Osaka no Hanko: 2.Sakuranomiya.

This station is very close to Kema Sakuranomiya Tema Park, a perfect place for jogging or walk. It is known as a cherry blossom viewing for It's magnificent 4.700 cherry trees. The perfect place to celebrate the Hanami.

Eki no hanko. 1.Shin-Osaka

From today I am going to scan in my blog "Japon en bocetos", my collection of Japanese train station stamps. In a country where drawing is so popular, and specially drawing stamps, since Hiroshige and the mythical Hokusai, who produced their work carved in wood blocs, train companies cannot avoid that stamps are a big deal in Japan, japanese adults and kids are crazy about that, and each station has its particular stamp, in japanese Eki no hanko, which means Eki (station) and hanko (stamp), train stamps. If you visit Japan, please dont forget to ask to the train station officer 'sumimasen, Eki no hanko doko desuka', which means "excuse me sir, where is the train station stamp?, sometimes he will have the stamp in the ticket office, but in other stations will be in a stand, for everybody used, those stamps are in a way a kind of sketching thing, because you have to find with your own effort the place where they are hidden, thats the fun of it. There are thousand of train stations in Japan, and of course thousands of stamps that you can get in the places that you visit, bringing a lovely memory of every place that you visited. Each city has got their particular stamps, differing in colors and shapes from other cities or prefectures stamps, Osaka stamps are red and circular, and Tokyo stamps are squared and black. The variations It also depends of the train company, for example sotetsu company will have different stamps from JR lines, that means that the same station could have different stamps adding more fun to the whole thing. This Stamp represents is Shin-osaka, all the stations with the prefix shin, It is the abbreviation for Shinkansen, the bullet train. This was the first station I stopped in Japan, you have to take it if you want to go really fast from the Kansai airport to Osaka city center.

Iglesia del Salvador (Vista Trasera)

Puerta Elvira

Iglesia de Santa Ana

Esta iglesia forma parte del conjunto de iglesias mudéjares de la ciudad de Granada. Por si alguien desconoce el arte mudéjar, se trata de un estilo artístico que se desarrolla en Los reinos cristianos de la Península ibérica, pero que incorpora influencias, elementos o materiales de estilo hispano-musulmán. Se trata de un estilo exclusivamente hispánico, que tiene lugar entre los s.XII y XVI, como mezcla de las corrientes artísticas cristianas y musulmanas de la época y que sirven de eslabón entre las culturas cristianas y el Islam. Santa Ana fue construida en el ano 1537 según proyecto de Diego de Siloé, el artista de más renombre de la época en su zona. La iglesia se erige en el solar donde anteriormente se encontraba un oratorio islámico, la mezquita de Aljama Almanzora. De aquella anterior mezquita se conserva hoy su alminar, una bella torre de ladrillo de gran esbeltez, donde se superponen hasta cuatro tramos de menor a mayor en su orden de altura, todos con sutiles elementos decorativos a modo de alfil que los enmarcan superiormente. Como datos anecdóticos dentro de la historia de esta iglesia cabe decir que en ella contrajo matrimonio Mariana de Pineda, la popular heroína ejecutada bajo el reinado de Fernando VII, conservando además los restos del escultor y pintor local José Risueño, sucesor de la línea artística de Alonso Cano.

Japanese Macudonarudo

Spain is probably one of the few countries on the planet where Macdonalds didn't put their greedy tentacles, they tried several times to spread their fast and addictive food, but they always fail. In a country with a strong bar culture and where everybody eats bocadillos (Spanish word for sandwiches, this american franchise didn't have any future. On the opposite, Japan and specially Tokyo area, with a huge influence of American culture, was the perfect nest to place macdonalds shops everywhere. I have to say that It was when I came to Japan when I became addicted to this shitty, plastic food, In Kanto area Its difficult to avoid this kind of places, they are in everywhere, and some of the locations are on the best parts of Tokyo, where you can have a synthetic meal for a small amount of money. Ok, Ok, I know, I know, the location doesnt justified the fact that you are eating shit. I don't know, maybe was a combination of loneliness, huge publicity, and stupidity the reason I started to go there once week, or maybe because is crap, but taste delicious, bastards!!. One day, I was there eating my chicken burguer menu, when I look around I saw a lot of young guys, maybe around 22 or 27, with japanese you never guess, probably young salarymen, I realized that absolutely nobody was communicating to each other, but all of them where playing games or using the movil, absolutely nobody spoke, their smiles came from the latest game or just the new tool in the mobil phone, the worst thing was that in the middle of the scene, was a Spanish guy in almost in the middle of his thirties, in the middle of Tokyo, sketching this weird scene, somehow I had the feeling that I was watching the future of other places, where people communicate every year less, and loneliness start to became a relevant issue. I have to say that Japanese Macdonalds have some positive aspects, on the contrary that here in Europe, some of them, specially in the big cities they are opened 24 hours, and the coffee that doesn't taste good, is hot and cheap, just 100 yen, less than a euro. Japanese winter is really harsh, and those Macdonalds are warmed places for beggars where they can stay the whole night and drink hot coffee for a cheap prize, otherwise they would be freezing in the streets. The staff there, mostly young japanese students working part-time, they leave alone the costumers, no matter if they dress armani or wear just rags. I remember a couple of times, one in London and another in Belgium where I had to leave my acommodation very early in the night to take a plane that took off several hours later and I had to wait in the streets because there werent any place open, at those moments It would have been nice to have one of those warmed macdonalds that abound in Tokyo.

Cafetería estación de Granada