Kyoto, Nara & Osaka

So, we're now back home, these posts have come a little late because my enthusiasm for writing them has plummeted, as i'm sure has the number of people reading them. Still, I feel I should finish it for the sake of completeness, if nothing else. So on that note, let me take you back to two weeks ago....

We started our rail pass on the Tuesday, and headed straight off to Kyoto. The train was incredible and further confirmed that we had been travelling like suckers for the previous four months. No worries, we were living the dream now. A little too relaxed, we missed our stop for Kyoto so had to turn around at Osaka and head back. When we arrived we found our hostel, which, like everything else in Japan, was much nicer than we were used to, but also more expensive.

Kyoto is basically the cultural capital of Japan. It has a ridiculous number of temples and gardens to look around and shrines to visit. We spent 5 nights here altogether and used it as a base for our trips to Nara and Osaka. It was a beautiful city, perhaps the most beautiful we've seen yet. It was mad hot but we still managed to have a day cycling around to see some bits and pieces. We weren't short of things to do that's for sure. Essentially though, to try and explain it, it was really just lots of shrines, temples and gardens. So pictures will probably do a better job than me waffling on. There are literally thousands to chose from here but the highlights that we saw were the golden and silver pavillions, Kinkaku-ji and Ginkaku-ji, Tenryu-ji and the bamboo grove that is just outside it, and also all of the torii gates on Mount Inari - which consisted of literally thousands of them all the way up the mountain (which we didn't climb, lazily.) Obviously we found a nice little sushi place to frequent also.

One thing we did learn, is that even if your hostel is incredible (which it was, the best one we stayed at, the bed was immense) it doesn't mean you'll get a good nights sleep. When we arrived at our second hostel in Kyoto, on our first night there we entered the room to find three other people (room of 6) huddled around discussing what to do with the 6th roomate - a guy snoring ridiculously loudly, also completely spread out with his hands down his pants - he was a charmer. After a little deliberation one of the girls in our room gave him a swift kick to the legs after negotiations had broken down, mainly due to not being able to wake him up. Anyway, we slept well after that, mostly due to us being absolutely shattered. The next morning they were all gone - rejoice. That night it was just me and Maddy in the dorm, or so we thought. Cue 4am, snoring guy rolls back in and spends about 20 minutes putting his stuff away in the lockers, literally banging away and apparently doing his best to find out just how much noise you can make with a few plastic bags - he made alot. Cue him snoring for the next few hours and us taking it in turns to go bang on his bed and tell him to shut up. I mean i feel bad about this whole situation - I don't think he was snoring on purpose, but just lie on your side, man!? Anyway, most of my sympathy for him went AWOL when he woke us up. Maddy remains convinced that he was a big, bald Chinese man, I think he was Russian. I guess we'll never know, he was gone before we woke up.

Anyway, here are some pictures.

We were originally planning to spend a couple of days in Osaka, but then we were warned off it so decided to stick with Kyoto instead - which I think was a good decision. We decided to mooch over for an evening anyway to see what it is all about. We had a wander round and it was pretty interesting, but nothing mind blowing. Got some pictures though, standard.

We also went on a day trip to nearby Nara. It had a pretty similar vibe to Kyoto but we hadn't seen enough by this point so it was all good. Maddy played tour guide for the day and took us on a trip around this huge area that had lots more temples and shrines in it, as well as a giant Buddha. It also has deer running riot all over the place. Like Kyoto, this place was amazing - well worth the short journey over here.

Next up we were heading over to Hiroshima and Miyajima for the last couple of days of our rail pass before heading back to Tokyo for a week. Once again we jumped on the awesome bullet trains and enjoyed the ride.

Now that i'm back home I've finally had a chance to catch up on some of the music I've missed while I was away. What an awesome release this is by Synkro & Indigo. Both tracks are mindblowingly good. Check it.