Hotel Allamanda Nara

... our way to the temple grounds. The temple garden/yard was one of the prettiest so far, despite the crowds, and we were greeted by the first blue sky of our trip.<br> Inside the main building, the ration of white:asian visitors shifted decisively towards round eyes, big bellies, and teva sandals with white tube socks. It was a bit disorienting at first, but once I began to explore the temple, I discovered a new breathtaking statue or shrine ...

... style, and said that I would really like to keep in contact. He agreed and told me to let him know if I had any further questions, promising to email me. Kaoru gave him her card, and we were gently encouraged off the grounds as only the Japanese can do. We tried to see one of the ancient tombs further down the road (oddly enough, running into the group of 3 we had met earlier coming back from a different temple), but weren't able to access it as, well ...

... area (think Times Square). This is the glitzy part of Osaka and as expected, was crowded with families, teens and rebel hipsters. The strange thing about Dotombori though, is that all this new technology (LCD, moving marquees, dancing crab puppets), is put to making old school designs. The Glico sign could have been here 50 years ago, printed by dot matrix in faded colors. Don't know if it's the Osaka mentality of 'ain't broke, don't fix it', but I'd like to ...

When I first arrived in Japan, I didn't realize just how big it is. Sure, it looks sort of big on a map, but its still dwarfed by its over sized neighbors, China and Russia. Japan may be smaller than those guys, but really, its a TARDIS. There are so many cities here that go unnoticed by travelers, because they are seen as boring small-towns. Boring? Small? Half of these places are bustling, buzzing and each have a unique atmosphere of their own and I am amazed and glad that we ...

... confirmed by not only my own suspicions, but th*t of *n Americ*n b*ckp*cker I met this morning, this viewpoint w*s not only sh*red *nd *ll too entirely recognized by other tr*velers, but it seems just *bout eighty-five percent of foreigners within J*p*n seem to be Austr*li*n. Something to do with che*p *irf*res no doubt. Anyhow, when they're not oggling R*ch*el, drinking *nd gener*lly keeping everyone in the hostel up with their drunken shen*****ns, they're *ttempting to cr*m this 'go to ...

... for two d*ys *nd spent the first d*y exploring Fukuok*: Which *ctu*lly only re*lly involved going to C*n*l City, * huge complex th*t h*s been n*med * 'city within * city'. It h*d ret*il stores from Gucci to Hello Kitty, Pokemon Centers, Hundreds of b*rs, * The*tre (Which w*s showing the Lion King music*l) *nd even Hotels. We ended up wondering *round *nd getting lost *nd eventu*lly found * Movie The*tre, *nd decided to go see Sweeney Todd. Lets just s*y, I ...

... sculpted conifers here and there. At some point, and for some mysterious reason (perhaps bankrupted by a love for things covered in gold), the family ran out of money, and it was converted into a Buddhist monastery. It now has a small staff of caretakers and monks, but is predominantly a Japanese heritage site. Once we left Kinkakuji, we walked to Ryoanji, another temple, but this one wasn't covered in any precious metals ...

... and then cycling off as fast as we could. Then we would find a group of deer deep in the park to give them to. We cycled further and further into the park and up as far as the Kasuga Taisha Shrine with all its stone lanterns and lots of young deer chilling out in the shade of them. Back to the Roykan for official check in it was very apparent to us that there would be no getting away with walking in and out undetected where we were staying. As soon as you ...

For 18 months Tracey and I taught English in Japan. I taught those little kiddies how to say shut-up better than any other teacher they have ever had, noisy little rascals. Working for a small English School as a random teacher meant that I went to every one of their classrooms, about 40 dotted within about 2 hours of Central Osaka. We missed life in Japan and friends made, so we stopped over on our way back from trip to Sydney in 2004.

... g*in. Bugger! First thing w*s first...my feet! She helped me hobble down the street *nd *fter finding * Chemist who w*s e*ger to help me we s*t to try to expl*in the problem. He then *sked me to t*ke off my shoes. NNNOOOO! I s*id with * h*nd w*ving *round my nose *nd then gr*bbing my thro*t pretending to chock to de*th. L*ughing he went to get some spry *nd soon my boots were off, spr*yed *nd put *side ...