Things That Make You Go Oooooo (June 2016)

June has just flown by so quickly and so has my first few weeks of living in Chiang Mai, Thailand. It's been a bit of a crazy month for me and I'm still adjusting to life alone in Thailand but I promise I will share some of my adventures in Thailand soon. Stay strong and enjoy this months links...

♥ 6 Things Positive, Happy People Believe

♥ We Are More Similar Than You Think

♥ How to Handle Homesickness

♥ 10 Foreign Words We Need in English

♥ I Live in a House With 4 Other Women: Here's How We Don't Murder Each Other

♥ Lonely and Drifting: The Flipside Of Being and International Playgirl

♥ Leather Cat Purse DIY

♥ What Happened When I Stopped Thinking I Needed A Boyfriend

♥ How to Work from Home Without Becoming a Total Weirdo

♥ Travel Made Me Better At...

♥ Carry On Blogging (Even When It's Hard)

♥ Do's and Dont's of Voluteering at a Comic Con

♥ 25 Ways to Be Good for Someone Else

♥ Where to Find Inspiration for Blog Posts

♥ 9 Easy Ways To Support Bloggers

♥ Surviving Long Distance Relationships

♥ Life Lessons with Sherlock Holmes & John Watson

♥ 10 Tips For All Expats (New and Not So New!!!)

♥ Cosplay Crafting: How To Make DC Super Hero Girls Poison Ivy Belt & Hair Clip

♥ 12 Things We Should All Do This Summer

Love & Stars

Cate

xoxo

FYeahJapan: Kyoto Arashiyama Hanatouro

We were lucky to be in Kyoto during the time the annual Hanatouro Festival was happening in Arashiyama and although I had seen photos of the bamboo illuminated at night floating about the internet I had no idea that this only happened once a year during the festival so it was pretty good timing for us to be in town during the event.

There are two main areas of illumination for the festival the Togetsu Bridge and the Bamboo Forest, a special pathway illuminated with lanterns will guide you to through the town to each of the attractions (although we still got lost) and the shrines nearby are also open later to celebrate the occasion.

The first night we took a walk through the Bamboo Forest which was very beautiful, we walked quite a distance around it to without even realising and the event was finishing for the night by the time we had emerged from there so we thought we would come back the next night to see the illuminations at the bridge.

This is the mascot for the Togetsu Bridge who we fondly nicknamed Bridge-chan and I think he was my favourite mascot of them all, I wanted so badly to find this mascot that night and at the point where we had given up there he was right by the station, I was so happy! It was definitely worth braving the cold weather to see and the bamboo forest was just amazing I would love to go back and visit Arashiyama in the daylight as I'm sure it's just as beautiful.

What are your favourite festivals?

Love & Tofu

Cate

xoxo

FYeahJapan: Kiyomizu-dera Temple

Kyoto has no end of temples to visit and Kiyomizu-dera is one on the most popular. The day started off quite beautiful that I even treated myself to an ice cream on the walk up to the temple but it got cold and gloomy very quickly but despite the weather the temple was still a very beautiful sight to see.

It still felt like Autumn in Kyoto with the golden leaves on the trees and you could see the whole of Kyoto from the tower in fact you can even see Kyoto Tower if you look carefully in the first photo. We had just visited Kyoto Tower that morning and seen the temple from there so it was kinda cool to get those two views from two places so vastly different and so far apart.

I love being high up in the mountains surrounded by nature although it was hard to get that peaceful vibe with all the visitors that day, it was so cold when we were there I was surprised at just how many people were out, I mean it must be mayhem in the summer and cherry blossom season but it is a really beautiful place to visit and I'm glad we did.

Eventually the cold did get the better of me though and I retreated to somewhere slightly warmer in other words the souvenir shops... but there was a really beautiful Ghibli shop just down the hill fro there which was a pretty great find. Kiyomizu-dera was a very beautiful place, made even more so by the golden leaves on the trees I would definitely recommend a visit there in the Autumn/Winter season but be sure to bring some heat packs as it can get mighty cold up in those mountains.

What are your favourite places to visit in the Autumn?

Love & Ice Cream

Cate

xoxo

Inspirational Quotes #75

 

"What does sustain us, what is fundamentally beautiful, is compassion for yourself and for those around you. That kind of beauty inflames the heart and enchants the soul."

- Lupita Nyong'o

FYeahJapan: Kyoto Tower

The hotel we stayed at in Kyoto was just a short walk away from Kyoto Tower so as it was such a beautiful morning and on the way to the station we thought we would stop by to take in some clear views before heading off to our next point of call.

Kyoto's Tower's mascot is Tawawa Chan and it even has its own shrine in the tower as well as all the merchandise you can think of, I really love Japan's mascot culture and I fell in love with Tawawa Chan in fact I've picked up this annoying habit of calling any tower I see Tawawa now and recently I was talking to someone about places I wanted to visit in London and said London Tawawa... needless to say I got a strange look and my explanation didn't really help, I'm a total dork I know.

The views up the tower are pretty great you can see everything on a clear day and the binoculars were super powerful you can even see Fushimi Inari and Kiyomizu Dera from there and I also hear the view is pretty romantic at night.

Where is the best view of your city?

Love & Mochi

Cate

xoxo

FYeahJapan: Chasing Cats at Fushimi Inari-Taisha

This month I am going to be telling you all about our adventures in Kyoto, unfortunately we only stayed a few days there but it didn't take long for me to absolutely fall in love with the place, I would have happily spent the entire trip there as there was no end of beautiful places to explore and the people were just so friendly and helpful I adored it so much and of course the highlight of my entire trip was definitely our visit to Fushimi Inari-Taisha.

I have seen this place in so many movies and photos that it was just a dream come true to be there and it was so much more beautiful in real life than I ever thought it would be and it started off as a pretty nice day to considering it was the middle of December. I had read several different sources which told me to allow an hour or two to walk up to the top but we spent over 4 hours there and didn't even get halfway up, and as it was starting to get colder and darker we thought it was best go back which ended up being a pretty good decision as we passed some even more beautiful shrines and some adorable cats.

On the way down I also stopped by a small shrine and noticed that you could get fortunes in English which is always a fun thing I like to do when I visit temples so I made my offering and got my fortune which was and I quote "Excellent!" so after that I made my thanks and lit some incense then bought some little charms for myself and my family which got put into little paper bags then "blessed" by the man by striking two sparking stones together above it, so cool!

To end our visit there we stopped in an old fashioned tea house just outside for some matcha and cookies which was very much needed and very delicious after our adventures up the mountain. There are lots of little shops and food stalls leading up to the shrine which I would totally recommend exploring, I ate so much there the food was so good and the shops are just full of adorable things I could have easily spent all my money right then and there.

Hopefully with all the good luck I received there it means I'll be back one day and maybe I'll be able to reach the top without being so distracted by all the beautiful things and cats...

What's the one place you've seen in movies or TV would love to visit in real life?

Love & Foxes

Cate

xoxo