Trip to the south of Japan
Hey everybody,
Sorry for not giving any news in the last month but getting on the internet has become a really difficult challenge while travelling. I didn’t expect it to be that difficult but it was either too expensive or not accessible, period.
After finishing a gruelling year of teaching on March 26th, Dana and I bought some train passes and decided to go visit some regions in the south of Japan. We left Odawara a few days later and said goodbye to our few friends over there. An overnight train brought us all the way down to Himeji, where we stopped to go see the famous castle (the prettiest in Japan by many). The weather was alright and the visit fine, we took a few really nice pictures. Then, we headed to Osaka, the mega polis almost as big as Tokyo. It is really alive and people walk in every direction at a fast pace. We stayed two nights in a guesthouse just outside Osaka and rented bikes one morning to travel around the city. We got to see some nice parts here and there, ate some local takoyaki (flour balls with octopus) and okonomiyaki (mix of flour and vegetables, you can add some meat or cheese or seafood to it) and saw a bit of the America town, nothing too impressive though. I really liked the vibe in Osaka even though it is a giant city, people looked a bit more relaxed than Tokyo and a bit warmer. Maybe it is the south’s factor, the buildings were more harmonious than the capital, which pleased me and surprised me a bit too.
After two days there, we went to Nara for a day of sightseeing, the old capital of Japan.
Known for its countless temples and shrines, we picked a few that we really wanted to see and rented bicycles once again. We visited a nice complex first, with some old building and a giant Pagoda. We biked further and passed through a series of old stoned lanterns, which guided us to another complex. Everything was so pretty since spring was starting, and the bright green lichen on the stones along with the cherry blossoms in front of temples were a nice bonus. We then headed down to the last attraction, the famous Buddha statue, and the biggest in Japan. We had to pay about 5 dollars to get in the massive building, a bit disappointing I must say. Dana decided to skip it and I went alone to take some pictures and a good look at the wonder. Very tall bronze piece, the thing must’ve been a thousand years old, and the two smaller statues next to it as well. Quite ironic, I had seen the second biggest Buddha statue two weeks earlier, when we went to Kamakura, in the prefecture where we lived.
The next stop was Aso, down on the most southern island of Japan (Kyushu), after another overnight train. We arrived early in the afternoon and got to see some pretty landscapes on the way. Aso is a volcanic region, and the city itself is situated in a massive crater. The volcanoes over there are still active and it is sometimes forbidden to go hike or climb near its surrounding when the gas level is too high, especially in the morning. We were not too lucky with the weather, it was very cloudy the day we went up to see the volcano, but we got the best out of the situation by walking all over the place and hiking back to the guesthouse.
Then, we made a world record by catching all the connecting trains on the way back to Kobe. We took a train at 7:25 in the morning, travelled all day sitting in different trains, barely having enough time to buy some food between connections and finally arrived in Kobe at 10:30 at night. We almost crossed half of Japan in a day, and were pretty happy to make it that far in one trip. Kobe is a pretty city too, the harbour area is nicely set and some tall buildings make it look really modern. No signs of the big quake of 1995, the people have been quick to put back the city on its feet. There is a small memorial inside a park to commemorate the sad event, in which more than 6,000 people died.
Finally, we took a last overnight train that brought us very slowly back to our original prefecture, Yamanashi. We stayed at our friend’s place (Morgan) and said goodbye to all the people we could see at the time. A bit sad but ready to move on, we took a last look at some places and went to the Samourai festival downtown. Japan will have been a great chapter in my life, not always perfect but definitely worth living. We don’t have many regrets, I have seen way more than I had previously expected and hope to keep up the small amount of Japanese I learned while I was there…
posted by Mic at 5:36 AM
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