Hotel Blue Lake Otsu

... was more like a library not a museum .....very few displays, just alot of Japanese comic books.

Stopped at another Starbucks. Not sure how Jordan can drink so many Frappucinnos in one day.

Caught the bullet train back to Tokyo. Saw Mount Fuji .... unfortunately no picture as I was to far away from the window.

Got back into Tokyo at 5 pm and went straight to the hotel. Took the subway to an area called Shibuya ... the ...

... complex in the centre of Kyoto. We food a small restaurant where we had pork cutlets with cabbage, rice and miso soup. It was very tasty and delicious. After lunch Yuki headed back to Osaka to spend sometime with his family this weekend. He works in Tokyo suring the week and comes home on the weekends. We won't being seen him again on the trip. He was very kind to us and spent alot of time ...

... I both fell alseep during the drive, not much company for Yuki). Before going tohis home we stopped at a luxurious cake shop for coffee. I had a delicious chocolate mouse. We then went to pick up Yuki's family who were shopping at a local mall. His daughter looked very nervous as she walked up to the car. Yuki took us to his home for a short visit. He has a nice two-storey house (a little small, but very comfortable). I ...

... island... I:m running out of time so will give a brief scoop or the rest of the day: After miyajima we went to Hiroshima for a lay over and decided to see the city and catch a later train... talk about a sobering experience... I didn't feel very great about being an American or a human for that matter after seeing the Abomb dome and going through the museum... then we took ...

... went for a walk to some nearby temples and their gardens, ending up at a Buddhist temple called Higashi Hongaji. At the back of the site is an enormous shed, which looks like a factory of some sort - wrong! The shed is there to protect the main temple while it is being restored (I think it gets removed later this month, as they`re nearly done). The temple under restoration turned out to be the largest wooden building in the world, and it`s an ...

... to Enryaku-ji temple, while the rest spend some time checking out Himeji castle. Re-visiting Fushimi-Inari Shrine (the fox shrine) is a great pleasure, and really fun to walk through the thousands of torii. The Gold temple, as well as Sanjusangendo are also nice to see again. New temples for Fiona and Sebastian include Chion-in, with its massive gate, as well as the bright orange Heian Shrine ...

Last night was a lot of fun, with my really cool CS host from Osaka, Antoinette. We went out walking with another really nice CSer, Kai, near her apartment. We had some great food for really cheap, and just walked around people watching and talking. It was good fun. Then, we went back home and I crashed hardcore. This morning we got up slightly late, and I was going to try and catch a musical performance from Kai ...

... standard peace gesture that every asian under 30 is seen making in a picture. During the times we weren't staring down the lens of someone's Nikon, we were staring through the viewfinders of our own cameras. Kinkakuji is an old aristocrats home. At some point, for oppulences sake, he decided to have the entire two storey building covered in gold. The building is surrounded by a reflecting pool with perfectly placed gnarly ...

... electric" on one of the papers so we took the bill immediately to the 7 eleven where the cashier swiped the barcode and I paid for it right there. That's something really neat about Japan. Any bill you get in the mail has a barcode on it so you can pay it at any local convienent store. What will be even cooler is when my bank account is set up and my bills will be automatically deducted from my account. :) -Just like in the states. We're still waiting on that, though.

... that she would make my journey to Japan more comfortable. I didn't think anything of it and handed her my ticket when she asked for it. She put a sticker on it but I couldn't read it as it was in Chinese so I didn't look at it again. When I finally got my bags back together the 'superior' guy walked me to the gate and I boarded the plane, showed my ticket and walked down to economy class. The stewardess ...