Month: July 2007

On May 16th & 17th I went to Nara. Nara was the capital of Japan from 701 to 784 and didn’t get bombed during WWII so there are a lot of original buildings. There are actually seven places in Nara that are UNESCO world heritage sites. My first stop was to Horyu-ji which has the oldest wooden buildings in the world (late seventh century!). I took the bus from Nagoya station to Nara ($40 roundtrip!!) and then jumped on a bus in Nara, heading southwest towards Horyu-ji. It was really beautiful. I got there fairly early – before the uniformed nightmare of a multitude of simultaneous school trips began. Nara was absolutely crawling with school kids. So it was a little tough to enjoy the ancient atmosphere, but still good. There’s extra info on every picture, so please click to read more (and see a bigger photo too).

Then I went around the corner to ChÅ«gÅ«-ji which used to be a nunnery! I thought that was cute that the nunnery was right around the corner from where the monks lived.� heheheh…� It was originally the home of Prince Shotoku’s mother. He converted it into a temple when she died in 621.

After that, I got back on the bus towards Nara to meet up with my ex-student and now-friend, CHIHIRO!!!� YAY!!� It was so nice to see her again. She was a student at Toyota Nova but finished high school and started going to university in Nara. She had invited me to come stay with her so how could I resist? We met at the train station and walked around Nara a bit, went to the Nara National Museum and then back to her apartment building to celebrate her friend’s birthday. We spent about 3 hours eating dinner and chatting. Well, they chatted and I did my best to understand their fast Japanese. hahah. Had a good time but I was quite tired by the end of that so I slept really well that night. It poured down rain all night but had pretty much cleared up by the next day.

The next morning Chihiro walked me back to the station so that I could figure out where I was.� :-)� And then she went off to school and I explored on my own. I went to a TON of temples…. I can’t believe I made it to all of them in one day.

And that was the end of Nara. Thank you Chihiro!!!� I had a really fantastic time walking to all those million different temples, ponds and gardens. And just in case you want to do the same, here’s the best online map of Nara I’ve seen so far: Nara Map PDF.

On April 26th, my friend Sebastien arrived. He stayed until May 4th. We hung around Nagoya for a few days. Went to a neato motorcycle show in Nagoya port with tons of motorcycles, interesting Japanese people and live tatooing!! Then took a road trip across Shizouka prefecture, up into Yamanashi prefecture and around Mount Fuji. Then we (he) drove down Izu peninsula through big forested mountains. It was a really fun trip… The story is in each of the photos, so click ’em!

So that was pretty much the first part of Sebastien’s trip. And now the road trip pictures: (click for details)

And that was the end of the Sebastien trip!!!� After all of that driving we just kind of hung out in Nagoya and relaxed until it was time for him to go back to the states. It was lots of fun, filled with all sorts of strange Japanese things, beautiful nature and scenery, and delicious food too!!!!

And right after mom & gramma left, the cherry blossoms started blooming! I went to a park near Toyota City called “Suigen” that has a bunch of cherry trees that are lit up after dark. And the house right across the street from the apartment had beautiful trees in their front yard. I hope they didn’t mind my taking photos of them.� :-)� (no extra text in the photos this time….)

We woke up on day three to a spectacular view of the mountains in the distance and were really surprised to see snow on them!!� We rounded out our Kanazawa trip with a stroll through the extremely fishy smelling morning (fish) market, a lovely stroll through the samurai village in the Naga-machi area, and last of all we took a train to the coast of the Sea of Japan! (click the pics for more details)

The samurai house was definitely one of my favorite places in Japan. I’d love to own a duplicate of it. In a warmer climate. We then prepared to leave Kanazawa and go to the coast….

We took the train back to Nagoya and goofed off for the latter part of the trip, doing our best to be annoying foreigners. I’m pretty sure we succeeded.� :-)

And thus ended the Kanazawa trip! Mom and gramma went back to the states and were socked pretty good with jet lag. I went back to work and took my super sweet time to get all of these photos up…..better late than never I guess. At this rate, I should be back up to date before I leave Japan!� Hahah.

We started day two with the main intention of going to Kenrokuen, a famous garden in Kanazawa. And also to go check out Kanazawa Castle too. Of course we made a few stops along the way….click the pictures for further details!

And thus we finally left Kenrokuen Garden!!� I know it seems like a lot of photos, but just imagine how many I actually took!!!!!!!!� This is just a small percentage..� I guess I’m just photo happy.� :-) We were getting pretty chilly by this time but pressed on to Kanazawa Castle which is just across the road.

We were basically frozen at that point so we retreated to a Kanazawa sweets museum. Which I can’t remember the name of. But they had interesting displays and we all bought some sweets at the end of that.

So that’s the end of day two! I still can’t believe all of the stuff that we did…. And there’s MORE to come!!!

And on we went! We took a train to Kanazawa on the morning of April 29th. I slept most of the way there but mom & gramma took pictures and chatted. We had decided to go to Kanazawa because after Kyoto we had seen plenty of temples and shrines. Plus, Kanazawa is famous for handicrafts, which all three of us really like. They make paper, gold leaf, pottery, yuzen kimono, lacquer ware, and all sorts of other stuff I can’t remember. It was really a fantastic trip but quite a bit colder than we had expected! Please click on the pictures to read the story behind them.

And thus ended our first day!!� As you can see, we didn’t slow our schedule down at all once we reached Kanazawa. I think we were determined to set some sort of record for the most sightseeing crammed into the shortest amount of time possible. Both mom & gramma did a great job of keeping up as I dragged them around the country!