Monday, November 29, 2010

Takamatsu and Naoshima!

Just FYI, right now I'm actually in Fukuoka, and I'm still catching up with my posts from before.  From Osaka and Koyasan, I then went to Takamatsu (with a day trip to the art-island Naoshima), then Matsuyama, both on the large island of Shikoku.  I then took a ferry to Beppu, on Kyushu, then now I'm in Fukuoka, and tomorrow I'm heading to Nagasaki! (all three on Kyushu) So here are some pictures from Naoshima and Takamatsu! 

P.S.  You can also always google, or google image search, places I talk about to get more information or some extra context if what I talk about doesn't make sense. 

Theres a 007 Museum on Naoshima, dedicated to the James Bond book The Man with the Red Tattoo, in which part of the story took place on Naoshima.  Its part of an ongoing campaign to have a film adaptation of the book made, and to have it filmed on Naoshima.  This is me as James Bond, punching the arch Villain into defeat!

There was a bathhouse-art piece called I <3 Yu, where the heart is actually a real, cartoon, right side up heart, but I didn't know how to type it, where the name is a pun, since Yu is the Japanese word for Hot Water, (such as in an onsen), and as in I love You!  So its a huge installed piece of art work outside and in, and a fully functional male-female public bathhouse!

An example of one of the modern art museums in the southern end of the island.  This one is the Lee Ufan Museum.  It was pretty small, but an example of the works inside in the picture with the slab of iron and the rough rock, inside a blank white room.

One of the pieces spread out in the Southern area.

Me and the Yellow Pumpkin!  Naoshima is fairly popular and well known in its own right, and this is one of the more recognizable icons for it.   

One of the more popular images of the pumpkin. 

There was a pretty sun set.

In Takamatsu in Ritsurin Garden.  I hadn't really heard of this garden before I was already headed to Shikoku, but it was actually very nice and very beautiful.  It was definitely at least on par, landscaping-wise, with the two gardens I've seen that are regarded as being in the Top 3 Gardens in Japan, though maybe not quite as nice or immaculately groomed.  It was also raining, but I had a good umbrella and it wasn't to hard or windy or anything, so actually sometimes it felt kinda different and nice.  Though the garden and sightseeing would have been better had it not been raining. 


They were also doing a special Naitto Raitoappu, aka, Night Light Up, or a nighttime illuminations.  It was actually very pretty, and definitely something a little different. 


Almost always at the nice gardens you can have tea and a Japanese sweet, like manju or sembei, for a few hundred yen, and I've always  passed them up, but this time, at night, in addition to the tea, they were selling different kinds of rice dumplings on skewers cooked over hot coals.  (aka Dan-go) I opted for the big, plain rice, covered with Miso paste seasoning, and it was delicious!

One more picture of the Night Light-Up.  Also featuring the most well known bridge from the garden. 

Monday, November 22, 2010

Koyasan!

Scenery from the train.  Very classic Japan I think.  There are the mountains, and old and new homes mixed together all over with the rice fields, with the modern highway/ train track flying above.  Also, I thought it looked pretty.  Sometimes it's looked like this, but with the fields and homes and tracks spread across big flat plains, with the mountains always on the horizon. 

The Enormous Kopon Daito pagoda in the Garan sacred precinct, with huge gold (painted at least) Buddha statues sitting on lotuses, making a rare three dimensional mandala of the universe.

Some really old shrines and graves along the path to the temple/ mausoleum of of Kobo Daishi, aka Kukai, the founder of Shingon Buddhism and one of the most important figures in Japanese religious history.  My understanding is that it's said that instead of dying, Kobo Daishi/ Kukai is resting in eternal meditation, awaiting the coming of Miroku Nyorai (Maihreya), the Buddha of the Future, and that only he will be able to interpret the Buddhas message.  So everyone who can is buried here, or at least a part of them, so that they will be that much closer to Kukai and salvation.   

The path lined with lanterns and huge, old, cedar trees. 



Me on the path to Okunoin Temple. 

Along the stone path, there were graves and shrines up into the forest on either side and sometimes little foot paths going out too. 



A really old grave or shrine or something.

It wasn't quite like the pictures, with the fog and monks and stuff, but it was really atmospheric.  Kobo Daishi came back from China after learning Buddhism and founded the Koyasan temple complex in 835ish, so this place has been here awhile. 

This is the friendly okonomiyaki shop owner I ended up having a good time chatting with over my okonomiyaki dinner that night!  He also gave me a free cup of Ume-shu (plum wine), and a free 2011 Ukiyo-e (woodblock print) calendar! 

Around Osaka!

 
There was this taco yaki stand near my hotel, so I ended up going there a couple times.  Also, it was like, half the price of the other booths in more popular places!  And they were great! 

There was often a short line of Japanese people also waiting for some tacoyaki

One specialty of Osaka is also Kushikatsu, or fried breaded skewers of stuff!  So I also ate some of that one night.  Maybe a little greasy, but definitely tasty.  I had, from bottom to top, potato, mushroom, beef, horumon (I believe homumon=intestine, but it was just kind of chewy and meaty, like a smooth muscle or something, and not bad!), then on the left, a chicken meatball, and a slice of kabochya pumpkin, and then a chicken wing.  The wing was actually really good.  It was breaded and fried like everything else, but also the wing tip was left on but the bones were removed, so it was just this really tasty, crunchy, juicy couple bites.  You also get a bunch of big cabbage leaves (at the top) and can dip everything in a soy type sauce.  Also, they had several types of beer.  With friends this could definitely be fun. 

In the convenience store, I noticed that there were premade, crustless, shelf-stable egg salad sandwiches.  Also shelf-stable minced katsu sandwiches and Hamburgers.  So again, thats also pretty awesome/ horrifying.   

Ha, then along with titles like Toy Story 3 and X-Men: Wolverine, at the convenience store you can also get quality titles like Down Periscope with Kelsy Grammer, Harley Davidson and the Marlbro Man, and the X-Files movie.

The picturesque walls and outer moat around Osaka-Jo

Osaka-Jo and a very nice flower display. 

There as actually a time capsule thing there too, with actually 2 separate capsules.  It was first made during an international expo or something in 1970.  So there was one capsule to be opened every century (so in 2000, then 2100, etc.), and then the second capsule isn't to be opened for 5,000 years!  So in the year 6970!  It would be amazing for that to work, and/but like, I can't even imagine what will happen between now and in 5,000 years, and what things will be like.  I hope everything will be fine and like, they'll remember it's even there. 

View from the Osaka Museum of the Osaka-Jo site.

Night view from the Floating Garden Terrace atop the Umeda Sky Building

Same place in a different direction.  It was like this all the way around.

Also, there were black lights and glow in the dark flecks in the walkway which was pretty, and the whole place had a romantic theme.  Even with a place where you can buy a lock, have it engraved with your names, and put it on a like "lovers fence".  There were a ton of couples there too.

I also went to some museums, but either no pictures allowed, it wasn't very photogenic, or there wasn't much of anything interesting to photograph, so no pictures!

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Osaka Aquarium and Dotombori!

The Osaka Kaiyukan (Aquarium!)  Also, it was very bright outside

Some Ginormous fish.  Even with some distortion from the window, that fish is bigger than that old lady.  It was more impressive in person too.

They have 2 whale sharks!

And you know, since its already Christmas season even a week ago, the person who fed the fish was dressed up like Santa!

Hand feeding the Sunfish.  (I guess thats how they feed at least some of them in the big tank)

Sunfish posing for a snapshot (or maybe is just curious/ thinks it might get fed)

I guess the manta ray likes swimming in the bubbles of person feeding the rays and non-predatory sharks at the bottom

I thought it was an interesting image, the manta ray swooping over and over.  Couldn't quite capture it though

Me and one of the whale sharks!

There was a guy with a fish plush toy, and the seal was fascinated with it.  The seal followed him/it around for a couple minutes at least.
The whale sharks were So Big!  it was hard to get a good picture.

Also some Japanese Giant Spider Crabs

And a shark/ray touching/petting pool!

Me and Glico Man on Dotombori

Dotombori street in Osaka


Me and Osaka Okonomiyaki

Me and the kinda creepy/neat drumming guy (I don't actually know what he/it is called, but its an iconic landmark of Osaka, especially for Japanese people)