Byodoin temple - A world Heritage

One of my goal while living in Japan is to visit all of the world heritage sites (if possible) and Japan three great sceneries. This time is Byodoin temple (平等院) turn, which located in Uji city (southern part of Kyoto). Uji-shi can easily reach from Kyoto by JR Nara line or Keihan railway, It's 20 minutes train ride from Kyoto by JR rapid service train. 

Byodoin has been on my list since i came here, but because it's still in Kyoto so it's not my priority. I went to Uji yesterday to visit this famous matcha restaurant I reviewed before. I wrote a review about their branch store in Kyoto station, so I want to feel their main store in Uji. Byodoin is not that far from the restaurant so I decided to visit.

Phoenix hall at Byoudoin temple

It was 15 walk from the station to byodoin. The admission is 600 yen for adult, If you want to enter the phoenix hall you need to pay another 300 yen inside. Since it was summer holiday, it was pretty crowded. I know that Kyoto always packed with tourists, but this time it reached to the point where I didn't feel like i was in Japan. Inside the train that I rode from Kyoto to Uji, 90% were tourists; everyone spoke different languages.

Japan post box at Uji station

Phoenix hall is the the main attraction at byodoin, there are actually other building in this complex, but  the crowd made me not wanted to enter the other building. Inside the area there is a museum, but you can't take photo inside the museum. The museum is really nice, inside they keep the temple's bell, the old door decoration of the phoenix hall, some Buddhism statues and paints, and treasures. At the exit of the museum you'll find out why they are not allowing us to take photos, they sell the photo book (like a museum guide) with all the photo of the things they keep inside the museum, some post cards, and merchandise.

Phoenix hall and the lake from the left side

the right side of the phoenix hall

Not far from byodoin is the uji river with uji bridge and a small island in the middle of the river with a 12 stories stone pagoda. there are some people fishing and playing in the river (it was a hot day). We did enter the phoenix hall, we thought that we would see something like what we saw inside the museum. It's a worship hall so inside is only the gold painted Amida Nyorai seated statue and you can't take photo also they give explanation in Japanese. so if you want to spend 300 yen just to stand listening to Japanese your guide explanation then do so, I would not recommend to enter the phoenix hall.

Uji river from the uji bridge

One of the bridge at Uji river with stone pagoda

The view of uji river, surrounded by mountains

The 12 sories stone pagoda

 About the famous restaurant that I talked about at the beginning of this post it took a lot patience to eat at this restaurant. We wrote our name before we enter the phoenix hall around 12.30 pm, we came back to the restaurant after we enter the phoenix hall (2pm) and still we had to wait for 1 hour. We finally got seated at 3pm, I ordered the matcha soba set. I would recommend the matcha jelly, I don't really like the matcha jelly, but this place serves the best matcha jelly.

Uji matcha soba

we paid visit to Kawaramachi in the evening, we wanted to experience the terrace dinner at one of the restaurant along the kamo river side. Those restaurant they really suck your money. Some of restaurants only serve course menu when you want to eat at the terrace which range between 3500-10000 yen. We finally picked a restaurant with a reasonable food price, but once inside the waiter at the front door showed us some rules. In short their rules is they will charge 700 yen/person for the table, 500 yen/person for the appetizer and for every food you ordered you are subjected to pay consumption tax 8% and service charge 10%. we thought okay, we would just order some appetizer and drink water, we just wanted to feel the experience not the foods. Once we were seated we ordered two appetizers and ask for water, the waiter said that we have to order two drinks too, and you know a glass of oolong tea is 480 yen + 8% tax + 10% service, that's almost 600 yen for a glass of oolong tea.

In two week I'll go to Shirahama in Wakayama prefecture. It's a seaside area of Japan, heard that it has a nice beach with white sand that was imported from Australia. I didn't know that you could import a white sand beach.

Read More

出雲 (Izumo-shi) ~ A sacred place in Japan

Another conference in another city. This time I got a chance to visit Izumo-shi, I really don't know anything about this city, to be honest this is the first time I heard the name Izumo. It is located in Shimane prefecture on the japan sea coast and home for the infamous Izumo-taisha which is the oldest shrine in Japan. Nothing much to see in this city, You should go to other city like Matsue (the capital of Shimane prefecture) if you want more attraction. 

Izumo can be reach by plane or shinkansen. There are flights from Osaka(itami Airport) and Tokyo to Izumo airport. If you wish to go by shinkansen, you can take shinkansen until Okayama then from Okayama you can continue with rapid train(or bus) to Izumo-shi station (around 3 hours). I went by plane (around 25000円 return), only Japan Airlines (JAL) operates the flight to Izumo. Hotels are mainly located around JR izumo-shi station.

I wanted to visit other city like Matsue, but I only have short time. I stayed for one night and only managed to visit the shrine after the conference had finished. I arrived at noon 10.30, it was only 30 minutes flight from Itami airport (Osaka) to Izumo airport. 

Local Cuisine, yes this is my favourite part for each trip. Izumo is famous for its Izumo soba, and izumo soba is the first thing I ate when I arrived. From my opinion izumo soba is more chewy than others soba, taste wise is not much different, it tastes soba anyway. the most popular is this three stack of soba with three deifferent topping, I forget the japanese name for this menu (mariko soba~if I correct). Ah...I remember the soba soup in Izumo taste sweeter than others.

Izumo soba

The second famous local cuisine is a desserts "ぜんさい” (Zensai); mochi serves with Azuki (sweet red beans), It can be serves cold or room temperature. Since it was very hot and sunny when I visited the shrine, so I ordered the cold one. I don't really like Azuki honestly, too sweet for me. But this time with shaved-ice it wasn't so sweet at all. Both of the soba restaurant and the desserts cafe that I visited are located in front of the Izumo-shrine, near the starbucks. 

zensai

Izumo shrine can be reach by bus or train from izumo station or matsue station. I took the bus from Izumo eki that costed 470 yen, but if you don't pick the bus ticket when you get on the bus you have to pay 520 yen. It is 30 minutes bus ride and during the ride all you can see is wine yard or rice fields. I got off at izumo-taisha mae bus stop then walked about 10-15 minutes to reach the gate. 

The main gate to the shrine

 Walk again for 10 minutes, only by then you'll see the worship hall  with a straw rope hung across half of its length. I forgot to mention that along the road that approaching  the shrine you'll see the statue of okuninushi . 

Statue of okuninushi 

worship hall (small one)

Worship Hall, with the biggest straw rope hung across 

Behind the worship hall you will see the Main Hall which stand 24 meters tall, but my supervisor who came with me said that the original was higher than that. We can't enter the main hall but you can walk around the outer fence of the main hall then you'll see some small shrine/old building.

The main Hall

The gate to the main hall

One of the small shrine/house outside the main hall

 Behind the main hall you will see this cute rabbit statue in a various state. There is this mythology about Okuninushi and the rabbit. But they are really cute, I like the praying rabbit one.

After finished with the shrine, we walked 20 minutes to the old JR taisha station. This station was closed in 1990 but they keep and maintain the original building and turned it into a museum. It was creepy actually, they have this old locomotive that was built in showa 17th (japanese year) and used for 32 years. 

Short trip, but I am glad to have the opportunities to visit this grand shrine. Maybe if I don't have conference here, I wouldn't visit this shrine. I didn't know that it is a sacred shrine. My next conference is in Fukuoka for 3 nights 4 days in fukuoka. I went this may to Fukuoka, I'll try to visit places that is not popular tourist destination in Fukuoka.

~~Never let your memories bigger than your dreams~~ An inspiring quote I read today from IG user.

Read More

Nagasaki~A delayed post

three weeks ago i had an academic conference in Nagasaki. only me and my professor went to this conference, I was kinda worried that it would get really awkward and cold situation with him but turned it was quite a fun trip. 

We met at the Itami airport, He told me that he met a sales person from Nikon, and that we don't have to go to the conference venue by bus. It was a hot and sunny day in Nagasaki when we arrived. The Nikon's sales took us to eat lunch with them in a hotel up on a mountain where you can see the city and ocean while enjoying your food. I chose to eat the local specialty ちゃんぽん (chanpon), well chanpon it's actually originated from china. after lunch they took us to our conference hotel. It's an old big hotel located up on the hill, I can say that I don't like the hotel, but the food is really good.

Saturday afternoon at 12.30 PM the gakkai ended, time to see the city. First place we visited was the peace park. It's a memorial park for the Atomic bomb victims

From the park we walked 5 minutes to see a red-bricked church, I forgot the name of the church, and from there we walked again to the atomic bomb epicenter.

After finished with the atomic bombs tour we took the city street car to the megane bridge. megane means glasses in japanese and this bridge does resembles a glasses (as seen in photo below). I was very lucky that when i visited this city they have the Ajisai festival, ajisai or hydrangea is one of my favourite plant. There were various kinds and colours of hydrangea put near the bridge, just beautiful.

From the megane bridge, i went back to the nagasaki station to check in then rest for a while, before i continue exploring the city. After 2 hours of sleep, LOL! i went out to the Glover garden, a Scotland garden, it is located on top of the hills, but before i went there, I passed a ferry terminal and there i could see a very big cruise ship parked there. This is the closest i've ever been to the giants of the sea, if I'm not mistaken the ship's name was "Royal Caribbean". 

Back to Glover garden, it was a 15 minutes walk from the ferry terminal to the glover garden. There is a lift from that will take you to the garden. Honestly i don't really fancy this garden, i mean this is basically a european style garden with european style house. Went to the top of the garden, there you get to see the city and the sea. Other than the view from the top, i don't find this garden really fascinating. It was a wasted of 600¥,LOL!!!

On the way down from the garden i passed another church, this one is more famous than the first one i  mentioned above. Maybe because this one is located near the Glover park, but I like this white church more than the red-brick church.

The next day i didn't have many times left, wanted to go to the kyujukyushima (99 islands) but i woke up late and the weather was not good either. So i just visited the atomic bomb museum.

I didn't take many photos at the museum. I might have different view about the museum than others. I come from the country where we gained our independence due to atomic bomb, I myself don't agree with the use of atomic bomb by the US. There were this issue that bothers me,  that the japanese students/children aren't thought about the bad and wrong things their predecessor did during wars. All they were taught are that Japan saved the SE asian from the Europe occupation. When I visited the museum, I realized how good japanese are at making dramatic story, i almost cried hearing the narration from the radio that you can rent for 163¥. But then I remembered they were cruel and they don't want to admit their wrong doing during pacific war, so i feel relieved. Don't get me wrong, it's not that i don't feel the pain of the atomic bomb victims but during the pacific war somebody had to stop Japan. 

Overall, Nagasaki is not interesting city for me. I would suggest you visit this city if you have extra money. The flight from Osaka is quite expensive, return flight with ANA cost me 56000¥. Even though I don't like the city atmosphere, I feel glad to have experienced this city courtesy of my laboratory. My lab paid for the return flight and also the hotel. That's the good thing of being a desperate phd student. 

In two weeks I will go for another conference in Izumo at Shimane prefecture. Izumo is famous for the izumo shrine, the oldest shrine in Japan. I'll post the report later.

Read More