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imchick · 5 years

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For our fourth day in Japan, hubby got us another Klook Tour: Kyoto and Nara Day Tour! I’m excited to meet the deers since they always seem so friendly. ❤

Since we were joining a Group Tour from Klook, our Pick-up Location is in VIP Villa in Namba at 7:50 am. But the hubby wants to be on time, and when I say on time – it means an hour early. We were there by 7:00 am! And I guess other guests had the same thing in mind since several joiners were there already. (And I noticed that almost half of our group are Filipinos too. Haha)

The drive from Namba to Kyoto was about 2 hours so even though we got up so early, we had time to take a nap. 🙂 First Stop: Kinkaku-ji Temple. (or what they call Golden Temple) Entrance Fee is 400 yen. (but since we got this from Klook, it’s free already)

The Golden Temple was previously a retirement home but became a Zen Temple. The top two floors are completely covered in Gold Leaf. AND, the temple has burned down several times already. Can you believe it?

I love how peaceful the whole place is. The temple is surrounded by a pond in the middle of a garden full of trees and plants. No wonder it used to be a retirement place.

But before you get to the temple, you will pass by this house that used to be the living quarters of the head priest. See? It really is surrounded by lovely trees! especially in autumn. ❤

Next Stop: Kasuga Tai-sha

This place is the most celebrated shrine in Nara and is dedicated to the deity responsible for the protection of the city. It is also one of the most sacred places since a lot of the Gods are enshrined in the place. On the way to this place, our tour guide taught us on how to honor the place: (as seen below, the husband is trying).

Next: Arashiyama Bamboo Grove

One of the most famous landmarks – the sky high bamboo groves are truly instagrammable. But unfortunately, we didn’t know that we needed to pay extra to go inside the road (at the back of hubby) to get a good picture. As I said, one of the most famous, thus it attracts CRAZY number of tourists!

We don’t have a good photo to show you the giant bamboos that fill this place. BUT!!! Along side the road leading to it, there’s a LOT of food stands and stores on the road. So we managed to try the following:

Husband tried the Ichigo Daifuku – It is a Japanese confection, a mochi filled with bean paste, split into two and a fresh strawberry is placed within. The hubby liked it. ❤ I tried it too but I don’t really eat strawberries. Sooooo. . .

I normally won’t go for Gyoza since I feel like the meat usually is dry. But this is good. ❤ The sauce is perfect, it was soft and the meat was not dry. Thumbs Up!

I was pretty excited that there were ice creams in sight but as I looked closely to each store, they were all offering BAMBOO flavored desserts. I don’t eat Matcha and Green Tea so you know where my hesitations are coming from. BUT, I still wanted to try this Bamboo Flavored Soft Ice Cream – and it tastes exactly as matcha. so the hubby finished it by himself.

We also managed to try Grilled Crabs and Rice Cakes too. There’s a bunch of stores lined up in the streets and I’m a bit overwhelmed. We both wanted to try everything. 😛

Since we consumed most of our time binge-eating in the street, we decided to eat our late lunch in one of the restaurants in front of the parking, so we can see our bus. And obviously, we ate Tempura – the safest order. 😛

Another Stop: Fushimi Inari Taisha – It is famous for its thousands of Vermilion Torii Gates.

It is the most important shrines dedicated to Inari, the god of rice. Also, You have to be really patient – since there are so many tourists here too. You can never really get a shot with no one there to ruin the shot. 😛

Fun Fact: The thousand gates are donated by different individuals — and their names are written on the gates. One gate costs around 400,000 yen.

Our Last Stop: Nara Park

A very large park home to hundreds of deers. ❤

Like I said, it is home to deers, roaming around freely. ❤ You can interact with them! Deer Crackers are sold at 100 yen for 10 crackers!! And it’s so fun! They are so tame and it seems like no matter how many tourists are there to feed them, they always seem to be hungry.

The deers are said to be messenger of Gods. At first, I couldn’t decipher which of them are fawns or which of them are the older ones. But after some research, I read that their antlers are removed every October. (so that’s why!) – Antler Cutting Tradition – for safety reasons.

Another fun fact: Deer Crackers are just wheat flour and rice bran. And all of the profits from the crackers are used for the sole purpose of protecting the deers.

Before we left for Nara, we also found a good spot:

Going back, I think everyone went back at around 6:30 pm and we left by 7:00 pm. There’s also a store where you can buy your souvenirs even deer shaped chocolates too! ❤

It’s been good, Nara and Kyoto. ❤ I cannot wait to go back and explore you more! We got back at around 8:30 pm and since it was late, we went to dinner straight.

Dinner at Matsusakagyu Yakiniku M (The restaurant is quite famous so they require reservations.)

A winner in the 2018 TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice awards for restaurants, ranking number 1 in Japan, and number 5 in Asia.

We first heard about this place from a friend who is pretty well traveled. We were warned that it is quite pricey — and it is. I believe this is our most expensive meal in our entire stay in Japan.

We ordered the Matsusaka Tasting Platter for 3,000 Yen – 2 pieces for each type of beef. The Beef that’s included are Sirloin Steak, Kyukyoku and Haneshita.

You will be the one to cook this on grill in front of you. We were taught to cook each side of the beef for at least 2 minutes for the perfect taste. You are also given different sauces to go with it.

I LOVE MEAT. and I’m amazed how tender the beef is. ❤ it’s so flavorful. Although it’s not quite filling since we shared this, did not regret this as we really wanted to try one of the best in Osaka. ❤

And because we only shared 1 rice (you know how we Filipinos love our rice), the hubby still wanted to eat. We ended up trying Okonomiyaki. We were trying to find a particular place, famous for its Okonomiyaki but we failed.

We ordered the Pork Okonomiyaki with Big Size Octopus for 550 Yen with Draft Beer at 430 Yen.

I don’t really eat Okonomiyaki. But I tried it – hubby says it’s good. The size is huge too!

Okonomiyaki, when translated means ‘grilled as you like it’. It’s a Japanese Pancake with cabbage, flour, eggs and variety of meat.

And that ends our Fourth Day! 😀 We are pretty productive, don’t you think? Sad to be leaving tomorrow. 😦

TRAVEL: Japan Day 4 For our fourth day in Japan, hubby got us another Klook Tour: Kyoto and Nara Day Tour!

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opepin · 7 years

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august: week one

july31: lol this morning. i woke up at like 7 am or something and kevin decided to wake up at 9 am or 10 am? i woke up, brushed, did whatever i could with my 2g data connection (btw, i couldn’t receive texts or anything but i got my data to work after changing the apn -- it was frustrating dealing with that the first day we got here), and i curled my hair for fun lol. then i watched ‘somm’ until kevin got up. i was hangry by then so he got ready and we went to the bakery again. we overshot how much we were going to eat. i also accidentally got a marzipan pastry...i hate marzipan... it looked like soft bread coated with cinnamon sugar D: we also got their infamous strawberry creme chocolate tart. it was good, but too much. kevin got a cinnamon strudel, a lemon tart, and a thai curry baguette because he was craving the baguettes since last night. :P we went back to the airbnb because i was starting to feel nauseous... we stayed there for like an hour so i could recover. i took tums and gasx and laid in bed massaging my stomach. i manned up and felt a bit better so we walked to glyptoteket, the fine arts museum, only to find out it was closed. T_T i planned it for yesterday so when we slept all day on the first day, our schedule got screwed up :( it also happened to pour on our way there -__-” right next to it was tivoli, the amusement park, but we decided not to go because of the rain and we just didn’t feel like it at this point. we decided to forge on and go to rosenborg castle to see the garden and/or go to the port for a boat ride.

i got upset at these turn of events and then some nasty old guys in a van kept looking at me like a piece of meat and kevin didn’t shield me or anything so i got frustrated at him. my legs were also SO SO SO itchy because my leggings were drying from the rain and it made my legs cold and my skin and body did not like it one bit. so we walked upset and in silence. we talked for a bit and then stopped. we decided to sit on the boat ride because of my legs and everything was fine after that. i bought kevin a hot dog and we got two bottles of water for $14...rip off LOL. the hot dogs here have a thicker casing but i think i like it. they also look hella phallic...which is weird haha. the sun came out again and it got real nice so the boat ride was a perfect choice. there was a lot of interesting architecture to see. kevin got hungry after so we walked over to the street food vendor area across the bridge. we got duck fat fries and the highlight of that was the creme fraiche dipping sauce. then we went inside to find the rest of the vendors. it was very much like what you would find in america (not so much like outside carts). oh, kevin also bought a smoothie from one of the outside carts and the guy just gave him one that was sitting there LOL. he was so put off by that. we also got a snow cone, which turned out to be a drink with a ton of ice in it LOLOLOL. kevin stopped picking what to eat after that.

we ended up getting a barbecue pulled pork burger with curly fries. mmm. kevin made a good point to say that if this was the best thing we ate here so far, then copenhagen isn’t a good place to get food because america does barbecue even better, which is pretty true of what we experienced. that burger was hella good. after that, kevin wanted to go back and rest so we walked back and did just that. i think i ended up falling asleep for 30 minutes to an hour again and then we headed out to the church right behind our airbnb with one of the best views of copenhagen. it didn’t strike me that we were going to be outside above the ground on a really steep staircase until we were actually doing it. kevin was nervous right when we got in line and i didn’t get it LOL. well, we walked up some wooden steps and then we reached the metal steps outside and kevin was freaking out on the inside. he had to let people go in front of us LOLOL. we made it to the top and i took pictures. i wasn’t as scared as kevin but the winds didn’t help either. so we took pictures quickly and took our time going down. it was a great experience together. <3 haha.

we walked to illum, a department store, to see if i could nab some danish fashion styles before leaving tomorrow. everything is so nice and minimalistic but sooooo expensive. i left without getting anything. we didn’t go to the rosenborg castle or the aquarium or the round tower again like we planned initially, but we didn’t mind. from shopping, we went straight to goomi and had rice for the first time in a few days. we’re rice addicts. i got three cup chicken and kevin got some pork dish. we both had two bowls of rice (they were super tiny bowls). we were really happy after that meal. we called it a day after and then went back to the airbnb, packed, and went to sleep sort of early. we had a somewhat early flight tomorrow. copenhagen was overall okay for us. we’re not in love with it. the colorful houses, the quaint aesthetic of the area, and the fact that it is pretty small made it a nice place to stay for 2-3 days. i think we hit most of the tourist spots and got to walk around most of copenhagen. we were ready to head to stockholm though.

01: we handled airport things way better this time. we decided not to go to the bakery for food and get food at the airport. there were a lot more people than i had anticipated but we got there pretty early. we checked in our bags, went through security, and then got a nice breakfast place that consisted of hashbrowns, scrambled eggs, and bacon. mmm. i got a green tea latte with soy milk because they did not have coconut milk at this starbucks. then we headed to our gate and abused the wifi LOL. i was so happy to have fast internet. i caught up on youtube videos and etc. so our flight kept getting delayed for some reason... but kevin and i were super chill and didn’t mind. i think we finally boarded at like 12 pm or something only to get moved out of the plane because there were technical errors. some people were really pissed because they were flying back home to the states. then some really nice guy told me that we will get compensated around 300 euros for the delay :O our flight got pushed from 10 am to 4 pm or something like that. so then kevin and i just squatted at the airport. we also got like $20 food vouchers and we found a yo sushi in the airport so we ate there! the fried rice at yo sushi is always bomb. we tried a mango crab roll that was delicious too. we got full pretty quickly.

it was nice being at the airport because they had a lot of shopping areas and i could keep on the search for some danish fashion items. so every now and then, kevin and i would walk to the stores and look. i ended up buying a cup of black tea while waiting and then i went back to get a tin of it. i looked at some clothes from noa noa, but was turned off by how many older women were looking at the sale rack with me T__T is my fashion that dated? LOL. we also surprisingly got chocolate-coated licorice because it was not bad??? haha. we now have a kind-of inside joke about this burberry coat we saw at illum. it looked so cool like an anime character would wear it with his dual swords and etc. it was a guy’s jacket so i showed kevin and he was really interested until we realized we were in burberry and he looked at the $1000 price tag. LULZ. we found a burberry here but the jacket was not there. :P

eventually, we boarded the flight with no problems and then i started watching the other ‘somm’ documentary i downloaded. i finished the first one, which was really interesting because it was about becoming a master sommelier and this one was the process of making wine. kevin ko’d on the flight. when we finally arrived in stockholm, we hit some snags in paying too much for an arlanda express ticket and finding the security box in central station containing our airbnb keys. we made it through and then walked 15 minutes to the apartment. this time, our airbnb was a private apartment and it had wifi. on the walk there, we noticed a lot of thai and japanese restaurants. the weather was beautiful -- unfortunate because we spent the entire day at the airport. the airbnb we stayed at is BEAUTIFUL. her apartment is decorated so nicely T__T the fridge blended in with the cabinets, she had a ton of candles, and the place was just nice and homey with a modern vibe. she also bought us milk, eggs, and bread and we could use her pantry and kitchen.

we unpacked and i let kevin pick a restaurant. he went on yelp and found this restaurant not too far of a walk called, ‘gro.’ so we walked there and noticed it was really tiny and we awkwardly stood by the door to see if we could get seated. we did eventually and then we looked at the menu and i found out that this place had two 4-course menus: one for meat eaters and one for vegetarians that cost $60 each... awks... i got mad at kevin for a bit for putting us in this situation but i calmed down and when he realized what i did, we figured it out. we ended up splitting the meat eater menu after asking and then declined wine. we both felt so ashamed and disrespectful. i looked up the yelp and kevin had only read one of them saying it was like $30-40 for a meal... lol that was a lie. i dug deeper and read that they handpick their wine so we ended up getting two glasses of wine. lol, we just felt so bad and out of place but we were trying to make the most of it. what’s even worse is that they gave us basically full sized portions of everything Dx we only shared one dish that was probably supposed to be smaller. ugh. they were being waay too nice to us and we felt even worse for that haha...

so, we had vegetable spaghetti (x2), cod stomach (x1), rooster (x1), rhubarb sorbet with licorice sprinkled on top (x2), and sorbet (x2). for the price of $60, that was way too much in our opinion because we were splitting it. the food was great but we weren’t looking for expensive food in the first place lol. oh, the real kicker is that the two chefs along with the server was giving us the food and explaining what it is. we were a few feet away from the kitchen and the chefs making the food to order x__x; one of them also mentioned that today was their first day of summer service so their english was a bit rusty. what. what did we get ourselves into LOL. we paid 75% of what two meals were supposed to be and then walked back to the airbnb. what a funny experience. kevin streamed the dota tournament for the rest of the night, showered with the super nice waterfall shower head, and then went to sleep at like 1 am?

02: we woke up and kevin made scrambled eggs with toast and butter for breakfast. the bread she got us toasted up so nicely. i love that bread. her toaster and tea kettle were so retro but did their jobs perfectly. i love that toaster. anyway, we ate and then walked over to stockholm’s city hall :) the moment we saw the skyline, we fell in love with stockholm. the weather was pretty nice too. stockholm is so beautiful with water, greenery, castles, and modern architecture everywhere. it’s perfect. walking past the arches of city hall to the lawn area took my breath away. it was gorgeous. we took lots of pictures and then kevin got a snow globe from the gift shop. i was feeling bleh because kevin is really bad at taking pictures so i never really ask because i have really high expectations for pictures of myself LOL. so he took pictures of me and i was disappointed about it, but also the fact that i don’t know how to pose for pictures anymore and i think i look pretty bad when i’m not the one taking the picture of myself / selfies. idk. sigh. i apologized to him and explained to him and he said he’ll try better and i said that i’ll try to be more understanding.

after city hall, we walked to the royal palace. as we were walking, we were trying to compare stockholm to a city in the states. i think we finally came to agreement that it’s a cleaner san francisco, which is probably why i love it so much. there are a bunch of inclines everywhere but the city is still larger than sf. there’s so much to see and so many directions to walk in ahha. well, we found out that there were 4 museums inside the palace itself and we started with the treasury and saw some real crowns, orbs, and scepters. i bought a small crown pin for my book bag. then we saw the royal apartments and stopped by the lunch plaza for a slice of lemon cheesecake and the most authentic freshly squeezed orange juice i’ve ever had in my life. then i walked around trying to find the bathroom and then kevin and i walked through the tre kronor museum (not that interesting -- history and architecture of the old building vs new) and also stopped by the antiquities section. after that, we looped back to the gift shop and spent a good amount of time there. i got some crown money clips as souvenirs and then we headed into old town!

there were so many cute small shops, artist galleries, and cafes. there were a lot of narrow cobblestoned walkways and colorful houses. i knew we made it to stortorget when we saw a man playing the piano beautifully and a ton of seats available to sit and listen to him. stortorget is the middle of old town where there is always something happening. :) we walked a bit more, took more pictures, and then kevin was getting hungry so we walked all the way to a restaurant called, ‘meatballs for the people.’ we got sat at the bar right away and then got some lingonberry juice and water. mmmm, the juice was so refreshing and delicious. it’s sweeter than cranberry juice but reminds me a lot of it. we both ordered deluxe swedish meatballs. i got pork and beef and kevin got deer meat. the deer meat had a lot of texture to it that i liked. this meal was flipping delicious. this was my favorite meal in stockholm. we got the buttery mashed potatoes and actual lingonberries. i was stuffed. kevin kept joking that we should eat there again for dinner...

we ended the day by going to monteliusvagen, the best place to get a view of the entire city. it was quite a walk but stockholm is beautiful so we didn’t mind at all. there was this one rain cloud that kept following us though? LOL it was really funny. we outran it at one point and it kept coming back to us... when it did, it just annoyingly drizzled instead of actually raining. xD we took some twists and turns and went up some hills but when we got there, it was totally worth it. we called it a day after because we wanted to go grocery shopping. we stopped at ‘cheesecake palace’ because kevin needed to use the bathroom. he got a slice of key lime cheesecake while i went and peed. i needed to pee first but kevin went ahead and went first so i was a bit upset at him x__x but we figured it out as we got to the bus stop. it started to rain...finally... and then we went into the grocery store, coop. we were confused because we only saw packaged goods like a walgreens... so we bought some toothpaste and i got disposable razors and walked back to the apartment. kevin was confused so he looked the store up on yelp and it was definitely a grocery store. so we rested for a bit and then went back and there was definitely a grocery store, except it was downstairs and all of the sale pots and plants blocked our view of the escalator... we bought some red and yellow peppers, potatoes (i kept saying tomatoes LOL), tomatoes, and once we decoded the labels, chicken thighs. i bought some strawberry cheesecake oreos, a marabou oreo chocolate bar, and some polly’s chocolate pieces. we also got sour cream and onion waffle chips.

the self-checkout system here is wonderful. you have a machine to weigh and label your produce. you just scan the stuff, and then you scan the receipt to exit if you used self-check out. it’s so high tech! anyway, i just started snacking like crazy when we got back. i felt bad but i was like meh at the same time. kevin watched some dota games, i was online watching videos, going on snapchat and instagram too. kevin decided to cook really late so we split one chicken thigh (they were tiny) and then went to sleep at like 1 or 2 am.

03: i think we left the house at 12 pm after eating tomatoes and eggs with toast and butter. i love this breakfast lol. we walked to the stockholm public library; the library was kind of underwhelmingly small, but it had the cool circular bookshelf alignment going on. then we walked over to the spelmuseum, the one museum here that i really wanted to go to! the spelmuseum is a gaming museum so i was so excited to bring kevin here. it’s small and tucked away, but when you enter, there is a projection on the wall of space invaders that you can play along with some images of the creators. they display all of the old gaming devices and had a few games to play. we played pacman, metal slug, the boxing game, street fighter, and this tennis game. lol i beat kevin in the tennis game so badly at first but then he beat me in the next one because i kept holding the left direction button for some reason ahahah. we tried playing breath of the wild but kept killing ourselves from falling and then we played this really fun two player game similar to metal slug, but i don’t remember what it was called... kevin played super mario 64 and they also had my warioware game to play and pokemon sun! we spent like 2-3 hours there ofc. kevin had a lot of fun. we do wish it was bigger though. kevin got a cute af yoshi mug there and we got a pixel art kit of snorlax too. jkdfnskd fave museum in stockholm. kevin went to use the washroom so i played a ton of space invaders while waiting. i was so close to beating the high score but i kept losing :( merp merp.

we walked to birger jarl’s passage, which was pretty close by. it was a pretty short passage lol but it was fancy af. it’s a passage that leads to all of the name brand stores like gucci, louis vuitton, etc. but the whole street is shopping central. we stopped by & other stories to see if they had the suede kitten heel pump ingrid recently showed on her youtube channel. kitten heels are definitely something i will wear from now on due to my feet. they didn’t have it but i shopped around and decided not to get anything because the whole tax refund process is too difficult and all the stuff was pretty expensive. plus, i could buy online and ship to the states. we stopped by a chain called, ‘joe and the juice’ to get a bite to eat. we’ve seen this chain all over copenhagen and stockholm and i regret that we didn’t find it sooner?! their juices are delicious and so are their sandwiches. we got the immunity and sex me up juice and two of the joe’s sandwiches. their sandwiches are on harder and thinner pieces of bread but it’s so good. i’m totally in love with this chain and there’s only one in new york in the states. lol. anyway, we walked over to the bus stop to get to skansen open air zoo~

it was a short and nice bus ride. we got there at around 4 pm so we were just in time to see a few of the old town houses. we saw a glassmaker, furniture maker, baker, and etc. it was just ok. maybe it’s livelier when it’s not closing time? after walking around the village (workers here show how swedish people lived 100 years ago so it’s like a small town environment), we went straight to the zoo. we saw elk, brown bears (!!!), reindeer, a really fat seal (LOL), wolves (!!!), and a wolverine (didn’t know these existed). we didn’t pay for the aquarium / amphibians so after that, we went to the amusement park area where there were 2 different drops and one seat twirler that moved up into the sky the highest (higher than the drop). kevin and i weren’t about it so we left through the turnstiles; this is where i got injured lol. it was a very wide turnstile so i thought kevin would wait for me to come in and then push, but i thought wrong and so my arm got squished and so did my boob. mmm, my arm is now bruised lol. kevin was really apologetic though x_x; we went into the museum shop and didn’t find anything so we took a couple buses to get back to the apartment. we would come back to see king’s garden and strandvagen later in the day.

we got back right in time for dinner. kevin reheated the chicken and made peppers with roasted potatoes. it was a delicious home-cooked meal :) i think we really needed a break from buying food. we ended up not going out. i wasn’t heart broken or anything though because we can always come back! also, the king’s garden is super large and just a meeting place / park and strandvagen is a street with a bunch of fancy houses overlooking the water. so, i didn’t mind. i think my stomach also got super bloated so staying in was the best option. i was full and happy and we had wifi. again, we went to sleep at like 1 or 2 am.

04: today was the final full day we had in stockholm and we took it super easy. lol i think we left the apartment at 1 pm or something to hop on the train to get to telefonplan. yes, that is an area in stockholm... we walked over to the climbing gym, klattercentret, that nluu told kevin about and went in. there was a nice small vegan cafe there and a ton of seating. i spent some time taking pictures of kevin and then i just chilled on my phone or kevin’s laptop. the gym area was filled with intimidating people so i just chilled out while kevin climbed. he said the closer you got to the rocks, the more it smelled like feet LOL. the air away from the rocks didn’t stink at all though. there were a ton of babies here tooo~ so cute. i got the cheapest tea here for 20 sek. kevin got the guys some souvenirs from here after climbing. then we took the train home. we could have gone to skyview, but after reading more reviews and stuff, it didn’t seem worth it. people said the view from the place we went on the first day had a better view. it is the world’s largest spherical place though... so maybe we’ll see it when we come back (: haha.

this is the part when kevin and i both doze off on the bus and we miss our stop so we have to take a bus back lol. the signage to transfer buses is not very clear here... we had to look for a connecting bus and only found it when we saw the bus stop at the location so we missed the first one. oh wells. haha. it’s a good thing the buses are always on time here and the wait for them is never long. kevin showered and i called (i did pay 20 cents for 1 minute) to make sure this thai massage place had openings today. we walked on over to ‘samruai thai massage’ (it was super close by) and got a massage right away. lol these ladies saw my boobs and massaged super closely to my vagina, but they were nice and didn’t make me feel uncomfortable. this massage overall was bomb. she massaged my arms like they have never been massaged before. i didn’t even know i had tiny tiny muscles like that all over my body. my neck has been really tight this whole trip so sometimes i would get headaches from looking at my phone or ipad so this helped a lot. we left very refreshed, relaxed, and hungry.

i found a nearby japanese place called, ‘matsu’ and their prices were cheaper than most restaurants here. kevin and i thought we were gonna get small af portions so we ordered a dragon roll, gyoza, yakiniku, and yakisoba. lol, when our yakiniku and yakisoba came out, we knew we over-ordered. LOL. it was so delicious though. we just sucked up all the delicious rice / noodles and beef. then our dragon roll came, and these were the biggest rolls i have ever seen in my life. we devoured all of that first and then came the gyoza -- there were 10 of them. they must have thought we were fat asses. we managed to finish the gyoza, roll, and more than half of each entree. then we took it home and kevin finished his yakisoba. i tried finishing my yakiniku but ended up throwing it away in the morning. our stomaches were not happy after stuffing ourselves too much. i spent the rest of the night gassy, bloated, and a bit nauseous tbh. i ate waaay too much. we also slept at like 1 am, which was waaay too late for our flight tomorrow morning at 8 am.

05: needless to say, we were dead in the morning. we packed everything up last night and made sure we didn’t leave anything in the morning. we woke up at 5:30 am... kevin called an uber because the bus would have taken another 10 minutes to come, and when the guy dropped us off, he laughed at kevin for closing the door in my face LOL. he joked that kevin wasn’t awake yet in swedish / poor english. :P we hopped onto the arlanda express only to sit with talkative af people -__-” we were tired and not having it. we were thankful when we got to the airport stop. there was a bit of a wait to check in and everything but we made it and stopped by ‘joe & the juice’ right away. kevin got immunity and we both got sandwiches. i wanted their granola / acai bowl but they were out. :( after eating, we used the bathroom and then boarded right away. i freaked out a bit because we were supposed to start boarding at 7:30 am but kevin was still in the bathroom, i think. he apparently had no wifi in the bathroom so i didn’t know where he was. luckily, he got out right after and boarding didn’t start yet.

we got on the flight and we just tried sleeping the entire 3-hour flight. i think we managed to get in a good 2 hours at least. we got to iceland and then really needed to pee. kevin got pulled into a random security check LOL so i waited at first and then i had to go so i went downstairs to use the bathroom and met him near the gate. kevin has taken a liking to hot dogs so he got one for second breakfast, i got an english breakfast bowl from ‘mathus’, and we got a chicken baguette for the flight. again, the lines were crazy and we had to board via the tarmac so the process was a bit slow. kevin ate his hot dog in line and we finished the english breakfast bowl together. i really like the beans! there were also sausages, an egg, and bacon in there too. mmm, it was very filling. we both ko’d at the beginning of the flight for like 30 minutes and then kevin started watching ‘skyfall 007′ and i found a romantic movie called, ‘flipped.’ i’m glad i watched it because it was a pretty great movie. i really enjoyed it. it’s about a girl who falls in love with a kid who moved into her neighborhood in 2nd grade and what happens when she ‘flips’ and doesn’t like him anymore. it was a really cute and heartfelt movie. there’s a lot more than cliche love to this movie.

kevin basically watched his movie the entirety of the flight and said it wasn’t worth it LOL. he started playing pokemon while watching too. i watched ‘slumdog millionaire’ next. i actually have not seen the movie until now. i think it was pretty intense and great but the ending kind of cheapened the story. it didn’t really build up to anything. by that time, we had 20 minutes to land. my stomach wasn’t feeling so great after such a long flight and beans, but we made it. it was my first time going through customs and filling out the form before landing too. it was an easy process to go through because we didn’t bring in any fresh produce and stuff. we finally got our luggage and waited for the silver line~ the t took forever but we finally got home at like 2:30 pm, ordered burgers from kkatie’s burgers, showered, and picked up our food. it was pretty humid in boston and a bit rainy. i guess we bring the rain everywhere we go ;( after stuffing ourselves with fries and burgers, kevin drove us to spectacles where i got to pick up my glasses. it was really busy today so paul just adjusted my glasses for me and then sent me off.

we stoppped by roche bros to get fruit and then went back home to rest and unpack. i had to do some cleaning because my tea tree oil bursted in my bag :( but other than that, i just put everything in the laundry and put away our food stuff and souvenirs. i spent the rest of the evening digesting the food and looking into & other stories, uniqlo, and thredup. after seeing how everyone dressed in copenhagen and stockholm, i want to revamp my wardrobe. i also love my new glasses and how they look on me. there is no chromatic abberation and i see perfectly through them. so i have an updated accessory that fits my face and i love to wear. anyway, i purchased two pairs of wide ankle pants from uniqlo and started filling up my thredup basket. i’m not sure if i should go ahead and buy more clothes or just try to work with what i have right now. :/ hmmm. i talked with daniel for a bit and then worked on paying back kevin for travel stuff and paying students loans and documenting that in my spreadsheet. kevin and i both ko’d at around 11:30 pm because we were tired af. i can’t believe we stayed up that long tbh. i only got like 5 hours of sleep or so. my stomach wasn’t feeling so great either so i took meds and then went to sleep.

[END COPENHAGEN / STOCKHOLM VACATION ]

06: we woke up at 8 am and stayed in bed until 9 am. then we had breakfast and i started updating my tumblr. not sure if i should buy from thredup yet, but i’m still thinking about it. kevin gamed a bit after breakfast and then we meal planned around noon. it’s weird being back home to the normal routine. my stomach is feeling better but not 100% healed. we went grocery shopping and then cleaned the fridge, put away the luggage, did laundry, and i kept thinking about thredup lol. i managed to figure out with the help of friends and kevin, what to buy. i finally bought my first thredup box :) then i did some more internet errands and packed for tomorrow. kevin went to cook and i folded the clothes and then i did a 15 minute low-impact workout before eating. after digesting for a bit, i did a 20 minute low-impact workout and then went to shower. i was really tired... i was falling asleep during my workout even though it was only 10 pm. i watched some youtube videos before going to sleep at like 11:30 pm. zzzz. it was a very uneventful but well-needed rest day.

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jojosjourneys-blog · 8 years

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The end is close... so I guess a summary is in order...

Hakata. Japan.

In some ways the repeating of the same ports has been a blessing, of course you don't have as much excitement. You kind of know what you're getting, but if you do your own research and don't mind walking miles around a city unknown, then you really get to know the place. I don't experience the places at night, and that's quite strange actually, the latest we have is 7pm(no over-nights).

My relationship with Hakata has blossomed(get it, Japan: Blossom). I love Japan, as I've kept on saying, I would so love to backpack here, do a temple stay, see the breath-taking countryside.

I walked into Hakata the first time we stopped, I needed to feel solid ground under my tired feet and some real air. I just think that Japan has it right in many ways, it is so clean, calm, no one beeps their horns or drives like a crazy person. There are many tall buildings, having said that, dotted among the new smart buildings are older houses with Japanese lollypop trees pocking up in their small front gardens.

Before each port, I try to do a mix of research and but also factor in the opportunity of stumbling upon things, if you plan everything you can end up with tunnel vision, and I know I am guilty of that: blindly marching on because there are three things you HAVE to do that port in one day.

To The West Of Tenjin.

Firstly I wandered into the West of the city, Tenjin is one of the main areas where most of the crew go, I didn't know this because I didn't get the bus. But I found some wonderful treats near the Riverain Mall. Inside the Mall is the Art Museum, one of the best art collections I've seen in Asia, some very breath taking wrk and a great Macrobiotic cafe 'Evah', ('Macrobiotic' is Japanese vegetarian and vegan food, a variety is small portions similar to a tapas, with brown rice and miso soup).

Coming out of the Mall, you can cross and head down the covered shopping street heading to the north of the city. There are so many cute shops and restaurants. Oh and an Owl cafe... They seem to be treated well and are apparently rescue birds, but I didn't fancy it. Some of the cast went ans said it was fun, a little pricey though. I think I'd rather seem them flying about in the open.

Right across from the Owl cafe is a tiny cafe up some even smaller stairs, I couldn't find any details online, but its on the left handside, before you reach the Shimeagatainaka Shrine. It was a bit of a pricey coffee, but the simple calming decor and warm thick cut toast was worth it.

Just to the east of the Shrine you'll find the Hakata Canal Mall(https://canalcity.co.jp), I just wandered through here, Malls stress me out a bit, but the shopping looked great, and the nice water and curved line of the building made it pleasant. Further on to the North tucked away is the OBC cat cafe, so clean and simple, lots of fluffy ginger cats, not as friendly as other places but nice(https://cat-cafe-obc.webu.jp/map.html#contents).

Shrines.

The Shimeagatainaka Shrine is beautiful, not one of the biggest, I got a 'lucky strip' and tied it around a wire. My luck for this year was 'moderate', it had some rather worrying words of advice. Luckily I don't believe too much in that kind of thing.

Most temples have these wonderful big booming drums that resonate deeply. While the low chanting seeps through the perfectly carved wood of each temple, the drums round off the song nicely. I love the sandy gravel under foot and the tiny shrines in every corner. Locals clap their hands, bow gently or pull hard on the robust rope hanging in the front of each major praying station/alter.

It's hard to explain the Temples and Shrines. I think they have the most wonderful energy, and the fact there are tucked away amongst the crazy modern cities of Japan is quite magical.

Here are a few you should definitely go to see in Hakata city:

Shimeagatainaka shrine: Hakata Street.

Sumiyoshi shrine: Sumiyoshi dori street.

Tocho-ji, Big wooden Buddha Shrine.

Gokushomachi, behind Buddha, loads of shrines and temples.

Suikyo Shrine(nearer Tenjin)

If you feel like venturing out, you should hop on the train(https://www.hakatastation.com) and see the Big Reclining Buddha, Nanzo-in Temple(http://www.sasagurikanko.com/temple/nanzoin/). Not only is it one one of the most beautiful, peaceful Buddhas I've seen, the temple and surroundings are so pretty, small shrines, hundreds of statues and trickling water lead you up to the Buddha, the journey to and from the Buddha is just as magical. We were fortunate as Spring felt like making an appearance and it was quite lovely standing silently in the sun gazing at the Buddhas peaceful face.

Kidonanzoin-Mae is the nearest train station, just a few stops on the train from Hakata Main station. Which in itself is the coolest train station I think I've ever been to.

HAKATA Train Station Area.

Since I've just mentioned it, I might as well go on to share a few of the things I saw in the Northern part of the city near the station.

I haven't spent that much time in this area so my experience is probably limited.

The station, is huge. We were lucky to find the right train when going to Kidonanzoin-Mae. But its fabulous, lovely blue and white tiles cover every pillar, hand painted with flowers and animals. It's of course busy, but calm and organised(I mean of course it is, it's Japan).

We were getting rather peckish and the need for coffee was becoming obvious, maybe I'm a bad travel companion, but I just have a thing about going to chains, I don't think it enhances your cultural experience. I can go to a Coffee chain in the UK, why would I go to one in Japan, plus buying in a small place you're giving a hand to the little guy! So the others found what they needed and I found a gorgeous bakery, I wanted to buy everything, but my bank account and thighs wouldn't let me... I got a curry bun, probably not that good for you but sooooo yummy, curry with chickpeas and figs inside light bread. Like a curry sandwich. Don't miss it: Dean and Dulce market cafe. (http://www.deandeluca.co.jp/shop/detail.php?shop_id=5)

On another day I went up to the 6th floor of the building to the right of the Station called 'Kitte Hakata'. REC coffee(http://www.rec-coffee.com) is so simple but lovely, hidden in the corner behind rows of books it looks out onto the busy street, my walnut toast with herb soft cheese and pink pepper corns was good, and she made the coffee in front of me, literally. It was a lovely experience. I chatted to Luis here and did some people watching.

Later on, I wandered around and took in some sights and made my way to the Sumiyoshi shrine. I love this shrine, their are lots of trees, so they muffle the buzz of the city, suddenly you find yourself in an oasis. The sun shone down and I made friends with a lovely Cat, lets call him Dave two.

I wandered through the Gionmachi district to the see the Big Wooden Buddha (Tocho-ji)(https://www.klm.com/destinations/gb/en/article/largest-wooden-buddha-in-japan), this shrine is very impressive, bigger and more assertive than the reclining Buddha. Following the stairs up you are hit by a wonderful waft of incense, I always love the smell; it reminds me of being very happy in India. Your breath is literally taken away when you see this Buddha, I did a little gasp, maybe I even said 'wow', how very predictable of me. This Buddha has a different energy, not so peaceful, more powerful and assertive, but so beautiful, and the fact it is made out of wood is just incredible. Shafts of light danced around the room, the incense smoke creating a mysterious feel. I didn't stay too long, quite a few people were praying and it always feels a bit invasive.

Day light Kitchen does some lovely organic food and coffee(http://dlk-organic.jp), I stopped for a late lunch here, the food isn't quite as good as other places, but the bakery looked great. They have vegetarian options too.

The absolute highlight was my massage at 'ForREST'(momitoku.main.jp), my first visit was a bit hilarious, I couldn't get in the building, so I had to ask the Florist in the shop next door to help... finally the sliding door opened and I met a very kind Japanese lady who only spoke a few english words. With sign language and smiles we arranged a time. This massage was one of the best I've ever had. You wear lose clothing that they provide, you're wrapped in a blanket and it's all about pressure points. At one point she found sore points in my forearm I didn't even know were there. I had 60 minutes, they do many other offers and it is such a reasonable price. My massage was 2300Yen, which is around £16/17. I am determined to go back here again.

Tenjin Area and the East.

Tenjin is the main hubbub area of the city, you'll find main street shopping like HnM and Zara.

It's a nice area, lots of restaurant and shops, I like the East Area of the city, it feels a bit more like London.

The Art Museum is pretty basic, it was showing local work from the college, the Japanese seem so smart; all the displays were so well done and some of the Manga art work was amazing.

For food, the East of Tenjin is great. I found the 'Rota Cafe' which was lovely, Macrobiotic Vegan food, you climb some very skinny stairs and sit in a bright and airy room. (rota-cafe.com) I headed to Eggs n Things, to subdue my omelette craving, a rather weird Omelette but yummy all the same.(eggsnthingsjapan.com) Suzu cafe is hidden at the top of a building, so small and cozy, the coffee was ok, the food looked great, but there are only so many lunches I can fit in!(completecircle.co.jp)

If you feel like stretching your legs Ohari Park is beautiful. The huge lake/pond seems to stretch on for miles, the Japanese Garden and tea rooms were nice, if a little bare in Winter, they aren't that cheap to enter, but are very peaceful and so well designed.(ohorikouen.jp)

Near the art gallery by the river you can find the 'Suikyo Shrine', it's nice but quite small, but running along the side of shrine, there are a row of tiny restaurants, we found the best Tempura restaurant, only space for about 6 people to eat. We sat at the bar and watched the chef cook. I wish I could speak Japanese, so we could've talked with them. The experience was great as was the food.

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benjamingarden · 4 years

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Weekending

Hello beautiful weather! And I'm not only talking about the sunshine. It rained Thursday and Friday and my garden is loving it. Hooray for rain! Then, Saturday and Sunday it was sunny and in the upper 60's and then 70's which meant my little seeds began sprouting. And quite happily I might add. Well, at least I think they seem happy. Seeds are sprouting, plants are growing, and fruit trees and bushes are getting ready to bloom. All is well in the garden. Jay was even able to get one of my new raised beds completed. I will fill it with soil and compost tomorrow and it will be set to plant in a couple of weeks. One down, one to go!

Coop Girls - oh those girls. So, they are back in full egg production again. I have no idea why it slowed briefly but they are now back on track and laying around a dozen per day. They are so funny about water. We've started filling their outdoor waterers again (now that they don't freeze every night) and for whatever reason, those outdoor waterers dish out the BEST water. They watch me fill them and then mob me to get the first drink as soon as the waterers are hung. *spoiler alert - it's the same exact water as the indoor water....*

Jackson - that cat. His newest "trick" is to go around the house and try to open things. Drawers, cupboards, anything that he can tap at or pull. Well I made him quite the happy boy. I saw him doing this throughout the day (it's his only activity some days in between naps) so I put two of his favorite toys in one of the empty soft bins that is on his route. I can't even describe how excited he was when he successfully pulled that bin open and spotted his pink mouse and his green cricket. He did a double take and then leapt in the air and attempted to land in the bin (he's not graceful - it didn't work). He started batting and jumping and carrying on. It's the little things, isn't it?

Oliver - he's doing well. A bit bummed about the rain this week but it was only a couple days so all is well now that his buns are in the sun. He gets a little cranky on soapmaking days (not his favorite days of the week because he doesn't get much attention). It will get better when the temps are consistently in the 70's during the day to allow for all-day deck time for him. If he gets deck time I am forgiven for the lack of attention.

In The Kitchen - well, I've finally stopped making so much bread. I feel better not eating flour multiple days of the week, I must say. I have cut it back to once a week. That seems to be the best for us. I've been enjoying the Celestial Seasonings "zinger" teas. I am currently drinking the raspberry zinger variety. Hibiscus is one of the main ingredients and so incredibly good for you. I brew it cold and leave it in the fridge so I can enjoy a cup all week. I don't usually make the switch to iced tea for another few weeks but it just sounded good. I made chocolate-strawberry "nice cream" (non-dairy) as a special treat this weekend and it was sooooo good. I'll share the recipe this week. I also tossed a bunch of odds and ends veggies that are getting close to that fateful no-longer-good stage, on a parchment lined baking sheet and roasted them at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for about 30-40 minutes. After they were roasted I poured them into a dutch oven, topped them with some water, added a bay leaf, and simmered the concoction for 2 hours to make a nice batch of homemade vegetable stock.

On Saturday we had oatmeal and berries for breakfast. Pretty standard. I had a big delicious salad with hummus for lunch, and Jay had naan "pizza" in the air fryer and we both had an apple dipped in honey-roasted peanut butter as a snack. Dinner was grilled chicken for him with homefries and steamed broccoli, and I had barley with steamed vegetables and black beans. Sunday was oatmeal with berries for breakfast for me and Jay had eggs and toast. Lunch was another big delicious salad for me and Jay wasn't hungry because he ate his breakfast kind of late. Chocolate-Strawberry Nice Cream was our special fruit treat (strawberries and bananas). Dinner was burgers - meat for Jay and black bean for me. I made air fryer fresh french fries, steamed broccoli and beets as the sides. I made up another batch of the black bean burgers for the freezer because I can use these anytime I'm not sure what I want for lunch or dinner. I'm hoping you had a wonderful weekend as well! Do tell - did you do anything fun or productive? Cook anything delicious? Read a great book? Link Love: Have you ever searched Taste Atlas for signature dishes in cities or countries around the world? It can become a tad addictive.... When was the last time you made bread in your rice cooker? Never? Yup, that's my answer too. Intriguing, however.... (Food52) I understand that you've likely been inundated with enough about the current pandemic, but I thought this write-up in the NY Times was quite informative. (NYTimes) Are you one of the many who ran out of yeast? Beth shared a yeast-free pizza dough recipe on her site. (BudgetBytes) Is kombucha healthy or not-healthy? This is a question I go back and forth over myself. I haven't had any in over a year because I'm just not sure. So, I have tea instead. Here's a take on it with some interesting points including a reminder of the potential impact on teeth. (FoodRevolution) A handy guide for the kitchen of interchangeable ingredients by none other than the incredible Mark Bittman. (Heated)

Weekending was originally posted by My Favorite Chicken Blogs(benjamingardening)

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imchick · 5 years

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For our fourth day in Japan, hubby got us another Klook Tour: Kyoto and Nara Day Tour! I’m excited to meet the deers since they always seem so friendly. ❤

I love how peaceful the whole place is. The temple is surrounded by a pond in the middle of a garden full of trees and plants. No wonder it used to be a retirement place.

But before you get to the temple, you will pass by this house that used to be the living quarters of the head priest. See? It really is surrounded by lovely trees! especially in autumn. ❤

Next Stop: Kasuga Tai-sha

Next: Arashiyama Bamboo Grove

I normally won’t go for Gyoza since I feel like the meat usually is dry. But this is good. ❤ The sauce is perfect, it was soft and the meat was not dry. Thumbs Up!

We also managed to try Grilled Crabs and Rice Cakes too. There’s a bunch of stores lined up in the streets and I’m a bit overwhelmed. We both wanted to try everything. 😛

Another Stop: Fushimi Inari Taisha – It is famous for its thousands of Vermilion Torii Gates.

Fun Fact: The thousand gates are donated by different individuals — and their names are written on the gates. One gate costs around 400,000 yen.

Our Last Stop: Nara Park

A very large park home to hundreds of deers. ❤

Another fun fact: Deer Crackers are just wheat flour and rice bran. And all of the profits from the crackers are used for the sole purpose of protecting the deers.

Before we left for Nara, we also found a good spot:

Going back, I think everyone went back at around 6:30 pm and we left by 7:00 pm. There’s also a store where you can buy your souvenirs even deer shaped chocolates too! ❤

It’s been good, Nara and Kyoto. ❤ I cannot wait to go back and explore you more! We got back at around 8:30 pm and since it was late, we went to dinner straight.

Dinner at Matsusakagyu Yakiniku M (The restaurant is quite famous so they require reservations.)

A winner in the 2018 TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice awards for restaurants, ranking number 1 in Japan, and number 5 in Asia.

We first heard about this place from a friend who is pretty well traveled. We were warned that it is quite pricey — and it is. I believe this is our most expensive meal in our entire stay in Japan.

We ordered the Matsusaka Tasting Platter for 3,000 Yen – 2 pieces for each type of beef. The Beef that’s included are Sirloin Steak, Kyukyoku and Haneshita.

We ordered the Pork Okonomiyaki with Big Size Octopus for 550 Yen with Draft Beer at 430 Yen.

I don’t really eat Okonomiyaki. But I tried it – hubby says it’s good. The size is huge too!

Okonomiyaki, when translated means ‘grilled as you like it’. It’s a Japanese Pancake with cabbage, flour, eggs and variety of meat.

And that ends our Fourth Day! 😀 We are pretty productive, don’t you think? Sad to be leaving tomorrow. 😦

TRAVEL: Japan Day 4 For our fourth day in Japan, hubby got us another Klook Tour: Kyoto and Nara Day Tour!

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