Japan day 11 Back in Kyoto, where I had slept, I first set out for Kinkaku-ji. A three-storied Buddhist temple located near a pond and surrounded by a finely cultivated Japanese garden. The name literally means “The Golden Pavilion” and that’s not exaggerating as the to upper stories were covered in gold leaf. It was incredibly shiny and it seemed almost supernatural with so much gold. The building itself wasn’t open for visitors, though, but…
Japan day 10 A tram and a train brought me the twenty-ish miles to Nara, and a bit of walking brought me the remainder of the way to the central park, Nara-koen. Said park was home to innumerable docile deer that that hung out near the small booths selling special crackers for tourists to buy and hand them. The deer were mostly cute, but also pooped a lot, and let me just say that I…
Japan day 9 After grabbing breakfast and a train I soon stood in front of a seemingly infinite stretch of red torii-gates. This was Fushimi-Inari, a Shinto shrine, and probably Kyoto’s best known landmark. It was on the foot of a small mountain, so of course I wanted to get to the top of it. The forecast said 38 degrees Celsius and that it felt like 45 due to the humidity, so I was soon…
Japan day 8 Checked out, walked across the island and found a proper bike rental place that kept my luggage as well. Yay for a bike with gears! After crossing the island yet again I got to Minamidera, a minimalistic black wooden building. Getting a timed ticket for half an hour later I was admitted along with a group of other visitors into complete darkness and were seated. Then nothing continued to appear. Ever so…
Japan day 7 Three trains, a ferry, and a bus brought me all the way to the small island of Naoshima some 150km (100 miles) east of Hiroshima. The bus was so stuffed that I didn’t make it off at the stop that I had wanted, so I got a bit longer of a walk to the already remote guest house where I dropped off my pack and went to the Town of Honmura’s bike…
Japan day 6 Went to the peace memorial museum first thing in the morning. The staggering death toll makes little sense emotionally. But when you hear the individual stories and see their pictures and artifacts it is all but impossible to stay emotionally detached. By the end my eyes were starting to water up and the guy behind me was sniffling. Later there were copies of documents, one stating that Japan was allusively told that…
Japan day 5 Slept reasonably well on the futon on the floor, though it was a bit hard and the pillow seemed to have been filled with chickpeas instead of feathers. Honestly, I’d have slept better on my neoair that I carried on the Pacific Crest Trail. As the first thing today, we got to watch the morning prayers at the temple. The monk chanted sutras and made sounds by hammering on bowls and using…
Japan day 4 It was pouring down when I got up, but luckily it had stopped by the time I was done with breakfast. It was still incredibly humid, but that had been the case for all of the other days as well. I took the metro to Tokyo Station and from there I caught the Shinkansen, the “bullet train” to the outskirts of Osaka. The city and the surroundings slid by at an extraordinary…
Japan day 3 Woke up in the middle of the night like yesterday, but remembered that I had brought some melatonin pills, took one, and fell asleep once more. For technical reasons it took some time figuring out the transport to my next destination, but with that out of the way I headed off to Gotoku-Ji Temple, which I had seen in the avant-garde film “Sans Soleil”. Legend has it that a prosperous man was…
Japan day 2 Woke up at 4:30 and was completely unable to catch any more sleep. I was a bit surprised to find so many savory food items a the breakfast buffet such as steamed fish, rice, tofu, salad, miso soup, and salad. But it might be us westerners who are weird in the way that breakfast seems at time to mostly resemble dessert. The Senso Ji Temple was first on the agenda, and it…