Arakura Fuji Sengen Jinja / 新倉富士浅間神社

As of September 2021, the tourist info office told us Arakura Fuji Sengen Jinja was under construction and we wouldn't be able to see the famous red pagoda with Mt. Fuji in the background.  We still decided to go because it says it's a park.

The path to the shrine was as beautiful as paintings.

三國第一山

The pagoda wasn't under construction. I think it was the photo spot to have the shrine and the Mt. Fuji in the background was blocked off for the construction. Not the actual pagoda was under construction.  😂 That was the limit of my half-assed Japanese.  The red color was stunning.  It would have been wonderful to have a picture of the pagoda and Mt. Fuji in the background.  However, Mt. Fuji was hiding behind the clouds on that day anyway.  So it wasn't a big loss.

Red Pagoda 1

Red Pagoda 2

Arakura Fuji Sengen Jinja:

新倉富士浅間神社

After the shrine, one could keep climbing and climbing.  I couldn't do it because it was just too steep.  So Math Teacher left me and continued on.  After more than half an hour he found this sacred building.

Overall, highly recommend the park, the shrine, and the pagoda.  It was great to pay respect to the shrine, to take photos, and then do a little bit of hiking.

Groceries, #2

Last week I asked Math Teacher to bring back lemons🍋, his favorite fruit.  He couldn't find lemons so he got the next best thing.

Mandarin cutie oranges🍊

How were oranges the next best thing?  The next best thing would be a lime!

So today I asked him to buy brown rice, 2kg bag.  I asked over and over, "Are you sure you can get the right one?  Are you sure?  I don't want you to bring back 5kg of pebbles."

He successfully got a 2kg-bag of brown rice!  I'm so touched!  He's growing up so fast and learning so much! 😭

Happy Mid-Autumn Day 2021 / 中秋節2021快樂

今年九月二十一是中秋農曆八月十五

我晚了兩天才出門賞月五分鐘

晚了四天才買月餅

然後過了一天才吃月餅

不能怪人家

出門在外

常常忘記節日

記得時又沒空

去横濱中華街的品茶店「楊貴妃」買的月餅

它想走高級路線

因為還有法文名叫 Cafe Chinois (Chinese Cafe in English)

Cafe Chinois Yokihi

先吃甜點：楊貴妃荔枝冰淇淋佐中國藥膳茶。我挑的不對，荔枝冰淇淋是甜的，吃完再喝茶，茶變苦的😖

楊貴妃荔枝冰淇淋佐中國藥膳茶

買迷你月餅回家：還真不錯吃。唯一遺憾就是迷你月餅塞不下鹹蛋黃，可我一個人沒辦法吃一大顆月餅，唉😮‍💨，想吃鹹蛋黃呀～

迷你月餅盒

迷你月餅

栗子的有點乾，但是每一個口味都很好吃。明年還會再買👍

Kitaguchi Hongu Fuji Sengen Jinja / 北口本宮冨士浅間神社

Kitaguchi Hongu Fuji Sengen Jinja is one of the many entrance to climb Mt. Fuji.  Many climbers came here for a good climb blessing before entering the mountain range.  It differs from the other shrines in that it's on flat ground.  Not many steps, which was a yay for me, because I was tired after one-week trip in Kawaguchiko. 😫

It is a very quiet and peaceful shrine.  When we were there, many families brought their children for the 3-5-7 blessings.  Traditionally if a child lived past 3-years-old, 5-years-old, and 7-years-old, that was a call for celebration.  We saw some families opted for kimono, and some families opted for western clothing.  Either way, it was great to see so many happy smiles.

Torii Gate entrance

Entrance

Lamps at the entrance

This dragon was just too awesome.

Dragon fountain

Mt. Fuji mikoshi / 御輿

On our way back, I got us onto the wrong bus.  At the end of the bus service, we got kicked off.  So we had to quickly re-route.  We accidentally got onto this Fujisan View Express.  It is a luxury train!

Fujisan View Express

Treasure Island (1883)

*SPOILER ALERT*

😂 Is it still spoiler alert if the book was published 130+ years ago?

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson was not a treasure-hunting trip.  Tbere were no riddles to solve, no caves to crawl through, and no booby-traps to avoid.

The book was more about mutiny and adventure.  Finally in the last two chapters the pirates tried to dig up the treasure, but the treasure had already been dug up by some other pirate.

It was still an enjoyable book.  All the pirate slangs from the movie Pirates of the Caribbean (2003) were in this book, and this book had even more slangs.  At some points it was difficult to decipher, but that didn't distract me from following the storyline.

⭐⭐⭐

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)

When they announced this movie to be Chinese martial arts superhero movie, I didn't believe them, given it was Disney.  I thought it would be pan-Asian.  I was going to watch it anyway because it was Marvel.
　
不但說中文，還用成語和粗話！This was the first time I didn't get lost while reading the scrolling exposition (*cough* Star Wars *cough*); I could just listen.

The movie was entertaining and enjoyable.  The dragon and the soul-suckers were a bit much, but I figured it was Marvel trying to link the plot to multi-verse later on.

I read that some early audiences thought the mythical creatures in Ta-Lo were Pokemons.  Kudos to Marvel executives for believing in the movie enough to put fake Pokemons in it.

I was also surprised to learn that The Ten Rings were the ones abducted Tony Stark in Iron Man 1.  There must be timelines for everyone in Marvel, and the timelines were as huge as a warehouse.

The movie was full of references to older martial arts movies. 真懷念呀！

數學老師說梁朝偉的馬步蹲得比劉思慕好😂。說實在的，梁朝偉演了那麼多武功大師，他根本不需要那些十環的特效，他姿勢隨便擺擺就大俠了。

梁朝偉真的迷死人不償命。電影裡叫「Wenwu」，是文武雙全的君子大壞蛋嗎？讀了一輩子的武俠小說，梁朝偉就是從書裡跑出來的呀。

婚姻生活, #2

I opened the refrigerator to find an empty carton of milk.  Math Teacher admitted he didn't know why he put the empty carton back in the fridge; he had no good reason nor excuse for it.  It just happened.

I told him that I've seen many memes about husbands putting empty containers of anything back into the fridge.  I couldn't believe my life had turned into a meme.

Funny thing was, the trash bin was right next to the fridge.  He didn't even need to lift a toe to put the trash away.

Were husbands just wired differently?

Also, for months Math Teacher called the hamper "hampster".  I thought that was cute/funny/ridiculous all at the same time.  He had since corrected himself 😶

Gyoza Tengoku / 餃子天国

Look at the size of the gyoza!  Each one was as large as my fist.  They were delicious!  Unfortunately one plate was one flavor.  We couldn't mix and match.  So this was a place where one went drinking with a bunch of people and ordered many plates with many different flavors and shared.

餃子天国:  mushroom gyoza

餃子天国 was trying very hard to run itself into the ground.  Because of Tokyo's state of emergency, the restaurant could only be opened until 8pm and couldn't serve alcohol.  So this restaurant decided to open from 5:30pm to 8pm.  We arrived at 6pm.  When we left after 7pm, we were the only table there.

One could order take out; the whole time we were there, only two people came to pick up their takeout orders.

When we were done ordering, the waitress asked us to read a paragraph on the menu.  Basically it said we shouldn't waste food and we couldn't take any leftover to go.   Wha....????

If one could order takeout, that meant the restaurant had to-go boxes.  Why couldn't we use those boxes to take our leftover to go?

It had been a Japanese culture not to waste food.  It was frowned upon to have leftover and to take leftover to go.  I guess the Japanese restaurants were not used to stock up on to-go boxes.  I thought, for the pandemic, they would change their way.  Apparently not this restaurant.

I'm used to order a lot of dishes from my favorite restaurants, eat a bit, and take them to go and eat the leftovers for the next several meals.

So this restaurant could only open for 2.5 hours, couldn't serve alcohol, and wouldn't let customers take leftovers to go.  No wonder we were the only table and there were only two take-out orders.  I hope it could survive the pandemic.

Yamanashi Gem Museum

Half of the Yamanashi Gem Museum was for selling stones, rocks, and gems.  The other half was the "museum".  To me, the "museum" part still looked like things were for sale.  Math Teacher, on the other hand, loved it.  He really thought it was a museum because they labeled each gem and rock with its chemical composition.

¥600/person; I can't complain much.  It rained on us so we hid in the museum for an hour.  I guess it was worth it.

Ticket, front

Ticket, back

JR + Fujikyu Limited Express Excursion / 富士回遊

OMG Limited Express Excursion was so hard.  Don't try to understand it.  Just ask the station staff to buy tickets.  Yes, a ticket is required because it's JR rail + Fujikyu rail and apparently they don't help each other out.  Cars no. 1 ~ no. 3 are the Limited Express and require tickets (maybe even reserved seating...I couldn't figure that part out) and will take you to Kawaguchiko directly from Shinjuku.  If you get on car no. 4 and beyond, you're screwed.

The train is very pretty and comfortable.  Direct line to the destination is always the best.

When I asked the station staff to buy the return tickets, even the station staff had to think about it and clicked around on the computer multiple times to get tickets for me.  So again, save your brain to research what to do at Kawaguchiko.  Don't spend time on this.

Tickets

Train

Kawaguchiko Station

Fruity-flavored alcohol sold at the souvenir shop at the train station.  The peach one was 7% alcohol; not bad.

Left:  orange-flavored alcohol
Right:  peach-flavored alcohol

河口湖車站前的餐廳洗手間的翻譯😂😂😂😂😂

爆笑翻譯

Mt. Fuji / 富士山

Mt. Fuji Panoramic Ropeway was ¥500/person one way and ¥900/person round trip.  We opted to go up with the ropeway and hike down.

Ropeway tickets

Ropeway

At the top we had a great view of the city.

Bunny Shrine

Heart-shaped bell

We followed a sign that pointed to a tiny shrine up the hill.

小御嶽神社

Then we'll let Mt. Fuji speaks for its majestic self.  We stared at it for half an hour.  The clouds covered it up, and we talked.  When it was revealed, we forgot what we were talking about and were just in awe.

Fuji

Fuji

Kawaguchiko Music Forest Museum

Kawaguchiko Music Forest was a Total tourist trap.  Only go there if it's raining.

Tickets

Entrance

First, the entrance ticket was cash only.  It was ¥1,800/person, but they didn't take credit card.  What kind of tourist trap doesn't take credit card, especially foreign visitors were everywhere at Kawaguchiko?

Second, it's small.  We could've finished in half an hour if not for the organ music performance and lunch.  Two of the buildings were souvenir shops, one restaurant, and one cafe.  There was nothing else.  Sure, the garden was pretty, but it just reminded me that I should really go to Europe and take real European-style photos.

Third, the organ music performance was a complete lie.  They talked more than the actual organ music performance.  And then they played two songs only.  And those two songs were not classical organ music such as Bach.  Math Teacher recognized one was Tequila the drinking song!  We thought the organ pipes would move but none of them did.  We highly suspected the music was pre-recorded and they just played the recording over loud speakers.  What a rip off.

Fourth, the water dance show was only three minutes long for one song.

Math Teacher did enjoy the music box exhibit but for the wrong reason.  The music boxes were supposed to be antiques and interesting, but Math Teacher said the music boxes were totally haunted and they would start playing on their own at any time.  That creeped me right out 👻

As for me, the pasta and the tea at the restaurant were delicious.  Surprisingly the restaurant took credit card.  Wha.....  they couldn't link the credit card machine wires from the entrance to the restaurant?

Should've done better research and gone to the seafood noodle restaurant down the block 😡

Go to the Open Air Museum in Hakone instead (see previous post).

Stir-Fried Rice

Easy Chinese Cooking #2

Stir-fried rice is a great way to use up whatever sad veggies leftover in the fridge.  Today I had red bell pepper, great northern white beans, and basils.  They had been in the fridge for over a week and looked depressing.

I used frozen cauliflower rice instead of actual rice because I didn't have the actual rice.  Cauliflower rice is really a great substitute for real rice because it sure looks like real rice.

Cut all veggies into small pieces and stir fry them.  Dump in the cauliflower rice.  Scrambled egg is optional in my opinion.  Math Teacher said scrambled egg is a must.  Salt + pepper.  Done.  😋

Stir-Fried Rice

Dorayaki Ice Cream Sandwich / どら焼き冰淇淋三明治

This was amazing!  It was not ice cream, but it was still cream.  I bought it and waited another twenty minutes before eating it; it did not melt.  And it was cold!  I was a bit confused; Math Teacher agreed.  We both concluded this was another Japanese technology that we did not understand.

Dorayaki Ice Cream Sandwich

I TAKE THEE

I TAKE THEE, book 1 of The Wedding Vow series, is FREE on Amazon from Sep 5, 2021 to Sep 9, 2021!

It's also free with Kindle Unlimited!

I TAKE THEE

This is to celebrate FROM THIS DAY FORWARD, book 2 of The Wedding Vow series, is published to all of these stores!

FROM THIS DAY FORWARD

I am extremely bad with internet and technology, so figuring out how to publish to multiple stores is a great feat for me!