Check out this crazy cool Christmas gift Marco and I received from a relative! Handmade.
If you have diabetes you might want to look away now…
I warned you.
First layer is Bounty and chocolate Santas, but I suggest checking out the lovely decorations on this box as well. A cat and a tree (the maker of this gift has two Ragdoll cats).
Second layer, Knoppers (wafers stacked with hazelnut and milk creme) and MilkyWay. I’m definitely eyeing the Knoppers…
A reindeer on this box.
Third layer is Koetjesreep, of which there is only a Dutch Wikipedia page. It’s a candy bar of Dutch origin, very popular with kids. Technically it has less than 35% cocoa bean inside, so it can’t officially be labeled as chocolate. It is instead labeled as cacaofantasie, or chocolate fantasy, which I find more amusing than I probably should.
The last layer, with various small chocolates inside. There’s a sleigh on this smallest box. The lids are stacked up (mostly) neatly behind.
We have enough chocolate to last us for 2026! Okay, probably not, but enough for the coming period for sure. It was a great gift to receive, too beautiful to tear apart (but someone has to eat the chocolate!).
One last blog post to talk about the awesomeness that was Tokyo (until we get back to Japan again next year!)
I ended my last blog with a picture of Yanaka cemetery. We were actually walking through the cemetery to get from the shopping street Yanaka Ginza to Ueno park. Our goal was to visit the Tokyo National Museum. When we got to the park we noticed there was a food festival going on outside, so we stopped there to have a quick bite to eat. It was great food, including a large piece of flattened chicken. If a random travel group on Facebook is to be believed, it is Taiwanese style chicken like this very random link. We also had very long fries, in the style of raspatat (Dutch Wikipedia link).
The museum was quite nice to walk through, and there was plenty of English to read. But one will stick out to me the most is the awesome cloud cover when we left. It was around 17:15 so everything was starting to get dark as well.
Check out another photo of the clouds, overlooking the park fountain:
The next day, we visited Yokohama, the second largest city after Tokyo, and only about 45 minutes away from Tokyo by train. Admittedly, we stayed around the bay and Chinatown, only doing the touristy things.
The boat on the left was some sort of restaurant or similar, as people kept coming and going. On the right you have the Osanbashi Pier Building, which looks absolutely gorgeous at night. You can walk on the roof and everything – check out the photos on Google Maps. Unfortunately we did not go this time.
Here is another boat in the area, the Nippon Maru. It was previously a training vessel that now serves as a museum.
Behind the ship on the right you can also make out the ferris wheel from the theme park Yokohama Cosmo World.
In the last few days some highlights include visiting Shinjuku Gyoen, a park:
It includes a Japanese-style garden, an English-style garden and a French-style garden. It was a gorgeous day, as you can see in the photo above.
We also visited the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building (see the link for an image of the building). It has two towers, each with a free observation deck. You just have to wait in line for a few minutes to take the elevator up. And of course, it is free but they have a cafe and a great souvenir shop, so they do make some income that way.
Here is a look at Tokyo from one of the many windows. Every view was the same, in that the city stretched as far as the eye could see.
Here’s a look at some of the souvenirs we purchased (although maybe not everything is there). For instance, I bought my two textbooks for my next Japanese class at the Japanese bookstore Kinokuniya, just to say I could…
From left to right:
the drawing of the guy is from the anime Death Note which Marco and I are currently watching on Netflix
a dog holding a cup of matcha tea – so cute!
ablue penguin, the mascot of Don Quijote, a discount store
in front of the penguin you have a see-through stand from the Pensta store (on that is the Suica card‘s penguin mascot)
in front of that you have a Suica chocolates box. It’s also the perfect size to hold Suica cards when not in use…
To the right of that you have a few items Marc purchased from the Tokyo National Museum
In front of them you have a blue Shinkansen train – my first gashapon purchase
to the right of that you have another see through souvenir (the one on the blue string) from the Pensta store
In the far back you have a black and yellow journal (with the sort of butterfly motif)
In front of that you have a porcelain cat, purchased at the government building
Next to that you have a fox, dog and a purple and blue gummy bear, all gashapons
thanks to Roger for financing my third gashapon attempt for gummy bear, as the first two weren’t a color I liked as much (yellow)
behind the gummy bear is a box, a small do-it-yourself My Neighbor Totoro paper decoration
lying flat in front is a souvenir from the Atago Shrine (with the stairs to success)
And finally, two of the four earring sets I purchased:
The top blue ones are little blue folding fans. I found them at the government building – it was a nice place to get souvenirs and I loved wearing them to work.
Below those were some spectacular earrings from Ayano Fukumura in Yokohama. They create unique jewelry based on art pieces and similar. The earrings I purchased were inspired by Monet’s “Woman with a Parasol”. Unbelievably gorgeous…! The photo above does not do them enough justice.
I also got to practice a bit of basic Japanese, asking if it was okay to take a few pictures. After that, I definitely needed to walk away before I broke the bank!
I have almost forgotten how warm Tokyo was, after a particularly windy day today (17C/60F with wind gusts up to 80kph/43mph). Though there was only one moment walking home where I felt I was walking backwards rather than forwards due to the wind.
Here are some more photos from the recent Tokyo trip. First off, the night we did the Sumida river walk. It was definitely one of the highlights for me. It was pretty, the weather was a bit cooler, etc.
You can watch a six minute time lapse of the area turning from day to night on YouTube. Before we walked along the river (and crossed over it), we went to the Asahi beer hall for dinner. In the photo above, that is the building on the left with the yellow “ball”. If you watch the linked video, it’s the black building with the flame/torch on top. (Yes, I know, it looks like something else.) The taller building to the left in the video is the Asahi headquarters. The beer and food was good there, but it was easily beaten by Yona Yona Beer Works in Shinjuku, which I will probably share photos of in a later post.
After the river walk, we walked to Senso-ji temple. Marco and Roger have of course been there before but never at night. It was gorgeous.
All of the stores that lead up to the temple were closed because we visited at night, but that was fine. It was nice to walk around when it was quieter. Unfortunately that did mean Roger and Marco did not get their melon pan ice cream this trip (Google Maps link to Asakusa Kagetu) because the store is only open during the day.
The next day we visited Atago shrine which is well known for its “stairs to success”.
Respect to the couple who went up the middle of the stairs, not by the railing. However, Marco explained that the edges of the stairs were quite worn down since everyone went there, so the middle was actually the easier. Marco and Roger previously went up these steps in January, but this time we were smart and took the elevator up and down to get to the shrine at the top. (Shoutout to the Japanese couple who saw us when we were at the top, peering over the edge. They warned us in their best English that there was an elevator we could use instead.)
Marco, Roger and I just got back from a vacation in Tokyo. The trip was about 11 days long. It was my first time, while Marco and Roger have visited Japan a few times already.
We had some good fun, we saw som good sights, and we baked in the sun like it was an easy bake oven. It was quite warm – all of the days we were there were 34-36C (94-96F), except for one which was a maximum of 32C (92F). I knew the summer would be warm, but not this warm with the humidity. But we chose the dates because they were the best deal, knowing that summer would be warm.
Anyway, here are some random photos. First off, we have a cleaning robot in Family Mart, one of the convenience store chains in Japan. It was like a roomba at the bottom with a bucket of merchandise placed on top and a tablet to show off its cute “face”. It really was cute and I think all of us said “Awww….” when we saw it.
The store is also well-known for the melody that plays when you step into the store. You can listen to the 7 second melody on YouTube. It reminds me of an old Nintendo game. I didn’t get into purchasing random ice cream as much as Marco and Roger did, but I did really enjoy purchasing some cold tea. My favorite was Oi Ocha’s dark green tea, although I don’t remember the version I had having added vitamin C. But there was definitely something nice about just jumping into any convenience store (of which there is one on every corner in Tokyo) and getting a bottle.
Then we have one of the two large trees by the Meiji shrine (the shrine is to the right of the right, at the top of the small set of steps):
The tree was impressive — especially with how well it was manicured.
As you can see, a lot of people had UV umbrellas for the sun (myself included, although I mostly used it in open spaces and not crowded streets like this). The street itself was small, but Roger was able to score a few gashapon items here.
Before we left Harajuko we also went to Harakado, a new building which opened up in Tokyo last year. Here’s a look at Harakado at Japan-guide.com – it is quite an impressive building. The name is also a bit of a pun since “kado” means corner, and it sits at the corner of the intersection.
Here is a photo taken from Harakado of the building on the other side of the intersection, diagonally:
Also, since I somehow haven’t posted a picture of food yet, here is one of the ramen dishes I had:
It was at a ramen restaurant (Mensouge 6 Gyoenten) in Shinjuku. This was tsukumen ramen, where the noodles are dipped into the broth separately. Interestingly we ended up having ramen three times in two days – I believe it was lunch, dinner and dinner, maybe? Roger was happy with the last one, when we went to Tokyo Station and set our sights on finding the ramen hall in Tokyo Station. We had lunch at one of the restaurants (I believe it was Oreshiki Jun) and Roger ordered teriyaki chashu. He was thrilled with his choice and let Marco and I try a bit of it.
I’ll try to post a few more pictures later in the week.
“Itadakimasu” (いただきます) is said before eating, meaning “I humbly receive” or “I gratefully partake”. It’s a way of expressing gratitude for the meal, acknowledging everyone involved in its preparation, from the ingredients to the cooks.
Last month I visited my parents in the US. I had a blast of a time and really enjoyed visiting my old childhood town as well.
One of the places I came across while on my travels was a pickleball court. That sport is getting more and more popular. Don’t ask me how it is played though – I will just point you to the Wikipedia page (English|Dutch). But the court did have some very, very gorgeous graffiti in the area.
My apologies for the lack of posting over here. Marco and I just got back from a trip to NYC. We met up with a lot of family members (my parents, brother, sister-in-law and their kids) for some fun in the sun. And a bit of rain…
Without further ado, here are some random pictures we took:
First off, here is the view from our hotel room at night (!!). Best view from a hotel room ever.
The Vessel at Hudson Yards. Lots and lots of stairs in this piece of art/architecture, although it isn’t open to climb at the moment. Read more at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vessel_(structure)
Last week Marco and I traveled to Amsterdam to see my sister-in-law, who was in town for work. One of the activities we did was a canal tour by boat:
A random bridge along the way. The weather was great, as you can see. Blue skies and lots and lots of sun. I of course forgot to bring sunscreen but hey, what can you do (except be smarter next time). We also had lovely weather this weekend, although today’s weather definitely colder with a hint of rain here and there.
And one of the random house boats we saw along the way. It’s definitely not my thing to live on one of those, but to each their own. The flowers were a nice touch.
Speaking of flowers: a lovely, flower covered bike. It definitely demands your attention.
And finally, a bowl of yoghurt for me and a small plate of poffertjes (Dutch mini pancakes) for my sister-in-law. This was a restaurant very much themed towards tourists – I think there were about 15 orange clogs hanging from the wall. (Both pages link to English Wikipedia.)
Marco and I just celebrated my birthday with a small cozy session of gourmetten for dinner. (Small meats and veggies cooked on a mini grill at the table, see other posts about this topic.) Next year will be the big 4-0, but this year I will happily settle for the slightly smaller 3-9.
Here is a look at the birthday card and present my father-in-law and his wife made for me!
The joke present is on the left. Can you guess what it means if you don’t speak Dutch? I will give you a hint. “Leeftijd = age”.
No? It basically means, in less polite terms, “who gives a crap about your age”. Hence the emoji and toilet roll, haha. The card is on the right. As usual, another beautiful handmade card from them.
Marco and I recently returned from the United States, visiting my parents (whom I hadn’t seen in three years – stupid pandemic!). It was a great trip, just like old times. We were definitely limited in what we could do thanks to the pandemic, but there were face masks and hand sanitizer everywhere. I was presently surprised to see how many people were wearing face masks compared to the Netherlands. It was definitely night and day. My poor hands are in need of some TLC and location after using all of that hand sanitizer (which we also have at all Dutch stores, but since my main outingias just going to the grocery store and back I don’t need to use it as much).
It definitely wasn’t easy to get into the US; there were a lot of hoops to jump through and many forms to fill out. I could get in as a US citizen however Marco only got in because we were married. Thanks to a warning from a colleague we did bring out marriage certificate, and it did get asked for. We got tested to enter the US and tested to get back into the Netherlands. It is debatable whether we needed that second test as the rules changed while we were there, but since the airline asked for it to be uploaded it was definitely a case of ‘better safe than sorry’. There were health forms and test result printouts and quarantine declarations for the Netherlands and more. You don’t have to quarantine if you are vaccinated, but you still need to fill out the form saying you are not quarantining because you are vaccinated. I had a whole folder full of papers to show…
I didn’t sleep much on the way there or the way back, but that was to be expected. Ironically we booked premium plus tickets on United Airlines to make sure we didn’t have anyone directly next to us, but most of Economy Plus and Economy were empty so it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. When I went to the bathroom I saw a lot of people in Economy stretched out on 3 or 4 seats trying to sleep. We didn’t have too much jetlag after landing in the US – the flight arriving at 18:00 probably helped as we only had to stay awake a few hours. I also have to give some credit to the shower at the hotel as the water pressure was wonderful.
Here are a few photos. I didn’t take many as it just wasn’t that kind of trip.
Iron Man statue outside of a Gamestop store
Amenities at our airplane seats (the Saks Fifth Avenue pillow was indeed soft)
Statue at the food court in O’Hare airport on the way back
Almost back to Schiphol… with light rain clouds above the North Sea
Unfortunately it was quite a bumpy flight back to the Netherlands, at least in the first half while we were still over land. It was raining all day where we were, with a bit of lightning at O’Hare on top of that. It was fine in the end, but there were times the flight attendants had to buckle in (including them pausing the meal service for a while). But we got back in one piece. We slept in a bit this morning but I think we are all good to go now!
Life in the Hague 