I am back

Finally, after a week with technical problems, the blog is back and we can both post and comment without any strange issues.

Good news in this grey day. It seems autumn has finally arrived properly to Tokyo, with pretty low temperatures (today I wore a jacket), rain... But that makes nicer the hot green tea you find everywhere, like in today's sushi dinner place...

Incense

This is the reason of not being polite to drive your chopsticks into the rice bowl. It reminds people the incense lighted for the dead people.

Can you explain me...

... who can sit in this priority space?

Oyster

Look at the size of these grilled oysters in Mijayima.



Now, imagine the exquisite taste. Now, imagine the price of each unit. Half of it. Half again... How much do you say?

Skyline

Tokyo has skyline too. But it is quite weird, as it is a mix of icons of other places... This picture shows three typical Tokyo spots, non related at all, with New York, or Paris...

Kobe

Last stop in the trip was in Kobe. It was improvised the last morning. So, we changed our tickets to be able to stop in Kobe, and we spent a couple of hours in this city, famous for another sad event. A big earthquake in 1999. 6000 people died, and half of the city was destroyed, but now it's almost impossible to see what it was destroyed.

Here, we just took a sightseeing bus to see the city, but we spent most of the time in a restaurant enjoying the famous Kobe beef.


Incredibly good. No further comments.

Mijayima

After Hiroshima, we also went to Mijayima, which is an island very close to Hiroshima, which combines temples and nature.

It has the famous torii, which sometimes is in the water...


... and others in the mud.


The island was considered sacred, and normal people couldn't go to the temple walking, but only on boat. Therefore, they had to go through this gate in the water, so they didn't step outside the temple.




Apart from that, this island has a very nice mountain with lots of nature that you can either climb, or take a ropeway.



Guess what we chose, in such a hot and warm day...


Now, I can say I have climbed more mountains in Japan than in Spain. ^_^

Hiroshima

Monday was a bank holiday in Japan. It was the Respect for the Elderly day (yes, Japan has such a day, isn't it nice?).

Therefore, I decided to go to Hiroshima, which is in the western side of Japan. We only needed 4 hours to cover a distance of 800 km in the Shinkansen. We went to a couple of places more apart from Hiroshima, but our base was Hiroshima.



The first impression when you arrive to Hiroshima is that it's just another big japanese city... and that's impressive. I don't remember anything that has impacted me more than the Peace Memorial Museum. I can only compare this to the visit to Bergen Belsen during my Erasmus.



As you probably know, the first atomic bomb used with military purposes was dropped in Hiroshima in the First World War. It destroyed the whole city, killed half of the population and the rest were injured.



The Peace Memorial Museum is built very close to the place the A-Bomb exploded, in a memorial park, and has everything related to the A-Bomb. From the way the war started, the life before the war and the bomb, how the decision of using the atomic bomb was done (one of the reasons was just to justify the investment), why they chose Hiroshima, and of course the consequences.



And are countries still considering using nuclear weapons again?



Update: A comment about this last picture I forgot to write at the beginning. That's a paper crane. It became a symbol of hope, after Sadako, a girl with leukemia after the A-Bomb, started doing 1000 of them. There is a japanese saying that states that the person who does 1000 paper cranes, will have one wish become true. Sadako didn't manage to finish the task, but her friends did it for her. From that moment all over Japan, paper cranes are done and sent to Hiroshima.

Imperial Garden

This is in the middle of the city. Exactly in the middle. No need to comment that there was no noise, apart from some insects on the trees...

Back to the Future 6

I live in a quite posh area. Everyone, when I say where I live, opens the eyes surprised. It is like if I lived in La Moraleja or something similar. It is a well-known area for nice french cafeterias and rich people.

But not everything is posh and fancy. Everyday, I see this car. I wouldn't be surprise if one day, Doc and Michael appear in a corner...

Fushimi Inari

Fushimi Inari is a the sacred mountain of the wealth. It's been protected by foxes and other animals for centuries.


Nowadays, people and companies from all over Japan come here to build their own toriis for praying the Gods to success in important businesses or similar wealth-oriented desires.




It was great, until I discovered some of the insects living there decided to taste me... I got 15 red dots souvenirs in my leg which lasted for a couple of days. Japanese spiders are not that fun!

Praying

Rock and Roll

Last Sunday, I finally went to Yoyogi Park. This park is very famous for several things, but one of the main reasons are the Rockabillies. These Rock&Roll lovers meet always in one of the entrances of the park quite customized...



... and they also dance all together.


This week I was sort of lucky, because they were posing to a professional photographer. There were also there girls, which in my opinion are part of a real band of music and they took all the rockabillies as cheap extras for the promotion.



I have to go back to Yoyogi another day when more people dressed as manga characters are there, because last Sunday it was not that full of people.

Melones

Let me introduce you the famous square and pyramidal Watermelons!




Yes, they are real. Yes, they are on sale. Yes, they are really expensive (1000 yen = 6 euros, calculate the prices). Yes, some people buy them.

No, I don't know how they make them.

Gardening

For me, a garden is something similar to this (ok, it can be less beautiful), with flowers, trees, etc... Green stuff.


But, there are also rocks and sand gardens, deeply influenced by the zen culture. It's true that after a while you start seeing relationships, and giving a meaning to the configuration of the garden... But I still don't get it completely...

Temples in Kyoto

Globalization

Kyoto

Amazing. This time we only had time for some walking around, and visiting a couple of sights (temples mainly), but I promise a second visit to Kyoto.

In Kyoto, you can see this beautiful temple, called the Golden Pavillion...


...relax and reflect looking for the meaning of life in zen gardens ...


...have a nice walk in the wealth company under thousands of toriis...


...get together with the nature in the temples' gardens...


...or just contemplate the politeness of two geishas in the street.


Yes, Kyoto deserves more than one post...

Collectly

Seen in a hostal website.

Super Yosakoi

I am back. Current status: I have beaten the virus (or that's what I think), my friends are travelling around Japan (like them), and the news report that prime Minister of Japan has resigned. He has just resisted one month me being in the country... Will it be because of me?

Anyway, let's focus in more interesting things. A couple of weeks ago, although it was raining, I went to see a festival I had been recommended, the Super Yosakoi. And I enjoyed it a lot. (A lot = more than 5 hours)


It consisted in groups of people with songs combining both traditional and modern Japanese music, one or two singers, beautiful colourful dresses, and a very nice choreography.

It was impressive to see so many non-professional people, from different ages (there were groups covering a range of more than 50 years), dancing at the same time.





Now, I give you the opportunity to see a some videos of these performances.




You can find other videos in Youtube: Video 1 - Video 2 - Video 3

It's a good flavour of the japanese culture: group identity and karaoke. :)