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.


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 :)

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.