i visited tohoku last april and it has been more than a year and i did not post any pics i took. time to get things going.
i remembered that i had to clear leave, else leave will get eaten up. so i planned for the trip within the span of 2 weeks. i think i got my air ticket 3 days before departure. because i had about 10days to clear and did not know where to head for, i decided why not japan. my favourite and familiar place.i could do that i thought to myself. i could plan a trip on my own in 2 weeks. so i did. did not book any accommodations at all. but i contacted kyoko, my long lost friend. then i will be on my own. too rush for other friends to take leave to accompany me. my mother changed her mind about joining me, which i cannot remember why. so i went alone.
bought myself a 7day JR pass so i can take the trains all the way to the north.
here are pics of my adventure, although this is a bit late. but i sincerely hope you enjoy the pics and i hope i remember the details correctly as old brains do not work as well as you like them.
me only, on jal.
tokyo bay!
landing at narita airport. can you see the mild sakura?
after i arrived. i actually idled for quite a fair bit at the arrival hall, buying drinks, visiting toilet. then when i reached the JR station, i realised i should have started queuing to change for my JR pass. ended up spending almost an hour in the queue.
then i hopped onto a regular Keisei train because i was going to see kyoko! long time. so this journey will just be me and my good-ole backpack.
kyoko and mizuki! wow.
lucky to catch some sakura by the road. kyoko picked me up at the train station and we walked back to her place. dropped my stuff and we walked to lunch. along the way, sakuras are a plenty.
lunch at japanese family restaurant. mizuki is about 1.5years as of 2007 and she is fiercely independent. will insist on climbing up the baby chair on her own. and go to the drink dispenser station (free flow drinks for children) by herself to get juice which of course her mum has to do help her with. so she will climb down the chair, walk over to juice station, make her mum fill her cup, carry the juice back gently but yet dangerously, make her mum put juice on table, climb up chair. phew.
their lunch. cannot remember name but it is mixed rice with the ingredients you see. the egg is so beautiful!
my lunch! oyako-don. chicken & egg rice bowl. it is totally different from what you get here. the egg is simply heavenly! egg is little half cooked, very liquid yet wonderful. here, you only get the wholly cooked egg and chicken all smashed into one bowl. look!!!
after lunch, we took a stroll back. neighbour's flowers. this is spring by the way, where all nice things come to life.
the street where you can see kyoko's house. this will be your typical japanese houses. i mean like the landed property of here.
mizuki-chan all tired out. napped and yes, i placed the sheep there.
this is their living room/tv room/dining room. japanese are very good in making use of whatever space they have. so the table acts as living room table during day if necessary and dining table in the the evening. the table can be kept aside so the room becomes a playroom for mizuki and my bedroom at night. can you see the snacks i brought for kyoko? bengawan solo, fishball! well kyoko used to study here and she misses the snacks. so here we are, fishballs with japanese green tea for the afternoon.
then kyoko bought me sushi dinner. thanks!
after dinner, mi-chan was dancing in front of the telly. the weather in chiba was nice. about 15 i think. during winter, kyoko will use the heater, the one you can see in the pic. it is actually kerosene-run! actually, on the way to dinner, she carried a kerosen bucket to the petrol station next to the jap restaurant and bought some kerosene. awesome.
next day, we met up with junko (another long time friend who stayed here for a good time).this is saya! she's all grown up now.
junko. the infamous tai-tai. she still look so good.
we met at the train station, went to the supermarket because junko wanted to buy coffee powder. then we all walked to junko's aparto (apartment, something like our condo). you can see nagi, saya, junko, mizuki (asleep) and kyoko.
bought junko (and kyoko too) some orchids. they loved it.
junko has a tatami room.
they went to disneyland about a week ago.
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