Archive for category PLACES
beijing – the front door
this place is called 前门 which literally translates to the front door. it’s a fantastic place to eat and shop, mostly with traditional very very ancient stores that sells tea pots, tea, hats, peking duck (ORIGINAL PEKING DUCK but it’s not the super duper expensive place, this is the less fancy but lunch-type place), shoes, scissors, and i think there’s a place that you can watch traditional comedy shows.
my aunt took us here but we got lost and these are the pics that i took while getting lost!
this guy is someone that stands outside the shops and attracts customers by relaying off rhymes with two half pieces of bamboo that creates a rhythm. the original beatboxer kkkz?
i rarely put stuff under the cut but this post is gonna be huggeeee so:
if you ever visit beijing this place is very tourist friendly, it’s very clean and it’s not super crowded so it’s not bad. it’s expensive though because the brands are very old and hence charge an arm and a leg for stuff but comparatively to european shops it’s really nothing. there is an amazing hat shop that charges about 500 RMB for a really good hat, less than $80 and the price varies too of course
kyoto (3)
the last of
if you’ve known me since 4 years ago then you’ve seen variations of the below photos, but still, it’s nice to look sometimes.
this is my favorite photo, caught by surprise right next to this tourist girl that looked slightly unhappy. i love how differently we are dressed, a real contrast….
i call this area, the rurouni kenshin place… i felt like the story would have gone down in a place like this..
and this is..what i call the slightly orange but mostly red temple…
until next time !
Kyoto (2)
finally left the rain that was Kinkakuji and we are headed towards Kawaramachi!
the weather doesn’t give a shit about your vacation
moar temple pics, of course
random shops that are not happy when you take pics…but of course, only I was embarrassed…
one piece merch everywhere
korean food! and the kyoto tower! where is this restaurant you ask? i THINK it’s at Osaka station…somewhere in a mall, possibly level 11
Kinkakuji
yes! one of the biggest tourist places in kyoto! Because we are tourists… anyways, you can buy an all day bus pass for 500 yen at the bus stop terminal place at kyoto station. it’s very useful because i hate having to figure out how much things “cost” on the bus or on the train, the local will surely swear at you!
the “ticket” for kinkakuji is 400 yen, i think most of the shrines don’t cost any money, some do, the expensive gold ones do. Also, get a bus map (english version available) at the kyoto tourism agency. IT IS USEFUL! get it.
oh goddamit, i was soaked that day, soaked and unhappy and soaked
since we are here, more photos please!
it’s like a wish well but there’s no water…you throw your money there..
till next time, i had wanted to go to several other shrines but due to the weather we had to go back. never fear, till next time!
forbidden palace 2
i don’t like to give a lot of advice because i don’t have a lot of advice to give, but if you are planning to visit the Forbidden Palace at any given point in your life, you MUST NOT eat at the restaurant there. It is disgusting, please bring your own food, be really full before you go in. You can buy drinks and stuff there but for god’s sake bring your own food.
shinsaibashi!
first day in osaka~~~
don’t get it, it’s not that good..
getting takoyaki from the SOURCE! the stand moved like 200m down from where it was last time i was there.
i think i look alright here so i’m showing this picture. i love this omurice place! it’s a really reasonably price too. i think two set meals were under 1000yen. really useless directions but it’s RIGHT next to H&M
grocery haul!!! i live on this vitamin C stuff cause i was sick the first day there.
then the typhoon hit…
snapshots from nanjing 1
a large large LARGE post
was waiting to cross the street, when i saw this gentleman with his birdcage, walking with a birdcage is a distinctive beijing (northern china) thing to do, guess not
as i’ve said, i’ve expressed a gaining, and it’s gaining great speed, interest in small antiques. so decided to hit up the antiques market. you can’t buy stuff here, you just can’t, they could tell with one glance what kind of a buyer you are. also they don’t have anything really good ever. but it’s important to understand the market…or something like it. It’s similar to beijing’s antique market (the curio city) but on a much much smaller scale
whatchu lookin’ at?
and we’re back here, see the post i made last year about this location didn’t change much, more food stalls which is always a plus
where i got my rilakkuma phone case, it was really hard to find cases for my phone everyone has an iphone4! haha, man if i had an iphone i’d have 10000 cases just because there’s literally that many to chose from.
ate a lot of the same things as last year
the night is always young, nobody goes home, seriously
forbidden palace -one
in doubt, so i will blog
long ass post about the forbidden palace. it’s the most tourist destination of tourist destinations. it’s like the Louvre in Paris or the MET in New york.
uh, you might not know this about me, but sometimes i could be pretty cultured. COULD BE are the key words here. i’ve picked up a few hobbies while being in beijing, one of the most ancient cities in the world, naturally one should be infected with the air of old..things?
im a big fan of ceramic wares, and old ceramic wares go for millions of US dollars especially if they were once in the palace. Most of the wares in the Forbidden Palace are REPLICAS, which is extremely disappointing but understandable. i’ve also become obsessed with this TV show in china where people bring their ancestral things and highly trained specialists in their field come to judge whether it is a real piece or a fake one (as in is it a replica, modern? a replica from the various dynasties, was it from the palace or was it a commoner’s object?) I AM SO OBSESSED with it, i am even willing to go to 2nd hand markets so i can find really awesome wares. it’s basically antiques roadshow but chinese version and i freaking love it.
i am not trying to make money from this because no one ever makes money in this kind of thing unless you seriously know what you are doing and then it’s hard to say.
sky is so blue! beijing’s campaign against pollution is going pretty well, tourists everywhere, as expected
a ticket is 60RMB a guide map is 5, english and chinese explanations, it’s VERY IMPORTANT TO HAVE THE MAP
here i am, just woke up, looking slightly disoriented, and perhaps pissed, i can’t remember
some cat that lives there, what a lucky cat
majestic, lots of lions near by. the left one is female and has a baby lion under its paw the right one is male and has a ball under his paw. if you look anywhere in the palace all of the pairs of lions were made that way…
these large pots are for holding water so that if there’s a fire, stuff don’t burn as quite quickly…yes..
these doors are very pretty, but the bolts make it easier to get on the roof and flip over, non?