Video collections

Just a quick link to two videos I recently made out of the trip. One for march, one for april.


March 2013

April 2013

Kyoto part 3(of 3) + final musings

Uhhuh. I so have left this for too long. Sorry about that.

Anyway. After two days in Kyoto and having walked more than I have ever walked in such a time frame my feet hurt and legs were stiff(getting up from Futon in morning was interesting exercise to begin with!).

Something to mention about the Ryokan I was in that it actually had small garden inside the building with bridge going over it and all. Nice touch. Probably was rather expensive addition seeing how pricey simply space is in Japanese buildings...So dedicating even this small area to garden was probably quite an investment.

 Also some nice paintings there.

 After eating breakfast and checking out of the Ryokan paying the bill I headed for one more thing in Kyoto. I wasn't feeling like walking that much so cut down plans a bit and headed sooner than expected to home(though as it turns out timing wise it was okay decision as it is. It takes time to go from Kyoto to Tokyo, Shinkansen or not!). So I went for the famous(though according to the French person overhyped. He prefers the silver one and I actually agree on that part) golden temple. So taking a bus I got to the temple pretty easily. I should have used bus day before for sure!

Above pictures were taken as I approached the place where the temple would be.

 And here's the temple. That's real honest to god gold plating over the temple. Not paint but (thin) layers of gold. Wonder how pricey that much gold would be? Must be some good security here even if this is in Japan! (and certainly tourists can't get within touchin distance of the building. Nevermind the first floor is not gold plated).

 Temple was surrounded by this big lake. Nice position for sure.

 And that's the thing on top of the temple.

 That lake is REALLY nice addition. Perfect location for the temple.

 There was path going around the temple with for example this little waterfall in there.

With this it was time to head back to the station. Finding correct bus took bit more work but eventually found it and then it was easy trip to Tokyo. I had bit of time for Shinkansen so spent it investigating Shinkansen timechart to compare "stop at every station" Shinkansen and Hikari shinkansen. Turns out eventhough slower one left sooner it would have been about 40 minutes later in Tokyo so wanting to get to home as soon as possible I waited for the next Hikari.

And with this ends chronicle of my trip to Japan. 2 months in there and at the end I felt very "home-like" there. Last day before airplane was feeling more than melancholic and on the last day apart from annoyance of having to carry the luggage I felt sadness over having to leave this place. I could definitely have enjoyed staying there bit longer. Not forever as I would miss family(particularly little brothers and niece) eventually but 2 months still felt like too short of a time.

There's still one more thing for me to do related to the trip and that's to create photo book for myself for memories. Unfortunately I'm bad at selecting pictures and sorting them to good order so it's still in very much incomplete. Going to work over it on weekend hopefully.

And I'm definitely planning to revisit the country again. Luckily I'm soon starting new job so saving up money for the trip should be possible in a reasonable time frame! I'm hoping for 2014 but haven't decided on the season yet. Spring would be nice again to see the Sakura again(I miss them so much!) but would be nice to see another season and November was recommended to me by several Japanese.

November would also allow longer time to save up the money(do I have time to save up enough cash in 7 months? Salary won't be all that huge at least to begin with) but on the other hand it would be about 8 months more to wait! Argh! Decisions decisions. Well it's not something I have to decide any time soon. Around November-December I can look at how much I have saved(and current yen exchange rate) and do some estimations.

But for now this blog is over. Thanks for all the readers(even if comments were few! ;). Until mark 2 of this blog then!

Kyoto part 2(of 3)

Sorry about lack of updates. Last days in Japan I didn't felt much like writing especially with my slow computer that was giving particularly lots of trouble.

On Wednesday I left the Japan early in the morning, waking up 5 am to get to Shinjuku before the morning rush begins. Meant I had very long day(took 28 hours from waking to get to home in Finland) but at least I was able to get to train going to Shinjuku while it wasn't at all crowded.

Now back at Hanko and it feels even smaller place than before! Guess I'm suffering from some form of reverse culture shock. Definitely can't wait to get back to Japan. At least jet lag effect is smaller than I thought it would be.

Anyway here's next part of Kyoto trip. I'll post tomorrow(hopefully) final part and one more post looking back at the trip later.

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So next morning I woke, ate rather traditional Japanese breakfast that you can order(not standard part of the fee), took shower and headed out again. First step was bus to Ginkakuji(silver pavillioned temple). Was rather pretty place though temple itself has no silver. They ran out of money when building it! Bit odd seeing it was where former Emperor retired to spend life of a monk. Even Emperor's had to deal with lack of money eh?

After this following advice from the Frenchman I went for a little climb to Daimonji. That's place where they put up great bon fires during obon festivals that form up giant kanji meaning ”large”. There's other such bon fires forming up other shapes but this one is most famous and the one they ignite first.

Getting there took some 30 minute climb uphill which was quite an ordeal. If I had known I would be climbing I would have taken the more relaxed trousers for sure. These are not that well suited for climbing uphill. Mid route I by passed group of small kids led by couple adults so probably either kindergarden kids or elementary school students. Reaching the top I was stunned by the awesome, awesome, AWESOME sight I was able to see. Basically entire Kyoto. Wow wow wow. Well worth the climb so if you go to Kyoto do the climb. It's just short trip from the silver temple so you can combine the visits.

Peace was interrupted by energetic and cheerful laughter and shouting as previously bypassed kids arrived. Joked about that to the elderly couple who agreed that arrival of kids is easy to hear :D Where do they have that endless energy anyway? Adults were all huffing and puffing as they come to top and the kids were instantly all shouting and laughter.

After this again following advice of a the Frenchman I headed south(treating to myself vanilla/green tea ice cream) and seeing couple more temples. The place is so filled with temples! Half way I decided to abandon his advice. For one I had already been part of where he recommended me to go and for second the walking was starting to take it's toll and looking at map it looked like I was in for a loooong walk south still. So instead I headed toward west, went to Heian shrine and park next to it. Continuing then to west arrived to river, headed bit south, then crossed it, continued south and started to doubt where I'm at. Was trying to reach station I could take to north to go to Botanical garden. Then I ran into city hall and learned where I was. Bit of oomphing and I decided to abandon the train idea. ”Doesn't look that long trek”. Well it was LONG. By the time I reached the garden my legs were already in some pain. And the garden was big one. Don't even try to pretend I went through it all. Basically I circled the outer area leaving center mostly unchecked. Also checked the green house. Took lots of pictures but again don't pretend to having taken pictures of everything. There's 120,000 plants representing 12,000 or so species so that would require...Well thousands of pictures!

 Lots of temples in Kyoto!

 In park next to the above temple.

 What on earth THAT is doing in the park!

 Kyoto city hall.

 On my way to the botanical garden.

 Wasn't that small place either! Didn't see most of the center.

 Funny statue.

 At the green house. Was even warmer here than outside and outside was warm enough!

 Bansai tree area.

 The level of details these small trees had was pretty damn nice.

After this was done I headed first west and then turned south to street that took me first to the manga museum I had tried to go yesterday. Rather interesting place though didn't spend that much time there. My legs were positively in fire by now, I had not much interest to read manga there(I hate reading part of manga and then not able to finnish it and my manga reading speed is still bit poor) and I was mostly interested in the buildings architechture since until 1994 it had been school and I have been wanting to see inside of a Japanese school to see what it's like. Since school's ain't exactly tourist places this is about best I could do to satisfy that curiosity!

After this I returned to Ryokan and boy when I collapsed to chair in the entry hall my legs felt like they were bloody mess. Another customer actually asked if I'm okay because I was making rather painful voices. When I explained how much I had walked he instantly understood what I was going through. Last kilometers I had basically walked by sheer will and now it was all basically coming to surface. One reason I had not taken rest period in Manga museum was precisely that I suspected this would happen and wasn't too sure I could get myself walk again! As it was going to room was rather painful ordeal. Took quick shower and collapsed to futons as soon as I could unroll them.

Between yesterday and tomorrow walked about 18 hours in period of 30 hours. Including the climb to Daimonji. Using busses and trains WOULD be allowed you know...But nooo! I can't be bothered to figure out where I could get one that takes me to where I want to go. Also too stingy! Though to be fair as the French person said if you aren't careful you'll spend money like water here. Souvenirs(even if they aren't expensive ones) add up as do trips to temples and parks.