I Like Green

Even if it's green moss!

A place covered in green moss evokes a rather mysterious feel, don't you think? I do. ^^

I'm on a holiday mood. Can you tell? ^^ Can't seem to think of anything more to write here. But, as I said... I love green. It soothes me so. :)

A Bus And Some Trains In Kanazawa

Just some random local trains and a bus or two that either all of us took or the ones Zaini took on his pursuit to recover Raimie's lost Ultraman Max jacket.

But first, a shot of Kanazawa loop bus. We took this bus to get to Kenrokuen, and it was filled by elderly folks - residents of the area by the look of it. So this loop bus is not only useful to tourists, they seemed to be a hit with local folks too. The bus operates every 12 minutes and cost 200 yen per ride. A one day pass is available for 500 yen and includes discounted admission to several attractions.

Just my observation, buses in Japan  are really popular with the old folks, no? We took quite a few buses to get around and the bus users seems to consist mainly of the aging population of Japan.Truthfully for someone like me who used to zip along KL on the pink BMW and then graduated to those Metrojaya & Len Seng buses, riding buses in Japan can be rather a painfully slow trip. The bus drivers adhere to speed limits and it seems that if there is someone at the bus stop, they will stop even though nobody flagged the bus.The beauty of it though is that buses do run according to schedule at all stops! It took us an hour and a half to get to Asakusa from Ikebukuro on a bus! @.@ But we get to see neighborhoods we wouldn't have seen otherwise, if we use a train.

Local trains taken at Wakura Onsen. I find the type of train heads really interesting, much more so than the more modern looking trains.

The Hokuriku sleeper train. This train did its final run from Kanzawa to Ueno on March 12, 2010.

And lastly, an interior shot of the Limited Express Thunderbird. I have a lot of photos on the interior of the trains we took while in Japan, but never really posted and written much about them. I need to do more research on all those individual train someday! Anyway, don't think anyone would care about them as much as we do. ^^

If anyone interested to know how the interior of  Tsubame, Sonic, Hikari Railstar, Max Toki, Komachi, Narita Express, Rapit, Haruka, Noto; just to name a few; look like, let me know. I can post them up someday. Any day. :)

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.

Ume Blossoms

The Japanese plum or ume is associated with the start of spring because plum blossoms are some of the first blossoms to open during the year. 

We got to view them during our visit to Kanazawa Kenrokuen and these photos were taken at the Palm Grove Garden there. 

The Plum Grove Garden was landscaped from 1968 to 1969, as part of a project to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the start of the Meiji period. Saplings for the plum grove were gathered from famous places for plum trees such as Kitano Tenmangu shrine, Dazaifu Tenmangu, Yushima Tenmangu and Kairakuen. There are now 200 trees of 20 varieties of plums the in the grove. The dark pink and white blossoms are at their best in March.

I know the photos are a bit wanting but hope you enjoyed them nonetheless. ^^