Autumn holiday in Japan (10th-24th Nov): Koukyo (皇居)

All my life, I lived in Tokyo (till age of 18), I don't remember I ever went to Koukyo (皇居). It's the place Japanese royals live. So, I decided it was time to pay a visit to have a look as I was in Tokyo visiting my family, becoming a tourist.

On 14th of Nov, as my family suggested, we got on Yamanote line (山手線）to Tokyo station (東京駅), it was about 20-25mins from Ootsuka station where my family lived. Tokyo station was a big one with old style building and recently refurbished. 

I remember when I was a school, about 17years old, I used to have a little job selling Japanese sweets in one of shops in the station, which wasn't there anymore. Now I look back, I did have a few after school jobs, and actually we weren't allowed to do any of them. I'm not sure how I spent the money and what, I got no memory.....

Anyway, it was easy to find the way to Koukyo, just straight on from the station (get out Marunouchi chuuouguchi 丸の内-中央口). Across the bridge, already we were standing a part of Koukyo. We just walked round there, following some tourists, watching them taking photos.... I thought "Where is the garden?" Then we saw people walking to the right along the water, so we followed. Then saw sign, looked promising....

Gate to the Koukyo

Japanese post box

When we went in, we were given tokens to keep and kept till we went out. It was nice park, due to sunny day, lots of people were chilling out on the grass. We sat and had our snack watching people.

This Imperial palace used to be home to Japanese shogun (Tokugawa shogun, very powerful shogun). They moved here on the Edo period from Kyoto after more than1000years which was capital of Japan. I didn't see Edo castle, but there was some remains. Still impressed me how people in old days built this massive structure. They didn't have huge heavy machinery!

Guarding house

Huge stone foundation

 As we walked through the park/ garden, we found...some fruits! they were called "dai dai"... I thought they were edible, so we picked a few. They were really hard, we thought they were not ready. But, apparently, they are not used as eating, dried and used in medicine for digestion. If the fruits are not picked, they last on the tree for several years.... In spring, they turn back to green.... I now started feeling really guilty picking them... How naughty of us! We didn't eat them while we were in Japan, left them for my parents... ☹☹☹

Daidai: bitter orange

Look very pretty!

Just across road from the huge foundation, we found weired building. This was built for emperor's music hall. I am very sorry to say, I didn't like it, why couldn't they build nice Japanesy style??? To me, it looked really out of place. Everywhere else in the park was very zen like, but this....... blob of concrete.....

Emperor's music hall

Old and New

Oh, before we went into the Koukyo, we walked round there, and saw famous "Sakuradamon (桜田門)".  This what happened: " The Sakuradamon Incident (桜田門外の変 Sakuradamon-gai no Hen, or 桜田門の変 Sakuradamon no Hen) was the assassination of Japanese Chief Minister (Tairo) Ii Naosuke (1815–1860) on 24 March 1860 by rōnin samurai of the Mito Domain, outside the Sakurada Gate of Edo Castle."

Sakuradamon

Yet again, we had lovely warm day out. Tokyo doesn't have much greens, so it's nice to visit place where we can sit down on the grass, watching sky and sound of trees and leaves. Where shall we go next? Meiji Jingu (明治神宮)!

Autumn holiday in Japan (10th-24th Nov): Takaozan (高尾山) in Tokyo

We didn't waste no time, 13th (wed) of Nov, we went up to Takaozan (高尾山). It has lots of memories as I was a little girl, we often walked this cute mountain. 

When I told my brother where we were going, he told me he took me and my niece last time I went back to Japan, till then, I didn't know the little mountain we went was the same place!

Anyway, my mum kindly made us a couple of rice balls (with salty sour plums called Umeboshi) and pickled cucumber (called nukazuke), and some nuts, we were ready to go.

Apparently, last a couple years, "walking" became very popular in Japan, everywhere you go now packed with people. Always like this, but now even worse. 

We got on Yamanote line from Ootsuka station to Shinjuku(新宿) station, changed to Chuo line (中央線) kaisoku (fast train) got off Takao (高尾), then took local train to Takaozan(高尾山). Took us about 1hour or so. It was lovely sunny day and warm, about 16℃.

As we were close to Takao, we saw Mt. Fuji from the train window (it was beautiful!) and the same time, more more hikers got on the train. The most of them were older generation of people and O.A.P (Old Age Pensioner) we call them here in U.K. ☺☺☺ Arr, bless them, they all were in the hiking outfit, wearing the north face jacket, and chunky walking shoes, Jack Wolfskin racksack, walking sticks and hats etc....Wheres young people, I saw them walking on high heel shoes, sandals, fur coat/jacket or mini skirt... They didn't look like walking/hiking in a mountain. That gap was quite big, stamina wise, although the walks was easy and very good tidy footpath, I saw "young (20's and 30's)" people were struggling to walk up. O.A.P people were enjoying their walks and chat, didn't look struggling at all. 

When we went up to the top, cor, blimey, loads of people there. They took the cable car from the downstairs, about 10-15mins or so. There we saw a loooooong que. There was very japanesy house welcoming visitors to the mountain.

 Way in to the mountain

Japanese people seem to like to que everywhere

Very Japanesy

Ojizousama

Never seen monkies in this mountain!

It was just started to change colours, so, it was still really green everywhere. As we went up, started to see more colours, orange, yellow and red. It was very warm, I took my jacket off and wearing my tee shirt, but not shorts weather.... But quickly, temperature dropped, inside the mountain was cooler. 

Jizou with a woolen hat on, ready for the winter?

My first Kouyou(紅葉）in Tokyo

By then, we were nearly to the top. Carried on walking, I noticed some people were praying to an octopus (getting octopus blessings), Marcus walked and stood next to it, and an old lady started to praying! It was funny!

Touch the octopus head to get good luck blessings

Brothers?

Walked another 5 mins or so, we saw little steps to the right. Not many people go up there, it was really quiet. There was 100 monument (busyaritou 仏舎利塔 ) and this place was cool.

Middle one was donated by Shaolin Temple! Cool!

100 of those were circled the Busyaritou. If you look at the stone monuments, there was small circle on the bottom. Apparently, inside it, it has some pebbles from those temples who donated, and  if you put foot on it,  be able to connect to all those temples. How sweet! Of course, me and Marcus did it, and especially Shaolin Temple, I gave a big hug too. ♥♥♥

I'm not a religious person, but I love visiting places like this, I think it's awesome.

More leaves changing their colours

When we were top, I saw funny things. Here again, people were queuing, queuing for what? Blessings.

 Long que for blessings for their wishes

Little que for cleaning sins...

The top was absolutely packed, we wanted to have our snack, but gave up. I got a little grumpy, after a few mins walking down, we found a bench to sit down and had our snack. More and more people started coming down to this way, before sun went down, they wanted to go home.....

Unfortunately, Mt. Fuji was clouded over. Right side with pointy top was Mt. Fuji. It already had snow on it.

It didn't take long time to go down. We took a bus to Takao station. If we had more time, we walked. 
All in all, it was good day out, I would defo recommend this walk in Tokyo.

My mum made us lovely seaweed salad and cooked kabocha pumpkin for dinner. It was lovely to go home to "mums home cooked food".

Autumn holiday in Japan (10th -24th Nov): Flight

Finally, we were off to Japan. Last time I went back was nearly 4 years ago. I was really looking forward to this trip. 

We booked our ticket with Virgin, again, I heard so much about how good Virgin was, I just couldn't wait for the day. When we checked in, we realized we flew out with ANA (All Nippon Airways, even better!), coming back with Virgin. This made me feel like "buy one get one free(although it wasn't free)".

We initially booked our food as vegan, food in ANA was very good,  they even gave Marcus wheat-free option too (he rung up for a few things and told them). Virgin one was a bit disappointing, vegan food wasn't good. Having say that, they gave out ice lollies and rice balls or cheese sandwich for snacks, that was good if you could eat dairy and wheat. I had Kombu rice balls (2! ), that was delicious. 

Both flights, staffs were very pleasant and friendly, I got no complaint. ☺☺☺

One thing I would complain about Virgin flight was my monitor wasn't working properly( we check on line, the air bus we got on was old model) and all films and programs weren't good either. I noticed lots of people didn't bother watching films or T.V programs. They were just either sleeping, playing games on ipad or editing photos on their laptop etc. What I was doing on my way back to U.K? Try to get some sleep, but couldn't sleep at all and got grumpy. 

All in all, it was pleasant flight, next time, save up a bit more money and would like to book a flight with ANA. ♥♥♥

Suffolk Walks-- Autunm in Anglessey Abbey

Here we come, we were there again! Anglessey Abbey.
I think this was our 3rd time to visit here, snowdrops were very pretty in winter.
When we got there, it was nice and spacious, enjoying some walks in the beautiful gardens. We were well chuffed we didn't have to pay, we now have membership, just keep visiting the National Trust places! Hooray!

Gardens there looked different from last time we were there, of course, trees were changing colours, different plants were coming out from the grounds. Wow, all though year, we can enjoying the gardens.

This time, we went into the house:
"See Lord Fairhaven's country house at Anglesey Abbey, where he lived and entertained guests.
As an avid collector of antiquities, he amassed a vast selection of paintings, silverware, clocks and other items which can be seen throughout the house.
Immerse yourself in Lord Fairhaven's way of life as you visit the house."
Some of his collections were impressive, I was fantasizing how much they would fetch on eBay.... and got a bit excited(in my head). I loved some of the bathrooms, very 40-50's, I love anything quaky vintage. Anglessy Abbey used to an Abbey with monks, I would love to see what it was like when it was built and how monks lived, pray and eat.

Here's some photos of the trees:

 

Started changing colours

Pretty flowers in light

It was beginning of this month we went there. It was mild still, and we were having lovely autumn till a few days ago (we had  bad storm). Now, lots of leaves were coming down, due to the storm we had on the weekend just gone, tree blanches were broken, rose hips were really soft, I was told our first frost was over a week ago, I completely missed it, and now need to wait till next year to try to make rose hip powder...never mind...

Anyway, come back to the Abbey. 
We found a few button mushrooms on the ground. (We also found poisoness ones ) Of course, we picked them (only found 2-3 small ones) and take them home for our dinner. I was a bit suspicious about the mushrooms we picked, they did look button mushroom and smelt like that too. I cooked them that night, I only had a bit, I gave most to Marcus, I didn't want to get tummy ache..... It proved that they WERE edible button mushrooms, we are still here today alive... Thank God!

Cute!

We walked along the river, past the Lode Mill, back to the garden. Wondered how to get to the other side of the river. Saw nice footpath leading to the field next door. We reckon the footpath is outside the Abbey, there must be somewhere to get to it. We haven't managed to found it yet, will let you know when we do. 

Tree with a huge mouth! I think he's singing

 

 We had our light snack sitting on one of benches looking at flowers and people watching. Then he suggested if we could pop into Cambridge, and I got a bit excited...I really like Cambridge, its' a nice city. The most importantly, it has a lovely health food shop! ☺☺☺

So after our snacks, we headed to Cambridge. 

Where shall we go next week????

• Address:
  Quy Road, Lode, Cambridge, CB25 9EJ
• Telephone: 01223 810080
• Email: angleseyabbey@nationaltrust.org.uk

 

Suffolk Walks---Sutton Hoo ❀Marcus's B'day day out❀

Anglo Saxon Mask

 Price list

It was Marcus's birthday weekend. He came over to my end, so we decided to visit Sutton Hoo. Marilyn (Marcus's mum) came along, we spend time there. It was nice day, mild and sunny, sometimes cloudy. We've been having really mild autumn this year. 

It is run by National Trust. When I saw the price, I thought really expensive... Marcus was at the reception to sort out admission fees while I was in the loo. When I came out, he was applying for the national trust membership with extra (me!). We worked out it was cheap to join than "pay as you go" if we visit National Trust places. We do visit sometimes, like. Anglessey abbey, Ickworth park, Dunwich etc. I always felt joining national trust, English Heritage, or RSPB was old people's activity, but, these days, all types, ages of people join to support those charities, after all, they do good job to keep going. I really enjoy every bit every time I visit.

So, today was the day we finally arrived at the Sutton Hoo, always wondered what it was like, to be honest, I was quite impressed about the scale and how artifacts were displayed. And, they had a nice cafe, if I was still "2-cake-nori" I would defo try afternoon teas there. It looked nice. Scorns, clotted cream and home made jam, mmmm, make my mouth watery, just even think about it. I'm not "2-cake-Nori" at mo, so, no cakes for me there. Instead we had my home made raw snacks with cup of tea after our walks and visits to the museums. 

One thing I felt a bit disappointed about was that some of really interesting artifacts are now exhibited in the British museum. Personally, they should belong where they were found....

Anyway, let's go for a wonder.....

Lovely chestnut tree in the car park

When we got there, it wasn't busy. Lovely sunshine!

We saw lots of chestnut trees there. Reminded me of Greece and France. It was like chestnut forests! We just walked along the footpath and towards the burial mound.

One huge cool mushroom!

Marcus & smiley Marilyn pausing for the camera

Found this bench made with top of a big boat. View from here was awesome country side with the old house(Tranmer house) standing on the right side. This footpath leads out to field and cows were chilling out. Then we saw.... the mound!

It was quite impressive that they buried their master/king with the whole ship there. Anglo Saxons were there and lived, and died, all happened loooooong time ago, yet still felt like they were there.

Carried on walking, following the footpath leading into the woods, this footpath take you out to public footpath. After walking passed a couple of big houses on the left, along the water, turn right (there's a sign) back to Sutton Hoo. View from the footpath was quite pretty, I thought it was very Suffolk-like. 

Very English!

I thought this was very pretty & quint

Little bit about Sutton Hoo, I took this passage from the National Trust website:
"This hauntingly beautiful 255 acre estate, with far-reaching views over the river Deben, is home to one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of all time.
Walk around the ancient burial mounds and discover the incredible story of the ship burial of an Anglo-Saxon king and his treasured possessions.
Come face to face with your ancestors and explore our award-winning exhibition, the full-size reconstruction of the burial chamber, stunning replica treasures and original finds from one of the mounds, including a prince's sword.
Look inside the Edwardian house or enjoy the beautiful seasonal colours on our estate walks."

Doesn't it sound very romantic?  Anything like this, I love the sensation of being-tickled-my- imagination. It was nicely presented inside the exhibition halls. Here's a few photos what we did:

Outside the exhibition hall

Me pretending as an Anglo Saxon warrior?

It was a fun to go and have a look king's treasure and how he was buried inside the ship, how it was discovered etc, not only kids but adults were having fun too.  I would defo recommend to visit if anyone comes this way. Price includes tour of the property too. I think all in all, it's a good value for money. 

We had our snack outside with my raw nibbles and cuppa, watching kids and adults enjoying some fun games. 

Made me wonder where to go next week....

One of my taichi sword form????

• Address:
  Tranmer House, Sutton Hoo, Woodbridge, IP12 3DJ
• Telephone: 01394 389700
• Email: suttonhoo@nationaltrust.org.uk