yesterday in nagano was incredible. i simply adore that city. i walked around the small streets and spent time at so many temples and shrines. i even got to visit a great zen garden behind a temple thanks to a friendly local.

that night, we were only 3 at the hotel/temple, and luck will have it, we all spoke french. benjamin, from paris and aiko from geneva were great company. so, we went out for dinner together and strolled the streets, checking out the street festival and the jazz festival (which by the way was great, but we only stayed for 1.5 songs due to the carefew). it was really nice to spend an evening with people!!! i think that night was the perfect conclusion to such a great stay in nagano.

unfortunately, the next morning (today) i was still too tired to make it to the temple for the 5.30 am mass and benediction. oh well! i still got a last stroll around the main temple at 7 am, and it was incredibly peaceful.

i ha to catch my train to nagoya and then to kyoto today, so i missed a great religious festival in nagano tonight. the bullet train was incredibly fast today - it's the kind of thing where taking a picture isn't even worth it. i saw great luxurious forests, rice fields, bamboo forests, rivers... it's wonderful.

i arrived in kyoto at 3-ish, and headed to the hotel, which was full... but i manages to find room in one close by, although i had to convince them that i had no issue sharing the dorm room with guys. i didn't want to walk some more with my big bag!!!

the room is actually pretty cute, and we're only 5 in there. we have a private bathroom/toilet as well, which is great. the downfall is that they didn't have room for monday night, so i'll have to either shop around for another hotel or leave early for nara and spend more time there. it is a small town, maybe i'd like it more!!!

tonight i ate pasta, extreamly al-dante but damn, it was si good! and it was dirt cheap as well. i also explored the roof garden of the train station. located on the 12th floor, the view of kyoto and the mountains is incredible. and the building was so striking! i took tons of pictures.

so tomorrow i will be hitting bunch of sights, and hopefully my blisters on and under my feet will not bother me too much!

i am no certain if i'll pay again for interne access, so this may be my last update for a little while, at least until i reach nara.

peace! (aka, no more bomb!!! this city was saved the nuclear bomb because it contained too much history, apparently...)