Hiiragiya Bekkan Nagaokakyo

... 10 minuutin päähän Kiotoon. Ja näin tehtiin.

Kiidettiin siis hirmu kyytiä Nagoyaan asti, jossa hypättiin ulos ja alettiin miettimään, että mitäs nyt sitten? Aseman näytöllä luki, että juuri on lähdössä juna Takaymaan, joten ei kun äkkiä ovesta sisään ja matkaan. Junan hurjasta diesel-murinasta jo kuuli, että nyt ollaankin sitten lähdössä hiukan erilaisille reiteille. Sen verran ymmärrettiin Japanilaista kuulutusta, että matka-aika Takaymaan on yli 3 tuntia ...

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 ...

Today we spent the morning to touring around Kyoto before catching our train back to Tokyo. We stopped to visit the Nijo Castle which was originally bulit in 1603 as the official home of the first Tokugawa Shogun. Although it didn't have the beautiful gardens like the temples it was still a very interesting place. It even had a moat like European castles. We then went to see the Kyoto Imperial Palace. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to go ...

... legs. Not wanting to be rude, as the excited lady was standing right there beaming down at us as we all ate, Bridget tried some of the more tame items on the plate. The lady took notice, however, and insisted that she try the octopus too. The interaction between the two of them was priceless, and we all had a good laugh watching Bridget choke down the octopus while the Japanese lady giggled with glee at the meager smile covering the disgusted look on Bridget's face ...

... ting. bla. en parasol og nogle gaver til familien. efter denne shopping tur var vi temlig traette, men alligevel smuttede vi ind til vores hostel nabo og saa the Davinchi code (ka vist ik stave til det)hehe med en ol, har i Japan har det et andet alternativ til dem der ikke kan lide ol, det hedder Coctail partner og er forskellige coctails blandet paa dase, de indeholder noegt af det samme som en ol, men det varierer, De smager godt!

... to the unique function of each room. The coolest part of the whole building was the "Nightingale" floor, which utilizes people's weight to cause a squeaking noise as you walked down the hall so no one could sneak around. Blue and I ride through some neighborhoods and stumble upon an organized soccer game which is clearly a Sunday club game. The only difference is that the entire field is dirt. It may be an even dirt, but it ...

... up the semi-crowded side streets up to the temple. Then, we made our way up through the sparsely lit cherry trees, whose blossoms took on a whole new light in the eery mysteriousness of the evening. Wandering through the crowded grounds of the temple, especially memorable was the walk after you got to the viewing platform to view Kyoto and the main buildings of the temple, where the path wound down from the top of the hill back down to the bottom where you washed your ...

... persuaded me to go for a soak in the Onsen (Japanese hot spring bath). The Onsen culture in Japan is highly developed and regarded as great source of detoxifying treatment as the Japanese have learnt to tap natural hot springs to control steaming hot mineral water into public baths. Each bath is segregated by gender and cleanliness is essential. Before even touching the water, every part of the body has to be cleaned under a shower and bathers aren't even allowed to wear ...

... the hostel we called home and whilst i was away Alex built a huge house of cards, there are more pictueres of that than temples, he was so proud.... Kyoto has been totally different to Tokyo which i suppose is obvious but we really like the cosmopolitan nature of Tokyo. Kyoto has lovely shrines and temples but there really are A LOT!!! off to Osaka we go now for 2 days before we fly out of Japan, love you xx

... times trying to swallow the first mouthfuls. Needless to say it promptly went in the bin. Trying to locate the next temple we stumbled across a smaller one so had a quick look around. Heard some chanting and thought we had found some monks but it was a tape recording playing over a loud speaker! The next temple was also rather a disappointment so we headed to the station to see the Golden Pavillion in northern Kyoto. When we got off the train we thought ...