Japan Trip Feb 2008
 

I ended up joining this forum to ask questions in preparation for my trip, so thought I should come back and talk about it!

I have a ton of photos here. I bought a schmancy DSLR just before the trip, and even though I wasn't very good with it and it was heavy to carry around, I'm so glad I got it!

I went with a group of friends from my art club/doujinshi circle, so we had a great time being geeky in Japan together. I did all the planning right down to the trains we had to catch, but we ended up doing just over half the things I'd planned. We still saw a ton of things though, and it was fantastic. Definitely looking forward to going again, hopefully for a longer period of time (only went for 15 days).

The places we went were Osaka, Nara, Kyoto, Koka (we're anime geeks, so had to see a ninja village!), Himeji, Miyajima, Tokyo and Himeji. The onsen resort in Himeji was definitely a highlight for me, although I regret only spending one night and not having enough time to ride the pirate ship or get a decent photo of Mt Fuji! Next time I'd love to spend more time there, as well as properly checking out Hiroshima and more shopping in Osaka and Tokyo.

Japan is such a great place to travel :vsign:

Wow, looks like you had a great trip!

I can answer this question for you:

Casks on Flickr - Photo Sharing!


Those are kegs of sake. The manufacturers each send a representative sample of that year's batch to the temple to be blessed. By blessing the representative keg, it is supposed to extend to the rest of the batch and make it tasty and profitable. At least, that's what my Japanese friends told me when I asked about them...

Ah, so that's what it was. Do they drink the sake, or just blessed and stored?

I had such a great time. And I was so, so glad I planned out everything and printed out maps and all - I felt like such a nerd preparing it all, but when you only have two weeks it's nice to not get lost and know where you're going next.

Heheh... yeah, that was an interesting one. Interesting types in general in Harajuku. I do really like his jacket though!