A stay in a Buddhist temple

Some other pretty temple; not ours, ours was down a dark alley

When I discovered we had an extra night at the end of our trip and no hotel booked, I thought it would be easy to find a night in Osaka two weeks out. Not so much. After much stress and searching everywhere possible on the internet, I started looking at options outside Osaka. And that's how we came to stay at Koyasan.

A deer little place: Nara

On Friday morning we got up bright an early to catch the train to Nara. Nara used to be Japan's capital, until the capital was moved to Kyoto to prevent the Buddhist monks from getting powerful positions in government. There are quite a few temples there and most are located around a large grassy park that is inhabited by many, many deer. You can buy deer biscuits from any one of the numerous stalls all over the park. Just watch out, the bigger deer get quite unruly when they don't get their way.

Osaka in a day

We bought ourselves Osaka 1 Day Amazing passes when we first arrived from the information centre in Osaka train station. The pass allows you to use the subway, selected private railways, the bus system and enter some attractions for free. We started off our day on Thursday at Osaka Castle. The pass included Osaka Castle Garden too, but we didn't bother since nothing was in flower it just looked like a bunch of dead trees.

Osaka Castle from the Osaka Museum of History

Ryoan-ji and Kinkaku-ji

We were going to get up early to get to our last two sights in Kyoto before the crowds filled them. I am so glad we opted to have a sleep in and worry about the crowds when we got there. It was kind of disappointing again.

Around Kyoto Station

As I said in another post, we have a pretty awesome view from our hotel window. The bathroom may be musty and have clear sings of mold, but we can see To-ji Temple if we hang out the window enough.

The view from our window

The Philosopher's Path and Arashiyuma

Breakfast is included in our hotel here in Kyoto and we were excited. We hate traipsing the streets in the early morning, hungry and half asleep. Usually finding nothing appetising anyway. Breakfast was, interesting. A bit of en eclectic mix of noodles, pasta, bread and jam, mini buns, cabbage, tofu, eggs and some kind of deep fried potato fritter things. Our plan for the day was to tackle Ginkaku-ji and Nanzen-ji in the morning. Followed by a stint at Arashiyuma in the afternoon.

Ginkaku-ji

Fushimi Inari

We arrived in Kyoto in the early afternoon on Sunday, to find it colder than Hakuba. The original plan was to put our luggage in a locker and see a couple temples in the north. Kyoto is a busy place it seems and all the lockers were in use. So instead, after arming ourselves with some maps from the information place, we walked to our hotel. Which turned out to be very close. According to Brandon it was also very close to Fushimi Inari.

Our night in a traditional Japanese Hotel

I really wanted to stay in a Ryokan at some stage in our trip, so I specifically planned it so we would stay in Nagano Sunday night. We were lazy and caught a taxi when we got back to Nagano from seeing the snow monkeys. Our Ryokan turned out to be in a very traditional part of town, and right near a temple. Check in went a little bit awkward. Luckily, again, I had read you need to leave your shoes at the door and make sure not to step on the outside floor with your socks. After putting on our slippers we were taken to our room and served tea. I hadn't read that you aren't supposed to wear your slippers on the tatami floor, and we got scolded for that.

Looking tired because we just woke up!

Jigokudani Yaenkoen: Snow Monkey Park

On Sunday we caught a bus back to Nagano in the morning and caught another bus to Kanbayashi Onsen Guchi to see the snow monkeys that bathe in an onsen. There are two options for seeing the snow monkeys, which are actually macaques. You can do a tour for about $50 per person or you can go yourself. There is a one day snow monkey pass for a bit over $30 per person that includes transport to and from the monkey park and entry to the park. 

Snow day like a ski day

On Thursday it rained. Oh it rained. ALL day it rained. It was very depressing. Although I did finish a book I had started the day before. We decided we would take the free shuttle to Goryu, a nearby mountain, on Friday to test out it's slopes.

Snow and a private Onsen: Hakuba

Day two of our skiing time and we are both stuffed! I'm not a very good boarder yet, and so there have been plenty of frustrated moments on the mountain. We have been skiing at Happo, which is the closest mountain to where we are staying. Because it is the end of the season there is only one other guest at our hotel. What that means is we basically get free run of things. I'm pretty sure during high season they run shuttles to town at particular times. We can just chose a time and a restaurant and get dropped off as we wish. So nice!

Spectacular views on the way down

Historic Nikko

Today we did a little day trip to Nikko, about 2 hours by rapid train out of Tokyo. Thankfully all our other day trips will have shorter travel times because today was massive. We left the hotel at about 6:30am and stepped off the train in Tokyo at about 7:00pm. We chose not to upgrade to limited express train tickets, to save money, but it mean an extra 40minutes on the way home. Nikko is a small town that has a lot of shrines and temples in a small space and so it is very popular for day trips.

A day in Tokyo!

View from the Tokyo Government Metropolitan building

Last night we landed in Tokyo to start our two week ski and sight-seeing holiday. The airport is a bit over an hour from the city centre and we opted to catch a limosine bus (roughly $30pp). We knew our hotel was close to a train station but had no idea how to get from the station to it, so after the bus dropped us at Tokyo train station we just caught a taxi to the hotel. Surprisingly it was less than $10, but it was only a short trip.
Before we left, we were talking about how every time we go to talk to someone in another language Spanish just pops into our heads. As we collected our bags from the bus, the baggage handler asked (in English) "two bags?". "Si," Brandon replied, and I wet myself laughing.