Kurama 27/9

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We left K's hostel to stay at budget inn. After dropping our bags off we decided to go to Kurama. After about an hours travelling by train (getting better at this but still scary) we arrived and I spent several minutes taking pictures of a dragonfly.

Kurama involved a couple of hours hike up a forested mountain. On the way up there were numerous shrines, a temple and lots of wildlife. We managed to see a lizaed, a pretty large spider and a beetle even though the sign says there are snakes and other cool insects.

Once we got down the other side, into Kurama Kudane, we had a really cool meal where we sat on a wooden platform over a river/stream. The meal was coooked at our table by a traditionally dressed Japanese girl. We had beef and numerous Japanese vegetables (some that we hadn't even heard of before). We think we were supposed to dip the meat in a seperate bowl of raw egg, although Kirsty quite enjoyed the taste of this I wasn't quite sure and ended up re-cooking mine after dipping it in.

This is the first meal we have had out so far and it was quite an experience.When we paid we got a free fan each, this was handy as Kirsty was tempted to buy one the day before.

Thew budget inn is not too shabby, it even has free dvds including, Zatoichi, Spirited Away, The Last Samurai, and a step by step guide to origami (we will soon be origami masters).

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