Osaka,Kobe,Luminarie

Last weekend, i went on a trip to Osaka and Kobe with the other 2 5th yr foreign students and a accompanying teacher. it was pretty fun, and a much needed break. it was my suggestion to head to kansai as the timing coincided with Kobe's Luminarie festival. For all of you that don't know, sometime in January 1995, a massive earthquake struck the hanshin area, mainly devastating Kobe. about 5000 people were killed. ever since december that year, the city has been holding a vigil kinda thingy, illuminating the city centre with some awesome designs. It's been 13 years since then but the crowd gets bigger(though i think more are interested in the lights than the history behind it)shot from the train. my first time using kintetsu's urban liner.
shirin,odo and shimamura sensei in front of the famous glico man.
me in the picture.
we spent that afternoon visiting osaka's aquarium. its my second time there but still fairly interesting.
some fishes
and jellyfish.after the aquarium, we headed to the hotel to check in, then to kobe which was 30 mins from osaka. the moment we got down the station, we realized just how crazy the crowd is!
look at the line! and it goes all the way for another 2km. its worse than disneyland or universal studios!normally, it would take 10 mins to walk to the venue. took us 2 hours!
i even got bored and took a picture of the daimaru departmental store.
but all the exhaustion died when i reached the venue. the lights are just amazing! its so well designed and the colors are just great. kudos to the people who designed it.


playing with zooming motion.
the main building, which was huge!



honestly, this is just too much!photographers having a model shoot there!i understand the place is pretty and all but i think its just abit too much and considering the crowd abit inconsiderate to others.i dont see how they can get good pics in such a crowd anyways.

that was the end of my first day. my 2nd day was actually free, so i visited kim and had lunch.

there was some sort of dancing festival at the harbour.

end of my trip :)