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We are now in Kyoto. All I can really say is exhaustion. I’m starting to feel the burn out from carrying my back pack around, even my day pack, as well as walking nearly 12 hours a day. I am definitely looking forward to finding a nearby Onsen.
One thing that I have learned is to carry much less clothes. I have never been so tired in my life but yet so excited. Humping around that big back pack with all that clothes can be very fatiguing. I would suggest if you plan on backpack anywhere to maybe carry 3 days worth of clothes and nothing more. All the hostel, and cheap hotels have washing machines that you can use to wash when needed. Depending on the time of year and where you are going I would suggest mostly carrying Kahki style clothing because in the rain if soaked they will dry up quickly, not only that but you get the benefit of not lugging around that extra weight that jeans add. If possible use cargo pants and carry a small day pack around with you when you walk around. You never know if you might find something you would like to buy or to be able to carry a camera, bottled water, and a small snack. Try eating as often as you can because most places out here serve foods that won’t really last long in your stomach, especially if you are walking around all day. One big mistake that I did as well was bringing my vans shoes with me, it may be the fact that they are less cushioned from underneath or something but they can be more tiring than carrying maybe some cross training shoes or other types of sneakers.
We took the bullet train (shinkansen) from Tokyo to Kyoto and then took another train from Kyoto to Nara. Nara is a small city .. really small city. While on our way there we thought we were pretty much lost, mainly because its a rural part of Japan. The place we stayed at paid for its distance though. Yougendo Inn is a small traditional style guesthouse built nearly 100 years ago owned and ran by owner Chris and his wife. The place was very comforting, and the hosts were amazing. They have a small bar dining area at the side of the house were they serve Mediterranean style food. I must admit it whether it was the hunger or the food was amazing. Every dish came nicely garnished, and great tasting. Today we followed it with a traditional style breakfast cooked by the owner himself which was amazing, and we took off to the main part of Nara for the sightseeing attraction there. There is a large temple there (I must apologize but i don’t remember the name of it), it is considered the largest wooden building in the world. Inside of this temple there is the largest statue of Buddha as well. I only wish I had more time available to get to do some more sight seeing as well. All the temples have a fortune teller at the 100 yen container that drops the number stick and based on that number stick you look it up on the wall where there is a small drawer and pull out a small sheet of paper that has your fortune. So far out of the three that I have tested it, it has failed on me. So I purchased a good fortune charm, and a charm to keep bad fortunes away from the monks there.
On our way to Osaka we came across an old Japanese man who was really nice enough to stay with us on the JR train until we reached our exit. So far I have only had the chance to see the Osaka castle from a quick glance on the JR train. Tomorow we’ll be doing some more sight seeing.
I have uploaded some pictures that I took to the picasa link on the right ->>