Wakayama VS Osaka... Are they really neighbour?

Last weekend, I went to the hot spring in Wakayama prefecture with my lab friends for the annual Autumn laboratory trip.

Sat. 2005-11-26

We were toward to the south (Katsura > Kansai International Airport > Wakayama city) and spent less than 4 hours to reach Ryujin-onsen in Wakayama prefecture which is the south-eastern city in Kansai area coasted to Pacific Ocean. Ryujin-onsen is located in the mountain with such a very up-country atmosphere. There is nothing there except for the onsen, so we just enjoyed relaxing with the onsen and the nature surrounded at the Ryokan we stayed. Eventhough our ryokan has such a nice onsen, we also went to another most famous onsen by walking along the stream and the valley. I really like this feeling of breathing very pure air in the hill.

Sun. 2005-11-27

We left the ryokan around 9.30am to the destination of Koya Mt. Before we reached the Koya town, we passed some wonderful view points of Koya Mt. to visit and take a photo. Finally, we reached Koya town and had a vegetarian food as our lunch there at the souvenir shop. After that, we separated into 2 groups. One stayed visiting around the town which has old shrines. Another one drove back to Osaka for Osaka Motor Show 2005. I was in the latter group. This was my first time for the motor show in my life. I had intended to go to the motor show in Bangkok several times but I felt too tired with crowded people, so I quit going there. We had to wait for almost an hour for parking and enjoyed 1.5-hr taking tons of photos of hi-tech cars and pretty presenters. I ended this 2-day trip reaching the laboratory in Katsura campus around 7.30pm.

Just 2 hours apart, I could see and touch 2 totally different and really contrast scences in just one day between Wakayama and Osaka.

Nature of mountain with nearly colour leaves ending

in countryside Wakayama

Lovely outside onsen with red maples in our ryokan

Marvalous scence from the top view of Koya-san

Modern technology of lots of automobiles manufacture
in suburb Osaka

A sexy and cute girl in Mitsubishi booth

Prius Toyota with environmentally friendly hybrid technology