Sunday, May 25, 2008

Spring in Japan 2008 - Tanabe



I went to Tanabe with only one intention at heart. To hang out with Kotaro like how I used to at my flat in Sandy Bay, that is. But unfortunately, I had little energy left by the time I was there. So I didn���t spend as much time with Kotaro as how I had wanted to despite my four-day stay in his flat when I was in the city (coz I was sleeping pretty much the entire time that I was there).

And now that I am writing this down however, I realized that I might have simply used my stay in Tanabe as a place of retreat more than anything else having traveled halfway through my plan, I don���t know. Well, apologies to Kotaro if that really was the case. Certainly retreating wasn't what I had exactly wanted to do in my trip in Tanabe.

Still, I enjoyed my time doing groceries, having meals and being on the road with Kotaro during my stay in the city. Once again I got to experience the familiarity of the friendship I once had with that old friend of mine. Read on...

1. Orientation and The Journey to Tanabe



Kenji and I reached Tanabe in a showery late afternoon. We arrived there by train, which we took from Shin Osaka all the way south to KiiTanabe. The journey from Shin-Osaka to KiiTanabe though was 3-hour long, but we journeyed for about 5 hours altogether because we had traveled from Hiroshima then.

2. What/Where is Tanabe?

Tanabe is a city located on the coast of Wakayama prefecture. Tanabe, according to Wikipedia, is well known for ume fruit and fishing.

3. Spending My Days in Tanabe

Just in case you might want to know, below are things I did during my stay in Tanabe. Check them out!

During my stay in Tanabe, I...

  • Stayed with Kotaro (my Osakan former flat mate who is currently living in Tanabe because of job).
  • Had my first sushi and sashimi since arrival in Japan.
  • Dropped by Kotaro���s workplace and met his boss.
  • Saw Tanabe city.
  • Did groceries.
  • Lived like a local for the next few days.
  • Was fed with whale meat - my first ever (see below for photo).
  • Visited a shrine in the middle of the night.
  • Walked home after shrine visit.
  • In the midst of one night, looked for ghost in the area where Tanabe���s old hospital was.





4. Impressions on Tanabe

Tanabe reminded me greatly of places like Hobart in Tasmania and Hakuba in Nagano. Like Hobart, Tanabe is one of the prefecture's most populous cities. It is on the coast and surrounded by mountains. Like Hakuba however, Tanabe has an essence of a village in Japan. Its train station, which is called the KiiTanabe Station, looked very rural and really old, quite like the train station I saw in Hakuba last year except that Hakuba's was far nicer and cleaner to me.

In Tanabe, residential areas looked somewhat unplanned and landuse pattern and design seemed hardly formed. So some areas looked really messy and dilapidated. Given the fact that the city is old, some places especially appeared quite eerie to me. Speaking of which, there were many homes that I came across that seemed uninhabited and left abandoned. Some (homes) even appeared not looked after, and for that I wondered if the abundant elderly residents in the area has to do with it all.

In Tanabe city, low-rise buildings and narrow roads filled the area. The city appeared quite like Liverpool Street in Hobart to me (except that the only difference, maybe, could be that Tanabe city looks Japanese, that's all). Tanabe city also seemed lacking in urban design. It had little characters to mark the separation of the city from its residential. When Kotaro drove us through the city for the first time, I was surprised to find an area pre-occupied with flats (assumingly Tanabe's uptown) just around the corner.



5. Thoughts post Tanabe

Overall though I thought Tanabe was quite alright. I find it a good place to see and maybe even live in, I don���t know. But certainly Tanabe was very far from Japan���s core areas and so little traversed by travelers. But for that too I felt good having been to Tanabe. Thanks to Kenji and Kotaro for making it all possible for me to be there.

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