2/11 - Nara, Kyoto

We took the morning train to Nara, which used to be the capital of Nippon.
We visited two significant shrines and temples. In the Todayo-ji we saw the huge Buddha statue.
The garden of the other shrine included a three- and a five-stored pagoda.
We also saw the treasure house where about 1000 Buddha statues are exhibited.
The old city of Nara impressed both of us very much.
(private reminder: bockets of water in each house entrance)
In the evening we saw a traditional performance show in the Gion corner theater including tea-ceremony, puppet-show, flower arrangement, comic theater performance.
After this performance we went back to Tomi-sushi bar to eat dinner.
We met a very nice couple japaneese couple, who sat next to us. Both spoke very good English.
After a short conversation it turned out that the guy (Yoshi) manages the Kyoto center of IBM.
They thaught us the correct way of eating with chopsticks, to eat missu-soup at the end of the meal,
and also a little secret: no problem to eat sushi with our hands.
They have ordered for us special types of sushi, which do not appear on the English menu.
After the delicious dinner they have invited us to come with them to a pub. We accepted the invitation. We run to catch a taxi, which took us to a japaneese-western style
high-class pub. The house once belonged to artists, and later it was bought by someone who turned it to an exclusive pub.
Paitings on the walls, japaneese style doors and walls, but western-style bar.
The third place that evening was a traditional japaneese bar, where after leaving our shooes outside we entered a floor sitting private room. We talked a lot, and drunk excellent french wine called Ego.
Around midnight we said our goodbye to these very nice people. This evening was without doubt the most interesting evening of the tour up until now.