A LAKE, A BREAK & IT'S BACK TO TOKYO

Kumoba-ike (雲場池) in the rain.

A little cafe in the woods - ル シエル. Lovely, but pricey.

The famous Karuizawa fog casting a dreamy spell before we left.

OF RAINDROPS & FRESH SPRING LEAVES

My own little totoro moment. We were in Karuizawa for the day.

Just to get out of the rain a bit, we headed for the old Mikasa Hotel. It was the oldest western-style hotel resort in Japan, built entirely by Japanese architects and carpenters in 1905.

As a carpenter's daughter, anything made of wood instantly appeals to me.

The hotel was actually a lot smaller than we thought and fell a little short of expectations, but we enjoyed the walk back to the bus stop immensely. Look at all those fresh spring leaves!

Later on, at the Harunire Terrace (ハルニレ・テラス） for lunch. It's a newly opened cluster of restaurants and shops at the Hoshino area.

As usual, I can't get enough of the trees.

LIKE MAGIC

We hadn't planned on Enoshima initially but at the last minute decided to drop by and see if we could spot some cats (the place's full of them). Imagine our surprise when we didn't come across a single one during our first half of the walk towards the beach. 

A tad disappointed, we decided to take a break at a little traditional sweets shop for some macha and good old warabi-mochi. But as the sun slowly set towards the horizon, almost like magic we saw them appear one by one, from bushes and under fences, as though some internal clock had woken them from their naps and cued them for their evening strolls all at the same time.

Or maybe, something like instinct had told them that it was dinnertime ;)

KITA-KAMAKURA

I can't remember exactly how many times I've been there, or even what I had always done, but walking around this place always put me in an instant good mood.

We were too early for the famous purple ajisai.

But stumbled upon the bunny and turtle in B's photo. (B! I've just realized, the turtle's moved!)

A signboard for coffee among the many residential homes.

Ishikawa coffee.

As beautiful as what I had expected.

We were in between breakfast and lunch, and so had the place all to ourselves.

We only walked a little bit more.

Before deciding that we could do lunch again.

Kyorai-an (去来庵）

A Jap friend once told me that if I wanted really good food, go to the small shops that don't have a variety. This one offered nothing but beef stew, and it was good, so good.