Konichiwa,

Last week we made our way from the very comfortable climate of Hokkaido to the extremely uncomfortable weather of Kansai area. With temperatures of 42 degrees Celsius and a very high level of humidity at 1:00pm we were literally drowning in our own sweat. At 11:00pm still as high as 32 degrees Celsius. Regardless of the sweat running down our faces, backs and necks and the fact that drinking already more than 3 liters still didn't make us go to the washroom, we kept on exploring!!!

We stayed 4 nights in Kyoto and kept our program as varied as possible with visiting the Bamboo Path, Arashiyama Monkey Park (funny experiene because for once the people are in the cage and feed the monkeys outside), Ginkakuji and Kiyomizu-dera Temple, Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine (known from the movie "Memoirs of a Geisha") and much more. Sabrina's friend Shiori and her darling little daughter Umi (2 years) came visiting us for a day and hereby we are announcing Shiori mother-of-the-month! She managed to carry her backpack, little Umi who was sleeping on her shoulder and an umbrella through the unbareable heat without losing her positive spirit. Kudos to you!

By chance, while taking a break in Maruyama Park, we met a really nice and very interesting German-American couple, Klaus & Sabrina Gerland, who are staying in Japan for 2 years for work. Thank you for an entertaining afternoon and your great advice, we will be thinking about you while traveling and actively following your blog.

The very nice thing about Kyoto (besides the tons of sights to visit) is that there are parts of the city (mainly in the Gion Area) with the little streets and houses that look like you travelled back in time.

After Kyoto we headed for 1 night to Nara, another city that was spared from war and had many historical attractions. Nara's Park is the home to many deers but on the contrary to Germany where they are afraid of people, they were walking in the middle of the crowd. It is unbelievable how some tourists treat those animals just to get a picture (putting their sunglasses on the deer and feeding them their maps). Fortunately we had again a perfect timing and were able to visit the Tokae Festival (Candle Light Festival) in the evening which was a nice finish to an exhausting day.

Next on our list was Osaka where we were able to spend 1 night at Shiori's place (40 min. outside of Osaka) who spoilt us with 70 home-made Gyoza and the excuse of not having to do anything for a day. Thank you for having us, we will remember your Gyozas always as the best!

The following 2 nights we spent in a hostel in Osaka but until now we are not quite sure if "hostel" is the right word for it. This rather disgusting accommodation should be forbidden. Apart from the overnight experience we enjoyed our time in Osaka. We experienced what seems to be one of the most favourite activity of Japanese - amusement arcade - with plenty of options for each occasion (family trip, 1st date, singles, bff). Our daytrip to Kobe was also very successful including the visit of a Sake Brewery (of course with a free tasting - at 2:30pm), Harborland and Meriken Park where we got to see a nice sunset.

Time is flying and we already arrived in Hiroshima today! More updates soon.

Cheerio!

Ann & Sabrina