The Daily Travelogue

• Day 1 in Japan: Made it to our Tokyo hotel!
• Day 2 in Japan: Akihabara
• Day 3 in Japan: The Imperial Gardens and Shinjuku
• Day 4 in Japan: Tsukiji Fish Market, Hama-rikyu Gardens, and Science Museum
• Day 5 in Japan: Ghibli Museum, Yoyogi Park, and Shibuya
• Day 6 in Japan: Meguro Parasitological Museum and Shinjuku
• Day 7 of Japan: To Kyoto and Kitano Tenmangu Shrine Flea Market
• Day 8 of Japan: Kurama Onsen and Arashiyama
• Day 9 of Japan: Kyoto: Castles, and Temples, and Shrines (and Malls), oh my!
• Day 10 of Japan: Koyasan and Okunoin
• Day 11 of Japan: Cemeteries, Temples, and back to Kyoto
• Day 12 of Japan: Kinkaku-ji Golden Pavillion, Manga Museum, and more Kyoto
• Day 13 of Japan: Return to Tokyo and Akihabara
• Day 14 of Japan: Tsukiji and Harajuku
• Day 15 of Japan: Edo-Tokyo Museum and Souvenir Shopping
• Day 16 of Japan: Returning to America

Direct Photo Gallery Link

• Japan Honeymoon Photos

Lessons from Japan, as twittered by Paradoxdruid during the trip:

• The Japanese are obsessed with bags. Everything, from pastries to magazines to cash gets a bag. Sometimes three.
• Public transit can be amazing- I would take a hour-long Tokyo daily commute gladly. Efficient, easy, and quick.
• The one thing the Japanese don’t have: trashcans. Expect one per 10 blocks, if you’re lucky.
• Japanese futons are perhaps the most comfortable beds ever- my whole life, I’ve apparently needed less padding.
• Tokyo is the source of all our beliefs about Japan. The rest of Japan is filled with almost distressing normal folk.
• That said, Tokyo is the most amazing (and cleanest) city ever. By far my favorite part of Japan.
• It must be mandatory to have >3 vending machines per block. This is how all Japanese, young and old, get beverages.

It was with some sadness that we left our little cozy hotel room in the New Izu hotel, which was like a second home to us by now and where we knew our way around so well… and even the people at the front desk knew us well! The first picture is where much of this travelogue was written. I’m quite grateful to have such a nice laptop for the trip! The second picture is the view outside our window (on the 5th floor — our first room was on the 2nd floor, but the exact same place on the floor). We were right above a Lawson’s that came to know us well. Andrew snapped a picture of a “Western-style” room as we went to check out — third picture.

For the last time, we got breakfast at Pronto, where I think we had breakfast most days in Tokyo (less than a block from our hotel) — 4th picture. We again got a toast-style thing with egg and cheese and meat pieces and probably cream cheese within that made it extra sweet. Teisha got a half-toast piece with a cute monster face on a piece of (maybe?) meat (top right corner). We also got a pizza-like thing and a milky bun — we couldn’t resist the cow on it. And Andrew got some tasty hot cocoa.

We then made our way to the Ueno station where we could grab a 1-hour train directly to the airport (it was great being near such a big subway/train station). We had to capture something we saw the first day of our trip — on the airport trains they automatically rotate all the chairs so they’re all facing the front!! Pictures 5 through 9 are trying to show this (it was hard to capture but Andrew did a great job!). Teisha got her last tasty milk tea and then we got on the train to the airport. We passed many rice fields as we went out of the city (after a long time!), and as we got to Narita, the town where the airport is, everything became much greener — there are some beautiful little forest hills around there. It was just amazing how where there wasn’t concrete things were so green.

Once at the airport and through security we went rummaging for food and Andrew discovered that half the airport is made up of shops and food courts. Seems quite typical. 10 hours later in L.A., we had two hours to catch our connection to Santa Barbara and just barely made it — after going through initial checking, we had to grab our checked luggage (which took forever — huge flight!) and go through customs. Somehow we were part of the minority that looked like we did not need to be checked by Customs and made it out (over half the plane was flagged!) … and ran around LAX to the right terminal, only to be redirected (our flight was Delta, but the plane was run by one of its subsidiaries — American Eagle — glad Delta figured this out). Running to our gate we found we had to catch a little bus to a little American Eagle area. While on the bus on the runway Andrew took a picture of a plane getting ready to take off nearby! (4th and 5th from last pictures) We made it to our gate with 10 minutes to spare before boarding.

The 18 minute flight from LAX to Santa Barbara was rather beautiful, though a bit overcast. We took pictures of what must have been somewhere on the 101 highway between Ventura and Santa Barbara.

Lastly is a picture of our treasure from Japan. We were actually sorting out everything to give to close friends and family. Most of it was won in claw machines by the amazing Teisha. The little green things are edamame beans, which are quite popular in Japan and have their own TV show (and yes, were all won by Teisha). We feel a bit silly for also getting chopsticks and folding fans, but that’s what people expect, right? There are also some purple and white cylinder things that Teisha had no idea what they were when she won them, but they turn out to be hollow cylinders of a cheeto-like substance.

And that concludes our travelogue of our honeymoon to Japan! Hope you all enjoyed it and feel free to comment!!

With our last day in Japan we figured we should learn a bit more history about the country we’d been in for the last two weeks, so we headed for the Edo-Tokyo Museum, the largest historical museum in Tokyo. Luckily pictures were mostly allowed (except of the actual artifacts), so we snapped away. Overall, the museum was very informative of the history of Tokyo (previously named Edo), with an emphasis on the 1600′s history, but it left us wanting to know more older history of Japan. There were very good English translations available in all the permanent exhibits, and an English audio guide was available (though it was virtually reading the English plaques off of the exhibits). All the pictures up to and including Andrew by the little car were in/around the museum. Some things of note:

* The museum starts mostly around 1590AD, when the Tokugawa clan moved into what was currently a little village. Before 1590AD, the museum has some ancient artifacts going back several thousand years from people inhabiting the area that is now Tokyo — seems like several different people inhabited this area at different times. Quite a lot of history, but they only had a few little pots and remnants to show this.

* They had some really neat models of different parts of the city in the 1600s. It really demonstrated how, even back then, the streets of the (poorer) areas were really crowded, whereas where the upper-class citizens (i.e. samurai) had a ton of space, with big yards/gardens, etc. 60-70% of the city was destroyed in a fire in 1657, after which is was largely remade to have the upper-class citizens have more reasonable amounts of land/housing.

* They had some antique paliquins on display. They’re basically little carriages without wheels that have a support on either end where two people could carry it (clearly for the wealthier citizens). Some were actual antiques whereas some were replicas that people could actually get into — Andrew thought they were actually quite roomy. The more ornately-covered ones were for women.

* Though we didn’t get a chance to see any Japanese Kabuki theatre while in Japan, we did see a good-sized exhibit on the history of kabuki at the museum. They also had a replica of a stage with performers as well as a miniature stage house.

* It’s really amazing that it was only around 1800 that Japan started Westernizing, and politically their world really changed in the mid 1800s with the forced opening of the harbor to the world. After this point there was a lot on “modern” Japan — Westernization and the World Wars.

* What was really rather interesting was a couple maps they had in the World War II area. They were maps of the U.S., some with lines from Japan to the U.S… but they were one of the very few exhibits without English translations. Very suspicious. We think they were most likely Japanese plans to fly over and attack the U.S.

When we came to the museum there was also a special exhibit featuring Osamu Tezuka, who is thought to be the first manga artist with his creation of Astro Boy and is thought of as Japan’s Walt Disney. It was the most crowded exhibit area (with few tourists). Unfortunately, we couldn’t take any pictures of this exhibit. Also, it was largely in all Japanese, so it was harder to translate, though there were many little movies of his work going on that didn’t require much language understanding. But overall it was very informative — admittedly I knew of Astro Boy, but didn’t know much about it and didn’t know of Osamu Tezuka. It was interesting to really see his work progress over the decades and become what is more recognizable as modern-day anime/manga style. Also, it seemed like Disney may have gotten some ideas from Tezuka — one of his most famous series/movies is “Kimba the White Lion” from the 1960s, which reminded us both a lot of a famous movie about a lion named Simba…

After hours at the museum, we decided to head to Harajuku to go to Kiddyland and buy some souvenirs we realized we had to get, such as a 3D model of an animal cell (and now it lives on Teisha’s desk at work). While in Harajuku we caught lunch at what turned out to be a Chinese restaurant (well, Japanese take on Chinese food) and were rather disappointed… but glad to try it. Andrew basically got rice with veggies and Teisha had a veggie stir fry… they were both OK. But the server was nice and took our picture without us even asking.

Side notes:

* The subways are awesome. Cheap and your next train is every 3 minutes!! And they go everywhere and it’s super easy to transfer to another line.

* Nearly all women wear heels and most wear a skirt/dress, as seen in the leg/foot shots on the subway. Also, something disturbing we noticed over time — a lot of people are bow-legged. We mostly saw it in the women, but it could have been because of skirts… We have some theories for this — excessive wearing of high, thin heels, or, maybe more likely, sitting traditionally folding one’s knees under the body. Not sure what it was, but it was fairly common… Common enough that of the little TV we watched there was an actual advertisement for knee braces to fix this problem..

* We’re missing our tasty snacks from Japan. Our favorites were: Milk tea (black tea with cream) — could be bought from just about any vending machine!, waffle ice cream (sometimes with chocolate) which was often in vending machines but more often in 7-11s, and Teisha really liked these snacks that were (maybe) rice made into a soft homogeneous texture coated in a sauce with honey and soy (I think) and put onto skewers (Andrew didn’t like them) — they were at most convenience stores. The milk was also quite good — very rich. (There’s a picture of this stuff in the third from last row of picts.)

After Harajuku we ventured back to our Ueno station area for our last night. We ate dinner at a little ramen shop we’d eaten dinner at about a week before — the fourth from last picture is of the store front. We both had sobe noodles with tempura (of shrimp and veggies mostly) in it, and Andrew had a side of oyakudon. Teisha happily discovered a whole area with multiple claw machine arcades just blocks from the hotel (on the last night!!) and had much fun there. As the big shops were closing, it was neat to see little street food vendors come out and basically make little restaurants on the side of the street.

And that concludes our last full day in Japan! All in all, it was quite an interesting and fun honeymoon.

With our two days left in Tokyo and having seen pretty much all we wanted to see, we decided we had to go to the Tsukiji fish market at least one more time. So, we got up early and caught the subway to the market — since it was about 8AM, we hit rush hour subway traffic, which is quite an amazing thing to see in itself. The first 8 pictures of today feature the rush-hour traffic, with the last picture showing Teisha captured. It’s quite the experience — not only are you shoved in far beyond “American” standards of capacity, having most of your body crammed up against a stranger, but the entire car is dead silent too. Nobody talks. Cell phone use on subways is prohibited — everybody text messages. When we whispered it felt like we were being too loud on this packed car. One of the most amazing sites we saw before was the exiting and merging of traffic from one of these packed subways — lots of people got off at one stop and walked up stairs to the exit, but as you walked up the space narrowed until you had to go single-file. Everyone merged beautifully, without a sound or a misplaced-step or any pushing or shoving — I feel like this couldn’t happen in the U.S.

The next 17 pictures are of the Tsukiji fish market. (We went here once before on day 4.) Andrew had the best ramen he’d ever had at a shop in the market (though no fish in his soup). Lots of imports from China, handicrafts and animals. Teisha enjoyed some unagi (eel) skewers, so fresh!

We then caught the subway to a popular shopping area we’d kind of failed to find before — Harajuku, which is near Yoyogi Park. The 12 pictures after the stained-glass window (an ad in the subway) are of this area. Teisha found a nice shirt top (that looks like a short dress really) in one of the shops. The streets were filled with high school-aged girls, and we felt a bit old and out of place. At one point when Andrew was alone for a few minutes while Teisha explored a shop, Andrew received many dirty looks from different girls! He was grateful to have Teisha return and save him. Side note: Poodles are probably the most popular dog we saw in Japan, either that or dachshunds.

The real reason we came to this shopping area was to find Kiddyland, a 7-some story high toy store. Apparently we’d done just about everything else that the Lonely Planet guide to Japan recommended for kids, so we figured we’d like this too! And we did. There were toys from electronic/science gadgets, Studio Ghibli anime movies, a whole floor devoted to Snoopy, and a whole floor devoted to anime-related stuff. The pictures start with the giant capybara stuffed animals (yes, those are capybaras — known as “kapibarasan”!) and end at Teisha holding a snail anatomy model. Teisha had to go back later and buy an animal cell model, full with removable organelles, which now lives on her desk in her lab.

After the shot of the “Condomania” store is one of the beginning of the main shopping street in Harajuku — we went back once more for a tasty crepe, and had to get this shot to capture the teen-packedness.

Since we were pretty close, we went over to Yoyogi park and people/dog-watched for a while. There were some guys really good with a basketball showing off, and a hip raver dancer came in with his boom box and tried to get some attention, but there just weren’t really many people there. Then it started to sprinkle and it really emptied out. As a side note, most benches (when they exist in Tokyo) have a middle bar to prevent (homeless) people from sleeping on them, though, as you can see in one picture, it’s not too much of a deterrent. On the way to the subway station, Teisha discovered another dog/cat store, where they were sold for no less than $2000 each…!

We took the subway back to Akihabara because… why not? We love Akihabara. Teisha found another claw machine arcade that had a game where you could win staghorn beetles — actual live ones! Unfortunately Andrew had to remind Teisha of Customs, and she didn’t try to win one.

For dinner, we headed to a big building that is several stories high and 90% restaurants in Akihabara. It was cute in that it had rows of manga on the walls (not that we could read any of it). It also had pictures of what must have been California beaches and they were playing out-of-date American rap music (quite the combo overall). Andrew again got a curry dish with a hamburger patty and Teisha had a shrimp pasta dish.

We wandered around Akihabara some more after dinner. Andrew had to take a picture of a closet of costumes that girls can try on and take pictures of themselves in. It’s very popular to have places where people just come in to have casual pictures of themselves taken… we don’t quite get it.

Lastly, Teisha bought a little plastic sushi toy — very realistic, right down to the detail on the fish and the sushi conveyor belt movement!

We took the shinkansen (“bullet train”) back to Tokyo (first 12 pictures are of this trip). With all baggage in tow, we climbed into the subway trains to try and find our new hotel, which was “Sumisho Hotel” — we wanted to stay at the New Izu again, but they had no Japanese-style rooms available when we booked. However, when we finally found the Sumisho Hotel (their website map was terrible), we were quite disappointed — the receptionist was very unfriendly and spoke very little English, our room was smaller than we expected for the price and rather poorly lit, and then we found the ultimate reason we left — there was no internet in the room. We went downstairs and talked to the receptionist to find that when they said on their website that “It is possible in all of the guest room[s]” to access the internet what they meant was that there was one single old laptop, with an odd-colored screen running an out-of-date version of Linux, chained by the front desk that we could use “free of charge.” When we tried it, Andrew had to fix it to let it even run an internet browser, and even then it crashed on every other webpage. We then explained to the receptionist that we had to cancel our 3-night reservation, which we luckily could do free of charge, because we were business people and needed internet access in our rooms. Anyway…

We climbed back on the subway, across town to the New Izu hotel, and found they luckily had a Japanese style room for three nights! (Their website said they only had Western-style rooms, which are generally cheaper, and we were willing to settle for that by this time.) We highly recommend the New Izu hotel (near Ueno station) to anyone staying in Tokyo — they’re a 5 minute walk from a major subway station, they have very friendly staff with good English, great little Japanese-style rooms with amazing bathrooms/showers, a nice common room (though we never really used it), quite affordable and reasonable for what you get, high-speed internet in every room, and just great overall — best place we stayed at in Japan. We didn’t take pictures of our new room because it was just like the first place we stayed at (though the pictures don’t quite do it justice).

It poured for an hour or so that afternoon, but quickly stopped. We grabbed a lunch while waiting it out. Again we went to Pronto — it’s a block from the New Izu and has very tasty, filling meals (even for us fat Americans!). We’d only gotten breakfast before, but lunch was also quite good — the Japanese understand Italian food well because of the noodles factor, I think.

We then hopped on the subway to Akihabara again, where Teisha captured some wild “Kapibarasan” stuffed animals (yes, right now capybaras are a big thing in Japan — they’ve got their own cartoon show!).

After a while of claw machines and other fun shopping at Akihabara, we went back to the area around Ueno station, our “home base,” to explore it some more. There are lots of shopping alleys that really come to life in this area at night. We got dinner at a little cheap bar sitting place that, while the food looked good, was pretty terrible — very greasy and fatty. It just goes to show you that you get what you pay for.

The following pictures (after dinner) are of the Ueno shopping area. Lots of cute little shops, and we even found several claw machine arcades. This time you could win your clothing detergent from a claw machine! Imagine the daily savings. And, as always, pachinko is everywhere. Also of note, the streets of Tokyo are always empty — people pretty much only take the subway, and the traffic is mainly made up of taxis, though there never really is any “traffic” that we saw. If only the U.S. could embrace public transportation more, instead of everyone wanting their own personal bubble everywhere…

We got up early today determined to beat the crows that frequent the Kinkaku-ji Golden Pavillion Temple, often just called the “Golden Pavillion.” The pictures of this temple and the temple grounds are the 21 pictures following the cute dog we saw in a office building. This temple is probably the biggest tourist spot we’ve hit on our tour of Japan. It was originally built in 1397AD as a retirement villa for a shogun, but has burnt down several times since then. The most recent burning was in 1955 due to an obsessed monk — it was re-built the same year. And yes, it actually is coated in real gold. Though it is quite beautiful on the outside, and surrounded by a beautiful pond with real living cranes, you cannot go inside the temple — the pictures we show here is what you see. The most prized shots are the temple’s golden reflection in the water. There’s a neat golden crane statue on the top. Feel free to use any of our pictures! As always, there were several tourist shops as we left the Temple grounds, and a little Shinto shrine (with no English explanation) tucked away.

We next headed to the International Manga Museum. It’s a rather new museum, having opened in late 2006, and is really more of a library than a museum, but it was still a lot of fun. The crowning glory of the museum is that it has a huge donated collection of manga (over 300,000 pieces), mostly from one privately-owned bookstore that closed a few years ago, and much of this manga is on shelves throughout the museum and visitors can search for their favorite or rare manga books and read them throughout the museum. The museum building used to be an elementary school, so there is a big AstroTurf front field and many benches and tables throughout. There were also many manga artists, some employees and some visitors sketching at the many tables. Pictures are prohibited inside the museum, but we didn’t know this so we snapped several — they start at the astroturf front yard picture and include the following 18 pictures. Other than the “Wall of Manga,” there are special exhibits in the museum. General overall comments:
* It’s a great resource and many manga-fans would be in heaven but, again, it’s difficult when you don’t know Japanese — very few English resources, and virtually no English manga.
* Cute kid’s section, and we wanted to check out those possibly easier to read Japanese books, but only kids and parents were allowed…
* Throughout the museum were seemingly-random sketches done by different manga artists, decorating the walls but not really as exhibits.
* This museum hosted a manga symposium recently and in one room they had on display several panels each with a drawing of a fan with sketches inside by the different visiting artists — next to it were the names of the artists who had drawn sketches on which fan, and the manga they’re famous for. It was neat that they were from all over the world, not just Japan.
* We went to a neat little theatrical show — it was a style called “Kamishibai” and it is basically a story told through panels, each with a picture of the story, that the narrator changes (putting it in a wooden frame) as you go through the story, adding theatrical sound effects and enthusiasm. This was probably our favorite part of the museum, as you didn’t really need to understand Japanese. Though we did feel a little silly being the only ones who weren’t parents with little kids… but we enjoyed it nonetheless.
* The museum had a neat interactive computer room where you could randomly generate manga characters (just appearances) or, for example, go through a pre-generated story, panel by panel.
* There was a special exhibit on a French manga artist — very different from Japanese manga, but apparently French manga is quite popular and flourishing.
* One of the largest gallery areas was currently taken up by employees sorting through boxes and boxes of donated manga! This is definitely a growing museum! They also had signs asking for donations, especially of older manga or foreign manga. So, if you’ve got it, they’d probably have a use for it!

After the museum, we went and got some curry for lunch — there are many curry restaurants that we saw in Japan, and all the dishes from the different curry restaurants look pretty similar — in the pictures one half of the plate is rice and the other half is a brown curry with some kind of meat. Teisha got curry with two shrimp cakes (right) and Andrew got curry with some kind of vegetables and meat (left). The curry place we went to was neat in that you could specialize your meal, adding on different toppings for different prices. Food side-note (on the picture after the food plates):
* Common items we found on tables at just about every restaurant: chopsticks, individually packed and disposable hand sanitizer wipes, a container with pickled vegetables of some kind, and toothpicks.
* Less common items: napkins — it was pretty rare that we’d see them there, though this place had them.
* Very rare: a buzzer on the table for service. This place was the only one we saw with these, but it really makes sense — you don’t pay tips in Japan, and the service usually only comes to you when you flag them down.

The next 12 pictures are of our new Kyoto room and area (the last two are of a common dining/hang out area). We stayed at the same place we did before going to Koyasan (called Ikoi-no-ie), but this time I think we got the best room in the place, even though we paid the same price as before… We were rather disappointed with how small our first place was (not to mention we were right by an alley with paper-thin walls — read the details here), but this new room had its own gravel entrance off of the main building, tucked in the back, and was probably about 30% bigger than the original room. Much better. (For people planning to stay at Ikoi-no-ie — the best rooms are at the main building, not their new expansion that’s two blocks away!)

We then headed for a shrine we’d seen before — the Fushimi Inari-Taisha shrine. I’m a bit embarrassed to admit this, but we didn’t go there for the shrine itself — we went there to buy two shrine gates (torii) so we could make our own shrines at home — we had seen lots for sale at the tourist shops following the street up to the actual shrine. There are examples of little such shrines in a picture. The following picture is of cooked quail, which, for reasons unknown to us, are known for being available at multiple places in this tourist shop area.

Once it was getting dark we headed again to the popular shopping arcade, Shin-kyogoku (we went there on Days 8 and 9), where we wasted time and money on manga and claw machines. So many claw machines. There’s also a particular chain of manga book stores called melonbooks — we can let you guess what kind of manga they sold! Teisha fell in love with a store selling little rabbit’s foot ferns covered with moss on ceramic dishes — too bad we couldn’t bring plants back. We also found out that this area has been a popular shopping area for about four centuries — sure makes the U.S. look young!

We ended up eating dinner at the arcade at a place called the “Star” restaurant — Andrew had a rice omlette (very common) with a beef patty while Teisha had a bowl with rice, cheese, and shrimp. We also enjoyed a tasty desert of pancake with strawberry and whipped cream.

Comments on other random pictures:

* After the Golden Pavillion pictures, we did indeed find a vending machine with men’s ties inside (along with batteries and disposable cameras).
* After the shots of our room, there’s a picture of a food front with all their delicious deserts on display. Waffles!
* After the big Fushimi Inari-Taisha gate pictures there’s a statue of a Tanuki, a raccoon dog. We saw many Tanuki statues — they’re from ancient Japanese folklore, but are also real animals… and apparently do have large testicles in real life. This caught our eyes because tanuki are the focus of an animation we’d seen, Pom Poko, where the animals could shape-shift and use their testicles for flying and making bridges.

The first picture is a better shot of the view outside our hotel room window. Very scenic, and I’m guessing that little stone figure is several centuries old.

We wandered out and found another Shinto shrine, the only one we could find marked on our map in the whole village – it was the Bentensha Shrine, a shrine to a local water dragon. Like the smaller one from the previous day, this one was also on a small island in a pond. Very beautiful.

In the same area (Danjo Garan) were several very old Japanese Buddhist temples. Teisha is standing in front of Daiedo Temple. The next picture is of the oldest intact Buddhist temple in Koyasan, Fudodo, from 1198AD (explanation follows the picture). It’s really amazing considering it’s wood – most the other temples we’ve seen have burned down and been rebuilt at least once. The following orange pagoda is the temple Konpon Daito (“The Great Stupa”), completed in 1937. It’s interesting to imagine the Fudodo being as brightly painted and colored as the more recent Konpon Daito – the Fudodo probably looked like this at one time. Hidden among the temples we found another Shinto shrine (in orange), dedicated to the Goddess Nyu and God Koya other divinities which were worshiped by the villagers who lived in Koyasan before Kobo Daishi arrived. After this, Andrew is seen standing in front of the Saito, another temple. We then stopped by the Reihokan Museum (we took a picture of the front) which we could not photograph inside, but we definitely recommend. There are lots of old relics (mostly paintings and statues) and it boasts to hold 8% of Japan’s national treasures (though not all are on display). All related to Japanese Buddhism, of course.

We then walked across town to the cemetery, determined to get an audio guide so we’d have a better idea of what some of the gravestones are. Along the way:
* It was interesting to see that along with soda, coffee, tea, and cigarettes, you can also buy alcohol (including sake!) in vending machines.
* Bad Engrish is everywhere – Andrew had to take a picture of the spare tire cover on the back of a Toyota. I’m still not sure I understand its cryptic message. We’ve seen a lot of stuff like this on t-shirts too.
* We were amused to see the head of Jack Skelington (from “Nightmare Before Christmas”) hanging by a cup in front of a big, ornate Buddhist temple alter (it was hard to capture it all and include Jack). “Nightmare Before Christmas” in general is quite popular in Japan – we’ve seen a lot of merchandise all over.
* And again, lots of tourist shops line the main streets of Koyasan – we felt kind of bad that they were so empty and we’re not real shoppers, but it’s not really tourist season.
* We found another tucked-away Shinto shrine, lead to by many gates up a steep climb. We went up (it was all completely empty) to find a well-maintained shrine and alter. Again, no idea what the name was or what it was a shrine to, but it was in a very beautiful location in the hills surrounded by forest – tons of moss (and a cute shiny green beetle!). We thought it interesting that maybe the same family has maintained this shrine for generations, though we don’t know if this is true at all…

At the cemetery again, we took many more pictures. It’s really the most amazing cemetery I’ve ever seen, and it really makes me wish I knew Japanese better so I had an idea of what was written on the tombstones, though many of the older ones are too worn to read. Some picture comments:
* Unfortunately, we couldn’t figure out what the red “aprons” mean, though they were pretty common – if any Japanese culture scholars know, feel free to comment!
* We went off the main path a little and saw older, less-maintained tombs. There’s a picture of a small group of stones, all moss-covered, that was most likely a family.
* There are a lot of workers that maintain the cemetery. Some stones have been tied up so they don’t fall down, and we saw workers tying a tree together that threatened to fall. Closer to the most sacred section we saw workers actually scraping off a tomb – they couldn’t possibly do this with all of them, and have clearly let most just become part of nature, so it makes us wonder why some are getting cleaned.
* In small crevices there are often little shrines or tombs.
* Again we took a picture of the memorial dedicated to miscarriages and people who have drowned. There’s another memorial like this one in the more sacred section (which we could not photograph).
* The last cemetery pictures are again of the newer areas, near the entrance. It is interesting to think that most of it may have looked like this, but the nature grows up around it when given centuries – it will probably eventually look like the older areas.

We got lunch at a little (non-tourist!) shop on a side-street as we wandered back to a bus stop. Again we got oyako-don (egg, chicken, and rice) and it was very filling. Though it is not listed on the menu, miso soup is frequently included in the meal (along with tea).

We couldn’t resist taking a picture of a bird nest on the side of the Central Information Office front door – it’s such a contrast to the U.S. At our apartment building in California there’s wire mesh all around the eaves to keep swallows from nesting. In Koyasan, they let them nest and just put a cardboard box underneath to catch some of the (tons!) of feces. Nature was here first after all.

We reversed our journey as we went back to Kyoto from Koyasan, though this time with less exciting, unplanned adventures – we actually paid attention when our train changed into another train that we didn’t want (they seem to do this often around Koyasan). So, lots of pictures of our journey back.

For dinner, we went back to the Kyoto arcade area and found a conveyer-belt sushi place recommended in multiple guidebooks. For the close readers, you may realize this is the first time we had sushi in Japan and yes, we are a little ashamed to admit this, but it really wasn’t as common as we thought it would be! There are 6 pictures of this place, ending with the little blue plate of squid sushi that Teisha bravely ate (Andrew would not!). It was good, but very chewy, as squid tends to be. The next picture is of whole eel that was sold at another place (about $17 US an eel).

And then 8 pictures of claw machines! Teisha was in heaven for a little while. There’s also evidence that it’s not just for kids – businessmen also frequent the claw machine arcades. You can win anything from food (frozen or baked), stuffed animals, action figures, to live puffer fish.

Other things of note:
* The picture of the alley near the end is the entrance of Katsukura, where we had great tonkatsu in Day 8 – as you can see, it really is quite tucked away (at the end of the alley).
* Most people reading a book in public have a nondescript book cover so you have no idea what the book is they’re reading (two pictures of this). When we bought a book they made a paper cover for us, though many people own their own personalized cloth covers. We think this is just another way for people to have some privacy in these busy, crowded cities, though it is a bit sad to us because you can’t randomly start a conversation with a stranger over how you like what they’re reading…
* One last picture of the arcade area at night – most the shops are in adjoining covered, closed-off streets (no traffic), but this is the main street where buses go by, and there are many more shops here. It really lights up at night, and is really the only place of action in Kyoto at this time.

Today we set out from Kyoto for Koyasan, a village in the nearby mountains that was founded by a Buddhist monk in the 800s AD and now has over 100 Buddhist temples.

The first picture is of the alley outside our hotel in Kyoto – we walked this alley many times, often dodging such bikes as the one shown here.

To get to Koyasan the guidebooks say it usually takes about 2.5 hours, but we had some exciting adventures so our journey took a bit longer. From Kyoto station, we took a approx. 30 minute train to Osaka and then caught another train around Osaka to another station in that city. From this station we caught a train that would take us directly to the base of the mountain where Koyasan is located, or so we thought. Unfortunately, our train from Osaka actually changed into another train after a long stop in a small train station and we weren’t aware of the situation until we noticed our train had changed directions… We got off at the next stop, which was an even smaller train station with no people or houses anywhere in sight (it was a little unnerving), but we luckily quickly caught another train forward a few stops to a bigger station, where we waited half an hour for the next train that would actually take us to the mountain. From the base of the mountain we caught a cable car up the hill to Koyasan, where we caught a bus into the actual town (the road into town is so narrow and curvy that only cars are allowed – no pedestrians!).

For all the excitement we had, it was a really beautiful trip. Some picture comments:
* Osaka: The first 6 pictures (after the alley picture) are of Osaka. It’s a very industrial city, and looked similar to Kyoto from the brief glimpses we got – Pachinko is still clearly present, and there are some beautiful wide, shallow rivers between the gray skyscrapers.
* The next 8 pictures are of the countryside from Osaka to Koyasan. Lots of little villages, some with very traditional-looking architecture, and lots of beautiful, green forest. Also, lots of rice paddies. Much more thick forest as we approached Koyasan.
* The next 10 pictures are of the cable cars, clearly. It was a very steep incline, but quite beautiful and well-maintained – there were actually several workers getting rid of encroaching weeds when we road up the car. And yes, very beautiful forest and rivers – very green!

Once we had made it to Koyasan, we were a bit worn out but still wanted to check out a few places before collapsing for the night. We booked our hotel when we arrived at the Central Information Center and made our walk to our hotel. The entire town of Koysan is very small – from one end to the other, at the widest spots, it could probably be walked easily in about an hour and a half. There’s only one grocery store, and it’s quite small, though there are K-12 schools. It’s really become a tourist town, though luckily we were there during the off-season so it was pretty quiet.

Walking around town, here are some picture highlights:
* We stopped by the Buddhist temple Daishi Kyokai – the pictures start at Teisha standing at its entrance and include the following 12 pictures. Unfortunately, we couldn’t really find anything out about this temple. It had some interesting Roman-style statues of a group of boys in front. Inside the temple was a beautiful, ornate alter, with a Buddha at the center, very much in the Japanese Buddhist style we saw at other temples. There were also many ornate lanterns hanging from the ceiling – Teisha fell in love with them.
* In the front of the Daishi Kyokai temple is a Shinto shrine, but (like many Shinto shrines in Koyasan) we could not even determine its name, let alone what it was a shrine to. The shrine was on a little island in a pond, with a little orange bridge to it (3 pictures after the temple). Very beautiful.
* There is beautiful moss and plant life everywhere in Koyasan – we took a picture of some unique-looking, red-veined ivy on a stone wall by the side of the road.
* The three pictures after the ivy (with the raked gravel) are of the front of the temple we stayed at – more on this later.
* The next picture is of a wooden, centuries-old belfry of one of the Buddhist temples, but we can’t remember which one..!

Having some time before our room was ready, we hopped on the little town bus across to the enormous graveyard, Okunoi. Kobe Daishi was the founder of Japanese Buddhism (he went to China for two years to study Buddhism, and brought ideas back to Japan), as well as the creator of the Japanese character system (kana) and the founder of Koyasan. It is believed that he went in to eternal meditation upon his passing in 835AD and a mausoleum was built for him. The cemetery basically leads up to the hill where his mausoleum is, a 2 km path, and there are now over 200,000 grave stones, from military leaders to the “common folk,” surrounded by cedar trees that are hundreds of years old. The area near the entrance is much more modern in appearance (see the white grave stones without trees between them), but as you keep going everything becomes moss-covered, sometimes lichen-covered, and beautiful trees everywhere. Some observations:
* We often saw Shinto gates at some grave stones, which seemed strange to us in a Buddhist graveyard, but for the Japanese the two religions are not really contradictory.
* There were often offerings on the grave stones, from fruit, beer/soda cans, to money.
* There is a picture near the end of these of a giant memorial made of many small human figurines, many with red “aprons.” This is a memorial to children lost in miscarriages and people who drowned.
* We heard there was a memorial from a pesticide company for all the insects they had to kill, but we didn’t see it.
* We couldn’t take pictures of the most sacred tombs around Kobe Daishi’s mausoleum, but they were very similar in style. In this area was a temple filled with lanterns, called the lantern temple Torodo, which has two lanterns that have been burning uninterrupted for a thousand years and many thousands of lanterns that have been donated over the years.

After the cemetery we headed to our lodgings. The 10 pictures after the cemetery are of our room. We stayed at the Henjousonin temple, one of many temples in town that has hotel rooms built in. While the temple area is probably much the same it has been for centuries, the hotel part (attached seamlessly) is quite modern and by far the best room we’ve had yet. There was a little entry way to our room, where there was a small adjoining room with the (amazing) toilet and a closet with our bedding. Like all places we’ve stayed at, there was free tea and hot water. We also had an amazing view from our room (it was hard to image) of a courtyard garden with a stream and koi.

Most, if not all, of the temples in Koyasan with lodging include dinner and breakfast with lodging, featuring their famous vegetarian Buddhist cuisine. We were told to shower off and come to dinner in our yukata (light cotton komono). They had really nice hot tubs, much like what we had in the Kuruma Onsen. Dinner was amazing – it was a sampling plate and we didn’t know what most of the food was, but we had fun trying the same thing together at the same time. It was probably the best dinner we’ve had in Japan. The fuzzy close-up is of a bark-thing covered with (maybe?) multi-colored puffed rice that was probably the neatest-looking part. The last picture is of the hallway in the temple area – very different from the attached hotel area (to be shown tomorrow).

As a side note, the monks were very nice and seemed quite happy. They ate in a different area and while we couldn’t see them, they were almost always laughing and joking. One older one teased Andrew repeatedly for how “cute” he looked in his yukata because it didn’t go all the way down his legs like it’s supposed to.

Thanks for reading our ramblings! More on Koyasan tomorrow!

After spending a bit of money on public transportation the previous day, and finding out that the Kyoto subway isn’t anywhere near as good as the Tokyo subway, today we decided it’d be good to look into the well-known Kyoto bus system. We made our way to the Kyoto Station to look into it (we had arrived here from Tokyo, but were too busy/tired to look at much). The first five pictures are of the top of the station — it’s supposed to be very futuristic-looking in design, and it kind of is, but it also is a bit of an eye-sore (which was one of the complaints when it was first created). There’s lots of scaffolding going up to a high ceiling (reminded me some of the Denver International Airport elaborate mountain-like ceiling design). Also, on one side of the station is a mountain of stairs and, luckily, escalators, but they really don’t go to much… there are some shops and restaurants, but nothing opens until 11AM (and we got there early, hungry for breakfast). So, kind of a strange design. But, we got a $5 all-day bus pass, which saved us lots of money, and found out that the Kyoto bus system is pretty awesome and you can get to just about anywhere at all in town using it. So, hoorray, less sore feet for us! After getting the passes, we set out for many exciting Kyoto destinations:

* The Nijo Castle. In short, this castle was created in 1603 for the Tokugawa Shogunate — all feudal lords in Western Japan were forced to contribute to its creation. Parts of it were destroyed by fire over the years and much of the existing structures were imported from other areas. Like the Imperial Gardens we saw in Tokyo, it is also surrounded by a big, stone-enforced moat, thick with koi. We couldn’t actually take pictures of inside the castle, as they were not permitted, but took several of the beautiful surrounding gardens and architecture. The first several pictures (after the Kyoto station) are of an entry gate and the beautiful animal designs on it. There’s a picture of Teisha standing outside of the castle. Some observations:

* Honestly, it’s still hard for us to call it a “castle” because we’re so used to the European sense of the word — this looked nothing like a European castle, of course, but it is a very fancy Japanese building (of course) with nature scenes painted on all the inside paper walls, to give you a watered-down idea of it.
* One really neat feature of the castle is the “nightingale floor” — basically, wherever you walk on the corridors (even barefoot) the floors squeak quite audibly. This is a real feature of the castle and is due to planned spaces and cramps between the floor boards — we took a picture of the explanation in our pamphlet. Quite a neat creation.
* The next 20-some pictures after the nightingale floor image (until the picture on the bus) are all of the Nijo Castle and its beautiful garden grounds. Some of the most beautiful ponds we’ve seen yet were here. There’s also a neat shot comparing old and new bamboo walls — hard to imagine it all looked that new once! And, of course, the koi are quite friendly.

After Nijo Castle we hopped on the bus again and went across town to Kiyomizudera Temple, a hill-side Buddhist temple known for it’s beautiful views of the city and surrounding forest and its 13 meter wooden support structure. Though the temple was originally made in 798AD, the current structures are from 1633 (I’m guessing they burned in a fire, as we’ve been finding many wooden structures in Kyoto have done over the years). The pictures of the temple area start at Andrew standing under a red temple building (the picture before this is of part of the long road of repetitive tourist shops that thickly line the steep road leading to the temple). Some pictures of note:

* The temple is indeed very showy and offers beautiful views of the cityscape and forest.
* There’s a picture of Teisha in front of a rack of prayers — followers write their prayers and they are hung on the board.
* There’re pictures of Andrew washing his hands with a cup in a dragon fountain — it’s a ritual cleansing practice.
* There are pictures of followers praying to an unseen Buddha statue. For a small fee, you can enter the main part of the temple, where sacred relics are kept, and light a candle offering. We went inside, but couldn’t take pictures. The most important relic is a very old, large Buddha statue that is in front of where the worshipers are praying.
* There is a picture of stone dolls with red hats and aprons on — this is a memorial to miscarried babies and people who have drowned. We later saw several similar kinds of memorials when we went to Koyasan (days 10 and 11).
* We had a tasty lunch at a restaurant on the temple grounds — it was surprisingly reasonable and quite filling. We both had the same (noodles with tofu) but Andrew had sobe and Teisha had udon.

Very much in the Japanese style, there are Shinto shrines inside the temple area grounds. The largest Shinto shrine there is the Jishu Shrine, dedicated to the God of love and “good matches,” and it was probably there at least as long as the temple has been there. The shrine pictures we took start at the one talking about writing your troubles on a paper doll and dissolving them in the water. The famous love stones are also at this shrine — if you can close your eyes and walk safely between two stones 18 meters apart (with stairs past either one!), they say you’ll find your love. Since we already found each other, we didn’t do it, though we did play with the idea, and had fun watching other people try it (with aids). The three pictures after the close-up of the Love game instructions are of the same Shinto shrine or nearby smaller Shinto shrines.

We then hopped on the bus again to another Buddhist temple, the Sanjusangen-do temple. While not as big and not as impressive externally as the Kiyomizudera temple, the Sanjusangen-do temple is famous for its thousand life-size statues of the Buddha Kannon. Though, again, we could not take pictures, there are some here. All statues were constructed between the 1100s and 1200s AD. Though the bodies are virtually the same, there are distinct differences between the faces of the thousand statues. They all stand on the left or right of a central Buddha Kannon statue, which is basically the same as the other statues but much, much bigger. Possibly more interesting are the 28 statues of guardian entities which stand in the front of the thousand life-size Kannon statues, with 14 to the left and right of the main large statue. This temple was really interesting because there were actually very good English descriptions/explanations for all of the 28 guardian entities, not to mention the complete awe-inspiring presence of the thousand+ statues and all the work that went in to creating them. It was also neat to see how the building foundation was created to avoid damage due to earthquakes — there are carefully laid-out alternating layers of dirt and wood logs under the building that work (somehow) to help reduce the impact of earthquakes, preserving the amazing collection of statues. (The pictures of these grounds are the one before the big orange gate, the orange gate, and the two pictures afterward — not too showy on the outside.)

Though we were feeling a bit worn-out sight-seeing wise, we hopped on the bus once again and headed for our last touristy stop for the day: the Fushimi Inari-Taisha Shrine. From the bus stop, the climb up the road is covered (again) with tourist shops.. and some frequented railroads. The Shinto shrine itself starts at the main red gate (there’s a picture of Teisha under it) — this is the standard Shinto gate, or “torii.” This shrine is dedicated to the Inari god, now the god of business but originally the goddess of rice, and the foxes depicted are messengers for Inari. The shrine was started in 711AD and has been added to ever since — businesses donate the torii. The amazing thing about this shrine is the number of torii — there are tens of thousands of these gates that lead up the hill to more sacred shrines. We didn’t make it that far (it was getting dark), but we did go through the first few groups of the gates and see a lot of interesting shrines.

Since it was getting dark and everything was closing, we headed for Shin-kyogoku shopping arcade again (we went there on Day 8). This time we took more pictures — the last 11 pictures for today are of that area. Of particular note:
* We had a great tonkatsu (fried pork trips) dinner at Katsukura, recommended by both Lonely Planet and a friend. While it was tucked away (a secret hidden path down a very narrow alley!), it indeed had great tonkatsu! (They also make you grind your own fresh sesame seeds for a fresh tonkatsu sauce.)
* We took a picture of the store front of the store with the figurines we talked about in Day 8 — if you’re interested, it’s called “Super Position.”
* Not pictured — again, lots of claw machine fun!

Random Kyoto observations:
* After the pictures of the Kiyomizudera Temple, there is a picture of a common sight at bus stops here — often there is an automatically, real-time updated sign that shows, visually, what buses are coming and how close they are at that moment. Quite neat.
* There are really a lot of little Shinto shrines all over Kyoto — they’re often just tucked on the side of a road, well-protected but not usually labeled. After the Inari Shrine pictures, and after a train picture, there is a picture of a road and across it is a little Shinto shrine — the next picture is a close-up showing it better. They really just blend in.

Stay tuned for tomorrow — to Koyasan, the mountain of Buddhist temples and the largest cemetery in Japan!

Because Teisha’s calf muscle was hurting her so much (just a strain though), we decided to take it easy today and head to a popular Onsen (hot springs) in the area. Well, as close in the area as possible — we took the subway to a train station and then caught the train station up into the surrounding mountains to where the Onsen is, in the tiny touristy town of Kurama, which appears to only exist because of the local hot springs. Some observations along the way:

* We’ve seen many stray cats in Japan (or at least presumably strays) that are very scared of people, and often have short or bobbed tails — I’m not sure if this is a genetic trait, or due to their lifestyle.

* Again we got tasty ramen for breakfast. Teisha’s ramen had some tempura shrimp and carrot pieces in it. Andrew got tonkatsu (deep-fried pork strips basically).

* There are many very wide but very shallow rivers that go through Kyoto. They all look pretty similar in their morphology, and often people hang out along their peaceful banks. We saw some very large dark-colored fish in the one we first pictured, which is surprising to us because it was so shallow. There are also almost always some cranes/herons in the water — I didn’t realize how common they actually are here, as I thought this was a stereotype from old paintings… but it’s real! We think the streams may be like this because of the extensive damming done in Japan, which has had huge effects on their ecosystems.

* The subways in Kyoto are really, really empty compared to Tokyo. They also aren’t as good a deal, in our opinions — they’re more expensive and you have to pay twice to make transfers, whereas you only pay once in Tokyo. Andrew managed to snap a picture of the conductor’s seat while he was checking the cars. He also got a picture of one of the subway ticket checking machines opened up while some people were working on it. On Day 9 we realized the best way to get around in Kyoto is by bus — more on that tomorrow!

* On the train ride up to Kurama, it was really beautiful (see images from Teisha sitting to the red big-nosed statue). We passed a lot of little towns, tons of rice patties (often in people’s backyards), some cemeteries, cute little train stops, and beautiful forest.

At Kurama — the pictures starting at the red statute and ending at the paintings were taken in the village of Kurama, either of the village, surrounding forest, or the hot springs itself. The town of Kurama is really tiny, featuring some tourist shops where you’re dropped off by the train. The red statue with the huge nose was at the Kurama train station — I looked it up later (no English information anywhere near it) and it is a statue of a Tengu, a group of mythological Japanese folklore creatures often depicted with bird-like features yet human form — commonly they have big noses, which may be like having a beak. A bus took us from the train station up the hill to the Onsen, at the top of Kurama. The Onsen itself is surrounded by really beautiful, moss-covered forest – a stream flows by near the entrance to the Onsen.

* At the Kurama Onsen: We treated ourselves and went for the all-day pass covering admission to both the outdoor hot springs tub and the indoor facilities (another tub, massage chairs, and a “relaxation room” with bed mats and blankets). Since we got there so early, there weren’t many people and I managed to sneak some pictures of the inside hot springs tub/spa area in the women’s area. (Unfortunately, the tubs are gender separated – we have yet to find a co-ed hot springs within easy city access in Japan – I think a lot of this is due to Western influence. At least the tubs were still nude.) Sorry the pictures are a bit fuzzy – it was quite steamy! Inside the tub area were several individual shower stations, each with a shower, shampoo, soap, and conditioner (there was also one big shower too). There were three different tubs, two hot (I couldn’t tell a difference…) and one cold. There was also a nice sauna attached. The bowls are for pouring water on your head/shoulders, etc. There was a beautiful view of the forest from inside the tub. Inside the changing lockers was a room with another standard trough-shaped toilet, even in a luxurious place like this! Also in the locker/changing area were individual washing/hair drying stations… and lockers. After the tub/locker pictures is a picture to the entrance of the lockers (the “yu” kana (on the red and blue signs) indicates hot water/spring – a standard sign for a spa entrance) with the massage chairs nearby. We also tried the outdoor tubs, which also had amazing views (better than the inside ones even), and the tubs were much hotter.

After a few hours of turning into jello and healing Teisha’s leg (which miraculously felt all better and has been great ever since), we headed back down to Kyoto. The pictures of the paintings and drink/ice cream machines are at the Kurama train station. Some cute school kids rode the train to town too.

Random observations:
* In Kyoto on a busy street corner was a woman with two Siamese kittens – we think she was charging money to pet them…
* There was a sign in the train station to not grope the school girls! Look for the three-paneled picture below (after the cats), clearly indicating it pictorially. This has been such a problem in Tokyo that women have their own car to ride during rush-hour.
* For lunch, Andrew had tasty sobe noodles with tempura and Teisha had oyako-don, the rice with egg and chicken dish. (We found out later that oyako-don literally means “parent child bowl,” the parent being the chicken and the egg being the child!)

After Kurama, we headed down to a “touristy” section in Kyoto, the Arashiyama/Sagano area. We got there about 3/4PM, had lunch, and then re-discovered that Kyoto closes down really early. Even in the tourist area, shops were closing left and right by 4:30PM, and hardly anything was open by 5:30PM (Teisha managed to by a cute hat in a very big, nearly-empty touristy shop at 5!). Arashiyama/Sagano is a really beautiful place nature-wise though – there is a very wide, shallow river with a long bridge crossing it, connecting the tourist shops on either side, surrounded by thick forest on the non-city side. It’s really on the outskirts of town. Boat rentals are also available (when the places aren’t closed!) The river is almost completely controlled by man though – not only are there dams close on either side of the bridge, but you can see concrete paneling all over under the shallow water. The picture of all the closed, metal-fronted stores is just to show all the closed shops in this tourist area when the sun wasn’t even setting yet (hard to see, but it’s above those hills by a bit still!). It was a bit disappointing, but probably would have been better earlier in the day.

After that, we tried to find out where everyone in Kyoto goes when the sun sets. We had read about a covered arcade, called the Shin-kyogoku shopping arcade, so we went there and found it quite bustling! There are multiple streets that are covered and cut off from traffic that go on for blocks with different shops, mostly clothing/souvenirs, though some claw machines, manga book stores, and other unique shops. At several claw machine arcades they had actual live fish, specifically dwarf puffers, that you could win in the machine! (See the third from last picture.) There was also one shop that sold all the little plastic figurines that you could normally only get, by chance, in little machines in front of different shops (these are all over the place – they’re the same as quarter machines in the U.S., but usually just have plastic figurines of higher quality and cost roughly $1 US). The figurines cost 3-5 times (or more) what you’d pay for in a machine, but since the machines are random it can be a good deal if there’s a specific figure you want. There are three pictures near the end of such figurines you could buy at this one little shop.

The last two pictures are of a little beetle we found in our room. I’m sure it was quite harmless – it just looked interesting (had a very long mouth).