Kyoto, Japan

After years of enjoying animes and mangas, we've finally decided to visit Japan. Well of course, the flight tickets discount helped too.

You know you're in Japan when everything is cute.

 First stop, Fushimi Inari Shrine. Terrible weather, everything look dim and sad. Though it was quite cold (very under dressed). Luckily it wasn't as crowded as I thought, so it's not that bad.

 

Peep hole. Photos got rather noisy at this point, gloomy weather.

Obligatory blessed water drinking. Was praying hard for the clouds to go away.

Candid shot is always better than pretentious try hard model wannabe shots.

Interesting origami hung along the fence. I was told that these were made by people that wished for something. And the prettier the origamis were made the better their chances of getting their wish fulfilled. 

Time for some local street food. Takoyaki and some skewered pork dipped in some kinda sweet soy sauce. Delicious!

These gates are built along the path way to the top of the mountain (233 meters. Yes, we climbed all the way to the top and our legs regretted every single step). I see different names from different organizations written on these gates. Presumably donated by them. 

I've waited quite a while for this shot. The crowd obviously swarmed the place given the most popular spot in the place. 

The water is freezing cold, they're using it to keep the drinks ice cold. Again, terribly under dressed. 

Typical tourist shot, also an excuse to stop and rest. My legs were breaking apart at this point.

Cat clearly knew how tired we were.

Big groups of students on their way in. So those field trips shown in animes are real. Very jealous. :(

So we left the shrine and searched for a place to rest and eat. It's not hard to look for the type of food that you wanted in Japan. It's almost customary to have plastic food dishes presented near every restaurant, and they are often labeled with price. 

At around 5:30pm, it's already dark. We headed back to the hostel and rested for a bit. We walked around the area, searching for convenient stores. 

Kyoto part 2, Japan

We saw an interesting scene in an anime (K-On) where the school girls visited a mountain and fed some monkey. We did some research and this place is highly recommended. It's the monkey park in Iwatayama.

We saw a couple of these rickshaws around but never got on to try this as we wanted to walk, looks fun. I guess it's a lot more enjoyable if you understands Japanese as it looks like some sorta tour around the area, in Japanese.

Never got sick of these takoyaki, Takoyaki in Japan is best takoyaki. The toppings are different from store to store.

On our way to Iwatayama monkey park. We got lost originally and took the wrong path. Had to ask around and got pointed towards the correct direction. We reached the entrance and was a bit worried that it'll be a flop as it's dead quiet. Not a single tourist was spotted.

God damnit, we're only half way there. And I got more and more nervous as our entire hike, we only saw like 1 person going down hill. 

Finally here! Luckily we kept on going despite the lack of visitors. Most of the visitors were hanging out here on the top. We proceeded in to the small house. We get buy some peanuts here and we're only allowed to feed the monkeys from within the room. We might get mugged if we brought deez nutz outside. 

Once we're done feeding them, we got out to chill with them monkeys. They're pretty well behaved. I guess they're aware that they could only get food around the feeding house.

Here's the view of the area. We hiked all the way up from the bottom. Jesus, that's twice now, with BAD SHOES!

We headed down and saw some street food. This is some rice cake/egg thinggy. Nice and juicy.

Doraemon's favorite, dorayaki. 

Saw this crazy crowded store, filled with girls. Got in and the entire store is filled with handcrafted souvenirs. Immediately understood why the store was filled with girls. lol

Everything is so well made. Not one deformed stuff animal was found.

We then took the train and visited Arashiyama for the beautiful extensive bamboo grove. There are several spots with pretty dense bambo grove so actually kinda got lost in the area but the place is still beautiful nonetheless. 

After some nice stroll through the scenic area, we arrived at Daikakuji Temple. In most part of the temple, you're required to wear their cloth slipper so you don't damage the floor. You'll know why later.

The temple is very well kept and the established pathway for the visitors are very scenic.

How well kept? Look at the floor, it's like a friggin mirror!

Stay tune for more! :D

Japan Travel Itinerary

Itinerary and more info here.

Farm In The City, Malaysia

Farm in the City is a place that most animals roams freely. The admission fee of the place is RM30 for adults and RM25 for children below 12.

Seoul part 2, Korea

Changdeokgung Palace is set within a large park in Jongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea. It is one of the “Five Grand Palaces” built by the kings of the Joseon Dynasty.

Seoul part 1, Korea

At 8:30 am we arrived at Gimhae international airport (Busan). 

We collected our Olleh wifi egg in the airport and looked for the tourist information counter for the Busan "Grand Sale Coupon" Book. After that, we took the subway to Busan station and  KTX to Seoul.

South Korea Trip - Itinerary and Info

Firstly. we planned to go Seoul-Busan-Jeju , but its seems a bit rushing for us. Therefore, we decided to go Seoul-Busan-Gyeongju.

Sekeping Serendah, Malaysia

City life can be suffocating. So bunch of my friends planned for this mini getaway~! There are 3 types of 'sheds' available (glass, timber and warehouse).

Day 6 in Taipei, Taiwan

The main gate - Liberty Square (自由廣場)