After Onbashira festival we went to a Ryokan in Matsumoto to spend the night. It was nice to sit in a hot japanese bath after a long day. In the morning we had a nice japanese breakfast. With the breakfst we were given a weird closed box. After we asked the hostess she explained it was nato. My japanese teacher told me about this, it a kind of fermented bean paste. She doesn’t like it, and I not a big fan too after trying it. After breakfast we went to explore Matsumoto. They drove us to the station and we left our bags in a locker. It was raining pretty hard when we took off from the station, and it continued to rain the rest off the day. We went to see Matsumoto castle, Matsumoto museum, frog street, a kimono store, and a natural spring in the middle of the city. It was pretty weird, for there were lots of people at the spring with big bottles filling them with the springs water. We had a taste ourselfs to see what the big deal was. It was just regular water 
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April 17th,2010
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Early sunday morning we said goodbye to Tokyo and headed to Shimosuwa to go see the Onbashira festival.
This festival is only held once every six or seven years. So we were really lucky to get to see it. You might know the festival, it has been posted on youtube before. They cut down big trees at the top of the mountain and then drag them down to the temple. At one point the hill is very steep, so they ride the log down really fast. Some people even have died when riding the log. We arrived at the station with our bags but we could find any lockers 
. But luckely the japanese are always prepared and had like a big store house for all the tourists their bags 
. So we started our walk up the mountain. Every things was clearly marked so we had an easy time finding our way. After we got halve way we met a czech named Michel we lived in japan with his japanese wive. Together we watch one of trees being drag by. We walk further to the main event of the festival: the riding of the trees down a steep hill. First we were watching it from far away because there were many people. But after the tree was down the hill, we could move closer. It was then when we saw there were viewing spot across the river, but you needed a pass. But then some nice japanese people came by and they saw us trying to find a good spot. So they gave us their pass to sit on their spot, because they were going home . So now we had a great view to see the final tree go down. When later we went to the Ryokan in Mastumoto the host told us we were very luckey to get those passes for most japanese it’s very difficult to get them .
April 17th,2010
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After Yoyogi park we went to walk around in Harajuku. Afterward in the evening we met up with Mai, a japanese girl Frederik knew from Belgium and had dinner together in Asakusa. I could practice my japanese a lot with Mai because her english wasn’t so good, and my french is horrible. She said my japanese was very good . Before we went to dinner with Mai we met Kay, a Canadian girl. she was on her way to the shrine in Asakusa to see it at night. So after we said goodbye to Mai (and gave her some Belgian chocolates) we also went to look at the shrine at night.
April 14th,2010
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Hanami continued into Saturday so we went to one of the popular spots in Japan: Yoyogi park. As expected a lot of sakura and a lot of drunken japanese.
April 14th,2010
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In the evening of the first day we went to Ueno park to look at the sakura and the Japanese tradition of Hanami. Hanami is a flower viewing festival where the japanese sit under the sakura tree eating and drinking. First we just walked around but after we bought some beer and sat down a drunk girl sat down next to Frederik. She invited us to sit with here group. They were girls and one guy from the same company who were enjoying the sakura. So the usual conversation took place, like where we were from ect. I tried to speak as much japanese as I could. I even sang some Flemish drinking songs. Japanese culture is fun!
April 14th,2010
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After we left our bags at the hostel we went out for a little walk in Asakusa.
It is Sakura season so we there were pink blossoms everywhere.
It is a custom in Japan to go to the park and sit under the trees, eating and drinking. While walking in the park a nice old man told us to go down a pair off stairs and go inside a gallery. There was an art exhibit from the locale senior old club. It was pretty good for amateurs. And when we left they gave us some candy
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Afterward we went to the temple complex in Asakusa. It’s the largest in Tokyo but it was under restoration.
For more pictures click on the link in the sidebar.
April 10th,2010
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And here we are back again in good old Tokyo. The flight went fine though I only slept for a hour and a half. We arrived this morning around 10h30. After getting our railpasses and my rental mobil phone we were off to the big town. We got a bit lost along the way in the maze that is the tokyo train and metro system. But after getting some help from a lovely native young woman we were on our way to the hostel (and yes I asked directions in japanese). After dropping of our luggage we went for a little walk. Details and photos of that walk will follow later. Now we are back at the hostel and going to get a bit of shut eye before we meet up with some local friends.
Wednesday 21 April 2010
From Hiroshima sta. Departure: morning
>> Shin-Yamaguchi sta. (shikansen)
From Shin-Yamaguchi sta.
>> Comfort Hotel
Grotere kaart weergeven
April 6th,2010
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