Nara And An Unexpected Train Ride

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Yet another site to ancient capitals, only forty minutes away from Kyoto. I local trained it and then checked into a cheap hostel I found near the station. The owner was a really friendly guy. I went off to the main sight area and spent some hours walking about. I also took a power nap on a park bench during mid-day. Truth be told, although many of these temples and shrines were impressive, I'm at my wits end with them. It's crazy temple overload for me and I think this will be the last city that I actively seek out some temple sights because it just doesn't do it for me anymore. Neverthess in terms of nature this city was gorgeous. There were deer that roamed the park area unobstructed, as well as patios in the middle of ponds with flowers of different colours about.

I returned to the hostel in the late afternoon. In the evening on the balcony I witnessed fireworks for which the Japanese are famous for, and this didn't dissapoint. I then chatted with some French couple about they're travels, eventually going to sleep late but having a great sleep.

When I left Nara the next day, I made it back to Kyoto hoping to continue on but realized that I either had to fork out some extra cash for the Shinkansen (bullet train) or wait for fourteen hours with nothing to do in the summer swelter. The thing that pushed me towards deciding was the fact that the bus would have been very expensive as well, obviously not like the train but the difference didn't kill and this would give me an opportunity to try out some crazy Japanese technology. And it had the designation of K666. So I bit the bullet and went for the train. When I got aboard, it felt more like boarding a plane. An English message followed the Japanese one, it was the voice of a British chick and sounded so futuristic. When the train departed, you felt it as it gathered speed and the windows even caved in a bit. The scenery outside blazed by. This was traveling in style! Although the I was only on it for an hour and a half it cost me...well I'll keep that to myself.

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