YOKOSUKA

A day out with Kiri-chan is always a real treat because she always knows the best places for a camera outing. This time was a trip to the Yokosuka Museum of Art where we took a long leisurely stroll by the beach.

To be honest as someone from the tropics I was not used to this other wintry side to the sea, but I was surprised to find the foggy skies and gloomy waters beautiful in its own way. I must say I found it rather inspiring.

SPOTTED WHILE WALKING

Ordinary everyday scenes from the recent Tokyo trip, but somehow I like them.

Some happy news to share, HC and I will be flying off to New Zealand (middle earth !!!) next week for around 2 weeks. 

It's one of those places where you don't realize how far away they are until you buy the plane tickets to find that you're going to clock a 10 to 12 hours flight. I was chatting with a friend from Minnesota and he oohed and aahhed about New Zealand before groaning to find that it will take close to 30 hours for him to get there, transits and all.

We'll be mainly driving around the South Island, with a short venture to the north to Wellington. By the way, would anyone happen to know of any great cafes or restaurants in Wellington? Would be grateful if you could share =)

A FEW OF MY FAVOURITE THINGS (THIS TIME ROUND) #02

From top>>

AtoZ cafe : yes I am a big fan of Yoshitomo Nara.

International Libray of Children's Literature : I spent as much time exploring the 106 year old building as the children's books on display.

A FEW OF MY FAVOURITE THINGS (THIS TIME ROUND) #01

An amazing new venture in Tokyo, the 2K540. I got to know about this through a very good friend Kiri-chan, and popped over to take a look. It is an area under the railway tracks gathering the best in artisan shops and products. I was too poor to buy anything *lol* but had a great time just looking and chatting with the shop staff, who would come up to you readily to explain about the works.

Photos below, probably the biggest and most interesting Muji shop I've been to so far.

*Private Msg*

Kiriちゃん、２K540のことを紹介してくれてありがとう！次の日にちょっと寄ってみたの。あまり時間がなくてゆっくり見ることができなかったけど、次回Kiriちゃんと一緒に行ったら絶対１０倍楽しくなると思う。またチャンスがあったら、一緒に行こうね＾＾ Miss you.

OF A TOKYO HOLIDAY & FREEZING WINTER WALKS

HC got an unexpected call for a week of work in Tokyo and so me, the constant free-rider (i.e. an individual who pays less than their fair share of the cost of a common resource), got my wish for donning winter scarves and boots. It was also my first time in Tokyo to stay in a proper hotel, I usually crash with good friends (see: free-rider definition above again) or stay budget.

First to some of our favourite haunts. If you know HC's penchant for eggs you'll know why we have to go Rakeru everytime.

Randomly checking out some of Tokyo's beautiful shops, it's very lucky that I'm more of a love-looking-less-buying kind of person.

This shop stopped me in my tracks but sadly it was closed. I think I spent around 10 minutes in the freezing cold trying to peep into the interior.

A Japanese friend used to call me hare-onna or sunny-girl because it appears that everytime I go out with her it will be sunny (even if the weather forecast confidently says 'cloudy' or 'rain'), but the sun only shone one day when I was there this time, I guess my hare powers must have been weakened by my long absence from Japan.

More photos coming up, but first to all who celebrate, Happy Chinese New Year! Gong Xi Gong Xi!