Can you see the heart? By serendipity, this tsutsuji grew into a shape resembling that of a heart, right at the heart of Ritsurin Koen.
Category Archives: travel
to friendship and nature
Spent the day with one of my bestfriends, Maj. The friendship, the laughter, the good talk over good food and good scenery leaves much to be thankful for (not to mention the really beautiful, glittering gift!! – thank you Maj!). I’m really happy that even when we only get to see each other every other month or so, the deep friendship and respect is always there. Thankful. ๐
Thankful for hubs as well to have prodded me to go shopping since I’m in Tokyo anyways. Mottainai daw. And thankful for Maj to oblige and accompany me even when she’s not really into shopping. ๐
After good food (will feature it later in goodfoodhunt.wordpress.com), before heading to Harajuku for some shopping, we dropped by Maj’s favorite koen (garden). So glad that she shared this scenic place, Koishikawa koen (ๅฐ็ณๅทใใใ).
Our only regret though was that we both forgot to bring our cameras with us. Hence, we had to make do with our iPhones. I’m quite satisfied with some, but then again, I don’t claim to be a photography enthusiast/expert. ๐ Still, I’m sharing some here, unedited.
Autumn colors on water.
And of course, there’s nothing like koyou with the perfectly blue sky as the backdrop.
As with most sizable Japanese gardens, Koishikawa also sells the traditional green tea and wagashi (ๅ่ๅญ). Wagashi is the traditional red beans sweets which is usually paired with green tea and comes in รผber pretty designs. Agree? This one even have a dash of gold on the sakura leaf.
We ended the day shopping in Harajuku. And Harajuku being Harajuku, there were lots of people on cosplay. To quote Maj, this shot was just perfect to cap a great day.
Thanks Maj! Till next bonding time! ๐
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Was about to go to sleep but I just had to share this. Today’s reading is about waiting for God’s perfect timing. It brought a smile on my face as thankfully I muttered, “God’s perfect timing is sleeping right here beside me”. ๐
Enoshima (food) trip
I love it when Hubs plans our trips. There’s always that “surprise me” aspect and that I can always be confident while following his lead that we’d be going to an interesting place.
Heard about Enoshima quite a lot but in my four years stay in Japan before, I haven’t really gotten around to going here. Glad it was so; glad to have hubs leading the way.
There are at least three different train routes that can take you to Enoshima but hubs opted we take the monorail to go to the place. With a surprise, I realised this is my first time to take the monorail. I didn’t like it much. Don’t like the idea of a big train being suspended in air like that. True it is much the same as cable cars and cable cars are even suspended waaaaay higher than monorails. But even so, I still find monorails scary especially when we had to make a turn and the train had to tilt at some angle!
Our destination is the last station on the line.
Enoshima is an island and you’d have to cross a bridge to get to the island. This point marks the start of the bridge walk.
The most popular delicacy in the area is the shirasu ใใใ which looks quite a lot like the fish we always fry with eggs back in Philippines. This shirasu is just so cute! Albeit they might look like worms at some point hehe.
Different variations of shirasu dishes in the restaurants lined both on your left and right.
But eating them raw is pretty interesting.
They tasted so fresh and tastes very good with shลyu (soy sauce).
The other treat that’s distinctly Enoshima is the beer. Quite pricey than normal though, at least more pricey by 200yen.
The walk around the island is more or less uphill.
You’d see a lot of these in Japanese shrines and temples. Wooden slates for couples to write their wishes on.
Relaxing view. Sun seems to promise us a beautiful sunset.
Yachts moored in the distance, and some out at sea, with people enjoying a day of fishing.
Some were content to fish on the island’s rocky boundaries though.
Beautiful,don’t you think?
Had a late lunch at 2pm hence we pretty much had this traditional restaurant to ourselves.
Of course we opted to take the traditional table. Perfect chance to stretch.
Hubs’ boiled shirasu meal.
Of course we had to enjoy Enoshima beer.
Loved this Enoshima cider as well.
Drinks aren’t usually sold in glass bottles in Japan so I guess drinking it from a bottle is part of the novelty. And well, drinks are more delicious when taken from a bottle. Drinking coke from an 8-ounce bottle is much more delicious than drinking from can, right?
We chose to go to the cave first.
Noctiluca used to abound in the area and leave these shining pebbles around.
Loved the local people’s idea of giving us candles to light our way inside the cave.
As is expected, the Japanese are really amazing when it comes to safety.
They have a number of sacred statues inside the cave. One of them is that of Mi-Zo the Snake who likes to curl around in a……..very unusual way.
Hope you didn’t get to read this just before having a meal. ๐ Mi-zo’s eyes look so real though!
The cave also featured the love story of the area’s folk tale.
The statue of the infamous dragon.
This is the dragon’s temple. There were ladies praying every now and then. I wonder if they were praying for a one true love, just as I’ve prayed for it back then. ๐
Didn’t have the courage to take a photo of the inside. Even then, and even when I’m a Christian, the place felt so solemn.
Enoshima also have a Lover’s Hill and true enough, EVERYONE who went there were couples. There was also a place for couple locks just as how it was in the Seoul Tower and in Praha near the Lennon Wall.
The green phone booth-like corner visible in the background houses the Bell of the Dragon’s Love. Wasn’t able to take a picture of it as there were a lot of couples milling about who I figure might want to have some privacy. We did clang the bell though. Giggles.
Cats in Japan are sooo fat and Enoshima practical abounds with fat cats lying about.
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a dragonfly up close!
And as I say, this is more of a food trip. ~sheepish grin~
Grilled shellfish and scallops.
Soft ice cream with different flavors.
More grilled food options!
Churros!!! This was particularly fun for me as I had a chat with the lady selling these, in Japanese! She told me she has been to Cebu and what a beautiful place it was.
As if all the eating wasn’t enough, we also bought dried products. The preserved squid that Hubs bought was just sooo good I’d gladly go back to Enoshima again and again even just to buy that squid. Too bad we weren’t able to take a photo of it.
Capping the day off, the sun was true to his promise. It was indeed a beautiful sunset.
The place was bathe in a golden glow.
Fuji-san also made his lovely appearance.
More sunset photos. And of course, we just have to have our faces with the sunset. ๐
We took the ordinary train on our way back. The station though was far from ordinary.
Gah. Suddenly I’m craving for that squid. ๐
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All photos were taken with Canon G-12 and unedited save for the watermark. ๐
Puerto Princesa and the 7 wonders of the world
Hurray! Puerto Princesa Underground River made it to the top seven list of the New Seven Wonders of Nature!
It’s not yet final and official though as it will be made official come early 2012. The results were based on the preliminary tally held yesterday, of course, 11.11.11.
Visit here to see the rest of the seven wonders as well as the other 28 finalists.
We’ve been to Coron and El Nido islands, both in Palawan and hence neighboring islands of Puerto Princesa, both beautiful in their own rights. We’ve been to Halong Bay in Vietnam as well, listed as one of the seven wonders together with Puerto Princesa. But we are yet to see the underground river. Hope we could get to visit Puerto Princesa in our next vacation in the Philippines. Can’t wait!!
Date at Enoshima
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As we wait for our late lunch, we enjoy this fine malt Enoshima beer. I don’t like beer much because they are bitter. But this one I definitely can drink. ไนพๆฏ๏ผ
(guess who’s having the bigger volume. ๐ )
Wien Staatsoper
Been having some sort of writer’s block lately. Lots of deep thoughts churning inside my head these days that I’d rather just be silent. And mull and chew on the stuff that’s nagging me or better yet discuss it with Hubs. Suffered a terrible migraine last weekend and yet again hubby proved how he’s the best husband there is. Because he took care of me, I decided not to cut my head off lest he be a widower, even when the pain was strongly telling me to go and cut my head off. ๐
Anyways, I digress much. Let’s battle the writer’s block, shall we?
Upon arrival in Vienna and depositing our luggage in our 4-star-but-doesn’t-seem-quite-so-4-star hotel, we immediately set off to go looking for Vienna’s State Opera House aka Wien Staatsoper. Our mobile map app (don’t you just LOVE Steve Jobs? And yes, for us, like Michael Jackson, he isn’t really quite dead yet… ๐ ) told us The Staatsoper was just a 23-minute, 2km walk from our hotel. However, being a tourist and a first-time traveller on that country, what was normally a 23-minute walk took three times longer as it was coupled with lots of picture taking and even stopping over to watch a great performance of some local (or neighboring country) band in the park – for free.
To quote Rick Steves,
Vienna is the cradle and the world capital for classical music and The Staatsoper is its throne room
. Built in 1869, it is one of the world’s premier houses of music, built in the Neo-Renaissance style. It’s the harbinger of a busy intersection in Vienna – Kรคrtner Strasse meeting Ringstrasse. Mighty impressive, isn’t it?
(All photos unedited save for the watermark).
I’ve some attachment with lampposts. Probably it wells out of dreaming of Narnia. LOL.
The Staatsoper feature a different opera per day. Our visit fell on Il Barbiere di Siviglia on stage.
Er, we practically headed straight to Staatsoper the moment we hit town. Show was at 7, we were outside the opera at six, just in time to tour around the place before the performance hence no time for dinner anymore. Hence, we bought some snacks and cheese on a grocery store on the way to the Opera. End result, hubby was carrying a plastic bag with our purchases while almost everyone around us were dressed to the nines.
Impressive. Lavish. Sumptuous.
We booked a seat in a private box albeit a bit far from the stage.
Everything that’s red is vee~~~~lvet.
The stage!
Almost everyone who watched made some effort to dress up. But a Japanese couple who sat right in front of the orchestra was really serious with the dress code – the woman was wearing a kimono. I figure that since it’s a bit impractical to be a tourist and cart around a kimono, they probably are working in Vienna and that the husband is probably a consul? If this is twitter, I’d add a hashtag #assumingmuch. ๐
Yes, the play was in Italian. But no fret. We had our Staatsoper version of “subtitle”.
Hence, we still laughed as the plot unfolded; Il Barbiere was a comedy yes. A word of caution though. Don’t watch the opera right after traveling halfway across the world without a wink of sleep. But I must say though that the orchestra was soooo good they were lulling us to sleep sometimes. ๐
In totality, it was a GREAT experience!
It was already pretty late when we got out the opera and tired as we are, we were not up for a late night dinner and would rather just flop into the bed and try to recover our jetlag to prepare ourselves for long days of walking in the next few days. Hence, we decided to try the must-try wiener hotdog. Our first (of many) good food experience during our trip.
Ho-hum. Time for sleep!