.  The girls still asleep, I decided to take another morning walk and see what sights were around Kyoto Station today.  It looked like it had rained.  I saw some interesting characters loitering about as well.

Morning Walk

I headed back to the hotel to have some breakfast and see if I could wake the girls.  We had purchased some inari sushi during yesterday’s shopping trip (safely stored in the mini fridge) so we decided to have that for a morning snack.  Inari sushi is delicious… fried tofu, sushi rice and a sweet sesame sauce.  We love it.  We bought it at one of the basement grocery stores in a department store nearby.

Pieces of Inari Sushi

After this snack and a quick trip back to Cafe Du Monde for more delicious egg sandwhiches, it was time to meet up with Jeffrey.  He was already waiting for us when we headed to the pick-up area under the hotel.  I’d never met Jeffrey in person and that is always a little unusual but instantly he made us all feel welcome.  We took a drive up into the mountains north of Kyoto, talking along the way about some of his experiences in Japan and his adorable boy Anthony (who’s antics are often featured on Jeffrey’s blog)  I mentioned we were staying at a ryokan (traditional japanese inn) and hot spring nearby.  Jeffrey suggested we stop by and check up on the place.  This turned out to be a good idea as we got a sense of where we would be headed next and we were able to make sure the reservation was intact.

After that, we drove further into a small mountain town and stopped for iced coffee at a cafe in the middle of absolutely nowhere called “Cowbell.”

Cowbell

Cowbell was quite unique.  Inside were tables and chairs made out of logs.  Skiing photos were everywhere on the walls.  Upon leaving, Jeffrey asked the owner what all the skiing decor was about and she replied that her daughter was a professional skier.

We walked around this small mountain town and talked photography a bit.  Jeffrey let me try his 24-70 nikkor lens which turned out to be, as expected, a sharp and heavy lens.  It felt like my 70-200 lens- built like a tank.  I want one!

Discovery of… Something

We noticed this archway and the beautiful scene behind it.  Jeffrey mentioned that these almost always lead somewhere.  There were some people working in the fields, including an old woman who declined our offer to take her picture (he asked her kindly in Japanese).  Jeffrey is very gracious with people, I have noticed.  This particular woman was just embarrassed for us to be making a fuss over her, I suppose.  She was someone who looked like she had worked- hard- for most of her life.  Jeffrey asked to make sure it was all right if we pressed on into the shrine beyond.  It was just fine.  Because of all of the bugs and such (this is the mountains, after all) the girls decided to stay back at the road until we returned.  The trip turned out to be worth it.

Approaching the Shrine Entrance

What we found seemed to be a Shinto shrine of some sort, probably just for local folk.  It looked absolutely ancient.  It also seemed that it hadn’t been visited by many others.  This was not tourist sight-seeing but something truly unique.  I tried to take it in and just appreciate where I was at that moment.

There and Back Again

We headed back down the slope after this visit and re-united with the girls.  After a few more photos we were back on our way to Kyoto.  Thanks very much to Jeffrey for taking us on this adventure- something I am most fondly going to remember.

Jeffrey Friedl (Left)  Jon Van Dalen (Right)

We thought we would do some shopping / exploring downtown for the rest of the day, so Jeffrey dropped us off near Shijo- Kyoto’s shopping area.  Here there are many covered and uncovered streets with tons of shops and restaurants.  We explored for quite some time.  This was our first taste of Japan’s more wild youth culture (much more was to come in Tokyo)  There are many unusual shops and odd translations /names / ads to be seen.

Walking Around Shijo

One thing we discovered is that Japan- especially the “youth” culture- loves crepes.  And there are probably no better crepes to be found anywhere.  We ended up eating these twice on this trip.  I wish we had eaten more.  These (found in Kyoto) were good.  The ones in Harajuku (later on) were better.  Anyway, you can get almost anything you want on them, from fruit and ice cream to really odd flavors and toppings I can’t even recall at the moment.  They roll your crepe up like an ice cream cone and you eat it that way in a little paper.  It’s awesome.

Crepes in Shijo

We enjoyed walking around the river near Shijo after that, and also Pontocho.

Walking All Around Shijo and Pontocho

This was so much exploring for one day that we decided dinner would not be ambitious.  We went back to Tonkatsu Wako since it was so good last night.  We didn’t regret it.  They make a really good tonkatsu there.

Design T-shirts Graniph

Back in the room we tried on some designer shirts we bought in Shijo in a store called Design T-shirts Graniph.  They seem to be popular.  I saw many Japanese wearing shirts by this company on the rest of the trip.  (Now that I am home, the shirt has been washed and I think it’s probably too tight to wear… damn)

Tomorrow we will make the journey back into the mountains and check in to the ryokan / hot springs where we have reserved a traditional Japanese style room for two nights.

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