Walking in Osaka, At The Park

You don't think I am finished yet with my useless photos of Osaka, do you? Bwahaha! More wandering around Osaka, and this time it's to the park. Osaka-jo koen to be exact. Translation : Osaka Castle Park.

But first, let me show you the Shin-Osaka Station.

The very boxy and dinky looking (compared to other stations around Japan, in my opinion) Shin-Osaka Station. Our hotel was near to this station.Walking from the station to our hotel, I had the same feeling as going to Puduraya bus station. Ah... it's been awhile since I last inhaled that much smoke fumes from vehicles.

But there are nice things to see there too, like this taxi driver feeding some pigeons while waiting in a queue for passengers.

Not exactly walking, but saw plenty of these view on the train before we started off walking to some places we didn't intend to go in the first place!

I really wanted to capture all those awesome red bridges we passed by in Japan while taking the train, but have yet to get a good photo of them. :(

In front of the Osakajokoen station. Nice orange jumpsuit, eh?

There was a concert going on at the Osakajo Hall with some band playing so plenty of fans milling about, looking very excited. We did in fact became curious (not to mention very "kay-poh') and went around the back of the hall to check out what the fuss was all about. Saw plenty of crews, a lot of vehicles for the equipments but alas, no stars. :(

A road train in service at the park.

I wish I had taken some photos of the many, many cats (fat ones too!) at the park- at the entrance of the Osaka-jo (Osaka Castle) actually. Somebody must've been feeding the cats well there. I wonder whether  those cats are still there, as this particular visit was yonks ago. :D

Despite the chill; it was spring - a nice ice-cream break after a visit to the castle. Can't go wrong with ice cream! :)

Somewhere In The Ishikawa Prefecture

Let's see, we've visited the Ishikawa Prefecture and stayed the night in Kanazawa in 2007 and 2008. Don't have much to show in terms of photos because although we had plenty of photos at Ultraman Stadium.The rain that greeted us both years we were there didn't help us covering much place to sightsee anyway.

We managed to walk around Kenrokuen; a garden classified as one of three most beautifully landscaped gardens in Japan. I am so looking forward to visiting another; the Korakuen some time soon!

Instead of taking a bus from Komatsu Station to get to Ultraman Stadium, we decided to stop at Terai station and walked to the Stadium while enjoying the scenery. I think we walked for almost an hour but it was a really nice walk. We passed by rice fields (no rice planted that time, though), fields, schools and homes and got a glimpse of rural Japan.

In between the homes, the agriculture fields, factories and a huge Pachinko place and that Ultraman Stadium we had so badly wanted to visit, there was a small amusement park with plenty of rides. When we were there, it was pretty deserted.

We just couldn't resist snapping a photo of this interesting postbox, found in Kanazawa Station. ^^ Is that Momotaro?

and this too, enjoyed while taking a break over at some place in Forus complete with  posh waiters hovering.

At The Station : Kanazawa

I seriously think that my family is not fated to explore much of Kanazawa. The two times we visited Kanazawa, it rained almost the whole day! OK, we managed to visit Kenrokuen and made a trip to Terai to visit Ultraman Stadium; but other than that, we were indoors and spent much of the time exploring the  JR Kanazawa Station and the nearby Forus.

Zaini spent much of one evening traveling from Kanazawa station to Wakura-Onsen alone. The reason? Raimie left his Ultraman Max jacket in the train and we; through the help of the tourist office staff at the station, contacted the train authorities and they manage to locate Raimie's precious jacket (the one he was wearing in the first photo below). They offered to send the jacket back to us, and for us to collect at Kanazawa station the next day but as we were leaving early morning the next day, Zaini decided to hop on some trains and head off to Wakura-Onsen where the jacket had been found and was kept. Thinking back, we should have just ask them send the jacket back to Shin-Osaka instead! Oh well... at least Zaini had fun traveling and checking out more local trains during that journey. I'll post the photos of the trains soon!

Anyway, back to Kanazawa Station. The station truly has an aggressive architectural, artistic statement combining traditional Japanese themes. The reconstruction of the surrounding area is making progress for the extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen (a high-speed railway line) to Kanazawa in 2014.

There is a glass dome called "Motenashi (Welcome) Dome," which look like a huge umbrella, at the east entrance of Kanazawa Station. The dome has a wooden gate called "Tsuzumi-mon," which symbolizes a traditional Japanese instrument called tsuzumi (hand drums).

Tameo Kobori, 74, a professor emeritus of Kanazawa University who was in charge of designing the square said that he wanted to change the image of Kanazawa, which is dismal because of its wintry weather, into a bright one with the building of the square in front of the station.

A smaller scale version of the Tsuzumi-mon gate can be found in the station. Raimie wasn't too co-operative  with me because I took this photo at 6.00am! We just arrived from Ueno taking the Midnight Express Noto train.

and a scale version of the station. Is is still there now, though?

And while we are at it, let me show you Komatsu Station. Pretty big and modern looking, for what look like a rather quiet town for us.

and here's Terai Station.Very retro.

Trains, Trains, Trains & A Tram - The West

We had a blast taking numerous trains in Kyushu. However, for the West (by West, I mean the area covered by JR West) it was just a few trains that we tried. The East trains (JR East) were a bit more fun and I'll cover it next month.

Trams in Hiroshima. Not covered by the JR Pass, but we got on one for the experience and headed to the Peace Park.

The Sanyo Shinkansen; Hikari Railstar.

This, we got on to get to Kansai Airport; it's the Limited Express Haruka, which is covered by both JR West and JR Passes.

But I kinda like riding on this cool Rapi:t on the Nankai line to get to Kansai Airport. Not covered by JR Pass, by the way.

This Noto sleeper train we took to get from Kanazawa to Tokyo (Ueno Station) and saved a night's budget on hotel taking it. This train used to run daily, on the JR West line but is now a seasonal overnight express train. From Mar 13, 2010 this train came under JR East.

Both Raimie and I reserved seats in the ladies only coach and we got blankets to cover us on that trip. Nice warm seats and blankets. No such luxury for Zaini in the normal coach!

I remember we took this train to get to Tokyo from Kanazawa one year, arrived Ueno Station, put up our luggage at our hotel, read my e-mails, found one e-mail from Contamination and met up with him afterwards having not shower and all! Did I smell that day, Contamination? ^-^!

By the way, the good Contamination has the honour of being the first non-Malaysian blogger I've met in Japan. 

And this is a shot of the Limited Express Thunderbird which we got on at Kyoto Station to get to Kanazawa.

The Limited Express Raicho bound for Kanazawa from Osaka. 

The last remaining Raicho service was discontinued from the start of the 12 March 2011 timetable revision, with all trains subsequently using the Thunderbird trains. The Raicho train had the dubious honour of a "memorable" trip for me because the train we were supposed to get on was delayed by a few hours and not wanting to wait any longer, we hopped on and boarded the unreserved smoking car on the Raicho. To say that the trip was horrible is an understatement. Try sitting in a train filled with cigaratte smoke one day and you'll know what I mean. And to make that particular trip lovelier, the 2 hours plus trip turned into an almost 5 hours' trip due to slowing train (something about crosswind being the cause, I think - my Japanese is negligible so don't trust me understanding much of the announcement). Well, at least the train was moving and we weren't stuck at the station.

Next month will be of the trains covered by JR East. Plenty of interesting trains that we took there! Stay tuned! And mentioning JR East, Tazawako Tourism Association put up a post about the Akita Shinkansen Komachi resuming operation on Saturday, Apr 30th.

Happy Birthday Dear Son

It's Raimie's birthday today. He is of course pretty excited today.

The day started early at midnight when he reminded us it's Dec 2 already! Then, first thing we did in the morning was to present him with a birthday card. We took him to Desa Waterpark and maybe out for a nice dinner afterwards. A quiet celebration, with just the three of us.

Initially we wanted to celebrate his birthday in Japan and had planned for our 2010 trip to be in December but of course, as you know it, that didn't happen. We already went to Japan in September. Now, just a little over two months since our trip to Japan, my dear son has already started making plans for his next trip next year. To him, our trips to Japan is as normal as a trip back to our hometown. Well, he starts visiting Japan every year since he was three after all.

Actually, browsing through our photo albums, we can see how much he has grown just by looking at our Japan albums. I sure love looking at all his photos. :-)

Photos are of each of our visits in different year/season to Japan. He sure has grown, hasn' t he?

Happy birthday Son. May all your wishes come true.

A New Mission On The Upcoming Trip?

Drainspotting anyone? 

I read a blog post by Jamaipanese titled Drainspotting: Japan’s Artistic Manhole Covers and thought that finding and photographing these cool and artistic manhole covers would be a cool project while vacationing in Japan. I first took notice of these artistic manhole covers in Himeji. I saw them while walking towards Himeji Castle from the train station.

Zaini has his stamp rally project and he'll happily hop on trains and stop at every s.i.n.g.l.e train station in Japan for a stamp and I should have my own project too. Other than trying to photograph everything and anything for posts in this blog, that is.

I'm always fascinated by the manhole covers I saw there, but I didn't take any photo of them because I felt cheesy & weird doing it. Chancing upon the post by Jamaipanese make me raring to go on a drainspotting mission.

Even this photo on the left, I asked Raimie to act cute for the camera although I actually wanted to take photo of the cute paws (or something) on the cover. Raimie said it looked like paws on Blues Clues. LOL. Photo taken in Ikebukuro way back in 2007. 

Jamaipanese, coming? :) 

Traveling On A Full Stomach

Apart from getting a JR Pass for our long distance train travel in Japan, there is one more thing that is pretty convenient to be enjoyed while zipping around in the trains and shinkansens and that is the eki-ben (train station lunch boxes).

More information about these awesomely delicious and convenient packed lunches can be read here: Appreciating Japan Through Ekibens.

Some of the eki-bens we enjoyed during our previous trips: 

Our eki-ben bought at Shin-Osaka station, eaten on our journey from Shin-Osaka to Hakata in Kyushu taking the Hikari shinkansen.

Our eki-ben bought at Hiroshima station - with octopus and oysters. They sure don't skimp on the ingredients. There were so many oysters in my paddle-shaped bento. We bought these bento during our trip from Shin-Osaka to Kanazawa on the Thunderbird, and then jumping on the Noto night train from Kazanawa to Tokyo.

Our eki-ben bought in the train SL Ban Etsu Monogatari-Go, on our trip from Aizu-Wakamatsu to Niigata. Getting a ride on a steam locomotive was an awesome experience for us and eating lunch while the train were puffing along ravines and rivers, and eating good food while enjoying the scenery was an awesome experience. We even got a souvenir inside the bento box in the form of a paper train cut-out.

Our dinner bento bought at Niigata station. Fish roe is Zaini's favourite. We ate these on the on the Joetsu Shinkansen Max Toki to Ueno station.

Eki-ben in an earthenware bought in Karuizawa. Either this bento is really famous at the station or because there were no other choices, but when we were there, a long line was formed immediately when a stall was set-up offering this delicious meal. Most commuters bought no less than two and I think they bought it to bring back home.

A bento bought at Tazawako station before our onward journey to Nyuto Onsen.

We will look forward for more eki-ben adventures during our next trip. The eki-ben sold at the train stations change seasonally so it'll be fun to try out new eki-ben throughout the four changing seasons. Don't you agree?

Mom, Can We Go To UltramanLand?

Raimie has been asking us to go Ultramanland when we go to Japan in September. The problem with this request of his is that we are planning to visit only the northern part of Honshu this year and Ultramanland is located way below, in Arao which is in Kyushu!

Raimie had visited the Ultraman theme park twice already; in 2007 and 2008 and I know he enjoyed the visits tremendously. He got to see so many Ultra Heroes there.

And since I'm in the mood of posting old photos of us vacationing in Japan, here are some photos of Raimie with his heroes in Ultramanland.

When we told him that it's too far for us to travel all the way to Kyushu, he asked whether he can go to Ultraman Stadium instead. Ultraman Stadium is located in Terai, Komatsu in Kanazawa. Another hard reaching place to get to. I think only hardcore fans like us would make the trip to Ultraman Stadium!