In the days leading up to Obon vacation, we showed our visitors around Tokyo. My favorite garden is the Hama Detached Palace Garden, which was built in 1654 where the shogun could practice duck hunting. The garden also has a tea house in the middle of a pond.
When you're in the old garden, you're constantly surrounded by modern buildings, which create a strange backdrop for the tea house.
Obon is one of Japan's most important holiday's, and is a time when many people travel to their hometowns to visit family tombs. What this meant to me was a week off work to travel around Japan.Once we left Tokyo, our first stop was Osaka. The city was established around Osaka castle in 1586, and expanded as traders from other parts of Japan were encouraged to settle in the surrounding areas. By the 1920s Osaka was an industrial capital, and today is Japan's third largest city (after Tokyo and Yokohama). Many Japanese say that people from Osaka are strange, and that they aren't Japanese at all. Maybe that's why we all enjoyed it so much; the people here seemed much more normal than the Japanese in general, which is probably why the Japanese don't like them in the first place. Osakans are the foreigners of Japan.
The street is also the nightlife entertainment district, full of bars, clubs and restaurants. To differentiate itself from the competition, each restaurant tries to create the most attractive and unique facade. The result is rather hilarious.
I saw some interesting creatures here, including these little crabs that could scale vertical walls.
This large creature looked like a giant hamster.
A large type of stingray was ferrying some smaller fish around the tank...
And the aquariums prized possession, a whale shark.
We also caught the stingray feeding which was really cool.
There were many different types of crabs too. Overall it was a very interesting aquarium, though I'm a bit surprised at how run down it was, and I felt sorry for some of the creatures.
Our next stop was Kobe, a port town similar to (but much smaller than) Yokohama. Kobe is famous for its beef, and a massive earthquake that struck here in 1995 (though there is no evidence of the earthquake now). We enjoyed exploring Kitano-cho, a neighborhood where foreign traders and diplomats built their homes after Kobe was chosen to serve as one of Japan's major international ports during the Meiji period.
Along the way we encountered a stick bug!
We also took a cable card to a mountain that had a beautiful herb garden...
Including an herbal footbath with the city as a backdrop.
Potman!
Like Yokohama, Kobe also has a Chinatown, though it's much smaller.
Himeji is a town not far from Kobe, famous for its castle. It's the grandest of Japan's 12 remaining feudal castles so I was excited to see it. Too bad no one mentioned it would be under construction for the next 10 years, hidden in a nasty box. They could at least have a sense of humor about it, and put it in a large gift box with a bow on top.
One cool thing was that they were filming something on the castle grounds, so they had costumed extras wandering around. It created an authentic atmosphere.
Unfortunately Rick lost his head somewhere along the way. At least we're the same height now.
What made the trip to Himeji worth it were the two gardens near the castle that we had a chance to visit. Both were beautiful, and we even had lunch at one of them.
From Himeji we started to make our way back towards Tokyo, with a few days stop over in Nara. Nara was founded in 710 and spent 74 years as Japan's first capital. The city flourished and became one of Asia's greatest cities.
Many ninja's also traveled disguised as street performers. This ain't no ordinary umbrella.
The interior had one of the best exhibitions I've seen in any castle, including these unique helmets.
Go-go gadget samurai!
After a week of traveling through some of Japan's liveliest cities and oldest temples, it was time to go home. We have now seen all of Japan's major cities, oldest temples and most important castles (even if one of them was a castle in a box).
Dotonbori is Osaka's most popular entertainment district. It runs along a canal of the same name.
Same spot by night. Osaka and Tokyo are major rivals, and this light display seemed like a giant F*** you to Tokyo's power conserving efforts. In reality energy can't be diverted from Osaka to Tokyo, but it was still amusing.
The street is also the nightlife entertainment district, full of bars, clubs and restaurants. To differentiate itself from the competition, each restaurant tries to create the most attractive and unique facade. The result is rather hilarious.In case you're not sure, this restaurant serves crab:
Squid restaurant:
Sushi restaurant:
Dragon restaurants?
There were also some nice, old-style buildings scattered among the kitsch.
Typical Japanese fashion: large bows and puffy skirts. After watching Mad Men, I'm convinced I live in 1960s America.
Our hotel had a very nice courtyard with a chapel built into it. The chapel isn't on the ground floor of the hotel, but on the 8th. In the background, to the right of the chapel, you can see the Umeda Sky Building with its Floating Garden Observatory. We went there expecting a garden, but it was just a very modern observatory.
A view of Osaka from the Umeda building. In the center of the picture you can see our hotel; it's the building with two domed towers and the small chapel jutting out of the middle.
Osaka also has a very famous aquarium, which holds about 13.5 million liters of water.
I saw some interesting creatures here, including these little crabs that could scale vertical walls.
This large creature looked like a giant hamster.
A large type of stingray was ferrying some smaller fish around the tank...
And the aquariums prized possession, a whale shark.
There were many different types of crabs too. Overall it was a very interesting aquarium, though I'm a bit surprised at how run down it was, and I felt sorry for some of the creatures.
This Osaka Castle was built in 1931, and is smaller than the original. It was the nicest castle exterior I've seen so far, but the inside was modern and had a dull exhibition - completely different from what you'd expect.
Our next stop was Kobe, a port town similar to (but much smaller than) Yokohama. Kobe is famous for its beef, and a massive earthquake that struck here in 1995 (though there is no evidence of the earthquake now). We enjoyed exploring Kitano-cho, a neighborhood where foreign traders and diplomats built their homes after Kobe was chosen to serve as one of Japan's major international ports during the Meiji period.
Some houses were in worse shape than others...
Along the way we encountered a stick bug!
We also took a cable card to a mountain that had a beautiful herb garden...
Including an herbal footbath with the city as a backdrop.
Potman!
Like Yokohama, Kobe also has a Chinatown, though it's much smaller.
No night out in Kobe would be complete without a Kobe beef dinner. It was delicious! Apparently they massage the cows and feed them beer. It sounds out there, but with everything I've seen so far it wouldn't really surprise me.
Himeji is a town not far from Kobe, famous for its castle. It's the grandest of Japan's 12 remaining feudal castles so I was excited to see it. Too bad no one mentioned it would be under construction for the next 10 years, hidden in a nasty box. They could at least have a sense of humor about it, and put it in a large gift box with a bow on top.
One cool thing was that they were filming something on the castle grounds, so they had costumed extras wandering around. It created an authentic atmosphere.
Unfortunately Rick lost his head somewhere along the way. At least we're the same height now.
There was an interesting display of samurai armor in one of the keeps.
What made the trip to Himeji worth it were the two gardens near the castle that we had a chance to visit. Both were beautiful, and we even had lunch at one of them.
From Himeji we started to make our way back towards Tokyo, with a few days stop over in Nara. Nara was founded in 710 and spent 74 years as Japan's first capital. The city flourished and became one of Asia's greatest cities.August is a festive time, so we were greeted by lanterns placed strategically around the city.
Conveyor belt sushi!
Nara became a center of Buddhism, and temples flourished. Miraculously, many buildings have survived. The Kofuku-ji Temple was founded in 669, and even though the five-story pagoda burned down five times, this one still dates from 1426.
Nara is also famous for deer. These deer look more like Bambi than the deer in Miyajima.
They were so eager to get the cookies they threatened to eat my shorts if I didn't hand them over.
And of course, more spectacular gardens.
... to house a 16m tall Buddha, which was erected here to further establish Nara as the center of Buddhism. Earthquakes have dislodged the head several times, and the current head dates from 1692.
As it turned out, lanterns were set up all around town every night. The amazing thing was they were set up each night for only a few hours - the coordinated effort of the volunteers was impressive.
Flowers!
Horyu-ji Temple, the cradle of Japanese Buddhism, was just a short train ride from Nara. The complex is thought to contain some of the world's oldest surviving wooden structures, dating from the early 7th Century.
This pagoda is the oldest in Japan.
The house had spy holes, trapdoors, escape doors and secret panels with hidden weapons!
There was also an informative museum where I learned a lot about ninjas. These were their shoes for walking on swampland.
Conveyor belt sushi!
Nara became a center of Buddhism, and temples flourished. Miraculously, many buildings have survived. The Kofuku-ji Temple was founded in 669, and even though the five-story pagoda burned down five times, this one still dates from 1426.
Nara is also famous for deer. These deer look more like Bambi than the deer in Miyajima.
They were so eager to get the cookies they threatened to eat my shorts if I didn't hand them over.
And of course, more spectacular gardens.
Todai-ji Temple was built in 752...
... to house a 16m tall Buddha, which was erected here to further establish Nara as the center of Buddhism. Earthquakes have dislodged the head several times, and the current head dates from 1692.
As it turned out, lanterns were set up all around town every night. The amazing thing was they were set up each night for only a few hours - the coordinated effort of the volunteers was impressive.
Deer!
Flowers!
Horyu-ji Temple, the cradle of Japanese Buddhism, was just a short train ride from Nara. The complex is thought to contain some of the world's oldest surviving wooden structures, dating from the early 7th Century.
This pagoda is the oldest in Japan.
On the last day of our adventure as we traveled back to Tokyo, we stopped in Iga-Ueno. A small town and not really popular with tourists, its famous for one thing only: ninjas! This was a clan farmhouse that served as the secret headquarters of the Iga sect of professional spies and assassins. Often, ninjas spent their days disguised and working as farmers, thus living a double life.
The house had spy holes, trapdoors, escape doors and secret panels with hidden weapons!
There was also an informative museum where I learned a lot about ninjas. These were their shoes for walking on swampland.
They also had loads of weapons on display, including those that we expect a ninja to use (like throwing stars and disguised daggers). But ninjas were also experts at manufacturing gun powder, which was the top military secret at the time and thus the production area was buried deep in the clan house. Ninja's also had many other tricks to make them self reliant killing machines, like how to predict the weather or tell the time of day by a cats eyes.
Iga-Ueno also had a small but impressive castle.
The interior had one of the best exhibitions I've seen in any castle, including these unique helmets.
Go-go gadget samurai!
After a week of traveling through some of Japan's liveliest cities and oldest temples, it was time to go home. We have now seen all of Japan's major cities, oldest temples and most important castles (even if one of them was a castle in a box).