Ueno, Tokyo Museum Quarter

Ueno is a district in Tokyo's Taitō Ward, best known as the home of Ueno Park.

The park was established in 1873 on lands formerly belong to the temple of Kan'ei-ji (the park was founded following the western example as part of the borrowing and assimilation of international practices that characterizes the early Meiji period).

Ueno Park is also celebrated in spring for its cherry blossoms; the park's attractions have drawn over ten million visitors a year, making it Japan's most popular city park.

Tokyo Disneyland

Tokyo Disneyland is a 47 hectare theme park at the Tokyo Disney Resort in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture.

The Tokyo Disneyland main gate is directly adjacent to both Maihama Station and Tokyo Disneyland Station. It was the first Disney park to be built outside the United States, and it opened on 15 April 1983. The park was constructed by WED Enterprises in the same style as Magic Kingdom in Florida and Disneyland in California. It is owned by The Oriental Land Company, which licenses the theme from The Walt Disney Company. Tokyo Disneyland and its companion park, Tokyo DisneySea, are the only Disney parks not wholly or partly owned by the Walt Disney Company (however, Disney has creative control).

The park has seven themed areas: the World Bazaar; the four traditional Disney lands: Adventureland, Westernland, Fantasyland and Tomorrowland; and two mini-lands: Critter Country and Mickey's Toontown. Many of these areas mirror those in the original Disneyland as they are based on American Disney films and fantasies. Fantasyland includes Peter Pan's Flight, Snow White's Scary Adventures, Dumbo the Flying Elephant, based on Disney films and characters.

Asakusa Nakamise, Tokyo

Nakamise is the most famous shopping street in Asakusa. The street runs for 250 meters on the main approach to Sensoji Temple and is lined on both sides with shops selling traditional souvenirs, snacks, and sweets.

This street is actually on temple property and so it starts and ends with a temple gate: at the southern end is the outer gate of Kaminarimon, and at the northern end is the inner gate of Hozomon. Between these two gates are 89 shops, with 54 shops on the east side, and 35 shops on the west. “Nakamise” is a traditional name given to shopping streets on the grounds of temples or shrines, so this is not the only “Nakamise” in Japan, but it is one of the oldest and most famous.

Asakusa’s Nakamise shopping street is believed to have got its start sometime between the late 17th and early 18th centuries when local people in Asakusa were granted permission to open shops on the temple grounds. In return, the new shopkeepers were expected to perform cleaning services and keep the temple precincts nice and tidy. 

Sensoji Temple, Tokyo

Jigen (vision) is when the gods appear in different ways to save the people. Sho-kannon bosatsu appeared in Sensoji Temple in March 18th, year 628.

• The kannon (=deity, deity is a god or goddess in polytheistic religion) 
• Bosatsu (=bodhisattva, bodhisattva in Buddhism is any person who is on the path towards Buddhahood but has not yet attained it) 
• Guanyin (=goddess of mercy, the one who perceives the sounds of the world).

The legend says that in the year 628, two brothers fished a statue of kannon, the goddess of mercy, out of the Sumida River, and even though they put the statue back into the river, it always returned to them.

Sensoji temple was completed in year 645, making it the oldest and most significant temple in Tokyo. The temple is located at the Asakusa area, built to honor deity of Guanyin.

Kon'nichiwa Tokyo!

 

I am so sorry for the silence since my last post, it has been hectic! 

Between work, chores, pottery, and other life stuff; I am planning a trip to visit Tokyo, Japan! I was quiet surprised when a question was thrown at me before I leave for Japan.

"How long is the flight Denpasar Bali to Tokyo Japan? What is the season in June? And if its more than 3 hours flight; why is it that far since it is within South East Asia?"

Surprised and shocked actually!

Please google the map of the world, click preference to image and find a shape of elongated string of islands in Asia by the Pacific Ocean.

Think about it, World War II, the movie Pearl Harbor? Do you have clue already where Japan is?

Yes, yes please note that the world is round and that when you see a flat map, you have to bend it in tubular shape (well rounded, but that'll be tricky).

Anyways, Japan is an island nation located in East Asia (NOT South East Asia). The country occupies a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Korean Peninsula. These islands stretch from the East China Sea in the south to the Sea of Okhotsk in the north.

Mertasari beach

Sanur is a coastal stretch of beach that is located east of Denpasar. Sanur has grown into a little town or a wide village of it's own. The Sanur coastline that is stretched about 5+ kilometer until Mertasari beach was reclaimed in 2008.

Sanur is a fisherman village, thus fishing boats are on display when you walk by the beach...

Berawa Beach Art Festival [BBAF 2019]

On this particular post, I have to copy paste http://www.berawabeachartsfestival.com for information behind the idea of Berawa beach Art Festival 2019. This is the first BBAF and hopefully not the last.

Here goes:

Bali has been widely known for its rich cultural heritage that based on Hindu values, in which art is closely related to religious entities. Art is an inherent part of religious (religious) life, stated that "religion is an art and art is a manifestation of religion (Hinduism) itself.” Bali has strong roots of tradition based on the values ​​of Shivaism (Hinduism), and its culture continues to grow along with the times. These developments indicate the continuity of tradition values, which make Balinese culture have a strong identity; represented in various forms of culture. This identity representation also indicates the existence of a connection between tradition values ​​and present-day culture. This relationship is believed to maintain the culture identity when it is interacting with modernity, this becomes its own strength to be a formulation of Balinese culture resilience.

.... read more and see more picture,

Sunset on board Silolona Sojourns

Rice fields of Bali

There are so many rice fields in Bali, and as far as you can see! And one of them was the UNESCO heritage one called the Jatiluwih that I have already covered in my posts here, here, here or here

These rice fields that I am covering now, is in two different parts of Bali, they are as grant as each.

Potter's Life: hobby and earning extra!

Doing a pottery—is at first—an understanding of what would be the process of the whole scheme to come to a product that is becoming a ceramic piece. For me, learning a process is a way to understand how something can be done and adding knowledge to myself on how something can reach to its final point.

Along the way of learning the whole process; I absorbs the how and what and all the things in between to come to a certain style that I wanted to create for my own personal pleasure. Wipe that dirty mind of yours!  What I wanted to explain is, that I love an irregular shape, one-of-a-kind shape that I created instead of industrial-mass-production items that is out there in the market (I started to like a lot of Japanese ceramics too). This is how "Wonky Pots" was created.

After hoarding my own creations and have no clue of what to do with them; a friend of mine was asking if I wanted to sell them in the artisan market that she regularly joined. It was a whole lot of pieces and a huge pile of ceramic; but I discovered, people love them.

And so... I keep making, because 'makers gonna make!'

And I am earning extra from my hobby! 

White water rafting in Bali

If you are an adventurous person and love the outdoors, white water rafting might be something that you should try in Bali. The activities are located in 3 different rivers, namely Sungai Ayung (Sungai = River), Sungai Telaga Waja and Sungai Melangit. There are about a hundred rafting company. Make sure to join the one that has the longest route! For me personally, I love the Telaga Waja River. However, these pictures are from my latest experience on Ayung River.