Japan Day 2: Being Japanese For A Day,

Hello,

Day 2 in Kyoto was a little more interesting that the previous day because... WE GOT TO TRY ON JAPANESE TRADITIONAL WEAR!

There was a yukata rental shop called Yumeyakata Photo Studio that's located near where we were staying. In fact, it was just a minute walk away from our lift lobby! Had our breakfast at home before heading down to the place. It's a 4-storey building. Each level has different purposes. For instance, the first level's the lobby and the area where you pay and choose you kok-kok slippers; second storey is for ladies to choose their kimono/yukata. I can't remember which level I went for my hairdo but either level 3 or level 4 was for the guys, and another level for bags selection for the female. Wow!

Fun fact: the outfit that I was wearing was called yukata and not kimono. Kimono is a traditional wear during the winter when ladies would want a thicker traditional wear. Also, they've to wear socks to keep themselves warm too. Yukata is a thinner outfit to be worn during summer. Ah, but despite it being thinner, I felt like I was suffocating! Yukata has to be worn tightly aka NO LOOSE SPACE AT ALL! My rib cage was almost breaking when the staff helped me with the yukata. But all's good! I got used to it after 10 mins or so.

I was torn between the pink and navy blue pouches. Both are really nice but to match my yukata, I chose the latter! Anyway, I'm thankful that Mr. Z was being super spontaneous about wearing traditional outfits. I was still contemplating on our first day there because our my eczema but Mr. Z assured me so many things. Also, another reason for being so thankful was because... Most of boyfriends we saw did not wear it with their girlfriends and it was really a waste because photos are for a lifetime! It's definitely worthy to try it with your partners! No regrets!

We took public transport all the way. Yes, in our traditional outfits! We bought our tickets and headed to Fushimi Inari which is on the Keihan line. It's really convenient the attraction is just a few minutes walk away from the station itself.

The station looks very old school, just like what you always see on tv. This is also what I love about Japan. Time to explore Fushimi Inari, one of my favourite places in Kyoto!

Always very amazed by the millions of torii there. Each torii was also said to be donated by Japanese businessmen which makes each and every torii a unique one. The wordings printed/craved on each torii have different meanings. I've no idea what the wordings are because... My Chinese deteriorated. LOL!

We didn't hike all the way to the peak because we were having a hard time walking in our geta (the traditional slippers that a Japanese wears).

Left the attraction after taking tons of photos because vainpot couple! Came to this food street. We got hungry and melting under the hot sun so it's time for snacks before we proceeded to the next destination!

Beef skewers 

Mini melts

It was time for our next attraction at Ginkaku-ji Temple where it was mostly greens. Recommended only for people who like viewing natures. There was nothing much for us to see except taking photos of ourselves with the greens. Hmmm.

Tickets have to be purchased at the ticketing booth outside the temple. It costs us 500 yen each for an adult ticket. Not sure why but we had to purchase tickets for most of the temples aka tourist attractions in Japan.

Really bright!!

Philosopher's Path

The route to Nanzen-ji Temple

Let's just say that Japanese generally walk faster than me? It took us more than 7 minutes to reach Nanzen-ji Temple unlike what was stated on the signage! Both our legs were already aching super badly by this time after walking with geta for the whole day. We needed to reach Nanzen-ji Temple ASAP before making our way back to the studio. Another reason being that it's almost 6pm and we had to return our outfits by 7pm to avoid extra fees incurred. HAHAH!

We changed, went up to our apt to rest/make our bags lighter and headed for our dinner at Ippudo Ramen! Noms! It's a must to visit when one is in Kyoto! How can you miss Ippudo Ramen. Just like how can one miss Kichi Kichi Ramen (though we really missed it!)?!

Ippudo Ramen is located in a small alley. It's not really easy to spot if not for the customers queuing outside of the restaurant. Ah, indeed, it's famous among the tourists. You can easily hear Singaporean accents in the restaurant too! Hahah.

Ippudo Ramen rlly lives up to their standard! We ordered extra ramen because the glutton in me wanted more BUT I OVERESTIMATED MYSELF AS USUAL! Have yet to try the one in Singapore, I wonder how the standard would be.

Not a really interesting entry here because I focused mostly on Fushimi Inari. Totally not guilty of it! Shall end off with a vlog of how we spent our day 2 in Kyoto! :)

It's my first time uploading a travelogue here on my blog. Not sure how it'd turn out to be. Not sure if I'd be asked to remove as well due to the copyrights issues. Trial & error. Lol! I'll be changing it to private video if I'm asked to remove this video by YouTube one day.

On a side note, SJ4000 is not suitable to take videos. No image stabilisation, quality is bad and the list goes on! So much for wanting to make a nice travelogue T_T

Goodbye! 

iLight 2017,

Hello,

Took a trip down to Bayfront on last Saturday for iLight 2017 with my group of friends. Compared to last year where I visited iLight 2016 with Mr. Z, my group of friends and I only explored half of the exhibition due to some reasons. Sigh. I'd definitely hope to go back again for the remaining half of it though. I even made Mr. Z in agreeing with me for every year's iLight! Hahah!

Anyway, we went for dinner at O Comptoir for Sylvia's birthday before making our way down to Bayfront for iLight 2017. O Comptoir is a restaurant that serves French cuisines. Their signature dishes, I supposed, are crepes. The restaurant is located at 79 Circular Road and its nearest station is Clarke Quay. The walking distance stated on Google Map was 4 minutes but trust me, it took us longer than that! I think any normal person would take about 7 mins to reach too!!

Being situated in the CBD area, it also means that their food are mostly priced at and average to expensive ranges. So, be prepared to either bring more cash or debit card with you. I love how the restaurant was designed! Their dangling bulbs and the ambience fit a dinner with your date! I'd bring Mr. Z to this restaurant one day after he's back for sure (for a dish)! Ah, not only is the ambience nice, their staffs are really friendly and warm too! The waiter who attended to us is really entertaining while the two waitresses are really accommodating to our requests.

 As their signature dishes, and recommendations from other sites, are mostly crepes, 3 of us decided to order crepes while the birthday girl ordered a burger meal. We also ordered side dishes of chicken wings and salad. Healthy much, eh?

Duck It! was one of the chef's recommendations. It contains duck confit, caramelised onions, potatoes and thyme. The thyme made Duck It! cuter as it's standing in the middle of the crepe. It looks so much like it's the only surviving tree in a desert!

And it's a no-wonder that Duck It! was one of the recommended crepes because it was really good! Anyone who loves duck confit would definitely love this crepe! I love duck confit because they aren't the roughest meat to eat! I detest breast meat but any other parts are considered good for me! The other 3 girls agreed about it too. Told Mr. Z about it and as mentioned above, this is the dish that I'll be recommending him to!

Duck It! SGD18

Next, it's my Scallop'in that I placed. It comes with 4 small scallops, leek, onion, spinach and cheese. Personally, I do not like onions at all. But because I took a long time in deciding what to eat, and that the girls alrdy chosen Duck It! as one of their choices, I was left with no choice but to order Scallop'in because there's spinach as well. Healthy choice, lol!

Tbh, their scallops aren't the tastiest that I've had. They were really small as shown below but the ingredients in the crepe made it up to it. I finished the crepe but not the stuff inside because there's too much cheese there. It makes me feel a bit sick of it after some time.

Scallop'in SGD24

The last crepe we had was I Did It My Way. Literally. It has goat cheese, walnut, pear and honey. We thought it might be an interesting crepe but we took our words back after trying it. People who don't eat goat cheese wouldn't like it because it tasted weird. Really weird. Perhaps we are just not used to eating goat cheese. I believe that there are people who love goat cheese a lot.

I Did It My Way SGD19

The birthday girl ordered burger set which was also a chef's recommendation. If my memory didn't fail me, the burger contains steak, egg and cheese with truffle fries as sides. It was good to the extent that Ms. Neo and Ms. Ng shared their food with each other. The truffle fries was good too. I would have ordered one plate of truffle fries if I wasn't full at that time!

Bacon ft Egg Burger with Truffle Fries SGD23

Lastly, the chicken wings which I gave it a miss because firstly, I was lazy to use my fingers and secondly, I was really full from my food. Thankfully for the first reason, Ms. C sliced the meat using her utensils for me. So much love! Not the best wings that I have eaten till date!

Chicken Wings SGD10

We took a cab down to Bayfront where we alighted at the place near the funfair. Yep, we started our journey there which tbh was a wrong decision. But no worries! Still enjoyed very much because it's a whole new experience!

Singapore never fails to amaze me with its beautiful skyline, especially this area! Dream location to work in? I shall continue dreaming.

Sea urchins

Gatro Beats

The girls were very excited upon seeing a stall that sells kane mochi. Bought a few flavours to share. Not a fan of mochi though so I shan't comment much about it. But be sure to eat it once you receive it because it melts easily in this hot climate. I was taking photos of the mochi and the girls were like faster, the mochi is melting. Oops!

Already looking forward to iLight 2018 and hoping that there'd be more exciting displays next year. Goodbye!