Blogs from Wakayama, Japan, Asia

We only have a week and a half left in Japan, but we've done so much since my last blog! It's been non-stop. Everywhere is so different, and we have seen some really interesting places (although I'm still going to get mixed up between all the cities and the temples when I look at my photos!). Since the last blog, in Kamakura, we headed next to Nagoya, where we stayed only to go to Tsumago and Magome the following day, and do a walking trail through the forest (and snow!) and little old houses in the mountains. There were bells every few hundred metres to ring in order to scare off bears - we read a sign before we started saying that bears had been reported in the area in the news, but no one had ... read more

Five more days and I'll have finally arrived in Nagoya! I'll be able to move into my apartment and have some nice, wonderful, completely underappreciated ALONE time. Before this trip I didn't realize how much I took for granted having time and space to myself. I always thought it was a rule to take your time when drinking coffee (at least an hour), but that doesn't seem to be a universal understanding. People here can slurp it down in seconds while it's still boiling hot. I'm also excited to decorate but it's come to my attention that I have to buy a butt load of things. Hoping that JASSO covers it all! Still being fed WAYYY too much. I'm also super "benpi" (exit pipes aren't working), so I look at least three months pregnant. The horror ... read more

In Wakayama now with my friend's parents. They are super super nice but her mother is trying to give me diabetes. She feeds me nonstop and when I asked if I could go for a walk this evening she told me it was too dangerous. Yesterday for lunch she took me to a four course French restaurant. Four courses! I wanted to die. So I'm eating too much and stretching my legs too little. Tad bit depressing. I'm worried I'm going to be a tub of lard by the time school starts. I have 2-1/2 weeks from now to somehow lose however many pounds I've been force fed. So frustrating! It's affecting my mood unfortunately. I should be headed back to Kyoto on Monday. Fingers crossed! And then I'll probably stay there for maybe a week ... read more

Day 2 of my Golden Week trip was spent in Wakayama City, Wakayama Prefecture. We arrived around 9:30 in the morning and had soon after run into our first dilemma: no available lockers to put our suitcases in. So, we had to pull our suitcases along with us everywhere we went... which caused us a bigger problem once we got to Wakayama Castle. First off, the castle was about 20 minutes (walking) from the train station, and it was hot, and we had our luggage... but when we got to the castle ground we discovered that the paths weren't paved! They were gravel (problem #1). The castle was on top of a huge hill in the middle of the grounds, and to get to it you had to walk up about 100, uneven stone steps, then ... read more

Nara Two nights and one rainy day in Nara, final inspection of the wounds by a doctor. Wounds were getting much better he says. A Japanese backpacker tells me about some very very old shrines some 20, 30 kilomters away from Nara. Heartland... No tourists here, but spirits of ancient times. Wakayama After this daytrip tour, I felt well enough to cycle again bigger tours. I decided to skip Ise (1xx kilometres east of Nara) and take a route directly into the mountains. After a few hours cycling industrial areas and getting lost with inappropriate maps, I'm climbing mointains again with my bike. No traffic no more, but woods, bamboo grooves, a few palms here and there. A river winding in a stony bed below the narrow road, and the mountains climb steeply on both sides. ... read more

Me again. Apologies for the profusion of words and pictures. I hope you'll agree, though, the photos at least are worth the time... We’re slowly ticking off ‘must-see’ places in Japan. This one is…Koya-san, an area of some beauty, relevance and reverence on the top of a mountain in Wakayama Prefecture. It was established in 816 by Kobadaishi, a Japanese fellow who studied Buddhism in China and subsequently brought it back. Since then, Koya-san has developed into perhaps the pre-eminent Buddhist site in the country. There are hundreds of temples and shrines, and other than a few bits, appears relatively untouched by the modernity and industrialisation that blights/lights the rest of Japan. It’s an incredibly tranquil place. To get there, it takes about 90 minutes by fast train from Osaka, followed by a cable car on ... read more