Souvenirs, Etc.

Souvenirs.

These are the souvenirs I got my friends while I was in Hong Kong: 3 wooden bug magnets & a gudetama chopstick holder. While I'm sure you can only find these eggs and bugs in HK, it's not as though I would really get bug magnets (from PMQ) and a gudetama chopstick holder for my friends on the regular even if I saw them here. (Gudetama has grown on me. I didn't get the attraction or the reason for his popularity until I saw him every day in the Circle K promotion displays and started desperately wanting to shop at Circle K and collect their stickers just so I could redeem them for gudetama merchandise. That being said, I've been told the reason he's so popular is because he's really existential & consequently lazy, which baffles me... or is it because his reason for laziness reflects the mindset of the people?) One of them - a stone paper notebook - I already sent forth, but these little guys are patiently awaiting their turn since they're rather fragile (ironically, the egg is the sturdiest of them all).

Attention to detail! The little butt delights me. Really, it does.

I did a bit of shopping for myself while I was there as well, the bulk of which came in the form of clothing (subsequently the bulk of which came from Uniqlo, although I hear we're getting one soon in the Eaton Centre space?). In my defence though, half of the clothing I brought back was given to me as hand-me-downs by my aunt after she discovered I would take them.

I got a watch strap replaced at Ap Liu Gai, and it has since been worn continuously after coming back, which is great considering my usual watch has withstood probably over 10 years of use, leading to the many scratches on its face (I wear the face on the inside of my wrist for that one) and signs of wear on the leather strap. I'm sure it'll appreciate some down time.

New watch for rotation, wood mosaic from Hakone, ring from PMQ (with bugs)

There were mosaic woodwork stores everywhere we went in Hakone! Maybe excepting up on the mountain (we walked up to the amazake chaya by the stone paths alternating with the side of the winding roads), but quite literally everywhere else. We even got some wooden postcards, though we were too afraid they'd crack in the mail to send them out.

Books, letter-writing set from Le Petit Prince Museum (Hakone), notebooks, and stationary

I sent out a variety of postcards while I was in both Japan and HK (none of which are pictured since they've since been delivered and hopefully received), and was pleasantly surprised to see some responses once I got home! It's been a really long time since I've actually had letter mail that didn't come from work, the government, or school. So I went on browsing a lot in the stationary areas pretty much whenever I saw them, which also meant I came home with a number of notebooks and memo pads, in addition to a letter-writing set from Le Petit Prince Museum in Hakone (why there's a Le Petit Prince museum in Hakone of all places is beyond me, but I'm not complaining! It was really quite lovely.) and a grand total of one whole book purchased on my entire trip: Fashion & Sustainability: Design for Change. The notebooks I'm going to try at least to justify myself: I'm almost done my moleskine! There's a couple pages left that I'm not sure will ever be filled since I'm obviously ready to move on to a new one at this point. And not because I don't like moleskine; I was originally considering getting the exact same one to replace my current one, but I saw the plethora of choices available to me in HK and decided to try something new. The small red pocket notebook (Muji) came in very handy throughout my vacation as a travel log: it's the perfect pocket size, with a soft cover that gave enough protection against water that I could minimize damage when it threatened to happen. The paper itself I also quite like, since there isn't much tooth to it at all, which made an easy transition from my moleskine.

Presents!

Soon after coming home, I got a bit of a surprise in the mail in the form of books & movies! They're completely outside of my usual fare, and they come on recommendation, so I'm looking forward to making my way through them once I get some free time.* I've been going non-stop from work to going out with friends since coming back, so I didn't hesitate too much when I went out with my mom to get myself a gift:

Gift to self. Nothing to do with my vacation, really.

*I've actually finished reading Childhood's End, and enjoyed it immensely. That being said, I don't know if the style of writing just didn't sit well with me or what, but I found it rather stiff at times on top of being very self-conscious - it was as though Clarke was trying to maintain a certain detached voice but missed the mark just a bit. It might just be that I have grown much too used to different genres and their accompanying styles of writing. Or perhaps it's because the subject matter at hand is not natural as we know it, so why should I expect its mode of delivery to be? (Although I would make the argument that it is natural, in a sense.)

If You Miss The Plane I'm On... (Japan)

There are still a couple of rolls of film that have to be developed & printed since we didn't make it in time while we were in HK, but these give a pretty good idea of our stay in Japan, I think.

Beside Tokyo Skytree, the rail at night

Vending machine on our way home

Parking lot on our way home

We stayed in Tokyo for a couple of days at an airbnb, went off to Ito for a day (airbnb again), followed by Hakone for two days and one night (ryoukan), and then back to Tokyo for another two days (returning to the same airbnb), the second of which we left for Hong Kong.

The main street close to where we stayed in Ito

We went off on a day trip in Ito to do a walking tour and see the Jogasaki suspension bridge (which turned out to be about 10 paces to cross) and the surrounding area.

Fisherman out there on the rocks! He wasn't the only one, either, although the other one had a ladder also.

It was about evening when we got back to the station (close to where we stayed), so we walked around the neighbourhood a bit more to get food, taking the chance to check out Orange Beach while we were there. I don't remember whether I had taken any photos of that particular stretch of road or not, since not all the film has been developed yet. A lot of the redscale photos also didn't turn out at all, which I'm pretty miffed about, though you can still make out some of them:

Post offices were basically everywhere we went in Japan.

I'm not sure whether we just happened to notice them while we were in Japan, but we kept seeing post offices wherever we went! Which was great for me since I was sending out postcards, but I wonder if it's so much easier to send out mail/pick up mail because more people use the system than here in Canada? Or perhaps I simply don't use the post offices as much while I'm home (though if one didn't know to find them in Shopper's Drug Marts and the like, it might be pretty hard to locate one).

A store along the street at night where we stayed

We did a LOT of walking in Ito & Hakone, mostly uphill (or at least I don't recall much downhill or even just walking on flat ground... it might be me selectively remembering the hikes, but I think it's pretty representative of our stay there).

Walking up to Moto-Hakone

Stone paths for most of the route

A marker along the path, though I'm not sure it's helping anyone anymore.

The walk up to amazake chaya was stunning! We were blessed with beautiful weather also, so the greens seemed all the more vivid. And all throughout the hike up along the stone paths, I got the feeling I could understand how some of the lovely scenery from the Miyazaki films came about. It'd probably do wonders for my health if I could do that hike every day!

Our destination: amazake chaya

We had our doubts and were tempted a couple times to wait for the bus instead on our hike up, but we ended up walking the entire way to amazake chaya, where the snacks & drinks we ordered disappeared so quickly I had no time to take a picture of them. I don't know if everything tasted better because we had been walking so long, but everything was lovely, from the atmosphere (minus the endless bugs) to the food to the staff. We did take the bus back to our ryoukan though, which was very close to Gora Park.

The vividness of the plants was stunning

The second day, we took a trip to Gora Park (above) and Le Petit Prince museum (below). The museum was darling, and had a bunch of figures of the characters the little prince met on his journey, and at the end, of course, a souvenir shop. There was also a restaurant that we didn't end up trying, but everything just fit together so incredibly well!

Le Petit Prince restaurant inside the mostly open-air museum in Hakone

On our way back to Tokyo that day, we stopped by to see the Odawara castle, where I saw these adorable little guys:

Tiny little offshoots coming out from tree bark!

Try to recognize those next time you go!

Another instalment of photos to come for Hong Kong & Macau.