[Japan Travel]: Back from sakura island (*-*)
Hello everybody 
I'm back from my spring vacation. Well, actually I came back on April 10th, but had some things to do such as sorting out my 5000+ photos (o___o'')
.... (it's down to ~3100 photos now XD) ... and a few other things.
That's why I didn't have time to post earlier, sorry
I'll still be quite busy this week, but I promise I try to update and post all the photos little by little as soon as possible (yes, yes, BEFORE my winter vacation photos ^^; ..... *sigh*).
Also, thanks so much for all your nice and cute comments to my last few entries. They made me really happy
Anyway, I've picked a few photos to show you RIGHT now and to give you an idea of what was going on. Details and more photos will (hopefully) follow soon.
(For now I picked 35 photos out of the 3000+, I don't know if those are the best ones, I guess not. I want to save some of the highlights for later ;P)
Enjoy (^-^)/
My first stop was Okayama which isn't really that far away from Yamaguchi Prefecture anyway. I spent there 2 days and 2 nights. I was NOT lucky with the weather at all.
When I arrived there it was raining cats and dogs and not only me, but also the Japanese people who got off the Shinkansen at that time were surprised because that's not what the weather forecast told us -____-
I don't want to go into too many details, but Okayama was really nice (although the weather sucked and a lot of things went wrong there, but that's not Okayama's fault XD ....). Also, I wish I had one more day. I couldn't see everything I wanted to.
Okayama Castle (also known as the "Crow castle" because it's black - some people say it was build black as a contrast to the beautiful white Himeji castle that's not too far away).
The first castle on my trip this time (I got to see 3 castles and 1 fake castle XD this time ^-^ PLUS TONS OF CHERRY BLOSSOMS!!!)
As for castles you usually always have an awesome view over the city. In this picture you can see that the weather was not the best, but somehow I love how the colors turned out :)
Cherry blossoms + Japanese castles = TEH awesomeness (*___*) (there will be way better photos coming soon)
Sunset plus river plus cherry blossoms = not bad either, huh? (*-*)v
It looks even better with a castle in the background, I guess. That's still Okayama's crow castle btw. and the river is the famous Asahi river (there was a huge cherry blossom festival going on when I went there ^^)
The next day I went to the Kibi district in Okayama (and that's where I actually needed more than just one day, but I couldn't afford it timewise). Everything was so far away from each other that I had to go by rental bike. It was nice, though, because I got so see a lot of beautiful inaka.
On my vacation I was lucky again, because I was able to see so many things. Like this kyuudo practice (*____*)
Looks like a drawing if you ask me. Awesome colors (although as you can see the weather was still not good at all x_x)
You probably might have noticed by now that I tried to take photos of any cherry blossom tree that I came across?! XD ..... (no, not really, but ... uh well.)
AND I met soooooooooo many cats and was able to take quite a few cute shots (*_____*)v
After Okayama I left for Shikoku, one of the 4 huge islands here in Japan. From the main island you take a ship/ferry or a train. There's a loooooooooooooooooong bridge that leads you over the ocean to the next huge Japanese island ^-^
My next stop was Matsuyama where I stayed for 3 days and 3 nights (which was definitely 1 day too long, I could have used that day for Okayama instead ;o; .... BUT Matsuyama is now definitely one of my favorite cities ^^)
That cherry tree was one of the 23423423 cherry trees on the ground of Matsuyama's absolutely gorgeous castle. A lot of people were outside having a hanami.
The view from up there was awesome, too, and finally the weather got better as well ^^
Tons of people, tons of sakura and the castle (*_*)
And that's the view from up the castle itself.
After that I went to the Central Park which is quite far away from the castle and the other tourist spots (unfortunately), but it was awesome there and totally worth it!!
And again you had a super good view from up there over Matsuyama ^^
This European style castle thingie was on top of the whole park. Awesome ^^
In the park were so many cats. I was really happy about that (*____*)v
On my way back down I discovered something like a "sakura road" which was a path with TONS (and I mean TONS) of cherry blossoms (photos will follow), together with the sunset I was able to take a few really nice shots.
Random shot ^^;
I also went to the famous Dogo Onsen (the oldest (300 years?!) and most famous in Japan). What you can see in the picture is the station and that blue bus is a special tourist bus which only runs on weekends and holidays to major tourist spots.
The Dogo Onsen district offers a lot of interesting things. Matsuyama is furthermore really interesting for fans of Haiku and Natsume Souseki('s Bocchan). His novel "Darling Master aka Bocchan" takes place in Matsuyama (I still haven't finished reading it ;o; ...) and thus a lot of fans come to see all the places mentioned in his book.
That's the famous Dogo Onsen (and yes I went in to take a bath there of course, but it's quite a boring onsen apart from being the oldest, but you just HAVE to do it if you have the chance to, ne? ^^)
My next stop after Matsuyama was Kochi. I went there by train (which I shouldn't have - the train system in Shikoku is not the best, usually you can go faster by bus), but the view out of the train was worth it *nods nods*.
One of the last stops before Kochi Station was "Gomen" station XDDDDDDDDDDDDD
In Kochi also the cherry blossoms were still in full bloom, luckily ^-^
I also was able to meet nightstar! We had fun and went to dinner twice. Thanks again (*_*)/
My final stop (and probably what I was looking forward to the most) was: Naruto (no, not the anime/manga and not Naruto Uzumaki, but ALMOST! XD)
Naruto is a city in Tokushima Prefecture and is famous for it's whirlpools (and yes that's where Naruto - and now we're talking about the manga/anime chara - got his name from).
I was lucky and went on a "strong day", so I was able to see quite a lot of whirlpools. It was just super difficult to get good photos of them ;o; .....
I stayed near the Onaruto bridge until sunset which was quite an awesome experience, too ^^
I think it might have been the first time that I saw the sun disappearing slowly behind a mountain until she was gone completely. Awesome!! ;o;
The next day (which was already my last day ;o; ...) I went to the Bando district. That's where the famous Shikoku pilgrimage (with 88 temples - will write more about that soon) actually starts.
That's not the reason why I went there, though. There's a German "building" in Bando. Actually after World War 2 there was a prison camp for German soldiers there, BUT they were not isolated at all.
The officer in charge (who was born in Aizu-Wakamatsu btw. where I went during my winter vacation! XD) was really nice and gave them a lot of freedom. In the end the German soldiers were very productive and had a lot of contact to the Japanese locals.
Morzart's 9th symphony had its first performance in Japan THERE!!! People from all over Japan came to see the cultural activities of the Germans back then. It was REALLY super interesting for me. Awesome ;o; I wish I had more time *sigh*
I think that's a good photo to end the entry with. There are only a few things that are as awesome as standing under cherry blossom trees and see the petals falling or rather raining down the trees. Cherry blossom rain = one of the most beautiful things ever.
And then they fall on the floor and everything is over ;o;
Camera used:
Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5
Hope you enjoyed this entry and please look forward to more!
I promise I try to update ASAP again <3333
Bye~buu
I'm back from my spring vacation. Well, actually I came back on April 10th, but had some things to do such as sorting out my 5000+ photos (o___o'')
.... (it's down to ~3100 photos now XD) ... and a few other things.
That's why I didn't have time to post earlier, sorry
I'll still be quite busy this week, but I promise I try to update and post all the photos little by little as soon as possible (yes, yes, BEFORE my winter vacation photos ^^; ..... *sigh*).
Also, thanks so much for all your nice and cute comments to my last few entries. They made me really happy
Anyway, I've picked a few photos to show you RIGHT now and to give you an idea of what was going on. Details and more photos will (hopefully) follow soon.
(For now I picked 35 photos out of the 3000+, I don't know if those are the best ones, I guess not. I want to save some of the highlights for later ;P)
Enjoy (^-^)/
My first stop was Okayama which isn't really that far away from Yamaguchi Prefecture anyway. I spent there 2 days and 2 nights. I was NOT lucky with the weather at all.
When I arrived there it was raining cats and dogs and not only me, but also the Japanese people who got off the Shinkansen at that time were surprised because that's not what the weather forecast told us -____-
I don't want to go into too many details, but Okayama was really nice (although the weather sucked and a lot of things went wrong there, but that's not Okayama's fault XD ....). Also, I wish I had one more day. I couldn't see everything I wanted to.
Okayama Castle (also known as the "Crow castle" because it's black - some people say it was build black as a contrast to the beautiful white Himeji castle that's not too far away).
The first castle on my trip this time (I got to see 3 castles and 1 fake castle XD this time ^-^ PLUS TONS OF CHERRY BLOSSOMS!!!)
As for castles you usually always have an awesome view over the city. In this picture you can see that the weather was not the best, but somehow I love how the colors turned out :)
Cherry blossoms + Japanese castles = TEH awesomeness (*___*) (there will be way better photos coming soon)
Sunset plus river plus cherry blossoms = not bad either, huh? (*-*)v
It looks even better with a castle in the background, I guess. That's still Okayama's crow castle btw. and the river is the famous Asahi river (there was a huge cherry blossom festival going on when I went there ^^)
The next day I went to the Kibi district in Okayama (and that's where I actually needed more than just one day, but I couldn't afford it timewise). Everything was so far away from each other that I had to go by rental bike. It was nice, though, because I got so see a lot of beautiful inaka.
On my vacation I was lucky again, because I was able to see so many things. Like this kyuudo practice (*____*)
Looks like a drawing if you ask me. Awesome colors (although as you can see the weather was still not good at all x_x)
You probably might have noticed by now that I tried to take photos of any cherry blossom tree that I came across?! XD ..... (no, not really, but ... uh well.)
AND I met soooooooooo many cats and was able to take quite a few cute shots (*_____*)v
After Okayama I left for Shikoku, one of the 4 huge islands here in Japan. From the main island you take a ship/ferry or a train. There's a loooooooooooooooooong bridge that leads you over the ocean to the next huge Japanese island ^-^
My next stop was Matsuyama where I stayed for 3 days and 3 nights (which was definitely 1 day too long, I could have used that day for Okayama instead ;o; .... BUT Matsuyama is now definitely one of my favorite cities ^^)
That cherry tree was one of the 23423423 cherry trees on the ground of Matsuyama's absolutely gorgeous castle. A lot of people were outside having a hanami.
The view from up there was awesome, too, and finally the weather got better as well ^^
Tons of people, tons of sakura and the castle (*_*)
And that's the view from up the castle itself.
After that I went to the Central Park which is quite far away from the castle and the other tourist spots (unfortunately), but it was awesome there and totally worth it!!
And again you had a super good view from up there over Matsuyama ^^
This European style castle thingie was on top of the whole park. Awesome ^^
In the park were so many cats. I was really happy about that (*____*)v
On my way back down I discovered something like a "sakura road" which was a path with TONS (and I mean TONS) of cherry blossoms (photos will follow), together with the sunset I was able to take a few really nice shots.
Random shot ^^;
I also went to the famous Dogo Onsen (the oldest (300 years?!) and most famous in Japan). What you can see in the picture is the station and that blue bus is a special tourist bus which only runs on weekends and holidays to major tourist spots.
The Dogo Onsen district offers a lot of interesting things. Matsuyama is furthermore really interesting for fans of Haiku and Natsume Souseki('s Bocchan). His novel "Darling Master aka Bocchan" takes place in Matsuyama (I still haven't finished reading it ;o; ...) and thus a lot of fans come to see all the places mentioned in his book.
That's the famous Dogo Onsen (and yes I went in to take a bath there of course, but it's quite a boring onsen apart from being the oldest, but you just HAVE to do it if you have the chance to, ne? ^^)
My next stop after Matsuyama was Kochi. I went there by train (which I shouldn't have - the train system in Shikoku is not the best, usually you can go faster by bus), but the view out of the train was worth it *nods nods*.
One of the last stops before Kochi Station was "Gomen" station XDDDDDDDDDDDDD
In Kochi also the cherry blossoms were still in full bloom, luckily ^-^
I also was able to meet nightstar! We had fun and went to dinner twice. Thanks again (*_*)/
My final stop (and probably what I was looking forward to the most) was: Naruto (no, not the anime/manga and not Naruto Uzumaki, but ALMOST! XD)
Naruto is a city in Tokushima Prefecture and is famous for it's whirlpools (and yes that's where Naruto - and now we're talking about the manga/anime chara - got his name from).
I was lucky and went on a "strong day", so I was able to see quite a lot of whirlpools. It was just super difficult to get good photos of them ;o; .....
I stayed near the Onaruto bridge until sunset which was quite an awesome experience, too ^^
I think it might have been the first time that I saw the sun disappearing slowly behind a mountain until she was gone completely. Awesome!! ;o;
The next day (which was already my last day ;o; ...) I went to the Bando district. That's where the famous Shikoku pilgrimage (with 88 temples - will write more about that soon) actually starts.
That's not the reason why I went there, though. There's a German "building" in Bando. Actually after World War 2 there was a prison camp for German soldiers there, BUT they were not isolated at all.
The officer in charge (who was born in Aizu-Wakamatsu btw. where I went during my winter vacation! XD) was really nice and gave them a lot of freedom. In the end the German soldiers were very productive and had a lot of contact to the Japanese locals.
Morzart's 9th symphony had its first performance in Japan THERE!!! People from all over Japan came to see the cultural activities of the Germans back then. It was REALLY super interesting for me. Awesome ;o; I wish I had more time *sigh*
I think that's a good photo to end the entry with. There are only a few things that are as awesome as standing under cherry blossom trees and see the petals falling or rather raining down the trees. Cherry blossom rain = one of the most beautiful things ever.
And then they fall on the floor and everything is over ;o;
Camera used:
Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5
Hope you enjoyed this entry and please look forward to more!
I promise I try to update ASAP again <3333
Bye~buu