Tomijaya Uji

... Nyt tulikin taas näköjään pitkä reissu!

Mutta ei mitään hätää! Matka Takayamaan oli nimittäin aivan uskomattoman hienoa kyytiä, vuorien ja jokien keskellä, eikä tullut aika yhtään pitkäksi. Melko totaalinen mahdottomuus oli saada kuvia junan ikkunasta, mutta sellainen maisemien sarjatuli tärähteli verkkokalvoille, että voi pojat! Melkein jo jäätiin kyydistä paikassa nimeltä Gero, mutta päätettiin kuitenkin jatkaa matkaa Takayamaan asti. Ihan kiva oli täm ...

... on varmasti ihan hyödyllisiä aineita jossain muualla, mutta ei minun teessä! :-) Heh, pieni teevitsi tässä sallittakoon?

Matka Kagoshimasta Shin-Osakan asemalle kesti, kolmen vaihdon kera noin 6 tuntia, mutta matka meni varsin viihtyisästi. Koska olin varannut saman hotellin kuin viime kerralla, niin mukavan helppo oli kävellä Shin-Osakan asemalta tuttuja reittejä suoraan hotellin ovesta sisään. Hiukan olin huolestunut, että jos on sama mies ...

... was more like a library not a museum .....very few displays, just alot of Japanese comic books.

Stopped at another Starbucks. Not sure how Jordan can drink so many Frappucinnos in one day.

Caught the bullet train back to Tokyo. Saw Mount Fuji .... unfortunately no picture as I was to far away from the window.

Got back into Tokyo at 5 pm and went straight to the hotel. Took the subway to an area called Shibuya ... the ...

... empty. As it was still early in the day, the "little" guys were still competing; the big matches weren't until that evening. But Bridget, Eben and I loved every minute of the competition, and lounged about our box all afternoon watching the fights. There is so much ceremony and tradition that goes along with every fight, it is absolutely captivating to watch. But aside from the cultural aspects, it is also incredibly enjoyable to watch enormous dudes in silk ...

... tomato sauce. I talked with my host dad a bit, and the grandfather actually smiled and said thank you when he saw that I'd brought back a souvenir from Kyoto. So maybe he doesn't dislike me as much as I thought...Anyways after dinner I went up to my room and have been frantically uploading all my pictures. Apparently the 30th and 31st are days spent cleaning the house here. Which is good because I'd planned on cleaning my room today anyways ^_^.

... walked to the top of daimonji mountain which gave superb views over the city of kyoto....which is massive and contained within mountains on all sides. we walked for a few miles through the forest and eventually down another mountain to yet another temple! bypassing this again, we walked back to the original temple via the philosophers walk - a nice relaxing walk along a river with huge and brightly coloured koi in. The next day we went to Himeji to ...

... which we all turned for good luck. It was a relief to climb up into the daylight again, especially as Tom found it a bit scary and Michael kept making ghost noises! At the entrance to the next temple were two huge steel rods - a thick 5-5cm diameter man's one and a 3cm diameter woman's one. The idea was for the man to lift his to prove his strength but it was incredibly heavy and Michael had no hope. When I lifted mine with one hand the ...

... Kyoto every year!), but they seem to disappear as soon as you walk 5 minutes away from it (not sure where they go?) so it didn`t feel to busy most of the time. Sadly we seem to be a few weeks too early for the famous Kyoto cherry blossoms to be in full bloom (and it`s too cold - it snowed here today!). Today we hired bikes from our Ryokan hostel and went up to the north of Kyoto to see, you guessed it, pagodas ...

... the first one. And she was absolutely crowded by tourist, what's that all about. On my way back to the Hostel I passed the bar I want to with Satomi on Saturday. I thought that a single beer might be a good idea, and it was. I got talking to a Japanese guy that is a ear, nose and throat specialist. We played darts, and I won, and later a local chef came by with some raw horse meat. We had that served with soy souse of course, and it was awesome.

... more young people there from all different bits of the globe. We met a German couple who warned us how expensive Australia will be and to watch out for our stuff as crime in the hostels is rife especially on the East coast. We spent the rest of the evening working out exactly what we wanted to see and go over the next 2 days. We woke up bright and early and headed for Eastern Kyoto where we going to do the Southern Higashiyama Walking Tour. The 5km hike covered 3 main ...