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Well, internet access is a difficult commodity to dig out when you’re zooming around taking in all the sights this wonderful country has to offer.

After the last post, we headed up to Koya-san – a Buddhist retreat up in the mountains south of Kyoto and Osaka. What a treat that was. A large number of temples and pagoda, but most special of all was staying in a Buddhist temple overnight with extremely friendly and helpful monks, serving us a wonderful meal (entirely vegetarian).

We were up at the normally scarily early time of 5.30am to watch the 6am ceremony. The temple we were in had a beautiful ceremony room, and listening to the monks chant and absorbing the incense laden atmosphere was a rare treat indeed. Later on, after another lovely breakfast, we headed up through the cemetary (largest in Japan, by all accounts), to see the main temple area, before heading down to Kyoyo.

Now, Kyoyo is home to the Geisha, and we were keen to hunt out some of these illusive creatures;And we weren’t disappointed. We were lucky to take in the once-a-year Cherry Blossom dance at Gion Corner on our last day. A Truly stunning display of traditional dancing, music and beauty. Needless to say, huge numbers of Cherry Blossoms in Kyoto too (Still stunning a week or so after the ‘peak’ in that part of the country!).

Much anticipated Sushi blowout occured. Nice set of restaurants in the huge and vast Kyoto railway station (the utter antithesis of London Bridge station, ie. stunning to look at, fun to be in, and 12 flights of escalators in one row, that all work, and don’t smell of piss).

Pleased to report Sushi was dangerously cheaper than the UK, but we didn’t quite get as much for our money as we had hoped. Hopes for Tokyo tonight But, as Stew mocks, Rice is now very much a bad idea for Breakfast. We feel a little like school kids right now – we’ve decided to skip tomorrows free breakfast at our hotel and head out for

Takayama was our stop over for the last two nights, that was nice, although it transpires the tourist map of the area is horribly out of scale on the outer edges. A long walk to nowhere ensued, but we did get to see the floats that make Takayama famous throughout Japan. Only a few days early for the spring festival though. Breakfast and dinners rice ridden, but gorgeous local dish featuring local Miso, and gorgous Nigiri. Mmm.

Shinkansen (Bullet trains) are a geeks delight. Impressively fast. Scarily punctual, and more like an aircraft inside than a train. Amazing service, and puts the British system into stark contrast.

So, back in Tokyo, looking forward to Sydney now. And cereals. And toast. For breakfast. mmm.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 12th, 2004 at 9:33 am and is filed under Travelling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.