Hotel Kokusai Kyoto

... some much older), Buddhist monks chanting in prayer and sampled many local culinary delights. We drank from the natural spring water which is considered sacred, we lit incense sticks and wafted the cleansing smoke over ourselves and to our delight were greeted by a small group of school children from a neighbouring city called Gifu who spoke to us in their best English as part of a school project and presented us with a hand made little ...

... det og noen øl med europeerne før madrassen kallet. Neste dag sto vi opp tidlig siden vi måtte. Det sto jo på skiltet: "Wakeup time no later then 10.00am". Kl. 11 stengte hostellet for rengjøring så vi måtte komme oss ut til da. Jeg hadde en avtale om å møte mine nye asiatiske venner kl. 15 så jeg vandret rundt om i byen selv og besøkte Kyoto Imperial Palace. Dagen gikk med til å besøke en rekke templer og "shrines" som det ...

... out to the new adults.<br><br>The weather was busy and the streets were bustling with activity. I walked down to the main shopping district and saw the Yakasa Shrine. While walking I found myself behind a line of Buddhist monks. I guess In my mind a buddhist monk was someone who lived in a temple high on a mountian. (But that's as accurate as assuming a devout christian goes crusading around in armor.) The procession stopped at a number of businesses and sang little chants. Then ...

... menu. We eat quite well and then hung to wait for the live music. As it turned out, the band was about 5 Japanese men and women who did indeed play Irish music but there was no singing. Well, KJ did help out when he could but the Japanese were not singing :-) After a long day of walking around we came home with full bellies, tired legs, and some fun pictures!

... been turned into a museum.<br><br>And that's where the town of Nara comes into play. Nara, is a 'small town' by Japanese standards, and would have gone unnoticed if it weren't for the fact that it holds the largest wooden structure in the world; Todaiji Temple. But the real kicker is that its the longest surviving wooden structure in Japan. Way back when, the Japanese constructed all of their Temples, Shrines and Castles out of wood. Everything was made of wood. Of course, that ...

... s one swingin' getup. The entire, crowded little street is surrounded by enormous neon lights *nd signs th*t seem to stretch on forever - gi*nt LCD displ*y screens fl*shing *dvertisements, loudspe*kers pl*ying music *nd b*rking b*rg*ins *nd even gi*nt mech*nic*l moving cr*bs were pl*stered w*ll to w*ll, *ll competing with one *nother to see which could gr*b your *ttention, not to mention w*llet, the most. Amongst the pl*ces we explored w*s * p*rticul*rly interesting est*blishment we were ...

... ter is good w*ter.<br><br>And now? Now, we *re in Kyoto. Ap*rt from Miy*jim* isl*nd, I c*n cert*inly s*y this is/will be my f*vorite pl*ce so f*r, even on the first d*y. This pl*ce h*s sophistic*tion, *tmosphere, but best of *ll, history. Within the first few blocks of Kyoto st*tion - which in itself is *n *ttr*ction - you could pick out * few sm*ll temples *nd shrines. Not to mention * gi*nt c*stle complex, which holds Nijo C*stle, built by the founder of the ...

... shopping, it was easy to waste away hours here and it even gave us an opportunity to immerse ourselves in Japanese movie culture, as we joined an audience for a subtitled viewing of Sweeney Todd.<br><br>While the movie was pretty average, suffering horribly from Tim Burton's borderline creepy Johnny Depp fetish and self-masturbatory directing style, the movie experience on the whole was good fun. So get this; they have three flavors of popcorn - buttered/salted, caramel and ...

... himassa ...mutta ei sinänsä hätää! Nämä aikuisviihteet ei nimittäin todellakaan koske sinua, ellet ole joku biljönääri tai jotain :-) Jos edelliset kohdat ei tunnu liian pahoilta, niin ehdottomasti reissu heti varaukseen! Ihmiset on todella ystävällisiä ja kohteliaita, Japanissa on turvallista ja puhdasta, mitään ukottajia ei todellakaan löydy, uusinta elektroniikkaa mielin määrin ja muutenkin shoppailu mahdollisuudet on rajattomat ...

... alors qu'il y avait encore tant de choses à voir sur Kyoto, c'est finalement le sanctuaire Fushimi Inari ( dédié au dieu du riz et à son messager: le renard) qui a eu la faveur du duo de choc. Il nous avait été chaudement recommandé, pour sa série de torii en enfilade en pleine montagne, sur plusieurs kilomètres. Et le temps ne nous a pas trahies cette fois. C'est vraiment le lieu le plus étrange, le plus surprenant que j'aie vu de toute le séjour ...