The Good and The Forbidden
Okayama was the city we chose for the next destination. For a few reasons. The first one is as a place to stay while we go to Naoshima for a day trip. The second one is to visit Korakuen Garden, one of the Three Great Gardens of Japan.
The last reason was simply that we never set our feet on this city before and thought why not? We love exploring the different cities in Japan and this will be another new adventure for us.
Let me just say I suck at writing travel posts. Part of it is because I didn’t take a lot of photos so I don’t have much to show you. But I suppose, it challenges me to write and let the words become the visual aid here, hopefully.
So, one of our favorite cities, Kyoto, was the next destination after Sapporo. We took a domestic flight early in the morning from New Chitose Airport to Haneda (Tokyo). From there, we took a train to Shinagawa Station then boarded a Shinkansen (using JR pass) for about 150-160 minutes to Kyoto.
We spent 3 days and 2 nights in this beautiful city.
Well, whaddya know, another wedding-related post. I was going to post this sooner but the old tale was I got caught by so many different excuses :p
Anyway, we were very lucky that we get to hold another wedding reception which was 3 weeks after the D-Day. This time, the guests are our friends! I suppose, call me for being extra. But I did want my nails to look different. Plus, the previous nails were getting long and I wasn’t comfortable with the length.
This was what I decided on.
“When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho
It is truly one of the truest quotes I live by. I believe we attract what our minds aspire to. As simple as, when we’re happy, good things come by. When we’re being negative, then bad things are everything that we see. It’s about seeing things in a different perspective, with a brighter note.
I wanted to try this post as a reminder for myself to never underestimate the power of positive thinking.
Yes, this post is also about my wedding shoes. And how I came to acquire them.
Ever since we traveled to Japan for the first time in 2016, we’ve always wanted to go back. There was no doubt in our minds that when we get married, we will have our honeymoon there. In all honesty, we were very laid back on this trip. We’ve actually just booked the hotels and finish other arrangements (pocket wifi, JR pass, etc) a week before our departure, though we have set an itinerary, sort of.
The first city that we chose is Sapporo!
We departed from Jakarta to Tokyo (Haneda), before continuing our flight to Sapporo. The trick here was we had to change from international to domestic terminal. We picked up our baggage, boarded the airport bus then dropped them off at the transit counter and were set to go.
Except, there was a delay with the flight. A two hour one. We grabbed something to eat at the airport because it was getting late, we were hungry and tired. The flight took about 1 1/2 hour and we’re glad we did eat because as it turned out, there were no meals provided; just water and a packet of snack. The flight had a little bit of turbulence too. Whew, what a start!
Ever since from the beginning, I’ve wanted to make the wedding souvenirs on our own. With a fairly small the number of guests, I thought it’s still manageable. I wanted something that is personalized and ultimately, usable and functional. Of course, it needed to be able to be DIY-ed.
There were quite a few options. I thought about making scented candles with dried flowers. Or having a small cactus plant for each of the guests. But it ended up being a no-go because some of our guests will be flying from out of town. We didn’t want the souvenir to be a hassle for them to carry around, with the risk of breaking and all that.
So, something that is not fragile, durable enough, and doesn’t take up space. Handmade soap bars.
There were a few things in the wedding that we got help from and eventually enabled us to save the budget. These came from none other than our own family members. The wedding invitation was the very first that we worked on with our cousin, Marini. She was actually the one who offered to design the invitation before we even get to her!
My fiancé (now-husband) let me handled the idea and brainstorming process. We both kind of have the same taste and preferences so we trust each other. That way, we can split our duties to share the workload of the wedding prep.
So, shall we?
Our wedding invitation.
