Nagano, Yudanaka, Kyoto, Osaka and Naoshima

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Well hello there!

So to pick up where we left off - we headed on to Nagano where we stayed in a scary empty hostel reminding me of round the twist. The city shared strange food offerings / translations (couldnt decide which) with my favourites of womb, uterus and lung being usurped by 'hormone on a stick'. However due to my strong Nottingham stomach this did not disrupt our trip and we arrived as planned at Yudanaka. Here we were greeted by the remarkable site of small Macaque monkeys kicking back having their own little onsen jaccuzi party in the middle of a snowy forest - Cheeky buggers! To warm up later we headed to a jazz bar in Nagano to be bedazzled with 'Moon Liver'accompanied by a tremendous guitarist of 40 years, bass and saxophonist.

I realised I have lived the first 28 years of my existence without visiting a 100 yen shop. These are like 1 pound shops but 20p cheaper and realms of quality better with saucepans and clothes included - the 80p knock off Casio watch is still alive and kicking after 10 days!

Kyoto revealed many gems with Higashima wanderings being stand out, but above all was the coming of age ceremony for 20year olds in traditional clothes to shoot arrows at San Ju San Goyen Temple. Stunningly dressed girls and beaming proud parents. Doubt anyone would have trusted me with a bow and arrow when I was 20.

Sadly begining to notice a trend that most historical buildings have been flattened by fire. Which makes me wonder why many of them have Shrines to the God of Fire within them, however they also have many no smoking signs and hoses which puts me at rest. At Nijo castle I studied my first nightingale floor which were installed so each plank creaked when walked over to awaken the residents to intruders. Tried my best to bypass this alarm system but failed!

At Gion we watched through restaurant windows to see geisha entertaining buisness men over dinner and conversation in the street. Before being bought back to the 21 century with street rap by boys in metro stations. Very confusing contrast!

Nara boasts the 'biggest wooden structure in the world' (obviously have not seen my grandpa's shed which I would say marginally pipped it). Briefly visited Osaka and headed straight to Dotonbori with its bedlam of ear-bleedingly loud pachenko halls and the weirdest restaurant advertisings via huge plastic copies of foods available, my favourite being a 5 foot hand with what I assume to be sushi. Very multi-cultural from my experience with us visiting an Irish bar to drink Brazilian cocktails made by a French mob whilst talking to an American.

A few trains and boats later and we headed to Naoshima a small island known for the Art House Project my favourite part of our trip so far. Got to stay in a yurt (warned not to leave shoes out or Racoon Dogs would steel them?) on a beach which was fantastic and I would recommend yurts to anyone! Art was awesome with stand out piece of world flags made from sand grains connected by tubes. Ants were added to natually tunnel giving tube connections between flags with flags then collapsing and changing. Oozes questions of world stability and importance of geographical boundaries. That aside with me getting serious - art with ants.... ANTS!

Matsuyama castle with its loss of sections due to allied bombing has added to my somewhat heavy heart surrounding our next port of call at Hiroshima but I look forward to learning more about the modern history there. Before we left we popped in for dinner where turns out mine was 'on the house', the other diners were eating live jellyfish and we were not allowed to leave until a random man performed magic with toothpicks and flaming napkins. Oh and a spot of virtual golf before bedtime.

Its getting on here so will leave it there for now.

Lots of love

A x

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Photos

Cheeky　Monkeys!
Yudanaka trouble makers having a quick dip.

Jazz in Nagano
Black clothes and clicks at the ready

Coming of Age Ceremony
20 year old women at bow shooting ceremony in Kyoto

Nara Temple
Biggest wooden structure in the world - my grandpa's shed was bigger

Osaka by Night
Now off to the Irish bar....

Japanese Time Killer
Why not?