I recently took a trip to Japan and had an amazing time! I visited part of the Kansai area, specifically Kyoto and Osaka cities. I immediately fell in love with Kyoto! This last exerts peace and serenity, even while working my way through the bustling downtown streets.
I arrived on a Saturday night after having left my house at 5:50am! I knew I loved Japan the minute my train left the Kansai International Airport in Osaka. The scenery is so different from Korea and Taiwan. The architecture is excellent – Grace, you would have appreciated it! There are apartment buildings here and there, but mostly residential single family houses populate the terrain, which I like. Some houses have the traditional Japanese style roofing while others look quite modern. And like so, there is a mixture of traditional and modern structural designs throughout the small city of Kyoto. It's wonderful. Walking down the street, you can spot traditional houses, women dressed in the traditional kimono wear and beautiful Japanese gardens.
My favorite area to sit back and relax, especially after walking for hours (really, hours) was resting on the banks of the Kamo-gawa river. The river’s banks are not a constant beautiful scene from North to South, the direction in which it flows, however I found the nicest spots and sat there for long periods of time. On Saturday night, after an especially long day of visiting the city, I sat along the banks of the river to take in the scenery. A young group had set up and was playing amazing jazz tunes as well as classical music. I took out my notebook to blog and was sad when they left! Inspiration left as well…
I arrived on a Saturday night after having left my house at 5:50am! I knew I loved Japan the minute my train left the Kansai International Airport in Osaka. The scenery is so different from Korea and Taiwan. The architecture is excellent – Grace, you would have appreciated it! There are apartment buildings here and there, but mostly residential single family houses populate the terrain, which I like. Some houses have the traditional Japanese style roofing while others look quite modern. And like so, there is a mixture of traditional and modern structural designs throughout the small city of Kyoto. It's wonderful. Walking down the street, you can spot traditional houses, women dressed in the traditional kimono wear and beautiful Japanese gardens.
My favorite area to sit back and relax, especially after walking for hours (really, hours) was resting on the banks of the Kamo-gawa river. The river’s banks are not a constant beautiful scene from North to South, the direction in which it flows, however I found the nicest spots and sat there for long periods of time. On Saturday night, after an especially long day of visiting the city, I sat along the banks of the river to take in the scenery. A young group had set up and was playing amazing jazz tunes as well as classical music. I took out my notebook to blog and was sad when they left! Inspiration left as well…
In general, the Japanese seem to be used to foreigners. I love the fact that I didn’t attract stares but just looks—and yes, there is a big difference between the two. Even the children didn't seem to be startled by my presence. People were polite and just let me be.
Everything was so well organized and labeled that not once did I get lost – well, except the day I was trying to follow a backstreet tour from my traveling book. Since those streets were backstreet ones, sometimes directions were only written in Japanese. Anyway, I wasn’t “lost” for long and enjoyed visiting other areas of Gion (the Geisha district in old Kyoto) while finding my way back.
Comparing the two, I much prefer Kyoto over Osaka. Osaka was an attractive big city, but I found more touristic events and venues in Kyoto. My hostel in Osaka was the best! I had a wonderful view of the city, my room being on the 9th floor of the new Koko Plaza building. And although there were four beds in the room, I was lucky enough to only have one roommate throughout this trip, a nice Japanese woman.
Everything was so well organized and labeled that not once did I get lost – well, except the day I was trying to follow a backstreet tour from my traveling book. Since those streets were backstreet ones, sometimes directions were only written in Japanese. Anyway, I wasn’t “lost” for long and enjoyed visiting other areas of Gion (the Geisha district in old Kyoto) while finding my way back.
Comparing the two, I much prefer Kyoto over Osaka. Osaka was an attractive big city, but I found more touristic events and venues in Kyoto. My hostel in Osaka was the best! I had a wonderful view of the city, my room being on the 9th floor of the new Koko Plaza building. And although there were four beds in the room, I was lucky enough to only have one roommate throughout this trip, a nice Japanese woman.
Oh, I forgot to tell you about my hostel in Kyoto! Hahaha!!! I knew it was a regulated hostel but I did not know the extent of those regulations. Turns out that they had a set of rules that guests had to adhere to in order to prevent being kicked out of the hostel! Truthfully, the only problems I had with those rules were the wake up time and the hostel being closed for most of the day.
I mean, even during my work week I don't wake up at 6:40am and they expected me to wake up everyday at 6:40am (while on vacation mind you), make my bed, wash up and be downstairs for breakfast between the hours of 6:40a and 8:00am! Then, after dragging my still sleeping body into the streets of Kyoto, I had to stay out until 3:30pm! The hostel was closed from 9:00am to 3:30pm. Oh, you mean to tell me you are tired and wish to go back to the hostel in order to rest a bit? Ohh...I'm so sorry...but you can always sit on the door steps of the hostel until 3:30pm!
Anyway, enough bitterness! An interesting place I visited in Osaka was America-Mura. This last is a small section in the downtown area where you can spot teens and young adults who have become serious victims of fashion. I spotted a few while visiting the area however none of them seemed like they suffered a serious, desperate case of tragedy. I found an interesting Bob Marley store selling all kinds of objects! (see gallery)
My last night in Osaka, I visited the Umeda Sky Building and took tons of sunset pictures. I couldn’t decide which ones I liked the most, so I posted all of them in my picture gallery. Enjoy!
In all, I had a wonderful trip and hope I’ll be able to visit Tokyo before coming back home! We’ll see about that.
My last night in Osaka, I visited the Umeda Sky Building and took tons of sunset pictures. I couldn’t decide which ones I liked the most, so I posted all of them in my picture gallery. Enjoy!
In all, I had a wonderful trip and hope I’ll be able to visit Tokyo before coming back home! We’ll see about that.
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