Adventures of Anette

Monday, May 9, 2011

Golden Week 2011 - Heian Jingu Shrine 平安神宮

Anette 10:56:00 PM

Here in Japan we have just had our so-called Golden Week, which at Ritsumeikan equals 3 days without school more or less strategically chosen to be Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
Which means that if you want a real holiday you have to skip school on Monday or Friday.. But don't get overly excited about your suddenly big amount of freedom: The classes you've lost will be given back to you cause Ristumeikan has Saturday-classes to make up for the Golden Week.! Woho!

Well, to be honest I did not do much during the Golden Week anyway. I was planning to go studying in the library at school, but since it was closed I ended up in the basement of one of the other buildings where they rarely close before 22:00 anyway. Beside going shopping one evening that is pretty much all I did during my Golden Week. But hey, I did a lot of traveling in February/March so I'm not going to complain. Besides I'm going to Tokyo this upcoming weekend!

On Saturday I did however do a little bit of sightseeing. I even had a personal guide with me, mr. Kazu, who wanted a chance to practice his English.
After meeting him in the city centre we strolled down to the Heian Jingu shrine, which I had been to once before during the student festival back in October (can't believe it has been over half a year..!!)
At that time it was evening though, so I didn't see much of the temple itself.

The gate to Heian Jingu

The weather was perfect - It feels like a Norwegian summer here now - so it was a good day for sightseeing.

View from a bridge towards the mountains in the east.

The Oten-mon Gate ()

Heian Jingu: Daigoku-den (大極殿)

むすび木！

Beside the nice buildings Heian Jingu also has a pretty large garden. Last time I went here we never went to this part of the shrine, in fact I did not even know that there was such a big garden hidden behind the buildings.. Anyway, here are some of the pictures I took

A Japanese family feeding the ducks

かわいい〜

Picture of Taiheikaku (泰平閣).

Everything is nice and peaceful.

All blogposts from Kyoto

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Kyoto

Kyoto Daytrips -Biking up to Kurama (鞍馬)

Anette 10:07:00 PM

At the moment my mother and grandmother are here in Kyoto on a two-weeks visit!

Of course I wanted to take them with me on sightseeing to let them see as much of Kyoto as possible during the few days they are here.

But mostly I am busy with school, so I don't really have as much time to show them around as I would like. Luckily their hotel is central, so they cover most of Kyoto on foot on their own.

On Sunday however, I decided we should do something really special. Back in October I went to a place called Kurama (鞍馬), which is situated in the mountains north of Kyoto, to see the annual Fire-festival (火祭り) Kurama is famous for. In October I went there by bike, and I felt it was such a nice trip that I wanted to do it again, but this time in daylight. What else can I say; it was a great opportunity.

The last time my grandmother went cycling was around 40 years ago according to her own calculations, so I was a bit uncertain of whether or not we would make it all the way there.. But from last time I remembered that the roads weren't too steep, and it only took us about 1 1/2 hours to get there back then.

So me, Yuma, my mother and my grandmother set of in the morning heading for the mountain roads.

My grandmother, Yuma and my mother biking up to Kurama.

As you get closer to the mountain the roads gets smaller, but the nature is beautiful and there aren't that much traffic on the roads either.

Arriving in the village of Kurama. The first thing we did was to head from there to Niomon (The gate of the Guardians) which is the entrance to the temple area in Kurama.

From the bottom of the Kurama temple area there is an information centre where they have a cable car to take you up in the mountain ( but of course it is possible to walk as well, if you follow another route;))

The Tahou-Tou Pagoda

The cherry flowers in Kurama blooms a bit later than the ones in Kyoto itself, so luckily we had the chance to do a last, little hanami by the Tahou-tou pagoda.

My family had brought me some Freia Melkesjokolade-chocolate all the way from Norway, in addition to some (local) beer. Eventually this probably was 2011's last Hanami, at least for us..!

The biggest temple in Kurama, Honden.

A video I took showing shamisen being performed by the Honden temple.

Back in the village, where cozy Japanese houses lay side by side.

In the north of the village there is an Onsen too (Kurama Onsen 鞍馬温泉). It costs 1000 yen to get in, and if you have forgotten towels they do that as well.

My grandmother and mom by the entrance to the hot-spring.

Leaving the Onsen.

It only took us about 1 1/2 hour to get to Kurama from the city centre by bike. Though it is possible to get there by train as well it kind of adds to the experience to go there by bike, since there is a lot to see on the way there as well. The roads aren't too steep, and even my grandmother who is 66 years old seemed to have a good time. Besides this it is easy to find the place; once you get on the road leading north up the mountain there aren't really anywhere you can get lost, mostly you just follow the road.

I would absolutely recommend this as a day trip from Kyoto.

Shopping

One annoying thing about buying food in Japan

Anonymous 8:29:00 PM

When you are going to buy things in Japanese stores - things that comes in nice big boxes and looks so delicious you can't avoid buying them - you should beware that you probably are being fooled.

Though it might seem like there is a lot in the box, that is rarely the case.

A box containing 16 ice cream

The fact is that at least 1/3 of the box is empty, and the size of the candy/ice cream etc in the box is laughably small.

I like to be able to predict more or less what I get when I buy something, but that doesn't seem to be the case here. No matter how big the box is, or how much it supposedly contains, I always get disappointed when I see the actual content.

Fair enough - when a box has 16 ice creams in it you shouldn't expect too much when it comes to the sizes.. But still, is this supposed to be an ice cream? I've never seen any ice cream this tiny x(

Who cares if there are 16 ice creams in the box when each of them are around 10 cm in length..? Japan needs some real regulations on their products, to me it is seems like consumers in Japan often are being mislead by the images on particularly candy boxes, ice cream etc where the content is not clearly visible to the customers..

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Sakura

Spring in Kyoto: Ritsumeikan University Orientation Week and Cherry Blossom Hanami!

Anette 8:34:00 PM

After having backpacked around Asia for about a month during spring break it was time for a new semester in Kyoto!

April is the month when the Japanese school year commence, and to celebrate the new semester Ritsumeikan has an annually opening ceremony where all the freshman participate. In addition some also bring their friends and family members, and then of course it is us exchange students as well.

The opening ceremony was held in the Osaka Dome, which is manly used as a baseball stadium.

At the entrance ceremony

New Ritsumeikan students..!

Most of the ceremony consisted of speeches from Ritsumeikan's many leaders and representatives. I can imagine that it must have been quite boring for those of us who didn't understand Japanese, since nothing of it was in English, of course. But still, I think the best about the ceremony was just to experience sitting in such a great, big hall with the lights and all the people, and that is not depending on your Japanese knowledges anyway, so..
In the second part of the ceremony it was time for some entertainment, and then mainly from some of the many circles (or activity clubs) at school showing of their talents and their clubs.

And this was really the week for circles at school. Spring had come to Kyoto, and along with the new students came a lot of small stands all over campus where the different activity clubs tried to recruit new members.

One of the arenas where the clubs tried to get new members was through performances at a stage that had been put up for the occasion in the middle of the campus.

Alex getting some information about one of the activity groups at school.

The Sakura season was about to start too, and the blooming trees at campus made the Kinugasa campus look really nice.

The different activity clubs got the chance to show off their technics and skills.

Some cosplay - girls hanging around

At the end of the first week it was time for a Ritsumeikan welcome dinner, and after that for some Hanami! Hanami is a really popular event around springtime in Japan when the Sakura is in bloom. Hanami is written with the kanji (chinese sign) for flower, 花, and the sign for to see/look at, 見, and as you might have guessed it literary means to look at flowers.

Some friends gathered for Hanami at the shrine Hira no jinja (平野神社) not that far from school.

The cherry blossoms (Sakura) lighted up in the evening.

Other SKP students gathered for hanami.

And in the upcoming days there were more chances for viewing the beautiful flowers coming up.
In the weekend me and my boyfriend Yuma went back to the Hira no Jinja shrine to take a look at the sakura again, and in addition to the flowers we got some nice entertainment as well.

Sakura-parade!

In the parade we could see people dressed up in clothing representing different areas and time periods in Japan.

Yuma and I (I'm wearing high heels for once, so I look sooo tall haha..)

People sitting under the tree to drink with friends and watch the flowers.

Sakura again. And not to mention the crowds..!!

The cherry blossoms only lasts for a short period, so it is important to get to see as much as possible while it is still there. To get some more pictures of the flowers I went out with my camera again, and this time it was me and Ericka who went to Arashiyama in the western part of Kyoto to do some exercise and to take some pictures at the same time.

桜

Sunset and sakura

And some sakura close up!

Arashiyama

Cherry blossoms and ducks

There's just something really Japanese with this type of scenery, and it is so pretty as well:)

Unfortunately I guess it won't be too long till the flowers are gone, since they only lasts for a couple of weeks. Better enjoy it while one can;) See you guys later!