Queens Birthday Monday in Kobe..continued
On Friday 3 June we went from Kyoto to Nara, ancient capital of Japan-along with about 10,000 schoolchildren, including a group who squealed and stampeded to see a film star when we were at the railway station. As well as school children and huge temples Nara also has a huge herd of fairly odorous deer who wander freely in the town and around the temples.Had a nice hotel room with superview of graveyard (Ruth had asked for a room with a nice view please when she booked it for us and so it was as you can see in photo!!)Visited the Todai-ji temple, another World Heritage Site completed in 752 which is the largest wooden building in the world with the great image of Vairocana Buddha-how they cast a 16 metre high bronze in the 8th century defies belief-also it is hard to be serene in this place with thousands of people there including lots of americans who seemed even louder and lumpier than us .Dinner at Mos burgers (japanese chain) -great infection control here -2 basins with flowing soap for patrons and pump pot handwash for staff which was constantly being used (great photos to bring home for Aggi!)Japan is very clean and hygeine is constantly encouraged -no one drops litter and if they do someone is there to pick it up.
Its starting to heat up -Mr Ｋoizumi the Prime Minister is heading a campaign for more casual summer wear for the salarymen, instead of the ubiquitous black suit and tie, when it is 30 degrees.This is to save electricity (by turning down airconditioners) -he is leading by example and wore a cool white Okinawan shirt in the Parliament the other day
Saturday morning back to Kyoto to get Shinkansen to Hiroshima -photo of Kyoto railway station which is huge and impressive structure and is controversial here.
Arrived in Hiroshima in late afternoon and found the Hotel Flex, on a pleasant riverbank site, without much difficulty.The cat would lose its head here if we swung it in the room; its a tiny but a well designed room with all mod cons.
Hiroshima is hazy too. People tell us its the summer heat but we think there is a lot of smog over Japan.Never the less Hiroshima is a really lovely city.
We headed out into a festival..how lucky we are to come to these things by accident (like the weddings in the temples) This was the summer Kimona fesival where the people of Hiroshima wear their summer kimonas and sashay down the malls and streets looking magnificent. See the pics of a family, a girl with her bike (and we did see her hike up the kimona a ride off) and by contrast some goth youths.
Well its about midnight here and even the computer is tired cos photos wont upload -will try again in the morning when we tell you about our wonderful day out with Yoshi and his family, including our trip to Miyajima Island.
Its starting to heat up -Mr Ｋoizumi the Prime Minister is heading a campaign for more casual summer wear for the salarymen, instead of the ubiquitous black suit and tie, when it is 30 degrees.This is to save electricity (by turning down airconditioners) -he is leading by example and wore a cool white Okinawan shirt in the Parliament the other day
Saturday morning back to Kyoto to get Shinkansen to Hiroshima -photo of Kyoto railway station which is huge and impressive structure and is controversial here.
Arrived in Hiroshima in late afternoon and found the Hotel Flex, on a pleasant riverbank site, without much difficulty.The cat would lose its head here if we swung it in the room; its a tiny but a well designed room with all mod cons.
Hiroshima is hazy too. People tell us its the summer heat but we think there is a lot of smog over Japan.Never the less Hiroshima is a really lovely city.
We headed out into a festival..how lucky we are to come to these things by accident (like the weddings in the temples) This was the summer Kimona fesival where the people of Hiroshima wear their summer kimonas and sashay down the malls and streets looking magnificent. See the pics of a family, a girl with her bike (and we did see her hike up the kimona a ride off) and by contrast some goth youths.
Well its about midnight here and even the computer is tired cos photos wont upload -will try again in the morning when we tell you about our wonderful day out with Yoshi and his family, including our trip to Miyajima Island.
posted by Helen and Lyndsay at 7:10 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home