Rockin’ in Daito

Daito is one of the cities in Osaka Prefecture.

It’s not known. It’s not a tourist destination.

Whenever I’m asked where I live, I always say Daito and wait for the reaction specially if the one asking is a Japanese person. Majority would give me a blank face, so it really makes me happy when the recognizes it.

So imagine my surprise a few months ago, when I saw a flyer saying that there is going to be a Rock Festival last June 8.

There was a rock band competition among the local high school band, which unfortunately I failed to watched. The festival was held in local theater, so it was nice, did not have to be sweating in the summer heat while listening to the band. There were two categories, the local professional bands and the newly formed band.

T and I were in and out of these two locations and just hanging around listening to some interesting bands.

We also met the city’s mascot:

Heard a few message from the City’s Mayor:

But the most interesting and most awaited performance of all where from the KISS (dolls), a Japanese Version of the famous KISS band.

Pictures are a bit blurry because of the lights, but the group had it down to the last bit of the costume. They gave a really good and fun performance.

 

It was a really fun event, young and old alike were rockin the day away. A great achievement for the organizers and of course Daito City.

I have uploaded more picture ( a bit blurry) and some videos in my Flicker Album, please check it out if you have the tme.

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Sakura no toorinuke @ Osaka Mint Bureau

Let us take a short break from all the manhole covers and enjoy some cherry blossoms (Sakura) for this year 2014.

During this season, I call it Sakura Season,  I love walking early in the morning and just enjoy the beauty of what Spring could offer. Every year the Osaka Mint Bureau opens their gates to the public for 1 week to share the beauty of the Sakura inside the complex. They currently have 350 trees and 130 varieties inside. Unfortunately it’s very famous , thus the crowd.

The very first time I visited the place many moons ago, I could barely moved much less take a decent picture. The second time, I was there even before the gates were open and I was able to enjoy the beauty of the Sakura and was able to get a decent picture so I was satisfied.

After returning to Osaka , three years ago, T and I tried to see the blooms once more but turned back after we saw the crowd. For this year I decided to create a meetup event to force myself to go 🙂

Here are some of the pictures I took.

I love the lamp among these fluffy Sakura.

This place would have been perfect for a picnic , unfortunately it is not allowed.

It looks like fluffy pink marshmallows 🙂

I was underneath it. I wished I could have stayed longer underneath it.

A close up shot.

Another one.

Fluffy little white clouds 🙂

The whole place is less than 600 meters long but you could easily stay there for hours just taking pictures of these lovely Sakura.

If you are in Osaka at this time of the year make sure to include a short visit to the Osaka Mint Bureau, I’m sure you will enjoy it, minus the crowd 🙂

Till next year.

Kyoto Autumn 2013: Chishaku-in

Our next destination was Okazaki Park, which according to google map will take about an hour walk from where we currently are.

On our way to the park we passed by another temple and somebody from the group noticed a toilet and some really red maple trees on the side, the next thing I knew everybody was walking towards the temple.

It was called Chisaku-in, and I was glad we took a short detour there.

These are some of the pictures I took in this temple.

I really love how sun shone the leaves.

I saw this leaf fall on the green grass and I could not stop myself to take a picture of it. The contrast looked really nice, don’t you think so?

Another attempt on maple close-up 🙂

No. These leaves where still attached to the tree but it did have a great contrast with the grass.

Another one with the sunshine on it. I love its natural colors.

Chishaku-in. We did not go in though. I guess everybody was like “yeah, just another temple”. Everybody was actually more interested in the Ginko Tree infront of it, which unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of.

In the end we decided not to proceed to Okazaki Park and instead had our lunch at Maruyama Park just in the back of Yasaka Shrine or famously known as Gion Shrine.

Access to Chishaku-in (Japanese only )

10 minutes walk from Keihan Shichijou Station or

10 minutes by bus from JR Kyoto Station and get off at Higashiyama Shichijo

Kyoto Autumn 2013 : Imakumano Kannonji

Twenty minutes later the crowd in Tofukuji were getting bigger and bigger that the girls and I decided to proceed to our next destination, Imakumano Kannoji (今熊野観音寺) .  After a few minutes of discussion with the rest of the group who were still inside the temple we started to next one.

From Tofukuji it’s about 15 minutes walk but the 3 of us where taking our time and of course took a wrong turn several times but with the help from some of the locals we got there safely. Even before we got inside, the maples along the way where beautiful and the best of all, no crowd. The rest of the group caught up with us while we were taking some pictures and it was nice seeing some familiar faces.

This one has more yellow leaves.

Beautiful big trees in full color near the gate.

I think this is the deity of this temple or maybe one of its famous monk. Sorry I still have to do some translation with the website.

A shot from the back.

The whole place was so beautiful. My pictures does not do justice with it. At this moment I really wish I had a really nice DLSR camera instead of just an iPhone.

Yellow maple leaves.

A panoramic view of the trees. It was really pretty.

The temple of “memory”? The word “boke” means forgetting. So I think before becoming forgetful, you should visit this temple to prevent it from happening. I am already forgetful so I guess it’s too late.

There were several chairs in front of the main temple and they were also selling some warm amazaki, tea and some sweets. We decided to take a break , enjoy the colors and peacefulness of the temple while having some hot beverage.

Till the next location. 🙂

Weekly Photo Challenge : Saturated

There were several lantern that was so colorful and gorgeous during the Lantern Festival in Ikoma’s Hozanji and it got prettier when the candle was lighted. I had several favorites and I will slowly put them here, but for this week Saturated Challenge I choose the two lanterns below.

I was both amazed at the details of this lantern. I only took a shot of the side where the head of the wolf was located.  I totally forgot to look for this one again when it was lighted.

Some of the lanterns during the Tea Ceremony.