In Yatta We Trust

We were supposed to see Mt Fuji in Hakone but it was raining pretty bad all the time there!

So instead we went to the Onsen, the Tenzan Tohji-kyô. There are thousands of hot springs in Japan. The onsens are public bath which uses hot spring to heat up the water. Some can be really hot! There are onsens for men, other for women, very few for both.

We had to go there, take a shower on a small stool between naked japanese guys and then you go in the different hot spring baths, each with its specific temperature. from freezing cold, to upper mega hot You just have a small "cache-bite" and that's all! freestyle! Anyway it was very relaxing!! and all that in the middle of nature! It was worth it!
Sorry for the fans, but we couldn't take pictures inside the onsen ^^

Kyoto! The former imperial capital of Japan, the city with 2000 temples! Don't you worry we didn't see them all! We kept some time for drinking and playing that stupid UFO game!

So what did we do in Kyoto? We visited tons of temples, that i can't even remember the names! We saw the Sanjūsangen-dō 1000 buddhas statues! We went to the imperial castle gardens. We ate yakitoris and drank sake all nite in a japanese rocknroll Jacques Dutronc fans pub! Even tough we had hard time findings bars. In Japan they are all on high rise buildings on different floors, so you can onlys see the signs when you are in the street, you don't know if they are good or dodgy.

So we spent our money in UFO catcher once again!

Another day, it was bike time! So my poor destroyed knee and feet could have a rest for a while! (don"t ever bring Converse shoes as your main shoes for a 3 weeks japan trip! or you ll die 3 times just like i did!)

We went to see the golden pavillon, awesome view! It's a temple cover with gold layer! it's real gold you know! and there is plenty of it!

At night we went to the pub ... again. No japanese people to be seen... oh it's Tuesday nite!

On the following day we headed to Fushimi Inari-taisha to see thousands of red toris aligned to form a path in the mountain. It's very... orange There is a strange feeling inside, like hypnotic, a very impressive place. A scene from Lost in Translation took place here.

We went to the Nishiki market, in the centre of Kyoto, a very colourful market with fresh fruits, vegs, fishes... We bought japanese kitchen knife there, the best in the world they say! They were even customized with our name on it!

At night we tested most of the bars that were in the Lonely Planet guide but they were empty most of the time, where are the japanese during the week!?

We went paparazzi style in Gion, the old geisha area of Kyoto, to try and spot geishas! We managed to see 2 or 3 but they were walking very fast and passing by small street to avoid the public. The ones we saw were probably just maikos, apprentice geishas. There are less than 100 geishas in Kyoto!

A lot more photos about Kyoto here and here!

After we gave up on the monk lifestyle, we took the shinkansen with our JR pass to get to Kobe fot the night!

We ate the world famous Kobe beef in a classy restaurant with a chef who was cooking only for us in front of our eyes! That was the best meal ever in Japan! The meat is so tender! It's crazy, it just melts in your mouth
The Kobe beef is fed with sake and beer and given a hand massage every day! It's very expensive but it was worse it! Oishi desu!

More photos about Kobe here and here!

Kōya-san is a complex of buddhist temples located at the top of a mountain in south kansaï.

We slept in a temple with monks! They wake us up with a giant bell at 6 am for the morning buddhist ceremony. The ceremony is very mystic: monks singing with their deep guttural voices, smoke of encent, symbals... it puts you in a morning transe. But at 6 am, at the top of the mountain in a big empty temple, its 5°C in the room, its not easy to be a monk!

The day after we went to visit a big buddhist cemetary, Okunoin Cemetery, with nice tombstones, statues... in an old cedar forest, that was a very nice walk.
We then visited a couple of other temple, one had a classical japanese garden, Banryutei rock garden, with rocks and small white stones, the largest in Japan!

To get to Mount Koya, it takes 2 or 3 trains that only locals take and a scary cable car to finish climbing the mountain. On the way back we walked down the mountain 40 min with our warrior bags!

...and we nearly get killed by a giant snake!

More photos about Kōya-san here and here!