Returning to Kansai

 

View from Umeda Sky Garden (with the Gate Tower Building in the background!)

After quite a few long years away, I just came back from my first trip to West Japan in about six years. This was the first time I'd been to the Kansai Region in a long time, and my first time there with family. My fam didn't come visit me for the years I was living in Osaka - my mom is the very definition of a nervous traveller. It took a lot of convincing to finally get her to go, but now that both of my parents are retired, we'd been urging them to travel while they were still relatively healthy. And so, I planned and executed as perfect a 2-week Japan vacation as I could manage, starting in Osaka, of course.

It was so satisfying showing them all the things I love about the Kansai area. I was a little selfish in cutting Tokyo time SO short that they barely saw any of it at all (1 day in Atami, 3 days in Tokyo), but there's so much to see and do just in Osaka and Kyoto alone (never mind all the great places I would have loved to take them in Nara, Wakayama, Shiga, Kobe, et al) that even the week and a half spent there wasn't enough.

Not much had changed, in the places we went, except of course for the extreme number of tourists. On one level, I hate contributing to the overtourism problem. We skipped most places like Kinkakuji, Gion and Kyomizudera that would have been staples to take guests to ten years ago, in the pre-Instagram world. I tried to go off the beaten path when I could. When I saw the chaos of people at Fushimi Inari (when I lived there, there was never any significant number of people on the hiking trails, no matter what time of day we visited), I had tried to prepare myself for the fact that it had become one of the #1 destinations in Kyoto, but it was still mind-boggling to see. The days of using Fushimi Inari's trails as a way to get your daily exercise in (yes, I tried this in 2008 or so, since Keihan Fushimi was just a hop, skip and a jump away from my home station) are long gone. I did get up at 7 AM and hit the trail for old time's sake, and I mostly avoided the crowds, but I had to turn back at the pond, since we were due to move on to our next destination that morning. On that same day, I encountered my first extreme shinkansen delay - the eastbound Tokaido was 30 minutes late leaving Kyoto. Couldn't believe that happened on the day of my parents' very first and only shinkansen trip.

I have a lot to say about the trip, but not enough space to say it all in one post, so I'll divide it into a few entries. I hope you'll enjoy them.

From Demachiyanagi | 出町柳から

On the topic of the Okeihan change over - I just found out that the Keihan Line actually has its own image song. That's so fantastic!

This track, released in 2003, is called "From Demachiyanagi."

I can't get over these lyrics! Maybe I'll translate them for a study project sometime?

出町柳(でまちやなぎ)から　電車は走る
ああ2人を乗せて　愛の2階だて
ダブルデッカー　(そうでっかー)

三条から乗客が　ふえだします
四条からは　買い物帰り
おしゃれな人々
七条やがて地上へ　そして丹波橋
中書島(ちゅうしょじま)から　補助席が使えます
夕日をあびた酒蔵(さかぐら)の街
まるで影絵のよう
左には競馬場
まるでどこかのフリーウェイ
まもなく車掌もくる

(セリフ)ご用の方はこざいませんでしょうか

出町柳(でまちやなぎ)から　電車は走る
ああ2人を乗せて　愛の2階だて
出町柳(でまちやなぎ)から　電車は走る
ああ2人を乗せて　愛の2階だて
轉載來自魔鏡歌詞網
ダブルデッカー　(そうでっかー)

この電車は　京橋までとまりません
枚方(ひらかた)市には
平日朝ラッシュ時の
淀屋橋行きのみ停車です
テレビカーなら
着くまでテレビが見れます
そのうちに京橋の街のあかり

天満橋(てんまばし)からまた地下へもぐります
次は北浜　そして終点は淀屋橋
淀屋橋が終点

(セリフ)ご乗車ありがとうございます

出町柳(でまちやなぎ)から　電車は走る
ああ2人を乗せて　愛の2階だて
出町柳(でまちやなぎ)から　電車は走る
ああ2人を乗せて　愛の2階だて
ダブルデッカー　(そうでっかー)

Keihan-chan

Keihan-chan (Keiko Morishoji) showcasing the goods of Higashiyama

In a PiTaPa ad

In 2000, the Keihan train line launched an advertising campaign called おかいはん (okeihan) to promote themselves using young, fashionable spokeswomen photographed around the Osaka-Kyoto area, seeing the sights and culture available in towns and cities along the train line. This campaign was still running when I lived in Osaka, and the current Okeihan girl was Keiko Morishoji (the idea being that she lived near Morishoji Station!), the third-generation Okeihan character, who started in 2006. Keiko (played by actress Jinno Sachi) was born into a musical family and was a Conservatory of Music student at the "Duck River Academy of Music." She was the face of the campaign until 2009, and I thought she was the cutest thing on this earth. Her clothes were bright, stylish and just the sort of things I liked to wear, and she was always doing something that looked interesting to me. I started to take photos of her ads when I saw them, and downloaded a bunch of Okeihan desktop wallpapers.

Emily often teased me about my enthusiasm for Keiko, whom I called "Keihan-chan," not knowing her name at the time. We travelled on that line pretty much daily, and often together, so whenever a new poster came out (and that was fairly frequently!) I was all over it. I professed my love for Keihan-chan every time I guided someone new through the Keihan train system. And then...then, they retired my Keihan-chan and replaced her with a new girl, Keiko Kuzuha!

Kuzuha was cute enough, but I never expected Keihan-chan to vanish so suddenly, so I was quite disappointed. At the time, I didn't realize that there were two other Okeihan spokesgirls prior to my arrival in Japan - Keiko Yodoya and Keiko Kyobashi. Well. 

As it turns out, the Keihan line is launching their newest girl to stardom very shortly - voting starts this Monday, October 15th, for the brand-new Okeihan campaign.

Yodoya, Kyobashi, Morishoji (♥) and Kuzuha

Well! I guess it's my civic duty, then, if we MUST have a new Keihan-chan, to make sure the proper one gets picked! Be sure to pop by Keihan's website tomorrow and cast a vote!