wittyzell 3Speak Podcast

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=wittyzell/turvybbh
Summer? Of course, beach, festivals, and fireworks!

Ever since I had a stopover in Atami, I have always wanted to go back and explore the place. During the train ride, I saw a glimpse of the beach so I really wanted to go. I cannot exit from the train station that time so I added it to my list of places to go. It took me 4 years to finally exit from the train station and really explore a bit of the town.

Atami is a 2-hour train ride from where I live in Tokyo and I decided to go there on a Friday afternoon. I took a half day leave at work just to go to this town because at night they will have the spectacular fireworks show.

The Grand Fireworks Festival in Atami (熱海海上花火大会) is one of the best firework festivals in Japan. They are famous for their finale, dubbed as the Niagara Falls. Just thinking about fireworks with the ocean view makes me so excited! Aren't you curious and excited? 😊

Festivals and fireworks have been suspended during the pandemic so this year, it's like the restart. I went there all alone because my friends were still working and my partner doesn't even want to travel. 😅 It doesn't bother me to go alone because I can be free! I can go at my own pace and can go wherever I want.

There are so many hotels surrounding the Atami Sun Beach, where all the fun is. I wanted to stay there for a night but when I checked the prices, it's really so high, as expected. The guests in the hotels have a really great view of the fireworks.

When I arrived at the Sun Beach, it was not so hot. The cool breeze and the little waves welcomed me. Few people were enjoying, playing around but there were no more people swimming. I think the beach is closed for swimming, I mean it's opened but people are advised not to swim anymore because it might be dangerous or something.

I was wearing sneakers so I don't know how cold the water is and how nice the sand is but for sure, it is! I'm kinda envious they can feel the water but I'm here for a different mission, I must not be distracted by this feeling. 😂

This view's really the view I would want to see everyday. It's so calm.

You can see the Atami Castle in the upper right and I bet they also have special seats for people wanting to watch the fireworks display.

6PM and there were a lot of people already in the other side of the Sun Beach. They have spots already where they would be viewing the fireworks.

Couples, friends, families - you'll see many groups here.

This was where I came from. Looking at it, the beach is not as wide as Onjuku Beach in Chiba but it's still peaceful and calm. At least in Atami Sun Beach, there won't be sand mixed in your food when the wind blows. 😂

I was back on the road to look for the festival food and other entertainment. I'm pretty sure they have - this is a fireworks festival after all.

And yep, I found it. There were a lot of people trying to buy the festival food. I didn't want to wait that long so I decided not to buy and just starve.

Funny thing is, the other stalls were on the other side of the road. You still needed to cross the street.

I tried to walk further and look for a restaurant or a convenience store nearby. I'd just buy food there and not the festival food.

Then, I found another area where they're selling festival food!

I found a stall selling shells named さざえ in Japanese (read as sazae) and I don't know its English name so I googled it. It says Turban Shell. Are you familiar with it?

There was a mascot playing with the kids and it's so cute I had to take a photo and video of it!

There's a small stage where a girl group was performing when I arrived there. To be honest, I don't know them but their songs are really fun. The audience were mostly ojisans 😂 (no translation because I don't want to reveal it)

Since I already bought my food and drink, it's time to look for a place to stay.

There were a lot of people in the beach. Where should I camp?!

I finally settled near the rocks but I had to move a little after a while because the waves had reached me. 😂

The fireworks started past 8PM. It went on for 20-25 minutes and was so beautiful! I got teary eyed looking at it.

I took a lot of shots so hopefully I choose and share only a few of my favorite ones.

Everytime a firework was set off, some group of men would shout something like a battle cry.

Light filled the sky as the finale was about to start.

From here on, these are my top favorites. I really like how my phone captured these cool shots.

I said I'll only share a few but I have a lot of favorites I can't decide which to give up.

After the fireworks show, half of the people went home while others stayed in the beach, playing with the water, having their own little hanabi (花火 meaning fireworks) - the typical things you would see in animes.

It started drizzling and I forgot to bring umbrella so I was wet walking back to the station. It's refreshing though and I was not that cold. My enjoyment was taking over I couldn't feel the cold.

My summer is almost complete! I already went to the beach and experienced the lantern festival and now, I got to witness the fireworks!

Last off my list is the Bon Odori, a dance festival! Stay tuned!

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=wittyzell/wdzxygye
Let me take you back in time before the pandemic struck and changed our lives, when I was still living in Osaka, Japan and can freely go to USJ any day I wanted.

USJ - a place where fun is with family, friends or even by yourself. When I was still living in Osaka, on my first salary, I got myself the USJ Annual VIP Pass worth 36,000 yen just so I could go to USJ any day I wanted. I'm not really a rides person but there are tons of things that one can do in USJ even without the rides. So my investment of 36k yen was still worth it. 😝

USJ stands for Universal Studios Japan. I've been to USS (Universal Studios Singapore) 7 years ago and I enjoyed it there even when I was traveling solo, so USJ's my second Universal Studios.

There are so many attractions in USJ. Every season they have something to offer. But one must not miss the night parade in USJ! It's truly spectacular and worth the wait.

Some people were already sitting in their spot in the sidewalk as early as 6:30PM. Usually the night parade starts at 8PM so imagine the long wait. My spot may not be the best, and I realized I have only few photos even though I witnessed the parade many times.

The Best of Hollywood float was the first one to show up tonight. It's followed by the performers also from the Hollywood area of USJ. They were fun to watch and a lot of pretty faces.

Next was from the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

Here comes the Hogwarts Express!

I was a bit surprised to see it in the parade because I thought this train was just a decoration on the side when you enter the Wizarding World area of the park. Look at it below and let me know how they managed to take it out for the parade. Or maybe they didn't use this train?

You could also hear them doing some dialogue. It was so fun especially if you could recognize the spells in the dialogue.

The Transformers came too! They were so huge!

Who let the dinosaurs from Jurassic Park out?

There was also a baby dinosaur being held by the ranger. It's so cute but a dinosaur is still a dinosaur. I don't want to be bitten.

Finally, the energetic minions from the Minion Park showed up.

This night parade happened during the summer of 2019. I'm not sure if they are still doing the parade recently because of the pandemic. Though I think Japan is starting to ease the restrictions.

It may be a good chance to come to USJ again and witness their night parade in this summertime.

I enjoyed a lot, as you can see in the photos. Sorry for the low quality photos, at that time I was still familiarizing with my phone. 😅

Til next time!

All photos/videos are taken using my phone/camera unless stated otherwise.

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=wittyzell/rydlhmro

An hour south of Tokyo lies the town of Kamakura (鎌倉). It's a popular tourist destination because of the numerous shrines and temples, and the sand beaches that people from the capital go to during summer. I even heard during summer, there's some kind of wild summer party in the beaches of Kamakura. Despite being a tourist destination, I haven't been to this town until my friend suggested a road trip on one fine Saturday.

We left Tokyo early to avoid the traffic. But still, we arrived in our first destination past 11AM. Aside from the traffic we're trying to avoid but seems unavoidable, my friends who were the drivers that day were still beginners who's getting used to driving. Did I tell you that is the reason why we're having this roadtrip? We're safe and got our health insurance in case, don't worry!

Hokoku-ji (報国寺) is a small temple famous for its bamboo garden. The bamboo grove is not as grand as Kyoto's Arashiyama, but it's very relaxing especially if there aren't a lot of people. There are benches where you could enjoy the garden taking in all that view. Also at the center of the bamboo grove, there's a small cafe-like area where you could enjoy matcha and sweets while looking at the the bamboo. It's just really a small place, and we came here for the bamboo because Kyoto is too far.

We're trying to avoid the peak hours for lunch hence this time. My friend though had work to do so during lunch time, she was working. 😕 Not sure if she enjoyed her food. I enjoyed mine by the way. We ate at a restaurant near our next destination.

Tsurugaoka Hachimangu (鶴岡八幡宮) is said to be the shrine one should not miss when visiting Kamakura. Usually the shrine is crowded during cherry blossoms season because it's conveniently located at the end point of Dankazura (段葛), the sidewalk in the center of the street that has a long line of sakura. It would seem that you're walking in an aisle full of cherry blossoms! We came early though, sakura was not yet in full bloom so no photos of Dankazura for this post. Maybe next time!

After ascending the long stairs, we found the main shrine. There were a lot of people, and some ritual was going on.

I didn't take a lot of photos in this place because there were a lot of people and it's a place of worship.

We didn't spend much time in the shrine and moved directly to the shopping district that's just near it. My friend was waiting for us in the cafe (because she's still working 😕) and we didn't want to keep her waiting. Komachi-dori (小町通り) is the shopping street in Kamakura where you can find souvenirs and some restaurants. It's a busy area because it's located between Kamakura station and Tsurugaoka Hachimangu so people going to the shrine often pass here if not in Dankazura. We entered the shopping street from its tail though, but to enter this street from its head, you'll be entering through a big Torii (鳥居, red gate). That means the shopping street is a sacred place.

Even when we just had our lunch, we're still up for snacks. I read recommendations to try Iwata Cafe's pancake but I got disappointed by it. It's the cakey pancake, not the moist one as I expected it to be. So no, I don't recommend this cafe.

Just realized I didn't take photos of the shopping district! 😱

Kamakura Daibutsu (鎌倉大仏, english: The Great Buddha of Kamakura) is something that I will always associate Kamakura with. Located in Kotoku-in (高徳院), The Great Buddha is a bronze statue of Amitābha. According to Wikipedia, it is said that according to temple records, the statue dates from around 1252, during the Kamakura period, which it is named after.

The gates to the temple will close at 5pm, so we were just really trying our luck if we could get in the temple or not. Well, luck was on our side because we could get to see one of the tallest Buddha statues of Japan.

The statue is so huge up close!

The parking lot on the beach side is not on Google Maps! We found it while looking for some place to park because we wanted to go to the view that's famous in the anime Slam Dunk. Sadly, we went to the wrong location so if I'll be back to the area, I'll take a photo and let you guys know.

We initially planned our sunset to be in Enoshima but there's a huge traffic going to the island. We opted to stay in the parking lot instead. It was cloudy so no views of Mount Fuji. On clear skies, Mount Fuji will show himself.

The waves are too strong and a lot of surfers are enjoying the current, even if it's almost dark. There's a restaurant in the parking premises but we didn't bother to go there and just enjoyed the view.

Enoshima (江の島) is a small island connected by a bridge from the mainland. What surprised me is that the island has a curfew, meaning you cannot enter the island late at night like at 10pm. I'm not sure though, maybe I read the signs wrong. Correct me if I am wrong please!

The Enoshima Shrine is found here, and is very tiring to climb. We didn't avail of the express (escalator) that will take us directly to the Shrine so we endured the long ascend. But very worth it! Shrine was so dark already but there were still a few people walking around.

Since it's a small island, you can explore it on one full day. Since we arrived after sunset, we didn't explore the whole island. Next time!

What's great about this island is the food! I love seafood but it's too hard to find good and affordable seafood in Tokyo. In Enoshima, it's raining seafood! My tummy was so satisfied.

It was an adventure in Kamakura. I wasn't expecting to see a lot of people but I guess because it was long weekend, they also needed a breather from the chaotic and busy city life. There are still areas left to see in Kamakura, which means there's something to look forward to the next time I visit. I also want to visit just the beach but I think this summertime, many people would also do the same. Let's see!

Thanks for reading!

All photos are taken using my phone unless stated otherwise.