Comfort Hotel NARA

... and Jack proceeded to take me to a local bar.

Turned out though...the bar was closed (on a saturday night???). We couldn't believe it at first, so Jack, thinking the door was perhaps jammed, put perhaps a bit TOO much force into the door, which, somehow, opened it, in spite of the lock. Whether the lock was only half in or Jack broke the door completely, we'll never know, but it did open! And...there was no one in there. Lots of ...

Seconds please. I had to go back to Osaka, one way or another (my return flight was leaving from here). Ate just as well if not better than the first go around. Went to the Takoyaki museum at Universal city walk but it was more tako vendors than museum, not such a bad thing. Had simply amazing Kobe ...

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091006

"CouchSurfing in Nara"
by swami_worldtraveler

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PRELUDE:

In the interest of time, this blog is mostly to post photos, so the usually "story" will have to wait, if at all...

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INTRO:

My not-girlfriend, Michele, was in Japan by cooincidence (well, sorta:); she took the Shinkansen bullet train from Tokyo and I met ...

... el autobus hasta Kasuga. Este templo es famoso porque en el se encuentran mas de dos mil lamparas de piedra y unas mil de bronce., que se encienden al anochecer dos veces al ano. En el vestibulo, unas mujeres con una especie de pendiente que cubre su frente venden las entradas. Tenian todas cara de mala leche, no se si porque todo el mundo intenta sacarles fotos o porque les pesa. Una vez dentro del templo, pintado ...

... funny and then no, they are just annoying... A great sounds experience was walking up the river in Uji where the leaves on the floor, the river with its strong current, the birds all spoke at the same time. Mixed with the smells of tea vapours, all this made for the walk to be far more interesting and enjoyable. Sometimes, noise can really be overbearing. In Shibuya's shopping Tower 109, voices come from every direction, music ...

... commonly unidentifyable and unedible. our taste pallets hadnt become accustomed to eating copius amounts of raw fish and fermented cabbage and other mysterious vegitables. we donned our traditional japanese robes for our meals and once again put on and took of our shoes before walking on the tatami mats. one of our meals hardly any of us could consume and we derobed quickly so ...

... had the brown stripes of a Zen Buddhist Temple, but it had 2 tall stories. Moreover, there was a 3-pronged, candle-like motif that connected the wooden stripes. Inside, there was a gigantic bronze Buddha. About 10 times my size... I must add that Todai-Ji is the most impressive temple that I have seen so far. As I was moving from Todai-Ji to Kasuga Taisha, I stopped by a random restaurant and had some gross chicken udon for $4. Kasuga Taisha was a 8th Century ...

... nd fl*t enough to get *round on * bike. Some of the streets felt like * rur*l country town. We comp*red it to rur*l Holl*nd. Three d*ys in, J*p*n is *n *m*zing pl*ce. So v*ried. Not sure *bout the credit c*rd *nd ATM situ*tion though. For such * domin*nt country fin*nci*lly, ATM's h*ve opening hours of 9:00 to 18:00 in the post offices *nd not m*ny pl*ces *ccept credit c*rd. No doubt this will ch*nge when we hit the bigger cities of: Tokyo, Kyoto *nd Os*k*.

DH got to take the day off speaking so we could all go sightseeing together. So we hopped on the bus. We got 1-day passes, which makes it easy to get around. We had breakfast at Starbucks...I had a salad. We then got on the bus and got over to Sanjusangendo Temple. It was amazing. Inside the Temple is 1001 Buddhist Kannon statues covered in gold. The temple was founded in 1164 A.D. by Emperor Goshirakawa, and it is in the center of what used to be the ...

... left to explore, and as it got closer to check-out time, I pulled myself away from the records, toys, and other junk. It was time to head to Nara. Tokyo is the capitol of Japan, and Kyoto is the ancient capitol of Japan. Nara, however, is the really ancient capitol, predating even Kyoto as the seat of Japan's ancient government. We were going to time-travel back from Osaka another thousand and so years. Amazing what you can do in the space of an hour-long train ride. On our ...