may memories and june wish list 2022

nishinohama beach

We’re already at the halfway mark of the year. How has it been so far for everyone? The world seems a bit dark at the moment but I hope you’re managing to find some happiness amongst the gloom.

may memories

tateyama snowy landscape

We took a bus trip along the Kurobe Alpen Route and you can see the tour linked here (name in Japanese if the link gets taken down is: 新宿[都庁]発】迫力満点!絶景の立山黒部アルペンルート「雪の大谷ウォーク」と世界遺産・白川郷&飛騨高山2日間).

hagi pink sunset

Not long after, we went to Hagi for Golden Week. We enjoyed lazy days, eating and spending time in air cleaner (hopefully, but who knows) than Tokyo.

gyosen park

Other than that, since ...

first weekend in april 2022

Saturday was cleaning day. I have never lived anywhere like Tokyo when it comes to dust piling up so quickly.

The weather was absolutely awful on Sunday – the day we had planned to go on a last cherry blossom walk, so that got cancelled and we just stayed in instead. It’s a good job we’d been out early in the week when the weather was fine.

Tomioka Hachiman Shrine in 門前仲町・Monzen-nakacho. My friend was telling me someone got stabbed to death here and it looks like they did.

We had a little hanami party here whilst my husband ...

6 months of 2018 memories and august wish list

Laziness!  Ok, rather than dwell on why no updates of late, let’s move on to actual updates.

6 months of 2018 memories

To continue with my favourite theme, I’m just gonna leave the photos there. No explanation needed.

august wish list

  • carry on reading – I have been reading a lot this year
  • go to a museum – I want to go to the soseki one
  • finish the shirt dress by merchant and mills
  • climb mt fuji (I know)
  • go to the recycle shop and drop my stuff off.

How has your first half of the year been?  How scary ...

november memories and december wish list

Everything seems to be going so fast this year.  I feel like I hardly had a November.

warning: If you don’t like parks, I wouldn’t bother reading on.

november memories

I had a good November despite it going by in a whirl.  I have been spending a lot of time in nature which I recommend you to do if you are feeling stressed, unbalanced, unhappy, etc.  Just go and spend some time outside, it’ll be worth it.

Birthday park and other parks and nature.

We went to Turtle Park which was on my november wishlist.

I got some mikan ...

birthday adventure – takano fruit parlour and shinjuku gyoen

So, I celebrated my birthday this weekend (not on the actual day) with my husband. We went to Takano Fruit Parlour in Shinjuku and had a wonderful fruit platter and a berry ice cream.


We’d never been in the parlour before, just the buffet. It was nice and busier than we were expecting. Of course the buffet was a lot busier with at least an hour wait time.

Then we headed over to Shinjuku Gyoen. Neither of us had ever been before and I’d been wanting to go. I’d read about it being quiet because people don’t want to pay ...