Gomen nasai!

Osaka Shashin is currently on hold. My parents are visiting, I'm moving out of my apartment in three days and I still have way too much to do. I may or not be able to catch up before I head home (I leave Japan on August 7th)...I'm thinking about just shifting everything back a month and posting the rest of July's pictures in August. But rest assured, I do have some nice pictures to post!

Shinkansen View

The view from the shinkansen (bullet train) is pretty.


This was taken on the way to Nagoya. Yay rice fields!

Pokemon Train

...I rode on the Pokemon train today.


...every single ad inside the train was of Pokemon. Even the outside was painted with them.

Taken on the Meitetsu train line in Nagoya.

More Tanabata

(Taken last year, near the Osaka Aquarium)

Ikemen

Interesting ad in the Hankyuu Umeda train station the other day...


Apparently there's a new TV show called, basically, "Cool Guy Paradise."

(No, I didn't watch it.)

Tanabata & 5000

Last weekend was the holiday Tanabata in Japan. Japanese people put up bamboo and hang fancy paper decorations on it. Then they write their wishes/hopes/dreams on pieces of paper and tie them to the bamboo.

In the basement of the Hep 5 department store in Osaka, they had one set up for the public to use. I wrote a wish down, too. Mine said "いいしごとをみつけるように".

I took a picture of the tree when I had finished. I tried to wait until the people left, but the longer I waited the more people came to write their wishes...


When I opened up this picture to send to my photo blog file, I noticed something. The filename my camera automatically assigned to this picture was DSC05000.

That means that this is officially the 5000th picture I've taken with my camera.

...wow.

Triangle Park

Down among the pots and tree planters in Triangle Park, there was a small statue of a Hindu deity. I think it's Lakshmi, goddess of luck and prosperity.

I think.

Coincidence!

Today.
Triangle Park, Ame-mura, Shinsaibashi, Osaka.

There is a mysterious crowd, hanging out and watching the building with the big TV screen. There are crowd control people, keeping the general public away from the front of the shop there. There are people with t-shirts, bags, etc. from a band called An Cafe, which is a band I actually know and like.

I decide to hang out and see what's going on.


2 PM. There is a rush of excitement from the crowd. The screen is showing an ad for An Cafe's new single (which will be released in August). They play through one entire song in the ad, to much cheering and clapping and exclamations of "kawaii!" ("cute!").



The video ad ends. The video screen slowly raises. (I didn't know it could do that.)

Standing in the second story of the building are the members of An Cafe, wearing cute summer yukata. (For the record, they are all guys. Even the one in pink.) There is more cheering. They talk about their new CD and their next concert in Osaka (which is free! but unfortunately it's also after I leave). Then the screen goes down again and it is over.


...until they come out and got into the van that's waiting. Then there is more screaming and cheering and waving. Also, the distribution of free postcards by staff people.

See? Postcard! (image from their website):


Hooray for coincidence!

Temple!

I think this is Kiyomizu temple. I'm pretty sure. The stairway looks a little different than what I remember...but where else could it be?


So...um...Kiyomizu temple in Kyoto, taken last year.

Happy 4th!

In honor of Independence Day, two blurry fireworks pictures from the summer fireworks festival in Kobe last year.


They set off the fireworks above the harbor. On the way down, we could see them from underneath the raised highway, past the boats, out over the water.


It was crowded. And pretty. And I sat on the asphalt road in my yukata.

What do you need?

(Hep 5 is a big shopping center in the middle of Umeda.)

Asakusa

Asakusa, Tokyo.


...the text on the banner is reversed. It must have blown around in the wind - or else I just took a picture of the back side of it.

Osaka Skyline

Any guesses where this was taken from?


(Answer: the top of Osaka Castle)

Kobe

Building, ads, and park...taken near the train station in Sannomiya, Kobe.

Um...

...this doesn't look like Japan.


(King crabs...Osaka aquarium, taken last summer)

Birds

Another Osaka Castle picture from last winter. We took some good pictures then.


Birds on the roof of one of the gates leading to the castle grounds.

Castle Kitty!

Another picture from last winter, taken in the park around Osaka Castle.

Old vs New

A couple of days ago I posted a picture of Osaka Castle at night. Here's one from the day.


It's a close-up view. You can really only see the edge of the bottom of the corner of the castle walls...

I took this last winter, with Brian's camera. I liked the contrast between the old stone walls of the castle and the skyscraper in the background. And the tree. Trees are always good.

Trailside Temple

Taken by the side of a hiking trail on Koya-san last year.

Kyoto

The riverside in Kyoto...isn't it pretty?


Also - I made a mistake in yesterday's post! (Oh noes!)
A cookie for anyone who figures out what it was...

Awaji Island

Three more pictures from Awaji Island, taken last summer:

The first is from a pond at a shrine on the island.


The next two were taken at a harbor on the shore.



Apologies for the lack of picture yesterday...in my illness I forgot to post. I'm feeling better today :)

Osaka Castle at Night

Shiny!

Butterfly

...it's a huge metal butterfly!


There's a park near my school that has a butterfly museum. Or garden. Or whatever you call it. A big greenhouse-type building filled with butterflies.

I haven't actually gone inside yet, but I walked up to the entrance once and took a picture of their butterfly statue on the way.

Harbor

I hereby declare this "cool older pictures week"...'cause I have a cold and don't want to go out and take more pictures. And also because I have quite a few cool pictures that I could post.

Today - a harbor on Awaji Island, across from Kobe, which you can see in the distance.


Taken last summer on a trip with my school's photo club.

Temples

Looking at some of my older pictures, I realized that my blog is rather lacking in shrine and temple pictures. So here's one:


This was taken quite a while ago at a temple on Mt. Koya in Wakayama prefecture (an hour or two north--and slightly east--of here).

Stay out

I found this sign hanging on a doorway in Osaka Station today:


Here's a close-up:


"Stay out of here!"

They actually have them all over the place - it seems to be the standard "keep out" sign for the station.

My Desk

Can you spot the globe?


(It's peeking out from behind a blue paper bag in the top right corner.)

Ice Cucumber?

Yes. Ice cucumber pepsi. That's what it says.


It's actually pretty good :)

Artistic

Flowers and a chain link fence in the tiny playground by my apartment in the rain at dusk.


Artistic or just blurry? You decide.

Balanced Meal

The Japanese version of the food pyramid...it's a top! You have to eat enough of each food group or else it will fall over!


...I just realized that my title for this post is a horrible pun. That was actually unintentional.

Rain, rain...

We had thunderstorms off and on all weekend...look at that rain! You can actually see the raindrops cutting across the picture.


It was so heavy that for one picture, my camera auto-focused on the water drops covering my balcony door. I even got some water on my tatami...the rain started blowing in through the screen door before I got the glass door closed. This despite the large overhanging balcony.


Yay thunderstorms!

(Officially) 100

According to Blogger, this is my 100th post! In celebration, I have a picture of something very special to post today:

This is Very Important Moss (like VIP).


It says so right on the sign!


This was taken at Kinkaku-ji in Kyoto, and (despite the lack of grand architecture or imposing views) it's one of my favorite temple pictures. Kinkaku-ji has beautiful gardens, and the moss covering the ground of the gardens is actually very important to the overall effect. This is part of a display showcasing the different varieties of moss used in various garden areas.

Sunset

Yesterday we had thunderstorms, off and on, all day (today, too, actually). But last night, around 6 or 7 PM, the sky cleared above my apartment and the sunset shone on the clouds that had been raining on us all day, and it was so pretty I stood there staring at the clouds for a few minutes. Then I got my camera and took pictures. And then stood there for a few more.


(The clouds were a prettier pink in real life ^^)

Breakfast

What are these mysterious objects in my morning cereal bowl?


...they appear to be some sort of mutant 3-hole Cheerios.


Oh, wait. Apparently they're actually mutant Frosted Flakes. They've got Tony the Tiger on the box and everything.


These are a new product...I've never seen Cheerios being sold here, so I was quite happy to find something similar. They're actually pretty good, though very sweet - taste almost like Honey Nut Cheerios. I just think it's funny that Kellog's is selling them as a Frosted Flakes spinoff. The large text on the box says "Frosty Crunch."

Train station!

Wa

和 (wa) = traditional Japan/Japanese. Here is a pretty Japanese wa-style garden and house!

Let's go shopping!

If there was a neat shopping center like this nearby, wouldn't you want to go?

Triangles

Apologies for yesterday...I was at school really late, then I had errands to run and I got home late, and I just didn't remember about uploading a picture...oops.

In penance, I bring you three views of Triangle Park in Shinsaibashi, Osaka.




(You might recognize the bunny/boy statue in the last shot from Saturday ^_~ )

Cornbread

I went to the store today...got some cornbread.


Yep. It's bread. With corn baked into it.

If you look closely, you can see the label, in white text, right below the green sticker. It says "Corn Bread" - in English, even.

It tastes pretty good, actually.