Japan three most scenic views (日本三景) #2 Itsukushima shrine (厳島神社)

One week after Amanohashidate I visited hiroshima for 'nihon sankei' #2;  Itsukushima shrine in miyajima, hiroshima prefecture. It was supposed to be a 2 days one night trip, but because november-december is high season for tourist visiting japan we couldn't find ourselves a hotel room so we decided on a one day trip, beside the main attraction of this prefecture is the miyajima where the shrine located :p

Actually I visited this shrine 3 years ago when I first arrived in Japan, but i was so unfortunate that the toori gate was under maintenance so they covered it. I promised to come back again and I did. I visited others hiroshima attraction during my first visit such as the atomic bomb museum, so this trip is solely for the sake of that Toori gate. To hiroshima from Osaka is not cheap (at least for student like me); return shinkansen ticket are 17160 yen ( with student & return trip discount). Bus trip takes 5 hours and cost 5000 yen one way ( if I'm correct).

From Hiroshima station take the local train to Miyajima guchi station (410 yen) around 30 minutes, then from miyajima guchi station walk 5 minutes to the miyajima ferry pier; return ferry tickets are 360 yen. If you have japan rail pass you can get on the JR ferries for free. there are two ferries operator from this pier. It takes 5-10 minutes to reach miyajima pier. 

Beware of the deers!!! they are everywhere and very aggressive, especially when you have foods with you. Itsukushima shrine is a 10 minute walks from the pier, it was very crowded with local and foreign tourists when i visited. You can smell the grilled squid, oyster and other seafood along the walk which are very tempting.

The toori gate itself is breathtakingly beautiful, stand tall on the calm sea water. I approve this place as one of the japan's best views. We were blessed with a nice weather that day, which we found very rare, usually bad weather always accompany us in our previous trips. Admission fee to the itsukushima shrine is 300 yen (If my  memories serve me right). There is a ropeway to the top of the mountain which cost 1800 yen for return trip, We didn't take the ropeway, we thought that it is too expensive, we prefered to spend that 1800 on oysters.

After miyajima we went back to the hiroshima station to eat hiroshima style okonomiyaki, the famous local cuisine. this hiroshima style okonomiyaki differs from the osaka style is they use less fluor, more cabbage and a choice of noodles, soba or udon. I like the hiroshima style, I wish i bought some from hiroshima station.

Matsushima in sendai will be the next nihon sankei that I'm going to visit. I plan to visit in december 28th but I already have 2 winter vacation with friends in January to shirakawa go and kinosaki, so I will safe matsushima for spring or summer.

Read More

Japan three most scenic views (日本三景) #1 Amanohashidate- 天橋立

One of my goal before leaving Japan is to visit Japan's three most scenic views (日本三景), by the look of it I can accomplish this mission by the end of 2015. Last week I visited  amanohashidate which means 'bridge to heaven'. It is a sand bar at the sea of Kyoto, reading Kyoto many of you would thought that it'd be close to Osaka. But this one is the other part of Kyoto, it's a 2,5 hours bus ride from Osaka. one day trip is highly recommended, since not so many attraction in this area.

To view this sand bar, there are two view land from both ends, I went to the one near the amanohashidate station, return trip to the top with lift chair or monorail is 850 yen. I took the lift chair it's more interesting. At the viewing ground there are some bench facing the sand bar with instructions to stand on the bench with your back facing the sand bar then bent down and looking at the sand bar from between your legs. I tried this position but I didn't see it any difference from looking the normal way, but many japanse shouted 'kireii...kireii' when they did this position

I spent only 10 minutes at this viewing park, then went down to rent a bike and crossed the sand bar to the other side. Bicycle rental is 400 yen fro two hours, there are so many rental places that you can choose. Cycling is the best way to cross the sand bar, but if you have more time you can also walk leisurely. There are not many things to see at the other side, I wanted to go to the nairaiji temple, but it is located at the mountain and i was wearing the wrong shoes :p.

At 4PM I already back to shopping area, because my bus was at 16.45. Most of the restaurant are seafood restaurant, and the omiyage are all about kani (crab). I bought the kani miso ramen, it's very delicious. I arrived back at Osaka around 8.30 PM. 

I kinda like the solo trip I did recently, If i had to wait fro my friend to go with me I will never go anywhere. from now I will do most of my trip solo, Next week I will go to Japan most scenic view #2 itsukushima shrine in Hiroshima and at the end of the year i will visit Matsushima in Sendai.

Read More

Kawachi fuji garden (河内藤 園) ~ A Secret Garden in 北九州 (Kita-kyushu)

This is a 3 weeks late post. I've been caught up by my 'soon to be publish' paper, some new research project and a couples of academic conference right as soon as I finished my Golden Week vacation.

My friend and I had planned this trip since January, we wanted to visit the 河内藤

園(Kawachi fuji garden) in kita-kyushu to see the Wisteria tunnel. We saw the photo from the internet, it was beautiful. the flowers only bloom from mid-April to mid-May, Since my friend had to go back to Indonesia at may 11th, We decided to go to this garden during Golden Week.

We took a night bus for we both never experience it before but the most important thing is because it's the cheapest mode of transportation to go to kita-kyushu. We left Osaka at 22.00 on May 5th, the bus was very comfortable that we fell asleep immediately. We arrived around 7.15AM at Kokura station. If you go by shinkansen you need to get off at this station too. from kokura station take JR train to Yahata station It takes around 15-20 minutes to go to yahata from kokura. from yahata station there is a free shuttle bus to the garden. the shuttle bus goes to Ajisai onsen near the garden, from the onsen it'll only take 10 minutes walk to see the wisteria.

So here goes the silly part of this trip. As I mentioned there is a shuttle bus to the garden, but you can go to the garden with city bus too, you have to pay 240 yen. Since the shuttle bus is crowded wit local and some Chinese tourists, we didn't want to be cramped in a small bus with them so we decided to take the city bus. it turned out that the city bus stop 7 KM away from the garden and what we didn't know is that the garden located at a mountain, so yeah we have to walk (with a little bit of climbing) around 1 hour to reach the garden. That Long?..Actually if you walk fast and not distracted by the view you can get to the gaden by 30 mins. But it wasn't a mistake at all taking the city bus, since on our way to the garden there is this Kawachi reservoir, this a big lake  surrounded by the green hills.

 View along the sidewalk to the garden

 Kawachi reservoir

Kawachi reservoir

After 1 hour of walking we finally arrived at the kawachi fuji garden. Since it was golden week there were so many tourists and the admission fee were expensive too, we have to pay 1000 yen. 

Inside the garden, the view just beautiful not to mention the flowers smells good too, but be careful with bees. There were a lot of bees flying around inside the tunnel. the tunnel is about 500 M (not so sure if it's correct) and consist of not only the purple wisteria but also the white, pink and light purple color flowers.  Since it was crowded with many peoples taking a good photos were not easy. I made promise to come again next year during weekdays so I can get a good photos.

The wisteria tunnel

purple color wisteria is the main flowers

in this garden

The pink colour wisteria

The wisteria tunnel as seen from outside

We left the garden at 2PM, before going to hakata city we paid a visit to the kokura-castle. It is a small castle 5 minutes walk from JR nishi-kokura station. After that we walked around 20 minutes to kokura station, then took shinkansen to Hakata then check in to the our hotel.

Kokura castle

Honestly 1 day was not enough to explore kita-kyushu. There were so many places I wanted to see. I will surely comeback and visit again next year. And next year I will save more money so I can take shinkansen/airplane to Kyushu. despite the bus was comfort enough, still I want to sleep and rest well at night. 

continued on next post....

Read More

吉野山 A world Heritage

One of my favorite place in Japan beside kyoto is 吉野山 which is located in Nara (奈良) perfecture. I went last year for Hanami and I went again this year. The whole area is a world heritage but i guess not many peoples know about this place. Yoshino-yama is known as one of Japan's best sakura spot. There are around 3000 sakura trees and they were planted from 1300 years before. 

It is 1,5 hours train ride from kintetsu-abenobashi station in Tennoji with local train, even if you take the limited express train the arrival time difference is only 15 minutes but you have to pay extra 510¥. You might wanna go to the toilet before you get on the train. It's a boring train ride, if you're the type who can sleep in public transportation then you might not have a problem with a boring train ride. The yoshino yama station is the final destination of the train, you might see yoshino-guchi station before you arrive at the last station but that is not the correct station to this area.

The area is divided into 3 parts 下千本、中千本、上千本。The yoshino city is located at the 中千本, the middle part of the mountain. You can find hotels, ryokans, restaurant and souvenirs shops in this area, some temple also located inside the town.

Last year when i visited this place it was during the peak of the sakura season, all the flowers were fully blossomed. The view from the 中千本  was just dreamy. But this year i came too early, most of the sakura trees had not fully bloomed, sime were just about to buds. 

From yoshino station you can take cable car or bus to the 中千本 area. Last year i took bus, but this year we took the hiking trails. The first destination was 如意輪寺, you have to pay 400¥ if you want to enter the garden. Inside the garden they have a budhist museum, a weeping sakura tree and a pagoda.

From 如意輪寺 we climbed even higher to reach the top of mountain. We wanted do it the extreme way we didn't take the main road, we climbed the river until we met the hiking trails that lead us to the top of mountain. After 30 minutes of climbing we reached the 高城山 observation deck, since most of the sakura hadn't bloomed yet the view is less dreamy, but still very beautiful. 

We went down to the city from the top, we stopped at one of the picnics area to ate lunch before continuing our journey. We saw many couples doing hanami at the picnic area. In the city we visited several temples, I totally forgot the name of the temples one of them is 吉水神社. 

We took cable car on our way back to the station. Because we had to catch the train that leave at 16.07 or we had to wait 30 minutes for the next train. Everyone including us were looking very tired inside the train, some were seen sleeping on the train.

Even though i couldn't see the fully blossomed sakura this year, i satisfied with this year visit because i reached the top of the mountain. It was something i failed to achieve last year. I recommend this place for tourist who want to visit japan in spring. You can do one day trip to this mountain.

Read More