Hello again!

See? I'm really trying hard to keep the entries coming
Nothing to be proud of as it's almost September and I still haven't finished even half of my spring vacation travel entries (^-^') ....

As this is my newest trip and I still remember it clearly, I thought I'd post about it first.
As some of you know I went sightseeing before my flight as I had to go to Osaka anyways. My flight was at midnight and so I had almost one whole day to spend.
Also, because I've been to almost everywhere in Kansai, I decided to try Wakayama this time. It's only a short train ride from Osaka: 1.5h by local train (and around 1200yen). There's also a limited express which takes you there in an hour, but it costs twice as much!

Wakayama (Wakayama/Kansai) (July 28th 2011):



I arrived in Wakayama around noon and only had a few hours anyways, so I had to choose the sightseeing spots carefully.



The castle hunter in me chose to go to the castle there first, of course!!
After you enter through one of the gates on the main road this huge stone tiger greets you! I want to have something like this for my garden!
Wait ... I don't have a garden!!! ;__; ... Oh well XD



Cute!!! If I had a garden, something like this would be nice, too! XD



Those funny and cute signs never fail to amuse me!



Temari! Actually I was surprised because I thought only Matsumoto was famous for them ^-^;



When I saw those walking sticks, I already feared that it would be quite a hike up to the castle, but it was not!!



It was so hot and humid that day. My shirt and hair were completely soaked. I hate that!
I was glad to find a small shrine in the forest on my way up to the castle, so I took a short break taking photos of the stone statues there.



Unfortunately the mosquitoes there didn't take a break and stole lots of my blood! ;___; ....
Anyways, great stone statues, don't you think?





Almost up there!



And there it is! Quite nice!







Of course I also went inside and as always they charge you a small entrance fee.
Then, you're supposed to show your ticket.



The trees they've planted around the castle are really lovely.



Unfortunately photos weren't allowed inside.
They had some nice exhibits there, but not too interesting and mostly without any English.



Awesome view from the top floor.











Straight roads.



And that's how it looks in winter, I suppose :)



Local kids drew the castle! So cute!





Outside again. Is that a peach there?



Yes, it was hot!



One last photo of the caslte and I'm off.



During a break, I saw this cute Hello Kitty POPCORN!! machine.
Then, I also went to the Momiji pond - which obviously is most beautiful in autumn, but it was quite nice nevertheless.





If you ever visit a Japanese garden and there's a teahouse, I definitely recommend to go there and try Japanese maccha and enjoy the whole atmosphere - only if you have enough time, though!! :)



Eeewww. Dead monster cicada....



On my way back to the station I stopped in front of this German bakery(?!)/Baumkuchen shop. I didn't have enough time to go inside.
I'm not really a big Baumkuchen fan. I mean it's okay, but I wonder why Japanese people like it so much!! And it's not popular or famous at all in Germany!! At least not in the part where I live ....
I wonder why so many people think it's big in Germany here in Japan XD (that's also why I never got that "joke" in NGE! XD ...)



I found Hachiko's brother in Wakayama!!! XDDDD
This dog statue was right under Wakayama Station. It's where the tourist information and the cycle rental place are (where I got a rental bike for only 100yen btw.!! *highly recommended if you want to go to the castle*)



Back at Wakayama Station I went to the tracks that lead to Kishi station ... and it's impossible to go to the wrong platform as you can see!



XDDDDD ... Why I wanted to go to Kishi?? Never heard of Kishi Station before??



Well, because I wanted to visit, Tama, the cat station master! Kishi Station is the only station in Japan that has a cat as station master, so it's very popular among Japanese tourists, of course.
And as I love cats so much and it was close to Wakayama anyways, I wanted to take the chance to meet Tama personally!! ^_____^



This was something I was looking forward to the whole day already!



Finally at Kishi Station!



Not too much time left until I have to leave again! :(



There was a huge group of Chinese tourists arriving at the same time as me, blocking the way to the cat, so I took some other photos in the meantime.
They were already quite annoying in the train, especially the kids. Soooo different from Japanese people, really! Only the staring they have in common, though Chinese people are more persistent and annoying in their staring..
Don't get me wrong! I have nothing against Chinese people, how could I? However, my only experience with Chinese people so far is like the one above.



When the way was finally free, I was quite disappointed. Actually I expected Tama to wear its uniform and that we would be able to actually touch the cat and maybe even take photos together.
I didn't know what I expected .... but I was disappointed! :(
I asked the people in the souvenir / Tama merchandising shop next door and they said that Tama is only dressed up like that for special shootings and stuff ;o; .....



Well, instead I bought lots of cute Tama merchandising!! ^___^



The playing cards were just too adorable.





I just had to have the book as well which also featured the previous station masters o__O; .. I think.
Unfortunately I left that book in Germany, so I didn't really have a time to look at it yet (^-^;) ..



And that's what I actually expected to see when I went there. Oh well, at least I have these 2 photos now ^-^;



In front of the station everything was cat-themed as well :)







As I still had some time left until my train would come, I decided to walk around a bit. There's not too much around Kishi Station which you can reach on foot and it was very hot, but at least I wanted to explore the area a little :)
Cats everywhere it seems ;)



There's a huge bridge leading over this river.
It was nice to look down from up there. The river looked refreshing.



Zoom: And it seems I wasn't the only one who thought that.
Actually one of the guys was completely naked when I passed by again on my way back. I'm not sure what was going on but the others were making fun of him then. Maybe he lost a bet or something.
I was REALLY tempted to take a photo of that from up that bridge (they wouldn't have noticed anyways XD) ... but I was nice and didn't ;P



The area is famous for strawberries and fireflies as you can see ^-^



So green it almost makes you blind! O____O



Back at Kishi Station with its cat ears (I already posted about it in one of my previous entries). Probably one of the cutest station buildings ever!! ^-^



Then it was time to say goodbye to Tama and friends.
What you see above are probably small shrines for the previous cat station masters as their name is written on the gates. I'm not 100% sure, though. I would know if I actually read the book I bought ^-^;; ...
Maybe somebody can correct me if I'm wrong.



There are three different types of trains. The most precious one is definitely the "Tama Cat Train", but it doesn't run every day and because it was not a weekend, I ended up with the "Strawberry Train" - but that one was cute, too! ^-^





Without knowing that I would ride a strawberry train I bought a Tama strawberry icecream a few minutes before getting to the train XDDD
What a great coincidence. It was super yummie!!!!



I wish all trains in Japan would look like that ^-^



Japan keeps cheering on themselves: Don't give up! Cheer up! Japan!



And then I saw the "Tama Cat Train" from far away at least. I really wanted to know how it looks inside and wanted to ride it ^-^;



We passed by so many supergreen rice fields.



Back in Wakayama I took the train back to Shin-Osaka, ate dinner and then was off to Kansai International Airport.
Actually you can go much quicker to the airport directly from Wakayama, but I had heavy luggage on me and I couldn't bring it with me when sightseeing, so this longer (and more expensive) route was my only choice.
I'm just saying it in case you ever plan on doing last minute sightseeing before going to the KIX.

That's it. Hope you enjoyed my very short day in Wakayama.
Next up: I'm going to continue with my spring vacation trip.
Actually I want to take some random short trips from now on as my time in Japan is soon over and I wanna get as much done as possible, but it's been raining every single day since I came back to Japan. No good travel weather ... *sigh*

Thanks for reading.