Sri Lanka trip

View of the sea
My parents
Neighbours
View from my parents' place
Playing pool (or trying to!)
Old college friend with her husband and friend
Ready for high school friend's wedding homecoming party
With the bride

Bangkok trip

Flying off!!

Today, I fly off to Bangkok!! And then, on Christmas Eve, I head "home" to Colombo, just barely making it before Christmas. . . and probably starting off Christmas Day in a taxi on the way to my parents' place from the airport, if not in the airport itself! This year has certainly been all about new experiences!!

I won't get to blog or read other blogs until after Christmas, so merry Christmas all!! Hope the joy of Christ's birth remains with you throughout the new year!

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this." Is 9:6-7 (NIV)

Daytrip to Kamakura

Okia and I headed to Kamakura on Saturday for the day. We'd been hoping that the weather, which has been unusually warm for this time of year, would have cooled by then, but no such luck (as you can see from the photos). The highlight of the trip was definitely the really cool bamboo forest (home of the zen Hokokuji Temple, where I also got my first taste of Matcha Tea (not a fan of any tea, green tea included, but was still a worthwhile experience. . . it's thicker and more bitter than regular green tea!) And of course, the beach!!!

Soba lunch!

Traditional Japanese Shinto wedding
Okia with a Japanese fall flower (she told me the name but I can't remember:()

Hase dera Temple
Kamakura Daibutsu (Great Buddha)
In the bamboo forest

First bowl of matcha!

At the beeeaccch!!!

Kyoto-day 2

The next day (my last day of travels), I checked out of the hotel, and headed off to Kyoto Municipal Art Museum, which was displaying an exhibit of works from the famous Philadelphia Museum of Art. I spent a considerable amount of time there, trying to memorize the paintings and the stories behind them. Frustratingly, many of the explanations were in Japanese (I usually read every word of the descriptions and information about the paintings in an art museum, so found this especially trying).

From there, I headed off to Heian Jingu, with its several striking buildings, all painted the same bring vermillion colour with green-tiled roofs.

I then went to Fureaikan, Kyoto Museum of Traditional Crafts. Funnily enough, it was one of the few places that didn't charge anything to enter and view the displays, and yet it was one of the best exhibits I saw -- of wood and stone craftwork, dyed cloths, dolls, clothes, fans, umbrellas, paper lanterns, and several other uniquely Japanese crafts, with videos demonstrating how the items were tranformed from simple raw materials to the exquisite finished products.

From there, I decided to take a walk around the area and headed in the general direction of Murin-An a villa located on breathtakingly-beautiful grounds, built by Meiji statesman Aritomo Yamagata (who also designed the gardens). In addition to the villa, the grounds also have two other structures -- a tea-house and a western-style building where the Murin-An conference on Japan's foreign policy, just before the Russo-Japanese war, was held in 1903.

Me in the gardens of Murin-An

Aritomo's villa

The tea-house

The room in the Western-style building where the Murin-An conference was held

Some of Aritomo's personal items

Then I headed off to Yasaka Jinja in Gion. By this time I was getting ready to be done and get off my feet. But I walked around the shrine for a bit and headed into Maruyama Koen (park), popular for its hanami (cherry blossom) viewing in the spring (guess I'll just have to make another trip next year).

I walked around Gion a little more, hoping for a glimpse of geisha again, but I guess I was too early this time. I finally gave up in disappointment and exhaustion, and headed off to Kyoto Station to catch the Shinkansen back to home sweet home and my own bed! (It was a strange feeling, to come back to Tokyo and feel at home here for the first time ever, simply because I felt like such an outsider in the other places by comparison!)