Saturday, January 9, 2010

japan 09: last day out and about in nagoya

nagoya is a great town. its not extremely busy (like tokyo), not as beautiful (like kyoto) but it sure has character. and it has all the cool shops all within walking distance from each other. 

we recently visited nagoya in march so we've seen most of their touristy spots. so we saved the last day for shopping. the night before, we also found a cute salsa bar and school where we took some ad-hoc classes after the wedding dinner! our japanese teacher is super cute and chillax and taught really cool stuff (in japanese) *sigh* i wish we have salsa classes in cambodia. i've miss them a lot! anyway, we were out till late the night before from dancing.

when received a surprise early morning call the next morning from the couple, who were leaving town for a short getaway to the onsens with their parents, we were still bleary-eyed rolled up in bed. they wondered if we were keen to catch up over breakfast! we were all like hell yeah!! as we tumbled out feeling a little hungover..


the newly-weds all bright eyed and bushy tailed.. 
i was not feeling as swish.. :)

us and father christmas!!

we don't usually stay in chain hotels but the little bit of bride-and-groom time we snuck it made it totally worth it!!! plus it was totally cool to stroll down from our hotel room without wintercoats straight into the ballroom!!

wine suggested that we visit osu, her favorite part of town to shop for vintage shops, specialty stores with pretty fabric and sake sets. it was a nice breezy 15 min walk away and such a pretty day to be out!! we found really neat little shops selling quirky jewellery.


strolled through a shinto temple on our way there..


and checked out rows and rows of japanese flipflops..


found a little hole-in-the-wall taco-pachi store with a jolly man. who was SUPER nice. but his taco pachi, not so nice-looking.. ah.. so yums!!

and spent the rest of the afternoon darting in and out of stores!! amazing! daniel oohed and ahhed over their second hand lens shops, smart camera gear and SD cards.. and myself, i was rolling in cutesy stationery heaven. gosh!! the intricate craftwork and quality of their paper products! i spent a mini-fortune buying absolutely nothing concrete! *le sigh* and still we're still itching to head back for MORE!!!

anyway, conclusion is, 3 days is toooo short for japan (even if its a small part of japan). but time spent with family and re-establishing long-lost ties with friends, priceless!!

we'll be back, japan!! じゃまた今度!!!

4 comments:

  1. that's actually a buddhist temple :) If I am not wrong, it's one of the more famous local temples which devotees go to (none of those world heritage sites, a bit more like our waterloo street temple). I actually went back twice in 2 days 'cos I really liked that temple! Heh.. I wish I had a guide in Nagoya like you guys did!

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  2. ooops!!! wrong info!! we merely bumped into it by chance. sooo lucky!!

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  3. hey hey :) random question.
    regarding your wedding invites, the one with the chinese knots. Just wondering where did you purchase the chinese knots from?
    do drop me a reply at rvez27@gmail.com
    thanks!!

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  4. hi sweets!!
    turns out my mum has been keeping a stash from my grandma for me. but she says that you can easily buy them from chinatown (zhen zhu ba sa).
    good luck! they were SUPER fun to make!!

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