seen from Malaysia
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Have you ever been to Walt Disney World?
Yes!
Not WDW, but another Disney Park(s)
Nope, but I am planning a first trip
Nope, maybe someday
Never have and never will
If you want you can click other parks if you've only done a cruise or other vacation property. Picture from Our Departure Board.
The "First" Visit - Celine visits him under different circumstances
First hedgehog of the year tonight (Southern England)!! 🦔 Please consider feeding our spikey friends, if you can. Cheap cat kibble is OK for them. They also love mealworms :)
Sorry, no photos yet. I need to set up the camera.
00:20; 15-March-2025
Erend! Let down your hammer!
Jackie in Japan - Kyoto (First Visit)
I made a post on my second visit to Kyoto the other day, which you can read here. In connection to this, I asked whether people would like to read about my first visit and @solarsavoy wanted to. So, here we are.
This post is based off of my diary entries from Saturday February 3 and Sunday February 4 2018. I didn't know as much about Japan and Japanese culture as I do now. I wasn't as good a writer either. But you won't see this. This is a translated and filtered version of my experiences, combined with what memories I have.
Like with my second visit, I arrived in Kyoto by shinkansen, but from the direction of Tokyo instead of Fukuoka. We had been up at 4am to catch that train at.. around 6am or so, maybe a bit earlier than that. We were 8 coming from Tokyo and then we had a local guide for each day. Our first guide was a guy who could speak English really well. As my Japanese wasn't as good at the time, he was easier to talk to.
We started out by visiting Fushimi Inari Taisha, the shrine I finished my last visit by going to. Our guide taught us how to pray at a shinto shrine. Throw in a coin (5 yen is best for good fortune). Then you have to clap twice and bow twice (I keep forgetting the order!) then you make your wish and bow once more. There is a mountain on the shrine grounds and some in my group climbed it, but I didn't feel like it and stayed behind. I wasn't the only one in my group who did that. Our guide stayed with us.
After this and after having lunch, we went to Kiyomizudera (Kiyomizu temple). What I remember best is the huge crowd. There were so many people. We had to pay to get in, I got in for free because the rules on whether disabled people get free entry or not seem a bit vague, and I guess the guy I had to pay felt pity on me or something. There were 3... springs or fountains. I don't remember the English word used then. Each would give you luck within one aspect. One is for health, one is for love and the third is for studies. We were told that if we drank from all 3, it would turn into misfortune instead. That makes sense, considering all the Japanese folktales about greed.
Around Kiyomizudera we also saw a lot of people in kimono. I asked the guide why so many wore them here and he said that Kyoto is the only place where it is not considered weird to wear kimono normally as there is a mix between traditional and modern culture in this city that is not seen as clearly anywhere else.
We did go to another shrine as night was about to fall, but I don't remember what it's called. I just remember we went up a bunch of stairs to get there, and there were many lanterns under a roof. I have a picture of it though. Believe me, I've tried to find out what it's called.
On the folowing day we went to Kinkaku-ji (Kinkaku temple) which is painted completely gold. It's by a pond and looks really beautiful. There was also a hole where people could try to throw in coins for luck. I should have thrown 5-yen-coins, but I knew there was no way I would hit that hole, so I just threw a couple of 1-yen coins. I did draw a fortune though. I'm sure some of you have seen how people do that in anime. I got "half luck".
We then went to Ryouanji, which is most famous for its stone garden. I have heard it said that people say there are 15 stones in the garden, but one can only ever count 14. People also took pictures of a room inside the building. If someone can tell me why that was, I'm willing to learn.
We went home after that. I only really remember the first two places clearly. The rest are a bit of a blur. I was too exhausted after that to do anything and spent a few days picking the pieces of myself up and gluing them back together. Thinking on it like that, I'm glad I went, but I'm even gladder that I went back the other day. And I probably should go back again in the future.
Imagine person A of your OTP is visiting person B's house for the first time.
They break something.
A freaks out, thinking the object they broke could be massively expensive, and hide it from B.
Over the next week or so A feels guilty over breaking the thing and then lying about it. Eventually they go back to B's house, admit everything, and offer to pay for it, inwardly cringing at the thought of how much it might cost.
Turns out, not only was that item not all that expensive to begin with, but B has a whole plethora of reasons why they hated it, and they've been looking for an excuse to get rid of it. They find the whole thing hilarious, though they're grateful to A for being honest with them.
Hakone shrine
I went to Hakone Shrine for a New Year's visit.
This shrine is crowded with many people every year who come to do the first shrine visit of the year.
Piazza del Popolo, Roma, Italia
