Takayama (Day 2)

It was snowing the next morning! But as I took too long to get ready, I missed the entire scene which lasted only 5 mins. (pinched this pic from my colleague) And talking about taking a long time to get ready, you'll soon realise that there will not be a breakfast post cos I never made it to breakfast for almost the entire trip. Dressing up takes up way too much time for me! My dear friends will tell you that I am incorrigible :p

Checked out of the hotel early & moving on to the next town Takayama

Some gorgeous scenes that I saw along the bus journey

1st stop is Takayama Jinya - a local government office headed by the Shogun. Note the flower pattern border on the top right tatami mat - it's reserved for top officials. The plain ones are for the common folks.

Check out the thick snow accumulated in the yard

The snow-capped garden was so picturesque.

Simply must have a pic! (I hated the beanie but it's too cold to worry about how I look :p)

Those clay figurines were once upon toys for the Japanese kids. And I realised that Japanese men were really short in the past. Seen in the collage is a tea-room with a really short door & very low ceiling. The other pic of the box-like thing is a carriage for the Shogun. I wish there was some means of comparison so that you can see how small it really is. Amazing stuffs!

This is their torture chamber - displaying some of the torture instruments

We saw the front of the building carpeted with thick snow & couldn't resist diving in for a shot.

End of tour & moving on to another place

My colleagues were all impressed with my skill of taking self-potraits. They had no idea how much practice was involved! :p

This is HIDA beef - only 2nd to Kobe beef

Ta-daa! Lunch!

Extremely happy to be out of the cold & of course happy that I'll be eating very soon

Naturally everyone will be tucking in to Hida beef

But I don't take beef so this is what I ate. Very honestly, I can't remember, even while looking at these pictures, what was it I ate. But it was extremely disappointing eating half-burnt vegetables while the rest were gorging themselves with meat. I remember though the leaf used was magnolia leaf & this is 1 traditional way of them eating their food.

Our tour guide Hiro san showing us the town's lucky figurine - a monkey (you can never figure it out in what way it actually resembles a monkey :p) It's also said that mothers give them to their daughters so that they can get a good husband. Hee~ I bought 1 for Meg :D

Ringing the temple bell

As we were walking, we saw a stall selling BBQ rice balls. Of course we stopped to buy. It looks like fishball but tastes of starch.

It was the week of the Girl's Festival (Maki Kubo) & we saw some houses displaying their dolls. I bought some sweets with the Maki Kubo theme & gave them to Meg. It's her festival too after all :)

We walked past another store, now selling ice-cream. And again, of course we stopped to buy. On sale are the traditional Japanese ice-cream - black sesame or green tea.

Yatai Kaikan - which holds the floats for the Takayama festival. There are a total of 11 floats, each belonging to 1 town. These elaborately decorated floats are over several hundred years old & will be paraded during the festival.

Visited another shrine

Write your wishes on the bamboo sticks then throw coins into the box for your wishes to come true

Can't remember what's this place but it's got magnificient lights that illuminate these miniature buildings - changing from daylight to dark.

Can you spot me?

Carried on walking to our next destination.Had wanted a pic of Yain Ping & Evelyn but Ivan loves the camera. -_-""

I love these few shots that I captured

Takayama Old Town - it's beautifully preserved with many buildings and whole streets of houses dating from the Edo Period (1600-1868)

I wasn't accusing him when I said Ivan loves the camera ......

Taking our pics in peace cos Ivan got busy with a bicycle he found at the the side. (For some reason or another, it must have been really funny cos I can see KC cracking up in the background :p)

Hello Kitty in the 'monkey' suit!

These are sake breweries which is characterized by the Sugidama (balls made of cedar branches) hung over the entrance

I learnt that there's a different significance or meaning in relations to the hand that's raised by the wealth cat. Right hand brings in money whereas left hand brings in customers.

And after a long day, we've finally checked into our hotel - Hida Hotel Plaza Takayama. Again it's a traditional onsen hotel & once again I dragged my futon to bunk with the 2 babes. I'm a happy person again when faced with this wide variety of food for dinner.

I was never a meat person but I found myself craving for meat in Japan.

Dessert!

Jeslyn taking a pic for Ivan in front & all the time he's oblivious to the girls playing pranks behind him. See ...... still can turn & smile into my camera :p

Go Cheri!

1 of the float is on display at the hotel instead

All showing me the exhausted look after a long long day

Yeah .... refreshed again after onsen! It's seriously addictive.

Since I wasn't using it, I gave up my room to KC instead. So we found the perfect place to have our gathering. We don't think he'll mind if we mess up the room. But thing is we never sought his opinion on what his views were in the 1st place :p As usual we were playing secret code - penalty was either drink or eat those beautiful looking Japanese pastries that we bought.

Nagoya - Gero Onsen (Day 1)

Oh my! I had just realised that it's been 2 months since I was back from Japan! And not a single photo up. Thanks to Garcia for reminding me about them or else it might have been half a year later when I finally did something about it.

I am quite a ashame to admit that because a fair bit of time had lapsed since the trip, my memory of it had dimmed as well :p So I am afraid, this is not too much of a travelogue. But do enjoy the pics and I'll see what I can recall as we go along.

Ken & the FJC peeps sending me off (aka kopi session) in Changi Airport Terminal 3 Yeah we've touched down in Nagoya Airport! (No pics while in the plane cos all was zzzzz)

1st stop straight from the airport was to visit 1 of the temples in Nagoya

We were taught the sequence of cleansing our hands & face before going into the temple. I was suppose to let the 'dirty' water flow into the drain but I idiotically wash my hands right above the source of water. -_-"' Super paiseh .........

Anna & Carol

Praying in the background

Beautiful blooms but these are plum blossoms, not cherry blossoms. Not cherry blossom season yet. Although close, just about 2 weeks to a month before the season. It was quite a shame to have been so close and not seen it.

Japanese children - they're so adorable!

My colleagues :)

Back on the bus headed towards our hotel in Gero Onsen. The scenery was beautiful! And I saw snow! I know this sounds quite pathetic but I had never seen snow till now :p Can you imagine how awe struck I was?

Settling down for a traditional Japanese lunch

Did I tell you that I LOVE Japanese food? :D

Reached the hotel!

We were all proud to see our national flag at the front door of the hotel

This is a hot spring hotel & hence the rooms are the traditional kind with tatami mats & futon beds. I learnt that hot spring hotels are very expensive in Japan. I was the lucky one who has a whole room to myself for the entire duration of the trip but I think I watched too many horror Japanese movies & so I shifted my futon to bunk with Kok Yong & Evelyn instead :p

Guess what is this man doing? Nope, not filling up petrol but filling up hot spring water to bring home.

Open air hot spring - we were shamelessly ogling, waiting to catch a glimpse of something we shouldn't :p Haha ....... voyeurs!

You can buy the eggs then place them in the hot spring water to cook it. That's how hot the temperature is!

There's many hot spring foot baths scattered over the entire town for you to soak your feet when you are tired. I was lazy to remove my boots & so contented with taking pics for Anna instead.

Pachinko!

My 1st attempt at Onsen (hot spring bath). It was really awkward going totally nude in front of strangers & even worse colleagues. But we got the hang of it & were completely at ease by the end of the tour :)

All fresh & relaxed after onsen.

With Nicholas

We were all wearing yukata & seated in 2 rows opposite each other for dinner. It looks kinda formal & grand.

The variety of food served during dinner was unbelievable!

Group pic!

After dinner, we ventured out of the hotel to look for a coffee joint just wearing this yukata when the temperature must be way below 5 degrees celsius. Sadly, everything was closed & so we headed back to onsen AGAIN!

My Lil' Angel

Megan was drawing a mother's day card to enter in her school's competition. I sat down next to her when she needed some help with her spelling.

She started writing "I know you are trying very hard to", then she paused and asked me to guess what she's going to write next. Without missing a beat and in a choked voice, I filled in the blanks "take care of me.". She looked at me with a satisfied grin and carried on finishing her sentence.

Unknown to her, the strength of her words had managed to reduce my heart to mush. I had to walk away to the bathroom so that she wouldn't know that I am crying.

I am crying tears of joy for I am touched by her depth of perception at this tender age. The word TRYING was apt because TRYING it was indeed. I thought no one knew how arduous it had been but she knew. She knows how much effort I am putting in.

I am crying tears of sadness for that means, despite me trying to conceal my flaws, she knows I am as fallible as any human being and am no longer omnipotent in her eyes. Isn't a child suppose to perceive mother's care as innate and receive it without questions? Then how would Meg know it's "trying" on me? Does that make her think any lesser of me now then?

I used to think that I am her guardian angel but now I realised I had it all wrong right from the start. She's mine instead. She's the angel that God had sent to illuminate my road............

Lil' artist chose to use paint here

It's touched the core of my heart that she choses to tell me this single message in her card. (Nope, no "Happy Mother's Day" but it means more than a gazillion words put together.)

My 'real' mother's day card that she spent days on & insisted on giving it to me early :)

I felt awful that I left it on the desk & it got smudged :(

And I love you too ......

Advertisement ploy.

Megan and I were idling in front of the TV when an electric toothbrush advertisement came on. It was comparing it's cleaning power versus that of a manual toothbrush.

Me: Wow, that looks quite powerful.
Meg: Aiyah, bluff one lah! They just want to make you buy it.

Wahahaha!!! I can't help but burst out laughing at her early-gained wisdom.

Sod's Law for Pharmaceutical Sales Rep

You were overjoyed to enter a clinic empty of patients, only to find them streaming in non-stop after you had handed in your business card -_-"'