Jakarta - Some Piccies

Been a fortnight since I moved. Jakarta has been good to me thus far. I've travelled a lot outside home by now, but have yet to master the art of crossing the road here still. The local people are nice, friendly and kind but men here can get quite cheeky sometimes (cheeky in a good way I meant to say) and then there were a few I find really odd. But in general, however, the Jakartans I met are lovely people - my kids and I are very well taken care of, I am pleased and pleasantly surprised by their warm hospitality. Food here is yummy but can get a bit too sweet or spicy sometimes (or both at the same time, which is rather interesting). So far I have no regrets moving here. yet. Life in the past 14 days have been good, really. Anyways, here are some recent pictures I took in my stay in this Indonesian capital. You might want to check them out.

Moving to a new country in particular with very young children can be quite challenging I know. There are plenty of things for the children to adjust to such as new language, new environment, new friends, 'new' food, and new home just to name a few. Isa, however, seems to be adapting and coping pretty alright here in Indonesia. But I don't know, really, cos we've been here for only about 2 weeks. Let's hope he'll be alright all through, I am so keeping my fingers crossed on this.

During my stay at Rasuna, I got awaken by the call of prayer broadcasted by the mosques in that town every morning. After having done my prayer on one of the mornings that I was there, I looked out of my bedroom window and saw this scenery, a very pretty sight or so I thought. So I decided to get my camera and take a picture of it. And so here it is posted on my blog for everyone to see. Pretty, no?

Slow moving traffic happening right outside the apartment I am currently staying at! Based on my experience, however, a person travelling in the traffic adjacent to my apartment can take almost half an hour just to get to the end of this road (which is actually way less than 400 metres in distance).

This is Mie Goreng Ayam Baso (fried chicken noodle with soup). I remember ordering this food the first time and asked for "Mie Goreng Ayam" as stated on the Menu. They replied, "Yang baso atau yang pangsit? (Baso or pangsit?)". I looked at them cluesslessly, and then asked, "Baso tu apa? Pangsit tu apa? (What's baso? What's pangsit?)" And then a guy came over and explained to me. In English! For the first time ever in Jakarta, I felt like a fool. But anyway, Mie Goreng Ayam Baso is yummy. You should give it a try when you're here someday.

Went to check out a unit in Thamrin Residence on one of those days that I was there viewing properties. The unit was on the 31st storey of the apartment, and this was the view I saw from the unit's balcony. Having lived in high rise apartments in Singapore for over 20 years of my life, I consider this view 'awesome' and 'expensive' (since it is pretty rare to get a skyline view like this even if one is living in an apartment unit as high as the 31st storey in that garden city). High rise buildings and skyscrapers are just so abundant everywhere in Singapore, most balconies are left with having to view other balconies instead! Hence, I'd say for this apartment unit, the balcony view (even if it faces a shanty town and a terribly jam packed road) is a plus point for me!

This is a townhouse. It is located right smack in the middle of the city. What's interesting about this townhouse is that it is actually built on the 10th storey and is on top of a shopping mall. It didn't look like it, did it? I don't know how much it costs to buy each house tho but I know rental price ranges from about USD2,000 to USD4,000 per month. Not bad, isn't it?

This is Pisang Goreng Suir Keju (banana fritters with cheese. It's got some condensed milk added to it too apparently!!). I had it for tea today. It tastes pretty alright I thought. Just a bit sweet though!

Not really a recent picture of the both of us, this was actually taken about 3 months back when Echa (Hazuki) and I were in Ascott on our first ever recce trip to Jakarta!

Korea - some piccies!

Here are some pictures taken during my trip to Korea. You might want to check them out - they are a bit different from those I have uploaded on my Facebook account. So enjoy!

Some traditional Korean women's costume put on display at the National Folk Museum.

That's me at the National Folk Museum.

That’s Kenji and Echa (Hazuki) in the lounge of 'our room'.

View from 'our' room at 3-ish p.m. on 21st Jan 2010 - nothing special actually.

Gyeongbokgung was super foggy when we got there!

Scenery outside National Folk Museum.

At the Korean Folk Village.

The apartment we were staying at.

Kenji at a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf outlet located at the lobby of 'our' apartment.

Korea - The 'great' walk to Myeongdong

This post is a continuation of an earlier post Asiana: World's 5-star Airline...

Stephen Wright once said, “Anywhere is walking distance, if you’ve got the time”. Well guess what? I think this American stand-up comedian is right! Because that was exactly what I had on my mind when I did this...

I walked. With Kenji and Hazuki. In the rain. To Myeongdong. (sort of)


The story goes like this:

Kenji, Hazuki and I arrived in Incheon after a good two-hour flight from Nagoya. The weather in Incheon was mild and air was oddly foggy then. At the airport, we were picked up by some local people Kenji knew from work, and then we were brought to Central Seoul where 'our' apartment was. After checking in, we were left on our own. And so with all the time to ourselves, that night, I ‘dragged’ Kenji and Hazuki on my first ever attempt to reach Myeongdong.

It was raining heavily with lightning and thunderstorms when we set out, still we went to the shopping district by foot. Crazy I know. But what was crazier was that we weren’t prepared with many things including a map, some Korean language and even umbrella, and so getting to Myeongdong that night was quite a gamble I must say.

Myeongdong, if you don’t know it yet, is a shopping district that features not only mid to high priced retail stores but also brand-name clothing outlets and world class shopping malls you are most likely not to miss if you are there. Myeongdong is also said to consist of cafes, restaurants and cineplexes – features which have made the district even more appealing to the general public than it apparently ever did.

Having grown up in a place like Myeongdong, Myeongdong by definition didn't sound like an exciting place to me. In fact it didn't. But somehow something somewhere in me thought it was a place I must go and see and so on my first day in Seoul, I went to (sort of) check out Myeongdong with my husband and 6 month old daughter by foot despite the rain.

We started out our journey at Jung-gu, where ‘our’ apartment was, but stopped at a nearby bus stop a few minutes after that as rainfall got heavier and we really needed some temporary shelter then. Or so I thought. Very soon after that though we moved to a nearby building, one with a convenience store on its first floor, as Kenji had wanted very much to buy us an umbrella there.

Yeah, very sweet of Kenji I know, but only after buying the umbrella we found out that it wasn’t big enough to fit us three, and so I ended up walking in the rain after that (how unfortunate!) but that didn’t bug me nevertheless, and so we kept walking and saw many things/shops we could have missed if we had gone by other means. And so it was good that we had chosen to walk, really.

Walking with the loved ones on a cold winter evening was certainly fun. But as we walked further, we came across plenty of buildings and places such as hospitals, museums, and convenience stores that seemed to have little to do with the purpose of our journey. So I got a little anxious and thought of changing our mode of transportation to the subway instead. We went past several subway stations along our way but didn’t go check any of them out sadly, (because Kenji didn’t want to) and so we carried on walking to Myeongdong.

As we walked, we saw more and more eateries lining some well lit major roads and shops of only low to medium wealth in clusters. I was actually expecting to see a district that looked something like Orchard Road back home in Singapore; a district filled with department stores and high-rise shopping malls, busy roads, blocks of brand name fashion outlets, a fast(er) paced community and an expensive shopping, in fact just the way Myeongdong had been described on travel books the entire time. But we didn’t see them all unfortunately.

So, considering the description of Myeongdong on travel books, plus the distance we’ve walked that evening, we thought we knew we weren’t getting anywhere close to Myeongdong at all.

As a result, Kenji and I decided it was probably time we 'did something' to the trip. However rain started pouring after that. And we realized we probably didn’t have much choice but to go back. And so Kenji, Hazuki and I made the rounds, figured out just about any how to get back and finally returned to the apartment, drenched and very cold.

At the apartment however, I remember Kenji getting me a cup of cappuccino from The Coffee Bean downstairs *very sweet of Kenji # 2* (the apartment we were staying at has got my favourite cafe attached to its lobby) – so, woohoo! Later on, with the cup of cappuccino in hand, I hung out for a bit in the lounge, got myself changed and then headed off to bed. And just like that however I ended my very first day of travels in the capital city of Korea.

That night though I know I may have failed reaching Myeongdong but I was happy nevertheless cos’ despite the rain and all, I still went ahead with my plans and saw some other parts of Seoul I probably wouldn’t have if I had chosen to stay in or gone to Myeongdong via the subway! :D



Above is a picture of a map, extracted off Lonely Planet’s Seoul City Guide (probably the only map I came across that is in English language and that is the closest to what I could illustrate here for better understanding of my story).

The bottom white area of the picture is added and drawn by me to show readers of the complete route we had taken in our walk that night.

*Route is marked by a red line, whereas the black mark at the bottom of the pic (that looked like an arrow/a house) was where our accommodation was. Grey coloured lines on the bottom white background were sprayed to create a continuation of the major roads*

Click on the map, and you will get a larger view of it. You will also probably get to see that Myeongdong wasn’t even on the map (as it is located far east) and hence not anywhere at all close to where we were staying ;p

So my conclusion of this is that it may seem as though we had walked very far but actually,

we hadn’t even walked enough!!

~ to be continued...


Map Reference:

Robinson M. & Zahorchak J. (2009) Strolling Around Deoksugung, Seoul City Guide, Lonely Planet, Lonely Planet Publications, Singapore, pp. 46.

Bibliography:

Robinson, M., Bartlett, R., Whyte, R. (2007). Lonely Planet: Korea. 7th ed. Singapore: Lonely Planet Publications. 79-138.

Robinson M. & Zahorchak J. (2009). Lonely Planet: Seoul City Guide. 6th ed. Singapore: Lonely Planet Publication. 85.

Seoul Metropolitan Government (2008). Seoul's best 100. Seoul: Tourism Promotion Division. 22-23.

Spring in Japan 2008 - Hiroshima

Hiroshima was very cold and chilly when I got there. Much to my surprise actually as the cold and chilly weather didn’t seem to match much with that of the geography of Japan. In Japan, it should get warmer as you go south but it didn’t happen that way when I was there. And so I wasn’t to the least bit prepared with winter clothings to keep me warm at that time.


I arrived in Hiroshima a couple of days after staying in Okazaki. I went there with Kenji via one of Japan’s fastest bullet trains ever available, the Nozomi bullet train. The Nozomi train ride seemed quite all right to me actually with nothing much taking place whilst I was onboard the train. The landscape the train had passed by was not very interesting either, yet I was kept excited all through. It took us about 3 hours in total to reach Hiroshima. And 3 hours is not a long time at all considering an addition of 6 more hours if we had traveled to Hiroshima by bus.


Kenji and I arrived at the Hiroshima JR Station at noon and found plenty of foreigners around as compared to the other JR stations that we have been to so far. The JR Station in Hiroshima in itself appeared rather big, new and spacious to me; something quite different from the others that I have up till then seen. Feeling quite tired despite a journey that was not very long, that same afternoon, Kenji and I left the shinkansen station immediately via a cab for our booked hotel accommodation.


At the hotel we got ourselves checked-in and were then led to our allocated room. Our hotel room was clean and nice but really small I must say. The bathroom and toilet were western (yay!) and combined (yay! #2), and the shampoo, conditioner and shower foam that were in the bathroom were surprisingly in bottles of 750ml each. I was surprised by the hotel’s generosity (750ml per bottle is really a lot if you know what I’m talking about!), but of course I was really happy with what I got. Next, I got myself changed and jumped onto bed before I turned on the TV.

On TV was a program hosted by two guys who were discussing about A-Bomb victims in Hiroshima. Apparently quite a number of A-Bomb sufferers were still alive then and issues relating to the World War II were still not considered history yet over there. On the TV program, some of Hiroshima’s elderly citizens were shown making claims of post-war physiological effects. Others though were merely making complaints of insufficient welfare benefits to help them fight off their cancer illnesses, which they claimed were transmitted to them via the a-bomb radiation that took place years ago.

That same afternoon that we arrived, Kenji and I went for an exceptionally long walk around the city. Cherry blossoms were blooming so beautifully just like the ones I saw in Okazaki, and Hiroshima appeared like one of those postcard images I would see illustrating spring in Japan. That day Kenji and I managed to check out quite a number of places around the hotel we were staying in and found out that everything we had planned for in Hiroshima seemed to be working our way - I was certainly glad for that. Within the next two days however we managed to check out most parts of the city that were affected by the World War.

Below is a summary of what I did in my 4-day visit in Hiroshima. Just in case you might want to know, most places in Hiroshima that I saw were a great reflection of the World War II. For me, it was simply phenomenal to be standing at the exact area where the atomic bombing once took place. Many times, pictures, maps and accounts of the war that I came across in my walks over there had brought tears to my eyes. Although I grew up celebrating the drop of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima all my life, stories of the aftermath of the bombing that were retold and displayed in places I visited in Hiroshima broke my heart. For the first time ever, I think, I felt sorry, mournful and sombre for the Japanese. The impact of the A-Bomb was indeed 'that' moving and evident - I could really visualize the day the atomic bomb had hit the area.

Anyways, this is the summary of how we spent our time in Hiroshima as mentioned in this post earlier. So, in our 4-day visit in Hiroshima, Kenji and I...

1. visited the Hiroshima castle

2. walked to the A-Bomb Dome

3. walked around Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and then checked out the museum the next day

4. shopped and dined at Hon-douri Arcade

5. tried out hiroshima-yaki

6. moved to Hiroshima Bay and then stayed in at the Grand Prince Hotel

7. played games at a game arcade

8. spent more than half a day exploring Miyajima

9. had oysters for lunch!

In all, I find Hiroshima quite all right. I think it’s a lovely city and a good place to live in. Perhaps? I don’t know. I was there for a very short time…but I like Hiroshima without doubt!

References:
Hiroshima, Present Day Hiroshima, Available [Online]: http://www.hiroshima.ws/modern.html, 18/11/2008.

Wikipedia, Hibakusha, Available [Online]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hibakusha, 25/11/2008.

Toured the wheel.

Didn't think I'd really spend my money and time on the Singapore Flyer but I did, just the other day in fact with childhood friend, Marliza. My Singapore Flyer experience turned out quite alright despite my lack of keenness to check it out for the reason that it is just a giant ferris wheel. Anyway, here are some photos taken before/whilst on/after the wheel. So enjoy!

My Bangkok Love Story 2008

Bangkok may be known to many as an exciting city. Travel guidebooks, online reviews and even Singaporeans who have been there have written and spoken about the Thai capital city as though it is one fabulous metropolis, nothing less than an impressive place! But when I got there, Bangkok seemed like a whole new spot to me as the city didn’t appear as exciting as the way it's been described the entire time! How come?...

When I arrived in Bangkok, I find Bangkok just like any other ordinary developing town. Geographically, Bangkok didn’t look very remarkable to me. It’s urban development didn’t seem ‘that’ impressive either, and the shopping (which I later did) wasn’t very terrific too. So I don’t know. Maybe I just didn’t stay in Bangkok long enough to know of its greatness. Or maybe I didn’t go to places where the impressed Singaporeans and travel writers of Bangkok had gone to. So with all that perhaps, I couldn’t understand what it was in the city that those people had found really groovy about. But having said all these however, Bangkok wasn’t too bad a place for me after all. I mean, I still had fun during my stay there. It’s just that, it was nothing like expected...

ARAB TOWN


In my three-day two-night visit in Bangkok, I had stayed in a hotel in an Arab town. The hotel was all right and so was the town. But the large Arab population there had made me feel a bit displaced initially.

In the Arab town, Arabs dressed in their traditional Arab clothing were everywhere. So I saw men dressed in their white, long, ankle-length jillaba and women, in black abaya hanging around the area.

Most Arabs there too were seen either as couples (an Arab man with an Arab woman) or with their families. Very few were on their own. A few adult Arab men though were in casts and wheelchairs, seemingly to have been discharged from a nearby hospital...

In the Arab town, Arab cafes and restaurants packed the streets, signposts in Arabic language filled the area, and convenience stores with Arabic names lined the main road.

One shop that I remember seeing was selling only Arab men’s footwear, while a cafe across the street had a typical Middle Eastern decor. Indoors in my room, however, was a TV channel showing Arab programs.

So to speak, the Arab Town was one that was filled with a very distinctive Arab influence.

On one hand though, this (Arab influence) was good (for me) since the Arabs there were largely Muslims and so halal food in that part of town was quite readily available.

But on the other hand, the entire Middle Eastern environment, as I’ve said, did make me feel a bit out of place, in particular at the start of my stay, as I found, upon arrival, a different sort of majority and a totally non-Thai surroundings.

Luckily though, it took me only a day to get all accustomed to the Arab ambiance. So by my second day there I wasn’t feeling displaced anymore and was enjoying myself to the max, which was a good thing.

CHATUCHAK WEEKEND MARKET


On my second day in Bangkok I went to check out Chatuchak town. Nothing much was around except for a well-known weekend market called the Chatuchak Weekend Market.

I went there with Kenji. We got there by cab, which we took from the major road outside ‘our’ hotel. The cab and the cab-driver were alright but the journey wasn’t quite I remember.

In the cab I prayed hard that we would get to Chatuchak in one piece. The cab-driver who fetched us there seemed fine, but the way he was driving had every reason for me to worry about.

At the market however, numerous stalls were lining the roadside on the area outside. Inside the market on the other hand, were million more shops, each selling different stuff, all in its own colored group zones.

The Chatuchak Weekend Market was massive no doubt, but it was not like a market I haven’t seen or been to before...

That Saturday morning that I was there, Chatuchak was filled with so many visitors, both local and non-local people. I saw many people window-shopped and numerous other visitors shopped a great deal.

As for me, I only got myself a Thai sarong skirt whilst Kenji got himself about 3 Jigko t-shirts. It’s not that there was nothing to buy there, or were the things not affordable.

At the weekend market, things were of all sorts that one can get just about anything there. And, the products were all so cheap that getting excited on any of them was just so easy.

But I was just happy to be at the place to see what’s in-store and experience the ambiance. Most things sold in the market were considerably unnecessary goods to me anyway, so I thought it pointless to spend my money on them.

Still, I won’t mind going to the market again if I were to ever re-visit Bangkok in the future. I mean, I quite like it as a whole and overall I find it a ‘cool’ place to visit, so why not for a second time, right?

TAXI IN BANGKOK

In Bangkok, taxis were simply abundant. I took taxi to get to places many times throughout my stay there in fact. The first time I took a cab was at Phaya Thai when I was making my way home to Sukhumvit Soi Sum. I was then with Kenji, Kuma-san and Akira. The cab fare had costed us only about 47THB (S$1.90), which was cheaper as compared to 35THB (S$1.45) per adult ticket per trip on a skytrain. Personally, I prefer taking cabs to skytrains if given such choice. But this idea would backfire if cabs were taken during heavy traffic and when cab drivers decided to cheat on his passengers. Speaking of which, Kenji and I got cheated by a cab driver once...

On our last day in Bangkok, a taxi driver driving us home from Siam Paragon decided to make rounds near Chit Lom. We thought something seemed amiss with regards to the direction the taxi driver was taking. Also, the taxi driver was behaving as though he was unsure of the lanes he was on - he even slowed down in the middle of nowhere at one point of time. We tried asking the driver if he knew where he was going but his reply sounded pretty positive. A short while later, we noticed the cab fare had increased to about 63THB (S$2.60 - 2 times the ‘real’ fare) and we weren’t home yet! Plus, the driver had taken a left turn at a T-junction instead of right where past taxi drivers had. So Kenji and I decided to get off the cab in the end. But of course we did this only after making sure we both knew where we were exactly. So we got off the cab and walked home in the hot and humid city that afternoon. Luckily we were only about 2 skytrain stations away from our accommodation. But we still reached the hotel drenched in our own sweat. Still, we were glad we chose to discontinue our journey with the cab as we were sure we would have to pay the driver a lot more than what we already did.

THE OTHERS

The Grand Palace

Negotiating in advance with a driver on the tuk-tuk fare

Lionfish at the Siam Ocean World in Siam Paragon

Kenji at Tha Tien jetty along Chao Phraya River

Actually there are still plenty more things to write about on my recent Bangkok trip. For example, prostitutes on Sukhumvit, smelly streets all over Bangkok, places that Kenji and I visited such as Siam, the Grand Palace and Chao Phraya River as well as the other public transport that we took, which include the skytrain, tuk-tuk and the MRT. But it seems like I will probably write about the above-mentioned issues on some other day if I feel like it. As of now, I guess I will use the time and space to just conclude what I have written thus far. So in my brief stay in Bangkok, I believe that I have discovered Bangkok to be a place not quite exciting on its own. In my opinion, effort is needed in Bangkok to make my stay awesome. Having said that however, I really don’t mind going to Bangkok for a second time actually. For this time I’m sure I will be better equipped with idea and know more of what I would like to see and do in the city. So yeah, cheers to Bangkok and khàwp khun to everyone for reading this post.


References:

Map of Thailand, Available [Online]: http://www.divetheworldthailand.com/map-of-thailand.php, 17/10/08.

Wikipedia, Bangkok Love Story, Release and reception, Available [Online]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangkok_Love_Story, 29/08/08.

Spring in Japan 2008 - Tanabe

I went to Tanabe with only one intention at heart. To hang out with Kotaro like how I used to at my flat in Sandy Bay, that is. But unfortunately, I had little energy left by the time I was there. So I didn���t spend as much time with Kotaro as how I had wanted to despite my four-day stay in his flat when I was in the city (coz I was sleeping pretty much the entire time that I was there).

And now that I am writing this down however, I realized that I might have simply used my stay in Tanabe as a place of retreat more than anything else having traveled halfway through my plan, I don���t know. Well, apologies to Kotaro if that really was the case. Certainly retreating wasn't what I had exactly wanted to do in my trip in Tanabe.

Still, I enjoyed my time doing groceries, having meals and being on the road with Kotaro during my stay in the city. Once again I got to experience the familiarity of the friendship I once had with that old friend of mine. Read on...

1. Orientation and The Journey to Tanabe

Kenji and I reached Tanabe in a showery late afternoon. We arrived there by train, which we took from Shin Osaka all the way south to KiiTanabe. The journey from Shin-Osaka to KiiTanabe though was 3-hour long, but we journeyed for about 5 hours altogether because we had traveled from Hiroshima then.

2. What/Where is Tanabe?

Tanabe is a city located on the coast of Wakayama prefecture. Tanabe, according to Wikipedia, is well known for ume fruit and fishing.

3. Spending My Days in Tanabe

Just in case you might want to know, below are things I did during my stay in Tanabe. Check them out!

During my stay in Tanabe, I...

• Stayed with Kotaro (my Osakan former flat mate who is currently living in Tanabe because of job).

• Had my first sushi and sashimi since arrival in Japan.

• Dropped by Kotaro���s workplace and met his boss.

• Saw Tanabe city.

• Did groceries.

• Lived like a local for the next few days.

• Had dinner at an Izakaya.

• Was fed with whale meat - my first ever (see below for photo).

• Visited a shrine in the middle of the night.

• Walked home after shrine visit.

• In the midst of one night, looked for ghost in the area where Tanabe���s old hospital was.

4. Impressions on Tanabe

Tanabe reminded me greatly of places like Hobart in Tasmania and Hakuba in Nagano. Like Hobart, Tanabe is one of the prefecture's most populous cities. It is on the coast and surrounded by mountains. Like Hakuba however, Tanabe has an essence of a village in Japan. Its train station, which is called the KiiTanabe Station, looked very rural and really old, quite like the train station I saw in Hakuba last year except that Hakuba's was far nicer and cleaner to me.

In Tanabe, residential areas looked somewhat unplanned and landuse pattern and design seemed hardly formed. So some areas looked really messy and dilapidated. Given the fact that the city is old, some places especially appeared quite eerie to me. Speaking of which, there were many homes that I came across that seemed uninhabited and left abandoned. Some (homes) even appeared not looked after, and for that I wondered if the abundant elderly residents in the area has to do with it all.

In Tanabe city, low-rise buildings and narrow roads filled the area. The city appeared quite like Liverpool Street in Hobart to me (except that the only difference, maybe, could be that Tanabe city looks Japanese, that's all). Tanabe city also seemed lacking in urban design. It had little characters to mark the separation of the city from its residential. When Kotaro drove us through the city for the first time, I was surprised to find an area pre-occupied with flats (assumingly Tanabe's uptown) just around the corner.



5. Thoughts post Tanabe

Overall though I thought Tanabe was quite alright. I find it a good place to see and maybe even live in, I don���t know. But certainly Tanabe was very far from Japan���s core areas and so little traversed by travelers. But for that too I felt good having been to Tanabe. Thanks to Kenji and Kotaro for making it all possible for me to be there.

Spring in Japan 2008 - Koya-san

In Koya-san

On my second day in Wakayama prefecture, I went to visit Koya-san. It was spring then but I did not come across any cherry blossoms there. They said the cherry blossoms in Koya-san appear about a month later than at the foot of the mountain. And so Koya-san was still wintry when I got there but I hadn���t expected it to be really cold at that time.

Not knowing it would be chilly on Koya-san, I remember deliberately leaving my jacket behind in the car before exploring the Okunoin. I guess I was thinking that the jacket would be useless during the walk and that bringing it around the cemetery would simply be a hassle. But I was wrong. It was especially cold in the Okunoin and I had ended up shivering the entire time I was in the graveyard.

To be honest though, the walk in the Okunoin wasn't very enjoyable to me as my thoughts was with my jacket throughout. Stupid I know but I didn���t bother go back to the car to get the jacket either all because the graveyard was damn massive and I was by then deep in the forested cemetery already! Read on...

1. Orientation
Sitting at the passenger rear seat alone as Kotaro drove the 4WD gave me opportunities to see the views from the windscreen and the two side windows of the car clearly. Having been used to seeing mountains in my stay in Tasmania, I found out that as much as the mountain sceneries in Wakayama appeared typical, there were still some undefined differences in the mountains in Japan and this was certainly refreshing to me.

The drive up Koya-san was scenic no doubt. The mountain scenery, as I have mentioned above, was spectacular all through. Yet the journey was still somewhat daunting. The winding highway and its many sharp bends had caused continuous change of gear between accelerating and breaking of the car, and therefore frequent jerking of the vehicle, which had consequently made me feel sick and many times during the mountain drive had I felt like vomiting. But I survived.

During the mountain drive, I remember I could hardly imagine what Koya-san would be like as the surrounding area on the highway was very densely bordered by forest scarps. Despite the vast information I had gathered from my previous readings, the area surrounding the highway had left me thinking that Koya-san would be a place so forested and steep and that its tourists would have to clamber to see a pagoda placed so high up the mountain.

But the Koya-san that I arrived at was surprisingly an irregular plateau, placed in the heart of a deep mountain, and somehow quite well traversed by travelers (and therefore ���civilized���). It was also massive in land area and even bus services were made available for visitors to move from one part of Koya-san to another.

2. What is Koya-san?Well, for those who do not know it yet, Koya-san is a mountain of about 2800 feet above sea level. Other than its designation as a World Heritage Site, it is, as mentioned in farstrider.net, famous for three things: its concentrated Buddhist community, the 110 active temples there, and its vast graveyard.

In Koya-san, I found not only sacred sites and pilgrim routes, but also buildings of temples, lodgings as well as souvenir shops distributed all through.

The weather was fine when we arrived in Koya-san, and Koya-san seemed alive with big tour buses and abundant international tourists traveling around, perhaps the most number of foreigners I had seen in an area since my arrival in the country.

Seeing those international tourists however had made me wonder how long it took everyone else to get to Koya-san because it took us about two hours on the road to finally arrive at the site from our starting point at Tanabe in Wakayama.

3. Spending my time in Koya-san
In Koya-san, Kotaro, Kenji and I did only three things whilst we were there; we had lunch, visited the Okunoin Cemetery and checked out Kongobuji. Actually there were a lot more things to see and do than just the above-mentioned three in Koya-san but we did not have ���that��� much time to check out many things then. Not only was Koya-san really vast and needed time to explore even if it meant only a temple, but also, we were tired from both the checking out of places as well as the mountain-drive. So we stopped in at only two places and had lunch whilst we were there. Quite a waste I know but I guess we���re alright with it nonetheless.

3.1 Lunch
Our first stop at Koya-san was lunch at a Japanese restaurant. Kotaro, Kenji and I settled on a restaurant that was close to the Information Office. We didn���t bother look farther for restaurants because most eateries over there were rather expensive (we knew this after looking at a couple of cafes in the building) and some of the restaurants were even closed. So there was not much of a choice to even start with actually.

The restaurant that we were at served reasonable priced dish. My set meal cost about ��1050 (S$13.45), and that was apparently the most expensive meal amongst ours three. To add to that fact however, I didn���t finish my meal in the end but was saved by Kenji who ate up the rest for me. Oh, and my set meal was actually my first ever soba noodle, so that perhaps explains why I couldn���t finish it (I've never eaten a cold noodle dish in the entire of my life before!!).

3.2 The Okunoin Cemetery
After lunch, we spent the entire noon checking out The Okunoin Cemetery. The cemetery was just behind the restaurant so we didn't have to drive there. Well, you may be wondering why go visit a cemetery when neither of us had anyone we knew buried there. You see, the thing is, the Okunoin Cemetery in Koya-san is a prominent site. Buddhist pilgrims in Koya-san went there for religious purposes but we went there simply to check Japan���s biggest graveyard and very important place in Mount Koya out.

Like other cemeteries, the Okunoin cemetery had many tombs, graves and statues. It is said that people from all over Japan, who wished to be buried close to Kobo Daishi (the founder of Shingon Buddhism), lie there, including former feudal lords, politicians and other prominent personalities. Their graves line the approaches to Okunoin for several hundred meters through the forest. One monument that I saw was a kind of grave built to commemorate Japanese, Malay and Australian soldiers killed in the World War II in North Borneo.

3.3 Kongobuji
Our next stop was Kongobuji. Kongobuji was about 2km away from the entrance of Okunoin, so instead of walking there we went there by car. Kongobuji is the headquarters of the Shingon school and the residence of Koya-san's abbot. In Kongobuji we saw rooms with pretty screen paintings and a rock garden that looked like those you would probably have seen in Kyoto. Towards the end of our visit in Kongobuji though, we were invited to have tea and rice cakes in a hall (servings included in admission fee actually) where a monk working there was giving a live sermon.

4. Thoughts on Koya-san
In all, I thought Koya-san was pretty alright. It's a whole new discovery to me and the sights were quite captivating. But I guess I wouldn't go there for a second time because the journey to and from Koya-san was too long and winding.


*Still working on the post's references.*

References:

Data on Koyasan, The Story of Koyasan, Available [Online]: http://www.asunam.com/koyasan_page.htm

Koya-san Part III: The Cemetery, Welcome to Koya-san! Available [Online]: http://farstrider.net/Japan/Koyasan/Cemetery1.htm

Mount K��ya, Mount K��ya - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Available [Online]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Koya

Okunoin, Koyasan Travel: Okunoin, Available [Online]: http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e4901.html

Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range, Available [Online]: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1142

Spring in Japan 2008 - Osaka

OSAKA

Am glad I went to Osaka. Despite a terrible first impression of the city, I still had a lot of fun there. I also made some new friends and am hoping to stay in contact with them all. Currently though I am praying hard that I will be given opportunities to return to the same place again someday. Read on...

When I was planning this trip, I had really thought that leaving Osaka entirely out of the plan would be a good thing to do. This was as soon as I had agreed on including Kyoto as one of the cities we were going to.

I know it sounds rather ridiculous (leaving Osaka out when I started counting Kyoto in, I mean) as the two towns are located just next to each other. But leaving Osaka out would mean a bit more time for Kenji and I to spend in Kyoto. Well, at least that was what I was thinking.

But a mail from a former flatmate afterwards made me re-think about my decision. And that was when I changed my mind and included Osaka in my Spring in Japan 2008 mission.

Well, now that I have been to Osaka, I must say that it turned out to be a place I quite like as I probably had the most fun there. Despite my fairly short time in the city, I did quite a number of things and saw quite a number of places that I think I probably wouldn't have if not for Kotaro.

So thanks to Kotaro (my former flatmate) and perhaps also to Rika-san (his current girlfriend) for the effort in bringing us around. Those times have left me with great memories and now a lot of things to say about my trip in that lovely city.

1. Orientation

For a start though, we weren't supposed to be in Osaka at all on the very day we arrived. According to our plan, we were still supposed to be in Wakayama and arrive in Osaka only on the following day. But because we had in one way or another completed our mission in Wakayama earlier than schedule, we decided we should leave for Osaka sooner. So we were in Osaka on that fateful Saturday, and coincidentally that also meant an extra day for us to spend in the city!



Kenji and I arrived in Osaka on a Saturday afternoon. We arrived there by train after a 3-hour long journey, which we embarked all the way from KiiTanabe, a small town in the southwestern part of the Wakayama prefecture.

Wakayama prefecture is located on the Kii Peninsula in the Kansai region. It is apparently one of those places in Honshu that is not served by the shinkansen line. So the fastest way we could ever get to Osaka from Wakayama was by the express train service. Of course the express service was faster than the normal train (also called 'the local train') but we still had to put up with the long journey and only finally arrived in Osaka much later during the day.

But things were all good. Our journey turned out fine and we weren't lost in Osaka either. All thanks to Kotaro, my former flatmate (in Tassie), also an Osakan, who was with us throughout our travel in Osaka, and whose current flat we had just crashed at during our stay in Tanabe, Wakayama.


In Osaka though, we stayed for a period of 3 days and 2 nights. We were lodged in a business hotel (a hotel of Kotaro and Rika-san's choice) in a town called Tenma.

In Osaka, I spent my time in the good company of four local guys. They were Kenji, Kotaro, Rika-san and Kinya. With them I toured some of Osaka's favorite spots such as the Osaka castle and aquarium, and hung out downtown Shinsaibashi and Dotonbori where I saw Glico for the very first time and had Osaka's specialty, the octopus balls, from a famous stall on the street.

In Osaka too, Kenji and I stopped in at Kotaro's parents' place for a short visit. We were invited for dinner with the family on the very same night we arrived. That night, I remember, was a very honorable time for me ever meeting every member of the Kake family and dining in with them all. Anyhow all these will be mentioned below as I write an account of my travel in the city.

2. My First Impressions of Osaka

Sounds rather unfair I know but I had a very terrible first thought of Osaka as soon as I arrived actually. Probably because I had just pulled in from Tanabe in Wakayama, which was a fishing village, really countryside and less populated so I was quite disoriented at first. Osaka, which was a big city, really busy and very crowded had left me uncomfortable in my first few hours there.



I find Osaka quite Chinese-ish. Not only do some parts of the city looked like China, Osaka also appeared to have more Chinese-looking people around as compared to the other cities of Japan that I have been to.

Quite a number of women in Osaka whom I saw do not even look Japanese, I thought. They look more of women from other East Asian cities such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea and China and therefore have less of the typical Japanese look that you would probably have known/seen around.

Other observation on the people in Osaka would be on speech. The people in Osaka apparently spoke with a slightly different accent as compared to their fellow counterparts in the other parts of Japan. Some people had less formality in their speech but appeared more relaxed and approachable.

In Osaka too, I find that dressing up didn't seem to be a very big thing over there unlike in some other cities of Japan that I have visited. I actually saw, in my stay in Osaka, many people walking around in sports wear comfortably, something I don't really see in the other cities of Japan.

Having said all these however, I don't know if the people I am talking about here are original Osakans or just outsiders. I didn't stay there long enough to be able to tell the difference. So maybe I should just stop commenting on people in Osaka right about now.

3. Kotaro's Parents' Place



Kenji and I visited Kotaro's parents on the very same day we arrived in Osaka. Kotaro's parents live in Amagasaki (a town close to Osaka) so we had to take a train in order to get there. I was feeling disoriented still when we arrived (at their place) because I haven't had time to get some rest after pulling in (to Osaka) from Tanabe - I had just arrived when I had to leave Osaka once again, and that was right after check-in at a hotel in Tenma.

But despite all that however, things did go well, and I was so thankful for that. At Kotaro's parents' place though, I was introduced to every member of the Kake family before we dined for hours and hours and chatted over so many things that I quickly forgot that I was in an unfamiliar Japanese family home (and that I had, just a short time ago, met most of the members there).

Kotaro's family was filled with coy people, but they were certainly nice individuals nonetheless. Speaking of which, it was my very first time meeting every member of the Kake family (except for Kotaro's younger sister whom I met a couple of times in Tassie as she was living there too last time). Yeah, and so I found the visit a very honorable moment as I have never thought I would ever get the opportunity to visit and dine with a local family (other than Kenji's) in my visit overseas ever.

Kotaro's family was awesome and I had a fantabulous time over there. Saying goodbye to them was certainly hard and I had hoped that I could visit the Kakes again someday soon.

4. Osaka jou

Kenji and I visited the Osaka castle, or Osaka jou rather, on the second day that we were there. So from our hotel accommodation in Tenma, we trained all the way to Osaka jou-kouen to get to the castle. We were then in the company of Kotaro and Rika-san. Osaka jou was really massive, I thought. Not only was the building rather tall (as compared to some other Japanese castles I've seen) but also its total land area was really big.

The Osaka jou appeared somewhat popular amongst tourists. The four of us actually had to wait in queue for our turn to get into the castle and the queue was somewhat long. Despite packed with visitors, we still get to view all levels of the Osaka-jou. However, we didn't get to see all exhibits and displays in detail as there were just too many things to read and view and we had too little time on our side to do them all.

Outside the castle though were crowds of people, some gathered to see a busker perform, others just to hang out with their family and friends. In my wait for the caricature artist to finish painting a portrait of me and Kenji, I saw my first ever group of Singaporean tourists there. That was my first encounter of the people from back home since my travel in the country.

5. Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan



The crew and I soon left Osaka-jou for the Osaka Aquarium. But before we made our way to the aquarium, we actually dropped by Osaka bus terminal to collect another one of our crew, Kinya, who had then just arrived from Nagoya. So Kotaro, Kenji, Rika-san and me actually stuffed ourselves in a cab outside the castle to get to a bus station where we met up with Kinya and soon after headed for the aquarium together.

The Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan was reached after about 20 minutes of train ride from the Osaka Station. Located in a district near Osaka Bay, the Osaka Aquarium is situated just next to the Tempozan Harbor Village Ferris wheel. Outside the aquarium though was a large area 'home' to street art performers like the buskers.



Said to be one of the largest aquariums in the world, we spent about an hour and a half of our time exploring the walk-through aquarium. The Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan had several habitats and marine life on display. Amongst them was a large and very captivating tank that held a variety of fish including a manta ray and a whale shark.

I personally think the aquarium was quite different from the Nagoya Port of Aquarium, which I went to with Kenji and Izumi last year. Dissimilar to the Nagoya Port of Aquarium, the Osaka Aquarium seemed less extraordinary in anyway to me as it had only tank displays of marine life. But seeing the marine life in them was nevertheless refreshing. And like what some of my guy friends would probably have said to me (this has got nothing to do with the marine life though), the Osaka Aquarium is a good place to go to with a guy. And I was there with three guys and another girl. In all, I had a great time at the Osaka Aquarium.

6. Shinsaibashi & Dotonbori

The 5 of us also went to Shinsaibashi and Dotonbori of Namba district on the same evening. Shinsaibashi was alright to me, I thought, but Dotonbori was certainly awesome. It also reminded me greatly of Shanghai. The crew and I spent quite a long time at the Dotonbori Gokuraku Shoten-gai in the Sammy EBISU Plaza where we also got ourselves dressed up in the Dai-Osaka era costumes and had a professional photo taken (photo not posted on blog though). Anyhow check out the photos below.

All in all, I guess I am glad that I went to Osaka. Despite my very brief stay in the city, I had a whole lot of fun there. And as I have said above, I made some new friends in Osaka and am hoping to stay in contact with them all. I was just wondering though, wouldn't it be great if I was given another opportunity to visit Osaka again? Well, what can I say, I pray really hard that it would happen someday.