Okay,
finally I have some time to continue the Japan photo picspam!


Nijo Castle:

This was very interesting, although we don´t have much photos of it. You weren´t allowed to take photos INSIDE the castle which was a shame, because it was really impressive.
But the most amazing thing was the floor! It´s a ninja trick and it´s still working: When you walk over the wooden floor you hear the "twitter of nightingales". Those floors are therefore called "nightingale floors".
With this they knew immediately when an enemy was on its way ^-^;

Nijojo (Nijo Castle) 二条城 にじょうじょう Residential castle located in the city of Kyoto. Construction wasbegun in 1569 by the warlord Oda Nobunaga and was completed by TokugawaIeyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1867). It served asa residence for shoguns during visits to Kyoto. Rectangular in layout,its main compound (hommaru)is distinctive in that it is built on a slightly raised earth bank. Themain keep was brought from Fushimi Castle between 1624 and 1626, but itwas destroyed by fire in 1750. The mansion-style buildings of theNinomaru Palace in the secondary compound (ninomaru) have beendesignated a National Treasure. Nijo Castle is famous for its creakingfloorboards, which are said to chirp like nightingales to warn ofintruders. It is also known for the elegant design of its garden. In1994 it was registered by UNESCO for inclusion on its list of World Heritage monuments. Source: Mini Encyclopedia

This was the entrance area.



This was also still at the entrance. I love that roof thingie! <3





And here we were already out of the castle again ;o; .... and the gardens were before us. So gorgeous.



XDDDD .... I love this pic! It´s so surreal! Japanese trees, Japanese buildings ... and a black, HUGE American guy standing there! XDDDD



But the gardens were really nice :D It´s a pity that it was pretty cloudy that day (T_T)



You can say what you want, but old Japanese bulidings (and roofs) are just gorgeous (*_*)



View from above. I love this pic :)



Oh and the castle was surrounded by a moat ^^ Also for protection, I guess ^^


Okay, that´s all ;o; .......
but don´t worry the next station brings a LOT of photos!!!
Let´s go to OSAKA!!!! ^__________^


Osaka:

Although we were there only for 1 day I really fell in love with Osaka! I don´t know why, but I totally loved it there and I´m definitely going there again ^^ (and then hopefully more than 1 day XD)
Oh, and I´ve already told you but I don´t mind telling you AGAIN! XD On our way to Osaka I was spazzing because a lot of stations had the names of Hanakimi characters (or rather the other way round ;P) ... Umeda, Ashiya etc. ^-^



Train station in Osaka. I loved that stuff above the ticket machines, so I took a photo ^^



Okay, where´s Osaka castle? XD
And no that old lady was not explaining anything to us, it´s a coincidence, but I love that photo! XD



On our way to the castle we saw a lot of interesting things! ^-^



Oh, and as you can see the weather was GREAT this day ^^ ... and fuc**** hot! (T_T)



Those trees are funny, cute and gorgeous <3



AH!!! And there´s Osaka castle finally ^-^V



And we´re getting slowly closer! ^-^ Please note the guy with the white thing around his head: Yes, it was REALLY hot that day XD
We also needed our umbrellas XD (because of the sun!)



Isn´t this castle gorgeous?



Front of the castle ^^



The inside of the castle was not SO interesting! There wasn´t much left of the original stuff that was once in there.
But you could go to the top of the castle and take photos of the great view.



And yes, Japanese DO love baseball XD



Crystal tower (on the right) - me loves!!!! (^3^)



More of Osaka :)



There were signs like these, so that you knew what´s what ^^;



This was outside of the castle. Somehow I have to think of London when I look at this building (^^;) ....





This was where we ate our lunch. Nice view, ne? ^^



I love those things. They were all so colorful in Japan ^^;


Okay next station:



On our way to Osaka aquarium. Huge Ferris wheel ^^



And yes we rode it later on XD



But first we visited the aquarium ^-^ I always, always wanted to go there!!! ^-^



Welcoming in different languages (even German!!) ^-^



Okay, the aquarium was REALLY great, but it was really hard to take good photos. So the quality of these photos is not the best. I´m sorry, but I still wanna show you some of them ^-^V



The otters there were sooooooooo cute!!! ^___^ ... unfortunately they were too fast for my camera, so no photos ;o;



At least I got this guy, because he was not moving at all! XD



The penguins were also veeeery cute!!! ^____^



And we found Nemo!!!! ... although it was really hard! I had to wait with my camera quite a while because this guy was playing hide and seek with us XD



Ray! :)
This was the largest aquarium within the building. We spent a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooot of time in front of it cuz there was so much to see! ^-^



Whale shark. He was also in that huge aquarium. GOD he was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo huge!!! (O___O)



Again a ray. Especially hesaki was totally fascinated by those guys, I guess ^^



HOMG!! Teh cuteness!!!!! <333



Chuuuuu~ I guess he fell in love with hesaki! ;)



And that´s da MANTA RAY!! XD



This little guy is so adorable as well ^-^



Looks a bit bored o__O?!



Ieks .... don´t ask! ... Somehow it was .... disgusting (>_>) .... XD



Jellyfish! .... soooooooooo gorgeous, although we all hate them, I guess? (^^;)





CUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUTEEEEE~ (*-*)b



This guy was pretty interesting as well :)



Okay, that was all. Bye, bye.


AAAHH! No, not yet! XD



The aquarium is right at the port of Osaka. It was so gorgeous there. It smelled like seawater there, of course. It felt like Italy and I love Italy ^^; .... it was really nice, plus the setting sun was so gorgeous!!





Totally gorgeous, isn´t it? ^-^ ... haaa~ I miss Osaka ;o;





And then it was getting darker and darker ^^ ...



But before that we went to the huge Ferris wheel OF COURSE!!! ^-^



Photo out of the wheel. You can see the aquarium ^-^



As you can see it was really getting dark, so we don´t have too many good photos from up there ^^; ..



Okay after we left the wheel it was really dark already ^^;



Bye, bye aquarium, bye bye Osaka! I hope I´ll see you again!!!



^____________________________^

But that´s now really all! XD