Osaka Castle, Osaka

Sashiburi ... it's been a while since I wrote the last trip in Kyoto. The Nishiki Food Market. Today, I will blog about my last trip in Japan, i.e. Osaka Castle. Osaka Castle was built during the Tokugawa era (the shogun era). It was quite a majestic view of the castle. The first initial built castle was burnt and this was rebuilt abuot hundred years ago, if i dont remember wrongly. They have a fish that possess dragon head on the top of the castle. This is to prevent any misfortune to befall the castle again. The visit of this castle will give you a feeling that you time travel back to the Tokugawa era. The steps were quite high cos horses will gallop on it to reach the top of the castle.

To visit the inner part of the castle, you will need to pay 600 yen for a visit and similar to the Sanjusangendo Temple, you are not allow to take pictures on the display artifacts. Therefore, we decided not to go in. Taking pictures outside was more than satisfying.


Around the castle, they sell quite a number of snacks such as the ice kacang like drinks, ice cream and takoyakis. The takoyakis here didnt taste as good as in Tokyo as they were as dried as the ones that you can find in Takashimaya but of course with a bigger chunk of tako inside the balls.

I think Japanese really love red beans. In whatever dessert that they are eating, they must have red beans. Red beans red beans everywhere. Luckily I am a red beans lover. I dont really like green beans though unless I need to detox. Else I wont be taking green beans.

Somewhere in between the train station and the castle is a stadium and there was an event going on that day. We were quite surprised to see the place was filled with people and there were stalls set up. We later found out that there was a concert going on. Gosh the people were just too many.

There are stalls selling fried noodles, red beans filling doraemon cakes, dorayakis, strawberries coated in sugar, egg pancakes. We bought the fried noodles and egg pancakes to try and see if it is tasty. And it was as good as it looks. Very very tasty especially the fried noodles. Though only cabbage and noodles, it tastes really good when fried with their special vinegar. We have two packets of this!!!

Our trip in Japan seems tiring cos we walked a lot but IT WAS DEFINITELY AND ENJOYABLE TRIP!!!! ^_^ See a lot, walk a lot and eat a lot! Overall, I like the place, the people and the food! I hope someday sometime I will go back to Japan again. *Grins*Wink*Wink*

Nishiki Food Market, Kyoto

Nishiki Food Market isnt a tourist spot actually. It is one of the area recommended in a BIG file of Kyoto Budget Inn under the section "What to do" in Kyoto. So we visited this area and see what it is like. Since majority of Japan is very well-organized, the food market is no surprise at all. Basically, it was a market where it sells a lot of food stuffs especially seafood and some fermented vegetables and fruits! The best thing here is you can always sample the fermented stuff and bonito if you are curious how it will taste like. The stall owner are very hospitable too. Even if you say you wont buy after you test, they wont get angry at all! First stall where we buy our food is this dessert stall. Each we bought one to sample how it taste like. But of course the lookalike we didnt buy it. Just those that looks different from each other. Hehehehe....

They have a lot of grill seafood too. Fishes, squid (tako), scallop etc. They really looks tempting but didnt manage to eat them all ....

This is what I regret the most!!! The fresh abalone is as big as my hands and it only cost 50SGD. Gosh I really regretted we didnt buy this and ask the stall owner to grill it. It really looks umph ....... But we tried the scallop though. 3 cost about 12SGD and each is as big as half of your hand. It taste sooooooooo FRESH and SUPERB!!!

Along the way, they have a lot of bentos too. The bentos are meant for workers who are working for their lunch. We also bought a few boxes here for our lunch before we depart to our next destination. The bentos really taste AWESOME!! OIISHIIIII desu. Their taste are similar to those that you can get in the japanese restaurant in Singapore. I am not exaggerating here ... IT'S TRUE!!!!

They have a variety of vegetables with different colours too. They all looks delicious to me. But didnt manage to try this cos the food we bought is already a lot ...

We bought some of the salted vegetables back. You can sample each of them. Ranging from olive to raw pepper. Some taste good, some well not to my taste. Dont really like them. However, they are not cheap though. But can last for very long as you will only need a little bit for a big bowl of rice or porridge. Just mix them together. And i think it will taste not that salty.

Here is another stall selling grills. You can find a lot of grill eels here too ...

Here, there are a few stalls that sell a lot of fermented vegetables. It doesnt smell good but it taste good though ^_^

Kiyomizudera Temple, Kyoto

Right after the visit to Sanjusangendo Temple, we headed to Kiyomizudera Temple, a UNESCO World Heritage spot, which is located in the same area as Sanjusangendo Temple. My sister said ,"No worries, satu batang rokok sudah sampai (only needs one cigarattes to reach in Malay language)". So heeding her advice, again we walk. And we havent had our lunch yet. The only food that we had was on the train where we bought from Daie superstore at Funabori. Then, we walk and walk. 45 mins passed and we dont even see nor smell the presence of the Kiyomizudera Temple nearby. I told my sis I cant stand anymore. I MUST EAT!!!! We bought some sushi and onigiri in a 7-eleven like store during our way there. LUUUUUUCKY!! But the problem is where to eat. There is no sitting place along the road. And we were going uphill heading towards the temple. Climb climb pant pant huff huff

Alas, we saw some curb and we just sat there unpacked our food and eat. Hunger clouded my strength to move further ....

Ok done with the eating and we resumed our journey again. Now you see there is a lot of people going up. Since the temple closes at 6pm, the moment the clock showed exactly 6, you will see a much lesser crowd than these. Most shops were closed exactly 6pm SHARP! Cant even really have time to shop for the sweets here....

The entrance to the temple.

This is the whole view of the temple. Nice right?

The interesting part of this temple is, the basement/structure that supports this temples are only woods. No nails no cement to pile a few storeys high up. And it can stand for like a few hundred years without collaspsing. That's just simple amazing!

In this temple, you will see a lot of youngsters too, especially, young girls will dress up in yukata. If you are lucky, you are able to get a few snaps of those little girls too. All you need to do is ASK!! The main purpose is to visit this love stone and pray for your love life or get some guidance for those who are still single ^_^

Then, of course, me and sis try to pray in the Japanese way. Very fun, refreshing and interesting!! Hee....

We next tried the spring water that is pumped a few hundred meters from ground. The water is simply delicious by itself! No treatment nothing. Just purely groundwater!! Taste really great and cooling too *Grins*

What amazed me was, all the containers used to collect the water are disinfected with UV. Even in temple they are so particular about hygiene. What more in other part of Japan?

Finally, our trail of the temple ended. On our way back, we bought some local delicacies that were still open. All taste really tasty and fresh!! First, we had three different pieces of grilled rice cakes.

Next we went into a black sesame shop. They basically sell stuffs that are made from black sesame. Mochi, tea, rice cakes, ice cream, etc. .... We bought two. One was the ice-cream and another one is "I-do-not-know-what" sweets. Yummy yummy yum and munchy munchy munch!!

Sanjusangendo Temple, Kyoto

The moment we load all our stuffs in Kyoto Budget Inn, we start our journey again. The total time that we spent on the journey from Tokyo to Kyoto was about 3 hours. Our first stop was to get to Sanjusangendo Temple. This temple consist the national treasure of Japan, i.e. The Thousand Hand Buddha. Besides that, they have a lot of Buddha statue with different facial expressions. I found one that looks like my cousin. I wonder if I can find one that looks like me inside. But too bad we were not allow to take any pictures inside the temple. Therefore, you pay to go in. It's about 600-700 yen I think.

After alighting from the train station, we started to walk. The weather in Kyoto was totally different from Tokyo. It was really really hot and humid. As hot as you can get in Singapore. No different at all! We were sweating but not that really hard. Again, same thing we walk really far to reach the temple. But luckily, there are some small shrines along the way where I can snap some pictures. The entrance to most shrines looks the same isn't it? Still the same in Tokyo, Kyoto is still very clean!!

Finally we reached the temple after a loooooooooooooong walk! Since we cant take any pictures in the temple, we still enjoy taking the pictures at the outside. This temple is very nicely decorated. One of the emperor stayed in this temple as a retreat to recover from his illness. They have the memorial of the emperor in this temple. Just around the compound.

This is the gate of the temple. Just look at it! It was really really HUUUUUUGE. And see how small I am here. Hahahahhahaha ....

At this compound, they will held archery competition .... ummm .... yearly? Cant remember about the description though.

Another view of the archery competition grounds. The royals will watch from here ...

End of the temple. It was quite long actually. You will be amaze on how nice and clean this place was. Not even dust can be found on the stairs going into the temple. I know because I tried to swipe the dust with my fingers. You just cant find any of it!!!

This is where the big bell resides. They will always have bell in temple. Not sure what is the purpose though. I think it's similar to those Buddhism religion.

That's all for the Sanjusangendo Temple. Next station is the UNESCO World Heritage temple - Kiyomizudera Temple!

Funabori - Last Day in Tokyo, Japan

This was the last day we are in Tokyo. Our next destination was Kyoto. After arriving at Funabori, we didnt really have a good look and survey on how this area looks like. Therefore, instead of travelling far (since we need to get up really early to go to Kyoto), we just loiter around Funabori area. We walked around and see what kind of shops and eateries we can find. Since Funabori is not a central area of Tokyo, after 7-8pm the road started to get quiet and lesser people around. Our first stop is this ramen shop. It is a typical ramen shop that you can see in most anime. The boss is not an old man but a young man whom had been travelling around for a few years. So he speaks a little English! That's kind of relief! Hehehehehe ... In those small shops, food are normally ordered and payed using machine. It's exactly like a vending machine with the exception that food ticket is what you got. Then, use the food ticket to exchange for your food.

THe cooking didnt take long. The most 5 minutes. The chef cant really speak English. But he asked us what kind of portion that we want for the SAME PRICE!! Small, Medium or Big. We go for the medium ones and the bowl of noodles is really big. Since we have 3 people here, we asked for two empty bowl each containing one hard boil egg. I was like WOW!!!! They really pampered us well here! The ramen taste very very very good! Although it only have a piece of charsiew with a big bunch of vegies! The spicy miso soup was great! I can still remember the taste although I was back for many weeks! And guess what it only cost us 850 yen (12-13SGD)!!!

After our ramen experience, we proceed to our next stop. A BBQ/Grilling Sake restaurant. In Japan (area which are further from the central of Tokyo), most shop close at 8pm. Not later than that. Only some shops/restaurants open later than those usual shops. It's those small eateries and grilling/bbq sake restaurant. This restaurant was operated by a beautiful obasan and her teenage daughter. It was really difficult to order. And it took us 30 mins to just order 4 dishes. Gosh! Cos we do not know what they are e.g. beef have different parts of beef which you cant really identify using pics. I just know a little of Japanese. Niku (meat) and ebi (prawn). The lady boss told me about ika. I roughly guessed that ika is in the same group as prawn but what exactly it is I dont know. Later, when the food arrive, ika is actually sotong (squid). Add another new vocab! Hehehehe ...

There was some side dish presented too. The ika taste normal. Nothing much special. BUT if you ever go to Japan, eating beef is a MUST! You must be questioning why ... because, the beef taste soooo much juicier no matter how long you grilled it on top of the charcoal. You will see the juice kept dropping onto the charcoal. In addition, with basic marination, the beef taste sooooooooo sweeeeeeeeeeeeeet!!! We regretted that we asked her not to put sake as marinate. Should have done that and I think this will definitely taste waaaaaaaay much much better! Then we ordered leeks pancake. Taste plainly good and it was not oily and not thick! I like this too ^-^ ... Hmmm .. seems like I just love everything .. Hahahhaa...

Then sis wanted to eat some porridge. Porridge is plain but it was tasty! Not sure how to describe the taste though. It will make you really warm up during cold days. Lastly is our dessert. Sis got this from Ginza again as Mum wanted to get her pearls ... Since I was in conference, she bought the cake in Ginza area. I dont like the cake though. It looks nice and tasty but when you really tasted it, it's just not what i expected. The cake taste was as if it was soak in water. Maybe they have different type of cakes, sis just unfortunately got the wrong one. Hahahha ... Before we go off, the lady boss gave us chewing gum to cleanse our mouth ... Heeee ... The total bill wasnt expensive too. At most 70SGD in total. Quite a good one I would say. You will not get such a price with the same type of food and service! Good food, great service! Must remember to visit both the ramen and bbq shop if you step into Funabori!

Off we go, loitering around again. Those two buildings are most buildings you will see in Japan. A Pachinko and an arcade. The ones that we have here is Sega World. Yes, the computer games that you are always playing. We didnt go into Pachinko. Pachinko is actually a gambling machine using some metal balls. How it's play I am not too sure. But if you are interested, please follow this link

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachinko

a lot of Japanese men will play here especially those white collar workers. Too stress maybe? Even the arcade is worth mentioning too. They have two floors. 1st level is more on UFO machines catcher while 2nd floor are more on computer games and jackpots. So be it adults or children, you are just attracted to here. Thus, this can serve a purpose for a family day out. Kids on the 1st level and parents on the second level. Hahahha .. .well, of course I am not encouraging gambling ... If it's just for fun, why not?

This is our favourite supermart for the first two days. The first two days we got home quite late. So most of the restaurants were closed. What we eat is the 98 yen (2 SGD) instant noodles. Even instant noodles taste soo good in Japan. The cup is 1.5 times the size of instant noodles that you get here. What's even better is there is no msg. How do I know because, you dont feel thirsty after eating two cups of noodles with the soup slurping down your stomach. Ok ok back to my supermart. This mart opens till 11pm every night! Mid autumn is near and they sell mooncakes too. See how beautifully they are designed compared to the mooncakes that we got here .... sigh .... Interestingly, after 830pm all the cooked food like sushi, fried chicken, bento, agashi tofu, etc are half priced!!! They have all sorts of variety!! Even soba noodles were sold too. So what are we waiting for ... grab la ... hahahhaa ...... the food doesnt go bad till the next morning .... really amazing ... What's even shocking is the tropical fruits that they are selling here!! It cost super duper expensive. One whole pineapple that cost 2-3SGD cos about in here, cost about SGD2.5/100grams. Imagine that. Apples, orange, cost like 10SGD for one! Coconut, durians cost even more expensive!! GULP!! My jaw dropped. A slice of fruits cost about 2SGD!!!! I was like WHAT!! So no fruits for a week. Therefore, if you are visiting your Japanese friends in Japan, you will know what to bring for them... Hahahaha

After shopping and all the paying, the cashier will put the things back into your basket. The practice here is, you have to wrap your own stuff. No one is doing wrapping service for you. I was awed! Good way is you are more responsible, bad way is more job cuts .... things most of the time have their pros and cons. We bought this fresh chrysanthemum. The petals can be taken raw as it is said to cool down heaty body during summer time. THe petals taste sweet and a little sour. But the heart of the flower taste extremely bitter. so we eat most of the petals leaving the heart. If you want to have fresh chrysanthemum tea, you can try to pour hot boiling water onto the flowers and let it sit for about 10 mins and you have a freshly made chrysanthemum!

Trips in Tokyo were enjoyable and I cant wait to share with you guys my next destination that is KYOTO!!!!!!!!!!