After going to the amusement park at the top of Ikoma Mountain, I found out that there was, in the city of Nara, another even bigger one which was completely abandoned. Closed since 2006 because of competition from Disneyland Tokyo and Universal Studios Osaka, Nara Dreamland became one of the things I had to do before leaving Japan.

A visit to a friend in Kobe, and the so called “Machu Picchu of Japan”.

On the way back from Nara, I stopped at Ikoma Station and took the funicular to the top of Mount Ikoma, where I found a very pleasant surprise.

I enjoyed so much my 3 weeks in Japan during the summer of 2015 that I decided to return and work at a hostel in Osaka at the end of that year. With my intention of possibly opening my own hostel in the future, this gave me an opportunity to really find out how things work behind the scenes.

In early December I had a chance to check out the autumn colors in both Kyoto in Nara. Living in Osaka made it very convenient to visit these cities.