My hundredth post!- Osaka

Wow... a year has nearly passed since I first started my blog... but well before I celebrate my blog's one year old birthday, let's celebrate the crossing of the hundred mark! By.... viewing the series of very artistically taken pictures we took....

Background: Osaka was just a stopover for us as we planned to go to Nara the next day on the way back to Okazaki. And after having long hours on the train and late nights out, we were really exhausted. Therefore, we ate dinner and quickly retreated back to the hotel thinking we could have a nice night relaxing together.... but but...

Federik... his favourite pose...

So kun as the perpetrator...

Perpetrator turned victim!

And... the great body changing sessions ! (as always when I am around)

And finally.... the few of us in Yukata!

And if you would believe me, our supposedly quiet night turned out to be a night of jumping up and down the bed taking all these pictures which took us about 2 hours till 2am in the morning... a night to rest uh... not really I guess...

Himeji Castle

Reputated to be the most beautiful castle in Japan because of it chaste white walls. Also nicknamed as the "White Heron" as this symmetrically beautiful silhouette reproduces the graceful figure of a heron about to take wing at any moment.

So anyway, still the 7 of us because Chou-san hasn't met up with us yet, went to the castle together. I particularly was really excited because I have been wanting to go visit it for ages since so much had been said about it.

The palace was pretty huge. Lots of buildings had also been preserved properly. It was a little different from other castles in Japan I have been to to because the main attraction was the building itself rather then the remains like ancient scrolls or relics. It was interesting to see how even in those days, architetural skills was superb as they cleverly integrated designs for defence as well as for various purposes. Well since wars seems to be pretty common then, needless to say, there were many intelligently designed hideouts and storage.


And of course, that was just the first part of the trip. Japan if not famous for it's outrageous, forward fashion is known for producing it's own speciality in every part of the country. This time round, the speciality is "Anago". It is something similar to "Unagi Don", eel too, only that it was of a different breed. Very delicious other than its numerous bones...

Well well, that ends our Himeji trip as we trotted back to Kobe for a last minute shopping and to pick up our bags. All ready to storm Osaka!

By the way pictures... somethings we took on the trip...

My crazy Sweden classmate who seems to have special likes... hemm...

Outside the castle...

Kobe's Chinatown.. Bruce Lee...

Obon Holidays

Obon is a Japanese holiday similar to the "Chinese Ghost Festival" where ancestors are believed to be going home for a visit. And because of that, Japanese take offdays from work up till a week sometimes to go back to their hometown.

So foreigners like us who have no hometown to go back to go for trips. heeee... this time, 8 of us, conquered Kobe, Himeji, Osaka and Nara together. A very fun and full of interesting happenings trip. Shall start with Kobe.

So 8 of us went to school with our large bags intending to dash for Kobe straight after class. And since this is the period for the "Senshun Ju18 ticket", it allows us unlimited rides on JR trains for 2300 Yen per day. It is very very cheap to travel this way in Japan because on normal days, it costs about 5800 Yen to reach Kobe.
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Anyway, we hopped on the train bound for our first destination. After about 4 hours' train ride, this is where we went to!

The youth hostel which we booked was about 2 stops away, so we decided to have some fun at Kobe habour before checking in. Check out the night scene.. It was sooooo beautiful! Breath taking, magnificient view!





And we entered a restaurant by the sea determined to have some famous Kobe beef. The ambience was superb accompanied by soft music and friendly staff. Of course, the food was so delicious and mouth-watering. can't help but over eat! Oh yes, it was buffet style with the different kinds of meat delivered straight to our tables. oohh.... so blessed! The meat was soft, tender and as you bite into it, the juice just fills every part of your mouth.. urhhgg....

Anyway after dinner we decided the trip will not be completed without a ride on the ferris wheel. But... the view should be fantastic uh? hmm why do I say so... because, I only took glances of it here and there. We the girls who sat in one car together were soo excited that we spent all the time yakking and taking photos, only to realised it when we were touching the ground ....ahaaa

So the final was wrapped up with us riding on mad mouse. Wasn't scary at all but yet we still screamed our lungs out. Well well... it was almost 11 then and we decided it was time to pick our bags and check in....

Only to find that we couldn't! No matter how hard we rang the bell or press the intercom, nobody came to the door for us. Eventually we met 2 other occupants staying in the youth hostel too but they too couldn't locate the manager as the rooms were a separate building from the main reception... almost midnight, tired and dirty bodies... the 7 of us were left stranded on the streets not knowing what to do. Train service was almost ending too... So san and I wee frantically calling every hotel in the area only to find that they are all fully occupied...

Just at the moment, we managed to find one that has space for all 7 of us. Though it was a little expensive, we welcomed the comfort of having single ensuite rooms.

Yup... wth that our first night in Kobe ended!

Okazaki's Hanabi Party- Fireworks

It is said to be one of the biggest in Japan... or well at least Aichi Ken. So of course as foreigners who might only have just one chance in our lifetime to attend the party, it got us really excited. The party was held at the big grasspatch by the river near Okazaki castle. So while the girls went on shopping trips for hair accessories together, the guys went to make reservations for seats 2 weeks beforehand. And that was considered late still!! Japanese are really even more "kiasu" ( afraid to lose) than "those we know". (ahem.. fellow singaporeans..) Anyway, that we have to thank our classmate Federik and Robert (a guy from the other class) who went there on the acutal day at 7.30am to make sure our space were not taken away.. and poor him, got sunburnt.

Anyway... the girls, we got dressed together in one of our classmates' room. And she's so amazing with her hands cus she tied everyone's hair.


After that, we went to a kimono shop where I know the owners pretty well. She helped us to adjust our yukatas and her husband was so nice! We had wanted to take a Taxi to the venue but somehow he offered drive us there. It was really nice gesture and very welcomed because it was jammed in the city and really to take a Taxi there will cost a bomb.

It was a amazingly big party. Said to have more than 50 thousand people. Wow and Okazaki's population is only 300 thousand? But anyway we had a good time with the fireworks, eating and of course taking photos...

One interesting thing. Japanese tend to drink a lot of beer during these festivals. In fact they drink anytime anywhere... and well the result it they get drank and do silly things. There was one young punk who got drank, got stripped (willingly or by his friends not too sure). But he started running around naked. Well at least at the river side, the lighting was not too good so we couldn't see anything too clearly either. But he actually ran up to the main street. Don't know what happened later. Only saw his friends taking photos of him.. sigh...

That's the back view of my hair.. can't see too clearly though...

The beautiful fireworks!

The very crowded area