Nara 奈良- Kyoto 京都 - Kobe 神戸 - Endearing Japanese Cities
Posted On Saturday, October 22, 2005 at at 12:29 AM by Alvin
Just over an hour's train journey outside Osaka, lied the three most traditional and interesting Japanese cities: Nara, Kyoto and Kobe.Nara (奈良) had a relaxed atmosphere with many peaceful park areas, intriguing temples and ancient village alley ways. A side note, believe it or not, the Japanese Space Agency was located in this ancient and lovely city as my colleague from Italy was stationed here for a year.
Kyoto (京都) had numerous temples which were world-famous such as the Kinkokchi and luckily there were buses that could take visitors around this lovely city. We could easily spend another 3 days here to fully explore and get to know Kyoto properly as the city was deceptively village-like with its peacefulness and quietness; but in actual fact, it was a very large city with 1.5 million inhabitants.
Kobe (神戸) lied right by the sea, it was very modern and many buildings had been resurrected after the horrible earthquake in 1994 and there was an interesting "Foreigners Hills" at the nearby hill sides of Kobe. We walked along the port side and found Kobe to be a very active container port with busy cargo ships coming in and out of the harbour. The "Foreigners Hills" was interesting and original as many buildings were designed according to the styles of the originating countries; so there were Dutch village houses, miniature German castles as well as French Chateaus !
As it was Autumn, we also took a train out to Arashiyama (嵐山) where there were maple leaves aplenty and the area was so colorful with maple leaves turning all shades of green, purple and amber. Arashiyama was around an hour's train from Osaka and the whole area smelt of Autumn freshness; it was a wonderful experience to listen to the sound of crushing leaves with every step we took on our walk in this beautiful countryside.
And a big round of applause (clapping sound here) for Mandy, as she had become the true mathematician in decoding the complex and wondrous Osaka train timetables to get us to these cities !
The Kyoto train station was clean and modern. The train station had a futuristic design and offered a glimpse of the "Blade Runners" film set. We had a spot of leisurely afternoon tea at the cake shop located at the middle levels of the train station and enjoyed the view very much before we boarded the train back to Osaka. Thanks Mandy, you're a hero !
Lost In Translation - Osaka 大阪
Posted On Tuesday, October 18, 2005 at at 12:25 AM by Alvin
Lots of people, miles of shops, modern facilities, fantastic neon lights and yummy Sushi was a good summary of the city of Osaka (大阪). Oh yes, and getting lost five times a day in Osaka made exploring this city that much more thorough (honest). But really, Osaka had lots more to offer - we walked till we dropped along the famous shopping Shinsaibashi (心齋橋), Namba (難波) and Dotonbori (道頓堀) areas, yeh, all 5 KM of these dazzling shops, above and below ground ! We thoroughly enjoyed our climb up the Osakajo Castle (大阪城天守閣) which had a vantage point up a hill overlooking this busy city. We feasted on fresh sushi bought from the Kuromon Ichiba (黒門市場) market each evening just before closing times and got a real bargain ! We marvelled at the general organised chaos that was Osaka and yet found a calmness and politeness in the city's peoples and drivers alike - perhaps a case in point of the art of Zen at work in this very agreeable city !
