Japan! (part three)

Wow this Japan photo journal is taking quite a number of posts @.@

Monday morning -

Got this shot while I was in the bus



Schoolboys cycling off to school! A lot of Japanese ride bicycles to get around, you rarely see a town without seeing a cyclist peddling on the pavements. Its quite logical really, considering that the countryside has limited public transport, while driving may not be a good choice since the roads are narrow. Even in cities like Tokyo you see plenty of bicycles parked next to the train stations, many times more than say Tampines MRT back in Singapore. Plus its environmentally friendly and healthy! And its not just the youths and guys who cycle, I've seen working ladies dressed in coats and HIGH HEELS cycling to work!

We headed off to the town of Kakunodate, an old samurai town in Akita. The whole area had this really old-school Japan feel to it, with all the old wooden houses and the old yet-to-bloom sakura trees.



That's a very nice looking cherry blossom tree, the way its branches droop down.. Too bad the flowers had yet to appear.

We entered this compound belonging to a samurai family, inside was basically a museum showing all the aspects of being a samurai, from the katanas and armour to their clothes, tools, Noh masks and dolls used for puppetry.



That's one scary looking samurai armour.



Bizzare looking Noh masks.



I see this figure a lot in Japan, I think its some kind of a local mythical character. Looks like something out of a Hayao Miyazaki creation haha.

Thereafter we headed off to Lake Towada, near Aomori for some sightseeing and photo-taking. Its a HUGE lake formed from an old volcano crater.



The view taken from a vantage point way up in the mountains.
After going all the way down to the bank of the lake, we got off the bus to take a short walk along the lake.

There were lots of swans and ducks milling about near the edge of the lake and the reason was apparent later - a provision shop owner threw leftover bread scraps periodically into the lake!



Greedy birds fighting for the food



A grey swan showing off to me hahaha.



This mountain face looks as if someone had written some kind of words on it.



A nearby waterfall fed with water from the lake. That was when I started to experiment with my camera settings, so it came out with that whitish-water-flowing effect haha.



A crystal clear stream, again from the waters of Lake Towada. Looks good enough to drink! I didn't try though, heh. I did practise my stone skipping technique! Managed 3 skips whee hahaha.



There was a sign accompanying this slab of rock which was leaning onto a dead tree. It said something like this: "It is said that a female spirit resides under this rock and would draw unsuspecting tourists into its lair". Spooky huh? I didn't go near it after I read the sign.

Which wraps up a loong day spent travelling here there up and down.

Stayed in this onsen/ski hotel on the top of the mountain, AND THERE WAS NOBODY OTHER THAN US AND THE STAFF.

It goes both ways I suppose -
1) we had the whole hotel to ourselves (yay!)
2) there must be a reason why no one was staying there..... (gulp)

My entire family skipped the onsen for that night. Heh.

Ok that's all for today. Tired zzz.

Japan! (part two)

The next morning on Saturday, we headed straight for Tobu World Square in Nikko, a theme park with miniature scale models of famous landmarks around the world. Most of the models looked extremely realistic, down to the tiny people, cars and animals etc. Some landmarks included the Great Wall, Forbidden City, Taj Mahal, Angkor Wat, Big Ben, Eiffel Tower, Tokyo tower, the already-gone World Trade Centre, the pyramids etc etc. Took LOTS of photographs, so I shall share some nicer ones here.









This is the most elaborate of them all, St Peter's Cathedral in Vatican City. Looks absolutely stunning! The amazing thing is that all the greenery and plants are all real. To make them look like tiny miniature trees they used bonsai, which must have taken ALOT of work. Lunch was another buffet and we were joined by a huge group of (again!) university students.

We took a looooong road trip all the way up into the Miyagi prefecture to see some snow! The bus headed straight for Mt. Zao, a ski-mountain with lots and lots of snow!



These are the so called "snow monsters", which are actually trees covered in snow blown by winds from the chilly Siberia. I wonder how those trees actually survive winter covered in snow like that :/ Interestingly I noticed animal footprints on the snow, though they looked really weird, as if it had 3 legs... the Abominable Yukidarumon? (its an old Digimon character that I suddenly thought of LOL)



That's the highest we could go by cable car. Super strong and chilly winds! I only spent about 15mins outside and my hands, feet and ears were numb. The vending machine inside the cable car station was our savior, I bought a hot coffee and there was an instant "Ahhhhhh....."





On the way down in the cable car, I spotted a snowboarder zipping down the slopes, twisting and turning as he winded down. Cool stuff!

After a long day in the freezing cold the bus took us to another onsen hotel! Perfect way to warm up the body. Took this shot in the hotel:



Its a weather information board! You can set the city or prefecture that you're in and it adjusts accordingly. Subsequently I saw this board in 2 other hotels located in the smaller towns.
Next morning, I experienced the hospitality of Japanese service staff - the entire reception and lobby staff lined up outside as we boarded the bus and waved us farewell, until our bus went out of sight.



Such politeness! I wonder when Singapore can ever reach that standard of service..

On the way to the next activity which was strawberry picking (drool!), the bus weaved through swathes of farmland and rice paddies. I took this pic of an oba-san, toiling hard at her age. One trend I noticed was that most of the farmers I saw were old folk, with the exception of a few young guys helping out. I suppose all the youngsters headed straight for the big cities upon graduation from school - who would work in the fields nowadays?



Strawberry picking was rather fun, even though I wasn't a fan of strawberries. It was really warm inside the greenhouses, and everyone had a great time gorging on HUGE SHINY strawberries. They gave us 30 minutes, but within the first 5 everyone was already full. I think my dad easily wolfed down 30. He'll probably have strawberry nightmares for the next few nights LOL.







Drooling yet? All the strawberries were crazily sweet, without a hint of sourness at all.

After that hearty, fruity breakfast we went to Matsushima Bay, one of the more popular tourist spots in Northern Japan.



Nice view isn't it? Especially with the morning sun shining overhead. We boarded a small boat to cruise around the Bay and check out the tiny rock outcrops that seem to sprout out of nowhere. From what I can recall there were more than 50 such islands, and each had a name. An example is "Kabutoshima", which means helmet island (it really looks like Kabuto the Pokemon XD)



Strange to see pine trees growing right? Must have been part of the mainland a loooong time ago. The fun part was when the guide brought out some snacks, and the seagulls started to swarm around the boat trying to get a quick meal. They flew really close to us!





Oyster farms! Too bad it wasn't the oyster season then, otherwise we could have eaten FRESH oysters plucked from the ocean and eaten on the spot just like you see in Japan Hour on TV where the host goes "mmmmmmmmmm oishiiiii!!!!!!"

After some retail therapy at the shops by the bay and a visit to a shrine that opens its doors only once every 33 years, we went to see a golden shrine built for one of the shoguns. Unfortunately photos weren't allowed. Every part of the shrine was covered in gold! From the statues to the pillars right down to the floor! No wonder they protected it within a glass exhibit. Took some pictures within the grounds:





A really fat cat guarding the entrance to one of the shrines. Cute!



A family checking out their fortunes.

That night we stayed in Morioka. After dinner we explored the area around the hotel and discovered a shopping street that was closed by the time we got there (around 9pm). Japanese stores close so early!



This guy was busking along the street, and his voice was really good! The tune was also rather catchy - the next YUI perhaps? His friend looked kinda spooky though =x

And that concludes part 2! More to come...

Japan! (part one)

Warning: Image intensive!

And so I'm back from a 10-day trip to Japan, which is a really long time away from sunny Singapore. Kinda missed the food here heheh. We went on a tour of northen Honshu, including Nikko, Akita, Sendai, Morioka and Aomori, before going free & easy in Tokyo for 5 days.

The main motive actually was to see the cherry blossoms, but by the time we got to Tokyo most of the sakura trees had shed their petals, while those in the northern areas were still sleeping. Suay man. Anyway, after touching down in Narita airport on Thursday, we met up with the guide and the rest of the group (only 11 people from 3 families including us) and headed off to the hotel to rest.

I caught this in Narita on the first night



On the way to the hotel I saw this Pachinko shop with persuasive catchlines


Kinda subtle eh? The last one's "No pain, no gain". We didn't do much that first night except to have a dinner of deliciously piping hot ramen on a chilly night and explored the small town. There wasn't much life except a few convenience stores and salarymen making their way home.



Their egg yolks are always orangy in colour which I don't know why. Tastes kinda sweet too. Maybe the chickens there get to eat sushi? :/

The next morning we headed off towards Nikko. On the way the bus stopped at a highway pit stop (bladders weren't built to withstand 3 hour journeys) and I found THIS



Marimokkori! Its a new fad in Japan, lots of keychains and stuffed toys of this rather perverted looking green guy. Refer here Marimokkori for more information.

Anyway after arriving in Nikko we had a hotpot lunch before we headed off to see the shrines and temples in Nikko. I never knew the difference between a shrine and a temple - maybe categorised by the religion?



That is a tree bearing paper slips telling your fortune, much like the kind you find in fortune cookies. The Japanese tie slips that foretell bad luck onto trees in the hope that the bad luck goes away. I hope I didn't incur their luck by taking such a close up photo.

Took a long trek through a pine forest where the trees were damn tall. Apparently they cut down the dead trees and use their trunks to construct the temple pillars.



Finally reached the main gates, or torii, of the temple grounds.



This headstone is supposed to protect the families that walk into the temple grounds. I think the 3 spades emblem symbolises one of the 3 powerful shoguns that ruled Japan during the edo period. I remember seeing a lot of those on the hilts of samurai swords and the charms that can be bought from the temple.



These are wooden blocks where you write your wishes onto and then hang it up. I saw wishes written in numerous languages including arabic, tamil, french, korean, chinese and german. Funnily enough, most of the Japanese ones wished for success in exams and love, while the rest wished for general health and happiness.



I dunno what these are for, but they look really nice in this shot XD. I think its some kind of fortune telling thing also, like the type we chinese shake and see the one that drops.



Most of the shrines in the compound didn't allow photographs so I don't have much internal shots. This one is famous though - the 3 monkeys!



Saw a priestess running around the grounds. The clothes she wore reminded me of Motoko from Love Hina and Kikyo from Inuyasha.



Thereafter we visited this lake and a nearby waterfall which looked really majestic, it fell into this valley of sorts which was probably created by the waterfall itself. On the way up the mountains to reach the waterfall the bus we were in had to wind through 20 sharp corners, and 28 corners to get back down. Really tough on the driver.





Before the end of the day we went to an Edo Wonderland, similar to another theme park in Hokkaido. Lots of old houses, with samurai and geishas walking around. We went for this ninja show in which we didn't understand anything, and a comedy performance.
The stars of the ninja show:




This was a water show, in which water sprouted out from every single thing you could find on stage, including the fans and flowers the performers were holding. I suspect hidden water tubes inside those voluminous kimonos.



This guy is a mask switcher, he switched masks in a split second. Was quite shocked when he did it haha.



And finally a row of samurai bidding farewell to everyone who leaves the park. Every single person!

That night at the onsen hotel we wore yukatas to a buffet dinner. We were joined by a huge group of Japanese obasans and ojisans, together with another huge group of university students on an orientation trip. Their orientation is to visit an onsen!?!?! Good life man.



And that concludes the first day. Geez that took up the entire blog space.