Sundays in Japan: Mino Park, Osaka

Last week, I mentioned how beautiful and green Hiroshima is for a Japanese city, and that most Japanese cities are a bit drab, Osaka especially.

rules for invisible monkeys

Luckily, there is a Quasi-National Park (I have no idea why "quasi") just half an hour's train ride out of the city. I think I can say that Mino Park helped keeping me sane at times. It's biggest attraction are the waterfall (to be honest, not that exciting) and the monkeys that live in the park (which I've never spotted).


However, it's a beautiful place for a long walk, or even hike, when you're not a low-lander like me. With lush trees, old houses and a tranquil river running through the park, it's one of these places where traditional Japanese films might be shot.

kids fishing in the river

Entry is free and while it can get quite crowded on weekends, during the week it's wonderfully quiet. The park starts about a mile's walk from Mino station, but this is no chore as even the trail leading there transports you to a completely different, more relaxed and old-fashioned Japan, a harsh contrast to the fancy Umeda station where you got on the train!

an abandoned old building along the river

the main attraction - not to be watched without the matching Japanese tourist hat

 Information how to get to Mino Park and more pictures can be found here.

Next stop: Belfast

After looking at possible new homes for about two years, I have decided to move somewhere I never really looked at: Belfast, capital of Northern Ireland.

Why? Because it's a city of a size that is easy to navigate on foot, but has everything I need - a thriving theatre and music scene, nice pubs and restaurants, ethnic groceries and health food shops, English (or something like that), cheap accommodation and a Lush shop. I'm not entirely sure about the queer scene, but if I survived Japan, I can survive Belfast, too.

Because I love Ireland (not unconditionally - I know it's not a country of happy people dancing and having music sessions) and have seen way too little of it, yet don't want to bet on the sinking ship that is the Republic of Ireland.

Also, because I am already a UK resident and won't have to change my bank account, tax stuff or university (I'm studying with OU, every now and then).

I'm flying in Saturday next week and am super excited!


So, will this be the end of nomadism? Surely not - as cheap self storage is another great feature of Belfast, and there are plenty of flight to Europe and even New York. I'm not planning to live there for the next 5 years or anything, more like half a year to a year, but we'll see!

Sundays in Japan: Beautiful Hiroshima

Much has been written about Hiroshima, and while of course the main interest for everyone visiting the city is the A-Bomb Dome, the atomic bomb museum and wonderfully named "Peace Park", after months in grungy Osaka, the thing I noticed most about Hiroshima was that it was incredibly beautiful.

This is not something that Japanese cities usually are - sure, they are clean and there might be parks and gardens, but in very different states and most cities are terribly drab and grey during the day except for a few sparkly shopping streets.

Somehow, Hiroshima managed to escape this, although all buildings in the city had to be rebuilt after the bomb blast didn't leave much more but the Atomic Bomb Dome that has now become the symbol of the city. Sure, there are ugly grey skycrapers and malls like in every other Japanese city. But mainly, there is a lot of green, I think Hiroshima is the greenest city I have ever visited - even those in supposedly tropical paradises didn't have this many plants, trees and parks. Which is ironic, because after the bomb, many people claimed that no trees would grow here for at least 100 years. Yet another example how Japan rocks at recovering from catastrophes!

What I enjoyed best about my days in Hiroshima (after Hiroshima style okonomiyaki - I mean, fried noodle filled pancake, think about it!) was walking along the lush and surpisingly quiet river banks and discovering the many tiny shrines built and cute cafés set up along them.

Which cities were more beautiful than you expected them to be?