Hey guys! Part two of my Kansai adventure is in Osaka. The next four days of my stay in Kansai will be AT Osaka, but I will most likely take day trips from Osaka to the other places that I want to visit such as Nara, back to Kyoto, Himeiji and Mount Koya. (DISCLAIMER: I PROBABLY WON'T VISIT ALL THESE PLACES DUE TO TIME CONSTRAINTS).
Osaka is the major city in the Kansai area, similar to that of Tokyo in the Kanto area. However, they have a different dialect, and different food "specialties". Two specialties of Osaka are the Japanese Pancake, aka Okonomiyaki, and fried octopus in a ball of bread called Takoyaki. Osaka is a huge urban sprawl that has similar regions compared to that of Tokyo. They have a man-made Island with a ferris wheel, a district known to be "unsafe" but also known for nighlife, etc. Some of the cool things that I've researched and want to visit include Osaka Aquarium on Tempozan Harbor Village, Namba area (Dotonbori St. Hozenji Lane, American Village, Isshinji Temple), Osaka Castle Area (Osaka Museum of History, Peace Museum), Sumiyoshi Shrine, Shinsekai (Dangerous area with good food and nightlife as well as Spa World Onsen, and Tsutenkaku tower), and Umeda Station area (Umeda Sky Building, Osaka Station), which is where I will be staying.
The hostel that I decided on staying at got raving reviews on hostelworld.com and rightfully so! It is a hostel that is super conveniently located <5 minute walk from Fukushima Station -- one stop from the biggest station, Osaka Station as well as one of the stops in the Osaka Loop (Similar to Yamanote Line in Tokyo). The hostel is one of many hostels under the same company, however it does not result in a lack of quality. The name of this hostel is J-Hopper's Hostel Osaka. There are many things that I love about this place. First and foremost is the location. Second is that it replaced A-Yado Gion -- the place I stayed during my 1 night in Kyoto. All joking aside, J-Hoppers rivals that of my first and favorite hostel since coming to Japan, Nui. Hostel & Bar Lounge in Asakusa. J-Hoppers has clean beds, enough cushioning so I don't feel the plywood support, a shelf type area at the head of the bed for my belongings, 2 free outlets so that I can both charge my camera and update Blogger in the comfort of my bed, a nice divider curtain that doesn't take up the whole room, a towel holder next to the bed, a cubby that you can lock yourself (Which A-Yado also had), many nice restaurants, bars, and convenient stores closeby within 5 minutes walking distance, more living space, cleaner hostel, and tons of forms for travellers and backpackers that DIDN'T cost money (Bus map at A-Yado cost ￥20.
Needless to say, I'm excited about these next four days. Osaka, here I come.
11.25 - Exploring the Hostel Area with New Friends
As I said already, I love it at J-Hopper. I was able to find the location with ease after arriving at Osaka Station at around 4:00PM. It was a short 3-4 minute walk to the hostel from the station. Upon arrival I noticed that they required me to take off my shoes and leave them near the front door. They provided free J-hopper slippers that I'm able to use during my stay, and because I was trekking in the rain in Kyoto a few hours before this, they gave me a towel to try my feet as I changed into a new pair of socks. Following that, I did the required paperwork and paid my fees (￥10,000 for 4 nights). While in the process, a man came down to the front desk asking for a 3-pronged adapter. This man turned out to be one of my two roomates that I will have for the first night before moving into a new room (due to availability issues, I couldn't book all 4 nights in one room). After finishing the paper work I relaxed in my room for a while to recover from the hours of raining and walking and in time went downstairs to ask front desk for a recommendation for dinner. The front desk lady named Ayaka told us to go to an Okonomiyaki placed called Hacchan はっちゃん and was only 2 minutes away so I left with both my roomates to eat Okonomiyaki as my first meal in Osaka.
While the food was good and the whole experience in Osaka thus far was great, I had trouble remembering my roomates names. The one man that asked for the adapter was a man named Tyron (pronc. Tie-Rin like Tyrant without the 'T') and my other roomate was a Chinese-French guy who was born and raised in France and doesn't speak any Chinese, but speaks Spanish, English and French and was given a Chinese name, which was gekkine (Don't know the spelling, pronc. Gek-keen).
Back to Hacchan, my roomates and I were seeming particularly helpless -- asking a ton of questions in English -- so this girl around our age turned around and said she'd translate for us. After being tons of trouble, we were able to get our orders through... I didn't particularly have any difficulty, but my roommates who didn't speak and Japanese did. We followed the #foreignerproblems with some short-talk with the Japanese woman who helped us. To top off 2 difficult names, her name was quite unique as well -- ウララ -- like the French saying "Oo la la!" (Urara). As for our orders, Tyron ordered a glass of beer, Mixed Okonomiyaki (with Shrimp, Cuttlefish and Pork), and Spring onions wrapped in a very thin layer of bacon. Gekkine ordered a bowl of rice and a mixed Okonomiyaki as well. I simply ordered a glass of beer and Pork Okonomiyaki.
Needless to say, it was delicious.
After finishing our meal, and exchanging some words through dinner with ウララ about Shingeki no Kyojin, school and work, we left and said our goodbyes. The waitress, wife, and owner of the shop thanked us by saying "Ookini" which is the Kansai dialect version of "Arigato" meaning thank you. ALSO, the person at the cash register gave each of us a origami crane for no apparent reason. As we exited Hacchan, the woman walked out of the restaurant continually smiling and saying "Ookini, Ookini!".
If that's not a reason to absolutely love Japan, I don't see what is.
We followed dinner by stopping at J-Hoppers first, then going to check out a bar called Moo. Us 3 wanted to check out Moo because I was talking about the concept of Nomihodai (All you can drink), which they have never heard of. Since we couldn't decide between a bar and Nomihodai, we just went to Moo's. Unfortunately, there was absolutely no one there, but we still stuck around. I had two Bailey + Milk and I loved it because it reminded me of chocolate milk.... yum. Japan drinks have a problem with being way too light. So, it being a mixed drink with baileys of all things, the two drinks, costing￥300 each, didn't phase me at all, but tasted delicious. We talked about our plans tomorrow and Tyron said he wanted to go to Hiroshima for a day trip. Initially, I was all gung-ho and wanted to tag along because it was one of the places I wanted to visit, but regretably, after we got home, I decided not to AND decided to take that out of my Kansai itinerary due to the cost of travel (~￥9850 1-way). Instead, I think that I will either stick around Osaka or go to Nara. We will see...
Anyways, tonight was a great start to the next 4 nights in Kansai. I met some great people, I'm in a great location, and ate great food. The potential for this trip is looking UP!
Monday, November 25, 2013
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Kansai Adventures Part 1 - Kyoto
Long time no see!
Sorry I haven't been writing lately. Jeez this keyboard I'm using is crazy loud... (ADD)
Kansai Adventures Part 0 - Introduction
Anyways for those who don't know, I am now in Kansai for 5 days BY MYSELF. Kansai is a region in Japan that includes the cities of Osaka, Nara, and Kyoto. I took a bus, which is a cheap alternative to the Bullet Train. I could've sworn that the bus arrival time to Kyoto was 2:30PM, but apparently I was wrong because I ended up arriving at around 6:00PM. The trip to Kyoto had me pretty anxious for the latter half of the trip because I expected the bus to arrive at 2:30PM and I had reserved my spot in the hostel saying that I would arrive by 3:00PM but it didn't end up being a problem at all. The drive to Kansai was also very beautiful since we passed by Tokyo Tower, Mt. Fuji, and hours of mountains and rural village between the valleys.
So anyways, for the first night in Kansai I am staying in Kyoto. Kyoto is the old capital of Japan prior to the Meiji restoration, which moved the emperor and the capital to Tokyo. Since it is the historic capital of Japan, it has tons of cultural awesomeness like Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines. Some famous temples you might know about (or might not) include Fushimi Inari Taisha (The shrine w/ tons of red gates) or Kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion). Today, I did not visit either of them because both of those close at around 5:00PM. Instead, I visited a temple called Kodaiji Temple. It came as a recommendation by the manager of A-Yado Gion. The temple was really cool in my opinion! I left to the temple after eating Tonkotsu Ramen at a place called 一か for ￥690, which I ate at around 7:00-7:30PM. After I finished my ramen, I spouted a nice little 「ごちそうさまでした」thanking them for the meal, paid them and left for Kodaiji. After casually walking and most likely taking the long (scenic) route, I finally found my way to Kodaiji (with the help from a picture of a map that I took) at about 8:45PM. The temple closed at 9:30PM so I still had time, and I don't think they kicked anyone out when the clock struck 9:30, so that's cool. The temple was illuminated everywhere and it made for really awesome pictures. There was a White building that was lit up that had lit up red, orange, and yellow autumn-colored trees beside it. There was a zen rock garden that was decorated and lit up for a very slow, zen-like light show... I took pictures of the best part though, which was when they shined green and purple lights on the rock garden. Besides the light show, the most awe-inspiring scene was a Japanese garden with red, yellow, and orange colored trees around it. The trees were illuminated with lights, and the reflection of that reflected perfectly on the still water from below. It basically created a mirror effect, which I thought was pretty awesome. We also walked through an area that had a model of the old Japanese thatch houses and later through a bamboo grove. I wish I could've been in those pictures but hey -- what are you going to do?
Traveling by myself, there are definite pros and cons. For one, there is no one to take pictures of you... also, you are solely dependant on your own Japanese to get you places around town and you don't have anyone to juggle thoughts with if you become lost. The pros however are that I get to be independent and get to set my own schedule and see whatever I want to see. However, it's still difficult because I don't often do things completely by myself especially in a land so foreign. The first time I was by myself was my first few days in Japan where it took me 2 hours to find my hostel after getting lost (I was always ~15 minutes from it the whole time ._.) This time however, I was a BIT more prepared. My phone still doesn't have wifi and I can't use data so I took a picture of a map online and used that to find my hostel and it luckily WORKED despite having a slight but constant uncertainty in the direction that I was going. I just hope I don't run into the same problem tomorrow when I go to Osaka in the morning. Anyways, got to check out by 10:00AM tomorrow, so I will update you with more deets as they come.
LATERR!!
Sorry I haven't been writing lately. Jeez this keyboard I'm using is crazy loud... (ADD)
Kansai Adventures Part 0 - Introduction
Anyways for those who don't know, I am now in Kansai for 5 days BY MYSELF. Kansai is a region in Japan that includes the cities of Osaka, Nara, and Kyoto. I took a bus, which is a cheap alternative to the Bullet Train. I could've sworn that the bus arrival time to Kyoto was 2:30PM, but apparently I was wrong because I ended up arriving at around 6:00PM. The trip to Kyoto had me pretty anxious for the latter half of the trip because I expected the bus to arrive at 2:30PM and I had reserved my spot in the hostel saying that I would arrive by 3:00PM but it didn't end up being a problem at all. The drive to Kansai was also very beautiful since we passed by Tokyo Tower, Mt. Fuji, and hours of mountains and rural village between the valleys.
**********************
11.24 - Ramen and Kodaiji Temple
For my first night, I'm staying at a place called A-Yado Gion. The hostel is pretty well positioned being extremely close to Gion (Geisha District), but I have yet to see any Geisha -- I've heard it's quite rare to see one anyways.Regardless, there are a lot of beautiful scenic places nearby. A-yado, however, is on the side street alleys so it's not all that beautiful in the immediate area. I paid the same price that I paid for Nui. Hostel & Bar Lounge, which is where I stayed during my first few days in Japan, but in my opinion this is definitely a downgrade. Everything is pretty much a downgrade comparing it to Nui. Nui had a bar lounge on the first floor, really nice bathroom, and a good amount of OUTLETS. This place has no outlets. On my bunk, the only two outlets are being used by the lamps that are next to our beds. Near the computer area, the outlets are being used to power the computer. The only open outlets I could find are above the sink -- which isn't really convenient. This is probably the more realistic definition of a hostel. Complaints aside, however, I'm safe and sound, I have a place to sleep and I have a roof over my head -- what more can you ask for?So anyways, for the first night in Kansai I am staying in Kyoto. Kyoto is the old capital of Japan prior to the Meiji restoration, which moved the emperor and the capital to Tokyo. Since it is the historic capital of Japan, it has tons of cultural awesomeness like Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines. Some famous temples you might know about (or might not) include Fushimi Inari Taisha (The shrine w/ tons of red gates) or Kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion). Today, I did not visit either of them because both of those close at around 5:00PM. Instead, I visited a temple called Kodaiji Temple. It came as a recommendation by the manager of A-Yado Gion. The temple was really cool in my opinion! I left to the temple after eating Tonkotsu Ramen at a place called 一か for ￥690, which I ate at around 7:00-7:30PM. After I finished my ramen, I spouted a nice little 「ごちそうさまでした」thanking them for the meal, paid them and left for Kodaiji. After casually walking and most likely taking the long (scenic) route, I finally found my way to Kodaiji (with the help from a picture of a map that I took) at about 8:45PM. The temple closed at 9:30PM so I still had time, and I don't think they kicked anyone out when the clock struck 9:30, so that's cool. The temple was illuminated everywhere and it made for really awesome pictures. There was a White building that was lit up that had lit up red, orange, and yellow autumn-colored trees beside it. There was a zen rock garden that was decorated and lit up for a very slow, zen-like light show... I took pictures of the best part though, which was when they shined green and purple lights on the rock garden. Besides the light show, the most awe-inspiring scene was a Japanese garden with red, yellow, and orange colored trees around it. The trees were illuminated with lights, and the reflection of that reflected perfectly on the still water from below. It basically created a mirror effect, which I thought was pretty awesome. We also walked through an area that had a model of the old Japanese thatch houses and later through a bamboo grove. I wish I could've been in those pictures but hey -- what are you going to do?
Traveling by myself, there are definite pros and cons. For one, there is no one to take pictures of you... also, you are solely dependant on your own Japanese to get you places around town and you don't have anyone to juggle thoughts with if you become lost. The pros however are that I get to be independent and get to set my own schedule and see whatever I want to see. However, it's still difficult because I don't often do things completely by myself especially in a land so foreign. The first time I was by myself was my first few days in Japan where it took me 2 hours to find my hostel after getting lost (I was always ~15 minutes from it the whole time ._.) This time however, I was a BIT more prepared. My phone still doesn't have wifi and I can't use data so I took a picture of a map online and used that to find my hostel and it luckily WORKED despite having a slight but constant uncertainty in the direction that I was going. I just hope I don't run into the same problem tomorrow when I go to Osaka in the morning. Anyways, got to check out by 10:00AM tomorrow, so I will update you with more deets as they come.
LATERR!!
Monday, November 11, 2013
Another Earthquake! (11.10.2013)
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| Only a 5.5 Magnitude. しんぱいしないで |
Friday, November 8, 2013
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