Koyasan, the monk (tourist) experience

Tuesday 16/3 - Thursday 18/3:
Returning from the enchanted forest it was time for the long anticipated (or dreaded in Mette and Anjas case?) vegetarian Buddhist meal. We were placed in our own eating room and then served by one of the monks. After that we where left on our own to enjoy the meal.
The big surprise of [...]

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Koyasan, Okunoin graveyard

Tuesday 16/3:
After resting we went to see Okunoin graveyard. It is Japans biggest graveyard, and probably the prettiest one to. It consisted of several hundreds of meters of forest path, surrounded by moss-grown graves, statues and towering trees. It was truly magical! We probably took over hundred photos each, so this is only a few of [...]

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Koyasan, the shukubo

Tuesday 16/3:
Our last destination that vacation was Koyasan, and Buddhist mountain outside of Osaka home to over 100 temples and Japans largest graveyard. We traveled by train and cable car again to get there and arrived at our temple by midday. We where gone try the shukubo experience, that is stay the night at a [...]

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Kyoto light festival

Monday 16/3:
Of course we got some last night, culture experience in Kyoto before we left, not only shopping. Anja and Mette got to try yakiniku, another important Japanese dish that’s important to try if you are in Japan, and after dinner we went to see a light festival in eastern Gion I think it was. [...]

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Purikura and hakama

Monday 16/3:
Time moved fast, and it was already our last day in Kyoto. We hadn’t had time to see even half of what we wanted to see, and I definitely have to go back to Kyoto some day to cover the rest. I wanted to see Nara and Osaka for example, both important cities close [...]

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Kyoto again, Kinkaku-ji, a monkey park and a fire festival

Sunday 15/3:

Sunday, and another long sightseeing day in Kyoto. We had Kinkaku-ji on our top list of things to see in Kyoto, and headed of. It was slow sightseeing this day, but we got a lot done even so.
Kinkaku-ji was tranquil and beautiful. As usual we saw a lot of people in Kimono, and I [...]

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Hijemi Castel

Saturday 14/3:

It was still raining on our first morning in Kyoto, so we decided to do one of our day trips, since it would involve some hours inside a train anyway. After some fumbling around at Kyoto train station, we managed to get reasonably sheep tickets for the trip and headed out.
Himeji Castel was [...]

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Sheishun 18 Kippu, Kyoto, IchiEnSou Guesthouse and Pontocho Alley

Friday 13/3:
Waking early we headed out for a long day in care of Japan Railways. We traveled cheep, but complicated. Using “Sheishun 18 Kippu”, a cheep ticket only available in school holidays, we could only use local trains and not the fast and famous, but a bit to expensive “Shinkansen”. I was a bit worried, [...]

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Hakone

Thursday 12/3:
Ok, over to the actual sightseeing in Hakone. First of all, it involved a lot of different kinds of transportation. It started out with Hakone Tozan Railway, an old fashioned railway going true the mountainside in Hakone, confusing us with changing direction now and then. We then changed to a cable care, and then [...]

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Hakone, the ryokan

Wednesday 11/3 – Thursday 12/3:
Hi, it’s a real long time since I have written in my blog last, I know. So to just get started again I’ll write something short and easy, put up some few pictures, and that’s that (yeah right, when have I ever done that? I always end up writing way too [...]

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