After the long flight to Japan, landing outside Osaka, our
first stop was a traditional ryokan in Nara. I don't mind
sleeping close to the floor as I'm rather used to it, but
the rest of the living style was a new experience.
After the long flight to Japan, landing outside Osaka, our
first stop was a traditional ryokan in Nara. I don't mind
sleeping close to the floor as I'm rather used to it, but
the rest of the living style was a new experience.
Naturally we had been informed beforehand about things like not wearing shoes indoors and leaving the slippers outside the room with tatami mats on the floor and wearing another set of slippers in the toilet and so on.
The first evening we went together to a restaurant which
specializes (eating places in Japan usually specilizes in
certain kinds of food) in some kinds of "pancakes", made on a hot
plate directly in the table.
Next day our guide, who is Swedish but lives in Japan,
started with showing us around the temple areas of Nara.
Good planning that, starting the trip with some of the oldest
things, continuing with more recent.
Walking around Nara later on, I saw this rice field, which
sort of is in the middle of the built up area, although not
exactly in the centre of the city. That didn't seem to be
very unusual in Japan.
Next: Kyoto
Back to the index for my trip to Japan
Document last updated 1999 Dec 02
by
Urban
