I went to the NC zoo

I woke up this morning, a whole day to myself and thought it would be a great day to go to the zoo. I made a plan to swing into Asheboro NC Zoo 11:30-5:30 then over to Raleigh 7-10 Figure Drawing. I had an absolute blast! It was such a great day to myself. Plus I got family pass so I can go with the family free for a year and since I went on my own today I know my way around better and have enjoyed the animals all day long. I even drew a few. Anyhoo, these where my favorites of the day. I'll post sketches of them later on my other blog.

My garden sprouts!!!

I'm just getting my edible landscape rolling and despite the set backs because of the squirrels, things are growing pretty good. Needless to say I'm pretty pleased. I'm just hoping the dear, squirrels and bunnies leave things alone for the most part. We'll see. I'm very excited about it though. ^___^

Nagshead Deep Sea fishing

This weekend I went fishing for the first time ever. I'm totally sold. I had a great time and even caught my own first fish. We may have not caught a lot this trip but we for sure had a great time together and I hope I can do it again soon. I will want to catch a Tuna! While we were fishing we saw a school of dolphins (porpouise), a hammer head shark and a sun fish. The weather was beautiful and the ride was smooth.

Tokyo fling

Our last little jaunt around Tokyo. We stayed in Ueno so we also enjoyed Cherry Blossoms there in full bloom. One of the days we stayed there we went to an Island, Odaiba and played around window shopping, visiting cats and dogs (cat park/dog cafe) and hanging out a bit on the beach. (We took really cool transit there.)
The bay-



A few of the funny things we found on Odaiba. ^___^

Last big trip in Japan - KYOTO

Kyoto Station. This place was huge and had tons of levels.


Kyoto Tower at night-


Ok, I'm finally getting around to posting the pictures of Kyoto. (I'm now wireless and it feels soooo good to have my own connection on my laptop.) There's a good many few on facebook already but here are a few more to nibble on.
Ok, I'm not going to remember in great detail all that we did because I didn't make note of it but needless to say we has a great time and here are a few places we had the chance to visit.
After dropping off our bags and luggage at the hostel, we went out to see the Fushimiinari Shrine. This was one of my favorite places. I feel for it quickly.











The next day we headed into Uji, south of Kyoto, famous for it's teas and the Byodoin Temple which is on the back of the 10 yen coin.









We went to a variet of places in Arashiyama.
Arashiyama-









Monkey Park-Where you roam around with the monkeys freely. There are few rules though. Don't look the monkeys in the eye. Don't show them any food/don't feed them and Don't touch the monkeys. Then you take a little hike up the mountain and one can enjoy the monkeys as you go. One little monkey grabbed hold of my umbrella, I had to tug it back out of it's hands. Sorry monkey, I'll need that more than you.



At the top of the mountain on Monkey Park you can go inside a small building which is like a cage for you and from inside you can buy food for the monkeys to feed them. It also has a nice view.


Bamboo Forest-


****On our last day, we visited the Path of Philosophy (Popular during Cherry Blossom season) and ended the path at Ginkakuji (Silver Pavilion-(under construction)



Nanzenji (Nanzenji- Path of Philosophy- Ginkakuji)




The Path-







Kiyomisu- Night viewing/Day viewing









Nijojo-




Ryoanji-


Shimogamo Shrine-




Tenryoji-


(Uji)Manpukuji-





It had been my dream for some time to see Kyoto during Cherry Blossom season and I can say I am quite content and satisfied about this last trip. We had a great time, ate great food and enjoyed the beautiful city of Kyoto.
On the train on our way out we saw Mt. Fuji too, which I've always wanted to see.

Tokamachi Yuki Matsuri (Snow Festival)

This weekends adventure took us to Tokamachi. It's still in the prefecture but quite a bit south of us. It's actually not too far off from Nagano oddly enough. Anyhoo so we got a hotel in Tsunan a couple stops away from Tokamachi and thought we'd give it a run. We arrived on Saturday afternoon and had a little look around. The little country city was so cute up there in the mountains. All over in front of buildings or buisnesses they build different kinds of displays from lanterns in the snow, shrine offering of onigiri, snowmen (yukidaruma) of Anpanman, Totoro and Draemon it was really quaint in the city too.




Fun snow displays: Guess who and what they are (mostly Miyazaki characters).






Of course there where snow tunnels, walkways and sculptures too.













Then in the evening there was a big event! Each year they build a stage for a show out of snow. This was the 60th Anniversary stage. It was pretty nice. They had comedians, magician/entertainers, great live music and some other Japanese celebrities.







During the day we enjoyed a bit of a snowball fight and the people.

Tokyo-Chiba Weekend

Last weekend Bridget and I took off a little early from school to go to Tokyo and Chiba. After finishing up school a little early we made our way on the Shink into Tokyo. We stopped in at Shibuya for awhile to have a delicious meal at a garlic restaurant and a little brows around.






Then we spent out first night in Akihabara at a capsul hotel. Ever since I've heard of these I knew I just totally needed to try it at least once while I was here, just to say I've slept in one. They are really quite nice I thought. Being that you get to crawl into this little pod that resembles a toasty little oven, I felt it quite safe and relaxing. We were like little buns in an oven. Also the bathrooms and shower rooms where really nice. Plus, lucky us, going on such an off season time, there where only a couple other girls on our floor so no lines for the showers or anything. It was great.

Then we headed out that morning for a train ride to Chiba to see some fuzzy felines at Nyanda cat park. The ride was beautiful and takes your through along the coast into the outskirt of the Tokyo and some of it's suburbs. The station was really cute too.









We finally made it to Nyanda!!!!! The kitties were soooo cute. We got there in the morning when most where still sleeping but a few where up and about and looking for a warm lap to sleep on. I was impressed. I kinda thought that mostly the cats would just run away. You know how cats are, they kinda come around for a lap or a pet when they feel like it, not usually when they are called or when someone wants them to. But these kitties as the got accustomed to you sitting around by them would let you pet them or climb up into your laps for a snooz. There was a cone headed kitty that was really sweet and a little grey one that sat on my lap as well as a little black and grey one. I layed down by the table by a few and one of course came to lay on my sketch book so I drew him. Anyhoo. They where really sweet. I didn't take these pictures by the way. These came from Bridget's cam. Enjoy the fuzzy love. I was in heaven btw. (the music was literally ACDC hits covered by meowing cats)















I drew a few while they where laying around or sleeping too.






Then we did a little jaunt to Harajuku the next day and went home. I got a cool green jacket with patches. We also had great sashimi




The last night we stayed just above Shinjuku. It was a cute traditional style Japanese place.





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