Summer Tour of Japan (part 2)
We arrived at Kyoto at around 6-7pm. The bus ride there took a few hours but it was comfortable as hell. We made our way to the youth hostel which was about a 10min walk from the main station. It felt good to be sleeping in a proper bed again!! Anyway so we checked in, dumped our bags in our rooms then went to dinner at this restaurant jus across the street. It was a relaxing night...exactly what I needed to recover my strength for our lil bike tour of Kyoto the next day.
Yes bike tour. The hostel we stayed at rented out bikes for 500 yen/day...we saved a crap load of money on transport that day. We biked all over Kyoto going from temple to temple, shrine to shrine checking out the sites. I can't remember the names of them but they were all pretty awesome (photos shall be posted up in due time). At night, we ended up in the central Kyoto area by this river than runs through the city. There were bands playing live music on the streets etc...the whole place just had this really relaxing vibe to it. A nice way to end our 1st day in Kyoto. We checked out the next day...dumped our bags off at the station lockers and proceeded to check out a few more temples and even went to this miny amusement park type place called 'eigamura' (movie village)...its where they film all those samurai dramas in Japan...it sounds a lot more interesting than it really was.
So after a hard days walking around, catching trains and buses etc (bikes really do come in handy) we made our way to Osaka (only 1/2 hr away!!)...like our 1st night in Kyoto we pretty much jus dumped our bags off, had dinner etc...another relaxing night. For our 1st day in Osaka, we checked out Namba first - the shopping/entertainment district of Osaka...its pretty big and we only really explored like 1/10th of the place. We got a lil bored quite quickly so we decided to head Osaka castle...real good touristy spot...has this huge park that surrounds the castle. Inside the castle has been turned into a museum though so there was nothing left of the original castle really. Still, its a must see if one is in Osaka. Then we made our way to "Den Den town"...Den Den town...what can I say about this place except that its a nerd's paradise!! Unfortunately by the time we got there, most of the shops were closed...so we vowed that we'd come back the next day to check out this place...
The next day (Sunday in case you've all lost track of the days) we went to the aquarium first...huge difference from Sydney's aquarium...its like 6 lvls of sea life where you start from the top of the aquarium and work your way down...it was pretty cool...another one of those touristy things one should do. Anyway..."Den Den town"...this place...although smaller than "Akihabara" in Tokyo has a lot more cool shit...we all started at the same shop (named - Super Position...like the ultimate toy/nerd shop franchise in Japan) and split up from there...this place brought out the lil nerd in me...what can I say...underneath this trance loving, drunkard beats the heart of a complete nerd who loves videogames and action figures...
Monday...our original plan was to leave Osaka today but we liked the place so much (plus accomodation was pretty cheap) that we stayed an extra night...so the plan for the day??..why Universal Studios Japan of course. Oh twas a fun day. Naturally being a theme park entry and all that was expensive but what do you expect. Anyway the cool thing abt the place is that on most rides...there are groups and singles lines...people that want to ride with their family and friends etc go the groups line...people that dont mind jus filling in the odd gaps..goes into the singles line...diference in wait time??...umm...abt a 1hr difference!! e.g. in group line...wait for the ride...over 1hr...singles line...20mins!! I love the whole collectivist group mentality of Japanese people. Favourite rides were definitely Spiderman (because it was cool and had the shortest singles line...5-10min wait!!) and Jurassic Park (because it was the only 1 resembling a real ride)...the Terminator ride was really funny though...hearing Arnold speak in a Japanese dub..seriously...we all jus cracked up...and getting funny looks from the Japanese around us. Anyway...the next day...Hiroshima...
But before that...in the morning...I made, what I had thought at the time...was my last trip to Den Den town...I apologise sincerely to everyone that had to wait for me...heh...but what can I say...it was Den Den town and there were paraphernalia that needed buying...anyway...we ended up leaving Osaka at around 12:30pm and made our way to Hiroshima via futsu (normal) train...a couple of hours and many line change overs later...we arrived at Hiroshima at night...luckily we found a hotel that had vacancies because we didnt book ahead of time. We only stayed the night and checked out the next day...dumping our bags at JR lockers once again and left to check out the Hiroshima peace park and war museum. A really somber experience. To see described in detail the aftermath of the atomic bomb drops...structures left almost exactly as they were...we all left a lil depressed...the trip to Miyajima changed that though...
Miyajima...a 10min ferry ride from Hiroshima port...is a lil island thats famous for its giant torii gate (shinto shrine gate) thats in the middle of the water...We got there around 2pm or so...it was still low tide so the gate wasn't in the water. We walked around the place, checking out the sites and looking at the various omiyage (souvenirs) available...there were deer roaming around everywhere and the place stank of deer crap...despite that though...this was perhaps one of our favourite places to have gone to during our trip...around sunset...the tide began to rise, making the giant gate look like it was floating in water (i think photos explain it a lot better than I do...which will be posted once I'm back in Sapporo)...anyway...with the sunsetting in the background, the tide rising with a light ocean breeze in the air...we didn't want to leave the place...but we had to if we wanted to make it to Kita-Kyushuu in time...where Liz and Nick live and are studying for their ICS...
(to be continued...again...)
Yes bike tour. The hostel we stayed at rented out bikes for 500 yen/day...we saved a crap load of money on transport that day. We biked all over Kyoto going from temple to temple, shrine to shrine checking out the sites. I can't remember the names of them but they were all pretty awesome (photos shall be posted up in due time). At night, we ended up in the central Kyoto area by this river than runs through the city. There were bands playing live music on the streets etc...the whole place just had this really relaxing vibe to it. A nice way to end our 1st day in Kyoto. We checked out the next day...dumped our bags off at the station lockers and proceeded to check out a few more temples and even went to this miny amusement park type place called 'eigamura' (movie village)...its where they film all those samurai dramas in Japan...it sounds a lot more interesting than it really was.
So after a hard days walking around, catching trains and buses etc (bikes really do come in handy) we made our way to Osaka (only 1/2 hr away!!)...like our 1st night in Kyoto we pretty much jus dumped our bags off, had dinner etc...another relaxing night. For our 1st day in Osaka, we checked out Namba first - the shopping/entertainment district of Osaka...its pretty big and we only really explored like 1/10th of the place. We got a lil bored quite quickly so we decided to head Osaka castle...real good touristy spot...has this huge park that surrounds the castle. Inside the castle has been turned into a museum though so there was nothing left of the original castle really. Still, its a must see if one is in Osaka. Then we made our way to "Den Den town"...Den Den town...what can I say about this place except that its a nerd's paradise!! Unfortunately by the time we got there, most of the shops were closed...so we vowed that we'd come back the next day to check out this place...
The next day (Sunday in case you've all lost track of the days) we went to the aquarium first...huge difference from Sydney's aquarium...its like 6 lvls of sea life where you start from the top of the aquarium and work your way down...it was pretty cool...another one of those touristy things one should do. Anyway..."Den Den town"...this place...although smaller than "Akihabara" in Tokyo has a lot more cool shit...we all started at the same shop (named - Super Position...like the ultimate toy/nerd shop franchise in Japan) and split up from there...this place brought out the lil nerd in me...what can I say...underneath this trance loving, drunkard beats the heart of a complete nerd who loves videogames and action figures...
Monday...our original plan was to leave Osaka today but we liked the place so much (plus accomodation was pretty cheap) that we stayed an extra night...so the plan for the day??..why Universal Studios Japan of course. Oh twas a fun day. Naturally being a theme park entry and all that was expensive but what do you expect. Anyway the cool thing abt the place is that on most rides...there are groups and singles lines...people that want to ride with their family and friends etc go the groups line...people that dont mind jus filling in the odd gaps..goes into the singles line...diference in wait time??...umm...abt a 1hr difference!! e.g. in group line...wait for the ride...over 1hr...singles line...20mins!! I love the whole collectivist group mentality of Japanese people. Favourite rides were definitely Spiderman (because it was cool and had the shortest singles line...5-10min wait!!) and Jurassic Park (because it was the only 1 resembling a real ride)...the Terminator ride was really funny though...hearing Arnold speak in a Japanese dub..seriously...we all jus cracked up...and getting funny looks from the Japanese around us. Anyway...the next day...Hiroshima...
But before that...in the morning...I made, what I had thought at the time...was my last trip to Den Den town...I apologise sincerely to everyone that had to wait for me...heh...but what can I say...it was Den Den town and there were paraphernalia that needed buying...anyway...we ended up leaving Osaka at around 12:30pm and made our way to Hiroshima via futsu (normal) train...a couple of hours and many line change overs later...we arrived at Hiroshima at night...luckily we found a hotel that had vacancies because we didnt book ahead of time. We only stayed the night and checked out the next day...dumping our bags at JR lockers once again and left to check out the Hiroshima peace park and war museum. A really somber experience. To see described in detail the aftermath of the atomic bomb drops...structures left almost exactly as they were...we all left a lil depressed...the trip to Miyajima changed that though...
Miyajima...a 10min ferry ride from Hiroshima port...is a lil island thats famous for its giant torii gate (shinto shrine gate) thats in the middle of the water...We got there around 2pm or so...it was still low tide so the gate wasn't in the water. We walked around the place, checking out the sites and looking at the various omiyage (souvenirs) available...there were deer roaming around everywhere and the place stank of deer crap...despite that though...this was perhaps one of our favourite places to have gone to during our trip...around sunset...the tide began to rise, making the giant gate look like it was floating in water (i think photos explain it a lot better than I do...which will be posted once I'm back in Sapporo)...anyway...with the sunsetting in the background, the tide rising with a light ocean breeze in the air...we didn't want to leave the place...but we had to if we wanted to make it to Kita-Kyushuu in time...where Liz and Nick live and are studying for their ICS...
(to be continued...again...)
posted by Scattered!! at 1:49 PM
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