Karasuma Kyoto Hotel

So we woke up pretty early the next morning to go get Kasumi from the station. Afterwards we went to grab some grub, and then, since Kasumi had a lot of sight-seeing on her mind, we headed off to Nijou Castle! Nijou castle was the residing place for the Tokugawa Shoguns, so it was pretty big. But, looking at it from someone whos done a bit of sightseeing England and the like, its not a castle in the conventional sense, I suppose. The inside is basically a bunch of ...

... flowers and trees made for a pleasant stroll. Along the way we did see plenty of groundsmen, who must work throughout the year pruning every branch and blade of grass to keep it in such great condition. Right it was time to squeeze in a third UNESCO site before the late afternoon dawned on us. Another walk, to another bus stop. This time the destination was in Northwest Kyoto. UNESCO site number #3 ...

... sink in. Just after dark I went exploring to find something to eat with my credit card. That is a bold statement in Japan and you will know how hard it is when I tell you that I settled for a Cub-O-Noodle and a beer at the Circle-K about a half mile from the hostel! <br><br>1-11<br><br> Kyoto is the old capital of Japan until 1868, and is still the cultural capital in a sense. People in Kyoto embody the qualities and practically define what it means to be Japanese. There are so ...

... been able to actually visit a few of these places. They offer something the bigger cities don't. And that's, well, I guess... Awesome?<br><br>But first up is Osaka. Its not really a 'small town', In fact, it's the second largest city in Japan. If Tokyo is all bright lights, and Kyoto is all about sophistication, Osaka is about nightlife. Loud, Merry nightlife. Osaka is a Japanese Vegas. Yet it lacks the tackiness associated with Vegas and instead teams up with all things Asian ...

... l tre*sures *nd world herit*ge sites, most of which within the be*utiful N*r* P*rk. The town is *lso, like Miy*jim*, overrun by free ro*ming, docile deer who *re respected by the people of N*r* *nd considered messengers of the Shinto gods. I person*lly, consider them nothing more th*n tot*l dudes. One look *round the p*rk, however, *nd its not h*rd to see why the deer find the pl*ce so *ppe*ling. Despite its *we inspiring n*tur*l be*uty, forested regions home to trees liter*lly hundreds ...

... Shogun*te. Its dec*dently l*id out with gold-le*fed p*intings *nd wood c*rvings, *nd h*s wh*t *re c*lled 'Nighting*le Floors' which *re like *n *ncient house *l*rm system. The floorbo*rds *re so tightly bound together th*t they m*ke high pitched 'singing' sounds when stepped on, me*nt to w*rn the residents of *n intruder. Prob*bly m*de the trip for * secret midnight ice cre*m binge kind of tricky.<br><br>AND th*t is th*t, for now. Until l*ter,<br><br>R*ch*el Out.<br>

... to place their bets on virtual races. There was even a badass little area setup where teenage hipsters strapped themselves into simply immense freaking futuristic pods with a 180 degree screen view and took command of a control center to giant robots hell bent on blowing each other up while others sat around to watch the game on the big screen... and place bets of course. All in all; epic.<br><br>The next day we found ourselves in Beppu, a small, somewhat touristy town ...

... Samurai who wants to marry one of 3 daughters, but war tears the household apart and one of teh daughters is kidnapped by raiders, another killed and another blinded. The kidnapped daughter comes back some years later and finds the hosue destroyed. The blinded sister is still there, but the kidnapped one doesn't talk to her, instead she runs away out of shame. And it so ends. It really was quite exquisite. And you know I really enjoyed it ...