[Japan] - Noboribetsu s2 s2 s2

YES, this place deserves 3 BIG HEARTS!!! This was probably one of my favourite places during my travel in Japan! I couldn't help thinking about this last week, especially after meeting up with my travel buddy KW and hearing from my Japanese penpal about her travels to Noboribetsu... making this post is like an itch I have to scratch!!!

Soooooo I'm gonna show you all how amazing this place is =) =) =)

Actually upon arrival, it wasn't all glam...

Look at those STEEP stairs....@___@

  Upon arrival at Noboribetsu station, the first thing we noticed were the stairs...then our eyes moved to our huge luggages...then we looked around us...and there were NO escalators nor elevators.  This meant only one thing, we had to gather all our strength and drag our luggages up two flights of steep stairs.  KW and I literally stood in front of these stairs for ages, saying to ourselves: if only we had a man *sigh*

  But we had to do what we had to do...I've never taken in such a deep breath and rushed up such a steep flight of stairs in one single go and at such a pace! And I've never huffed and puffed so much when I finally arrived on the other side... haaaa

  Then we caught a bus to the main part of the suburb.  Noboribetsu is this little town in Hokkaido, there's no glamorous buildings nor the bustle of city life, just the mountains, snow and everything cosy and small that spelt locality - just the things that make me smile after a hectic month of mission.

Centre of Noboribetsu

  This place is also SUPER famous for its onsens (hot spring!)...so of course, KWand I booked ourselves a night in one of the hot spring hotels, ready to let our bodies relax ahhhh~ Even talking about it now, I can remember that feeling of being in the hot spring so clearly!

The hotel we stayed in! It has 'No.1' in it!!!!! MUST BE GOOD! =D

Our Japanese-style tatami matted comfy room! Niiiiice!

  We decided to leave the hot spring til later, because we really wanted to explore this suburb!!! But we were super hungry and what fun is exploring with an empty stomach right? One thing Noboribetsu is also famous for is its SUPER hot ramen..and the shop famous for it is just down the road from our hotel! Luuucccky!!!

The owner of the shop preparing his famous ramen! He is the husband of a super cute couple - even though you can't see it here, but his wife is actually working alongside him...SO CUTE!!! ^^

Comments from famous people all along the wall!!! すごいですね！！！

 





 

...and there's MORE!!!!!!

Here's my HOT ramen!!! いただきます！！！

  I only had the one that's like...second hottest (地獄ラーメン), even though I love HOT stuff, but I don't think I could have handled the heat XD XD XD

  After our stomachs were filled with delicious ramen, KW and I began our journey around the trail of Noboribetsu!  It is a scenic route where you could encounter beautiful mountains and amazing hot springs! (Though these ones aren't the ones where you dip into... because it's wide open and just...way. too. hot!)

Smoke coming out from a hole...thought this was pretty coooool!



The start of the little trail... Welcome to JIGOKU!!!!

Demons are the mascots for Noboribetsu - because the hot springs create a 'hellish' environment...

...kinda like this.

  The views that we saw along the way were absolutely amazing though, almost every step took my breath away!

Saw the sky break open!

Yes. No drinking.  It didn't look too tasty anyway haha

The wooden became really slippery when the snow got heavier! I held onto the rail for my dear life hahaha

  As we kept exploring, we found another spring...

There's steam/smoke constantly coming out of this spring! It's even more crazy close up!



See? Hot hot HOT!

  Close to this hot spring was a hot pond where it's used as a footbath! These footspas are really comfortable and somewhat therapeutic in the winter of Japan, especially since people's feet are pretty much frozen from walking on the snow for such a long period! So KW and I tried to find this footspa...and I really should've gone with my frist instinct! Because when we were at the information centre, I thought the girl told me (in Japanese) that the path was blocked...but I wasn't sure if I understood right...I should've had more confident in my Japanese >.< I guess this is another instant when I doubt myself...just a little to much >.<

  We must have been pretty excited...because even though the snow began to get heavier, we still didn't make plans to go back to the hotel! Instead, we went on a track on the mountain and basically 'bush-walked' in the snow!

Crazy crazy crazy girls...@___@

  Some parts were quite steep and slippery...and we had to hold onto the strings that were on the side to keep our balance! The wind and the snow rushed pass us...there was not a single person in sight! What if something happened? No one would have known! Obviously we didn't care at that stage...and it was SO MUCH FUN!!!! I guess a thrill-seeker like me (though a paranoid person!) rather have experienced it and get a kick out of having experienced something like that hahaha

Weeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!

  And of course, we made it out alive!!! WOohoo!!! But we were soooo freezing when we got back to civilisation, thankfully there was an information centre nearby and we stayed there for a while to warm up.  But more excitingly, look what we found outside!

Cute cute cute snowman! Couldn't help but copy them hehehe

 Was so incredibly exhausted after the day's trip! I don't think I realised that until we actualy went back to the hotel...I just felt SO hungry and SO exhausted! You know what was waiting for us though... BUFFET DINNER!!!! WOOHOO!!!!

NOM NOM NOM!!!!!

  There were crab, scallop, sashimi, yakiniku beef....my mouth is salivating just recalling the memory! I tried to fit as much as possible into my stomach...from being so completely hungry...after this meal, I was more than satisfied!!!

  KW and I explored the hotel after dinner as our 'digesting' activity...and look what I found!!!

DORAEMON!!!!!!!!!!! <3 <3 <3

  The hotel itself has quite a few levels...and it seems to be plated in 'gold'...haha

The big pole thing in the middle opens up into a musical item every hour...to tell some story XD  I actually watched it...but wasn't too sure what was going on XD

  Since it was Christmas Eve (yes! I spent Christmas Eve in Japan hehe), a group of people (whom we believed to be associated with the owner of the hotel or something) dressed in Christmas costumes and put on a show for the guests!

They all look really similar...so we suspected that they were a family hehe

  They played really uplifting and fun music, from Christmasy kinda songs to songs from famous anime like Miyazaki! There were so many people there...from all over the world! It felt really cool to be amongst so many types of people, enjoying the atmosphere of Christmas together!

  More than that though, besides being able to spend it with my travel buddy KW, CW and GW from mission was there as well! One of the most memorable things on this trip was actually my onsen moment with GW that night.  First of all, being able to go to hot spring late at night after such a wonderful yet tiring day is one of the best feelings ever! It's as though all the exhaustion is being pushed out of you and you just feel so relaxed amongst the hot water and steam.  Unfortunately, I didn't take any photos of the hot spring itself because that would make me a wierdo and would be quite a criminal thing to do XD

  I was able to share one of the most memorable conversations with GW that night, who gave me lots of wisdom and encouragement, which I still hold onto.  One of which was: go and try things while you still can, grab onto whatever opportunities are given in front of you and use them!

The other things he said to me was: try not to think so much and just enjoy whatever's put in front of you.

  I hold onto these words somewhat dearly and am really thankful for the chat and wisdom that night =)

  Ahhhhh~everytime I think about Noboribetsu, I feel so relaxed.  Love Noboribetsu so much ^^

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The Rocks ~ a place for some me-time...or anytime =)

  After a turbulent week of work and in serious need of some time by myself to ponder and reflect,  I took a day off work in replacement of work done on Saturday and took a break! I definitely didn't want to waste the break that has been given to me, but wasn't too sure what to do either... one thing I did know, I just wanted to be outside because the sun was shining brightly outside and this was one of my rare chances to encounter it! I imagined myself sitting in a cafe, reading the Bible, reflecting and spending sometime with God. 

  But as always...the question came down to: where to go?

  So I called up a friend and after much discussions, I decided to catch the train out to The Rocks! And oh, I do not regret that decision one bit!

The first thing I saw was school children having an excursion...made me smile as it reminded me of my primary school days ^^  

Stores all along the street - got an olden looking feel...make these stores seem more precious XD (Quite fitting actually because they are all selling famous stuff...haha)



If you feel like it, the Harbour Bridge is very close by and you can go for a walk on it =) Very nice, especially during night times!

  As I explored parts of the Rocks, one of my main main main objectives was to find a cafe I can sit in and do some reading.  There were quite a few options - not just cafes, but also hotels and bistros, but I don't know, I wasn't game enough to eat in hotels and bistros by myself (yes, some sort of wierd phobia of mine haha)  In the end, I ended up in a nice little place called G'Day Cafe!

Stone-walled structure gives off a cosy feeling!



A doorway that leads to an outside section of the cafe - so you can take your pick: indoorsy or outdoorsy =)



Front of cafe, where some of the cooking action happens!

Nom-nom-ing on a Follo (Chicken avocado with cheese) Foccacia sandwich with a hot mocha while being challenged by a Christian writer, exactly what I needed!

  You never know, you might have some funny experiences too, like I did! The man at the cafe asked me whether I was American? I actually was quite pleased that I was asked that...because if people didn't say that I was Aussie, then they would just call me Fob...so this was a big yet good change hehe What a sweet little man =)

  For all you guys who might not want to be in a cafe doing some personal reading and reflecting all day and crave more contact with the sun like myself, here's a fantastic option! Also, I've been craving for something lovely and sweet to indulge in ever since Saturday night, so I followed my friend KL's advice to go to this next cafe:

La Renaissance Cafe Patisserie <3  There's seats both outside and inside where it leads to a little courtyard I believe!

  It is situated along a wide walkway right opposite Orient Hotel and extremely close to Circular Quay!

Orient Hotel and view of Circular Quay

  As soon as you walk into the shop, your mouth will seriously inevitably start to salivate!  Just see what's in the displayed cabinet!

A wide range selections of cakes in flavours and appearances! Yum yum yum!!!

Assortment of taaaarrrttsss!  The lemon and lime one looks really good now that I look at it again...must try next time!

  The cafe also sells the bigger version of these cakes! They also had a selection of macaroons, which didn't really catch my attention as I was already being driven by these cakes! For an incredibly crazy fan of all things sweet like myself, I was surprised that I didn't have drool running down the corner of my mouth! It took me forever to decide which one to get! I wasn't the only victim either, there was a guy who was in the cafe before me and he was still deciding when I left!

  Yes, I did make a choice in the end and took it to a nice quiet outdoorsy area to enjoy it and continue my pondering reflecting reading time.  Hmm...I won't reveal where yet...but these are some of the amazing sceneries I saw along the way!

Opera House sitting on the other of the Harbour against the clear blue sky and water

Businessmen taking strolls during the afternoon...there are benches for when they get tired too haha

Man vs Birds...I love how there's one standing on his head and he couldn't care less haha





Cafe right by the harbour...maybe I should try this next time...

Right in front of the Opera House!

Lots of people chilling and taking pictures right in front of it

  Do you know where I was heading to...? Hehe you might have, this is where:

Yes! Botanic Gardens =) =) =)

   I really love how peaceful Botanic Gardens is...

Lots of green and space and just...peacefulness - somethings you won't find in the office haha

Lots of people run by the water...makes me feel sort of unfit and lazy haha

There are red (best colour ever!) trains to take you around the garden if you so choose to - a novelty for adults and kids alike!





This was my chosen bench =)



The view that came with it =)



Just something I'd like to share...when I was in Japan, someone wise shared with me a story about how when he was at a pit moment in his life, he prayed to God while sitting on the bench... and to cut a long story short, he remembers that prayer really clearly even to this day and has seen how God has been gracious and answered his prayer in ways that he never before could imagine.  Then he asked us (who were listening to him): what is/are our parkbench moment(s)?

This bench reminded me of that and brought me a grin =) What's your parkbench moment? (Even if you're not Christian, perhaps there have been moments in life when you've felt that your prayers/desperations have been answered?)

 

Having settled down on the bench, I opened the patisserie box with much anticipation...



I chose the Mousse Picaso - a milk chocolate and white chocolate mousse cake covered with white chocolate...the chocolate on the outside melts delicously in your mouth....mmmm





                  

Layered perfectly <3



Reading and reflecting materials ready =)

  Sitting on that bench really allowed me to not only enjoy the warmth of the sun, but allowed my heart to be still and process the turbulent thoughts and feelings that have been going on for the past week or so.  Really thank God for giving me this opportunity to just be still and spend time with Him, for Him to use this chance to put somethings back into perspective and allow His grace and joy to flow in my heart.

  It got a bit cold as the sun started to set, so I moved to another place to finish off the reflection.  And watching the sun sets, made me smile =)

<3

  For all of you who have read this and looking for some downtime to process your thoughts, I hope this has given you some ideas as to where to chill with a friend or two...or just simply some me-time =)

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[D.I.Y Adventure] Hot Pot + One Late Night Surprise!

  Cold cold winter has finally arrived here in Sydney! The season where you just want to be all wrapped up in your bed and never be woken up...or sitting in front of the telly with a big cup of hot warm soup in your hands.  Besides these, for myself personally, at the mention of winter, one thing inevitably comes to mind.  Actually, I would guess that for most asians, the same thing would also come to mind! That's right - HOT POT!!! So, with my lovely like-minded friends, we decided to have a hot pot night to celebrate the coming of winter (not really, don't know about others but if I were to celebrate a season, it would be summer by far...we just wanted to hot pot for the sake of it haha)

  Although there are restaurants in Sydney that specialise in hot-potting (if you want some recommendations, feel free to ask me!), but that's way more expensive and less cosy than holding it at someone's house! You just need someone generous as a friend to open up his/her place for you! Fortunately enough for me, I have such a friend!



Our wide selection of food ready to be dumped into the steaming water! Not to mention getting our raw egg ready to be mixed with all sorts of tantilising sauces (such as soy, satay, seafood, etc) to create the ULTIMATE sauce for that flavour!



In the hot pot they go!!!!!

We had quite a few mushroom lovers amongst us (myself included), especially of enoki, so we kinda went overboard with it...just kinda...hehe

ENOKI OVERLOAD (in a very good way) !!!! =D

Although I don't have a picture of this, but what's hot pot without the good old asian aloe vera drink right? It's so refreshing!

  For some reason, hot pot always create such a great atmosphere to be chatting with your friends! Not to mention being utterly and completely bloated during it, then you push yourself to fit more food into that tummy so you feel like your might explode any moment!

  Usually when I go to hot pot, whoever I'm with and I just sit there with our exploding tummy on our lazy bums, feeling totally satisfied yet completely defeated by the food.  But unlike those other hot pots, my friend planned a little surprise to get us up and running, walking off all the food that we've all just chucked down.  It got us all guessing, I mean...there's only so many places to go at 9pm right? How wrong I was and never did I imagine doing what we ended up doing!




Walking into the unknown.... perfect time to tell scary stories! (And we did do that...X___x)



  As we walked, we were led to a bushland...which was a pretty insane idea to me! It is pretty wierd walking in the middle of the bush late at night! But you know what, the whole craziness of it was pretty thrilling!

Without the torches, it was complete darkness !

Amateurs fighting off monsters (spiders, bugs, snakes?) of the wilderness with sticks!

   We were trying to stay as close together as possible, or at least see some sort of light, so that we wouldn't be left completely alone and lost in the darkness.  Along the way, paths could get slippery and slopey...and bushy...and rocky.  Not to mention we got lost a few times, not knowing where the path was nor where it was going...at one stage, I think someone said that one of the paths doesn't actually end!?  Thankfully, our surprise initiator friend worked out where we were going eventually and led us to a neat little place by a river...



Surrounded by water (as marked out by the dark shadowy bits)...



  Before I knew it, the boys went to gather big branches and sticks from the bush...can you guess what's to come next?  I was preeeettty taken aback...!!!


Preparing for something...



The first step has begun!!!



This seriously reminded me of The Blair Witch Project...especially after all the scary stories we were telling each other... But thankfully, this had nothing to do with anything scary, can you guess what it is yet?

After much hard work (mainly by the boys), the night was no longer cold, our surrounding was no longer dark and was only illuminated by our torches.  We just stood and calmly stared at the warmth and comfort given by something so simple...

A miniture bon fire =) It was really soothing staring into it...*soothing sigh*

  My friend also decided to be creative with the fire...hehe

I think this spells something awesome hehehehe...with half a heart! <3

  As we huddled around the fire, my friend shared with us some of the awesome songs on her playlist.  At times, we would talk about things, at times, we would sing, at times, we would look for life in the bush, in the water and at times, we would look at stars (love stargazing! Note to self...must go stargazing and blog about it sometime!).  There's something about where we were and what we were doing and who we were with that was very comforting <3

  But with any moments in life, they must pass.  Although we had to leave and destroy what we have built (for the sake of the environment at least!), the nature left us a beautiful parting gift...

Ember remains on the ground...moments before they died out.

I seriously had so much fun that night! It almost felt like a beginners' course to "Man Vs Wild" (yes, perhaps slightly dramatic...but it felt like it)!!!  A night trip like this is definitely worth the effort (especially a bloated dinner!)! But if you're planning to make a fire as well, please make sure you've checked the regulations of the park you're going to and whether open fires are allowed! Before you leave the park as well, please make sure you have extinguished all embers before leaving, because even an ember can start a huge bushfire!!! Please consider all environmental factors, respect nature and do this at your own risk.

Somehow this reminds of the movie 'Stand By Me', where four friends go on a little journey together into the wilderness...
Even though the moment passed, the ambers died... but I really hope the memories of that night will last for a long time to come.  More than that, our friendships will last for an even longer time to come =)