Week 8: Kansai Vacation!

May 17th, 2026

This was a very eventful week, but you wouldn’t know that if you just looked at my Monday. The most eventful things that happened were that I took a nap, saw the neighbor cat on a different street than usual, and saw a couple walking two St. Bernards and two Golden Retrievers. Scratch that, that last one is one of the most eventful things that’s happened since I’ve gotten here.

On Tuesday, I had an average day of class until the evening, when Yoshio, Etsuko, Emily and I all went out for karaoke. It was really fun, but I definitely need to think about more songs to do next time because nearly all of the Japanese songs I know are instrumental, and most of the songs I listen to often aren’t on the karaoke machines (some of the highlights I did end up singing were Beautiful Girls by Sean Kingston and That’s What I Like by Bruno Mars).

I thought we would do the all you can drink option because it isn’t too expensive, but Yoshio told us to just go across the street to Lawson and buy drinks there because it’s cheaper. That technically isn’t allowed, so he also gave us his bag to hide them in. I’m sure the clerks had no idea what was going on when they saw us leave and come back with a bag. Not suspicious at all. I had a smirnoff ice which was one of the better alcoholic drinks I’ve had, and some sort of lemon vodka drink that I assumed would be lemonade but was actually lemon juice, so it was really sour and pretty gross. I ended up completely sober, though, to the disappointment of my friends. I’ll have to work on that.

After we came home (at different levels of sobriety), we booted up Yoshio’s switch to play the new Tomodachi Life. His island is becoming all of the housemates (current and previous), so Emily and I both added ourselves to the island. I created my Mii with the input of the others, and I think it’s pretty accurate except for the insanely massive forehead they gave me. I swear it doesn’t look like that in real life.

Wednesday was a rest day, and in the evening I packed up to go off to Kyoto! Unfortunately, I only slept a couple hours because I couldn’t get to sleep, but tiredness couldn't stop me on this day, because we had to get out bright and early to catch our 9am bullet train. I was able to take a short nap on the train before we got out and stored our bags in a coin locker at Kyoto station.

Before long we were off to Kiyomizudera, one of my favorite temples I visited last year. Before that, we got lunch at a small restaurant nearby where I got french toast and karaage. I also tried some of Etsuko’s black curry ramen, which I hadn’t seen before. It was pretty good!

We made it over to Kiyomizudera, and it was just as beautiful as I remembered. We saw some smaller temples and shrines nearby, and then instead of walking up the shopping street to get there, we walked up the other way, through a cemetery. It was really serene, and it’s interesting to see all the graves with family crests and beautiful calligraphy etched into the stone.

When you get to the top, you have a beautiful view of the mountains, the city in the distance, and the lone smaller temple on the other side. When you go over there, you have a great view of the bigger, main temple.

On the way down, we went down the shopping street, and I had to stop by Snoopy Chocolat (I didn’t forget an e, that’s how they spell it), a really cute snoopy store I went in last year. I got some mint chocolate chip snoopy ice cream, which was really good! It was blue, which I think was to differentiate itself from the matcha flavor.

After eating my ice cream, Etsuko and Emily wanted matcha lattes, so we went into a little quiet alley off the street following a sign for a drink shop. It was crazy how much quieter it was than the craziness of the shopping street with hundreds of people and store workers trying to beckon people. It was a nice reprieve before we continued down to the bottom.

Now that Kiyomizudera was done, we officially had no more plans for the day. We were kind of winging the whole trip other than having one plan for Thursday and one for Friday. So whenever we had downtime, I was looking for things to do. When we were drinking drinks and eating ice cream, I realized right near the restaurant we ate lunch at there was a temple that had a 400+ year old ginkgo tree, so I had to go and see it. It was really beautiful, and had an even thicker trunk than the one at Rowan. Its branches go upwards, so it’s called the upside-down ginkgo. The temple was nice too, but the tree is really what I liked.

Next, we made our way over to the Kyoto Aquarium. When you walk in, the first exhibit is Japanese giant salamanders, which are so interesting. They’re pretty huge and they were all just chilling in their tanks. I’d never seen or heard of them before, so I learned what they were and saw them for the first time in the same moment.

Other than some relatively normal aquarium fish tanks, the next exhibit was the seals. We got there at an amazing time, because one of the workers was doing a training session with one of the seals. He would do a hand gesture to show it which trick to do, and then when it does it he throws it a fish. It was one of the cutest things I’ve seen, and we stayed there for a pretty long time to watch. He must have gotten at least 50 fishes, and he deserved every single one and more.

After fawning over the seal, we went upstairs to the jellyfish, which had one of the coolest exhibits at an aquarium I’ve ever seen, where they had different tanks showing the lifecycle of a jellyfish. They had tanks of 2 month old jellyfish, 1 month, down to 1 week and even 1 day old jellyfish. I had never seen baby jellyfish before and they are so tiny, almost looking like amoeba under a microscope.

Back outside, there were some penguins being cute, and surprisingly it didn’t smell that bad. On the third floor, though, there was the “dolphin stadium”, where you could watch the dolphins. It wasn’t during a scheduled activity time, so I assumed we wouldn’t see anything interesting, but it was quite the opposite. There was one person cleaning the area when a dolphin came up to him and was begging for attention, so he stopped cleaning and gave its tailfin lots of pats, and the dolphin was loving it. After a while, he stopped and went back to cleaning, but the dolphin was having none of that. He turned around and made a big splash and then went back into the position for more pats. Reluctantly, the worker patted him some more before going back to cleaning again, but the dolphin was not ready to be done. This time, the worker did not comply, so after throwing a small hissy fit the dolphin gave up. With the dolphin and the seal combined, I think I hit my cuteness quota for the month. There was a great gift shop where I got a pin, small plush and magnet. These will all be included in the full trip haul towards the end.

The aquarium closed in the early evening, so we went back to Kyoto station to get our bags and check in to our hotel. It was only a 13 minute walk from the nearest station to the hotel, but with carrying a duffle bag and backpack it felt like forever. I had already walked nearly 20,000 steps that day and it was in the mid 80s and sunny, so it was definitely taking a toll on me. We finally made it to the hotel around 6pm, and I went to go get dinner after a short rest.

I saw a Mexican place on my way to FamilyMart, so I went in and was slightly surprised to see two Indian men working the store. I paid no mind to it until I saw the menu where it was half mexican food and half Indian food. I decided to just get a chicken avocado soup and some tortilla chips, which were good, but a very loose definition of tortilla chips. After I got back to the hotel, I looked up the reviews, and they were basically all just saying “great food, but it’s not really Mexican.” They definitely keep things interesting here! Finally, I could go to bed after dinner and end a 12+ hour day out.

After a surprisingly sound sleep on an uncomfortable bed, I went out early to a nearby post office to mail a bunch of postcards that I had put off sending before the trip. The clerk was nice, but they made me put the stamps on myself unlike the local post office who let me leave after I paid. Oh well, at least I got them out.

Right across the street from our hotel was a large castle, Nijo castle. It was really interesting to walk through, and has lots of history behind it. It was commissioned by Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate which was the military rule of the Edo period. He was given the role of shogun at the castle, and the last shogun relinquished his power to the emperor there over 200 years later, so the shogunate started and ended there. Very cool place, and cool to have a hotel so close to the history.

For lunch I wanted to show my friends the place I had dinner at, and I don’t know if someone complained the night before, or if I just looked especially white that day, but when we walked in the same waiter from the night before greeted us and said “this is Mexican Indian food,” and when I ordered the tortilla chips he showed me them and made sure I was okay with them. Gesture appreciated, I guess? I ended up having chicken curry and “chicken tacos” which were on an indian bread. Interesting, but good.

We took a chill afternoon at the hotel, and after some rest we went about an hour south to the Nintendo museum, the reason behind booking the trip. The tickets are not that simple to get, requiring a lottery 3 months in advance. I got the tickets months ago and was so excited to finally go. When you walk past security, there are some fun Mario photo ops with Mario music playing, and then you go into the museum. Unfortunately, you cannot take pictures inside, but it was a really great time. The main exhibition hall was a great display of the history of Nintendo, mostly focused on video games, but also plenty of things from their previous roles as a playing card and toy company. There were boxes and toys from all through the late 1800s and 1900s, and it was pretty surreal to see all of them. There were exhibits for every console, showing many games released for it as well as many obscure peripherals and products for each console, many of which I was unaware of. There were some other exhibits like prototype controllers/consoles which were really neat, as well as some history of specific game series. There was also an art gallery showing physical copies of concept art, hand-drawn sprite sheets, and hand-drawn planning for dungeons from the original Zelda. Absolutely amazing showcase!

Downstairs, there are the interactive exhibits, of which we only did one. It was only 2 players, so Etsuko stayed back (by choice) while Emily and I waited in line for about 45 minutes to play Mario 64 with a big N64 controller. The only picture I took of it has basically nothing to show the scale, so it just looks like a close up, but I promise it’s huge, at least 8 by 8 feet.

The game was a modified Mario 64 where your goal was to beat three challenges in a the elotted time limit. The challenges were to collect 50 coins on a modified Bob-omb Battlefield with added coins, defeat King Whomp starting on his platform, and defeat Bowser in the Dark World starting from the ending pipe. You had about 2 minutes and 20 seconds to complete it, and you get an extra 15 seconds when you finish a challenge, so 2:50 total. There were probably 10 or 12 pairs people in front of us, and most didn’t complete any challenges, some completed one or two, and one pair actually completed all of them with 0 seconds to spare. If you weren’t aware, I used to speedrun Mario 64 and it’s one of my most played games ever, so with me controlling the jumping and camera and vocally guiding Emily who was controlling the analog stick, it was a breeze. We finished all three challenges with 25 seconds to spare, putting the previous winners to shame. There’s no prize other than a victory screen, but that and the pride is enough for me.

After completely destroying all of the competition, we had dinner at the museum cafe, a burger place. I had a fried chicken and egg burger, which was decent. There was a cool Zelda stained glass piece in there, too.

The gift shop was a little lacking, in my opinion. I would have liked more actual Nintendo Museum merch instead of mostly consoles, and also more game merch. Honestly, I just wish they had a huge gift shop with everything I could ever want, so I understand that’s a difficult ask. Maybe it was alright.

We left the museum around sunset, and Emily wanted to see Fushimi Inari shrine (1,000 gates), but we accidentally got on the train going the opposite way (for the first time, it wasn’t actually my fault! It usually is). When something like this happens, I try to make the most of it and just do something where I end up. Unfortunately, we ended up in literally the middle of nowhere and there was absolutely nothing at all in the area. We just waited for the next train and ended up at the shrine after dark, which was really pleasant. It wasn’t hot out anymore, and was a really nice walk. It's in a wooded area, though, and after we got a bit of the way through the gates Emily had us leave because she didn’t want to go further to avoid spiders. It’s good that we went as far as we did, though, because we got to see some tiny wild boars roaming around up there. We finally made it home past 10pm after another 12+ hour day.

The next morning, we were off to Osaka. We were at the station to leave, but the station said you weren’t allowed to get on the limited express (fastest) trains from this station, so we got on a sub-express on the other track. It wasn’t departing for a little bit, and before it departed a limited express showed up and people were getting on it, so we just hopped on and nothing bad happened. Not sure why it said we weren’t supposed to get on it.

First thing we did was stop by Osaka castle, which was pretty as always. Last year I went through the inside because it's a museum, but all of us had been inside before and were okay with just seeing the outside. That didn’t stop us from going to the gift shop, though.

We got lunch at an Okonomiyaki place, a savory pancake dish that is one of the many dishes Osaka (and the Kansai area in general) is known for. I didn’t get one and just got some chicken, but I did try some of Etsuko’s, and it was interesting.

After lunch, we decided to split up until the evening, because we all had things we wanted to do. I went to a Pokémon Center in a mall, where I didn’t buy anything but enjoyed looking around. I looked around the rest of the floor, which had some cool shops. There was a really interesting artist co-op shop, with items from many artists throughout Japan. I even recognized one artist's pieces as I have followed them online for a long time. I ended up buying some post cards and pins.

There were also both a Pokémon cafe and Kirby cafe, both requiring prior reservations. I would have reserved one of them if I knew about them ahead of time, but that will have to be a later activity for another Osaka trip (otherwise known as August, when my family comes). There was a Kirby cafe gift shop, which didn’t require a reservation, so of course I bought two pins and a CD there.

I wanted to get fluffy pancakes because I saw a yummy looking cafe that sold them, and I had a small lunch before. Unfortunately, I was ninth in line, and it didn’t move in 15 minutes, so I decided to leave and go to a zoo not too far away. Unfortunately, even though it wasn’t closed, it was past the last entrance time so I could not get in. So, I decided to get dinner, and when I got to the place I wanted to go to, unfortunately I found out it was closed. It was a rough afternoon.

Luckily, it was all made up for by the restaurant I did end up going to, which was a tiny udon place run by an elderly couple. I got a really good oyakodon bowl, which was only 450 yen (less than 3 dollars). I felt bad paying for a dinner with coins, it was way too cheap. But tipping isn’t really a thing there, so I paid and thanked them greatly. They were very sweet.

I chilled out after dinner at a nearby park with a pond, and got to see lots of dogs. There were two Shibas I met and their owners were very nice, and the rest of the dogs I just stared at from afar.

After dark, I met up with Etsuko and Emily again and we went to the teamLab Botanical Gardens, which is a cool light show and garden fusion park. It’s only open from 7:30pm-9:30pm, and was pretty cool. They said there were things that changed based on interaction/what you did, but I didn’t see any of that. Still, I enjoyed the pretty lights.

After a nearly 2 hour train ride, we made it back to the hotel at 11pm, concluding three very long days in a row. I averaged above 20,000 steps for the three days. It’s been a while since my legs hurt that much and I had been that exhausted, but it was definitely worth it for a great time.

For our last morning of the trip, we checked out of our hotel, stored our luggage at Kyoto station and made our way to Nara, the first official capital of Japan. Nowadays, it’s known for Nara park, filled with tame deer that bow for rice crackers.

Though, what I soon realized is that these creatures are not “tame”. They are vicious creatures that will do anything for a cracker. When they do not have a cracker, they will harass you until you give them a cracker. While I was trying to get away from a crowd of them, they started chasing me and biting my butt like crazy. In 5 seconds, I was bitten on my butt more times than in the rest of my life combined (not including bugs). I gave the rest of my crackers to the deer and pet some while recovering from my assault (slight exaggeration—they were so cute so it was okay). We hung out at the park a little longer until it was time to get on the bullet train back to Tokyo.

We made it in time to the station, got our luggage, and got an ekiben, or train bento box. I assumed it would be the fancy kind where you pull a string and a chemical reaction causes the box to heat up your food, but mine was just a boring old regular one so I had to eat it cold. It was mediocre, but was saved by the mini oreos I bought and ate after.

After a bus ride from Tokyo station, we finally made it back to the house after a long, fun, exhausting trip. It’s interesting to see how many things are different in the Kansai region. Bus entrances and exits are flipped compared to Tokyo, the escalator manners are different, and many other small differences that add up to give a complete different feel. Most people say the people of Kansai are nicer than Tokyo, which I’m not sure I can completely agree or disagree on, as I didn’t have many long interactions. I did get spoken to in English way more than Tokyo, but I think that was mostly because I was doing touristy things, considering I was a tourist for the weekend. I did have the one interaction with the people with the Shibas, and they were very nice. Overall, my Kansai vacation was lovely. Below is my total haul from the trip, consisting of things from multiple temples, the aquarium, the Nintendo museum, Osaka castle, the artist co-op, and Kirby cafe shop in the mall. Pretty solid!

Next week, I’ll be going on another long weekend trip to Sapporo, so hopefully I can rest up and get back my energy for that.

Until then. Have a lovely day.
-Dan