Guest House Kokuu, Koyasan

Kokuu is a modern version of a capsule hotel and a guest house. The couple who runs the place served us excellent vegetable green Thai curry and butter chicken curry. We sat at the kitchen bar, where you can see what's happening in the kitchen and have a look at the a really nice set of Japanese clay kitchenware. There is good music playing in the back ground and the atmosphere is calm and relaxing.

The sleeping area consists of a couple of rooms and capsules, which are very inviting and it speaks to your inner child. It feels like being in a treehouse or a soft nest. 

A big cemetery, with over 200000 grave stones, is located next to the guest house. The cemetery is open at all hours and you are allowed to got there at night too. We took a late night stroll there and heard owls and a loud chorus of frogs. The main paths are lit, but the rest of the cemetery is dark. If you have a lively imagination, you will be jumpy. 

Internet

Already a month ago i bought prepaid data SIM cards from Japanese online shop. By then i was a bit worried about if i ever get what i paid for but it seems that everything went well and sim cards were delivered to Osaka international airport post office as promised

Dreamy weather

on board... This is a pretty big plane

Are those butterflies what I feel

Next post will be from Osaka! 

A small leaflet about our life in Finland

We created a small leaflet (+ business cards) about our lives in Finland, which we will be giving to people we meet during our trip. We thought that it would be a nice way to tell a small story about ourselves and where we come from. 

The logo's text means in Finnish "A dream?" and it is derived from a Japanese lady's name, who we know from the cooking courses we attend a couple of times a year. 

Kallio sunset

This is the view from my home in Helsinki. I live in area called Kallio. This is an old working class people district. Kallio is well know about many bars and vivid nightlife. When i moved here i was expectin this area to be a bit restless but it is actually very lovely neighbourhood.

My traveling gear

I truly hope that here is everything i need.

• A backpack that fits all this except my camera gear and smaller daypack
• Heavy boots for Yakushima hiking and a rain poncho.
• Some merino wool socks. These are supposed to be good ones, soon we know...
• A fast dry towel. This one goes to very small space and dries very fast.
• some personal bathroom items
• 5 pairs of underwear and normal socks.
• Swimsuit. I am not a good swimmer but hopefully i get a change to dip in pacific ocean
• A warm shirt and few neat shirts
• Three pairs of trousers and bermuda shorts
• 5 pairs of T-shirts
• Light jacket and a hat and walking shoes with extra cushioned soles
• travelling reading, traveling documents, passport and some cash.
• Camera gear and shoulder bag for them. The tripod is really light, less than a kilo and when folded it fits inside the shoulder bag.
• Laptop, chargers and cables. I found a small wall socket converter and splitter.
• cellphone. We get Japanese SIM cards from the airport. Then we can use internet from mobile phone but we cannot make any phone calls, they are DATA only.

There, everything fit nicely...