[Keihanshin] Taipei, Osaka, Nara, and Kobe

August 19, 2011

Weather: Cloudy

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<Section 1>
Location: Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport


Waking up at 4:30 a.m., the weather is cloudy in Taipei.

The shuttle bus came at 5:30, yet all of my family were sleepy and still partially disabled due to "morning sickness." The ride was smooth because of the earliness; there was almost no car on the highway.


Since the ride was smooth, we got there at 6:10 which was pretty fast because it would normally take about 1 hour with normal traffic.

So yeh, we got our boarding passes, passed the security checks, and we were on the flight. The flight time was estimated to be around 2 hours, but we got there earlier than the expected arrival time.

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<Section 2>

Location: Osaka Kansai International Airport

It was around 12:00 (Japan time) when we arrived. Kansai International Airport was an extremely large airport, with multi-terminal connected by shuttle trains.

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<Section 3>
Location: Nara Toudaiji Temple (奈良東大寺)

Getting out of the custom (which took us hours to wait ><), we waited (again) for our luggage and went on the touring bus. Our first stop was Nara Toudaji Temple. The temple was extremely beautiful, and the entire atmosphere was awesome. It felt really ancient, but I really liked the way it is presented. The gorgeous Buddha sculptures (trust me, those are INSANLY LARGE, with height of about 3 floors!), the amazing work on the pillars, and the way that it really "calms" you down.

A really beautiful temple!

A Buddha sculpture near the entrance

Another amazing Buddha sculpture

Sculpture =D

After we went around the temple, we got out and went to the fronter field where all the rumoured non-afraid-of-human deers were running around. Those deers were really crazy; they wouldn't run away from you when you approach them. Instead, they came to you and, if you are lucky, they bit your cloths because they thought you've got something for them. And I was bitten. And I got myself all wet. Seriously.

Beautiful cloth-biting deers

This male one really loved my dad (it followed him all the way through)

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<Section 4>

Location: Kobe Harborland

After leaving Nara, we went directly to Kobe's Harborland. This place is consisted of many nice departments stores as well as a beautiful shopping street. Harborland also has a beautiful harbour (that's why the name is Harborland LOL). The shopping street was small, yet it is really beautiful. We bought a nice little snack here, white chocolate coated strawberry. It was REALLY delicious; not too sweet and not too plain.

Harborland Shopping Street

Harborland department stores

Cute little snack (strawberry in white chocolate~)

Beautiful Harborland ocean side

We also went on a really small cruise here and had a so-so dinner. The cruise was called "Concerto" and has about only 3 floors available for guests. The deck was small too, with very few tables and chairs (don't even mention a pool). They called this 愛之船, I don't really know how this is translated into English so, figure it out yourself =P!

"Concerto" with Kobe Tower in the background

The cruising only took 90 minutes; however, it was a really long 90-minute because it was really boring on the ship. This is mainly due to an inappropriate timing for boarding the ship; it was around 7:00 p.m. when we boarded and the sky was already dark. Therefore, we were not able to see anything when we were out in the ocean, except for lighting from Kobe city's buildings and a really famous bridge, Akashi Kaikyo Bridge (明石海峡大橋) This bridge is the longest suspension bridge in the world.

The picture of unable-to-see-Akashi-Kaikyo-Bridge

We went back to our hotel right after we got off the cruise and ended our day. The hotel felt extremely high-class and was has the largest room among the 3 hotels I've stayed during this trip.

Beautiful and large hotel room

Wonderful looking lobby

It was really an awesome hotel 

This is the end of our first day. I will be updating this blog about the next four days in the next four days =D (LOL).

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Bonus Content: First Day Pictures Slide Show