More of Rinku Town in Osaka, a silent town where you can find peace away from the big cities. In my last photo article about Rinku Town and the Kansai Institute I didn’t show this side of Rinku Town.

My friends from the Institute ^^; before going to Japan, I imagined that everywhere I looked at would be filled with countless working ants. To my surprise, on my first day I went out, I found out that there are many places in Japan that are exactly the opposite. I mean, look at the picture above, not a single pedestrian (excluding my group), not a single car, not a single bike…

Building in the background is the Rinku Gate Tower building, the second tallest in Japan. We’re also not too far away from the Kansai International Airport. Never expected the place to be so quiet!

Bamboo park in the vicinity. Again, not a single soul on a beautiful summer day. Besides landmark sight-seeing and traversing crowded cities, I really enjoy peaceful times in Japan — such as the ones in these pictures. If you enjoy them like me, then you will definitely love fellow Jblogger Michael Flux’s photo shoots at MichaelFlux.com:

Photo above is an example of his great pictures from one if his Around the City articles.

Do you prefer quiet towns or prefer the noisy Japanese nightlife? ^^

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Buddha Statues at night taken by fellow blogger Muza-chan. Some days ago I wrote a photo trip article to Asakusa, Tokyo, home of the most beautiful temples and shrines in Tokyo. My pictures are mostly of daytime crowded Asakusa, but Muza-chan shows another beautiful side of Asakusa at night time. Be sure to check it out!

On other news, I’ve finally filled the footer of Instant Ramen with links to news and the Google Friend Connect widget which was missing since a long time ago ^^; along with threaded comments and the “related posts”, I’m planning on redesigning the front page so that people can catch what’s hot around here and I’m also planning on featuring posts from other bloggers who have great content. In the meantime, sorry if you see something strange walking around here!

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If I were to call any place in Japan home, it would definitely be Osaka. Rinku Town is located just next to Kansai International Airport (the one on an artificial island), and is an excellent spot to relax, and so is the Kansai Japanese-Language Institute, with an excellent view all around of the sea. BTW: This article is a blog entry for April’s Japan Blog Matsuri!

Here’s my window view fromt the ninth floor of the Japan Foundation Japanese-Language Institute, Kansai. Had quite a long name, so we called it Kansai Institute for short ^^ That’s the Rinku Gate Tower Building, (fortunately) the second tallest building in Japan, since we usually got off the station at 2AM and used said building as a guide. Was quite fun getting lost at night (Japan being very safe), but after two hours of walking you just wanted to go home and sleep!

Here’s another nice view from the beach, five minutes away from the Kansai Institute. To the left is the Sky Gate Bridge (talk about a fancy name!) that leads to Kansai International Airport. Summer was just the right time to grab our bikes and head for the beach. Tottemo Relax desu yo!

Since many have asked before about the Kansai Institute, I might as well start explaining: As I wrote on my About page, I was invited to a study tour in Japan by the Japan Foundation, and this is their Kansai-based headquarters for us learners of Nihongo. Besides studying Japanese, we learned loads of cultural aspects and even some Kansai ben, honma ya! ^^;

茶道, the Japanese Tea Ceremony is one of Japan’s cultural trademark, and of course we learned that at the institute, or at least we pretended that we did while our feet were all numb (you have to keep your kneeling position called 正座 while you’re at the tea ceremony). My friend Lydia above was probably so numb that she started laughing? ^^;

The sensei’s from the Institute. Everyone treated us so well ^^ for those who don’t know when you are treated well you say お世話になりました (osewa ni narimashita) — meaning “thank you very much for all you’ve done”.

Our Aikijujutsu sensei. Originally I thought that a man that age wouldn’t be able to hurt me so I challenged him to his most painful special move using only one hand. Oh yes, the pain stayed there for a whole week, and I’m not exagerating. Someone must’ve caught it on their camera, gotta ask around my friends ^^

Rinku Town at night was a great place to enjoy with your friends, fireworks and all. (spotting cute bijin gals is harder at night though)

Loved the sea side when were leaving to Osaka. I think this picture is no longer from Rinku Town but technically from Osaka Bay.

Back at the Kansai Institute, we had lots of lessons. One of my favorites was Kansai-ben, Osaka’s dialect (nice article about Kansai ben). Most of us Japanese learners study 標準語 (Hyoujungo), or Standard Japanese, which mostly was based on Tokyo’s Japanese and is used for official communications, TV, etc. However, after being a while in Osaka, I was surprised at how much Osaka people use their dialect — akan instead of dame, honma instead of hontou, ya instead of desu, and much more that I don’t remember or didn’t really understand. Any other memmorable osaka-ben that you’d like to share?

Kansai Institute’s library was huge, with books from different cultures and languages too, for those who were homesick ^^ didn’t miss my Spanish or Chinese since I could practice both in there. Speaking of which, everyone loved how Spanish sounded, especially Russian-speaking gals (yes cute). Does Spanish sound cool to you? How about Japanese? Japanese sounded cool ten years ago when I started studying and still sounds kakkoi =) On the other hand, everyone hates how Chinese sounds, but I can’t tell since I’ve been speaking it since the day I was born.

The Institute’s Lobby. Quite a luxurious building. Unfortunately I didn’t take a picture of the Yamaha Grand Piano, sounded great. (piano is one of my hobbies ^^)

More of the Institute, huge recreation areas too.

Food was great but unfortunately it featured many international plates like fried potatoes or other common Americanized foods (not that I think they taste bad, but I’m pretty much used to that stuff). European and Halal food was great though ^^ definitely something I had never tasted before. Two takoyaki (octopus dumplings) on the picture. Takoyaki originated from Osaka and I stuffed myself. 100 yen for 8 takoyaki was a bargain!

Another view from my friend’s room. The only problem was the whole area smelled like fish, though it didn’t disturb me that much.

Rinku Town Station. Shuttle bus from the Institute ran until 10PM, so no buses meant a one hour walk.

The only great thing about summer was that night felt like normal daytime. Take a look at the Supermarket’s name — MaxValu (yes Engrish)!

Western-style house near the Institute.

Chikan chuui! Means “be careful of pervs” ^^ Japan may be very safe, but pervs are apparently quite common (as a man it didn’t affect me of course), especially on crammed trains. One of the things I don’t like about Japanese society is their lack of communicating their real feelings. Not like pervs should communicate what they want to do though @_@

My friends pretending the Japanese newspaper is interesting ^^;

Look! Aquos are on sale! Seriously, with so much advertising can anyone even read them? Trains follow a similar trend too ^^

Now this is interesting: 100 yen (plus 5 yen taxes) used manga at the local Book Off. Thousands of manga. If you’re buying stuff in Japan, particularly manga, I seriously recommend second-hand stuff, or 中古 in Japanese. Bought Love Hina here, I’m currently reading it, great to practice your nihongo as it is not too hard ^^!

My favorite relaxing moment of the day, my friend Osk enjoying the breeze ^^; that’s Kansai Airport at the end of the Sky Bridge!

Phew — all that write up made me hungry, some instant ramen maybe? Hope you enjoyed today’s post and don’t forget to subscribe to my RSS feed if you liked it ^^. Special thanks to Osk for some of the pictures =)

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Pictured above is Maruoka Castle by Dan, originally constructed in 1576 and one of the oldest castles that is the real deal. Since Dan describes it perfectly head over to his website to see the description and other beautiful pictures of Japan :)

As I mentioned in my Asakusa Photo Trip, unfortunately, many structures of cultural importance in Japan were destroyed by nature, wars, and what else! Fortunately for us modern dwellers, Japan has made a great job rebuilding most of them, including one of my favorites — Castle Osaka!

Do you prefer Japanese castles, temples, shrines, or nature?

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Though Kyoto is my favorite place for temples and shrines sight-seeing, one place that really caught my attention is Asakusa (浅草）, in Tokyo. Asakusa has Tokyo’s most beautiful, biggest, and oldest temples and shrines, and tons of festivals all year round too!

Here’s a torii that leads to Asakusa Shrine, one of the most famous Shinto shrines in Tokyo.

One of the coolest thing about sightseeing in Japan is that Shinto shrines and toriis are mixed with Buddhist Temples and Pagodas: The torii above is also the entrance to Sensouji (above), Tokyo’s oldest ancient Buddhist temple, founded on the year 628. The temple above doesn’t look that big but it’s actually huge — compare the size of the temple with the size of a pedestrian.

Lamp (chochin) closeup from the temple above. Not sure how big it is but I think it’s about 3 meters tall.

It was getting late and I expected the place to be a bit empty, but Asakusa was quite crowded. To my experience, I personally saw lots of Chinese-speaking tourists in Japan, which makes me feel like home!

Though as you can expect, Japanese locals make up for most of the tourists on these places. I find it great that so many Japanese people like to go out with friends or family to their temples and buy omiyage presents and all. I love people who love their own culture!

Picture is a bit blurry but there’s something important hidden behind this one. As you may or may not know, Japan’s infrastructure was heavily damaged on World War II by air raids, including hundreds of historical places, Asakusa being one of those. Most of the temples you’re seeing were actually rebuilt after the war. However, this gate in particular, 二天門 (Nitenmon), was one of the few lucky structures which are the actual real thing — impressive to know that something made of wood more than one thousand years ago still exists.

Take a look at the lantern’s size — it’s humongous! Miss my JFriends ^^;;

People praying. In case you didn’t know, most Japanese people are very open to religion, and so it’s okay for anyone to pray to their own favorite JDeity =) what’s your take on religion?

Close up of Sensouji Pagoda. As I said before, I love seeing the mixture of culture and religion in Japan. In Taiwan, I only got to see Buddhist temples. What you won’t find on every corner are catholic buildings like churchs, which are common in many countries including my own Costa Rica =)

Omiyage stores everywhere in Asakusa! Stuff around here are obviously more expensive that purchased in normal stores but you’ll get tons of cultural presents that you may not find elsewhere. The Maneki Neko I spotted around here is not the case though!

Snapped this picture of two cute Jgals around Asakusa. Or do you prefer the Cute Kyoto Girls?

Back home to Urawa, we caught one of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve ever seen. Oh, the above is a common Japanese graveyard, as packed as it can get, like most big cities in Japan! Fortunately, most of Japanese and Asian folks are cremated — if not, space would be a grave problem. How about your own country?

Asakusa City is beautiful too, though I’ll save it for a future post. On the riverbank you can spot a few baseball fields and parks. Quite a big number of homeless live in this area which kinda impressed me.

And here it is — above is my favorite photograph from my Asakusa adventure. Summer was hot but it was all worth seeing this sunset, no wonder they call Japan the land of the Rising Sun!

There’s a Chinese saying, 「夕陽無限好、只是進黃昏」, means Enjoy the infinite beauty of the sunset, and bemoan the dusk coming ahead. It’s hard to explain, but also means that the most beautiful things in life only last for a few seconds. Which means we must make the most of them, no matter what :3

And is there a better way to enjoy the day than a bowl of good ラ～メン (ramen)?

Hope you enjoyed today’s article! Time to sort Miyajima’s album for my next article, which is one of the places I’ve enjoyed the most! If you like my content, subscribe to my RSS feed, ne? ヘ(^_^ヘ)(ノ^_^)ノ

(Thanks Osk for a couple of pictures that looked better than mine >.<)

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Fuji-san is Japan’s highest mountain at 3,776 m, and Japan’s most recognized symbol of landscape beauty. One of the Three Holy Mountains (三霊山 — Sanreizan) it is actually an active volcano, supposed to erupt and create more damage than Godzilla did to Tokyo back in the 50’s. Fortunately, it last erupted more than 300 years ago, with no signs of any activity.

I was fortunate enough to see Fuji-san for about ten seconds on my way back to Osaka from the Shinkansen’s window. Though I come from a country where volcanoes are all too common (including active ones), I was mesmerized by the greatness and beauty of that which left me speechless. Anyway, keep on reading for more beautiful pictures and other curious facts!

Fuji-san from the Shinkansen at dusk (photo by my friend Osk)

Where’s Mount Fuji?

Mount Fuji is located between the Shizuoka and Yamanashi prefectures, west of Tokyo, and surrounded by five lakes which provide excellent views all-around.

View from lake Yamanashi (Photo: Kazuhiko Teramoto)

Fuji-san is supposedly visible from the Tokyo Tower on a really clear day, but I wasn’t lucky enough as to see anything or even recognize where I should be looking at, since all I could see was made out of steel and concrete:

富士山ってどこ？@.@ (Photo: Hao)

You definitely won’t miss Fuji-san if you walk (or run a little) to Yokohama though, and the view is definitely breath-taking:

Evening Mount Fuji from Yokohama (Photo: 名古屋 太郎 ?)

Active Volcano?

Well, technically yes, but it shows no sign of activity, presenting low risk of eruption. An eruption would hit the biggest economic agglomeration in the world, so let’s hope it doesn’t happen anytime soon. In any case, you should be more concerned about Godzilla, Gamera, and Giant Gundams!

Gundams: Coming to Destroy your nearest Economic Center in 20XX ™

The meaning behind Fuji-san

It’s not known where the name comes from. The kanji 富士 means something like wealthy important man, which carries little to no meaning. Other possible known homophones include 不二 (no two) meaning unrivaled. Another one is 不尽 (no exhaust).

Photo: Kazuhiko Teramoto

The most known one to us Chinese is 不死 (no die), meanning immortal. Chinese legends regarding the immortality medicine (不死藥) and emperors who gave up everything in order to obtain immortality are numerous, which is why this is my favorite ethymology for Mr. Fuji-san (pun-intended ^^; )

Fuji-san through a plane window (Photo: Joe Jones)

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed today’s post. Next week I’ll be writing the Part 2 with more stunning pictures and some other facts about Fuji-san, so don’t forget to subscribe via RSS or via email to receive our daily content! ^^

Photo: Kazuhiko Teramoto

Some of the pictures were taken from Kazuhiko Teramoto’s amazing Flickr gallery, don’t forget to check his personal website skyseeker.net too! (Thanks Wikipedia)

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Well, today I felt the need to write my own “view from my window” post with a fancy title. That’s right, that was my view from the 9th floor of the Kansai Japanese-Language Institute, located in Osaka, Rinku Town, a lovely place to be. I’m not sure what that building is, but the bridge to the left leads to the Kansai International Airport, the one located in an artificial island, remember? Keep on reading for more images!

UPDATE: I just found out that the not-so-interesting building is actually the 256-meters tall Rinku Gate Tower Building, one of the tallest in Japan and the whole world. Whoops!

Sky Gate Bridge R: the only way into Kansai International Airport

The road that seems to lead nowhere actually leads to the airport, also known as 関空 (Kankū). That’s the only way out of Kankū, so you can either take the train, bus, or pay for a $100 taxi. Don’t take a taxi.

The Institute was about five minutes away from the beach (walking!)

Here’s a nice view from the beach near the Institute, my other relaxing window. At night, people hang out and you can see fireworks everywhere, so it’s a great place to be, anytime of the day.

Unfortunately, I didn’t make it to The Nihon Sun’s Looking Out The Window In Japan compilation, so as a bonus, here’s one of my favorite views:

View from the Osaka Castle

It’s quite amazing how a 4-century old castle lives in perfect harmony with modern skyscrapers. Well, welcome to Japan! Hope you enjoyed my window view, and be sure to subscribe to our content!

Photos by: Hao and my friend Osk (thanks!)

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