Sanuk Canadian

Each summer, two stars, represented in an old Chinese story as the weaver girl and the shepherd, come together in the night sky after a year apart. In Japan, the meeting of these two stars on July 7th is known as Tanabata, which literally translates to "evening of the seventh". It is celebrated mainly by young children, who write their wishes on colored papers, tying these to the branches of a bamboo tree. It's believed your wish will come true due to the meeting of these two distant stars. I visited the second largest Tanabata festival in Japan (the largest is in Sendai , from August 6~8), which takes place right in my home prefecture of Kanagawa. The host city is the working class town of Hiratsuka 「平塚」. Below are photos from the event. Please enjoy! Food is a necessity at these festivals. Shops open outside stalls and try to lure customers with delicious smells. Being a Canadian, I simply cannot resist any donut. Below, were unique "donut sticks" calle...

After several days in Spain and a 6 day cruise in the Western Mediterranean, the final day of our tapas taste of Europe has arrived....The first post in this series is HERE .  As mentioned in the previous post, we disembarked from the Liberty of the Seas by 9 am. The Port Bus dropped us off at Columbus Monument. From there, my friend and I walked up La Rambla  to visit the market again. My friend snapped these photos of the fish mongers and fruit stands: At this fish monger's stand, we watched a Russian mother pay for two oysters. They were shucked and prepared with lemon by the shop staff. The mother's son (with some prodding) gulped down the raw, fresh oyster. His reaction? "Good" and he gave the shop owners a thumbs up. ^_^ My friend and I commented that the mother was pretty cool, for I have never seen a mother introduce oysters on holiday before.  The corner of one fruit stand.... ...and the view around the other corner: Unfortunately, ou...

This post marks the final day of a cruise from Barcelona to France and Italy aboard Royal Caribbean's the Liberty of the Seas . The first day of the cruise is HERE .  In the evening my friend and I enjoyed our final dining experience onboard.  I took the waiter's recommendation and ordered the chef's special for the evening -- slow roasted lamb! While eating, the only thing that crossed my mind was: I could never afford this food in Japan!! (laugh) Before the sweet succulent meat arrived, I gorged on an appetizer. Guess what it was? Tapas!!! Hurray!!! ^_^/  Dessert was raspberry mousse. The only reason I ordered it? For the raspberries. This tiny fruit is next to impossible to find in Japan: The next morning, disembarkation began at 6 in the morning. My friend and I stayed onboard until about 9 am, carrying our luggage off with us, thus avoiding an earlier departure. Sayonara Liberty and thanks for the great memories!  In the foreground of the ...

Photos and comments from a cruise aboard Royal Caribbean's The Liberty of the Seas in the Western Mediterranean continue...Cruise posts start HERE .  Day 5 of the cruise was at sea, slowly returning back to our home port of Barcelona. As the ship sailed east, I enjoyed the morning by touring the ship to take lots of memento photos. As seen yesterday , the upper, outside decks were full of adventure, sports and water. For this post, I'll show are some of the highlights and features of the interior of the ship. On Deck 11, there is a semi-interior walkway called the Solarium . It has windows running the full length of the walkway, and is meant to be a way to walk between pools, in the shade. The Solarium space had comfortable wooden swinging lounges (below): Also inside the Solarium was a soft ice cream machine, which dispensed vanilla and chocolate cones -- for free!  Decks 10 to 6 hosted the majority of the ship's rooms, configured in an interior/outside/ ba...

Tapas tasting continues...Part one of this series is HERE . To view the others, just change "part-1.hmtl" to "part-2.html, etc.. at the end of the website address.  The last full day of our cruise was spent at sea, leaving me with plenty of time to fully explore the ship.  While my friend went to the gym, I enjoyed snapping photos of the unique features onboard. So, without further ado... (cue the Broadway music ) Preeeeesenting.....one of the greatest ships in the world...completely renovated in 2011...ranked 7th for best overall cruise on Cruise Critic.com.....it's.... ......the Liberty of the Seas! (cue fireworks ) with your host: cutenekko -^_^- meow! Let's start with the upper decks --- on deck 13, it's the amazing surfing simulator, Flowrider! (cue Beach Boys music )  Unfortunately, I didn't try it because the despite the sunshine, the weather was a bit chilly. ....also on Deck 13 was the Liberty Dunes -- a mini golf course...