c l a r z z i q u e

I recently dug out un-posted photos from my last roll of film I got processed.

I love the suspense, surprise and satisfactions (haha 3 s), which film gives… especially if you’ve taken photos from long ago, and you developed it a few weeks/months later. You get a memory jolt from seeing the odd 1-2 photos which you totally forget about from months ago. You’re then taken back to that moment.

That is exactly the feeling I got with this one photo I took at Kawaguchiko in Japan, it’s been a good 3.5 months since! It was one of our last few days when we traveled long, long hours to see Mt Fuji. That day was probably one of the longest, toughest traveling moments; we rushed from one spot to another on a spontaneous decision with our heavy luggages. Although we only spent around an hour or so at Lake Kawaguchiko – Natural Living Centre (viewing spot), it gave us a sense of satisfaction. Even though we couldn’t see much of Mt Fuji, since it was winter hence there was fog, but the scenery itself, (although shrubs were out for winter) was so beautiful! With the lake just stretching out infront of us and Mt Fuji, almost arm’s length away (visually). It was really nice to get away from civilization for once.

I tried to take a film shot of Mt Fuji but it turned out barely visible But yeah, I believe I captured a sense of Japanese winter in this shot, with the wooden Japanese house and the dry woodlands just behind it.

Japan brings back great memories, shared with girlfriends, all the fun we had, places we saw, food we ate (absolutely craving it!)

Now that its winter in Sydney, even though its not as cold in Japan, there are so many little things I miss about Japan… other than big yummy bowls of ramen (great for winter!), to the heated toilet seats (electronically heated!), heated public transport seats… oh boy, hot springs are the best ways to relax in winter! I’d so love to go back one day…

But for now, I’m just slowly saving up for my next trip, wherever it may be… South East Asia?

There are many more film shots I have picked out of the last roll which I’ll slowly share in later posts

On a positive note, my boyfriend has finally finished exams, which means I will finally have something to do than to bum around at home! So I’m hoping to take my film camera out a bit more and take some ‘beautiful shots’. I’ve lately been inspired by film / wedding photographer Jonathan Canals, his candids are simple but beautiful!

If you know any film photographer who snaps wonderful stuff, be sure to share with me! I don’t know many… but so far Jose Villa and Jonathan Canals are my fave

As promised, I would blog about this.

During my recent Melbourne trip, I came across an instant camera, what looked much like a Fuji Instax, but was branded under Polaroid.Polaroid 300 which released in May.

Fuji Film Instax Mini 7s

Polaroid 300

You can see the similarities yourself?

I approached the Polaroid booth at the Digital Life Expo / PMA, and asked the sales people if they know about the Fuji Film Instax.

Alot of them said, they’ve ‘heard’ of it, but haven’t actually seen it themselves.

So I pulled out my Fuji Instax and showed them, they tried to trick each other that its the new ‘white version’ of the Polaroid 300 (they covered the model #) and you really can’t tell the difference. Just that, the Polaroid has uglier colours, Red (maroon-y), blue and black. I just thought, urgh the colours are so YESTERDAY!

sorry scanner’s dirty =.= (answers at the end of this post!)

Funny because, they hired Lady Gaga as the Creative Director, as a way to ‘reconnect with the avante-garde pop culture’. What’s so avante garde about the overall look? I’d expect funky prints & colours.

But yeah, apparently Polaroid has bought the patent from Fuji, so I guess its a way for it to resurface again. I had mixed emotions when I first saw it, I wished I had waited a little later for a ‘Polaroid Instax’ instead, but then again Fuji is much more affordable! Polaroid is 1.5 or 2x more expensive than Fuji. Ridiculous.

At the time, we weren’t sure whether they had exactly the same film, because the colour quality was so much more vibrant with the Polaorid. The film size and all seemed the same and apparently, we could use the Polaroid film in my Fuji. I’m curious, I have yet to try that. We made a comparison between the two camera’s photo quality.(above)

What I noticed is that, Polaroid film seem to reflect the colours of Polaroid, that is the green tones, whereas Instax had more red tones. I also found that Polaroid was more sharper (even looking at other sample shots) than Fuji. I thought this had something to do with the camera, but the bf says its all in the chemicals of the film that affects sharpness and colours, right, wrong? I’m not sure if I prefer Polaroid or the Fuji quality, but I’d love some extra sharpness in my photos.

I’m going to take a risk and purchase a pack of Polaroid 300 film for testing, when I come across it on sale.

Will keep posted

Did you guess right??

Maybe its my scanner, but the actual photo was slightly more green (polaroid), red (instax) and you can tell the Polaroid is sharper.. not even sure if this is a great comparison image since it wasn’t taken at the same distance… but you can tell there is a colour difference atleast…

What do you think?

Hello blogosphere,

Back home again after our short little escape to Melbourne; back to gloomy, rainy, un-trendy Sydney…

Well, Melbourne wasn’t that much better in terms of weather; rained 1 whole day, the other days were gloomy periods, and sunny periods.. which sucked! because I barely got to use my film (gloomy days are sucky for film )

But nevertheless, it was kind of a breeze of a holiday… and I wish we could stay longer, if it wasn’t for the remainder of uni then again, I’m not sure what we could’ve done if we stayed longer. It was my 4th trip to Melbourne in 3 years. Alot of the stuff I’d like to do would be more convenient if we had a car… such as going to Ballarat, or Mornington Peninsula… oh well next time! Maybe we’d drive down again, the bf and I.

Anyway,

*appologies bout the inconsistencies of the photos here, i mainly used my iphone for photos as i traveled -explains why my phone dies half way through the arvo each day-,  i used my dslr for food shots *coming soon* (:

— Day 1 —

We flew down with a few friends, we took off at the same time in 3 different airlines.. which is funny, cos it was like a race who gets there first. We, on Virgin won, just missing the fog, hence no delays

A friend hired a car from the airport, so that day we pretty much zipped around in a Toyota Aurion, such a comfy, big, car, felt like I a boat. So instead of figuring out trams, we drove from one spot to another. Costco *which rejected our entry, since you had to be a member*, Harbour town *pity Southern star Ferris wheel was still down*, Southwharf DFO *nice big shopping complex, picked up a nice discounted pair of nighties for summer, and cheap pair of silver flights *bling!*.

A weird occurrence; the bf and I were checking out the second-hand gear shop window of Michael’s camera store, until an old guy approaches us and starts talking to us about the lens we were eyeing which then pretty much led on to ‘stereo cameras’, i learnt what they were last night… 3D cameras! I never knew 3D technology existed since 1850′s or something. The way 3D photos are viewed is pretty cool. So that was atleast an hour of listening to him talk and learning along the way, it was interesting but at times was a little long winded and it wasn’t nice to reject an old chap. How’s that for one hour on the cold streets of Melbourne at Night?

Later that night the bf and I drove down to Lygon st too meet our Melbourne friend Austie over dessert.

That pretty much summed up our first day, alot of us didn’t get much sleep the night before. I, especially, only had 2.5hours at most. I tried to cram my 40% essay, and failed to finish it. So yes it’s 4% off for a late essay *sigh*

Oh! and the hotel we stayed in is absolutely trend-ilicious! We stayed at Jasper Hotel, we got it at a 50% special on Hotels.com, so instead of $160 a night, it was $80 between two of us, which was pretty cheap for a 4.5* hotel. And yes, back to the trendy bit. It was trendy alright! From the check in counters/outside it looked ordinary. But until you went into the lift and up to your level, the lift door opens.. we were instantly shocked by what we were about to walk into. We had the Hot Pink level. Yes the whole level was HOT PINK.

It was sooo cool! Poor bf, mustv’e been disgusted. *I tried standing out in the corridor for about 5-10mins at night, and it gave me a headache lol* Anyway, the room had really nice ambience with just desk/bedside lamps – there weren’t any ceiling lights lol. Just love the pink/purple window panels on the wall…

— Day 2 —

Still exhausted from the lack of sleep the previous night, we had to force ourselves up and out by 7:30AM to move the car downstairs.

We stayed right next to Queen Victoria Markets, so we drove the car there -cheaper parking-. Had yummy breakie there too, nice fresh food in the deli! I wish we had something like this in Sydney, do we? It’s like *cheaper* Paddys + Food market + Fish market all in one! Atmosphere’s great ~

We then had to pick up some friends who were arriving from Sydney that morning, since we had the car anyways. Zippy drive!

It was PMA day that day, and just when we were about to head off to PMA, it starts pouring like crazy. We hopped on the tram towards the Exhibition/Convention Centre, a few stops later, realised we had gotten on the tram going int he opposite direction, so we hopped off and waited for the next one. Finally, PMA! It was one reason why we’re in Melbourne, I thoroughly enjoyed the one in Sydney last year. With the same expectations, 2 hour ish later.. I was somewhat disappointed, it was confusing to walk around, it was smaller, Adobe wasn’t there, and Wacom wasn’t selling tablets! I was prepared to get my hands on a nice big tablet. boo. Not many freebies either, I forgot to prepare photos for free printing @ the Fuji stand. It sucks how Canon doesn’t give freebies like Nikon, not even a bag! Nikon gave our free travel belts for suitcases… The highlight of the exhibition? Discovering really beautiful wedding albums, which I’d recommend to my friend for her wedding photos, love handmade albums! that’s got a little artsy feel to it , and perhaps playing with an Intuos 4 makes me want one!! *forking out $400-500ish?? I won’t even dare dream for a Cintiq =is like buying another DSLR, which was a painful experience=. I was prepared to buy a tablet there and then, but turns out they weren’t selling there this year!

Would I go to Brisbane PMA? I’m not too sure, the bf said the Brisbane one is even worse when he went, so I might just skip that and wait for Sydney . Melbourne was worth going to, not just cos of the Expo, but everything else, the food, the culture, the lifestyle hmmm. I wonder if I love Melbourne more than Sydney?, but of course it doesn’t mean I’d love to move to Melbourne, great for a get away from  boring Sydney

But yeah its been a year since I went to Melbourne and Sydney PMA. I feel I’ve learnt alot over that time in terms of photography. Revisiting Michael’s camera store’s museum of old cameras and collectibles, I was familiar with more cameras, also at PMA I had more idea of different brands in photography/digital fields. So, I guess it was a worthwhile realisation (:

I was so dead that night, we got back to hotel at 6, and slept till 9.. yes late dinner.

— Day 3 —

Well, it was our last day in Melbourne on Sunday! Slept in a little, but still woke up earlier than the bf, and headed down to Queen Victoria Market myself. Didn’t get a chance to look at the retail side of the market the other day so I couldn’t resist. Within the first 30mins at the market, I had spent atleast $170.

Bought 2 pairs of converse for 2 of my sisters,as well as $30 worth cupcake cases for my little sister who loves to bake. The cupcake cases were really nice and cheap! Hence, I couldn’t resist a bargain I ended up buying more again later in the day for my friend, so the stall owner of Confectioner’s Favourite was very happy

Remainder of the day; was walking around small lanes and I discovered Petrova’s boutique, Lady Petrova. Petrova from Project Runway Australia Season 1. Her designs are so quirky chic!

Afternoon drove down to Toorak to pick up some new ‘shoes’ for the bf’s car. Oh-my-God, the houses in this suburb is sooo nice! It’s the most expensive suburb in Melbourne I heard, and all the houses were like mansions! So much nicer than what you’d find here in Sydney up north…

awesome Mui Mui store!

We then did a little shopping trip to Chadstone, ‘the biggest shopping complex in the Southern Hemisphere’. I’m not surprised if it is, it felt like 5 Parramatta Westfields stuck together! Too bad we got there a little late, after we had late lunch there wasn’t much time to shop Luckily I could get those brands here too But I can’t go shopping till I’m done with my assignments

We pretty much ran out of things to do before our flight, so we thought we’d just drive straight to the airport, LUCKY we did, because we had to repack everything, and we ended up being 2kg overweight *grr bf’s rims* Such a hectic night…

Felt good to be home, but as usual, I miss the dining experiences in Melbourne >< I’d love to just do a girls weekend down to Melbourne and nomnom 5 meals a day! The weekend went by so quickly, almost felt like I didn’t go anywhere… but I know I did, thanks to the extra visible kilos >< I really should stop eating out so much … or *inserts exercise if possible*

Talk about food, notice I didn’t mention where we ate at? Yes because I want to do special, dedicated posts to those yummy experiences! *stay tuned!*

Look forward to going to Melbourne, Again

It has been over a month since returning from my Japan holidays, and have finally gotten around to compiling my holiday videos together into a short video of highlights.

This was filmed using my dslr, Canon 5d MK II.

I have no talent in this area of videographing, so please bare with the amount of shakyness there might be in the video (Don’t blame me if it gave you seizures!)

Hope you have fun watching the video as much fun as I had…. being behind the lens (hectic putting the videos together!)

*This is not a daily thing, just whenever I remember to switch to video mode, hah!

Featured Locations: (OSAKA) Himeji Castle, Dotonbori, HEP5 Ferris Wheel (TOKYO) Asakusa, Sensoji Temple, Alcatraz Bar in Shibuya, Meiji Jingu in Harajuku, Tokyo Disneyland, Kawaguchiko (Mt Fuji view from Natural Living centre), (HAKONE) Hoeiso Ryokan, (KYOTO) Kinkaku-Ji, Hirashin Ryokan, (HIROSHIMA) Miyajima Island, WAK Japan Kimono + Tea ceremony, Gion District.

Questions, Comments welcome =)

Overall…. Japan was fun,the highlights?

HIGHLIGHTS

• PEOPLE ARE SO NICE,* Asterix because it applied in some cities. Tokyo, people were too good for themselves, however Osaka, and Kyoto everyone pretty much was really helpful. Our first encounter was within our first 2 hours in Osaka, we were lost at the train station, didn’t know how to get to Capsule Inn.. we managed to stop a couple who were nice enough to actually walk us there… it was a few blocks away. They helped call up to see where it was and all. So if you are in Japan, I say, don’t hesitate to ask! Even with basic Japanese; Japanese people love hand directions – which are often easy to understand. Just learn the basic direction terms… i.e. go straight blahblahblah
• FOOD in OSAKA, just AMazIng. Recommended to go Dottonburri, you can eat till you go broke! I suggest eat street snacks as you go to get a full taste of the place =) Cheaper food options and more variety.
• Cheap Japanese cosmetics! I stocked up on my make up kit, simply because everything was practically 3x cheaper than Sydney, and still slightly cheaper than online (saves you searching and paying for postage). There a few pretty good brands, i.e. branches of Shisheido – Majolica Majorca and Maquillage are all very affordable. You don’t want to know how many ‘drug stores’ we went into, in a day.
• ICHIRAN, You will find a few branches in and around Tokyo. We went to the one near Ueno station. Really yummy Ramen, you can customize to your preferences!
• Hot Springs are a Must! Especially in cooler season, I can’t imagine it in Summer… but it was really nice experience, even if you have to be nude, particularly open air hot springs are great. Just what a busy traveler needs!
• Clean, Fancy, Technologically-advanced toilets – I’m hygienically paranoid when it comes to public toilets, but when in Japan, I gladly use the toilets, because they practically clean it really often. Feel so spoilt because the toilet seats are heated , (not from the previous user!)… really going to miss it when its winter here. Oh and not forgetting to mention the Bidet, cleaning thing that.. yeah… sprays your rear…
• Heated train seats
• Souvenir shopping! Was fun, but a tip is.. don’t buy it from shops near the entrance, as chances are you WILL see similar stuff in the next shops.. until you approach the tourist spot. Because, they have an advantage of selling it more expensive near the entrance!
• Manga stores are fascinating - Never in my life had I imagined manga stores have a large section catered for ‘lesbian’ and ‘gay’ manga, oh of course the pornographic ones too. Apparently they are an interesting read. It made me wonder if they even have ‘normal’ mangas?

though there were times that can make it not fun, such as;

LOWLIGHTS

• Lugging suitcases around from place to place; we were being cheap asses not to pay Y800/day for station locker hire, and because we changed accommodation 7 times in 15 days – We were ambitious and chose convenience, and wanting to see more. Lesson learnt/Point of Realization: Next trip to Japan, I’ll gladly stay in Osaka for half/majority of the trip and do day trips from there. And stay in Tokyo for a few days – for major shopping; clothes, electronics (I didn’t get a decent akihabara trip!)
• the CROWD; quite expected in a small city full of people and hustle and bustle.
• Absolutely AVOID Peak hours (8-10am?) You will either be stuck in human traffic, trying to swim through a school of sardines, or packing yourself into a train carriage. Experienced the latter, 2x and its not something you want to experience. You can get pushed out of the train, silently, no one says anything, and they don’t give a shit if you have a giant suitcase. I admire their skills too of getting into the carriage when clearly, its full to the door. Enter Sideways. and Push. That should get you in there. Ladies, get into the ‘Women only carriage’ during peak hours. Have heard bad situations when men and women mix in a carriage. It ain’t a good feeling.
• QUEUEs at Disney Land/Sea - it’s almost impossible to get onto more than 3-4 rides in a day, the popular ones anyways, without having to wait 1-4hrs for them. They have this ‘Fast Pass’ system, which allows you to get on the fast lane with them, you can only get 1 in every hour or something. So if you get those, lucky you, if you don’t you’ll absolutely hate fast pass holders. I’m sad I didn’t get my money’s worth there. Oh and I absolutely recommend Disney Sea over Land, its so much more nicer. You’ll love the atmosphere there
• FOOD IN KYOTO, Is expensive and Scarce, Tokyo similar too. Alot of the stuff you find there is like Ramen, Soba etc. Kyoto you’ll find those fancy Japanesey set menus
• SHOPPING in Japan.. the fashion is awesome, its full of florals (maybe cos it was almost Spring season) but it is kind of over rated, alot of the stuff is average priced, but considering its Made in China stuff then its quite over priced! Quality is only so-so. But if you aren’t so nit picky like that, then it’s good. Japan made stuff are like really expensive
• No WIFI, hardly ever got onto Wifi, only at the airport when we arrived, but it was really weak signal. Thank god, I brought Ethernet cable to get on from our hotel room, provided they had the port.
• IRASHAIMASEEE - meaning ‘Welcome’ in Japanese… I have never heard of such a diverse yet annoying range of irashiamase’s ! Entering shops, sales staff would squeal it out, squeak it out, yell it out, groan it out,, whatever you can think of. It’s quite horrifying. On the bus, bus drivers sound like creepy old guys =3

That is pretty much what I could come up about the highs and lows during my travel to Japan, hope you guys will look out for these

DOMO ARIGATOU~

–Osaka–

This was our last full day in Osaka, Japan, as we depart the next night.

The day was reserved mainly for shopping and eating and shopping and eating!

Located near our hotel is Hep Five, one of the larger shopping centres in the area. It is noticeable in Osaka, as the shopping centre with the large red ferris wheel on the 8th floor.

Shopping in Osaka is pretty good, things were quite cheap, but to some extent. Alot of the stuff were made in China, so the prices were average to being over priced for china made. Quality was so-so. The stuff that is made in Japan was more expensive, like Japa-made shoes start from around $100. They were really nice though.

I found clothing mannequins in shop windows quite scarily realistic! Check this one out… it’s creepy don’t you think?

We went to DAIGOKU to pick up a load of stuff, because that shop is awesome! everything is Y100, no more no less I picked up a load of eyelashes, and snacks for cheap, so I’m happy.

Just nearby was a Ramen place that looked pretty good, it was busy, and price was fairly reasonable. It wasn’t too bad, a bowl of ramen is nice for a cold winter day

We had afternoon tea/dessert at this little afe in the Hep 5 building, level 7 where the food court is.

Rasberry, cheese cake, icecream waffles

Mango, icecream, waffles

That night, we made a pitt stop to Den Den town to check out the electronics there, since it is known for cheap electronics and such. Picked up some electronics for the bf’s dad. Either we didn’t know how to get around the place, there wasn’t much there.

Fortunately it was in close distance to Namba/Dotonburri! where we did another trip of shopping, and eating!

Our last sushi train, all you can eat for Y1260!

This place was nicer than our first, there was quite a variety ,and somethings had interesting flavours… some which really disgusted me, and I had no idea what I ate, lol. There were 2 pieces on a dish, and we worked out we had to have atleast 10 dishes to get our moneys worth.

I managed to do 13 including dessert I could probably keep going, but I don’t want to have a hard time the rest of the night, haha.

Atleast we didn’t leave with a bad impression of Japanese Sushi. it was probably the biggest Sushi train I’ve ever been to.. there was like 4 or 5 seperate conveyor belts. Amaazing. Oh yeah this place is located in the middle of shinsaibashi.

Overall, I’m more than happy with the sushi we get here in Sydney, especially with fresh seafood!

It’s our last night in Osaka, the night spent packing and praying we can stuff all our shopping into our suitcases, without going overweight (20kg)

I still had around 4kgs left between me and my sister, and still a few hundred dollars worth of yen..

We have just a few hours to spare the next day, for… more shopping. Shopping awaits.

One of the highlights of our kyoto trip was, kimono wearing and tea ceremony. At first, we thought we won’t get the chance of wearing kimono ,simply because most of our funds were going low, until we found WAK Japan‘s brochure, that offered kimono wearing and tea ceremony for only Y4,900! It’s a fairly good deal even though its only a 1 hour session, you get to have a tea ceremony as well (which was on our list of to-do’s).

Us girls, have been looking forward to the experience

moi getting dressed by the ladies there, it may look easy but they told us they had to take a course for i think a few weeks/months just to learn how to put on a kimono!

We got to pick, mix and match our kimono + obi sash!

We learnt you are meant to wear yukata, and kimono etc ‘left over right’, which is quite interesting and nit picky in a way, because the other way would signify ‘death’. (Can you tell I got sooo chubby during Japan?, thank god this is near the end of it…)

I love obi bows

Next, the tea ceremony started with some sweets.

And we learnt how to make tea from green tea powder, which simply involved crazy whisking with that whisk you see.. wish I had bought one home, it was fun to use it creates the foamy cappuccino like texture at the top, which almost makes it less bitter.

Got out of looking clean and polished in our kimono and back into our jeans and joggers, off to the Imperial Palace! Pity we couldn’t go in – as it is closed to public on weekends Still took a photo to show that we’ve been there (my lowerpro backpack came into good use as a tripod, though a lil wonky haha)

Plum blossoms, I only learnt of them since going to Japan, they look different to Cherry blossoms These were just along the paths to the imperial palace, a few trees had already blossomed, all we could do is imagine how beautiful it is when its spring!

Another to-do, was to find geisha’s (they are called geikos now), We were told they only come out at a certain time and place (yes we made them sound like creatures lol), so incase we couldn’t spot them in the Gion District (historic part of kyoto), we were told to go to this performance arts museum/centre, and found Maikos performing (I believe they are like geiko’s apprentices).

We bussed down to the Gion district for a little stroll, I had expected it to be more busy but it was mainly surrounded with performance places ft geikos, and restaurants, and the occasional souvenir shop. Alot of the food there is very expensive because it is like those Japanese set menus – kinda like degustation.

We spotted some Japanese girls with really pretty kimono, we asked them to take a photo with us but they rejected us We’re girls though! not sleazy men I really, really, loved the fabrics though!

We saw this fat mole fella at a few places in kyoto, I wonder what his significance is?

Bye bye Kyoto, Hello Osaka…!

Tokyo, was the part of the trip which my friend and I planned. So, it was our turn to be tour guides! Our first ride on the bullet train, which wasn’t so ‘fast’ as we had expected. I later found out that bullet trains, included in the JR pass (Hikari), are the slowest bullet trains. sad, no wonder… but we did see the faster ones zoom by… just a pity that we weren’t in them!

‘Please do it at home’.

The bentos we got to last the 2ish hour trip Osaka -> Kyoto, they looked too good to eat!

We stayed near Ueno in Tokyo, which was where one of the best ramen was found- Ichiran! I knew people who love it to bits, and I was certainly looking forward to it. We entered the cosy little shop to find vending machines – ah yes its a big thing in Japan – vending machines. I was expecting a few choices of Ramen,  but they only had one for Y750 and you can add on extras such as egg etc.

So we sat down, and found a multiple choice like question sheet on the table with a free packet of Ramen (woohoo).

We were able to customize the ramen to our taste – which is awesome! Hardness of the noodle, to the heavyness of the soup base.

I got it with Red pepper, and egg as a dish. It was truly D-I-V-I-N-E. I could probably do with another bowl, if I didn’t choose to leave my tummy for later street snacks. And I’m sad that, this whole trip I only got to go there once ;( Which leaves me craving for it so much now…

After our pig-out session on Ramen, we took the subway to Asakusa, which is more of a touristy town – main street lined with shops that date back 100 or so years?

It is also the place where you find this iconic big red lantern at the gates of Sensoji Temple. We spent a good few hours there enjoying sampling street food and souvenir shopping.

Later that night, we set off to Roppongi – Roppongi Hills tower, its observation deck to get a good look of Tokyo city. It’s s beautiful. Just love how the Tokyo Tower (Eiffel tower rip off) stands out amongst all the city lights.

It was difficult to find a decent place to eat that wouldn’t blow our budget (since Roppongi hills itself is like one of those high class suburbs). So we went back to Minowa (where we stayed), and settled for Mc D’s since it was getting late. First bite of Teriyaki Chicken burger, and to be honest – I don’t like it, haha. Teriyaki and burgers just don’t work for my taste buds.

After a long day, finally got to go back to the ryokan (japanese inn). We stayed at Andon Ryokan, modern japanese inn can you tell? It had interesting interior. This was just the corridor, didn’t take a photo of the room itself (which was really cosy and just enough for 3 people sleeping on 3 mats).

Oyasumi!