4/12
After the delicious sushi breakfast, we head out to Ise to look at the outer temple. It is the start of many many temples that we'll see in Japan. Like all temples, it was incredibly serene and saved us from the rain. We then headed to the onsei or hot springs resort. We were supposed to have private soakings so that I wouldn't have to be naked in front of other people. However, due to the extreme weather conditions, the private baths were closed, and we were only left with the public baths. I decided to hold off until the morning and concentrate on the large meal that was to come... and boy was it large! Key highlights... we had octopus sashimi, lobster sashimi, lobster tempura, fatty pork hot pot, salad and delicious almond custard dessert. The food was overwhelming large.. I finished everything except for the rice.
4/13
We awoke to find that the weather had cleared considerably, but apparently the storm had damaged the boiler and thus the private baths were still not open. Disgruntled, I told Hiro that I wouldn't leave without a soaking and thus would brave the public baths. Luckily, when I went in, there was no one there... I then used their charcoal shampoo, conditioner and body wash and then finished nourishing my skin with some collagen toner.. I don't know half the stuff I put on, but it did make my skin feel incredibly soft... as I blog, I regret not buying some collagen toner... alas, maybe next time! We then headed back to Ise to look at the inner temple. It's thousands of years old though depending on who you ask apparently the variance of age could be up to 600 years different... The temple again was serene though much more busy as there were many tour groups. We wandered around their old town and ordered little bits of street food as lunch. We tried fish cake, delicious shell fish, Matsusaka beef, mochi, tofu donut, fried pork and more. Our favorite was the fried pork. The beef was sadly overcooked.
After lunch, we headed over to Kyoto where we finally just came back from dinner. The selection of dinner was overwhelming... the entire Kyoto station had tiny little stands of restaurant, each with different types of delicious looking and smelling food. We must have walked around for 90 minutes before we decided... I told Hiro that the only way that we would starve in the station is because of our indecision and that if I fainted before we decided that he should not send for help but for food. Finally, we decided on a noodle place. I had a delicious soba noodle with fish and Hiro had duck soba noodle. It's Hiro's birthday today so we also got him some cake. Sadly, we only had stomach for one piece of cake so the other piece will be tomorrow's breakfast. Breakfast of champions!
Happy Birthday Hiro!
And now for the pictures!
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