Hotel Kaito Takashima

... of youth culture. Much like Time Square in New York .... lots of lights and lots of shops. There were thousands of people on the streets. Went to a fantastic noodle shop for dinner ... had an udon noodle bowl with a soft boiled egg. Also ate some deep fried noodle snack. It was all delicious.

Stopped at Starbucks again before cathcing the subway home.

Sorry not able to load any pictures today .. will put some up as soon as I can.

... us around.

In the afternoon, Jordan and i walked around the shope some more, then headed back into the hills to visit to more temples.

Eat at a small restaurant for supper. Had Udon soup with beef. Ended the day at Starbucks. Jordan was able to go the Starbucks twice today which made him very happy seeing that he didn't get to one yesterday,

Well back to Tokyo tomorrow.

... 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 ...

... english, they are extremely hospitable. Those that do speak english are keen to do so when they serve you, more so than in Tokyo. Most interesting is the Geisha culture. I gather Kyoto is the last remaining bastion of this diminishing tradition. I saw many of them and their apprentices over the course of my three day visit. It's really something. I feel a bit bad for them when the tourist paparazzi gets at it, chasing them down the ...

... All I can say is that I sure picked the best times to go to where I wanted to. On my second day after the monkeys is where I headed to Philosphers walk and hooked up with Julie. We when finished the walk, found a vegetarian place to eat and headed to Gion to catch some pics of Geishas. I thought that we could stumble around and possibly find a pic of a geisha in the Gion area. It was around 530pm and we found Gion Corner. I noticed A Lot of Taxis standing by and waited for one, in ...

... in hand, we wandered the streets near Kyoto station looking for a cheap place that would take us in. After trying several places, we came upon Ryokan Shimizu, a newish Japanese Inn. When we asked them if they had any available rooms, they initially said no, but as we were putting our shoes back on, the manager said that he had a room that they usually use for luggage. He offered to put two futons in and let us stay there. We were elated! Not only had we found a place ...

... year which was when we just so happened to swing by. Hoorah! In Nara, there is a temple where the main rituals occur, the path leading up to which is lined with three thousand stone lanterns that are lit only on that particular day . The temple itself holds its own lanterns, and everyone lights their own paper ones and places them within the temple to bring good luck for the new season. Its was awesome, and felt as though we were part of ancient rite. Maaagical.

As for ...

... backstreets, as you can see some houses still have the old-fashioned wooden facades, some have modern exteriors, and others are piled with junk a few metres high! The variety was fascinating, and packed in to such a small area. Rather than hang about in Kyoto for dinner, we took the train back and went to our good old Yakiniku place for one last dinner! The people recognised us and put us in the same seats, and even remembered we were ...

... then started the hike upward. Most people who climb Fuji start from station five, taking a bus to it on the road up. I had spluttered in surprise and said, 'what, climb half of Mount Fuji? What's the point in that? Its got to be the whole hog for me.' Geisha Spotting Most tourists come to Kyoto as it was once the capital city in Japan and had huge amounts of culture and historic shrines. Guidebooks refer to Kyoto as the 'real Japan,' and although I ...

... we'll be on 6/9) and Tokyo (6/15). We are both feeling a little tired from our sightseeing yesterday and late night, so we head back to our hotel. First we stop at the grocery store nearby to pick up some small breakfast items (canned fruit, loaf of bread) and some soda. Back at the hotel, we make ramen using the tap water in our room, since the main common area is closed every day from 11:00 ...