Personally, I think Kiyomizu-dera Temple is my favourite stop: I actually went there twice. The first time we got there was late afternoon. Most shops were about to close and my digital camera can’t take night scenes well. I decided to go there one more time on the eve of departure to Tokyo. It was [...]

(The ‘hand’. I randomly walked around and found this but I forgot where I was that time.)
 
Kyoto is known as the city of temples so for every block I passed by, you will not miss a small shrine or temple. It is said there are thousands of them scattering around this centuries old city and during the period of my visit, I barely [...]

I love Revoltech toys and has been eyeing this Rei for some time now. Only recently released on to the shelf (1st January 2008), I guess I’m the one of the few to bring it back to the Australian shores. Muahaha. I bought this from the only anime shop that I noticed in Teramachi Street and from [...]

Teramachi Street (literally Temple Town) is probably an area where we hang out the most. A mix of traditional and modern shops with tons of food, I think we won’t get starved while we’re in Kyoto. It’s a long stretch of shops in these arcades (a couple more running parallel) and it was very lively [...]

I can’t really recall where we were on the the exact day and each day we randomly and aimlessly toured around Kyoto, so I decided to write about a destination/area per post.
We reached the Kyoto Station via JR Shinkansen after 1.5 hours ride from Odawara. Inside the station, it housed a multi-level Isetan departmental store. Probably one of [...]

The next stop was Odawara, about 30 minutes away via Shinkansen. From the station, we took a small crampy bus for Mikawaya Ryokan, another 40 minutes away. The journey to the ryokan is a winding path that reminded me the racing map from Initial D. Speaking of racing manga, the bus driver actually drove like [...]

Phew… finally sorted out all the photos. My finger was very itchy at the trigger that I took a shot at almost anything, even ordinary ones. That’s the reason I have about one thousand pictures and 50% of them are irrelevant.
On the eve of the journey, Oliver and I did sleep much, probably about a couple of [...]

 That’s what we did.

(Cam whoring on New Year Eve – guy behind us wasn’t too happy when we took the shot(s) with flash.)
 
We joined the Japanese to celebrate New Year 2008 at Zojiji Temple, not far from the Tokyo Tower but we went 7 hours prior to New Year and found it deserted. Came back an hour before [...]

I just came back from Japan and I’m financially crippled after the purchase of this monstrosity: a Nikon D80 with a 18 – 200mm lens. All thanks to the mind poisoning of my friend’s cousin and the people of Japan that are using DSLRs. Curse you all!!
 

(Nikon DSLR D80 – Source)

(Nikkor 18-200mm Lens – Source)

(Guy on left: Sigh, your aiming sucks!)
  
I am a handgun enthusiast and has been collecting toy guns (unfortunately) or replicas since then. And for the first time I get to experience to pull the trigger of real ones. Yep, I’m a redneck for the day in Thailand.
It’s one of those popular shooting ranges for tourist so it’s pretty expensive [...]

 Some of the funny signs/notices I came across while I was in Pattaya, Thailand

I took a couple hundreds of pics when I was on holly back home and in Thailand. For the next few weeks, I might post a few blogs based on events, not the days of my trips there. Still sorting out the pics, so hold on your horses!