マップ 地図 ちず all the words above are in japanese. katakana kanji and hiragana. the first word is 'mappu' the second word is 'chizu' and the third word is 'chizu' too.. all the words means MAP.
my definition of map is a drawing that represent location of places with connecting lines. it doesn't shows the exact point of the place we want to go to. well what i think while using the free maps given at the information center? its a white lies. well i cant blame who made the map though... the city is a big place with buildings (lots of them) and each buildings can perhaps places more than one company or shop.. and sometimes it is a small building among big buildings,, i have to say that it is compact. think of printed chip board..if you don't know what it is .. basically its the green/brown board in a computer with gold or silver lines on the board that connects few little black box with lots of legs. the idea is → it looks simple but actually it is complicated wiring.. meaning to say it doesn't shows the reality. BUT don't worry i can just ASK people around and yes we got to go to the places we wanted to go. so HUMAN IS THE BEST MAP or perhaps now IT thing GPS.
well even though some maps are so confusing it became my precious omiyage from KOBE since we went there for only a few hours and walking through Ikuta road...Oho! the place to be for the younger generation and perhaps one of the happening places in city... but certainly not the kind of road we should be walking on weekends. we did walked passed Ikuta Shrine on our way back from Kobe Mosque to the train station. since its pretty dark already and our aim was to be in the Kobe Mosque so we just walk passed the shrine. since its dark it looks natural among the taller buildings around it unlike the mosque it stand tall among other buildings but its hidden by the quietness of the neighborhood.. it wasn't easy to find it at night but thanks for the Japanese couple we found it. the girlfriend thought we were trying to find an eating place. the boyfriend can speak a bit of English and i can speak a bit of Japanese.. so well we manage to communicate successfully. but thanks to our dear friend she was the who approach the couple first to ask where the mosque is..
but without the all the maps we are completely lost. so asking became a natural thing to do because we are not confident with ourselves in choosing the road or train based on the maps. so getting confirmation by taking so little of our time saves us a lot. because of my too fast to act behavior i was separated from my travel mates for about 30 minutes during one of our train journeys ☻
this map above is how to get to Osaka Castle (which i think a must go place when in Osaka.. OSAKA see what i mean?). when we got out of the subway exit i was not sure which road to take. and my friend said to take this one road and i was suggesting to take another road.. and finally we decided to ask anyway who walk our way.. (no one was around the buildings maybe because its quite early in the morning) .as i was going to ask this lady .. it was there! the castle was right behind us.but because we didn't look around 360 we didn't see it. i cancelled my about to ask (stupid) question, "where is Osaka castle?"
this one above is a map that can be found in a booklet where you can get for free at the information counter at Kyoto Station. it was hard to find the name of the place we will be staying for the night but it was there(my friend circle it in blue) it was too small and too close to one another i can get lost by looking at again for the second time ( i mean it was hard to spot the word!) well anyway after we found our hotel this little booklet is safely guarded in the bag ☺
Sannomiya Station, Kobe we were not sure what exit to take and decided as usual to find the information counter...
this is a precious omiyage i get for free from Kobe.. we spent for about 3 hours there.. the first hour getting our way to find the mosque..another hour in the mosque and around it (actually we spent time in a convenient store just across the mosque) and the next hour walk back to Sannomiya Station and found ourselves spending some Yen in Tokyo Hands a shopping mall.
the people in the information center are very friendly and helpful and can speak English (all information center actually) and this lady draw the lines on which road to take and how long to get there by walking. looks easy but once we set our foot to take the road she highlighted we got confused! so ask people around laa...
while lost in translation i manage to snap SOGO building... oo very famous among Sabahans when in KL
the clock shows 7:34 pm but it feels like 9 pm already
Ikuta Road where we choose to walk on and i think the road houses cafes bars and clubs.. i apologizes for any misinformation because we are not in a situation where we can go and look into one of the places.. from the outside it feels like that. young japanese male and females can be seen walking the road..perhaps it because it was weekend so the place was quite happening.
Alhamdulillah we found this mosque in the dark cold night of autumn in Kobe. because we didn't see anyone when we get into the mosque i end up using the male Wudu wash room in the ground floor.. maybe because we were in such a hurry we failed to read or see the signs. but after awhile few men came for Isha prayer and told us that the female uses the first floor.
the subway map can be found in english and easy to understand with colours to determine the subway lines
full subway map in english
the same map in japanese on the other side
clearly stated lines and coding letter to simplified the map.. on our third day in Japan i think we can fully understand how the subway works and our travel become easier and less time wasted. but too bad the fourth day is our last day.
this is the JR loop line in black and white version and grey and less black wooo not easy one
circled in pencil the place we want to go from Osakajakoen Station to Universal City Station
one of the JR line ticket (Kyoto Station to Osaka Station)
Subway ticket machines
one of a few subway ticket
easy to operate subway ticket but first choose ENGLISH (click on the button which can be found on the top left side)
the railway station attendants are very helpful (they always try their best to help with their little understanding in english) choosing platform is best by asking them first so you wont end up at different place or you might need to change or transfer train between stations. the trains also have cars for 'women only' ♥
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