Half Day Around USA

19th May 2012

After I moved to Oita, my friend SK brought me around the town to help me familiarize with the place and to tour some of the local attractions. Initially, we wanted to go to a place to see wisteria lane, however, we didn't know that the flowers were all gone, just left the green leaves on the vines, we missed the blooming time and we were only one week late. Haiz! 

wisteria lane minus the flower

Japan

Well, in my two years in Japan, although I didn't cover all the prefectures like my colleague, I managed to cover all the regions, it is no small feat, I think. From north to south of Japan, I can see that every places have their own unique points, language and culture. Even though I can understand a bit of Kyushu Japanese (Kumamoto-ben), the Osaka dialect and many other dialects baffled me. Luckily, most of the time I traveled with my friends who are very fluent in Japanese, so the trips normally went on smoothly. 

In my first day in Japan, I met with the 311 earthquakes, and it really scared the hell out of me, it was the first earthquake I experienced. Then, the second day, all the TV programs were about the meltdown of nuclear reactors. I didn't get a good start in Japan, however as days went by, I started to like the country, although it is a very natural disasters prone country, the safety feature is quite strong. I wouldn't say that all Japanese are good people, but most people are kind, crimes at very low level and I had no fear when I went out at the middle of the night. The public transport in Japan are very punctual, so people can actually rely on the public transport to go almost anywhere, except the remote area. I cherished and appreciated the two years experience there, working and traveling around, had my first taste of raw food, missing nasi lemak, etc. 

Now that I am back to my home, Malaysia, I can eat nasi lemak whenever I wanted to. lol!

regions in Japan (photo edited from wikipedia)

The places I have been to

• Hokkaido 北海道
• Tohoku 東北地方
• Kanto 関東
• Chubu 中部地方
• Kinki 近畿地方
• Chugoku 中国地方
• Shikoku 四国
• Kyushu 九州
• Okinawa 沖縄

Kawashiri Shrine Autumn Festival 河尻神宮秋季大祭

19th October 2011

Like Malaysia, Japan has many festivals. I came across this Kawashiri Shrine Autumn Festival when I was on my way home. When I was walking to the train station, I heard loud bangs and a lot of people were heading to the Kawashiri Shrine. It stirred my curiosity, so I walked there too. Apparently, an archer was riding on a horse and he shot an arrow to a diamond shaped target. When the archer managed to hit the target, the spectators laughed and applauded, the atmosphere was joyous. Well, that day was a working day, so I was actually surprised with the turnout, it was full of people, young and old. 

archer on a horse wearing traditional clothes

Suizenji Garden (水前寺公園)

20th March 2012

Suizenji Garden is one of the famous tourist spots in Kumamoto City. However, I was never tempted to go there until a taxi driver kept recommending Suizenji Garden to me after he knew that I lived in Kumamoto when I went for a business trip in Oita. So, on a windy day, I went to this garden. It is near the Suizenji Garden Tram Stop.  However, I went by car because a colleague brought me there. There's nothing special with the entrance, just a simple stone signage.

entrance to Suizenji Garden

A Short Trip to Daikanbo in Aso Kumamoto

20th March 2012

Google search the keyword 'Daikanbo' will show many beautiful lush green images of field and mountain. So imagine my surprise when I reached Daikanbo on a still chilly day in March 2012, what I saw was nothing but patches of black burned ground. It was so different from what I have imagined. At first, I thought a big wild wire had burnt out the whole area, then thanks to the information board, I learnt that the area was burnt on purpose to avoid reforestation to maintain the grass field. Well, at least I never suffered from any hazy conditions for my one year stay in Kumamoto City. So, no complaint here. 

In Aso, there is even a Fire Festival 火祭り every year where two big huge "火" characters were arranged in two peaks and burnt at night. It's something tourists can go to. However, in the Aso tourist website, it mentioned that although the Fire Festival is open for tourist, the open burning is not and they hoped that non related persons will not go and disrupt the operation.

Mind Boggling Stuffs I Bought From Japan

Well, it's normal to buy stuffs during travel. I would buy things that I normally wouldn't buy when I was in a foreign land and I bought a lot of things that don't even make sense of myself. I bought a lot of accessories in Japan, the problem is I don't wear accessories, I don't even use key chain, I only use a ring to hold all my keys. Now, all of these accessories are wrapped in a plastic bag and kept under my bed, I will occasionally take it  out to admire before putting it back. Hahaha!

I got the below accessories, brooches and key chains in a shop in Kobe, it was having sales! I think every simple piece cost 500 yen, since it looks cute and not so expensive (I was earning in Japanese yen then), I bought all that! 

accessories

Souvenirs from Japan

There are many things to buy in Japan as souvenir. However, most of the time, I would stick to food items because it is cheaper and easier to distribute to colleagues. Due to the 'omiyage 御土産' tradition, most Japanese people will buy souvenir for colleagues, I ate a lot of omiyage during my two years working in Japan. Well, I also bought packets of souvenirs during my travel for my colleagues. (contribute back!)

*omiyage = something like local produce

Due to that omiyage tradition too, one can find many nicely packed cookies or sweets (菓子) in beautiful boxes in the shops in tourist attractions. Normally, it came in 30 pieces per box. The one I bought range from 5 pieces to 40 pieces. One box normally costs around 1050 yen. From 1st April 2014, the sales tax will increase from 5% to 8%, so it would probably costs 1080 yen per box or the retailers will absorb the cost themselves, which I think is very unlikely!

Below photo shows some normal souvenirs. Normally, one can find similar products like below photo, boxes of cookies wrapped in cute packaging related to the place one is visiting. In Kumamoto, the normal (not so expensive and affordable with high quantity) souvenirs are cookies wrapped in packaging with Kumamon photo. This is the type people normally buy to give to colleagues. 

souvenir from Kumamoto (utilises Kumamon)

Beppu Jigoku and Beppu Christmas HANABI Fantasia

23rd November 2012

After leaving Showanomachi, me and my friends (SK, Ari and CY) continued our journey to Beppu 別府, a famous place for onsen in Japan. However, except for SK, three of us didn't go into the water, we busied ourselves visiting the Jigoku 地獄 (Hells!!!). Actually, when I first heard about this jigoku, I thought people actually dip into the water, it's spring water, right? Then, SK was like "what!?, nobody in their right mind will go into the pool" Hahaha.

We had lunch in a restaurant near the Beppu Station, the restaurant is famous for the Toritendon 鳥天丼. Well, it's actually fried chicken rice, but it's very delicious. One thing I love about fried chicken in Japan is there's no bones, just the easy to eat part! Whenever I eat chicken dish with bones, I will leave a mess behind, very ugly and messy. Just one thing not nice about fried chicken in Japan, they do not provide chili sauce! As a typical Malaysian, I like to add chili sauce or belacan to my food. (*Japan is very famous for the Karaage 唐揚げ, fried chicken, very juicy inside, much more better than KFC!)

Beppu famous dish - Toritendon 鳥天丼

Showanomachi 昭和の町

23rd December 2012

A colleague told me about a place where many stuffs from Showa Era (昭和時代) is exhibited, well I am not a history buff, so I didn't feel like going. Then, me and my friends (SK, Ari and CY) wanted to go to the Beppu Winter Hanabi, however, it's at night and we would have the whole day free. So, after much discussions, we decided to stop by at Showanomachi 昭和の町 to kill time.

We reached Showanomachi quite early, the parking lot was still very empty. Wow, we were early birdies. We bought ticket to enter the place, one ticket costs 600 yen, not so cheap, but not so expensive too. Well, as the name suggested, this area is full of stuffs, memorabilias from the Showa Era. Some are really alien to us, some still existed in our childhood. Hahaha, good things last forever, or at least a very long time.

One of the examples is the Ultraman ♥! In a toys corner, there are many figurines, the most recognizable one is Ultraman and the monsters. I grew up watching all these Ultraman shows! Looking back now, the story is quite silly, since Ultraman can only be on the form for 5 minutes (not sure about the duration though), after fighting for a while, the "heart" starts to blink, means that Ultraman have to finish off the monster as soon as possible, somehow Ultraman always make it! LOL! Just knew that Ultraman is still going strong, a neighbour kid is following the series now. Wow!

Miniature Ultraman 

Fishing

16th October 2011

Well, this's the one and only fishing experience I have. My colleague, Kondo san and her family love fishing. They even own a fishing boat and many fishing gears. She spent her holiday on fishing. Sometimes, she even went out on the early morning (or rather, after midnight) to fish.

Anyway, one day, she invited me and two other colleagues to go fishing. I grabbed the chance and said yes! A day before, Kondo san even sent us the information about the fish, the weather and the proper attire (the weather was very cold in the morning!). Our targeted fish was Kisu (鱚/キス), during that season, Kisu was abundant in Yatsushiro Sea in Amakusa.

So, on that fine morning (no strong wind, good for fishing), I wore layers of clothes, with hat and applied sun screen. Kondo san fetched me, SK and Naz from our apartments early in the morning.  Then, we went to Kondo san's parents house. Finally, we left for Amakusa. It's quite far from Kumamoto City. We had a good view along the way, the sea was so calm and we could see boats (many of them). Kondo san explained that almost all the boats were owned by fishing enthusiastic.

Finally, we reached the harbour. Before I stepped into the boat, I went to the toilet first. Haha, Kondo san too. Well, it's very inconvenient for female to fish. Male will just settled it on the boat. The weather was good with clear blue sky.

blue sky and blue sea (so beautiful!)

Lantern Festival 寺町とうろう祭（七観音参り）

9th August 2012

Nakatsu has many Buddhist temples, and every year on 9th of August, the temple committee will organise a lantern festival in Teramachi 寺町 (temples street). Along the street and inside the participating temples, small cute lanterns will be exhibited.

I went to the Lantern Festival with my colleagues, we prayed in the temples around Teramachi too. When night falls, the view was very breathtaking! There were lantern making competition and the sea of lanterns made me speechless. The funny thing was that once finished praying, the committee member would give sweets, junk food or can water to the devotees. In the last temple that we prayed, the monks chanted prayers to bless us. There is another saying that if one prays in all the seven temples, one will be lucky for the next three year. Like what my colleague said, " san nen kan happy 三年間ハッピー!" (^^♪

a temple in Teramachi 

Kōzakihana, Sasebo Burger and Plum Flower

24th February 2013

Well, the post title is not so standardized because this was just what me and my friends did on the way back from Sasebo. We almost couldn't get a place to sleep in Sasebo the night before. I booked for 3 single rooms in a hotel on Rakuten, however, not long after that, the receptionist from that hotel called and apologized because their rooms were overbooked. However, she offered us rooms in another hotel (more expensive type) with the same rate. Well, I gladly accepted that. At the end, we stayed at the original hotel I booked because someone from the hotel called and informed me that the rooms were available again. Anyway, as long as we had a place to stay for the night, Sasebo (Huis Ten Bosch) was too far from our place, driving back was out of question.

After we checked out of the hotel, we went to the most western point of the four main islands in Japan (Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu), Kōzakihana 神崎鼻公園. That area was being renovated. So, we could just see from afar. Anyway, actually scenery wise, it's not so special, just it's special geography wise. The most western point, hahaha! We were the only human being at the area that time. When we left, a senior couple reached. Well, compared to other tourist attractions in Sasebo, I think Kōzakihana is the least popular. Then, we went to a very famous sasebo burger shop to buy burger, I went to this shop before, it's just a small shop, but anytime people went there, the queue was there. Too bad, we went before 11 a.m., the shop still haven't open for business. So, we waited there. We met a family of three that we met the day before in Huis Ten Bosch, wow, we have same taste!

the most western point of Japan Four Main Islands (Kōzakihana)

Huis Ten Bosch One Day Trip

23rd February 2013

Left Nagasaki City early in the morning to go to Huis Ten Bosch. Among the theme parks that I went to, I enjoyed Huis Ten Bosch the most. Unlike Disneyland Tokyo and Universal Studio in Osaka, Huis Ten Bosch was less crowded, so I could enjoy more games and spaces, plus I spent less time to queue, that's a very important factor when visiting a theme park.

First, me and my friends (SK and Ari) went to the wrong car park. We entered the car park for WINS Sasebo, a race horse betting facility. It's next to a gate of Huis Ten Bosch. However, we were not allowed to enter because it's only for people with annual pass. So, we had to left and find for the actual gate. (#^.^#)

Huis Ten Bosch

Nagasaki One Day Trip

22nd February 2013

This was the last trip I went in Japan before I came back to Malaysia on March. It's a three days trip with two other friends, SK and Ari. Actually, I went to Nagasaki before, this time we stopped in Nagasaki because we wanted to go to Huis Ten Bosch the next day and there's a lantern festival in Nagasaki Chinatown (in conjunction with the Chinese New Year).

First, we went to Nagasaki Peace Park. The weather was nice and the sky was blue, so I managed to get many beautiful photos! The first time I was here, it was raining heavily, soaking my pants and shoes. This time around, finally I could leisurely walked around, reading all the information boards, enjoyed the fresh air.

Nagasaki Peace Park

Two Days Trip in Saga Prefecture (佐賀県)

3rd November 2012

Woke up early to go to the Saga Balloon Festival, due to parking issues, me and my friends missed out the hot air balloons on the sky. Since the next session would be on 3 p.m., we decided to go to the Yoshinogari remains 吉野ヶ里 first.

According to the JNTO website, this Yoshinogari remains are one of the largest archaeological remains in Japan and there is a possibility that the Japanese originated from Saga. Interesting!

Yoshinogari Remains 吉野ヶ里歴史公園

Saga Balloon Festival 2012

3rd November 2012

After I saw the poster for the Saga Balloon Festival, I wanted to go there. Me and my friends decided to tour Saga and go this balloon festival. Well, the weather did not agree with us. It was too windy! We reached there before 8 a.m. The sky was full of the hot air balloons, so beautiful. We couldn't get a parking space, had to wait for a long time. Finally, we got a parking lot at around 10 a.m. However, due to strong wind, all the hot balloons were grounded. The sky was so clear with no hot balloon, so disappointed!

(*from this incident, I think it's better to take public transport, don't have to worry about parking and have more time to enjoy the view.)

the only photo I have on the hot balloons on air

Kawashiri Half Day Trip (川尻半日コース)

14 April 2012

Kawashiri 川尻 is a small town in the southern area of Kumamoto City. 川 means river and 尻 means buttock, so Kawashiri literary means river mouth in Japanese. From Wikipedia, Kawashiri was a habour from Kamakura period 鎌倉時代 and it was a port with many traders from foreign countries. There was even a mention of one 開懐世利 in a Ming Dynasty literature. So, it can be considered a historical town.

Kawashiri Station is just one station away from the Kumamoto Station. I worked in Kawashiri, however, I had never walked around the area, I would go straight to the office from the train station, never stray off the route. However, since I would be transferred to Oita, I decided to tour Kawashiri.

Kawashiri Station 川尻駅

Red Leaves in Nakatsu, Oita (中津市、大分県) Part 2

18th November 2012

After leaving Aonodomon, we went to Rakanji 羅漢寺, a temple. For me, the only thing that differentiate this temple from other temples is the sky lift. However, according to the explanation from wikipedia, this Rakanji is actually very special. This Rakanji is actually built embeded into the Mt. Rakan 羅漢山. Mt. Rakan has many caves, and in the caves, there are more than 3700 carved stone Buddha.Very magnificent indeed!

the tunnel leading to Rakanji (very autumn feel!)

Red Leaves in Nakatsu, Oita (中津市、大分県) Part 1

18th November 2012

November is the month for red leaves viewing in Japan. Here's the link for the red leaves calendar in Japan.

I had bad lucks when come to red leaves viewing. I went to Kyoto too early on 2011, the leaves still green. So, after moving to Oita, I told myself, I must view the red leaves in their prime in Oita. However, I was one week late, the leaves almost half gone! (-_-!!)

Anyway, here is my collection of photos on the red leaves in Nakatsu, Oita. Well, plus some photos on the attractions in Nakatsu.

On that fine morning, me and my friend went to Aonodomon 青の洞門. In front of the cave entrance, there is a big ginkgo tree (i think it is ginkgo due to the yellow leaves!). When autumn comes, the leaves will turn yellow and form a unique matching view with the cave entrance. Too bad, by the time I reached there, the tree already almost bare. Still, coupled with the fallen leaves on the road, not too bad!

Aonodomon 青の洞門

Winter Holiday in Hokkaido (9) - Tomamu Hoshino Resort 星野リゾート トマム

6th January 2013

The last destination of my trip, the Tomamu Hoshino Resort (星野リゾート トマム). Most of my friends joined this trip for this place. I knew this place from another friend who went to Hokkaido just for this Hoshino Resort, she went to Sapporo on Saturday morning flight, stayed for the night and return to Tokyo on Sunday night.Well, one of the reasons we chose 6th January to go there because that day was Sunday and was the last day of the winter holiday, the price was cheaper! if my memory serves me correctly, the accommodation for the night costs around 14000 yen per person, we stayed in double room. However, I think 14000 yen is not so expensive, considering the sumptuous dinner and breakfast thrown in with the package.

Since no normal train was available, we used express train to go to Tomamu from Obihiro. Tamamu Station is a small unmanned station. So surprise when we got out of the train's car and the Hoshino Resort's staff was waiting there to greet us. Well, I think the only people who will stop at this station are Hoshino Resort's guests, or staffs. It is a very remote place. The resort pick up bus services coinciding with the JR train schedules. The weather was not so good, the cold wind and strong snow fall made me felt chilly the whole time.

Hoshino Resort is a ski resort during winter. There are many things to do other than skiing. I tried the banana boat (on snow though), snow motor, etc. I forgot what is the name of the activities. Two of my friends initially wanted to try fishing (dig a small hole on the layer of ice and fish), however they back off after knowing that before reaching the lake, have to hike for 3 hours. Another reminder though, remember to bring money for those activities, all the snow activities are not free of charge. The person in charge of all the activities would bring us to take photographs with the Tamamu Twin Tower for every snow activities. Haha, the proof we have been there.

snow activity