Magome and Tsumago
April 23rd, 2009
Magome and Tsumago are up in the mountains.
They’re old postal towns and apparently their appearance
hasn’t changed much since the Edo period.
When we arrived in Magome it was very, very dark.
It was also snowing.
There was no-one home (or no-one answering) in most of the houses.
They did have ye olde vending machines selling beer though.
Anyway, we got settled and trekked in search of food
to a crazy pub where 5 locals were singing karaoke.
They made us sing too.
So hearty was the grub that we were up early
the next morning for our walk to Tsumago.
It was still snowing a bit.
We celebrated when we reached the highest point.
We also pretended we were in Lost.
Mal flew on ahead.
Someone had been out earlier than us.
These signs helped us with the countdown to our destination.
We were particularly happy to see this one.
Eventually we reached Tsumago and were reunited with our bags.
It wasn’t a bad oul’ spot.
Nara
April 21st, 2009
Nara has a shedload of World Heritage sites, but it also has:
Cool signs,
Loads of deer,
Huge statues,
And orangey things.
Kyoto
April 17th, 2009
Ah Kyoto. Kyoto was great; this is what we saw:
Good-looking shrines,
Good-looking temples,
Colouredy drapes,
A massive Buddha,
People without shoes,
Fake geishas,
Cherry blossoms,
and dog hairdressers.
Kinosaki-onsen
April 16th, 2009
Next, we went to Kinosaki-onsen on the very efficient train.
It was raining when we got there, but we didn’t mind; we were there for the onsen.
Obviously no pictures of them!
This is about as close as you get with a camera…
It’s a lovely little town.
The next day it was a quick dip and away again.
Hiroshima
April 15th, 2009
I liked Hiroshima very much.
It is a very friendly city – and it didn’t hurt that it was sunny and warm that day either.
Fukuoka
April 14th, 2009
It was very exciting to get to Japan.
Fukuoka seemed like a good spot – eh, loads of telecommunications…
A good bus system – see how the fare goes up the further you travel?
And everyone was on (nice, non-vandalised) bikes. Pity we couldn’t stay longer.
A lot of up
April 12th, 2009
Eoin brought us on a hike outside Daejeon; a good view was our reward.
Here are two chaps taking it in.
Templey misty
April 10th, 2009
This is Inwangsa in Seoul, it’s a Buddhist temple. Manys the chant we heard coming from it.
There’s a rock there where pregnant women go to pray for a boy.
