3 days in Japan

Here are a few snippets from my recent visit to JAPAN!!

Osaka castle

I spent two days in Osaka and then one in Kyoto. It was absolutely magical :)!

My trip included a lot of walking and eating. I mostly decided on something I wanted to see, then walked around there until I got hungry. When I first got there the weather was BEAutiful so I went and visited Osaka castle. The castle itself was quite nice, but the best part was walking around the gardens, park and plum tree orchard!

In the plum tree orchard on a warm November day!

That night I checked out dotonbori and shinsaibashi. I’m not sure what I would compare these areas to in Seoul… maybe myeong-dong? Shinsaibashi was basically a strip mall that went for kilometres! The stores were all blaring with lights and music to attract customers (I’ve read it described as the darwin theory; only the flashiest survive in shinsaibashi) so it was total sensory overload! The shopping was really good but I didn’t buy much because I only had a small bag with me. Plus I can get most of the stuff in Seoul for a lot cheaper.

I ate in dotonbori at a place that had lots of pictures on the menu ^^. I had okonomiyaki.. a kind of shredded potato and cabbage pancake with vegetables and lots of sauce! It was delicious. I also had some sashimi which was comparable with other sashimi I’ve had. I’m not a huge fan so I can’t really judge the taste.

By the river that goes across shinsaibashi… really cool district!

The next day was pouring so I went to the world-famous aquarium down by the harbour. It was nice, but very similar to the COEX aquarium and super packed with families on a rainy saturday afternoon… should’ve known! The best part was the whale shark in a huge central tank, plus the hugest stingray I’ve ever seen! Then I did some more touristy things in the same area like a petting zoo and a (enclosed) ferris wheel. When it stopped raining I headed back to the hostel and walked back to shinsaibashi for some more shopping and food. This time I tried takoyaki, a piece of octopus fried in a ball of batter, with sauce on it. I’ve heard Japanese food described as light and fresh before, but I certainly wasn’t in the right place for that!

Eyeing up the takoyaki…

The next morning I woke up early, packed my stuff and left my stinky hostel room (co-ed dorm… ugh) to go to Kyoto! It was a bit of a trek to get there – it was only 40 mins from Osaka station but with all the transfers and waiting it took a lot longer. Kyoto was just amazing. Every five minutes I would stumble upon another gorgeous temple and there were all kinds of celebrations and ceremonies going on so I got to see plenty of people in kimonos.

Kids are so adorable in their kimonos… maybe even more-so than hanboks *gasp!*

I walked from temple to temple and went into a beautiful park called Maruyama and then headed to Gion. The main reason why I wanted to go to Kyoto was because of Gion. I have read Memoirs of a Geisha and got a bit obsessed with it, so going to the place where it was set was like a dream come true. The close streets with their dark wooden slates were not exactly how I pictured them but it was pretty amazing all the same.

what happens in Gion….

When I went off the ‘historial’ streets and onto the main street I found some pretty great shopping and was surprised by a high school marching band! The girls were adorable, waving to me and saying “kawaii, kawaii!”, which I have since learned means “cute”! The way back to Osaka was a little stressful just because the trains were sooo crowded and I had some trouble finding the bus terminal but I made it to the airport in plenty of time and had an easy flight back to Seoul.

Japan was definitely similar to Korea but with many distinctions. I think I would have had complete culture shock if I had gone straight from Canada but coming from Seoul it wasn’t too shocking.

The money was a lot different. The physical coins actually say a lot about their economy I think. Their 500 yen coin is smaller in size than the 500 won coin but worth 13 times as much! Things were a whole lot more expensive in Japan but nothing was completely exuberant. I paid $10 to $20 on a meal and beer was $6-8. Now, coming from my usual $5 meals and $2 beers I was a little put off but not too much.

Another big difference is that they drive on the other side of the road! I’m a bit embarassed to admit it but I was walking around for at least 4-5 hours before I realized this! So while I thought it was interesting, it didn’t really affect me.

The mode of transportation I saw the most of was actually bicycles. It was amazing the amount of bicycles on the sidewalk! And they are all really good at avoiding pedestrians which was nice.

These bike parking lots were every 10 metres.

Overall I found the people exceedingly friendly. When I was looking a little bit lost there was always someone giving me a directions.

Fashion: now, granted I was not in Tokyo but I didn’t find the fashion as great as Korea. There were some amazing get-ups to be sure, but I found everyone dressed to extremes in Japan. People were either dressed in outrageous (-ly awesome) clothes or they were at the other end of the scale. In Korea, I find that the fashion is all quite safe and similar, but everyone looks really good. In Japan, there are a lot of risk-takers and lots of people who clearly don’t care about their clothes. Korea is more consistent in their fashionable-ness, but don’t have that ‘wow’ factor. A few times I actually picked Korean tourists out the crowd based on their wardrobe!

This store had the most amazing costumes… although I’m not sure everyone considered them costumes.

Now, I usually hate when people I’m traveling with say “I’ll come back and see that next time” or something like that. I want to shake them and say “YOU’RE HERE NOW and probably won’t ever come back!!”. That being said, I really really do think I will be going back to Japan and next time I will do a bit of research to know what I actually want to do once I get there ;)!

Wow, this post has gotten quite long so I’ll just say sayounara and arigato Japan!