字幕列表 影片播放
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- Today, I'm hopping on the bullet train
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and heading north of Kyoto,
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to the small town of Otsu in Shiga Prefecture.
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Hey guys, how's it going today?
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I'm in (chuckles),
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I'm in (chuckles) Shiga Prefecture.
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I'm visiting Lake Biwa today,
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and I'm so excited 'cause I've heard so much about it.
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That's a loud train.
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So full disclosure, today's video is a collaboration video
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with Otsu City, and they have provided electrical bikes
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and a English speaking guide for me during my trip.
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You can actually rent the bicycles right here,
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outside of Shiga station.
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They're electric bicycles, and they're $12 for three hours
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or $18 dollars for a day,
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and you can see they're quite big.
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I've never tried an electrical bicycle before.
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I guess this is the battery.
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Should I turn it on right now?
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- [Keiko] Ah, yes.
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And usually it's set in the middle one.
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- Whoa, that's so cool.
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So today I'm traveling around Lake Biwa
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with an English guide.
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- I'm Keiko, welcome to Shiga.
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- Hi, Keiko, nice to meet you.
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- Nice to meet you, too. (speaks in foreign language)
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- I've never used an electric bicycle before.
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- Ah, don't worry about it.
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It's very easy.
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- Our cycling path takes us along Lake Biwa,
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the largest freshwater lake in Japan.
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It's almost the same size as Singapore.
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Cycling is a great way to explore smaller towns in Japan
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because you have the freedom to stop
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and go at your own pace.
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It's a little bit cloudy today.
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It looks like it might rain, but I feel like
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that gives the mountains a more mysterious look anyway.
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This looks like something out of a movie scene or something.
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It's so beautiful.
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It's so beautiful.
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(multiple camera shutter clicks)
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On sunnier days, Lake Biwa is a pretty popular place to be,
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with cute open space cafes lining the lakeside
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and recreational water sports,
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which many Japanese don't easily have access to.
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Coming from bigger cities like Osaka and Kyoto,
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Lake Biwa is a perfect getaway on a hot summer day.
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(relaxing electronic music)
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This particular cafe, R Cafe, is dog-friendly, which I love.
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Some people describe riding an electric bicycle
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like riding on a cloud, and I get it.
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This bike rides smooth and comfortably,
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and you don't have to worry about getting tired,
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which means you can spend an entire day
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exploring a small city by bike.
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Coming into somebody's home (speaks foreign language).
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(speaks foreign language)
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- Whaaa,
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Look at this beautiful living room.
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(woman murmurs)
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(relaxing guitar music)
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Okay, so after cycling around Lake Biwa,
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we are now at a home.
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This is part of a tour actually.
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If you want to participate in this kind of tour,
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you can have this experience yourself.
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We are going to make lunch together.
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We're having chicken sukiyaki, which is a specialty here,
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and it's totally farm to table,
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meaning we are using local ingredients
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and we are all cooking together,
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and we're all gonna eat together, and it's gonna be awesome.
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So this rice is rice that they've grown here
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on their own rice field.
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(speaks foreign language)
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Oh, this smells so good.
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(speaks in foreign language)
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All right, so we're gonna try the chicken.
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Mmmmm!
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She put in so much kibi, sugarcane sugar,
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that with the shoyu, with the soy sauce,
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it's kind of like a teriyaki flavor.
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So for dessert we have sweet potatoes,
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candied sweet potatoes, and shiso juice,
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which is kind of interesting.
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I don't think I've ever had shiso juice before.
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- Oh, lots of vinegar in it too.
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(speaks in foreign language)
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We're best friends now.
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- Thank you so much.
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(speaks in foreign language)
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So this is Juge Shrine,
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and it's right at the top of this hill,
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right near where we had lunch.
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And what I really like about this shrine
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is that it sits at the top of a hill,
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so you come all the way to the top of the hill,
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and when you turn around, I'll show you in just a second.
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Otsu City pays a lot of respect
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to their natural resources,
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which was also evident in our next stop.
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In the afternoon, we visited one
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of Japan's most experienced roofers.
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Many traditional Japanese shrines and homes
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were originally made with plant-based roofs
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made of things like straw and wood,
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and this artisan workshop specializes in roofing
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made almost entirely from natural resources
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from cypress bark planks to bamboo nails.
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- Visitors to Otsu City can request to drop by
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his workshop to learn about this valued profession.
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- Oh my god.
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(speaks in foreign language)
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This is a cool hand-on experience
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that makes you really appreciate
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just how skilled Japanese craftsmen are in their trades.
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All right, you guys, I just checked into my hotel room,
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and it's so gorgeous.
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I don't know what I did to deserve this.
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Look at this room.
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I've got two beds.
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Maybe I'll sleep on them horizontally just because.
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They're so comfortable, and I love the colors.
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It's so relaxing, the nice beautiful blue.
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And of course there's a giant patio.
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We come out here, outside,
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and we've got this gorgeous view of Lake Biwa.
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Anyway, it's getting to be about seven o'clock at night,
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and I'm getting a little bit hungry,
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so I'm going to head out for some dinner.
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For dinner, I headed over to Matsukiya
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for their famous oumigyuu.
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This beef is so marbled and tender
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that it's said to rival
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the world-famous Kobe beef in quality.
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A light touch from a human hand is all it takes
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for the fat on this block of beef to melt.
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Apparently, this indicates good quality.
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So teppanyaki is actually a really great experience
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to have if you come to Japan.
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It's a really cool way to interact with the cooks
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and watch them as they work
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their magic right in front of you,
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and they serve you the food hot, right off the grill.
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And it's kind of like,
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it feels special.
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You feel special like you're kind of like royalty,
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having someone cook for you,
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and it's a really cool experience.
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This looks so good,
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and I never get to eat cuts of steak this expensive
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and exquisite, so I'm so excited,
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and I'm sure it's gonna taste amazing.
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Here are the vegetables that he fried up
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in front of us as well.
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We've got a salad, and then this is interesting.
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We have the house sauce,
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which is apple and,
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- Wine. - Wine.
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- Wine and onions,
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And here we have yama wasabi.
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It's a yellow horseradish from Hokkaido.
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Bubble salt, which is a mixture
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of kombu dashi salt and gelatin,
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so it becomes a very puffy, kind of foam,
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but it's very foamy and you put it on the meat,
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and it should kind of glide, blend right in with that.
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Teppanyaki is seriously such a treat,
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and Shiga's oumigyuu literally melts in your mouth,
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making this an incredible high-end dining experience.
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It's amazing.
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It's just like so juicy and soft,
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and. (woman chuckles)
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We're gonna hop on a train,
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and we're heading to Ishiyama Temple,
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which hopefully still looks good in the rain.
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I don't know, I like it though.
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It's not too hot today.
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It's still warm, but the rain is kind of nice.
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I don't mind it.
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(chillout music)
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Okay, so we're here at Ishiyama-dera Temple,
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and it has started pouring rain.
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It's insanely, oh, now it's all over the lens.
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This is the temple of Murasaki Shikibu,
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a famous Japanese author.
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Unfortunately, we couldn't stay long because of the rain,
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but the shrine is impressive,
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and the fortunes told here are famous
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because they're written poetically,
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apparently excerpts from Murasaki Shikibu herself.
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♫ Girl, feeling all the way
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♫ I promise
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All right, so it finally stopped raining,
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but it's time to go home.
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I wish I could have spent more time here.
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There's so much to see and do
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that I felt like one night, two days just wasn't enough.
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But I had a great time,
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and I hope that you guys enjoyed what you saw.
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I would love to come back to Lake Biwa,
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especially on a sunny, more cooperative weather day,
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so I think I'll be back.
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But I'm so happy I got try tons of delicious food
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and see what people like the locals are doing here,
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what the industries are like.
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One night, two days just didn't feel like
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a long enough stay, so I think I'll be back.
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Anyway, I gotta go 'cause I gotta catch my Shinkansen,
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so talk to you soon, bye.
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(relaxing pop music)