At The Station : Yufuin

Yufuin Station is a wooden terminal that also has a tourist information office and a small art gallery. A bit (just a little bit) of ENglish spoken there but you can ask for directions in English. There's a foot-bath somewhere but we didn't stop and try it. We were more excited about getting to our cottage and soak in a tub instead!

A deserted station in the evening. It was about 8.00pm when this photo were taken. We were out scrounging for food!

Yufuin Station doesn't have a ticket gate. As with a few other train stations in Japan, train staff would only stand on the platform when trains are arriving and departing to check for tickets. Train buffs can purchase platform tickets to check out the Yufuin no mori trains.

We had tickets reserved days earlier for our return trip to Hakata but as the day was so unconducive for sight-seeing - it being a rainy day and all, we decided to head to Hakata a few hours earlier. Zaini was checking out the time-table before getting our new tickets. No extra charge with JR Pass!

While waiting for the departure time of the Yufuin no mori, passengers had a ball of time taking photos on the platform, ourselves included.

I'll move on and post on a different city/island after this post. ^^

My Kitchen Workspace & Small Appliances

As with most folks one of the most important rooms for me when buying this house was the kitchen.  This is my corner for food prep.  The stove is to the left, sink to the right and refrig straight behind me.

Starting at the stove - Utensils in stainless canisters; salt & pepper in little dishes; onions & shallots under shelf.

Rounding the corner - Measuring cups & spoons hanging; bottles of vegetable & olive oil; cup with smaller utensils.

Hand made cutting board with a plastic place mat to prevent slipping; small appliances behind it

L to R - All electric - Juicer with 2 sizes; Salad Shooter for grating cheese, making bread crumbs, grinding meat for croquettes etc.; Stick / immersion blender and electric water kettle.

Cutting board behind was my grandmothers - over 100 years old; mini food processor for nuts and a whole head of garlic; knife block.

Living behind the knife block is the box grater and the scraper to help with kneading yeast bread or moving chopped things from the cutting board.

And to the left of the sink and partly under the window are the canisters with the clear one storing browned flour for red chile and gravy.

I really like to cook and try new things.  With everything so handy in this work space daily chores become delightful.

All About Toilets

We interrupt the current series of Yufuin posts and present you with another Japan convenience that we love; apart from vending machines, trains and stuff...

Some people take photos of food that they enjoy. Nowadays, taking photos before a meal is absolutely normal.

But there are also people who can be quite OCD about the toilet experiences they had while on vacation. I've posted about toilets in Japan before. Search them, if you are interested. But with such interesting arrays of hi-tech toilets in Japan, can you really blame me?

Toilets in trains are particularly interesting.

A really nice toilet on the Yufuin no mori train, a resort express with top speed of 120km/h plying the route from Hakata to Beppu.

A green walled toilet on the Huis Ten Bosch limited express train that runs from Hakata to Huis Ten Bosch theme park. Quite spacious for a toilet on a train, don't you think?

This - stainless steel, very sterile looking squat toilet on a particularly swaying trip on a JR Shikoku 2000 series, Anpanman painted Shiokaze train from Okayama to Matsuyama.

Found another squat toilet on train, a very bright lime green squat toilet on the Resort Shirakami train. Go on, search it. It's somewhere in this blog. ;p

Train station toilets:

Theme parks toilets:

At Huis Ten Bosch

Then of course the hotel toilets.

I think I got a few malls' toilets photos stashed away somewhere too. Lemme go and look. ^^

A Small Lake At The Edge Of Town

Lake Kinrinko is a natural landmark in Yufuin other than Mount Yufu. Lake Kinrinko means "Golden scale Lake" or "shining scales of fish in the setting sun". I believe kin = gold. Rin = scales (of carp?). Ko = lake. Right?

Legend has it that there's a dragon that causes hot spring water to gush out from the lake.

Visiting the lake in the early morning allowed us to see the lake covered with milky white morning mist, caused by the half-cold, half-warm water of the lake.

Visit it in the evening and one can expect the Lake living up to its "golden scale" name.

The floating torii at Tenso Shrine that I blogged about, earlier.

Now, whose out enjoying their morning bath at the warm lake? ^^ Their peaceful morning bath ritual was interrupted by the visitors soon after.

After spending about an hour enjoying a quiet stroll by the lake, we had to made our retreat when tour groups came to the lake in droves. Zaini back to our cottage and me, a quick run around the neighbourhood.

OLA: Rediscovering Virginia

the only president the Confederacy ever had, Jefefrson Davis,
at the Davis Circle in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia

In 2008 and 2010 we made short trips to Virginia; the latter one with our current RV, M’A ‘turn. We thought we had covered the state well. This 2012 trip was supposed to be just a stop for our observance of Holy Week on our way to Nova Scotia for summer. Our Visita Iglesia (visit of churches during Lent) in Richmond, Gloucester, and Williamsburg was spiritually satisfying but this visit surprised us with historic sites we did not even know were there!

the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, Richmond, Virginia

Our 2012 Virginia Visita Iglesia

The capital of Virginia is Richmond, an hour away from our campground, Thousand Trail’s Chesapeake Bay. So on Maundy Thursday, we went to the Sacred Heart Cathedral, the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Richmond. It was begun in 1903, completed in 1905, and consecrated in 1906. It is now on the National Register of Historic Places. What a beautiful place of worship and rest at the center of this metropolis of 1.2M!

Church of St. Therese, Gloucester, Va

On Good Friday we visited the Church of St. Therese in Gloucester about twenty minutes from the Chesapeake Bay resort: population, 35,000. What a very charming place for parishioners to gather for bingo, a dance, a dinner fund-raiser, etc! Though very charming, the chapel was quite small so we decided to celebrate Easter Mass in Williamsburg, 45 minutes away, at the chapel of the College of William and Mary, the second oldest educational institution of higher education (1693) in the US  (Harvard is the oldest, 1636). The University of Santo Tomas in the Philippines was founded in 1611!

inside St. Bede Catholic Church, Williamsburg, Va

The Chapel, constructed for the college community in 1932, is now called the St. Bede Catholic Church.  In early Georgian in design, the chapel’s brick was handmade from local clay according to 18th century methods.  The memorial pathway, to the left of the main entrance, is lined with marker stones from different states and foreign countries. The mass was celebrated at the Parish Center (too many parishioners attended) but the chapel is extra beautiful with its spring flowers blooming!

   

The White House of the Confederacy

The Seat of Confederate Governance and Education

But, as usual, we hustled around to see some historic sights after visiting each church. Richmond, after all was the seat of the Confederacy. So it shouldn’t have been a surprise to find the White House of the Confederacy, the main building in the Museum of the Confederacy. It was a house loaned to President of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis for four years, 1861 to 1865 when the Civil War was raging, so he could govern the confederacy better. What an educational discovery…how truly deep the division of America was during the Civil War.

  

Presidnt James Monroe's tomb at the Presidents' Circle
Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Va

Memorial to the Confederacy, Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond Va

Nearby is Hollywood Cemetery, named after the holly bushes that dotted the property. Overlooking the James River, it is the resting place of two United States Presidents, James Monroe and John Tyler, as well as the only Confederate States President, Jefferson Davis. It is also the resting place of 25 Confederate generals and 18,000 soldiers, more than any other cemetery in the country. So, 20 years after it opened, a 90-foot granite pyramid was built as the Confederates’ memorial in 1869. What an intriguing discovery…the pride of the confederacy even if it lost!

President John Tyler's tomb at the Presidents'A Circle
Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Va

The College of Willliam and Mary, founded 1693

The College of William & Mary (current student population, 8,000) educated U.S. Presidents Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, and John Tyler as well as U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall, Speaker of the House Henry Clay, and 16 signers of the Declaration of Independence. The Wren Building is the oldest college building in the United States. Its Wren Chapel can be used exclusively for functions of members. What an interesting discovery…this community of scholars in such a historic and pretty campus!

Wren Buiilding, College of William and Mary
Williamsburg, Va

Six discoveries, three churches and three historic sites in three Virginia cities, make us ponder: ‘Should we spend more time in each place to make such discoveries or try to cover as many different places as possible given that we are already sexygenarians?’ We should have started the cruising lifestyle earlier! We are just glad that more than tourists, we can also be pilgrims!

Floating charms

We first bought these charms when we had a brick and mortar shop and we were doing large State fairs and gift shows.  Our direction had changed in the last 6 months and we will no longer have those outlets for these very cute and personal charms. 

The concept is that several can fit into a locket with glass on both sides that has a very strong magnetic closure.  Selections are made from a large variety of charms to make it very individualized.  

We are selling all the charms we have collected at a deeply reduced price.

The picture charms are enameled on silver or gold and all the letter have CZ's.

There are over 240 items in many designs, CZ hearts and letters. The list of what is available is in the listing along with many more photos.  

A Shrine By The Lake

Tenso Shrine, a small shrine by the Lake Kinrinko that we stumbled upon when Zaini and I were taking an early morning stroll by the lake.

It was pretty much deserted when we got there. Still early in the morning, I guess.

See those stickers plastered on the shrine's building? If you want to know more about it, head over to Rurousha's and read about religious graffiti.

I love this particular shot. Zaini waited patiently to capture just the right moment.

The temple's yard, with a blanket of lovely autumn leaves.