Minoo Falls, Osaka

Lush nature, fried goods, and mischeivous monkeys- what more could you ask for on a weekend?

That's what I found in Minoo, Osaka.

Minoo is about half an hour from Osaka, and is known for its beautiful maple trees. And they made sure everyone knows it! Maple leaves were everywhere, even the pot holes and fences!

As soon as you start walking towards the waterfall area, I was hit by the alluring smell of fried food. Stalls selling tempura maple leaves lined the small streets. I abstained for a while, curious to try them, but not wanting to muck up my diet... But when I saw the Caramelised, sugar coated tempura maple leaves, thoughts of my diet left me. They smelled like cinnamon sugar donuts and thats not something I can easily resist.

I bought a small bag and popped one in my mouth straight away. Oh my goodness! It was so much better than I thought! It really did taste like a crispy cinnamon donut! I could have honestly eaten 5 bags... But I didn't. Can I have my medal now, please? Most of the shops just sell plain tempura leaves, but I cannot stress enough that you should WAIT until you get to a shop selling these caramel sugar ones! They also sold cheese flavoured ones, which I wanted, but resisted.

After eating my maple leaves, I continued walking for a little bit, until I got to an area on the way to the falls that had temples, a canal, and lovely bridges. I stopped for a while, admiring the views and taking pictures.

 

I was suddenly shocked to see a quick flash of movement in the bushes around the temple. It was monkeys! Wild monkeys! I had seen a lot of monkey characters on shop signs and monkey statues and toys, but it somehow didn't click and I didnt expect to see then freely roaming around. But there this monkey was, climbing the temple wall and coming to sit, sternly, at the top of the wall, guarding the temple. Others ran across the floor and climbed amongst the trees.

 

 

After watching them for a while, I headed towards the waterfall. It was an easy half hour hike, on paved paths. There were some stairs, but generally it was a very easy hike. The stairs were not more than a couple of flights and were not too steep. I saw many elderly and even handicapped people doing the hike with ease.

The waterfall itself was lovely. You could go close enough to feel the spray from the waterfall on your face! It was a lot cooler than Nunobiki Falls. And there were food stalls selling hot chips and okonomiyaki on a stick on the path!

I was hoping the cherry blossoms would have bloomed, but unfortunately they were not yet there. I've heard the cherry blossoms are particularly lovely there.

Cosplay Street Festa, Osaka

This weekend was the Osaka Street Festa, in which over 10 000 cosplay fans from around the world swarm upon Osaka's Denden town to either demonstrate or look at cosplay.

Hundreds of people dress up in elaborate cosplay costumes and stand around in the street, awaiting people to come and request to photograph them. You can buy photography passes, which supposedly gives you photo priority over the other masses (Cosplayers reportedly pose better for those with paid passes). However, Jason and I didn't have a paid pass, and we found the cosplayers to be fine with posing for us to take snaps on our mobile phone.

There were some serious photographers there, some even decked out with light reflectors and enhancers to get the perfect shot of some of the beautiful cosplayers.

While there was a huge amount of attractive young girls at the Street Festa, not all the cosplayers were as aesthetically pleasing... We say old men dressed as school girls, fairies, and all manner of scantily clad women... Some of these outfits were done well, and I would go so far as to say some were quite classy corss-dressing outfits, some were not... Rotund man with his hairy belly sticking out of his crop top, I'm talking to you...

But each to their own...

To get to the street festa, we caught the train to Namba station, and then walked about 15 minutes to Nipponbashi (denden town). We followed google maps for the first part of the walk, and the interestingly dressed individuals led us for the second half...

The street festa also has live music and demonstrations, but we didn't see any while we were there, around 2pm.

After walking around Street Festa, we decided to go to Tennoji to see the zoo and the shitennoji temple.

So we walked from Denden to Tennoji area (around 25 minutes) and came to the Tennoji Zoo. It only costs 500 yen to enter, and it's actually a fairly large zoo for such a small entry fee. Jason and I spent a good deal of time there, and left without seeing everything because we both started to get weary (we're both a bit sick at the moment). We were actually amazed at the flamingo display, one of the first things you see upon entering the zoo. I had never seen flamingos in real life before and their colour is so much more shocking than it seems in the pictures. It looks like someone has dipped them in high lighter liquid. They're an intensely fluro orange.

We were also impressed by the cougar and the wolves, which came up the the glass. While this is so amazing to see, however, sadly, their pacing may signal annoyance or distress. Their enclosures were quite small for roaming animals, with concrete floors. This part was quite sad. The African animals had large enclosures with grass and real dirt, but other animals had quite depressing enclosures. The penguins and polar bears were especially sad, with no ice, only concrete painted white. The polar bear's water was dirty and filled with debris. The bird enclosures were quite good, containing real trees for the birds to roost in. So all up, it was a mixed experience for me, alhough still good value.

Shitennoji Temple was another 20 minute walk from the zoo. By this point, Jason and I were getting exhausted and weary, but I really wanted to see the temple while we were in the area. So we walked on.

Shitennoji temple is a large complex with multiple religious buildings. On the path leading to the main temple, there are a bunch of classic festival type stalls, with foods like taiyaki, okonomiyaki, and yakisoba. There were also some stalls selling knickknacks, although I'm not sure if this was just because ot was a Sunday. I did hear that on the 21st of each month there is a huge flea market here though! So I'll be sure to come back on the 21st sometime!

We bought a warm custard obanyaki (round, pancake-like cake fiilled with custard) for just 100 yen. The warm cakey goodness and near-scalding filling revived me!

We had a breif look around the temple grounds and just as we were about to leave, I noticed lots of people looking down into the moat below the bridge. I told Jason we should go look, and we found... a million turtles in the moat below! They were every where!

 

 

 

 

Going to the Doctor in Japan

Everyone in Japan is sick right now.

At least, that's how it feels.

All of the people on my island at work are sniffing, coughing, or snorting.

I took my first sick day because I had been snotty and gunked up for the last week, and then couldn't sleep, so essentially I didn't want to drag myself all the way into Kobe just after 7am for my BOE job. It's a long day and I wasn't feeling up to it.

So, in Aussie style, to make it seem legit, I ventured to the doctor. I mean, it wasn't un-legit. I was sick. Just probably not sick enough to have to miss work. Mostly just icky.

The doctor was close by, only a 5 minute walk from my house.

Upon entering the doctor, you take off your shoes and put on the slippers provided.

As a first time patient, I had to fill out a form. There was no English on this form so if you don't read Japanese well, this might be pretty tricky for you. Maybe make sure your google translate is downloaded.

After filling out my personal details and what was wrong with me today, I was asked to sit down in the waiting room. Nurses cam in and out, dressed in the cutest little Nurse-Jenny outfits. The picture to the right is the best sneaky pic I could get while sitting in the waiting room. I deeply apologize... But as you can vaguely see, the nurses are wearing blue pinafore dresses, with blue nurse hats, and even cute little blue shoes. Adorable.

After waiting for a while, a doctor came, called my name and took me to a private, curtained stall. She asked me what the matter was, and I told her my symptoms.

When asked if I had a fever, I said that I did have one the other day, but not any more. She asked me what temperature my fever was. Of course, I didn't know... Myabe this is an Aussie thing, but I can tell when myself or another person has a fever without having to consult a thermometer.... I don't even own a thermometer in Japan. So I told the doctor that I didn't know the temperature, but just that I had felt hot sweaty and uncomfortable (you know that raw, dry, hot feeling you get in your eyes when you have a fever). She responded with "So... Over 38 degrees?" Um... again, doctor, I'm not sure...  All I know is that I was feverish.

After this, she asked me if I was worried that it was influenza. I told her I wasn't sure, but that it was probably just a cold. She said that she could test me for influenza if I wanted, but it would cost more on top of the appointment. I declined. Apparently in Japan they can tell if you test positive for type A or type B influenza. I had no idea testing for influenza wasa thing. I've never been tested for influenza before... Usually doctors in Australia (at least doctors I'VE been to in Australia) listen to your symptoms, take your temperature, and then they say "could be flu!" and give you some antibiotics... Is testing for the flu even a thing in Australia? Or is it just becuase I'm going to the budget doctors that they're not testing me for things...

After getting some advice from the doctor on non-caffeine cold medicines (these are hard to find in Japan so if you are caffeine sensitive, BE AWARE!) I went to the admin desk to finish up and pay. I stood at the desk for a little bit, and when a reception lady came up to me, I asked if I could pay. I was then told to sit back down an wait...

Perhaps this is so they can check with the doctor if I had any extra costs... It was just a little bit different from Australia, where you usually pay straight away and walk out. I waited for about 10 minutes, getting mildly annoyed at why it was taking so long for them to organise the simplest consultation bill. Eventually, a recpetion lady approached me and handed me the bill. It came to 2800 (just over $30) which is pretty good for a doctor's bill, I think. I think it's roughly what I would have paid out of pocket in Aus if I had went to a doctor that didn't bulk-bill.

They only take cash, so I paid my bill in cash and left. Having travell insurance for the year, the doctors could not do anything with my insurance. They said I needed to claim directly from them. However, my insurance has an excess of $200 so you can't claim a $30 doctors bill. So I guess the insurance is really only for emergencies.

Ah well.

Nunobiki Falls, Kobe

This weekend Jason and I went to Nunobiki Falls, in Kobe.


There are so many interesting places to hike in Japan, so we want to hike a lot of them.

Well....


I want to hike a lot of them. Jason will join me, begrudgingly.


He reserves the right to complain the whole hike though, and I'm pretty sure he did just that this time.


The hike started before we got to Nunobiki Falls actually, as we took a train to Motomachi (included on the hanshin all day  ticket) and then walked for half an hour before getting to Shin-Kobe station, where Nunobiki is located.


Shin-Kobe station is so lovely because on one side of the train station is Kobe city, right smack bang near busy Sannomiya. On the other side, however, is pure, unadulterated wilderness. Well, that's an exaggeration. It is adulterated. There are paths and stairs. But it's lush, okay?


After we arrived at Shin-Kobe station, we found some signs saying "Nunobiki Taki", which we assumed meant "Nunobiki waterfall". In the beginning we went up a huge, seemingly never-ending staircase in the side of a mountain, but this was the most difficult part of the journey. The rest of the hike was largely gentle inclines. The path was sometimes a bit confusing, with some forks where we couldn't see signs, but there were always people about, so we made sure to ask people when we came to these if this direrction would take us to "Nunobiki Taki".


The walk to the waterfalls was only about 20 minutes and with the exception of that damned staircase, it was pretty easy. The waterfall itself was lovely, and there were bunches of smaller waterfalls on the way (we may have even had to ask a stranger "Is this Nunobiki Falls?" in regards to a small, run-off waterfall).


The waterfall ran into a luxurious looking, clear blue pool. It looked like just a perfect swimming hole, although signs told us that you're not allowed to swim there. Such a shame! So many of the pools along the river leading up to Nunobiki looked like glorious swimming holes. I'll have to find out if any of them are swimmable before Summer.


After reaching the waterfall, we decided to continue on to Nunobiki Herb Garden. We walked for a while, then a bit more. Got lost quite a few times, and had to ask passersby which direction the garden was in. After walking for perhaps an hour, we ask a final passerby "Is it this way?" and we were told "yes! It's this way! But you know it's not open, right? It's not open in Winter!"


Aw hell no!


Not sure why none of the other six million people we had asked for directions had not mentioned this.... It would have been great to know about an hour ago... But, I guess we got what we had come for... A nice long hike! An we did make it to the observation deck to view the Kobe skyline.



After this, the man and I were ravenous so we quickly hiked back down (much quicker than the hike up) and stopped at the nearest Family Mart for some fuel.


If you do go to Nunobiki, there's also a ropeway that goes straight to the herb garden, although be sure not to go in Winter!

Hina Matsuri, aka Doll's Festival, aka Girls Day

The third of March is Girl's Day in Japan, or Hina Matsuri, also known as the Doll's Festival.

Stores have had adorable pink princess themed things for the month leading up to Hina Matsuri, so it's been just great for me!

Leading up to Hina Matsuri, families and shops display collections of dolls shaped like members of the old Imperial family. These are said to ward off bad spritis, and bring good luck. These dolls are usually displayed on a red fabric, usually on a stair-like little stage. They kind of like Christmas trees in that they're usually set up about a month or so before the event, and stay up on display until the day.

Jason and I had actually received a free paper Hina Matsuri display from Lawson, so we set ours up a few weeks ago. 
















On Hina Matsuri, Jason and I simply couldn't resist purchasing a pair of adorable Hina Matsuri cakes. They were small matching cakes, one was chocolate with a prince on top, and the other was vanilla with a princess on top. The vanilla princess one was filled with peach pieces and sweet cream, while the prince one was filled with chocolate cream and shaved chocolate.

Peaches, plums and cherry blossoms play a big role in Hina Matsuri, and many of the Hina Matsuri foods featured peach flavoured things or cherry blossoms. So we ate our cakes and had a picnic under the beautiful plum blossoms at a nearby park.

 

We also of course, had to try the traditional Hina Matsuri foods!

One of the most significant Hina Matsuri foods is Hisamochi. Hishimochi is a three-coloured mochi slab, in pink white and green. The pink is to represent peach or plum blossoms, the white represents snow (purity) and the green represents nature (or growth). People eat this mochi and pray for the health and well-being of girls in their life.

 

It was quite hard to eat, as it was very rubbery, hard to put a fork through. Maybe that's just because we got  cheap grocery shop one and not fresh? I'm not sure... But the taste was just milkdly sweet. Not unpleasant, but definitely not something I'd be buying each year haha...

 

The next Hina Matsuri food we ate is called arare. Arare is small ball shaped rice cracker, often also coming in the colours of pink white and green. These were delicious! The coloured balls were sweet, while the white ones were savoury.

 



 

In the old days, towns would actually send dolls out to sea on small boats (taking the bad spirits with them) but this practice is rare nowadays and Jason and I couldn't find a ceremony near us so we spent the rest of the day viewing the beautiful blossoms, and treating me like a princess (so same as most days I guess). After all, princesses are what the day is for!

 

At the end of the day, we made sure to take down all of our hina matsuri decorations. If you leave them up past the day of the event, legend says that your daughters won't be able to get married! So for your daughter's sake, everyone is careful to remove decorations as soon as Hina Matsuri is over.

 

 

GAME BARS: THE BEST WAY TO DRINK IN JAPAN!

So Jason and I have discovered the cheapest (and thus the best way) to get drunk in Japan...

GAME BARS!

Games bars have proven to be WAY cheaper than regular bars in Japan, with ludicrously cheap all-you-can-drink alcohol deals,  while also having the added benefit of free entertainment in the form of games, and often even throwing in some kind of food as well!

Game bars contain both video games and board/card games. If you're not a big video gamer like me, they have tables all around, and squishy carpets and cushions where you can sit and chat, or bust out a simple game like jenga that you can play while talking. Because for me, I want to talk while I drink. I don't want to play video games while I drink. Plus, I want to get the greatest amount of drinks for my time, and you can't drink efficiently and play video games at the same time.Also, game bars often have dress ups, hats, or masks for you to much around in while drunk! Another bonus!

The way these places usually work, is that when you enter, they'll give you a little lanyard with some kind of barcode on it, which has your entry time encoded into it. Some places might also do this with a little paper receipt. The charge is usually per hour, including all you can drink booze. Prices range from a measly $5 an hour to $15 an hour, depending on what they include. Personally, I wouldn't pay $15 an hour unless they had something really special there, but by Australian prices, that's still AMAZING... $15 is only enough you get you 2 drinks in Australia, whereas when I last purchased an hour of all you can drink, I got 7 whiskey high balls in the hour! And  it only cost me $5!!! If I had drank more combatively I think I could have got 10 in the hour, but I actually did play some video games in that hour.


The best game bar Jason and I have been to so far is in Osaka, called the GeeBee Bar, near Amerikamura, Osaka. It costs only 500yen ($5) an hour, and comes with unlimited, self-serve booze and soda (whiskey and liqueurs all in pump bottles next to a soft drink machine) and also comes with unlimited bowls of delicious Japanese curry rice. Can you even imagine getting drunk for $5?! It blew my mind. I drank 7 whiskeys for $5!! And let me tell you, after a couple of drinks, the delicious gravy curry really hits the spot! https://www.facebook.com/gamebarGeeBee/

Recently, Jason and I found a game bar in Kobe that specialises in Japanese snacks! We originally read it wrong, thinking that it specialises in Japanese desserts haha... And I thought what could possibly be better?! But in fact, when we arrived it was Japanese  snacks. We thought it was a bit pricey for just snacks (500 yen/hour for games, 500 yen/hour for snacks on top) but I guess it was a cool idea. https://twitter.com/gamebarbaron

So if you're looking for a cheap way to get drunk, and have fun, I suggest googling game bars in the area of Japan you're in/ going to. And if you're in Osaka, then you NEED to try the GeeBee Bar!