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This was a great birthday. I woke up at 7:30am and checked out at 8:30. I headed to Sakurai, very tired and sore from yesterday but had a good breakfast at the ryokan. At Sakurai, I rented a bike. The kind, old man who ran the place drew me a hiragana map to the kofun and gave me a flashlight. I'm not sure if I'm reading the kanji right, but the first kofun I visited was Soubo (or maybe kusahaka) (艸墓) kofun. It was hidden in someone's backyard, and you had to walk a very narrow path along their hedge in order to get to it. I loved going in with my flashlight and seeing the chamber and stone coffin. Outside were children's tricycles and playhouses. Great pics.
Uenomiya park nearby was disappointing and small with the barest remains of a kofun period structure. メスリ山 kofun was only viewable form outside as far as I could tell.
Meanwhile, 史跡谷首(reads shisekitanishu, I think) kofun was... scary. Not that I let this stop me, but geez... The entrance was partially collapsed and it echoed with strange noises from all the bugs and creatures. It was big inside with a high ceiling which was nice until I noticed the fucking huge brown spiders on the walls. I stood my ground, took pics, touched the walls, then scarpered. Outside, I discovered I was hyperventilating and shaking a bit since I was so frightened.
Next was Asuka town which took a bit of biking. I only had to stop and ask for directions once. They have a cute little museum there (it was free that day, so yay!). I loved the replicas outside. Got cool books on kofun and was surprised to find an obviously rarely used English audio guide to the museum - it was brief, which was nice, but not really informative, which was bad. Relaxed a bit in the air conditioning, then biked back (10km total). Was much easier going back especially since I'd learnt how to ride a bike again.
I returned the bike, caught the train back to Nara. Found Animate, the anime store, which was fantastic. I bought tons of pins from various series for my bag, pencil boards and pic cards. Who is the proud owner of a Kakashi & Yondaime with umbrellas pencil boad? Me! Happy Birthday, Ariana! (Got cool Sanji and Mugen figures too.)
Was dead tired at that point, so just headed to Kyoto. Made it just in time to check in at my hostel and be 10 minutes late meeting M. and family who were really sweet and treated me to dinner at a restaurant in Gion. I had beef steak which came with tons of tofu, salad, rice and the steak (rare and delicious) with a good sauce. This was good since I hadn't eaten since noon and it was 9:15 by then. Afterwards, we headed to Higashi Othani temple for their lantern display (which I researched long before). It was so very cool to see the cemetery up on the hill with a light on each grave. Awesome. We then headed back since I had a curfew and it was late. Kyoto is strange but cool.
I need sleep.
Uenomiya park nearby was disappointing and small with the barest remains of a kofun period structure. メスリ山 kofun was only viewable form outside as far as I could tell.
Meanwhile, 史跡谷首(reads shisekitanishu, I think) kofun was... scary. Not that I let this stop me, but geez... The entrance was partially collapsed and it echoed with strange noises from all the bugs and creatures. It was big inside with a high ceiling which was nice until I noticed the fucking huge brown spiders on the walls. I stood my ground, took pics, touched the walls, then scarpered. Outside, I discovered I was hyperventilating and shaking a bit since I was so frightened.
Next was Asuka town which took a bit of biking. I only had to stop and ask for directions once. They have a cute little museum there (it was free that day, so yay!). I loved the replicas outside. Got cool books on kofun and was surprised to find an obviously rarely used English audio guide to the museum - it was brief, which was nice, but not really informative, which was bad. Relaxed a bit in the air conditioning, then biked back (10km total). Was much easier going back especially since I'd learnt how to ride a bike again.
I returned the bike, caught the train back to Nara. Found Animate, the anime store, which was fantastic. I bought tons of pins from various series for my bag, pencil boards and pic cards. Who is the proud owner of a Kakashi & Yondaime with umbrellas pencil boad? Me! Happy Birthday, Ariana! (Got cool Sanji and Mugen figures too.)
Was dead tired at that point, so just headed to Kyoto. Made it just in time to check in at my hostel and be 10 minutes late meeting M. and family who were really sweet and treated me to dinner at a restaurant in Gion. I had beef steak which came with tons of tofu, salad, rice and the steak (rare and delicious) with a good sauce. This was good since I hadn't eaten since noon and it was 9:15 by then. Afterwards, we headed to Higashi Othani temple for their lantern display (which I researched long before). It was so very cool to see the cemetery up on the hill with a light on each grave. Awesome. We then headed back since I had a curfew and it was late. Kyoto is strange but cool.
I need sleep.
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