\(>o<)/ DiY Adventures into the Unknown (>-<#): March 2011

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Blog Change - Scroll Down to See My Udates ^_^

You might have noticed i have changed the blog a little...I tried to organise what i did by date.

Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Trip Summary: KL > KOR > JPN > KOR > KL

Before I start posting up what happened in Japan and KL. I thought I do an overview of what happened.

19 Days, over 20,000KM & over 10 cities!!!

- 18/2 ~Left Perth 18th Feb- 19/2 ~Arrive KL on the 19th Feb
- 20/2 ~Leave KL 20th Feb to Arrive Korea (Seoul) 20th Feb

-25/2 ~Leave for Busan by KTX

- 27/2 ~Leave for Japan (Fukuoka)

- 02/3 ~Leave for Kagoshina
- 04/3 ~Leave for Osaka - Visiting Kumamoto and Yanagawa along the way (all day trip 7am start, got to KIX to pick up EJ @ 1030pm)
- 07/3 ~Leave for Hamamatsu
- 08/3 ~Visit Nagoya and Leave for Tokyo
- 10/3 ~Leave for Korea
- 10/3 ~Leave for KL
- 14/3 ~Leave for Perth

Monday, March 14, 2011

KL Gold Class & Driving!!!

Went to gold class in KL, only 55RM. OMFG so cheap and so good....Really clean, big screen, electric recliner chairs...

The best bit was the cheap beer. I think only about 11RM. Unbelievable price for a cinema.

Water cost more than that back in AU cinema @_@

Oh yeh...so pretty the cinema.
Watched 'I am number for'.
It was a really good movie. I was really surprised.

BMW E30 with a RB26 twin turbo..
Never driven such an old car. Feels so rough but so good.

Cruzin to LCCT...So love KL roads...Just cruz...Dont have to be so nervous about speed camera when u doing an extra 5km/hr @_@

Friday, March 4, 2011

Yanagawa Sagemon-Meguri - Hina Dolls

Canal boat sailing and Hina Doll Festival (Sagemon Matsuri) in Yanagawa
Hinamatsuri (Dolls festival, Girls’ day) is held on the 3rd of March.
Ornamental dolls are displayed around this day in Japan.

Good read http://japanvisitor.blogspot.com

Highly recommend Yanagawa. Get out of the typical crazy busy cities of Japan and escape to the quiet country side :D

Ohana History Museum

Next to Ohana house was a museum. It had a collection of dolls hand made no bigger than your pinky!
My first traditional katana and samurai armor.

<- Katana!!

Imperial dolls i think ->

Samurai armor.

Yanagawa Canals

My plan was to leave Kagoshima at 8am. Take the train to Kumamoto and Yanagawa. To get to Yanagawa i took the train to Omuta station. From there you take the local line to Yanagawa. At the train station i left my luggage and bought the ticket from a super small ticket booth for the Yanagawa canal tour. Its a 90min or so trip up the river. Everyone was Japanese besides me. Really good weather and relaxing.

Studio Ghibli made a movie about these canals :D

The Story of Yanagawa's Canals - Yanagawa Horiwari Monogatari
Series: Ghibli Gakujitsu Library
Publisher: Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Feature Film: 15 August 1987 / 165 minutes

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Walking in Kagoshima & Kagoshima Little Asia Guest House

Kagoshima a really cool and quiet city :)
I accidentally took the tram the wrong way and ended up in the middle of no where. Haha some local district really far away. I was going to walk around but i was really tired and just wanted to return to my hotel.
To the right is a kimono shop --->

I stayed in 'Kagoshima Little Asia Guest House' a 5 minute walk from JR Kagoshima station. Really convenient. From the station you can take all buses and the tram and local train line ;)

It has a homey feeling, which I loved. It was a bit old and run down. But for what I payed 1500Y was really cheap. Had some really nice food there to. Home cooked food! Had my favorite meal there. CURRY! It was a real backpacker hostel.

Inside Kumamoto Castle

After the battle of Sekigahara, Kato Kiyomasa built this incredible fortress in Kumamoto. The castle expertly utilizes the geography to make one of the most impregnable castles ever built in Japan.

The Kato reign ended after only two generations when Kiyomasa's son was replaced by Hosokawa Tadatoshi in 1632. The Hosokawa reigned for 240 years until the Meiji Period.

The main donjon and connected smaller donjon among other buildings were burned to ground during the Satsuma rebellion of 1877.

- information from http://www.jcastle.info/

The biggest tree ever!
Super old see the image above :)

Above is JR Kagoshima Station and to the left is my little orange friend Kagoshima.

Little info about my orange friend:

In 1820, a hyuganatsu orange tree was discovered as a chance seedling on the premise of Mr. Yasutaro Magata’s residence. After this it became widely cultivated. The hyuganatsu orange is considered to be a mutation of the yuzu orange and the taste is more acidic similar to a grapefruit or lemon. It is eaten with sugar or honey after removing its yellow peel and cutting into pieces. You can eat its white pithy flesh, no need to remove it. Today, Miyazaki is producing the most hyuganatsu oranges in Japan.

- from: http://www.welcomekyushu.com

Kumamoto Castle...MY FIRST CASTLE

On the way back from Kagoshima I planned to stop at Kumamoto. From JR Kumamoto station you can get access to the tram line which takes you to many nice places.

But I wanted to see my first castle so I took it Kumamoto Castle.

The capital of Kumamoto Prefecture, Kumamoto is a major city on Kyushu's west coast with a population of 650,000. The city is most famous for its castle, which is one of Japan's largest.

- Some info from http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e4500.html
- wow i just saw some of the photos of when it was spring and not winter. Really pretty ^_^