18-kippu Trip: Nara
June 30, 2010 at 8:51 pm | Posted in Japan, March 2010 Travelling, Spring | Leave a commentTags: Nara
It’s been a month since I last wrote on my blog. I’ve been busy these days, and I will be too. But anyway, I will try to write down about my trip in March before I forget about it.
In the afternoon of the second day of my 18-kippu trip, we went to Nara after visiting Kyoto for one and a half day. We arrived at Nara Station at about 4pm, and we intended to visit Todaiji Temple to see the big Buddha statue there, but it was too late, the temple would be closed at 5 pm, so we didn’t have enough time to go there. There was an information center in Nara Station, we asked for a map of Nara so that we could still go around in Nara.
Besides the Big Buddha statue (大仏), Nara is also famous for its deer. There was Nara Park, where we could find deer living there and we could even approach them. I approached some of them and touched them. The deer were very excited when people came to them with something they thought as food. I didn’t bring any deer food, I was just holding a map and stretched out my hands hoping that the deer would come closer. But the deer thought that the map I was holding was food, and indeed, it came closer to me and ate the map in my hand. I was surprised, and so were my friends. We tried to take the map back, but we couldn’t. That made us got lost in Nara, since we didn’t have any other maps anymore.
18-kippu Trip: Kyoto
May 27, 2010 at 11:40 pm | Posted in Japan, March 2010 Travelling, Play, Spring | Leave a commentTags: Kyoto
During this spring holiday, from March 18th-25th, my friends and I travelled by using 18-kippu to several cities in Honshu Island. The first city we visited was Kyoto (京都). It was an old city and former capital of Japan. Kyoto still has many traditional buildings in it and the Japanese traditions are still preserved here, making it an attractive city for tourists who visit and want to know about Japanese traditions. Using the JR train, we arrived at Kyoto at the Kyoto Station. Kyoto Station is one of the main attractions of Kyoto. Kyoto Station is a big station with more than 30 platforms in it.
From Kyoto Station, we visited the Arashiyama (嵐山) area. There’s a wooden bridge called Togetsukyo (渡月橋) near the Tenryuji Temple (天龍寺). This bridge is a symbol of Arashiyama together with Mt. Arashiyama. There were some jinrikisha (人力車) pullers who would pull the jinrikisha on this bridge so that the passengers could enjoy the view of Arashiyama on the jinrikisha from the bridge. There was also boat rental nearby.
Miraikan (未来館)
May 26, 2010 at 2:13 am | Posted in Japan, Play, Winter | 6 CommentsTags: Asimo, Miraikan
After coming back from Seoul, before continuing another travelling, I went to Miraikan (未来館) with my friend. 
Just some refreshing and playing in Tokyo before setting out for some tiring travel again. Miraikan is a museum of science and innovation located in Odaiba. It consists of 7 floors, with some special exhibitions and dome theater. The symbol exhibit of Miraikan is Geo-Cosmos, a large globe floating in a six-story open zone.
Thai Festival 2010
May 24, 2010 at 2:18 am | Posted in Japan, Play, Spring | 1 CommentTags: Thai festival 2010 in Tokyo
On Sunday, May 16th 2010, I went to Thai Festival. This festival was held in Tokyo for two days, on Saturday and Sunday. There were also Thai festivals in other cities in Japan. The festival was held in Yoyogi Park. There were many booths in this festival, most of them sold Thai crafts and accessories, Thai clothes, Thai foods, Thai agricultural products, and other products from Thailand such as the spices for Thai food. My friends and I went to the festival by walking from Shibuya Station, so we entered the festival area from a gate near the NHK broadcasting station.
Sanja Matsuri 2010
May 23, 2010 at 2:09 am | Posted in Japan, Play, Spring | Leave a commentTags: Sanja Matsuri
After going to Kanda Matsuri, the next week, on Saturday May 15th 2010, I went to Sanja Matsuri (三社祭) in Asakusa. Sanja Matsuri is also one of the three great Shinto festivals in Tokyo. (Wikipedia) The festival is held in honor of the three men who established and founded Senso-ji (浅草寺). In the festival, the main attraction was the mikoshi, many people of different groups carried mikoshi with different colors. The mikoshis were decorated and there were golden sculptures (usually golden birds) on the top of the mikoshis, and they were carried by people around the Asakusa area. Because I went to the Sanja Matsuri on Saturday, I could only see the small mikoshis, not the big three mikoshis owned by the Asakusa Shrine which would appear on Sunday, the final day of the Sanja Matsuri.
Homestay at Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefecture
May 22, 2010 at 5:42 pm | Posted in homestay, Japan, Spring | Leave a commentTags: utsunomiya homestay
On April 17th-18th 2010, I had a home-stay at Utsunomiya (宇都宮), Tochigi Prefecture (栃木県). I stayed in Naka-san’s (印波ナカ) house. First, there was an opening ceremony for this home-stay program. I met her for the first time there. After the opening ceremony, all of us had lunch together, there were several kinds of food cooked, and I had some conversation with Naka-san at that time. Despite my still-poor Japanese, Naka-san was very patient to have conversation with me.
Continue Reading Homestay at Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefecture…
Korea Trip Day 5: Namsan Area
May 22, 2010 at 2:00 am | Posted in March 2010 Travelling, South Korea, Winter | Leave a commentTags: Hanok village, N Seoul Tower, teddy bear museum
The fifth day of my Korea trip was a trip visiting Hanok Village, Namsan Tower, and Teddy Bear Museum. Hanok Village is a village of Korean traditional house located at the northern foot of Namsan. The houses were arranged not only the exterior but also the interior, we could see the traditional life from those houses. There was also craft making in the village, like making the traditional sandals. There were also some traditional games and we could play with those games. We could also experience some traditions of Korea like wearing hanbok and writing Korean writings. We went to the hanbok wearing room and tried on hanbok by paying 3000 Won. We could choose which hanbok we wanted to wear. So we chose the clothes of king, queen, princess, guard. It was fun to try on hanbok and then take some pictures. The accessories of hanbok provided here were more complete, there were wigs for the queen and princess, and also sword for the guard. We spent quite some time in this hanbok wearing room.
Korea Trip Day 4: Nami Island & Hangang Tour
May 17, 2010 at 2:35 am | Posted in March 2010 Travelling, South Korea, Winter | Leave a commentTags: Hangang Tour, Nami Island
On the fourth day of our Korea trip, we went to Nami Island. Nami Island was the shooting location of the Korean drama, Winter Sonata. Nami Island is located 63 km from Seoul. In order to go to Nami Island, we had to take a bus and continued with ferry ship to reach it. There were many spots of Winter Sonata scenes in Nami Island, such as the tree lanes, the first kiss spot, and so on. I didn’t watch Winter Sonata, so I couldn’t identify which were the spots for shooting Winter Sonata. We walked around almost all places in the Nami Island, and also bought some food there. There were some hearts shaped on the ground made of leaves. People usually took pictures near the hearts or at the shooting spots of Winter Sonata. We also took pictures at several places in Nami Island.
Tree Lanes in Nami Island
Continue Reading Korea Trip Day 4: Nami Island & Hangang Tour…
Kanda Matsuri 2010
May 15, 2010 at 1:58 am | Posted in Japan, Play, Spring | Leave a commentTags: Kanda Matsuri
On May 9th 2010, I went to see Kanda Matsuri (神田祭) at Kanda Myoujin (神田明神). It is one of the three greatest Shinto festivals in Tokyo. This festival is a celebration of Tokugawa Ieyasu’s victory at the battle of Sekigahara and as a display of the prosperity of Tokunaga period. It is now also held in honor of kami in the Kanda Myoujin. (Wikipedia)
The main attraction of this festival is 300 people carrying the portable shrine and parade according to the designated route such as Kanda, Nihombashi, Otemachi, Marunouchi, and so on.
Korea Trip Day 3: Palaces Visit
May 13, 2010 at 6:00 pm | Posted in March 2010 Travelling, Play, South Korea, Winter | Leave a commentTags: Cheong Gye Cheon, Deok Su Gung, Gyeong Bok Gung
The third day of our Korea trip (March 6th) was the day to visit palaces in Seoul. First, we visited Nam Dae Mun market before visiting the Deok Su Gung Palace. Nam Dae Mun was a market which sold many kinds of things with cheap price. We bought several souvenirs from Nam Dae Mun, actually in the end we spent quite a lot of money here.
Deok Su Gung served as the main palace for Great Han Empire (1897-1910). Actually, it was not listed in our trip plan, but because there was palace guard changing ceremony on that day, so we visited this palace first. This is the video of the guard changing ceremony.
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