Tag: Osaka

101 Things to Do in Japan

So it’s your first time going to Japan, but you don’t really know what you can do in Japan. Or it’s your 5th trip to Japan, but after visiting Kiyomizu-dera and Tokyo Tower you just don’t have any inspiration anymore. Then this is list is for you! It is inspired by my first trip to Japan, my future exchange year in Fukuoka and my never ending bucket list.

General places
  1. (Après) ski (Party) in Hokkaido
  2. Exotic getaway in Okinawa
  3. Exploring temples in Kyoto
  4. And especially make sure to visit Fushimi Inari Taisha in Fushimi
  5. Get your Chinese fix in China Town of Yokohama
  6. Crawl through the huge Buddha of Kamakura
  7. Shopping in Tokyo
  8. Eating lots in Osaka
  9. Go to historic Nara
  10. Enjoy the multicultural Nagasaki
  11. Visit Japan’s most beautiful castle in Himeji
  12. Enter the Buddhist world of Koyasan
  13. Be amazed by the black castle of Matsumoto
  14. Relive days gone by in traditional Takayama
  15. Learn about the unique architecture of Shirakawa houses
Traditional entertainment

  16. Attend a tea ceremony
  17. See a maiko or geisha dance
  18. Attend a Hanami party (cherry blossimg viewing party)
  19. Try Ikebana
  20. Relax in an Onsen (hot spring bath)
  21. Transform into a geisha
  22. Go on the 88 Temple Pilgrimage
  23. Indulgence for a Kabuki performance
  24. … and Sumo of course

Modern entertainment


  25. Sing karaoke
  26. Try your luck with a UFO-game at one of the game arcades
  28. Get creative with purikura, cute photo stickers
  29. Get your light sticks out for a Concert
  30. All-you-can-drink party at an izakaya, Japanese bar
  31. Drop your jaws at the extravagant musicals of Takarazuka
  32. Eat Korean hotteok pancakes in Korea Town, Shin-Okubo
  33. Take a river cruise in Osaka or Odaiba, Tokyo
  34. Go to the 7/11 at 3AM
  35. A night out at a Host- or Hostess Club
  36. Fashionista time in Harajuku. Or eat crepes.
  37. Go deaf at a Pachinko parlor

Enjoy nature 

  38. Photograph the gorgeous colors of koyo, autumn foliage
  39. Catch some glowing fireflies or screeching cicadas
  40. Light up by watching the Firefly Squid
  41. Smell the lovely lavender of Furano in summer
  42. Explore the Gyokusendo Caves in Okinawa
  43. Gaze up at the Wisterias of Kawachi Fuji Garden
  44. Bathe with monkeys in the hot springs of Yamanouchi
  45. Climb to the top of Mount Fuji
  46. Search for princess Mononoke in Yakushima
  47. Dive the wonderful underwater world of Okinawa
  48. Enjoy the view of terraced paddy fields

Special places to eat

  49. Pet cute animals at a cat- dog- or owl cafe
  50. Feel like a true geek at a a geek cafe
  51. Nomming at a yatai, food stall
  52. Live a Japanese fairy tale in the theme cafe of the Bamboo Cutter
  53. Become a true Princess at the Princess theme cafe
  54. Catch your own fish at Zauo cafe
  55. Mysterious ninja restaurant, Ninja Akasaka
  56. Find your dream robot girl at Kabukicho Robot Restaurant

Festivals

  57. Watch stars on Tanabata Star Festival
  58. Play at a matsuri (Summer Festival)
  59. Enjoy students’ creativity at a bunkasai, a cutural festival
  60. Be amazed by the snow statues of Sapporo Snow Festival
  61. Party with demons at the Oni Fireworks Festival in Hokkaido
  62. Stroll through fields of Sunflowers at Akeno Sunflower Festival
  63. See the historical parade of Jidai Matsuri
  64. Dance with the Awa Odori Dancers during Obon Matsuri

Famous sites

  65. Appreciate Japanese gardens, like Ritsurin Garden
  66. Pose in front of the Golden Pavilion, Kinkakuji
  67. And visit the Silver Pavilion As Well
  68. Drink your portion of wisdom, health or longevity at Kiyomizudera
  69. Buy souvenirs at touristy Asakusa
  70. Calm down at the zen garden of Ryoanji
  71. Admire Osaka Castle
  72. Tokyo Imperial Palace
  73. Remember how lucky we are at Hiroshima Peace Memorial
  74. The largest wooden building in the world, Todaiji
  75. Oase of peace in Tokyo, Meiji Shrine
  76. Eiffel Tower’s red sister, Tokyo Tower.

Amusement parks

77. Visit Disney Sea Land, the only one worldwide
78. Feel like a ninja or geisha in Edo Wonderland
79. Get sick in one of the crazy rollercoasters of Fuji-Q Land
80. Watch fishies at Kaiyukan Aquarium
81. Become dizzy by the height of Tokyo Sky Tree
82. Act like a kid at Sanrio Puroland
83. Play in the first Universal Studios of Asia
84. Step into the Netherlands at Huis Ten Bosch
85. Water fun at Spa Resorts Hawaiian


Unusual places

86. Paradise for cat lovers, Tashinojima
87. Naoshima, island of art
88. Eerie times at the deserted island of Hashima
89. Site of Reversible Destiny, Yoro Park
90. Yunessun Spa, refresh yourself in a hot bath of wine, tea or Ramen soup.
91. Yum,  Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum!
92. Farming at Pasona02, an underground farm
93. Creepie doll city Nagoro
94. Meguro Parasitological Museum, for people with strong stomachs

Accomodations

95. Release your inner monk during a temple stay
96. Get cosy and cramped in a capsule hotel
97. Feel the allure of traditional Japan while staying in a machiya
98. Treat yourself and stay at a ryokan. With private Onsen, just because you can.
99. You don’t need to be in love to enjoy the quirky love hotels
100. Go on the Cheap and spend a night in a Manga/Internet Cafe
101. Chilly stay at the Alpha Resort-Tomamu ice village

Japan trip, Takarazuka Theatre and Theme Cafe

Takarazuka is not the first city you think of when visiting Japan, but my friend and I went there for the Takarazuka theatre. This is a theatre with an all-female cast who preform musicals. I first read about this musical group in the manga ‘Japan Ai; A Tall Girl’s Adventures in Japan’, which I really recommend! It is a cutely drawn manga about an American(?) girl’s trip to Japan. So it is more of a guidebook / travel memoir in manga format with cute drawings.

One musical I am personally really passionate about is the Phantom of the Opera. My parents took me to the Phantom of the Opera performance in Antwerp when I was young and ever since then I have been in love with it. When I went to London two years ago I went to watch it again after all those years and I felt the magic all over again. Even when I listen to the songs at home I feel really touched. So when I heard that the Takarazuka theatre regularly plays my favorite musical it made me decide to visit the theatre during my trip to Japan to watch a performance. Unfortunately Phantom of the Opera wasn’t playing during my trip, but my friend and I went to another performance because we thought it would be a nice and unique experience anyway.

The theatre

Takarazuka is a city not far away from Osaka. We took the train and the scenery along the way was really lovely. The views alone are worth the train ride. Takarazuka itself is not a big city, but not small either. It has a nice atmosphere and has a Europe-ish vibe and has a lot of cute decorations throughout the city, like fountains, flowers and many buildings with orange roof tiles (just like at home in the Netherlands). And lots of greenery.

The fountain where we sat down to eat our breakfast

Do you feel like you’re in Europe yet?

The fan culture of the Takarazuka theatre is really big by the way. When we went inside the theatre there was a big fan shop and the fans went crazy buying a whole bunch of stuff like dvds of performances, pictures of their favorite actresses and cute keychains with more pictures. There are a lot of fans who go to every performance of their favorite actress and wait for then outside before and after the performance. But we didn’t see that. We did feel a little out of place because we were the only foreigners there and most of the audience was 40+ years old, but that wasn’t a problem really.

Lucky for us they were playing a traditional Japanese play, which is nice for foreigners like us 🙂 The play was called ‘Utsukishiki Shougai’, or ‘A Beautiful Life’. Even though we couldn’t really understand what they were saying because it was in Japanese, we could guess what was going on by the excessive acting, decors, music, dancing and so on. So no problem! But there was a lot going on so it was really complicated and I forgot most of it. The costumes were so gorgeous though.
The play took a while, but not as long as normal, so after the break another play called ‘Luna Rossa’ started. I have no idea what this was, it was just a lot of singing and dancing combining Egyptian, Ancient Grecian, Indian, western 80’s and modern backpackers elements. And this flowed into the finale where all the actresses put on costumes with huge feathers, a lot of glitters, walking down a flashing staircase and all I can say….. Wow! It was weird, over the top, but so special and entertaining. And most of all impressive.

Sneaky picture I took during the break
poster of the show we watched

In the evening I suggested to go to a theme cafe. I mean, we are in Japan after all! I read about a theme cafe called ‘Taketori Monogatari’. This is also the name of a Japanese folktale about a wood cutter who finds a little girl, moon princess Kaguya, in a hollow bamboo. I’ve always liked this story and princess Kaguya is usually gorgeously illustrated, so in combination with pretty bamboo this theme cafe must be good. And I was right. The interior was very very nice with bamboo and small ponds and even tables with benches shaped as a big cut bamboo. I am sad I didn’t take more pictures of it. And the waitresses wore colorful kimonos and white-red priestess robes. I think the only let down was the food itself. It wasn’t bad, but definitely not good either and for the price it was bad. Because theme cafes are fun but expensive so you would expect some nice food but that was not the case. Out dessert was quite nice, but nothing special. But the experience makes up for it, definitely.

I tried looking for some information about this cafe but I couldn’t find it and have the impression that the cafe is not around anymore. But a cafe with the same theme still seems to be in Ginza, Tokyo.

photo not by me
photo not by me
We are sitting in bamboo! (shot via mirrored ceilings)

With our cute waitress, wearing a mike costume. Blurred out my friends face because I am not sure whether she likes here face in in full size on my blog haha

Notes (^^)

  • This day we encountered squat toilets for the first time, but didn’t use them. Looks difficult.
  • Regarding toilets; The normal ones are so futuristic with all their buttons and functions. Looks difficult too.
  • Heated toilets seats are great
  • Musical lovers will love Takarazuka! I recommend it
  • When you don’t speak the language of the country your traveling you will get some surprise foods and drinks.
  • Pachinko is noisy! Extremely so!
  • So avoid pachinko parlors if your value your hearing/ears.
  • Try a theme cafe in Japan! Where else in the world can you dine with a vampire or ninja?

Japan trip, Osaka Castle and History Museum

On our second full day in Osaka we decided to visit the famous Osaka castle. But before that we had to visit an internet cafe. At that time we didn’t have any fancy iPhones or iPads and we didn’t bring our laptop, so we were dependent on computers at our hotel or internet cafe. Since our hotel in Osaka didn’t have a computer (at least, not that we knew of) we went looking for an internet cafe. Luckily we found one soon because we were situated in the touristic area of Dotonbori Street. I didn’t take any pictures inside but I took one of the futuristic looking hallway to the elevator. Very fancy. Inside the cafe there were some simple computers at desks, but there were also private cubicles and even some private cubicle with something that was a crossing between a couch and a bed. Very luxurious but I am not sure if I’d like to sit on it. And there was a massive collection of manga comic books available. I understand now why the internet cafe scene is big in Japan.

Then we made our way to Osaka castle. It is surrounded by parks and castle moats so it is quite the stroll before you arrive at the castle, but very enjoyable. During this stroll I saw one manhole cover with a carving of the castle which was very pretty. The Japanese like to make artworks of their manhole covers. At the moat there was a man who was fishing so we took a little break to watch him and take pictures of the surroundings. There we also saw a man jogging backwards, very peculiar… the funny thing was that the other Japanese people didn’t even look at the backwards jogging guy but were intensely staring and turning their heads when they saw us…

Osaka castle itself is gorgeous, I love the combination of the light blue roof tiles with the golden decorations. In combination with the moats, castle walls and parks it as a nice scene. The inside of the  castle is now a museum. Not the best I’ve seen so far, but it was good to learn a little bit about the history of the castle and we saw some awesome war outfits of Japanese generals. But walking this much every day took a toll on our feet so we couldn’t wait to finish the museum and sit down.

We sat down on a bench in front of the castle to give our feet a little bit of rest. There we had a chat with a Japanese old man, who surprisingly new a three words of Dutch (Yes, the second person!). After he left something weird happened. A guy on a bicycle passed us by and stared at us, which happens often so no problem, but then he turned around , rode a circle around us and took a photo of us, and left… Creepy. By then we realized that it was already 3PM and had to move on. We also wanted to visit the History Museum of Osaka nearby the castle so we started to walk through the park making our way to the museum.

Some cute turtles

Because we arrived late we were afraid that we wouldn’t be able to enter but that was no problem. A sad thing is that all the information plaques were in Japanese so it was not catered at foreigners at all. But the museum was so cool! Instead of just artifacts there was even a replica of an Osakan street a hundred years back in time, complete with sounds and mannequins. And there was a smaal replica of an ancient shrine, a collection of traditional costumes and a bridge from the Edo-period. In my opinion the best museum I have visited. A downside was that the permanent collection is only 4 flours big and that the other 7-ish floors were closed, maybe because there were no temporary exhibitions at the time, but we don’t know. But our feet were thankful for the few floors.

The Osaka Museum of History

When you say Osaka, you say Takoyaki and Okonomiyaki. Since we both dislike seafood we didn’t want to try Takoyaki, but Okonomiyaki was definitely a must try for us! And so our quest for Okonomiyaki begin. After wandering for a while we found a restaurant specialized in Okonomiyaki and se we headed in. Immediately we knew we made the right choice. The staff was young and friendly, and funny too. We took our seat at the counter where the food was made right in front of us. We ordered a non-seafood one. I have to say, since then I tried more original ones with a bit of seafood and they are equally nice, despite me hating seafood normally.
The young guy who was preparing our Okonomiyaki and made a small artwork out of the toppings. He was happy when my friend took photos of the cooking proces and offered to take our picture, so it was our first picture together.
It took a long time for us to eat the huge portion and couldn’t finish it in the end. But it was the best and most fun dinner we’d had in Japan.

Back in our rooms we watched tv again. Japanese tv is so funny, especially the commercials.
As you can see in the next pictures; a man talking to a toilet. I have no idea what this ad was about.
And an ad with a super cute dog. The dog appears to be really famous and is usually used in the commercials for this brand (though I forgot which brand). And the last picture is the view from our room at night. It is not the most beautiful view, but I like it because there was always a lot of activity with people and cars and a small park. I liked watching the normal Japanese life go on. And at night it was mesmerizing with all the lights.

Notes :3

  • Internet cafes are great in Japan 
  • Japanese castles are pretty 
  • Manhole covers in Japan are beautifully decorated, they are some new kind of art
  • Staff in restaurants will greet you and say goodbye in unison, gotta love it.
  • Osaka Museum of History is a must visit for history lovers
  • Okonomiyaki is the best dish you will eat in Osaka
  • You will get questioned by students at a Japanese tourist site. Prepare for questions like ‘Hello, how are you?’, ‘Do you like sushi?’ and ‘Can I get your signature?’. Students usually get a list of things they need to say to foreigners when on a school trip to practice their English. Or they will just ask you for a photo.

Japan Trip Day Two, Kaiyukan Aquarium Osaka

Our first full day in Osaka was spent at the Kaiyukan aquarium and in the Umeda district.
I just love visiting zoos and aquariums! And Kaiyukan was no exception. The place is divided in the different seas of the world and the animals living there. The great thing is that it wasn’t limited to fish but there were also some cute penguins and mammals like monkeys and capybara which are cute huge hamsters. But Kaiyukan is most famous for the whale sharks. When I saw them is was amazed, they are huge and beautiful. It’s a pity they are stuck in a tank. But it is a few stories high, so that’s a good thing. And the design of the building is great because all the floors are centered around the tank with the whale sharks so you can view them from different places. The exterior of the building is horribly ugly though. But at least you can’t miss it.

I don’t know how I was able to take this picture, but it looks cool right? Like the turtle is flying in front of me.

So Japan is known for the cute culture right? The Japanese name for this is ‘kawaii’ and there are many different kinds of kawaii but you can bet ya that almost anything in Japan is related to kawaii in some way. Kaiyukan couldn’t miss out on this surely, so there was a ‘kawaii collection’ at the aquarium. It seemed like a temporary collection of fishes, but I am not sure. Basically it was a collection of small and colorful fishes, and yes, they were cute indeed.

I loved this little one. He would pop out his head from his home once in a while.

After the aquarium we did little bit of shopping at a nearby small shopping mall with a great clothing shop and a 100-yen shop (so many cheap things!). And we took our first purikura, a cute photo sticker. I really miss purikura and can’t wait to take them again this September. Not only is it kawaii,  it is also fun to do and you can let out your creative side. Plus it is a great commemorative! You can even give yourself fake make-up, a new hair color or you can put on some cartoonish eyes and bunny ears. At some point during our trip we started making really weird purikura, but those are the best kind 🙂

Our next stop was Umeda for HEP Five. It is a big Japanese shopping mall with a whole bunch of girly clothing shops. This is when something interesting happened. One of my friend wanted to try on some clothes in on of the shops. They usually sell one-size clothing and for us western girls we really don’t trust them, because one size doesn’t fit all. But the shop staff girl was making a fuss and was saying all kinds of things in Japanese and we just didn’t understand. Then she pulled out this big card with pictures on it and English descriptions and a list of sentences. She pointed at a sentence and we understood that we couldn’t fit the clothes because make-up could get on it. I was just amazed by the fact that they have a card like that and it’s the first time I ever saw it. And I haven’t seen it since.

There are not just shops in HEP Five, on top of the building there’s also a Ferris Wheel. I imagined the view would be amazing and wanted to ride it. It was a little bit scary but cool. The view would have been amazing if it hadn’t rained and wasn’t as cloudy. But the rain on the windows added some charm to the pictures in my opinion.

Photo not by me

Shopping this much makes you hungry, so after you have made your way up the building through all the shops there are conveniently placed restaurant in the top floor. We were also hungry at this point and it was time for dinner. We chose a family restaurant on the top floor where we had tonkatsu-don with kimchi. This portion was so big that we thought we had ordered for two, but it turned out it was for one person. But we shared anyway. And it was delicious! After that day tonkatsu turned into my favorite Japanese food (together with okonomiyaki later) and is a great combination with curry.

Back in our room our beds were already made for us, heavenly! But first we enjoyed some tea and snacks (they refilled our snack box for us, it doesn’t get any better than this), while checking our buys of the day and writing in our dairies. We both like to keep a travel diary, so we are great travel buddies. Instead of partying or going out we like to take a rest in the evening and watch some tv or chat while writing our diaries.

Our hotel was next to Dotonbori street, a nice are to explore before heading back to our hotel.

Notes;

  • Japan has a lack of public benches and trash cans.
  • Japan does everything cute, even their fishes (see kawaii collection at Kaiyukan)
  • Foreigners are still very ‘foreign’ in Osaka despite being a huge city and we got stared at a lot. Sometimes to the point where we felt very uncomfortable (because of people turning their heads or taking photos of us).
  • Fitting clothes in Japan is not as common as back home and is a huge fuss
  • Japanese shops are opened until late (in comparison to the Netherlands)
  • Purikura is awesome
  • Tourist traps in Japan come in the form if obligatory photos at famous places. Before you enter or after you exit they will take a picture of you (usually forcibly) and try to sell it to you. This was the only tourist trap we encountered though.

Japan trip, My first day in Osaka

This trip was a few years ago, but before I went to Japan I just loved reading blogs about other travelers’ trips to Japan. Actually, I always love reading blogs about the destinations I will visit soon. That’s why I thought it would be nice to post my story about Japan, for others out there still planning to go or enjoying post-travel-reads 😉

In June 2011 I travelled with a friend of mine to Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo.
Our first stop was Osaka to which we flew directly from Amsterdam.
The fun started as soon as we landed. We had to go through a baggage check but to our surprise the guy who checked our bags came behind from his counter just to lift our bags on the counter, neatly checked and packed our bags again and then popped from his counter to take our bags from the counter for us, all while staying extremely friendly and polite. It was our first encounter with Japanese friendliness and politeness, and set the tone for the rest of our trip.

View from the plane

After a sleepy trip with the subway through a nice sneery of Japanese homes and rice paddies we arrived in the centre of Osaka.
When we stepped out of the station we were met with massive tv screens on buildings (something we’d never really seen), traffic that rode on the left side of the road and a lot of noises and sounds everywhere. It was a little bit overwhelming but not in a bad way. We dropped our stuff at our hotel and went sightseeing because we still had a full day ahead of us.

typical Japanese street with many neon signs
going on a boat ride!

Our first stop in Osaka was a river cruise. It seemed like a nice way to make ourselves familiar with the sights of Osaka. We didn’t see much of the cruise though….. because we were beleaguered by a big group of Japanese students. When you go to Japan this will happen from time to time, but this was a whole different level ! It was great! The kids were sitting behind us in the boat and were about 12ish years old. Their English wasn’t smashing, but the best we encountered during our whole trip (to our surprise). With my few words of Japanese and a lot of sign language we had a very very amusing hourlong boat ride. One of their teachers asked us for a group picture which we obviously accepted and we asked for our own too.

After this memorable moment we stopped by at the 7/11 for food and drinks because we weren’t hungry or energetic enough to go somewhere for dinner.
In the hotel a girl dressed in a kimono showed us our room and made us some tea. I really love this Japanese attentiveness. And the room was just amazing! From the outside the hotel doesn’t look impressive but the rooms are in traditional Japanese style with modern conveniences and it’s just the right mix of old en new. While we enjoyed the tea and snacks that were also provided an old man knocked on our door and asked us when we would like our beds to be prepared. Japanese style futon beds need to be unfolded and put on the tatami floor and the lovely staff does this for you. We talked with the old man for a while and he knew some Dutch words which was really cute.

Since the man would be in our room at 7PM to prepare we decided to go out and explore the area. We had been in Japan only for a few hours and already we encountered a tv crew interviewing us, the problem was they spoke zero English and I spoke almost no Japanese so we didn’t understand why they were interviewing us or about what …. It was really awkward but funny.
After that we went to a place with many girly clothing shops and it was like clothes heaven! (Even though I don’t fit most of it, it is still nice for style inspiration). The girls working in the shops are really fashionable and everything from nails to hair to makeup matches their style. Some are snobby but there ware also many girls of the staff trying to chat with us despite their limited English and were really sweet. But the jetlag and tiredness really started to kick in and we both felt unwell so we headed back early.
Sleeping in the futons took some getting used to, but it was very comfy and I loved the traditional experience.

Some notes;

  • Japanese people are so helpful, like the counter-guy at the airport or when we were looking for our hotel and within seconds a guy came up to us to help (even though he didn’t know English haha)
  • 7/11’s are awesome and the Netherlands need to build them too.
  • Japanese kids are cute and wear cute matching hats when on excursion
  • Traditional style Japanese rooms are a must try!! Futons are comfortable 🙂
  • Clothes shops in Japan are gorgeous (decoration, staff, the clothes) but not plus-size friendly
  • Shop staff will welcome you with a heartily ‘Irasshaimase’ and make you feel like a king/queen
  • The metro and trains are scary (at first) but incredibly convenient and punctual