My Kansai Adventure!
Kansai is the region of Japan that contains Osaka and Kyoto, as well as a bunch of smaller cities like Nara, Kobe, and Himeji. I started off my trip in Osaka, and I managed to time it so I was there for the Tenjin Festival, one of the biggest in all of Japan. The people in Osaka were always friendly and helpful, and thanks to my host mother teaching me some useful Osaka-ben (the dialect of Japanese spoken in Osaka), I was able to get around relatively easy. The festival itself was really interesting, it involved a giant procession of hundreds of people in traditional clothing and many Mikoshi, the portable shrines used in these processions. After winding through the streets of Osaka, the procession was loaded wholesale onto a series of boats, some of them barges that looked like gigantic floating dinner parties (probably a reward for walking through the whole procession course in the bulky traditional clothes in the near 100% humidity) and floated down the rivers under bridges packed with enthusiastic festival-goers. After that was a fireworks show, but I didn't get to see it, since I had picked out what I thought would be a good spot on the bridge, front row and everything, with space for my tripod. Then the fireworks started going off behind an apartment building to my left, so I just packed up and went home, exhausted from running all over photographing the processions all day and not willing to try and find a new spot in the crowd.
More at Picasa - Osaka
After Osaka, I took a day trip to the small town of Himeji to see the famous White Egret castle, one of the few wooden castles left in Japan (most of the others, like Osaka and Odawara castle are concrete reconstructions). It was a truly amazing experience and I'm really glad I made the trip. On the way back north I stopped in Akashi, a wholly unremarkable town, save for the fact that it has a few of the longest suspension bridge in the world, which runs almost 4 kilometers, linking Shikoku with the mainland via another island. It was really impressive, but the pictures I was able to take were mediocre due to my crappy vantage point and the hazy weather. Discouraged, I started to head back to the station to continue on to Kobe, where I was planning on having a world-class (albeit expensive) dinner. On the way, I was waylaid by an elderly Japanese man who informed me that I my face was sunburned and that I looked hot. I told him I was, and that I had been taking pictures of the bridge and was returning the station. He insisted that I come with him so I followed with some measure of trepidation. We walked a block to a small fishing supply shop I had passed earlier, where he told me to sit down on a couch next to two other elderly Japanese who seemed to be locked in a race to the bottom of their respective packs of cigarettes. After rooting around in the cooler for a beer, he opened it and handed it to me. Figuring I'd just go with the flow, I accepted and began my two hour stay, during which I got handed even more beer and talked with these old fishermen about such diverse topics as everyone in America having big penises (to which I answered in the affirmative, but only cause I though he was asking me if there were lots of fat people in America!), what I thought about the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, how I felt about the colonization of America, and how foreign tourists always wanted to buy Geta, the traditional japanese sandals. It was pretty surreal, and I didn't exactly have the vocabulary to discuss such weighty topics, so I just kinda stumbled along, and whenever I finished my beer it seemed another seemed to appear in the hands of my new friend. Finally at around 7:30, I managed to extract myself from the couch and stumble the kilometer back to the train station, luckily arriving on time to catch the special express to Kyoto, where I checked into the hostel I am at now.
More at Picasa - Himeji
Today, after sleeping in for quite some time in order to recover from the previous days travels, I began to explore Kyoto, making my way to Kiyomizu Temple. I did a lot of random walking and photo taking, which took me to the biggest Buddhist graveyard I've ever seen. I learned only after that you're really not supposed to go into these graveyards unless your visiting the grave of a relative, and taking pictures is orders of magnitude worse. Oops. After that I wandered the alleys of southeastern Kyoto, basically going wherever looked interesting. Tomorrow I'm gonna try and wake up earlier (even though it's 2 am now, yikes!) and do some more focused sightseeing, visiting many more temples and shrines. After that, I'm headed to Nara (possibly) and Kobe (definitely) to get that missed steak dinner! Then I'll return to Osaka for the night and take the bullet train to Tokyo and then a plane to Hokkaido!
More at Picasa - Kyoto
After that the plan is kinda hazy, but I return to Tokyo on the 5th, and I come home on the 7th, which is kinda hard to believe. It's been a whole lot of fun, but I'm also looking forward to coming home. I miss you all and I can't wait to see you!
More at Picasa - Osaka
After Osaka, I took a day trip to the small town of Himeji to see the famous White Egret castle, one of the few wooden castles left in Japan (most of the others, like Osaka and Odawara castle are concrete reconstructions). It was a truly amazing experience and I'm really glad I made the trip. On the way back north I stopped in Akashi, a wholly unremarkable town, save for the fact that it has a few of the longest suspension bridge in the world, which runs almost 4 kilometers, linking Shikoku with the mainland via another island. It was really impressive, but the pictures I was able to take were mediocre due to my crappy vantage point and the hazy weather. Discouraged, I started to head back to the station to continue on to Kobe, where I was planning on having a world-class (albeit expensive) dinner. On the way, I was waylaid by an elderly Japanese man who informed me that I my face was sunburned and that I looked hot. I told him I was, and that I had been taking pictures of the bridge and was returning the station. He insisted that I come with him so I followed with some measure of trepidation. We walked a block to a small fishing supply shop I had passed earlier, where he told me to sit down on a couch next to two other elderly Japanese who seemed to be locked in a race to the bottom of their respective packs of cigarettes. After rooting around in the cooler for a beer, he opened it and handed it to me. Figuring I'd just go with the flow, I accepted and began my two hour stay, during which I got handed even more beer and talked with these old fishermen about such diverse topics as everyone in America having big penises (to which I answered in the affirmative, but only cause I though he was asking me if there were lots of fat people in America!), what I thought about the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, how I felt about the colonization of America, and how foreign tourists always wanted to buy Geta, the traditional japanese sandals. It was pretty surreal, and I didn't exactly have the vocabulary to discuss such weighty topics, so I just kinda stumbled along, and whenever I finished my beer it seemed another seemed to appear in the hands of my new friend. Finally at around 7:30, I managed to extract myself from the couch and stumble the kilometer back to the train station, luckily arriving on time to catch the special express to Kyoto, where I checked into the hostel I am at now.
More at Picasa - Himeji
Today, after sleeping in for quite some time in order to recover from the previous days travels, I began to explore Kyoto, making my way to Kiyomizu Temple. I did a lot of random walking and photo taking, which took me to the biggest Buddhist graveyard I've ever seen. I learned only after that you're really not supposed to go into these graveyards unless your visiting the grave of a relative, and taking pictures is orders of magnitude worse. Oops. After that I wandered the alleys of southeastern Kyoto, basically going wherever looked interesting. Tomorrow I'm gonna try and wake up earlier (even though it's 2 am now, yikes!) and do some more focused sightseeing, visiting many more temples and shrines. After that, I'm headed to Nara (possibly) and Kobe (definitely) to get that missed steak dinner! Then I'll return to Osaka for the night and take the bullet train to Tokyo and then a plane to Hokkaido!
More at Picasa - Kyoto
After that the plan is kinda hazy, but I return to Tokyo on the 5th, and I come home on the 7th, which is kinda hard to believe. It's been a whole lot of fun, but I'm also looking forward to coming home. I miss you all and I can't wait to see you!