Adventures in Kansai 2014 Part 2!
Feb. 3rd, 2014 02:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sinnatiousOkay! I'm on my last few days in Japan, but my sleeping schedule is all messed up so here's another travel post!
I noticed my hotel (and a lot of other places too) often place bottles of water near all of the entrances to the building. Asking around about it, it appears to be an attempt to scare off stray cats. ...I cannot imagine how, but there you go, there's something kind of interesting, bit of an old wives' tale maybe? (Or a tiger rock...)
In my time in Osaka, I was lucky enough to catch the Toka Ebisu Festival!
It was crazy huge! A good ten city blocks at least just of stalls surrounding the Imamiya shrine. Mostly food, but plenty of games and the occasional place selling charms and masks. I partook of some excellent takoyaki and tried dango for the first time.
Toka Ebisu Festival should be called 'festival of throwing away huge amounts of money'. It's supposed to be for good financial luck. I couldn't help but privately think though that their financial fortunes might improve if they didn't throw away hundreds of dollars on charms. There was actually a section in front of the shrine for people to throw coins into a giant pile, it sounded like a hyperactive vending machine! Somebody was definitely making out like a bandit.
I have been a little bit surprised to see how superstitious the Japanese people are in general, actually. When you're visiting a lot of shrines and temples there is of course a strong degree of selection bias but it's still quite a bit more prevalent than expected.
Fuku musume (good luck girls) tying charms onto people's bamboo branches. Umarekawareru was actually working as one for the festival so I got a lot of interesting inside information on it! I was jealous of their epic hats. The fuku musume seemed almost like celebrities, lots of people snapping pictures (I of course being among them).
Goldfish catching game! I wanted to try it but was also concerned about actually catching a goldfish because then what the hell would I do? Couldn't exactly bring it home! Settled for just watching others.
All in all, quite happy to have caught a festival! It was terribly cold so there weren't many yukata about but it was a super interesting experience, plus have to love the festive atmosphere.
Osaka was a very good base for a lot of day trips out, and one of those trips I headed to Kobe!
I first hit up the Motomachi shopping district, which for some reason was heavily pushing Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
With statues like this one.
And they even had a sort of 'garden' where people could cosplay and take pictures! There was an exhibit as well, cost about 400yen to get in, no pictures allowed sadly! There were quite a few interesting artefacts as well as some related game paraphernalia, but the highlight was definitely the giant miniature set they'd made recreating all of the major battles. They even provided opera glasses so you could get a closer look!
The wall outside the exhibit. I'm not a massive fan of Dynasty Warriors and Sengoku Basara and the like, but I know a lot of people who are which gave me enough background knowledge to make this an entertaining little diversion.
Then it was on to the real reason I went to Kobe...
Tetsujin-28! aka GIGANTOR!!!
50 tonnes of pure awesome. Kobe built the monument to raise morale after the great Hanshin earthquake in the 90s. It feels pretty effective as I sure felt pumped after seeing it!
Headed to the harbour after that, with Kobe's iconic tower (every city needs a tower apparently). It was a nice walk, great area, very quiet. Not sure if that was just because it was Kobe or off season. I really like Kobe though, it has a lot of the same elements of other Japanese cities without feeling quite so frenetic or cramped.
Like some kind of primitive television.
Kobe Harbour. Ran into a bunch of Australians here. Australians, we're everywhere.
Found another rooftop garden entirely by accident (was attempting to find the doll museum, but I think said museum was closed). The rooftop garden was a lovely compensation, offered a nice view of Kobe.
Back to Osaka!
Even though I was pretty sick of shrines overall, I heard good things about Sumiyoshi shrine in Osaka so went to check it out.
Was not disappointed! I have no idea what was going on, but in a stroke of luck the day I chose to go it was quite busy, with a handful of food stalls (got myself some yakitori) and there was also an archery competition going on!
A heap of giant stone lanterns with carvings surrounded the complex.
And of course, the bridge that Sumiyoshi shrine is famous for. It's quite steep to walk up!
There were also a lot of what looked to be positively ancient shrine trees dotting the entire complex. As shrines go, Sumiyoshi is one I would recommend.
Then it was time for another day trip to Kyoto!
My goal for the day was Kinkaku-ji (aka the Golden Pavillion). But I decided to walk there from the nearest train station because walking around always seems to result in the coolest finds.
It wasn't the coolest of finds, but I did stumble upon the massive temple complex housing Daitoku-ji. It made for a nice detour.
But then there was Kinkaku-ji itself. I took about a hundred photos of this - this is simply the best one. It looks pretty in the photos, but when you see it in person you do kind of suck in a breath. There's definitely a good reason why this is one of the top sights in Kyoto.
The gardens surrounding it are quite beautiful also. They suffered a bit (once again) for winter, it would be amazing to have seen this in autumn or spring. (The plus was that the crowds were not particularly overwhelming, which meant it was quiet enough to enjoy the views).
On the way out of the Kinkaku-ji area, found a new entrant in the 'amazing vending machine' stakes. Instant ramen! Has a boiling water dispenser so you can make it there and then. (And fork and chopsticks, as well!)
Another day trip was to Nara. Nara was definitely another highlight. Especially the deer park.
The deer were greedy bastards. Some of them had even learned to bow at you in hopes you would give them food! I saw one attempting to eat a chain on a fence, and another happily munching on the paper stolen right out of a person's bike basket. You could buy biscuits from vendors or vending machines for about 150yen to feed them. There were plenty of signs reminding people that they were wild animals and to exercise caution, but overall they appeared ridiculously tame.
They're considered sacred, but I can't help but wonder what the locals truly think about them. They take their sweet time wandering across the road - saw one truck screech to a halt to avoid running them over - and will attempt to eat anything and everything...
Many of the gardens and attractions around Nara park were closed for winter, but this one was open. To give you an idea of how cold it was... half frozen pond.
The gate leading towards Nara's Great Buddha. Deer have apparently cottoned on to the fact that this is a high density tourist area and flock accordingly.
The building containing the great Buddha. Words do no justice to the size.
The Daibutsu itself! Still can't take any of this seriously after reading Saint Young Men. But wow, it really was something. So massive. The photo makes it seem small but the nostrils are large enough to fit a small child.
One of the smaller BUT STILL MASSIVE Buddhas set to either side of the big one.
The whole building was full of giants.
The whole area was pretty cool! Hung out for a while just gawking before wandering back out into Nara Park proper.
Reminds me of Bambi.
THEN BACK TO KYOTO!
This time I headed to the Fushimi Inari shrine. Foxes, yo!
It was actually quite crowded near the bottom! But as you went further and further along the torii gate path, the number of people dwindled dramatically.
Understandable, as after a while the sight of endless torii does lose its appeal. But the surrounding forest is beautiful and worth it on its own. Very easy to imagine mystical foxes darting through the underbrush.
This fox will mess you up!
While in Kyoto I also hit up the Kyoto International Manga museum!
Unfortunately photos are mostly prohibited, which is a shame because the walls of manga were a beautiful sight for a manga-lover to behold. And all there for the reading! You could pluck any old volume of the shelf and take it to any of the many seating options around the area to sit down and have a read.
They have a foreign language section as well, covering English, Chinese, Spanish, Korean, German... and probably some others too. I was a little bit embarrassed to realise that I had read a good 90% of the English section already (and it wasn't just because it was small!) Maybe I should donate my collection to the museum one day. Still, I picked out a few I hadn't read before (for good reason, it turned out) as well as a couple of old favourites and killed a pleasant few hours just reading.
The museum is housed in an old school building too, which is pretty interesting in itself! The floors creaked like nobody's business, more effective than a nightingale floor! A few rooms were set aside for the history of the building, and many of the walls were covered with donated doodles from various famous artists. A handful of the informational exhibits also included English which was awesome.
Osamu Tezuka's Phoenix. Too awesome not to sneak a pic of. One of my favourite stops in Kansai so far, if only for the nerd cred. Can only imagine how much more awesome if would be for someone fluent in Japanese.
After the manga museum there wasn't that much time left in the day so I just wandered for a while.
And hello, stumbled upon Fortress Nintendo!
You were not getting anywhere near those buildings! One of the few places in Japan I've seen that actually has serious security. Even though there really wasn't much to see in the area, still pretty neat to see the building where the magic happens.
So that wrapped up a truly epic day in Kyoto.
Then another day trip! Since I'd enjoyed Kobe so much and hadn't explored to my heart's content yet, I returned for a second go round.
And got fabulously lost. Seriously, the very best kind of lost there is.
In my wanderings I stumbled upon a very shallow dam! It was as beautiful as it was perplexing.
Perplexing because this was the other side of the dam.
My wanderings eventually took me across a living bridge!
And afforded me a truly awesome view of Kobe. It's nuts, the city just ends so abruptly, a clearly visible line between it and the mountains.
And then eventually found my way to my original destination, Nunobiki falls. The photo does the sight poor justice. Sat here for a good half hour just drinking in the scenery and ambience.
A little further on... doesn't this just look like the secret entrance to an underground fortress?
That was it for Kobe. I checked out the city centre a bit more, visited yet another Book Off, ate some tonkatsu, and called it a day. There's apparently quite a good Chinatown in Kobe but after Singapore's Chinatown I didn't feel the urge - not to mention I'll be in Hong Kong soon enough.
Then after a whole string of awesome days I had a day with amazingly concentrated bad luck. It seemed like every place I wanted to go was closed! I managed to turn up to the Osaka History Museum on the only day that month in which it was closed.
Then it started raining! I've actually been fairly lucky with weather overall so far, honestly, but that put a crimp in my plans. Then managed to get stuck in the subway for an extra half hour for some reason, no idea what because all of the announcements were in garbled keigo, all I caught was 'sorry for the horrible delay, thank you for waiting!' over and over again.
Undeterred, I continued on to Tenpozan, to see the Tenpozan Ferris Wheel! The weather even cleared up a little by the time I got there.
The Ferris Wheel? Closed. XD
The attached shopping complex made up for it though - a massive Seria 100yen store, a stack of gatchapon machines, an arcade, and a bunch of other interesting speciality stores salvaged the day! It's Japan, even the bad days are fun.
Also got to try out taiyaki for the first time! Tasty, but beyond the awesome design, not particularly exotic. This one had custard filling because while I can tolerate red bean I have yet to fully embrace it.
Then hit up the Supermarket nearby for supplies instead of the convenience store for a change of pace. Was kind of impressed to find Detective Conan DVDs in among the chocolate. I still can't get over how big that series is in Japan.
Okay, that's it for now! Probably only one last post to wrap up Japan, though who knows where I'll be by the time I get around to it.
On that note, any LJ peeps living in Dallas, Louisiana, Chicago, San Francisco, or Vancouver? The next leg of my travels is coming up fast.
I noticed my hotel (and a lot of other places too) often place bottles of water near all of the entrances to the building. Asking around about it, it appears to be an attempt to scare off stray cats. ...I cannot imagine how, but there you go, there's something kind of interesting, bit of an old wives' tale maybe? (Or a tiger rock...)
In my time in Osaka, I was lucky enough to catch the Toka Ebisu Festival!
It was crazy huge! A good ten city blocks at least just of stalls surrounding the Imamiya shrine. Mostly food, but plenty of games and the occasional place selling charms and masks. I partook of some excellent takoyaki and tried dango for the first time.
Toka Ebisu Festival should be called 'festival of throwing away huge amounts of money'. It's supposed to be for good financial luck. I couldn't help but privately think though that their financial fortunes might improve if they didn't throw away hundreds of dollars on charms. There was actually a section in front of the shrine for people to throw coins into a giant pile, it sounded like a hyperactive vending machine! Somebody was definitely making out like a bandit.
I have been a little bit surprised to see how superstitious the Japanese people are in general, actually. When you're visiting a lot of shrines and temples there is of course a strong degree of selection bias but it's still quite a bit more prevalent than expected.
Fuku musume (good luck girls) tying charms onto people's bamboo branches. Umarekawareru was actually working as one for the festival so I got a lot of interesting inside information on it! I was jealous of their epic hats. The fuku musume seemed almost like celebrities, lots of people snapping pictures (I of course being among them).
Goldfish catching game! I wanted to try it but was also concerned about actually catching a goldfish because then what the hell would I do? Couldn't exactly bring it home! Settled for just watching others.
All in all, quite happy to have caught a festival! It was terribly cold so there weren't many yukata about but it was a super interesting experience, plus have to love the festive atmosphere.
Osaka was a very good base for a lot of day trips out, and one of those trips I headed to Kobe!
I first hit up the Motomachi shopping district, which for some reason was heavily pushing Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
With statues like this one.
And they even had a sort of 'garden' where people could cosplay and take pictures! There was an exhibit as well, cost about 400yen to get in, no pictures allowed sadly! There were quite a few interesting artefacts as well as some related game paraphernalia, but the highlight was definitely the giant miniature set they'd made recreating all of the major battles. They even provided opera glasses so you could get a closer look!
The wall outside the exhibit. I'm not a massive fan of Dynasty Warriors and Sengoku Basara and the like, but I know a lot of people who are which gave me enough background knowledge to make this an entertaining little diversion.
Then it was on to the real reason I went to Kobe...
Tetsujin-28! aka GIGANTOR!!!
50 tonnes of pure awesome. Kobe built the monument to raise morale after the great Hanshin earthquake in the 90s. It feels pretty effective as I sure felt pumped after seeing it!
Headed to the harbour after that, with Kobe's iconic tower (every city needs a tower apparently). It was a nice walk, great area, very quiet. Not sure if that was just because it was Kobe or off season. I really like Kobe though, it has a lot of the same elements of other Japanese cities without feeling quite so frenetic or cramped.
Like some kind of primitive television.
Kobe Harbour. Ran into a bunch of Australians here. Australians, we're everywhere.
Found another rooftop garden entirely by accident (was attempting to find the doll museum, but I think said museum was closed). The rooftop garden was a lovely compensation, offered a nice view of Kobe.
Back to Osaka!
Even though I was pretty sick of shrines overall, I heard good things about Sumiyoshi shrine in Osaka so went to check it out.
Was not disappointed! I have no idea what was going on, but in a stroke of luck the day I chose to go it was quite busy, with a handful of food stalls (got myself some yakitori) and there was also an archery competition going on!
A heap of giant stone lanterns with carvings surrounded the complex.
And of course, the bridge that Sumiyoshi shrine is famous for. It's quite steep to walk up!
There were also a lot of what looked to be positively ancient shrine trees dotting the entire complex. As shrines go, Sumiyoshi is one I would recommend.
Then it was time for another day trip to Kyoto!
My goal for the day was Kinkaku-ji (aka the Golden Pavillion). But I decided to walk there from the nearest train station because walking around always seems to result in the coolest finds.
It wasn't the coolest of finds, but I did stumble upon the massive temple complex housing Daitoku-ji. It made for a nice detour.
But then there was Kinkaku-ji itself. I took about a hundred photos of this - this is simply the best one. It looks pretty in the photos, but when you see it in person you do kind of suck in a breath. There's definitely a good reason why this is one of the top sights in Kyoto.
The gardens surrounding it are quite beautiful also. They suffered a bit (once again) for winter, it would be amazing to have seen this in autumn or spring. (The plus was that the crowds were not particularly overwhelming, which meant it was quiet enough to enjoy the views).
On the way out of the Kinkaku-ji area, found a new entrant in the 'amazing vending machine' stakes. Instant ramen! Has a boiling water dispenser so you can make it there and then. (And fork and chopsticks, as well!)
Another day trip was to Nara. Nara was definitely another highlight. Especially the deer park.
The deer were greedy bastards. Some of them had even learned to bow at you in hopes you would give them food! I saw one attempting to eat a chain on a fence, and another happily munching on the paper stolen right out of a person's bike basket. You could buy biscuits from vendors or vending machines for about 150yen to feed them. There were plenty of signs reminding people that they were wild animals and to exercise caution, but overall they appeared ridiculously tame.
They're considered sacred, but I can't help but wonder what the locals truly think about them. They take their sweet time wandering across the road - saw one truck screech to a halt to avoid running them over - and will attempt to eat anything and everything...
Many of the gardens and attractions around Nara park were closed for winter, but this one was open. To give you an idea of how cold it was... half frozen pond.
The gate leading towards Nara's Great Buddha. Deer have apparently cottoned on to the fact that this is a high density tourist area and flock accordingly.
The building containing the great Buddha. Words do no justice to the size.
The Daibutsu itself! Still can't take any of this seriously after reading Saint Young Men. But wow, it really was something. So massive. The photo makes it seem small but the nostrils are large enough to fit a small child.
One of the smaller BUT STILL MASSIVE Buddhas set to either side of the big one.
The whole building was full of giants.
The whole area was pretty cool! Hung out for a while just gawking before wandering back out into Nara Park proper.
Reminds me of Bambi.
THEN BACK TO KYOTO!
This time I headed to the Fushimi Inari shrine. Foxes, yo!
It was actually quite crowded near the bottom! But as you went further and further along the torii gate path, the number of people dwindled dramatically.
Understandable, as after a while the sight of endless torii does lose its appeal. But the surrounding forest is beautiful and worth it on its own. Very easy to imagine mystical foxes darting through the underbrush.
This fox will mess you up!
While in Kyoto I also hit up the Kyoto International Manga museum!
Unfortunately photos are mostly prohibited, which is a shame because the walls of manga were a beautiful sight for a manga-lover to behold. And all there for the reading! You could pluck any old volume of the shelf and take it to any of the many seating options around the area to sit down and have a read.
They have a foreign language section as well, covering English, Chinese, Spanish, Korean, German... and probably some others too. I was a little bit embarrassed to realise that I had read a good 90% of the English section already (and it wasn't just because it was small!) Maybe I should donate my collection to the museum one day. Still, I picked out a few I hadn't read before (for good reason, it turned out) as well as a couple of old favourites and killed a pleasant few hours just reading.
The museum is housed in an old school building too, which is pretty interesting in itself! The floors creaked like nobody's business, more effective than a nightingale floor! A few rooms were set aside for the history of the building, and many of the walls were covered with donated doodles from various famous artists. A handful of the informational exhibits also included English which was awesome.
Osamu Tezuka's Phoenix. Too awesome not to sneak a pic of. One of my favourite stops in Kansai so far, if only for the nerd cred. Can only imagine how much more awesome if would be for someone fluent in Japanese.
After the manga museum there wasn't that much time left in the day so I just wandered for a while.
And hello, stumbled upon Fortress Nintendo!
You were not getting anywhere near those buildings! One of the few places in Japan I've seen that actually has serious security. Even though there really wasn't much to see in the area, still pretty neat to see the building where the magic happens.
So that wrapped up a truly epic day in Kyoto.
Then another day trip! Since I'd enjoyed Kobe so much and hadn't explored to my heart's content yet, I returned for a second go round.
And got fabulously lost. Seriously, the very best kind of lost there is.
In my wanderings I stumbled upon a very shallow dam! It was as beautiful as it was perplexing.
Perplexing because this was the other side of the dam.
My wanderings eventually took me across a living bridge!
And afforded me a truly awesome view of Kobe. It's nuts, the city just ends so abruptly, a clearly visible line between it and the mountains.
And then eventually found my way to my original destination, Nunobiki falls. The photo does the sight poor justice. Sat here for a good half hour just drinking in the scenery and ambience.
A little further on... doesn't this just look like the secret entrance to an underground fortress?
That was it for Kobe. I checked out the city centre a bit more, visited yet another Book Off, ate some tonkatsu, and called it a day. There's apparently quite a good Chinatown in Kobe but after Singapore's Chinatown I didn't feel the urge - not to mention I'll be in Hong Kong soon enough.
Then after a whole string of awesome days I had a day with amazingly concentrated bad luck. It seemed like every place I wanted to go was closed! I managed to turn up to the Osaka History Museum on the only day that month in which it was closed.
Then it started raining! I've actually been fairly lucky with weather overall so far, honestly, but that put a crimp in my plans. Then managed to get stuck in the subway for an extra half hour for some reason, no idea what because all of the announcements were in garbled keigo, all I caught was 'sorry for the horrible delay, thank you for waiting!' over and over again.
Undeterred, I continued on to Tenpozan, to see the Tenpozan Ferris Wheel! The weather even cleared up a little by the time I got there.
The Ferris Wheel? Closed. XD
The attached shopping complex made up for it though - a massive Seria 100yen store, a stack of gatchapon machines, an arcade, and a bunch of other interesting speciality stores salvaged the day! It's Japan, even the bad days are fun.
Also got to try out taiyaki for the first time! Tasty, but beyond the awesome design, not particularly exotic. This one had custard filling because while I can tolerate red bean I have yet to fully embrace it.
Then hit up the Supermarket nearby for supplies instead of the convenience store for a change of pace. Was kind of impressed to find Detective Conan DVDs in among the chocolate. I still can't get over how big that series is in Japan.
Okay, that's it for now! Probably only one last post to wrap up Japan, though who knows where I'll be by the time I get around to it.
On that note, any LJ peeps living in Dallas, Louisiana, Chicago, San Francisco, or Vancouver? The next leg of my travels is coming up fast.
