chochajin | [Japan Travel]: No cherry blossoms in the desert!

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[Japan Travel]: No cherry blossoms in the desert!

Hello everybody!

Sorry for not posting at all!

As you all know I was away for spring vacation.
Twitter readers already know, but let me just tell you that I already got sick during my vacation and then came back home with almost 40°C of fever.

I had to go to work the next morning and that wasn't such a good idea. In the end I had to go to an emergency hospital where I got antibiotics and was told that I have a severe tonsilitis with yellow and fat swollen tonsils.

For the first time in OVER 3 years (!!!) I couldn't go to work. I lost 3 whole days! I say "lost" because I don't get paid if I don't show up at work although it's a proper full-time job. I don't have any paid sick leave which is why I usually go to work no matter how sick I am, but this time it was just too much ;___; I had to give up in the end.

Also, just as I feared, I missed the cherry blossoms.

Like most of you might remember I was complaining about them being so late this year and was thinking about rearranging my trip, but didn't do it in the end. I was just hoping that I'd be lucky nevertheless, but I wasn't.

I was literally running away from the cherry blossoms! As soon as they started blooming in one place I moved on to the next one where they weren't out at all yet.

That was what I was afraid of, but couldn't be changed at that point anymore (also considering that I didn't have the engery due to becoming sick).
When I finally came back home the cherry blossoms were in full bloom, but I was sick in bed as you already know.

Once I was fit enough again, they were already gone.
TIS SUCKS!

Flyjin who are slowly coming back to Japan now were all able to enjoy cherry blossoms and I who was here the whole time, wasn't. Fair world, isn't it?

Anyways I'm fit again and so here we go!

I'll post just a short preview of my photos today. By now they're all sorted out. It was around 5000 photos (unsorted) and around 500 had dirt on it (sand on the image sensor), so I had to use Photoshop and edit each photo individually which also took many many days *sigh*
On a positive note, this was by far the cheapest vacation I ever had! I only used the Shinkansen once and I also didn't buy too many souvenirs.

After visiting Kagawa (Shikoku) I only stayed in Chuugoku, so not much travel expenses in general.

The cherry blossoms were mainly like in the photo above. Most of the time I saw thousands of empty trees and I needed a loooooooot of fantasy to imagine how it would look like in about a week later :/

I took a lot of random and funny shots again.

I visited a lot of gardens this time (also because I thought they would look awesome in April with cherry blossoms in full bloom ...)

At least the weather was pretty good this time (apart from 2 days or so). Probably also a reason why I got sick. The temperature changed so quickly within a day. First sweating in the sun, then getting a cold wind from left and right and there you go!

I ate a lot of yummie food again. Mainly udon (and soba) this time as those were famous for where I went.
In the photo above you see Sanuki Udon - I'm completely in love with it!!! So yummie!! Especially with A LOT OF soy sauce! :D

Sometimes I found a few single trees partly in pink. Luckily there are so many different types of cherry blossoms in Japan which don't all bloom at the same time, but I still missed the full bloom of the mainstream trees :/

I visited a lot of famous temples and shrines again. Had to walk a lot, climb a lot of stairs this time, but it was nice!

If you can't find any cherry blossoms then you just look out for other beautiful things in gardens! ^-^

And yes, I was in Japan and not in the jungle or anywhere! That "bridge" was scary like hell, but fun to walk (crawl XD) over!

Random shot again.

In front of Kurashiki Sta. (Okayama).

Darumahausen ;P

Obviously in Okayama! Momotaro and friends.

Kurashiki: The Venice of Japan?! ;)

Apart from not being able to enjoy any cherry blossoms I got to see a few other nice things :D

I was also lucky to run into a Hina Matsuri festival. I saw it on TV in the morning and it was right next to where I wanted to go anyways. And everything was free!~

I ran into a lot of cute statues and stuff again!! Some of them so cute that I wanted to take them home with me!

*lol* Found in Kojima (Okayama).

Uhm ... Cheers! ... I guess XD

At least plum blossoms were still out there!

And yes, we're still in Japan!! I didn't leave the country! XD

On the back of a camel on the sand dunes of Tottori!~

A beautiful day, sand beach, awesome!

My footprints in the sand.

Beautiful sunset (a long story behind this photo, but you'll read about everything in a future entry ^^; ..)

Landscapes that somehow reminded me a lot of my home country.

Quite a bunch of castles again (actually I'm surprised as well that there's almost no castle photos in this entry! *g*)

Like I said, sometimes I ran into some single, lonely cherry blossom trees (not in full bloom, though).

Also visited the biggest Chinese garden in Japan!

I've seen frogs and monkeys, this is the first time I saw bunnies! PINK BUNNIES!! HOMG!

I visited Detective Conan ;P

Visited one of the biggest botanical gardens on a rainy day.

Walked to school with penguins

And that's about it, I guess.
More to come, of course, with more details and background stories to all the photos.

Like I said I didn't buy many souvenirs this time! I was able to add a few more Maneki Neko to my collection.

I especially adore this one as it glows in different colors when you touch a sensor (though this is clearly for young kids, I don't care at all XD)

One can never have enough chopsticks!!

Thanks for reading!

Sorry for the long absence!

Hope you understand.

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Oh hey, you are right: That picture did look a little like Germany :D
And you know what? You are going to hate me for this giving your history with cherry blossoms but ... I live right behind a park here in Germany and we have many "international" trees so ... we actually have cherry blossoms here :D

Woah, the pictures are pretty as always *-*
I especially loved the Zen-garden and all the pictures you took of the different parks you went to *___*
Oh, one thing I wanted to ask you: As someone from Germany, how hard/easy was it for you to adapt to the japanese cuisine?

I really hope you are okay now :(
Sounds like your sickness was really nothing to joke about!!
Was it bad you lost a few days of work? I don't mean money-wise but with your boss?

Ich hab in Deutschland auch schon Kirschblütenbäume gesehen, aber die stehen da ja leider immer nur vereinzelt irgendwo rum, kein Vegleich zu Japan,wo auf einen Schlag quasi das ganze Land pink wird ^^;

Nö, die japanische Küche ist ja EIN Grund, warum ich nach Japan bin.
ABER ich vermisse Vollkornbrot, bezahlbaren Käse, Blutorangen und ein paar andere Dinge ;o;

It's never good to miss work no matter for what reason but as I'm the only one who hasn't been absent from work AT ALL until then, I doubt they can get angry at me ^^;

Hm, da hast du Recht. Wir haben hier wie gesagt einige, aber da stehen dann auch nur drei in einer Reihe (wenn überhaupt). Aber hey, vielleicht hast du ja nächstes Jahr Glück =D

Asoo! Na das erleichtert natürlich viel!
Gab es denn irgendetwas, das du erst nicht ausprobieren wolltest und was sie später als super lecker rausgestellt hat?
Ist Käse denn so teuer? O__O

That's true. You have been a model-teacher so far, huh? :D

Nö, ich probier eigentlich alles ohne Vorbehalte ^^;
Ich kann nur scharfes Essen nicht essen (T___T) also Kimchi (aber das ist eh koreanisch) oder indisches Curry etc.
Ich hab aber oft Sachen gegessen, von denen ich gar nicht wusste, was es eigentlich ist, v.a. wenn ich von irgendwem eingeladen war (z.B. Kugelfisch XD)
Der Käse hier ist ABARTIG teuer! Absolut lächerlich! Und auch nur eine sehr geringe Auswahl! Ich weiß schon, wovon ich mich in Deutschland im Sommer ernähren werde: Käse pur! XD

Eh? XD

So nice to hear from you again, I'm sorry you didn't get to see as many cherry blossoms though.
Still, there is loads of interesting and pretty photos here, I can't wait to see pictures from Kurashiki :D And the Tottori sand dunes are amazing - I really DID think you went into the desert before seeing the sea and all lol XDDD

Thanks a lot!! ^-^
It surely felt like a desert at some point, but luckily the sand dunes aren't that big so you won't lose your way or anything XD

Thanks for posting this. The pictures are lovely. How I wish I could travel to as many places here in Japan as you can.

You can come to Nagano-ken, particlularly in Suwa. The sakura trees are not in full bloom yet. Maybe they will this weekend. You can still make it if you hurry. =)

お大事に

Why can't you travel? :(

I've just been in Suwa in January, but good to know ^-^
I wouldn't be able to go, though as my next vacation will be in August!

It's difficult to get a leave from work. I've cancelled a number of travel plans because my company changes schedule on the last minute.

I just hope I get a yasumi this Golden Week. I've already got plans. I hope I won't have to cancel it.

Really? That sucks :(
I don't have many days off. Only 12 days per year (no national holidays) and those 12 days are fixed.
I also work during Golden Week which I think isn't that bad because travelling then will be crowded. I hope you don't have do cancel your plans this time! :/

OMG, those pictures looks absolutely stunning. I'm really looking forward to reading your travel entries. I'm glad to hear you're feeling better now. No paid sick days sounds really though. Doesn't Japan have a law against that? When I was there I was told that in most companies women even get a day per month for their period as it's quite common for it to be really painful among Japanese women...

It is tough, but it's not rare! Generally you do have paid sick leave in Japan, of course, but as you know most Japanese won't take it unless absolutely necessary. Unfortunately it's quite common to have no paid sick leave in the eikaiwa world :(
Wow! o__O; ...
Well at times like that you wish yourself back to good old Germany where people even get a "Krankenschein" from the doc when they're not sick at all (T__T)

I'm back from the dead, lolol, back into LJ-world anyway, I'm more than relieved to see you're safe, happy and okay :) and yeah lovely photos! The stuff you brought are so cute >3 < I managed to buy a cute small lucky cat charm when I went to the museum (they sell very small stock of Japanese stuff) if I was going to Japan, I'd still gone just to see the strength of the Japanese people!! <3

Icon luv!!!! (*___*)b
I love maneki neko ... well I love cats in general! If I see figures that are not too big I usually have to buy them XD

You like the icon?? :D its from this series I luv very much Fringe!!
Me too! I so luv cats (all cats in general)!!! Whenever I see one I try to seduce them so I can stroke them for a little while (yes this has caused me to be late in number of occasions but it was SO worth it!) :D there was this kinda big cat doll for sale but cos I didn't had enough money I couldn't buy it (the same museum) and I lost the chance! Sigh! But I got a lucky cat doll with a pink cushion from my friend in Singapore and another pink lucky cat with glittering sparks I brought from this part of London that has a lot of shops with chinese/japanese stuff =]

I know, that's why I like it. I'm a huge Fringe fan ^-^

You should definitely come to Japan and buy lots of cute maneki neko!! They're usually not so expensive! :D
I'm the same, I can't resist when I see cats! ^-^ I miss having one :(

:"D yay! I luv it tooo <3<3 can't wait until next episode... Sigh! I totally luved the last episode where Olivia finally finally moved on :D:D:D

I wanna commeeee! DD: but its so expensive going there :( but defo maybe later when finish uni etc.

Awhh, cats *_* too bad I can't have one yet, just yet!

LOL Cram Cream. That is a huge chain store-- there is one in my station! XD They have the craziest stuff! And for some reason, American body spray and room fresheners. I never could figure that one out.

What do you do with all of the souveniers that you buy? Do you use them for decoration, or give them away to family or...?

Really? I've never seen a store like that anywhere close to here which is why I usually go shopping when travelling to bigger cities :D
The shop I found those in had loads of other cute stuff as well (*-*)

Haha ... mostly I keep them for myself and use them as decoration. I'm a crazy collector, I guess XD

Frog chopsticks. Frog chopsticks! FROG CHOPSTICKS!!!!!!!!!!

Uhm yeah...

For the rest I was dying over the penguins (so cute!) and... did you get to ride a camel?

*major hugs* at getting sick.
It really didn't sound good at all. Hopefully you won't have to deal with that kind again.

Haha, I KNOW!!! There were a lot of other cute chopsticks with strawberries and stuff for example, but for some reason I was all over the frog ones XDDDD

Ja, ich bin auf einem Kamel geritten!!! (^__________^)v

I hope so, too (T___T) Thanks a lot :D

It's a pity that you couldn't see the sakura properly :(

I was wondering, how do you plan your trips? Do you look stuff up on the internet or do you buy guidebooks or..? Do you have any recommendations???
Also, you do everything using public transport, right?

Oh well, that's what you call bad luck, I guess (x__X)

I don't use guidebooks .. maybe I should? They have so many guide .. ah .. magazines here in Japan anyways :D
Nah, I mainly use the internet for planning :)
I mainly use:
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e623.html
http://wikitravel.org/en/Main_Page

I have to use public transport, yes :/ ... Having a car would have been very helpful especially this time, though.
I often rent a bike, though ^-^ (not in winter, of course)

someone on my flist lives in Tottori (as a CRT or whatever they're called). Too bad you couldn't meet up.

The hina matsuri figures are so cute and I'm waiting to find out how you got sand in the sensor! Dd you drop your camera?

And I hope you are feeling better now, tonsilitis sounds really painful.

CIR maybe? ^^;

No, I was walking on sand dunes and sand was blown into my backback, my shoes, my eyes and also my camera. That's just normal. I just couldn't clean it right away as doing so would have only gotten more sand into it (T__T)
It's clean now :)

Thanks!! ^__^

Wow! I want to go to those places. Everything is so different from the Japan that we usually think of.

About the cherry blossoms, have you heard about the ''jishuku'' as Hiroko has explained here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-vufrp33V4 What do you think about this idea to refrain volontary from doing something by respect for those who have been affected by the disaster? I just want to know your opinon.

The little colorful characters reminded me something and someone on Twitter told me they are from a cartoon called ''Barbapapa.'' I vaguely remember them from my childhood.

There are even commercials about it where Arashi and other celebrities tell you to think about what happened and not buy stuff you don't really need, save energy etc.
I also heard that they'd cancel a lot of cherry blossom festivals, but where I went they had their festivals and some people just sat under empty cherry blossoms trees.
I don't know. Some things make sense for sure, but I think we all were shocked and it's important to go on with life. How does it help the people in Tohoku if people refrain from doing hanami for example? I do understand where they're coming from, but saving energy, donating and stuff might make more sense than refraining from things that keep our mind healthy :/ Just my opinion, though.

Yepp! I loved watching it when I was young, so I was happy when I found them there and took a photo XD

yeah i have to say this year has been awful so far... i don't usually get sick and right now is the third time this year :/ i hate it! the weather is been so weird....

in other things im looking forward to hear more about those cute penguins i must say XD

and that maneki neko is really cute ♥

Woah, sounds horrible!!
I had a hard time when I first came to Japan. The first 2 years I was sick at least once every month from October to April. Reason being my body wasn't used to the germs here. My German meds didn't work at all and it took years to adjust! This year I didn't get sick at all. Only one small cold during my Japanese test and now THAT!! And that was almost equally to having an influenza :(

Hope you're okay now?

yeah im ok, at this point it's just really annoying with the mix of hot weather and the cold wind..

but yours sounds so much worse!!

I know, same here :/

I've recovered, so no worries ^-^

Good to read you again and to know you are ok.

I feel so bad for the people in Fukushima (I lived there, you remember?) and my heart hurts for them. What news do you have about that? I get the Japan Today in my e-mail, but if you know anything, I'd like to hear it. For example, are they selling radiation meters for individuals?

Your pictures are awesome as always! Thank you!

Yeah I was thinking about you when that happened as I remember very well that that's where you used to live :( I hope everybody you know there is okay?! :(
No news here, really! Life is pretty much back to normal and thus far there's no big news.
I also have to say that I'm very far away from all of this. Even all the quakes I didn't feel at all, LUCKILY!
They don't sell radiation meters to individuals as far as I know.

Thanks :)

Looks like a nice trip!

Sorry to hear you got sick though... (;_;) Oh and no sick pay? wtf is that?!

Well, apart from not seeing any cherry blossoms and being sick, yes it was :)

Sorry for being absent from LJ for so long. Have to catch up with my f-list, I guess.

WTF is that? That's eikaiwa business. I know it's not everywhere like that, but unfortunately it's quite common *sigh*
At times like that I wish I was back home where it's absolutely normal NOT to work when you're fucking sick, not having to worry about work at all and consequences.

All your photos look lovely, even without the cherry blossoms, so I hope you had a nice time despite getting sick in the end!! Are you better now?

Also do you have any travel suggestions for Kurashiki and Okayama? I'm taking my brother there next week! :D And where is the biggest Chinese garden in Japan? I LOVE CHINA!! <3

I love the photo of your souvenirs. I take photos like that all the time lol. I can't wait to read more!! :)

I'm better now, so it took pretty much a whole week even with antibiotics to get fit again (T_T)
Thanks for asking :3

Oh, cool!! ^-^
Well, Kurashiki is Kurashiki. Everything is pretty much crowded together around that canal. Lots of museums and stuff. Most museums are closed on Mondays, though, be careful! XD
As for Okayama I supppose you've already been to pretty much everywhere? I went to Tsuyama (though the cherry blossoms are probably gone by now, so it won't be as interesting?!), Bitchu-Takahashi's castle is nice! Have you ever been to the Kibi district? If you wanna see the big Seto-Ohashi Bridge, then Washuzan in Kojima is a good place to go.
I also like the botanical garden which is close to Hokaiin Sta. (1 station away from Okayama).
That's all I can think of right now ^^;
(I think Okayama castle + garden are too obvious?! XD)

The Chinese garden is in Tottori Prefecture, close to Shimane Prefecture (so I did it on my way from Tottori to Matsue). You'll gotta get of Matsuzaki Station and then walk for about 10 minutes ^^ Not something that is on your way if you wanna go to Okayama ^^

Thanks for the advice! I've never been *anywhere* in Okayama city or prefecture so I'm trying to research beyond the castle and garden. :p I'm going there with my brother and friend next week.

Tottori is on my list of future places to visit, so I'll try to remember the Chinese garden if I ever get the chance to go.

Oh, I see! ^-^ There's lots of stuff to see besides the castle and the garden. Hope you'll have an awesome time there! ^-^

I'm sorry for you had sick but I'm glad you get better. ^^ That's too bad for not see full cherry blossom. :C I love some Zen Garden..
I was dead from see cute penguin with school bag. xD
Cool stuffs of you brought. I have few as kids stuffs but I don't care too. xD

＞I already got sick during my vacation and then came back home with almost 40°C of fever.
Really!? Sorry to hear that...;O;
How's your condition？ Feel better? ;_;

＞If you can't find any cherry blossoms then you just look out for other beautiful things in gardens! ^-^
Name of this flowers is カキツバタ. :) The language of flowers is "Good luck comes to you". So, surely good luck comes to you in the near future! ;D

I have been to Okayama. ^^ There are Momotaro every streets and tourist spots, right? XD It is so fun! XDD LOL

砂漠すごい！！本当に日本じゃないみたいですね！雄大な景色が素晴らしいですねo(*>▽<*)o夕日もとても綺麗ですﾟ+(*ﾉｪﾟ)b+ﾟ

鳥取かぁ～。 It is a little far from Osaka, I think...^^; 鳥取県の観光名所が砂丘以外の思いつきませんが、しかしだからこそ、自分でそこに行ってみて面白い所を見つけることは、とても楽しいことかもしれませんねヽ(●＾▽＾●)ﾉ☆

Hello!!! (*^▽^*)
Yes, I've recovered and feel much better now! No need to worry!

杜若ですね。 We call it "Iris" ^-^ (which also can be a girl's name!)
I hope you're right and something good will happen!! ^-^

They do have more in Tottori than just the Sand Dunes there! Maybe you'll see once I post the photos of my trip. However, the Sand Dunes are for sure the biggest tourist attraction! ^___^

your pics keep getting better and better!~ :P i love those landscapes.

Btw, that pic of the barbapapa family brings back a lot of memories.. lol.. :P

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[Japan Travel]: No cherry blossoms in the desert!

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Hi, C!

Re: Hi, C!

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