Kawachinaganoso

... Nyt tulikin taas näköjään pitkä reissu!

Mutta ei mitään hätää! Matka Takayamaan oli nimittäin aivan uskomattoman hienoa kyytiä, vuorien ja jokien keskellä, eikä tullut aika yhtään pitkäksi. Melko totaalinen mahdottomuus oli saada kuvia junan ikkunasta, mutta sellainen maisemien sarjatuli tärähteli verkkokalvoille, että voi pojat! Melkein jo jäätiin kyydistä paikassa nimeltä Gero, mutta päätettiin kuitenkin jatkaa matkaa Takayamaan asti. Ihan kiva oli täm ...

Pääosin matkustuspäivä oli tämä keskiviikko, mutta ehdittiin sentään jotain muutakin.

Ja huhhuijaa! Eilinen kiipeily teki näköjään tehtävänsä ja melkoinen työ oli saada itsensä revittyä sängystä ylös. Lihakset aivan jumissa! :-)

Lähdettiin kuitenkin reporankana laahustamaan hotellilta kello 09 jälkeen kohti Kagoshiman asemaa ja kello 10 kiidettiin jo junassa kohti Osakaa. Ilma oli tänään hiukan sateinen ja sumuinen, joten ei olisi ollut mikään ...

... around there for a bit. Every store was brilliantly lit up and had some kind of crazy display advertising their merchandise. From the Gap to the atrociously cute Hello Kitty stores- it was certainly more glitzy than American displays. We stopped at a Best Western with minute hopes of vacancy (must have been that sense of American entitlement that drew us in), but of course the hotel receptionist informed us that all of Osaka is booked for the weekend. So we wandered ...

... triumph was converting Mia to the Mad Hatter club, although she gets to wear Her new hat and I get the tourguides hat for when she has two heads? Thats an angry hat...
So I'd like to thank (and so does She) the Osaka 3 and the Japanese banking system for the cheapest holiday in history and hopefully you can come visit soon and we can repay you with steak pies and stovies!

.

... but I assure you it is not. Anyways, lets skip ahead here. I make it all the way up and then back down again, camera in hand and get as close as I could without getting soaked by the waves. Lost in the excitement once again, this time of making it down alive and seeing the waves crash into the cliff, I don't notice the sky turn dark...really really dark. I can say with a good amount of certainty that I have never in my life been more terrified than I was at that moment. It ...

... it was spaghetti sauce none the less. So my spaghetti went off with out a hitch. I used Poppy's recipe and then I added the ground beef like Mom does. The noodles Okaasan took over after they almost boiled over, but that's okay, she's probably a noodle expert. I hadn't been able to find garlic butter to make my own garlic bread, so I chopped up some garlic and then I spread some butter on bread and threw on the garlic and stuck them in the ...

... They were kind of chant-singing something "adinghie dinghie adinghie dinghie baoh baoh" and one girl was freestyle breakdancing. It was really cool, especially since it was just randomly in the middle of Osaka castle park. I sat down and watched them, I was the only one there... kinda ballsy for me but I really wanted to watch. They only had a couple songs, so when they repeated them a number of times the lead girl ...

So, we're leaving tomorrow! I have no time when the flight is, but Hiroko is taking care of all that stuff. I think. Anyway, I DO know that we'll be getting into Denpasar at about 5PM, which is perfect time to through customs and head to the exit of the airport and then be subsequntly mobbed by every man on the island asking, "Hey boss, transportation? TRANSPORTATION!?" Our first hotel, Bakung Sari, looks pretty nice from the photos ...

... me wonder why I am not asking for more. Tonight, I went to "Funky Party" at my church with Yuta from Japan, Vicky from China, and Maria from Germany. It was so much fun! Funky Party is held every Friday night at my church and is an outreach to college students. At Funky Party, we eat a feast of free food, talk in small groups, play games, have jumping worship, and someone shares about Jesus ...

... same thing wakes you up. Yesterday we took a trip out into the hills of Kurama to do some walking and get away from the hot city for a bit, we had been recommended a walk in our book but it turned out to be a walk up the hill through temples... argh more temples! Was a killer on the legs but the views were worth it. Off to Hiroshima tomorrow, go to Kyoto you will not disappointed. Photos to follow....