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Fiona and Senna in Japan

Content Warnings:

Note that while I (Fiona) selected and sorted the images, and wrote the text, quite a few of the images were taken by Senna. Not only to reflect that, but also because we might eventually move this page to a website belonging to both of us, I will henceforth refer to us by name in the third person, to make it more clear who I’m talking about at any given time.

The quality of the depicted images here is reduced to save bandwidth and device-memory; you can get the full resolution version by clicking on the images.

Lastly: There are several videos here, you probably really don’t want to watch all of them if your internet connection isn’t very good, we are talking about a combined 6.5 GB here…

Day 0: Travel

Fiona and Senna in with their backpacks in Fiona’s kitchen.
Getting Ready.
⟨redacted⟩

Rotterdam

Rotterdam station
The direct connection between Eindhoven and Schipol was not available so we had a change-over in Rotterdam.

Schipol Airport

Roku Gin on sale for 49.90 € in the Duty free. In front of it the current prize for the same on gall.nl, where it is significantly cheaper.
Duty-free shopping is a scam. Now even for alcohol!
Senna and Fiona in front of a window behind which their plane is visible.
Getting Ready to board.
Amsterdam at night as seen out of plane’s window.
City’s at night are beautiful out of planes, and Amsterdam is no exception to that.
Fiona and Senna sitting next to each other on the plane.
Approaching PRC-occupied China.

Shitty China

Gate in the airport in Shanghai. It is for “International & Hong Kong/Macao/Taiwan Transfer”.
Nothing quite screams “there is only one China” like putting transfers to places like Taiwan with transfers to places that you recognize as other countries…
Two curries for 53 Yuan (≈ 6.45 €).
At least the food was really cheap though. At least after we finally managed to figure out the value of a Yuan in Euro, despite all their censorship bullshit.
Senna and Fiona on yet another plane. Fiona rests her head on Senna’s shoulder.
Thankfully we managed to leave for the free world soon after though.

Japan 😊

Deboarding the plane…
Vending machines and pocket-wifi rentals in the airport.
Vending machines! That means we are in Japan!
Senna on the train.
The first of many train rides to come.
Fiona and Senna in a traditional Japanese style hotel room.
We managed to enter our first hotel room about 2 minutes before midnight. At midnight the front desk closed, so we were really just in time. Next time I hope to have a bigger buffer…

Day 1: Osaka

Fiona and Senna on a large public square.
First destination: The shopping district near Namba station.
A pancake stand that has models of several of its offerings next to the counter.
And the first stop there: Buying strawberry pancakes.
A very red and strawberry-themed food stand, titled “Strawberry Mania”.
Japan loves Strawberries!
Strawberries with vanilla pudding in a pancake wrap.
Dieting… What was that again?
Fiona leaning against the railing of Ebisu Bridge
Portrait at Ebisu Bridge.
Senna leaning against the railing of Ebisu Bridge
Senna also wanted one.
Eastward view of Ebisu Bridge over the channel with shops and billboards on both sides.
Eastward View
A car tunnel under a building with greenery on the walls.
Car tunnels an be made nice to look at too!
A pedestrianized shopping street covered by a transparent roof.
Roofs over pedestrian areas are amazing!
a narrow street framed by low- to mid-rise buildings used by cars and pedestrians alike.
A typical side street in Japan
Fiona and Senna smiling into the camera.
Senna still cannot believe being in Japan.
A thrown over trashcan with trash littering the street.
Not even Japan is always perfect about being clean.
A wide river between rows of houses.
Dotonbori River
Senna and Fiona in front of the River.
And the same with us in front of it.
An empty parking garage locked of with a fenced gate. There is a lot of trash in it that must have been thrown in through the fence.
The lack of trashbins seems to have interesting consequences.

Sushi!

Table at a conveyor belt sushi restaurant. There are two plates with nigiri on it.
The first step towards ruing European Sushi for another two years…
two large large piles of plates on the table, indicating the number of consumed portions.
Fiona is trying to loose weight. Japan used “Conveyor Belt Sushi”. It is super effective.
You just take the one that you like and worry about calories and cost later…

More Osaka

A pedestrianized large side street with benches in the middle.
Taking a break from walking after lunch.
Fiona holding a tissue against her nose to stop a (harmless) nosebleed.
In Japan they say that a bleeding nose is a sign of being in love…
a tall tower behind a shopping district.
Next stop: Tsūtenkaku.
closeup of the tower, with it’s frame construction.
And from closer
Senna and Fiona standing on the sides of a golden statue with huge feet in front of a colorful modern style drawing of Osaka.
And the first of several professional foto opportunities…

Osaka as seen from above, under a semi cloudy sky.

Similar picture, but a large green square with a zoo is taking up half the picture.

Fiona and Senna on top of the tower with the city behind them. The wind is turning their hairs into messes.

Fiona’s feet on a glass floor below which there is nothing except for a lot of height between her and the pavement.

Fiona on top of the glass floor bending slightly forward to take the picture, around her is a fence and otherwise nothing. City buildings are visible behind here and the wind is turning her hair into a mess.

Senna on the same place. She is looking towards the camera and looks a lot more presentable.

Windy…

A warning sign at the entrance of the stairwell announcing “Caution”, “Please refrain from using this facility if you have difficulty with stairs.” (in four languages) and “400 Steps”.

Senna walking down the stairs with a light backpack.

A Pocky with a thick layer of white chocolate on it.

downwards view on the partially eaten Pocky showing how much chocolate there is relative to the stick.

Fiona and Senna eating the same Pocky, causing there mouths to get pretty close, implying a kiss being imminent.

Fiona and Senna leaning on each other, smiling at the camera.

Senna smiling at the Camera while sitting at the dinner table.

A green square in Osaka with surrounded by lit up trees.

Day 2: Kyoto

Senna and Fiona in travel gear taking a shared selfie while leaving their first hotel.

Senna turning her head towards the camera while being on a local train.

View from a outside square on an artificial terrace above ground-level. There are stairs towards ground level and a tree is visible being planted there. In the background is a large building consisting of two towers whose top is connected again.
The view from Osaka station was something we only started appreciating much later. Similarly the Umeda Sky Building is already visible here, but we would only go up on it at the very end of our trip.
A stand with apples for sale. Every one of them is individually wrapped in plastic foam.
Japan, we love you, we really do, but there are things you have to work on, and trash avoidance is definitely one of them…
A tray with a thick toast that has a scrambled egg on it, a potato pancake, and a hot dog.
Breakfast in Osaka

Senna sitting in a cafe having a drink.

The cute looking entrance to the cafe, it looks as though it is part of a small stone house (possibly Mediterranean) and feels somewhat out of place, though positively so.
The beauty about Japan is that sometimes you have places like this in the middle of a district of high rise buildings.
An old and traditional looking building with white walls behind a open place with a ground covered in gravel.
Honmaru Palace in Nijō Castle

Nijō castle was a residence for the emperor and the Shogun’s. This is where the famous nightingale floors are and where the Shogun returned power to the Emperor during the Meiji restoration.

And open, old looking wooden gate at night with a large park on the other side.

A traditional open-air stage with a roof from which many lit lanterns are hanging down and providing light in the otherwise dark night.

Closeup on some of the lanterns. The one in the center reads “Natural Beauty” in English.
Senna made some weird comments about Fiona when she took that picture…

Fiona in front of the stage.

Fiona in front of the entrance gate to the shrine.
The entrance to the Shrine.

Day 3: Leaving for Hiroshima

Senna sitting at a table in a beautiful cafe with jungle-themed walls.

Senna with her Backpack. On top of it her plushy.

Fiona with her backpack

Golden Pavilion

The golden pavilion on the other side of the lake.

Fiona and Senna in front of the lake with the pavilion behind them.

A traditional style large building with a gravel square in front of it.

The golden pavilion next to the lake in front of it.

Closeup of the golden pavilion.

Fiona and Senna in front of the pavilion.

A small island with a few trees in the lake next to the pavilion.

A small well (?) with a shelter on it in the forest.

A few small stone statues on the ground, with a small bowl in front of them. There are countless coins spread around them, from tourists and worshipers who are trying to throw them into the bowl.

Fiona and Senna on a hill in the forest, a short distance from the pavilion whose golden roof is visible above the treeline.

The altar (?) of the temple. There are several people in front of it, and behind them is a place to burn incense.

Two cones of soft ice: Vanilla with gold flakes and matcha.

The Imperial Palace

A wide gravel-covered walk way in the national garden. The northern walls of the imperial palace of Kyoto are visible on the right side.

A fancy looking large gate in the palaces outer walls.

A large gate into the actual palace building.
This gate is for the emperor himself.
A gatehouse with white walls and red pillars open towards a large square with the actual palace behind it.
The Jomei-mon Gate.

The large square behind the gatehouse: It is covered with a layer of raked gravel. On the right is the actual palace.

A fancy looking building with golden decorations.
The Imperial Sanctuary, housing the Divine mirror, one of the three imperial regalia.
A large traditional building though without any gold ornaments.
The Kogosho

Panorama of the palace garden, with a lake in the center and autumn colored trees behind it.

A smaller building in the palace with wooden doors, behind one of them a beautifully painted internal door is visible.

More of the garden, here a small creek with a stone slaps that form a way over it and more trees in the background.

Senna in front of the garden looking to the camera.

An internal wooden door with a painting of men sitting under a tree on it.

Another internal door, painted with cattle under a young sakura tree.

Travel

Sushi again! 😊
Many empty plates in front of Fiona and Senna at a conveyor belt sushi restaurant.
10,604¥ worth of Sushi…
A very large and tall station entrance hall from the inside.
Kyoto Station
Shinkansen! 🚅🤩

Hiroshima

The atomic bomb dome on the other side of the river at night.

A shrine in front of a stone altar below a concrete arch at night. The atomic bomb dome is visible through it.
The memorial for the victims of the atomic bomb thrown on Hiroshima
A small sign at the actual hypocenter of the bombing near the peace park.
The actual hypocenter is next to a parking lot and some vending machines

Close view of the atomic bomb dome at night.

Day 4: Miyajima Island

One of the recommendations we received before coming to Japan came from another Fiona: Miyajima Island near Hiroshima The original idea for our first full day in Hiroshima was to first visit Miyajima island in the morning and then finish the peace park in the afternoon…

View of a mist- and cloud-covered mountainous island across the sea from the pier on the Japanese mainland.

Fiona and Senna on the pier.

Miyajima island from the boat over the water. The famous Toriigate is visible in the center.

A wild deer standing in front of the entrance of a restaurant.

Oh dear…

Fiona in front of the famous Torii gate.

The mist covered mountains of Miyajima island on the other side of the bay, with the Toriigate on the right edge of the view in the water.

Roughly the same picture but with Fiona and Senna in it.

An open garage with several pretty small rescue vehicles, including firetrucks.

View from a cable-car station onto the mist covered neighbouring mountain. The cables are disappearing into the clouds there.

View from a mountain. Directly in front is a downwards slope with a walkway, soime rocks and greens. In the left of the picture a green, moutnainous island, partially covered in mist. In the center vertical center the ocean is visible. There are clouds covering parts of the land and see below the level of the viewer. The sky is grey. The overal impression is one of an incredibly beautyful island.

The same scene a bit further to the right, with the steps to another vantage point in the center.

Panorama of the same. In addition there are a small wooden shelter and some people visible in the right part of the image.

A cloud moving closer to the mountain.

The same scene but with Fiona and Senna in front of it.

The cable car station in the left of the pictures. The cables aren’t visible, but a cable car can be seen breaking through the cloud a bit towards the right.

A beautiful mist covered path through the forest on a mountain. There are stone slaps to walk on and an overgrown wooden railing on the left side.

Senna walking on the path with her short sleeved dress, having tied her rain-coat around her hips.

A large rock on the continuing path.

More of the path. The mountain goes oup almost vertically on the left side and is heavily overgrown with fern.

Sennan walking up the path on an incline.

the path going up steeply in serpentines for the last few meters before the next shrine.

Various small stone statues (about 0.5 m tall) sitting on the ground.

The inside of a shrine building. There are a few lit candles in front of a large iron pot with water in it on top of a small fire fed by blocks of wood.

Continuation of the path, with a small shrine building on the left side.

View through some trees onto the cloud and mist covered neighbouring mountain top.

Fiona and Senna in front of the same scene.

Scene near the mountain top, where the forest has opened up and is only visible a bit further down below two large rocks that are at the bottom of the picture. Behind the trees are clouds and mists and moiuntain tops breaking through the cloud covers on neighbouring islands. Some of the ocean is visible as well.

same scene, but at a different angle.

Still the same scene, at yet another angle. This time some of the path that is now fully on rocks is visible, with Senna walking it up further down on it.

yet another angle of the same scene.

Panorma view of the scene. On the right are some stairs leading to a large rock formation.

Another panorama from slightly further up, showing Senna taking the previous one as part of it.

Similar panorama without Senna.

A similar panorama again.

Fiona and Senna in front of the scene.

View from the summit: Rocks on the left, forest on the right, and clouds on the top.

The same scene but with a part of the summit’s plateau visible on the left.

View of the summit from the buliding there: A relatively flat place covered in brown rock. The mist surrounding the place is now denser and few things are visible in the distance.

Clouds flowing over another mountain.

a small shrine building next to the way back down from the summit, surrounded by forest.

A metal pole next to the way, heavily covered in stickers. Nothing else is.
It’s not that people don’t place stickers, but at least they limit it to places where it doesn’t really do any damage.

View through some foilage towards a mountain.

Same scene, but with Fiona and Senna in front of it.

Selfie of a very exhausted looking Fiona.

A sign explaining the eternal flame seen previously heating the iron pot.

Senna sitting on a bench at the cable car station looking at her phone.

Schematic Map of the top of Mount Misen’s summit.

a very modern looking altar in the cable car station, labeled “Satellite of the Lover’s Sanctuary”.

View from the cablecar onto the forest: It’s mostly shades of green with some trees that have deep red leaves.

A sign pointing the way to the ropeway station, declaring a “10 min. walk (7 if [you] run a little)” in both Japanese and English.

Two trays with Lunch between Fiona and Senna. Senna has Ramen, whereas fiona has rice with tempura. Between them are two small bottles of Sake.
“Kein Bier vor Vier” they say, but Sake should be fine right?

Closeup of Senna’s Ramen.

The famous Toriigate on the water as seen from the Shrine, with a cloud covered mountain on the mainland in the distance behind it.

Fiona and Senna standing on the unofficial foto point on the pier of the shrine with the gate in the background.

The same perspective of the gate, but without anyone in the picture

A small shrine with a small altar on the island.

Fiona walking barefoot on the beach towards the waterline.

Fiona walking legdeep in the sea.

Senna walking barefoot into the water

Fiona and Senna embracing each other in the sea. (Selfie)

Fiona and Senna standing in the water with their feet in the sea and smiling into the camera.

I (Fiona) have the cutest girlfriend. 🥰
Senna ❤️ Fiona written in the Sand. The dot on the “i” is a bit higher than before.
After minor adjustments.

View from the beach towards the mainland. The scene lies in twilight and the mainland is still partially covered in clouds, but otherwise the sky is now clear.

View on the beach towards the right; the Toriiis visible on the water and Miyajima has clouds on it, but the area over the sea is still cloudless.

Dusk at the waterline on the beach.

Senna standing on area that is now mostly dry due to the low tide.

Fiona too standing on somewhat dry ground in front of the tori, raising her hands to the side.

Very scenic picture of the Toriifrom a 45° angle in front of the sunset.

a small street in Hiroshima. There is a signpost towards a police station with a cute looking police officer saluting the viewer on it.

So… It turns out Miyajima is a full daytrip if you want to enjoy it, which meant that Fiona went right to the front desk to book another night in the hotel when we finally got back. The perks of backpacking without prebooked hotels. 😊

Day 5: Hiroshima

The entrance to a very modern looking Japanese style castle on the other side of a moat.

A somewhat weirdly grown eucalyptus tree. There is a sign stating that it survifed the atomic bomb while being located about 740 m from the hypocenter.

Fiona and Senna smiling at the camera on the casle wall

a sign advertizing icecream and “German Cheese Dog”, that is a sausage, overbaked with cheese in a lie bread.
How about: No?

The keep of Hiroshima castle from the outside, framed by trees.

a table sized model of the rooms in a large Japanese palace.

The castle gardens and moat in the lower part of the image, behind them the skyline of Hiroshima with many high rise buildings.
The view from the top of the keep.
A construction side, with low fences, whose posts are pink “anime-look” figurines.
It is inexpensive but cute stuff like this, that makes a city so much more livable.

A restaurant at the corner of a building being surrounded by quite a few large potted plants.

More of fences that use cute figures as fenceposts. Here the figures are green though.

A shelf with second hand Louis Vuitton bags.
Somehow these were everywhere, and its pretty disgusting. The feel bad and cheap to the touch and primarily communicate that you only care about a (rather ugly to be honest) logo and not about actual quality.
Two bowls of Ramen.
Our first Ramen in Japan. 😊
Fiona in her black and purple dress smiling at the camera in a hotel room…
Looking cute in our hotel room.

Day 6: From Hiroshima via Himeji to Nara

Senna smiling at the camera over her morning coffee in a cafe.

Fiona Smiling at the camera in the same cafe.

A large collection of different donuts for sale in a bakery.

Shukkei-en

The first stop of the day was Shukkei-en, a garden in Hiroshima that we had wanted to visit on short notice on the previous day, but were a few minutes too late to be let in; in hindsight that was a great thing, as it meant that we actually had enough time to really appreciate it, instead of rushing through it.

A small pond surrounded by stoneslaps.

Fiona walking over large stone slaps forming a way over a small creek.

Senna walking on a bamboo-fenced path through a decorative part of the garden.

Senna with her large backpack looking back towards Fiona who is holding the camera. Behind her are green hills and trees.

A path through a small bamboo forest

The bamboo forest as seen from a hill next to it.

the whole garden with its lake, trees and hills as seen from the same hill

A lot of large goldfish piling up at the creek feeding the lake.
Maybe the oxygen in the lake is a bit low…

panorama view of the lake, surrounded by trees, hills, a shelter, bridges and walkways.

Fiona standing on a bridge, smiling at the camera.

Fiona and Senna smiling at the camera in front of the lake.

A memorial stone for the Hiroshima bombing, with water-filled PET-bottles in front of it.
The traditional offering to the victims of the atomic bomb is a filled water bottle, as so many of them experienced great thirst in the aftermath and couldn’t find water.

Panorama of the garden’s central lake, surrounded by many trees and decorations.

Fiona from the back looking over the lake with her backpack on.

Upwards shot of Fiona looking downwards at the camera from about the height of her feet.

Leaving Hiroshima

Escalators in Hiroshima station, leading downwards. The wall is covered with pictures of pokemon
Well, Japan is where pokemon was invented, after all…
Shinkansen!
Unlike ICEs, the Shinkansen always goes fast!

Himeji

Himeji Castle as seen from the other side of a street-crossing in front of it. There is a somewhat hard to make out from this angle moat around a lower perimeter wall, with a bridge over it as the main entrance.

Himeji Caslte as seen from the ground.

Senna and Fiona in front of the castle.

View from the castles over some trees towards the city.

Fiona and Senna in the castle, the wooden structure visible behind them.

View out of a window in the keep: In the lower half other castle structures are visible, behind that, trees and grass fields, the moat, the city itself and some mountains in that order.

Somewhat similar to the previous picture. Here the white plaster on the black roof-tiles is especially visible.

Fiona and Senna in front of a window on the top floor of the keep.

A wall with built in weapon rack. Two musketts are tied to it, Senna is holding her head against the muzzle of one of them.

View over Himeji from the castle grounds.

A wooden model depicting the beam structure of the historical castle.

The keep of Himeji castle.

Panorama over Himeji from the inner castle walls. The sun is visibly about to set and painting everything in a slightly red tone and the lower castle-grounds are visible with a large grass square and many trees.

View onto the pond in the castle gardens.

Water flowing down an artificial river surrounded by trees.

Selfie of Fiona in front of the same scene
Recreating an image from last time…

Selfie of Fiona in the same place, but 2.5 years earlier, before her transition

A large pond. On the other side is a small waterfall surrounded by trees in autumn colors.

Senna hugging Fiona from behind who is taking a selfie of them in front of them pond.

Another picture of the pond.

The pond from the other side.

Selfie of Fiona and Senna in front of the pond.

Senna hugging Fiona from behind and looking to the side at the camera while Fiona (who is holding it) looks forward.

A small creek surrounded by greenery on both sides.

Fiona standing on a stone-slap in the middle of a creek, looking at the camera.

Fiona and Senna on the platform in Himeji station.

Nara

Fiona and Senna on an escalator in Nara station.

A heavily decorated manhole cover.

Senna sitting on a table in a bar opposite of Fiona who took the picture. There are a menu and two drinks between them.

Day 7: From Nara to Kamakura

Two deer being really close to Senna, begging her for food.

two deer sniffing on Fiona.

Senna feeding two deers.

A group of school children wearing all yellow hats.

Fiona feeding a deer.

Closeup of deer’s head while Fiona feeds it.

A large rock declaring a UNESCO World Heritage site, namely the “Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara”.

A large wooden gate on the entrance to the temple complex

A large gatehouse with white walls.

View of the main-building inside the temple: A very large wooden hall with elegant roofs and decorations.

A very large fully black statue of Buddha in the temple.

A somewhat smaller (but still large) golden statue next to it.

Fiona and Senna in front of the golden statue.

Senna didn’t try a second time, which we regreted afterwards.

Deer just walking around amidst tourists.

Travel

A restroom door on a train, explicitly labeled as being for women.
Somehow Japan thought that having lady’s rooms on the Shinkansen was important. (There are no men’s rooms, the other restrooms are unisex.)

A self-service fridge (not a vending machine!) next to a shop in a train station.

Fiona and Senna on a local train to Kamakura

Kamakura

One of the reasons for why Kamakura was always a non-negotiable part of the overal trip is that it is the real life location of most of the events in the anime Elfenlied, which Fiona considers to be one of the most imporant pieces of media to herself that she has ever seen.

For further illustration see also her page that compares the real locations with the depiction in the anime that is scheduled to receive a few updates after this more recent visit.

A small train station (Gokurakuji) at night as seen from the street.

Two stacks of plates in a conveyor belt sushi restaurant.

The main street of Enoshima at night. It is completely deserted.

Stairs leading up to a Toriigate and further stairs as the approach to the large Shrine complex.

A stone mural of a person holding a golden apple and a golden scepter.

Downwards view from the stairs to the temple entrance. Senna is sitting on one of the stairs at the very bottom because her feet hurt so much.

A shrine building at night.

Fiona’s power-brick with four plugged in USB-cables lying on a table.
The 100 W powerplug with 4 USB-outlets was a very useful thing to have. 😊

Day 8: Kamakura

Sasuke Inari Shrine

Fiona and Senna in front of lots of Torii on the approach to the Sasuke-Inari shrine.

A small wooden altar on a stone foundation surrounded by fox statues.

A dead-end in the shrine, surrounded by think foliage with an altar and several tables. There are countless small fox statues (offerings) placed on all of the tables.

more offerings

and more offerings

a Toriigate in front of a rock and a few stairs that lead nowehere with more offerings on them.

The approach to the shrine as seen from the shrine: A long line of Toriigaes and then on the site of the shrine stairs that lead further up and with rows of red flags on both sides.

Senna walking down through the Torii.

Zeniarai Benten Shrine

A stone gate in front of a tunnel leading through a mountain towards the actual shrine. on the left of the gate is a large rock with carved Kanji inscriptions.

The inner of the shrine: a row of unpainted wooden Torii leading twoards the exit and stalls selling food and talismans on the side.

A large wooden altar in a cave.

A smaller altar in a side cave with offered wooden (not-red) Torii on shelves near it.

A stone “box” with an engraving of the “triforce”.

Kamakura

A beach below a clouded sky.
Back at the beach.

Green plants and orange flowers grow beside a shed and the streets railing, with the ocean and the other side of the bay visible in the background.

A wide pedestrian walkway with a railing on the left side, where the beach is starting. Behind it all is a large mountain.

A decorated garden in a small temple.
Joju-in

The other side of the garden.

It does sound cuter!

Enoshima

Senna really needed a break at this point, causing her to take a nap in our hotel, whereas Fiona took a short trip first to Gokurakuji, and then to Enoshima…

view over the waterline and another pier. In the background Mount Fuji is softly but clearly visible below a cover of clouds.

The approach to the shrine on Enoshima at daytime, through a coper-green Torii gate, now with much more people around it.

A modern looking square surrounded by trees with lit LED lighting. on the square are quite a few pallets indicating build up.

Eastward view from the sea-candle: a beautiful garden on the mountain of a largely green island in the ocean. The Japanese mainland is visible on the right.

westward view: There are a few houses on the visible part of the island and Fuji in the distance on the mainland.

Southward view: There is a forest on the island ending in a steep cliff falling into the water with the ocean under a cloud cover behind it.
Who recognizes it?

Fiona in front of a south-westward view with Fuji visible in the righthand corner.

Northward view at dusk: A partially decoated garden on Enoshima in the foreground, seperated with water from the mainland of the Kanto region, which expands northward into the largest city cluster in the free world.

At this point Fiona called Senna and told her to come over as well, since the expectation was to only come in the morning on the following day, which would have caused Senna to miss out on the view at night.

A beautifuly decorated garden.

A framework tower (the seacandle) lit up at night, as seen from the surrounding garden.

A picture of the garden at night, with small mini-LEDs iluminating many spots, creating a look of glowing insects.

view through some trees of the now artificially iluminated mainlaind.

Meanwhile Senna took the escalators leading up the shrine.

A lit path through the garden.

A small, very traditional and extremely artful shetler surrounded by trees with many blue point lights, creating a fairytale like visual

A view of the lit garden next to pallets and other material that is cearly still in use to decorate more.

At this point Senna finally arrived at the garden and we went back up onto the sea candle.

Northward view showing the Kantoregion lit up at night.

Senna in front of the previous scene

Fiona in front of the previous scene

Senna and Fiona in front of the previous scene

The lit up sea candle as seen from the sunset terrace at night.

a small table with a red and a blue cocktail in plastic cups on it.
They were tasty! 😊

A racoon on the street.

A square at night with two large statues of red demons (?) at its corners.

A manhole cover decorated by a color-image of a tree.

a very steep cliff on the other side of a chasm behind some lit up plants right in front of the camera.

The altar of a Shinto shrine at night.

the closed entrance to a small artificial cave.

The main street on Enoshima deserted at night.

Fiona’s dinner: Rice, with minced meat, salad, scrambled egg and some melted cheese in a restaurant.

Day 9: from Kamakura to Tokyo

A large statue of a sitting Buddha under a clear sky.

A small walkway between houses sourrounded by plants a tree whose blossoms have the shape of downfacing yellow trumpets.

A train with a green and a purple wagon at Hase station.

Gokurakuji

A payphone in front of Gokurakuji Station

Senna in Front of Gokurakuji Station.

View from a mountain towards the bay of Kamakura. In front of the camera is a stairway leading downwards to a cementary. There are trees and heavy foilage towards both sides. Behind the cementary the bay and the beach are visible, with the city expanding to the left.
After several failed attempts over two visits to Japan, Fiona finally managed to get this shot with a clear blue sky. 😊

Senna in front of the previous scene.

Fiona in front of the previous scene.

Towards Enoshima

The blue ocean under a lovely clear sky, as seen from the train.

A construction fence, with various signs on it, one clearly stating “LGBTQ Ally” under a rainbow flag.
LGBTQ rights being less of a hot topic in Japan, importantly doesn’t mean that nobody cares!

The silhouette of Mount Fuji being visible above a house.

Enoshima

A narrow street leading up towards the shrine on Enoshima with small shops on both sides.

Stone stairs next to a mural and surrounded be greenery leading up to the shrine.

A small pond surrounded by rough rocks with a dragon statue in it.

The walkway on the shrine surrounded by trees wrapped in strings of lights.

View over trees towards Enoshima’s harbour.

The southward view of the cliff in front of the ocean again, but this tme at very sunny weather. A part of the ocean is lit up by the sunlight.

The northward towards Tokyo at daylight under a clear blue sky.

The western half of Enoshima: A narrow street surrounded by buildings on both sides leading to the end of it.

Eastward view again: A deep blue sea behind Enishima, with its harbour visible in the center left of the image.

Fiona in front of the southward view.

Senna, leaning her head to the right in front of palm-trees decorated with chains of small lights.

A square with tables, chairs and large umbrellas in front of a food-stand. Senna is in the center sitting on one of the chairs.

Stairs leading down to a paved way.

The sun standing right above a large cliff on top of the split in Enoshima Island.

The Heavenly Maiden and the Five Headed Dragon

A sign telling the story of the heavenly maiden and the five headed dragon.

Once upon a time, a bad dragon with five heads settled in the bottomless swamp among the mountains of Fukasawa, Kamakura and tormented the people. The called this place “Koshigoe” and feared the dragon, because he would steal their children.

For many days, dense clouds enveloped on the sea in front of “Koshigoe”. For a short time, heaven and earth quaked violently. After that, a heavenly maiden appeared suddenly, the clouds cleared and an island appeared. This island is known today as Enoshima.

The dragon fell in love with her, and he proposed to her. But she refused him because of the bad thins he did. Afterwards, he mended his ways and the able to get married to her. Today, the heavenly maiden is worshiped as Benzaiten in Enoshima. The dragon with five heads is worshiped as Ryukomyojin in Koshigoe Kamakura city.

The dragon’s love bell.

Enoshima

Fiona and Senna embracing each other in front of the ocean.

rocky cliffs in front of the blue ocean with the sun’s reflection. Two people are fishing on the rocks.

A small candle lantern with a paper cover depicting a dragon.

A well-paved walkway leading around the lower parts of the island, a few meters above the ocean. There are many colorful fans attached to the railing.

The upwards view from the walkway shows the very steep cliffs on top of whom the forest starts.

Another view of the ocean from the walkway.

A tray with food.
Senna’s dinner.

View of the sun being about to set on the ocean. at the bottom the image are some of the cliffs.

Senna taking a picture of the ocean and the sun.

Another picture of the sun standing just a little above the ocean.

The entrance to the small artificial cave on the shrine.

The southern view of the sea candle again, this time at sunset.

The sun setting over the ocean.

Fiona and Senna in front of the southern view.

A wide-angle shot of the view to the south and the sunset.

Different angle of the same.

Northwards view at dawn. Some of the decorated trees in the garden are seen lit in blue below.

A panorama of the same.

A green forest from above in the lower half of the image. behind it the ocean and a golden horizon colored by the sun that has just set. The sky is largely clear with a hand full of clouds.

The same scene but a bit further to the left.

Senna and Fiona smiling at the camera on the sunset terrace.

Fiona and Senna kissing in front of the sunset.

Panorama view of of the sunset, the Kanto region, with Enoshima visible in the lower half of the image.

A garden with palms and other trees that are wrapped in small lights glowing blue.

Senna in front of the previous view.

The cyan lit sea-candle as seen from the garden, framed by decorated and lit trees.

Decorated and lit trees with chairs and tables between them in front of a cafe.

A wooden walkway between the tress.

A small decorated shelter amidst lit trees.

A model railway on display in the train station.

Monorail!

A colorfully decorated hanging monorail on its platform.

A necklace with a heart made out of blue and pink glass.
Fiona bought a necklace in Kamakura.

Fiona on the train, wearing the necklace

Tokyo Tower

A station locker almost completely filled with two backpacks that barely fit in on top of each other.

The tip of the illuminated Tokyo Tower being visible over a building.

The illuminated Tokyo tower as seen from the nearby road at night.

View out of the lower deck of Tokyo Tower at night: There are many high rise buildings with many lit windows.

A similar view with a very tall high rise in the center.

A sign titled “Great Shinto Shrine of the Tower”.

The actual, maybe 3 m × 3 m large shrine.

Another view over Tokyo, similar to the previous ones, but with a low-rise shrine between trees next to the tower.

The inside view of the tower, with large panorama windows and the city glowing behind them.

Senna and Fiona sitting on a side-rail embracing each other in fron of a window showing the city with a decorative digital frame.
And another oppotunity to buy pictures…

A wide view with lit up highways and high rises all the way to the horizon from the upper floor of Tokyo Tower.

Fiona and Senna in front of a window showing the city behind them.

Another view of lit up Toko reaching all the way to the horizon.

Fiona in front of a window with the city behind her.

Senna in front of the same window

The city with some high rises next to Tokyo tower, which is reflected in their windows.

Another view of the city behind the window.

And another view. In this one a river that is crossed by a bridge that is lit in blue is visible in the left part of the shot.

Fiona and Senna standing on top of glassfloor below which the structure of Tokyo Tower is visible.

Next to one of the feets of Tokyo Tower: A smaller (maybe 5 m tall) model of Tokyo Tower surrounded by Christmas trees. The pavement has inset crystalls that glow under black light.

Day 10: Tokyo

At this point both of us were quite tired and especially Senna’s feet were still suffering a lot. As a result we slept in for quite a long time and only really left the hotel at noon, causing us to have only a short day to see Tokyo.

Still, the break simply was necessary at this point.

Akihabara

A large crossing in Akihabara. It is surrounded by mid-rise buildings with large billboards advertizing anime and similar things.

Senna wearing a pink dress and making a cute gesture

A glassbox in a shop showing multiple complex anime figurines on sale.

A tired looking Senna sitting on the corner of a large plant pot.

A display with throwing stars, knuckle dusters, and telescop battons for sale.
The fact that these are legal to sell in Japan, a country with extremely strict laws on weapons, probably demonstrates best why the German ban of ever mere possesion is insane!

Old Gamboys (Color and Advance) for sale.

Neon Genesis Evangelion figurines for sale.

“That time I got reincarnated as a slime” figurines.

Pokemon playing cards for sale. One Charizard card has an asking price of 59.800¥ (≈ 330€)!

A white Porsche in a parking spot on the side of the street. It is significantly wider than the parking spot itself.
Overly wide shitty cars that don’t fit into parking spots seem to be a general problem around the world…

A transparent box with two large figures of Dark Sakura a Saber Alter and two small figures of Arcueid Brunestad in the background being for sale.

Figures of Saber Alter, Kurisu Makise, Saber in a Kimono and Saber on a motorcycle for sale.

A box with (among others) Ryogo Shiki in a Kimono with a Katana for sale.

A bowl with Ramen, containing a large piece of meat.

A different bowl of Ramen.

⟨redacted⟩

A row of mid-rise buildings with large, lit up billboards on the other side of the street.

Senna smiling at the camera in front of the street with the lit up buildings at night behind her.

The view across the street, similar to before.

View from Akihabara station towards a shopping mall with large billboards.

Shibuya

Shibuya Crossing while used by car traffic.

Shibuya Crossing while in use by Pedestrians.

Senna and Fiona in front of the Hachikō statue at Shibuya.

The Hachikō statue: A dog on a stone podium, near Shibuya crossing, with massive amounts of billboards on the other sides of the streets visible in the background.

Shibuya crossing from the pedestrian’s perspective, while waiting for the light to turn green.

View over pedestrian bridges at Shibuya with many high-rise buildings and construction cranes in the background.

A small single lane street with green trees on both sides feeding into a large road.
Sakura street in autumn.

Upwards view of the street, as it starts to gently starts waving left and rights.

Senna standing on the street.

Fiona standing on the street.

Senso-Ji

Fiona in front of a huge red lantern with a large kanji on it in a large gatehouse.

Senna in front of the same lantern.

A street leading towards a large temple building with three rows of lanterns on top of a fence on the left side of it.

Fiona cuddling against Senna who takes a picture of the lanterns.

A large two storied temple building.

Fiona walking through the large building.

A large five story pagoda being visible behind another building at night. Senna is standing at the left side of the image and smiling at the camera.

Instructions: “How to draw OMIKUJI. (1) Drop in ¥100, while praying for your wish, shake the box politely a few times. (2) Make sure your number and put the stick back. (3) Take out a sheet of OMIKUJI from the drawer of your number. Be sure to return the bamboo stick to the tube. Don’t Carry out. Put the shelf back too. (4) When you draw a bad fortune, please do not worry. Tie it on the hanger and drop bad fortune- off here.”

A queue towards the entrance of what seems to be the main building of the temple.

Senna standing on a small bridge over a pond with many green trees and hedges behind her in the temple garden.

Visiting old Friends in Asakusa

On my last trip to Japan I ended up repeatedly visiting a small bar in Asakusa, near Senso-Ji and became surprisingly close with the owner and some other people there.

In the end I promised her that I’d be back, even though it might take years.

Years they ended up being, but fewer than I expected. Though now of course I had transitioned and was not sure how they would react and whether they would remember me at all…

⟨redacted⟩

It turned out that all of those worries were completely unfounded. While I did not initially recognize the person behind the counter when I entered and neither did they recognize me, once I mentioned ⟨redacted⟩ and ⟨redacted⟩, they immediately called them and a group that included them came in a few minutes later.

⟨redacted⟩ clearly needed a moment, but also only a moment, and then immediately recognized and remembered me and expressed great joy of seeing me. I had not been forgotten after all, and she even cared enough, to recognize me despite being ≈ 30 kg lighter and my different gender.

This was huge to me and everyone there was also very accepting (and at least it appeared to me: quite comfortable!) with me being trans and gay.

⟨redacted⟩

Sadly the metro system in Tokyo shuts down really early and we had to leave before 23:00. Since CANS would start on Monday (Day 12), we further more expected to only have a little bit of time on Day 11 in Tokyo and would have to leave for Osaka in the evening to be there by Monday morning, so we said our good byes and left.

Thankfully though we noticed when returning to the hotel, that the Monday evening program for CANS would only include the reception late in the evening, making it possible there to leave Tokyo at noon on the same day and still arrive on time, granting us another full day in Tokyo…

Day 11: Senso-Ji and the Skytree

The street in front of the Senso-Ji temple: A diagonal crossing is marked, but despite the very high amount of tourists, everything is extremely clean.

A few police officers walking behind a protest on the road in Asakusa.

The Skytree as seen from the street in Asakusa: A very tall and slender tower in the distance.

The main altar of Senso-Ji, behind a glass wall with a crowd in front of it.

The street in front of the temple, with several people (primarily women) in traditional Kimonos.

Skytree

A gigantic city seen from high above reaching all the way to the horizon.
Skytree, lower level
Senna and Fiona sitting on a cloud shaped couch in the sky tree. Behind them are windows showing Tokyo and below them a green-screen that depicts the downwards view. Since Fiona’s dress has green parts, some of them are interpreted as green-screen and depict buildings. It’s not super obvious, but impossible to unsee once you recognize it.
Once you see it, you cannot unsee it, but otherwise the picture is still quite nice…

Panorama of the view from inside the tower through the windows over the huge city.

The sun standing low in the sky brightly illuminating the center of the images, with some clouds in front of it and Tokyo reaching all the way to the horizon behind it.

View over Tokyo from the top deck. It’s a bit higher than from the lower floor but otherwise pretty similar.

Fiona and Senna hugging each other in front of the windows

Fiona taking a picture our of a window, while standing next to a pillar announcing “Tokyo Skytree. 451.2m. Highest point”.

The sun standing low above the horizon above Tokyo’s skyline behind a few clouds.

Close-up of sunbeams breaking through the clouds above a part of Tokyo with many high rise buildings.

Senna and Fiona in front of the highest point marker

Senna and Fiona kissing in front of a window, Tokyo visible behind them.

Downwards view from the top deck of the sky-tree through a downwards angled window. It is clearly very high up.

Fiona taking a selfie of herself and Senna, who is looking the other way and taking a picture out of the windows.

Senna and Fiona in front of Windows with the city visible behind them.

View out of the windows: on the left there is some glow visible on the horizon, whereas the right side is already significantly darker. Sunset is clearly imminent.

Selfie of Senna leaning over the railing, with Fiona resting on her back.

Another picture of the city, mostly in the shade, but with the upper floors of some of the building still lit by the sun.

Selfie of Fiona who is hugging Senna (who is making a V symbol with her right hand) from behind on the top floor.

Sunset over Tokyo starting. The city lies in the shade, while the horizon turns red and yellow. Fuji is somewhat visible in the distance.

A more zoomed in picture with the top of Fuji being very visible against the golden backdrop of the sunset.

Fiona standing on a glass floor.

Fiona and Senna hugging while sitting on the glass floor. The skirt of Fiona’s colorful dress is widely spread out.

The official picture for them same place. This time Senna and Fiona are standing and looking upwards with some of the city being visible through the glass floor under them.

Tokyo in the dark, with most artificial light being turned on. The horizon is still glowing red though and Fuji is (weakly) visible.

Fiona and Senna taking a selfie in front of the window, with the dark city visible behind them. Both holding their hands in a V-sign behind each other’s heads.

Tokyo at night: The dark city small illuminated spots from windows, street lanterns and alike reaching all the way to the horizon.

View from within the Skytree, showing the lit city through large windows.

Out for the Night

Fiona sitting on a couch with her feet on the table, in front of her is her laptop that syncs the pictures that have been taken so far and the backpacks are lying of to the side. The hotel room is quite large.

A small restaurant with windows open to the street from the inside.

A large hotplate in the table with Okonomiyaki dough cooking on it.

The same plate from a different angle, with a different mixture oin it.

After Dinner, our plan was to visit ⟨redacted⟩ again, but it turned out that they were closed; so we looked around for an alternative instead and found a nice cocktail-bar in the vicinity:

Two creamy looking drinks on the counter in a bar.
Very tasty!

After having some nice cocktails, we went back to ⟨redacted⟩, just to make sure and were positively surprised when they had in fact now opened. 😊

We also learned that ⟨redacted⟩ had looked into how “Fiona” and “Senna” could be written in Kanji such that the names would carry an additional meaning.

In the end he had come up with the following:

A piece of paper with three handwritten kanji on it.
“Fiona” written as 風和南, translating roughly to “peaceful south wind”

風ふう和オ南ナ

When asked for an explanation, ⟨redacted⟩ elaborated that the south wind is warm, giving this a meaning that could be summarized as “peaceful warm wind”.

Senna also received a spelling for her name: 世納, meaning something like “world holder”.
Senna also received a spelling for her name: 世納, meaning something like “world holder”.

世せい納ナ

⟨redacted⟩
⟨redacted⟩

The fully deserted entrance building of Senso-Ji at night

Senso-Ji’s pagoda at night.

Day 12: From Tokyo to Osaka

two more piles of plates in another conveyor belt sushi place.
Last thing to do in Tokyo: Eat in a very nice Sushi restaurant near Ueno station and spend way to much money (≈ 15 000 ¥ ≈ 85 €) there. Worth it!

A river at night, surrounded by sky-scrapers.
And back in Osaka!
A bathtup that is loosing water through its overflow protection while being filled with more (hot) water.
When they tell you that you cannot use the public onsen (because you are trans and pre-op) and that you can use the bathtub in your room instead, you take them at their word. And if the overflow protection is set lower in the bathtub than you’d like, then that even allows you flowing water. 😈

If someone engages in transphobic policies and makes my girlfriend sad, I (Fiona) will engage in malicious compliance, you can count on that!

Day 13: Some time apart in Osaka

CANS

View from a high rise building over Osaka under clouds.

Donuts in the shape of Pikatchu heads on a table in front of the windows.

View of a street corner in Osaka. The trees are still green but are decorated with small yellow lights that are already visible despite it still being day.

Senna’s solo trip

A small stone statue of a woman on a podium on a plaza.

A large stone building on temple grounds that looks like the mouth of a dragon, though it is meant to represent a lion.

A small altar in a shrine surrounded by a few plants and a low wall the separates it from other buildings behind the shrine.

View into a shopping street with a roof over it.

Day 14: Day Two of CANS

Another picture of Osaka from the top floor of CANS.

View out of a boat over the water to the illuminated other shore.
Rivertour to Osaka Castle.

Fiona and Senna in front of a moat with Osaka castle glowing in the background.

Close-up of the keep of Osaka castle: A white, Japanese style and heavily decorated keep.

⟨redacted⟩
⟨redacted⟩
A masu on a table filled with a bit of Sake.
The traditional way to drink Sake: Out of a wooden box cup, a so called “Masu”.

View through some trees at a are installation that consists of tunnels and other shapes lit by colorful chains of lights.

Day 15: From CANS to Kyoto

A tree in front of a large building near a station in Osaka.

Two portions of food on a table, each consisting of a large plate with meat and salad, a smaller plate with white rice and a cup with Miso soup.

A large shrine building, except that it is fully covered in construction scaffolding.

A car receiving a blessing from a Shinto priest.
Shintoism can really be a “practical” religion, and blessing cars (or for that matter fighter jets) is seemingly just part of it.
No Shinkansen this time…

Fushimi Inari-taisha

A large red Torii in front of a wide walkway leading towards the shrine.

Fiona standing under another Torii; in front of the Torii is a large fox statue on top of a podium.

Map of the Shrine.

A long row of Torii at night.

A part of the woods packed densely with stone sculptures.

Fiona and Senna at the main altar of the shrine.

View towards the main altar, on the top of some stone stairs.

Fiona looking at her phone while she is standing under a long row of Torii that are built over stairs leading downwards.

Fiona and Senna under the same Torii.

View from the mountain over Osaka glowing in the night. There are some trees visible in the lower half of the picture close to where it was taken.

Fiona in front on the path downwards with some Torii visible directly behind her and the glowing city in the background.

Senna in the same spot, taking a stance like a presenter in a documentary.

Fiona and Senna together in the same scene.

A train platform with a sign in four languages next to the stairs declaring “This area is very crowded. Please do not stop here” with arrows pointing away from the busiest part of the platform.

Day 16: Kyoto

A moat around a temple ground.

A plastic part on an ATM with a cut-out for leaning walking sticks against it and a hook for shopping bags.
It is the small details that make Japan such a nice place. This costs basically nothing but it communicates that someone thought of how and when real people might use this ATM.

A large flea market with a large traditional temple building in the background.

A tree on a visibly artificial earth hill, covered in straw.
Since the site is protected ground, new trees have to be planted on top of artifical hills.

A large pond shored by stones surrounded by trees in autumn colors.

Fiona and Senna in front of the pond.

a five story pagoda in wooden colors.

Senna in front of the pagoda.

Senna next to a tree in front of a pond surrounded by plants in autumn colors.

Fiona and Senna together in front of the pond.

Fiona in front of the pond.

Fiona in front of the Pagoda.

A small tree with deep red leaves.

A large but relatively plain temple building.

A crowded street leading up a hill with cars and a pulled rickshaw in a traffic jam, surrounded by pedestrians.

A beautiful garden with a large traditional house behind it.

Senna in the garden.

Fiona and Senna in front of the building’s main entrance.

An extremely crowded pedestrian zone on the way to Kiyomizu-dera in Kyoto.
A pedestrian Stroad.

Kiyomizu-dera

Two fancy looking buildings on a hill at the entrance to the temple

A red three story pagoda.

Fiona and Senna in front of the pagoda.

A crowd including some women in traditional Kimonos standing near a railing overlooking the valley next to it.

The valley with colorful trees in the foreground, surrounded by mountains covered in green trees.

A stand with metal sandals, a medium sized metal staff, and a large metal staff.

view onto a colorful forest.

A panorama showing parts of the temple on the left, the valley with the colorful trees in the center and parts of Kyoto under the sun behind clouds.

Stairs leading up to a pagoda behind colorful trees.

A large crowd taking pictures of the valley with another part of the temple on the right side.

Fiona and Senna in front of the valley.

Panorama of the valley with the sun behind clouds on the left and the main temple on the right.

A trail surrounded by colorful trees.

A red three story pagoda.

The main building from the other side of the valley on top of large wooden stilts.

A pagoda and the main building visible from the other side of the valley.

A pond with colorful trees on them.

Panorama of the sunset over Kyoto with the colorful forest on the left and Kyoto on the right.

Fiona and Senna in front of the Sunset over Kyoto.

Day 17: Shopping in Kyoto and Returning to Osaka

Senna kept wanting to eat Wagyu, so in the end we finally got some.
Senna kept wanting to eat Wagyu, so in the end we finally got some.
A second tray similar to the first.
Fiona also got some, but because she usually doesn’t like raw meat went with the slightly cheaper tenderloin, but ended up enjoing it too.

a fancy house whose outer wall is covered in ivy.

A sushi restaurant with a street-food ambient.

A very long queue in a shop selling Pokemon merch.
If you have a friend that is really into Eevee and you are in Japan, you go to the Pokemon-center and buy her one before you leave.
A room behind a glass door labeled “Smoking Room” in a cafe.
Smoking is still a thing in Japan…

It was at this point that we started looking into where to sleep that night and in which city.

Unbeknownst to us (until then), it was however Japanese labor day and all the hotels were getting booked out.

In the end we quickly picked the second cheapest remaining option, a room in Osaka for ≈ 250€ a night…

Two plates from a conveyor belt sushi: Both have two nigiri on them, one deeply blue egg-plant, the other partially burned slices of corn.
Once more: Sushi!

Thirteen stacked plates from the sushi restaurant.

Fiona and Senna kissing in front of coin-lockers labeled “Yuri”.
The coin-lockers are labeled by flowers. So when we saw this one, we had to take a picture…

A very clean street in front of a train station surrounded by mid-rise buildings with large billboards.

Night time view out of the entrance of Osaka station: Below the terrace from which the picture was taken many trees are lit up with golden lights. In the background is the tall Umeda sky building.

lit trees behind a pool with a green statue in the middle.

Fiona and Senna in front of the pool with statue; it’s a green bear with a red Christmas-themed shawl.

A ≈ 1m tall statue of Miffy on top of a sculpted text stating “Umekita”.
Miffy, lief klein konijntje

The only thing thing that gets Senna more railed up than Miffy being called Miffy instead of the Dutch “Nijntje”, is when Fiona combines the international name with the Dutch slogan.

The mirror ceiling in the Umeda sky building. It reflects Senna taking the ceiling picture while Fiona takes a picture of the outside through a window.

Fiona and Senna sitting in a round window surrounded by plushy bears, clouds and yellow lights.

Night time view over Osaka from a window: Many illuminated high rise buildings below a visibly glowing sky.

Downwards view through the central ring on the top of the building: Two elevators are running throw free-hanging tubes over the large open center of the building.

The floor on the rooftop contains small fluorescent stones that shine under black light. Fiona is standing next to them, with a visibly glowing skirt.

Portrait shot of Fiona in her glowing dress in front of the city outside on the roof.

View over Osaka: A glowing city of many mid- and some high-rise buildings at night, with a large river that is crossed by several bridges passing through it.

Fiona and Senna standing in front of a scene similar to the previous one.

The same scene, but they are kissing.

Fiona and Senna standing in front of a railing, smiling at the camera. Behind them are multiple high rise buildings and the impressive skyline of Osaka.
And the last official picture we bought.

A glass table in front of a glass window behind which the city is visible. On the table are two plates of pasta and two glass cups filled with hot chocolate and sweets.

The entrance of Osaka station, with large, lit trees in front of it.

A door with fifteen posters (most of them the same) advertising black Friday deals for food.

Day 18: The final (full) Day in Japan

Most of the time, travelling spontaneously and booking hotels on short notice is fine if you bring a reasonable amount of money.

Sadly this was not one of those times.

Senna’s futon was missing the actual mattress, meaning she had to sleep halfway between the two and something smelled almost moldy, which caused Fiona to have trouble sleeping. This was definitely the most expensive room on the trip and at the same time the worst one.

A simple room with a green carpet floor and two rolled out futons on it.

A house with lots of ceramic pots with plants in front of it.

The central hall of a mall near Osaka station with a large decorated white Christmas tree in the center.

At this point we had pretty much done everything we had planned to do (and didn’t actively decide to skip), so we figured we might want to take a look at the Expo territory in Osaka…

A very wide walkway in a completely empty train station with many ticket gates at the end.
The only thing outside the station turned out to be a huge fenced of construction site…

Fiona embracing Senna in front of the same channel at which the pictures in the very beginning were taken.

Pink Kawaii Cafe

A pink counter in front of a very colorful wall, all of it giving of strong “Kawaii”-vibes.

A smalls stage in the same style.

Fiona and Senna sticking their heads together in the cafe

Senna looking at the ceiling with the very playful cafe visible in the background. She looks very cute.

Senna looking down at table in front of her. Their are a wooden plate with a pizza with rainbow colored covering in front of her and two bottles (one pink with white content and one blue with green content) in the style of baby bottles in front of her.

Fiona and Senna on both sides of the table smiling at the camera, with the bottles between them.

Fiona looking at the table in front of her, trying to appear cute.

Fiona drinking out of the pink bottle.

Selfie by Fiona while she gives Senna (who is sitting at the table and looking away from the camera) head-scratches.

The final evening.

Fiona and Senna in a nice looking restaurant.

The order menu depicting the eight course menu that Fiona and Senna ordered, consisting of various forms of crab, for 6600¥ (≈ 36€).

two small pieces of candy, each wrapped in plastic in another piece of plastic.
Plastic inside plastic…

Fiona and Senna smiling at the camera in a large and busy pedestrian area with many billboards behind them.

A shop selling strawberry-based food, named “Strawberry Fetish”.
We knew that Japan loves strawberries, but that they would take it that far…

A wide street next to a wide sidewalk, separated by a strip of green. The are many trees in the picture, all lit up with small lights.

For the very last night we had booked us a traditional Ryokan near the airport. It was a really nice stay, if a bit short because of how early in the morning we had to leave to catch our flight.

Senna kneeling on the floor in a traditional Japanese room, with futons spread out on the floor.

Day 19: The Trip Home

View over a parking lot. The sky is mostly blue, with a orange to bright yellow Horizon, where the sun will soon come up.
Our last sunrise in the land of the rising sun…
View out of a window as the train we are on travels over a bridge to Kansai airport. Beyond the bride there is mostly only water visible.
Leaving the mainland…
Warning sign in the airport, telling people to evacuate in case of “huge” earthquakes, of strength greater than six.
Minor earthquakes are fine, it seems…

The entrance hall of Kansai airport from the top-floor.

The boarding queue.
Don’t rush to be first, wait to be last!

There is very little point in being first to board, you just end up sitting in an overcrowded plane for longer. Waiting until the very end is usually a much more relaxed option…

It turns out that our plane arrove pretty late in Shanghai and we really had to rush there. We even got “express transfer” stickers onto our clothing and separate security screening with shorter queues and were lead into a different boarding location to get us faster to our plane. Senna found this extremely stressful and was not very happy with it, whereas Fiona was doing mostly okay.

A smiling Fiona leaning on a very exhausted looking Senna. Both have orange express-transfer stickers on their dresses.
In the end we made it onto our plane back into the free world.
The shadow of our plane being visible on the clouds below. The plane is surrounded by a visible rainbow, though it is hard to make out on the picture.
Gay!!!
The flight map depicting the plane having essentially arrived in Amsterdam, after flying over Ruzzia…
Finally about to land!

aerial shot of Amsterdam at night