Spring has been sighted!

I am so happy that we had a mild winter in Osaka this year. Nevertheless, I am overjoyed to find the first cherry blossoms blooming already. It's a sure sign of warmer weather to come (and unfortunately, of allergy season!).

It was a beautiful sunny day at the park, and the few trees in bloom made for a beautiful splash of color among all the greenery.

It is lovely to be able to enjoy Hanami one more time in Japan before I leave!

Cosplay!

(Viewing, not participating in) :P

Ooops, so I just realized that months have passed since I last wrote. My time in Japan is coming to an end soon, so I promise to write and update more! I have lots of travel in my near future, but in the meantime, I will try to cram in a few more things in this crazy lovely country.

Of course I can't leave Japan without viewing one of its most notorious pastimes: cosplay! Every year in Osaka, thousands of people dress up as their favorite anime/video game character for this one day of fun. It was cool to see the details that went into all the costumes, and I was pleasantly surprised to recognize some of them!

I can't believe I actually recognized this! Trio from Cardcaptor Sakura!

No idea what this one is, but looks really cool.

A character from a really popular girls' anime series,
Pretty Cure.

Yuna, from Final Fantasy X! Not a minute later, I saw a
guy in a Tidus costume one block away. I wonder if he
was looking for Yuna? :)

This looked super familiar. I want to say a character
from Tenchi Muyo??

Can you believe that people actually drive around in cars with these decals?

Yokai yokai yokaaaaaiiii watch ee ee!

The enemy has been spotted! Where's Solid Snake?? Dressed up as this
cute little girl?

Oh, here he is. Silly Snake, you don't fit in that box!

I wonder what anime these girls are from? 

Lightning and Vanille, from Final Fantasy XIII. The
costumes look really good!

A snapshot from the other side of things; I was standing behind a
 very popular cosplay girl. Slightly creepy, no?

Cammie, from Street Fighter

So kawaii!

Awwww! It's Cloud! And Aerith! (Even though we all know that Aerith's
true love really is Zack Fair.)

Don't know what anime she is from, but she is
rocking the outfit!

Ness looks like he lost a lot of weight, maybe he's homesick?
Where is Poo??

This was a crazy event, spanning multiple blocks and consisting of huge crowds. It eventually got tiring to be fighting through the streets, but I'm sure there were even more interesting and cool costumes to be found. This was like the Halloween parade in New York, but even better because all the costumes looked to be really well-made. I'm glad I got to see all this!

Leaves change color!?

The Floridian in me never stops being amazed by seasons. While Spring always makes me happy because it's a sign of warmer weather to come, Fall foliage is a showstopper. One of my favorite things to do in the Fall in New York was to walk around looking at trees, and so I wanted to do the same in Japan.

I took a train to the northern outskirts of Osaka, to Minoo Park. It's listed on many websites as one of the most popular destinations for Fall foliage viewing. And it was REALLY popular. Apparently everyone in Osaka had the same idea as I did this weekend, and we all headed to the same darn place! I couldn't believe the crowds!

Minoo Park featured many food stalls along its nicely paved path, so it wasn't too difficult of a hike. After about 3 km, the path ended in a waterfall. It wasn't the most impressive waterfall I've seen, but it was still nice to be around nature.

If you look closely, you can see the old ladies frying up
battered maple leaves! Unfortunately the lines were about
20 people deep... I didn't get any!

Pretty Japanese maple trees

Overhead view of some of the beautiful colors

Autumn in Japan!

Getting close to the waterfall (you can kind of see
how many people are around!)

The waterfall (although it's a bad picture... my
camera is really bad!)

Not all the trees turned color... wonder why?

It's a shame that all this will disappear in a few weeks, and then it gets cold! Rats!

Futon Daiko Festival

To celebrate the Harvest Moon, there's a regional festival that takes place every year in the town that I am staying in. To my surprise, it's a quite popular and large festival! It's called the Futon Daiko festival, and it takes place at the Mozuhachiman Taisho here in Sakai. On a beautiful sunny Sunday, I decided to check it out.

Although much of the festivities take place at the shrine location, the actual Futon Daikos are carried around town at different times. A quick search tells me that there are around 13 of them. This is how the city website describes it:

About four meters high and weighting about three tons, the Futon Daiko consists of a platform with a taiko drum, on top of which are five overlapping layers of vermillion cushions. About 70 people carry the Futon Daiko, with their unique shouts of "bera-bera-bera-sho-shoi" mixing with the sound of the drum as they proceed through towns. Afterward, the drum is dedicated to the shrine.

The Futon Daiko coming down the street. 

It's huge! It must be really tiring to haul this thing around.

Aw. here's a mini Futon Daiko, being carried around by kids.

And here's a Futon Daiko at rest, next to the shrine.

There were also a really big market set up on the shrine grounds, with food and game vendors.

Strolling through the stalls

Lots of vendors set up around the shrine grounds

This one sold all kinds of fruit dipped into melted sugar

Lots of stalls had games set up. In this one, you can catch little crabs to
take home. In others, you could catch fish.

I got some fried chicken to nibble on. I don't know
what it is, but Japanese chicken is always so tender and
juicy and flavorful!

And, I got a shaved ice. This was like... the opposite of
the snowy flake ice in Taiwan, This was 'barely crushed'
ice. :P Still, it was tasty on a hot day!

There were so many people at the festival!

Bathing, Japanese style

And the end of Golden Week has come, in the blink of an eye! For my last day of rest, I really wanted to relax, and so I jumped on my bike and headed over to the bathhouse.

There are two types of bathhouses in Japan. An onsen is typically the bathing facilities surrounding hot springs, while a sento is a public bathing facility using regular tap water. The place I went to calls themselves an onsen, probably because some of the pools use genuine spring water.

Bathing is an interesting ritual in Japan. Due to small living quarters, it just isn't practical for many Japanese homes to have bathtubs. Also, because of its geographically active terrain, Japan is also home to many natural hot springs. As a result, going to the bath is a very popular activity, whether it's traveling for hours to an onsen town, or just staying local for some family time. A bathhouse is separated by gender, because everyone gets in naked! Wearing a bathing suit is frowned upon because the suit may contaminate the water. Also, rules against tattoos are very very strict, probably because of the yakuza. Anyone, male or female, will most likely be turned away from a bathhouse if there is a visible tattoo.

For a culturally conservative culture, Japanese people really don't have much modesty when it comes to being naked around their own gender. It's kind of comforting and freeing, in a way. I checked in my western inhibitions at the door, and after about 3 minutes, being naked around so many other women didn't bother me at all.

This local bathhouse is actually really nice. There's an outdoor and indoor area, both with multiple pools as well as several steam rooms and saunas. This is the sort of 'wet spa' that usually costs $30-40 to go to in New York. But here, I pay either $6.50 on weekdays, or $7.50 on weekends/holidays. And I can stay for as long as I want!

Of course, all pictures are taken from the website, as no cameras are allowed within the facility.

After buying my ticket from a vending machine, a receptionist hands me a key for a locker. I put all my belongings in there, and head over to the first order of business: taking a shower.

It may seem strange that a visitor would soap up prior to entering... more water, but it's actually an important step. Japanese people want the pool water to be very very clean, so they scrub every inch of themselves beforehand.

After getting squeaky clean, I used a couple of the interesting indoor facilities. One of the steam rooms has a big bowl of salt in the middle. You can take some of the heated salt, and use it to exfoliate your skin. It was kind of funny because the salt pretty much dissolved on contact, since my skin was so warm and damp already.

There are also two dry saunas. One of them looks like a regular sauna, with wooden benches you can sit on. The other one is rather interesting; it has partitions so you can lie down! I ended up not going in... I'm such a wimp when it comes to saunas and I didn't want to disturb the women inside by going in and then dashing out after just 2 minutes.

There is a hot pool AND a cold pool in the indoor area too. I saw little old ladies walk serenely out of a sauna and pretty much plunge into the ice cold pool... it was amazing. As for me, I just rinsed my toes whenever I got too hot!

One of my favorite spots at this bathhouse looks like two giant flower pots. It offers some privacy (although I've seen two friends get into one together), and the water isn't too hot. In addition, the new water trickling in makes a lovely sound. I almost fell asleep while sitting in this!

There are also two lovely rock-lined pools outside, filled with real spring water.

Another favorite pool of mine looks completely unassuming. But when you get in, it turns out that the water is carbonated and thousands of tiny air bubbles cling onto your skin. It feels slightly ticklish, in a good way. According to the website, this is supposed to be good for promoting blood circulation. No idea if that is true, but this was definitely the most crowded pool in the bathhouse!

I've only described about half the things you can do at this facility. It's easy to see how someone can spend a whole afternoon (or evening) there! I definitely had a very relaxing time; the whole atmosphere is very conducive to leisurely movement. This was a great way to bring Golden Week to a close... it's back to the grind tomorrow!

Osaka Castle

I had originally planned on taking a very ambitious trip up to a nearby mountain, but for some reason really didn't want to take a long train journey today. So instead, I stayed in town and visited a local attraction: Osaka Castle. But first I stopped to have a filling breakfast, of course!

My hearty breakfast: English muffin, fried egg, banana, and tea!

Osaka-Jo is a very famous castle, one that played a major historical role back in the sixteenth century. This was no luxury building though; it was built for wartime, with thick high walls and a wide moat to keep intruders out.

Osaka Castle in the distance. From the outer park area, it took almost
15 minutes to walk to the castle proper.

Japanese people and their funny tree trimming. :)

Getting closer! These are the outer walls, with a wide moat in between.

Finally there! Although it's a reconstruction, the
outside of the castle looks pretty yet imposing.

It cost 600 yen to enter the castle itself, which stores some historical artifacts. I paid and went in, although I don't know if it was exactly worth the money since most of the audio commentary was in Japanese and photos weren't allowed on several floors. It was still cool though, to see old wartime letters that were exchanged between armies, with lots of political maneuverings and betrayals thrown in.

There was an observatory on top of the castle that provided a nice view of downtown Osaka:

Hilariously, a visitor can also pay an extra 300 yen to dress up in a samurai costume and have their picture taken. There were a surprising number of Chinese tourists; I may have heard more Mandarin inside the castle than I did Japanese. The funniest thing I overheard today though was in Cantonese. An obviously from Hong Kong tourist was taking a picture of some random tree, and commented to their companion that it had some medicinal use. Then she expressed surprise that the mainland tourists had not stolen all of it already. I could not help but giggle as I passed by!

This was a rather short excursion, but I'm still glad I got to see one of Osaka's more famous landmarks. My Golden Week vacation is now half over already! I have a few more day trips I'd like to make, so let's hope the weather holds up!