Summer holidays

It's definitely been a while since I've written in the blog! Hello to everyone from last semester and welcome to all those who arrived this semester. During the summer I spent about a month travelling around Japan, and whilst it cost a lot of money I had a good time. Two weeks were spent catching up with friends and seeing some countryside I hadn't seen before, and the following two weeks were spent with my girlfriend. After about 5 months of being apart I was very happy to see her again, as you'd expect. :) As it was her first time in Japan we visited a lot of well-known spots, especially in the Kansai region. Throughout my month-long holiday I was able to see quite a lot of places - Matsuyama, Tokushima, Kobe, Himeji, Kinosaki, Amanohashidate, Hikone, Kyoto, Nara, Mt Koya, Osaka, Hiroshima, Miyajima, and I even passed through the small but well-known town of Obama in Fukui-ken. ;) Here are a handful of photos from the summer:


This first photo isn't so interesting in itself, but it was taken inside a Kyoto townhouse, in which my girlfriend and I stayed for two nights. It's run by Iori, an organisation co-founded by author Alex Kerr which aims to preserve Kyoto machiya and give travellers a brief but wonderful experience of staying inside one. It's far more spacious than a hotel and with much more privacy than a ryokan... unfortunately you have to pay a bit more for these privileges!


This is Kinosaki in northern Hyogo-ken, a beautiful little onsen town where everyone spends the evening walking around in yukata and geta between various hot springs baths in the town. Even the train ride from Himeji through the countryside was fantastic. The baths themselves in Kinosaki aren't too bad, but the water quality in Kumamoto is much better. ;)


One of the vine bridges deep in the Tokushima-ken countryside. The car ride through the mountains is nauseating, but well worth it.


Oku-no-in cemetery at Mt Koya is easily one of the most stunning places I've visited anywhere in the world, unfortunately photos don't do it justice. There's a remarkable amount of history within the cemetery and is apparently quite a surreal and eerie place to visit during the cold and misty times of the year.


I absolutely love whisky, and Japanese whisky has (quite deservedly) been receiving a lot of attention in recent years. I had a brilliant day out at the Suntory Yamazaki distillery between Osaka and Kyoto. Not only are Yamazaki tastings free during the tour, but the whisky bar is unbelievably cheap... so the day descended into a bit of a summery golden haze. This above photo was taken in the "whisky library".


Me fooling around in Nara.


The Awa Odori festival in Tokushima every August 12 - 16 is brilliant, and absolutely enormous. I attended the festival in 2005 and since then had been looking forward to experiencing it again. There's something unique about the atmosphere and energy of that festival I haven't felt anywhere else in Japan, or in the world, for that matter.


My girlfriend Holly and I, on the boat to Miyajima. :)

See you guys next Friday!