3 days well 4 days in one!

I definitely got a lot to talk about! I didn't manage to blog Thursday Friday or Saturday, so I got to do it now! However it is so awesome I have to talk about it! 

Thursday: we took the train to arashiyama, 嵐山, known as stormy mountain. The ride there was interesting as it was the first time we had to use public underground and that was really fun for me, even though it felt like a bit of a mission at first! 

Once we got to the private line that would take us to arashiyama, I Had to take a picture of the train and the control panel, it looked that cool to me! 

The ride up to arashiyama was amazing. We got to see all sorts of buildings and architecture! Once we got to arashiyama station, it looked amazing! The picture below is part of the station. 

And the view from outside. 

This place looked like nothing but green and nature and I liked that a lot! Once we got out of the station, we headed to a temple called tenryuji, 天龍寺, or temple of the heavenly dragon (translation done by me, sounds cool). It looked like this 

After we left there, went to a place called 'the trail of bamboo' and it surely didnt surprise! I felt while going through the trail a sense of awesome and tranquility as well as where the song for a character in a game called tekken, named yoshimitsu, has a theme song that takes place in a forest. 

After we left there, we had udon noodles with fried tempura! It was very nice and we also had ice cream! Since we had a tea experience to do, we had to head back to Kyoto. However, we got lost and didn't make it, so we went to temple called 知恩院, or cho-in temple; 

It was amazing for sure, although it closed soon after we got there and rained a bit. 

After that, we headed to samurai kembu, where the fun stated! Boo had her lesson from 5 and mine was @ 6, so I walked around a bit and I saw this temple. 

Afterwards, I was able to learn how samurais lived and to be practice sword fighting moves and be one! The experienced was a team come true for me, and I took it vey seriously and it was very very enjoyable! We got our pictures taken and we got gifts and certificates!

We walked home afterwards and just crashed at the hotel. 

Friday: we got up a bit late and because boo didn't want to go to a onsen, we went and shopped for gifts instead. We managed to get gifts for everyone, and I got to try out playing the shamisen, which was one thing I always wanted to do! Boo also got a yukata, liked i promised :) we ate a place called Shakey's, which was a buffet (first for us) and it was really nice. Afterwards, we walked back and watched Walter veith (or rather he watched us cos we felt asleep!) 

Saturday: we got up and headed for Nara, and the journey was pretty good! When we got there, as always, we took pictures! Also boo got a origami deer, because the lady who helped us and gave a map, said she is pretty. :)

The amount of deer we saw was amazing; at first we thought they were statues, and then we realized they weren't statues! It was also very very hot! The different temples and places we saw were just amazing! 

From this picture, we saw the view of Nara. It was very nice indeed! We then had lunch and at a little restaurant and headed back to Kyoto! However, we got a bit lost as google maps didnt tell us we had to change trains. Eventually, we got back to Kyoto and it was raining hard! 

Once again, we crashed (well I did; boo was watching memoirs of a geisha, because of our geisha experience on Wednesday.)

Sunday: we got up and got our luggage set to our next hotel. We also had a big breakfast, and set off to mount Koya! The trip was certain fun and the amount of changes were something else! 

Us at umeda :)

When we finally got to mount koya, we had to take a cable car up the mountain! I knew we had to, but I was still shocked n and we made it in time because boo had to run out the bathroom and we had to run for the cable car itself! 

View from gokurakubashi, the stop before mt. Koya. 

The cable car :) 

Man, I gotta admit, I was praying hard haha even though I'm sure it would be fine. But we are so high up compared to other parts of Japan! How many people can say this are within a mountain?! 

The view about 200 m up. 

The view from the top of mt. Koya. It is 853m above regular level! 

We then took the bus and finally got to our hotel. And man, is it impressive looking! 

Once we got in, we got shown to our room after checking in, and it is a Japanese ryokan! (旅館)! A ryokan is a type of hotel that shows a traditional Japanese room. 

This is with the bedding put in, which isn't there all the time. We also get dinner and breakfast served to us and it's all vegetarian! We also went to the afternoon meditation, and it was very different, and it required a lot of breathing. To be honest, it gave me a chance to pray for 30 mins. 

Now, I'm Going go try for the first time a onsen! :)