Hiroshima - Day 2

Visited the dome. This has been on my to-do list for a while, was glad to finally get there. You can see what the building used to look like in the above photo.



Also visited Hiroshima Castle. This is a reconstruction, but the castle museum inside probably the best one I have seen so far, english text for most items, take the time to sit and listen to animated the story of the castle construction... amazingly it only took 2 years to build the castle to a habitable state.

Hiroshima - Day 1

Out to the island, another rainy day. With a tide out, we get a chance to walk out under the Torri gate.

Takayama

Shirakawa-go

Took a bus from Kanazawa to Takayama. The bus travels through the mountains and makes a brief rest stop at Shirakawa-go. Shirakawa-go's traditional grass roofed buildings are heritage listed. It was raining on this bus trip and it seemed to get heavier when we got out for this stop. Not a lot to see and do at this time of year, looks like a better winter destination, certainly not much we could do in the 15 minutes we had, so just grabbed a postcard book, looked at a few model before splashing our way back to the bus.




Bus into shirakawa-go, gifu


Key Song: Spring Rain by The Go-Betweens

Kanazawa - Day 2

Next day bright and early .... we it is Japan nothing much opens until 10. Had breakfast at one of the many eateries on ground floor of Kanazawa station. "The german bakery", much like "Donq" and other Japanese bakeries, it is self service to browse and choose from the isles of pastries on offer, then take your tray to the counter to get order a drink and pay. Range includes chocolate croisants, fruit in pastry, hotdog roll with sauce and sausage baked into it, and various pastries that incorporate green tea or bean paste, and the surprise at this one was southern fried chicken.



First stop was the Ninja house, this is a temple with hidden floors (actually 5 floors high), doors and numerous hiding places, traps and nasty surprises for an attacker. Actually has nothing to do with Ninja's but has become known as Ninja dera. You have to ring up to book into the one of the hourly tours, this seems to limit the number of english speaking tourists who make it to this place. The tour is in Japanese, but a folder is provided with the english translations for you to follow along, well worth 800 yen admission.

On the way back we walked through the Samurai housing district which have a number of open house/gardens along the way.




Wandering back through the town we found some wonderful streets with the diverted river flowing alongside the streets, in warm weather these would make great places for outdoor dining, though it doesn't look like there is such a thing available.




Went to the markets for lunch, tasted a lot samples. When tasting a samples, you present the back of your hand (fist) , they will place the food on it and you eat it off the back of your hand, they will also pass you a cloth afterwards to wipe the back of your hand. In this manner, we tried many types of marinated squid. We choose two and had later that night with Sake.



Last stop for the day was the Modern Art Gallery, it is an odd thing with art galleries in Japan that the architecture of the building seems to be promoted & described far more than the collection it houses. This building looks great from above apparently. Bought a few gifts from the gift shop.

Kanazawa - Day 1

Took the train from Osaka to Kanazawa. Beautiful scenery along the way; mountains, lake, smallish settlement squeezed into every valley, and snow still melting on the mountainside.

Kanazawa is set up well for tourists. If you center yourself near the main rail station, (many hotels surrounding it), everything is withing easy reach. A tourist loop bus route, runs every 15 minutes and it stops near nearly all the towns main attractions. Only 500 yen for a day of unlimited use.

The first place most people go to is the gardens and castle, you can easily spend half a day just on these two locations. On the we were there the gardens were open for free. In general you can assume the cost of entering a garden or castle in Japan is somewhere between 300 and 600 yen, add little extra if they provide a guided tour. The Kenrokuen gardens are large strolling gardens, every turn offering a new vista. Official Site

Cherry Blossom in Osaka

A walk along the river near the Mint. Lots of Cherry Blossom in bloom, and many people out enjoying the spring weather.

Osaka Castle in Spring

Went to Osaka Castle, amazing how different it all looks in spring. Great timing to catch so many Cherry Blossoms. Caught Chuo line to Morinimya from exit (#??) simply walk up the stairs and you are at the park. Past the markets and fountains, keep going straight, along the tree lined path with the blue tarp shelters for the homeless which are set back amongst the trees. There appears to be many more homeless living here than the last time.



Osaka Castle



People having picnics on blue tarps under the cherry blossom.



Osaka Castle


Homeless "Housing"