After feeding the deers, we took a walk around the park. Doesn't the combination of trees and water and its reflection looks so good? Haha.

Since we had a tight schedule (wanted to explore Osaka on the same day), we decided to leave Nara park. But first, some street food.

We bought this mochi to try because... there was a long queue. What typical Singaporeans right. Anyway this mochi is kind of famous because of the hand and mallet pounding process. The speed of the pounding of the mochi was really fast (good that no one's hands was hurt by the mallet) and according to Google, it's 3 hits per second :O

 How could we miss out Dontoburi Street when we are in Osaka right? We headed there for our dinner and it was really cool to see all the huge signboards (e.g. the huge crab sign) along the street.




Can't describe how shiok it was to eat the very warm okonomiyaki and takoyaki in the not-so-warm (maybe 13 degrees?) weather. Sadly, the takoyaki wasn't fantastic imo because it's a bit too doughy and I prefer crispy takoyaki like Gindaco ones.

• Day 1 where we travelled to Fushimi Inari Shrine and tried Kichi Kichi omurice
• Day 2 where we wore kimono, travelled to Arashiyama and Nishikki Market

After looking at the food and enjoying the view of the river, we went to look for %Arabica Coffee which was on my to-try list hehe.

 

                               Entrance to Nishiki Market and matcha icecream from Sawawa
                           


Tsujiri was located inside the departmental store and it was closed at 8pm! The entire departmental store also closes pretty early, surprisingly. So after having our parfait, we slowly made our way back to our Airbnb to rest in preparation for the next day- Nara Park and Osaka!

Read about Day 1 here.

Day 0, 10 Nov 2016

The day that I have been waiting for had finally arrived!! Hahaha booked the air tickets since end 2015/start of 2016 so kiasu right. I had always wanted to visit Japan (for the food, cherry blossom and the food) so I was pretty excited about the trip.

The only sad thing is how the exchange rate wasn't that favourable. 1 SGD to 73/74 Yen vs 1 SGD to 90+ yen during 2015...

Took a night flight and SQ really fed us pretty well.

When we boarded the train at the airport, the station was enclosed so we had no idea how cold the weather is until we transferred trains. It was around 8 degrees which was VERY cold given how I was in t-shirt and a thin long sleeve shirt HAHA.

Badly want to write something but feeling so uninspired lately. Wonder if this is linked to work hmm. Not trying to say work sucks but maybe it's stifling whatever creativity I have.

CONVERSATIONS 

"Most people want to save the entire world. It's a lovely thought, and I'm not saying it's not a noble pursuit- but it's impossible to save everyone. You just have to pick your little corner of the world and focus your energy there. That's the only way you will ever make a difference."

"But I don't know if I can make a difference. It feels like I am screaming at the top of lungs, but no one can hear me. No one cares. How can I change anything if I'm completely powerless?" 

"You may be powerless now, but there will be a time when you won't be. Don't you see? And that's the time for you to be loud, to tell the world about the changes you want to see, to set them in motion."

What a neglected space. To think that one of my new year resolutions is to write more haha. I can't deny the fact that I still enjoy writing, especially when it comes to writing about food. Perhaps I am afraid to find out how much I like writing. Because if I realise all I wanted to do in my career is to write, then it means I have made another mistake in my career choice.

Not saying I am unhappy at work. I am definitely happier than previously but I won't and can't say I am really satisfied. And I can't help but wonder what will happen if I choose the alternative. Will I be happy writing press releases? Scanning media every day. Perhaps editing and choosing photos to communicate news. Having to OT/work faster since speed is everything when it comes to media release.