Manpa Resort Wakayama

... sparser. The trip from Osaka up toward Koya San must be among the most spectacular train journeys in the world. The steepness of the terrain, the massive forests, the winding mountain rivers and the even more winding train ride made us gasp in wonder.

One last thrilling gasp was left for the last stage of the trip – the steepest and longest cable car we could imagine. We felt like we were going straight up and it was just breath taking.

Anyway, we reached Koya ...

... everything before me.

I extended my chopsticks into a bowl and plucked out the unknown morsel. A brief inspection, then into the mouth... Yummm, very nice:)

Michele and I repeated this culinary exploration for the rest of the meal. Everything was a new delight - and totally vegetarian.

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TYPHOON... ALMOST:

Back in our room we rearranged things and settled in for a potentially blustery night. Forecast: TYPHOON!

Koyasan lay right in the path of a ...

... el cofre con el tercero. Uno de ellos estaba claramente resfriado, pero aun asi, empezaron a cantar al unisono. Tenian muy buena voz y sus voces estaban muy bien coordinadas. Yo me canse de oirlos cantar desde el suelo y me sente en una silla que habia a un lado y empece a cabecear. A las 7.15 terminaron.
Nos dimos una vuelta por alrededor del tamplo. Justo detras del que era el altar, habia un templo pequeno con plantas de oro a ambos lados. Seguimos rodeandolo y ...

... did not have reservations at the Shukubo (temple) which is highly recommended. The tourist office in Koyasan closes at 5:00pm and they are the only ones who can help us with our reservations in English so we were chancing things a little and hoped that by leaving at 8:00am we had some extra time for mishaps or missed connections. But it all worked out well. The first train arrived about 15 minutes early and that allowed for some breathing room for the subsequent rides. The ...

... the $10,000 slot in the centre at the bottom of the board? That's pachinko. These places are almost always packed with people... and the machine's go Ding! Ding! Ding! just like a slot machine. Frank actually won substantially... except for the fact that you put money into the machine... get these metal balls... win coins... then use these coins to try and win something else. So, even if you win the coins (which isn't guaranteed... I didn't win any)... you still have to try ...

... slow local train to Himeji and arrived 90 minutes later but it was well worth the effort. The city's main attraction is it's phenomenal castle Shirasagi (the white egret), arguably the most beautiful still standing in it's original form in Japan. We found it's the perfect season to visit with the leaves just turning and the clear views stunning. We had a good inspect of the various buildings and were joined by dorm mate Dave in the main tower. After the castle we headed to Koko-en ...

... D' of the lobby wore a beautiful light blue silk kimono, and she silently waved her hand to her assistants to come pull the chairs out for us to sit down. Immediately, a flock of young girls in cherry-pink kimonons rushed up to us and helped us sit down while placing neatly pressed napkins on our laps. The atmosphere was extremely upscale Western, but the image of kimonos preserved the Japanese presence. At around 6:30 PM, we walked past stores like Chanel and Cartier inside the ...

... Aquarium. Definitely a must see on any itinerary to Osaka. Its not the largest aquarium in the world by any means but the highlight of this aquarium is a huge deep seawater tank that is about five stories high. This is the current home of an amazing whale shark, a truly beautiful and gentle sea creature. It is also home to about five manta rays, and possibly a thousand other smaller fish. I spent almost half an hour just captivated by the whale shark, and once I was ...

... ten (!) layers of packaging only to find the kind of biscuits you might buy if they sell out of rich tea at Sainsbury's. Make it look expensive (by not letting anyone see what's actually inside) and then wait for the till to start ringing... Keiko was really sweet today though. As far as I can remember this is the first time I have actually had a girlfriend on Valentine's Day. She surprised me with a whole bunch of gifts ...

... just down the way. It turns out that this was one of Osaka's biggest events of the winter, with packs of people lining up to get good luck talismans for the coming business year. The funniest thing about it was that it was listed in my guidebook all along, but I hadn't even bothered to check if anything was going on. After we had finished exploring the festivities and dodging the crowds, we made our way back to the neon lights of Dotombori once more. With night having ...