frauke at large

Arriving in Japan without a word of Japanese, other than hello, good-bye and thank you, was actually quite daunting, but I coped with my map and excellent guidebook. On top of that people throughout the whole of my trip were incredibly helpful and forthcoming that traveling around was actually a piece of cake, even thought I was mostly by myself. It also helped that I instantly like Japan from the time I sat on the train from Kansai to Osaka, mainly due to seeing all the brilliantly sculptured bonsai trees in the front gardens of peoples houses.

So, spent the first two days in Osaka, exploring different parts of the town, such as Kobe and downtown Osaka. This, of course, was impossible to do without stumbling across several temples and shrines. The pictures below were taken at a shrine in Kobe, where the fans and tied up pieces of paper represent the bad luck and wishes people have left behind in the hope that they will not come true; and the origami cranes representing a wish for peace. The shear number and different colours of them was just breathtaking. After Kobe, which was mainly worth going to for the shrine and the seaside, we spent most of the evening wandering the streets of Osaka to find a good restaurant to eat in – which proved rather difficult, as the famous restaurants around town seem to have an endless stream of customers coming in an queueing for their Osaka specialities. In the end it took us roughly 1 hour to get some food … but it was so worth it. The sushi and tempura were great. On the way back to the flat, we walked past what I now call ‘a Japanese treats shop’, selling the most delicious Japanese sweets … couldn’t resist … blueberry and cinnamon flavour … yum!