After a long drive from Nagano we made it into Kyoto. Kyoto
is my favourite city in all of Japan; I fell in love with it during my previous
trip to Japan. This time however we didn’t get to see as much of the city or
the surrounding castles or other historical sites. This was because we got into
the city later in the evening and the next day we were leaving to visit Nara.
Our evening in Kyoto was nice. We were very close to the
famous Gion district where you may be lucky enough to spot a geisha, so we took
a nice walk in the area and had a delicious dinner. We then walked on to the
main shrine of the area. The Yasaka Shrine sits at the end of Gion and the busy street leading up to it was built up to accommodate the many visitors to the shrine. Inside the shrine grounds there is a centre building
that is surrounded by three levels of paper lanterns. After our evening walk we
headed back to the hotel.
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| Green Tea Mousse |
The next day we woke to rainy weather, which continued all
the way to Osaka. Before leaving Kyoto we went back to Gion to do a bit more
shopping. After finishing with the shopping we got into the car and headed an
hour south for the city of Nara.
On my trip to Japan 3 years ago the best day that I had was
the day trip out to Nara with my friend Alex. It had been something that I had
wanted to see after learning about Japanese Buddhism in school. Nara was once a
capital of Japan and a major centre of Buddhism. So on this trip we made
another stop there.
The city is famous for the deer park in which shrines and
one of the world’s most famous buildings. The central thing to visit at the
park is Todaiji Temple. This temple is the world’s largest wooden structure and
within the structures is a giant seated Buddha statue. This statue is larger
than the one in Kamakura and unlike Kamakura you cannot enter the body – they
do though have a pillar with a hole carved in it with the exact size of the
statues nostril. Seeing this Buddha was just as awe inspiring as it was the
first time and I was happy that I made another trip here. The one thing that I
hope is on my next visit it won’t be raining.
From Nara we made tracks to Osaka. Osaka has quickly become
a favourite place of mine in Japan (the train station at Umeda is my favourite
place to be). We got into Osaka later in the evening and checked into what has
been the nicest hotel during our trip. If you ever get to Osaka I recommend
staying at the Hotel Monterey Osaka-Umeda. Being in the Umeda area we went into
the Osaka Station City and had dinner at one of the department stores there. I
wish that we had had more time in Osaka, but seeing as I will be here for at
least 6 more months I know I will be going back to explore more of the city.
Check back for the next update when we see a little bit of
Hiroshima and maybe some New Year’s Eve Festivities.
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