Muju! Skiing Korea

This past New Years Day (the Gregorian New Years of about a month and a half ago that is, not the Chinese New Year that took place this past weekend), I decided to take advantage of both the snow squall and the day off work to partake in one of my favourite activities, and one which has become somewhat of a New Year's tradition - Skiing!!!

Teaching the beginners at Muju.

Friends of mine had heard of a fairly cheep bus service, lift ticket and rental package (of both winter clothes and skis/boarding gear) all for under 100USD to the nearby resort Muju (무주) on Mt Deogyu (덕유산). Although not a huge mountain (Deogyusan's highest peak is at 1,614m, but the resort does not extend that high up), Muju has 34 runs -  including a few nice long ones down from the resort's highest peak (the longest is 6.1km) - and provides great skiing for those at the beginner and intermediate levels. It's not phenomenal for advanced skiers, but the harder runs (steepest is 60degress) do offer up some fun. It's central location on the peninsula also makes it easily accessible from just about anywhere in Korea.

As we went during a snow storm, we were also blessed with some great snow - which felt a lot more like biting ice in the high winds at the top. Nevertheless, we had a thoroughly enjoyable day on the slopes - made even better by the fact that Muju is open early until late! I have to say, there is definite merit in a ski hill that has its lifts open from 6:30 in the morning until 2am the next. Definitely my kind of hill!

A nicely frosted pagoda up at the top.

Anyone living in Gwangju who is looking to head over to Muju should check out (or have a Korean speaker check out) the packages here. You can also call 010-3648-7761 (Korean only). Muju's website can be found here (English option at top right).  

Volcanoes in the Snow - Hiking Hallasan

Truth be told, while I was eager to enjoy the other delights the Island has to offer, my primarily reason for visiting Jeju (and that of my companions as well) was to hike Hallasan (한라산) and complete the Korean hiking triumvirate of Jiri, Sorak & Halla.

Looking toward the peak from the Sara Crater detour.

Although Hallasan, at 1950m, is the tallest of Korea's three major mountains - and, indeed, of all of Korea's mountains - I would say that it offers the easiest hike for it's size.

My companions en route - these two are off to Nepal next - sooo jealous!

Quite possibly the best sign ever. We found this one on our route down.

Hallasan is home to a number of trails, only two of which reach all the way to the top. The 9.6km Seongpanak (성판악) route on the eastern side of the mountain, winds it's way mostly through the trees, providing a nice, gentle ascent. The 8.7km Gwaneumsa (관음사) route on the northern side by contrast, is a stunning but narrow trail with a great many stairs and a number of ups and downs. Knowing this, we chose to take the gentler route up and the harder route down. This proved to be a wise decision as most of the Koreans who went all the way to the top, also chose this route. 

Walking through trees on the Seongpanak ascent.

Our route choice proved to be a good one for another reason as well. About halfway up the Seongpanak route there is a 45minute detour to Sara Crater Lake (사라 오름-Sara Oreum) and a lookout point. Although the clouds mostly obscured the view from the lookout point, the crater and it's frozen lake made quite a pretty sight. 

the boardwalk lining Sara Oreum

Overall, the hike was absolutely gorgeous - possibly made even more so by the snow. We were also lucky in that we had a gorgeous clear day (above the cloud line that was) and not too much of the blustery wind that Jeju is so famous for. It should be noted that if you are planning to hike it in winter, cramp-ons are an absolute necessity (particularly on the way down). We picked ours up at the Seongpanak park entrance for about 10,000won ($10US). Nicer, more expensive ones were also available.

Windswept snow at the top.

More proof of Jeju's strong winds. This is on the northern side.

A further note for any planning to hike to the top - there are checkpoints on the mountain that you must pass by a certain time in order to be allowed to continue. A time sheet (along with route info) can be found here. We started off from the base at around 8:30 and had no trouble reaching the upward checkpoint by noon, even with our detour. The full round trip (with some rest time at the top and one of the shelters further down) took us until about 5pm at a moderate pace.

Up at the top.

Not what you expect from the peak of a volcano!

Jeju Island: Exploring a Gem of the Pacific

Last week, two friends and I decided to take advantage of our final long weekend in the country during Seollal (설날) - also known as the Lunar New Year - and hop on a ferry to what is reputed to be the most beautiful place in all of Korea - Jeju-do!

Recreations of the famous Jeju hareubang statues.

For those who don't know, Jeju (제주) is a small (73km by 41km) oval-shaped volcanic island 130km off the southwest tip of the Korean peninsula. Famed for it's beauty and often called 'the Hawaii of Korea', Jeju was recently named one of the New 7 Wonders of the Natural World - and I have to say, even in winter, Jeju lives up to it's hype.

Exploring the rock formations on the southern coast of Jeju.

While the 2 million year old island is literally littered with mini extinct volcanoes (360 of them to be exact), volcanic craters and lava tubes surrounding the main volcano of Hallasan (한라산) - also Korea's tallest mountain, coming in at 1950m (more on that in the next post!) - these are only part of what make the island so spectacular.

In addition to having a unique geology, Jeju's relative isolation has given it a unique cultural history. While Jeju was eventually annexed by the mainland Goryeo Dynasty in 1105 and the Mongols after that, then returned to Korea with the takeover by the Joseon Dynasty (who used it as a place to send political exiles) in 1404, and thus has shared much of it's more recent history (such as Japanese occupation) with the mainland, prior to this, Jeju-nese history is somewhat of a mystery.

Cheonjiyeon Falls (천지연 폭포) from a distance. You can see Hallasan rising into the clouds on the right.

Very little is known about the pre-Goryeo Tamma Kingdom and how it came to be. Island legend states that the three demigods: Go, Bu and Yang, rose out of the ground and became the islands first residents. When the three men were out hunting one day, they ran across three princesses who had washed ashore with all of their agricultural accoutrements and livestock. Marrying these three women, the hunters settled down and established the three main agricultural clans of Jeju island. The hole in the ground from which the hunters emerged can still be visited at Samsunghyeol Shrine (삼성혈)- which remains an important location for the seasonal ancestral rites performed by their descendants - in Jeju City.

A stone ring and tripple alter surround the hole through which Go, Bu and Yang entered Jeju at Samsunghyeol.

Other unique features of Jeju-nese culture include thatched roof houses - although these can only be seen today in the preserved traditional 'folk villages', the inexplicable ancient basalt mushroom-like grandfather statues called Dol Hareubang (돌 하르방) which dot the island, the hand-stacked stone dividing walls to allow for Jeju's famous winds to pass through without toppling them and, last but certainly not least, the haenyeo (해녀) - Jeju's famous women divers. Although now somewhat of a dying breed, women began to do the work of diving into the waters along the coast to collect shellfish in the 19th centuries when their husbands discovered that their families would be tax exempt if they did so!

As interested as I am in culture, as much as I loved hiking Hallasan and as fascinating as the publicly accessible portion of the lava tubes at the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Manjanggul (만장굴), geologically speaking, it was the coastline that took my breath away!

Looking toward Munseom (island) from some of the Rock formations along the coast in Seogwipo.

While the northern coastline around Jeju City (제주시) has some fun rocks, it's the south near Seogwipo (서귀포) that is really stunning. Not only is the area around Seogwipo studded with waterfalls, to the West of the city lies the resort area of Jungmun (중문), home to Korea's Jusangjeolli (주상절리) or  'Black Beach', made of hexagonal basalt formations reminiscent a smaller version of the Giant's Causeway connecting Scotland and North Ireland. While Jeju's Jusangjeolli is not as large as the Giant's Causeway, the emerald blue (no, really, that's the only way to describe the colour!) water the rocks rise out of makes it breathtaking to visit.

Jusangjeolli. The colour of the water made me nearly desperate to jump in - and it was February!

Jungmun is also home to Yakcheon Temple. While I have seen a lot of temples during my time in Korea, Yakcheonsa is ranks up there with my favourites. Done up in a more ornate style that reminds me more of the temples I've seen in Taiwan than any I've seen in Korea, the combinations of pastels and golds, as well as the amazingly detailed latticework carvings on the windows made a visit well worthwhile.

The bell tower at Yakcheonsa with oranges in the foreground. In addition to being famed for it's beauty, Jeju is famed for the deliciousness of it's oranges. Sadly, I was there a month too early for these ones to be ripe.

The giant gold Buddha inside Yakcheonsa. The great hall is said to be one of the biggest in Asia. With three floors of viewing galleries, each surrounded with painted panels depicting stories, I may well believe that.

Even further to the west along the southern coast was quite possibly my favourite spot on the island - the Yongmeori (용머리 - dragon's head) Peninsula. While it's invisible until you are down there and closed off at high tide, the coast below Sanbang peak (삼방산) if formed of weathered vocanic cliffs and caves that just bed to be explored. This is also where the monument to Handrick Hamel - the Dutchman who washed ashore on Jeju in 1653, was captured and enslaved, eventually managed to escape with 7 others in 1666, and wrote a book bringing news of life in the Joseon-era Hermit Kingdom of Korea to the rest of the world - and recreation of his ship are located. The small Mt. Sanbang itself is also worth a visit as it is home to Sambanggulsa (삼방굴사) or Sambang Cave Temple.

Looking toward the Yongmeori Coast from Sambang Temple. Hamel's ship is just visible in between the temple and coast.

A view of Hamel's ship through his momument.

While Jeju is fairly small, the sheer number of protruding mini volcanoes can make getting around the island somewhat time consuming. It's possible to travel by public transport, but having a car (and in smaller areas, bikes) might be more convenient (you need an international drivers licence though). We were lucky enough to stay in a wonderfully accomodating hostel (the owner even fed us traditional New Year's Tteok-guk (rice cake soup) on Seollal!), which offered cheap tailor-made driving tours. You can check out B&B Pan here. The island is also crisscrossed by 'Olleh Trails', 200km of connecting walking trails which have been divided into 13 different routes - although on many you can jump it at any point along the path.

Looking back toward Sanbang while walking the coast.

Some of the formations on the Yongmeori coast. This one is about three times my height.

Some more of the crazy geological features.

There are a number of ways to get to Jeju. Flights leave from most of the larger city airports on a daily basis and ferries, from Incheon (Seoul, 14hrs), Mokpo (4hrs) and Wando (3hrs), to Jeju City on the North Coast leave just as frequently. The fastest Ferry, and the most convenient for us, is the JH Ferry run by Orange1 which leaves from Jangheung (장흥), near Yeosu in southern Jeollanamdo, and arrives at Seongsan (성산) on the west coast of the Island in 2 and a half hours. There is also a free shuttle bus run by the ferry company which connects Gwangju to Jangheung. Their website is here. Unfortunately, it is entirely in Korean.

A view of Ilchulbong (일출봉), or Sunrise Peak in Seongsan on the East Coast at Sunset.

A Gala of Powder: Skiing Gala Yuzawa, Japan

Although I did not, unfortunately, have time to make it up to Hokkaido to ski the famed Niseko, I was still determined to get in on some of the much discussed Japanese powder :D. With my limited time, it seemed like my best option was to hop on the 75minute train from Tokyo's Ueno Station direct to the base of the Gondola at Gala Yuzawa for a day. Best choice ever. Lying within such easy access to Tokyo, Gala can often be crowded on weekends. Somehow, however, I managed to luck out and head over on a Sunday when the hill was relatively empty - something which may have had something to do with the nearly complete white-out conditions I found myself skiing in all day. While some people may enjoy seeing where they are skiing, there are also a number of benefits to white-outs - chief one of course, being the access to all that fresh powder!

Grabbing a photo from lower down on the mountain. This was the clearest it got all day.

Although the train ride from Tokyo to Gala Yuzawa isn't overly long, Gala is actually located on the other side of Honshu (the main Island), in Niigata Prefecture to the north of the Japanese Alps. It was really cool to see the day go from bright and sunny with no snow anywhere in Tokyo, to overcast with piles of snow up to my waist as we got further and further into the mountains. 

Coming down out of the fob bank as I head down toward the base of the gondola. 

Gala Yuzawa is not a particularly huge resort, with most of it's runs located on the top of the mountain, above the gondola. It also does not have particularly long or challenging runs - although there are quite a few fun black runs in the northern area and the 2.5km intermediate run to the base of the gondola makes for a nice ride (I imagine it's even nicer when you can see the view). What Gala does have - and in great quatities even when it's not a particularly snowy day - is exquisite powder. Living in Toronto, I'd forgotten how nice it was to ski on proper snow! While it may not be the best skiing on offer in Japan, it is definitely worth checking out if you have a free day - particularly if you have a JR Pass, in which case, the train ride is free.

Not-quite snow ghosts at the bottom of the mountain.

Overall, gear rental (clothes, accessories & skis/board) plus lift tickets runs for around $120 US per day (which is more than reasonable!), afternoon only (12-5) is just under a hundred. Sadly, Gala does not have any night skiing, but many of the resorts in the area do. For more info on Gala Yuzawa, click here.

Food & Drink in Japan!

Sorry for the brief hiatus there, these past two weeks of packing have been a little bit hectic. Today however, I am free to return to my pictures from Japan and discuss one of my favourite topics - FOOD!

A bowl of typical Japanese Miso Ramen, with the traditional broth, thin soba (thin buckwheat) noodles, flavouring vegetables and two slices of pork on top. Completely diferent from Korean ramyeon, but oh so delicious! Soba noodles can also be fried or served as ramen in oil broth, but miso was by far my favourite.

As I may have mentioned (raved about) in my post on Osaka, Japan - and particularly the Kansai region of Japan - does nothing if it does not do food well. In contrast to the typically chili-laden, heavily spiced Korean food I've grown used to, Japanese food is much (much) milder, with much of it not being spicy at all.   Japanese dishes are typically also saltier than their Korean counterparts, with more miso-y, soy flavours.

A variation on the traditional Japanese Shabu-Shabu (hotpot). This one contains thinly sliced pork, tofu, mushrooms, cabbage and udon (thick buckwheat) noodles cooked in soy milk. Although I was initially skeptical, it turned out to be mouthwateringly yummy :).  

Street food, such as takoyaki (battered and fried octopus balls) which mentioned in my post on Osaka, also plays and extremely important role in Japanese eating culture. A more substantial meal-sized version of takoyaki also exits. Okonomiyaki, which literally means 'whatever you want grilled' is a large savoury pancake made by mixing together - well, whatever ingredients you want - and frying them up in batter. This can be done either by your server or, by yourself at a hotplate table in certain restaurants. It is quite delicious and is a Kansai specialty, although Hiroshima is also known for having its own version in which the pancake, egg and other ingredients are not mixed prior to frying and are then served on top of a plate of noodles. I found that I much preferred the Kansai variation, though I have a number of friends who disagreed.

Okonomiyaki ingredients prior to mixing, the white buble-like things in the top left corner of the bowl (can bowls have corners?) are actually bits of tempura.

The result post-fry up, complete with okonomiyaki sauce (think sweetened Worcester sauce) , seaweed  flakes and dried fish flakes (usually bonito) on top. In the corner. Japanese mayonnaise is also a classic topping, although the portrait being drawn by one of my friends at the table is a little more atypical.

Of course, in the eyes of most people, one has not truly discussed Japanese food unless one has mentioned one of two things - Sushi, or Green Tea. I am happy to report that I consumed both while on my trip, and that both are indeed delicious when consumed in their native land.

Mini-squid sushi at a conveyor belt sushi place in Kyoto. Between my friend and I, many many plates of sushi were consumed. This was the final plate and it rocked! More 'normal' varieties were also offered.

While in Tokyo, I was lucky enough to have my lovely friend Ayumi take me out and insist that I try some traditional Japanese green matcha tea. We also had tasty brown rice tea, but it is the matcha that truly sticks. Matcha is thicker and frothier than typical green tea and is made directly from boiled finely powdered leaves (as opposed to steeping them). It has a surprisingly deep, rich, unsweetened taste which made me question why it is not always consumed in this way!

A bowl of matcha served with lightly flavoured agar (gelatin)-based desserts in a sweet syrup with soybean powder. Definitely a must have. 

In addition to providing great food, Japanese restaurants (particularly in Tokyo) can often be done up with quite quirky and fun themes. Here I am sharing a meal with friends in what is essentially an over-sized Christmas ornament!

Thanks guys! You rock :)!

Tottori - Friends, Crab & Sand Dunes

Alongside satisfying my general travel bug, one of my objectives in visiting Japan was to take advantage of my time in Asia to meet up with those of my friends who live there and who I otherwise don't get many chances to see. Combine that thought with my love of anything unusual or off the beaten track and you can imagine my delight at discovering that, not only was one of my high school friends living in Tottori, a city in Japan's least populated area, but that he practically had sand dunes in his backyard - sand dunes! In Japan!

2km wide in places and extending for 10km along the coast, I was so excited about the prospect of seeing sand dunes in snow that I was nearly devastated when I heard it had all melted the week before I arrived - Thankfully, someone was listened and we got a whole bunch of snow the night I arrived.

Located on the northern coast of the Chugoku region of Japan, Tottori's quietness - especially in comparison to many of my other destinations on the trip - provided the perfect opportunity to sit back, relax, make some awesome new friends, absorb the scenery and enjoy vicariously soaking up some of what living in Japan has to offer.

Wandering the edges of a 'lake' formed by the melting snow at the base of the dunes. An established park with rangers who seem to exist to capture you on film (or SD card), they even have a live camel to act as a photo prop during the summers.

One of the problems with visiting a beach town in winter is that you see the surf and realise how awesome it must be to visit in summer. That said, there is also something charming about boats pulled up on shore in the snow.

If I was excited about the dunes, it was nearly nothing when compared to how I felt upon discovering that Tottori also had a crab museum - A Crab Museum! I realize that this might not seem all that exciting - even to fellow crab lovers such as myself, after all, museums are for seeing, not eating - but after spending 3 years walking past the Japanese spider crab shell in the Natural History Museum in Oxford on a daily basis, I was more than ready to see what a real live one looked like. They're huge!

Face off!  Weighing up to 18 or 19 Kg (that's 40 pounds for are you Americans) and with an arm span of nearly 4 meters (12 feet). These guys aren't huge, they're massive! They also apparently like to play rough. I'm told there used to be two in there. Now there is only 1. Less than one if you consider that 3 of his legs are gone. (My bet is that someone with keys just couldn't resist - I mean, could you imagine looking at that delectable-ness all day and not taking some home to fry up with butter for a snack?)

 I also loved visiting some of the more rural temples and shrines and, of course, enjoying that most Japanese of experiences, Onsen. For those who don't know, onsen are gender segregated public baths much like the Korean jjimjilbang (with the exception of the fact that jjimjilbang can also be slept in and are used more as social clubs than purely as bath houses). As Japan has much more volcanic action than does Korea (which has little to none on the mainland), many traditional Japanese onsen are served by naturally heated springs. They also tend to have outdoor pools - pure bliss on a cold, wet, snowy winter's day.  A trip to the onsen is made even more enjoyable by the fact that Japanese houses are traditionally only warmed by space heaters, with all hallways and other such adjoining passages (such as those connecting the bathroom to the general living/sleeping room) left unheated. While I might complain about this being the case with schools in Korea, at least most houses here (though not bathrooms) are heated fully by the underfloor ondol systems.

Ube Shrine. This is an Ise Shrine dedicated to Amaterasu, Goddess of the Sun, ancestress of the imperial line and greatest of all Kami (Shinto spirit-gods) - although the latter part of this designation only came to be emphasized during the Meiji Restoration of the19th century in order to strengthen the legitimacy of rule of Japan by the Emperor (and not the shogunate).

Alongside getting in a soak at the onsen, I was also given the opportunity to practice that other traditional Japanese activity - purikura! The first love of teenage girls all throughout Japan (and much of Asia), purikura are photo-stickers made by posing ridiculously in photo booths with friends and then digitally drawing all over the resulting images before printing them off. It's disturbingly enjoyable, particularly as the digitization process wipes away any facial flaws or impurities, making make-up completely unnecessary for glamour.

Purikura! Also, far too much fun when one has a train to catch.

Feeling the Vibe in Osaka

Although this might come as a surprise to those who know me, the glitzy, fashion conscious, shiny new building- and shopping arcade-filled urban knot that is Osaka actually turned out to be my favourite stop of the trip - a stop which I sincerely wish could have lasted longer!

Osaka's Umeda Sky Building. Home to both an indoor and outdoor observation deck (the latter 173m above ground), my favourite aspect of visiting was taking the escalators which connect the two legs of the building and span a height of 5 stories. I may have enjoyed this too much as I made Osaka local Yugi ride up and down them with me several times.  

A young boy gazes in wonder at the Pikachu on the screen at Osaka's Pokemon Centre. The place to go to buy anything Poke-related, the Pokemon Centre is located on the 13th floor of the Diamaru Department Store, one of the many glitzy department stores surrounding Osaka Station.

In many ways, Osaka's cityscape can be said to be much like Tokyo's. Like Tokyo, Osaka is a coastal city that does not seem like one; and, like Tokyo, much, if not all, of the old city was destroyed during the last world war, making space for gleaming new high-rises and fancy shopping centres. Yet somehow, the two are not the same at all. Maybe it was all the neon, or maybe it was just in the more laid-back attitude that seemed to roll of those living there, but to me, Osaka just seemed to beat with this incredibly addicting pulse that Tokyo lacked. It was basically everything I expected a modern Japanese city to be - and more.

Some of the bright neon lights in Shin-Sekai, the area in which I stayed. Described as 'a world that time forgot, home to ancient pachinko parlours, rundown theaters, dirt-cheap restaurants and all manner of raffish and suspicious characters' by the Lonely Planet, I found that I loved this area just as much as I did the much newer and happening Shimbashi & Namba areas (the latter of which is pictured further down). In the centre of this photo is Osaka's Tsuten-kaku, originally built in 1912 and rebuilt in 1969 after the war, at only 103m high, it's actually much shorter than a number of the buildings around it. 

One of said gaming parlours. These establishments can be found in numbers on nearly every shopping street in Osaka, and they always seem to contain players of every conceivable age range.

The road leading to Osaka-jo. Although Osaka is home to a number of excellent museums, Osaka Castle is the only real 'historical site' in the city (disregarding the lovely ruins of an earlier fortification located to the northwest of it that all those not-archaeologically-minded are likely to ignore). A 1931 concrete reconstruction of Tokugawa Ieyasu's 17th century castle (which itself was a reconstruction of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's late 16th century 'impregnable' granite castle destroyed by the Tokugawa forces), Osaka-jo offers not only an excellent view of the city from the top floor, but a nice museum filled with artifacts and detailed explanations of who's who and what they did as it relates to the history of the castle and shogunate.

If Osaka is famous for one thing over anything else, it is food - and boy does Osaka do food! (And here is where all those who know me are nodding in sudden comprehension of my love for this city - okay, so I'll admit, the food may have had something to do with it, but it wasn't only the food, I swear!). Osaka also doesn't just do food, it does it in both quality and quantity - lots of quantity. With entire areas of the city seemingly dedicated to nothing else, I, who am rarely ever full, managed to happily achieve that distinction and more.


Trademark Osaka Takoyaki - battered octopus balls. I've loved these since I first tried them in Taiwan. Osaka is said to have the best. There is an entire restaurant-museum dedicated to these in the Odaiba area of Tokyo.

A Lively shopping district during the day, the Minami area, comprised of Shinshabashi and Namba seems to really come alive at night. In the Shimbashi area to the north of the Yodo River, small exclusive looking bars and clubs are the name of the day (er... night.), while to the south in Dotombori and Namba, it's food, food and more food. I was lucky enough to head out this way on my first night in search of a late dinner and, although it was a Monday, by 10 or 11pm both areas were full of life in the form of the young and eccentrically dressed - fashion in Osaka is taken seriously (I had and old man look at me disparagingly for having such insufficient fashion sense that I was wearing slightly flared jeans in this day and age) and the aim seems to be to look unique. I can't even begin to describe the results of this drive, but it was one of the things that I loved about the city.
 

One of the food filled streets in Osaka's Namba-Dotonbori District. I think this is how I imagine heaven.

While much of what I loved about Osaka was its loud unabashed liveliness, one of my favourite things about wandering around its side streets in search of some new delicacy was stumbling upon some of its quieter places. It was those places that really brought home that this was a city that was both loved by those here and well lived in.

Like many of the other small charming shrines and temples frequented by locals in Osaka, Hozen-ji was located down an alley-way off one of the shopping arcades (in this instance, off one of the arcades to the south of Dotombori). Unique from many of the other Buddhist temples I saw while in Japan, Hozen-ji is centred around a statue of Mizukake Fudo that has been completely covered in moss due to the practice of sprinkling it with water in order to ensure the granting of a wish.

Exploring Kansai: Himeji & Kobe

Given my proximity to them once I'd arrived in Osaka, I figured I'd take a day to visit two of the most

popular nearby sites - cities really - Himeji and Kobe.

Himeji-jo, or Himeji Castle, built by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1580, has long been famed as one of Japan's absolute best. Unfortunately for visitors, the main keep has also been under renovation and restoration since 2009, and will continue to be until 2014. Still, I decided to check it out and see what I could (which turned out to be the Western Bailey and nearby garden of Koko-en).


Samurai suits on display in Himeji-jo. You can try some (costume versions) on for pictures at the nearby Hyogo Prefecturial Museum of History or at Osaka-jo in Osaka.

More than just the castle, I found that I quite enjoyed my morning wandering Himeji city with its relaxed feel, mix of old houses and newer buildings, wide tree-lined streets and narrow shopping arcades. For me it just sort of epitomised a lot of what I loved about the whole Kansai region (which encompasses Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, Himeji, Kobe and many other well known locations - it's also the region most famous for its food). This all having been said, I wouldn't necessarily recommend Himeji as a must-see until after the restorative works have been completed.

Looking out from the open window to the courtyard from one of the rooms in the Western Bailey.

Having enjoyed my time wandering around Himeji, I decided to stop off in the seaside city of Kobe, located midway between there and Osaka, for the afternoon. While Kobe is famous in Japan for both its beef and cosmopolitan atmosphere (having played an important role in international trade throughout history), there was so much more than just those two things to love about it.

Almost like a mini laid-back seaside Osaka (given it's size and sprawl, its easy to forget that Osaka too is a port city), I thoroughly enjoyed my time wondering through the streets of Kobe and exploring its many nooks and crannies. And the food! There was so much of it! And it was so delicious! And cost so little!

Having heard mention of them before hand, I also decided to check out some of the many sake breweries that extend north from the harbour to the east of the city centre. Although confusing to find (I would have been lost had not a lovely dog-walker in the neighbourhood been willing to practice her English - in addition to being good cooks, people in Kansai were super friendly!), the breweries were quite fun to visit. Not only was there decent English language signage on many of the dioramas depicting traditional and modern sake-making techniques (and an explanatory English video to boot! Ask at the front desk for them to set it up), the free samples they gave out went down surprisingly smooth.

A diorama depicting 'kimoto zukuri', the traditional way of  making moto (sake rice mash), at the Kiku-Masamune Sake Brewery Museum. Now done using special steel mashing boots, the traditional kneading of koji (malted rice), steamed rice and well water to encourage the growth of lactic acid bacteria and yeasts for fermentation used to be done by men rhythmically pushing long wooden implements (resembling nothing more than wooden curling brooms) in time to chanting long into the night.

Some deliciously dry Kiku-Masamune Sake (left) and some equally delicious but somewhat biting chilled plum brandy (right).