At the Kansai International Airport there are many images made out of train tickets. It’s a pretty cool thing to see. Acording to this website they are all from the Namba-Nankai line which is the very line I took to travel two and from the airport.

Close up of the Mona Lisa. It reminds me of ascii art a bit.    

It was pretty cool to see so I just had to take some photos!   Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.  

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One place I loved on my trip to Japan in November 2008 was Iga-Ueno, specifically the Ninja Museum. Iga Ueno is near Nara in the Mei Prefecture. It is a little bit tricky to get to, but only in that you have to swap trains a couple of times. The way we got there was:

From Osaka we took the JR Yamatoji Line from Namba to Kamo - in the mornings direct trains to Kamo depart from Namba, but otherwise from Osaka station. All trains aparently depart from Tenoji Station as well. Kamo station is three stops after Nara, about 15 mins from Nara. From Kamo station swap trains. The next train is a little one or two car train on the JR Kansai Line. Take this train for five stations, 35mins to the Iga Ueno station. From here you take a cute ninja decorated train to Ueno-shi, 3rd station along and about five minutes to get there. Hint: don’t get all the “iga”s and “ueno”s confused!

I think overall the trip cost around 1530yen one way. A short walk from the station is the Ninja Museum. It cost 700yen to get in. First up is a cool demonstation area where a female takes you through some of the tricks ninjas have in their house. They changed all the signs to English and the girl spoke in English to us, she was pretty good. We got to swing around in hidden doors and look out peep holes. After that we went down stairs into a museum area. Here there was a movie playing as well as lots of info in English as well as Japanese about ninjas.

From there you can pay 200yen to watch a ninja show! It is well worth it. Here is a video with some highlights:

  As you can see the show was in Japanese. One guy did say to us that he could do it in English but his English wasn’t very good - we said it was “大丈夫” - daijoubu! It’s OK. The show was really enjoyable, I do recommend it!

Museum Opening Hours: Daily 9:00 to 17:00, except from December 29 through January 1. Show Times: Every hour from 11:00 to 15:00. March-November: Daily except most Tuesdays and some irregular holidays. Official Website (in English)

Check out my Iga Ueno gallery for more pictures!

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Gallery - Iga Ueno 2008 My Future Home: - Himeji Jo Gallery

Install some central heating and furniture and I think I’d be happy to call Himeji Jo home. Our day at Himeji was our first, and perhaps with the exception of Hakone our only really cold day. A real chill to the air, and windy too. It didn’t help walking down drafty corridors with our shoes off. After our time in the castle we enjoyed a hot chocolate from a vending machine, and I bought some ear muffs and gloves in Kobe and a jacket back in Osaka. Here’s a video I’ve compiled of our time in Himeji, featuring getting locked in toilets and chasing cats. It’s not as exciting as I just made it out to be…

So yes, Himeji was cold yet pretty!

Before we went into the castle we saw some cats. Stray cats? I’m not sure but I guess so. I haven’t really looked into it for more information.

There is a recommended path to walk around the grounds, and my awesome sense of direction made it so that we went in the complete opposite direction to that. The castle itself is awesome! You take off your shoes and put them into a bag, and then put on the castle slippers. I do not recommend the slippers. The stairs are so steep I felt like I was going to fall. I had to take off the slippers.

I didn’t get the Japanese language hand out but if I remember correctly it was the same as the English one. This is compared to Osaka Jo where the different languages were different.

Where I got my knee wet. After I had trouble getting out of the toilet. See video above for more details.  

OK, so Himeji Jo needs central heating, furniture, and glass in it’s windows before it is more perfect. I’m not too picky, am I?  

“No Scribbles” makes perfect sense to me. Graffiti, after all, can be art. Scribbles, could be a word to describe graffiti that is not. How ever, when I am Goddess of Himeji Jo, I will change the signs to “No Doodles”.  

And through this corridor we exit Himeji….   Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.  

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Gallery - Himeji 2008 Gallery

I love Osaka at night. We were staying at Dotonbori and it is just awesome at night. Lots of people, bright lights, loud noises. Great food, and not so great food… Warning, lots of photos in this post! Here’s a video of us coming back to our hotel room after riding the Hep 5 Ferris Wheel, and some of Osaka at night.

After a little rest from all the excitement of the day, the sun set and it was time to go out for some food and excitement. The above photo was our view from our hotel, the Hearton Hotel as the sun went down.

There are these long covered streets that go on forever filled with shops! It is a shopper’s dream. Too bad I was with non-shoppers and didn’t have as much money as I would have liked thanks to a bad exchange rate!

Uniqlo was recommended to us as a good cheap shop to go to to buy clothes. It actually reminded me of Cotton On, for those of us who live in a place where Cotton On is. Sort of generic plain clothing, but a huge store. Prices were so so as well. I mean, cheap in the way that Cotton On is cheap, not Supre cheap. Sorry I don’t have better examples but I can only explain things from my own world view!

At the circular bridge area after the shopping street and before the big food/lights area.  

Well, I guess you could say this is the beginning of the big lights area.  

The famous running man, the first photo in this post, was also here. This is where the first section of my video above was filmed.  

One thing that I really noticed about Osaka was all the bikes! They were everywhere. Makes me because I am a bike person too. No, not motorbikes, push bikes.  

I don’t have a photo of one, but the bikes here have stands that come down from both sides of the wheel, which is way better than them coming down from one side of the wheel like they do here. Bikes are always falling over here in Australia.  

This was a line to one of the Takoyaki stands. Maybe the mistake I made when I ate takoyaki was that I didn’t line up here.  

Big crab (note: lucky I proof read this) that moves. Aparently powered by bicycles. Wouldn’t surprise me.  

In case you are unsure, we are now in the part with loud noises and lots of lights.  

The way to advertise in Japan is to have bright flashing lights and loud music. Louder music, so you don’t get drowned out by the advertisement next to you.  

Ramen. Mmmmm. I miss cheap, awesome, delicious ramen.  

One great thing about obviously being a tourist/foreigner is that many people handing out flyers ignored us.  

I most definitely recommend Osaka for a shopping enthusiast.  

Hot food vending machine. Is actually a microwave that cooks frozen food. I wish we had more vending machines here in Australia, they are the best idea ever. I need an everything vending machine down the end of my street.

For dinner we had some yakisoba. Mmmmm.  

Yes, I’m left handed.  

And thus was our night adventures in Osaka! I was too exhausted to do much more - I had waaaaay too much excitement. If you want to see more awesome photos (huh) check out my Osaka gallery.   Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.  

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Hep Five Ferris Wheel Info!

Cost: 500円 106m high Number of Gondolas: 52, max four people per gondola Time of Round Trip: 15 mins Opening Hours: 11:00 - 22:45

After our visit to Osaka Jo, we went to Umeda to visit Hep Five and it’s ferris wheel on the roof. As soon as we got off the subway we had an older man come up to us to show us to the correct exit. I mean, sure that is nice and Umeda station is easy to get lost in, I’m sure. But if I want help I’ll ask for it! We were perhaps looking lost because we had just got out of one line and were just trying to orientate ourselves. So yeah, I can’t fault the guy, although I felt a bit like English practise, he was nice and helpful, but it was unnecessary. So we had the right exit but it still took us some time to orientate ourselves to where we had actually been lead to in order to find the building!

Let me say it now… I’m afraid of heights! However, I am one of those people who would rather face my fears, challenge them. I’m no wimp! And usually at some point things aren’t so bad any more. Before you go on they take a cheesy photo which you can decide at the end if you want to buy or not. We decided to buy it because buying cheesy things is part of being on holidays.

Yes, I was nervous as we went up but it was easier going down. It was an awesome view of Osaka. On the windows of the carriage there are little map outlines of buildings to tell you what is what.

After riding on the Hep Five Ferris Wheel, even though it was only mid afternoon I was buggered! I would have liked to have explored Umeda but I found I couldn’t keep my eyes open. Too much excitement for one day. We made our way back to our hotel and had an little nap before our night time adventures…

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On our first day in Japan we ate some sukiya for breakfast and headed down (up? across? over?) to Osaka Jo.

It’s a great walk to Osaka Jo. We came in from the west entry. The moat was beatiful, some was water, some grass.

Osaka Castle is really stunning from the outside. Inside is a museum and on the top floor you get a 360 degree view of Osaka. There is an elevator to get to the top, however I walked up the stairs (exercise is good!). The view up the top is worth the climb.

After our climb to the top we sat on a bench in the garden and ate some ice cream. A Japanese man came up to us to have a chat in English. I have to say, his English was pretty good. He had been to Australia and Canada, and showed us some maps of the places he’d been. Nice man, we told him we were going to Nara and he talked about the deer. He also showed us his phrase book and opened it up to a page on swear words (unintentionally!) I want a copy of that phrase book.

Walking around the grounds of the castle was very peaceful. I think, perhaps, we were lucky to go there on a day when there wasn’t a huge crowd. After we exited we went to the Brava Theatre to stand next to the building where my future husband Ikuta Toma was at that very moment performing as Danny in Grease. sigh I wish I had tickets… Brava Theatre in Google Maps And thus was my first visit to Osaka Jo and the end of my first morning in Japan!

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I just discovered this month’s Japan Blog Matsuri and decided to take part at the last moment! This month’s topic is: “How I Resolve to Make the Most of My Stay in Japan” Well, unfortunately I’m not in Japan any more. I was there for two weeks in November. But before I went I promised myself that I would not wimp out… I WOULD communicate in Japanese. This may not be such a big deal to some people. I figure, though, speaking in another language would be nerve wracking for a lot of people. For me, well, I’m shy. I don’t have a social phobia, but it can be hard sometimes to work up the courage to talk to people. Doubly so in another language really. But I promised myself that this was my opportunity, and I wasn’t going to let anything stand in my way! I started off strong. On our aeroplane was a Japanese flight attendant who had previously been a Japanese teacher in Melbourne. We had a conversation and he knew just the right level to communicate with me. It was great, it did build up my confidence. Thank you flight attendant guy, you were awesome at your job and made the whole flight more pleasant! Being in Japan… Well, there was a lot, of course, that I didn’t understand but a lot that I could. I managed to purchase headache medicine which was behind the counter and understand the directions that the pharmacist was telling me. That was a success. Other times I got shy. When we were trying to purchase a camera lens duty free we got a guy that could talk English. Sometimes we had no choice in the matter. After just getting off a train in Umeda, we barely had a chance to orientate ourselves before some helpful (but, unwanted helpfulness!!) man directed us in English to the correct exit. Other times another sales guy insisted on talking in English even though I answered in Japanese. And other times - and I do blame this on lack of sleep as I get grumpy when that happens! - I was thinking “why should I bother asking this question in Japanese, I wont be able to understand the answer”. Overall, I loved my trip to Japan and I had lots of positive experiences talking in Japanese. The people I went with were also impressed with how much I know, even if at times I feel like I don’t know much. I would say, however, that I didn’t really “learn” much Japanese while I was there, but I did solidify things that I was learning and got a bit of speaking practise. Most of the time I felt like I was just trying to “survive”, as in I was using my Japanese to buy things or find out where I was. Looking forward, next time I go to Japan (hopefully sooner rather than later!), I resolve to have more “conversational” conversations. This month’s question was from Rising Sun of Nihon. Looking forward to next months!

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