Aioi Station Hotel Annex

... a chocolate waterfall, fresh fruit salads, boubibase, paella and more. So considering there is no tipping in Japan. ( and I don't mean it's optional, I mean you don't do it ) it's a pretty good deal for 30 bucks each.

After stuffing ourselves silly at the buffet, we spent the rest of the night hanging around the market, the harbour or the beautiful neighborhood surrounding. An interesting thing in Japan, is that they make shopping ( even if you don't buy ...

... br>
Takahiro is a great person and reminded me of a lot of people who live in historic places but never visit them. He lived in Osaka all his life but had never been to Himeiji or to Gion Fest and he decided to go to both with us. My legs were still aching from Mt. Misen but I managed the 15 minute walk from the station without stopping because I got more and more excited as we got closer.

Probably the first ...

... machte und sie von der nächst grösseren Stadt wieder zurück fahren mussten. So ging ich alleine zur Brug von Himeji. Die Burg gehört zum UNESCO Weltkulturerbe und gilt als schönste des Landes. Super lage, wunderbare Aussicht. Hat mir wirklich gefallen. Dann zurück zum Bahnhof und weiter.

We took the subway to the very impressive Kyoto station, which is a massive futuristic building made of glass. We took the local train (shinkansen too expensive) to Himeji, which took 2 hours. On the way we went through Osaka and Kobe, although it was difficult to see where one city finished and the next began. For much of it we were by the sea, which was dark and moody looking. We passed the massive Akashi suspension bridge, the largest in the ...

... longest single span suspension bridge in the world. Not a bad day for 2 of the world's best.

So, firstly… the trip to Himeji was, well just a train ride. The city itself revolved round the main castle and in the case of tourism was the main attraction. The main castle itself was constructed of timber and consists of 7 floors, each floor area becoming smaller as the building grew upwards. The climb inside was interesting, but again you couldn’t avoid ...

... from several places and share with friends; you have to decide on a place and go eat together. Which turned out fine, as we got some yummy OmeRice meals; basically an omelette, wrapped around rice, covered in sauce (or in my case, mountains of cheese). It was delicious and cheap! So now we're back, it's almost 10pm, and the bags around my eyes have never been bigger. But then, neither have the wrinkles from my smile been so used in one day ;) Oyasumi nasai!

We stopped off a Hiemiji, where Japans most famous Castle resides. We where only there for a few hours so we wanted to leave our bags in the station lockers. It was one of the funniest things you have ever seen two Irish lads running from one end of the station to the other scouting out ...

9/19/2006 Tuesday Gift giving in Japan seems to be a perpetual wheel of obligation. Whenever a trip is taken, small, individually, (usually food-like) items are expected by your co-workers and friends. Even after just meeting once, I received an expensive package of Hawaiian almonds from a girl at English club. Today at Seta, I was greeted by a prewrapped sugar cookie waiting on my desk. One of the teachers at the school later reminded me, "Don't ...

... had time to venture into Kobe China Town which was all decorated for the chinese new year which, as you can tell from at least a couple of the photos, this year is the year of the dog. Other than that, things have been going well here. I had to go back to work two days ago (boo!) but because of the way my weekly days off fall, I ...

... Huge Mall from last time I was here. Of course stopping in at Mc D's for a spot of J-Rock and a burger or three. Here I met Ju Ju who was a wild Japanese rocker who was so over the top in love with bands like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple. What a guy. We spent several hours in Mc D's chatting all things 70's and 80's Metal before he had to run off for band ...