EVACOMICS BLOG

There has been more rainy than sunny days so visiting a museum at this time is the best. Having experienced the 311 Tohoku earthquake back in 2011 , I was interested to know more about the Great Hanshin Earthquake and how it affected Japan.

I lived in Seng Kang for 2 years and there are many cyclists there. They love to ring their bells all the way and expect us pedestrians to move to one-side when they dash by impatiently. They even ride their bicycles indoor inside the community hub area and I even scolded a boy not to ride his bike inside the building as he was ringing his bell non-stop while on his way to buy snack at a stall. There are many cyclists in Japan as well but they seldom ring their bell. The sidewalks are wider and the cyclists are patient enough to slow down or overtake instead of ringing their bells frustratedly like in Singapore.

I wasn't aware that there is this waterfall within the city until my friend said that we should visit it.

Fushimi Inari Taisha is the head shrine of Inari (rice) in Kyoto. It is located right next to JR Inari station so it is very easily accessible.

On our second trip to Kyoto, we wanted to target a temple with red leaves so we shortlisted temples in the North that turn cold earlier than those in the city area. Jakko-in was chosen because my friend thought the other nearby temple: Sanzen-in did not have enough red leaves.

Arashiyama Out of the 5 days we were in Kansai, only 1 day was good sunny weather so we decided to visit Kyoto. The skies were beautiful finally after days of cloud and rain. Our first stop was Arashiyama to visit the temple garden and bamboo forest.

We were looking for elsewhere to visit besides Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe and chose Wakayama because we had never been there. A quick google reveals Koyasan, a UNESCO world heritage site that consists of a mass cemetery and temples set on a mountain. Commuting time was around 4 hours from Osaka that consists of train, ropeway and bus, so it isn't too bad compared to 5-6 hours to southern parts of Wakayama.

It was rainy after we got into our hotel on Sunday (15 Nov) so we decided to check out something indoor like the world-renown Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan.

Shinsekai was a highly recommended place to visit from my yoga classmate who claimed that the place appeared to be a pop out town from anime and has good fried food. The name literally means New World although it was created in 1912.

This museum was opened in 2011 but I did not visit when I was studying in Tokyo.