Wakamiya Kyoto

... 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 ...

... Tunti ainakin meni ihan vaan pyöriessä ja ihastellessa tunnelmia.Harmi vaan, että ehdittiin syödä nopeasti juuri ennen lähtöä, koska täällä olisi ollut jos jonkinmoista ruokakojua ja kunnon Japanilaisia markkinaherkkuja tarjolla.

Käveltiin lopulta samaa reittiä takaisin Shin-Koben asemalle ja nyt alkoi jo jalat pyytämään armoa! Tälle päivälle alkoi kävelyt nyt todellakin olla tässä. Ei kun takaisin hotellille ja huomenna sitten lisää löylyä...

... You weren't able to see much from the outside except for the palace wall.

On the way to the palace I learned all about the X-Man ...... yes, the comic book. Jordan is a big fan. In return, I told him all about the original Planet of the Apes movies (all five of them).

Oh, forgot to say that we stopped at Mcdonalds for breakfast and Starbucks for coffee.

We also stopped at the International Manga Museum. Unfortunately ...

... where everyone but Gio and I promptly fell asleep on the tables and benches. We rested there until we'd had our fill of McBreakfasts, and then headed back to the train station to catch a train to Kobe, and back to the MV Explorer. We were back on the ship by 10 a.m., but that certainly didn't mean we had time to rest! This was simply the part where our original Japlan split off into 3 smaller Japlans, as a few of our team had homestays to get to, Kaitlin and Steven ...

... and about 10 minutes later this bloke directed us upstairs. Good food and pretty cheap and accompanied by an Asahi that wasn’t 1000 yen I was pretty happy. Headed back to the hostel met up with these two Swedish girls who were staying in Steffens room (we had separate dorms in the second place), and went out for a drink at this Spanish place. It was kinda cool but weird. Had a beer and a Japanese whiskey which was really smooth and didn ...

... there and I look in my wallet.. no cash and he doesn't take credit card... great! So.. back in the cab and to a nearby 7-11 (they are everywhere) to go to the ATM. We already found that many of the ATMs didnt seem to take our bank cards and was hoping this was not the case here. Later, we found out that it is not our cards but the picture on the ATM displays is misleading or we are dumb. The picture shows that you should put the magnetic strip ...

... crowds. The crowds were surprisingly young, in fact, there were very few people over the age of 30, and they were walking in the opposite direction. We tried our best to get back into the shrine, trying all the entrances, but the security guards were having none of it. After a quick pit-stop for food, we headed back round the front of the temple. The only way we knew it was midnight, was from the very quiet and stifled "yeah" that a few people dared to cry ...

... that was full of stores and mega malls and mega buildings exchanging into the japan we didnt that was green and wild! it was so pretty! when we eventually got to koya san i insisted we will walk to the city instead of taking a bus. and it was worth every minute of it! we walked about 6km half way on the road enjoying the wonderfull nature around! and the other half going through the beatifull city and seeing ...

... with it's 17th century traditional houses, restaurants and teahouses, many of which are exclusive establishments for 'geisha' entertainment. We hung about for a short while and saw 3 different geisha women leaving houses only to rush to their next place as they were being hounded by rude tourists who think its their right to photo them up close like they were paparazzi. We choose not to photo them as we respect their privacy. We ...

This morning we arose at 4:30am to shower and catch our 6 am Shinkansen train out of Tokyo station bound for Kyoto. We booked this trip through a company that offers special rates for tours for people holding foreign passports. Normally the price for the round trip train to Kyoto is $230 round trip. We got a three day package for about $320 per person which included a train ticket to Kyoto, then to Hiroshima, then back to Tokyo, plus two nights in hotels ...