Adventures of Anette: Kansai

Showing posts with label Kansai. Show all posts

Saturday, January 6, 2018

New Year Celebration at a Japanese Temple - Taisan-ji (太山寺)

Anette 2:21:00 PM

My seventh year since moving to Japan has just come to an end. Last year I spent the New Years Eve with new year's countdown in the crowded Shibuya crossing, so this year it was time for something quieter. With my friend Camilla visiting from Norway it was a nice opportunity to show her the traditional Japanese new year celebration, and so we decided to spend the holiday with my darling's family in Kobe.

By midnight we went to a nearby temple called Sanshinzan Taisan-ji (三身山太山寺), or Taisan-ji for short. The main hall of this temple was built in 1293, and this building has been designated a National Treasure of Japan. I've included some pictures from the temple below:

Above: Yuma lighting up an incense stick

Above: Entering the Main Hall

Above: Visitors ringing the bell inside the Main Hall

Above: View from the top of the stairs to the Main Hall

Above: Lucky items sold at the temple

Above: New year with family and friends

The Japanese new year holiday strongly resembles the Western Christmas celebration. This is a festivity where family comes together and enjoy delicious food. The name of the commonly eaten Japanese cuisine is "osechi ryori" (お節料理). Here is a photo from the following morning (January 1st) where we got served osechi ryori breakfast prepared by Yuma's mother:

After a refreshing holiday it is time to start a new year. Although I don't have any new year's resolutions I hope to continue to challenge myself in the upcoming year, and to bring exciting stories for those out there who might be interested in reading more about life in Japan.

Happy new year and thank you for reading! Please feel free to leave any comments or questions below.
- Anette

Monday, April 13, 2015

Nara

Sakura Season: Weekend Trip to Nara

Anette 10:30:00 PM

During the last couple of weeks I've had a visit from my mother and grandmother, and while I've been busy with work during the weekdays we did take some small trips during their weekends here.
For the first weekend we took the Shinkansen bullet train down to Kyoto, where we changed to the JR line heading for the ancient capital Nara. Despite having lived two years in Kyoto this was actually my first time visiting Nara.. Just about time for a visit then, one could say.!

Sakura flowers by the Himuro Shrine

We were visiting Nara early in the cherry blossom (sakura) season, and luckily there was one small shrine along the way to famous Todai-ji (東大寺) temple called Himuro Shrine (氷室神社) where the flowers already were blooming. Apparently this shrine has a history stretching back to year 710, and it is also known for having some of Nara's earliest cherry blossoms.

We also found some other cherry blossom trees by some of Nara's famous temple buildings. Among them was, as mentioned, Todai-ji. In the picture below you can see Todai-ji and a blooming sakura tree.

Todai-ji in itself is one of the main temple buildings in Nara, and is of course a must to visit if you have the chance to travel here. With what is known as the world's largest wooden building the main hall known as the Daibutsuden (or the Big Buddha Hall) was a marvelous sight. We all felt pretty small in front of the gigantic bronze Buddha statue inside the hall called the Great Buddha (Daibutsu). It weighs 500 metric tonnes, and is the largest bronze statue of Buddha in the world.

The Great Buddha

But there are other things to see besides the temples in Nara. In fact, Nara is pretty well-known for its many deers. Nara's yuru-kyara is in fact a deer with Buddha-head (although just like Ishikawa-ken's mascot hyakuman-san he is struggling with his lack of popularity, it seems he just isn't kawaii enough for the Japanese people..). In the Shinto religion deers have been regarded as messengers of the gods, and in Nara the deers roam the grounds as they please. Tourists can buy them snacks, and we saw a lot of fat deers that seemed to have eaten too much of the snacks they are fed by tourists. Although the deer of course are wild animals and might butt you if you tease them they are generally used to people and very friendly. Yuma and I used the opportunity to take some selfies with them, and it didn't seem like they minded.

You can write your wish on a deer-shaped ema (絵馬)

A lazy deer that had gotten too much food from tourists

The deers are literarily lined up to greet you.

The deers aren't shy, and will do what they can to make you give them food

While we did spent most of our time in Nara roaming around in the parks and visiting temples our main reason for the short visit to Nara wasn't just the sightseeing. My boyfriend proposed to me at the end of last year, but our parents still hadn't had the chance to meet each other. This time my mother and grandmother had the chance to meet Yuma's parents for a nice lunch at an old ryokan (Japanese traditional style inn)/restaurant called Kikusuiro.

The entrance to Kikusuirou

The building dates back to the late 19th century, and along with the restaurant and hotel business they also arrange weddings here. I have added some pictures from our lunch below:

Lunchtime

The view from the second floor

Family picture

Our trip to Nara was very short, but we still got to see a lot in only two days. Most of the places we went by were quite typical tourist attractions, but for people visiting who are interested in eating at a historical Japanese restaurant I would definitely recommending stopping by Kikusuirou.

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All blogposts about Cherry Blossom

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Markets

Weekend Trip to Okayama!

Anette 7:33:00 PM

This Sunday some of my friends and I went on a short trip to Okayama and Hyogo-ken, where Ken's family has a cottage. Originally this was a trip intended only for the Japanese students who studied two years in America with the DUDP-program at Ritsumeikan, but since only a few of them were able to go Yuma decided to bring me along too!

We had rented a car in Kyoto, and after a couple of hours drive we arrived at the cottage where we basically just stopped to leave our luggage.

Group picture @ the terrace of Ken's cottage

It was a very nice place up in the mountain where we had good view, and although we had expected it to be cold it turned out that it wasn't bad at all. We stopped to take a group photo before going down the hillside to visit the harbor.

The cottage seen from the road

A sign by the road to the cottage

By the harbor there was a local fish market called 五味の市, or Gomi no Shi, where gomi can refer to the five flavors of sweet, bitter, sour, salty and spicy. Shi means market, fare or city, and thus Gomi no Shi can be translated to Market of the five flavors.

Inside Gomi no shi

Here they were selling all sorts of sea food; from octopus to squid, ordinary fishes and oysters.

Octopus

A tank with a fish in it

Oysters

Dried fish

In the market you can negotiate, and after a bit of talking we got a huuuge bag of oysters for just 2000 yen.

Entrance to 五味の市

After having looked around in the market and done some oyster-shopping we went to a place right across the street where they provided barbecue grills for 1000 yen/90 minutes. It was crammed with people and the line with people waiting was long, but luckily Ken knew one of the ladies working there so we got to skip the line..! Lucky! Further, Ken had brought some barbecue-sauce, and with the huge bag with oysters we had bought in the market there was plenty of food for all of us.

Grilling oysters!

The oysters tasted really good! However, it was almost a bit scary because some of them exploded so that both parts of the shell and the oysters themselves flew and hit our clothes.. Apparently we should not have brought nice clothes after all.. Haha.. Anyway, we all got happily stuffed after this meal.

Grilling oysters!

Empty oyster-shells.. As you can see, this place was quite popular..!

Oyster-ice cream! Not everybody looks convinced that it looks good though :P

We went back to the market where Ryo tried a local speciality: Oyster-ice cream!! We all got to try, and it wasn't all too bad, but I don't think it is something I will actively try to get my hands on again, to put it that way.

After a short break at Ken's cottage it was time to check out a local onsen. It was in a hotel nearby, and since the onsen was situated in the 6th floor we had a great view of the nearby area. Even better, there was nobody else in the girl's onsen, so I could take a photo of how it looked like:)

We had spent some time here when I started feeling bad. Turns out that I had gotten sick from eating the oysters earlier that day, and unfortunately Ryo got sick too.. So we had to go searching for some medicine instead of returning directly to the cottage. This part of the story is so long, I've decided to leave it out.. Anyway, when we got back to the cottage it was already quite late, and we were all pretty tired. Or perhaps exhausted is more fitting.

Back in the cottage, ready for karaoke

We decided to sing some karaoke, but since all of us already were half asleep we did not go on for too long. Unfortunately we never got quite the funny evening we had hoped for.

Ken singing karaoke, and Yuma sleeping.

Still, the trip was unforgettable in many ways, and I'm happy that I got to come along. Hopefully all of us can hang out again some time in the future too, but most of my friends starts working in April so it might not be possible anytime soon. I'm pretty sure I'll be back with new adventures soon though! But first comes rehabilitation of my arm.

Monday, January 31, 2011

spa

Spa World in Osaka!

Anette 2:09:00 PM

Yuma and a statue by the entrance to Spa World

On Saturday me, Yuma, Silke and Bano went to Osaka to spend the day in a place called Spa World not that far from Osaka Bay.

The entrance fee for Spa World normally costs between 2400-2700 yen for three hours, but right now they have a campaign going on so that you can enter the place for only 1000 yen and stay there for about as many hours as you´d like. This campaign lasts out March, so if you are in the area you should definitely go ahead while you have the chance;)

The four of us in front of the entrance to Spa World. I guess the guy we asked to take the photo wasn't exacly a photographer, but after all I´m just glad he didn't run of with my camera cause he seemed a bit shady.. heheemm..

Spa World actually consists of 6 floors; in the basement they have a relaxation room, then the first floor is the reception area. Then there is one floor for the European style baths, one for the Asian style baths, in addition to a floor where there are restaurants and a floor with normal pool area (water slides etc). If you want to exercise they actually has a gym as well!

This month the European style baths was open only to women, and the Asian style baths only to men. This is something that changes every month though, so if you go again at another month you can experience totally new surroundings..

A picture I took of the pool area. Unlike the European and Asian styled baths, the pool area is open for everybody independent of gender.

Here they also have two water slides, but you have to pay additionally 300 yen each time you use them. Me and Yuma tried out one of them once though, and it was great!

In the third floor they have a restaurant area with a wide selection of food. That is to say, you don´t get much for your money so I recommend bringing your own lunch. Note our typical Spa World clothes by the way! They kinda looks like they were made for prisoners, haha:)

In the third floor they also has a Fish Therapy bath where you can let the small fishes eat on your toes for the neat price of 1050 yen. Woho! :P.. Kind of interesting though, I might have wanted to tried it if it was cheaper..

Poor things, they probably don´t get much food..

I couldn´t really bring my camera inside the European spa area, so I´ve copied some of the pictures from Spa World´s internet page instead.

The Roman style bath

The greek styled bath

..and one with inspiration from Finland.

Finally, the view of Tsutenkaku Tower seen from outside Spa World.

We arrived at Spa World there at 12 in the afternoon and left around 6 in the evening, and still I would have liked to stay there longer. I am definitely going back next month to try out the Asian style baths..!!

UPDATE: Spa World is still running an 1000-yen entrance campaign, at least out December 2011. But for some reason they don't write about this in their English page, it is only written in Japanese.. However, non-Japanese also get to enter for the same price.

The offer in Japanese here..