Mausoleum of the first lord of Sendai, Date Masamune and his family.
Surrounded by serene pine forest, the hydrangea (ajisai) flowers were blooming blue, purple, pink and white in the peak of summer.
How to get there
Easiest is to hop on loop bus by city of Sendai, Loople bus.
List of Onsen to visit in Japan: (updated Apr 2025)
Guide for top 3 onsen according to Wikitravel.
Three Great Hot Springs 三大温泉 Sandaionsen
Three Famous Springs 三名泉 Sanmeisen. This list, too, was authored by Hayashi Razan.
Three Old Springs 三古湯 Sankosen
Three Baths of Fuso 扶桑三名湯 Fuso-sanmeiyu. Fuso is a poetic name for Japan and this one is credited to traveling haiku poet Matsuo Basho.
Located in Maihama, Disneyland and Disneysea is a must visit themepark around Tokyo. Most people recommended 2 days for each park, but a day trip.
Tickets available, there is day-pass available via purchase online or via Klook platform.
Some useful blogs:
Disneyland is oriented towards classic Disney and younger crowd. Disneysea on the other hand is oriented towards teens and older with more thrilling rides.
Shows and Parades:
From April 15, 2023 through March 31, 2024, a part of the show will be presented in a special version commemorating the Tokyo Disney Resort 40th anniversary. (25 mins)
Tips:
Credit to <https://thetravelintern.com/ultimate-tokyo-disneyland-and-disneysea-guide/>
I discovered that I had enough points to book 5 nights at Hilton hotel. After a quirky destination choices, I finally settled on Okinawa. This was back in December, hehe.
Planning activities without a car, here is a couple of sites that I am finding useful:
Okinawa is the southern most prefecture of Japan. The main island is where its capital city, Naha is. The prefecture spread across 1,000 kilometres and finding where to spend time amongst the choices can be confusing.
I am going to be traveling with my elderly parents and our favorite activities are food, sightseeing, and onsen. Okinawa is said to have one of the highest life-expectation in Japan and in the world. So we will be keeping an eye on the culture and how people life in this paradise.
Food
This site proclaims that "In Okinawa, food is life." :) Delicious cuisine being the hallmark of Okinawa, it is famous for bone-soup, ice-cream (I heard it from an ex-colleague who grew up in Okinawa).
Okinawa has a special Japanese word, nuchi-gusui, which roughly made up of characters for mind and body. Food as medicine? Exploring nuchi-gusui. That means food is not just the source of energy and taste, but also well being. Approaching the right habit of mealtime is also observed. Okinawa has a habit of eating until 80% full, which is practiced in my family. They called this hara-hachi-bu.
It seems that typical Okinawan cuisine has a lot of Chinese influence, due to prevalence of trade for centuries, and its proximity. Such as pork belly braised (rafute), champuru (stir-fry veggie with bitter gourd), and Okinawa soba (with wheat noodles rather than made of buckwheat). It even extends to the drinks such as Okinawan sanpin-cha or Jasmine tea.
Unique Okinawan dish is goat-meat (Yagi) sashimi and mozuku tempura. Mozuku is a slimy brown seafood, unique to Okinawa that is superfood. Unique liquor is Awamori made from long-grain Thai rice with black koji unique in Okinawa.
Getting around
It seems that car is the most popular way to get around. However, if you avoid driving, bus is a convenient and plentiful with clear maps. There is a monorail line that goes around Naha. As well as you can take ferry or fast boat from Tomari port. There is many sites in Japanese, here's a few useful information.
Fast boat for Naha to Motobu, 75 mins. Takuma 3 is operated by this company, website --> here.
From my research, there is plenty to see and do at Okinawa. Normally people would start by the following order:
For foodie, a special mention is the Ojima island towards the south, 40 mins drive from Naha airport. This article describes the beauty :) of the Okinawan tempura due to its influence from China and Southeast Asia.
Had a hectic week after Sapphire and QBR. Getting tipsy for first time in a long while, seeing things for the way it is (Vipassana?), and finally texting my dear friend and hearing the worst been my experience this week.
First some photos:
Peak hour- long line to catch buses from Kranji MRT both 170x and CW1. Arrived 830am, 945am finally catching the bus.
Smooth clearance at Singapore exit, as usual. Enormous line at Malaysian immigration entry, unfortunately more than usual at 10am+ on Saturday morning. Lines on all counters hitting the back wall. Time to try MACS.
Finally cleared immigration at 12:30pm. Catching grab to the mall southkey arriving 1pm.
Total cost of all Grabs today: S$25.
Sushi King, conveyor belt sushi: $29. Old town coffee plus ice cream at Chateraise $9.
Foot massage RM60 + 10 for tip for 60 mins Family Thai spa. #20 Thai lady senior, and #25 from Serawak young guy who likes to learn new languages.
Coconut and mango smoothie $7
Shopping: Papa’s cereal RM12.50 each, Watson, Alpro pharmacy, Lotus supermarket. $20
Fish porridge and shrimp wonton noodles at D’Shanghai $10.
Chateraise ice cream shopping Panjaporn recommendations: monaka Vanilla and Coffee, Belgium chocolate, and Pistachio bar $12
Then another line at Malaysian exit for an hour and a traffic jam at crossway on the bus. Finally cleared both immigration close to 22:30 and bus ride to Queen street terminal, arriving home past 23:20.
ManMan our white-fur shy robo hamster is dying. His movement is weak. He barely eats today. He pauses after a few steps as-if to catch his breath. He could no longer muster enough strength to scurry away from me this afternoon.
It saddens me to see him deteriorate so fast. Is he ill? Is he feeling pain? Is he dying? When is he going to die? What if he dies when we are at Genting? Will he live that long when we go to Genting in 2 weeks?
I was just calling the pet vet last night. After observing what looks like a blood spot or scar on his skin. He has been shedding fur badly. He struggled to drink from his water bottle yesterday. But today he couldn’t even lift his head and paws to hold to the drinking nozzle. He shivers and struggled… badly.
My heart aches seeing him. Why? Seeing the frailty and struggled of illness or old age. Knowing that ManMan is dying. The poignancy of his head leaning on my hand as he couldn’t even run away anymore unlike this morning. He is skinny, now with his bone showing, matted fur. Eyes are both closed now. ManMan was still strong enough on Sunday when we changed his enclosure to run. But today he limped and fell every other step.
In a way his rapid deterioration is shocking. Very sad. In another way, he probably does not need to struggle long. Unlike Lucky, with companionship, ManMan might go to heaven soon.
My heart ache and yet full of love.
Cherishing the moment that ManMan has brighten our lives. Gentle ManMan who never bites.
Who is shy and aways run away when we tried to touch him.
Who loves vegetable, egg yolk, pine nuts, and especially corn.
Who licked Lucky when she was dying.
Who is full of live with his cute snow white fur.
Who loves cleanliness and spend hours grooming his fur so that is very clean, glossy, and nicely comb.
Who has two large testicles underneath his butt, we dubbed his treasures.
Who, like his name sake, gave us abundant joy just watching him live.
A blurry shot of ManMan as he is always very active.
ManMan September 25, 2021- April 4th, 2023. Rest in Peace.
I went to take 10-day course of Vipassana meditation. After chancing up on this meditation, I became intrigued, signed up, and secured a place at Vipassana centre in Indonesia, Bali.
Places for Vipassana meditation is highly sought after, and often you have to sign up a few months in advance to secure a place. Furthermore in year 2022, Covid restrictions was still in place in a number of countries, notably Japan centres require that only Japanese resident to apply, while the website for the Bali centre indicates requirement for Covid ART test and mask requirement.
My signing up experience was smooth, and I happily was offered a place around September. My parents then resisted and tried to make me to cancel my place and my plan of going. In hindsight the precaution was ridiculous but with no way of knowing how I was faring, I can understand the concerns.
In any case, I tied my airplane ticket back from Bali for SQ redemption making the journey with a transit in Singapore prior to onward vacation to Japan. My ticket was redeemed for DPS - SIN - HND. Fortunately, it was booked that way, as several visa problems with my parents travel to Japan almost caused us to cancel the Japan holiday. Also, Japan was on verge of opening up, so every single families that we know of in Singapore were eying to spend that December in Japan.
I arrived in Denpasar, Bali on the day of course starting on December 30, 2022. I found an honest driver at the Bluebird taxi queue. I asked the driver (Mr. Bli Putra) to drive me to Tegallalang, to enjoy a final pre-meditation meal at a cafe next to serene paddy fields famous in Tegallalang. It was nice to do people watching, before finally heading to Bangli for the Vipassana centre, arriving at around 2.30pm.
A company rank is a designation that purely determined by the employer who hired you. It influences your standing in the company, how others perceived you. But it often has little to do with who you are and what your value is. When you leave the company, the rank goes away and you are left with your true worth and value.
It is often interesting how we associate our ego on how people should interact with us, based on our roles and standing in an organization and its business partners. I see all these as temporary and impermanent. Yet it is interesting how pervasive this attitude is amongst the corporate folks who have had spent majority of their career in a company, often large and competitive, including myself.
Arima Onsen is an hot-spring town that is an easy train ride from Kobe, Hyogo region.
It is one of the three ancient hot spring town in Japan, which description appeared on Japan chronicles "Nihon Shoki" that was started book 1,000+ years ago. It was said that the first mention of this onsen is bathing by a Japanese emperor in 7th century AD (or 1,300 years ago!).
Nowadays, it is wellknown for two specialty onsen in particular "Gin-no-yu" or silver hot spring and "Kinno-yu" or the golden hot spring.
Shima Onsen 四万温泉 acquired its name from Shima = which means 40,000. It is reputed that the healing effect of its water has the ability to cure 40,000 diseases.
The most famous Shima onsen is Sekinzenkan Kashoutei 積善館, whose fascade has inspired Studio Ghibli's anime Spirited Away. We were lucky to arrive on December 18th, on the cusp of the newly fallen snow early winter 2022.
Hujan rintik-rintik is expression in Indonesian meaning rainy days.
I love being at home at night with rain falling around the house. It created an illusion that our house is a sole sanctuary. Cooling air. Peaceful and ever so quiet. Nothing can penetrate the serenity...
I always love this feeling as a child.
Alone in my room, looking out the window.
Barely can see anything beyond a few meters of rain curtain.
The white noise and soothing sounds of rain falling on the ground.
Feeding the ground to be fertile again tomorrow.
Tomorrow when we wake up in a bright new day.
Bright new days sunny and full of hope.
A beautiful place at Ngee Ann place.
The opener, pumpkin tofu with jelly is refreshing.
The tempura chef bought us the fresh ingredients before start cooking.
I spent a good part of my 2021, playing online RPG game ROX.
Met a good community in Singapore, especially with my guild SG Forsaken.
Had argument (big one) in the chatting channel.
Met a few times over meals and ice cream with my guildmates.
Funny memory of "lucoa" getting non-sensical crystal during the gacha (after a terrible lifeshow dancing), was always hysterical.
The gathering of the old "uncle" like is funny.
I sat on my eyebrow embroidery, chatting with "aurice" who was trying to make people guessed his age. We said he is eighty, like a grandpa.
the casual flirtation with Chris, xiaogou, and with Faerion, syen, and fake-female Alice, PH gamers.
For now, I just want to recall the memory which seemed to start to fade away since I quit the game in June 2022.
Memory and time sometimes is a scary and yet healing things. Given time, even the deepest wound can heal. But you are often left with reminiscing the gentle memory of wonderful moments, and often we have the urge to collect them and secure them in a mental box, hoping to preserve it.
Today I want to remember Lucky, our first female robovski "robo" hamster. Agouti in color, H adopted Lucky during the depth of pandemic in April 2020. Her cuteness was beyond compare, and observing her antics kept us entertained during Singapore lockdown and subsquent time.
Lucky was like ninja, she mysteriously scaled the walls of her enclosure, often find herself wedged in gaps between boxes, or even running around at our living room tamely. She in fact, scaled the wall, and somehow jumped to ManMan's enclosure barely a week or so ManMan being adopted. The mystery we have not solved even to this day. Since she and ManMan were united, she stopped her escapade.
Lucky was skittery at first, similar to typical temparent of robo drawf hamster. But soon enough, she was very comfortable with human touch. Jumping up and down H's thigh when he played with her every morning and evening.
Lucky's favorite spot was being caress just over her neck, and she would contentedly sit and allowed herself to be pet.
Lucky loved mealworm and hazelnut. She had a very strong sense of edible and healthy food, including a good chunk of egg yolk. Lucky can peel sunflower and pumpkin seeds leaving a perfectly cutout shells.
Lucky survived until 5th October 2022 when I was away at business trip in San Fransisco. The week before I left for my trip, Lucky rested her head on my hand when I was trying to feed her, and feel asleep on my finger. I felt so sorry for seeing her weakened state as she appeared to be blind and limping through her enclosure. She also started losing her fur, starting from her head creating a bald patch, but later on past her 2 years of age, started to spread to the right side of her body. She also often shivered during her sleep, and often found herself looking for ManMan as sleeping companion, potentially for both warmth and comfort.
I am trying to console myself that Lucky has lived through a wonderful 2.5 years of life, in hamster age 140 years old, and was well loved. She would not have to suffer through the old age any longer. And yet of course, me, H, and my mom were sad about this loss. Mom even dreamt about Lucky again this week, and especially touched by her presence.
Rest in Peace, Lucky. Thank you for being a cute, wonderful pet of yours.
Lucky ~ March 26, 2020- 5th October 2022.
Watched youtube about viral tiktok on an Indian wedding: and the group is Asian-Norwegian with some crazy skills~! Followed by youtube video of their other dancing such as Sorry Not Sorry Episode 4.
WOW!
