Theme Park and Travel Guide

Minoo Park Waterfall We had a spare day to fill in Osaka, and we decided to spend it at Minoo Park after some recommendations from Facebook groups. Minoo Park is also known as Minooh and Minoh Park. I have no idea why this place has so many ‘other names’. It takes about 30 minutes to get to Minoo Park from central Osaka. The station you are looking for is Minoo Station on the Hyperdia.com website for navigating how to get there. We had a lovely day visiting this park. The weather was fine and there was a lot of greenery with lots of ‘tunnels of green’ to walk through. The 3 km hike to a waterfall is not onerous as it is very flat to walk (and so is also ideal for prams). The scenery was beautiful with lots of vermillion red bridges and old bridges. Combined with an insect museum, a free foot onsen (foot spa) and yummy maple leaf snack (unique to the area) – you really can’t go wrong visiting this wonderful gem of a place. Tunnels of Green Here are my re...

Geiko in Kyoto One of my favourite experiences in Japan was seeing Geisha (or Geiko) in Gion, Kyoto. I read the book ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’ many years ago and I do find their way of life very interesting (although the book fabricated many facts about Geisha’s, it was a good introductionto get a feel for what a life of a Geisha was like). Things that stuck in my mind were the hairstyles the Maiko would have to sleep in, the beautiful and expensive kimono gowns, the tea ceremonies and the constant and unrelenting practice of the traditional arts. Geiko are Japanese women who are cultural ambassadors of ancient Japanese traditional arts of dance, music, singing and the tea ceremony. Geisha are commonly seen wearing kimono. Often, when you think you are seeing a Geiko, you are actually seeing a Maiko (a Geiko in training). For ease of reading, I will mention Geiko in this article as being inclusive of Maiko, unless mentioned otherwise. You can commonly see Geiko aro...