Hotel Yamacho Ako

... a chocolate waterfall, fresh fruit salads, boubibase, paella and more. So considering there is no tipping in Japan. ( and I don't mean it's optional, I mean you don't do it ) it's a pretty good deal for 30 bucks each.

After stuffing ourselves silly at the buffet, we spent the rest of the night hanging around the market, the harbour or the beautiful neighborhood surrounding. An interesting thing in Japan, is that they make shopping ( even if you don't buy ...

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Just before we got inside the castle, we were asked to remove our shoes and place them in a plastic bag. The floors are wood and felt sooo warm and smooth against my bare feet. And I think not having to wear shoes even helped me better climb the stairs. They were incredibly steep, putting some ship ladders to shame. Every floor had openings for seeing how far up you were (and of course for raining more arrows down on ...

... machte und sie von der nächst grösseren Stadt wieder zurück fahren mussten. So ging ich alleine zur Brug von Himeji. Die Burg gehört zum UNESCO Weltkulturerbe und gilt als schönste des Landes. Super lage, wunderbare Aussicht. Hat mir wirklich gefallen. Dann zurück zum Bahnhof und weiter.

Day 5 in Kyoto saw us again catching the Shinkansen - this time to the city of Himeji to visit the Himeji Castle. The day started off drizzly, but by the time we reached the castle it set in to overcast, warm and humidity of 965%!!! By lunch time, however, the humidity subsided to a reasonable 96 ...

... the castle coming under attack from ninjas. On the top floor was a shrine with a thick rope to hit a gong with, and we could see the fish designs on the roof. We also saw examples of samurai outfits and letters by people who lived in the castle. It was fascinating to see into the strange world of samurai and ninjas. We even saw the place where samurai committed ritual suicide when they had done wrong. The outside of the castle was very pretty ...

... longest single span suspension bridge in the world. Not a bad day for 2 of the world's best.

So, firstly… the trip to Himeji was, well just a train ride. The city itself revolved round the main castle and in the case of tourism was the main attraction. The main castle itself was constructed of timber and consists of 7 floors, each floor area becoming smaller as the building grew upwards. The climb inside was interesting, but again you couldn’t avoid ...

... who died from the bomb. It is surrounded by thousands of paper cranes from children all over Japan and maybe the world. I also visited the A-Bomb Building which is just across the road. The atomic bomb detonated almost directly above the building and so as a result the outer structure is still intact. I visited a number of museums and concentration camps before when I was in Germany so taking the time to revisit the history of ...

... inside this tiny place and waited for some seats after Mr. T gave the server the tickets. We got some counter seats on the right wall--we were lucky as seats were hard to come by. We all had some sort of noodle, and it came with that miso soup I don't like. :b As a side note, it's funny to hear the Japanese people slurp their noodles...just not used to that. :) It is, of course, totally appropriate there. We then walked to the main street ...

... I would go broke at this rate! These past few weeks have been good. I missed out on some great picture taking opportunities because the batteries in my camera died (i.e., attempted hitch hiking with some guys at the train station -apparently they do it here and it's safe-, a trip to Kyoto with my English club students, and a man dressed up like a young girl in the book store -probably good I didn't get that one). Everyday there seems to be some ...

Day 13 - 10.28.02 (Mon) Minoh - My days off are Monday and Tuesday, so these will be the days I get to venture out see things. Woke up and went with Brady and Liz (Boston couple) to Minoh Quasi-National Park. I have no idea about the quasi part so don't ask! My first real venture into nature in Japan felt great, I miss the open spaces so much...Colorado spoiled me a bit. Anyway, inside the park are trails and a few shrines and a path that leads to a ...