Kansai!!!

Hi everyone!!!! It’s been a while since my last post, lately I’ve been busy with my volunteer work and the places where I’ve been staying have no internet connection so posting has become difficult…

Some days before travelling to South Korea for the purpose of renewing my Japanese visa (at the end I got the visa with no problem!!) I travelled one weekend to Kansai where I visited some very nice places in Kyoto and Osaka!!

For Kansai you can take bus or normal train but I had to ride the “Shinkansen” or “Bullet Train”. This is one of things you must do in Japan! Even though this special train is very expensive the ride is quite fun, fast (takes 2 hours, normal train takes around 8) and comfortable! Here are 2 videos I took, one is from the moment we left Tokyo station (the speed was not so great here) and the other was near Nagoya I think (where the train was very fast)!!!

 

The first day at arrival time I met Jan (exchange from Switzerland) at the station and later we met Ai and Miho (our guides for the day) in a very famous place in Osaka where we took this pictures :)

Osaka is more colorful than Tokyo and the people from this place is more direct as well. Everyone I’ve met in this journey have been very nice to me so, always without exception, I have excellent times! Here some shots from the first day at the different places…

These days I stayed at Jan’s host family’s home and on the second day, Kozuke (Jan’s host father), Jan and I went to a couple of famous sightseeing spots. The first place we visited was Himeji Castle. Even though some parts of the castle where under reconstruction it’s still a nice place, huge (Japan’s biggest castle) and some interesting things happened here…

When we arrived at the castle’s entrance a Japanese lady came to us and said she could guide us inside the castle. At the beginning we had no interest because we all thought it was going to be very expensive and for me the guided tour thing is not so fun. Everything changed when the lady told us that she would guide us for free so we accepted the offer!! xD

To our surprise the lady knew almost every detail about the castle’s history, she spoke excellent English and we had a great time because of her company. This place is quite complex and she explained a lot of interesting details. She was very kind!!! :D

What’s interesting about this lady is that she’s been working here for more than 25 years. Every Friday she visits the castle and offers to guide the first lucky non-Japanese tourist she can find and she never works for money, just because she loves her work!!! This lady also wrote a book about the castle, she is quite famous in Japan for her dedication to this “job” and she guided a United States president and some other important people!!! So, we where INCREDIBLY lucky to be there at the right time, the right day and the perfect spot to met one of the best tourist guides in Japan!! :D

After listening to some very interesting facts about the place. like famous movies and TV shows that where filmed here (some parts of Shogun and Agent 007 with Sean Connery), battle strategies from the castle’s  design, details about how it was built, legends and another information, we left Himeji Castle with a very happy face!!

The second place we visited is the the one I like the most in Japan: Shoshazan Engyou-Ji. This is a very calm place and the landscape is great. This area has a lot of temples in a mountain between forests where you can really feel like time has stopped! A curious fact about the place is that some scenes from The Last Samurai movie where filmed here. I had to take a video of the main temple. The place is just perfect!!!

Some pictures from this place…

 

Next day we visited Kyoto where we met Kiri-San. He’s a great person, an excellent tour guide for us and we visited the most famous spots around. Kyoto is a work of art, many places here look like the old Japan and there’s a lot of temples, sanctuaries, and beautiful gardens. This place is full of history and the city in general will transport you to another era! Totally different from Tokyo!

Pictures from this day…

   

The trip to Kansai was short but I had a great experience with a lot of great people!! Special thanks to Jan and his host family (Kozuke, Saku-Chan and Makiko), Ai, Miho and Kiri-San for all their help and support, tour guides and the happy times we had together!! Last day I took the bus on early morning because the trip back was 8 hours long.  This is Jan’s host family, we eating a lot of sushi and my last photo in Kansai with Kiri… I will return!! :D

In the next post I will tell you about the week before travelling to South Korea!!! Thanks  a lot to everyone in Kansai!!! :D

Chao!! :D