i stumbled on the festival for the Yasaka Shrine in my neighbourhood yesterday.
i saw it last year too, actually, but happened to have my camera with me this time. these danjiri make their way around the neighbourhood (or at least the immediate area around the shrine) and attract lots of attention.
have had more free time recently, and it was really nice to cycle around today as it was warm AND sunny. superb weather in my opinion, although it's going to get a little colder again all too soon, starting wednesday.
i discovered some nice sights in the neighbourhood, like this interesting house - more like a collection of houses actually - with brick walls. i quite like it, but someone else said that it looked gaudy. i like it all the same, as it's houses here are often nothing more than plain and dull coloured.
a closer look at the grilles:
i like the lamps outside the houses too, and the glass on the windows:
also chanced upon a nice looking cafe, although the pictures didnt turn out that great:
small cafes like these are quite commonplace in japan - there are quite a few scattered around my neighbourhood - but they're often patronised by old folk and reek of cigarette smoke. one thing i really dislike about japan is that people can smoke indoors. in more eateries than there ought to be, the air can be so thick with smoke that you literally choke and find it hard to breathe.
japan also has no visible form of land use planning and zoning, so it's not uncommon to find elongated buildings like these that fit into the little strip of land that it's standing on:
i looked into the office located in the building below, and it was tiny and really odd shaped. what i honestly dont understand is why people bother to construct buildings like these when they're such inefficiently shaped and cramped!
here are some pics that i've taken over the past week or so when i've been cycling or walking around my area..
post boxes in japan..
the medical school in the heart of osaka
an ambulance?
cool sculpture
the westin in the background
a small park with playground.. parks in japan tend to be in rather sorry shapes.. like overgrown with grass and looking a little dilapidated.. this is the worst i've seen though.. the one near my house and the other one near my school are in far better shape..
it was a beautiful day that day.. not too hot, not too cold
there're lots of above-ground electric wires/telephone lines (dont know which) in japan..
there's this area near my house with old wooden houses.. i discovered it recently, and i love cycling there cos it feels like what i think japan should be.. haha. the romanticised and idealised japan with wooden and old looking houses of my mind's eye..
it's definitely an older area compared to mine, just by looking at the houses..
a close up of one of the street signs near my house.. even though i live in sagisu 6-chome, everything that i pass by everyday is in ebie 1-chome. i'm really on the border of sagisu!
it struck me as rather interesting that there's an Eiffel-tower looking structure above the toyota corolla sign in the distance.. i have no idea why that structure is there.
something posted outside a dental clinic, probably written by the dentist working there.. heh.
spiral staircases are nowhere as rare in japan as they are in singapore..
the extremely grandiose sounding name of one of the apartment complexes near my house. many apartment complexes here like to have foreign names, probably for the same reason why condos back home have weird sounding foreign names too.
and i'll end off with one of my favourite sights in japan - multi storey bicycle parking! i think it's SO amazing the way they get the bicycles onto the top rack!
