Nice to know that Grache is coming home.

Though I would have wished you could stay there longer so you could explore more, I'm sure there's a reason why you're coming back.

So while you're backpacking around Japan (I read an article about a really beautiful valley somewhere in Japan, I'll search for that article and see if its in your itinerary), we'll be waiting for you to come home...so we can celebrate our birthday!!

Enjoy!

Nara Light Ceremony 

Aggghhhhh...I am being relocated back to the Philippines and only have less than a month to start my ultimate backpack adventure. This is the first time I am going to explore Japan on my own...not just Tokyo but beyond...Well its a blessing really because the mythical discount train ticket has apparated. Its called the "seishun juhachi kippu" or "youthful 18 ticket" which allows you to travel almost anywhere in Japan for any five days (only during selected months) for only 11,500 Yen. Mind you shinkansen tickets are twice as much for a one-way trip. Well, but yeah the catch is you can only travel along the Japan Railway system via the local/rapid trains. Meaning a 2 hour trip becomes 12 hours! But yeah I am doing this backpacker style!

Itinerary are as follows:

1. OBON WEEKEND
Aug 13
21:00
Off to Kyoto on a 12 hour train ride...
Aug 14
8:44
Check in at the Tour Club - its a cheap cool hostel http://www.kyotojp.com/
10:00
Off Nara to visit the UNESCO World Heritage Sites-ancient buddhas, shrines, temples.
19:00
Then attend the Toka-e Light Ceromony (imagine a park lit with 7,500 candles on its corners) and and Chugen Mantoro Festival (a shrine with a hundred hanging and floating lanterns)!!!
Aug 15
7:00
Travel Kyoto for more UNESCO World Heritage Sites: Nijo Castle, Ryogen-in , Golden Pavillion, etc. Also, to Gion to pay homage to the GEISHA'S
Aug 16
7:00
More of Kyoto via the bicycle...if I still have money I will have myself dressed as a Geisha and have a studio shot taken.
21:20
Then back to Tokyo via the "Moonlight Nagara"- its a night train...I like the sound of it. Very Harry Potter...

uma-umahan
Taken during my first out of town trip to the NIIGATA prefecture. I basically escaped from work to join a friend in this wonderful adventure. We took a 7 hour train trip into what I thought would be some country town in the middle of nowhere...but found instead a ocean & bayside city that is breathtaking. The picture above was taken in front of a shrine near an ocean cliffside. It reminded me so much of Kill Bill 2 that I decided to do a wacky kung fu pose. You can look at more scenic shots in my LIMBO blog...