Japan Tripping - Hiroshima

Next up - Hiroshima for 3 nights.
I don't know if I've mentioned that this is my 2nd trip to Japan. On my last trip two years ago I went to Tokyo, Osaka, Nara, Kyoto and Hiroshima - so basically all the places I'm visiting again this time. Last time we only had 1 day in each city but Tokyo, so I really wanted to get to know them all better.
On my last visit to Hiroshima we just went to the Peace Memorial Museum + park and I only got to see the city as the one which was bombed. This time around I wanted to see it as something else.



We went to Miyajima and the Itsukushima Shrine located at the island. It took 1 hour to get there. I was very positive at the beginning of our trip - the nature was mind-blowingly beautiful etc. - but the excitement quickly faded.




We had dropped down on the one place more touristy than Kyoto. Shops with horrible souveniers were all over the place and prices on everything was compleately bogus. The only funny thing was the special signature cake for the area. Filled with either chocolate, beans or all sorts of different creams. And you could see them in the making - also very touristy, but whatever.
The shrine is famous for its gigantic gate and that wasn't as gigantic as I'd thought. Still very neat, though.



We went back to the city and went to se park and Peace Museum. I'd seen it before and it made a huge impression on me last time, so there wasn't a lot I couldn't remember. But it was still nice to see again.



We stayed at a minshuku, a small ryokan, which was a cool experience. The hosts really took us in and cared for us those days we spent there. It was very different than all the other housings we had stayed at. Our hostess, Kazuko-san, was very kind and took us to a caligraphy class.



My mom wasn't very good, I was all right and my dad compleately ruled. He's always good with that kind of stuff even the first time around - that's what you get from having a graphic designer as a dad.
The first one's my dad's, the secong my mom's and the last one mine.



Before jumping on a shinkansen back to Tokyo we went to the Mazda Museum. Zoom zoom! It was very fun! We got to see a part of the assembly line and got a whole lot of information about the making of a car and Mazda as a company. They own their own port in Hiroshima, jesus!



The "future" part of the museum was A-W-E-S-O-M-E! So many fierce cars. This one was very batmobile-ish. UMF, if I could get a car like this, ahha.



Funky homemade figurines. They're made of scrap metal, and as far as I know they're from the movies "Alien"?? Haven't seen those..

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100 already

Wow, I suck at stuff like this. Paint, I hate you.

A couple of days ago I was drifting along at 80-something followers, maybe thinking that I'd hit the 100 in 3 months. Now I'm here, after so little time. Jesus guys, I'm not prepared for such a large amount! Haha :)

I am glad that you all like my blog enough to follow me and I always love receiving your comments !!

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Japan Tripping - Kyoto, days ???

Next up was Kyoto for 4 days. We had planned to be there while the Gion matsuri was nearing its peak and the parade and I am very happy we did so. Also, I finally lost my sense of dates and days.



The first night we went to an evening dancing show at the Yasaka Shrine and went down to the stalls a kilometer from there. It was so much fun and packed with people. It took an hour or so walking 500 meters because the masses slowed you down. It was fantastic and I was so happy haha. It was like taken out of a manga <3 onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkap39yPoMmow5HHCChxmJiDUQjWnN1DyQPA86ovDitiGTWWmfvoV-qvtRPMFEAUn8wOBIe-4pVhyphenhyphenP1QkaD91nubPPRNELI_CKL44-rFYOvX1vf-s5XtWgyfeMGAd_1TuVR7O8qTC-Now/s1600/IMG_7989.jpg">

The parade was kind of boring, though. Compleatly anti-climax.



We also went to the Manga Museum. It was great! We also went to the special exhibition. I learned quite a bit, which I thought impossible. You wasn't allowed to take pictures indoors because of copyright which sucked, but oh well, I had a sweet time nevertheless. I touched the very first edition of the first Inuyasha ! Dream. come. true. And I didn't even know I wanted to do that.



Kyoto st. was sick. Architecturally speaking. It was very sci-fi.



We went to the Fushimi Inari Shrine a little outside of Kyoto. It was really great. It was way better than I would have believed it to be! Ultimate gateway experience. It was like hundreds and hundres of meters of those gates spread up the whole mountain. We only walked 2 km up the mountainside though, because we weren't prepared for that, haha.
It was reallt fun walking fast or running - it felt like being in a rollercoaster. Sort of anyway.



Did anyone say big pearls?



Of course we also went on a all-day tour of Kyotos largest attractions. We went to Kingakuji (SO pretty in the snow), Kiyumizudera and Nijo Castle. The last one was the only thing I hadn't seen before and I really liked it. It features a lot of whole lot of nightingale floors (they sing like nightingales when you walk on them, built to prevent intruders entering the inner chambers) and they were so fun!



We also took a day of. Being on vacation is pretty hard. It was very nice to be well rested and stay indoors for the warmest hours.

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Child series

I love Pingu. And I was reminded of that when I went to a certain part of Kyoto st. where this display filled up some space. Apparently Pingu is nearing his 30th year and the display was there to honour him. They showed some "making of" footage and also this 2006 music video:



I was laughing so much while I watched it the first time. It's awesome because Pingu is usually for kids all over the globe, but this video was so much more directed at youngsters and those above that age.
I love the emo penguins and the band !! :D



All over the cities is "Bayside Shakedown" posters and it's really a large-scale campaign for the third movie. Damn, I'm soo excited for it! I loved the two first and really can't wait for the next. It sucks I'm going to have to wait for it to be subtitled and everything ...

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Japan Tripping - Osaka days 7-9

We had 3 nights in Osaka, so after the aquarium etc. we still had a lot of time on our hands.



I spend a lot of it shopping in Ebisubashi, Shinsaibashi and Ame-mura.
It's funny. I have two kind of legs. The ones I use when I go shopping and the ones I use doing everything else. It's like power and determination makes me able to walk, walk, walk forever when I shop, haha.



There were so many funny bouldings and sky scrabers. Osaka is a very colorfull city! I was very surprised.
Another thing I enjoy was listening to Osaka-ben. I could actually hear that they talked differently, which made me kind of proud haha.



I tasted okonomiyaki for the first time. I bought it off an old lady selling on the street, which made the experience more fun. There's so much good food, arrrrg.



Except for these. Urg, I really can't eat octopuses anymore. Twice is enough for a whole lifetime in my case.



Everything wasn't fun and games though. I had a sort of attack. My stomach started aching in a no-period kind of way and it got worse and worse. We tried finding a doctor who could talk a little bit english, but on the first hospital we found none. My parents talked to our insurance and they had a contact to a hospital all the way in Shin-osaka. But we went there and they thankfully had a interpreter. At that point I couldn't really walk and the pain was unbearable.
I received drip for the first time in my life and 30 minutes later I was so much better.
I had this 18 months ago too. It's pain caused by too much stomach acid that goes up in the "tubes" to the stomach.
Now I'm all back to normal.



The whole system is so professional. Trains arrive on time, stations run as airports and hospitals far more efficient than back home.



Wooow, glitter Stitch!

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Japan Tripping - Osaka days 6-7

We arrived in Osaka by twilight and went out to eat neat Omotesando. We found this funny bar/restaurant that served a special soup. It was an odd experience, but one I wouldn't have been without.
Afterwards we just went straight home, after snapping a couple of nightly pictures.





Angry cat is angry.



We got up and headed for the Tempozan area. By the time we got there it had been pouring down for a while and we were soaked. We went through the indoor markerplace and ran into the Kaiyukan Aquarium.



Their collection of jellyfish was small but nice.



Those damned otters were so quick. I took about 30 pictures and only 3 came out all right, haha.





Funny penguin, being protective. It's kind of shouting "AND DON'T COME BACK!"





The aquarium was so great. I loved every moment of it. They went from small to bigger to biggest sea animals and in the end I could only stare at the 12 meter long animals. They were so humengous.



Always wanted to see a hammer shark. Now I have, haha! They are so funny-looking.




That whale-shark was 12 meter long. They had some larger. I was like WOW.





Riding delfins is fun while being eating by super large sharks isn't.




My dad and I got up in the worlds' probably biggest ferris wheel. We were a little scared but still wanted to go.
After that ride we all went to the Tempozan arcade and we got our first puricura done, hah.



I tried winning the Ponyo cards but failed :(




The view was kind of dizzy-making. It was great though.

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