2rd July
Today is a glorious day. Beautiful blue skies, and not a drop of rain in sight. Managed to dry out our shoes from the torrential downpour yesterday. Caught the slow train to Nara, about 100ks from Kyoto.
Nara is a quiet town with a lot of history, and plenty of temples. The town also has about 1200 tame deer wandering the parks. The deer will bow their head to you if you feed them. Over time they have been conditioned to bow in order to receive food. Pretty amazing to watch.

The star attraction in Nara is the Todai-ji Temple. It is one of the oldest and largest wooden structures in the world. It is also home to a bronze Buddha 15 metres tall. We were surprised at how crowded it was. The entrance fee of $6 was worth it.

Walking through the Yoshiki-en Garden was a nice relief from the rather humid weather. After a nice lunch we headed to the railway station to catch another slow train to Osaka. There are no Shinkansen trains servicing this route.

Arrived at Osaka station and jumped onto the Osaka loop line. There are so many people on the go, and you don't wont to get in their way. All rushing and running to catch the next train.

Tsutenkaku tower was our first stop. One of the main symbols of Osaka. Surround by plenty of little shops in a car free zone. Next stop was Osaka castle.

So far we have seen a lot of temples and castles, but none come close to the beauty of the Osaka castle and its surrounding park. Built in 1583, Burned down in 1615, and rebuilt, it was struck by lightning in 1665, and was reduced to ashes again. It remained in ruins for 266 years until 1931 when it was rebuilt to its former glory. It is surrounded by one of the most beautiful parks I have ever been to. The scent of flowers and the Pine trees was overwhelming.

As the day is drawing to an end we head back to Kyoto on the Bullet train. My only regret so far is not allowing more time in Osaka.

For dinner we ate in a traditional type Japanese restaurant. We had to take our shoes off before entering the restaurant, and were taken to a little both with sliding doors. No chairs, just cushions on the wooden floor. Sliding your legs under the table where a sunken area allowed you to let your legs drop down. The food was very impressive, not big serves, but very tasty.

Tomorrow we are off to Takayama, which Is a town in the mountains north west of Kyoto. No bullet train here just good old fashioned diesel electric.

3rd July
The rain is back, not heavy just drizzling. We catch the Shinkansen to Nagoya, and board the slow train to Takayama. It’s a 2.5 hour trip, as the route heads into the mountains. The scenery is very pretty and lush green. Down to a crawl pace in parts as the train negotiates the rather hilly conditions.

It seem everything is closed on a Tuesday here, not Sunday. We didn't venture to far from the hotel, due to the persistent rain. Tomorrow is meant to be clear blue sky.