Nara and Kyoto

The second day in Nara i went straight to the student Volunteer Guide office. Together with the guide we went around visiting temples, the prefecture adminstration building and Nara machi, wherer there are a lot of old style houses preserved. She told me a lot about the sights,　but the real fun of course was chatting about different lifestyles of east and west, me learning new japanese words and "teaching" some english in return...

Today i went to Kyoto to get the cheaper bus to Tokyo. To be honest i had been disappointed by this town when i went there for the first time during winter, but today i liked it very much and discovered somewhat of its more discrete charm. Finally i made it into Nijo castle and the Nijo-Jinya, both having been closed during nenmatsu (year end period). The latter used to accomodiate feudal visitors to Kyoto who didnt make it into the Nijo-Castle. the cool thing about it, rather than wandering vast but empty tatami floored rooms you get a glance of the organisation of the tiny building and its structured with hidden doors, tunnels and so on to monitor and protect (ah the ever recurring japanese duality!).

To avoid notorious queeing along the temple gardens i skipped Ginkaku-Ji and visited Kodai-Ji instead and was rewarded afterwards by a pleasent stroll through the small alleys nearby.

Now i am spending some time in a stylish internet cafe before finally returning to Tokyo by nightbus, where i`ll stay for a week to get organised before leaving, meet friends and of course do all the shopping i postponed so far.

And i am really glad now, to stay at one place for a little longer time, as the constant changing of places really has become tiring. Nevertheless my stay in Japan finally comes to its end and as much i am looking forward to finally see my girlfriend again and returning to my homecountry, i already start to miss Japan somehow...

Kyoto Fotos