Hello,Stranger.

I think the title should actually be the aquarium exhibit with Nijo Castle on the side though. 😅 This castle is not part of my itinerary and I can't remember exactly how we ended up here after Kitano Tenmangu Shrine. I think it was the taxi driver who suggested it to our friend. But anyway, it was already late in the afternoon and it was already closed when we got there. However, we noticed busloads of people arriving and saw a banner about some aquatic exhibit. It was expensive but my friends wanted to see it so we lined up anyway. It was sooooo cold at the time as night had already fallen. Anyway, my friend paid for our tickets and we went over the exhibit. As it turns out, it's like a display of fishes with varying backgrounds, kimono, prism, etc. I couldn't really understand anything but people seemed to really like it. I think it was overrated and not worth the admission fee? I'm unimpressed and I actually enjoyed Ocean Park more 😭 But I'm not one to complain...

Next up,we went to Kitano Tenmangu Shrine. I wanted to go there for 2 reasons: it's free and I liked the  vermilion colored bridge when I Googled images of the shrine. Also, it's located quite near Kinkaku-ji. This temple is popular in Spring because of the plum blossoms. We were actually confused because we didn't know we came through the exit instead of the entrance gate lol. We only realized it after we came to the plum grove and we see people having teas. They looked for our tickets but we didn't have it. At the exit, my friend paid for us not knowing that it was supposed to be for the tea and plum grove area and what not and not for the admission to the temple. We were actually just passing through but we paid for a tea we didn't have omg. It was all confusing at the time and I admittedly also forgot it was supposed to be free. Oh well, if you come here, I hope you don't make the same mistake. It's okay not to pay the 700 ye...

I finally finished moving all contents of my old blog here and deleted the site ( goodbye Happy Nomad ). To be honest, I have a 2-year back log and it always makes me feel overwhelmed and so I delay things more and more. 😅 So anyway, I decided to finally sit down and write about my travel accounts for the last couple of years. I will mostly be writing from a 2 year old memory so I don't know how much I remember exactly. So today's my third day in Kyoto. My friends who are also traveling around Japan will be joining me today so I decided not to buy a bus pass because I'm not sure what their plans are. We decided to go visit Kinkaku-ji first. When I was drafting my itinerary, I actually decided between visiting Kinkaku-ji (金閣寺、 Golden Pavilion ) or Ginkaku-ji (銀閣寺、Silver Pavilion) since I'm trying to narrow down the number of shrines and temples to save on admission fees and time. I thought the Golden Pavilion looks grander so I went with it. We took the tax...

They say seeing a real life Geisha in Japan is a once in a lifetime experience. I recall how as I peruse travel magazines in the past and I’d see them mentioned, most do not have an accompanying high quality photos. So I thought just how difficult is it to spot them? Apparently, not very hard.. My fascination with the Geisha Culture is almost as old as my love for Japan. Watching the film Memoirs of a Geisha, though it was all fiction, just further intensified my dream of one day seeing one in person. And this is my account of how thrilling the whole experience was. Of course, your desire to spot them has to come with a bit of stealth and cunning. Remember in my last post I shared a photo of Maiko’s on their way to work? I doubted if they were really Geishas-in-training then but apparently, it turned out Miyagawa-cho ( my hostel’s neighborhood ) belonged to the five Geiko areas of Kyoto. And yes, they do have those kind of schools. My next brush with them was in the s...