Yoshino

Next we went to Yoshino. Gotta say, longest wait in traffic ever. Up and down the winding

hills, through sakura(cherry

blossoms) and plum blossom trees! It was at least scenic.

We made it to our ryokan, to which we had to climb to reach.It was a very nice

traditional place. The one thing that was significantly different

from the other ryokan that we have stayed at: there was no room

What??!! No shower you say?!?! showe

r.

Yes, there was only the Women's bath. We had been through so much together in the last 4 months, we might as well get naked together. (^o^;) <-sweating face

So the great majority of us girls

ventured down the the outdoor onsen (hot spring) and set to being comfortable with our bodies.

We ended up singing Disney songs very loudly. We go shushed

after song 3-4. Apparently, people could hear us down the m

ountain.

We had a great time cooking away in our hot water.

The next day we climbed the Sakura covered mountain. (The Yoshino mountain Sakura bloom later than those in Nagoya). We are professional mountain walkers/climbers but this mountain

beat us down. We did not find the map telling us the real distance to the top. We only found markers

p of the mountain, dashed our spirits and we quit ~4km from the top of the mountain.to the next big temple on the mountain. Needless to say, mistaking

every marker for the to

But it was still quite a work out!

After our trek up the mountain, we decided to go in the opposite direction and check out the shops of the town. We got some tasty food and ice cream (there's green tea and sakura flavored ice cream in Japan, I got a

mix). We also followed a parade, which was a reenactment of the Diamyo returning from Tokyo after visiting the Emperor.

Yoshino was very nice! Check it out if you're in Japan!