Hotel Crest Ibaraki

... lipunmyyjien kanssa ja olisin ostanut liput vaikka maailman ympäri! Titityy!

Seuraava ajatus oli, että mennään Kiotoon ja jatketaan siitä Ujiin maistelemaan hiukan aamuteetä, mutta toisin kävi. Yleensä näillä Japan Rail passeilla ei pääse tuohon kaikista nopeimpaan N700 junaan, mutta nyt jostain syystä sellainen kuitenkin laiturille lipui?! Tästä innostuneena päätettiin, että nyt kun kerran kunnon vauhtiin päästään, niin jatketaan kyllä taatusti pidemmälle ...

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 ...

... empty. As it was still early in the day, the "little" guys were still competing; the big matches weren't until that evening. But Bridget, Eben and I loved every minute of the competition, and lounged about our box all afternoon watching the fights. There is so much ceremony and tradition that goes along with every fight, it is absolutely captivating to watch. But aside from the cultural aspects, it is also incredibly enjoyable to watch enormous dudes in silk ...

... about who donated the gate. When we got to the next shrine area I say a map showing how large the area was. It was huge and someone said it took 3 hours to walk the whole thing. There was moss growing on the stones and tress and around the paths and the shrines was forest. The place did have a real mystical and ancient fill to it. I followed that path for quite a way and saw the path go up a steep hill, that seemed to be covered with little shrines. Lots of fox statues ...

... the heart of fashion. But everywhere we have gone in Japan we see people who are hip, funky, cool, sexy. Style is definitely a way of life here. Even the guys have it - Matt has been more than a little bit jealous! Of course we had to visit some of the sights, so we went to the Kyoto Imperial Castle, and the Niji-jo castle which was the Shogun's residence in Kyoto. They present a strong ...

... temppeleitä, joita nyt ollaan tässä viime reissujen aikana koluttu läpi ja huvittavasti aina täällä asuvat kaverit kysyvät, että minkälaista siellä oli, kun ei olla ikinä käyty :-D ...ja yleensä näissä temppelihommissa on muuten sääntönä, että liian paljastavissa asuissa ei saa mennä, mutta se ei sitten todellakaan päde täällä Japanissa, voi elämän kevät tätä hommaa taas! :-D Kinkakujin jälkeen hypättiin jälleen Naokin autoon, Joichin ja Yokon seratessa toisella autolla ...

... that sake is pretty cheap so noone would mind... We went back to the same izakaya the next night with Rich, an English lad who was in Japan for five weeks. He was a vegetarian and had basically been living on Doritos, and he got a surprise after ordering noodles as unbenownst to us, there were various pieces of octopus mixed in! No indication of that on the menu, but I just think that the Japanese expect some kind of meat/seafood with most dishes ...

... at how modern it was. Well if it has a McDonalds and a Starbucks, that counts as modern wouldn't you say... I did actually go into McDonalds (again, sorry) in the sheer hope that the staff may be dressed like Geishas to commemorate their past but to my disappointment they were normal. Kyoto was how I imagined it to be, chilled, quaint and full of culture and history. Every little alleyway you walked down lead you to a shrine or temple tucked away somewhere ...

... cuts right through the heart of the town and leads right up to the shrine gate. The shrine itself sits atop a hill and over looks the entire town. From the top step of the shrine entrance there was a nice view of Kamakura, from downtown all the way down to the ocean. The surrounding hills in Kamakura are covered with a novel thing...TREES! Boy have I been dying to see some trees since I've been here. It seems that in the rush to pave everything in site and fill ...