Hakone and a view of Mt. Fuji

Weeping Woman by French artists Francois-Xavier and Claude Lalanne at the Hakone Open-Air Museum.

It is my first time to visit Japan and as I have a full Tokyo itinerary for 8 days, I squeezed in a day visit to its neighboring city Hakone. Little did I know that this will be the highlight of my trip. I only managed to visit 3 places, the Pola Museum of Art, The Little Prince Museum and the first of its kind in Japan, the Hakone Open Air Museum. Navigating the city was quite easy and I managed to take a ride in one of their old electric railway system, a cruise on a huge 4-tier boat and the reliable and easy to handle bus system.

Sketches and Photographs: An Instagrammed chronicle of my first visit to Japan.

My first trip to Japan and I visited Tokyo and Hakone. I have never been so excited to visit the crazy city of Tokyo and I was also well inspired that I have made a lot of sketches during the trip.

Here are the sketches I have done and some of the photographs I have taken.

City Sketches: Macau

So I spent my Christmas holiday in Macau for 3 days before going to Hong Kong and I have done some sketches while I was there and I also added some more after returning home. Here are the sketches I made.

Surprising Macau: Christmas in this wonderful city.

Oh Macau, you surprise me with your charm. I never thought I would love your city but I did despite a very tight 3 days 2 nights stay, you still managed to deliver the best of a heritage-filled city and the cosmopolitan side of all the glitz and glam of your stunning casinos. Words are not enough for me describe you but here are my best shots of your city. Enjoy.

Review: Five Foot Way Inn, Macau

Macau was a surprise for me and did not expect I would love the place and I did. Given my enduring love for well-preserved old cities, Macau, was never on my list of places to visit. I only decided to go there to meet up some friends who were travelling as well. And from deciding a day visit to an overnight stay ended up to a full 3 days and 2 nights stay in this cosmopolitan gambling and heritage city combined.

Indeed, the place is expensive. The hotel we stayed in, the food, the transportation, the shopping and mostly everything were expensive. But I could say it was worth it since I was surrounded by seemingly well-preserved and re-purposed old Portuguese-style buildings and residential areas, I could say that this place captivated me well.

But I would like to focus on the hotel that I stayed together with my 2 other friends. The hotel, aptly named Five Foot Way Inn, was listed on the hostelworld.com. My friend booked us there and I just joined them in their room. The room was only good enough for two but we managed to squeeze in an extra bed for me. Although I do not understand why it was listed on hostelworld since it's actually a hotel and not a hostel. There is a difference I suppose but apparently, they consider themselves a hostel so let it be then. Overall, it was a good stay but I can't help to get infatuated by the contemporary artworks displayed all over so I took pictures of all that I have access to and here they are:

Merry Christmas!!!

It has been a wonderful year of collecting books. This year I got a lot of exchanges from old friends in Europe and new ones too. It is such a wonderful Christmas present from all of them that I managed to increase my collection to 77 books now. It is quite difficult to collect books from Europe, where The Little Prince have been published in so many different languages and dialect, so thank you so much to who made this collection grow.

Check the link below to view my updated "The Little Prince" book collection.

http://pinoyjourneys.blogspot.co.id/2013/08/the-little-prince-book-collection.html

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jigomeister
12.24.2015

The Little Prince in South Korea

South Korea is one of the countries where The Little Prince gained much popularity. And with this popularity comes a lot of marketing, merchandise and a sort of theme park.

Here are some of my wish-list merchandise sold by 7321 Designs.

80만원의 샘플제작비들여 만든 어린왕자 목걸이인데 한개 밖에 없네요. 이제 100만원은 받아야 겠죠? ❤️ #AntoinedeSaintExupéry #SaintExupéry #생텍쥐페리 #LePetitPrince #TheLittlePrince #littleprince #어린왕자 #opequenoprincipe #elprincipito #星の王子さま #DerkleinePrinz #kucukprens

A photo posted by @honeykeem on Nov 27, 2015 at 6:09pm PST