Travelling the Great Ocean Road is not all about cruising along the coast. Some inland roads have remarkable attractions as well. This one is taken on a misty morning at Lavers Hill, the day we return back to Melbourne. It was a peaceful quiet morning and since there’s hardly any incoming cars, I stopped and [...]

I’ve had a long weekend road trip to the Great Ocean Road last week. It was a blast and there is so much to blog about. The experience at the break & breakfast accommodation, timelapses  I played around, scenic photography and the long coastal drive at Great Ocean Road itself. With so much other stuff [...]

I’ve always wanted to have a go at the snow mountains and I’ve been pondering about it for years but I couldn’t find the opportunity nor the company to go with. Last month, my mate from Perth suggested that we should take a trip to Mt Buller when his wife and himself drop by to [...]

This ad has been playing on TV every night while I was in Japan. So mesmerizing, it almost brainwashed me to buy that junk food. Till now, the tune is still ringing in my head.

After Umeda Sky Building, I headed off to Minami, at the south of Osaka. They said Minami is the Akihabara for Osaka.
 

(The long stretch of shopping arcade underneath Namba)
 
 
 

From left:
1. Another fav of mine. Taiyaki with cream and chocoloate fillings
2. Some dancing fountain in the Namba Station shopping hall. I was enjoying the taiyaki there
3. They put up something [...]

Sheesh, I actually forgot to post the short trip to Osaka. My bad, my bad.
Osaka is about 20 minutes away from Kyoto via Shinkansen so I decided to take a one day trip to visit the industrious Osaka. That day was a gloomy day unfortunately; it drizzled for the entire day, restricting my choices of place [...]

A Japan trip will never be complete without some anime shopping. While weight was not an issue when I brought these goodies back, the available space on the baggage was total exhausted. With so much stuff to bring home, I was so desperate to seek every single inch I could salvage from any hand carry [...]

On the last day in Japan, I concluded the trip with a visit to Studio Ghibli Museum in Mitaka. It’s a must trip for any fans of Hayao Miyazaki where you can see all his works in real life.
 

(Studio Ghibli Museum main entrance)
 
Getting there from the hotel was a little far off. I had to switch two trains and the journey [...]

My mate and I decided to treat his cousin a good dinner as a gesture of gratitude for taking us around Tokyo. We let him to decide the restaurant and we had yakiniku for that night. A wonderful, appetising experience of BBQ-ing expensive beef slices.
 

(Thin slices of juicy sizzling beef)
 
 
 

From left:
1. Kimchi. A good way to open [...]

(With shops like these, I’ll be visiting every one of them)
 
The buildings and the decorations in Akihabara outmatched any other districts that I went. A very busy district filled with electronic and anime/mange otakus. Just the kind of place that I’ll dwell. I came here twice and twice I went back to hotel with bags of goodies. [...]

Again, this was an unexpected discovery. Zojoji Temple was only 10 minutes away from the Tokyo Tower after I followed some crowd. This was where  I found out that the New Year was going to be celebrated here, 7 hours later.
 

(Zojoji Temple)
There was nothing to see during the day as the locals were busy preparing the stalls and set ups [...]

Tokyo Tower is around Roppongi, so I took a stroll to Tokyo Tower. It was New Year’s eve that day so I thought we go and celebrate year 2008 there. Turned out the stroll became a 45 minutes walk. Ugh.
 

(The famous Paris Tower look-a-like)
 
 
I didn’t go to top of the Tokyo Tower. Initially I planned [...]

I didn’t explore much around Roppongi. It was pretty dull around so I only hanged around at a shopping mall.
 

(A shopping mall in Roppongi)
 
 
The outside
 
 
Inside the ‘food court’

From left:
1. Biscuits/Pastries for 3900yen
2. Steamed rice with different flavours.
3. Cakes, cakes, cakes
4. More cakes!
 

From left:
1. These are real spring roll. I thought it was for display only.
2. More confectionaries. They really [...]

(The missing corner credit card)
 
I used my credit card a couple of times when I travelled to Japan but this ordinary credit card returned back to me with unexpected yet an interesting feedback. This is what happened. 
After some long thoughts, I have decided to purchase the Nikon DSLR at one of the biggest electronic store, [...]

Another trip during the evening and this time it’s Shinjuku. It was livelier than in the day, the buildings there were dressed up to blind you with a rainbow rays of colourful neon lights and huge LCD TVs.

(The city that never sleeps)
 
 
The facets of Shinjuku:

 
 
 
From left:
1. A random shot using my new DSLR
2. Illumination ‘circus’ as they call it
3. Bunch of happy penguins
  
 

From left:
1. [...]