KANSAI x 11

 Osaka Castle, Osaka

2.5 years ago, I went on a sponsored trip with my then new boyfriend to Tokyo, Japan. This April I  went back to the same Oishi land with my now hubbo. Guess this trip has evoked different feelings and take away compared to the last, and as much as I have eventually concluded that it may not be our best trip, but it definitely taught us a few lessons or two in life.

I have learnt that it may be for the better to not over expect when travelling, which may possibly result in disappointment. Something that you don't want to feel when you are on vacation. Our chase for the cherry blossom in April didn't work out very well become the weather got warmer earlier than the past years and the Sakura were almost all in full bloom a week or two before our arrival. And eventually what we catch is pretty much depicted as the photo below, petals falling off and scattered on the ground all over. Sakura might have been really beautiful but I also feel that we are being overly driven by the breathtaking photos online and felt a drastic 'expectation vs reality' comparison when we are there.

Ninnaji Temple, Kyoto

Although thankfully with intense research while we are there, Lnr managed to hunt down a privately owned garden on a steep and challenging to get by hill on our 4th day out of our itinerary where we enjoyed a garden full of late-bloom weeping Sakuras. The S$40 Taxi ride, $30 entrance fee and eventually missing the last direct public bus at 5pm were all pretty much worth it for the view. Values came from scarcity indeed, I guess a huge part of the catch that drew so many people lies not only in the pastel pink flowers, but also the fact that it only last for a short period of the year. Though ideally, I would love to follow through the cherry trees over the four seasons, and I might have been even more appreciative when it first blooms. Like the feeling I get when I watch my sunflower plant blooming from just a tiny seed; or when I cooked meals from scratch I guess. The processing of making and waiting seems impossible when it comes to going on holiday, ain't nobody has any time to wait. We just want to catch the best while we are there. I think it's bad, but I don't know what's the other ways to get around it.

Haradani-en Garden, Kyoto

Nonetheless, I enjoyed the view, the few late-bloom cherries we chanced upon at various destinations throughout our trip. I wonder why didn't I notice such nature beauty when I was in China, there must have been cherry trees during spring. While part of my liking come from the amazing photos online; the perfect shade of the petals making everything painted in a sea of pink; being a fan of the Jap animation card captor Sakura in my primary school days had also influenced me to have a special sense of attachment towards Sakuras. In fact, I feel that Japanese anime featured so much of the local culture (food, festive, religions, anything and everything else) that it kind of beautified and filtered the country as a popular tourism destination. I remember the strange happiness I felt when I first took a train ride in Japan, and realised the views outside are exactly the same as those I have watched in anime, it was as if I am living in the anime world. Fuck yeah Japan.

Arashimaya, Kyoto

We visited a total of 7 cities this trip in the western Japan with our JR Kansai - Hiroshima pass, mostly being day trips out from Osaka. While Kyoto has always been featured as the cultural centre and heart of history in Japan, I did not enjoy Kyoto as much as I thought I would have. We visited a couple of UNESCO sites in our 3 days stay there, mainly temples and shrines. Perhaps I did not go for the trip with a rich background of the Japanese history, and hence wasn't able to appreciate them much. And on a little radical side, I felt that the overwhelming online reviews and hear says are causing some lost in quality of our trips, visiting places like the famed Arashimaya bamboo grooves or Fushimi Inari shrines brought me less astonishment than standing at the coastline of the Pacific ocean from the quiet town of Shirahama. Perhaps it's a different preference in travelling, eventually what attracts me the most during a trip is the nature scenic views on top of everything else. Maybe part of travelling lies in discovering ourselves and our preferences in life, and steering ourselves more towards what we enjoy more than the other.

 Arashimaya Bamboo Groove, Kyoto

While we could have chosen else where as our destination this time, I guess a large part of us were totally drawn by the vast array of mouthwatering Japanese food, which again led us to some mixed feeling this time. I am never a big fan of chasing after food during my travel for multiple factors like the long queues and I honestly don't have a huge appetite as before, or even if I do I try to limit myself to not overeat. But we had somehow planned this trip such that we are going after many highly raved / top recommended places, although we eventually didn't follow the planned itinerary, it still ended up pretty taxing for Lnr to navigate around while trying to keep up with our itinerary. Perhaps Lnr was right, we have been eating really good Jap food in Singapore, and we wanted to find better ones in our trip, which eventually became a strain. Ohwell. Though these aside, we had really great food still! Agh, Jap cuisines are just so damn mesmerising. The Kobe beef, the skewers, the thick fat Sushi, the ramen, the Unagi and the Tonkatsu and the heavenly match desserts, even the rice balls and bento set at family marts and train stations are so gooood :') Sigh so good so good, feeling great to be born in this era really. It also made me realize how much food options Singapore actually provides, you can probably find really really good international cuisines of all over the place in the cosmopolitan city here. All in all my stomach was very satisfied this trip, and it's probably only in Japan that we will go all out for food hunt.

More to take photos and less of culture immersion, we spent a day in  Kyoto in our Kimonos, probably less elaborate than the real kimonos as it was tailored to tourists. We still felt really restrictive in the attire hahahah. Though I quite enjoyed it, except that we made the deadly mistake trying to climb the Mt Inari at Fushimi Inari in our kimonos because honestly of all the reviews I read, nobody told me it's a hill with million steps??? HAHAHAH. As much as I hate to admit this but we gave up mid hill and decide to U-turn, which was the best choice made for the day because we make it back to the kimono rental shop just in time for the return. Oh and I  just had to put this photo here which depicts 后宫佳丽三千人 so aptly while we were at Kiyomizu dera and there were a couple of tourists in kimonos snapping photos as the 后花苑 hahahhah felt like I just 穿越 back to the olden dynasty days keke.

As mentioned earlier, my favourite place of all days was spent at Shirahama, despite the strong wind that hurts my eyes the entire day, I totally enjoyed walking on the layered rocks, overlooking the waves hitting the coastlines back and forth, and there was a small natural on-sen at the tip of the rocks, I was literally sitting on the rocks, submerged in the sulphur hot spring water, watching the waves hitting the rocks. It was a damn good 30 min soaking in the on-sen, as naked as I have come to Earth, and once again I felt that my life is just so so so insignificant as compared to these natural process that has been going on for thousands of years, that the ocean will still be here thousands of years after I am gone. There was another lovely Japanese lady about my age while I was at the on-sen, who kindly offered me a wooden bucket while I repeatedly splashed water on myself to keep warm,  I wonder what was on her mind when she looks out to the ocean, I wonder if she comes here often, I wonder if we could actually be friend but my non-existence Japanese proficiency deterred me from making any move.

 Sandanbeki  Dokutsu Cave, Shirahama 

The town was really really quiet when we were there, although there are a lot of resorts and hotels by the shore, so we figured that it might be off-peak when we were there. Which is nice to be peaceful, we were the only customer for most of the time at the restaurant, there was barely a sole on the road form place to place. The man-made beach was white and soft, and undisturbed. It was such a good day, I wish we stayed longer loitering around the rocks but damn the wind was really no joke man. And there was barely any structure to shield the wind away, much as I wanted to stay for sunset that day, the sky was cloudy and we made our journey back to Osaka earlier than planned. It took us almost 6 hours going to and fro to the town but really, not a bit of regret.

With the recent news about the tourist ban in Borocay in mind, it made me rethink about beach destinations in general. Nobody likes dirty beaches filled with man made rubbish, the responsibility of tourists, locals and tour operators is always a total gray area. As a pretty active tourist myself, I wonder how much damaged I have left to the places I have been. While I do not litter in public or pluck corals during my dives, the carbon footprints from all the transportation modes, and the amount of plastic bottles I  generated alone from drinking water everyday, probably all contributes to environmental deterioration as a whole. Self critic is always easier than making real changes. While responsible tourism is related to supporting sustainable programs, respecting local cultures, volunteer with local community, I do get the feeling that like many good initiatives, responsible tourism is now being commercialised too. Ah, confused much.

 Nara Deer Park, Nara 

Nevermind let me move on with my broken thoughts. We spent half a day at the famous  Nara park whereby hundreds of deer roamed freely, I remembered we started to take things slow and I finally get to use the watercolor I have prepped for the trip Yay. I think that was how I envisioned our trip to be, we move from places to places and get to linger a little longer from there. There was a few temples at Nara which was framed as must see places, but we skipped them anyway and honestly, no regrets today. I feel this is another common dilemma when we travel, that we do not want to miss any spots and lose out in a sense, but it ended up with a tight schedule and we may not enjoy all that we have seen in the day. In the general I  had better times during the day trips with lesser place visited in our second half of the trip heh.

Lastly, I am thankful that we visited Hiroshima - the city that was destroyed by A-bomb during the WW2. And visiting the atomic bomb museum highlighted to me yet again that civilians are the most innocent victims during any war. And perhaps the soldiers who were called to the warzone too. After all nobody in  the right mind will want to go about taking away other people's life I feel, we are all just humans, vulnerable as we are, trying to live a peaceful and comfortable life with our loved ones. Or at least this is what I think. The main building of the museum was closed for earthquake-proof renovation unfortunately, but the side exhibitions were pretty informative and I am glad that we came. It reminds me of the WW2 themed animation I have watched - the Grave of fireflies, which reflects the human costs of war from children's perspective. The sky was clear on our visit, and I really like the contrast of the blue sky and the newly grown up trees, decades after the atomic bomb, against the remains of then Town promotion hall which was conserved till today.

 Atomic bomb dome, Hiroshima

Lastly, this trip was made special because unlike our other trips which we tends to travel light. We felt that it's only right to bring back tons of snacks and gifts for our family and friends who have always been bringing us souvenirs and snacks from all over the places during their travel. And hence 2  luggage and 2 Daiso big totes bag later, we arrived back to Changi airport after 11 days of travelling in west Japan.

 And I went full cray cray with my fav childhood/adulthood anime over there,  it's a chance of only Japan in the rest of the world that I chanced upon merchants of  detective conan, card captor sakura, crayon shinchan,  Gudetama and Totoro all at once! I must have really tested Lnr's patience with my indecisiveness lingering at these shops feeling like bringing all of them home yet have to behave like a responsible adult making only rationale decisions agh. It was tough man, to bid goodbye to the items left on shelves that I couldn't bring them back to Singapore.

I have to say that I think it's rare to have a travel partner with similar liking and styles, and I am glad that by coincidence or force, Lnr has been my best travel companion by far, accommodative and a great navigator, leading my way from place to place. Oh yeah, I think I have not mentioned this yet but this Kansai trip was meant to be our honeymoon, although it came 1.5 year late~ But the marriage is still fresh HAHAHA. I think we are still slowly learning a little more about each other everyday, but so far it's all been positive~ Just recently when we returned from our trip we embarked on sorting out of financial balance sheet and start to keep track of our spending, which we never did properly the half year. It was disheartening to realize that we are barely making any savings, but I guess it's a very important thing to do as we run the family together and to starting tracking our expenses and make comfortable adjustment. It surprised me how much we are spending honestly given that I think we are not living a lavish life, yes we do give in to high SES living sometimes by buying pricey Pan pacific hotel sausages from Cold storage and going for concerts every now and then, but still... I think selfish as I am, I wish to continue living a comfortable life like now, travel to see different parts of the world, going for facial and salon every now and then to pamper and doll myself up, going for enrichment classes that I never had enough money for when I was a student. Although on the other hand, I also hope that we could save 20% of our monthly incomes to prepare for rainy days, agh it's all about life choices in different phases of life isn't it. I wonder if I will ever grow up honestly HAHAHA.