Can't get enough of Kyoto

High time to start writing on the Japan trip on end of September. I was hoping for autumn, but of course it was still summer. 

I will just be using whatever photos in the Photos. I don't think so we even bring those big ass camera. We just use camera phone. It is a big sad looking at all those camera shops though that used to be teeming with customers... ( I am straying from the topic as usual).

Anyway because of the Typhoon  we were not sure our flight will not be cancelled. Since we don't like to be anxious about it, husband changed tour flight so that our arrival will be at Narita instead. I bought the JR pass at the last moment at KLCC at the JTB counter. Very easy peasy. Need to bring your passport when buying JR Pass though, nasib baik la KLCC dekat. 

So we took a flight to Tokyo last Sept and then straightaway went to Kyoto via bullet train. It was around 3 hrs time so we reached there around 1pm or 2pm. Contacted the hotel and they were flexible enough to let us check in early. I really love Japan hospitality I have to say. For all our 3 hotels we have no problems in getting early check in.

Our Place of Stay There

So for the hotel, we stayed in hotel apartment Kamo Riverside Kyonoya. It is highly rated in Booking.com and the rating is not exaggerated at all. I love that apartment.

The place is near-ish to 2 train station and it was not an unpleasant walk. I also tried to find a place with a washing machine so that we don't have to carry a lot of suitcases. They provide also a capsule like detergent which smells amazing and the tiny bathroom can be used to dry the clothes. There is a button where it will blast hot air into the room. I was very impressed. We did our laundry at night and in the morning all of the clothes will be dried. Amazing I tell you.

Where did we go in Kyoto? 

On our first day we went to the Fushimi Inari.

We went there near closing time. Closing time for the temple. You can go up the trail at night if you like but I have kids ( this statement seems to imply if no kids I would be getting lost on a hill housing thousands of red pillar shrines in Kyoto at night) . But the trail looks interesting and magical.

Also when I arrived in Japan I was near asthmatic and wheezing because of a darn cold. I almost didnt want to go to Fushimi Inari, but I so wanted to , so a little inhaler helps me. Walked faster than healthy people even.

We climbed the usual routes and the kids rang the bell at the temple up the hill. I like it up there, explored it a bit and came down to explore the area for a little while .

Hard to get a pic with no people on it like here. I have to walk here and there to find a spot where I can take a pic where no one is walking down, like the first pic above. 

Then we came down and there were a few stalls selling delish looking stuffs. I am tempted to buy it all but malas. Just bought 2 slices of pineapple for the kids. It was sweet and they enjoyed it. 

On the second day, we headed further out a bit to Arashiyama area.

We booked the Sagano Romantic Train. I manage to enjoy it about 20% of the time, the rest of it Sharif was screaming his little head off. 

The view was amazing. Can saw a few section where trees had fallen because of the typhoon though. 

We opted to return via the JR train so before headed back to the train station I found ourselves a little picnic spot beside the river. I had brought along peanut butter sandwiches and bought onigiris at Family Mart. The onigiris was more than enough for our lunch at the time. 

We stayed a while near the Kameoka Station also to eat some jagung and mushroom. 

I actually like walking around here. It felt like a glimpse of modern rural Japan.

The kids had some roasted milk tea ice creams. It was really good. 

I also have to say around Kyoto is the place where I can see desserts aplenty near the Arashiyama quaint little shops and ice cream places, I like going around looking into thing. I should have spent more time here. Never really like tight schedule of dashing from one place to another. If you like to buy some souvenirs, I would say bought some here, the things are cute and not as expensive compare to others.

Also found that my fondest memory of Japan is walking around the streets or just hanging out at the Kameoka stations, never really the attractions. LOL.

Anyway we manage to follow the hordes of people into the bamboo path forest. It is indeed a magnificent view. Avoid 10 am I should say, around 2 pm ish the crowd had thinned a bit so it was nicer to walk around in the afternoon than join the morning madness rush.

We also decided to go into the Tenryuji Temple for the garden visit. It was a very lovely traditional garden. Incredibly pretty. We just stood there for a while marveling at the prettiness of it.

We headed back towards Kyoto and decided to visit Nijo Castle. I had heard Nijo Castle was worth a visit and it was. The history and the architecture of the place was very informative. There is a well defined path which will explain the history and meaning of the room and artworks as we walk. The museum castle have an almost ethereal charm to it. 

The main garden sadly was closed due to the typhoon, so we missed out on those, but I don't think so we had time to browse around the garden as it was near closing hour too. 

We did walked around the castle area and climbed up the fort viewing tower to get a picture of the castle ground but mostly got only foliage. LOL.

The last day in Kyoto, I want to see Gion because, Kyoto is Gion to me.

It rained the whole day. It was drizzling lightly with a few hours of heavy rain where we took refuge in a yakiniku place to eat. I had already anticipated some rain during our trip and bought raincoats for the kid dari Malaysia lagi and my husband and I borrowed an umbrella each from the hotel. It is easier for them roaming around in raincoats rather than umbrella.

I couldn't remember the exact place but this area have a lot of really old teahouses and there were few brides in wedding attires busy taking pictures near the road.

It was a pleasant stroll around the area made even more romantic in the rain because there were not a lot of people around.

We then walked around in Nishiki Market because I want to try some street food. Oh, near the area we also bought the nicest tea. It is a good place for souvenirs buying and also just buying stuff for oneself. Mostly affordable tea can be found there and the store that I bought very nicely gave me to try out a whole lot of different teas in a cup to taste. Ended up with a caramel tea and matcha to brought home.

Anyway Nishiki market was crowded because it was raining I think. After lunchtime it thinned out a bit so after that we can see what it have to offer. More about it at the end. 

So the temple I was most excited to see is the Kiyomizu Deru temple. It is also the furthest we walked and most tiring since the temple is located on top of a hill near a busy road. I think they have another path to go up, but I didn't have time to look for it. 

Kiyomizu Deru as first entered. 

Because of the uphill trekked, my husband doesn't feel like he wants to go in, I went in with only Aziz.

Aziz was a lot of fun to travel with actually. He mostly game for anything and he does not tire easily even after walking non stop the whole day which not a lot of people can keep up with. 

You can see almost all of Kyoto town from here and there is Kyoto Tower. Really. It was a not a sight to be missed. Unfortch there were some restoration work at the verandah in the main hall which is the main attraction here. We can access some of it but it was really not the same 😢.

Belanja selfie with Sarip who slept most of the way up. 

We stayed up there for a short while before heading back down again. There is a different more nicer green path going down . It was a good walk. When walking down chanced upon my husband and Saif at the Otowa waterfall.

So of course Aziz also wanted to try, 

It was getting dark so we headed down which of course makes the time I want to browse around here to non existent because the shops is closing down. And I would feel bad if I were to come in and they were preparing to close. We were in awe at the age of some of the shops here. Some are way older than the Malaccan era. 

The walk down was picturesque. It got cold though so we hurried back. 

At the last min, since we felt that we had time and after dinner we decided to went up Kyoto Tower. The boys were mostly pysched to go up.

A grainy-ish pic of Kyoto Tower taken from Kyoto Station. 

Not much pic taken here because it was dark and just had fun viewing Kyoto. Did manage to see the blue light at Kiyomizu . The lenses are amazing though. You can almost see the inside of people houses if the curtains are not drawn 😮.

I think it was almost 10pm that we reached the hotel and gladly rested while doing laundry and putting our shoes inside the bathroom to be dried. 

Also during the first day it amused me when I put on my fitness watch and saw that I had walked 20k steps! I think throughout the whole trip we averaged around 20k steps, except during the typhoon day in Osaka.

Things We Ate

Aside from the little snack like nenas and ice cream mentioned, this time when I visited Japan (compared to the last time when I was pregnant and pukey) I wanted to eat a lot of stuffs which I think I can eat. 

So that is why a trip to Nishiki Market which have quite a lot of desserts and grilled sea food filled me with excitement. 

The first thing I tried out is those green tea mochi-like dessert, after seeing a lot of people queuing and remembering some Have Halal posted similar stuff about it and decided to try it.

 It was a peculiar taste at first when popped into mouth because the green tea powder pahit taste tu, once you get used to the taste of the green tea powder, it got really good. Not something the kids or my husband would enjoy I think.

Then we bought the famous soy donut. Suitable for vegetarian and used soy which you can taste but still subtle. They have donuts with various topping but I think my husband chose glazed with caramel or the likes and then I bought of the original one without toppings for snacking.

Even in the middle of a cold rainy day , the kids still want ice cream. It was soy ice cream and tasted pretty great, Aziz one comes with strawberries.

I would have liked to eat more, but I feel huhu very the mahal ( bile convert) and my husband was not so interested i, I punye interest jadi waned. Still I bought grilled scallops and octopus. Sigh. Now I want baby octopus.

It was good. Tapi kalau ader sos Lingam macam lagi ngam. 

My husband was more interested in ramen. I felt like we had gone to another ramen place but maybe the same shop but different place. Ayam Ya franchises which sells halal ramen.

There were a few Ayam Ya shops spread around Kyoto so I think we went twice to one shop and the last night to another near Kyoto Station. It was pretty good ramen. Highly recommended and they have utensils for kids and some shops (near the Kyoto Station) also have prayer room.

I think this is extra soy sauce ramen ( or deep soy), but this one is the best for me. Seriously good stuffs!

The kids really love their ramen. Syok la dapat makan megi kan. 

Also soy sauce ramen, and the other is spicy ramen which is OK ( not so spicy to our tastebud anyway) but I still prefer the soy sauce one. 

Also we tried out the Gion Naritaya Yakiniku place which can be quite expensive depending on what you order la. But it was a good dining experience. Everything was delicious which maybe because it was raining and we were famished and the smells of grilled meats is enough to tempt anybody. We wiped out everything. 

Not sure I would be recommending the place though, as I feel the staff is a bit stand-offish. But I was sick of ramen anyway, so glad to have options. 

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Sedap tapi penat. Tapi sedap.

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Of my Kyoto experience....

I would say I love Kyoto, I feel like 3 days barely cover what I wanna see here. There is more I wanna see in Kyoto. Hills to hike on, choppy river to go through, quaint shops on olden streets to look into, zen gardens to sit on, more mochi and biscuits and green tea to sample. Everything I experienced in Kyoto , I want more.

I love Kyoto. 

2019!

I didn't make a recap of my 2018. 

Not much to recap. I did mean to blog about my trip to Kyoto and Tokyo. It would be a shame to leave that out. Maybe later when the house is less a mess? 

But the HOUSE IS ALWAYS MESSY!

Also not helping Netflix adding a whole lot of Korean dramas in their selection. Korean dramas I tell you. Don't start or you will plunge into an abyss of fantastical tale of justice and stupid romance. I can't get enough of it. 

Also Aziz started is Year 1 at the sek keb. Yeay! So far he is loving it but he is kinda adapting to having a full schedule. He have Islamic school in the morning then home for an hour and get ready for the sek kebangsaan. I am also adapting to the new schedule. 

See what I tell you the house is a mess!

Sarip also wants to be in the pic.

This is Aziz on his second day being nosey and wanting to see his friends desk. 

I was planning to not give him pocket money yet, but the he informed me all of his friends have pocket money and he tried to get his new friends to 'belanja' him to no avail. He also said he tried to pinjam his friends wallet to no avail too! The horrors!

So rather than having him asking his friends for money he got pocket money now and a new wallet with strict instructions to not ask stuff from his new friends! 

Sigh, I guess this is what parenting really is. Later. There is nasi lemak awaiting. 

BBW 2018

So I got the preview pass to this year BBW and decided on the preview day to not bring the kids. Which is a good decision. I can easily browse for my books without worrying or attending fussy kids. 

There were a lot of people in the preview day, but it was ok lah. I found it disappointing that adult books gotten a whole lot lesser year by year. I also found out that the Vivo Popular Warehouse Sale was held end of last Nov , I had missed those. Bummer. That book warehouse sale have a whole lot more books for adult, more current and interesting choices. Need to make sure I didn't miss it next year then. 

On the preview day manage to snag this. 

Pompeii sticker book tu untuk aku. LOL. The kids like my choices. Haven't opened the cat toy book tu lagi, but most of the books for the kids dah bukak dah. Didn't let em to open semua books at once. Each day boleh bukak satu je. Hehe. 

So on another day brought them on Thursday for them to choose own books. 

The kids and most of the books they chose. 

Some of the books yang I also ambik. BBW will restocked different books every few days during their sales and most of this in the pic was not there in the preview day. 

Overall it was a good haul. The price gotten more expensive but kinda understandable as buku mcm kat Kino pon harga tak masuk akal.  

We'll see next year macam mana pulak. 

Also... I checked and could not remember... where the heck did I buy this book? Last bbw? Perhaps. Blergh. 

Books forgotten

BBW is coming soon. I think I scored the preview pass, and will need to take the preview pass first at BookXcess. The annoying thing is , it is kinda hard to drive to the nearest BookXcess with 3 kids in tow. We'll see. 

Also, I think I didn't put up the last 2 sales? Because I was busy and also another time I was too out of it from morning sickness. 

Like I said before I like putting up here books I had bought so I can always refer which I haven't read yet. You might think it is impossible to not remember which book you had read, but my bird brain can't retain too much info it seems as I had twice read a book about 20 to 30 pages before noticing this seems very familiar. 

I think this I bought last year?

Cant remember this one. Probably masa I was very into my morning sickness.

Anyway the latest book I had read is the Billion Dollar Whale. It was very straightforward. Can't read it too long because it is enraging how greedy some people are. And how vulgar the way they live and party.

Also it makes me find Leonardo Dicaprio as distasteful, and Pharrell as a loser who hang on to people for their money Never gonna enjoy anything brought forward from them again.

Need to update my Goodreads alsolah.

Its my birthday

Yeay me.

I am feeling so tired nowadays. Harumph.

Anyway. Yeay me? Nothing special plan for tomorrow. Need to buy my 2nd kid present for his birthday which falls on the 22nd and other stuffs.

Memula I malas nak buat party pack and food and all that. Sekolah dont really encourage birthday bash, but mak2 biasa la. So I will be just sending cake and a boxful of those Kinder eggs. Let em go crazy and choose themselves.

For moi? Maybe I will buy myself a cake. A slice of cake. My berat is OTT kenot control all those eating urges. Damn. I need to start my intermittent fasting again. But fasting time cuti sekolah is dead tiring.

Feels good writing again. Almost free when blog is dead so my audience is probably me and meself. 

To Osaka or Not

We were scheduled to go to Osaka and Kyoto end of this month, but then Typhoon Jebi happened. It seems really tasteless to moan about the typhoon when people actually died, but the typhoon also caused major damage to the airport we are planning to arrive and embark at. Current news report

So now with a lot of international flights yet to resume and status of our flight is still unclear ( saw today flight to Kansai was cancelled ) , it put a damper on my plan a bit. We can still refund the flight and have time a bit to cancel the hotel booking, but I am not sure if I should or want to.

I was really hyping to go to Osaka and Kyoto. Maybe this is a sign not to go until things are a bit calmer. But the Japanese are renowned for their quick fix of problems. Even so, how quick? 

Sigh. 

And I don't even have the heart to go anywhere else partly because booking another flight and hotel in such a short time is gonna be so costly. 

We will see if we get to go. 

Maybe the next update?

Lets just put July here and I rambled about Kdrama I love

Its July. Bulan puasa come and gone. Raya come and gone. And still I haven't blogged. I am a little ashamed if I must say. I used to say that I can't imagine not writing.

And here I am not writing. I have no idea what I do with my time. I also found that I have no time. My obsession with Kdrama nowadays certainly does not help. Tho if the kdrama I watched is a bit of a drag, or the heroine keeps on crying, that puts me off. I hate heroines who cry.

So because I have time, ( even though the house is a disaster), the absolute top list of Kdrama I love and love and love.

Top 10

1.  Reply 1988 ( Solely for the reason of Park Bo Gum) ... and this is at the top even though every eps is so goddamn long, because this drama is why I have now started to watch Kdrama. It spurs the love.
2. Queen In Hyun Man ( Most kdrama flounders midway, this one have the story well thought out of and the chemistry is amazing). 
3.  Black ( this would be the top if not for the god awful ending. wtf kinda ending is that)
4.  My Love from The Star. ( Helloo Kim Soo Hyun )
5.  Dream High ( It is soooo addictive. And the story does not disappoint even if its cliche) 
6.  Reply 1997 ( It have a laidback sorta feel to it and the zaman is closer to what we were experiencing ).
7.  Oh My Ghost ( My favorite actress . She reminded me a lot of Inoue Mao). I was torn between Strong Woman Do Bong Soon, but Oh My Ghost have a better mystery and tied it up quite nicely even though I don't really like Park Bo Young timid character in there. 
8.  Moon Lovers Scarlet Heart Ryeo, I think that what it called sebab aku malas tengok balik. I love IU. She is so sweet. She did pretty well, holding her own alongside the many cast of hotties. It was pretty good and people hated the ending, but I am ok with it. 
9.  Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joon. This drama is so sweet and cute. 
10.  Let's Eat series. Season 3 is coming soon. And I can't wait to watch Yoon Doo Joon stuff his face and I wishing that I can also eat Korean barbecue without the fear my kids are gonna scald their hand. 

A New Malaysia

indeed. 

First of all. Selamat menjalani ibadah di bulan Ramadhan. My ramadan is pretty low key. It is just me and the kids. Havent been to pasar ramadhan yet, though I want to. It is easier to cook because going to pasar ramadhan with kids is not something I can muster up the energy for. We will however look for baju raya probably tomorrow at Melawati Mall probably. 

Senang je sekarang since Melawati Mall ni dah bukak. Before this if I wanna look for stuffs, there is KLCC or Jusco AU2. Which the former parking rate is getting ridiculous throughout the years and the latter don't offer a lot of choice but still I like going there for movies and treating the kids 'makan kedai'. 

Anyway. Just because it was a historic moment for Malaysia, I feel like I have to put it down here. We voted BN off. And that feel good. The euphoria last for a week I tell you. For 3 days after the election, I am stupidly happy. It feel like a burden had been lifted. I never realized before that I feel this hopeless, this suffocated with the previous govt. 

Now I feel a little bit lighter. Like I can hope for a better Malaysia for my kids. Have you been reading about Venezuela? I can't. Well I did for a little bit, but then I can't. Venezuela is in chaos and turmoil due to economic failure and this boggles the mind because Venezuela is rich with natural resources mainly oil. But oil prices dropped. Then the people don't have anything to eat. They have to go to another country because they ran out of food. I see a lot of parallels between Malaysia and Venezuela. Our reluctance to change. Our over reliance on oil output. The corruption.  And when I see Venezuela news I stiffened and found I can't breathe. I feel like if we continue in this path, this is our future. 

So when the EC announced the date, I went back to JB with 3 small kids. Naik bas. Alone. People tell me semangat betul. Isn't it. But with all these corruption news and my fear on our state of economy, I feel like even 1 vote should help. So I went out to vote. And we won. I am so happy. 

However that happiness soon is replaced with anxiety. But I am trying to remain positive. The new government is barely a month old. They are not taking baby steps. Which I appreciate. People expectations are also crazy. And I wish they would reigned it a little bit because you are putting your expectations on a bunch of leaders who are either too new or too old. But anything is better than what BN did. So in PH we trust, because currently there is not much we can do. 

But. More but. An important but. If they fail us, we will vote again. They will do better. And that is our hope. 

Gone to Singapore the last school hol

We stayed at Village Hotel Bugis

The stay at the hotel was pretty great. Clean spacious with good amenities. And most importantly near to good eating location.

Because of that we ate

Excellent delish briyani

Delicious murtabak. 

We also ate McDonalds because it is easy and also why not.. 

We were not long in  SG. The main trip was going to Science Centre which is actually pretty cool. Almost like Petrosains but with more diverse range of topics presented 

We were outside the science centre here. We also went to Snow City which Aziz had a blast. But that place basically a scam to buy photos so no phone photos! 

Went to the Gardens by the Bay and we didn't manage to get tickets to get inside since ticket counter closed at 8pm. BUMMER.

Went shopping a bit. Just trying to get some LUSH product because I like their body cream and added in a soap and a foot scrubber.

We only stay for 2  nights. Singapore is too expensive for a lengthy stay so we got back to JB to stay in my mom's house and spent a couple of night there pulak. 

March!

I had been coasting along 2018 without knowing what I had done. Actually I do.

It had been busy. Kids had been sick. Then I had been sick. Kids sick again. I felt like only last week I have a semblance of normalcy.

I had also been an ardent fan of Kdrama. Never scoffs at a thing I say. You might turn out to be a diehard fan. Which I am now. KDRAMA is fabulous. They have excellent camerawork and cinematography, the scripts can be a hit and miss but even if its a miss, it hugely entertaining.

I may do some reviews of sorts because I have no life. Later. I have some sewing to do. I have boys. They ripped stuffs up. I feel like I constantly sewing . 

2017

Gonna be 2018 soon.

Haven't been updating here too much. So I am gonna list down what 2017 had been for me


From January til June basically had been pregnant and most of that time had been battling morning sickness and basically lazing around the bed.

Around March or April, found a kitten at the middle of the road and brought her back and nursed her.

Was not planning on keeping her, but then Brownie had run off to live with another family, and I am lazy in finding responsible adopters, I decided to keep her.



Gave birth to a baby boy.

Hired a daily maid to take care of house. The maid quit after 3 months.


Went to Ipoh and Penang for holiday. Finally stay at Hard Rock Hotel. It was below my expectations honestly.

Doing absolutely nothing but still busy as a housewife. The kids mostly ok. Trying to teach Aziz to read with some good improvements. I am not sure how to tackle teaching him maths yet.

Saif decided his name is Baba.

The baby or Sarip Dol as we called him, is a very fussy sleeper. My back is hurting .

We just got back from Bintulu staying there for a week due to my husband brother getting married. That is the last of the sibling married off now. Uneventful except for the initial touchdown , where instead of the plane landing in Bintulu, we were flying into a storm and the plane could not land, so we ended up staying overnight in Miri instead.

Husband had taken up a position in Turkmenistan again.

Huh. I can't think of anymore. Pretty sure a lot of stuffs happened, and of course the big one is the birth of my third son. So yups. It was a big year indeed.

Let's see what 2018 brings. Hope for a less messier house.