Terri Hillier

So tonight I am in Nara and its raining for the first time since I’ve been in Japan. When it rain here, it pours. I can’t complain though. After the heat, it feels amazing and this is by far the nicest hostel if I am going to spend an evening inside. It’s totally traditional with the tatami map and rice paper dividing walls. Kyoto had some interesting sites but I honestly didn’t see that much. Their transportation system was a pain and they had a major lack of English maps but the scenery was nice. My hostel was right on the river which made a nice evening walk and the staff were super friendly and pulled me out of my homesickness with good conversation several times. The train ride was much slower than the shinkansen but ... read more

Amazing day despite some set backs with cell phones in asian style toilets. I went to Kamakura today and it was amazing. It was incredibly hot which made it harder to enjoy but it is a beautiful place. When it comes to Japan, we hear so much about Tokyo that its easy to forget most of it still looks like a scene out of totoro. A 40 minute train ride brought me through rice paddies and into what was almost a jungle. There were giant cicadas, colorful spiders and huge toads and of course the temples dotting the hillsides were amazing as well. I got to see the giant buddha and go inside which was cool. Leaving Tokyo definately made navigating a bit more difficult since everything wasjust in kanji but I ended up tgging along ... read more

So its about 4AM here but I couldn't get back to sleep so I decided to update. First off, the trip over went well despite being rediculously long. I navigated the airports okay and if you ever get a chance to fly Korean air I would definately recommend it. Their economy class service was more like the first class on British Air. The plane was not very full so I had three seats to myself and spent most of the flight watching movies and litening to music on their in flight entertainment system. They had B.O.B's new album on there which made me very happy and reminded me of Jesse. It sounds over-dramatic but being away from him is turning out to be really really hard. I had an interesting moment with that at the airport. ... read more