The Japan Diaries – Kyoto

*Warning: Photos Intensive*

1-7 December 2009

Upon waking up and finishing our breakfast, our tour headed directly to our next destination – Kyoto. I was extremely excited, because I finally get to see the Bamboo Grove at Arashiyama.

And boy was I in awe…

My only disappointment would be that we did not have the chance to come here at night. If not, the night lightings would have definitely made my day with the stunning photos that I could have captured.

I would have loved to stay longer, but we were on a tight schedule, and hence had to quickly made our way back to the coach, especially when we wanted to capture scenes of the nearby place.

Red leaves apart from the greens of the bamboo.

A happy boy with his scenary pic.

And the Togetsukyo Bridge that links the Hozu River.

Departing from Arashiyama, our next stop was once again, Kinkakuji – The Golden Pavilion. The previous time I came, the sky was gloomy. This time I hope my luck was better.

Well, the sky wasn’t that blue, but I guess it’s still not too bad…

More pictures around the pavilion and the place.

Soon, we had to depart, and make our way to Nishijin Textile Centre for lunch.

Happy boy with his happy food.

Initially on our itinerary, we were suppose to board a train where the train conductor will sing traditional Japanese folk songs. However, this was removed and replaced by a Kimono Fashion Show. Not that I would complain, because this time, the Boy was around, armed with his DSLR for better photo taking!

One thing I learnt from Ogawa was that the only single females wear Kimono with long sleeves. Those whose sleeves are shorter mean that they are already married. While I did enjoy the fashion show and was awed by the beauty of the Kimonos, I did wish that heads of the people could just disappear…

Moving on, we headed off to Gion, a place where you could try and catch a rare look at Geishas. (By the way, the picture on the left is a school for Maikos).

But alas, I could not spot any. All I saw however was just this lady dressed in her Kimono…

Our last stop for the day at Kyoto was the ever famous Kiyomizu Temple.

I remember that the last time I went there, the sky was dull, and the colours were dull. This time, the temple was surrounded by lovely red leaves! A lovely sight indeed…

And just to share with everyone how much I love red leaves…

Red here, red there, red everywhere!! =P

And on a totally random note…

Mr Softie anyone? =D

The Japan Diaries – Universal Studios Japan

*Warning: Photos Intensive*

1-7 December 2009

After coming back from Kobe, we had a bit of time to kill as the Boy is not one to turn in early. So, we decided to take a walk around our hotel. (I’d also thought I’ll bring him to the gate entrance too, just like what I did previously).

Not surprisingly, we engaged in our shooting spree yet again!

The Boy actually wanted to take pictures with his tripod, so we made a trip back to our hotel to grab it. Little did we know that in that short time span, when we came back, all the lights of USJ was off! Guess luck is not on his side…

The next morning, after a nice breakfast, we made our way to enjoy the rides. Unlike my previous tour, our tour guide did not accompany us into the theme park. All she did was give us a map, and indicated on it what were the scary ones, and what were the mild rides. Thankfully, I have had ‘experience’, as we quickly made our way to our first ride, Spiderman!

Given that we did not wait up to queue at the entrance before the gates even opened, it was no wonder that we had to queue for the ride. But that did not dampen the Boy’s mood, as he thoroughly enjoyed Spiderman! Our next ride was Back to the Future. As expected, I felt sick, again… The Boy on the other hand was still alive and kicking, very wildly too! He’s such an adrenaline junkie…

While rides were of importance given the craziness of some queues, we still pause occasionally to snap a few pictures, of which, I find the above attempted snarl hilarious! =)

Of sweetness…

I had my Jurassic Park ride again. This time, instead of a 90-minute wait, we had to wait for only 5 min? Why?
Because it started to rain!! And it had to pour even more when it was our turn to get onto the non-sheltered boat…

Thankfully, we survived the trip even though we did not purchase any ponchos like the rest of the people did, as can be seen by our appearance at the gift shop, and the attempted devouring of me by the t-rex.

I guess the rain was some form of a blessing, as it kept the crowd numbers low, allowing us brave souls to hop onto most rides.

We managed to catch Jaws and kill it, to the constant chattering of the Japanese tour ride (which none of us could understand). But the above couple picture was taken by a friendly Japanese who freely volunteered his service to help us capture a picture, of which Bingrong says that the soft toy is held by me like it was my baby. Hmm…

So apart from the above mentioned four rides, we also caught Waterworld, Shrek’s 4D Adventure (nice!) and Universal Monsters Live Rock and Roll Show (boring…). The only thing we missed was Peppermint Patty’s Stunt Slide (very much like our Fantasy Island water slide rides), and the Hollywood Dream rollar coaster ride, much to our disappointment. Why we missed it was because of the rain, and it would have been too darn cold to get even wetter, or to have really cold wind blowing at your face…

Our loss however was made up with our many chances to capture photo opportunities with the mascots =)

Midway into our walkabout, we chanced upon a dozen santarinas. Suddenly, there was a swarm of photographers (mainly male), standing in front of them, going shutter crazy! Reminded me very much of the SIN times… =S

Then, from this crazy scene, I spotted a lonely snowman… I just had to grab a picture of him together with us =)

With the rides more or less ‘completed’, we decided to head to the stores and start looking at souvenirs, and of course, not forgetting to snap more pictures.

In all our excitement of rides and buying of souvenirs, we actually skipped lunch, partly also because we refused to spent money on their exorbitant meals. That was when I decided to snack, and chance upon extremely cute buns! The Hello Kitty bun had savoury strawberry flavour, and after much scouring, the Snoopy bun had custard in it! Aahh… When you bite into them, they taste like heaven…

At the end of the day, after a whole day spent in USJ running from the rain, enjoying the rides, checking out all the stores, we ended up buying more foodie souvenirs than any other things! The Boy claimed that theme park food are a definite must-try, as they always taste very good! Plus with their extremely lovely packaging, one cannot help but indulge! Besides, the night parade was cancelled due to the rain, and that gave us more excuses to shop around =)

Done with our shopping, we also indulged in challenging night photography, minus the tripod…

Dinner was spent at a restaurant, enjoying some omelette rice… Our happy faces are a sign of good food =) But as much as the food was great, that did not stop us from having some supper…

Snoopy cup noodles!! Check out their cute woodstock and snoopy fishcake-like-things! Yes, piggies we were =P

What a memorable wet day at USJ… =P

The Japan Diaries – Kobe

1-7 December 2009

As night falls, we made our way to Kobe, where the reknown Kobe beef is supposedly from (all because their beef drinks beer!).

Our first stop was Kobe’s Chinatown, also known as “Nankinmachi’. Truthfully, there isn’t much things there except for food. And because dinner was still waiting for us, we did not eat much except for some snacks, as I was already starving by then.

The highlight of the place however was this shop! It’s a desert stall which sells extremely nice Almond Jelly. And a person like me, who does not fancy almond essence that much, actually liked it too!

Unlike the usual almond puddings that we usually eat, this one is much denser, and it has more of a milky taste. I like it! Apart from the nice desert, this shop also sells cheongsams! Now, a cheongsam fan like me would definitely love it, but as luck would have it, we did not have enough time to make our way up to the second floor for a peek.

We bid Chinatown farewell and subsequently made our way to Kobe Harbourland.

Harbourland is actually a shopping area, and its entrance actually reminds me a bit of Rhodes back in Sydney.

There, we got to see the majestic Kobe Tower. Mount Rokko is suppose to be somewhere at the back, but I guess the sky was too dark to spot it =S But the moon is surely huge…

Although Harbourland is a shopping venue, I guess the both of us were more interested in taking photos than purchasing items. (Now I would think that is an amazing feat for me because I’m such a shopping queen!)

Couple pic =)

With not much time left (again), we quickly made our way to a Cheesecake Shop as recommended by our tour guide, Ogawa.

When we got there, practically most of our tour group peers were there. It seems like Ogawa is really good at discovering good food, that all of us would definitely walk in to any shop/restaurant to try out what she has recommended.

And there it is, the famous cheesecake. What’s so amazing about this cheesecake is that it is not like our usual sweet desert! It’s actually savoury, and tastes of real cheese!!

I think our happy faces are evidence of a great food find =)

With that, I end this entry of us with the very lovely Christmas Tree at Harbourland. Somehow, I like this picture a lot =)

The Japan Diaries – Osaka

1-7 December 2009

Moving off from Nara, we made our way by coach back to Osaka for lunch as well as some sightseeing.

There, we took our only group tour photo, where I was mistaken then to be the wife of the Boy. Hmm… Anyway, there were 18 people in total. Mostly rich families, unlike us poor dodos…

Our first local meal from the tour. Lunch was in one of the restaurants at Osaka Castle vicinity. I was telling the Boy not to be too excited with our meals as I have had experience before with Japan tours. But the food wasn’t that bad, as we had a simple fair of soba and hot pot.

And then, it was back to taking photos again!

Osaka Castle

I am actually very pleased with this trip, because I was able to capture more scenic photos as compared to my previous Japan trip. The skies were nicer, and we had slightly more time to take pictures too.

Walking around Osaka Castle made me realise that there was a lot of unexplored places previously when I came. And given that Autumn was still around, the yellowing of the leaves just made me fell in love with Japan even more.

And who knew that I would have been so lucky then to have chanced upon a Japanese wedding photo shoot! Check out their cool costumes! (I can so imagine how pretty their pictures would turn out, with the red against the yellow leaves).

And to further emphasize on the beauty of Japan in Autumn, here’s me with the red leaves…

It was soon time to leave again. This time, we headed off to Shinsaibashi, the shopping paradise. But… Our time there was quite short! Not to mention that it was Winter when we were there; hence, most shops were selling winter wear, which isn’t what I can don often back in Singapore. And when I did find something I like, it was too small for me!! *Cries*

As for the boy, given that Shinsaibashi is right next to Dotombori, famous for its neon lights, we were there a tad too early to see any lights… This I would say is quite a bummer for not only him, but also me, for I would have loved to see what he could conjure up with his DSLR. Sigh… What a pity…

When we finally left Shinsaibashi, the skies began to darken (dang!), as we made our way to Kobe, the last destination for our first day in Japan. And that’s for the next entry…

The Japan Diaries – Nara

1-7 December 2009

The Boy and I were pretty excited on our first trip to Japan together, as we made our way to the airport after having dinner at my place.

As with most check-ins, we had a lot of time to kill on our hands, especially when we already had dinner before making our way to the airport.  Hence, we decided to plonk ourselves at Starbucks while waiting, as well as fill up any forms required for Japan customs.

Our happy and excited faces when we finally boarded the plane. (Do note how my face turned from happy to fatigue as the days go by…)

As part of our tour package, we were on board JAL. Truthfully speaking, I do not expect much from other airlines apart from SIA, but I have to say that our breakfast on board was really nice! Crab meat porridge with cold salad of prawn, fruits and green tea. Yummy!!

We arrived at Kansai International Airport at about 6 plus in the morning, Japan time. And the place was just so quiet… Thankfully our local tour guide Ogawa have already arrived, as we slowly made our way to the bus after twittering around the airport for a short while.

On our way to the first destination… Nara.

Our first stop was Nara Deer Park, where deers are allowed to roam freely within its enclosure. While there were really many deers, I’m not sure why my picture did not feature one! But anyway, while we were there, there were actually lots of Japanese students too, and they came by the mass! Our tour guide said that it was because their school trips around Japan was pushed back from the Summer season to Winter due to the H1N1 outbreak previously. Thankfully, we managed to get there and leave before they really thronged in by the hundreds!

Nestled within the serenity of Nara Deer Park is the sightseeing attraction, Todaiji Temple of Daibutsu.

I just love their clear blue skies…

There began the clicking of our shutters…

First couple picture to kick start the tour!

I think as proof that our climate is going haywire, while we were there, there were actually a lot of red autumn leaves! Ogawa (our tour guide) mentioned that Autumn was late this year. As sad that it might be that our Earth is dying, it was nice though to see the red and yellow leaves surrounding above us.

That it allowed me to capture such beautiful scenes with the deers…

One funny thing to share with you all first though while I leave you with the pictures of us with the deers:

While you may find that they are already cute with their furry hide, what makes them even more adorable is that they know how to bow to you… But with their amazing act of bowing, you are expected to feed them. If not expect some bites for your lack of food for their amazing performance!