Old town Kyoto is the place to see Japanese people wearing traditional garb in a traditional setting. There is a great Japanese garden there which would have been serene except it was filled with temporary food stands that were all closed that day. Plus it rained almost continuously.
Osaka seems to have all the typical Japanese tourist attractions without having to deal with the size and travel times of Tokyo. The Osaka castle is much more impressive than the portion of the imperial grounds that is normally open to the public.
For our trip to Japan I decided to record the days events using Haikus. Here’s a few: Late wake up, pizza palace, blossoms, nude hot tub great first day Japan fuji shinjuku metro express local trains travelling all day
We drove up to the Salma Plateau to see the beehive tombs… it was cold. Leah and I both gave up on sleeping in our tent on blow up mattresses and slept in the car. It was a bit warmer however I didn’t really warm up until I took the pillow case off my pillow…
We took our Kia up Jebel Shams and ended camping on a real rocky site. There were a ton of scorpions under the rocks so we made sure to wear gloves when we shifted them. The Kia once again did very well climbing up the hill. Most people here think a Kia Sorrento can’t go…