So excited! Here's me with a cutie before leaving the freezing mountain.
Labels: japan , Kawanehon-cho , smellissa , travel , travel blog , travelling
Beautiful day seeing the famous Nagoya Castle and its palaces, eating a lot and then heading up a mountain.
You might recognise it as the Japanese castle with the green roof, either way it is defiantly something to go to Nagoya for. It's pretty impressive inside and out.
The view you get from the top floor of the castle can look out onto the city for miles, obviously won't be as impressive as a bird's eye view of Tokyo on the Sky Tree but it's really beautiful to see that the castle still remains in a modern city.
The view you get from the top floor of the castle can look out onto the city for miles, obviously won't be as impressive as a bird's eye view of Tokyo on the Sky Tree but it's really beautiful to see that the castle still remains in a modern city.
It seems we also came at the right time, there was some kind of plant competition going on and I got to see some amazing bonsai trees with flowers!
After a busy morning and afternoon seeing Nagoya, I had some more green tea ice cream and headed off to Kawanehon-cho, which is up the mountain. Took 4 hours to get there and up those horrible curvy upwards road.
Kawanehon-cho located in the middle of nowhere is a little village full of hot springs for locals and occasionally tourists to enjoy.
The little hot springs hotel that I stayed in called Miyama was traditional and full of locals, so local that no one spoke any english but it was lovely and homely. The food provided was never ending and so yummy. All the foods cooked was local produce which made it even better. With no internet, it is so peaceful and quiet. It's definitely a place you would head off to to relax and forget about your busy life.
Labels: bonsai tree , hot springs , hotel , japan , japanese , Kawanehon-cho , Miyama , Nagoya , nagoya castle , smellissa , tokyo , traditional , travel , travelling
Today have been a very full day.
Went to a town dedicated to deer called Nara, fed them, got chased by a lot of them for food and saw a beautiful temple.
Went to a town dedicated to deer called Nara, fed them, got chased by a lot of them for food and saw a beautiful temple.
Had a really good tofu lunch and went to ninja village in Koka.
Right now I'm at Nagoya and will be exploring the town tomorrow but I can smell the food from the hotel and I'm hungry!
Labels: asia , deer , i see faces , japan , japanese , koka , Nagoya , Nara , smellissa , temple , tourist , traditional , travel , travelling
So many temples everywhere in Kyoto.
The Fushimi Inari was the best I have seen, it's combination of traditional and beautiful, and the best is, not many tourists seem to be crowding around it like all the others.
The Fushimi Inari was the best I have seen, it's combination of traditional and beautiful, and the best is, not many tourists seem to be crowding around it like all the others.
The famous row of shrines seem to stretch for miles and up the mountain and more. If I had enough time, I definitely would have walked up the mountain.
The temple itself were impressive, red everywhere and a combination of the red leaves just makes the photographs even more beautiful. Thankfully it wasn't raining as well :)
I threw in some money at every temple I went to, not sure what I was wishing for but all went to a good cause I hope. For every coin you throw in you must shake the ribbon that's attached to the bell, it's one of their traditions.
I'm loving the traditions here.
I'm loving the traditions here.
I think I could stay in Japan for a while, Kyoto might be too quiet for me so lets hope Tokyo is everything I want it to be!
Labels: japan , japanese , kyoto , red , red leaves , shrine , temples , traditional , travel , travelling
So far it's been beautiful. Although the weather is getting cold now, might even be getting ill... Not good.
The toilets are crazy here and soooo clean. The seats are heated, there's some kind of bum washing thing going on that I'm way too scared to press on. Every place I have been to has one, which just seems like an awful way to waste energy.
Starting to notice everything is over complicated, even a coffee machine that needs to press a million buttons before I can have one.
The temples so far is the most peaceful place so far. It's a bit weird when there's one in the middle of the kaos.
Will do a separate post on the temples.
Will do a separate post on the temples.
I love matcha green tea, always been a fave of mine so ofc im having them like crazy, anything to do with it, I'm buying and trying.
Here's me with matcha green tea ice cream :) and a photo of the crazy toilets here.
Here's me with matcha green tea ice cream :) and a photo of the crazy toilets here.
Labels: asia , crazy , green tea , japan , japanese , kyoto , matcha , temples , travel , travelling
Will be travelling up and down Japan for the next 3 weeks.
Excited! Arriving at the airport, everything is already crazy and soooo advance. So tired now, need sleep but here's a photo of some future coffee maker.
Instead of trying this in Japan, decided to try it in Hong Kong. At 6 quid a beer I'm not impressed but according to my friend. This price is normal...
Impressed by what I have seen online, I though why not but this is nothing to be impressed by. It's just a bit of frozen foam with Japanese beer, I want my money back really.
In other news, I had some well good Japanese noodles with my friend.
Labels: frozen beer , hong kong , japanese , kirin , rubbish , smellissa , travel , travelling
So much to update on. Will be onwards to Japan in a few days.
Feeling so weird to be back in Hong Kong.
It's 25 degrees, weather is not so sunny. Sat on a plane for 12 hrs yesterday and feeling like I lost a day because right now it's 1 in the afternoon. Ergh.
It's 25 degrees, weather is not so sunny. Sat on a plane for 12 hrs yesterday and feeling like I lost a day because right now it's 1 in the afternoon. Ergh.
Feeling like the odd one out already. People are wearing knit and I'm in sandals and a tank top. Nice one Melissa.
Not much going on so far except that I saw my cats, dad and step mum. Just gonna chill and eat some Chinese food till Japan. Missing all my friends already but seeing one tomorrow and going for Korean food, yay!
Dad isn't so keen on me heading to east Asia by myself, honestly what could possibly go wrong. Some nice stranger from the hostel will protect me, ha.
Here's a photo of my cat.
Labels: asia , cat lady , hong kong , travel , travelling
As my friends know, I'm not the kind of person that does all that affection in public crap so of course I went to the city of love with my a very good friend of mine. It gets better than that, we went to Disneyland.
A 23rd birthday in Paris and Disneyland.
Paris is beautiful as all the photos show but what these romantic black and white photos doesn't show is the amount of people and lets be honest I hate people and crowded places with people getting in my way. Everyone want that same photo in front of the Eiffel tower so you get so many people standing in the same place but this time is a mum and her 2 kids... making them do all sorts of poses right in front of it so making everyone else either having to wait 20 minutes before we can have that middle spot or taking the side photo. Selfish french people for you. I noticed I really don't like french people very much...
Obviously Disneyland in Orlando is still the best but with Eurostar being so close and being able to take us to one in 2.5hrs, you can't not go. To me Birthdays have always been special to me so spending one at Disney is just amazing.
A 23rd birthday in Paris and Disneyland.
Paris is beautiful as all the photos show but what these romantic black and white photos doesn't show is the amount of people and lets be honest I hate people and crowded places with people getting in my way. Everyone want that same photo in front of the Eiffel tower so you get so many people standing in the same place but this time is a mum and her 2 kids... making them do all sorts of poses right in front of it so making everyone else either having to wait 20 minutes before we can have that middle spot or taking the side photo. Selfish french people for you. I noticed I really don't like french people very much...
Labels: city of love , disneyland , eiffel , highlights , moaning , paris , tourist , travel , travelling