Kansai Road Trip with Castles, Beaches and Ninjas

I just came back yesterday from my week long trip around the Kansai area of Japan. I met up with my friend Jeffery again, along with Masato and Rob we went on for what turned out to be a fun, but gruelling road trip. We borrowed a car and drove around 3 of the countryside prefectures in the middle of Japan.

So last Saturday, Rob and I took the local train first to Kobe. The trip there took almost 7 hours as it was done transferring through all the local trains as the JR train company has an unlimited ride ticket for only 20 dollars a day. We had the time so we decided that it was worth taking the normal trains there. It wasn’t too bad as we slept most of the way there and arrived in Kobe just after noon.

We spent the first night in class as we checked into a capsule that grabbed dinner on the main street of Kobe. I finally got to try Kobe beef, as we went to one of the restaurants that offer you a full course meal. Rob and I ended up spending about 100 dollars for our steaks and a nice bottle of wine. It was an incredibly satisfying meal as you can real taste the difference in the meat. The chef slowly cooks each piece for you so that it’s always warm when you eat it. It was well worth the price and we followed up the meal with a few beers at a pub. (Picture Below: The main street of Osaka Dotombori)

On Sunday, Rob and I made our way to Osaka and met up with Mastao and Jeffery. We spent the morning and afternoon checking out the huge electronics stores and then for dinner we met up with Jeffery and a friend at an Izakaya.

On Monday, we spent that day walking around namba, the main district of Osaka and just soaked up the atmosphere that Osaka has to offer. Osaka definitely feels different than Tokyo as a city and with its people. Overall, it was just a chilling day and we crashed at Masato’s aunt’s house for the evening. (Picture Below: Cherry Blossoms just blooming in front of Wakayama Castle)

On Tuesday, we started our 5 days trip around the area known as Kinki which includes Nara, Wakayama, Mie, Shiga prefectures. The first day we tried to make our way to Mt. Koya a famous Buddhist mountain in Wakayama Prefecture but because of bad weather and a detour, we decided to just spend the day in Wakayama city. Caution to anyone thinking of going to Wakayama city, don’t- as there is absolutely nothing to do there. We saw the local castle and then just crashed at a manga café as nothing was open due to the rainy weather. (Picture Below: The White sand beach of Shirahama)

On Wednesday we got up early and made our way to Shirahama, on the west coast of Wakayama Prefecture. The area is sort of like a beach resort and had some of the nicest sand I have ever touched. It was really soft because it’s actually imported from Australia. We also wanted to go to this ocean side onsen, but with our luck it is closed every Wednesday, so we settled for a smaller one that over looked the beach.

After Shirahama, we drove though Kushimoto, a place renowned for its rock formations. We stopped by for an hour and snapped a few pictures of the place.

Our Jam packed Wednesday ended with the main attraction of Wakayama Prefecture, Nachi falls. A 436ft waterfall is renowned in Japan as being the tallest and most sacred water fall. It was really amazing to see the fall up close and we also managed to climb up the mountain to see the fall from the Seigantoji Temple Pagoda.

There was also a large temple and shrine and we had a good few hours hiking around the grounds and just admiring our surroundings. It was definitely one of the main highlights of the trip. After leaving the falls we drove to Mie Prefecture and arrived close to midnight at Iga-Ueno City.

Iga is known as one of the two largest Ninja schools during the feudal period of Japan. Iga was a Ninja village and the present day city really promotes this as their main tourist draw. (Picture Below: Me trying to throw Ninja stars)

They have an excellent Ninja museum which really presented some really interesting facts and I must say I increased my knowledge of Ninjas twofold, and how many people can say that. We attended a Ninja performance first and then toured around a ninja house with lost of hidden rooms and trap doors. Rob managed to be one of the volunteers to enter a hidden door panel. (Picture Below: You could buy Ninja costumes for kids and adults)

Close to the Ninja museum was also a ninja show presented to a group of elementary school students, which also had a little girl essentially beating up two guys.

At the ninja museum grounds there was also a castle called the Hakuhojo White Phoenix Castle. The castle was relatively small but boasts the highest rock walls in all of Japan. The four of us tried scaling this Ninja castle, which wasn’t actually too hard as there were lots of foot grips.

Our last stop in Iga was the local cultural hall building which allowed us to dress up as Ninjas for a dollar. Rob, Masato and I jumped at the opportunity and got the full outfit accompanied with swords. We were given 30 minutes in the costumes and we utilized it and had Ninja battles throughout the building.

Rob and I both took the largest size- which was the black uniform- but Masato being a bit smaller, had to settle for the blue one which made him strangely look like a Smurf. I proceeded to call him smurf Ninja and I only wished I had a red hat- then he could have been Papa Smurf Ninja.

We were a tad embarrassed but the kids that saw us were super cute and were really excited to see us come out of the dressing room. That family had dressed up right before us and they even had a baby Ninja costume which was adorable. We took tons of pictures and fulfilled my life long dream to be a Ninja, if only, for 30 minutes.

Afterwards, we drove straight to Shiga Prefecture renowned for having the largest lake in Japan, Biwa-ko. I booked us a hostel right by the lake, and it didn’t disappoint as the lake was only 15 meters from our front door. The hostel also had a gorgeous patio and the first night we spent the evening having a few beers by the lake.

On Friday, we decided that we should make a quick stop to the second and rival Ninja town of Koga. On the map it looked really close but do to traffic it took almost 2 hours to arrive at Koga City. We went to the Ninja Village there, which actually had real Ninjas rip us off. The Ninja village was one of the biggest crapholes in all of Japan. Everything was broken and decrepit. Half the building had collapsed and there were old boxes, urinals and laundry everywhere. There was absolutely nothing to see and even the gift shop was crap as everything had an inch of dust.

We all felt totally ripped off of our 10 dollar entrance fee. I felt really sorry for all the little kids excited to enter the village to find broken urinals and old cardboard boxes as the main attraction. (Picture Below: Ninja garbage!)

After our crappy Ninja experience, we drove up North a bit more and visited one of the most renowned castles in Japan called Hikone-jo. It is a complete original and not as large as Himeji, but the structure and sense of history was still fantastic. It is also the replica Castle from the Snow festival when I was in Sapporo.

Our last night in Shiga was just spent relaxing at the local onsen and pretty much passing out in our cabins. The long drives during the day in our dinky car that Masato’s aunt who was kind enough to let us borrow really exhausted us. We averaged close to 6 hours of car time a day and almost all our backs and asses were sore. (Picture Below: Our Nissan Blue Deathbox)

I drove for half the trip and it was surprisingly easy to drive on the other side of the road. A few times I almost freaked everyone else in the car but I swear I had control the whole time. On Saturday we were going to spend the night in Osaka before heading home on Sunday. But being tired and worn out during the trip caught up with me and I started getting a bad fever and caught the stomach flu. So Rob and I just returned on Saturday and skipped out on a big night in Osaka.

Overall, it was a good trip and it was cool to be able to see Japan by car and go on a road trip with the guys. The weather could have been better and we just miss the Cherry blossoms blooming again, but the trip was still fun and I feel pretty re-charged for my last term here in Japan. My last few months here are action packed and I hope to leave Japan feeling fulfilled.

Japanese Factoid#45- One interesting place to stay for a night in Japan is Love Hotels. Love hotels are basically hotels that you can pay by the hour, or have different prices depending on the time of day you arrive. They use to be really shady places, but love hotels these days are sometimes just for regular couples to spend the night. Some places have themed rooms and there is usually an automated system or a faceless window for paying to ensure privacy.

Driving around Kansai, we managed to see quite a number of love hotels. They usually had crazy lights and really funky names and designs. Prices are quite affordable for two people to stay as this hotel called Chapel Christmas has 3 price blocks.

Yasuura JHS Graduation Ceremony

March signals the end of the school year in Japan and my third graders from Junior High School had their Graduation ceremony this past Saturday. I have literally seen a lot of these kids grow up and by far, they are my favourite grade that I have had the pleasure of teaching. (Picture Below: A few of my favorite students and the office lady, Ms. Ohtani)

The ceremony was pretty normal by Japanese standards, to a westerner though, they are a lot of differences. First of is probably the amount of singing, you sing the Japanese anthem, school song and then another two goodbye songs the graduating students sing to the teachers and parents. (Picture Below: The kids walking up to pick up their diplomas)

When the students were singing their goodbye song and they pause to say little speeches, a lot of the students were crying. Interestingly enough, some of the “tougher” boys or the ones who have been the most troublesome, were the ones who were crying the hardest. I really connected to a large number of the students and I even had to fight back some tears as I saw some of my students bawling. (Picture Below: The graduates singing their goodbye song)

The ceremony went smoothly and I’ll really miss seeing my students at school as they were the friendliest of the Junior High students I have taught. (Picture Below: Two of the smartest girls in school from the student council)

At night, all the teachers met at a hotel in Kure and we had a thank you dinner for the graduating student’s homeroom teachers. The dinner was really good and as usual I had a great time. I was able to chat with a few more teachers that I hadn’t spoken much too before and just spent the night pouring drinks for my colleagues. After being here for almost two years, I really do feel apart of the school and essentially as a teacher. (Picture Below: A picture of all my teachers at Yasuura)

I also had to give a speech in Japanese, which was a tad scary but ended up going really well. The P.E teacher had asked to explain the differences between graduation in Canada and Japan and I was able to list of a few examples. I don’t think I’ll ever be completely fluent at Japanese, but I hope to keep at it so that I can always converse. It was a good night as all the teachers were really loose and I had a great night eating and drinking. (Picture Below: Moritaka, Kenshin and Dekitani sensei listening to the speeches during dinner)

After leaving the hotel, I was going to just grab a beer with Masato then head back, but somehow ended up going home at 6am. I ran into Rob at our local bar who came in with his principal, and then met this Japanese couple kept on buying us drinks at another bar. It was a great night, expect that the long day managed to take a toll on my immune system and I’ve been sick the past week. (Picture Below: Taken at 6am, with Su-san almost passing out)

Well, I am going to try and take it easy this week, seeing that next week I am going to spend the week touring Kansai with a few friends. It should be fun as we will be driving along the Wakayama coast and plan on visiting Wakayama-shi, the sister city of Richmond. Hope all is well back home.

Japanese Factoid #44- Well, fruit in Japan is delicious. Not only is it great, but it’s also incredibly expensive compared to fruit back home. One apple can easily cost you two to three dollars. Most fruit is price100 dollars for one. The reason why fruit costs a lot here, is the quality control is so high. All the fruit that is sold is essentially unblemished and near perfect because if the fruit is bruised or not sweet, they won’t sell it.

The box of strawberries was sent my Asuka’s friend Aya from Yokohama. Each strawberry costs about 2.50 cdn. They were huge and each one looked immaculate. These strawberries are custom ordered by the emperor of Japan every year.