Hotel Halftime Nara

... up a little in the ingredients, but overall they tasted great, even if they weren't as floppy as real tortillas. On top of that, Jack cooked up some ground beef and chicken with some nice spices. Throw on some fresh veggies, cheese and salsa, and you have yourself a meal! It was definitely nice to get a taste of home, since I obviously haven't had any Mexican food since arriving here. Afterwards, Jack's friend left from the station ...

... be doing so but I've decided not to other than to state that I'm simply not impressed by this type of upscale product. I just don't see the value. I was more impressed with the Apple store that was in the same district. I guess that I'm simply a provincial 'otaku' (geek)...

For our two days here in Osaka it seems like all that we've done is
eat, walk around, and sleep. In a city like Osaka with such great food,
life doesn't get much better.

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 ...

... at the station in Osaka. I surprised her with a couchsurfing adventure planned for the nearby Nara Prefecture and the old city of Nara (site of the original capital of Japan). She was excited!

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NIGHT #1:

Our first night was spent with Eri (age 25) and her family. They feed us a wonderful Japanese dinner and set us up in a traditional tatami guest room. Wonderful hosts:) I only wished we'd had more time ...

... train, one is the fast non all station train and the other is the slow all station train. We were lucky to have noticed the difference, otherwise it would have taken us a lot longer to reach Nara. The day was hot as well, and the all station train has no air conditioned and would have been very stuffy. Once we were there, we went to the tourist information centre and was pointed to the bus that would take ...

Vandaag hebben we het rampgebied (hostel) verlaten. Vanmorgen voor even (goede opslagplaats voor rugzakken was het wel!), vanavond voor goed. Kevin heeft vannacht het alarm af laten gaan. Hij ging even een boodschapje doen (om half 12 s nachts zijn de supermarkten nog open ;-)). Bij terugkomst toetste hij de code in maar er ging iets mis. Na het verlaten van het donkere hok met behang van steenstrips kwamen we onderweg vuilnismannen ...

... th*n 10, this is * very tight squeeze! We did see * J*p*nese m*n try to get through, but he needed to be pushed *nd pulled to get through! A short w*lk up the hill from here is Shoro Belfry where we h*d some lunch (whilst fending off deer), *nd *lso looked *t the l*rge bell th*t h*ngs here. Further on from here *re ****tsu-do *nd S*ng*tsu-do h*lls, *nd there w*s * gre*t view over N*r* from the ver*nd* of the first. We then w*lked to K*sug* T ...

... the lonely pl*net description for the hostel. Keen to get out of there, we checked out the *m*zing sites th*t N*r* h*d to offer. One plus for the hostel w*s th*t we could rent bikes. So,we set off with the m*ny m*ps we received *t the tourist office. We *lso h*d * suggested route from the Lonely Pl*net. M*ny of N*r*'s most import*nt sites *re loc*ted in N*r*-koen. The p*rk is home to *bout 1200 deer, which in pre-buddhist times were considered ...

... change a good thing i suppose. The next day we decided to investigate how to get to Osaka and headed for the station, after getting totally confused by the Japanese ticketing machine and not actually buying tickets we headed for the Philosophers Path. This is a walkway along a canal where people would go to think and in April is covered by cherry blossom trees, the walkway also lads to many shrines and temples of varying sizes and shapes. After walking about halfway along and seeing a few ...

... exhibits, and we felt like chumps for leaving giant puddles of rain water in front of them all. The second wing, dedicated primarily to statues, was my personal favorite. Dozens upon dozens of statues from all branches of Buddhism stand at attention, peering at you. Some are benign and look ready to give you some kindly advice, while others look like they're about to rip your head off and stuff a sutra down it. Quite a nice place, and definitely worth a ...