にっぽん - July 8 We couldn't close out our trip to Japan without giving an overview of our two weeks spent there. Japan is a very interesting and unique country. It has the feel and size of a major Western nation, but it still holds onto its traditions, heritage and culture. We could probably write a novel on our experiences in Japan (some may even feel we already have!), the attached photo albums should tell the story much better then we can. In a word, w...

The last city we planned to visit from Kyoto was the city of Kobe, whose claim to fame is the Kobe steak. We still had two days remaining on our JR train pass so we figured we should take advantage of the pass and explore Kobe (only about an hour away by rapid train). We immediately left the train station and started a hike that went directly up the side of a mountain to a waterfall and view point of the city and harbour. The humidity was insane that day, with u...

When we started planning our trip to Japan it was very important that we make the long trip south to Hiroshima. Hiroshima represents one of the darkest days in human history and we wanted to visit the infamous Peace Memorial Park and the Peace Memorial Museum. It's one thing to hear about the A-Bomb and its horrific destruction on mankind, but actually walking on the very soil and seeing the last remaining structure was something that we could not miss. Arriv...

The first city that we traveled to from Kyoto was Nara, a short 45 minute train ride away. Our Aussie friend Julian, who had hiked the Peruvian Inca Trail with us a few months prior, had traveled to Nara and had great things to say about it as a destination. We knew that Nara was an historical city with many temples and shrines to explore... and it did not disappoint! We spent the afternoon wandering the city and exploring it's many ancient attractions. Nara...

Kyoto, June 26 We chose Kyoto as our home base for the week because of its central location and its rich culture and ancient temples. Upon arrival at Kyoto Station we popped into the Welcome Inn Reservtion Centre to see if we could find some cheap accomodations for the week. Accomodations in Japan have been very expensive and we were unsuccessful finding an inexpensive place using our standard online methods. Our friend Keith that we met in Boracay informed us ...