Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
singapore
singapore
singapore
singapore
singapore
singapore
singapore

Hello, it's been so long... I don't know if anyone would come to see my posts any more but I am slowly trying to get back here. As promised (too long ago) here are some film shots from my time in Singapore. Such a beautiful country Singapore is, I miss it so much especially on this cold Tokyo night.

Hope February has been a good month to many of you.

Oh, I almost forgot, it's Lunar New Year isn't it. We don't celebrate Lunar New Year in Japan but if you are Happy New Year!!

xx

singapore on instagram

Last week we had the quickest holiday in Singapore where I had been really wanting to visit for the past few years. I think we did pretty well in such limited time but it was not enough at all. We must go back to do some more exploring and more food hunting. LOVE SINGAPORE!!!!

Visiting Polkaros pop up shop at the cutest The little drom strore was one of the top things to do and look forward to for this trip. It was really nice to see Ros and hang out together in Singapore...!!!! (I will tell you more about our fun afternoon in another post!) It was also lovely to see the cute store owners Antoinette and Stanley again after meeting them in Tokyo last year when they visited my store! We had some delicious cakes and tea at the next door K-ki. Seeing these two lovely stores next to each other was so good.




At the Polkaros pop up shop I got the new pom pom to add to my growing Polkaros collection♡ The pop up shop is on until 30th November at The little drom strore so if you are in Singapore make sure you go and visit!

I will try to get the films developed soon and will share photos soon!!

Finally, here are some photos from Kagoshima....
kagoshima
Sakurajima getting so active. It's one of the world's most active volcanoes, it's a great symbol of Kagoshima too. I took a ferry over to Sakurajima and drove around it in my last visit to Kagoshima - it was pretty amazing.

kagoshima
kagoshima
kagoshima
Terukuni Shrine. I like the area around here, I didn't go this time but Sengan-en (Iso Gardens) which is right next to this shrine is really lovely.

kagoshima
Sun was so strong in Kagoshima.

kagoshima
Every time I passed this department store Maruya Gardens I smiled :)

kagoshima
I had been wanting to visit this coffee shop which we regularly buy coffee beans from if we go to Kagoshima one day! So happy to have made it!!

kagoshima
Such a wonderful little place, people are so kind, had the best cappuccino I've ever had in a long while. Voila Coffee, the best!
kagoshima

kagoshima
Exploring the old warehouse area near the port.

kagoshima
Very nice shop and cafe set up in one of the old warehouses in the area, GOOD NEIGHBORS by Landscape Products.

kagoshima
kagoshima

Very random, but it was such a quick trip these are about all I could explore in very little time I had in Kagoshima I went last month. It was not really a holiday but still I got to enjoy it.
All were very good and here are some information to share:


Voila Coffee
2-2 Higashi-sengoku-cho Kagoshima-shi

Maruya Gardens (Department store)
6-5 Gofuku-cho Kagoshima-shi
Check out D&Department and Chin Jukan Pottery Store on 4th floor as well as the organic vegetable stall on the basement (weekend only).

GOOD NEIGBORS (Cafe/shop/gallery)
7-1 Sumiyoshi-cho Kagoshima-shi

Remm Kagoshima (Hotel)
Very convenient location, reasonable, clean, modern and only 3 minutes walk from Voila Coffee!

Kumaso Tei (restaurant)
Good place to experience the Satsuma local traditional cuisine.

Sengan-en (Iso Gardens)
9700-1Yoshinocho, Kagoshima City, 892-0871, Japan

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Kagoshima is a really lovely place, I hope to go back again for longer and more relaxed holiday!

By the way, if you are planning to travel to Japan you can not miss Alice's amazing travel journey she made in Japan earlier this year, she shares her experience and addresses of all the incredible places she went to such as Naoshima, Teshima, Takamatsu, Okinawa and Tokyo with her beautiful photographs!
Check out her lovely blog Quaint Living!




the most incredible "secret beach" of Bouno-tsu

Sakura-jima at dawn.



beautiful satsuma-kiriko glassware museum

Digging through some old photos, I found these I took in my trip to Kagoshima nearly 5 years ago. It's such a sweet memory, this trip was one of the best trips I've ever had within Japan.

I met up with my friend who had flew in there earlier visiting her grandma at the Kagoshima airport one early December morning where our fun journey begun.
In case you wonder where Kagoshima is, it's a prefecture located at the southwestern tip of the island of Kyushu in Japan. It was a great 4 day road trip, we drove around (well my friend did all the driving and I was in charge of the DJ-ing as I don't drive) Kagoshima from Kagoshima City to Chiran visiting the War Museum and Samurai Houses then drove down past endless beauty of the green tea fields to the southwestern tip of the Kyushu island Ibusuki

It was beginning of December and leaves were changing colours in Chiran but in Ibusuki we could still see bougainvilleas flowering everywhere. We tried the famous steam sand bath getting buried in the naturally hot and steamy sand at the beach with only our heads sticking out, we kept on laughing and was fun but I don't think I will try again. We also went into this gorgeous onsen (hot spring) near Kaimon-dake mountain overlooking the ocean, it was fantastic!

We kept on driving through the coast line towards Makurazaki, a small fishing town heading even further down to this most amazing beach called Bouno-tsu. After we drove past Makurazaki, we saw nobody around. It was so quiet and somehow felt pretty scary, there were smuggler warning signs everywhere. "Call police if you see suspicious boats or persons". When we finally reached our destination, Bouno-tsu, my heart started beating so fast. Half with excitement and half with fear. It was the most beautiful and most spiritual sight I had ever seen. I was scared not just of the smugglers but was scared of the beauty, I never felt like that before or even after that until now. I hope one day I can go back there, in the summer time.

We drove back to Kagoshima City, then took a ferry to Sakurajima - an active volcano. The power of nature is really incredible, I felt so a lot while travelling around Kagoshima. Other things I must mention about Kagoshima is their sweet and gentle people and gorgeous food. Everywhere we went, we ate. A lot. They had so much to please us. I was really sad to leave.
I parted with my friend at the airport and flew back to Tokyo.

Now I wonder how my friend is, the one I had this amazing trip together. Since she moved out from Tokyo 3 or 4 years ago we kind of grew apart. And it turns out her birthday is coming this weekend, what a good reminder. Time to be reunited I think.



Another house, the last house Luis Barragán designed "Casa Gilardi" is also in Mexico City and although the Gilardi family are actually living in this house they let you see inside (partially) by appointments. The famous dining room with an indoor pool was quite amazing finally seeing in real life. There is a huge jacaranda tree in the courtyard where one of the walls is painted in the exact same colour of the jacaranda flowers. I imagined how beautiful it would be when jacaranda is all in full bloom. I must go back to see this city for the jacaranda season, all the streets lined with jacaranda trees must be so dreamy just like our sakura!

I'm continuing posts from my trip to Mexico wanting to finish up soon but I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas if you celebrate it. Here in Japan it's not really what it must be like in the rest of the world, generally it's not so important but just very commercial once you have grown up....

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Well, the biggest reason I had always wanted to go to Mexico is Luis Barragán, a Pritzker-prize winning architect and one of my very favourite architects in the world. Casa Barragán, designated a world heritage site by UNESCO, was designed by Barragán for himself in Mexico City in 1948 and is where he spent the last part of his life. I had seen so many photos of his house from a couple of exhibitions held in Tokyo and from books that I knew what each room would look like, it had long been my dream to go visit his house to see and feel the space, light and what is all there, so when I stepped into this house, into each room, my heart went fast with excitements! I would highly recommend visiting Casa Luis Barragán if you ever go to Mexico City. Seriously, I do.

Unfortunately no photographs were allowed inside so I could only take of the exterior which is kept very simple that it is hard to imagine what is like inside, so here are the images of the interior all cortesey of Luis Barragan Foundation via Casa Luis Barragán.
All above 8 images are from www.casaluisbarragan.org.


This last amazing image is by xoio.

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