is it finally winter?

So here I am, freezing to death although the temperature hasn't even dropped down to 0°C yet. The unreasonably hot autumn played its tricks on me, and now my body's imagining this is cold. The day before yesterday we went to Arashiyama for the Lantern Festival, and walked around for a few hours; I was freezing. Imagine how it felt like afterwards when we took a foot bath at the station before returning home - pure bliss! Although the first feeling was that of my feet burning, since the water in baths here is pretty much as hot as it's possible to have without actually getting burns.

Anyways, before these adventures, and some Christmas preparations I'm planning to tell you about, let's go back a week or two, when the momiji season reached its peak. I got up really early one morning to capture the last of the autumn colors around the Imperial Palace, and here are a few selected shots. A few more can be found on Flickr again, since I don't really like to use Blogger for publishing all the photos - first of all, I think it's inconvenient for the reader to scroll down and click on each photo separately to see the full size; and if you just look through them in the photo viewer that opens up when you click on one, you miss any writings that might be between them. And second, I don't even know how to adjust the copyright settings here, and in Flickr it's automatically "all rights reserved", and you can adjust it any way you want.

A perfect, crispy morning for photography!

Later during the same day, we baked gingerbread cookies! I used the recipe that's originally my aunt's, I think; but as the ingredients you can get here are a bit different, I was slightly nervous to see how they turn out. For example, dark syrup is apparently a Nordic thing. Molasses is probably quite similar, as I've seen that being used in English gingerbread dough recipes, but I opted for kuromitsu, which roughly translates to black honey. It's muscovado sugar syrup mixed with honey, and it did indeed taste very similar to dark syrup. Another tricky one was the flour - they sell two kinds of wheat flour here, strong and weak one, and I wasn't sure at all how that compares with the Finnish fine and coarse wheat flours, but I chose the strong one. I did end up using a bit less of it compared to the original recipe, so I'm not sure if the weak one would've been a better option after all, but otherwise there was no difference in how it turned out at the end. The taste was also exactly the same,  and even though I haven't really gotten to Christmas mood here since outside it looks like October in Finland, the moment we started baking I was filled with Christmas spirit. It's the magical mixture of cloves, ginger and cinnamon that does it.

What I was most unsure about, though, was baking them in a friggin' toaster oven...

Thanks to my baking buddy Junna!

And thanks to Maija for bringing glögi!

And to conclude, here are the pictures from the Lantern Festival - again, the rest will be on Flickr.

A walk through the bamboo forest. 

Nothing beats (free) hot apple tea when you're absolutely freezing.

Except maybe a visit to a foot onsen!

momiji

It's the best time of the fall, the momiji season, when the leaves turn into all these amazing colors, from what almost looks like neon yellow, to crimson red - the other day I even saw purple leaves! So I thought it'd be a good time to finally go and see Kinkaku-ji (actually Rokuon-ji, but it's better known by the name Kinkaku-ji, I think), and see what all the fuss is about. Sadly, the weather wasn't in my favor this time; it was pretty cloudy the whole weekend, so I've spent half a day saturating the fuck out of these pictures. I do hope you enjoy them!

But first, a couple of pictures I took when I took a stroll down at the riverbank.

These things that look like eagles but act like pigeons.

How romantic.

Well, so on Saturday, I biked all the way up to the northern part of the town, where Kinkaku-ji is located, and I'm so glad I chose the bike over the train, since the way up there was so pretty! I made my way through these quiet neighborhoods filled with narrow, winding streets. So picturesque. I think I took more photos on the way there and back than at the actual attraction. Here's a couple.

Now, I think it might've been better just to spend the day exploring the quiet neighborhood, since at the arrival to Kinkaku-ji, I was once again reminded how I hate tourists. And yes, I am aware that I'm also a tourist, and that everybody else is probably just as annoyed, but gosh. To some people there, I would've liked to quote my favorite movie Pitch Perfect, where one of the character says these words of wisdom: "Please take your head out of your ass, it's not a hat!" I mean, I don't know how it's possible, when you're there with a kazillion of other tourists, to have this delusion that you're the only person in the world. Because that's how so many people were acting. I don't know, I guess it has something to do with the fact that you're on a holiday in a different country, which makes you think that you're not really that much responsible for any harm that you may cause to others, since, after all, you don't really understand the culture and the customs. Which is a load of bullshit. When in Rome, right?

Like kids at a zoo.

Kinkaku-ji

"What's that smell?"

So that was an exhausting experience, and the temple wasn't that special, really. I mean, yeah, it was a golden temple so of course it's pretty, but I think I've been spoiled since I live in Kyoto where there are temples and shrines at every corner, so they don't really look that amazing anymore. And since I was so busy hating people, I didn't even have time to properly appreciate the sight itself.

Afterwards, I went to a kaiten sushi restaurant. These are probably my favorite places, since you get a selection of different types of sushi that go past your table, and get to pick any of them that look delicious or interesting enough. Although I don't think these places are ideal for experimenting with new foods, as they serve cheap, raw fish. And that can possibly be dangerous. However, I couldn't resist trying out this yuzu-flavored whatever it is. 5/5, never again.

District 9 sushi

At my way home, I had to stop at the Imperial Gardens to take a photo of these momiji enthusiasts. I love it how the Japanese get so excited about everything.

Guys, it's just a tree...