Sydney!

JAPAN - ODAIBA

Japan is one of my favorite country , but I only have been to there once long time ago when i was small. I went to Tokyo and all I remember is Hello Kitty Land, Snoopy Land and Disney Land. Japan is now more attractive than before, it opens up lots of new shopping center and many amazing attractions. 


This post is going to be a little bit different from the others that i posted, since this is my best friend experience, I asked her to let me share her experience and I would love to share her recommendation to you!


Aqua City Odaiba:


Aqua City is a famous shopping center in Tokyo, it is next to the Odaiba Kaihin Park, if you travel to Tokyo it is a place that you must visit at least once, since around the shopping center there is also some attraction around  including the Odaiba Kaihin Park that I've just mentioned, also the Fuji Television building and Odaiba Shrine and the Rainbow Bridge. This is a collection of  places which can satisfy people who want to relax and sightseeing also interested in shopping.

Fuji Television:

You can find lots of Japanese drama goods in the Fuji Television building, the photo of the blue dog is the mascot of Fuji Television called ラフ君 (lafu kun) , you can see lots of ラフ君 around the building , and you can take pictures with him. 




The Fuji Television building is just opposite to the Aqua city , it is very easy to regonise since it has a "planet" on the top of the building.


Here is a wonderful place that if you are interested in media.




Rainbow Bridge:


The rainbow Bridge is another famous attraction in Odaiba, it is best to visit at night and you can see the beautiful sight of the bridge, Tokyo tower and the liberty status as the same time.
Here is some photos .

P.S. all photo copyright goes to the original phototaker

Jeju Island

Jeju Island (also known as Jejudo) is situated south of South Korea. It is an island created completely of volcanic ash from the now extinct volcano, Hallasan. Jeju is visited by tons of tourists from overseas and South Korea every year as it hosts many golf competitions, and is also a prime honeymoon location. 

There are various tours you can take when in Jeju. I suggest the English taxi tour, where you get an English-speaking local taxi driver as your tour guide. The tour enables you to cover the island's main tourist spots in two days - one day for the eastern side of Jeju, and one day for the west. They also allow you to customize your tour or tour one side of the island if your stay is short.

The itinerary of the general courses is as follows:

East Course :

Yongduarm rock - Manjang Cave -  Sunrise Peak - Sepjicozi - Seoungeup Folk Village - Sangumburi crater

West Course :

Mysterious road - Cheonjiyeon Waterfall -  Oedolgae - Jusangjeollidae rock - Yeomiji botanical garden - Teddy bear museum

Since I only spent two nights in Jeju, I took the western course. The driver was super friendly and told us stories about the island (you'll have to join the tour to find out). Also, since my mum and I are Korean drama fanatics, the driver pointed out some filming locations of dramas such as "Dae Jang Geum" and "All-in" (which was also filmed at Lotte World Hotel which was the hotel we stayed in!).

The first place we visited was Jusangjeollidae Rock, since the driver told us that it would be jam packed with tourists by midday. The formation of the rock was created by lava from Hallasan. Jusangjeolli is the literal Korean translation of columnar basalt: hexagonal pillars of volcanic rock. 

The statues on the left can be seen everywhere accross the island. They are known as the "grandparents of the island", protecting the island from harm, and giving the citizens good health. It is said that touching their noses will give you good health and longevity. 

Next, we visited Yeomiji Botanical Garden which was a garden completely created inside a green house. The green house is separated into 5 gardens: Flower Garden, Water Lily Garden, Jungle Garden, Subtropical Fruits Garden, and Cactus Garden. 

After that, we went to the "Mysterious Road" which is a road that creates the optical illusion that the car is moving uphill while on 'Neutral', although it looks like the car is facing down hill. If you don't have a car, you can still experience the illusion as the roadside shops provide bottles you can use to "roll up the hill".

We then went to Oedolgae, another columnar basalt rock. Like other unusual-shaped rocks there's a legend associated with it - a Korean general is said to have scared away Mongolian invaders by dressing the rock up to look like a giant soldier. This was a special site as they filmed part of the drama 'Dae Jang Geum' here.

 After a satisfying lunch stop at a local Korean restaurant, the driver took us to Cheonjiyeon Waterfall. It is one of the three famous waterfalls in Jeju. It was the perfect place to breathe in fresh air and walk off all the calories from lunch, and feel completely relaxed and refreshed. The water is unbelievably clean, which enables you to sit by the river and look at the colourful koi fish living in the river. 

After the relaxing stroll down Cheonjiyeon Waterfall, the driver took us to  Jungmin Saekdal Beach since we still had plenty of time to kill. Since it was early spring and still cold, there weren't many people there, but the view was spectacular. 

We ended the day at the Teddy Bear Museum. This museum featured bears from one of my favourite dramas, 'Goong', so it was really exciting to see it. The exhibitions were extremely cute. For anyone planning to visit Jeju Island, this place is a definite must to visit. It shows a range of teddy bears from one of the oldest, to the most expensive, to using teddy bears as an appropriation on famous artworks. There is also an outdoor bear park.

 

A trip to Nan Tien Temple

Nan Tien TemPle is in the Wollongong , south Sydney.  Its built on the hills and east near the sea. The temple uses the chinese palace-style shape, brings together the essence of eastern and western cultures. I find the name "Nan Tien" (south), meaning to become a paradise for southern world, promoting culture exchanges.

Tradition and modernity. Temple has traditional buildings, such as the hall, meditation hall, Hodo, Canon House, dining, Mountain tower, another to adapt to the times to enhance the degree of public functions, and also provides a large-scale international conference hall, auditorium office Buddhist museum. such as libraries, classrooms, these buildings are built using today's latest materials with a high degree of modernization.

Buddhism and the literary one. Nan Tien Temple's treasures show a variety of artistic heritage, and to purify the mind in kind. Also set up a variety of English, Japanese language classes, vegetarian cooking classes, calligraphy, folk dance, Chinese painting, flower arranging courses, dedicated to religious, cultural and educational exchange in the East and West.

In Nan Tien Temple, you can in the public to chant the Buddha, Zen meditation, listening to Dharma study by the possession of, open the treasures of the heart.

Where you can still see the beautiful scenery, you can watch the sunset with your friends, and then photographed pictures

A trip to Melbourne (2)

Last post, I've talked about the Phillip Island chocolate factory, in this post I will talk about the Nature Park in Phillip Island and some other places.

Phillip Island Nature Park:
The famous attraction in the Nature Park is the watch the Penguin Parade as this is almost the landmark for Phillip Island.See here, advisement of Tenpin Bowling uses Penguin to promote as well.

Here is the entrance road to the Phillip Island Nature Park.
   
The photo on the left are the sign to remind the drivers to check under their car that make sure there is no little penguin under it, as the whole park is a open wildlife environment, penguin can go anywhere and sometimes if they lost their way home by accident they might be in dangerous if they ran into the car park.

One thing that has to notice is you are not allow to use camera to take photo of those penguin when you start walking into the viewing platform, there will be a notice sign to remind you in different languages.
Inside the park there are some shop where you can buy some souvenirs,some cafes; you can also take pictures with penguins using technology with Photoshop there. There is also a corner that you can pay and rent for a iPod which have details instructions and information about the penguin parade with different languages installed.

Sovereign Hill :

 

Sovereign Hill is a outdoor museum, which re-create the decade after the discovery of gold. Staff in Sovereign dress up in those decade, horses are around, visitor can pay to experience the horse carriages as well.

Some special activities such as watching a melting gold performance is one of it.

People can take picture during the performance, it have different languages which convince visitors and tourists.

There is also some activities that allows visitors to experience of panning golds , and you can take away the gold that you've panned. Near the  Red Hill Gully Diggings (the place when you pan golds), there is a little shop that sells a little bottle with water init which let you put the golds that you find into it so you can keep it. Here is the bottle that I panned with my family.

The Twelve Apostles:

The Twelve Apostles is another famous attraction in Melbourne, the Ocean road has a great sight of view about nature. The Twelve Apostles are actually striking stones that are standing out in the seas, the rocks are formed by erosion, visitors can walk to the peak of mountain to see this amazing view, or they can pay to watch this view though the helicopters.