Summer vacation in Japan!

Where to start? Japan was, of course, incredibly amazing. From the moment I arrived, I had a permanent giant smile on, and I felt like I was right at home! Not to mention that the transition into using Japanese was remarkably fluid for me.  And I didn't get lost once during this whole trip! Bonus!!  This trip, it felt like I did much more 'doing and experiencing' than the last time, if you understand my drift.  And although I felt like I didn't have my camera out very often, I still somehow managed to come away with over 1000 pictures.  How that even happened boggles my mind - because I could've sworn I had my camera out constantly last time, but based on the ratio of days spent to pictures taken, I took more this time!

I spent my first day in Shinjuku, getting a few things done that needed doing (like getting my JR Pass).


The Southern Terrace at Shinjuku Station




Typical night views in Shinjuku

I followed that up with a visit to Shinjuku Gyoen - which is a GIANT 58 acre park that has different styles of gardens within it - Japanese, English, and French. It also had a good-sized greenhouse at one end of the park, and you could go in and see all different kinds of unique plants.  If it weren't for the fact that it's summer - it would have been a very quiet and peaceful place - listen to this video as an explanation (that noise - that's from bugs!):

Click here if the video above isn't working.

 

One of the little guys responsible for the sounds in the video above...

 

 

More pictures from Shinjuku Gyoen can be found here.


That night, I spent my time listening to the live music that is put on by many different performers at Shinjuku Station. And I found a new band that I really like too! They're called Slur.
Here's a quick video I took while listening to them:

Video not working? Click here.



And this video is also one of theirs - if you're interested... Link is here, if you can't play it...

Oh, and this video was taken at the Southern Terrace of Shinjuku Station - it was kind of quiet that night though...

Click here to go to the video

The next day I had planned to be my hiking day, but it was WAY too hot to even consider doing that, so I took the train a few stops further and visited the Nippara Limestone caves. And that was a process in itself - after getting off the train, you have to take a bus for about 30 minutes, and then walk for another 15-20 to get to the caves because the bus doesn't go that far. But it was worth it! When you finally get to the entrance of the caves, you can feel a cool breeze coming out of the cave, and walking in is like going into air conditioning. But it's all natural! It was quite interesting in there - but very dark, and I kept getting dripped on! And some of the passageways (or rather the stairways) were a little bit sketchy - there was only room for one person to go at a time, they were wet from the dripping rocks which means slippery and you were going more or less straight up and had to watch your head because some of the rocks extended quite low...
If you're interested in rocks at all, I would suggest checking that out!

        

My pictures from the Limestone caves can be found here.


The following day I spent outside of Tokyo, visiting Mt. Fuji, Oshino Hakkai (an attraction of melt-water ponds from Mt Fuji), and an orchard.
Mt Fuji was, to be perfectly honest, not that exciting - I think it would be more interesting to go there if you were actually doing the hike up it, but since I wasn't...
At the 5th station of Mt Fuji you're at an elevation of about 2300m, so you're kind of right up in there with the clouds, and that's nice - the views off the sides of the mountain as you're driving up/down where you are above the low elevation clouds are kind of cool.  But there was SO many people there, it was ridiculous - if you went into any of the stores/restaurants there, they were packed wall to wall with people.

Mt Fuji and the masses.

 

The orchard (Kinbaraen Orchard) that we visited was great!  Apparently the region we went to is supposed to be quite famous for the fruit they grow.  All over this area there were little vineyards with different kinds of grapes - purple, red, and green.  And of course other fruit trees as well.  The thing that I noticed was different from the vineyards I've seen in the Okanagan, is the height of the grapevines - most of them were tall enough that you could walk under them, and others were even taller than the buses!  Oh, and did I mention that the grapes tasted absolutely delicious!  I probably could've eaten them all day long!  They were actually quite small, but were incredibly sweet!  And I also got to eat a couple giant fresh-picked peaches which were also equally delicious.

 

        

 

 

More pictures from Mt Fuji and the orchard can be found here.

 

 

Oshino Hakkai was absolutely beautiful!  For starters, the area surrounding it was beautiful on it's own, but then you saw the ponds.  They are filled with the most amazingly and startlingly clear water!  It's even more amazing when you consider that the water in these ponds is held there for 30-40 years (and it was pointed out to me that the water is older than I am!  True enough...), and for whatever reason, it doesn't stagnate at all.  In fact the Japanese even specially go to buy the water from these ponds because it's considered to be an 'energy' or 'power' source. Oh, and I guess I didn't mention this yet - the water comes from melt water off of Mt Fuji.

 

Here again there were tons of people, but since August is also summer vacation time in Japan, that's only to be expected.

 

This particular pond is supposedly 8m deep.

 

 

For more pictures, click here.

 

The next day, it was off to Osaka, which was smoking hot!! By the time I got into Osaka, it was already mid-afternoon, so I spent the rest of the day exploring the Umeda area where I was staying.  Umeda is a kind of vibrant area - there are all different kinds of restaurants around, MULTIPLE department stores all within 5 minutes of each other, and of course there are the stations themselves - there is the large JR Osaka station, and then multiple other smaller subway stations.  I also lucked out in that at one of the plazas at Osaka station, there was an event going on nightly called "Music Buskers in UmeKita", so every night there were at least two different musicians performing.  It was wonderful - plus it was in an area where you could sit down and enjoy the cool night breeze as well.  Relaxing might describe it well.

 

In this video, you can see some of the plaza I was just talking about, and you can hear the breeze and one of the performers as well!

Click here to go to my video.

 

 

Here are some pictures of around Osaka station:

I took a ride on this ferris wheel one night.

 

And then, I wanted to talk a little bit more about the "Music Buskers" event... My favorite happened on my last night in Osaka.  I actually hadn't been planning to stay to listen to music that night, but as I was walking by, one particular performer caught my ears.  And I liked his music so much that I stayed for the entire hour and a half that he played!  It was really fun music, and he interacted really well with the people (including kids) that were listening.  Oh, and I don't think I mentioned - after these events, the performers usually go around and hand out leaflets to the people who were listening to their music (basically giving info on their next live dates, websites, and that sort of thing).  So when his performance was done, he went and handed out the leaflets, and stopped to talk to the people too.  Including me - so I had a good little conversation with him (in Japanese)!  I learned all kinds of things - for example - not just anyone could perform for this event - they actually had to audition and go through a selection process for it...

 

Even though I hadn't planned to stay that night - it was definitely worth it - I think it definitely ranks up there as one of my most favorite nights in Japan - definitely my favorite in Osaka!

 

That being said, I think some videos are in order, so that you might be able to see why I enjoyed it so much (or not, who knows!)

 

This first one I took while I was listening, so here it is, ヨシダヒロキ(Yoshida Hiroki):



Click here if above isn't working.

 

And because I can, here are a couple of his other music videos on YouTube:

This first one is the full song of the one that I took in my video:

Video not working? Click here.

 

And this next one is another one of his songs that he really seemed to have fun performing:

Video not working? Click here.

 

For my first full day in Osaka, I started it off by visiting Umeda's Sky Building's Floating Garden Observatory, where you can see some nice views of Osaka.  I found out while I was there, that it's a very popular 'couple place'.  There's one room where you're supposed to sit on a couch together and hold hands and the floor lights up according to the 'strength of your love'. Sure it does.  And there was an area outside on the observatory for couples only - it also had a little mini couch and a place to hang a lock commemorating your date/love, or something like that.  I  just went for the views of the city....

 

The Sky Building

The escalator you ride to get up/down

View of Osaka



 

The 'couples only' area.

 

Right, so Sky Garden in the morning, then in the afternoon, I visited with my friend who lives in Osaka.  The two of us went for lunch, wandered around another shopping area, and then went to Osaka aquarium to escape the heat.

 

 

I also visited Osaka Castle one day as well as taking a river bus to see some more of the city from a different perspective.  In Osaka Castle the floors that have the most interesting things - artifacts like scrolls and paintings - you can't take pictures of, but on the other floors they kind of explain the story of the history of the creation of the castle as well as the life of the person who had it built.

 

 

 

You can see more pictures from my trip to Osaka here.

 

While I was in Osaka, I also took a day trip out to Nara.  While I was there I saw a few World Heritage sites, and TONS of deer.  Apparently there are 7 or 8 World Heritage sites in Nara - I had time to see three of them.  The deer just wander around the town, at least in the area where a lot of the Heritage sites are.  People touch them, and you can even buy 'deer crackers' to feed to them.  And they definitely like those things - if they could smell them on you, you'd get a group of deer surrounding you searching for those crackers.  It was kind of funny though - because a lot of the Japanese girls and women who had the food for the deer would start screaming when the deer came near.  Why buy food for them if you're scared??  At one point I even saw one deer walk behind a woman bend down its head, and give her a 'gentle' little head butt to her backside.  I admit - it was a little bit funny, although I do feel a bit bad for her at the same time. 

I also think that the tourist information office in Nara deserves a lot of kudos!  When you go there, they ask you how much time you have to spend in Nara, and then give you a map and give you a suggested course of where you should go to see the main sites (based on the amount of time you said you have), where you can stop for a meal, souvenirs, and other sites you might want to check out if you have extra time.  They were extremely helpful!!

 

I also got to have some more conversations in Japanese while in Nara, and some of the locals told me about some things that I could do, and some less touristy places I could go visit too.  Unfortunately, I didn't have time for everything! (And that's the mantra of my trip - Not enough time for everything!)

 

You can see pictures from Nara here, although I warn you there are a lot, and lots of deer pictures...

 

 

Kofukuji - A World Heritage Site

 Todaiji - World Heritage Site - largest wooden structure in the world home to the Daibatsu (Great Buddha)

 

Daibatsu (Great Buddha)

Stone lanterns going towards Kasuga Taisha Shrine (World Heritage Site)

A baby deer!! CUTE!



 

 

And then there was my last day in Tokyo.  I did a number of things - I visited Ueno Park to see the lotus flowers in bloom at Shinobazu pond, saw a juggler/bagpiper in the middle of the park and then stopped at a Panda Café for lunch.

 

 

 

After lunch, I headed off to Asakusa to visit the famous Sensoji Temple and Kaminarimon Gate.  That place was completely packed with people!!  But, it is a popular place, and I went on a Saturday, so I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised by that.  While I was there I also wandered through Namikase - which is one main shopping street between Sensoji and Kaminarimon, and there are a number of other covered shopping streets that run perpendicular to it as well.

 

 Sensoji

 

Kaminarimon Gate

 

 

Next, I went to Tokyo Skytree, a 634m tall tower, which is surrounded by Tokyo Skytree Town which has shopping, an aquarium, a planetarium, restaurants, an arcade and more.  And it was also crammed full of people!  I had gone up to see if I could go to the planetarium, but turned out it was all Japanese, so I decided I might be better off to spend my time seeing other things.  Only problem was - because there were so many people it took about 45 minutes to get out of there! But on the way out, I got a ginger mint soda - which was made with real mint and real ginger - it was deliciously refreshing!

 

 

 

After that, I took a quick ride on a rickshaw.  I learned all sorts of things from my driver, who told me that he studied for a year in Australia, and because he was from Kyushu he said that both his English and his Japanese sound strange.  I also learned about the older part of Asakusa, and things about rickshaws and their drivers.  For example, did you know that a rickshaw costs about $23,000 to make?  Or that there are different kinds of rickshaws for different events?  Or that the drivers have to take 5 different exams (Traffic laws, how to drive the rickshaw, English, etc.) to become a rickshaw driver?  Interesting, right?!

 

If you're interested in seeing photos from Ueno and Asakusa, please click here!

 

 

My next stop was Harajuku, because when I was in Asakusa, I was told that there was a dance festival going on in Harajuku that weekend, so I went to go check it out!  The festival was traditional Japanese dancing, and I enjoyed watching it.  I took a few videos of some of the dances - unfortunately, I didn't bring enough memory cards with me that day to video some of the later dances, which were even better in my opinion, but at least I can give you a quick idea of how some of them go! (If you're going to watch these videos, I would suggest watching in full screen mode so you can actually see what's going on)

 

If video isn't working, click here.

 

Link to video #2 here.

 

Link to third video here.

 

 

If you don't know this already, even on a normal day, Harajuku is filled with all kinds of different people, but this time it was extra insane.  When the dancing was over, going to take a train back was intense.  For the first train that came, masses of people crammed into that train, and Japanese people can seriously cram into small spaces - but there was literally no room left on that first train for anyone else to squeeze on (or even breathe by the looks of it!)  So, I waited for the next train, which didn't take long because Harajuku is on one of the main train lines that loops around Tokyo.  Squeezed in and headed out for dinner.

 

 

By the time I finally ate my dinner - it was already quite late into the evening, so the I didn't quite have time to go see the other things that I wanted to, because they would have already been closed for the night.  Next time, I guess!

 

Speaking of dinner - this trip to Japan was filled with all kinds of delicious food!  I ate SOOOO much!  It's absolutely amazing that I could even move after eating all that food ;)

 

For example, I ate things like:

 

             

Okonomiyaki                                                                              Om-rice

 

Waffles, Fruit & Ice-cream 

 

All in all, I REALLY enjoyed my trip to Japan, and I was left wishing that I had much more time, as there were many more things that I wanted to do and see, but I just didn't have time for.  And, once again, it was incredibly difficult for me to leave.  I just really click with Japan, and can't seem to get enough!