There is so much to see, experience and tell

10/16/2023 - 10/23/2023

We left Tokyo in the rain, took the bus and got off in Fujikawaguchiko when the sun was shining. Mount Fuji awaited us with a snow-capped peak. Our hostel had a small roof terrace from where we had three wonderful days with a clear view of this great mountain. How lucky we are. We rented bikes and circled Lake Fujikawaguchiko. A great walk, exactly Tine's pace.

We cycled again in Kyoto. Here, however, we were emphatically advised not to park our bikes anywhere if there was no official sign indicating a bike parking space. Bikes will probably be collected quickly and then have to be returned to the city administration. So our bike tour consisted of cycling for an hour to this oh-so-great bamboo forest and then spending over an hour looking for this official bike parking lot. Oh, we didn't feel like looking any further when a taxi driver told us where we could find it. Yes, tour buses arrived in droves to visit the bamboo forest. We quickly walked through to escape the crowds and continue strolling through the small residential areas and cute streets. We passed various small temples and after about 1.5 hours we reached the Otagi Nenbutsu-ji Temple, which is known for its countless stone Buddha statues. Since this is difficult to reach by bus, there are only a few taxis and we were very few visitors to this great place on the edge of the forest.

The next day, with many others, we visited the golden temple in the sunshine and then, with a bus detour planned, of course, the temple with the thousands of torii.

We left our smallest room on our trip to Japan and drove on to Osaka, where we ate the best and cheapest running sushi of our lives. It was now 3 p.m. and our breakfast. What's better than visibly freshly prepared food? We just ate what we liked, because we didn't understand anything in this small restaurant.

On Monday morning, the earliest alarm clock of our trip so far rang, at Tine's actual early shift time, and we got out of bed at 5:30 a.m. Let's go to Universal Studios. Simply too blatant to describe. We had a lot of fun on the roller coasters and in Mario World. (And look at people while queuing for a long time.) We were obviously the only ones who were wearing comfortable clothes and shoes and hadn't bought any merchandise - we would have had to carry it around the world with us.