Hanami literally means "flower viewing" in Japanese. And that was what Missbunny decided she wanted to do in spring this year. Hanami is the Japanese traditional custom in spring of enjoying the beauty of flowers, and the "flowers" in this case is usually the sakura or cherry blossoms. So where did Missbunny go for hanami earlier in March? Not too hard to guess (actually you can enjoy the cherry blossoms viewing in other countries like Korea or cities like Washington D.C., but I am digressing). Missbunny's first stop was the island of Hokkaido, and the city of Sapporo. Before Missbunny got to enjoy the spring weather and flower watching, she went straight to cold winterland. Sapporo in March is not exactly the middle of winter, but the temperature can still go below zero on some days and when the sun disappears. There is the occasional light snowfall, but the snow at the sidewalks is thawing as Hokkaido enters spring season. By the time Missbunny arrived in Sapporo, it was night time. She couldn't fall asleep straight away as she was very excited at having arrived in Hokkaido, so she tried to calm herself down by enjoying Sapporo's city lights below her. "Oh, hello Sapporo", Missbunny thought when she looked out the window the next morning and could see the city properly in the daylight. After exploring Sapporo, Missbunny travelled the next day to Otaru, a small port city about half an hour from Sapporo. Missbunny posed in front of the Otaru Canal. The Canal used to be the city's busy port where goods were unloaded from ships and stored in the warehouses along the Canal. Now the warehouses are used for museums, shops and restaurants, and the path along the Canal makes for pleasant stroll which was what Missbunny did even though the temperature was minus 3 degrees (Celsius). After a few days in Sapporo, it's time for Missbunny to move on to her next destination for some serious snow activities. Niseko is a popular snow resort town in Hokkaido, and Missbunny couldn't wait to join in the things that the locals and the tourists like to do best in Niseko..... ....like snowboarding. Missbunny skied. She made snowmen. When the snow fell thick and fast, she stomped on the fresh snow and laid down to make snow angels. Yeah! She had lots of fun. She also got to taste the local produce and the best of Hokkaido's dairy. Missbunny had milk, cheese, and ice cream everyday. Missbunny made new friends with some of the local critters. She met the Snow-Warren white rabbits when she got a little lost while skiing. Nigel Snow-Warren helped Missbunny find her way back to the hotel. His daughter, Lisa Snow-Warren, even let Missbunny tried her new red snow sled. After all the fun and play she had in Niseko, it's time for Missbunny to have some R&R. We headed to Noboribetsu, Hokkaido's most famous hot-spring town, to meet Missbunny's auntie and relax for a bit. When Missbunny had enough of the cold weather, we travelled to Tokyo. It was a warm spring day in Tokyo, such a contrast to all the snow and cold in a matter of a few hours travel. The next day, we went to the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden and Missbunny saw the beautiful cherry blossoms at last. We caught the tail end of the cherry blossoms season as the flowers bloomed earlier this year due to the unusually warm weather, but better late than not at all. Missbunny was joined by her aunt. They had a picnic underneath the blooming sakura tree, and afterwards strolled around the park admiring the flowers. It was a special experience for Missbunny and she was very glad she took the trouble to stopover in Tokyo before heading home. Check out more of Missbunny's hanami outing below:
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Whenever I have some spare time, I try to improve my website as best as I can. I just made my Comments/Messages section more friendly, as I want my visitors to know that I do read and value your comments. So thank you, and keep those messages coming.
Oh yes, new photos and Missbunny's travels coming soon! Thanks to my friends who have been very very obliging, and letting me indulge in my hobby (some raising disbelieving eyebrows), I hope that I can add another series to my blog. I have asked my friends, local and overseas, to take photos of Missbunny in the country they are living or visiting with a famous landmark as Missbunny's background. Hopefully it's going to be like a postcard from Missbunny. This post is the first of such photos. I hope I will be able to continue this series and add more in the future. ** Thanks to VT for the photos **
If you have been wondering what has Missbunny been up to, she just came back from her travels. She was recently in Japan, and earlier in the year she went to India together with Bunny Boy. First stop was bustling India: On this trip, Missbunny would not get to go out much to explore the cities of Bangalore and Mumbai as Bunny Boy explained that this was a "conference trip". Nevertheless, Missbunny and Bunny Boy decided that they still need to get well prepared, and packed bottled water to ensure they would not get any "delhi belly" during their stay. During the trip, Bunny Boy entertained Missbunny with stories of mythological stories of India. Missbunny was enthralled listening to Bunny Boy and felt like she was watching the Life of Pi all over again. Even though she did not get to see the Taj Mahal, Missbunny still enjoyed the trip very much. There is an excuse for Missbunny to return to India again another time. All photos above are courtesy of Monica K.
I mentioned about building a cabinet to display some of my collection back here. My home renovation was completed nearly 2 months ago, but I only had time recently to start putting things together in the display cabinet. From the blueprint design to the completed cabinet: And more recently to this: There's still quite a bit of tidying up to do though. I have another shelf that I need to put up some background scenery. It took me a couple of hours to wallpaper the sides of the cabinet. I had installed a dehumidifier unit and also an electric socket inside the cabinet and I had to cut around these units. Well, it's a labour of love. I hope in a few more months I can share photos of the finished project.
It's taking some time for me to finish up my review of the Sylvanian Families Village, but here is the final instalment. To continue from Part 1, after roaming for close to 2 hours, it was approaching lunchtime. There is only one place to eat at the Sylvanian Families Village and, no surprises, it's at the Sylvanian Kitchen. The restaurant is a life-sized Sylvanian Kitchen building. Inside the Sylvanian Kitchen, we are welcomed by the Cottontail Rabbit Chef. Isn't he adorable? Although the interior details of the restaurant is not a replicate of the smaller-scale Sylvanian Kitchen building, they have these super cute chairs with Sylvanian rabbits outline as the chair backings. I did not really pay attention to the list of F&B they served at the restaurant as I was too busy focusing at these 2 dishes that I immediately ordered: Turned out that these are, of course, their signature dishes, but they are considered children's meal. There is actually similar offerings for adults which are more substantial, but not so nicely decorated. The food was ok, not gourmet standard, but I have had worse meals in other theme parks. After lunch, we walked around the park some more. The Sylvanian Village is home to the Nonohana Rabbits (meaning "Wildflower" Rabbits). There were Nonohana Rabbit figures everywhere throughout the park, but strangely there was no Nonohana Rabbit's house. We also visited the life-sized Sylvanian Bakery, complete with character breads. I bought a bread and Milk Jam for my daughter's next-day breakfast, and we ended up bringing the leftover jam back home which tasted very milky and very yummy. Just in time too, after we finished exploring the Bakery, it started to rain. There is one place we have not visited, and that is the Sylvanian Market. Time to spend some money. The Sylvanian Market at the theme park is basically the shop that sells all the Sylvanian Families items. It was surprisingly a small shop. I had also expected the shop to be more complete in terms of the family sets and loose figures it sells. Apart from the Nonohana rabbit family and the Ginger Cat sister figure, which are exclusive to the Sylvanian Families Village, I can find all the other items in Tokyo. I was a little disappointed, not having many things to buy (silly me!), but I did enjoy looking at all the displays they had around the shop. All fun things must come to an end somehow. After a few hours in Sylvanian Families Village, it time for us to say goodbye as the rain started to fall harder and showed no sign of letting up. The Sylvanian Families shows were cancelled due to the rain, which was a bit of a shame. I wonder whether I will have another chance to come back here again since it is a little out of the way to visit the Sylvanian Village. Nevertheless, I am glad that I made it this time around to Grinpa.
Christmas went by like a flash, and in a matter of days, 2013 is ahead of us. I wasn't sure whether I will have time to drop this little note before midnight strikes, but I did.
Hope you are having fun ringing in the new year! This song keeps repeating around my head nowadays. It's hot and humid here. How I wish that I can watch the snowflakes fall on Christmas day, the fire crackling behind me, while I sip on a hot chocolate (with marshmallow). If you are staying home for Christmas, have a merry one with your friends and loved ones. If you are going away for Christmas, enjoy the holidays! Missbunny strikes again. She has been traveling mostly around Asia, but there is one place in Asia that she has not visited and that place is Hong Kong. No one really travels in Asia and completely misses Hong Kong as one of the holiday destination. Even if Hong Kong is not a holiday destination, there is a chance of stopover somewhere in the travel itinerary. Missbunny is really looking forward to this trip. She has read up on this bustling, crowded and vibrant place. There is already a list of things that she wanted to do once she reached Hong Kong. Well, actually there are mainly two things in the list: eat and shop. What else is there to do?! Oh ok, so she will give Hong Kong Disneyland a miss, and also the cruises around the outlying islands like Lamma Island, and the Big Buddha in Lantau Island. Her focus: eat, and shop (see her big suitcase?). Sticking to her objectives, once Missbunny arrived in Hong Kong she went to have a meal at Xiao Nan Guo, a restaurant serving fine Shanghainese cuisine. Since everyone uses chopsticks to eat here, Missbunny attempted the same. The food was somewhat a challenge for Missbunny to tackle. There was slippery noodles, and sweet savory pork ribs. Quite hard to manage with a pair of chopsticks, but Missbunny persevered. Burp! Oops, excuse Missbunny. She had to take a walk after that full meal. But there was no leisurely walk for Missbunny. People walk very fast in Hong Kong; they always seem to be hurrying somewhere. Missbunny was jostled here and there. She felt quite overwhelmed by the crowds, and was very nervous when she had to cross the very busy road in Causeway Bay: Christmas decorations were just put up everywhere. Missbunny really loved how the city lights up like a giant Christmas decoration itself. It was nighttime, but Missbunny could have been fooled. The next day, Missbunny took the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) to Central. She planned to do some shopping there as she heard that there are many posh shops in Central. Missbunny was not disappointed with what Central had to offer. There were so many (posh) shops and malls, she only managed to visit the IFC Mall. Here are some snapshots of Missbunny on retail therapy: This is going to be Missbunny's last meal before she has to leave Hong Kong. She had to try the Hong Kong dim sum. So she did what everyone in Hong Kong will do at least once. She went yum cha. Missbunny was so happy that there were so many little dim sum dishes to try. She was getting quite good with the chopsticks as well. Hong Kong was great fun. Missbunny loved the city and she enjoyed this eating and shopping trip very much. She also managed to collect a generous pile of new outfits thanks to this holiday, which she hopes she will be able to model for all of you soon.
What are your plans for this year's Halloween? The critters at my Sylvanian village usually like to have a party. A sweets party: candies, cakes, tarts, chocolates, and all sorts of yummy dessert treats. It's a great excuse to indulge. Wishing you all a Happy Halloween! |
About MeI like to experiment with photography and dabble in crafty things. I started collecting Sylvanian Families in 2009 and hope that someday my little daughter will enjoy playing and collecting Sylvanian Families as much as I do. Archives
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