Peace Museum & Floating Roof Top

Today we visited the Peace Museum, near Osaka Castle, 3 exibit areas.
Exhibit A - Osaka's destruction by the US Airforce incendiary bombing raids, Exhibit B Japan's aggressor role and the attrocities it commited in the 15 year war, from Manchuria incident right through to the war in the pacific. Exhibit C is a collage of peace making moments in modern history, complete with doomdays clocks above each event e.g Cuban missile crisis, signing of end of war agreements etc.

Then we went off to Umeda to get a view from atop the floating rooftop viewing platform.


View from Rooftop Floating Garden 160m above Osaka


Looking up... escalators between the buildings


Escalators between the two towers from the roof top


Osaka - Umeda


View to the east

Shitennoji Temple Markets

Heading off to Shitennoji again because it is market day. A big flea market amongst the temples. If you are after a cheap Kimono this is the place to go, prices start as low as 300 yen. Lots of "Classic" collectables, robbie the robot, godzilla etc and more old 8mm cameras and projector than I have seen in a long time. As collectible as the old Japanese stuff was to us, old western clothing was popular with the young trendy Japanese girls. We only saw about 6 other gaigin at this market, which is good because it means the prices haven't gone sky high due yet to catch the tourist yen. The market is normally on the 21st of each month. I ate "dog".. a poorly translated hotdog, sausage on a stick. And some Tacoyachi (octupus balls.. or rather balls of octupus and other ingredients. Beware of sticking them straight in your mouth.. they can be very sticky masses of hot goo.). These bought ones were not as nice as the ones we learnt to make yesterday.


Market Stalls at Shitennoji


We also stopped at Mos Burger (again..), if you feel like a burger but don't want to eat at that horrid brand of American world burger dominance; I reccomend "Mos Burger", the burgers are fresh, lettuce is green and never soggy, and they are very tasty (Japanese mayonaise.. yum!) our faves are the Teryaki Burger and the MosBurger, so far

Here are a few pics from the apartment we are staying in.. gives a bit of an idea of the mixed nature of the building in the area. Nearby, but not in the photos is a 4 storey aparment complex, of which the entire bottom floor is a transit company.. trucks constantly moving in and out - we assume the workers live in the apparments above.


Note the Tori Gate garden and shrine on top of one of the buildings.


Looking towards the mountains, post office on left with the flags. Teller machines at this post office allow the use of Maestro & Cirrus cards, so we can use our debit cards. We found only 3 places in Osaka where we could use them.


Bike parking area for the appartments, more bike parking space than there is for cars. In Osaka you have to prove you have somewhere to park a car before you are allowed to purchase one.


View towards main road, can just spot the rail bridge running left to right amongst the larger appartment building.

Himeji

Took the Shinkansen (Bullet Train) from Osaka-Shin station to Homeji, just over 3000 yen each for non-reserve seating. (Carriages 1,2,3 are for non-reserved seat, 1 & 2 are non-smoking). We managed to find a seat and could see out the window, not much to see really as most of the way was tunnels, except for a break before and after Kobe station. Train is very smooth, almost like being in an aircraft, much of the time of the journey appears to be slowing down for the station.


Himeji Castle Map

Himeji Castle built early 17th century, registed on world heritage list in 1933 as the first cultural site in Japan. The castle is also known as White Heron Castle due to its white plaster and some resemblance(?) to a white bird flying off.


Himeji Castle - Main Keep
There are displays inside the castle of scrolls, paintings, armour, roof tiles, rifles etc. The stairs are extremely steep, best to call them ladders, the steps vary in width, some were only a third the size of my foot. You have to remove your shoes before entering (put in plastic bag & carry with you), and some slippers are provided.. for safety I suggest not using the slippers (they will slip off as you climb the stairs), but rather proceed in your socks. When you reach the top, there views from all sides, and there is a place to sit and contemplate why exactly did you climb those 5 levels? ;-)

View from Himeji Castle


Himeji Castle - Looking like a White Heron?

Mt. Shosha

Mt. Shosha - Engyoji Temple
From Himeji we took the #8 bus to Mt. Shosha, conveniently, the bus terminated at the bottom of the path leading to the Mt. Shosha Ropeway. This cable car takes you up into the mountain temple area.


Temples at Mt Shosha (above Himeji)


"Maniden is the main building constructed in 970AD. It is dedicated to the goddess of Mercy. The Main hall stands half-way up this rocky mountain and is built without a single nail, same as Kiyomizu temple in Kyoto. Unfortunately the orignal temple burnt down in 1921 and the construction of the present building was complected in 1932" - (taken from ropeway tourist leaflet)

As you can see from the above picture it is starting to rain. The became so heavy that we had to abandon the next 1-2km uphill trek to see the more buildings here. The path was getting too muddy, we noted on the way back down the mountain that there was a temple bus to take people up and down the dirt roads around the temple area, we assume that if we had arrived at the right time, we may have been able to ride on it.


The Glowing Green Tree. Don't know if there was something special about this tree, but it was covered in glowing green moss and was growing right beside the temple. I think it must have been a lucky tree, because each vending machine I used for the rest of the day, gave me too much change... I had a few free drinks thanks to the Goddess of Mercy & that tree.


Residence?


Water Dragon - Cleanse yourself at this well before entering the temple

Kyoto

Golden Pavilion




Tori gates form a tunnel




Kyoto - Foxes are the messengers of the gods.




Tori gates galore along bush path - a 40 km trek continues uphill from here.

Kobe

Kobe from Sky Rope (cable car)


Herb Garden Green Houses - above Kobe


Foreign heritage in Kobe

Umeda

Umeda (Osaka CBD)

Umeda is the CBD of Osaka City, not a lot to photograph. Lots of shopping and lots of people. One drawback of shopping in Japan, is that clothes don't fit and the super electrical goods won't work back in Australia. So we can drool at the cool clothes and great electronics, without worrying about how we are going to afford it. Maybe one day we will see these great things in Aus. One disapoint for me, is the internationalisation of music, 20 years ago Japan was a great place to import special versions of top 40 albums that you could get nowhere else. But sadly now, the release here are just the standard US issue with a japanese cardboard sleave, no extra tracks.. no rare remixes or artwork.

Fridges in Japan are amazing. While in Australia the current trend is for stainless steel fridges; Japan has taken fridges to the next level. Multiple door, some up to eight doors, each with its own purpose and temperature control. Super rapid chill wine, make ice, ice water etc, even good for cheese making where ripening cheese needs special conditions. (Gillian & I are certified (certifiable ;-) cheesemakers))

Current wave of mobile phones here have built in TV and FM radio, along with digital still camera (& short video), voice recording, real email capability (not crappy sms)

Because the population is so large. Specialy shops can survive... next to novelty plush toy shops, you will find one who specialises just in Snoopy.

Always fun to keep an eye out Engrish (Japanese attempts at English).. ie there are many posters for the "Marry Widow" opera ;-) And then the was the homemade curry in a packet, that effectively claimed "We made homemade curry so you be sure it is homemade curry" que?

Nara

Bell


The immense temple that houses largest Buddha.


Nara - World's largest bronze Buddha

Kishiwada Danjiri Matsuri Festival

Kishiwada Danjiri Matsuri Festival (Video 5.6Mb)

Started with a nice lunch with our two guides for the day, two lovely ladies, Yoshiko & Yuriko. I had a dunburi style meal, consisting of rice, shredded egg, finely sliced tuna and wasabe.. delicious. Also had spring egg (an egg lightly poached in hot spring water... break yoke with chopsticks and stir in soy and then drink.)

Train to Kishiwada.
Very hot & humid. Nearly everyone has a fan. (I have some video of a grandstand and all you can see is the animated movement of fans). This was a day where Dekavita C was a saviour. (search around Santori Vending machines for this drink, it is a pleasant tasting vitamin/stamina drink, tastes a bit like creamy soda with a hint of ginger ale to cut the sweetness)

Through the day we had 4 main vantage points for the festival, basically we walked an almost full loop around the town/circuit. We met another couple of ladies who swapped fans with us (special festival ones with nice dan-jiri pics), much bowing and thanking was done. The politeness & freindliness of people here, leaves a great impression on me. A country where service is king, even the ticket inspector on the train (whose job is not to check tickets, but rather be there to help if you need to buy a ticket or correct the fare) bows both when he enters and leaves a carriage. Or at a restaraunt where all staff (including kitchen staff) thank you and wish you a good night as you leave. Western companies really need a refresher course in service... service is free, not an option extra that you charge for

Danjiri are large moveable shrines, towed by hundreds of people, young & old, male & female.. during matsuri there is no class, rank or culture difference between people. The danjiri weigh between 4 to 5 tons, and the crowd cheers as the fly around the corners whilst a dancer balances on top. The corners are the most exiting bit, as this is when they gain a lot of speed and great coordination is needed to prevent the danjiri from sliding into the crowd or walls etc. Usually people die each year, either from a fall, crushing or just the heat. We saw a few broken dancers being carried toward first aid & ambulances.

After danji we went back to Osaka and had tea at an English styled Japanese Tea house. I had a delicious (aquired taste) iced powded green tea, with a selection of fruit and motsi balls. Liquid sweetners were poured into both. Gillian, I and our guides talked for about two hours while the staff kept bringing us ice cold water.. much needed after the heat of a day of standing in full sun and crowds.

Shitennoji Temple

Shitennoji ('Temple of the Four Kings') is the start of our temple tours since it is in the heart of Osaka.


Temple & Pagoda

This temple, like many temples in Japan, burnt down numerous times and was expensive to replace. The current temple is constructed in concrete, with all pieces molded to resemble the wooden parts. The scale of these building is impressive. The temple is still in use.

There are so many buildings here, it almost feels like a temple theme park

Map of Shitennoji Temple area

Picnic at Osaka Castle

Osaka Castle

A picnic at Osaka Castle, followed by a walk through Namba & Den-den town. First we popped in at Yukiko parents place and met her mother & two sisters. They live only a couple of streets away from where we are staying. Yukiko's mother lent us some Japanese Fans (modern plastic advertising sponsored fans which are much needed against the high humidity here). Subway to the castle, only need to change lines once. Subway here is very easy to use, cross reference on the line where you want to go and the price is shown, buy that ticket from the machine, pop it into the subway gate and grab it as you walk through. The subway tram/trains run every few minutes. Average journey is about 230 yen. There is also a bus that runs around the town, it is 200 yen for most journeys. (Get on the bus at the back, and pay when you leave via the front)

The castle grounds are quite beatiful, lots of people out and about, excercising, riding bikes, jogging. Saw a small group rehearsing tycho drumming, possibly for dun-jeerie? Started to rain so we found a nice perch sitting on the wall high above the moat (picture below). Some rocks in the wall are huge, with the largest "The octopus stone" being over 130t .

We did not enter the castle keep on this trip as it would have been closed before we got the head of the queue, but will see inside before we leave.

Namba & Den-den town (although we didn't only were on the edges of den-den) is a large commercial district, den-den specialises in electronic goods, a tech-boy heaven :-). Also interesting was the area that sells to restaurants and other businesses... you can buy the plastic display food (you see in eatery windows everywhere here), also signs and banners, crockery etc

more to come...

Picnic on wall above moat at Osaka Castle

Arrival

Only slept for about an hour, feeling very tired, curse the 60 on demand movie entertainment system, and the singapore slings. Flight from Singapore to Osaka was quite turbulent, seatbelts most of the way. Closer to the window this time, next to a Japanese business man who took up the entire luggage rack with his duty free bags (until the flight steward intervened). Don't think he liked westerners at all, or maybe we had embarrassed him re the luggage. He waived away any approach of food, and soon he was asleep, so we left him alone.

Getting off at Kansia / Osaka, straight onto the train/shuttle between, I noticed Gillian & I were taller than everyone else around us (a Lost in Translation moment) . Hitting the escalators, I noted the local custom of keep right if you are standing still, as the left is used for people walking/running up the escalator.

Took us forever to finish the quaranteen form, as this was the only form we hadn't been given earlier...much digging around for all the contact details they required. We looked up and we were the only ones left... felt like a stupid foreigner. Customs line was nice and short then and once we got into the right (foreigner only) line.. all was well. At the final customs exit point we were asked a ton of questions in Japanese.. to which we stared dumbly before the girl finally switched to English...... And with much relief we push through to get our luggage.

Purchased a phone card to arrange for Yukiko to meet us at Oehommashi. Tourist info pointed us toward the correct bus stop and the ticket machines. Ticket machines are the key to Japan. Master these and you can get anywhere, bus, subway, train.

A girl in white gloves point to the "English" button, and we purchased the tickets. Unfortunately Gill hit one wrong button and got one of the tickets for one stop further along. We were given a luggage stub for our bags and they were loaded on the bus. Gillian got on with the good ticket, the driver questioned me in Japanese over mine, luckily I could pronounce my destination enough and explained the error with the machine. He let me on (after all we had only paid over, not under). Then after I sat down the driver came up and gave me change for the difference, this my the first encounter of "Service" Japanese style.

The bus trip was about 1.5 hours, through very grey, drab, air poluted industrial area. At one point the entire vista was gas/fuel refinery towers. Then there was the wood production areas where all the water surface was covered in floating logs, the banks of which were poluted with plastic bottles. It impossible to describe any of this "first impression" as pretty. The industrial buildings had pealing paint, wharehouse building up against giant worksheds, next to chimney stacks, very few green bits, maybe a tree now in a pot now and again. Not the Japan I was expecting, this was the ugly underbelly of prosperous industry.

In Transit

4 hours in Singapore Airport, airconditioning not working particularly well, very humid in the main shopping areas. Our luggage trolley was forbidden on the escalators and a sign suggested using lift 23... no map or clue where that was. Eventually we stumbled upon lift 21 and got up to the food court. Didn't really feel hungry but we needed to sit down again. Looked around for a small meal. The Burger King Turkey & Bacon value meal for SG$6 was delicious, The kid at the counter was polite, but didn't know the difference between addressing someone as Sir or Mister, so I was greated with friendly "Hello Mister" and a "that's six dollars mista". I don't think I needed the 5 packets of free ketchup he helpfully insisted on putting on my tray.

Free internet access (15 minutes at a time) in number of places, so had a chance to check email. Then began the search for a camera.. so many to choose from, with wildy varying prices. Settled on a Sony 4.1 Cybershot and picked up an extra 256mb stick, for roughly AUD$500 total.

Singapore airport caters well for in-transit travellers, there's free massage, free movies, free site- seeing bus (if waiting longer than 5 hours), science museum, lots of food and shopping.

Up, up and away

My "confirmed window seat" turned out to be as far away as you could possible get from a window. The seating config was 3x3x3, and I was right in the middle... next to a fellow who was off to Korea on a business trip. Products & science behind sounded interesting... but the after a bit of a chat, realised that he was part of a network marketing group.. health products with a sales pyramid like amway, signing up new people was more important than the products. Still could make an interesting web sales site.... And that was the last time I had any thought related to work, I was now officially on holidays :-)

The interactive entertainment unit was cool... if only that old fart at front of me would stop putting his seat back.. no problem, my knees in his back soon sorted that out ;-) Watched Troy, Techno Tribe (documentary on Japanese techno and outdoor rave scene), and cute Japanese movie about a poor little boy working extra jobs to get a pair of sunglasses for his mother (to cover her blind eye).. and through it, the boy wins a fight, wins a girl, loses fight, loses a girl, gets the sunglasses. mmm I'm sure it would make more sense if I was Japanese.

The countdown has begun to the land of the rising sun

One more sleep

One more sleep before hopping on the plane to Japan. Still have to pack, take the cat to the cattery and do a bit of shopping.