this is the day of a rather long drive…

then we came across this area where there were many tour buses, so…

we stopped to check it out too~~~

we also stopped by this castle…

then we arrived at niigata n went shopping… guess what we bought! jigsaw puzzles!!

world’s small jigsaw puzzle!! not one… but 2… n more to come later in the trip even!

sorry no pic for that for now… but it’s 1000 piece, making a A3 picture (2 pieces of A4).

From around 2006, the Japanese puzzle manufacturers have been engaged in a battle for the “smallest”. Starting with puzzles of one-and-a-half to two times as many pieces in the standard dimensions, these were merely small (and Japanese puzzles are typically 10% or so larger in area than European or North American puzzles of the same piece count). Then Tenyo produced a “World Smallest 1000-piece” series*, earning a place at Guinness World Records, shortly to be overtaken by Beverly, with 1000-piece puzzles at 300-piece size. These tiny pieces are not for the faint of heart, and you will need patience, delicate fingers, and very good eyesight!

* A3 size: two sheets of A4, or very roughly two sheets of “Letter” size if you’re in the US.

taken from http://www.imaginatorium.org/shop/tiny.htm

here’s one of the museum that i enjoyed v much….

it’s all trick art… n there are various such musuems in japan…

added 10.51pm…

{ trick art = most of the pictures are 2D, juz paintings… like the bed, the shark, and the falling parts… so it’s how creative u can get when u take the photos…

technique for taking such photos… no flash photography! which is quite tough indoors… that’s y some of the pictures are slightly blurred…}

there are several nice churches there at the old street as well…

added 10.52pm…

{added 17/9/2008 11.36pm…

one of the nice shops at karuizawa old street…

a bit like greece hor~~~

other highlights…

check the pink flower… v interesting… look at the petals… 2 red 3 pink in one flower…

but when it blooms as a bunch… then the colours are in rings of red n pink!

n the other flower looks like a lady in a gown!

 

 give me some time to montage the other pics la… u know v busy with radio drama la..

me first time producing the radio drama le… any comments for the radio drama?

let us know la~~

first sightseeing was the ueda castle… this one was a disappointment after visiting matsumoto’s castle lo…

in ueda, there are several old streets like this…

next stop… SHOPPING at factory outlet again!!!! karuizawa prince… here i come…

i bought 2 pairs of adidas here… each for less than 2,000yen! and i bought 2 pieces of clothing from tommy too~~ cheap cheap~~ sorry no pic of factory outlet too~~

once of my best buy from the gotemba factory outlet! from 13,650 slashed til 3990 with tax… n if u buy 2 pairs of shoes, a further disount of 30%.. timberland somemore le~~

by now.. i had to throw away bulky shoe boxes liao cos the boot of the car was almost full~~

the accomodation at karuizawa… karuizawa is suppose to be a holiday-like place for japanese… apparently… the prince of japan met his wife here… so they were back there for honeymoon or something like that la…

the cute alien like plant outside candytuft..

and a glimspe of our bedroom?

at the rate i m going.. my travel post for the july will last til my NEXT holiday? hahahaha
i shall try to speed up a little.. and guess what as i look at the photos.. i could have messed up the order liao! ahahha anyway..

at matsumoto, we went to school too… this is of course a historical site, with exhibits of the class rooms, the textbooks, and the history then as well…

look at these angels carefully… dont they look like sumo angels~~

the design and structure of this school had this western touch to it…

take a close look at the following pictures of their textbook…

tho i dun really understand the words… but can guess a bit la

i think it’s something like… ‘after surrendering world war II,

they made some changes to the textbooks!’

the next stop.. wasabi farm… never know what the green paste for sushi looked like?

after which, we visited the monkeys.. u might have seen on taiwan dongfeng channel that monkeys love hot spring as well?

think again… that’s in winter but in summer july, will the monkeys be enjoying the onsen?

hmmm.. well we were not disappointed… we did see monkeys in the hot pool… but the moments were really brief… cos they were diving into the hot pool for food that the park keeper threw in!!! well i guess the park felt that since they charged an entrance fee, they had to ensure that visitors saw the monkeys in the water la~~~

i got it fixed out liao.. cos i found the shared expenses excel spreadsheet listing the monies spent amongst us hahhaha so recap…

29/6 day 1 tokyo-yokohama

30/6 day 2 kamakura - ito

1/7 day3 ito - kofu

2/7 day 4 kofu - matsumoto

so… from kofu… we went sightseeing la… of cos lo…

how much shopping can u do out of tokyo town?

ahahah then u r wrong… on day 3 we went to gotemba where there’s a big factory outlet there!! sorry too busy shopping, forgot to take photos… got coach n G say ‘v cheap compared to spore!’ there’s timberland, gap, muji, nike, adidas? n many more la…

ok back to day 4…

alamak i forgot the name liao hahahaha not listed in my expense spreadsheet…

anyway… this is supposedly the biggest shui jing ever in the world, weighing 12,000kg…

also can pray n make wish le~~~

this place is also famous for it’s waterfall… n yes that’s me… :O)

there were aunties selling cherries there too… yummy!!!

n then we proceeded to matsumoto!!! i like this castle…

of the japan castles that i have visited, this one had signages in ENGLISH!! so at least i can understand n appreciate the structure n history behind it…

it’s got a certificate stating it’s the No 40 National Treasure !!

n i dunno y i took this hydrant… but i thought it juz looked nice amidst the green…

nice contrast…

the meiji king visited matsumoto years back… n almost wherever that he went, there were such ’stone cravings’ to mark his ‘ 到此一游！’

we started the morning with this musuem~~~

can u spot my bear amidst the signage?

the musuem happens to be having this totoro special as well… not that i m a totoro fan la.. there’s a giant totoro there too…taller than me, but the photo din turn out well la ahhaha

then we proceeded to tour a little of the ito coastline…

look at the sky~~

look at the road~~ ie mean the manhole covers

oops… i think we arrived at kamiyamada liao hahahahah

n stayed at this place…

and the dinner at this place…

and the breakfast~~

the weather is still gloomy le~~ on off rain- heavy rain- drizzle-rain…

sigh… why like that? next stop is kamakura，鎌倉市, about 50 km south-west of Tokyo.  Kamakura has a beach which, in combination with the temples and the proximity to Tokyo, makes it a popular tourist destination.

This temple was founded in 1063 by Minamoto Yoriyoshi as a branch of Iwashimizu Hachimangu in Kyoto. It was originally located in Tsurugaoka near the Yuigahama coast, but was moved to the present location in 1180 by Minamoto Yoritomo to make it the core of the planned city of Kamakura. After being destroyed by a fire in 1191, the temple was rebuilt with the present layout. The view from Hongu, the main building of the temple, of the Kamakura city along the Wakamiya Oji street is magnificent.

Kotokuin Temple (Daibutsu)

it was a very early sunday morning flight… so… better don’t sleep in case overslept lo~~

by the time we touched down, get the car and nursed our hungry tummies… it’s almost 3/4 pm liao… so… we’d better be on our way to yokohama…

this trip is not the usual route or places that u see / hear of in standard tour itineraries la… but first stop yokohama shouldn’t sound v unknown la…

i was actually here at yokohama during the previous chan bro tour, but bcos i was in the midst of hopping buses, i did not have a chance to walk around… so here i m again…

but within a matter of weeks, the weather was totally different… the last time was bright n sunny…. n this time round… rainy n gloomy…

we were told before we set off that it’s the rainy season!!! but seeing n hearing is always different…

rain or shine there’s no stopping us from eating n shopping still~~~

the nice nice ferris wheel at yokohama

There are various points of interest in the futuristic Minato Mirai 21 harbourside redevelopment. The highlights are the Landmark Tower which is the tallest building in Japan, Queen’s Square Yokohama (a shopping mall) and the Cosmo Clock 21, which was the largest Ferris wheel in the world when it was built in 1989 and which also doubles as “the world’s biggest clock”. extracted from wikipedia.org

the nice nice bling bling kim-kim guan di miao… of cos in chinatown, yokohama… finally we could walk around n take pictures at about 10pm at night cos the rain finally stopped!!

our yummy sushi dinner after the shopping at Queen’s Square…

the past week has been quite frustrating.. i dunno what’s wrong with the pc connection at home… i can log on check emails, surf the net. BUT i cannot goto my login page for my blog! i dunno y~~

on a happier note… i wanna share these photos cos these are the nice ppl who went on the chan brothers trip with me in jun :O)

the spore n japan guides :O)

the pretty gals in bus 1

eugene n family from bus 1

the lovely mr n mrs lim, also from bus 1

my parents, uncle n aunties on bus 2

peiling n family also on bus 2 :O)

steven n family from bus 3

that’s about all the photos i have received from the ppl on my tour despite my appeal~~~

all v the shy lo aahhaa well, if u were on the trip n don’t mind me sharing your face here… u r not too late… email me at marybukoh@gmail.com :O)

then again if u feel shy about having your picture publish here, still can email me so that i can ’share’ your pictures privately la~~

our reserved electric tram at hakodate!

next, the JR train ’super hakucho’ thats crosses the world’s longest underground tunnel! two tickets cos we get seats !! not free seating… :O)

the time schedule so u know ‘roughly’ when n which part is the deepest portion of the tunnel…

the countryside view on the train before we head into the tunnel…

the giant doll shaped lanterns at aomori nebuta festival museum… this festival is held in aug… the main purpose is to drive away the ZZZzzzzz monster so that they people wont feel sleepy hence work hard in the fields for a good harvest!

some cute ones for the young at heart…

lake towado

tohoku is one of the least travelled part of japan. it is famous for it’s good quality rice, hence, the padi fields are almost everywhere!

one of the onsen hotels!! nice :O) n that’s the famous aomori apple!

the warm welcome at akita mineland :O) tho the name is spelt wrongly la ;p

the greenery at the samurai houses…

the bullet train aka shinkansen we took from akita to tokyo! one thing amazing i found out… the seats rotatable! to suit the direction of the train in motion…

the delicious yummilicious ramen at yokohama’s ramen museum…