Nothing quite says Kyoto better than the city’s famed Japanese rock gardens. Often referred to as Zen gardens, the rock gardens offer a scaled down version of a landscape, through carefully composed arrangements of rocks, water features, moss, pruned trees…
After our short sojourn to Kyoto for a temple market, we are back in Nara for a few more days. Most people whizz in and out of Nara, but we are very happy to have a full five days here…
Toji Temple ~ normally looks like this… serene and peaceful. But today, it looks like THIS…. It’s Temple Market day at Toji Temple in Kyoto, and we travel here by train from Nara for an hour and half. Temple markets…
A sacred deer’s tongue is suprisingly soft. Softer than that of a cow and definitely than that of a cat. A deer slowly and gently licks my hand on our first day in Nara. We are off to a good…
One of the highlights of living in the house we are renting is the close proximity to Ba Le market. Ba Le market is a small yet dense and bustling, (non tourist) market just minutes away. Every morning, starting before…
Rice is critical to Vietnam. It is critical as a food supply and as a source of innumerable rice-based culinary dishes. Flat crispy rice crackers, rice wrapping paper, crispy rice croutons, flat soft rice sheets, rice noodles of all types,…
We had a FANTASTIC visit to Hoi An’s Precious Heritage Museum, which opened 2 years ago. The founder and creative light behind this brilliant photography and ethnic fashion museum is a remarkable photographer with an eye for the beauty of…
There is much to love about my girlfriend. I could be politically correct and say that it is her effervescent personality, her flexibility in terms of living a nomadic lifestyle, her often unexpected quirky sense of humor or her physical…