Osaka and Setsubun Matsuri

We were sad to leave our friends in Yawatahama, but we had to continue our trip and see as  much as possible of Japan. We took the ferry from Yawatahama to Beppu in the morning, so we could enjoy the capital of hot springs in Japan. When we say "we" we mean Rony.

We didn't expect much from the ferry, but it appears it's quite different from any ferry we have seen or traveled on: There were no seats. It was Japanese style: You take off your shoes and sit on the floor.

Talia posing in the ferry

Fortunately, there was almost no one there, so we could sleep on the floor. There were even small cushions to put your head on. And the view was so nice! The sun was out finally, but that's a bit logical: We had left Yawatahama, so the good weather was back :)

The ferry from Yawatahama departs every 3 hours or so and takes 3 hours to arrive to Beppu. It also cost 3020 Yen.

We arrived at 13:00 and we looked for the train station to leave our bags. Once at the train station, Rony wanted to go to the sand hot spring. But it appears it's 5 minutes from the ferry and we missed it!

So we decided to stay and have something to eat. Maybe it was the heat in the ferry or maybe it was some fatigue from the last 10 days, but Rony didn't feel very well and passed on the hot springs.

But we took a few pictures.

Crepe with ice cream, banana and chocolate. Can't be bad

Aburaya Kumahachi or ShinnyUncle, the father of tourism in Beppu and children benefactor

We then went to Fukuoka for the night. The city seems very lively and very young, but we didn't feel like going out to bars or see the night life so we decided that it was good to rest a bit and skipped the beauties of Fukuoka. In the end, we didn't do much during our day in Beppu and Fukuoka, and it's good to rest a bit, too.

Typical postcard in Fukuoka

The next day we went to Osaka. The distance between those 2 cities is quite big, but with the fast train, called Shinkansen, it takes only 3 hours.

Rony's bento on the train to Osaka

We arrived in Osaka and walked over to our hostel. The place is brand new - the owners, a young couple with a baby, just opened it a few months ago (when the baby was 2 months old!) We really felt right at home very quickly. Here we also had Japanese style beds, but they gave us an extra futon, so it was very comfortable. It was actually only us and one other girl the whole time we were there, so it felt like a private home stay (that we were paying for).

In the evening, we went downtown to Umeda to walk around the famous area. We soon found ourselves in a gigantic bookstore that left both of us awestruck. Of course, it is difficult for us to pass such a store and not walk in, so we did. :-) Rony actually found something he was really looking for, and Talia found a gift for her niece, so it was a very successful venture.

After eating some dinner, we walked around a bit more, fully intending on calling it a night very soon. We saw a big building with a lot of lights and noise. So we went in. It was a big 3-story building of arcade games and games of all sorts! The building is actually a Namco building and it was a paradise of all kinds of games, from the mechanic arm that grabs stuffed Hello Kittys to slot machines. And every arcade game under the sun.

Crazy.

We had to try it.

So we played "Pirates of the Caribbean."

And even if Talia had not see the movie, she managed very well.

We had a lot of fun :)

Now our day was complete and we could go back to our homey hostel.

The next day was a special day in Japan: It was Setsubun Matsuri. Of course you all know what it is - it's the spring festival! It somehow matches the Chinese New Year and the celebration is quite the same: Scare away the evil spirit of last year and bring the good spirits in.

We asked our hosts where we could see the celebrations and they recommended 2 places which celebrate it in two different ways: Nakayama Shrine and Ohatsu-tenjin Shrine, a Shrine in Umeda, a 5-minute walk from the place we were the night before. Nakayama Shrine was a bit outside of Osaka and started earlier, so we went there first.
We didn't know what to expect but it was great!

In Nakayama shrine

There were about 300 people there, of all ages, and we were the only Westerners there, so we got a lot of attention. The show itself was actually the "bad spirits" that were being banished. See the videos on our video page to have a glance on what we saw.

The evil spririts. Boooooh!

After the "show," some people dressed in traditional clothes threw soybeans at us and everybody was pushing to catch them! It was crazy! We never saw the Japanese so enthusiastic and so excited! People were falling on the grown (and luckily, others were helping them back up). The audience of pushers ranged from young children to 70-year-olds!

Throwing beans at us!

And people try to catch them!

And it was so hot that day, that Rony was ACTUALLY wearing a T-shirt for a few minutes. Wow! It was the first time since Australia! We guess it's really a spring festival then!

We succeeded to catch a few packets of beans (it was not wasy), and at the end of the ceremony, people gave us their leftovers. We guess it's also a tradition to share the beans.

After so much excitement, we were ready for lunch and we decided to have the Osaka speciality: Okonomiyaki!  Yes, again, we ate okonomiyaki and we loved it again. Even if, once more, the old lady that served us didn't know a word of English.

It was time to go to Ohatsu-tenjin Shrine, the second shrine. That was very different from the first one. No big celebration, no show, just a free meal and sake for everyone who wanted to wait in line.

We saw for the first time the less wealthy people of Osaka, maybe some of them without income or homes. We were happy to see that other side of Japanese society and meet, even for a few minutes, some of them. Most of them were quite happy, probably because of the sake and for having a free meal, and they were quite friendly. Especially since Talia was wearing her strawberry hat and she had to pose for one of the photographers that was covering the event.

Opening of the sake

She'll sign autographs when she gets back.

What was peculiar was that the shrine was in the middle of a busy shopping street with a lot of Pachinko parlors, where women in short skirts were handling flyers on the street, and at the shrine we could witness a whole other world.

Traditionally, on this holiday/festival, people throw beans while saying, "Evil out, good spirits in!" Also, some areas have an additional tradition where they eat a long sushi roll (uncut) without talking. We don't know the reason for this, but we decided to follow with this one since there were tons of sushi rolls for sale and they looked delicious.

When we got back to our hostel, we gave some beans we received to our hosts, since they had to stay in the hostel all day. They were very touched by our gesture and the next morning we all took a picture together before checking out.

That night we had to meet our new hosts in Shimo-suwa, but before that we decided to do a last minute stop in Nara and check the temples to see there.

That could have been a good idea if we had left early enough.

We ended up running the whole way to the temples and actually didn't seen much beside the largest concentration of tourists since we arrived in Japan and the largest deer community in Japan.

Talia making friends with a deer

Well, maybe next time.

We were now on our way to Shimo-suwa, a small town in the Japanese Alps where we were suppose to stay for 3 days, our first couch surfing experience in Japan (officially, anyway).

For more photos from our Osaka trip:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=614001&id=906005363&l=69a1abb7bb

But that's for another post.