Wednesday, January 6, 2010

japan 09: to kanazawa and back!

in our super short trip to japan, we squeeze in a mini-cation to west coast to visit family in kanazawa! it was even more special and important to make that trip because daniel wanted to show me around the little town that he spent a year of him life teaching. i've heard so many cute stories of kanazawa from him it felt like i already knew it very well! and boy did kanazawa live up to its stories! :)

we were received with a flurry of hugs by mum at the train station who insisted on taking us to her favorite sushi bar for our fix! man i has been a good 7 months since we had good sushi!! yum yum!! then she chauffered us to kenrouku-en, one of the three great gardens of japan(along with Kairaku-en and Koraku-en).


when you wish upon a purple-berried tree...


wandering around the gardens..


pretties!! :) if they weren't as prickley i'd have rolled in them!! darling little star-shaped grass!!


the view of the park from across the pond! see those overturn ice-cream conical trees? thats for the winter! it helps take the weight of the heavy snow expected during winter so the beautiful trees don't snap!! :) i think thats SUPER smart.

AND then it started to pour. the red leaves were swirling like a little dance around the park, the duckies all huddled close in a pack and we stood in the middle of it all, under our FLIMSY brolly taking it all in. frankly, we got pretty wet and mum freaked out a little (catch a cold and motherly stuff like that..) but it was so beautiful to miss!! in 10 mins, the rain cleared up with even blue-er skies and a generous rainbow over the entire city. tres beautiful! it made all the travel worth every minute and penny! :)

then we hopped back into the toasty car and took a drive around the city in search for daniel's little apartment & school... spotted, not-so-lonely boy back in his upper-east side hood (not really.. but it sounded right.)


ohioguzimus!! this pikkie is very sartorialist-esque, no? all daniel needed was a push-bike, an armani suit and no-sock loafers!


and came home to this little munchkin! his name is apple tree - natsuki!

and he loves melon, grilled meat, card games and competition! even though we were dripping wet and gross from travel, he had us wrapped around his little finger and played games with him for ONE whole hour!! he was extremely taken by daniel's less than swish card skills and this short hair. the games ended with him hysterically climbing onto daniel chanting, "she's no. 1 (ME!), im no. 2, grammy is no.3 and you're no. 4!!!" and "your hair is like a brush".


checking into our little bedroom, where daniel (and 30 other young boys..) stayed on their exchange.. it was really neat with a roof top view and many vintage globes!! i wanted one of those so so badly we went scouting around town the next day!


amie-chan is super sweet and cute!! she's second brother's fiancee and they were getting married the next day!!


one more of natsuki at bedtime!! he was keen to negotiate a longer TV time with spongebob..

early next morning, we loaded onto the train back to nagoya. we'll be back!! :)


22 comments:

  1. Wow! Your brother married a Jap? Heheh international family :)

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  2. actually, its complicated... daniel's japanese family (his host family) married a japanese girl! :)

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  3. Ohhhh! I thought you meant your real-life brother :P

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  4. nooooo... don't talk like that! my brothers are babiess. and they will NEVER get married and leave their sister. they're mine forever!!!!

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  5. gosh, are the purple berries for real? they lok so pretty.. can't imagine a tree load of them!

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  6. You look so adorable in your red coat! :)

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  7. sure are!! :) the tree was filled with vibrant little purple dots!! super super cute!!

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  8. thanks babe!! they're worn to death! i think i need to start shopping for a new one!!

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  9. you can go on a very well-deserved babymoon! :)

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  10. LOVE the red trenchcoat hunz!!
    what vintage globes?? no piccies? and did you guys get them in the end??

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  11. Love the photos! Daniel's so lucky to get a gorgeous model posing for him all the time.

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  12. ❤ the black-and-white photo! Sartorialist indeed!

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  13. as do you! :)
    me and claire are really lucky girls! we have sooo many profesh pictures of us all the time!

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  14. thanks! :)
    no pictures.. but they were japanese vintage globes. we did see some in tokyu hands and departmental stores but they were not aged and scratched up with children stickers.. boohoo..
    i felt like it was poor form to me to stay in someone's house and ask for the globe when i leave. :(

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  15. hahaha thank you thank you! :)
    maybe i should be some famous street photographer too! :)

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  16. no lah of course cannot~~ what would they think of you??
    hmm get them new ones and paste stickers etc and let it aged lor! then ta-dah! you have yourself some vintage globes! :D just that the process might take like 10-15 years?!?!?! O_O

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  17. if i smuggle it in my top, they'd probably think "gosh! that girl looks pregnant"! haha!
    hahahaha.. good plan! i better get started on that soon! :)

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  18. uh, maybe REALLY big boobs?! but that means you have to take 2 with you!
    hahahaha!
    lol we are like monkeying around!

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  19. more coming up! im sooo behind this is more than a month old!!

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