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Halloween in Osaka

November 10, 2014 By Elias

I realize this post might a bit late but here is a short piece on Halloween in Osaka 2014!

If you are in Osaka during Halloween you basically got two alternatives if you are looking for a great party (I realize this might be a bit subjective). Head to Namba/Shinsaibashi area. When you are there you could either head over to the Dotonbori bridge or Amerikamura (a.k.a. Amemura). Here you will see an endless amount of people pass by in different Halloween costumes. You will definitely not want to forget your camera! During the evening it is quite alright to stop people and ask for pictures. And if you decide to dress up, people will ask you for pictures in return for sure.

The best time for people watching starts sometime in the evening and continues to about 1 am. After that a lot of people head towards the nightclubs for some time on the dancefloor.

So here is what we did

Halloween is a can’t miss for our crew in Osaka. This year we met up at Dotonbori bridge. It was crazy! Crossing the bridge took like 10 minutes (not a big bridge!). When everybody had arrived we moved over to triangle park in Amerikamura. This place was even busier. People everywhere, taking pictures and showing off their outfits. Even though its a fast pace place its a nice place to start out the evening in a relaxed manner. This year we did what we always do, bought a drink at the nearest convenience store and simply did some people watching. When we some cool costumes we stopped them for a brief photoshoot. After this phenomenal street party we entered Ghost, a nearby club in Amemura.

As I typed I realized that it seemed that not much happened during the evening. But I can assure you it did. However it is hard to reproduce a Halloween night in Osaka. It’s a night that must be experienced. I will leave you with a few pictures.

Amerikamura

One Piece Cosplay

Mario kart!

And of course a SWAT-team to keep people safe 🙂

My first trip to Japan – Part 2

July 31, 2014 By Elias

Alright, it’s time for me to type up my second entry here on Monkey on a Plane. I hope you will bear me as I’m still discovering my writing style. In any case part one covered our stay in Tokyo very briefly. In this entry I’ll talk about Kyoto and Osaka for a bit.

We took the bullet train (Shinkansen) from Tokyo to Kyoto. Traveling is a very easy and comfortable way to travel. The Shinkansen is very clean, service is great (like in the rest of Japan) and the train is very very very rarely late. The only downside that I can think of is that the fare is rather expensive. However before we left for Japan we bought a Japanese rail pass, this is a big money saver for the one who is going to be covering some distance in Japan. But bear in mind that the rail pass can only be bought outside of Japan. If you are already in Japan I’m afraid you are too late.

When we arrived in Kyoto we went to our hostel to drop off our backpacks. By the way when traveling I really want to recommend hostels before hotels. You will meet far more people and make far many more friends if you stay at a hostel. I know that some people have a poor image of what hostels are like. But throw away that prejudice and at least try it once. You are gonna love it! Of course there are bad ones also but if you check their rating using one of many free online services you will be on the safe side.

Kyoto

Anyhow… we had arrived in Kyoto and dropped of our backpacks. This trip was taken in 2009 so my memory is a little blurry. Anyhow in Kyoto we visited the imperial garden and some other temples and shrines. I must say that the imperial garden was my personal favourite. The pictures below are all except one taken in the imperial garden in Kyoto. The last one is taken at a small shrine in central Kyoto.

kyoto imperial garden imperial garden kyoto kyoto shrine

To Osaka and back to Kyoto

After some sightseeing in Kyoto we had planed to spend 2 days in Osaka before taking a flight to Okinawa. However our stay in Osaka was unfortunately cut short. It have only had a problem with cleanliness once in Japan and this was it. We had made a reservation at a hotel in Osaka. When we arrived we quickly realized that we shouldn’t had chosen the cheapest alternative. The hotel we chose was very dirty and had critters between the sheets… We decided to go back to Kyoto and stay at the hostel we had been at the night before.

The next night our bad luck continued. We had to take a flight to Okinawa so we headed for Kansai International Airport. I can’t remember why but somehow we took a late evening (midnight) train. During a transfer we had to make we discovered that the train service had stopped! We checked with cab drivers but driving us to the airport was going to cost a fortune. Now we were in trouble. We could miss our flight in the morning, we didn’t know where we were and we had no place to sleep. After some phone calls and talking to people we found out that if we took the first morning train we were going to make our morning flight. The next thing was to find a place to spend the night, a task that was going to be quite hard. After spending some time walking the streets (in Osaka) we passed an Internet café. Japanese Internet cafés are not the same as one would encounter in Europe. Instead of a chair and computer one could rent a entire room (different sizes). As it was our only choice we spent the night there. It wasn’t too bad. We each got a room the size of about 1,5 square meters with a futon in it. Nothing luxury but at least we got some sleep before setting off for Okinawa in the morning. Unfortunately I’ve got no pictures of the place.

I hope this post wasn’t too boring. In the next part I’ll cover Okinawa!

My first trip to Japan – Part 1

July 29, 2014 By Elias

I had recently finished High school when I decided to visit Japan for the first time together with a childhood friend. As a person that has been brought up in the west this was a trip that I will treasure for the rest of my life. With in this blog post I will give you an overview on my trip that was done in 2009. Some time has passed since this trip and other trips has been made in between but I will try to reproduce the trip as much as my memory allows.

The route – Overview

We landed at Narita Airport in middle of April. From there we took the express train to Tokyo. Here we spent a few days before setting off using our Japanese rail pass and Japanese fly pass.

Route: Tokyo – Kyoto – Osaka – Naha (Okinawa) – Tokyo

When we left Tokyo took the bullet train to Kyoto. During our stay in Kyoto we also visited Osaka. The travel time between the two cities is only about 30 minutes. After spending time in cultural Kyoto and a brief visit in Osaka we took a flight from Kansai International Airport to Naha (Okinawa). We spent 5 days in Okinawa relaxing on different beaches and visiting some smaller islands. When we were done with the easy life on the islands we spent two or three days in Tokyo doing some shopping and meeting some friends we made during our stay. Before we knew the it was time to head back home.

Tokyo – The capital of Japan

As the title explains Tokyo is the capital of Japan and the place that most people include on their trip to Japan. It’s an amazing place in the sense that it managed to maintain their heritage at the same time as being one of the most technical advanced in the world. It’s a city of big contrast. Well to be honest this apply to the country as a whole. Anyhow when we arrived in Tokyo we headed for Asakusa as our hostel was located there. Asakusa in a traditional area of Tokyo. Here you may visit the Asakusa jinja shrine (a.k.a. “Shrine of three gods”) as well as the buddhist temple, Sensō-ji.

senso-ji temple

The shrine in Asakusa is popular tourist spot for both foreigners and Japanese people. The shrine pays tribute to three men who founded the Sensō-ji temple. On the picture above the entrance to the temple area is shown.

Cool places in Tokyo

We visited quite a few places during our stay in Tokyo, but the most memorable places was Akihabara and Harajuku.

Akihabara is Tokyo’s electric town. This place is Japan’s and probably even the world’s geek center when it comes to manga, anime and other geeky stuff. It’s truly a unique place and a must visit all who visit Tokyo.

akihabara manga building gundam

Harajuku is a another part of Tokyo near Shibuya. When tourists talk about Harajuku they usually refer to Takeshita street and other small backstreets that houses boutiques selling youth fashion and culture. Many independent stores can be found in this area. Close by Takeshita street one can also find more high-end type of stores. Anyhow one who likes shopping should take the train to Harajuku station. Takeshita street is just outside the station. Another alternative is to take the subway to Shibuya and walk from there. Unfortunately I have no pictures from Harajuku.

This concludes my first blog post here on Monkey on a plane. I hope you enjoyed it. In my next post I’ll try to cover our stay in Kyoto and Osaka.