kuromon market & glico man, osaka

Woke up early dashing to Doraemon Market, ooppsss... Lucyriver mean Kuromon Market to comfort our empty stomach. Then walked to Dotonburi to soak in the canal atmosphere. Had a superb crab meal while hiding from the morning drizzle. After that, sauntered to the bridge to meet the famous Glico man. 

La la la....Yeah, we are the champion, my friend. We'll keep on fighting to the end. We are the champion! We are the champion!

itsukushima shrine, miyajima

From Osaka, we reached Hiroshima in just an hour and a half with the bullet train. Then we transfered to another line to Miyajimaguchi station to board the Miyajima ferry to the island. Our mission was none other than to see the torii gate of Itsukushima Shrine, one of the three scenic views in Japan. In high tide the gate will seem like floating above the water. It was low tide when we arrived and the base pillars of the gate were totally exposed. It allowed us to walk close to the gate.

The shrine is located at the foot of Mount Misen where one can take the ropeway up and continue walking up to the summit.

Deers can also be seen around the shrine. But no shika senbei for them this time.

We checked out the souvenir shops and street food along the way back to the pier. The momiji pastry in the shape of maple leaf is Miyajima's signature with a variety of fillings such as bean, cream and chocolate.

osaka castle

Lucyriver and Beautiful Blue carried the rain from Nara to Osaka. It stopped at noon but was cloudy for the rest of the day. We grabbed the opportunity to see Osaka Castle but we didn't go up the tower. Two reasons; one, by that time we were already jaded of temples, shrines and castles. Two, our wallet was running dry.

But then, we visited the Osaka Tenmangu Shrine because it's just located next to a shopping street. Tenjinbashi-suji is covered and stretches for more than 2 km.

And, of course we filled our stomach with takoyaki again, tempura and kaisen donburi.

Upon arriving, from Tokyo to Kyoto to Nara to Osaka, we were eating takoyaki whenever we saw it.

"Takoyaki is a ball-shaped Japanese snack made of a wheat flour-based batter and cooked in a special takoyaki pan. It is typically filled with minced or diced octopus (tako), tempura scraps (tenkasu), pickled ginger, and green onion."

-cited from Wikipedia

nara deer park

Nara Park is home to about 1200 'tame' deers roaming freely. The deers are respected and protected as divine messengers. You can touch, you can play, and you can take photos with them, but at your own risk, of course. Shika senbei (deer crackers) are sold for feeding the deers. Some of them will even bow to you asking for the crackers! 

Temple-hopping again, in Nara. Visited three World Heritage Sites.

Kofukuji Temple's five-story pagoda was reconstructed about 600 years ago after it had been burnt down five times. The temple's museum stores a lot of national and cultural treasures.

Todaiji Temple is famous for its Daibutsu (Great Buddha). It was also burnt down twice due to war. The present structure was scaled down to two-thirds of the original size. Still, it's the largest wooden structure in the world.

The paths to Kasuga Taisha Shrine are lined with about 2000 stone lanterns. According to legend, when the family shrine of an aristocrat clan was founded, a mighty god was invited and came to Nara riding on a white deer.

sagano train in arashiyama, kinkakuji & nijo castle

The Sagano Romantic Train is a 25-minute sight-seeing train running across scenic mountains and Hozugawa river. We bought the train ticket at Torokko Saga station and then walked to Torokko Arashiyama station through the bamboo grove. We boarded the train there until the last station, Kameoko Torokko. There's an option to take the river cruise back to Arashiyama.

Kinkakuji Temple (Golden Pavillion) is the must-visit temple in Kyoto. The top two floors are covered in gold leaf, overlooking a pond.

Nijo Castle (Nijo-jo) was the Kyoto residence of the first shogun (military ruler) in Edo period. It was built in 1603. It has two palaces, Honmaru and Ninomaru. Honmaru is closed and almost all the paintings in Ninomaru are reproductions with the real ones kept in the gallery. Ninomaru is fascinating with its nightingale floors, squeaking when one walks on it, to alert one's presence. The castle is surrounded by stone walls and moats with a major renovation going on now.

temples in kyoto

Lucyriver and Beautiful Blue were temple or shrine-hopping the whole day from morning till dusk. We started with Fushimi Inari Shrine which has thousands of torii gates from the ground up to the hill. We only had time to walk through a short distance of the torii tunnel. Then we went to Tofukuji temple which is a train station away. Tofukuji is famous for its momiji (maple) in autumn.

From the southern we returned to the eastern Kyoto city. The Philosopher's Path is great for hanami (cherry blossom viewing) in spring. We walked along the canal after seeing Gingakuji Temple (Silver Pavillion) towards Nanzenji Temple covering about 2 km.

Realising the temples in Kyoto were closing soon around 5 to 6 p.m. we dashed to Kiyomizudera Temple, ascending the slope to the temple. It would be great to come early as most of the shops were closing as we made our way down.

To call it a day, we strolled a few streets in Gion, hoping to chance upon a geisha or maiko (female entertainer or apprentice) going to work. When we decided to throw in the towel, one suddenly appeared out of nowhere in front of us. She walked real fast, thus getting only her back.

fuji-san

A view of Mount Fuji from Lake Yamanakako, one of the Fuji Five Lakes surrounding the volcano. 

This icon of Japan is imprinted at the back of the 1000 yen note.

A lavender field at Oishi Park which had not reached its blooming peak season yet.

Fuji Yoshida Sengen Shrine is nestled among huge, tall cedar and pine trees. 

The red wooden torii gate is more than 18 metres. (Lucyriver for scale)

The Yoshida trail is the starting point (for men only) to climb Mount Fuji in the olden days, taking about two days. We were told that one brave lady challenged the rule, succeeded reaching the summit, descending and revealing herself, thus women are allowed from then on. 

A statue was erected beside the starting point to honour her.

Kawaguchiko Music Forest displays music boxes and other musical instruments. Beautiful roses in myriad shades adorned the fairy-like museum with the fuji-san as the backdrop.

In the afternoon, visited Saiko Iyashi-no-sato Nenba village to see the thatched-roof houses.

A comfort for not being able to make it to Shiragawa-go in Gifu.

 

A view of the village all the way to the entrance with the Mount Fuji in summer. 

A small sea of rapeseed flowers at the entrance of the village.

Koinobori are carp-shaped windsocks flown on Children Day on May 5th in Japan wishing good future for the children to grow up healthy and strong.

Kimono or yukata (summer wear) are Japanese traditional costume. They resemble robes wrapped around the body with the left side over the right and the other way round if you're dead. Then they are secured with a long sash just below the breasts. The obasan (older ladies) who dressed us up were skilled, fast and strong. We felt like wearing a corset though, hardly could breathe.

Too bad we didn't have more time, if not dressing up as the warriors looks fun too!

lake kawaguchiko

On the train going to Otsuki and Kawaguchiko. Goodbye Tokyo and thanks for the morning tears (rain), and Fuji-san here we come.

Lake Kawaguchiko is one of the five lakes around Mount Fuji. We took the Kachi-kachi Ropeway one-way ticket up to Mount Tenjo for viewing the infamous snow-capped mountain and then hopped down the 40-minute trail, passing what would have been a 10 thousands of hydrangeas blooming along the path if we came somewhere in mid-June to August. Loved the cool air after being burned a few days by Tokyo sun.