Nara

Today I visited Nara. Nara is a small town that is famous for it's beauty, temples, and overly friendly deer. It is about 45 minutes by JR train from Kyoto. As soon as I got there I grabbed a map from a tourist center. I then asked one of the people working at the station "I have one day in Nara. What should I go see?" He gave me some advice and I was on my way.

Nara is a small town so I decided I would just walk everywhere. As I got further from the station I realized why it was so famous. I saw a pond and in the pond there were lots of fish and also small little turtles. I saw deer come right up to people. I saw temples and shrines. I saw many sculptures. I saw beautiful and peaceful nature.


About 15 minutes walking distance from the station is Nara Park. It was really peaceful and nice. It was so nice I just sat down in the park for about an hour and read my book. As can be seeing in the pictures there are lots of deer in Nara (especially in Nara Park). The deer are not shy at all. They will come right up to you.

I then went to see Kasuga Temple. Before I reached Kasuga temple there was a garden called Kasuga garden. I decided to explore it for a little bit. It was really beautiful. My words and explanations can do little justice.
Me in front of Kasuga Temple

After I went to the park for a while I went to Kasuga Temple. Even though I have seeing many temples and shrines in Japan it was still very cool to see this temple. It was in a forested area. As I walked in the quiet forest I thought about Samurai, seppuku (honorary suicide), buddo (the warriors code of honor), and Japanese culture. This probably was because I had read many pages in my book that day (the book is Shogun b James Clavel).

Castles, Temples, and Shrines Oh My!

Me in front of Kinkajuki Temple.

Today I went out and saw some sights in Kyoto. I used their bus system to get everywhere. It was really easy. I found myself really enjoying trying to figure out how the transit system worked. I would walk to a location and then look at the geography map and bus map and try to figure out how to get to different locations. The more I have travelled the more comfortable I have become with transportation. Ironically this increases the likelihood that I will get lost because I am more willing to just go somewhere because I have confidence that I will be able to figure out how to get back.

I saw two of their major sights. I saw the Nijo Castle and the Kinkakuji Temple. The nijo castle was really cool. There was a very beautiful tea garden after the castle.

Below to the left is a picture of me in front of Nijo Castle

Above to the right is a picture of Nijo Castle and the tea garden.

The Kinkakuji temple was awesome. This is a major historic sight in Japan. It is a national treasure. When I entered the garden there was a huge golden temple ( I assume this is Kinkakuji temple but I wasn't quite clear on it).
This is a picture of Kinkajuki Temple.

A Volcano in the Same Shirt I Wore Yesterday

Today I went to Aso. This is about 3 hours by train from Beppu. This is a very small mountain town. It is very peaceful and beautiful here. I like it because everything is very slow and relaxed. 15 minutes walking to the west gets you to one side of town 15 minutes walking to the east gets you to the other side of town.

About 30 minutes by bus from Aso is Mount Aso. This is a famous volcano in Japan. I went there today. On the way up to the volcano it was really beautiful. It was very green. As soon as I got to the area near the volcano I wanted to take a run so I locked up my backpack and started running for a little bit. After my run I went back and got all of my things and started the hike up the mountain so I could see the crater. When I got to the top it was very smoky from the volcano. It was really awesome to see. All around the volcano the ground was very dark. I saw some green in the distance so I decided to hike for a little while in that area. While I was doing this the rain started to come down really hard. I didn't know the next time I would be in Aso so I decided I could deal with it.




Eventually I decided to go back down the mountain. On my way down the rain started to come down really hard. It even hailed a little bit. When I finally got to the bottom I was so wet that my shoes were squeaking from the moisture in them. My shirt was soaking wet. I took off my sock and rang them out. Now of course after a day like this I had to head an Onsen. There happened to be one right by my hostel. So I went there for about an hour and I am now relaxing back at the hostel.

The hostel is really nice. In fact, this is probably the nicest hostel I have ever stayed at. It is insanely clean. It has many decorations. It has nice wooden floors. The bathrooms are pristine. The staff is really friendly and speaks excellent English. All of this and I am only paying 28 dollars a night.

This is a picture of the kitchen at my hostel.

Tomorrow I am off to Kyoto. It will take me about 7 hours by train. I will transfer to 4 different trains on the way. I don't mind though. I like looking a the scenery and the trains are comfortable.

Seeing the sights in Nagoya

Today I travelled all around Nagoya, I saw three major sights: Nagoya Castle, Osu Kannon, and Atsutu shrine. Nagoya castle was developed in the 1600’s and used to establish Nagoya as a major capital during the time period. Pieces of the castle were destroyed during world war 2 but it has been put back together. Below is a picture of Nagoya castle



Osu Kannon is a Buddhist temple that was built in the 1300’s. It looks cool so I wanted to check it out. Below is a picture.



Atsutu shrine was built at the beginning of the century which makes it about 2000 years old. It is a Shinto shrine. It has about 9 million people visit it annually. Below is a picture.

Nikko Daytrip

So today I went to Nikko on a day trip. Nikko is about an hour and a half by train from Tokyo. Today was the first time I had the opportunity to use their bullet trains. There train system is so efficient and easy to use. The station is loaded with people and Tokyo is so huge that there are sometimes as many as ten different stations. But they somehow make it really easy to understand. Everything is in Japanese and english. To get to Nikko I had to switch to 2 different trains along the way yet it was still incredibly efficient and easy. It kind of blows my mind that we don't have anything like this in the United States. It's way better than southwest and Virgin Airlines (which is saying alot).

The first thing I noticed as soon as I got out of Tokyo is how beautiful and green Japan is. There are so many mountains and the trees. The colors are so alive. Nikko is a small town in the mountains but is a major tourist hotspot since it is reasonably close to Tokyo. It is famous for it's many shrines and beautiful outdoors. I decided that I would walk to the shrines rather than take public transportation. The town was primarily on a hill which slowly turned into a steep hill which eventually could be called a kind of mountain. At the end of the town is their national park. When I went in there I was blown away at how large and tall all the trees were. I walked throughout this area for a while. I saw a few shrines and thought it was pretty cool. Then as I got higher up I realized that everything I saw wasn't even the main attraction. There was a ticket gate to get into the shrines and my basic philosophy with this is that if it costs money it probably is something pretty cool.

I paid my toll and went inside. I dont' know how to explain it. Basically the ticket counter is outside and all the shrines are outside but somehow they are able to hide the awesomeness that is beyond the ticket counter until you pay your toll and pass the entry gate. As soon as I passed the entry way I was blown away. The temples and shrines are huge, detailed and beautiful. I just wanted to stare at them. It made me realize that I need a camera ASAP and will be looking for one tomorrow.

This was just the beginning. The way that it is set up is that the trees are so huge that it initially blocks many of the shrines. Also the mountain is fairly steep so I was not able to see many of the shrines until I reached the top of the steps. Everytime I looked at the shrines I kept thinking to myself "Japanese history is so cool" and I barely even know the history. I was able to go inside a few of the shrines. Every portion of the shrine is detailed. There are paintings, sculptures, architectural designs (Elibear would understand way more than I do) in every single location imaginable. It is mind blowing to me that these were developed so long ago. It would be amazing if someone did this today yet it was done hundreds (and i think in some cases thousands) of years ago. When I walked into the shrine I had to take my shoes off. Initially I didn't think anything of it until I walked on the floor without my shoes. I don't know what they do to that floor but it felt so smooth and soft on my feet. It even made me quickly think "The next place I live I'm going to implement a no shoe policy". I could go on about the shrines but the more I try the more I feel inept at doing it any justice.

After I looked at the temples for a few hours I walked back to the town. I went to this noodle shop which my guide had reccomended. The guide specifically talked about the caring and warm service of the owner. This owner was one of the sweetest ladies (mom your still sweeter) in the world. She was probably 4 foot 9 inches tall with tons of personality. She looked at me and said "you hungry!" Then she showed me a menu with pictures of all the items. I got udon noodle soup and dumplings because I was in fact extremely hungry. The food was great. I hung out there for a while. When it was time to leave and I stepped outside, it was raining. The owner then tried to give me her umbrella. I wouldn't take it. She then smiled and said "you run fast?" and then she made some running gestures with her arms. I told her "I like rain. Don't worry." She said "No, no, you run fast." I laughed and told her "i'll be fine" she smiled and then eventually let me head out without her umbrella.

Tomorrow I head to Takayama for a few days. I am glad to get out of Tokyo as everything here is so busy it is hard to completely relax. Takayama is supposed to be a mountain town so it will be very different then here. Tomorrow I have a long train ride so I will try and put something together that explains my thoughts on Tokyo. But for now I need to get to sleep because I am going to get up really early tomorrow.