The best of~*

the previous post is actually a very lengthy preface to an activity we did with the JHS 3rd years yesterday – my very last class with the loveliest bunch of students. they asked me a variety of questions using superlatives and got me thinking a little about some things i just wanna note down or share:

1. What food did you eat the most in Japan? – It has to be tuna mayo onigiri, perfect for a snack or when you’re in a rush. i prefer the ebi mayo (prawn) version but it’s not as common. Next will have to be kare raisu (Japanese curry rice) and omurice I think.

2. What was the most delicious food in Japan? – The students are actually only referring to Japanese food, which is hard because i like most Japanese food and what i choose to eat depends only on what i’m in the mood for. I’ve really enjoyed the food i had at previous school enkais (at a hotel near USJ and another at the Imperial), the meal that a Japanese teacher’s Kyoto-wife prepared for us, kani cream pasta and this amazing Italian restaurant near Momodani station on the JR loop line.

3. Which place did you visit the most in Japan? – It’s probably the Umeda Sky Building, which is also my favourite place in Osaka. For non-tourist attractions, it’s a fight between the Toho Cinema in Umeda, the izakaya Za-watami at Nodahanshin and another izakaya behind El Panchos. actually, El Panchos (Mexican restaurant) and the Dutch restaurant on Nakanoshima might be in the running too, although i havent been to either in the longest time.

4. Which was the most beautiful place in Japan? – I don’t know the answer to this, but i recall being really fascinated by the mist that formed in the valley below the highway while travelling back from Takayama. i’m only thinking about the places i’ve been to while on JET, otherwise i’m sure Hokkaido will make this list – i will soon find out if my first impressions are correct! *excited* I also think everywhere in autumn is gorgeous when the leaves change colour.

5. Where in Japan do you want to return to the most? – Since i’m going back to Hokkaido it’ll have to be Okinawa. i want to spend more time driving (i.e. being driven) along the coast and to visit Iriomote too. I think Yakushima is considered part of Kyushu, but i’d like to go there too. Okinawa food is amazing!

6. What was the most interesting/surprising thing about Japan? – The most interesting thing I think has to be the host boys along the Dotonbori bridge. As for most surprising, perhaps that people queue to get on the trains, or that women use Otohime** in the toilets. However, many of the female students don’t know what Otohime is (the boys definitely dont know cos male toilets arent equipped with them), which i find even more surprising.

 

and here are a few which i thought of:

7. What are some of the best places to visit? – I love Nara Park; now that I think of it, it’s most probably the place i’ve been to the most. Asuka in Nara Prefecture is great too, especially nearing autumn. I also especially recommend Taketomi island in Okinawa and Kamakura in spring. other nice places to visit would be Miyajima, Koya-san (wakayama), Arashiyama in Kyoto and Hida-no-Sato in Takayama.

8. What are some of the most overrated places/events in Japan? – oooh. Yoshino for sakura wins hands down; others include Dogo Onsen in Matsuyama (too crowded) and Matsushima Bay near Sendai (pretty but definitely not top 3 most scenic material). I’d include Harajuku too, though perhaps not for the first timer to Japan. As for events, Kyoto’s Daimonji is rubbish, and there’s this other fire festival in Nara (a side of the mountain is set alight) that i heard was a huge letdown too. i’m personally not a fan of festivals at all – too crowded, too hot and generally not all that enjoyable. Go once or twice and that’s enough!

9. What are the best things to do in Japan? – Go around the temples in autumn! it’s the most beautiful season in Japan, and temples often open till late for night illuminations. That said, go to all the illumination events there are: Kobe’s Illuminarie, Kyoto’s Higashimaya Hanatouro, Osaka’s Nakanoshima Christmas Light up, Nara-to-kae, etc. Try also to spend a night in a proper Japanese ryokan with a full kaiseki meal – you won’t regret the cost one bit. Sakura viewing is a must too, of course.

10. What will you miss the most about Japan? – The four seasons with their accompanying hype (eg crabs in winter, mango and pineapples in summer), seasonal Kit Kat, omurice, bukkake udon, delicious fried tofu, cheap and fresh sushi and widely available cocktails. For non-food related aspects (i’m making an effort here!) – buses and trains that’re usually on time, buses telling you what stop is coming up next and the convenience of combinis/vending machines.  Maybe also the presence of strange/interesting people on the street.

 

What are some of your best ofs~?

 

*: i dont watch TV, but if I did, the show “The Best House, 1,2,3” would be top on my list of must-watch shows. each week, about 4 tv personalities present the Best (or most amazing, unbelievable, beautiful, etc) 3 things in a theme of their choice. Past themes include mosaics, transvestites, weight loss stories and inventions.

**: Otohime translates to ‘sound princess’. For some reason women in japan are uncomfortable having their toilet sounds overheard by other toilet users, and used to flush in order to cover those sounds. it was declared a waste of water and all toilets (except those in schools, train stations and Osaka City Hall) are now equipped with Otohime – you press a button (sometimes it’s automatic and hence really annoying) and a loud flushing sound will be played for about 25seconds.

sakura in kamakura

(Keeroo, this post is purely for you!)

the sakura are almost gone in most of kansai, and once again i’ve failed to take any pictures of those that grow on the grounds of my apartment complex. i can never bother doing so, cos taking pictures of them means that i’ll either have to make a special trip downstairs to take photos, or that i’ll have to stop while i’m cycling out. either way, i think the sakura where i live are best appreciated cycling fast out of the side gates, perhaps only slowing down when the petals are falling in the wind.

anyhow, i was in kamakura before school started, and the sakura there were actually more in bloom than those in osaka, even though it’s warmer here.

the first real glimpse of sakura was when we reached Kuzuharagaoka Shrine while on the way to the big buddha at Kotokuin:

 

by the way, i know my photos arent too impressive, but that’s because i know that capturing the beauty of sakura as you see it is an exercise in futility, so i dont even bother to try.

continuing on, this is what people in japan do when they’re out at hanami, or cherry blossom viewing:

i was about to type “japanese people” up there, when i remembered that us Osaka City JETs probably had the greatest tarp to human ratio when we were hanami-ing at osaka castle park last weekend. here’s two of our party having a DSLR vs old video recorder standoff:

note also the dirty socks – and this was only about an hour into the hanami for most of us. by the end of the day – i was there for about 7 hours – our socks were completely wrecked, mainly because people were playing beer pong or got progressively more inebriated through other methods and spilled liquid all over the tarp. it was really gross.

but i digress. here’s a close-up of some blossoms that have seen better days:

and yes, this is the length to which some people would go to for the perfect picture:

having been here for a while, however, i have to say that his lens isn’t that impressive.

some nicer sakura in the nearby park:

Zeniarai Benten, which i just blogged about in the previous post, has some pretty, multi-layered sakura. just dont wash your money there!

just a bit further down from the Daibutsu, towards Hase station on the Enoshima line is Hase-dera. It’s a very beautiful temple which a nice view, a fair bit to see and pretty flowers. It’s most famous for the 12-faced, 9m high Kannon, but i think the grotto with the Benzaiten statues was the coolest bit.

we even saw some pilgrims walk right before us

there was this gorgeous sakura tree that everyone was taking pictures of:

 

it was also interesting in that flowers grew in clusters on some parts of its bark:

isnt this cute?

i think, however, the best place for sakura viewing in kamakura was Kenchoji. it was surprisingly empty, but is ranked first among the 5 great Zen temples in Kamakura, and is one of the best sights in Kamakura. lots of the halls were transferred to its current location from its original location elsewhere in japan (like kyoto). Lonely Planet highlighted “the painstakingly landscaped Zen garden, shaped like the kanji for ‘mind’”, although i can assure you that the pond in the garden looked nothing like 心。

isnt this pretty?

and this concludes my 桜だより。until i next see sakura, さよなら、and お気おつけて。

spring and sakura in kansai

although winter officially ended when march began, the weather only turned warmer from the start of this month. unfortunately, spring has sort of abruptly disappeared into early summer - day temperatures have reached 25 degrees but feels far hotter because of the sun blazing down on you. i'm currently down to dressing the way i would if i were back in singapore, with a cardigan in my bag for if i'm out when the sun has set.

the very weird thing about osaka weather - not sure if it's something that occurs in other parts of japan or not - is that seasons arrive very suddenly. in autumn, it gradually got cooler up till a point, and after that temperatures took a sharp dip overnight. same for spring; it remained cold up till end march and gradually got warmer by a few degrees, and suddenly temperatures shot up about 5 degrees over a day. it's crazy!! thankfully the weather is forecast to cool down a wee bit from tomorrow, and i'm really looking forward to that.

spring in japan is of course all about cherry blossoms, and i've gone hanami - sakura blossoms viewing - 4 times in the past week. sakura are rather useless trees though (to quote a friend), as they're pretty for literally only a week when the blossoms are out in full bloom. after that, the leaves start sprouting - at a rapid rate, mind you - and mar the sea of pink with green. it's when the leaves start growing that the petals begin to fall too, which means that you see green leaves, brown branches and the reddish remnants of the blossoms after the petals are gone.

booo.

i think i've had my share of hanami though. i went to arashiyama with my parents, sakuranomiya in osaka on my own, another part of kyoto with the boy and yoshino with a few friends. with my parents, we sat on the Sagano-Arashiyama "Romantic Train" that runs from JR Umahori station down to JR Sagano station, and cost 600yen.

the train ride is anything but romantic unfortunately, and it's certainly not because i was there with my parents! the view is only on one side of the train for half of the ride and on the other side for the other half, so you dont really get to see that much. plus people can stand in the aisle - that's the best thing to do actually, cos you get a far better view standing than seated - so you cant really see over to the other side of the train if you're sitting down. furthermore, the seats are arranged in 4s with 2 seats facing another 2, so unless you're sitting facing the direction in which the train is moving, you dont get a very good view at all!

as the train passes through a mountain range - it's roughly the same path of the Hozu River Cruise I went on a bit more than a month ago - it passes through about 6 or 7 tunnels, one of which lasts close to a minute! so part of the short 15 to 20min train ride is spent in darkness. the train also screeches AND is somewhat rickety rackety, so the noise is not very pleasant at all.

the flowers in the meadow next to the train station were gorgeous though:

the sakura were kinda pretty as well:

arashiyama has pretty sakura too:

 

the prettiest temple there, tenryu-ji, had gorgeous sakura too, especially this one that bloomed in two different colours:

with dual coloured light pink blossoms:

there're even row boats on the river, which is really nice:

more pictures of arashiyama can be found on facebook HERE.

 

i went to sakuranomiya, a fairly popular spot for hanami in osaka city, just 2 or 3 days after arashiyama, and already the leaves were fairly large. i also very stupidly forgot to bring my camera; luckily i didnt really intend to take many photos!

the petals had all fallen, and the most beautiful part, i think, was seeing the petals fall like snow when the wind blew:

my shadow amongst the petals

i walked all the way from there to the outskirts of Osaka-jo park, where i saw these two kitties:

i visited the path of philosophy and heian jingu in kyoto on saturday, and it wasnt that pretty anymore.. the shrine's garden was so super packed though.

the entrance:

after going through that huge structure:

inside the garden:

my camera doesnt take very good pictures unfortunately.. the same scene looks so much better using a dslr! sigh.

check out the crowd, and imagine the ENTIRE garden - that was pretty big - like that!

the philosopher's path is meant to be super famous for sakura, but we went a bit late and the blossoms werent so pretty anymore:

more pictures from that trip can be found HERE on facebook too.

 

yesterday was spent in Yoshino in nara, which is supposed to be one of the best spots japan for hanami in japan. it has 3 layers of sakura that bloom at different times, so the blossoms in general are meant to last over a period of about 1 month.

the thing about yoshino, however, is that it's SO far from osaka. it took an hour and a half from Tennoji station (which is more than 30min from my house) to Yoshino station, and add that to the fact that it's hanami season and the japanese are crazy over it, which means that EVERYONE is heading there, and you get one HUGE, tremendously stressful crowd. we had to queue to get on the bus that took us from the station to midway up the mountain range, and that took a while too.

thanks to my friend's friends who were, to tell the truth, rather disgustingly late, we reached there in the afternoon and only spent about 2 to 2.5 hours chilling and enjoying the view before having to catch the last bus down the mountain at 5.30pm - and 2 hours seems rather long, but time passes quickly when you're relaxing!

i dont really have nice pictures of the place cos i was too busy relaxing, and the journey home was so super stressful that all of us were EXHAUSTED when we were finally back in osaka. i dont think we'll ever go to yoshino again, but would stay in osaka - like sakuranomiya - instead!

here are the few pictures of yoshino that i have:

already you can see that there are lots of leaves out, and that they've turned brown!