Sanuk Canadian

It's been awhile since I've posted about my April trip overseas. The first of eleven posts about Barcelona and cruising onboard the Liberty of the Seas are HERE . Let's continue with Part 12.... By Day 4, the cruise was winding down and would soon be heading back to its home port of Barcelona. The schedule for the evening and following day consisted of cruising at sea, leaving Livorno (Florence & Pisa departure point) just before sunset. That is about as close to heaven as I could get....  I loved this photo so much, I printed it and it sits, framed, in my living room.  Before departing, I got ready ahead of time for the dining room. What do you guys think of my sense of fashion? ^_^ Does Anna Wintour approve? Once seated in the dining room, I snapped a photo of the menu for the evening. I wanted to give readers a sense of what items you can select while dining. Before the cruise, my expectations were similar to that of when traveling on a plane -- fish...

More photos from a weekend beer tasting event continue..... The Belgium Beer Weekend was held in Yokohama's Yamashita Koen in mid May. I visited the park on May 18th and enjoyed live music, people watching and loads of beer (actually, I just looked, since I don't drink alcohol). ^_^ Here are some more photos from that event.... The beer taps. Most beers cost 3 tokens. 10 tokens = ¥3,000 ($30/ 1,000 baht) I can just hear my brother's thoughts: "mmmm.....beeeeerrrr." ^_^ A tent was set up selling brews to take home. Here, the table was loaded with imported beer and microbrews. Average costs were ¥400 ~ 600 per bottle. ($4~6/ 200 baht) While enjoying the live music, two people came by handing out freebies. I got these Frisk packets, as the company was one of the sponsors of this event. Yay for free things! ^_^ After completing our walking tour of the beer festival, we headed over to Motomachi area and turned down a side street. While stolling alo...

Back in mid May, I went to Yokohama to catch another cruise ship docked at the port. My date and I enjoyed viewing one Princess Cruise Line ship, the Sun Princess. The ship! At the docks...I was checking my cell phone for info on the ship's next port of call....^_^ (It was traveling to South Korea) View of the upper decks: We were there to enjoy a send off of the ship before departing on its cruise. Unfortunately, there was an announcement saying they were having some maintenance problems and departure would be delayed by three hours. So....we headed off to another location -- Yamashita Park -- which was hosting a really fun event: The Belgium Beer Weekend! Sponsored by the Belgium Embassy, this festival toured Japan's major cities (Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka etc) promoting Belgium produced brews for everyone to enjoy. I was impressed with the wide variety available. Here are some pics from that event: After payment of ¥3,000 ($30/ 1,000 baht) participants got 10...

We continue this series of posts about a famous festival in Tokyo.....Part one is HERE . Part two is HERE . The Sanja Matsuri began on Friday, with a parade in the streets near Asakusa in Tokyo. As we watched the parade file past, I later moved to the inner shrine of Sensoji, where the route would finish. I managed to get a great spot in front of a walkway, where the parade participants marched past. Here are some photos from the day...please enjoy! The red-wigged man again, close up this time: My personal favorite -- the musicians and dancers:  I also shot a video to give readers a sense of the quiet atmosphere on the first day of this festival. Very simple music, with people marching silently by -- it's a very solemn way to begin the three day festival. From day two onwards, the crowds become loud and jovial. I like this contrast very much. ^_^ The whole day had been quite hot so I rewarded myself with some ramune flavored ice cream. Cost? ¥200 ($2/ 80 baht)....

Photos from a famous Tokyo festival continue... As mentioned yesterday, a meetup group and I enjoyed the opening day parade celebrating the start of the Sanja Matsuri in Asakusa, Tokyo. Here are some more pictures from that event in mid May: A group of men sporting straw hats (I love a man in a hat, so these guys were cool): There was a group of 3 women dressed in these costumes -- this is reflective of other festivals which take place in April, May & November. Several women perform a dance as these birds. (See a photo HERE . Information in Japanese is HERE ) The headpiece looked very heavy! @_@ After the parade, we made our way back to the shrine, and waited an hour in front of a small, traditional stage. While waiting, I watched a crowd gather and spotted this older guy....  He looked ready to hit the Roppongi clubs after! Finally, the performance was ready to begin. Here, some drummers performed music before the dancers entered the stage. Here a...

Back in May, I joined a group on meetup.com to enjoy one of the most famous festivals in Tokyo -- Sanja Matsuri . Matsuri is the Japanese word for "festival". The word Sanja literally means "three shrines"( source ). The festival is held in and around the well known Sensoji shrine, in Asakusa. ( Tokyo Map ) Sanja Matsuri is held over a period of three days; Friday consists of a parade and is less crowded, while Sunday is the main event -- the participation of hundreds in carrying large, ornately adorned portable shrines, called mikoshi . (See pic  - source: Google Images via Blogger). Our group met on the first day of the festival. We enjoyed watching a parade, viewing a dance and listening to traditional music. I took a lot of photos to share. Please enjoy! ^_^ Our group arrived early to explore the shrine of Sensoji: One of two large gates at the shrine. There were lots of food stalls set up selling yakitori  (grilled chicken on skewers), kakigori  ...

I would like to take a break from the Degustacion de Tapas posts to report about several local events. These past two months I've been out exploring several small festivals and snapping photos. Today, I'll focus on a train event held in Kanagawa. The Sotetsu train line, which runs from Yokohama station to Ebina, with another route branching off to Shonandai (beach area), held an event for train affectionados. The event was called: 走るウルトラヒーロ電車 [ lit: Run Ultra Hero Train]; one Sotetsu train was adored with images of Ultraman (a famous children's TV hero) for guests to enjoy. Visitors were allowed to walk on the rail tracks and view the train up close: There were a lot of people stumbling over the rocks.... I also got to see Ultraman and Ultraman 7 up close, strutting their stuff and power posing for the crowd: Ultraman 7 is in blue. Regular Ultraman is to your right. You can see the special Ulraman train in the background.  Hero power! "Thi...