Day 13 Pictures Are Up!

For the rest go here!

Day 12 - Nara/Kyoto

This morning we had breakfast at the Kyoto station - they have all these amazing cafes with bread goods that I have never tasted before. I will miss all these yummy treats when we leave!!! After eating we hoped a train to Nara for a little day trip. The train ride was maybe an hour, not very long. We rented some bikes so we could get around pretty easily and get it all done in a reasonable time.

Riding through the town was fun. I had pictured a small town but it looked just like all the other ones until we ventured into the park, then it looked like what I thought it would. There were deer there too, actually they were everywhere. some would come p and nibble on your shirt or pocket in hopes you'd feed them - crazy!

First on our list was to see some shrines and the giant Buddah all of which were in this giant park... it's a lovely area and really easy to navigate on the bike. The Buddah was my favorite, it is so large and just amazing to see. I think Jeff and I each took 50 or so pictures.

After seeing the shrines and riding through the park we decided to ride through the shopping/food area. We stopped for lunch at a small cafe and had some yummy food as always. Then it was back to the station to retunr the bikes and catch our train at 5:40pm.

Tonight we decided to visit another onsen but a nicer one outside of town a bit. After chilling in the room for a bit we packed up our bath supplies and headed to North Kyoto around 8pm to a small neighborhood. We wandered and wandered trying to find this place... We asked a woman and she said to go straight... so we did... but then Jeff thought that we had either gone to far or were going in the wrong direction. We cut into the neighborhood and wandered... no luck. Jeff asked a girl for help and she told us to hold on by gestering to wait a min and went and got her father (Gaijin! Gaijin!), he came out along with the son and mother in their PJ's to try and help us. They also said to go back to where we were and go straight... Ok, back to where we where. I then told Jeff about how my friend Christine told me that the Japanese will help you no matter what sometimes even if they don't know and it's good to ask 3 times and go with the majority. So I went into a Family Mart and asked the guy and he also said to go straight but added "Supa!" and made a big motion... I said ok and straight we went...

Then low and behold, 4 blocks down by a large supermarket was the onsen! Horray!! This place was amazing. It looks like the Nordstrom on Onsens. It's fancy, clean and very relaxing. Get ready for it... It cost only $10 to get in for the whole day... They are open till 1am! It has a men and womens side and eeach side has 10 or so tubs/pools/relaxation areas. This place was so swanky but filled with families and everyday people. (I will say that people did look at me a bit more here. There was one other foreigner there and said said hi to me... Noone else did.) They just go there to relax. It also has massage chairs all over the place and massage available. Jeff and I signed up for that which was 6350 yen a person, roughly about $65 for an hour. When I was up for my massage the woman showed me a piece of paper she had written down "where is tender place" - I showed her my shoulders and lower back. She worked it out for sure, it was an amazing massage and I was fully clothed on a mat.

We walked out of there after 2 hours having spent maybe $150. You couldn't get out of Nordstrom Spa for that little for 2 people for all that we did. I wish we could have stayed longer but we were worried that we would have no train available back to our hotel.

We headed out of there at about 11ish and thankfully the JR rail was running but the subway wasn't. Once back in Kyoto we had to walk aways back to our hotel but that was ok. It was pretty late when we got back so it was Family Mart for dinner... sandwiches from the cooler. You may laugh but the food that comes out of those places here is just as good as most places. We have had no bad food here yet. :)

Another great day!!

I'm trying to upload pictures so stay tuned!!

Day 10 - Miyajima

Today was our day to catch the ferry for Miyajima as a side day trip. We have now officially traveled by air, land (train and bike), sea (ferry) and foot. The train to Miyajima was really quick, just 8 quick stops and then we hopped off and got directly on the ferry. It was free with our JR Pass - man that things has really paid for itself!! As we boarded the ferry we noticed that this was the first time we'd seen so many foreigners such as ourselves. They sounded to be more from Europe and Australia though, didn't notice any other Americans.

The ferry was a 10 minute ride to the island and of course very photogenic. The red archway is one of the top 3 most photographed items in Japan so I'm sure you'll recognize it. We were a bit worried it was going to be a giant tourist trap but we were very wrong, it was beautiful and I would definitely stay there for atleast a night.

One we got of the ferry we rented two bikes (best idea ever!) and headed out. I instantly saw the deer and insisted on petting them. We weren't sure if they would go for that but they sure did. Didn't even bat an eyelash, they were like tame dogs, but smellier. The funniest moment was when we stopped to take our picture with the archway in the background and left our bags along with a paper map in the basket of our bikes. Out of the corner of my eye I saw 2 deer sniffing our stuff quite aqggressively. Then the one grabbed the map and started eating it. Jeff rushed over and tried to save the map and the deer from this not so helthy snack but was unable to do so. The deer was so funny he stood on the rest of it so Jeff couldn't take it from him. We kind of had to shove the deer out of the way to get the rest of the paper back. He didn't want to give it up. I snapped pictures and laughed so loud and so hard while Jeff wrestled with Bambi. It was so funny!!! After that we kept an eye on our stuff for fear they would try and eat my purse just for the hell of it.

After all that excitement we parked the bikes and checked out the local shrine and pagoda. I swear, Japanese buildings are some of the most beautiful I have ever seen. The architectual design is just amazing. I've seen pictures of course but seeing them in person is beyond what I thought they would look like. If I could have a house like that I totally would! Not sure how well it would work in with the neighborhood but who cares. :)

We got to participate in our first shrine hand washing which was cool. Jeff laughed at me b/c the only reason I knew what to do was b/c I saw a video on youtube. It's amazing what kind of info you can find out there! Miyajima was great and after a few hours of just cruising around, shopping and snacking it was time to head back to Hiroshima to catch the train to Kyoto.

Kyoto was just over 2 hours and pretty easy to do - just one train change. Once we arrived we had to figure out how to get from the Kyoto station to the gion neighborhood where our Bakpak hostel was... The hostel was in a great location - right on the river. Once we checked in we wandered the neighborhood and I actually saw a real Geisha with several men walking down the street. The area is a bit seedier than I had thought with strip clubs and girls who are obviously escorts. The Memoris of a Geisha view I had in my mind was somewhat there but this other side of it kind of dampered it a bit. Thankfully we found a more traditional looking area and the Kyoto I imagined came right back. It was dinner time so we ended up in a small place where we had skewers. The guy wasn't real chatty in Japanese or English but the food was good, plus they had Sapporo, which hasn't been easy to find surprisingly!

After dinner we went back to the hostel to sleep on our box spring bed... the very very uncomfortable bed. It was a box spring with a sheet on it. It sucked! In my next post you will hear how we bailed on staying there and went back to our Toyoko-Inn (which is where I am typing this from right now at 5:10pm on Saturday, Day 11.). :)

P.S. I had read that when in Japan most attractions and stations have stamps you can get and to bring a book as it's an easy souveneir of your trip. I had kind of forgotten this until one day I noticed one. Now Jeff and I seem to see them everywhere and have finally started getting stamps wherever we go. It's fun to look for them now. I highly suggest doing that if you ever come over here!!

Japan in a few weeks...

Jeff and I will be headed to Japan in a few short weeks! We've been talking about going for quite sometime and I can't believe it is almost here. We'll be posting pictures and writing about our mini adventure for our friends and family to check out.

As of right now our itinerary is:
Tokyo
Hiroshima
Fukuoka
Beppu
Kyoto
Tokyo

However, it's pretty flexible... Stay tuned!