Fushimi: The secret sake city

Having heard that Fushimi was home to numerous sake breweries, we made our way down for a festive Saturday afternoon. We spent an hour or so trying to find information online, and with no more than a link to the Sake museum, and Kizakura (a sake and beer brewery) we set off for Fushimi.

A quick subway/train ride south on the Keihan line and you will find yourself in Fushimi. If you speak Japanese, you may be able to make some sense of the maps around town. Unfortunately for us, we don't speak quite enough to make much of the maps. Instead we wandered around Fushimi for a bit, becoming more and more disappointed.

Continuing to search the internet on our phones we found that there was a brewery on the edge of town, whose name we are no longer able to find online (Sorry!). Regardless, we walked the 15 minutes from one edge of town to the other, only to find the now-forgettable brewery closed to the public.

On the up side, we did find a funky little shop that served sake from a small spigot in the wall. Yes, that's right fellow drinkers -a booze-serving spigot, in the wall of a small, rice-dealing shack.

In addition to a small bottle of sake, we picked up a 200 yen (~$2.00) cup of Umeshu to go. 

Small sake samples, and pricing in the background. 

Filling our sake bottle from a spigot in the wall. All the complaints about Fushimi disappeared -This was totally bad ass! 

Adding a finish touch of gold foiling. Keeping it classy in Fushimi.

Small snack and tasting bar at Kizakura brewery. They also apparently have a stellar restaurant, but we cannot verify this as we didn't try it on this trip. 

A couple weird/interesting items from one of the brewery's mini-museums...

The peeing (or whatever) river creatures seems really popular, as we saw similar statues all over town.

What happens when you park your bike in the wrong place

Although Kyoto used to be a city-wide bicycle free for all, in the past couple years they have begun cracking down on where you ride and park your bike. The city has signs all over noting if you can park or not. Mainly in Japanese, the signs tell you dates on which bicycles were be picked up and impounded. So if you go outside and your bike is gone, you will know it was taken by the city.

We have also recently seen people checking the registration on bicycles, so they may do the equivalent of a "chalk mark on your tire." We think, as long as you are careful, you can temporarily park wherever you want. Do heed the signs though; if you cannot read Japanese or have a rental bike, follow the rules and park elsewhere. It is a bit of a pain in the butt to get your bike back if it is impounded.

Having been here for a couple months now, and owning our own bikes, we agreed to risk it and park our bikes even in the "don't park" areas. As we have been doing work at Starbucks, thanks to the killer internet available (yes they do have "free" internet at Starbucks), we have been doing a lot of parking along major streets that are all no-park.

The other day we spent a solid 8 hours in Starbucks, and upon going to leave, found our bikes no where to be found. We high fived, thinking our overly heavy bikes had been stolen (giving us reason to buy better, light weight bikes), and then as we looked around, the joy on our faces slipped away. We realized there were suddenly no bikes parked anywhere. The city had impounded our bikes.

The signs have little maps telling you where to go get your bike, but there are multiple impound lots, so you will need to be able to read Japanese or have a good sense of the city.

Here are some shots of the impound lot. They do an impressive job of organizing the bikes by date and pickup location.

Tokyo -a trip in photos

Tsukiji Temple

You know you are at Tsukiji when you see a giant fish head eating its own tail

 Pieces number 2 and 6 weren't exactly what we thought we were getting...Turns out the land-dwelling mammal, the horse is also a common Tsukiji fish market sushi option and is considered a type of sea-dwelling fish....

Asakasa Temple

Kids playing in the park during a massive dance festival

 Festival dancers

View of southern Tokyo from our hotel

Tokyo subway map

Hiking West of Arashiyama

On a recent trip west of Arashiyama, we ended up on an unintentional day hike. From what we read online, if you got off the train west of Arashiyama, you could walk back along the river on a nice, quiet walk. What the websites don't tell you, is that this "nice walk" is actually a 5-6 mile hike. Thankfully the trail is also a road, so it's well paved and does not require any extra gear.

To get to to the "trail head" take the Tozai line train west, past Arashiyama out to the hozukyo train station. Leave the train and take the stairs underneath the tracks, exit the "train station" (I won't ruin for you why that's in quotes). Walk through the parking lot to the road, and you will have hit the trail. To follow the path we took, turn right and start walking. Stay on the main road and you will not get lost.

If you are looking for a great lunch spot to picnic, turn left instead of right, walk about 40 feet and you will see a little paved path leading down. One of the rafting groups uses this as their place to exit the river, so it usually has a couple people hanging out and swimming in the river.

Towards the end of the hike, you will end up in the outskirts of Arashiyama. The small town has an antique shop with lots of cool little items, a sakery with great sake, and lots of cool traditional style houses/roofs.

here are a few photos of the hike:

Towards the end of the hike, you will come across a small town. There are several popular temples around the town, as well as some cool art and historical things to see.

Kiomizu-dera: A view from the stage

On a whim, a few weekends back, Kev and I went to Kiomizu-dera. This large and well-known temple is usually packed with tour groups, and the day we went was no exception. We unfortunately went on a rainy day, and had to dodge in and out of the little shops lining the street that leads to Kiomizu-dera. This meant that by the time we actually got to Kiomizu-dera it was almost closing time, but we decided to give it a shot anyway.

Although we have not seen any other temples built in the same fashion as Kiomizu, the "stage" style was apparently really popular during the Edo period. The benefit to the "stage" style is that there is ample room for the many pilgrims (and now mainly tourists) who visit.

Crowds making their way through the rain to the temple

Bells outside of the main hall's entrance

Prayers and wishes 

Buckets full of the day's rain.