hoshisato
Hoshisato Joined: March 13th 2008
Logged in: January 1st 2012
Logged in: January 1st 2012
Travel Blog Posts
Stone lanterns at the Kasuga-taisha
Introduction Quite often, first time visitors to Japan are directed towards Kyoto as it does have the more famous sights. I can only blame myself, but I also fell victim to this and visited Kyoto three times and I enjoyed the sights a lot and continued to put Nara off as a second rate Kyoto and never went there as more important sights were left to explore elsewhere. When I finally made it to Nara, it was like a revelation: Instead of rushing from one side of a typical urban Japanese town to the other to catch the sights like in Kyoto, everything was located in or around Nara Park and the sights in Nara are first class, no matter what people might tell you. We were lucky, as it was a gloomy November day, the ... read more
Bath at Yunohira Onsen Town
Yunohira Onsen Town (湯平温泉) is a picturesque small town on Kyushu about 20 minutes by train from Yufuin on the JR line that connects Oita with Yufuin. A bus service operates between the Yunohira train station and the town and only takes a couple of minutes. The town slopes along the river with many small cobblestone roads, boardwalks and bridges. Yunohira 's hot springs have been valued as curing water for the stomach and intestines for many years. Many of the locals do not have bathing facilities in their homes and use the onsen as public baths which gives us a great chance to bathe with the friendly people of the village after their return from work. I recommend a stay there as the town is magical at night. Check here for more onsen tips.... read more
Two Shinto priests are using a bow drill to light a fire while two others are trying to keep them out of the strong winds.
Every October 24, on top of Mt Komagatake in Hakone, the Goshinkasai Motomiya Reisai festival takes place. It is an important festival for the Hakone shrine and it consists of lighting a fire of which burning coals will be distributed to all related shrines in the area. This year, the top of Mt Komagatake was covered in clouds which gave a special feel to this matsuri. In the photo to the right, two Shinto priests are using a bow drill to light a fire while two others are trying to keep them out of the strong winds. Once the torch was lit, the Guuji (head priest) of the shrine brought it to the pyre and light it. The ceremony continued with a miko dance and offerings of sasaki branches and prayers. By this time the pyre ... read more
Sanboin Shukubo
Shukubo experiences at Mount Koya, or Kōya-san (高野山), have been described in this forum more often, but I enjoyed my stay so much that I feel obliged to describe my own experience. The Okunoin Cemetery, Kongobuji Temple with the Banryutei rock garden and the area around the Konpon Daitō which make up the main sites in Mt Koya all are fabulous and have all well deserved entries in this forum and therefore I want to focus mainly on our temple lodging, or shukubo, experience. We had booked the Sanboin shukubo which has a 1200-year history via their webpage and arrived early in the morning, dropped off our luggage and headed out to see the sights. We returned around 4PM, the check-in time and were shown to our room by a monk. The room turned out to ... read more
Sogi Sui spring
We took the JR Hida line from Nagoya to Mino-Ota to change to the non-JR Nagara-gawa Railway; if you come from Gifu, you should take the JR Takayama Main line till Mino-Ota. Your JR Japan Rail Pass is no good on the Nagara-gawa line and you'll have to buy a ticket on the platform at the machine. The train meanders left and right of the Nagara river and the views over the river are beautiful. From Gujo-Hachiman station most of the town is at walking distance or a short taxi-ride away. When you finally get to walk around in Gujo-Hachiman, you'll discover that Gujo-Hachiman is all about water: From the Yoshida, Nagara and the Kodara rivers, and canals to the renowned water springs. During the famous Gujo Odori festival, which takes place from the middle of ... read more
Kuroyu onsen
Located in Akita Prefecture and no train station really close by, Nyuto Onsen is not the obvious choice for the tourist in Japan. However, if you developed a taste for onsen and want more, Nyuto Onsen is the place for you. Listed in Robert Neff's book Japan's hidden hotsprings, Nyuto Onsen might be different from what you would expect: No glossy swimming pool type baths and fancy ryokans, but ramshackle wooden buildings and perfect rotemburo (outside baths) instead. Ever wondered what onsen looked like in the time of the samurai? My bet is that it looks a lot like the baths found in Nyuto Onsen today. The best place to stay is probably Tsurunoyu Onsen (red point on map) where the guest rooms actually are 350 years old samurai guard quarters, but it is often fully ... read more
Vík í Mýrdal
Day 1 Ever since reading Desmond Bagley's Running Blind, I have been fascinated with Iceland and in the summer of 2006 I finally had the chance to book the trip I wanted. We flew from Heathrow to Kevlavik, were collected at the airport by a taxi, checked into our guest house in Reykjavik and reported to the travel agency to collect the details about the trip. A series of guest houses around Iceland had been booked for us and the details of the trip were discussed in detail. Soon enough we stood outside and found a nice restaurant where they served the most delicious lamb with roasted potatoes, a first taste of a dish we would encounter many more times on this island. The next morning we collected our rental car, a tiny Chevrolet, and we ... read more
Taishoike pond
Taisoike pond - a photographer's dream We had taken the bus from Takayama JR station to Kamikochi and got off in front of the Taishoike Hotel where we had reserved a room in advance. Typhoon #9 of 2007 had just passed over the area and the weather was just getting better. The hotel was the usual small Japanese room but it had a pleasant surprise in the form of a nice view from the communal bath and an excellent dinner from a table with the same breathtaking view over the Taishoike pond. The next morning I woke up around around 5AM and after I took a look from the window, I grabbed my photo gear and took some of my favourite photos from the hotel room window. We got up and dashed outside where the first ... read more
Tawarayama Onsen
Section 3 Later that day we continued our trip south via the JR Sanin Honsen line via Masuda where we changed trains to Nagato and finally said goodbye to the JR Sanin Honsen line that had brought us all the way from Kyoto. The scenery from the train was still very dramatic when the train passed close by the sea. From Nagato we took the bus to finally arrive in Tawarayama Onsen which had been the main target for us. It is virtually unknown onsen town, a backwater literally, with great baths and nice ryokan. I had the feeling that not many foreigners had preceded me here as people would stop to look and an old man almost fell off the roof trying to catch a glimpse of us. This had also a drawback as they ... read more
Izumo Taisha
Section 2 The next morning we got up early at 6 o'clock to be able to catch the early train from Kinosaki to Tottori. The courtesy bus was not running at that time and the people from the ryokan were very kind and drove us to the train station to catch the first train on the JR Sanin Honsen line. Quite a lot of high school students got on as well and it was amusing to see how the boys got their pocket mirrors out and started fussing with their hair endlessly while the girls just chatted away appearing much more masculine than the boys. It was quite windy and the JR Sanin Honsen line passes close to the sea and the occasional peek of the sea with the spray from the waves battering the black ... read more
