I sometimes find, and I am sure you know the feeling, that I simply have too many thoughts and memories crammed into my mind. At these times, I use the Pensieve. One simply siphons the excess thoughts from one’s mind, pours them into the basin, and examines them at one’s leisure. – Albus Dumbledore This blog is obviously my Pensieve. Wow 2014 sure flew past so quickly, I barely even had the chance to reflect much and… …
The magical Christmas is almost here (the ads reminded us!)
Maybe it was how we were brought up, but maybe it wasn’t. Growing up (in Indonesia), Christmas was never a big thing. Plus we didn’t come from a Christian family who would celebrate the holiday in all its glory. But every year, we decorated our Christmas tree and even created our own little nativity scene out of boxes and newspapers. Christmas was always filled with music; tunes from the fancy fairy lights and carols sung on karaoke. Christmas …
{Japan Winter} Kamakura: Tsurugaoka Hachimangu & Komachi-dori shopping street
Now that that’s done, here’s Kamakura: We started in Yokohama, when we walked around Minato Mirai and stumbled upon Queen’s Square for lunch. We stopped by at a katsu place called Tonkatsu Saboten (とんかつ 新宿 さぼてん). The menu looked pretty appetising (plus there’s an English menu)… and we were hungry, so in we went. As you can see, Tonkatsu Saboten didn’t disappoint. We got to crush our own sesame too, which was fun. With so many options to …
{Japan Winter} Yokohama: The Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum adventure
Ramen Museum, you say?! Sign me up, I say! Yup. When I first heard of food museums in Japan (a.k.a. food theme park, i.e. a food court selling one type of food done in many ways), I was excited! And when I heard of the ramen museum in Yokohama, I knew I had to visit. We arrived in Shin-Yokohama Station from Tokyo at night time and straight away made our way to the Ramen Museum, …
{Japan Winter} JR Pass info and a quick recap of Tokyo & surrounding
I’m finally back from my hiatus after an almost 2-month break. In that time, I was back in Japan for 5 days and visited Korea for about 6 days and Indonesia (Bali) for about a week. So yup, it was a productive hiatus with more pretty pictures from my travel to come, I’m sure. Meanwhile, here’s a continuation of my blog posts on the Japan trip back in December. We finished Tokyo and surrounding. Here’s …
{Japan Winter} Around Nihonbashi, Ginza, Shinbashi & Tokyo Station, Tokyo
In December 2013, we travelled to Japan (for the second time) and spent about 9 days in Tokyo. This post marks the last bit of our Tokyo trip, awww… We checked out from our hotel at Kyobashi and travel to Nihonbashi Station (probably walkable, but meh!) to find a restaurant recommended by many for their omurice (omelette rice). The restaurant is called Taimeiken. It wasn’t difficult to find it if you have a map. We knew what …
{Japan Winter} Akihabara, Tokyo: Anime & otaku paradise
If you’re an anime lover, if you love technology and are a bit obsessed with some idol groups, then I’d suggest Akihabara is the place you have to visit in Tokyo, Japan. We spent the whole afternoon there and could’ve done more (if not for our tired feet). We started our journey from Tokyo Station, as we were staying nearby (about 10 minutes walk). We saw a woman wearing traditional kimono (or is this still a …
{Japan Winter} Odaiba, Tokyo: Food theme parks & more at Aqua City & DECKS
Many J-dorama and movies have been filmed at Odaiba with Rainbow Bridge as the backdrop. Why? Cos it’s so pretty, especially at night! It was pretty the first time we visited Odaiba and it was pretty the second time around too. So what’s there to do at Odaiba once the sun is down? Plenty! We went to Aqua City to find ourselves a good meal and guess what we found? Gotouchi Men Matsuri (ご当地麺祭り), a …
{Japan Winter} Odaiba, Tokyo: Robots at Miraikan, Gundam at DiverCity & the Rainbow Bridge
Odaiba is manmade island in Tokyo that is popular for shopping and entertainment, with many malls within walking distance to each other. We’ve been there before, but decided to return to find more adventure! And we did find some very interesting things to see… We arrived at the Odaiba Seaside Park and disembarked our Sumida River boat cruise. Walking along the side street, we had a very nice view of Rainbow Bridge and the “Statue …
{Japan Winter} Asakusa, Tokyo: Calaugh Cat Cafe & Asakusa sightseeing
“Neko-chan…” I heard one of the rickshaw guys said to me as I walked past them. I was wearing my cat ears that day (yes, I love wearing weird stuff on my head). I couldn’t understand the rest of the stuff he said, but I did turn around and smile. When walking around Asakusa, you will definitely find plenty of rickshaws. I got a little obsessed in taking photos of these rickshaw tour guides, because …