Nara Royal Hotel

... but no people. We then surmised that he most likely got someone fired, because whoever closed would take the blame for not "locking up," but, without dwelling on it too much, we went to a backup bar. It was a nice chill. small place underground, and pretty quiet. We had ourselves a few drinks, then walked it back!

Thats one thing I really like about living in the cities in Japan (I suppose any city anywhere would have this to ...

... 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.

... at Steak Ron, delicious Sakuyaki at Hariju and more helpings of takoyaki/okonomuyaki/yakisoba.

S teak Ron
1-10-2 Sonezaki Shinchi, Kita-ku | Umeda, Osaka

Hariju
1-9-26 Nishishinsaibashi Chuo-ku Osaka

Takontetsu (Pizza Ball House)
1-9-20 Maru Bldg Umeda 1 Chome

... 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 ...

... in which is set in beautiful gardens.

Our next destination was Koya-san which is a small town on top of a mountain which is covered with dense pine forests and is surrounded by eight peaks. The journey to get there took a total of 3 hours and involved four trains, an incredibly steep cable car up the mountain and then a bus to our hostel. Again, we had booked in advance what we thought was a youth hostel. When we arrived, we were pleasantly ...

... une chambre de style Japonnaise. (he oui Pierre, nous essayons). Nous avions une petite table et coussin puis tassant le tout nous avons fait notre lit sur le tatami. C'est vraiment chouette. Rejean aime bien il dit tout le temps arigato!!! (ou Harry a un gateau) Dans les auberges ils ont tout le necessaire pour la cuisine. On s'est achete de la viande Kobe. Pour ceux qui se demande ce que c'est, il semblerait que la vache a une diete special, elle a des ...

... to the stimulus. In this case, I spent a good hour or so on and off, watching deer, very calmly and slowly following screaming Japanese children holding crackers and running away (in circles). The children would then pass the food to the adults, and sure enough, the deer would now, very slowly, very calmly follow round an adult who was running and screaming, even more than the child was, as if their life depended on it. Not once did I see a deer jump up, or indeed ...

Nara was really easy to get to. actually we discovered we've been taking the Nara line all the time inside Kyoto... first sight of Nara was tons of shops while we were passing through sanjo-dori we think dori means street though in English they write sanjo dori street... the place we were supposed to stay in was a ryokan for the first time but ryokan is usually just an jap hotel in the end.. but it was interesting and pretty. on the fist ...

... Ho iniziato la mia giornata a Nara gia' stanca, sotto una cappa impietosa di caldo umido (30 gradi alle 7:30 del mattino), per fortuna sapendo gia' che tutte le cose da vedere si trovavano in un grande parco, almeno un po' d'ombra, per quello che serve... La giornata inizia subito bene quando incontro i primi cervi sacri che popolano il parco. I banchetti ai lati della strada vendono i "biscotti per cervi", e una delle massime attrazioni ...

... nearly as well with strawberry jam as one might anticipate. Well, I guess that's what I deserve for attempting to buy American food in Japan...from here on out, only local dishes for me. <br><br>Shortly after 11-full from my "dentist's nightmare"-I was finally able to board the Shinkansen bound for Kyoto. After an incredibly smooth and comfortable train ride, I arrived in Kyoto in the early afternoon...and made my way directly tourist information in order to ...