Osaka Etc.

#traveltuesday

This concludes my Osaka travelogue... *tear*

Some other scenes that were not covered in my previous posts are:

The very efficient transportation system of Osaka - JR line! Don't be fooled by the looks of the train and the judder it makes whenever it starts because it really is fast (of course my point of comparison is our train system here in PH). I only realize how fast is it when I tried to take pictures of the cherry blossom trees and I couldn't get any decent shot!  Also, in Osaka I noticed that their train maps isn't that tourist friendly because there are less English translations.  There are also trains that skip some stations which can be quite tricky for first-time visitors.

And what about the Shinkansen (bullet train)? Of course, it lived up to its expectation.  I specially needed that service since I was really late for my trip back to PH from Nagoya.  It helped a li'l, I was still late for 10mins (Brian's fault, lol!) and the staff told me they can't check me in until I had to shamelessly beg them to let me. Yay! =))))

Dotonbori.  A very popular tourist destination in Namba district with the iconic Glico man.  Honestly, I didn't know about this prior to my trip. The Irish girls in my hostel told me about it when I asked which H&M branch did they visit. Lol!  This is a shopping district and the place comes alive with glittery billboards at night but I didn't get to see it. Boo!  So, speaking of H&M...

Of course, shopping at H&M.  But this view at a branch near Umeda is interesting. :)

And they have this simple machine that covers your umbrella in plastic. Hmm, I din't see anything like this in SG. :P

Osaka Station. Where you can rent a temporary locker to keep your things after check-out from the hostel (haha!) and where you'll find the Osaka tower (didn't bother to check out though)

And my favorite view is this:

Kyoto. In here, Brian opened up to me one aspect of art that would've otherwise been missed by my naked eye - the practice of stone/ rock balancing.  He also explained to me its association with the Buddhist belief.

Hanami.  At this point of our journey, we're just too tired to care about our exact latitudes and longitudes in Kyoto.  We've been walking for about 3 or 4 hours already when we reached this place but it's a popular Hanami tradition ( picnic under cherry blossom trees) spot for them and we gladly picked a spot and took our our chocolates and whatever we bought at convenient stores. Haha!

Momodani station.  On my last day, I tried walking around the hostel where I stayed it and just stopped in my track when I saw this park.  There I was thinking, how come I was searching online for nice places where there are a lot of sakura trees when it is just a few walks away from my hostel.  Which then prompted the next question, why don't we have parks like this with many trees here in Manila? Sigh.

And just for laughs, sharing a photo of my visa.  Seriously, this is the type of picture that will win this argument when presented to Japanese authorities, "Look at that face, isn't she Japanese-looking enough to require additional travel documents?" Looooolllll!!!!