Japan trip 5th – 10th March 2006
Day 1: Osaka-Kobe-Osaka
We arrived at Kansai International Airport, Osaka and was then to Ramada Hotel where I’m going to spend my first night in.
A little about Osaka, it is the 2nd most important city in Japan because of its economic importance. And the people in Osaka are extremely proud of themselves. They have their own dialect of Japanese known as the Kansai dialect. Even when speaking to Japanese from other cities, they will remain using the Kansai dialect. For example, Japanese in Tokyo will say “arigatou” for thank you, but Japanese from Osaka will use “okini” instead.
I think Japanese are really hardworking people because even in a hotel, the toilet at the lobby has only 3 urinals and 3 cubicles.
They were at least 10 of us waiting in line to “bomb” Osaka.
How does toilet have anything to do with hardworking ? Then you must have not heard about the Chinese proverb that goes ~ “larn yan dor si liew” (lazy people shit more).
The first destination for the day is to Kobe and the journey took about 45-60 minutes by bus.
Kobe is famous for its sake and the infamous Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake.
We first went to The Hakutsuru Sake Brewery Museum (Hakutsuru means White crane).
The 3 most important elements in making quality sake is THE WATER, THE RICE & THE TEMPERATURE.
The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake
It was the earthquake in 17th January 1995 (5.46 am) which recorded 7.3 on the Richter scale that took 6433 lives and many more injured. In the earthquake museum, they showed things that you probably expect them to show, but what really impressed me it that after all the disaster and suffering in Kobe, the Japanese has so much of spirits and discipline to restore the city back to normal in just a couple of years.
After the museum, the tour headed for Mt. Rokko. Took the cable car to the top and that’s where I saw REAL snow for the first time in my life !
On the way to Harbourland for our lunch scheduled at 2.30 pm, somehow the bus driver got lost and the journey which is supposed to be 40 minutes, took 2 hours and we only ate lunch at 4.30 pm. The buffet there was really good though.
After dinner, we went to Shinsaibashi (equivalent to Petaling Street) for shopping and then headed for dinner.
There wasn’t much food left for dinner because my bus arrived at the hotel at 9 pm and the buffet closes at 9.30 pm. They even served Kobe beef at the buffet and it taste damn good ! I can eat the whole cow if I have time.
We arrived at Kansai International Airport, Osaka and was then to Ramada Hotel where I’m going to spend my first night in.
A little about Osaka, it is the 2nd most important city in Japan because of its economic importance. And the people in Osaka are extremely proud of themselves. They have their own dialect of Japanese known as the Kansai dialect. Even when speaking to Japanese from other cities, they will remain using the Kansai dialect. For example, Japanese in Tokyo will say “arigatou” for thank you, but Japanese from Osaka will use “okini” instead.
I think Japanese are really hardworking people because even in a hotel, the toilet at the lobby has only 3 urinals and 3 cubicles.
They were at least 10 of us waiting in line to “bomb” Osaka.
How does toilet have anything to do with hardworking ? Then you must have not heard about the Chinese proverb that goes ~ “larn yan dor si liew” (lazy people shit more).
The first destination for the day is to Kobe and the journey took about 45-60 minutes by bus.
Kobe is famous for its sake and the infamous Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake.
We first went to The Hakutsuru Sake Brewery Museum (Hakutsuru means White crane).
The 3 most important elements in making quality sake is THE WATER, THE RICE & THE TEMPERATURE.
The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake
It was the earthquake in 17th January 1995 (5.46 am) which recorded 7.3 on the Richter scale that took 6433 lives and many more injured. In the earthquake museum, they showed things that you probably expect them to show, but what really impressed me it that after all the disaster and suffering in Kobe, the Japanese has so much of spirits and discipline to restore the city back to normal in just a couple of years.
After the museum, the tour headed for Mt. Rokko. Took the cable car to the top and that’s where I saw REAL snow for the first time in my life !
On the way to Harbourland for our lunch scheduled at 2.30 pm, somehow the bus driver got lost and the journey which is supposed to be 40 minutes, took 2 hours and we only ate lunch at 4.30 pm. The buffet there was really good though.
After dinner, we went to Shinsaibashi (equivalent to Petaling Street) for shopping and then headed for dinner.
There wasn’t much food left for dinner because my bus arrived at the hotel at 9 pm and the buffet closes at 9.30 pm. They even served Kobe beef at the buffet and it taste damn good ! I can eat the whole cow if I have time.
posted by KF. at
2:30 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home