Ninjas, Katanas, Samurais and Bullet Trains!

THE MARTIAL ARTS TRAIL

Who in today's world does not like travelling to Japan? Even the thought of it can make anybody tick, what more if we can tour and explore the wonders of Japan ourselves? Japan has so many things that allure travelers from all over the world, and having been there, I can understand why Japan is a strong travel magnet. If you have extra money and decided to go overseas for travelling, I vouch for Japan! Really nice and beautiful country.

Praise be to God, my clients and I were given the opportunity to travel to the Land of The Rising Sun. We purposely chose 12 - 17 September 2014 as our travelling dates because of the weather - end of summer, when the temperature is neither too cold nor too hot -  just nice. Nice weather, good view and excellent shots.

@ KLIA 2, before our journey!

BUDO

We travelled with Tholand Waey Holidays Sdn Bhd, only the 3 of us, to Osaka - Kyoto - Mie  - Okayama - Hiroshima, all in 6 days and 5 nights!

As you will discover later in my blog, our trip is no ordinary trip - it is a themed tour revolving around martial arts! So, this 6 days 5 nights tour is a creation of mine and Tholand Waey Holidays Sdn Bhd and we named it as  - The Martial Arts Trail or the Budo Trail! Budo can be loosely translated as 'martial way' and this trip is specially designed to discover, learn, and train in some of Japan's popular martial arts.

There are so many ways people practice self defense/fighting arts in Japan. Some are with weapons, some are just unarmed combat arts.

Karate, Aikido, Kenjutsu, Sumo, Jujutsu, Judo, Kendo, Iaido, Kyudo, Naginata-do, Ninjutsu, Jukendo and et cetera - all are the exports of Japanese martial ways, both ancient and recent. Excellent choice of the warrior's arts, what could be better than appreciating them at their birth place - Japan?

We did have our light training there in Japan, when we learn the ways of the Ninja, Ninjutsu weapons and techniques and how to throw a shuriken (ninja stars). Lots of fun, adventure and at the same time - educational!

KANSAI AND OSAKA

Upon arrival at Kansai International Airport, I was immediately impressed with the size, quality and cleanliness of the airport. After meet and greet with our tour guide, we proceeded to purchase our train ticket to our accommodation in Osaka. After like 50 minutes on the train and some switching of train lines, we finally arrived at Higashimikuni station, near the touristic places in Osaka. We were lucky to be able to check in early (at around 1100 hours) and use our guesthouse to put our stuffs and luggage. After some quick snacks and meals, we quickly follow our tour guide to roam Osaka!

Kansai International Airport is situated on an island, and we took almost an hour from the airport to Osaka proper. Blue ocean waters, taken from inside our moving train...

Just one station away to Shin-Osaka, the big station where people board the Shinkansen - the famous
Japanese bullet train! 

Clean and simple train interior. And less noise too as talking loudly in public, for example inside a train, is considered impolite...

Vending machines are practically everywhere in Japan. Normally what we saw were canned/bottled water vending machines, but these are cigarettes vending machines. It's good to have drinks vending machines as we need to walk a lot from one train station to another, thus necessitates drinking a lot of water. It is said that one can find vending machine even at the summit of Mount Fuji!

Price of cigarettes - 100 Yen is equivalent to RM3. 60 (the rate then). So, how much is 420 Yen? Do your math!

Simple and cute, and traditional. No beds, just futons and tatami mats - reminds me of Nobita's room!

Praying time!! Fajr starts at 0415 hours and lucky for us, during this time, day time was long -
more time to explore Japan!

OSAKAJO

When we alight the train from our guesthouse to here, it was already a really long walk. I think all in all, it took us about 4 - 5 kilometres (trains, transits, between stations, sightseeing, to and fro Osakajo). But it was worth it! The Osaka Castle was great and still is one of the biggest and most beautiful castles in Japan. Admission is 600 Yen for adults and free for children aged 15 and under. 

The gorgeous Osakajo or Osaka Castle!! Notice the gold decor and tiger motifs on its exterior walls.
Make sure to visit early as final admission is at 1630 hours. Entry starts at 0900 hours. 

Castle moat - filled with water. Normally used in many castles around the world. Here in Osaka, is no exception.
Used as a preliminary line of defense, moats can be dry or filled with water,. It is usually deep and broad in nature.
But still cannot stop a Ninja from quietly cross the moat and scale the walls of such a castle :) 

Didn't make it to the Nishinomaru Garden - next time !

This is one impressive castle!! Completed in 1585, this castle that was used also as a stronghold has always
been the symbol of Osaka.

Posing in front of one of the biggest castles in the whole of Japan. This 8 floor castle was build by Hideyoshi Toyotomi who succeeded in unifying the entire nation.
And yup, he was always fascinated with gold - hence the gold decorations!

Really nice panoramic view of Osaka city from 50 meters above ground level. We took lotsa pictures here before heading to the souvenir shop.

Later in the evening, we proceeded to Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan, regarded as the best aquarium in Asia by TripAdvisor. Yup, I read the list here, where our very own Aquaria claims 4th spot in Asia - 

http://www.thestar.com.my/Travel/Malaysia/2014/08/19/Aquaria-KLCC-among-top-in-Asia/

One of the best things about Kaiyukan Aquarium is that we can actually sit properly while enjoying the huge aquarium of fishes. Various Good English translations and excellent display of information  - no doubt Kaiyukan is the best in Asia. Ah, and I cannot get enough of the whale shark, at the Pacific Ocean exhibit!

Winner of the Travellers' Choice Award (by TripAdvisor) goes to.........

Warghh!

The huge aquarium is situated within the Tempozan Harbor Village, near the Osaka Port and Osaka Bay.
Nice view of the surroundings. 

Some of the exhibits in the vertically long aquarium. One needs to go down from 8th floor to the 3rd floor in a spiral manner. Kaiyukan attempts to recreate the vast Pacific Ocean and its surrounding environments.

There are many tanks here in Kaiyukan, but in my opinion the highlights are the JAPAN DEEP tank (features the 'Giant Spider Crab' - biggest crab in the world, GREAT BARRIER REEF tank (its coral reefs are referred to as 'the cradle of the ocean'), TASMAN SEA tank (exhibits the 'Pacific White-sided Dolphin') and the biggest tank ever in Kaiyukan - the 5,400 tons water volume PACIFIC OCEAN tank. This is where I was amazed by its huge tank and its popular exhibit - The Whale Shark!!

See, I told you we can sit and watch these wonderful exhibits. This time I was in a hurry, didn't manage to take proper shots of the whale shark.

To be continued....