Sides of Me: Tokikunike + Wajima

Day 7.

I remember this day well cause we spent at least 8hrs++ of our day in the tour bus. This is because we're heading off to Wajima - u can say it's a small island CONNECTED to Japan in the middle of the Japan ocean. U'll understand what I meant by checking out the Japan map!

Anyway, we managed to arrived in Wajima in time (3hrs drive).

This is the COLDEST place we've been to for this trip - it was so damn windy and worst of all, it was raining a bit during the time of our visit!

I was freezing!!!!
At first, we thought we've arrived at a dead-man town cause there wasn't much ppl around and most of the shops were all closed! We were all cracking our heads thinking, "why the heck did we travelled so damn far to see a dead-man town?"

The view was nice (yea.. of course..)

Now, THESE are the reason why we travelled all this way for!!

The town is known within Japan for its lacquerware, called Wajima-nuri - mixing a finely powdered mineral, jinoko, with the lacquer in the early stages of production.

Jinoko adds extra durability to Wajima-nuri items - the rougher, earlier layers are then coated with more layers of finer lacquer, which is then polished to a lustrous shine, and often decorated with designs made of gold and other precious materials. The lacquer tree was once abundant in the area, but is now scarce and most of the lacquer used is imported from China.

yupe... traveled allllll the way here for THAT!!! ;o(

*a few pics taken at the place*

Time for lunchieeee~~

Okonomi-yaki
this is almost like the "roti canai" in our country but the only difference is that they mix all sorts of stuff in canai.. eeeeeuuuuuuu... my least favourite food in Japan!!! luckily the shop wasn't open for business that day ;oP

Thank God lastly the majority decides to go for Japan curry instead.

CURRY = my favourite!! don't know how does Japan curry tastes like but I was really looking forward to try it cause the smell is so damn irresistable!!

LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT + TASTE!!!

Japan curry is now definitely in the top list of "my favourite food" in the world!!

The rest of the gang didn't liked it much but I was totally into it~ shud give it a try if ur in Japan!! HIGHLY RECOMMANDED!!

After finishing our GREAT lunch, off we head to another spot!!~

While we were on our way to the next destination, we stopped by a beautiful spot where we get to see the Japan sea and also a spectacular view ;o)

Who said u can't tanam padi beside the salted sea water?? Japanese proved u wrong!

Told ya it had a spectacular view~~

It was freezing cold out there but I insisted to take the picture without my jacket on!! haha.. trying to maintain my not-so-cold face was pretty hard but guess I managed to pull it off ;oP

That's the name of the place ;oP

I don't really read chinese so sorry, cannot translate.

Japan Sea

Finally!! After few times visiting Japan.. finally I get to have a look at the Japan sea!!

The wind is almost like a tornado!! My dads' hand was freezing (no glove) when he took pictures here and we were like ice-cold!! but we all know, sacrifices has to be made in order to have a great shot ;oP lol~

Me and mom trying to sit still for the camera.. but FAILED!!

beaten by the strong wind.. sigh..

a decent photo! FINALLY after hundreds of shots!!

*
*

After having those crazy photoshoots.. we finally reached our next destination,

TOKIKUNIKE

This is the house of the family ancestors of Taira Dainagon Tokitada.
Well, not actually THE house - they rebuilt it after finding it was a bit worn out. The 21st head of the family had this new house built by a local carpenter named Yasuko in the early year of the nineteeth century.

ok ok.. beli tiket dulu..

den it's off we go to check out the BIG BIG house.. if only i have one of these ;oP

*The Garden*
Japanese sure knows how to come up with an outstanding landscape ;o)

The work of building this house took no less than 28 years and some of the fixtures-doors and transoms in the old house were transfered to this new house.

The present head of the family is the 24th.

give up! totally forgot wat room is this liao..

It's either Kami-hiro-ma (waiting room) or it's the Gozen-no-ma (Lord's room) - I'll probably go for the 1st choice ;oP

*The bathroom*
The tub has no fireplace in it. Water is heated elsewhere and carried here in pails. A large piece of cloth is put into the tub to prevent direct contact of the body with it.

The items displayed in one of the room for ur view.

This should be the kitchen..

see the REAL kitchen behind my back? that's for the ppl working/ living in here ;o)

* The palanquin*
This is wat the head of the family uses to traveled. The present Mr. Tokikuni is the first one who has not used it.

*Random pics taken inside the mansion*

I dunno why but the souvenirs sold there are mostly dolls with a devilish face. Maybe it's something like their custom or tradision or something.. but it sure looks scary to me...

That was all for that day, we only actually seen 2 places. Spent most of the time in the bus.. it was even more tiring than walking around here and there ;o(

jeng jeng.. finally we're back in the hotel!

Another new hotel. We moved around from hotel to hotel for almost a few days liao by now. When we get back to Osaka, we're staying put in Swissotel for 4 nights.. Thank God!!