Tag: ice cream

2022 golden week trip to hagi, yamaguchi: part 3

stone lantern with purple azalea

Day five and we were temple hopping. We started off at Daishōin Temple・大照院 which has a lantern festival in August and is a very pretty time to go.

inside cotocoto
two drinks against a window

Then we headed back to ‘town’, to go for lunch at CotoCoto. They had pictures of a vegan lunch menu on their instagram, but unfortunately when we went, the lady said that the person doing those had left, so they’d stopped doing them. We just ended up getting drinks – it was disappointing. The shop itself is really nice and they have a beautiful garden at the back. If you eat ...

2022 golden week trip to hagi, yamaguchi: part 1

hagi sculpture park

This year we went to Hagi for Golden Week. We got the Shinkansen both ways and I purposely booked our seats so that we’d be able to see Fuji-san. Unfortunately it was cloudy both ways, so we didn’t see him. It was lovely speeding along the Japanese countryside though, I never get tired of how green Japan is.

rail crossing surrounded by greenery

We enjoyed lazy days, eating ice creams, going to the beach, sipping coffee in cafes and taking long walks. They all look the same flavour, but the outer two are natsu-mikan (a citrus fruit) and the middle is from Hagi Purin. ...

kurobe alpen route bus tour

snow capped mountains with a hazy moon in a grey sky

Up bright and early -around 4:30am – we arrived at Shinjuku, ready for our bus to depart at 7am. We were off on a two-day bus tour to discover Kurobe Tateyama Alpine Route.

a doctor's office in a museum dedicated to the showa era
traditional shop
  • mitarashi dango held up
  • rice cake on a stick

First up, we stopped at Hida Takayama where we explored a museum dedicated to the Showa-era and sampled mitarashi-dango whilst basking in the traditional town streets. It was nice to see the sakura still blooming in the area – getting to see sakura is always a plus for me.

thatched roofed houses of Shirakawa-go
inside a house in the rafters in shirakawa-go
  • black sesame seed ice cream in a cone being held up
  • vanilla ice cream in a cone being held up
  • 2 sticks of dango in a chestnut-miso sauce

Then we were on our way to Shirakawa-go to see the thatched houses. The village is open for ...

spending the money on fukubukuro

31

It’s the new year and with brings fukubukuro in Japan.  I wanted a Lush one but for some reason this year, Lush Japan decided not to do them.  That was a nice surprise.  Can I also say that we trudged to the nearest Lush in a shopping centre and queued outside for 45 minutes. Got inside and no Lush goody bags.  Not wanting to let it upset me, I swiftly moved on and instead bought a Baskin and Robins aka 31 bag, a Mister Donut one and a Haagen Dazs one. Spot the theme?  Yes, it’s food.

For dinner on ...

italian life

river

Hello, long time no blog, especially over Christmas.  So, we went to Italy to visit family and then on to England, but I don’t have any photos of England – sorry.

We didn’t get up to too much, just seeing family, friends, eating, drinking, giving and receiving presents.  It was just all the usual Christmas stuff and I loved every minute.

In Italy we had a cooking lesson (a separate blog to follow); had ice cream; ate delicious food and relaxed.  We flew to Zurich with Swiss Air and then to Venice. Swiss Air were very good, we were impressed ...