Belated Picture Post
I finished Orange is the New Black, and realised I didn't really have anything else I wanted to watch (Poussey, Sophia, and Nicky are my favourite characters!) - so I finished up the rest of my packing. All my clothes are now officially packed! I don't want to bring too many, because I will probably end up clothes shopping anyway!
I then decided to sit down and scan some pictures from my Easter holiday :D Better late than never.
Unfortunately (?) I came home from my holiday only to discover that my pictures were 90% cherry blossoms. Not that there is anything wrong with that, it just ... makes for somewhat boring picture posts - which is why I have only selected a few. I also suspect that I have another batch of developed photos stashed somewhere, but I can't find them and I think I must still have an undeveloped roll as well ...
My Easter holiday was from March 29th until April 7th, in other words, I spent 9-10 very hectic, but amazing days travelling across Japan. This was the first time I experienced Japan in spring, it was also the first time I traveled around as opposed to renting an apartment and staying pretty much in one place.
I landed at Kansai Airport, which is close to Osaka.
All of these pictures are taken with my Fujifilm Natura Classica. I don't have much experience with scanning pictures, so bear with me on the quality of the scans. I will work to improve this later :)
This is how I'll always remember Osaka. This street/area was a complete time warp, and a lot for my travel-tired head to take in. I love this shot, though.
I know a lot of people who have lived in Osaka, they have raved about the city and how much they loved it, but never really told me about anything worth seeing. The only touristy thing I knew about was this huge vintage Glico neon sign (usually known as the Glico Running Man, or just the Glico Man). So my quest was to find it. I nearly gave up, but as you can see - I found it in the end. It's a very impressive piece of vintage advertisement - this sign was first put up in 1935! However, it doesn't really picture all that well, because it seems a lot smaller than it really is. That is an entire wall, you guys.
For whatever reason, I don't have any pictures of the ryokan we stayed at in Kyoto. It was an amazing place, and I am sure I will do a separate post sometime about the breakfasts we were served. Christian has amazing pictures of them. For now, have a sampling of what Kyoto is like during spring.
We decided to be ultra touristy, so before leaving for Tokyo, we had scheduled in a day trip to Nara.
Nara is pretty much known for one thing.
Deer.
Friendly deer who want snacks!
There are stalls where you can buy biscuits to feed them. These deer are fat as shit, and will follow you around in hope of biscuits. Some of them have become so domesticated that they will actually do tricks for the biscuits. Then at around 1-2pm, they were full and pretty much just stared at you funny if you offered them biscuits. It was a bizarre experience, but I am so glad we went.
This is still in the deer park, which isn't an enclosed zoo type of deal, it's actually a huge area loosely connected with a nearby temple (Toudai-ji), which is on the UNESCO World Heritage list and has the world's largest bronze daibutsu.
After we'd said our goodbyes to the deer, we travelled by shinkansen to Tokyo - but even in Tokyo where most of the sakura petals were already falling off of the trees, I still seemed to only be able to take pictures of sakura trees.
Though I wasn't able to go to Odaiba without taking my usual picture of the Tokyo skyline as seen from the bay.
Oh, my heart aches - I just want to sit on that beach and watch the sun go down behind the skyscrapers!
IS IT SATURDAY YET?
I then decided to sit down and scan some pictures from my Easter holiday :D Better late than never.
Unfortunately (?) I came home from my holiday only to discover that my pictures were 90% cherry blossoms. Not that there is anything wrong with that, it just ... makes for somewhat boring picture posts - which is why I have only selected a few. I also suspect that I have another batch of developed photos stashed somewhere, but I can't find them and I think I must still have an undeveloped roll as well ...
My Easter holiday was from March 29th until April 7th, in other words, I spent 9-10 very hectic, but amazing days travelling across Japan. This was the first time I experienced Japan in spring, it was also the first time I traveled around as opposed to renting an apartment and staying pretty much in one place.
I landed at Kansai Airport, which is close to Osaka.
All of these pictures are taken with my Fujifilm Natura Classica. I don't have much experience with scanning pictures, so bear with me on the quality of the scans. I will work to improve this later :)
This is how I'll always remember Osaka. This street/area was a complete time warp, and a lot for my travel-tired head to take in. I love this shot, though.
I know a lot of people who have lived in Osaka, they have raved about the city and how much they loved it, but never really told me about anything worth seeing. The only touristy thing I knew about was this huge vintage Glico neon sign (usually known as the Glico Running Man, or just the Glico Man). So my quest was to find it. I nearly gave up, but as you can see - I found it in the end. It's a very impressive piece of vintage advertisement - this sign was first put up in 1935! However, it doesn't really picture all that well, because it seems a lot smaller than it really is. That is an entire wall, you guys.
For whatever reason, I don't have any pictures of the ryokan we stayed at in Kyoto. It was an amazing place, and I am sure I will do a separate post sometime about the breakfasts we were served. Christian has amazing pictures of them. For now, have a sampling of what Kyoto is like during spring.
We decided to be ultra touristy, so before leaving for Tokyo, we had scheduled in a day trip to Nara.
Nara is pretty much known for one thing.
Deer.
Friendly deer who want snacks!
There are stalls where you can buy biscuits to feed them. These deer are fat as shit, and will follow you around in hope of biscuits. Some of them have become so domesticated that they will actually do tricks for the biscuits. Then at around 1-2pm, they were full and pretty much just stared at you funny if you offered them biscuits. It was a bizarre experience, but I am so glad we went.
This is still in the deer park, which isn't an enclosed zoo type of deal, it's actually a huge area loosely connected with a nearby temple (Toudai-ji), which is on the UNESCO World Heritage list and has the world's largest bronze daibutsu.
After we'd said our goodbyes to the deer, we travelled by shinkansen to Tokyo - but even in Tokyo where most of the sakura petals were already falling off of the trees, I still seemed to only be able to take pictures of sakura trees.
Though I wasn't able to go to Odaiba without taking my usual picture of the Tokyo skyline as seen from the bay.
Oh, my heart aches - I just want to sit on that beach and watch the sun go down behind the skyscrapers!
IS IT SATURDAY YET?