The plans for next day were pretty scarce, so we woke up pretty late again.

About this time I started to realize that winter in Tokyo is pretty boring. Bad weather combined with little to see.

So we decided to go to Nakano Broadway, a place where supposedly a lot of anime shops located.

But first, breakfast (this is Buta Shogoyaki)
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As you might remember, we left off the story last time with departing to Tokyo. Our hotel in Tokyo was a pretty cheap place called Horidome Villa (business hotel). The room about the same size as what we had in Osaka we were able to book for just about $65/night. We arrived quite late in the day and took what appeared to be the last available room, that also turned out to be the worst room as well: very humid, with small flies everywhere and with bad smell. Front desk acknowledged the problem and promised to provide with another room on the next day after some people check out.

So we slept for quite a bit of time in the morning and then the front desk informed us that we can move to another room at like noon, so we decided to wait until noon in hotel (and it was around 10:30 already) so that we can move our stuff to that other room.

Another problem with this hotel turned out to be that they did not have any nonsmoking floor. One of the floors had all non-smoking rooms, which just meant that all smoking guests of those rooms went to the hall for a smoke, and the smell immediately penetrate at least our room (both of the rooms we tried actually).

This is what we had for a window view.
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Next day turned out to be rainy and so we decided to not go to Kyoto, but instead go to Nihonbashi shopping area.

But first, breakfast.

We found some takoyaki place at the Shin-Osaka station (it was really hard to find a non-smoking place). These are Takoyaki with soup.
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So next day came and we headed to Kyoto. Getting there from our hotel was an easy 23 minutes train ride (that set us back for something like 540 yen/person).

The day in Kyoto was preplanned in a way, it's when we planned to meet a friend that we have met at SC'10. He lives in Kyoto and also has Suigintou that Ksusha and our Hina-chan wanted to see very much, yes, Hina-chan also came with us to Japan

Anyway we've got to Kyoto and the first stop was at Tofuku-ji temple, a famous zen temple. It was established in Kamakura period, about 750 years ago. The name was taken from two major temples in Nara: Todai-ji and Kofuku-ji.

Central outer gate.
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So having left Nara we went to Osaka. Not that we really wanted to stay in Osaka, but by the time we knew the dates we can be in Kanto region, all hotels in Kyoto (and this is where we were planning to go) were sold out.

So we booked a hotel very close to Shin-Osaka station, convenient for travel to Kyoto.

Of course we got to Osaka pretty late, so no point in going to Kyoto that day, instead we decided to go to Amerika-Mura district in Osaka, that is known for it's big shopping areas.

We also wanted to visit Mandarake shop and to eat some yakiniku in the evening.

Interesting light posts in the area.
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On our last day in Nara we wanted to go to Kasuga Taisha Shrine, that was a bit too far away for a walk, so we took a bus instead.

As we enter the surrounding area we immediately see barrels with sake.
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Early morning of day 3 in Nara we headed to Tanzan shrine, it's somewhat outside of Nara, but promised very nice views.

First we spent some time in a train to Sakurai station

On the way to Sakurai station we passed this place with apparent preparations for New Year.
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For this blogpost we are returning to the Nara visit.

So on the second day in Nara we went to Todai-ji from the very morning hoping the sneak in before tourist groups appear.

Morning sun shining through Nara park trees.
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Today we have yet another out of line post I guess.

On Dec 18 there was a Dolpa 26 held in Tokyo, an event Ksusha wanted to attend, so just as if we had not enough flying already we boarded a plane and went to Japan (again).

We have read before that Japanese Dolpas are very unlike USA dolpas, but wanted to see it all with our own eyes anyway.

To get to Japanese dolpa you need to buy a guidebook, special booklet that is used as a ticket and explains the planned activities, has various forms and such.

The guidebook might come in two forms too, just a guidebook or with lunch tickets. They are sold in VOLKS showrooms or on the VOLKS website. Some events are very popular and the guide books are sold out fast, some events are less popular and the guidebooks are available for quite a while.
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On November 19, 2011 USA branch of Japanese company Volks - the VolksUSA were celebrating its 6th anniversary! Hooray!  So, on this occasion me and Hina-chan made a rich dark red cake with cream sweet frosting at home. This cake is very nourishing so, it would be very useful for a big party. And thanks to combination of the colors of this cake it would be looking very beautifil on your Christmas or New Year's table and I think it will impress every sweet tooth! 
So, today in the menu we have:

Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting.


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