♥japan trip part II-Nara, Osaka & Himeji (Tuesday, January 13, 2009 / 8:07 pm)
I haven exactly hit the reality that I'm back in school.
My history lectures for this sem are very interesting and I'm so glad that I'm back into studying history again after 3 semsters' absence in history.
Many of you at this point of time might be thinking that I'm crazy. BUT I HAVE TO SAY that history lectures are able to sustain my attention throughout the 2 hrs. I didn't even drift off for 1 second. And I could pour out all the things the lecturers mentioned after the lecture (if anybody is to ask me that)
That's the
power of history on me.
And I really
LOVE history. (makes me think of Mr Tan CP who was my JC history teacher)
On the flip side of the coin, I couldn't even sit still during my first NM lecture of this week. The lecturer was BORING and the content was even more boring. But the mod was a requirement for me to graduate. felt totally helpless. I forsee that I might start poning this lecture soon. lol
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NOW back to my Japan trip.
Notice that now I'm making my photos unclickable otherwise specially stated because of the recent scam of photos being downloaded by some weird people for weird purposes....
Day 9- 16.12.09
Anyway, after the day in Kyoto, Jenice and I headed to Nara and Osaka the next day.
Nara is a small place and is well-organized. Directions to these place of attractions are properly organized and shown. For once, we didn't walk round and round just to find the spots.
I think this is the stairs leading to Kokufuji Temple. (sort of forgotten what it's called.)
And this is the open space for meditation. It is a fabulous place to rest and just stare blankly into the space or admire the scenery there. I guess the structure is deliberared for the religion--- Zen buddhism.
And then, we walked our way up to Todaiji Temple. Its Great Buddha hall,Daibutsuden houses the 16m bronze Buddha statues. And there were constant reconstructions due to fires and earthquakes that the project almost bankrupted Japan because most of the bronze available in the past was used for Todaiji.
-this is Daibutsuden-
-it was glaring that day, i tried my best to open my eyes while taking the photos but still failed after several attempts.
-my strained attempt. picture clickable!!! :)
-the buddha-
-This is found in Daibutsuden too. Myths said that if a person can pass through the hole successfully without somebody's help, the person will have good luck or something. When we were there,many people were trying out to get through the hole too.
The day ended with us visiting Shin sai bashi in Osaka. Took the JR train there and by the time we reached, it was getting dark again.
The neon billboards look very nice in the dark!!! Y didn't we have this in Singapore?
-I'm actually standing outside of a typical Hello Kitty Sanrio shop in Japan. The place is full with cute hello kitty merchandise and it's definitely very fascinating to visit because even Hello Kitty camera and webcam are sold there.
And I took photo in front of the famous crab shop in Osaka. *there's a re-creation of it in Jurong Point's Japanese foodstreet...lol
-As we walked down, we were approached by this man who ushered us into this place. At first, we were hesitating as we din exactly understand what the man was saying. We only knew that he said 'tonight, the place has no entrance fee'. We went in feeling puzzled and I was thinking that we might go enter some 黑店 or what.
But later, we realised that the place is specially designed to rake up the nostalgic moments of Japan past centuries.
It's like the Shanghai Bund in China history, the 1940-70s in Singapore.
And noodles, meals and coffee are sold there, so you can eat in those nostalgic settings.
After I came back to Singapore and I googled the shop's name online and found many comments on the entrance fee as a rip-off and it's not worth to enter.
And the place was a re-creation of Osaka during the Showa period.
So it looks like we were lucky enough that we went without paying the entrance fee.
We walked around the street for a while, took pictures and later, headed back to our hotel in Kyoto.
Day 10- 16.12.09
We went to Himeji castle the next day. Walked for 20 mins before seeing the castle in sight. Himeji castle was one of my most greatly anticipated visiting spot because I saw it before during one of the introductions of Japan, online and feel that it was a place I simply could not miss.
True enough, it did not disappoint me. It's definitely the most magnificent, gorgeous castle. And I'm in love with this white castle.
-the weather wasn't too hot but the walking and climbing were able to keep me warm enough without the coat-
-my favourite picture!!!!!!-
I had my last diarrhoea at the toilet near the Himeji castle...lol...but I felt that I seriously needed more sleep as my head was spinning again. So I wanted to forgo our plans to go Arashimaya and head back to hotel for rest. Felt so sorry to Jenice becoz she got to miss the trip to Arashimaya. :(
Back in hotel, she was so nice to help me get porridge from the hotel. I ate the porridge, slept, woke up when Jenice came back from Kyoto station, bathed and slept again till the next morning.
The sleep indeed worked amazingly well for me. Coz for the next few days, I regained my energy, no diarhoea, no head spinning, dizziness and I was all well with better appetite throughout the Tokyo trip.
Coming up next will be Tokyo trip. Asakusa, Tokyo Tower and Disneyland!!!!!!
