Blogs from Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan, Asia - page 54

****************************************** But, regretfully, not a good one. It's seems I'm quite unable to write this time, so I'm just gonna shove these posts out into the internet mostly unedited and let the pictures tell the story of what I've been up to - lest they become so stale I don't even remember them. Allow me to provide but a thin drapery of narrative for some images... ****************************************** Well, the last few days at the center passed fairly uneventfully. I headed back to the center and hung out with people, but priorities had definitely changed by then. People were focused on moving out, packing up, and rocking their new locations. Selling bikes, paying up center debts, returning things, and wrapping up Kyoto dominated thoughts. So, it turned out to be fairly uneventful for those of us staying ... read more

It's been a laid back kind of day today. We started the day with a walk up to a temple near to our digs. Now normally this would be quite a quiet, calm affair but throw in about 1000 secondary school kids and you've got bedlam! It was fun watching the kids get all excited about seeing foreigners and we enjoyed being interviewed by different groups as we walked around. It was the whole 'celebrity for a day' feeling again :-) At one point we headed down a deserted path, then noticed a small group of girls were following us. For a laugh, I started running away from them to see how they reacted. The next thing I heard was a squeal of horror from the girls who then started chasing after me! It was a ... read more

By Shinkansen - Japanese Bullet train - we took the Nizomo Superfast Express train... Having been on probably the slowest trains in the world in India, which make lots of stops in the night - to travelling at outrageous speed through Japan came as something of a shock! ... read more

Who would have thought that I would pay money (voluntarily) to consume foamy green stuff and a pink thing that looks like an overgrown moth ball? And who would have thought that I might actually like it! Yep, for those in the know, I finally tried Mocha. Mocha is the foamy green tea that is used in tea ceremonies, and the mothball thingy is a delicious cake that accompanies it. The tea is bitter and has foam sorta like a cappucino... only green and without dairy products involved. It's sakura time in Japan. Think anticapation, excitement, special weather forecasts, people keeping a constant eye on the 'terebi' and the paper, and a general air of festivity. Tents are being errected, parties planned, sake purchased, and festive markets held. So what's all this about, you ask??? And ... read more

When I was in Osaka I was really tired and sometimes, even though I enjoyed it, I felt like I was just going through the movements of sightseeing, seeing but not really seeing, if you know what I mean. Today is actually the 6 week mark of my holiday, but I think that while I was in Osaka I was a little over it. Travelling, especially by yourself, can be so exhausting, the early mornings and travelling times and having to be here for this and there for that and trying to see all that you can in one day etc. I really felt quite lethargic while in Osaka, but like I said I still enjoyed it and saw the things I wanted to see, just didn't have my usual enthusiasm. BUT, when I hit Kyoto ... read more