japan adventure - day 3

the first building inside the Kinkakuji complex. just a little note: kin = gold, gin = silver.

entrance was around 300Y

Kinkakuji Temple, also known as the Golden Pavilion. if only i could sit on those wooden floor, look out the peaceful scenery everyday, i wouldn't so stressed at all!

the nearest i could get to a bullet train! they said that the fare from kyoto to tokyo is around 250USD. wow, so expensive, don't you think?

as usual, we were late in leaving the apartment so we had a late lunch (the lunch we took at the apartment was just breakfast, really). so this is my lunch for this day. rice with nori on it packed in plastic and fried chicken which we bought from a convenience store. eating this made me feel so modern japanese, while sitting on an open set of steps outside the fushimi-inari area. just like old times in UP.

the first Tori we saw as we headed to the "real" ones inside the Fushimi-inari complex

we feel like we're in the set of Memoirs of a Geisha despite the fact that we were bitten by too many monster mosquitoes at this place. my sister's legs were so red and so namaga after being bitten by them. luckily, we have brought a Katinko to relieve the itchiness, discomfort and pain. anyways, at the back of these toris are the names of the people who donated to have them built

i think these are the names of the donors in this place. all i can say is that they are beautifully written on these perfectly cut wooden blocks

oh no, oh yes! Wicked is playing in Osaka. but of course, we didn't dare watch it because it's in Japanese. would just be a waste of time. would rather watch it in english and in broadway or west end. when would that be, my guess is as good as yours.

09/28/10

japan adventure - day 2

at the bus near gen's place at ginkakuji. we're trying to learn how to read the bus times, numbers and stops :)

walking along the famous philosopher's path going towards ginkakuji (silver pavilion). they say that in spring, this place is beautiful is spectacular with the cherry blossoms

zen garden inside the silver pavilion

a wishing pond inside the ginkaku-ji 

the silver pavilion was built in the 1940s and was named not because it was covered in silver foil but because that was the initial plan

we really had to take a picture of this forest inside the complex. if only my father could see this personally, he'd be in heaven. this is one of my father's loves - beautiful forests

shijo area where we went looking for the nishiki market :) right in the middle of this place are lots of shrines!

inside the nishiki market where you can find most of japanese goods!

the best new thing i discovered at the nishiki market - vegetables in tubs of miso so they can be preserved

this is one of the street foods that got me curious at nishiki. it's an octopus stuffed with quail's egg. my friend said that in japan, most of the time, when you pick something up for a free taste, you are expected to buy that product. so unlike in the philippines when you can just grab a stick for a taste and just walk away if you don't like it.

shrines right inside the nishiki complex. i guess that if you don't look for it, you won't even notice it

my first sushi meal! this was already cheap at 220Y per plate which includes only 2 sushis

one of the best experiences in kyoto - sushi bar! although sushi are being replaced regularly on the conveyor belt, you can still order what you want on the computer beside your table. it will then be delivered by an express train on the second level conveyor belt, as anni is doing in this picture. the train even looks like a bullet train!

while waiting for my sister's friend near the keihan train station. the houses beside the river becomes a night destination in summer.

geisha statue just right beside the bridge at the keihan station (i assume it was keihan station)

this water fountain is usually found right in the entrance of any temples in japan. i once read that one must wash their hands first before going inside the temple. i noticed that some do not but for those who do, they even drank and washed their faces here!

looking towards the street from the yasaka shrine gate

for those who watched the virgin snow, where a korean guy visited kyoto, this is where the guy met the girl he fell in love with. i got my first japanese fortune here but unfortunately, nobody could read it for me because it's in japanese text!

the nearest i could get to see a japanese cemetery. this is far off the mountain behind the buddha we saw while walking towards kiyomizu-dera

going up and up and up towards the kiyomizu-dera temple. we walked so far the complex beginning from the yasaka shrine. you could imagine how tired we were by this time and we still have a lot of ground to cover. we also had to walk fast so we could make it before closing time at 5p! :) gen's famous lines for those lagging behind was: "we're near, just ten more steps." and upon arriving on the last steps, she'll then say "okay, another walk to the left, but we're near!" LOL. how our companions must have hated us! LOL.

the entrance hall of kiyomizu-dera

the famous tourist photo of the kiyomizu-dera. this stage looks like it's suspended in air

the love shrine's love stone. it's said that when you reach this rock while walking blindfolded from the opposite end, you will find your true love unaided soon. for those who needs help reaching the rock will need help in finding that one true love. the first time i tried it, i was way off and the second time, i was aided by my friends. so i guess that means i need help to find my true love, huh? :)

on our way back, we saw these people lining up for something. when we got closer, we saw that they were drinking fresh water coming way up from the mountain. as tourists, we hurriedly lined up to try it. the mugs we used, for hygiene purposes, are placed in ultraviolet containers for cleaning before being used again by the others

notice that the basement of the temple is only made out of woods that are not supported by bolts (according to my friend). it's like the original bridge of sighs at cambridge.

the kiyomizu-dera gate is so orange, don't you think?

the bus on our way back to the ginkaku-ji area :)

09/28/10

japan adventure - day 1

a couple of weeks ago, my sister and friend flew to osaka for a visit to our friend who lives in kyoto. we were also to meet another friend who was coming in from kanazawa. this trip has a lot of fun promise and we can't wait to land in japan. below are photos we took during our trip and a little tidbit about it... have fun looking over the photos. i would try to say something about it as much as i can for those who are also planning to visit the place... :)

 on our way to osaka onboard cebu pacific last august 28

just landed at kansai international airport. this place is one of the biggest i've seen and the fun part was looking outside the window and seeing this giant ferris-wheel thing, like a landmark at the airport. we arrived around 6pm.

grabbing our bags, we headed to the shuttle that will lead us to the main arrivals wall for our proper immigration check. as usual, there's a separate line for foreign nationals and fingerprints were taken together with a picture. but before all these, we were greeted by this box of diorama showing traditional japanese dolls. later, as i was looking for a foreign exchange counter (1 USD = ~82Y), i noticed several other boxes like this one containing samurai figures and temples.

however, kansai wasn't our final destination but kyoto. to get there, we had to take another one-hour train ride to the kyoto station. we had to go through a bridge going towards the JR express train. since most of the texts were in japanese, we were just grateful that our friend left instructions for us to buy a haruka express train. this ticket cost us 2000Y which was 900Y less than its regular price. this ticket is only available for foreigners staying in japan for at least 15 days.

at kyoto station, we were greeted by our friend the moment we turned the exit turnstyle. it was all so fun! :) behind her, as we were all hugging each other, we could see the kyoto tower and noticed later, astroboy! oh yeah, we were now really in japan. going to our friends place in ginkakuji, we had to take a 45-min bus ride. it was a long trip but arriving in kyoto safely, seeing our friend, and looking forward to the next few days' adventure, was well worth it.

09/28/10

planning things ahead

sometimes, it is better to plan things ahead. they can't say no to you :)

i am finally set to go with my sister and friend to somewhere new next week! thanks be to God for this chance! :)

will keep you posted soon.

a child in my arms

held a child in my arms yesterday. it felt so good. can't wait to have one of my own someday. yeah... someday...

thanks, kbq, for bringing your child at the office. he sure was lots of fun! :)

after the cable car tour

just a reminder to my very few readers: my langkawi trip was very hectic (and internet-less) so the write-ups concerning this trip was written a few weeks after it happened. i am only keeping up with the date it happened so it would appear chronological. if you notice, the tense kind of follows the date when it happened, not when it was written.

after the cable tour, we dropped off a few of our companions to the airport where they will be catching their flights home. as for the rest of us, we later decided to go down the street parallel the chenang beach for a quick lunch. it was already 1 o'clock in the afternoon. so the four us, together with the workshop coordinator and his wife, walked towards the beach to find a place where we can eat. aaaah! the feel of the sand between my toes was heaven! :) well, as you might have guessed, i decided to walk along the beach on foot. heaven, heaven, heaven! :)

the restaurant we went to looked nice but i wasn't able to eat any local dishes because i think they have a foreign clientele who mostly orders food that is familiar to them. that is why i had pasta. i wanted to try out their satay but it was only available after 7 o'clock in the evening. (hmmm... i wonder how the o'clock term originated).

parasailing at chenang beach

 

 present day bioturbation. my slipper for scale.

it was a good place to bum around but we had to go back to the hotel soon because we were due to check out by 3pm and we weren't done packing up yet. it was a very weird arrangement with the hotel (and one we can't change) so after checking out at 3pm, we decided to put our bags to the storage room first, then bum around at the beach side until it was time for us to be picked up by the travel agents for our evening flight to singapore. i thought there was nothing more we can discover waiting there (unless you count the finding out that the hotel wifi didn't reach the beach side) but i was mistaken. i'm glad we became hungry.

enjoying our last few hours at langkawi by the beach

our hunger (and worry that we won't be able to have a proper dinner at the airport) led us to another restaurant just in front of the hotel -- Cactus. it was drizzling when we went there and the rain picked up after a while but that didn't get much of my attention. what did was the football club flags surrounding the place. it was pretty simple, with simple flooring, tables and chairs but to see the flags is pretty amazing. or was it just because i'm a football fan and the WC had just finished? oh well, never mind. the first flag that caught my attention was spain's. wow, iniesta! the second one was portugal's and then a football jersey of torres (#9). i just had to have pictures with it so i prodded my friend to take pictures of me with those items. another amazing "decoration" of this resto is the ceiling with lots of things written on it with chalk from many of their previous customers. the oldest one we saw was from 2003. we would have wanted to write ours but the only place available was at the back and we just didn't think that our writing would make a big impact when it would be written at the back where no one could see it.

the cactus restaurant was riddled with football club flags

 

 one of the writings on the ceiling. liked this one because the lionel name makes me think of messi :)

the most important thing though about cactus is their mean pasta and satay! my friends ordered pasta and me, chicken satay. the pasta has that tomato taste that i always look for in a pasta dish and the satay serving (10 sticks) has very large meat pieces on the stick and the peanut sauce wasn't too strong. i loved it! if i was given another chance to go to langkawi, i wouldn't miss going back here.

chicken satay. Yummy! that's with the capital Y! :)

another thing i liked about this place was the manager (or was he the owner? i don't know). he was very nice (he gave us free fruit dessert) and to while away the time, he gave us puzzles to occupy ourselves with while waiting for the rain to stop. fortunately, the rain did stop a couple of minutes before we were set to be picked up by our agent.

since i have nothing very significant to add anymore, except maybe the time i was held up at the x-ray counter at the airport because of my sand sample placed in a water bottle, here is a bullet of what occurred after our cactus trip:

630p - picked up by the ride to the airport

700p - checked-in our luggages

800p - passed thru immigration; at the pre-departure are

830p - boarding time

900p - got caught in runway traffic; flight delayed

1030p - arrived at sg; found out that there was a mix-up with our bags

1045p - at the lost and found baggage counter of changi airport; left without my bag

1100p - taxi queuing

1130p - arrived at royal park hotel where i'd be staying at a friend's

this is one crazy day, isn't it?!

the baggage story will have its own blog entry soon because it was a learning experience.

written on 08/19/10

cable car

 

this is 7 o'clock in the morning, malaysia time

today, we were treated to a tour of the langkawi cable car. yesterday, the guide asked us to be at the meeting place by 9 o'clock in the morning so that we can leave early and therefore, won't have to queue for long, especially since there will be a large group from the sun princess coming in that morning. however, the site opened late today because of the early morning rain. that is why we were able to visit a shop where they make sea cucumber massage oil. they say that this is one of the best known langkawi products in the market and it was discovered mainly by fishermen.

the smell was really bad! but i guess it's the price you have to pay for when you want a massage oil

the cucumber shop wasn't very exciting for me especially since the sales person in the store doesn't speak english. i could ask what i would be buying but i was just not that interested (i prefer my katinko, betet, omega and salonpas, thank you), so i got back to the bus right away.

after thirty minutes, we were on our way to the cable cars, towards the machinchang mountains. on our way, we passed by the yacht club where we were told that waves from the previous tsunami reached the top floor of the buildings there. from what i can see though, the area is full of construction. what interested me the most here where the yachts and the fact that near here was one of the filming locations of Anna and the King.

the yacht club area

the trip took us about half an hour and when we got there, we were the sixth bus. that means, there were already five tour bus passengers from the princess ahead of us in the queue. luckily, when we got there, the line wasn't that long yet. our entrance pass was a sticker "pinned" to our chest and it was color gray. the malaysians have blue tags. i was told that this is because malaysians have discount when they ride the cars. as of this writing, i checked and the cost for foreigners to gain entry to the cars is 25MYR. not bad, i guess.

 

map of the complex

entrance area to the cable cars

the ride to the third (and last) station took us about fifteen minutes. one of our companions though, had to get out of the second station because she was having a panic attack. the first segment to the ride was a steep one so i guess she couldn't help it when the altitude changed very fast. the ride for me though was really exciting. although i thought we were going fast, i got the chance to see the very green mountains and the beautiful view of the sea. it was like a green earth sandwiched between two blues -- the sky and the sea. along the horizon, we can see scattered islands and it made me think where the country of thailand starts! looking down, we were able to spot the seven wells waterfalls to our right side and another falls, albeit a small one, to the left.

seven wells falls

going up, we were so excited that we just had to move around to see everything. it was a blatant disregard for our guide's suggestion that we do not move much so we won't have to deal with dizziness. lucky for me, my companions weren't that sensitive nor scared. even the two chinese guys we were with were excited (even if they cannot express it much in english :D). what amazed us most though were the granite formation of the machinchang and its structural complexity. going up, we could see large scale fractures all over and if we could only have days and the means to do it, i for one would have a field day doing structural readings. it was that amazing! oh well... that is, if they do not have the same angle and strike directions -- or else it would be pretty boring! LOL.

here are a couple of pictures from our machinchang mountain cable car tour:

going up and up!

looking back down

one of the longest suspension bridge 

(we were told that this was built by the brother of a famous race car driver who decided to settle in langkawi)

see the granite fractures? amazing!

the highlands and i love the fresh air!

yeah, we are 705 m amsl :)

written on 08/19/10