I bought my Wedding Dress!!

Hi Y'all!

Can you believe I bought my Wedding Dress on Saturday? Wow!! I drove Mum home to Wollongong on Friday and stayed over so that we could go Wedding Dress shopping on Saturday. I hadn't actually planned on buying my dress, but once I tried it on and it was just so beautiful I realised the hunt had ended :) We went to Sposabella at Fairy Meadow in Wollongong, and were served by a lovely lady called Zita, who had all the time in the world for us and was happy with my shape choice (and didn't just seem happy cos she wanted my $$- or Dad's, as it were!!) I tried on 5 dresses, and the one I got was the very first one I tried. I was thinking "Does anyone buy the first dress they try on?" Well they do when it is the dress. :) {smiles} I wasn't a gushing bride who cried and screamed that I'd found "the one" as soon as I put it on, but once I had tried the other 4 dresses and kept comparing them to the first and finding that they came up way short, I knew the first dress was the one for me :) Plus Mum was crying when I put the dress on for a second time so I figured it was the one I should get! I kinda wish the Wedding Dress shopping thing could last longer cos I had so much fun!

So here's a sneak peak, my dress is One of these ones!! I have pics of me in it, and although Will doesn't read my blog I'm sure for some reason this would be the time that he would read it and so I can't post a pic! Plus I'd like to keep it a surprise for you guys for a bit longer too :)

:)C

Sweet Baby Cards

Hello!

Quick post, I wanted to show you some cards I made on Wednesday night when I finally got some time to relax! I am so sick of Swine Flu and being run off my feet at work! So I decided I am going to Wollongong tonight and am having a relaxing day out of Sydney tomorrow with Mum and Dad. Sweet :)

The first card I decided to do a different colour scheme than pink! I love pink for girl cards but I thought probably not everyone does! I love the way soft green and purple look together, and these Wordsworth Stick People are just the cutest!

The next card I made using a "negative" of the small nestabilites scallop rectangle die cut that I found hanging around on my desk! I always keep my scraps (hoarder! {sigh}) but now and then they come in very handy for making a sweet card really Pop! The "It's a Girl" is a sticker (pebbles ink I think- ha that rhymes!) and makes for a very quick and easy sentiment for this card!

For the last card I wanted something a bit more modern and in brighter colours so I chose Rose Red cardstock and then a scrap of the cute multi-coloured PP that I've had for DONKEY"S YEARS! Glad to have used that up! I love the big pink brads on the left, the elephant I outlined in my glitter gel pen, hard to see in the pic but IRL it looks really cool!

Well, I'm running off to work (I start in 10mins!!) so have a good weekend!!

:)C

Project 365 Collage #18

Hi Y'all!!

I hope you all had a good weekend! Sunday went past with a whirlwind or busy-ness! Got up early and Will and I headed over to Randwick to check out a Wedding Photographer who was having an open day at his studio with free hair and makeup and a mini photo-shoot. The pics will be uploaded to his site in 1 week and we get to choose 1 for free and then buy others too if we want :) The most amazing thing is that even in a digital world (and I am a digital girl {snigger}) this photographer still uses FILM! Wow, I didn't think anyone used film any more! He had his offsider taking the mini photo-shoot and I have to say I was not a fan of that guy. He was so slow and fumbled alot with the camera! He said he sometimes shoots the wedding if the main guy is double booked, so that pretty much decided it for me. We are not going with that studio! Well, maybe the pics will surprisingly blow me away and change my mind forever (don't hold your breath!) How do you like my hair and makeup? Yeah, I'm pulling a weird face, ignore that. I was trying to be sneaky in the middle of the photo studio and take a pic on my phone! I like the natural colours and the soft hair. I'm thinking about hiring these hair and makeup girls, what do you think?

And of course because the photographer was so slow I was late to Fliss's SU party- the most terrible thing for a demonstrator- and I had even left 2 1/4hrs for the appointment and it took longer! Luckily Fliss is family and was very patient with me, and all the guests are Mums and some arrived a little later than me also, so not too bad! The party was heaps of fun and they loved the 2 cards we made which was great! They are fun ladies to Demonstrate for, and everyone completed the 2 cards (including me!) so I stamp the class: [SUCCESS]!

It's time for another outdated project 365, only about 3 weeks behind now, and catching up!

Do you like my new cushion? I am in {love} with it! It's from Myer and was on sale (that may be part of the attraction) it is so soft and cute! I changed from my turqouise and white doona cover to a pink and white one to match it; my very own Will statue; Winter is officially here- waking up to cold, foggy days doesn't make an inviting picture when you want to go exercise!; spur of the moment sleep-over at Alicia's!; Will looking very "avant guard" in his cardigan @ our favourite Mexican restaurant- Baja Cantina at Glebe; Mum borrowed a scarf and told me they smelt like cupboard, so I'm giving them a bit of an airing here; RIBS!! My fave food to order when we go to restaurants! Will and I have the Entertainment Book and so love choosing new restaurants to try out! Usually ones we would never go to if we had to pay full price (the Ent. Book is a coupon book chock full of buy one get one free or 25% off vouchers for all of Sydney's best restaurants! Even the expensive ones! They are used as a fundraiser for various charities and I recommend one! Will and I saved $450 last year, using coupons and we could have used heaps more but ran out of time!) this was the Queen's Birthday Monday and we went to "Sauce Bar and Grill" at Coogee, the ribs got the Thumbs up (the Calamari entree got the thumbs down!); ok, this is a pic of my TV! I loved this chick's dress and her hair piece so I tried taking a pic of the TV {lol!} didn't quite work, I think the show is Lipstick Jungle; Movie night with Alicia and Felicity!! We watched an advanced screening of "The Proposal" at a Girls Night Out and got a goodie bag of a Grazia Mag, Chocs, a cook book and a perfume vial. Pretty cool!

We have an appointment this morning to put a deposit on our Wedding Reception Venue! It's all coming together slowly!!

:)C

Pink Pretties

I had a wonderfully relaxing and constructive day at home yesterday! As well as the card samples and kits I made up for Fliss's SU Party this arvo, I also made some very much needed baby girl cards for my box. I didn't realise that I only had one left in my box, that's unheard of! So I dug out all my pink scraps, the cute giraffe stamp and I went to work... The giraffe is just so cute, and here he is stamped in Apricol Appeal, which goes so nicely with that EONS old Chatterbox floral paper in the BG. The paper is so sweet and subtle though, so I have kept every little scrap of it. And that's why my scraps stash weighs a couple of kilos! I am a hoarder! (But you already know that {wink!}) So I made 2 cards with the giraffe stamp then realised the remaining card in my box has the giraffe stamp too! D'oh! If anyone doesn't like Giraffe's I'm screwed!

Then I found a panel of the skinny stick people I had stamped out, buried under the monstrosity of paper on my desk and so coloured it up and layered it with pink papers to make the last card. I have a whole bunch of the nestabilities already die cut out of various papers, which is so handy when making cards in limited time! I find it really good for inspiration too, to have a bunch of smaller pieces rather than be faced with a 12x12 sheet and thinking "What to do... hmmm!!" Thats why I keep all my little scraps!

Will and I have an appointment with a Wedding Photographer at their open day in Randwick today. Our first look together at something for the wedding. How exciting! Except I'm sitting here with wet hair, blogging, and he'll be at my door any second. My bad! (Thats for you Fliss, I know you love it {chuckling})

:) C

Some Long Awaited Craftiness!

Wow, it has been totally ages since I posted some crafty stuff so here 'tis!

I have a Stampin Up Party at Fliss's tomorrow which is always fun! She hasn't had a lot of RSVPs yet (leavin it to the last minute people!!) so it might be small, but that just means we can make more! Yay!! As soon as I saw the Trendy Trees set in the new catalogue I knew it would be the first one I bought. I just love it {heart!}. I can imagine so many possibilites with it, for all occasions. This card I cased off Splitcoast Stampers, I loved the LO, but I changed up the colours a little and only used 2 stripes at the bottom so it wasn't too busy. My fave trees are the middle and right one, the right one is so cute! It reminds me of someone's recycle logo, which company is that?! I can't remember... anywho, do you like it?! The background round dotty stamp is one of the set of trees too, but makes a pretty cool BG.

I like to make a few samples with the stamps we'll use in class, so far I have only made this card (yeah, I do my best work at the last minute! Well, thats what I'm banking on anyways!) I bought the co-ordinating roller wheel too, SU really know how to suck me in with co-ordinating products. But having the wheel makes it sooooo easy to make cool, quick cards! Love it also! Gonna run and make a couple more in brighter colours.... see ya!

:) C

Project 365 Collage #17

Happy Saturday!!

I think you've probably had enough of the Japan re-caps by now! The last 3 days we spent back in Tokyo re-visiting our fave places, so I think I'll leave those days for now :) But I am WAY behind on my Project 365 posting! So here goes:

Me posing with a "Little Bo Peep" at Harajuku- this chick was tiny!; Will poses with some Kawaii friends at Odaiba; Home! Sorting out my Japanese Bounty :); Fabric for Mum, yes, they really were only 108 to 184Y! Cheap!; Announcing our Engagement on Facebook!; My room- now where to put all the Japanese goodies?; some of my fave purchases from my best shopping day at Odaiba; Alicia and Felicity come over for celebratory Champagne and to see our holiday pics, Alicia bought me my first Bridal Magazine!; moved onto another Insulin injection so that makes 4 every day. Happy Joy!
I hope you're having a great weekend so far! It's been nice and relaxed for me, thinking I might go make some cards :)
:) C

Japan re-cap day 8

Day 8

This morning we set out to explore as many temples and traditional buildings as we could fit into one day in Kyoto!!

We started out the day at Nijo Castle, which was home to the Shogun in Kyoto. I especially wanted to go here cos the inner Castle has something intruiging called "Nightingale Floors". What on earth could this be?! Well, the enclosed verandah around the "Castle" (a one-storey wooden building with sliding paper screens and handpainted murals from over 400 years ago!) has really wide floorboards that are purposefully made to squeek when they are trodden on to alert the guards that there is an intruder. Apparently the Squeek is supposed to sound like Nightingales singing!! How cool is that! We found out Will made them Squeek more like Crows than Nightingale's and that I totally could have been a Ninja cos for some reason I could not get those floors to sing!! All the way around the Castle I was bumping up and down and putting pressure on the slats, but no singing. See Mum, thats what all your years of training me to walk lightly past the China Cabinet have done!! Only once, right at the end, I found a floorboard that would sing for me!! There... if I ever need to change careers, I should be a Ninja {giggles}.

We took the train from Nijo Station to Kyoto Station and walked 15mins to the local markets at Toji Temple. Did you know markets pretty much look the same, all over the world? A little bit ratty with stalls squeezed into really odd places where you can easily get lost and can never find a loo or the way out. It's really only the stuff on the tables that looks different. These markets had dried seeds/berries/fruits by the kg, vintage Kimono pieces, dried flowers, pottery, Japanese slippers, real live Koi, dried fish, Octopus balls, Red Bean Fish Shaped Pastries etc. I only bought stuff at one stall and it was a lady who had Kawaii fabric covered buttons and the cutest tiny little Handmade bears- these little babies are only about 3cm! How do they make them so small?! It's those tiny Asian hands of theirs. I also got 2 cute little homemade drawstring bags made from Babushka fabric {heart}.

Next it was onto bus #100 from Kyoto station to Ginkakuji Temple.. this temple was so idylic and beautiful, serene and peaceful and set amongst some small but lovely gardens with a sweet little walk into the hill behind it. The Temple itself is really small and was undergoing renovation (the whole bottom floor is gone!) but in the typical Japanese way they are so apologetic about it, and even the lady at the info desk back at Kyoto Station said "It is undergoing repair, that ok with you?" like there was some chance we would say.. "Actually no, I'd like you to put it back in one piece by the time we get there!" Love those curtious Japanese!! Ginkakuji Temple was the only place we saw a "raked garden" that the Japanese are famous for, and it totally did not disappoint! It was so beautiful. Just out of shot is a big sand mound that represents Mt Fuji (our engagement mountain!) pretty cool! We took the walk up into the hill behind and were amazed at how neat and clean the garden was. In fact they didn't even have grass, the whole garden was growing from a bed of moss! And then we worked out how come there aren't even any stray leaves hanging around on the Moss, even though there are plenty of big trees around. Yep, they have men who hang around and sweep the moss of all the loose leaves. I KID YOU NOT!! He is really sweeping the leaves. They must have pretty low unemployment in Japan!

After a relaxing stroll through the temple grounds we began our 3.5km walk along the Philosopher's Path toward Kyoto CBD (a walk that would eventually end with me begging to catch the bus and having the monster of all monster blisters on the top of my foot (*the top?!, yes, from the fold of my Joggers when you take a step!*) and Will forcably making me walk the whole way. 3.5km doesn't sound like much but I was hungry and we had already walked about 3km already that day! The path is covered in Cherry Blossoms during March and April, so we had only just missed them, and one lonesome one couldn't even hold onto just a couple of blossoms for me to take a pic with! Argh! {frustration}! I think Will really loved the path walk cos of the GIANT Koi that were in the creek! See the massive orange one in the bottom right corner of the pic!! They had to be about 60cm or longer! He was like "I wish I had my fishing rod!"... although it wouldn't have been that much of a challenge seeing as they were swimming in about 30cm of water! We wandered past beautiful buildings, past shrines and temples and ended up at Nanzenji Temple which was a slightly smaller temple than the massive one we saw on our first day in Kyoto (remember- "It is closed in the visit time?!") but equally as impressive! The sheer scale of these temples is amazing!

Back on the bus (hurrah!!) and off to Kiyomizu Temple which is in the neighbourhood near where we were staying. Kiyomizu is one of the most famous Temples in Kyoto and it commands an awesome view across a valled to Kyoto Station. There is a collection of buildings that make up the Temple grounds and the giant red Pagoda is an impressive entranceway to the Temple! I really loved the Kiyomizu Temple, with it's famous wooden scaffolding and the luscious greenery that grows around it, no sign of drought in Kyoto! I love being able to get a pic that is exactly the same as what is in travel mags and the pic of Kiyomizu with Will and I is just that! Oh so pretty! I could just imagine what it must have been like to live in this place hundreds of years ago when it was built, and how beautiful it would have been to look across Kyoto on a clear sunny day!

Oh, I have so many more pics I could show you, there are just too many and you'd spend hours reading it all! See, I know you've got places to go too, don't just sit here reading, get out and enjoy yourself!!

:)C

Wedding Statistics

Hi y'all!!
Thought you might be a little bored of the Japan stuff (lol, as if!!) so anyway I thought I would interject with a fun bit of Wedding Stuff for you!! My first Wedding post, how exciting!!
Alicia, Felicity and I went to a Wedding Expo today at Luna Park, it was so informative, exciting, overwhelming and a little disheartening (just cos I can see how budgets can be blown so easily!!) But that wont happen to us... we have a team behind us to help us sort ourselves out for the big day (right team?!!) {high five!} I have 4 bags of info to go through, so it should be a fun night for me! Think I'll spread out over the loungeroom floor armed with a pair of scissors and a scrapbook!!

So... here are a few fun statistics about weddings that have me freaking out!! Lol! These are from America so I guess we can imagine they are slightly different here in Australia, but it's a good start anyway...

The average wedding will cost $28,704 (Oh no, that's over our budget!)
More weddings will occur in June than any other month (324,193) (We're looking at April)
The average number of wedding guests is 166 (Hoping to keep it under 140)
The average cost for a wedding gown is $1,317 (Hard luck getting one for that here!)
The average age of a bride is 26 (bummer, missed it by that much!!)
This year's bride has an average annual income of $30,719 (Whooped that)
The average age of a groom is 28 (ah... not quite!)
This year's groom has an average annual income of $34,167 (maybe, if he didn't work his 60hr week)
The average tuxedo rental cost is $69.95 (it's about time he owned one actually!)
A wedding cake will cost $544 (average $4.52 per slice) (do you think homemade cupcakes would cost this much?)
Average total cost for flowers (ceremony & reception) is $2,033 (bride's bouquet $146) (better not cost that much!!)
The average engagement ring costs $4,332 (whoa, imagine accidently losing that one!)
Average entertainment costs: Reception Band $1,786; Reception DJ $702 (comes with the package)
This year's most popular songs are: Alicia Keys' "No One" and Madonna/Justin Timberlake's "4 Minutes" (I think we'll have Fat Bottomed Girls or Slap My Bitch Up. LOL!! Jokes)
A professional photographer will cost an average of $1,956 (way more here in Aus)
A professional videographer will cost an average of $1,546 (see above)
Invitations and reply cards will cost $431 (yep, that fits budget)
Limousine Service $690 (will a fleet of Camry's fit this price?)
The Nintendo Wii game ($399) is the trendy gift of choice (I wish to get $400 gifts!!)
Average honeymoon $3,805 (yes thankyou!)
The most popular honeymoon destination is Hawaii (sounds fab! When are we leaving?! It's on the list!!)

Wow, so much to think about, and save for!! ARGH!!!! Anyone have any recommendations? Things to have/not have or to do/not do?!
:) C

Japan Re-cap day 7

Awe... I'm blogging and watching Bambi II on TV! Could there be any more relaxing way to spend Saturday morning? I love Woodland animals (have you noticed my Owl fascination?) so you know i will be loving all the beautiful creatures in Bambi!! So cute!

Day 7

Today we followed our tradition of visiting WWII historical landmarks while on holidays (e.g. Pearl Harbour in Hawaii) by taking the Bullet Train from Kyoto to Hiroshima for the day! In exactly 2 hours, we travelled 381km with 6 stops... now that's one fast train! The Hikari Rail Star we took on our return journey was even faster... I wish we had those trains here! I'm sure more people would leave their cars at home for the holidays if we had these super trains instead of the pathetic XPT! We had one of our only mis-haps with Japanese Public Transport on this morning. We left our hostel early to get to Kyoto for this train, we got on a local connection, only to see our station whizz past cos we had accidently gotten on an express! NOOOOO!!! We quickly got off at the next station it stopped at (6 stations past ours!!) and changed back to the other direction and crossed all fingers and toes that we could make it to our connecting local train and then to the Bullet Train platform within 25mins! Could you imagine getting on at Thornleigh, seeing Epping Whizz past and changing at Strathfield to go back to Epping to change to a train to Macquarie Park, hoping to get there all within 25 mins? That was us!! It would never work on CityRail... but we made it on Japan Rail!! Champions! We ran from the train, asked the guard for the Shinkansen platform and ran there with 4 minutes to spare. I could not believe we had made it!! If we didn't make it, there was only all-stops trains after ours which would have taken forever!

Will and I had a little fun showing just how fast those trains do travel {wink}!! We were in such a funny mood this morning! It must have been engagement euphoria! They don't have any G-force at all, even though they speed up to top speed in a short time, much to Will's disappointment! I think he actually did want to get thrown back in his seat!!

When we arrived at Hiroshima Station we changed to the street car and headed off to the A-Bomb Dome and Memorial Park. Seeing as we had a nail-biting run to the train we hadn't had breakfast so got a selection of sandwiches from 7/11 and ate them sitting with a serene view of the park and the A-Bomb Dome. This building was a Government building that just happened to be located right next to the Bridge that was the target of the Atomic Bomb. When the bomb was dropped the building was right at the Hypercentre which meant the blast came straight down and left the walls standing! The inside was completely incinerated instantly by the blast but this is exactly how the walls were left over 60yrs ago. An amazing and sobering site. We wandered past the Children's Memorial where there was a group of School Children singing to the Memorial!, through the Memorial Park and the monument and then had a look through the Memorial Museum. It was a fabulous Museum and only cost 50Y to get in (see, cheap! I love the Japanese!), they had heaps of really interesting artifacts that were retrieved from the bomb site, like melted bottles and needle books and tea sets, clothes and even a section of building where you could see where the Atomic "Flash" had blasted a reverse-shadow into the stone of the building. Amazing. It's hard to think that this whole city was completely gone 60years ago. And that they still talk to Americans! Now that's forgiveness. (I bet that just lost me any American readers! Hey- the Japs bombed Darwin too you know, we didn't get over there with any obliterating substances!) The Japanese are very passionate about the world-wide destruction of Nuclear weapons, and I commend them! It would be so easy for them to build up a massive arsonal and think "well, they did it to us, so we'll do it to them" but instead they just want everyone to get rid of them. And who better to say that than a country that experienced it first hand {getting self down off soap box.}

fter the memorials we walked across town to Hiroshima Castle. It is a MASSIVE traditional castle, wooden and about 6 stories, it has beautiful outbuildings too. It looks authentic, but of course the original was blown to smitherines in the Bomb, so the replica was built in 1956. I read that there was some discussion about whether they should bother to re-build it, but I'm glad they did cos it is beautiful. The main castle building is just so massive when you stand in front of it- look how little I am in the pic!! We didn't go in cos we didn't really have time (and it wasn't authentically old anyway) so we just had an icecream at the kiosk and took some pics in front of it :)

Back on the Bullet Train to Kyoto in the early afternoon and we decided to go to the Inari Shrine which you may have heard about or seen in pics, they're pretty famous. It is the hill where there are thousands of bright orange Inari gates that snake their way up the hills to the east of Kyoto station. We took the train to Inari and then wondered how we were going to find the gates, but as soon as you get out of the station there is a big Orange gate, so you know you're heading in the right direction!! Just follow the trail of gates and you'll reach the main shrine where the real trails begin. The gates vary in size between the sections, from massively tall and spaced apart to only about 6 1/2 feet tall but so close together that you couldn't squeeze between them! They are engraved with Japanese Characters and cos they are based on Chinese we searched around until we found the characters that make up Will's name! I was pretty proud of myself cos I found the Lam one before Will did! We only got through about 1/2 the gates- we were looking at the map when an Irish couple said to us "just when you think you've reached the end, there's even more up the hill!" well, that decided it for us. I was a bit bored of big orange gates by then too {shameful!} They are beautiful, but honestly, there's only so many of the same gate that you can see before you get bored!! Don't blame me!! Lol, Will looks so funny with his Swine Flu mask on! I love that you can still see his eyes smiling behind that mask!

We found a great restaurant area at the top of the Hankyu Department store so went back there for dinner. Happy me, they had Gyoza!! It's cheap too, a bowl of pork noodle soup and gyoza for about $10AUD. :) Whoever said food is expensive in Japan obviously hasn't eaten in Sydney!! Ooohh... I want some Gyoza now! Luckily there is 2 Japanese takeaways at Macquarie Centre and I planned on going there today! I wonder if I could rustle some up {licking lips}!!

:) C

Brrr... it's FREEZING!!

You may liken me to the Michelin man, currently I have more layers on than the Antarctic Explorers... I had no idea 6:30am was this cold!! I'm up early to take my car for a service, thought I'd get in early but man... who knew it was going to be this cold and talk about dark, I thought my alarm had gone off about 5hrs too early (which incidently was the precise amount of sleep I got last night, argh!)
Elder's Weather has it currently at 5.1ºC, feels like 2.9º... I say feels like Freakin Cold!! I have no idea how you do it Yvette. A big gold star for effort to everyone who manages to get themselves out of bed at 6am, and into some reasonable state of non teeth-chatter or nose icicles. You are champions. Ahh... shift work, I love you even more now.
:) C

Japan re-cap day 6

My first day as the future Mrs Lam!! Heheheheh.....

We woke up to another beautiful clear day at Mt Fuji, we must be super-blessed to see it clear on 2 straight days! We had entered the region from the north west and today we left via the south east heading to Mishima and could see Fuji for hours and hours!! I kept saying to Will "...ah... I think it's following us" cos we took the bus for 2 hours and it never got out of view! We must have totally circumnavigated it!

At Mishima we took our first Bullet Train bound for Kyoto, man those things FLY!! And it totally doesn't feel like you are going fast at all. There is no jerking or shunting, its so smooth and easy, I love Japan!

We dumped our stuff at the Kyoto Bakpak hostel in Gion where we were staying and set out on foot to explore the neighbourhood. We found the awesome Yasaka Shrine at the end of a nearby street, we could see it from way far away cos of the bright Vermillion paint shining in the afternoon sun!! It was so bright it was burning my retinas! It was pretty much our first experience of a large Japanese Shrine (there aren't too many large ones in Tokyo, or at least we hadn't found them yet!) with a whole collection of buildings- the gatehouse, temple, shrine, and numerous smaller buildings and pagodas all around the gardens. The shrine had these beautiful white lanterns on all sides, so amazingly beautiful! There were prayers tied on the fences around the Temple too, and there were even ladies in Kimonos walking around, it could have totally been a movie set! We just meandered through the grounds, past all the Shrine buildings, some beautiful gardens with traditional stone bridges and weeping willows, pagodas and turtles and koi in the ponds! It really is like in all the pics! We followed this path through the garden and could see the roof of another beautiful building next door, and when we got to the front we were confronted with this sign:

"It was finished in visit time. Entrance prohibition." ...uh... I think you mean you're shut! Lol. I loved it! A perfect example of Jap-lish, which was hard to find in such a detailed country like Japan! So cute!

Well, the temple it was attached to.. it was simply breathtakingly GINORMOUS!! Check it out: Massive temple, Tiny Will. He is standing about 20m in front of the gatehouse so the perspective is a little out, but the gatehouse it at least 5 stories high! And there was no-one around. Weird! Well, it had finished in the visit time, after all. We never did get back to this temple when it was opened, but we found one exactly as big a bit further up the street on another day. Thats the thing about Kyoto, it is CHOCK full of traditional, historical buildings like this one. So many, in fact, that most of them aren't even on the maps. Everywhere you go you are surrounded by shrines, temples and historic buildings. It was so different to the ultra-modern Tokyo, but both were special in their own ways. Kyoto we found to be a lot dirtier than Tokyo (surprisingly) and there were heaps more tourists in Kyoto. Yep, not Tokyo, but Kyoto! There were so many more whities there, that I actually blended in! But the shops people and locals didn't seem as friendly in Kyoto as in Tokyo, see what us westerners have done! Gion is a beautiful area, known to be the home of the Geisha's, but they are very hard to catch! We saw one dive out of a taxi and into a restaurant where they act as hostesses, there were heaps of people waiting outside to catch them going in also! But we did see a few older Geisha's shopping in Gion during the day :) so special! In Gion I tried a Green Tea ice cream cos one of the girls at work told me I had to have one, cos they were so good. Well.... it was GROSS!! It tasted like bitter black tea, and I did not like it at all! The wafer on the side was nice, but I made Will eat the ice cream. He kept saying "ew, this is really gross", but in his typical way he ate it all. You can't waste food!

Talking about food, day 6 in Japan we ate at a Hong Kong style buffet and Will brought to the table the dumpling that wins my award for "The Cutest Food Ever In The Whole Wide Universe". Yes this is an Echidna Dumpling, how awesome is that!! It has black sesame seeds for eyes and was hand pinched to make the spikes!! Will didn't want to bite into it and destroy it but I said "you can't bring it to the table and never know what was inside!" Will bit into him and he had black sesame paste inside! It wasn't too bad but we left his head and half his body, cos he was too cute to totally destroy! Oh, my heart melted at the sight of him!

That was day 6, a very cultural day!

:) C

Japan Re-cap Day 5- ENGAGEMENT DAY!!

What better day to blog about Will and my Engagement Day in Japan than on my Bloggiversary!!

The day started with a train trip from Shinjuku to Otsuki, on a local rattler train (still faster and nicer than our rattler trains!) through the endless suburbs of Tokyo- they just go on and on and on and on and on!!- and finally into some mountainous country filled with quaint villages and Rice Paddies! If there is a spare 2 inches of land near your house you must fill it with a Rice Paddie! We could actually see them from the plane when we arrived (even though it was night time) and I naively thought they couldn't possibly be Rice Paddies seeing as Japan is such a developed nation and I associate Paddies with poor people... OMG! I am an idiot. Hey, they eat Rice in Japan too you doofus, they've gotta grow it somewhere.

So we changed at Otsuki onto an even smaller 2-car rattler for the trip to Kawaguchiko, the village we were staying at, at the foot of Mt Fuji. We meandered through the hills for about 20mins then all of a sudden the giant Mt Fuji appeared in a gap between the hills! It was amazing! I totally hadn't expected it to be that big so suddenly, but cos it had been hidden by the hills we were able to get really close before we could actually see it! Wow, that was breathtaking!! I love this "Postcard shot" I took on my pocket Canon, Fuji is even reflected in the Rice Paddie!! Wow!!

We were staying at the Kawaguchiko Station Inn which is located right across from Kawaguchiko station (the name doesn't lie!) so we left our bags there with the lovely man who runs it (recommendation: Stay at Kawaguchiko Inn if you're staying at Mt Fuji!! The people who run it are lovely, it has traditional rooms with the tatami mats and the bedrolls, a low table for you to sit at while sitting on the floor, an onsen (hot spring bath) and our room had the most spectacular view right across the road to Mt Fuji!! Just amazing!!)

The man at the Inn gave us a map and directions to the Mt Kachi Kachi ropeway and lookout. Will had never been on a ropeway before and was amazed at just how quiet and quick it was, although it looked as though the carriage hadn't seen paint since 1975- it's rare in Japan to see something a bit run down! Thats more an Australian thing ;) {wink}. The area around Lake Kawaguchiko is so pretty and viewing it from the top of a mountain is even lovlier! At least Will doesn't look too stressed, seeing has he had decided by this point that today would be the engagement day (see the backpack he wouldn't leave anywhere cos it had the ring hidden in it!) but I still had no idea!! The lookout at the top of Mt Kachi Kachi offers spectacular un-interrupted views across to Mt Fuji! Look how beautiful and clear it was on the 2 days we were there! Apparently it's pretty rare to see it clear and for us it was clear on both days, so I'll take that as a sign for happy days ahead! It was well worth the trip up Mt Kachi Kachi (it only cost about 600Y too I think) cos the view is amazing!

Now we had to decide if we should go to the FujiQ Highland Fun Park with lots of awesome looking rollercoasters and cool stuff like that, or actually go up Mt Fuji, cos we didn't have time for both things. I really wanted to go to FujiQ but Will pushed for going up Mt Fuji (I didn't realise why he wanted to go up! He'd made up his mind thats where he'd propose) and he convinced me we couldn't come all the way to Mt Fuji and not actually go UP Mt Fuji :)

HERE COMES THE ENGAGEMENT BIT!!!!.....

So we took the 50 min bus ride up Mt Fuji to the 5th Station and as soon as we got off the bus Will called out "wait!" and he squatted down with his back to me and was shuffling around in his backpack...I was thinking "oh!! Maybe now is the time!!" then he whipped around on one knee holding the ring box open out to me and blurted out the words "Will you Marry Me?!" and shoved the ring box over to me!! LOL!! I said "You've gotta take it out of the box!" and so he did and then put it on my finger, waited about 2 seconds then said "I need a drink!!" followed instantly by "OOO! BBQ!" cos there was a lady making BBQ sticks up there and the smell wafted over! My romantic Engagement moment lasted about 20 seconds! Lol :) I love the pic of our hands and our shoes right on the actual spot where Will asked me! Look at our funky bright clothes and my plastic bangles!! Lol, it's not like we were dressed up fancy for a romantic meal! But it was so sweet, I was just so happy and excited and couldn't stop looking at my ring and giving Will kisses and hugs and I looked around to see if any of the other people up there had seen us, but everyone else was just milling around! I hoped someone would rush over, like in the movies, and say "I saw you get Engaged, how romantic!!" lol! Didn't happen :) But we did get some BBQ sticks to celebrate! And they were so delicious too!

I was so excited to come down the Mountain again and find a phone box to call home and tell the family!! I asked Will if he had asked my parent's permission and he said yes, he'd called my Dad to ask. I was so pleased! How sweet is that!! I mean, I haven't lived at home for 10 years, but still he needed to ask if it was ok to marry their daughter :) Will asked should he have called Mum too, I was like "Don't worry, Dad will have told Mum" but Mum was staying at Felicity's and when I called them to tell them Mum had no idea! Dad had kept the secret from Mum cos he thought she might like the surprise! Isn't that so cute!! :) Good on'ya Dad!!

As soon as we got back down the Mountain it was about 4pm and Will crashed (asleep that is!) It turns out planning and executing a proposal is stressful and tiring after all! I wandered down to 7/11 to call home, which was very exciting! It was so nice to be able to call and say "Will asked me to Marry Him today up the top of Mt Fuji!!" wow :)

When it came dinner time we then realised just how small Kawaguchiko is! It was a Monday night, and if anything is going to be shut in Japan it will be on a Monday night, we wandered around for about an hour and couldn't find anywhere but an Indian restaurant (which didn't seem right for us in the middle of Japan to eat Indian!!) so we ended up with a little picnic from 7/11 for our Engagement dinner! Can you believe it! But they have great food at 7/11- full dish meals which they'll heat up for you and all types of sushi and noodle salads. Will ate Chicken Katzu and fried rice and I had a cold pork noodle salad with egg, and a sushi and another green salad. It was all delicious, and very special cos I ate it sitting on the tatami mat floor of our traditional hostel room, up at the low table, with the Japanese tea set nearby, Anime on the TV and my new Fiance across the table from me :) So sweet!

So that was our engagement!! And now I am Mrs Lam to be :)

:) C