Blogs from Mie, Japan, Asia

Heute verließ ich nach dem Frühstück schon kurz nach 09:00 mein Hotel und fuhr mit der U-Bahn zum Bahnhof Osaka Namba. Dort dachte ich eigentlich, dass ich gültige Tickets nach Ise im Internet gekauft hatte, aber das Personal meinte, dass ich nochmals eine weitere Fahrkarte kaufen soll. Später erklärten englische Durchsagen das gleiche, so dass das wohl stimmt. Die Fahrt dauerte knapp zwei Stunden und am Ziel angekommen nahm ich den Bus nach Ise-jingu (Äußerer Schrein). Von dort war es aber noch ein ganzes Stück zu laufen. Es ist einer der heiligsten Shinto-Schreine in Japan und leider durfte ich von ihm selber kein Foto machen. Zum Bahnhof zurück nahm ich aus Zeitgründen ein Taxi, fuhr danach wieder knapp zwei Stunden nach Osaka Namba und erreichte mein Hotel danach problemlos mit der U-Bahn. Abends aß ich dann ... read more

Saturday was a late start because the sword shop didn’t open until 10. I headed down there at about 10:30 and realised that I had walked right past it last Monday! To be fair though, it was right across the road from Nijo castle which had my attention at the time. The shop was very small, but when I arrived there was nobody else looking at the swords. The lady had very little English but we managed to communicate well enough. On display they had a range of swords, from genuine samurai swords (for $10,000+) to replicas. Needless to say, I was looking at the replicas. Not just because of the price, but also because it turns out that genuine swords require a lot of paperwork to export – mostly to ensure they are not national ... read more

Anyone who has ever seen or read about the ninja adventures of Naruto Uzumaki has certainly seen an episode featuring Choji eating copious amounts of meat at the yaki niku restaurant. For the rest of us, 焼肉 (Yaki Niku) literally translates into “grilled meat” and it acts like an open fire version of fondue in the States. It’s rather expensive, and time consuming, so the restaurants are usually large with several compartments that can be open or shut off with sliding wood doors. The smells of seasoned charcoals and grilling meats greets you as you enter the door, The restaurant we visited was set with large, traditionally styled rooms. You removed your shoes at the door, and then walked around barefoot on the cold wooden floors. Once we were called to eat, we were shown to ... read more

(Blogged on the 11th of December but entry posted under the 9th of December - dates have been adjusted accordingly.) We were recommended to go to the Ise Shrine by my Japanese tutor. It is apparently the oldest shrine built by the first emperor (I am recalling this from memory) and is always visited by every subsequent emperor. That literally took up the whole day before we headed to another temple - the Osu Kannon temple in Nagoya before calling it a day. First we had breakfast in one of the restaurants in Nagoya station. I was pretty shocked to discover that smoking was allowed in the restaurant which was air-conditioned. Ash trays were provided on every table (they were very clean - must have been scrubbed with hot water) and i found it peculiar to ... read more

I've wished so many times this travel could come true, and here I am. I've been 21 days in Japan. I took my plane from Paris and landed on the morning at Kansai airport, near Osaka at 8h30 am more or less. The flight's 11 hours killed me but I was enough strong to go to Matsusaka, in Mie prefecture were my japanese friend lived and where I was supposed to stay on my first week. Matsusaka is a calm place. I had the opportunity to live in a Japanese style house with a japanese family. The dad collected a sort of strange bugs with long legs. I hate bugs but I have to admit that they made a very beautiful sound at night. Looked like little bells. The mum gave me breakfast every morning. She ... read more