Japan #3 - Cherry Blossoms

I was on the Cherry Blossom Tour, as it was timed for the blossoms to be in full bloom.  Unfotunately a long winter meant that in some places the blossoms were only just starting to come out, but we still saw some beautiful parks and gardens and tree-lined streets.

I did go nuts with my lovely new camera taking photos of blossoms and it was hard to choose which ones to add here.  I might have gone overboard.

Tokyo... too cool for blossoms but still pretty!

Tokyo... they hold massive picnics/parties under the blossom trees in the park.  It was cold, but there were still trillions of people all having a great time.  Even the cats were enjoying themselves at the party!



Kyoto...  The Philospher's Path.  It was such a pretty area.  This first photo sums up my whole trip - blossoms and vending machines!  They were eveywhere.  As well as cherry blossoms there were lots of magnolia trees and massive camellia bushes in bloom.



 Kyoto - I think this was called Kiyomizu Castle.  It was at the top of a cobble-stone street of shops, and it was sunset.  That made it one of my favourite castles.

Hiroshima... An amazing place to visit.  These photos are from a shrine we visited on an island (note the deer in the waterway!), and of course from around the Peace Memorial.  Really pretty gardens at a really sobering place.



Japan #2 - Mt Fuji

Near the start of our tour we travelled to Mount Fuji.  Far out it's big!  Yes, I was expecting it to be big, but it was quite amazing to see it for real.

There is a Mt Fuji Information Centre at the bottom that we went to, and a little village close by with great views of it, and then we went up to Station 4.  We were supposed to go higher, to Station 5, but it had been a very late winter and there was too much snow on the roads.

The view from the little village.

 Not a very good shot, but this village had pools of water from Mt Fuji springs.  They had a pump to fill your water bottles, and it was delicious.



This is one of the wells fed from the spring.  It is 8m deep, and so clear you could see the coins clearly at the bottom.

This is also in the village.  It is a quirky Japanese tradition to decorate walls of buildings with dried corn cobs.





 This is at Station 4 on Mount Fuji. There was still a lot of snow on the mountain but just ice in the carpark.  As you can see, it was foggy and freezing and we had no view... but we were all still happy to be on Mount Fuji!

How glad was I to have taken a coat with me?!  The wind was freezing!

 

I thought all the little Mt Fuji cakes and biscuits and lollies were so funny!  This is a box of little cakes.

Mt Fuji biscuits

And more cakes or biscuits or something!

Another view... it looked spectacular but none of us could take a good photo of it from here.

Some of our group lined up with cameras, trying in vain for a great shot.

 This is the photo we all wanted to take!  Unfortunately we just had to make do with taking a photo of a poster, as not a lot of cherry blossoms were out by then.

Japan #1 - For the love of dogs!

I have just spent 10 days in Japan on a bus tour, and it was amazing.  What a great holiday!  The people on my bus were all really nice, and we had a fabulous tour guide, Naomi, that we all loved.

I've been putting off writing the blog because it is going to be hard!  I bought a new camera just before I left, and I have about 500 photos to choose from.  So over the next week I will do lots of little instalments.  Starting with the funniest one...

I think Japanese people love spoiling their small dogs even more than they do here in Hong Kong!  I found this massive pet stall on my first shopping trip, and I was in there for ages because I couldn't believe all the stuff that was in there.

At first glance I thought they were selling baby clothes in the pet store.  But no, they are dog clothes!  There were about 5 double-sided rows of outfits in all styles and colours. 

The dog cafe in the centre of the stall.  It looked delicious, but unfortunately there was no people food.  Yep, all for dogs.

A whole section of undies and socks.  I'm not joking.

And the supermarket section!  Rows and rows of gourmet pet food!  When I looked at this photo I spotted pizza on the end of the aisle.  Huh!

I zoomed in on this poor dog from quite far away so its owners wouldn't know I was laughing at them.  It was a lovely looking corgi being wheeled around the mall in a dog stroller, closed in with netting at the front so it couldn't jump out.

I'm still gobsmacked at the stroller in the mall.

Awesome birthday

My birthday stretched from Wednesday through to Sunday and it was fantastic.

I met Mum and Dad and Caroline after school each day and looked around Hong Kong with them (with a fair bit of shopping thrown in).  We had a beautiful meal up at Rico's Spanish Restaurant on Friday and then went to Macau for the weekend.

We had great weather, a beautiful hotel with a room bigger than my apartment, we did touristy things, visited a couple of casinos, and went to the House of Dancing Water.  What a weekend!

The House of Dancing Water was a show a little similar to Cirque du Soleil, with a water theme and lots of clever acrobatics.  I loved it!  We sat there open-mouthed through it - I could watch it over and over again.

It was definitely the highlight, but also loved the Chinese gardens we wandered through, and the famous Venetian Casino.

I feel very spoiled, with Mum and Dad visiting, bringing Caroline as a surprise, taking me out for a birthday dinner, and then a show in Macau!  Best birthday ever.  Thanks Mum and Dad!

Birthday dinner

Happy Birthday to me from the Spanish performers!

Cat St markets

Crowds of Macau

Somewhere in Macau - such a nice photo of Caz!

A little excited to be going to the Dancing Water Show at the casino

Inside the Venetian - with an amazing roof that made us forget it was close to midnight

Chinese gardens

Grand Prix Museum

Surprise!

Mum and Dad have come over for a visit, and I was really excited tonight to go and meet them on the train.  I should have guessed Dad would bring me a suprise... Caroline!!  Wow!!!

Mem Fox talk

I was lucky enough yesterday to go and listen to Mem Fox speaking about the importance of reading aloud to kids. She read some of her books to us, and she was brilliant.  She is over here for the Hong Kong Literary Festival, and I know she is going to inspire a lot of people this week.

She made me want to get straight on a plane and go home to Matthew so I could read to him. 


Imagine having the chance to meet one of Australia's most famous children's authors over here in HK!

International shopping

Nothing much adventurous going on here I'm afraid.  The only exciting thing I've done lately is the movies - yes, it has taken me this long to finally go to the movies in Hong Kong!  The weather is still quite cool for this time of year - it was 12 degrees and raining today so a great day for movies.  I don't mind the weather like this, it's better than stinking hot, muggy weather.

It struck me yesterday when I was grocery shopping how international my meals are.  Hong Kong does not produce a lot of food, so my spinach, muesli, beans, tuna, and cheese are from USA, Germany, Kenya, Thailand and France.  And I was so excited to find good old Cadbury's turkish delight easter eggs from Australia!