04. Kyoto - 京都 / Kyoto Botanical Garden 京都府立植物園

Spring is finally here~ I'm so happy to see how wonderful this season is in Japan, with the warm weather the plum began to blossom! I can't wait for the cherry blossom either. 

I went to visit the beautiful botanical garden of my city Kyoto. It's a great place and the entrance ticket is only 200Y, which is really cheap~ Perfect for a student like me, and with my love of flowers and peaceful places, it was such a nice afternoon..

Here's some pictures of the plum trees and flowers I saw. I still have a lot of work to do on my macros.. I'm thinking about taking a photography class next year so I'll have a better technic with my camera. 

Inside the garden itself was, lost between the trees, a little shrine.

I walked into a little booth selling flowers next to the coffee shop of the garden.

An exibit of differents kinds of japanese plants and bonzaïs!

Thank you for reading!

03. Kobe - 神戸 / A day at Harborland

Last week I went with some friends to Kobe to spend a good day near the sea! It was freezing cold but I was glad to breath such fresh air, since just before this I had to spend days in bed due to a bad cold. There's no beach here, and it's mostly industrial structures, but I enjoyed the view on the sea and how striking blue was the sky this day.

The city was partially destroyed during one of the biggest earthquake known as the Great Hanshin Earthquake in 1995. As a memory, a portion of the port was kept in state. 

Harborland, our destination for the day, is a big touristic spot near the port, consisting mostly of parcs and shops. We entered into a huge shopping mall and while walking around with my friends looking for a good restaurant, I saw a Kiddyland.. Immediately started giggling.. The store is much smaller than the Harajuku one but it's still so full of cute stuff.

And Rilakkuma everywhere. 

And.. the one who came home with me~

We then found a cheap japanese restaurant that offered Kobe typical food. I don't eat red meat so I had no interest in the beef (Kobe beef being the most famous dish here) but my friends wanted to try if possible. I ended up having with my set a plate of Akashiyaki ((明石焼き), small dumplings made with eggs and with a little chunck of octopus inside. 

After a good meal, we kept looking in the shops around, every one being cuter than the previous. I really enjoy decorating as a hobby since I have a deep love for beautiful items, and the shop I took these pictures in was like heaven to me. The atmosphere was very peaceful.

After shopping a little bit, we went by the docks to ride the ferris wheel~

It offered a really great view on the bay! I spotted this impressive submarine..

For the tea time we went into a random coffee shop that looked great- and when we walked in I became worried we didn't checked the prices first because everything inside was so fancy.. But the card was actually really reasonnably priced and the apple pie I ordered was sooooo delicious. 

Huuuuuge Totoro! I wish I could have take it home~

At the end of the day we headed for Chinatown to see Chinese New Year's activities and eat a good dinner. I got gyozas of course- I love it so much.

Thanks for reading!