A little Surreal

Jet lag is still in effect, still feeling a little surreal but these places confirm that I am back to the Netherlands..

Dutch tart and good coffee at de Bijenkorf

And a good magazine on arts and design that re-iterate the Japan's trip.

Permanent Residency

I collected my Dutch Permanent Resident Permit today!!

What a day to mark in my journal. I remembered I applied for the Dutch permanent residency on the same day I applied for the Japanese visa and also the same day I had a close encounter with the Dutch Queen.

While we were still in Japan, I was told by my mum-in-law that there is a letter from the IND asking me to collect my new document. Today despite of jet-lag, I went to the Police station at Den Haag and collect my permanent resident permit.

What a milestone, I live here for 6 years already!! Looking back to the last 6 years, I can only thanked God for everything that He had made possible for me. It is not easy to start a new life in a western country especially being an Asian and a woman who doesn't speak a word of the national language. Through Him and in Him, He had not only provided me all the opportunities to excel me in everything I do, experiencing Him in a greater level that I have never seen before and what's more the many big and small blessings that we may have taken for granted.

Miho Museum - A Shangri-la based on the Peach Valley

Day 4 in kyoto - sunny 33C
I was woke up by the nature alarm again and decided to make a side trip to Miho Museum which is located at the mountain range in Shiga Perfecture, a little out of Kyoto. It took me all in all 20 min by JR train to Ishiyama station and then transfer to a bus. The bus ride last for 50 min, going through mountain, winding small road, stream, waterfall, paddy fields and finally arrived at the "Shangri-La" Miho museum.

Miho museum is well known for its architecture and the fact that 95% of the building is actually buried under the mountain with 5% of main of its roof and entrance expose. I am sold by the architecture along, love the way the glass is used as the roof and fully utilizing the sunlight and every change of cloud, sunlight etc change the entire interior atmosphere....

The main reception is at the foot of the hill, the museum is on top of the hill about 10 min walk. The entire concept is based on "the peach valley". where a fisherman in his boat, going through a winding river, tunnel and finally arrive at the "Shangri-la".

Approaching the main entrance of the museum

In the museum, this photo is taken by looking back out to the tunnel

The view in front of me after the entrance

A natural wood chair

The superb view from the glass window - a bell tower on the far left, a Fuji mountain like building in the center and a 150 year old transplanted tree welcoming the guests to the museum.

An exhibition about the match bowl - a rather intensive collection back dated to thousand years ago...

A reflection of myself - the whole design of the building is to utilize natural sunlight to the fullest...

Love this Shangri-la and the Peach valley so much... worth a long trip all the way from Kyoto.... Hope you are impressed too....

For more information check out the official website Miho Museum

Greetings from Kyoto

Well, just slightly over 2 and a half hours, I arrived at Kyoto Station. Upon arrival, Kyoto is familiar but yet distance for a start. It was not difficult to find my apartment, a rather nice and spacious one along the kamogawa river at the Gion district.

The weather is really hot, so hot that i stayed in the apartment till late afternoon when the heat is off a bit to start rocking the city.

i am really in the midst of old Kyoto, with the old brownish merchant houses next to my block and I just let go the map and decided to get lost in the old quarter and soak in the atmosphere. Some areas of Gion are jam-packed with tourists, but as soon as you walked into the next alley, you could have the whole place for yourself.

After a long walk, I treated myself this bowl of dessert, a mixed jelly, mochi, azuki bean paste, chestnut, okinawa black sugar syrup, and topped with a matcha ice-cream and a heavy sprinkle of matcha powder.. yummy and refreshing after a long walk under the hot temperature.

The Gion festival still continues, some some events were on today and tomorrow there will be a bigger one at Yasaka Shrine. Ladies in yukata is everywhere, japanese or foreigners alike.

After eating out for weeks, tonight I cooked myself a home cooked meal. Nothing complicated but using the freshest ingredients in the season. I fetched everything from the supermarket nearby to me.


Miso soup, cold tofu, cucumber and fresh shiso mixed, a grilled cod fish and some pickles and surely with a bowl of steaming hot Japaneses rice.


I will leave you with the view of the opposite side of the kamogawa river, this is the view from the balcony of my apartment. The night is still young at Gion district but i will retreat for an early night...

Tokyo Story - The End

Today is Johannes last full day in Japan, we went to ikkebukero to exchange my japan rail pass so that i could travel to Kyoto tomorrow. Guess what, we were completely lost in the train station . It is just t too massive and crowded with stream of human traffic every other second when there is a train/metro/subway arrival... One word to describe today's feeling - chaotic!!!

Crowds at the station

We left the crazy Ikkebukero station and opt for Sakuradamon - one of the gates of Tokyo imperial palace which we often talked about after watching a Japanese drama series. Here, everything is back to "normal" again with less people, a green pasture and space to breath...

Also at the Hibiya park, some open space to relax

Another typically Japanese culture - vending machine is everywhere...

Talk about Arts and Designs, here is the classic example at Tokyo international forum

Some nice display by a Japanese artist

It was too humid to walk around and so we cocooned into a bookstore nearby, perhaps the one with biggest English selection...Hiding away in a huge bookstore nearby to Tokyo station to avoid the crowds and find some stillness in reading/browsing wide selections of English books.

browsing an interesting huge book about Japanese history...

At the end, we did set our foot on Ginza, the edge of Ginza

And Johannes found a restaurant with his family name at Ginza but disappointed to know that it

offers Korean cuisine.

With this,it marks the end of our Tokyo stories....

Back to Tokyo

Today, we left Hokkaido for Tokyo... We had an early start as we need to drive for 1 hour 30 min to return the car at New Chitose airport.

Technically this is our breakfast but we eat as if it was lunch as this is the very last moment to savor the Hokkaido seafood.

My Sashimi, tempura and crab miso soup for breakfast

Johannes shredded crab meat set meal, also with tempura and sashimi

Interesting the Chitose airport is like a fish market, all stalls selling fresh Hokkaido seafood from crab to everything you can think of..

fishes like this

or these...

Hokkaido has been an eye opening for us, very un-Japanese and every place that we visited are unique on its own yet all commonly govern by the nature of volcano, mountains, sea. The summer weather is similar to the one in the Netherlands, which is rather pleasant as the sweltering Tokyo temperature was a bit unbearable.

Well, to mark the end of Hokkaido journey, here is a ramen map of Hokkaido that I have taken at a restaurant at the airport.

We only covered a very small part of Hokkaido, the original plan was more aggressive but thankfully we given that up and opt for some relaxation and enjoyment at Toya lake resort.

Now we are back to Tokyo... Noisy, crowded and confined to high rise building, undergrounds and the concrete walls. Despite of all these, Tokyo still has something unique to itself . I love the concept, design and artistic elements that appeal to me in the architecture, product design or expressive in shop window and concept stores...

We did some shopping and this is an interesting store of the day...

This store sells unique design T-shirts, they are so simple but yet eye catching...

Good night!

Scents and Purple Furano

Lavender field


Lavender Jelly


Lavender ice cream

Moerenuma Park モエレ沼公園 & Otaru

Another day in Sapporo, another day of highlights....


At the fish market

What for breakfast? Well, we had it the Sapporo or rather the Hokkaido way, went all the way to the fish market (nijo market) and finally settled on a fishy bowl i.e. a donburi topped with salmon roe and sea urchin. It was super duper yummy... with every salmon roe popping in my mouth and the sea urchin melting and full of creamy flavors.


Donburi with sea urchin (left), shredded egg (middle) and salmon roe (right)


Excited to eat my share with Tata (this is for photo only)

Once our stomachs are satisfied, we went to Moerenuma Park (モ エレ沼公園) which is slightly outside of Sapporo. It is partly a playground, partly a sculpture garden creations of an internationally renowned artist Isamu Noguchi. The park comes as a surprise as it was not part of the plan. I saw a beautiful poster at our lodge and found out that it is a pleasant place to enroute on our way to Otaru.


Play mountain


Turn left and turn right, candid shot by Johannes


Jump for Jesus at Moerenuma Park モエレ沼公園 - Play Mountain as background

Tried the rather disappointing soft iced - taste of sea urchin (top), squid ink (middle) and crab (bottom). It was not up to the expectation as I expected them to be of savory taste but all are sweet and no real taste of sea urchin, squid or crab...

Otaru canal, an atmospheric area with warehouse converted to restaurants


Otaru canal at night- charming and romantic


Another ramen dinner at Otaru, before we head back to Sapporo

Birthday Celebration at Toya Lake Resort

Today we moved from Sapporo to Lake Toya, about 2 hours southern of Sapporo, away from the city and going into the nature. It's very wet but the weather didn't stopped us....


Our Japanese room with the view of Toya lake right in front of us


The rotenburo onsen - outdoor hot spring from our hotel


Enjoying my private soak at the shimmering hot spring outdoor


The promenade of Toya ko


The dead volcanoes in the middle of the lake


My birthday dinner - celebrated with my dearest hubby and a great travel companion - tata

Daily Toya lake firework display - passing by the lake in front of our room


A surprise from Johannes (Thank you)....

Now I am officially 38....

Despite of the weather, thanked God for this amazing day with special moments to remember.... the great view from our room, the firework and the delicious dinner....