I was having a small spring cleaning last week and when I went through all my documents and leaflets I came across leaflets about the Dazaifu Tenmangu shrine. I took a look at them and realized I didn't even write a post about our trip there yet. So I will obviously be making a change to that today! Forgetful as I am I forgot my camera's memory card so until my friend lent me hers I couldn't take any photos of the first part of the trip. I will go back soon to make more photos though because I found a part-time job near the shrine and go there once a week now.

All credit to Leonemoff

I have mentioned Dazaifu shrine a few times before because it is a very big and famous shrine near Fukuoka city and it is one of the most famous touristic sightseeing sights in the area. It is especially beautiful in February when the plum blossoms are blooming. There are more than a thousand of these trees at Dazaifu so it is supposed to be very nice. I haven't personally been there in February but I did go to its slightly smaller brother in Kyoto called Kitano Tenmangu and I can vouch for the incredible beauty of the plum blossom (I even prefer it to cherry blossoms now).

All credit to CTG/SF

Dazaifu Tenmangu is a shrine established in the 7th century after the death of Suguwara no Michizane. Michizane was born in Kyoto into a family of scholars loyal to the emperor. He made it as Minister of Right of the emperor, one of the highest political positions at the royal house. But with the fall of the emperor and the strategic maneuverings of his rival he was demoted to a minor post in Dazaifu and exiled from Kyoto. After he was exiled and died in Dazaifu, the imperial court was struck by a series of disasters and the young emperor passed away. Because of this the imperial decided to build a shrine dedicated to Michizane to calm his vengeful spirit. This is the Kitano Tenmangu shrine I mentioned above. Another shrine was built where his remains lay, which is the Dazaifu Tenmangu shrine.

By Kim

Must try snack; Umegae Mochi

Michizane was not only a politician and scholar, but he was an excellent poet as well. Here is a beautiful poem that shows his passion for plum blossoms:

When the east wind blows, flourish in full bloom, you, plum blossoms! Even though you lose your master, don't be oblivious to spring.

The Dazaifu shrine is not only famous for its connections with Michizane, there is also an unexpected connection with sumo. Hidden behind the shrine is a sumo stable! In Fukuoka there is a big official sumo tournament in November so you can take a look at the sumo wrestlers practicing from the beginning of November.

a little teaser of the Kitano Tenmangu plum blossoms

When we arrived there were already a group of people taking a look at the practice. These are very serious events though so you can not disturb them in any way. That's why they practice inside a stable and you are not allowed to go in. You can see the practice from the big windows. You should be quiet and not take any photos with a flash. It was my first time seeing a sumo practice and I have never seen a match on T.V. either so to see it in really life from the first time was really impressive. The sumo players really are big, it was so surprising. Especially when you compare them to the really skinny average Japanese person.

By Mareile

We were lucky enough to interview one of the top players. I guess it is hard to say no to a group of 50 foreign students ;) We could all ask him some questions and he was kind enough to answer to all our questions. To be honest, I don't remember what we asked him because it has already been a few months. If only I made notes or a video. Oh well, nothing to do about it. Anyway, while that guy was talking to us another one of the high ranking sumo wrestlers was making weird faces and gestures behind him so it was really hard to stay serious. He is a hilarious guy and I can't believe he is such a big celebrity or famous person in the sumo world. They were also nice enough to take time for their Japanese fans as well, especially the little ones.

If that is not one of the coolest group photos ever then I don't know what is

When that whole comedy show was over we had time to explore the area by ourselves and we were recommended to go to Komyozenji garden. It is located in a cute area with nice houses. The front garden is nice with a small stone garden but the rear garden is where the magic happens. You first take your shoes of when you go in and walk into this big open room with tatami mats, almost like you are visiting a traditional house, and then you walk onto this small balcony with a wondrous garden. At first it seems just like any garden, but you need to take your time to appreciate it. I think I sat down for at least half an hour just admiring the quiet and the lush trees. It truly was an oasis of peace. I might even say it is the nicest place in the Fukuoka area I have been to so far. Photos do not do the place any justice, believe me. We went there just before the leaves turned into bright autumn colors but I can only imagine how magical this place will be when it does have them in the middle of November.

If you go to Fukuoka then Dazaifu is a no-brainer that you should definitely visit. And if you have the time you should try Komyozenji as well for a true experience Japanese beauty and zen.

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Last time I wrote about the the first day of our Nagasaki school trip and today I want to continue by telling about our second day. This is mostly about the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum which is quite a popular tourist destination, so it might be an interesting read for people considering to visit this museum or the one in Hiroshima (which I have yet to visit).

The next day it was time to rise and shine early in the morning (as always), and I really wonder how some of the guys got up that went drinking until deep in the night. Anyway, I was really excited to go to the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum. This might sound weird, but I have always been interested in WOII events and stories and I was just really curious to see who they had set the museum up and what kind of stories they would be portraying there.

By my friend Kim

As you can imagine it is a museum with a lot of impact. It starts off with a dark room that replicated the scenery of a broken church facade and other broken buildings while displaying some horrific movies and photos, which sets an eerie tone for the rest of the museum. After that comes a more factual part with information about the Fat Boy (the atomic bomb), how it works, what happened during and after the explosion and what king of material damaged it did. You then move on the the immediate and long term effects of these bombs and the radiation. The part that I stuck to the longest time was the part with stories, quotes, pictures and movies of survivors. It is just so tough to swallow, but so important to see how horrible a thing this is and why we should prevent something like this from happening again. I think it would be good for everyone to be confronted with these stories and information and to start contemplating about what it is to be living in a world of relative peace at the moment and what we humans do to each other.

Anyway, near the museum is a Peace Park so we went there after the museum. While you walk to the peace park you actually walk past the 'Hypocenter park' where the hypocenter of the atomic was. That feels very strange. The peace park itself is build to commemorate the 10.000 citizens that died because of the bomb. There are several statues and a big fountain in the park, the most famous 'Peace Statue' (which looks like some kind of Greek god to me). I was discussing with my friend about war, peace and suffering because this place really makes you contemplate you know. Other than that, there is not much to see in the park to be honest.

For lunch we ate a place which felt like a massive tourist trap to me haha. We had to wait downstairs until the tables were all set, and downstairs happened to be a tourist shop with many local Japanese foods. In Nagasaki's case the most famous one is a cake originated in Portugal called Castella. Anyway, these shops are a dime in dozen in Japan because Japanese love buying souvenirs. Or rather it is expected of them to buy souvenirs (usually food) even when they are just on a day trip or weekend trip. So to cater to this massive buying of souvenirs there are many of them. There is even one in my local shopping mall where no tourist would ever come (I think).

But I digress. We were tempted with samples of food but then it was time to eat our Chinese-inspired lunch. Nagasaki has always had good relations with China and even the Netherlands and did a lot of trading with these countries. That's why there are a lot of foreign influences in Nagasaki, like the Portugal cakes, Dutch traders' island Dejima, Christian churches and Chinese (fusion) food. So our lunch was one of the fusion foods found in Nagasaki. The food was even placed on one of those Chinese spinning tables.

By Kim

When lunch was finished we moved on to Glover Garden. It is near the Oranda Zaka, or Dutch Slope, and is a very lovely European style house surrounded by a huge garden on top of one of the hills in Nagasaki. The house was built by a Scottish merchant and is another great example of foreign elements in Nagasaki. It offers a gorgeous view of Nagasaki Harbor and the garden itself has a lot of flowers and greenery, and it reminded me a little bit of the garden my grandparents used to have. But Japanese elements aren't missing either because there is a big koi pond and a statue of a woman in kimono. Just like any place in Japan they commercialized the place by building a little cafe and a tourist shop. The cafe is actually really nice because there are seats outside in the garden which is very unusual for Japan. I really miss the Dutch (or European in general) sidewalk cafes and patios, so I was surprised to see it here.

By Kim

After this day full of impressions it was time to head home and let everything sink in.

Have you ever been to an Atomic Bomb Museum? 
What did you think about it?

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Last semester we took a lot of school trips with JTW around Kyushu to see and learn more about the area. The last trip that semester was to Nagasaki. I had been longing to go there because I wanted to visit the former Dutch traders island of Dejima and see some of the Dutch influences left around the city. Unfortunately we didn't go there.

Before we went to the city of Nagasaki we dropped by the Kyushu National Museum and later at Mifuneyama-rakuen. The National Museum of Kyushu is located in Dazaifu, near Fukuoka. The building is very big with striking architecture and when we were there a Balinese musical performance was being held in the spacious entrance hall. The permanent museum collection itself is not too big though. I don't think you will need a lot of time looking around. The collection is called a 'Cultural Exchange Exhibition' and is not just about Japanese or Kyushu history, but the history of Asian cultural exchange. The interesting parts for me were the Dutch collection, the 'Hidden Christians' (kakure kirishitan) artifacts and a Chinese painting which had the same set up as one of the paintings we studied for the East-Asian Arts course back in Leuven. Sadly I forgot my camera during this trip so I only had my iPhone at disposal. So I am also using some pictures taking by my friend Kim :)

By Kim

As I said the collection isn't too big so within an hour we had seen everything and headed to our next destination Mifuneyama Rakuen. It is a big 'stroll garden' designed by a painter from Kyoto and completed in 1845. It has gorgeous views with every season or every month offering a unique view. It is supposed to have beautiful autumn foliage, but sadly when we were there most leaves had already fallen down. It is still a nice garden with a small mountain and many azalea bushes, so I can imagine how impressive it most be when these are in bloom (which is actually around the time that I am writing/posting this article). How I wish I could go there right now to see the azaleas. I have fallen in love with those flowers since I first saw them blooming a few weeks ago. I saw them for the first time in my live and can't get over how bright and colorful they are.

A bare garden without the autumn leaves or spring/summer flowers.

Still found some red leaves!

So the garden was really nice but it just wasn't the right timing to go because there was no autumn leaves and no flowers blooming either. Instead we just fooled around, chatted and took a lot of photos. When we were finished I really wanted to buy a hot chocolate at the little coffee stand outside the garden, but when we got back it was already closed. Too bad. But it was time to head to our inn. The Nakamasu ryokan we were staying at was really luxurious with big rooms, onsen in the building and a luxurious dinner. I can't believe we only paid 300 yen for this trip. JTW sometimes really amazes me. The funny thing is that the outside didn't look like a ryokan at all, and the hallways and stairs looked like they had had their best times, but the rooms, the onsen and the dinner were so nice.

By Kim

By Kim

After the amazing dinner some people went to soak in the hot springs. I went out to buy some drinks and snacks and decided to take a nice warm soak in our big private bath to eliminate the winter cold from my body. To city of Takeo where to ryokan is located isn't to big but there was a gorgeous illuminated red gate and some other nice views which made a stroll around the city a good idea. I decided to skip because I wanted to stay warm and cosy inside. When everybody did their strolls, took a bath and put on a yukata we all gathered in one of the guys' rooms to play games and drink together. It was such a fun and cosy night, and a nice way to enjoy our last trip of the first semester.

Next time I will be sharing part two of this post which is about us actually going to Nagasaki where we visited the Atomic Bomb Museum and Glover Garden.

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Hey guys! So here is the long promised post ! I couldn't post earlier because my dorm in Japan didn't have internet until today >.< Yes, you read that right, my dorm in Japan! A bit more than a week ago I arrived in Japan and since then life has been chaos. A fun chaos. So I will use this blog as a kind of diary and way to keep my family and friends back home up to date. In between I will also continue to write about my previous travels. So I hope to see you around! And now for the story...

After a lovely week or so it was time to leave Kansai and head to Tokyo. We went by one of the slow bullet trains, which takes about four hours from Kyoto. I was a little bit sad to say goodbye to wonderful Kyoto. I really fell in love with this city. But going to Tokyo was also very exciting. When we arrived at Tokyo Station the chaos began. We had to go to Ikebukuro, a ward in Tokyo, but had no idea where to take the train. After a while we found while navigating our heavy luggage through the crowds. Arriving at Ikebukuro the crowds were still there, but it felt slightly less chaotic. It was a little bit difficult to find our hotel, but we found it eventually. We were quite worn out by then. Osaka and Kyoto are big cities too, but nothing really quite prepares you for the overwhelming mass of people and size of Tokyo.

Ikebukuro is quite a lovely ward to stay in. It isn't as crowded as Shibuya, Shinjuku and Harujuku. But there is still a lot of shops and restaurants. There is also a nerd town like Akihabara in Ikebukuro, but more catered to girls, mainly focusing on boyxboy stuff. I didn't know that while we stayed there and didn't come across those shops, so I can't tell you much about it. But for those interested in those kind of things, now you know! Basically, Ikebukuro has all the perks of a big city without being as overwhelming as some of the other places in Tokyo, and there is variety even within this ward.

It was around afternoon when we were done checking in and putting our luggage in the room, so we wanted to go somewhere. We were so excited to go to Kiddy Land, a big toy store in Omotesando, to buy cute Rilakkuma and San-X goodies, so we made a plan to go to Harajuku and adjoining Omotesando. I don't know how we did it, but we managed to get off at the wrong stop and had to walk a while from who knows where to Harajuku. But lucky for us; our good sense of direction led us to Harajuku eventually! Again we were overwhelmed by all the shops and people and colors. It was very nice to see but we were so dumbstruck that we didn't even enter a single shop. At the end of the street we debated whether to eat something. I said 'We are in Harajuku so we should try a Harajuku crêpe don't you think?' and that's what we did. I have no regrets. It might not be actual Japanese food but they are damn good and it's just something that you should eat when visiting Harajuku. I had a crêpe with whipped cream, cheesecake (yes, a slice of it!) and chocolate sauce.

We then moved on to Omotesando, full with brands that we can't really afford, but it's nice to see. And the street is beautifully lined up trees. It is also very bright and the stores are pretty and not just tall grey buildings. So it is very different from most of Tokyo. In Cat Street, which is also a cute little street, was the temporary Kiddy Land Store. There are also many fashion shops in this street, so it is worth checking out. But we just went wild in Kiddy Land over all the Alpaca plushies, Mamegoma notebooks and Rilakkuma stickers. But prices are steep and this was another case of being overwhelmed by all the choices, so we each bought a notebook and decided to come back another day when we were more calmed down. For those interested in Kiddy Land, it is back on Omotesando Street now.

This is a pretty short post because half of our day was spent on the train. Also, I didn't really take many photos in Tokyo. It just felt kind of weird taking photos in the middle of busy shopping streets. I didn't really like all the grey buildings of Tokyo anyway, and photos of shops didn't really interest me either haha. Looking back now I should have taken more pictures! But the few I had got lost anyway, so sorry for the lack of photos this time. If my friend sends her photos of Japan to me I will look for photos that I can include in this post :)

Notes;

• Shinkansen travels fast and pretty comfortable
• Try to take as little luggage with you as possible when traveling around by public transportation. We learned that the hard way.
• The bullet trains don't have a lot of space for suitcases. We left them in the front of the cabin.
• Ikebukuro is a nice base on Tokyo
• Go to Harajuku for fashion and fun shops
• Harujuku is almost always crowded though!
• Give Cat Street a try also.
• Omotesando is upscale and beautiful, but with all the high end shops you will probably end up just window shopping
• Kiddy Land is heaven for character goods! Their new store just opened so check it out for all the cute stuff of characters like Rilakkuma, Mamegoma en Sumikkogurashi.
• Eat Harajuku crêpes! Even though it's originally a French food, they are pretty damn good in Harajuku too.
• If you like purikura this is the place to go. There are special shops (usually in the basement) full of purikura machines.

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Hello there! I've had a small hiatus of two weeks due to my broken hard disk as I told about before. I have been scanning every last byte of my computer and my families computer for photos. So I was searching and searching because without photos this would be a boring blog right? And I have found back a fair amount of them, but sadly I lost a lot of photos because my back up of them also got lost. Most of the lost photos are from my solo travels, which also means my Japan photos. Luckily there is social media where I had stored my most important photos so I can keep blogging and showing you about my travels, that's a positive thing in this whole affair. It is only a fragment of what I could show (and the quality of the photos is also downgraded a lot from the originals), but something is better than nothing I'd say!

So I'll continue writing about my trip to Japan for now. We checked out of our cosy budget hotel to spend one night a more luxurious yet homely ryokan. This ryokan was run by an old lady and her husband and they took great care of us. It was almost like doing a home stay but with the privacy of a hotel. The ryokan was located in a traditional house with a gorgeous garden (but I forgot to take a picture of that, oh my!) and a small spa bath. But it was still too early to check in so we left our luggage there and rented bicycles at the same place as the day before. The guy from the rental place recognized us and gave us a discount, nice! And today we visited probably the most famous place in Japan; the Golden Pavilion, Kikakuji. It was quite a long journey all the way to the north-east of Kyoto, but enjoyable nonetheless. As I said before, Dutchies on bicycles is like fish in the sea haha.
And lucky for us it wasn't very crowded at all, so we could take our time and enjoy the reflection of the golden building in the big lake in all rest. It was a time to let the beauty sink in and become at peace. I can tell all about it, but photos beat my words.

Next is a place that is famous with enthousiast of Zen gardens, the Ryoanji temple. The place is known for the dry landscape solely made of pebble stones with a few big stones. Those big stones can not be viewed all at once; no matter where you stand, there will always be at least once out of sight. I think the surroundings were more impressive though. Because the garden is part of a small temple which is part of an even bigger garden. There was a big lake where I spotted cute turtles. And around the temple was a little bit of vegetation and decorations including a gorgeous wishing well. It was interesting seeing the dry landscape and this time I consciously sat down to only look at the garden and clear my thoughts. When you're at a zen garden why not try becoming zen for a while, right? Until now the gorgeous gardens and temples had awed me and made me both amazed and calm. But this time I made a conscious effort to slow down and appreciate what I saw because a pile of stones doesn't really give that wow-feeling sat first sight.

Turtles!

We continued our journey a bit more southward to Ninna-ji. It is part of the UNESCO Historic Monuments of Kyoto, just like the Golden Pavilion and Ryoan-ji we saw earlier that day. Taking that into consideration and seeing some photos online, plus the fact that it is close to Ryoanji, I decided to put this on my list of locations to visit for Kyoto. This is once again a massive place with several buildings and gardens on its grounds. We didn't want to pay to enter every part of Ninna-ji, so we only entered the first part called goten, former residence of the head priest. You can walk around the hallways and look into the rooms. The interesting part is that the hallways are in the open air, so that outside and inside are connected to each other. This concept overflows in the garden which is also connected to the buildings and hallways. The garden is gorgeous and the harmony of outdoors and indoors is something really inspiring, especially for those interested in architecture (me!).

View when walking through the hallways

Not far away from there is Myoshin-ji. This is yet again a place with extended grounds, but what makes this place unique is that it is not located in the mountains but in a residential area so that temples and housed are kind of mixed together and that you will say locals walking around there. And visiting the grounds is free and you can ride around with your bicycle. So there we were, taking a ride with temples to our left and right. There was something really special about this place and just riding with our bicycle there that it's got a special place in my heart. By the way, we might have done something illegal by bicycling there, so if you go there by bike keep an eye out for any signs that say it's not allowed ! I didn't take many photos here, and those I did take got lost, sadly.

After nomming away a delicious ice-cream we headed back early because we we exhausted after the concert of the night before and bicycling and walking all day. The guy of the rental bikes was surprised that we came back so 'fast'. He couldn't believe we went all the way to Kinkakuji by bike and visited several places there and biked all the way back before it was evening. What can I say, we are just super fast bikers ! Or to be fair, we are just good planners, fairly good bikers and efficient sightseers I guess haha. When we arrived at our room there was some warm tea, cold refreshing water and wagashi waiting for us, awesome. And they already put our luggage there for us. That is the kind of service I would always like. We reserved the family bath for eight o'clock. We had our own bathroom but the communal bath room has an onsen-like ofuro, which is basically an at home hot spring. So after washing ourselves we soaked in the hot water of the ofuro and slowly felt our fatigue and pains leave our bodies. It is such an relaxing experience. And this was a great alternative for visiting an onsen because it meant having the relaxation without being naked in front of strangers.

Notes;

• Kinkakuji is the most famous sight of Japan. Who doesn't want to see the mesmerizing Golden Pavilion?
• June is a great time for visiting Japan if you like to avoid too many tourists and want to visit famous places in a relative quiet atmosphere. You should be aware that it is rainy season at that time, but you could be lucky like us and only have two days of rain and many dry days (with grey skies).
• Zen garden equals Ryoan-ji ; go here for the epitome of dry landscape gardens
• Like Japanese architecture and Japanese gardens? Visit Ninna-ji, more particularly the goten part of it.
• Myoshin-ji is great if you like something different and a more residential atmosphere of temples. And it's free to explore !
• Visiting a hot spring (onsen) is something you can't miss in Japan. Pamper yourself and relax!
• If you don't like to be naked in front of strangers, there are some onsen where you can rent a private bath. Or you can go to a hotel where there is an onsen bath included in your room or where you can rent a bath in the hotel.
• Japanese sweets are called wagashi. They aren't really sweet like Western sweets but very pretty. If you're staying at a nice ryokan there's a chance you will get some wagashi in your room.

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