Wakayama Prince Inn Kainan

... areas (though no livestock), many gardens, rice fields, small land holding as well as small and large towns along the rivers.

The train soon began heading up into the foothills of a mountain range and we saw more wilderness between the towns. Space is still at a premium even up here and things are closely packed almost as much as in the cities. Small towns perched on steep hills lined the train tracks. Very soon though we hit utter wilderness and human settlement ...

... nonetheless. Later we were told the talk was about how to obtain happiness - a common theme in Buddhism.

The hour and a half ceremony ended with a descent to the basement. A silent, slow walk was made along a footpad-lined path. Deliberate steps with a pause at each pad stretched the procession out over a long time for a short distance traveled.

The walk was lined with banks of numbered cubby compartments and an alter on the last leg. I'm not sure what all of this was ...

... lados del sendero estaban encendidas. Ya era casi de dia, pero aun asi, con el silencio y las tumbas a nuestro alrededor, intentamos no hacer demasiado ruido, casi como si fueramos a despertar a alguien. Algunas de las tumbas eran impresionantes, de varios metros de altura, cubiertas de moho verde. Muchas estaban acompanadas por estatuas de pequenos buddhas, varios con baberos.
Al final del sendero, vimos un templo que se alzaba entre los cedros, con velas titilando en ...

... temples. But there was one exception in this place… the mountain holds a sacred age old graveyard, the grounds which fortunately are open to outside visitors.

The graveyard projects a sense of wispy peace and calmness though I'd imagine slight eeriness during nights. We took a walk through the grounds beginning from late noon to early dusk, and it was ...

... Japan... can not even compare to the Japanese food we've had in Vancouver. I had the freshest unagi this afternoon.... it was raw when the chef put it on the grill. Shopping... a little... nothing even moderately excessive. I could go on...but it's getting late... and the lights in the plane have just turned off. I think I might be keeping the guy beside me awake with the light from the laptop screen. It's 7:19am Vancouver time. I'll be home in just over 4 hours! I'll wrap this up sometime soon...

I'm really sorry for the lack of words, I assure you words will come once I'm back on the ship. I just have limited time in ports and I'm making the most of all of it! Here are some pictures though, I wanted to give you guys something to look at... -Matt

Last week Akira and I went on a short trip outside of Kyoto reminiscent of those we used to take together two years ago. On the first day, we headed for Koya-san, the most important site for Sengushu Buddhism. This area has almost a thousand years of history of Buddhism attached to it, with literally hundreds of temples. The Daimon (Large Gate) is the starting point towards the main temple, about 4 kilometers away. For the last 3o minutes, the pathway to the temple ...

... was about 2pm and the weather was still wet. Originally I was planning to go to Kyoto but theres so much to see there I wanted to make a day of it. In the end I decided to go to Nara which isn't too far, or so I thought. I got the train which was at the platform which said Nara on, but turns out you had to switch trains half way there. Which is why everyone got off when the driver had finished his long speech in Japanese and I was ...

Our next stop was to three towns that together form what is affectionately called Surf City. This place was really cool and so different from everything else we`d seen up to this point. There were surfers everywhere, dirty minivans with surfboards in the back, surf shops blaring Hawaiian music by the side of the road, clotheslines crammed with drying wet suits standing between every hotel and house and of course, gorgeous beaches. We found ourselves a great little ...

It has been almost one month since I actually went to Nara but time has played its little tricks on me... well mainly its one trick of flying awfully fast many things keep me from adding to this little pod, I just happen to be one of those people that things occur to that prevent them from updating eg flat tyres, spilling coffee, falling asleep, losing keys....not terribly exciting things but they constantly delay me leaving myself just too lazy/frustrated to do ...