Advertisement
Published: August 6th 2007
Japanese Lunch
Lunch in the grounds of the Kiyomizu Temple. It was a very scenic and tranquil place for lunch...We're now in Japan, and loving it.
Another whole day of travelling starting with a taxi at about 5:30am to Beijing Airport and ending with a bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto where we are now staying. Japan is just gorgeous!! We are staying in the ToJian guesthouse where there is about as much English as we have Japanese but the host is this wonderful little old man who gestures just enough to make himself understood (to me anyway). At first there were only dorm beds available but then a double came free (it may be his bedroom but we're not sure). There is also free breakfast of hard boiled eggs and bread/toast and there's free beer and spirits at night!! AWESOME!! Met some Japanese girls last night over some drinks and it was great to have an English conversation - with a little help from a digital translator they had. There are toilets there but no bathroom so we have to go to a nearby bathhouse called a 'sento' (subsidised by our host so it's only 100Y instead of 390Y). An amazing experience where you duck under a curtain and pay the lady before splitting to the single sex
The Todaiji Temple - Nara
Supposedly the worlds largest wooden building. It was amazing massive and impressive to look at and wander through... rooms. You strip off and put your stuff in a locker and then sit on a miniature stool in front of some taps and a very low shower head. You bucket over water and lather yourself up, rinse off and then hop in the scalding tubs for a soak. Scalding means so hot you almost feel like it's cold! Looking forward to another one tonight!
Day one in Kyoto we spent walking and bussing around the city. The one day bus pass at 500Y was incredible value. We used them about 3 times worth their cost as each trip costs 220Y. We first saw the Kiyomizudera Temple near the downtown area which had an enormous wooden deck from which you could look over the lush tree tops. Then the Kinkaku-ji (or Golden Palace) which was a temple covered in gold leaf. Each temple is surrounded by smaller rooms and lovely gardens so you really spend a while at each one. We also walked though the Imperial Park south of the Imperial Palace at dusk and watched so many dogs being walked and playing together that we got a little homesick for Cody.
Today we have travelled out to
Prayer / Wish / Fortune Boards
These were hanging up around most of the shrines we have seen in Japan. We believe that you write down your prayer's or wishes and hang them up to come true... Nara for the day which has been a wonderful day too. We have taken ourselves on a walking tour including stops at the Kofukuji Temple which has a 5 story pagoda (biggest so far in Japan), the Todaiji Temple with the biggest Buddha we've seen since the reclining Buddha at Wat Po in Bangkok and the Kasuga Grand Shrine (which we didn't actually go in as it was beautiful enough from the outside. At the entrance to each temple there is a water fountain with little cups on sticks for you to purify your hands before entering the temple. Some locals even drink it! Haven't gone that far yet. A highlight of Nara is the Deer park. Not really one deer park but a colony of deers who happen to live on the East side of the city. So cute so we bought biscuits to feed the deer and spent some time with them as well.
Tomorrow we head to Hiroshima before catching another bullet train up to Tokyo. Keep in touch.
- Lew and Holly
(sent from Tokyo, We'll post a Tokyo post in Finland as we are pushed for time)
Advertisement
Tot: 0.043s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0205s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
