Archive for the ‘Japan’ Category
Early to rise and have breakfast we left the hotel at 7 and took the subway to Namba station we boarded the Rapi:t train to Kansai airport (KIX). It only took 10 minutes to check-in (we tried online but the system refused to change our seats). We strolled this modern airport untill it was time to board the Finnair A-330-300 for Helsinki. We arrived on time, went through security (again) and crossed the border into the EU. An Airbus 319 took us straight to Brussels where we arrived as scheduled. 22 hours after leaving our Osaka hotel we opened the door of our home that we closed 28 days ago.
A short high speed train ride brought us to Kobe. From Shin-Kobe station we took a loopbus to Meriken park where we first went up the Port Tower which, for a reason unknown to us, was free that day. On the other side of the park is the memorial for the 1995 earthquake that devastated the city. A part of the destroyed quay is kept as reminder of the strength of the quake. We walked through the center of town and visited the Earthquake museum where a lot can be learned about the big Kobe earthquake and what is being done to prevent major damage in case a tremor strikes again. We also learned that Japan is prepared for earthquakes and that all is being done to start restoring critical infrastructure as fast possible. A 2 Km walk brought us back to the station where we returned to Osaka on another Hikari train.
After breakfast we took the subway and high speed train to Himeji Castle, a 30 minute and 100 Km ride. Himeji Castle is on the Unesco World Heritage list and one of Japan’s top tourist attractions. Like Osaka Castle it has 5 stories but on the inside there’s 6 stories. From the top visitors can see the castle ground and the area around Himeji. Next to the castle is a Japanese garden with typical plants, trees and ponds with bridges. About 500 meter away is a park on a hill from where there’s a fantastic view of Himeji Castle. If it weren’t for the geocache hidden on the top we might have missed this spot. We were at the trainstation just in time to board the Kodama high speed train back to Osaka. We also bought an English language newspaper with all the information about yesterday’s earthquake. These pages are going back to Belgium with us.
We saw on the TV news that there was damage from this mornings earthquake, part of a major highway was swept away and roof tiles fell from many houses. Also the high speed Shinkansen and Nozomi trains were affected. All this about 300 Km from Osaka where it’s mostly the tourists who were a bit “shaken” by this mornings quake.
We took the train to Nara were we made a walking tour of Nara Park. The whole park had free roaming deer, believed to be messengers from the gods, trying to get food from the many visitors. Kofujuki is the first temple with 50 meter high 5 storied pagoda we visited. A 10 minute walk brought us to Kasuga Taisha Shrine along a path with 2000 lanterns. Inside another 1000 hanging lanterns can be seen. This temple is on the World Heritage list as is the Todaiji temple, the largest wooden structure in the world, where a 15m high Buddha greets visitors. A walk through Nara Machi, the oldest neighborhood of Nara got us back to the station where we took the “rapid” train to Namba station in Osaka.
5:07 in the morning….. Earthquake again. It seems it was a strong one, 6.4 near the epicenter but moments later we could see that in Osaka it was measured 2-3. It lasted very long as we were woken up by it and it continued after we were awake. In contrast to the one on sunday evening this time we heard things move a little in our room. Now it’s time to get some breakfast and get on the road again….
The day started with rain as we took the subway to Osaka castle. We were glad that we could visit the exhibition inside so at least we stayed dry for a while. From the top of the castle there’s a nice view of the city. After our visit we went back to the subway and went to Umeda station near our next “target” the Floating Gardens. By this time it stopped raining so we went up the 2 buildings that are connected with an donut shaped observation platform at 170m above the ground. There’s a small exhibition and restaurant and open air viewing from the very top. When we came back on solid ground we took another subway to Dotombori, a shopping street with typical small stores and neon advertising. We had dinner here before walking back to the hotel through another long covered shopping street.
It rained when we got up and looking at the weather map on TV it was the same over most of Japan so we took a taxi to the station that was only 800m away. We were too early at the station and took an earlier Limited Express train than planned. 70 minutes later we were in Kokura. We had reservations on the high speed Hikari almost an hour later but we saw on the screens that an earlier train would arrive a few minutes later so we boarded that one instead. A short subwayride later we arrived at our Osaka hotel. After check-in we went to the Tenjimbashi 2.6 Km long roofed shopping street. This is the longest shopping street in Japan. That evening we had dinner in the Hard Rock Cafe just 2 blocks from our hotel. While we were preparing for tomorrow’s outings and checking e-mail we noticed a slight movement that continued for more than 30 seconds. It took us a few moments to realize it was an earthquake. Just 2 minutes later we found the Japanese meteorological agency had the quake listed already. It was a long distance away and with a strength of 6.9 at a depth of 340Km it was felt in most of Japan. In Osaka it was rated at 2 on the Richter scale (it was a 4 in the Tokyo area). I’m sure that if we would have been outside that we wouldn’t have noticed anything.
Today we take the bus to hell, 8th hells that is. Beppu is known for its underground volcanic activity that results in hot springs all over the area. Eight of these springs can be visited and have different specifics. There’s a blue pond, red and grey mud puddles and steam coming up between rocks. After the hells we took a bus up to Tsurumidake ropeway station and up to the mountain in the cable car. Fortunately the few clouds cleared enough to see Beppu 1375m below us. At the top there are several shrines where Japanese people go to pray for specific things (fortune in education, love, work….).
We took the ropeway and bus down again and stopped at the Global tower, a special shaped building with an observation platform at 100m above the ground.
We had a “special” breakfast this morning as the hotel prepared a Western style breakfast for us. The taxi we asked for arrived 10 minutes early and as hotel staff waved us off we were on our way to Aso station where we had reservations on the Limited Express train to Beppu.
When we arrived in our hotel the staff seemed surprised to see us and took a good look at the confirmation mail we had with us. There clearly was a problem but no one told us what it was and they let us fill in the check-in form and stored our luggage. Soon we were on our way to Takasakiyama natural zoo where a colony of more than 1200 Japanese monkeys roams freely.
We went to Mount Aso today. We took the bus across the road from the hotel under a sunny sky. 40 minutes later we were on the ropeway to the top of the Mount Aso caldera in the rain. At the summit 3 of the 4 walkway areas were closed because of the volcanic gasses from this active volcano. We could see the fumes rising from the crater but because of the rain we could stay long. We even had to go into the concrete shelters, normally used when there’s an eruption, to get out of the rain. We went back down the ropeway and took the bus down to the Aso Volcano museum. On the screens here we could see real time seismic measurements of the volcano clearly showing the activity. While waiting for the bus back to Aso station the clouds and rain cleared a few times so we could see the volcano from a distance but the top remained in the clouds.
