Kinkakuji-ji – Kyoto – Japan – April 2012

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Japan, Kinkakuji-ji, Kyoto, The Golden Temple

The Golden Temple in Kyoto

Kinkakuji-ji is said to be second only to Mount Fuji as Japan’s most famous sight.  As you can see it is famous for its gold-covered main hall which seems to float over its surrounding pond with a beautiful gold reflection.

Again this was another place in Kyoto that attracts many visitors so best to visit early in the morning or late afternoon just before closing time.

It was originally constructed in 1397 as a retirement villa and later converted into a temple.

The three storey pavilion is covered in bright gold leaf and features a bronze phoenix on top of the roof.  As I previously mentioned there is a mirror like reflection of the temple in the Kyo-ko pond which is extremely photogenic.

The temple was burnt to the ground in 1950 by a monk who was said to be obsessed with the temple and five years later a full reconstruction was completed which followed the original design exactly but the gold leaf was not extended to the lower floors of the temple – not exactly sure why – cost perhaps!!  Definitely worth a visit whilst in Kyoto.

 

 

 

Akiba Restaurant – Canberra – ACT – Australia – February 2016

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ACT, Australia, canberra

Dining at one of Canberra’s relatively new restaurants

This Asian inspired restaurant opened in the centre of Canberra city in 2014 and since then I have been a couple of times and each time the food has been delicious.  Inside there is an open kitchen and lots of neon signs…all very Japanese actually.

My latest visit was with some friends; one of which has just departed our organisation to take a new direction in her career.  Good on her I say!!  And I just heard she has been snapped up and has a new job.

We decided on the ‘Just Feed Me 8 of the Favourite Dishes’ which was suggested by our waiter and I arranged for vegetarian options for me.

First dishes to arrive were the Kingfish Sashimi with a nam jim sauce, coconut and coriander; shitake mushroom and water chestnut dumplings and a huge plate of spicy green peas.  The dumplings were delicious and accompanied by vinegar and chilli oil.  This oil was extremely spicy and made my lips numb – but it didn’t stop me eating the second dumpling.  I didn’t know how to eat the green peas so just popped one into my mouth and chewed on it..shell was bit hard and I probably would have continued eating them this way until my friend told me the correct way is to eat the peas only and leave the shell (silly me).

These dishes were followed by the pork belly bun which was pork braised in a sweet jam toped with an Asian slaw. My friends loved this.  The vegetarian dish was a plate of Asian greens topped with a sauce and fried onions…delicious.

Our final dishes before dessert were a chilli fried rice dish with vegetables and a fried egg.  Our waiter brought a separate dish of king prawns for my friends as this dish is usually non-vegetarian.  And finally fried noodles with mushrooms in a very tasty soy sauce then sweet corn pancakes with a chilli caramel topping – these were so good we immediately tucked into them and I forgot to take a photograph.

This is a place that expects fast paced dining as my internet booking advised that the seating was for 90 minutes only.  We actually ended up staying two hours and were not asked to leave.  The seating arrangements in the restaurant is mostly  high tables and stools and there are longer tables in the centre of the restaurant that would seat up to about ten people.  We sat at a high table at the window for four.

Our dessert was a lemon tofu cheesecake with anzac crumb and pandam jelly.  I was too full to eat any but my friends enjoyed theirs.  All in all a good night.  On a previous visit, I had the Shanghai noodles but found out they are only available for lunch.

Jiaoshan Great Wall -Shanghaiguan District – Hebei Province – PRC – July 2011

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Hebei Province, Jiaoshan Great Wall, prc, Shanghaiguan District

Walking on another part of the Great Wall of China

This post forms part of my series of visits to different parts of the Great Wall of China; this part of the wall is called Jiaoshan (Jiao Mountain) meaning ‘Horn Peak’ because the large steep peak of the mountain looks like the horn of a dragon.

This part of the wall zigzags in northern China from Laolongtou (Old Dragon’s Head) at Shanghaiguan which juts out into the Bohai Sea all the way to the desert in western China. Jiaoshan is the first mountain the wall crawls along, so it is known as the ‘the first mountain of the Great Wall’.

A little bit of history about this part of the wall – (obtained from various sources) it was built during the reign of the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), is about 1.5 kilometres long and made of locally quarried rocks and bricks.  The external side of the wall is precipitous making it difficult to attack, while the internal side is low and convenient for climbing and fighting.  This mountain and wall overlooked the most vulnerable part of the border between Manchuria and North China so was of the highest strategic significance in the Ming Dynasty.

This map shows the key forts on the wall built during the Ming Dynasty.

(source: http://www.chinahighlights.com)

I recall visiting Jiaoshan with a group of colleagues from the Australian Embassy in Beijing one Sunday in summer – it was very warm but I was glad I had the opportunity as this part of the wall was amazing and I also had the chance to see a young Chinese couple having their wedding photos taken in the park with the wall as a backdrop.

 

 

We took the cable car to the top of the mountain and  walked along the old ruins.  This part of the wall is incredibly steep without side walls so for someone like me it’s rather daunting.

Another fabulous day on the Great Wall of China!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tenryu-ji – Arashiyma – Kyoto – Japan – April 2012

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Arashiyma, Japan, Kyoto, Tenryu-ji

Another shrine and beautiful garden in Kyoto

Tenryuji is said to be the most important temple in Kyoto’s Arashiyama district. It was ranked first among the city’s five great Zen temples, and is now registered as a world heritage site. Tenryuji is the head temple of its own school within the Rinzai Zen sect of Japanese Buddhism. (source: http://www.japan-guide.com)

I visited this beautiful temple and amazing gardens during my visit to Kyoto and found that it was definitely a place I was glad to have visited.  Another amazingly serene place but again very popular so worth getting up early to visit or going during the week days.

The gardens were beautiful with cherry blossom trees throughout.  The flowers were also very beautiful and I was fortunate to visit at the right time when they were in blossom.

At one time, the massive grounds were said to contain some 150 sub-temples, however, the temple was plagued with numerous fires, and all of the original buildings have been destroyed.

The temple complex met with fire over seven times so most of the buildings as they stand today are reconstructions.  Unlike the temple buildings, Tenryuji’s garden survived the centuries in its original form and features a central pond surrounded by rocks, pine trees and the forested Arashiyama mountains.

The complex also has a pebble garden (similar to the famous one at Ryonan-ji Temple) but without the distinctive rock formations.

Patissez Cafe – Canberra – ACT – Australia – February 2016

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ACT, Australia, canberra, Patissez Cafe

Patisseze – The Home of the Freak Shake

(photograph courtesy of http://www.abc.com.au)

I had heard of this new (ish) cafe in an upmarket suburb of Canberra but at the same time, I heard there were long queues of people waiting to get in every weekend; so decided I would not go.  Then a second shop opened in the centre of Canberra city so with three of my very good friends I decided to go for breakfast.  The cafes are owned and operated by a mother and daughter who were contestants on the TV cooking show My Kitchen Rules.  The city cafe has a great wall poster of John Travolta and Samuel L Jackson both holding one of the cafe’s famous ‘freak shakes’.

The menu is extensive and you can order burgers all day (even for breakfast) and breakfast all day.  I love this idea as sometimes you just feel like scrambled eggs at 2pm.  There is a lot of vegetarian choices on the menu and also several vegan dishes.  The desserts are wonderful too.

I ordered the scrambled free range eggs on sourdough toast with a side of mushrooms.  My friends ordered the corn and zucchini fritters with roasted capsicum, house made salsa and smashed avocado, the brekkie burger  on a brioche milk bun containing smokehouse bacon, fried egg, house made BBQ relish and bacon jam and my friend, Jon, who is travelling to China with me next month ordered the ham hock, heirloom tomato, smoked goats cheese omelette.

The food was presented really well and tasty but Jon said he couldn’t find any ham in his omelette.  And we ordered coffees and mineral water and whilst the cafe wasn’t particularly busy they took longer than fifteen minutes to arrive…bit annoying!!

None of us wanted to try the ‘freak shake’ as they looked too filling and much too sweet for us but others in the cafe ordered them and they looked pretty spectacular.  I did want to buy one of the cakes to take away as they are spectacular looking too.

I ended up buying a cake called ‘white velvet’ which has white chocolate, lychees, cream and coconut…I haven’t tasted it yet but it really looks good.

There are many other fabulous cakes and they all looked incredible and the small cake that looks like an apple is pretty special too.

Great Wall – Mutianyu – PRC – 2010-2013

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Great Wall of China, Mutianyutianyu, prc

A visit to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall in all four seasons

Another part of the Great Wall of China that I regularly visited was Mutianyu.  This part of the Wall is about seventy-three kilometres out of Beijing which is about and hour and a half drive.  I always booked a driver and did the same when I sent my visitors there as it was so much easier than finding buses and sticking to a rigid timetable.

This section of the Wall was first built by the Northern Qi Dynasty over 1,400 years ago.  It was re-built and strengthened during the Ming Dynasty and the main part which attracts the most visitors is a 2½-kilometer section which was fully restored in 1986.

What I love about the Wall is that the surrounds look so different in all seasons; the Wall is slippery during winter in the snow and boiling hot in the dreadfully hot summer days.

There is a cable car to take you to the top and after you take a walk along the wall you have the option of taking the cable car back down or hopping into a toboggan and riding the way down.  There is an option of walking up and down which takes about an hour each way and said to include about 4000 steps…I wouldn’t know this as my mode of transport was always the cable car and toboggan.

Under the westernmost towers, on the side of a grassy ridge, is a 200 metre long phrase 忠于毛主席 which means ‘loyalty to Chairman Mao’ It is said that Chairman Mao once wrote: ‘If you don’t get to the Great Wall you’re not a good man.’ (source: http://www.chinahightlights.com)

Of course as with anywhere in China, there are many Chinese entrepraneurs selling all sorts of everything with many foreigners paying way too much for t-shirts/Chaiman Mao caps and many other things.  The fruits and foods are always delicious and worth spending a few RMB on.

After my first visit to Mutianyu in 2010 I had my photograph taken with a couple of good looking fellows dressed in Chinese attire; it was great to see them during another visit in 2013…for a few RMB (about$6 or so) you can have your photograph taken.  Same lovely fellows; same lovely smile from the one on my left.

Unlike Badaling which is one of the most commercial and busiest parts of the Wall, Mutianyu is great to visit because it’s not at all crowded so you can spend time taking photographs without thousands of people in them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

National Musuem – Beijing – PRC – 2013

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beijing, National Museum, prc

On the Eastern side of Tian’anmen Square is the National Museum

As you walk up the steps of this amazing museum there are these wonderful statues of people in a queue..they look just so special.

The parachute jumpers are great too…

We had to queue for a little while as we arrived just before 10am and it was already boiling hot with no shade – there were probably 100 people or more lined up before us.  We assumed the museum opened at 10am but its opening hours are 9am-5pm and closed on a Monday.  We lined up to buy our tickets, then lined up to show our photo identification and then lined up to go throughout security before entering the incredibly large doors to the museum.  But this is all worth it as once inside you will find a most magnificent building.  When I went it had only been open a short time as it was closed for refurbishment and expansion for about three years.

The museum has more than forty halls, and there are several permanent exhibitions.  Two I visited were ‘Ancient China’ and ‘The Road to Rejuvenation’. The ‘Road to Rejuvenation’ reflects the Opium War of 1840 onward.  It also displays protests of people who had suffered, and attempt at rejuvenation (hence its name).

The other permanent exhibition of ‘Ancient China’ is on display over ten galleries. I never made it to all ten as the museum is so big that it would take more than one day to view everything.  However the ten galleries give a complete picture of Chinese history from the prehistoric times to the late Qing Dynasty so I guess if you walked quickly you might make it through!!

There are many other displays and special exhibitions and also international exchange exhibitions. The museum has amassed five thousand years of Chinese art and cultural heritage so as I said that would be hard to see over one day.

It truly is a magnificent place to visit and well worth any time your have during a visit to Beijing.  I will be definitely returning during my holiday to China in March – can’t wait!!