Camille’s Big Adventure

This morning I moved out of my hostel dorm into a private room for the night. It's really nice to have some space and quiet after spending a week in hostels. Hostels are a really great way to make friends while traveling, and I've met a lot of cool people who I've enjoyed hanging out with, but as someone who derives peace from solitude, it was a bit exhausting. I started my day with a working breakfast of hummus toast topped in zucchini, prosciutto, and parm, which was delicious. I've found that Japan isn't super big on raw vegetables, and I've been missing the greens a bit so it was nice to have some veggies. I decided it was time to get out of the cities and the crowds so I decided to go for a hike at Mount Kurama, about an hour away by train from Kyoto. It was a beautiful train ride through the fall foliage. At the end of the train you are greeted by Tengu, the master of Kurama (a statue with a very large nose). Tengu is a legendary creature in the Shinto bel...

Since I stayed out so late last night, I slept in a bit this morning, and spent the first part of the day finishing booking the rest of the trip (thanks to my parents for helping me find a last minute place on a holiday weekend  😅 ). After getting a bit of work done, I headed to meet a friend at a cafe. We met up and had a great vegan lunch of Japanese curry and spent a few hours chatting and laughing about life and work and the world. It was really lovely to spend a bit of time with her. We parted ways in the afternoon as she had to leave for her next leg of her Japan trip.  I decided to go to Arashiyama, a famous bamboo grove here, hoping to miss the big crowds by going in the later afternoon. Tourist attractions in Japan get so crowded so quickly. If you want to see an area without crowds you are supposed to get up at 6am and be there before 7, which is what most people at my hostel were doing this morning, when I decided to get some sleep and work done.  The Arashiya...

  I got up early and me and 3 guys from my hostel decided to go to Nara to see the deer and the temple.   First we stopped for some matcha and red bean mochi, you could watch them make the mochi in front of you. We got super lucky and walked up as they opened and we got the first mochi of the day. Later we walked by and the line for the mochi was around the block! It was crazy.  Then we made it to Nara Park. The deer are everywhere and they are sooooo cute. You can buy crackers made of compressed barley to feed them, and boy do they love it. When you buy the crackers they will follow you around and try to eat your shirt in an attempt to eat your crackers. They will do a little head nod/bow to you for crackers and it’s so cute.  Then we went to Todai-ji. Which has one of the worlds largest Buddha statues. It was 56 feet tall and in this huge beautiful temple surrounded by some gorgeous statues. It was very neat.  Next we had persimmon smoothies and headed back on...