Ayasofia and Other Mosques

 Throngs of tourists surround the mosque, wait in line to get tickets, wait in line to enter. We got “Byzantined” by the ticket seller who sold us an addin without explaining. Taunya called it a stupid task.

As non Muslims, we can only enter the balcony from which you can see the main floor. The ancient, gold-encased mosaics are stunning and cover hugs areas. Apparently the Muslims painted over some original Christian motifs because they depicted naked angels.

Ayasofia, side view.

Entering the mosque 

Full mosque view

Detail of angel in upper corner

Original mosaic  

Viking grafitti on the railing of balcony.

The cistern, also called The Basilica, is a big attraction. Built by Justinian, it has been featured in movies like From Russia with Love. It was designed for underground water storage.

Medusa sitting upside down in the water.

A nice view with yellow lighting.

A rare view without people. 

The cistern is a HUGE attraction judging by the long lines and high prices. Yes, it’s cool, but never again!

Cappadocia

 

Cave hotel in Goreme

World heritage site bedroom.

It was another slog to get here: planes, busses, autos, but what a pleasant surprise to live in our hobbit home. 

Two bedrooms carved into a world heritage site. Below is a photo of the rock from which our home is carved.

Unfortunately I was sick so spent much of day one in our cozy cave, but on day two we got up early to visit an underground cave:

A cross-section rendering of Kaymakli.

No one is certain how old these caves are…At one point the early Christians his in Cappadocia’s caves but also other peoples used them for protection.

A stone door closing off one of the caves.

Taunya posing in an underground passage.

These caves were primarily used for grain storage, which explains why there were many mills for grinding grain. Wine was also produced and stored here.

Although we arrived at 8:30, there were multiple tour groups from various countries in the caves making me feel very claustrophobic. Fortunately the groups move fast (many more sites to see!)

 Overall, love this place. Although a tourist place, no giant busses trying to run us over and no touts pushing rug stores or restaurants. 

This cave had multiple rooms..,

Millstone.

We also went to an “outdoor park” containing multiple churches carved between the 9th and 11th centuries.

Outside of Nevir Church dating 11th century

Arrive Istanbul

 Traveling is treacherous and exhausting, but worth it. My flight on Turkish air departed Newark at 12:30 AM. I am usually in bed by nine! For safety sake, I drove up at 5 PM and by 8:30 was through security and at the gate. Honestly, it wasn’t bad hanging around the airport for three hours. I can’t handle the stress anymore so the old lady early arrival works just fine for me. Thank you very much.

Turkish Airlnes had totally different boarding procedures than any airline I had traveled thus far, which was amusing and efficient. There were a ton of ground crew, which is really lovely. I ended up sitting next to a sweet couple, American born Pakistani descent. I must say speaking with your fellow companions, makes the trip a lot more pleasant. Any more, because seats are so close together on airplanes I tend not to interact with my seat mates, so this was a really pleasant surprise..

By the way, the food on Turkish Airlines was great. And steerage class you still got metal cutlery and everything was very tasty.

Getting through immigration was a breeze, finding my ride, not so easy and it took a really long time to drive into town. Staying in the middle of everything, a block from Haya Sofia. Our guest house has a rooftop with a sweet view.

Got out for a bit looking for Turkish money. Everything here is quoted in Euro but need lira for small purchases. Lots of tourists! Hotel Esans is right next to Haya Sofia. Up  the hill beyond Haya Sofia are lots and lots of friendly men who would love you to check out their carpet shop. I felt so popular!!!!

Passed an Isiah-type mural depicting Turkish themes, checked out two hammams (one advertising famous clients) and petted a few cats.

Ayasofya

Finally got some cash, $150.

Trout Fishing

 We were looking at the river in Hakone and Kai mentioned he would like to fish. So Naohiro did some research and there was fishing nearby. We drove through the hills around Hakone (with ocean views, too) and found the place. For 200 yen each, we could fish in the pond. We were given bamboo fishing poles and off we went through the woods to a little pond stocked with little trout o and one giant carp. There were so many, we each caught one. VERY EXCITING!

We brought the fish to the proprietor and for extra money (500 yen per fish?) they cleaned and cooked them!

Tofuku-ji and Fushimi-Inari Shrine

 Another early morning to get to the shrine before it gets too crowded with tourists. There’s the walk up the hill to the entrance of the shrine. The little street is crowded, mostly with Westerners, anxious to experience the shrine. We get to the shrine and start walking, up up. I had thought that there were just a small series of the red gates but I was wrong, there were gates going all the way to the top of the mountain and back. In between the gates were rest stops…some had cafés, others were shrines. In spite of the crowds, sometimes we were alone in a series of gates and sometimes we were in a crowd.

Entrance

Kozue in front of gate series

Map. So let me tell you, I was huffing and puffing the whole way. I think I had a cold, or allergies, not sure, But regardless it was a real challenge for me to continue walking up the hill early in the morning. During this time I was resolving to improve my physical Fitness when I get home.

We ran into a kitty cat who looked much like one of my former cats on the way up the hill. She knows this was a good way to collect treats I think

Uninhabited section, Kozue posing.

Hard to see in photo, but the image on the fountain was of a fox. The fox is the symbol of the shrine and there are images everywhere.

After getting just beyond the crossroads, we ended up getting lost in a maze of shrines and ended up on a path that turned out to be wrong. We decided not to finish walking the temple and continued on the wrong path where we encountered a Zen Temple.

If you want to know more, here is the Wikipedia citation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C5%8Dfuku-ji

So we stumbled upon Tofuku-join the way to the train station. The grounds were completely empty so we decided to give it a try.

ToFuku-ji was a real highlight for me. It is a huge temple complex, found it forever ago, the oldest zen Temple in Japan. We were essentially the only visitors for the first 30 minutes. It was very strange but I suddenly decided that I needed to write haiku, the views and vistas were so inspiring.

The main temple, built in the 700s.

This covered bridge connected the main temple grounds with another section containing gardens and more structures.

The photos below depict some of the lovely gardens we saw. The temple complex left us with the most lovely “zen” feeling, it was quite remarkable.

T

Ine, haiku, snow

 It was a struggle to get from Kyoto to INE. One special train and a bus. Ine is on the coast of Kyoto prefecture ? and is three hours from Kyoto city. As soon as the train was underway, the snow began, so our view was beautiful countryside, fat snowflakes and winter wonderland.

View from train

Next, we changed to a bus in Amonohashidate. Of course, we had to eat, so we went to a cute local place for local crab first.

Before

After

A scene from the restaurant.

The outside view of our restaurant.

We then boarded our very crowded bus (French, Australian, and New Zealand plus locals) and continued along the coastline to INE.

Our room has a lovely view of the water, prompting us to sit and watch the snowflakes fall on the water for hours at a time.

I wrote a bad haiku:

Voluptuous snow

Caresses the Inland Sea

Winter love affair

I learned from Naohiro 

Ine has a "UTAMAKURA", means place that is often written about in Waka poetry.

"Waka poetry" is japanese old style poem. It is Influenced old haiku poets.

A lots Haiku poets visit UTAMAKURA，and they wrote Haiku at the place.

No wonder you want to write haiku.

We hopped a cab to another local restaurant where we enjoyed an elaborate meal….shown here.

Leaving INE was a little challenging.We first stopped at a sake factory, which smelled lovely. I grabbed a small bottle (backpack too heavy already) ane we ended up marching back and forth on the very snowy road, asking directions and getting the wrong answers every time.