My goodness, last update was more than a month ago?!? NOOOO! D:

Yeah, I went totally lazy with that blogging stuff. Had some homework to do for university and then completely forgot about it. I get distracted too easily!

Anyway, here for the handful of readers a little summary of what we did during January:


New Year at Sumiyoshi-Taisha

In Japan it's a custom that during the first days of the year you're visiting the shinto shrines and pray for good luck. Monetary donations should ensure that the kami will listen to you. In Osaka the Sumiyoshi-Taisha is one of THE places to go and all in all it's one of the most visited shrines during the new years days in whole Japan with about 2 million people or something. I can tell you, they're getting a huge amount of money during these days!

Anyway, we went to see this spectacle - hundreds of thousands of Japanese people on a matsuri! The whole thing really had some fair/festival-feeling with hundreds of stands. Mostly food in all kind of variations. XD


Himeji

At the 7th January we went to Himeji to visit the famous castle. It's not that far away from the train station - it's literally just down the street.

The castle itself is really beautiful. You can also see it from the inside with some historical exhibits and information. From the top floor you have a nice view over the city. :3


Ebisu Matsuri

From 9th to 11th January there is every year the Ebisu matsuri in Imamiya (station Shinimamaiya) which is not that far away from our home. So we took the opportunity to join another matsuri. Actually it was not much different than other festivals here: Lots of food, lots of people and many opportunities to spend your money.


Back to Kyoto

On the 20th we went to Kyoto once more. Seriously, the city has so many sites you could spend a whole week there and wouldn't have seen everything! For this trip we visited the Kinkakuji area in the north-west - including Kinkakuji (of course), Ninna-ji and Tenryū-ji. It was a gloomy day but apart from that, it was great!



Not much time to write more, have another job today in Wakayama! :D
If you want to see some potos, let me know.

Happy New Year and all the best for 2009!

Sorry, I haven't updated this journal for ages. Mainly because we didn't do any worthwhile trips in December. The weather wasn't that great on my free days anyway.


( 18th Dec: Sushi Party )

( Christmas )

( New Year's Eve )


Ok then... That's it for today. Will continue updating soon.

Dewa mata! :3

こんにちは!

Last Thursday we finally went to Nara, which is about 45 minutes East from Bentencho with the train. And at that day we were super-lucky with the weather. Although it was a bit cold in the morning we had about 15°C on a sunny December day. :D

The centre of Nara is actually great for sightseeing. Being a place with a huge cultural heritage you have a high density of World Heritage Sites like Tôdai-ji, Kôfuku-ji or the Kasuga Shrine. Fans of Bambi will love Nara as well. XD

( Don't Panic! )

Hi there!

Last weekend I was out without my boyfriend. The reason was that Christoph, one of my fellow students, asked me if I could sub for him. He has a job in Wakayama as a teacher's assistant but wanted to go on a trip to Kyoto with his girlfriend on that weekend. The job is easy, there would be a nice meal afterwards and I'd get 6000YEN plus charges. Great deal, isn't it? ;D

( Today for a change no photos. )

Before I forget it - here's part two from our photos at Kiyomizu-dera! :D



( Some more photos...  )


So that's it for today! Hope you liked these photos. See ya! :3

Ok then, time to continue posting photos from our trip last week.

After we went to Fushimi Inari shrine we wanted to see Kiyomizu-dera which is also quite famous. At least it's declared as part of the Unesco's World Heritage Site which should be important enough. ;)

In addition we saw some beautiful autumn foliage. :3




( About 30 photos... )

Hi there! :3

Last Thursday we went to Kyoto again - as said in an earlier journal - to hunt down some autumn foliage. 8D

Here are the photos from the famous Fushimi Inari Shrine. Even if you don't know the name you'd probably have heard of it or seen some photos. It's the shrine with the approximately 2437246 red torîs. <3


( Almost 50 photos :3 )

Next entry: Kiyomizu-dera! :3

Today a little report on a very important subject in Japan: FOOD. Seriously it's super important. Probably the most important thing ever! D:

When you turn on the TV you see cooking shows en masse, all 50 meters there is at least one restaurant (at least here in Osaka), in the streets and houses it smells of food and in small-talk you don't talk about the weather but rather stuff like "Oh you went to Kyoto? What did you eat? 8D". I'm not kidding!

Although I'm a tad annoyed by that kind of behaviour --- seriously would you plan your trips according what kind of food they have? --- I'll talk about that topic anyway. And dishes, because I love Japanese dishes! :3

( Click here for photos and recipes )

Hi there!

As promised yesterday here are the photos we made last weekend at Osaka Castle! :3



( Caution - about 60 photos in here! )
That's it for today. Stay tuned for more entries soon... :3

Hey everybody! :D

New season - new entry. Seriously, when we arrived here in late September the weather was terrible due to a typhoon. October then was like a summer in Germany. And now in November it's finally like autumn. The leaves start to change their colours and I'm just super happy because I love that season!

Ever since I decided to go to Japan I was looking forward to seeing 'momiji' - which is in my eyes even more beautiful than its equivalent in spring (sakura - the cherry blossoms). For those who don't know what the weird girl is talking about: When the Japanese maple turns red it is referred to as 'momji'. And with red I mean super bloody red. It's awesome! <3

The autumn here is actually similar to American 'Indian Summer'. And one of the popular activities is 'momijigari' - the 'red maple hunt'. And that's what we're going to do the next weeks. Hunting down the autumn foliage! 8D

Last weekend we started at Osaka Castle - this time with sunny wheather! I'll put up new photos tomorrow. :3



Cya!!


 

And now the last point from our recent Tennoji tour: Shitennoji!

A couple of photos you can already see here: http://p-a-sabrina.livejournal.com/3734.html

This time we also went to visit the inner parts of the temple. Too bad we weren't allowed to photograph the huge golden Statues inside the buildings. But the buildings itself were also super beautiful. :3

Here we go!



( About 30 photos in here... )
Ok, that's it! Hope you enjoyed it.

During the next weeks we have momiji-season here - the time of beautifully coulourd foliage. 8D

Time to continue our temple sightseeing program. Sorry for the little delay...


This is the Isshinji - another Buddhist temple in Tennoji, just 3 minutes from Shitennoji away. :3



( About 30 Photos )

Next: Shitennoji! :3

On 1st November we finally had another trip to Tennoji and a walk around the quarter. This time I'll split the entry a little more to reduce this annoying long loading process. (Sorry for the last huge entry! D: )

Fist spot was this time Hirokoshi Shrine.




( About 40 photos are following... )

A beautiful little shrine, isn't it. <3

Hey guys!

Today a huge pile of photos from the Jidai Matsuri Procession. This might actually just be of interest for you if you like historical Japanese costumes or need some reference stuff.

If you don't like that kind of stuff, just skip this journal entry...


( With 'huge' I mean 'super huge'! )

Some more cultural stuff today! Also a little late, as usual. I need to keep blogging more regularly. D:

Anyway, today a little report about our trip to Kyoto's Jidai Matsuri (時代祭, "Festival of Eras") which is held annually on the 22nd of October. Kyoto was the seat of Japan's imperial court from 794 to 1868 when due to the Meiji-Restoration the capital was moved to Edo (now Tokyo). For the 1100th anniversary when Kyoto became Japan's capital they established the Jidai Matsuri to commemorate their past. The attraction of this Matsuri is the huge procession of approximately 2,000 people dressed in costumes of the different eras - starting with Meiji Era and going back to Heian Era. :3

To visit the festival we were allowed to cut our university courses. And so two friends, Stefan and I went together to Kyoto...

( Rainy Day... ;_; )
8D

Hello everybody!

Here as promised Part II of our Tennoji tour -- Shitennoji Temple.

( GO GO GO!!!11 )
Hope you enjoyed it!

Ok guys, as promised a buttload of photos. Part I contains all the photos from Tennoji area.


( Wanna see? )

I will post Part II tomorrow with photos from Shitennoji. :3

Today on your favourite sightseeing channel: Osaka's Tennoji ward!

When my friend Julia returned from Japan she bought a sightseeing book as souvenir (omiyage おみやげ) for me. In this book there are lots of small strolling routes listed -- which is great because you know, we walk a lot here! So last week on the 19th Oct. we decided to take the route trough Tennoji ward.

( Part I -- A walk around the ward )


( Part II -- Shitennoji )

Ok then, that's it so far.
This is the slim fast version of our Tennoji walk. All in all we made about 200 photos so if you're hungry for more pictures then wait for the upcoming photo dumps where I'll put in the majority of photos. :3

C ya!

( OH NOES! D: )

Finally weekend - time to write a new entry! :3


As you already know here in Osaka we live in Bentencho, which is actually the name of the next train/subway station. Bentencho is actually a part of Minato-ku, the habour ward of Osaka (minato 港 = habour).

On the 13th I had a free day (Taiiku no hi 体育の日 = Health and Sports Day) and so we decided to have a little walk to visit the habour area.

( Fake!Columbus and Fake!Mermaid  )