Sunday, August 28, 2011

2011 - NZ To SF - Day 107

Day 107: (28 August 2011):
- Wake up at a descent time again, for Koya San.
- Get to station approx on schedule & catch one of the higher express trains.
- Switch to a local train at a stop. Ad for special sightseeing train. One-sided layout.
- Nice scenery, hills, villages, etc.
- A few stops in middle of forest. Not sure where / why.
- Finally, transfer to a steep cable war for final ascent.
- Ears popping, pretty high. Great view below on way up. See station drop away.
- Turns out need to pay more, fare not enough.
- Take bus: windy bus-only road. To near entrance of main area at far end. See the fare board go up. Strangely, 6 is in kanji while all other stages in arabic numerals.
- Look for food, see lots of tasty stores through town.
- Cheap curry udon. Wait for Alberto to show up.
- While waiting for Alberto, ate vending machine ice cream.
- Bought box (1 of each) of delicious-looking mochi/dessert things.
- Met with Albert at entrance. Photo set-up.
- Lots of graves. This outer portion has a lot of graves set up by companies. Big monuments. Cool statues, (rocket, etc.).
- Debate / discuss if we should take photos. Sign near inner area says appropriate dress / no photos inside, so settle debte.
- Worshipping area. Water on Bhuddah, not sure if ppl. going it right.
- inner area has big temple thing. Pretty cool.
- Downstairs has shelves of small lanterns. Cool.
- The purity test stones. Line too long so didn’t do.
- Wander around outer area.
- Ben overhear a Jap. tourist say is like world of Totoro.
- Huge trees, very cool vibe.
- Old gravestones with Nepalese Bhuddhist symbols.
- Lots of the wood posts with lettering on them.
- Moss. Rock stacking. 1 yen coins in cracks. Very peaceful.
- Some famous / rich / corporate tombs as well.
- Wonder if all the tourists are disturbing their peace.
- Walk outside through town. Info centre. Eat the tasty things.
- Lots of shrines / temples in town, many charging admission.
- Went to the one with a famous Zen garden (2 dragons?).
- Alberto has the book that gets signed & stamped at shrines.
- The cool big red pagoda. A concert (?) was being set up there.
- Road’s “grid problem.”
- Keep walking to main gate. Far. Buy drink from a small supermarket. Shop w/ lots of people, wasn’t sure what. An old wooden gate. Windy road & hill, trail map.
- Find bus station, wait for (last) bus back.
- The dried tofu things in shops.
- Bus stop line.
- Felt we got a pretty good tour. Didn’t warrant an overnight stay (For ~Y10 000).
- Took train back, switch to JR as decide go to Osaka-jo for some kind of light festival. Lament how JR worse than subway.
- Walked through park to castle. Familiar from prev. visit, although this time is at night. Most people heading back now.
- Pics of castle at night.
- Grass & concrete / steps area filled with candle lanterns with writing on them.
- People sitting around. Cool city background.
- Up near castle, some food stalls, hard not to eat, getting very hungry.
- Lanterns placed in patterns, words.
- Long walk to subway. Mildly lost, but used map signs.
- Finally decide eat @ Kurazushi near ben’s.
- After a short wait, really happy to get table. All very hungry!
- Matcha & hot water tap. Sushi on belt, quite a good selection. All Y100.
- Separate orders through screen. Delivered via express cart. Awesome!
- Ate 11 plates, only Y1100, stuffed.
- Plate return slot. Animations with chain mascots, win shinkansen gotchapong.
- More e-mails abt. Fuji. go to sleep very tired.

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