zennie | August 11, 2008
I won't be able to write any posts for some time - so a brief summary of recent events again.
1.8. - Okazaki Natsu Kankou Matsuri took place here. I've already written a short report before.
2.8. - I went to Nagoya with my friend. As mentioned earlier, World Cosplay Summit was held there. The cosplay parade, to be more exact. Before it started (5 pm), we did some sightseeing. In the evening, I went to see Okazaki hanabi festival.
3.8. - Nagoya again, the second part of WCS, the cosplay championship. Again, I did sightseeing before, I went to Inuyama castle and Meiji-mura.
6.8. - In the afternoon, I went to karaoke with my former classmates. However, I had to leave after a hour, since I had another appointment - dinner in tonkatsu restaurant with my present classmates. Later, we went to karaoke to meet the friends there, but they had just finished. So we who came from the restaurant went to karaoke again alone. Seven of us ... karaoke twice a day ... enjoyable!
7.8. - Closing ceremony in Yamasa ... another friends left. This is always so sad, especially this time, since I am going to leave very soon as well ...
8.8, - After the school, me and my friends went to eat together at ramen restaurant. Ramen saikou ^^ In the evening, karaoke again.
9.8. - 11.8. - A trip. On Saturday, I travelled with .Den to Hiroshima, which took about 10 hours (to get there). Then we took a ferry to Itsukushima and when we returned to Honshu, it was already night. The following day, we walked around the Peace Memorial Park and the museum. We parted after that, I took shinkansen to Himeji and went to see the castle. I continued to Osaka and later met up with .Den again and went to the splendid aquarium together. And parted again, he returned to Okazaki. Today, 11.8., I went to see some more Osaka sights, then backtracked to Kobe. And finally, I spend the evening in Nara. I've returned two hours ago .. and I am really tired. I have travelled more than 1270 kilometers in those three days.
Now, I have only two days of school left. I am going to be extremely busy now ... I have two appointments tomorrow, have to plan the next week's trip, send a package to home, send bunch of postcards...and another appointment on Wednesday. And of course, have to get some sleep, but I guess that's just a dream?
Therefore, I won't be able to send any more reports and photos for the time being. I am returning to Czech Republic on 22nd August, please be patient until then :) More detailed photos and reports will come.
1.8. - Okazaki Natsu Kankou Matsuri took place here. I've already written a short report before.
2.8. - I went to Nagoya with my friend. As mentioned earlier, World Cosplay Summit was held there. The cosplay parade, to be more exact. Before it started (5 pm), we did some sightseeing. In the evening, I went to see Okazaki hanabi festival.
3.8. - Nagoya again, the second part of WCS, the cosplay championship. Again, I did sightseeing before, I went to Inuyama castle and Meiji-mura.
6.8. - In the afternoon, I went to karaoke with my former classmates. However, I had to leave after a hour, since I had another appointment - dinner in tonkatsu restaurant with my present classmates. Later, we went to karaoke to meet the friends there, but they had just finished. So we who came from the restaurant went to karaoke again alone. Seven of us ... karaoke twice a day ... enjoyable!
7.8. - Closing ceremony in Yamasa ... another friends left. This is always so sad, especially this time, since I am going to leave very soon as well ...
8.8, - After the school, me and my friends went to eat together at ramen restaurant. Ramen saikou ^^ In the evening, karaoke again.
9.8. - 11.8. - A trip. On Saturday, I travelled with .Den to Hiroshima, which took about 10 hours (to get there). Then we took a ferry to Itsukushima and when we returned to Honshu, it was already night. The following day, we walked around the Peace Memorial Park and the museum. We parted after that, I took shinkansen to Himeji and went to see the castle. I continued to Osaka and later met up with .Den again and went to the splendid aquarium together. And parted again, he returned to Okazaki. Today, 11.8., I went to see some more Osaka sights, then backtracked to Kobe. And finally, I spend the evening in Nara. I've returned two hours ago .. and I am really tired. I have travelled more than 1270 kilometers in those three days.
Now, I have only two days of school left. I am going to be extremely busy now ... I have two appointments tomorrow, have to plan the next week's trip, send a package to home, send bunch of postcards...and another appointment on Wednesday. And of course, have to get some sleep, but I guess that's just a dream?
Therefore, I won't be able to send any more reports and photos for the time being. I am returning to Czech Republic on 22nd August, please be patient until then :) More detailed photos and reports will come.
zennie | August 7, 2008
Video 1
Itadakimasu! ^^
zennie | August 7, 2008
Breakfast :)
The rest area at Chuo expressway
And southern Japan Alps around
Back at the expressway
Although it's an expressway, it has some pleasant ... "rural" feeling
In Matsumoto city
Approaching to the castle ..
And the first glance at Matsumoto Castle
The carps are everywhere ...
Inside
It was quite crowded
...really.
Weapon exhibition
It *really* was steep.
From the castle observatory - view of Matsumoto city and central Alps
Another room of this room was "Room of three Moons", if I remember correctly. There were several big windows with view of the moat. And when they were drinking in this room, they could see three Moons - one in the sky, one reflection in the moat water and another one in the cup of sake.
The garden ...
Yukimi daifuku - mochi with ice-cream inside :)
zennie | August 4, 2008
As I mentioned earlier, my host family was so kind to take me to a trip. And I am really grateful, since the trip was really nice. Our plan was to go to Matsumoto, Nagano and something more, we didn't know when we were leaving - it depended on the time and our mood. We were thinking about Kamikouchi or Shirakawa-go, but ... well, I'll describe everything from now on.
We left house at 6:30, which meant getting up even earlier. Terrible, I had slept for only few hours, since I'd arrived late from Nagoya the day before.
So we set off for Nagoya, where we got on Chuo expressway (leading to Tokyo), I was only able to get few minutes' sleep. I can't sleep in the car. We did our first stop when we arrived to the southern Alps area (there are three segments of Japan Alps - southern, central and northern Alps; see the map). We stopped in the rest area for breakfast and ordered an all-you-can-eat breakfast menu.
We got on the expressway again and continued towards Matsumoto, where we arrived at 10. After parking the car, we walked towards Matsumoto castle, which was the only attraction we were about to see in Matsumoto city (the most famous one, of course). Matsumoto is one of the few remaining *original* castles in Japan, along with Inuyama, Himeji and Hikone.
Matsumoto castle is beautiful. I've only seen the photos of the others (except Inuyama, I was there yesterday, 3.8.), but Matsumoto's always been my favourite one, for how it looks. And it was even more beautiful in reality, of course.
As soon as we entered the castle, we were stopped by a volunteer group. Again, Japanese volunteers. It's really surprising, how nice the Japanese people are. Anyway, they guided us through the castle with a detailed lecture in each room. Moreover, their English was very good - which is *really* rare in Japan. After getting guided, we stepped out to the garden and had a chat with them, being asked where we were from and so on, as always.
We bought an ice-cream filled daifuku in a vending machine and slowly walked through the castle park, back to the parking lot. Now, I didn't know where we were going - the host father said it ... was a surprise. First, we were driving up the mountains - it took us about an hour, through crazy curvy mountain roads. We arrived to a place called Utsukushigaharakougen (Utsukushigahara Heights), the plateau in Central Alps with very nice view. We walked to the top for about 15 minutes from the parking lot, walking among the cows on the pasture. Too bad it was cloudy, so the view wasn't as magnificient as it would be on a clear day, but it was still nice. Allegedly, Fuji-san can be seen on a clear day.
After that, we returned to the car and set off for the "secret" place, which took again about an hour of crazy mountain roads. So, what was with the surprise? We were taken to a small village, to a small house, where soba (Japanese buckwheat noodles) was made, and attended a soba workshop. In other words, we got water, two kinds of flour and a knife, and were told what to do to make delicious soba. It took about an hour, but it was definitely worth it. A nice experience, and of course we ate it, delicious!
Then we were wondering what to do next. One of the ideas was to go to Suwa city to see a famous geyser, spurting every 30 minutes to a height of no less than 7 meters. However, it had got pretty late and it was quite far, so we decided to go to another place, a mountain with a great view ... I don't remember the name. It was about 30 minutes by car, and then we were supposed to continue by a ropeway to the very top. Nonetheless, we arrived to the parking lot, only to find out that the ropeway had been closed few minutes before.
So we continued on the way, stopping about 10 minutes later at a place with a nice view again. I suppose the Japan Alps are so beautiful that you can get a nice view virtually everywhere. After walking around for 20 minutes, we decided to go to see Shirakaba lake and then to our hotel.
At Shirakaba lake, we finally got back to the valley - we had been driving the curvy Alps roads all the time before. We only did a brief stop at the lake, bought a dinner in a supermarket and headed for the hotel.
The resort (better word, I guess) looked really luxurious. It was located somewhere in the middle of nature, nowhere near any big city. The room was also very spacious and nice. After getting some rest, we went to the rotemburo, hotel's private hot spring bath. We really enjoyed ourselves, as it was the first onsen-like experience for us. We entered the big bath, small pool, sauna, inner bath .. we tried out everything. We stayed for more than hour, which kind of shocked our host father :) Then we had a dinner in our room. We ate various sorts of manjuu and fruits, quite unusual dinner, but I liked it :) And after the dinner, we changed into yukatas and slept in a futon ^^
To be continued later :)
We left house at 6:30, which meant getting up even earlier. Terrible, I had slept for only few hours, since I'd arrived late from Nagoya the day before.
So we set off for Nagoya, where we got on Chuo expressway (leading to Tokyo), I was only able to get few minutes' sleep. I can't sleep in the car. We did our first stop when we arrived to the southern Alps area (there are three segments of Japan Alps - southern, central and northern Alps; see the map). We stopped in the rest area for breakfast and ordered an all-you-can-eat breakfast menu.
We got on the expressway again and continued towards Matsumoto, where we arrived at 10. After parking the car, we walked towards Matsumoto castle, which was the only attraction we were about to see in Matsumoto city (the most famous one, of course). Matsumoto is one of the few remaining *original* castles in Japan, along with Inuyama, Himeji and Hikone.
Matsumoto castle is beautiful. I've only seen the photos of the others (except Inuyama, I was there yesterday, 3.8.), but Matsumoto's always been my favourite one, for how it looks. And it was even more beautiful in reality, of course.
As soon as we entered the castle, we were stopped by a volunteer group. Again, Japanese volunteers. It's really surprising, how nice the Japanese people are. Anyway, they guided us through the castle with a detailed lecture in each room. Moreover, their English was very good - which is *really* rare in Japan. After getting guided, we stepped out to the garden and had a chat with them, being asked where we were from and so on, as always.
We bought an ice-cream filled daifuku in a vending machine and slowly walked through the castle park, back to the parking lot. Now, I didn't know where we were going - the host father said it ... was a surprise. First, we were driving up the mountains - it took us about an hour, through crazy curvy mountain roads. We arrived to a place called Utsukushigaharakougen (Utsukushigahara Heights), the plateau in Central Alps with very nice view. We walked to the top for about 15 minutes from the parking lot, walking among the cows on the pasture. Too bad it was cloudy, so the view wasn't as magnificient as it would be on a clear day, but it was still nice. Allegedly, Fuji-san can be seen on a clear day.
After that, we returned to the car and set off for the "secret" place, which took again about an hour of crazy mountain roads. So, what was with the surprise? We were taken to a small village, to a small house, where soba (Japanese buckwheat noodles) was made, and attended a soba workshop. In other words, we got water, two kinds of flour and a knife, and were told what to do to make delicious soba. It took about an hour, but it was definitely worth it. A nice experience, and of course we ate it, delicious!
Then we were wondering what to do next. One of the ideas was to go to Suwa city to see a famous geyser, spurting every 30 minutes to a height of no less than 7 meters. However, it had got pretty late and it was quite far, so we decided to go to another place, a mountain with a great view ... I don't remember the name. It was about 30 minutes by car, and then we were supposed to continue by a ropeway to the very top. Nonetheless, we arrived to the parking lot, only to find out that the ropeway had been closed few minutes before.
So we continued on the way, stopping about 10 minutes later at a place with a nice view again. I suppose the Japan Alps are so beautiful that you can get a nice view virtually everywhere. After walking around for 20 minutes, we decided to go to see Shirakaba lake and then to our hotel.
At Shirakaba lake, we finally got back to the valley - we had been driving the curvy Alps roads all the time before. We only did a brief stop at the lake, bought a dinner in a supermarket and headed for the hotel.
The resort (better word, I guess) looked really luxurious. It was located somewhere in the middle of nature, nowhere near any big city. The room was also very spacious and nice. After getting some rest, we went to the rotemburo, hotel's private hot spring bath. We really enjoyed ourselves, as it was the first onsen-like experience for us. We entered the big bath, small pool, sauna, inner bath .. we tried out everything. We stayed for more than hour, which kind of shocked our host father :) Then we had a dinner in our room. We ate various sorts of manjuu and fruits, quite unusual dinner, but I liked it :) And after the dinner, we changed into yukatas and slept in a futon ^^
To be continued later :)
zennie | August 4, 2008
The reason I post these photos separately is that they aren't mine. I lost my spare camera battery that day in Nagoya, and my primary battery ran out in Higashibetsuin. So I post several chosen photos from .Den's gallery with his consent.
Inside Higashibetsuin temple
The torii gate leading to Atsuta shrine park.
Hand-cleaning ritual
The Meitetsu building is a nice contrast ^^ (Meitetsu is a transport company)
A shrine maiden
And Atsuta shrine itself
The car-blessing ritual. See the video.
Video 1 - the car-blessing ritual
Lunch ^^
Another shrine, outside Atsuta
The signs for blind people are everywhere. My friend said something like "it must be a fun to be blind in Japan".
Arrived to Sakae area. Oasis 21 and TV Tower behind.
They call this "Field of Green"
Video 2 - around Oasis 21
Below Oasis 21
Some event was taking place there
Atop Oasis 21
Video 3 - atop and around Oasis 21
Field of green
NHK (Japanese national broadcasting company) building
Central Park shopping mall
Inside TV Tower building. This is a vending machine for souvenirs :)
Oasis 21 seen from the TV Tower
Those two towers are Nagoya-eki
Plates with names of people who have married here
Me and .Den atop TV Tower
The park within Sakae area
They were throwing blocks of ice at each other ^^
Pachinko
Still in Sakae area
He was playing with kendama
Trying to find Osu-Kannon temple
And here it is
The playgrounds below the expressway
They had been practicing some kind of dance ... but stopped before we managed to take a photo
Back at Sakae area
Oasis 21 is really beautiful at night
In front of Nagoya-eki
Nagoya-eki towers
Still lively inside, even though it was about 22:30.
Inside Higashibetsuin temple
The torii gate leading to Atsuta shrine park.
Hand-cleaning ritual
The Meitetsu building is a nice contrast ^^ (Meitetsu is a transport company)
A shrine maiden
And Atsuta shrine itself
The car-blessing ritual. See the video.
Video 1 - the car-blessing ritual
Lunch ^^
Another shrine, outside Atsuta
The signs for blind people are everywhere. My friend said something like "it must be a fun to be blind in Japan".
Arrived to Sakae area. Oasis 21 and TV Tower behind.
They call this "Field of Green"
Video 2 - around Oasis 21
Below Oasis 21
Some event was taking place there
Atop Oasis 21
Video 3 - atop and around Oasis 21
Field of green
NHK (Japanese national broadcasting company) building
Central Park shopping mall
Inside TV Tower building. This is a vending machine for souvenirs :)
Oasis 21 seen from the TV Tower
Those two towers are Nagoya-eki
Plates with names of people who have married here
Me and .Den atop TV Tower
The park within Sakae area
They were throwing blocks of ice at each other ^^
Pachinko
Still in Sakae area
He was playing with kendama
Trying to find Osu-Kannon temple
And here it is
The playgrounds below the expressway
They had been practicing some kind of dance ... but stopped before we managed to take a photo
Back at Sakae area
Oasis 21 is really beautiful at night
In front of Nagoya-eki
Nagoya-eki towers
Still lively inside, even though it was about 22:30.