Back on the train for uji famed for the most expensive green tea in Japan .attending a traditional tea ceremony .and maybe sampling some of the local delicacies yes all made from green tea ,ice cream, waffles, and even spicy green tea noodles.arriving late and jogging through the rain for 4k I gave up looking for the famous tea house of uji and just strolled around looking in the various shop windows when I was dragged of the street by an old Japanese lady shouti...

Raining for the first time today so left Kyoto and jumped the train to Nara .burnt incense and blessed at the largest incarnation of Buddha in Japan, the temple is in a national park 10k hike but pretty peaceful the park is home to wild deer who have become used to visitors and will mug you for any food they can find .one even tried to eat my iPhone ,the Japanese buy deer cookies to feed them and you regularly see screaming Japanese girls chased by hordes of deer...

Eating in Japan is expensive but the one way to save money is to eat in the local ramen shops however no one speaks any English you order by using a kind of fruit machine ,put your money in out comes a ticket and you hand it into the chef .if you are lucky there are pictures on the wall and it's just a matter of matching the characters if not it can be a bit of a lottery sometimes resulting in a very weird lunch but always delicious.

Smoking in Japan is confusing me ,at home you can't smoke anywhere inside especially restaurants and public places only outside however in Japan it's the opposite it's illegal to smoke outside but you can smoke in all restaurants and cafes .

Hot day in Japan so got out of the city and went to ashiyama bamboo forest amazing site of 17th century zen buddhist garden sat and meditated off then to nijo castle.the only place I have been allowed to walk barefoot on the famous nightingale floors that were fitted by the empower in 12 th century so he could hear if anyone was sneaking around the castle and weirdly they do sound like a nightingale singing,pretty cool tried to make it back for tea ceremony but ...