People say that it’s better to learn french if you’re planning to live in France. This girl says you only need 1 word. And I totally agree.
The power of this word is boundless.
Although with great power comes great responsibility. So like she said, if you use it too much, it’s power will go away…and maybe you’ll indeed need to learn real french.
Tags: France, French language
It has been one of those roller coaster weeks. Emotions all over the place like you wouldn’t believe. There were happy days, scary days, days full of uncertainty, sad days then happy days again. It was crazy I tell ya.
But with all the changes that happened last week, there was 1 thing that was constant. I am so lucky to have a husband who doesn’t freak out the moment I do. He keeps me grounded, he keeps me sane. And for that I am extremely grateful. He even did the dishes more than 2x this week.
This afternoon, out of the blue, I texted him telling him I miss him. Mushy I know but sometimes a relationship needs mush. And I got the cutest reply ever.
He sent a photo of himself at work. It was so cute it beat my mushy text 10 to 8.
I wuv my husband. He always knows how to make me smile. (And how to make me angry too, but that’s another story).
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Tags: mush
I got you! Yesterday while making ligid-ligid (you’ll only get this if you’re Ilonggo) on a Sunday afternoon, I caught the husband reading my blog. Yes you!
I know he reads my blog sometimes but it just felt weird with him reading it beside me like I wasn’t there. Then he asks me what sneaky meant referring to the Cambridge Satchel post. Mwahahahaha. For a while there I wanted to tell him it’s some mean word that means something evil. But I couldn’t help it, he worked his sad innocent puppy dog eyes on me and I had to tell him what it really meant and he was all happy.
But now I know how he became such a sneaky sneaky sneak. I overheard him telling a friend that whenever I mention something I like, he writes it down on his phone. Then if I mention it again and again then he knows that it’s something I really like. And thus he has a list of gifts or things to buy for me whenever there’s a big occasion.
Sneaky sneaky sneak sneak. I tell ya.
But now I know his style, I think I’ll mess it up a bit. Just to see if he’s paying attention. <insert evil laugh here>.
…you find yourself buying semi-useless stuff for the house more than you buy stuff for yourself.
And you happily spend the night bickering with your husband on how to assemble it and how you cannot believe that it took 2 people to assemble such a simple thing.
Then you happily do the dishes and proudly dry them on your new drying rack.
Then you realize how much you need a life and schedule a drinking session with your buddies the next day to remind you that you are still young and carefree (sometimes).
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One of the challenges when traveling to Japan is looking for good but not too expensive hotels. The choices on the Lonely Planet were so-so (and a bit expensive) so I had to google for Kyoto guesthouses. Guesthouses are usually old Japanese houses that they have converted to some sort of bed and breakfast minus the breakfast. Or you can also say it’s a more adult version of a hostel.
I stumbled upon Uronza’s website one day and decided there and then that this is were we are going to stay in Kyoto. We were going to spend our nights in a Kyo-machiya.
From Uronza’s website:
A Kyo-machiya is a traditional Kyoto-style house in which ordinary Kyoto people live. It has several typical elements such as Koshido (a wooden lattice), and Mushikomado (a windows in the shape of an insect cage). The characteristic layout of such houses, long and narrow, is called unagi no nedoko (eel’s bed). All machiyas were built with traditional construction methods.
Entering a Kyo-machiya, most people feel a sort of nostalgia, the feeling we usually have about the dear old home. Your eye will be caught by the Doma, a long interior passage connecting the street and the inner part of the house. And, after walking one more pace, you will step into the Hibukuro (it’s more than seven meters…about 25ft. high.), a stairwell conveying an inexpressible feeling of openness.
The walls are made of real wood and earth, not plywood or mortar. Partitions such as sliding doors, called shoji and fusuma in Japanese, and folding screens (byobu) create flexible, multi-purpose spaces.
It doesn’t matter if you visit a Kyo-machiya for the first time or have visited many times before, it has always the atmosphere that will make you feel hokkori (a word, used in the Kyoto area, meaning ‘to rest’, ‘to relax’, ‘warm’).
That’s the small garden in the middle of the kyo-machiya.
The set-up is just like a house. So the facilities are shared. But we don’t mind. The place was super clean. They close between noon and 4pm to clean up the place. The toilets are awesome.
The seat is heated, there’s a remote, there’s a toilet seat cleaner and the sink is on top of the toilet’s water reservoir. Very green thinking. You flush using “used” water. Great water saving technique.
This is our first room. It’s at the back of the house just after crossing the garden. We were a bit apprehensive about making our own futons. But the owner showed us how to do it and it was easy peasy.
Taadaa…
There’s no breakfast but there is free tea and coffee. There’s also free internet. The owners also do a tea ceremony every Wednesday night in the living room.
After 2 nights in Uronza, we spent a few days in the Hida region. Then we went back to Kyoto and stayed here again. But this time we were in a different room. It was bigger and was on the main part of the house, just on top of the living area.
We were just across from our old room. Does the circle window look familiar?
The decorations in the room were sparse but impressive. Not bad for only 2500 Yen per person per night. I read somewhere that you shouldn’t put your bags in these alcoves because they serve as decoration pieces. So our bags were strewn all over the place.
The place is a bit far from Gion and the Kyoto station but it’s just a few blocks away from the Nijo-jo and the shopping streets. So from the station you might want to take a bus to the hotel but once you’re there you can just walk around Kyoto and drink in the sights.
I would highly recommend this place for those planning to visit Kyoto. Especially if you are on a budget.
More info on the prices and on how to get there at the Uronza website.
One of the challenges when traveling to Japan is looking for good but not too expensive hotels. The choices on the Lonely Planet were so-so (and a bit expensive) so I had to google for Kyoto guesthouses. Guesthouses are usually old Japanese houses that they have converted to some sort of bed and breakfast minus [...]
*Warning: Photo-heavy post. “I can’t believe we’re really here” was my first thought when we arrived at the Kansai International Airport (KIX). I was half expecting manga characters coming to greet us Youkoso! right off the plane. But no, it was like a normal airport. Immigration was a breeze, no nasty questions. They took our [...]
Ridiculously easy and yummy, these pretzels are ideal for an afternoon snack with some coffee or tea. The ingredients can easily be found in the pantry and rising time is only 1 hour.
For those of you following the news, maybe you would have heard of the EColi outbreak in Europe.
News flash! The bacteria has been found, not in Germany but in France. In our pantry to be exact. Okay, I’m kidding. But there still is (or maybe I should say was) something scary in our pantry. Yes, EColi level scary.
A few of my favorite things from the gift shop of the Musee de Quai Branly. Some handicrafts from Africa and a few interesting books.
