It was a drag to deal with a few individuals who were behaving like two years old exhibiting their selfish and crap attitude towards others, but for those who came along with a better mind set, the trip was truly worthwhile in terms of seeing and experiencing a lot of amazing things to widen their cultural and aesthetic horizon.
We stayed in Osaka first before visiting places like Kyoto, Hiroshima, Island of Naoshima, a beautiful little gem of Kanazawa, and Tokyo.
I went on the trip with my hope to spend enough time to do photo shoots at various locations, but it wasn't realistic to do so when a bunch of teenagers were following behind me all asking the same old "are we there yet?" kind questions.
However, I still managed to get a few shots that I like, and I have see things to inspire me for a future trip of my own.
日本への修学旅行から 帰って来ました。
自己中心的で自制心が無く、初めて見る景色や異文化よりもWiFiのホットスポットにしか興味が無いティーンエイジャーたちはともかく、探究心と洞察力のあるグループの中の数名にとっては、とても有意義な旅行になったと思います。
大阪、金沢、富山、京都、広島、そして東京と、色々動きまわり、面白い物を色々と見せたり体験させてあげる事ができたかと思います。
個人的には、もうちょっと写真を撮る時間が欲しかったのですが、飽きっぽいティーンエイジャーが後ろから付いて回るので、どうしようもありませんね。まあ、彼らのお金で、金沢や瀬戸内海の直島など、今回初めて訪れ、とても気に入った場所が見つかったので良しとしましょう。
日本への修学旅行から 帰って来ました。
自己中心的で自制心が無く、初めて見る景色や異文化よりもWiFiのホットスポットにしか興味が無いティーンエイジャーたちはともかく、探究心と洞察力のあるグループの中の数名にとっては、とても有意義な旅行になったと思います。
大阪、金沢、富山、京都、広島、そして東京と、色々動きまわり、面白い物を色々と見せたり体験させてあげる事ができたかと思います。
個人的には、もうちょっと写真を撮る時間が欲しかったのですが、飽きっぽいティーンエイジャーが後ろから付いて回るので、どうしようもありませんね。まあ、彼らのお金で、金沢や瀬戸内海の直島など、今回初めて訪れ、とても気に入った場所が見つかったので良しとしましょう。
Osaka:
Before we left Australia, we had been told that we were to late to see sakura, cherry blossoms in Osaka, but our fellow teacher in Osaka had been kindly running around to locate a place where some flowers were still blooming by the time we got there.
She took us to a little stroll around the Osaka Castle, and we were lucky enough to have a great weather as well as to see some beautiful views.
日本に出発する前には、大阪の先生たちから、「もう大阪の桜は終わった」と言われてがっかりしていたのですが、着いてみるとまだ桜がチラホラと残っていました。
Before we left Australia, we had been told that we were to late to see sakura, cherry blossoms in Osaka, but our fellow teacher in Osaka had been kindly running around to locate a place where some flowers were still blooming by the time we got there.
She took us to a little stroll around the Osaka Castle, and we were lucky enough to have a great weather as well as to see some beautiful views.
日本に出発する前には、大阪の先生たちから、「もう大阪の桜は終わった」と言われてがっかりしていたのですが、着いてみるとまだ桜がチラホラと残っていました。
今回色々とお世話をして頂いた先生の案内で大阪城の周りを歩きましたが、ここではまだ桜が綺麗に咲いていました。むしろ花が散り始めていて、風で花びらが飛んで行く景色は最高でした。
Since the recent renewal work, the Osaka Station area now looks very stylish, and it is a great place to shop around.
The brand new Grand Front Osaka has many shops and restaurants. According to locals, it is targeted at customers in 30's and 40', so you won't find cheap crap that they sell at 100 yen shops. In stead they have high quality items, and I just loved to walk around and see cool stuff they sell. I found a big outdoor shop there, and the store was filled with colourful clothing and all sorts of outdoor gears. I bought a couple of titanium pots at the shop.
Next to Grand Front Osaka, there is a shopping complex with a huge camera store inside. I have never seen the entire Canon lens range in a display cabinet until I went to this store. All I wanted was a lens hood for my new 28mm, a filter and filter case, but I got lost among rows of other photographic gears in the store.
新しくできた大阪グランドフロントの大きなアウトドアの店で、新しいチタンのキャンプ用のクッカーを買いましたし、その横のヨドバシカメラでも色々とカメラ関係の物を買えたので、僕としては良かったです。
We also went to Umeda Sky Building, about 5 min walk from the Osaka Station where you can see a good view of Osaka from the observatory at the top of building. It is not the highest building in Osaka, but the view from the 40th floor is still great for our students.
The building itself is interesting in terms of architecture where the observatory is sitting between two towers. It is also relatively cheap to get in compared to other similar places.
大阪の夕日を見に、梅田スカイビルに登りました。４０階と同じく大阪のあべのハルカスや東京のスカイツリーと比べると少々低めですが、入場料が安いのと、空中庭園が二つのビルを跨いでいる建物自体の構造が、ただ高いだけ建物よりも面白かったと思います。
The Osaka aquarium (called Kaiyukan) wasn't super impressive. I was interested to see a whale shark there, but it was a rather small one, and I felt bit sorry for him or her being stuck in a tank. Other than whale shark, it is another aquarium, I guess.
Having said that, I saw a monster black bream (kurodai) in there which was exciting, and watching squids hovering was relaxing.
It wasn't terribly expensive, so I would include it again for our future trip.
大阪の海遊館は、まあまあと言ったところでしょうか。ジンベイザメに期待していましたが、それほど大きなやつではなく、むしろ一人で泳いでいるの姿をみて少々同情しました。
その他は、それほど変わった目玉は無く、どこの水族館とも一緒かなあという印象を受けましたが、生徒たちには、大阪の姉妹校の生徒が一緒に来てくれたので楽しい思い出になったかと思います。
Naoshima:
While we were staying in Osaka, we jumped on Shinkansen and traveled west to visit the island of Naoshima.
It is a small island located in the Seto Island Sea which is renowned for its collection of contemporary art galleries and exhibits including beautiful paintings of Monet.
I don't know how such a small island has managed to get hold of Monet's work, but the paintings were beyond me. They were so beautiful that I had to walk away to catch my breath when I saw them first time.
You walk through a dark hall way into a naturally lit white room, and you get hit by colours coming out of the painitings. The sensation was too much for my brain to process. I have never seen paintings as great as ones I saw there.
What more surprising for me was that after we were out from the gallery, we walked back along a small garden as we came, and everything turned to be so rich and beautiful as they were in Monet's paintings.
Naoshima was definitely my number one pick of the trip. If you go to Japan, you must go there to see the paintings.
瀬戸内海の直島ですが、個人的には、今回の旅で一番良かった場所です。
こんな小さい島にどうやってこれだけのアート作品を持って来れたのかは分かりませんが、モネの絵は、素晴らしいの一言です。
絵を見てあんなに感動したのは初めてです。あまりの凄さに、最初に見た瞬間に息が出来なくて一旦部屋を出た位です。
あの絵を見るために日本に行ってもいいと思いました。
No comments:
Post a Comment