Alone in Japan with Nick Midgley

00:00 Intro
02:16 – Day 1: Tokyo
05:20 – Day 2: Tokyo
11:10 – Day 3: Tokyo & Yokohama
23:18 – Day 4: Kawagoe & Tokyo
30:46 – Day 5: Tokyo
36:11 – Day 6: Ikaho (Gunma)
41:42 – Day 7: Kusatsu
44:58 – Day 8: Shinkansen & Hamamatsu
48:20 – Day 9: Kyoto
55:47 – Day 10: Kyoto
1:02:50 – Day 11: Hikone
1:05:45 – Day 12: Osaka & Kobe
1:15:13 – Day 13: Nara
1:18:34 – Day 14: Osaka
1:24:20 – Day 15: Osaka
1:28:19 – Day 16: Himeji
1:35:46 – Outro

Arrived in Japan Monday 4th March 2024 and left Thursday 21st March 2024

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Japan is a country rich in Tradition
architecture crafts and pop culture
culture a country that can blend history
with the modern high-tech world for most
of my life many of my interests came
from Japan so after deciding to take up
the language one of the most difficult
to learn I decided to travel to the Land
of the Rising Sun alone to experience
the culture
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firsthand the flight tall Marine airport
Melbourne was an 8-hour transfer flight
to Hong Kong while I had been on many
flights before in the past either with
friends or family this was my first time
traveling
alone the transfer flight was followed
by a 4our flight to Hano airport in
Tokyo
Japan I was staying six nights at the
shba Park Hotel in manato area of Tokyo
let’s have a quick look inside my room
it was a nice hotel room it had
everything I needed even though I wasn’t
going to be spending much time inside
because i’ be traveling around a lot but
it was clean it had a large TV uh the
bathroom was also very nice as you can
see it even had a sophisticated Japanese
style toilet with all the buttons and
features but every hotel room I stayed
at had one
anyway there was even an art room just
around the corner for my
room every flooor had
one after spending some time at the
hotel I decided to check around the
local
area about a 5 or 6 minute walk from my
hotel was Tokyo Tower which is a popular
landmark in this
area Tokyo Tower is located in the
shibba Coen area and is a Communications
and observation t to that resembles the
Eiffel Tower I decided to check it out
this was my first activity since
arriving in Tokyo this 333 M structure
was completed in 1958 designed by
architect Tatu Nao who was taking
influence by the Eiffel Tower in Paris
and it became the tallest tower in the
world until 2012 when it was overtaken
by a Sky Tree also in
Tokyo I managed to take a really cool
photo where I did a bit of a pose that
represent Ed the Tokyo
Tower after that I had my first ever
Ramen experience it was not too
bad after getting lost for about 4 hours
I finally made it to toyosu to check out
team lab planets which is a modern arts
facility that utilizes digital
technology while you wonder through what
looks like an interactive art
experience e
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you
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spe
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This Was Then followed by night in aaka
which offers more of a traditional
experience of what Toyo once
was having struggled understanding the
train at work on my first day in Tokyo I
decided to spend my second day getting
used to taking trains around the big
city
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my first destination was
shabuya shabuya is one of the busiest
areas of Tokyo housing one of the two
largest train stations in the
world there were many shops in the
district including this guitar shop
which had seven floors there were some
really nice
guitars there were many claw machines
capsule machines and arcade areas I did
not play any of these games but it was
interesting seeing what some of the
prizes they had on offer however it did
start to get old after a while because
there was so many
I eventually made my way back to shuu
station even crossing the shabuya
scramble Crossing known as the busiest
pedestrian Crossing in the world this
led me to the Statue of hatcho the
famous AK dog who was remembered for his
loyalty to his owner waiting for him at
subia station from 1925 after his
owner’s death until his own eventual
death around 10 years later and then
jumped back on theack train to the next
destination which is Shinjuku another
busy District in Tokyo I got away from
the busy area and decided to check out
Shinjuku guen National Garden this large
Park area can be viewed for 500 yen
around5 Australian dolls it had a large
pond greenhouse and many trees including
um which are plum trees which at the
time I thought they were early blooming
Sakura cherry blossom trees
this was inside the greenhouse
I enjoyed my time at the Garden it was a
peaceful atmosphere and I took my time
walking around the whole
garden these trees were very popular
amongst tourists a lot of people are
taking photos next to them
next I had a Bento Box for
lunch after eating lunch I returned to
the train
station the next destination been haki
habala akih habala is another major
shopping district and is the epicenter
of shops that sell anything electronic
and pop
culture already up to this point I had
seen so many claw machines that sell the
most most ridiculous prizes from soft
toys to figurines real looking AK-47s
and chicken nugget key Rings nearly
every shop in Akihabara had at least one
section that had claw machines or an
arcade game section there were also so
many capsule machines where you could
try your luck of receiving small
collectible
toys I did not attempt either a claw
machine or a capsule machine I was just
happy to look around
there were shops that sold all kinds of
Pop Culture figurines such as Pokémon
dragon ball one piece
nello Godzilla Ultram man Super centa K
Rider Sailor Moon the list goes on there
was so many
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there were also anime and manga shops
but my favorite were the old retro video
game shops that’s all famic games super
famic Neo GI I even saw a 3DO console I
also saw games for the pcfx which was
only released in Japan I quite enjoy my
time here
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I then returned to the hotel feeling
satisfied with what I accomplished for
the day I spent the remainder of the
night relaxing and watching a bit of
Japanese TV
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today I planned on visiting Yokohama
which is in the Kanagawa
prefecture this was my challenge for
today however along the way I decided to
visit Tokyo Imperial
Palace the Imperial Palace is located on
the former site of Edo Castle the s is
now a large garden surrounded by Mo and
large walls that once guarded Edo Castle
Edo is the former name of Tokyo and was
the period between 1603 and
1868 the moment I entered the garden it
became evident they had come to Japan
way too soon in the
spring there was also a small room that
had a small scale model of what was once
Edo
Castle the castle was built in in
1457 however was sadly burnt down in
1863 this image was comparing the sizes
of both himei castle and Matsumoto
Castle I can imagine the real thing
would have been impressive to look
at after I had a decent look around the
garden I then headed for the exit and
then made my way to turo
station the journey South to Yokohama
was simple enough only taking
approximately 30 minutes to reach
Yokohama station with 3.8 million people
Yokohama is the second largest city in
the country in between Tokyo and
Osaka this is a huge train station the
fifth busiest in the world it also had a
shopping center inside including a
Pokémon Center I decided to check that
out
first there are plenty of Pokémon
centers around Japan but this is the
only one I’ve visited
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as I was walking towards Yokohama
Landmark Tower I saw the n and Global
headquarters to my left I knew that the
headquarters was in Yokohama but I was
still quite surprised to see it on my
way to Landmark Tower I went inside to
see a museum that had a variety of cars
from the classics to the futuristic
concept cars that we will never ever see
on the
road it did not take long to notice two
skylines there was a blue GTR and a 400r
I quickly went inside both of them
you for
this is not some place I expected to see
but I’m glad I did I had a got
time for
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after having a good look around I
continued on to the harbor area mat
marai Nichi meaning harbor of the future
there was a Japanese museum ship that
was built in 1930 was used as a training
vessel at the beginning of World War
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II the Clos Cosmo World amusement park
was another Main Attraction of the
harbor with its 100 m tall FIS wheel
which is formerly the world’s tallest
FIS wheel from 1989 to
1992 another place that was closed at
the time was Yokohama Museum of Art
which was temporarily closed for
renovation so I was not having much luck
with my time in Japan but what was
thankfully open was the Yokohama air
cabin so I decided to go for a ride
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the Yokohama lmar Tower is a 70 story
high tower with a shopping mall below
which I decided to check out for a
little
bit the shop that mostly interested me
was the LEGO Shop which has some
Japanese themed stuff including a
Japanese garden and a Himi Castle
fore
speech
spee e
again my 2 km hike to aen Bashi Warf
aan Bashi WF is not only a Passenger
Terminal for cruise ships but it’s also
a great place to walk around and
experien amazing views from the end of
the pier
speeech foree
is
from this point it started to get dark
and I only had about 10% battery life
left on my phone which I needed to help
get me back to the hotel so I started
ahead
back for
there were other interesting attractions
in Yokohama such as Chinatown and the
cup noodle Museum so maybe I’ll return
to Yokohama one day for a future holiday
I did enjoy my time in Yokohama very
much today’s location is K go in the sa
prefecture north of Tokyo his journey
was going to be slightly more difficult
compared to Yokohama
it would take slightly more time to get
there I thought this would be great
practice for when I eventually have to
travel to GMA prefecture from my next
hotel I also took my first Bus in Japan
it was not required but it was going to
save me some time cowo is a NATO period
Castle town and it also has the nickname
little Edo because it’s traditional
atmosphere there were some temples and
shrines in the area which had check some
of them
out for
at this Chopstick shop I bought some
chopsticks for 3,000 yen which works out
to be about $ 30 Australian dollar
perhaps the town’s main landmark
building is the bell tower called tokino
can when you look up photos of carago
this is the building you usually
see while in Japan I wanted to try some
food that is local to the towns or
prefectures that I visit this is what I
tried in carago potato chips made from
thin slices of sweet potato
I was really enjoying a traditional
atmosphere which is why I decided to
visit this
town
for
for for
here it was now time to head back to
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Tokyo Tokyo Sky Tree is a broadcasting
an observation tower from the moment it
was built it has been the tallest tower
in the world ever
since ascending the top deck was my next
activity of the
night next up is the to Sky Tree Tempo
deck floor 350
the Sky Tree can be a bit expensive so
it’s not for everyone however if you
would like the highest view of Tokyo
possible it is a Sky Tree that is going
to provide that
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today is my last day in Tokyo the last
couple of days I’ve been traveling to
other prefectures however my final day I
wanted to check out the remaining places
I wanted to see in Tokyo
first was the Tokyo
Dome the Tokyo dome is not only the home
ground for the baseball team the omo
Giants but it’s also a major venue for
concerts and other
sports my association with the Dome is
with pro wrestling with New Japan Pro
Wrestling hosting the annual wrestle
Kingdom every 4th of January the roof is
an air supporter structure that gives it
an egg looking appearance
but what also makes the venue
interesting is that it is next to its
own amusement park with a ferris wheel
and a tower that drops Riders from 80 m
in the air there’s also a hotel shops
Spa I spent a fair bit of time here
however I had to move on to the next
next place in Ginza where I had reserved
a ticket to see a kabuki show Kabuki is
a traditional Japanese theater that has
been around for about 400 years
unfortunately cameras were not allowed
during this
act before the show I had my own
personal tour guide who explained a lot
about Kabuki to
me all the actors are men including
those who play female character in this
act there were actors who were played by
a lineage of men in families she showed
me the cast and there were a couple of
families who had three generations
performing together children were
practice with their fathers and
grandfathers until when they become an
adult and their sons would fill in their
old
role I also learned why actors wear
white face paint it is because back
hundreds of years ago they did not have
the sophisticated lighting that we have
today and the rooms were generally quite
dark and the only lighting they had were
some small skylights and candles the
white face paint made it easier for the
audience to see their facial
expressions after having a look around a
museum I then decided to check out the
ginsa area of Tokyo which is a luxury
highend shopping
district next I took the Yura M Train
which is a driverless train which took
me to the next destination
Oda Oda is a shopping and Entertainment
District that sits on an artificial
Island in Tokyo bay the main attraction
in Oda is perhaps a rainbow bridge that
can be seen from the beach
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itself for
I
for dinner had kayaki octopus
dumplings I stayed in our dier for a
while late enough to see it during the
night
here
this concludes my six days in
Tokyo today was a day that I had to
travel 150 km north of Tokyo to the GMA
prefecture where I would stay two nights
at a rokan which is a traditional
Japanese in near The Stone steps at the
onen resort it
on arriving on the foot of Mount herena
I got off the bus when I should have
stayed on until we reached the bottom of
the eaho stone steps now we had to hike
the bloody Mountain through ice and snow
with my luggage and
backpack at least I received a warm
greeting from the gunman mascot gunan
it took me 40 minutes to hike from the
foot of the mountain to the bottom of
the Caro Stone steps when I arrived I
was the only Foreigner and amongst all
the happy tourists looking completely
lost while dragging my suitcase around
here I am climbing all 365 steps
multiple times checking the size streets
checking the town map checking my phone
for the hotel name it took me another 40
minutes to find the V
the name of the rokan is Fuki let’s take
a quick tour the main lobby had a piano
as well as a tea and coffee
area there was also a shop that sold
food and souvenirs
this is a public Tea Room
there’s plenty of manga that you could
read and also nice views of the
mountains now was able to check out the
town like a regular person the first
shop that I entered had everything in
the theme of
gachan I also wanted to check out the
local food in the area including this
there was a small foot
bath there were amusement park style
games where you can win prizes there
were games such as shooting targets with
a rifle throwing dart at a dart board
and even games of ring toss I can
imagine that this would been good for
kids if families decide to spend a
holiday in
ikaho there are 365 steps that lead to a
shrine
the Yan that I stayed at offered your
Cutters for people to wear and then it
was time to have dinner at the rokan
there were private dining rooms where
you can sit alone and eat in peace
there was some sort of pork thing and I
put egg in it uh inside here was uh that
uh soup I think uh there was that stuff
uh
fish and bit of
rice I’m not sure what half of this is
actually I don’t know what most of this
is this is what I wouldn’t make a good
YouTube
blogger after staying here longer than I
should have someone came in and
eventually kicked me out then I decided
to check out the town during the night
there were two places that I wanted to
visit during my stay in GMA prefecture
ikaho and kusatsu since I was already
staying at R ikaho all they had to do
was take a bus into Katsu
cetu just like aaho is an onsome Resort
and is possibly the most popular place
for tourists in the GMA prefecture
its main attraction is the ubake the hot
water field which is set to gush out
more than 4,000 L of hotping water every
minute there was a shrine at the top of
the
steps I then had a look around the shops
and
restaurants you can buy and eat an egg
that had been boiling inside onam
water I tried B pollen ice cream and it
was delicious
for lunch a head josu steak which is
wagu beef from the gar
prefecture later in the night I had
another private dinner uh there was I
think shrimp uh in here there was uh
some meat and other
stuff uh there’s uh
fish and uh that stuff there’s a shrimp
I think yeah it would be H
tempera
and more under here I think yep it is
and I had
rice a soup a spot of
tea finally for dessert I had fruit
this is the halfway point of my
holiday my schedule involved spending
eight nights in the Kanto region and
then follow that with eight nights in
the canai region to achieve this it
would take many hours so I decided to
stay at a hotel in hamamatsu using a
fast mode of transport
I took two buses and three trains with
two of them being shinkansen bullet
trains while looking at the prices for
the first and second class for each
train I saw that the first Shin Canen
was the only train that offered Grand
class so I thought why not
this was by far the most comfortable
commute I’ve ever had no matter what
mode of
transportation for this particular
Journey from shaca to too would cost $94
for second class 125 for first class and
137 for Grand
class this hakaka shinkansen the White
Hawk was traveling at 260 km hour
the soft Lether seats were comfortable
the armrest had adjustable tables that
can pull out in front of you the seats
reclined and you didn’t have to worry
about the people behind and there was so
much leg
room while this was certainly a fast
train the Hikari train that I took next
is capable of traveling 285 km an hour
but with that train there was a problem
approximately 50 minutes into that
Journey the ticket said that I would
arrive at the station within 10 minutes
it seemed strange because judging by
where we were at the time it did not
seem possible for the train to arrive at
Hammer Matsu station in 10 minutes we
had yet to stop at shisa station it
turned out when looking at my physical
ticket the travel agent booked for me to
get off at shiso Station instead of
hamamatsu I had to take a regular train
for the rest of the
journey At Last I had finally made it to
hamamatsu after 11 hours and six
different
transports I stayed one night at the
ocura ACT City
hotel I were to be spending the rest of
the night in this hotel room since
everywhere was already closed by the
time I
arrived I decided to check out the
hotel’s observation room the highest
point in the city Hammer Matsu is famous
for craftsmanship with companies such as
Honda with the cars and bikes Rolland
keyboards shiru Kawai pianos in fact
Hammer Matsu is a town of Music
unfortunately I didn’t have the time to
check any of it
out I arrived at the train station early
to sort out this ticket issue I did
manage to check out some musical
instruments such as a piano and a
kear my ticket added me going for shiso
station to Kor however I was able to get
on at
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hamamatsu the journey to Kyoto would
take approximately an hour and 40
minutes I would be spending three nights
at hotel grasser let’s have a quick look
at this hotel
the cool thing about this hotel is that
it sits in the middle of Nishiki Market
the first place I decided to head to was
Nintendo Koto Kyoto is a home of
Nintendo being founded in 1889 by the
yamachi
family the first three presidents had
been three different generations of the
yamachi family until 2002 when Satori
wat took over from Hiroshi yachi
Nintendo started off making hanura cards
which is a traditional Japanese card
game I enjoy playing this Nintendo got
into the video game Market with a color
TV game console only released in Japan
in 1977 and then the Game and Watch
handheld game and alarm clock from
1980 but it wasn’t until the success of
the famicom 3 years later that Nintendo
eventually was able to work its way over
to the West with a Nintendo
entertainment system with that being
able to completely revived the North
American Market a few years after the
video game crashed in 1983
since then Nintendo has been one of the
ongoing largest video game companies in
the world with the current home system
being the hybrid Nintendo
switch the Shiki Market had a lively
atmosphere to it the shops were
interesting and the food seemed to have
food that I would enjoy
Kyoto is famous for maintaining its
sense of all Japanese culture and
tradition so I decided to spend the
night visiting some of these locations
the first was
gon gon is Kyoto’s gisha
District it is a nice place to see a
more traditional atmosphere during the
night however it was the next
destination where I spent more time for
shimi
NASA this is an important sh Shrine in
southern Kyoto its attraction is a
thousands of ailon Shinto to Gates which
are those archways that are often found
near a
shrine forimi
hello one of the most important Ci or
God of Shinto is the fox known as Inari
orami the god of foxes rice fertility
and general prosperity for success is
found and worshiped throughout this
place so so I checked out the map and
was on my
way this is a popular place for tourists
during the day time however I decided to
check it out during the
night the endless tunnels of Tori Gates
that were slightly lit by lamps guiding
your way through a sacred pilgrimage
felt kind of eerie especially when
hearing owls calling out in the distance
I was glad to be here during the night
this felt like an adventure as I was
entering and exiting tunnels of toy
Gates only to discover many shrines in
between including shrines that were made
up of dozens of mini toy Gates it was
interesting to
see
for for
while recording a video of my progress I
managed to completely trip over a step
while entering a
tunnel luckily I wasn’t
hurt after nearly an hour of hiking to
the summit I decided to turn back and
head back to the entrance although I did
not make it to the top I was still
satisfied with what I had done I just
wanted to check out other locations
before the night was
done the final place I visited was Kyoto
station other than Kyoto Tower there
isn’t much to do here during the daytime
however during the night there is the
graphical illuminations Plus at Kyo
station where 15,000 LED lights
illuminate most of the 171 steps on the
large staircase inside the station
building this was originally created in
2012 to celebrate the 15th anniversary
of the opening of Kor station building
back in
1997 it is still operating today with
some upgrades
it was beginning to get late so I
decided to take the underground Subway
back to my
hotel today I wanted to check out more
of what Kyoto had to offer during the
daytime I began by checking out the
Nintendo Global headquarters which is to
the hotel I knew that this wasn’t a
place for tourists all I could do was
look at both buildings from the outside
and then I waited about half an hour for
what happened to be just a 1 minute
journey by train I should have just
walked the first place toy
Temple before the ham period which ended
in the year
794 the capital of Japan was Nara
following the period was the transfer of
the capital city from NATA to heno which
was the previous name for Kyoto two
large Guardian temples were built in the
Imperial City with a temple being built
both on the east and west sides of the
main entrance unfortunately the West
Temple no longer exists but the East
Temple toi Temple has survived to the
present day which is now a popular
tourist destination there was also a
five-story pagota which is the tallest
pagota in Japan can at 55
M my favorite spot here was nearby the
hilan pond it was a great place to take
photos and
videos and then it was time to move on
to the next destination which was in
arashiyama there were many temples to
see around here but the first place I
visited was a bamboo
Grove this is a forest of naturally
growing bamboo and it is perhaps the
most popular tourist destination in the
area there were several Pathways that
run through various parts of the forest
the thousands of bamboo St stalks can
reach around 50 m in height which is an
iconic spectacle in Kyoto as expected
this place was bustling throughout the
forest and even some empty tracks that
were reserved for Rick Shores to travel
through such as this one
there were other temples within walking
distance so I naturally made my way over
to the next one Geor
jaui compared to the other temples in
the area this one offered a much more
peaceful tranquil environment because
there was not many people
around there was some construction going
on in the area so I was unable to reach
some of the
areas I could see the 12 M tall twar
pagoto in a distance but unfortunately
the pathway was blocked
off the next Temple I visited was t
muuji meaning Temple of the Heavenly
Dragon with the use of the Ki characters
for heaven and dragon
the dragon has been a good omen in
Japanese culture for many years this
Temple was built in 1339 and was the
head Temple of the tenti branch of rinai
Zen
Buddhism I enjoyed walking around the s
geni garden which had this Lake that
looked great with the view of the main
hall next to
it there was some nice Pathways with
steps that over overlooked the main
hall the next place I checked out was
the kimono
Forest kimono Forest is a collection of
2 m tall pillars with commodos displayed
inside them from what I seen
this place looks great during the
evening when each of the Kono cylinders
illuminate in the
night the 600 pillars surrounding the
laneway to the randen trem station
ground has 32 types of Kono
designs I walk through the winding path
that leads to the dragon Pond a pool of
water filled with coins through in by
visitors for the purpose of making a
wish I did not spend too much time at
the station nor did I take the
train the next stop kin Kakui
Temple this is another popular place for
tourists
this gold color Temple was built in 1397
as a retirement Villa of the shuran
ashikaga
yoshimitsu and according to his will it
became a Zen temple after his
death this Temple was burned down in
1950 and was rebuilt 5 years later which
probably explains why it doesn’t look so
old
similar to tamui Temple this has a
walking path
out of all the temples that I visited
today in Kyoto this was my
favorite because I managed to see a fair
bit of Koto so far I decided to check
out the Sha prefecture more particularly
hion town which is a small Castle town
with a population of just 100,000
residents it is located to the east of
the largest freshwater lake in Japan
Lake
Birra the main attraction of this town
is hion J hion Castle but before heading
there I wanted to check out yum kobashi
Castle Road which has some shops and
restaurants
I was quick to find hikonyan the town
mascot cat who wears a red and yellow
Samurai helmet I saw him everywhere
including his Cafe where I had Mata tea
and Mata ice
cream after that it was time to check
out the
castle I bought a combo ticket for the
castle Garden and Museum
there was a bit of a climb to get to the
castle hion castle was built 400 years
ago and it took around 20 years to build
compared to other castles in Japan the
is quite small only being three stories
high despite having around 200 castles
in Japan today only 12 of them are
considered original castles that
survived the major Restoration in which
2,000 castles were dismantled Iona
Castle was spared By Request of the
emperor
himself I always had an interest in
seeing the castles so this was really
cool for me
and then it was time to check out the
genq garden
today I headed to my final hotel in
Osaka
I arrived early because I had a big day
ahead of
me the hotel I was staying at was only a
5minute walk to Osaka jaw Hall and about
15minute walk to Osaka
Castle after 2 weeks of experiencing
cold weather icy wind and some snow on
the ground the weather was finally warm
there were many Street Food Stores busy
with bustling crowds of cheerful people
although oaka Castle is not considered
one of the 12 original castles in Japan
it is still a very large impressive
looking Castle although it was built in
1583 the keep that we see today was
rebuilt in
1931 it was difficult to get a bad view
of the castle especially when there’s a
pond right there this is a very popular
photo spot
the main reason why I arrived early was
because I had to make it to cor by
1:00 K is the largest city in the Hugo
prefecture I had arranged to meet with
my friend saki who had met in Melbourne
she had since returned to Japan so it
was a good chance to catch up again we
had some K beef for
lunch after that we went for a walk to
coob
harborland KOB harborland is fairly new
only being opened in 1992 and certainly
has a modern feel to
it possibly the main attraction of this
area is K Port Tower and it turned out
that we had arrived during a festival
where they were celebrating 60 years of
the
tower this place reminded me a bit of
the waterfronts in Australia and was
probably the most cheerful atmosphere
that I exper experienced in
Japan it was at this point where Saki
and I had to go our separate ways with
me remaining in harborland until later
in the night because I wanted to see the
fireworks I had to wait a few hours for
night to come so I took my time checking
out the rest of the
area for
on
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the fireworks were scheduled to start at
7:00
it was now time to head back to Osaka
and check in at my hotel
spe for
I had yet to eat dinner so I decided to
head out and check out
dooni the Lively food bar and
entertainment area of dooni is possibly
Osaka’s most recognizable
destination the name Doon B refers to
the canal and Street under the same
name well saaka is considered the food
capital of Japan and Doon B is the heart
of that scene one of the most prominent
attractions is the illuminated billboard
for the Osaka based confectionary
company Glo which displays an image of a
runner crossing the Finish Line with his
arms up in the air Glo man has been on
display since
1935 I was looking for something to eat
and there was a wide variety of food
from meat skewers GZA Takaki and
Kaki and I decided to to get this
CA I quite enjoyed
it it was a big day so it was time for
bed another Park is a Park area in the
central part of the Naro prefecture and
is the destination for many of nada’s
main attractions and one of them being
hundreds of freely roaming deer
shika in Japan deer are considered
messengers of the Gods and have been
considered sacred not only do they Ro
around in the park areas but also on
busy streets and nearby cafes and shops
the deer are wild but they do enjoy
eating crackers called
shikai This is where a peaceful moment
can quickly turn into chaos as the
moment they acknowledge that you have
food as multiple deer could possibly
follow you and sometimes even bump you
from behind I have seen videos on the
internet where tourists get chased by
half a dozen deer at the same time I was
prepared for the insanity however that’s
not what I
got okay
I’m not sure why maybe it was because it
was raining at the time
spe
sometimes they politely bow to you
before taking a cracker out of your
hands I headed north to the next
destination to a Dai
Temple this Temple is more than 1,200
years old and is the home to many
national and cultural
assets one of the most important assets
is his 15 M tall Great Buddha DSU
I spent the first part of my morning
checking out a single food tent that had
two stalls inside it the stall on the
left had a grill that cooked
skewers I tried to wag you beef skewer
and then I checked out the stall on the
right that’s sold 10 Yen pan Which is a
pancake like batter poured into a
griddle that is in a design of a large
10 yen coin usually they add mozzarella
cheese inside however I decided on
chocolate and then I decided to head to
Dent town this is Osaka’s version of
akih habala the first shop that I
checked out had pop culture figurines
spee spee spe
upstairs in one of the shops had a whole
floor dedicated to manga which is a
Japanese style
comic my favorites were the Retro game
shops
there was super famicom which is what
the Super Nintendo
was uh famicom which was the original
Nintendo Entertainment
System I found a lot of the prices to be
reasonable but there were also some
rarer games that can easily cost into
the hundreds or even thousands of
dollars
there are also game consoles such as the
original PlayStation Neo Geo Sega satin
Nintendo 64 Sega CD Neo Geo CD the
Panasonic version of the 3DO
there were trading card shops
I found another Retro Game
Shop the famicom
Nintendo Virtual
Boy there’s a good collection of gam and
watch the CD engine cor Graphics the
Atari 2800
you don’t see any of this stuff in
Australia to be honest I prefer denden
town over hakaba it had more shops that
interested me and it had less arcade
places and claw
machines denden town was next to shinai
which had many restaurants which I just
happened to buy family Mar Fried
Chicken in the center shinai there is
the 100 m tall to ten Kaku Tower which
has a 90 M High observation
deck the crazy signage above the
restaurants makes this area feel like a
small version of Doon body
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I couldn’t decide on what to do for the
day so I just repeated what did the
previous day how was back in denden town
the thought of seeing any wers spawn
games never came to
mind there was some really old Sega
stuff some Mark 3 which was the Master
System and even older than that with the
sg1000 this is really cool to
see the famicom disc system which was a
floppy disc addon for the original
famicom
I had booked a ticket online for team
lab Botanical Garden which is an outdoor
version of the team lab planets that I
saw in
Tokyo and just like many other times
while in Japan I realized that I arrived
a month too early
this sculpture was designed to
incorporate the movement of birds when
they fly around creating a magical light
show from my understanding I saw no bird
ay Ayan
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speee
I didn’t think that team lab Botanical
Garden was as good as a toyosu one but
it was
cheaper on the way back to the hotel I
quickly stopped by oaka Castle to take a
few night shots
this spot was the main reason why I
came this was a very impressive Castle
to look at but it wasn’t the
best the last City I visited during my
stay in Japan was Himi
himei is located in the hogo prefecture
to the west of
cor and the city’s most famous landmark
is himei Castle Himi
Joe this six-story Castle was built in
1333 with the original name himama
Castle until
1581 it has been expanded a few times
over the centuries with the main keep we
see today being built in
16009 I pre-booked an early shinkansen
to avoid the early
cues the surrounding curtain walls of
the castle were equipped with 21 Gates
and gate houses to protect the entrance
of the main keep while the previous two
castles I visited hion and Osaka had a
few Gates including the Imperial Palace
in Tokyo this one truly felt like a maze
that was designed to prevent attackers
from rushing down directly into the
castle
itself today this is the largest Castle
in Japan and many consider this to be
the
best Advanced defensive systems were
developed for Warfare which included
nearly 1,000 firing holes but was never
attacked during those early centuries
himic Castle has survived all kinds of
Hazards from earthquakes one as recent
as 1995 typhoons and only receiving a
little damage from World War II Air
Raids in 1945
one bomb hitting the castle but failing
to explode his castle has survived
everything this felt like an adventure
into what the Shogun era of Japan was
once like
it was now time to check out the
interior of the main keep but before
entering we had to take off our shoes
and carry them around in a plastic bag
the windows had vertical bars to deflect
any incoming enemy arrows
the ceilings have beams that were lower
than my head and the staircases had the
steepest steps that I’ve ever climbed
and the openings into the upper level
were so small that I had to be careful
not to hit my head this was all by
design of course making it difficult for
the enemies to invade the
castle from this window you can see Himi
station from a distance
there are so many weapon racks for guns
and
Spears fore
there was a small Museum that was able
to check
out these chih hoko ornaments
represented fish in the sea and they
were used as a charm to ward off any
disasters these were the attires that
the Sakai Lords were
wearing and these attires were what the
foot soldiers were
it’s started to rain at this point so to
avoid the rain I decided to have lunch
where the shops and restaurants were
located near the front entrance of the
castle for lunch I had temper on rice
and orange juice out of all the 18 days
I stayed in Japan today had the worst
rain however it didn’t stop me from
visiting kokoen
Garden this was located to the west of
the Castle’s main
gate this is a traditional Japanese
style Garden that was constructed in
1992 on the former site of the feudal
Lord’s residence
this was the kind of day that I needed
to finish off my first ever holiday in
Japan and now it was time to prepare for
my return to Melbourne
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