Today was going to be a really hectic day and I ended up with some abrasions too. Great.
Went to a famous temple where you can see GOLD Buddha's and all! We aren't allowed to take pictures inside so.. boohoo. The temple is called Hiraizumi Chuzonji Temple.
Tried taking a new type of shot haha
Also saw two ADORABLE dogs and I carried one of them for a while!
Don't know if the dog at the back is yawning or not but SOO CUTE! <3!
This was very very interesting. Put 100 yen (About 1.60 sing) inside, put your hand in and grab a fortune. Inside contains a charm and reveals your fortune!
Mine told me to be careful of my skin and on the day itself I got an abrasion. I was a little freaked out by the accuracy! It also told me to take care of my stomach because I normally get gastric problems. How accurate is that?!
It also told me about my love life, studies, work and general luck haha. Which were all quite true for me. Not going to reveal them here!
The place is made up of many other smaller temples which you can visit, but due to limited time we could only walk past them..
We were ushered into a restaurant for lunch!
It was HUGEEEEEE!
Our lunch! Rice was in a separate container and we scooped how much we wanted. The tempura was nice! And I love the dessert thing, don't know what it's called. It's a little rubbery ish but has peanut sauce *points on the left* That white triangular thing!
Pretty boy Chris!
After that we rushed to Akita (which is not very near, about 2 hours by bus or something) and met up with some Japanese students!
We were separated into smaller teams to interact with the students!
And took photos!
After that we rushed to an Akita Festival!! Which is sooo nice!! But I will continue that.. another day :P
We were ushered into one of their function rooms! Pretty!
There, we had some speakers talking to us about Tourism in Tohoku and statistics about the Tsunami and Earthquake in Sendai.
Makes me feel like a student again, I have lecture slides!
And we were given this sticker (in the pic above) Never give up Tohoku! Which some of us stuck on our luggages.
Look at the delicacies in Tohoku!! I want to try them all! :)
After the talk, we were moved to a larger function room where a feast awaited us!!
Could hardly believe my eyes!!
Non-alcoholic drinks, as expected!
Took a photo of the food before they were officially served! And guess what? I didn't manage to eat this at all! It was wiped out!
Okay this was the MAIN delicacy seriously it was HEAVENLY. On the left was..
SCALLOP YES!!
LOOK AT IT! STARE AT IT! THREE PIECES INSIDE TOO!!!! THIS WAS SUPER YUMMY!!!!
On the right was SEA URCHIN EGG MISO SOUP which I gulped down in like 3 seconds so I didn't take a picture. I am normally not a fan of roe but it was heavenly.
Also ate some baked rice which was really really good but the food disappeared at lightning speed. I think everyone was hungry and looking forward to our first official meal in Japan!
Treated to a performance about a Sendai warrior fighting a battle. Really cool, Wizard's pic!
Sat next to Hui Ping on the plane, and made friends with Shu Yun! They're both bubbly and lively, but I was tired and shy so I didn't get to talk to them much on the plane. Made up for it after though! :D
Touched down at Narita Airport! Had to sit like a 6hour coach (with toilet breaks in between) to get to Sendai. It was really really long!
But we didn't get to sleep much on the plane (imagine a 1am flight, takes a while for me to adjust to the change in pressure, watch a bit of a movie, try to get comfortable, sleep a little, wake up, watch a little bit more of the movie, breakfast is served and then I can't get back to sleep because the lights are on)
So the coach was a great way to catch up on sleep! Everyone conked out. We were woken up by..
What is this? :O In it contained our bento lunches! We were so excited, our first meal in Japan! Except it had to be on a coach. But it's okay! We were in Japan! :D
This is our trusty coach for the next few days. Quite cool looking, and our driver is tanned and kinda strong looking. The group of us made him pissed off quite a number of times because we were always late. Like 10 min toilet breaks became 15mins and we'd leave the hotel late or we'd get back on the bus late etc.
Aren't you curious to see what's in the bento box?!
SO PRETTY! 100 marks for presentation!
Okay honestly I wish I knew what they were but I don't, and no one knew either so no one could explain haha. But let me give you a tip. See the food that's wrapped the pink cupcake paper? (no idea what the official name is called) Well, don't eat a large gulp of it. It's wasabi and.. something. Top right hand corner is Chicken katsu! And on top of the rice there is.. egg and.. I really don't know what that is. But no it's not floss.
At one of the stopovers, we saw a japanese food court! Woahh!! O_O
The bus ride was soo long but I'm glad I managed to make friends with Eric, Bang Hong and Yan Meng! :)
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Finally reached SENDAI! At about 4pm? And we went straight to a room where we folded some Tanabata Festival decorations! Not sure if it's counted as origami, hmm.
According to someone (I forgot oops), this festival is celebrated in many parts of Japan in June or July, but Sendai celebrates it the latest! Because theirs is on a larger scale! :D
We were introduced to cute japanese girls who would teach us how to fold and later on, accompany us on our trip! HOW AWESOME IS THAT?!?! Thank you sponsors! <3!
Ok please continue reading my blog because that means there will be cute japanese girl pictures :D And I know them in real-life so this ain't like some fairytale impossible to achieve kinda actresses like Horikita Maki (sooo cute)
That's Toshimi! :)
We were ushered into a room where we had sensei's (teacher's) to teach us how to fold certain designs!
My table folded wallets! Another table folded kimono's etc :)
Mine's the pink one! I love coral pink!
So this festival has 7 main ornaments. These are hung up and each of them represent something.
I took a photo of the pamphlet so that it's easier for you to read! :D
So it will look something like this:
SUPER PRETTY RIGHT! Plus, each one of us got one as a gift to bring home! I haven't decided where to hang mine yet! Afraid it might get dusty!
And here's a group photo of my table! :)
We don't look our best because we haven't bathed for 20 hours :X
So happy!
Next post is on Day One Part Two! :P WHICH INCLUDES DINNER!! :D
So the day finally arrived when I was bound to leave to Japan! I must say, I was worried because I didn't know anyone. If i had an analogy it would be like a kid going to his first day of school. And doesn't want to leave his mum.
I heard that the media will be there, so I stayed in one corner, being the shy person that I am! Until Eric was getting everyone to take a group photograph, then I had to come forward.
And here's a photo of me with the banner!
After that I hung around, went to get a drink at Macs then decided to head through the glass doors and explore the inner wonders of Changi Terminal 2! I am really really grateful to Genevieve because she really cheered me up. She's a great friend to have! :) xoxo
Are you ready to be amazed? It's no wonder Changi Airport is world class! I was impressed!
This is not an advertorial for them or anything, but I just wanted to share the facilities that they have, and best of all, is free!
Of course everyone knows about the free internet usage.. that's where everyone flocks to. But did you know that there is..
A Garden?
It's called the koi garden!
And that's where I saw the Tiger! Haha!
Genevieve understands why this photo was taken :P
The koi aren't very fat Gen!
So I decided to act touristy and took a map!
Took a photo pretending I was at the zoo. They sold cute stuffed toys!
Was wondering why everyone was so quiet. NO PRIZES FOR GUESSING!
Saw this, always wanted to try one hahaha.
You can take a photo of yourself and send it to your friends and family! I tried but..... here's the only disappointment. It didn't get sent! :(
You can also watch television here! Each side shows a different channel!
I played some Sonic :D
i LOVE forero roacher!!
More television sets!
Too bad it was down! Could've played some guitar hero!
But there are xbox games to keep us entertained!
The view of the koi garden from above
They have everything!!
Mini movie theatre, no less!
I also walked out to find..... the sunflower garden!! WOAH! This place must look really pretty in the day!
I am NOT a fan of sunflowers, in fact they scare me a little. But I brightened this picture by ALOT just so they wouldn't look freaky.
Other flowers! Yellow too! Which is not my favourite colour. Haha.
Obligatory! Wish there was a human sized one so people can take photos next to it!
Realized that I was running out of time so I had to head to my departure gate!
And they are so considerate! This is right at the departure gate doors! I didn't use it but I suppose this is a FREE massage after all right? Haha.
Claire.
loves exploring what life has to offer.
A personal lifestyle blog of all things captivating, alluring, enchanting, indulging, sophisticated and pretty.
Contact me at
Eternamente[at]gmail.com
