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2006-04-japan
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2006-04-16
Left Koya-san after breakfast at Fudo-in for the station to go to Nara. The view from the train of the mountains around Koya was very nice. The sun even broke through the clouds here and there! Made it to Nara via Hashimoto around 1 pm. A bit later than I had hoped. The lady at the tourist info was very helpful and explained that it should be possible to see the important things in 3 to 4 hours. I saw the Pagoda at Kofuku-ji Temple, the Todai-ji Temple with the Great Buddha, and skimmed over the Kasuga Grand Shrine.
I had to leave early to catch the train towards the Ise Peninsula at 4. I did manage to arrive in Iseshi around 7:30, but my last train to Futamigaura Beach left way late after 8:30 so I only made it there around 9. No tourist information and nobody at the station, oops, how does one find a hotel? Fortunately, there was a building that did look like a hotel just in front of the station. After lots of knocking they let me in, and after a bit of back and forth I managed to get a room. It did look pretty dodgy but I did not know where else to go. They still had to organize the room so I tried to find a place to eat, but everything was closed. Futamigaura is not the place to be off-season it seems. I did find the beach and lots of nice hotels, too late for those. On the way back to the hotel, I bumped into the owner of the hotel who had been looking for me since he realized that no restaurant would be open. So he brought me to a shop so I could buy some food. And the room turned out to be fine too. The funny things was that they put 2 futons together to make a really long bed! 3.5 meters! Very nice people, one should not be put off if a place looks a bit funky in Japan. There was a wireless network as well, even though I had to hold my laptop up to make it work.
From travel book: "Founded in 710 on the Yamato Plain, Nara, then known as Heijo-kyo (citadel of peace), became one of Asia's most splendid cities in its 74-year spell as Japan's first capital".
