Inspiring Takayama...

Takayama is one of oldest city in Japan, beautifully preserved, which also has similar ambience to Kyoto. 
Another City, Another adventure.. Let me take you there... 


Old Private Houses, Isn't this such a beautiful street? A few old private homes in the old town have been converted into museum and are accessible to the public. 



Traditional Japanese House, Hida No Sato (Hida Folk Village), where I can get to see inside the thatched roof houses, which shifted from Shirakawago. The view in this are is just unbelievably mesmerizing during snow season. The shape of this traditional house itself reminds me of Ginger bread house. 



Inside the thatched roof houses in Hida No Sato (Hida Folks Village)



I was waiting for the snow to come.. 



The main bridge in Takayama



Ouan Hotel Lobby, where we stayed. Amazing hotel with private onsen (private Japanese Hot Bath)



Shoe Locker at Ouan Hotel, where we stayed. We are not allowed to wear shoes in the room.



Our room in Ouan Hotel, Takayama. We get complimentary room on the top floor. 



Complimentary gift from Ouan Hotel when we checked in. They thought we just got married recently. Well, yes it is almost 4 years ago...:) 



Private Onsen (Japanese Hot Bath)on the top floor. This was our most favorite place at night in Takayama. After tired from walking all day, this felt so rewarding. 



Japanese Breakfast at Ouan Hotel. 



View from our Hotel room.. Isn't this amazing?? 



Lady selling Taiyaki (Japanese Fish Shaped Cake) around Old Private Houses area. The most common filling is red bean paste, which made from sweetened azuki bean. They are selling lots of different flavour in this stall such as chocolate, cheese, chocolate chips, taro.



Potato Balls for entree at Origin restaurant, close to Ohan hotel and the main train station in Takayama city.



The famous Hida Beef & Hida Pork, Origin Restaurant



Delicious Noodle Dish


Sweet Potato Ice Cream.. Oh my god.. I am craving for one while writing for this post. This was so delicious.. Oishi!

Amazing Kyoto...

Let me share some beautiful pictures of Kyoto from our short 11 days visit in February 2011.

Beautiful Arashiyama Bamboo Forest



Gion, The most famous Geisha District. Beautiful places,filled with shops, restaurants and ochaya (teahouses), where geiko (Kyoto dialect for geisha) and maiko (geiko apprentices) entertain.



Gion area is also famous with yummy Yakitori (Japanese Chicken Skewers)




The Rickshaw man around Kiyomizudera 



Fushimi Inari Shrine, The torii gates along the entire trail are donations by individuals and companies, you also can find the donator's name and the date of the donation inscribed on the back of each gate



Lobby at Sakura Ryokan, where we stayed during our visit to Kyoto. Highly recommended Ryokan, great service, friendly and very helpful receptionist and convenient location. 
(Address: 228 Butsuguyacho, Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture 600-8347, Japan)



Nishiki Market. This is my most favorite foodie place in Kyoto. The narrow, shopping street, lined more than hundred shops, selling various kinds of fresh food, processed food, dried food and Kyoto specialties (e.g. Green tea, pickles, Japanese sweet foods, lots of snacks)



Interesting fish at Nishiki Market, Kyoto



Fresh Seafood and Cook Seafood at Nishiki Market, Kyoto



Sweets, lots of Sweets.. If you have a bad sweet tooth like me, you will spend most of your time here to choose these very interesting Japanese sweets. I wish I can try all of them and don't worry about the calories after.



More sweets.. Can you resist this cuteness? I honestly can't.. Just by looking at them, they already made me happy... 



Well, I finally choose one.. Anything that has a green tea flavor is my favorite.. I love love this Green tea sweet.. 



Very interesting Octopus... 



The cute lady selling Mitashari Dango (Rice Dough Dumpling with Sweet Salty sauce).



Oh my... This is so irresistible...



Ok Enough for the sweets, let's move on to the savory food..



Or maybe have some sake..



Or Having dinner with friends we met in Kyoto...



We spent our last night in Kyoto having great dinner with Kyoto friends at the restaurant closed to where we stayed, the restaurant called ichishun 瞬, which means a moment. 

Beautiful Japan...

First of all, I apologise that  I was missing in action for the past few weeks. I feel like I lost my writing mojo since I've got back from holiday. However, I promised in my last post that I will share my holiday story. To be perfectly honest, I am not sure how to begin with. Lots of things happen in Japan after we came back from the holiday. Every time we turn on television or radio, we hear the tragic news of tsunami, earthquake, nuclear radiation in Japan. My heart sank even more. Many families and friends are incredibly touched by this disaster. I encourage you to help them in many ways. Thousand of them have lost their love ones and left homeless. So, have a moment or two in this time of needs to head over to the links of the charity funds below and make a difference by donating in any way we can. Let us be their shoulder to lean on.

Japanese Red Cross Society

World Vision

Tea for Tsunami Appeal 

Japan Animal Welfare Society  

Other ways to donate

Salvation Army Japan

This was our 2nd visit to Japan and we always say that Japan is the most beautiful country and amazing people we ever visited. Lots of memorable experience and many happy memories, I said. Despite of the mother nature strikes in Japan at the moment, this will not ever stop us to revisit the country in the near future. In this blog, I just want to share my little story about our short 11 days Japan journey about food, amazing places we visited before this devastation happened and hoping by the end of this post, we will remember not to take things for granted, live life to fullest when you can... because you never know when you might not have a chance to anymore.

So here they are, our Japan photo memories in Kyoto, Takayama, Hiroshima, Tokyo and Osaka