Osaka was amazing! Last round of Japan before we go back to the uk

The trip to Osaka and being here was just great! Entering shinsaibashi station was just a huge experience because of the amount of people that I saw! 

Once we got to the hotel, we out our bags down and then Taka came to take us around Osaka. And when we saw the lights and the famous picture of Osaka, it was just amazing! 

What a great time it was looking around and looking at things such as takoyaki, or grilled octopus, which looked awesome as it was made. Also in Osaka, there is something called okonomiyaki, but I didn't have that to eat either. We didnt stay with Taka long because tiredness due to the trip was setting in and we were really tired. 

On Saturday, Satoshi came to visit us ft tokushima. At first, because we were a bit unprepared, boo said it was best if I hang out first, then we decide what we want to to do afterwards. While walking around shinsaibashi, we saw long lines for food and so many good stalls it was amazing. Satoshi also suggested a place to eat, and he was planning on going to Osaka castle, so I told Naomi and we went to Hanamaru; this place for us, was  food heaven for us! We got to eat lots of vegetable tempura and awesome noodles! The medium bowl was huge! 

That is what me and boo had to eat. That's a medium size bowl and lots of tempura! I had a mission to eat that and I did, but it was very very hard to do Haha. But it was so good! 

After that, we took the train to go to Osaka castle, where I saw a white Ferrari, which looked pretty impressive. 

On the way to the castle, we saw falcons and an owl, and i had to take a picture with it! Also, some japanese girls wanted to take pictures with me and the owl as well.

Further on, we saw a street performer and he was very good to watch, so I recorded it for a bit then went to explore the castle. 

The castle was very amazing to see and the views was superb! 

On the way back, we heard a live band and then once we got back to the hotel, boo went upstairs while I walked around with Satoshi. It was Great to see both Taka and Satoshi while here! 

Today, we got up late and went to eat at Hanamaru, but they didnt have all the tempura like before. But oh well, it was very good either way. We went to spa world, but because boo has a tattoo, we couldn't go in, so we headed back to the hotel, continued watching an anime called Gokujou seitokai, and we have been watching it since wakayama and it was very good. Just finished it now has. 

One thing that was bad was that the Paris to Heathrow flight was cancelled, so somehow we have to work out what will happen, but I prayed and so I know God will work it out for us I'm sure :) 

We are checked in for tomorrow, just gotta pack the bags properly and then we leave tomorrow morning for the uk :)

To be honest, I'm sad a bit to be leaving Japan. I have loved a lot of it and I can't wait to come back again :) but I also know things in the uk are waiting for me like university. But while I've been here, I've definitely grown in confidence speaking Japanese :) so I thank God for that :) 

Plus I got to do things here that I have always wanted to do, such as play the shamisen and go on the trains here :) 

I loved it :) 

Home now and still trying to get used to this time zone

It's now 4:23 in the morning. I was up since 3 ish because by the time 8 pm came, I had to sleep. I was just too tired. 

But, let me recap what Happened before that. 

So we got up that morning a bit late and didnt leave the hotel Til after 7:05 ish, as we has planned the night before to leave around 7, but because the bus stop was close to where we were (being only a stop away from the hotel by subway) it wasn't too bad. The wifi device served us well and I posted it as the company requested. 

Buying a ticket in the underground was a first for us,as we always used our manaca cards to pay for stuff. But with the help of a station guard, we got one for Namba. Once we figured out where the bus station was, we got on and headed to kansai airport. On the way there, we spoke about the trip and how there are things that other countries can learn from Japan and our experience of being there. 

Once we got to the airport, I pretty much went to air France and told them about our situation. They knew about it already and tried to give us a different flight with them; however, that didnt work out for some reason. So in the end, they reissued tickets for us to go with finnair. I thought that was pretty deep seeing as they had to let us go to another airline, but oh well ! The good thing was that the fight with them meant we were able to get home much earlier and less time in the air!

However, I'm being all happy now. Then I was sort of complaining and not seeing much of the good in this. Boo had to even remind me to accept not expect, the same principle I has taught her. That whole experience taught me something in itself. 

Once we got the tickets, we headed for security, and it was THE longest line we ever saw for it. However, we managed to grab a selfie in it. 

Also another we realized is that Kansai doesn't provide plastic bags for the liquids. Boo nearly lost her stuff, but thankfully the security people gave her one. Not once in the whole time we were standing there, did we see any plastic bags anywhere, so we know for next time to bring our own. 

The Flight to Helsinki felt short for me; that's because I slept so much and it seemed to fly by (pardon the pun lol). The transit to the second flight was a bit inefficient, and hence the flight left late. But this flight made the money part of me shake my head in disbelief. As it was a short flight, there was no entertainment system and hence you had to rent it out so you wouldn't go bored if you didn't have anything to do. Boo said that's how business have to make money. Still... 

Once that flight had landed, we changed the money we didn't use, (which turned out to be a lot given back to us in pounds), so always use a buy back guarantee when traveling! 

Once we got our bags and that sorted, we called a cab and headed home. Home sweet home. Although part of me missed Japan, another part of me was glad I'm here again. We ordered pizza and watched anime (this one is called free eternal summer) and then afterwards I slept (sorry, I crashed). Hence the time zone thing i said earlier. 

And that's that. Japan is now behind me. But I loved it.

:D

Out of the country and into the city

So as I'm writing this, we are heading for kii tanabe, and the hiking ordeal and experience is over. The place we stayed at was ok, but I rather looking back, would stay at the minshuku in nonaka. It felt better to me on all fronts. (Besides the bugs). 

We managed to get into our rooms early after leaving Kenji-sama and his wife, the owners of the minshuku we stayed at. We exchanged email addresses and I want to stay in touch with him :) he is very cool. 

After all that mountain and valley time, I'm glad to see solid ground with no cliffs and all that stuff. 

Very glad. Plus the wifi device didn't work out there either, which sucked, but the wifi in the minshukus were ok for us. 

Part of me will be sad to leave Japan, but I can always come back and I will :) plus, I thought we had less money to use, but I realized we have more as we didn't use that much so far. 

Plus I'm seeing Taka today and Satoshi tomorrow, so that's very good for me :) after we get off the bus, gonna eat and then wait for the train. 

Or maybe a little more...

The onsen was amazing and the owner's wife drives very fast on the small roads we were on. Also, I'm more confident in my Japanese now because I'm speaking so often. It's good for me :) 

The dinner was amazing. We had so much to eat and the owner is an amazing chef! He told from the bus stop near here to a place closed to the accommodation we are tomorrow isnt far and then we can, if we want to, walk the rest of it, which I was thinking "no way!" He said it is downhill all the way and a slope and it would take about 2-3 hours. 

Ill think about it. Lol. 

The room here is lovely :) and the toilet here does some interesting things. The light switches off if it doesn't detect movement and the toilet flushes automatically! 

Very very cool :) 

So am I hiking tomorrow? We will see haha. 

That's it! No more hiking!

We started off from takahara and the walk was scary, long and death inviting. So many times I thought that was it and God saved me many times! I learned a lot about myself for sure! 

No more hiking. I mean it. Too much for me now in every way possible. 

Our rest stop! Praise The Lord! 

So a praying mantis kept running after me on the table as of it wanted a fight. Darn thing. There was two chances to give in and take a ride and I was so tempted, but I couldn't do because that means quitting and so we walked. 

We headed through a village called chikatsuyu, and it was so lovely to see.

Then after that, we headed for the irorian minshuku and now then collapsed there. The owners are so nice, they will take us I the onsen and our room looks like this. 

So pretty. :) 

So! Now time for onsen and then dinner @ 6 :) 

Woohoo. That's it! 

What an amazing two days it was!

Monday: we woke up and had breakfast and attended the fire ritual at the temple; it was very impressive. Very impressive indeed. 

We started off the day walk by finding a map and then walking for what seemed like forever and it was like a ghost town the whole way to town. Once we got there, we went to eat and had ice cream as well, then headed off to go and look at various gravestones and a mausoleum. 

The gravestones in Japan are worthy to note; they are elaborate and take great care with them, even eating at the grave site as well as we saw. We got to the mausoleum that houses the monk who started the sect of Buddhism that we saw at Koya San. It was huge and there was lanterns everywhere we went and boo made plenty of jokes that I couldn't stop laughing at. 

After we left there and walked back to the ryokan, we decided to watch dragon ball z and we had dinner and then slept. It was a long but a good day. 

Tuesday: we had to get up early in order to get our bus to hashimoto. We checked out and headed there. The journey there and to kii tanabe was so nice and scenic. 

The train we got on. Very nice seats. 

One of the views I saw while boo slept. 

Arrived at kii tanabe. Was very nice indeed and hot. 

Once we got there, there was a lady waiting for us and took us to the tourist info center where she gave us all our details about the hiking. Before we left for takajiri, we went and got something to eat at a place called senuki. Man, that place was amazing! The food was big and the price was low and we also got something called inari, which is rice wrapped in fried tofu, which was sweet and savory! I fell in love with it! 

Because boo had a sugar craving, we went and got some ice cream and then left for takajiri. The bus ride felt so long, but we got there in the end and there was someone waiting to take our bags over to our hotel. As for us, we had to hike and that hike was something else! I was scared at first, because it felt like I could of died more than once, but it was good in the end for sure. I prayed a lot and definitely God helped me with the fears I had. Eventually we got to minshuku and had so much food it was crazy! 

Now we are off to sleep and hike again tomorrow! 

Geishas, stations, manga and more!

O What a day today was! First of all, I'm straight up tired right now. But I got to e faithful and blog while it is still fresh in my mind! 

Today we woke up at 5 in the morning because we just didnt sleep that much but felt rested. We didnt properly get up Til about 7 and got breakfast, which was really good! After eating, we went back to our room and I watched Japanese TV for the first Time! Gotta say, it's really awesome and although I didn't get everything that was said, I got a lot out of it! It's very dramatic compared to English news! After that, we left the hotel and headed to the Main Street. 

We walked around the Main Street (四条通り) and everything was pretty much closed (it was around 10 ish and stores open at 11 or 12), but there was an manga store that was open and so we checked it out. Man, it was different!

Obviously, I had to take pictures and I shot a video as well, which ill post on Facebook. It was just amazing here and noone was in the store besides us 2 and the staff. After that, we looked around some more around the area known as Teramachi, 寺町, but the stores were still closed. Instead of waiting there, we want back to the hotel, hoping our luggage would be there soon. And has God would have it, the receptionist was talking about me on the phone. We got back around 11:30 ish and about 30 minutes later, our bags arrived ! We were so happy! We thanked the receptionist many times! 

Once the luggage came, we showered and changed and went to Kyoto station. And then we for the first time, experienced the Japanese underground system. Here are some pictures. 

We got to use our e cards that have money on them and can be used for a variety of uses, but we will stick with transport, which is cheap in Japan. It was a bit confusing at first, with so much to look at, but eventually we looked at a map and found the platform. 

Once we got to Kyoto station, 京都駅, we saw the building we wanted to go for lunch and when we got in, it was just like whoa! First, here is the entrance of the building and now what we saw:

Once we got where we wanted to go, we gonna that no where did the food we wanted, so we ended up going back to where we went on the first day we got here, a food place around the corner from our hotel. 

After that was done, we headed for the tour. Now this is where it gets good. We learned about the area called Gion, 祇園,where we were, and how it is the most prestigious place in Japan pretty much for geisha, 芸者, known as geiko, 芸子,in Kyoto, and their way of life. So much info was given and now, me and Naomi are experts pretty much in identifying them haha. We even got to see them at the last part of our tour! We had to wait a bit, but was definitely worth it! 

After the tour, we got a selfie with the tour leader Mie, who also will help me find out how I can play the shamisen, as it is harder to get hold of to do then I thought. 

After that, we got some ice cream and as we were walking back, there was a shrine that was open, so we went in and took pictures and I took a video. 

Now we are back and Naomi is out cold. I don't blame her. We are seriously tired and walked out! But such a good day! It pays to explore and then chronicle it! :)

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! :) 

我々は日本に着いた！

We are in Japan right now traveling to our hotel in Kyoto as I write this! 

However, our bags will come tomorrow noon because of the flight delay that happened in London. It's annoying because boo needed stuff from that bag and so we have to make do with what we have and get more stuff. 

The flights were something else! We had to run for the flight to Osaka because of the delay in London and then the flight itself was good. Although we are so much in the flight, out stomachs must be adjusting to it all! 

I can't believe we are here n that I am here! Finally it isn't a dream anymore! Tha nk you God :D 

I am sure we will crash when we get in. We didnt sleep much on the flight really haha. 

What a day today!

So after we woke up from our coma sleep (haha), we changed and went out to eat. We went to a place called ハゲ天 which served tempura. The staff were nice and had a little English in them to help us out although I wanted to use more Japanese haha. 

The food is below: 

It just kept coming and was amazing! We also took pictures of the food items that they have on display. It's unique to Japan I believe. 

After that we went to look at a gift shop and thought about what to get some people.  Then we walked around and we saw a street musician playing the shamisen, and I love the shamisen so I had to take a picture, which he agreed to! One of the things I want to do while here is at least play the shamisen once! 

Then we walked some more and then came back to the hotel. We got yukatas, and we saw men and women in their own versions of it, which was so awesome :) 

Can't wait for tomorrow :)