Day 3 (Part 2) : Exploring Shirakawa-go village

After having our Sakura meal at Kenrokuen Garden, we were on our way to Shirakawa-go village to admire the Gasso styled houses charaterized by steeply pitched thatched roofs.

A remote, mountainous region in northern Gifu Prefecture, Shirakawago is famous for its old farmhouses, which were added to the list of UNESCO world heritage sites in 1995. The farm houses are built in an architecture style called gasshozukuri, as the houses' steep roofs resemble two hands folded for a prayer. The massive construction is required for the houses to withstand the large amounts of snow falling in the region during winter.

Official website : http://www.vill.shirakawa.gifu.jp/e/index.html

We were totally delighted upon reaching the village and it was as if we entered a winter wonderland! Everything was covered in snow and the feeling of magic was in the air ! And it was REALLY cold here up in the mountains.... especially my butt cheeks which was frozen ...hahahah

Here's us before we cross the bridge over to the village ...brrrr....

Was it me or did the bridge shake when I walked across ?! Must be the wind ....= P

Yes that is SANDY in the pic... crazy girl = P

Our first sight of the traditional house.

Blow us away !! Let's fly !

See isn't the house pretty ? Too bad we didn't manage to capture a better view of the houses cos it started to snow heavily.

Snow, snow and more snow ..... we were absolutely delighted !

Close up of the snow flakes on my face... can you see the different shapes ??!! Was amazing and so wished I could put them all in a little bottle and bring it back to Singapore ..hehehe

Now we know how Frosty feels ...

After burning lots of energy exploring the village (and looking for the "elusive" toilet), we need to sustenance right ? So we sniffed our way to this quaint little hut selling Fei Dan Niu, flying bullet beef ??

Actually Takayama is know as Fei Dan so the beef skewers are known as Fei Dan Niu.It was Oooiissshhhiii ! Soft and tender with a dash of salt accompanied by hot oat tea ... heavenly !

Sand trying to zap up all the warmth from the heater ... this is a welcome shelter from the 0 degrees outside.
Here comes our foodie pose again ... sedap !

Waving good bye to Shirakawa-go, we travelled for a pretty long time (fell asleep as usual so lost track of time ..hahaha) to Hida Hotel Plaza, our 3rd home for the trip.

Awaiting ahead was a scrumptious and beautifully presented dinner. Quite a feast for the eye. Like they say, Japanese eat with their eyes and I am enjoying every bit of it!

And being Singaporeans, what else do we do after a meal ? Look for more food to try of cos ! Yup, family mart here we come! It was actually quite funny but we met almost half of the tour group at the hotel lobby all with the intention of looking for the nearest convenience store !

So with a leader ahead, the 14 of us tried figuring the directions in the dark (was pitch dark by 7pm man) but it was pretty fun as we tried to make sense of the map and road signs. The power of FOOD!!

And here's us with our purchases (beer, snacks, ice cream, cakes etc etc ) making our way back to the hotel. How orderly right ? Two by twos .... = )

Before we head down to the onsen for the 2nd night (yippee cos we heard there is an outdoor jacuzzi in the onsen here! ), we decided to be martial arts exponents and show off some moves ..

Crane stance!

Chop chop chop !!!

Kawaii inspired kung fu BLOCK !


Exertion overcomes ... = )

After note : The onsen at this hotel is even better ! The outdoor jacuzzi is some relaxing and I could sit in there forever ! Love the feeling of impossibly cold air on my head and bubbling warm water on my body. Except of cos I had to squeeze myself into the tub with 6 other women !!hahaha ...

More pics

Grounded

You are grounded.... that's what my boss replied when she saw my message on MSN about wanting to go on another holiday. Sigh ... you win some you lose some yah.

So from now till Aug, I am totally grounded, floored, chained, rooted... whatever you wanna call ...to work & can kiss my May holiday plans goodbye. ...sob sob

Enough of depressing stuff. Tell you something pretty cool that is happening in my company.

As some of you may know, HR dept will be moving to a new premise (still within the compound lah cos the place is sooooo big) and we will be placed right above the canteen. Not that this is anything to cheer about ... like who wanna smell like the kitchen right. Though not a bad idea really cos food will always literally be under.. opps at our feet !hahaha corny I know )

The wonderful thing about this move is that we have a say in the colours of the walls (no more boring cream or white .. yahhoooo !!) and the idea is to be vibrant and colourful to appeal staff and make it warm and welcoming. Just my kind of office .hehehe

What's best is that I get to personalize my room to my favourite colour and I can almost hear you saying PINK but nah, you are WRONG, my room will be violet instead! Not that I have a change of heart but a bigger plan is in place cos the walls outside the room and all across to the sides will be in peachy pink already ! And that is like almost 1/3 of the entire dept !! Hahaha ... no prizes for guessing who "instigated" that ....muahahaha ... but it is honestly a nice colour ok...= )

So now I can't wait to move into the new office and will start to shop around for knick knacks for my little "counselling" area.Yes, am still the Aunt Agony .. dunno why but I think I have that written all over my face....hehehe

Hmm ..maybe I shd get some bean bags and cuddly teddy bears ? Or maybe a punching bag ? a dart board ? How abt drawing a rainbow across the wall ??No no ... maybe I shd be like Wah Sok & do without chairs ? Maybe maybe maybe ..

Day 3 (Part 1) - SNOW!!

If you noticed the title it has graduated to Parts and thats cos I have soooooo many pics to share ! Trust me, after the 4th day you will be sick of my face...hahaha ...

Like Ler says, Wenz is always doing her Kitty Face (I did ???!!)

Day 3 was wonderful cos it was the first time we seen snow and I could hardly contain my excitement when I peeped out of our hotel window early in the morning and noticed the snow covered cars.

Sand had to stop me from sticking my head out of the window just to catch some snow flakes.. hehehe.... We hurried through breakfast (ate tons of my favourite cherry tomatoes .. much more yummy in Japan) and scrambled out to the play !

So here I am trying to catch the flakes.. not very successful I must say except for the hair.

First stop of the day was to admire some Pottery and I thought this was a real good gift for guys. Now you see it, now you dun ! Once you pour steaming hot water to the cup on the left, the black cloth will slowly disappear and wala ... a sight to behold .hahaha

Dun be mistaken that we are brought to some sleazy Jap place okie. Just that this was more interesting than the typical plates and cups and bowls etc etc etc . It is right ??!

Next stop is Snack time at Kagahan! Yup, lots and lots of mochi, cakes, buns and Japanese sweet treats to whet our appetite and of cos make us part with our Yen. Of which they obviously succeeded!

After eating to our hearts' content, we make our way to Kenrokuen Garden in Kanazawa,acclaimed as one of Japan's 3 greatest garden and it was really beautiful. This garden is reputed to be breathe taking in all seasons and I can see why.

Though it was snowing heavily that day, we has lots fun posing and of cos acting like sua ku, oohing and aahing at the snow covered leaves and path ways and did silly stuff like gathering snow from the leaves and throwing it all around.Hahaha.... who cares right ?

SNOW !! Yeah yeah yeah !Trying to be artistic here but looks very 80s right with the far off glance pose ..hehehe


Sand will tell you that she risked getting frost bite when I insisted on writing her name on the bench.Yup, this was written with her bare fingers ..kekeke
It was interesting how every tree & shrub had strings attached to them as though someone above is performing a puppet show. Reason we found out was to protect the braches from collapsing under the weight of the snow. Cool yah. The Japanese has the knack of making the most mundane stuff looks beautiful.Another artist shots but this time round I thought this looked great. One of my favourite pics besides the rest on myself of cos ...hahahah

See my first Snow man ! So proud of myself ... I have the flair man ....Another snow man (which I thought looked more like a snow cockroach !) but made by tour mates , Thomas & Marcus ... guys will always be guys ..

Barely into Day 3 and I tore my gloves ! Sulk sulk sulk ......


Dunno the name of this but it was great backdrop anyway. Noticed that the locals are carrying umbrellas to shelter from the snow fall and of cos only tourist like us will be so garang (and ill prepared) to walk without the brolly.hehehe

Finally lunch time ! And we had a beautifully presented Sakura meal. See the shape of the dishes.Pretty right ? But we were stilll hungry after that ..hahaha

Another GOTCHA moment, looks quite slim too yah. Camera trick ... = P

Our lovey dovey tour mates, Marcus & Adeline. Hey they have yet to send us our pics too ..hmmmmm.....

My Maria as usual ... ok I will stop bullying her ....I try .... = P

Japan Trip Day 2 : Kyoto -Awara

Day 2 of our Japan trip started with a ride on Shinkasen, the super fast bullet train to Kyoto. It was amazing how orderly the Japanese was and everyone stood in line while waiting. So us being law abiding Singaporeans, we follow suit too ! Next to the Japanese, Singaporeans love to queue too dun we ? = )

See how guai we are, following the lines drawn on the floor. Bet it is easy to spot the tourist from the crowd yah ?

So what does one do once on board the world famous bullet train ? Give a kawaii pose of cos ! And not forgetting to catch up on some chin exercise !hahaha .. Call me VAIN!

In a jiffy (like 15 min that's how fast) we reached Kyoto, filled with temples and shrines and cute little traditional houses. Brings back memory of olden Japan.

First stop on the itinerary is a visit to Kiyomizu Temple to ask for blessings for a good trip. On our way, I spotted one of my favourite fruit , the persimmon and had to show to snap a pic. Looks so succulent that I wanna reach out and grab some .. *slurp*

What's a visit to the temple without paying my respects to the God of Wealth right ?? = P

Uncle Tan (one of our very entertaining tour mate.. story on him later) told us in all seriousness that we must stroke the God of Wealth (especially the bag!) and quickly put your hands into your own pocket to keep the luck and did I do that? You Bet I DID !Hahaha ... take no chances man .

Poor Sand infected with the Kawaii bug barely 2 days in Japan .And I have NOTHING to do with it ... yah right ?! She looks cute what .... = )

nterestingly, there was a queue (especially ladies) at this little hut and we noticed that everyone was taking a sip from the 3 outlets of spring water so we joined in too. Apparently each outlet meant blessing on different things (wealth, health and beauty.. not in that order though) and the believers can only take 2 sips and not all 3 else it will not come true. Neither Sand or myself know which outlet was for which blessings so we gamely took a bet and drank at random

Though I ought to admit I followed a bunch of Obasan before me and drank from the same outlet. My bet is that they were asking for BEAUTY ....need I say more ?

And the spring water worked immediately !

Ain't I cute in this pic we took when we sought refuge at one of the inns (with heater and free flow of green tea..yippee). I love the syrup coated mochi and steaming hot tea especially when the temperature has dropped with the rain outside ...brrrr ...

And since we started off our eating spree (our fav pasttime in Japan), there is no stopping us !

Sand was drooling at the sight of macha and chestnut ice cream and had to attempt eating one even though it was barely 7 degrees . My brain almost froze when I took a bite.

See how happy she looks...hehehe Another huge bite into green tea puff (like bread papa)

After the temple, we were off to the Japan Sea at Tojimbo to view the magnificent pillar-shaped rocks created by sea erosion. This was where we FINALLY had a taste of REAL WINTER as the cold wind knocked our breathe away. Check out the full attire man.

It was SOOOOOO cold that my teeth started chattering the moment I alighted the coach. Could even feel the cold wind cutting into my bones and my fingers were frozen stiff . Ignorant Singaporean !!

After an exciting time around Kyoto, we settled down to a scrumptous meal at our hotel that was a feast for the eye. Looks pretty yah ?

We were so looking forward to our first outing to the ONSEN (though a bit apprehensive cos must be butt naked in front of strangers) and couldn't stop jumping around in the room . Here we come!

Conclusion ? We love ONSEN !! Err ... more precisely, I love the showering process, ie. sitting butt naked on little stool separated by waist high cubicles and trying the in house shampoo, shower foam, facial wash etc etc etc and letting the hot water (cos can control temp lah) run all over the cold body. Heavenly .... so I spent more time out of the hot spring water than in it !hehehe

Sand on the other hand LOVES the hot (like 40 degrees) spring water and was grinning from ear to ear "scalding" herself and even wanted to try the outdoor pool when it was 0 degrees in the open. The heat must have gone to my head cos I WENT ALONG with THAT!

On hind sight, it was a great experience cos the hot water on the body fully complemented the freezing head and the fresh air did wonders to the lungs. That is if you survive walking into the open pool.... = P

Pity it did not snow that night else it will be just perfect.

Check out our contented faces. We slept real good that night. Looking forward to more trips to the ONSEN in the next few days.

More pics of DAY 2