Osaka and the mountains

We made it to Japan! But it was only just, because there was so much fog at the airport in Trondheim that the plane we were taking tried to land three times before it finally managed. So we were almost two hours late, and the flight to Amsterdam was supposed to take 2,5 hours and the onwards flight to Osaka was leaving at 17.25, so we were a bit stressed when we finally took off at ten to three. Luckily the winds were in our favour so the flight was only 1 hour and 50 minutes, but we still had to run like hell as we landed on the furthest runway and it took 10-15 minutes before we we out of the plane. Amsterdam is quite a big airport, and we landed at one end and were leaving from the other, so we were all nice and sweaty by the time we met the others.

So, landed in Osaka, and Astrid and I obviously looked very suspicious because we were taken in for an inspection in another room where they went through all our luggage. So once again, we held up the group. Fun! We finally made it to Osaka city where we checked in at a really nice hotel. Went out exploring the city after a nice shower, and had some sushi before we hit a bar for a drink.

The next day was our secret day, and we were surprised when we heard we were going up in the mountains and living in a monastery! We took a train up to the mountains, the scenery was really nice, lush and green. The last bit we took a cablecar straight up the mountainside, then a bus to our monastery. We stayed in nice rooms with tatami-mats that we slept on. It was really cold up in the mountains so we were glad we brought some warm clothes! We went for a walk in a cemetery which was really nice, and looked at a couple of temples. In the evening we had a traditional meal served by the monks, all vegetarian, with deep fried vegetables, tofu, pickled something, and of course rice. I slept quite well, even though the bed was a bit hard, as it was basically a thin mat on the floor.

Then off to Kyoto! More about that later.