[Japan Travel]: Shimonoseki
Hello
As you know I'm super busy and will be extremely busy in November, so before this gets outdated, I thought I better post it NOW!!!
So, here's the last travel entry of my summer vacation 2010!~
This trip my brother and me did when I was already back at work. My brother stayed for a few days while travelling alone. Then, when I finally had a day off, we went on yet another trip together.
This time to a spot that connects Honshu (the main island) with Kyushu: Shimonoseki
Shimonoseki (August 19th, 2010):
Cute sign at the station.
Shimonoseki is in Yamaguchi Prefecture which is famous for blowfish. Anyone wants to try? ;P
Penguin says "NO!!"!!! *rofl* XD
It was super mega hot that day. It might have been the hottest day of our journey! (x_X)
It was really tough to walk in the sun for only a few minutes. We were running from one shadow spot to the next and soon lost any interest to see lots of things that day. IT WAS JUST TOO FREAKING HOT!!!
Blowfish again XD
And yes, this is Japan. Well, we were close to Kyushu, so no wonder ;)
It's a good thing that you can't see or feel the heat now, otherwise you wouldn't be able to finish reading this entry XD
Our first destination was this: Kaikyo Yume Tower.
The Kaikyō Yume Tower (海峡ゆめタワー?) dominates the city of Shimonoseki and is the tallest tower in western Japan. Standing 153 metres tall, it was opened in July 1996.
There were some interesting "stone pictures" around the tower.
On our way up to the tower, I saw this little cute guy :D
Finally up there we had an awesome view!!! Now, it was good that the weather was so clear!!! ^-^
You only could take photos through the windows and they were not really clean, but I think the photos still turned out okay?!
And then, I found this little guy!
Chilling in the shadow and apparently not interested in the great view behind him at all! XD
Beautiful!
The cool thing about the tower is that it offers a 360° view and there's soooo much to see! We spent quite a long time up there :D
I love to stare at the ocean (*_*)
Can you see the bridge? That bridge is famous because it connects Honshu with Kyushu!!! :D Two islands of Japan that are connected only by bridges.
Next to it is also the aquarium where we went to later on. Yah, we wanted to stay INSIDE as much as possible that day. It was just toooooo hot (x_x)
Back where we started and the lil' guy fell asleep XD
Anybody wants a "rabu rabu shashin"??? For couples obviously! XD
There was this awesome huge picture made of seashells and stuff in the entrance hall. I tried several close-ups, but it was really difficult to catch the awesomeness of this on a photo! ;o;
Hallowee .. ah HalloBay?? Wouldn't "HelloBay" make more sense??!! XD
Spotted German again!!! Wondering what "vom Fass" is refering to, probably beer?!
And German again: "Schloß" - the word for "castle"
*lol* Blowfish invasion! Even the phone booth is not safe! XD
See?? And don't worry, there's more blowfish to come up later! XD
Random photos are random.
That's ... interesting but ... kind of ... ugly?! .. Hmm.
On our way to the aquarium. We were crazy enough to WALK all the way to the aquarium which almost killed us because of the heat!!!! (x___X)
We could have taken the bus XD
But if you walk there's always more things to discover!! :3 Tanuki love!!
And some more blowfish! XD
Finally we reached the aquarium. I rushed inside, because it was just too hot outside!
Cool tornado fishies! Yay!
What an artistic photo! XD Not on purpose though XD
Again, I was really glad to have my DSLR with me. Just much better in places like an aquarium :D
This aquarium was quite big. I think I liked the one in Nagoya better, though.
By now I've been to so many aquariums(?!) in Japan that I don't know which one I liked best ;o;
Sorry, have no idea how to comment to the fishes XD So I just go with "no comment" ;P
Checking out when the next dolphin show is.
Observing the dolphins.
People were taking photos with the dolphins!! SOOOO AWESOME!!!! I wanted that, too, so we went and asked but were told that only people who reserved days in advance could do it. Booo ;o;
Back inside.
Scary! ;o;
Can you see them?
Sooo loooong (O__O'')
This dude was awesome and cute (^-^)
Penguins. They were super popular. So many people!!!! O_O
I liked how they arranged the penguin pool! I think in all other aquariums I've been to so far, they didn't do it like that.
You were able to observe them swimming in and under the water :D
There were also many penguins outside. I felt sorry for them as it was so hot. I always thought penguins don't like the heat??!! (o__O'') ...
But those little guys seemed to enjoy the hot weather o__O' ...
Then, finally the dolphin + huge seal show started! It was an amazing and fun show. I do have a few HD videos of the show, but they're not soooo interesting and they're big and it would take too long to upload them ;P
I liked the idea. They had a whole story set up for their show. A love story between seals and the dolphins were the helpers, really cute ^^
(*^-^)(ε^*)チュチュチュ♪
Dolphins jumping are great (*_*)v And my camera is fast enough to actually catch them doing it XD
The story has a happy end of course :D
We went back to the penguins as we had to leave in a hurry for the dolphin show.
There you had the option to touch the penguins. Again, I suppose you had to reserve way in advance.
Hey, penguin, can I join you? Although the water doesn't really look cool anyways ... XD
And we finally reached the end and decided to take a short break and ...
... eat something. It was too early for dinner, so we just had a "snack" instead ;P
The cake was horrible. Too rich in ... I don't even know what, but I couldn't even finish half of it and usually I never leave food, but I had no choice, really :/ ...
Taking one last photo in the entrance hall of the aquarium before leaving.
Byebye aquarium! Hello heat (x____X)
Who said Japan is a clean country?! ;P
Hana Hana? So .. Hana Yori Dango meets Hanakimi café??? Me wants!!! XD
....
It was late afternoon and we decided to do one or two more sightseeing spots before returning back home.
This small shrine had a really nice view ...
... another blowfish and ...
... lots and lots of ...
TURTLES!!!!
Danger: Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles! XD
That's a real one, btw.!
Blowfiiiish! XD
Our last destination for the day was the Akama Jingu.
A shrine dedicated to the loser of the Battle of Dan-no-ura, Emperor Antoku of the Heike Clan, whose tomb is on the premises. (source: wikitravel)
We were lucky. Apart from us there were only 2 other people there. It was a nice experience :D
Information about the bridge I mentioned before :D
Byebye shrine. Thanks for being in the shadows and thus cool :D
We slowly walked back along the seaside and enjoyed the cool breeze and the not so strong sun :)
The bridge from close-up one more time.
Goodbye blowfish! XD
This is a famous fish market. My brother wanted to see it, but it closed early, of course, too bad!
Icream anyone? That mixed one looks interesting ;P
And goodbye Shimonoseki!!!~
Camera used:
Pentax K-x
After that we went back home.
My brother had to leave the next day.
I think he really enjoyed Japan but did regret that he came during summer.
Next time he'd love to come in
spring which is a good idea, I think XDDD
Probably he won't have enough money to come again, though ;o;
And that's the end of my travel entries .... no, of course NOT!!! Just of the ones about my summer vacation 2010!!!
There's a small
surprise
awaiting you! Not sure when I'll be able to post about it, though.
Stay tuned.
Am off to bed now (x____x)/~
As you know I'm super busy and will be extremely busy in November, so before this gets outdated, I thought I better post it NOW!!!
So, here's the last travel entry of my summer vacation 2010!~
This trip my brother and me did when I was already back at work. My brother stayed for a few days while travelling alone. Then, when I finally had a day off, we went on yet another trip together.
This time to a spot that connects Honshu (the main island) with Kyushu: Shimonoseki
Shimonoseki (August 19th, 2010):
Cute sign at the station.
Shimonoseki is in Yamaguchi Prefecture which is famous for blowfish. Anyone wants to try? ;P
Penguin says "NO!!"!!! *rofl* XD
It was super mega hot that day. It might have been the hottest day of our journey! (x_X)
It was really tough to walk in the sun for only a few minutes. We were running from one shadow spot to the next and soon lost any interest to see lots of things that day. IT WAS JUST TOO FREAKING HOT!!!
Blowfish again XD
And yes, this is Japan. Well, we were close to Kyushu, so no wonder ;)
It's a good thing that you can't see or feel the heat now, otherwise you wouldn't be able to finish reading this entry XD
Our first destination was this: Kaikyo Yume Tower.
The Kaikyō Yume Tower (海峡ゆめタワー?) dominates the city of Shimonoseki and is the tallest tower in western Japan. Standing 153 metres tall, it was opened in July 1996.
There were some interesting "stone pictures" around the tower.
On our way up to the tower, I saw this little cute guy :D
Finally up there we had an awesome view!!! Now, it was good that the weather was so clear!!! ^-^
You only could take photos through the windows and they were not really clean, but I think the photos still turned out okay?!
And then, I found this little guy!
Chilling in the shadow and apparently not interested in the great view behind him at all! XD
Beautiful!
The cool thing about the tower is that it offers a 360° view and there's soooo much to see! We spent quite a long time up there :D
I love to stare at the ocean (*_*)
Can you see the bridge? That bridge is famous because it connects Honshu with Kyushu!!! :D Two islands of Japan that are connected only by bridges.
Next to it is also the aquarium where we went to later on. Yah, we wanted to stay INSIDE as much as possible that day. It was just toooooo hot (x_x)
Back where we started and the lil' guy fell asleep XD
Anybody wants a "rabu rabu shashin"??? For couples obviously! XD
There was this awesome huge picture made of seashells and stuff in the entrance hall. I tried several close-ups, but it was really difficult to catch the awesomeness of this on a photo! ;o;
Hallowee .. ah HalloBay?? Wouldn't "HelloBay" make more sense??!! XD
Spotted German again!!! Wondering what "vom Fass" is refering to, probably beer?!
And German again: "Schloß" - the word for "castle"
*lol* Blowfish invasion! Even the phone booth is not safe! XD
See?? And don't worry, there's more blowfish to come up later! XD
Random photos are random.
That's ... interesting but ... kind of ... ugly?! .. Hmm.
On our way to the aquarium. We were crazy enough to WALK all the way to the aquarium which almost killed us because of the heat!!!! (x___X)
We could have taken the bus XD
But if you walk there's always more things to discover!! :3 Tanuki love!!
And some more blowfish! XD
Finally we reached the aquarium. I rushed inside, because it was just too hot outside!
Cool tornado fishies! Yay!
What an artistic photo! XD Not on purpose though XD
Again, I was really glad to have my DSLR with me. Just much better in places like an aquarium :D
This aquarium was quite big. I think I liked the one in Nagoya better, though.
By now I've been to so many aquariums(?!) in Japan that I don't know which one I liked best ;o;
Sorry, have no idea how to comment to the fishes XD So I just go with "no comment" ;P
Checking out when the next dolphin show is.
Observing the dolphins.
People were taking photos with the dolphins!! SOOOO AWESOME!!!! I wanted that, too, so we went and asked but were told that only people who reserved days in advance could do it. Booo ;o;
Back inside.
Scary! ;o;
Can you see them?
Sooo loooong (O__O'')
This dude was awesome and cute (^-^)
Penguins. They were super popular. So many people!!!! O_O
I liked how they arranged the penguin pool! I think in all other aquariums I've been to so far, they didn't do it like that.
You were able to observe them swimming in and under the water :D
There were also many penguins outside. I felt sorry for them as it was so hot. I always thought penguins don't like the heat??!! (o__O'') ...
But those little guys seemed to enjoy the hot weather o__O' ...
Then, finally the dolphin + huge seal show started! It was an amazing and fun show. I do have a few HD videos of the show, but they're not soooo interesting and they're big and it would take too long to upload them ;P
I liked the idea. They had a whole story set up for their show. A love story between seals and the dolphins were the helpers, really cute ^^
(*^-^)(ε^*)チュチュチュ♪
Dolphins jumping are great (*_*)v And my camera is fast enough to actually catch them doing it XD
The story has a happy end of course :D
We went back to the penguins as we had to leave in a hurry for the dolphin show.
There you had the option to touch the penguins. Again, I suppose you had to reserve way in advance.
Hey, penguin, can I join you? Although the water doesn't really look cool anyways ... XD
And we finally reached the end and decided to take a short break and ...
... eat something. It was too early for dinner, so we just had a "snack" instead ;P
The cake was horrible. Too rich in ... I don't even know what, but I couldn't even finish half of it and usually I never leave food, but I had no choice, really :/ ...
Taking one last photo in the entrance hall of the aquarium before leaving.
Byebye aquarium! Hello heat (x____X)
Who said Japan is a clean country?! ;P
Hana Hana? So .. Hana Yori Dango meets Hanakimi café??? Me wants!!! XD
....
It was late afternoon and we decided to do one or two more sightseeing spots before returning back home.
This small shrine had a really nice view ...
... another blowfish and ...
... lots and lots of ...
TURTLES!!!!
Danger: Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles! XD
That's a real one, btw.!
Blowfiiiish! XD
Our last destination for the day was the Akama Jingu.
A shrine dedicated to the loser of the Battle of Dan-no-ura, Emperor Antoku of the Heike Clan, whose tomb is on the premises. (source: wikitravel)
We were lucky. Apart from us there were only 2 other people there. It was a nice experience :D
Information about the bridge I mentioned before :D
Byebye shrine. Thanks for being in the shadows and thus cool :D
We slowly walked back along the seaside and enjoyed the cool breeze and the not so strong sun :)
The bridge from close-up one more time.
Goodbye blowfish! XD
This is a famous fish market. My brother wanted to see it, but it closed early, of course, too bad!
Icream anyone? That mixed one looks interesting ;P
And goodbye Shimonoseki!!!~
Camera used:
Pentax K-x
After that we went back home.
My brother had to leave the next day.
I think he really enjoyed Japan but did regret that he came during summer.
Next time he'd love to come in
spring which is a good idea, I think XDDD
Probably he won't have enough money to come again, though ;o;
And that's the end of my travel entries .... no, of course NOT!!! Just of the ones about my summer vacation 2010!!!
There's a small
surprise
awaiting you! Not sure when I'll be able to post about it, though.
Stay tuned.
Am off to bed now (x____x)/~