さよなら日本

Turns out the Imperial Palace wasn't my last sightseeing after all. Two days before I left I met up with Masahiro and we went to Nara together. I had never been to Nara and it was was one of the two places left I hadn't been to in the year I really wanted to see (Ise Shrine being the other) so I was quite happy that even so close to going home I got the chance to go there, espeically with a great friend like Masahiro.

Nara was the old old capital way back before Kyoto was the capital and as such it's filled with lots of history. There are tombs of old emperors around the city as well as one of the oldest Buddhist temples in the world, Todaiji which houses a 15 metre tall wooden Buddha sculpture, and is said to be the oldest wooden building in the world. There are deer everywhere as well just wandering around the and you can feed them these little wafers things which can be bought at basically every shop in the area. They'll bite at your clothes occasionally if they see you have food, but other than that they're quite docile.

We walked around a bit more just taking in some sights and enjoying the times. It was a great way to finish off a fine year in Japan.

























The next day Keiko came over in the evening and I finished up my packing. Up bright and early the next morning, Christoph made us breakfast and then we headed to the airport. My year in Japan had finally reached its end and the year that seemed so long went by so fast.

最後の観光 － 御所 ＆ 大原

Yesterday and today I went on a couple of small sightseeing trips. Yesterday with Keiko we went to the Imperial Palace in Kyoto where the Emperor used to live way back in the days when Kyoto was the capital. As we were walking I jumped across a little moat and landed on the other side, unknowingly setting off a blaring motion security alarm. Way to go out in style T-Mac.

Today I headed up to a small town called Ohara just northeast of the city. The area is incredibly beautiful and very peaceful. I took in the sights of Sanzein Temple as well as the Soundless Waterfall (which does make a sound) and some points in between. I'm hoping I can make it to Nara on Sunday, but if not these will be my last sightseeing trips, and probably my last post before arriving back in Canada on Tuesday. I started cleaning up my room and packing yesterday. I didn't realize how my stuff I had until I actually started to go through it. Anyway here are the pictures. I've been taking a lot of pictures in black and white recently because I think they're classy.

The Imperial Palace


















Ohara

白石島のバカンス

Earlier this week Keiko and I went for a short trip to a small island in Okayama Prefecture called Shiraishi Island. It's a very tiny peaceful island and the only way to get there is by ferry. Only about 2 km long and 1 km wide so it's very easy to travel around the island and there's really only one actual road which runs the circumference of the island. All other roads are too small for cars and are only accessible by scooter, bike or on foot.

In Okayama Prefecture they have set up a bunch of international villas in various remote areas of the prefecture as a way to attract foreign tourists as well as Japanese to the countryside. One of the six villas is on Shiraishi Island and Keiko and I stayed there for one night and then at a more traditional Japanese style minshuku (tourist home), basically a normal house that has been converted into an inn. The villas are really cheap to stay at 2500 for a foreigner and 3000 if you're Japanese and the rooms are quite comfortable. The only downside is you have to bring your own food. At the minshuku dinner and breakfast the next morning was included. Dinner was a full meat, seafood and vegetable barbeque spread. The minshuku was right on the beach as well so of course we hit that up and did a bit of swimming. The water was right at that prefect temperature and the water was nice and clean, free of seaweed and other various crap that would make swimming less enjoyable. Being so isolated as well the beach was basically empty. There were maybe a dozen other people on the beach or swimming at any given time.

On the way back from the island we stopped off in Okayama city and checked out a famous garden called Gorakuen as well as the neighbouring Okayama castle. I love Japanese castles and I can only imagine how great it woulda been to actually live or work in one of them back in the day. Sometimes I think perhaps I was born a few hundred years too late.