Monday, February 22, 2010

Neighborhood Miyanosaka

About two years have passed since I moved in Osaka from my hometown Ishikawa. Now I live in Miyanosaka, Hirakata City by myself. I would like to introduce about my favorite neighbor Miyanosaka.

This is one of my favorite places “Amanogawa” (天野川) that name means “Milky Way River” in English.
This river is the place remembered in connection with the “Tanabata” (七夕) that is famous tale of Japan.
Have you heard of the Japanese Tanabata festival? The festival is usually held on July 7, and celebrates the meeting of two stars, Orihime (Vega of the constellation Lyra) and Hikoboshi (Altair of the constellation Aquila). The story behind Tanabata is quite romantic. Once upon a time in the universe, the stars Orihime and Hikoboshi met and fell in love with each other. However after the marriage, Orihime would no longer weave cloth and Hikoboshi would no longer herd cows. The god of the universe became mad, and separated the two by laying the huge Milky Way River between them. Ever since then, Orihime and Hikoboshi are allowed to see each other only once a year on Tanabata, the night of July 7. So this river, “Amanogawa” is known as “Milky Way River” of Tanabata’s tale.
And also, In the spring, we can see a lot of cherry blossoms in this river’s dry riverbed and many people gather to enjoy a picnic under the cherry blossoms(お花見) every spring. If you have chance, please come to experience お花見 with your friends!


This is “Kudaraou Shrine” (百済王神社) which is one of famous place in Hirakata City. When I moved in Hirakata, I went to pray to my new life in Hirakata in this shrine.

Do you know how to pay homage at a shrine? This is how we worship. At first, Please stand before the altar ,bow once, and ring a bell. Next, throw small change in the offering box and take deep bows twice. Put your hands together and pray and bow again before you leave.
You can go there about 15 minutes on foot from Kansai Gaidai, so if you have a free time why don’t you go visit there?

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Recommendations about Japanese culture for foreigners

When you want to relax or deal with your tiredness and stress, what do you usually do? In my case, when I feel heavy stress and fatigue, I try to go to “ONSEN (hot spring)” or take a bath to make me relax. To take a bath and ONSEN is one of popular way to relax and release our stress in Japan. I’m proud of ONSEN as Japanese Culture. There are so many ONSEN, and some famous them are one of important tourist attraction in Japan. ONSEN have not only effect of relaxing and relieving stress, but also it can make better our health. Some famous ONSEN include great ingredients that can heal disease or pain. If you go to ONSEN, you should go “Roten Buro (open-air bath)”. It is my most favorite kind of ONSEN.
It is made in outside and we can see nice view with taking ONSEN. So ONSEN is great place for us to make our mind and body refresh. But ONSEN is a little expensive. So we can’t frequently go there. So I would like to introduce for you to easy way to enjoy ONSEN.

First, you can go to “Sentou (public bath)” with cheap fee. There are so many Sentou in Japan, and also in Hirakata city. This picture is one of Hirakata city’s Sentou, “MIyanosaka Onsen”.
I can go there about 3 minutes on foot, but I’ve never tried to enter there. In Japan, Sentou is one of place to be able to meet neighboring people. I think it is good opportunity to make a connection with our neighborhood. My grandfather loves to go to Sentou. He goes there almost every morning and also takes a bath in my house every night. So he always smells like soap.

Second, in Japan almost all house have own bathtub and we run a bath almost every day. So a lot of unique products that we can enjoy bath time are produced. There is much kind of these products in Japan, and we can buy it easily. My recommendation product includes famous ONSEN’s ingredients.
So we can feel like we are in famous ONSEN just in our house whenever we like.

Finally, if you go to ONSEN, probably you will hesitate because we have to take off our clothes in public place. I also have hesitation and am ashamed. So I would like to introduce about “Ashiyu”. It is exclusive ONSEN for legs.
We don’t have to pay any money for almost all it. And you don’t need to take off your all clothes, so it’s ok only to remove your shoes and socks. Ashiyu is popular way to enjoy ONSEN without circumstance in Japan. In Kyoto, there is "Ashiyu Café”. In that place we can not only take Ashiyu, but also drink something and spend a good time with your friends.

So even if it is difficult for you to go to ONSEN, there is some way to enjoy ONSEN in Japan. While you are in Japan, please try to enjoy ONSEN!




First picture is borrowed from this site
http://image-search.yahoo.co.jp/search?ei=UTF-8&p=%E9%9C%B2%E5%A4%A9%E9%A2%A8%E5%91%82

Fifth picture is borrowed from this site
http://www.yamanaka-spa.or.jp
(This is my home town's site.)
 
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.