Days of literally state-hopping. – 06.15-07.03.16
I’ve had the chance to visit US mid this year – spending a day or three in each state. It was not a leisure trip but I squeezed in some fun discovering vibe within my very brief visits to each of them.
This entry them compiles memories of visual treats and encounters of crazy and chaos in San Francisco, Texas, New York and Chicago.
Like a lost kid, I walked somewhere unplanned in Kyoto. – 10.04.15
Planned to cover Kyoto in all compass points but reality (and acceptance that I can get away with train systems but not with buses) kicked in that I had to narrow it down to eastern after FUSHIMI INARI.
This entry about snapshots from an aimless afternoon walking around the shopping hill to KIYOMIZU-DERA and nearby alleys and then unknown temples until day-end waiting for geishas around GION DISTRICT and window-shopping in SHIJO.
If you’ve always been curious, you just had to give in. – 08.23.16
It has always been my wish to be able to bungy jump. There were nights when I would just get lost watching bungy jump videos and wondering how it felt like.
Earlier this week, I stopped wondering and just did it – at the world’s highest commercial bungy jump even!
Continue reading Macau : Bungy Jumping from the World’s Highest
It’s happy when everything works out as planned. But that doesn’t make it not possible otherwise. -10.05.15
Kyoto was a fail for I never anticipated the bus rides which apparently are the only best for me to get around the places I have marked to see. It was a day of wrong decisions – from the wrong choice of transport card to chaos at the FUSHIMI INARI SHRINE with peak I failed to reach because I spent extra energy someplace I wrongly thought was a shortcut. Yet despite failure to pass through all thousands of toriis or gates, the idea of each being built as sign of gratefulness for wishes granted was enough to compensate for all the burned calories worth it – not just from all the walking but also from the mental ‘strategy’ needed to get a capture of bunch of toriis with no single soul in sight (which I luckily was able to do once).
Continue reading Kyoto, Japan : Chaos in Orange at Fushimi Inari Shrine
A view of the bay area from side to bottom up a transparent gondola – 10.03.15
After this make-believe underwater in OSAKA AQUARIUM KAIYUKAN is this ride up in the air on a ferris wheel with lights that predict the weather the following day –which that night was red orange, a sign of a sun the next day.
Continue reading [Osaka, Japan] Meters up in a Giant Ferris Wheel by the bay
When you can’t go around the world, go (up) around an aquarium first – 10.03.15
Closest I could get to sea during this trip was at the bay area where encountered many kinds of fish in an aquarium as big as a building best enjoyed by spiraling down eight floors of giant tanks. Though I wish one day I could swim with you in the open sea, sight between you and who-knows-how-thick glass was enough to make me all this panicky taking as many pictures as I could, my favorites shared as you click more.
After learning about instant ramen is this instant connection with some parts of town – 10.03.15
It was only MOMOFUKU ANDO INSTANT RAMEN MUSEUM that I was after in Ikeda but town ended up to be an instant favorite that I ended up killing extra time eating at AZUMA, one of the oldest udon restaurants in Osaka – my way to which I found with help of a woman who after realizing I could not understand a single Japanese walked with me to what I was looking for. Just when I was about to go back to the station was this surprise of a UNNAMED PEDESTRIAN STREET with all kinds of food stalls, some ‘fishing’ (from fish to balls) games for kids and magic even! A refresher slow-paced walk since my first two days of tourist spot-hopping during my first two days.
It was one of my favorite discoveries during this trip -a showcase of chicken ramen instant noodles in this place MOMOFUKU ANDO INSTANT RAMEN MUSEUM (named such after one of instant noodles inventor). Unlike other museums that tend to drown with its many displays, this one in the simplest yet fun manner lays out the history and the making of this food for immediate hunger pangs.
Because this is one kind of my favorite places- 10.02.15
When I decide where to stay in every place away from home, I always look for its proximity to places that live up to when it’s night. Chances are because when it is day, I can do all visits to ‘the destinations’ but I always long to have this place where I can walk aimlessly when all those are ‘sleeping’. There’s Hongdae in Seoul, Pub Street in Siem Reap, Beer Street in Ho Chi Minh and Khao San in Bangkok and then there’s DOTONBORI in Osaka.
An encounter with where Osaka’s food culture is squeezed in – 10.02.15
As mentioned in my previous post, I hurried from Shinsekai to make sure I get to Dotonbori (apparently spelled as such but pronounced as Dotombori) before it gets dark – essentially because one, I wanted to see it compared to at night when it is known to be more alive; two – I wanted to try the so-called TONBORI RIVER CRUISE (which was included in the pass I got for the train and touristy places).
Continue reading [Osaka, Japan] ~ Dotonbori in Almost Sundown
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