A Journey in Vietnam

During summer vacation, I traveled around a couple of cities in Vietnam with my wife.

I stayed at Hoi An for 2 nights and at Da Nang for 2 nights as well, in addition to 2 more nights at Ho Chi Ming for transit.

Those three pictures above are a river side views at Hoi An.  We can see a buffalo and ducks in the central photo; outside of  this view, animals are surrounded by the new hotels. I was wondering when they would be moved by the development of that area.

The pictures below are sceneries at Da Nang.  Along the beach, so many buildings are under constructing.  Nothing stops the development.  Is it good or bad?

We explored around the caves, so called Marble Mountain at Da Nang, one of the famous sight seeing spots.  The Map says there are 11 caves altogether.  Each cave has some vivid monuments and fine sculptures.

Trees and leaves are changing their colors

Temples in Kyoto

I walked around several temples and shrines in Kyoto, after attending at my nephew’s wedding ceremony.

First, I started with Kiyomizu temple located in the east part of Kyoto. 

Unfortunately, Kiyomizu temple is refurbished now and the main venu is covered with construction sheets now. 

Then, I went down to Kodai temple, which is famous with the beautiful garden, via a tiny slope faced with traditional souvenir shops in the photo below.

This is a decoration by sands in Kodai temple.

I stopped by Yasaka shrine below to take a rest shortly and I got to know the next year would be a bad luck year for me in the sense that occult divination system based on Taoist theory of five elements; composed of woods, fire, sands, gold and water. 

I had a special treatment in the shrine for amulets, in particular, I took special Zenzai, meaning red beans soup with rice cakes. So I don’t have to worry about a bad luck in the next year anymore. 

I have just passed by Chion-inn temple, a very large temple.  

 I didn’t have much time to walk around there, then, I went ahead to Shoren- inn temple, famous temple with its garden as well. 

I saw more foreigners than Japanese people there. 

Finally, I went to a soba noodle shop, named Matsuba, serving a very delicious soba menu with salty-sweet dried herring, in Kyoto. 

My walking around Kyoto finished with this soba noodle but. I enjoyed a lot during my stay to see beautiful gardens isolated from the noisy outside world and made us concentrated on what I saw in front of me, the sounds of w-inds, rivers, swinging trees, and so forth. 

Boracay in Philippines

I visited Boracay island in the Philippines from 10th  to 13th August during my vacation period. I went there with my wife and we enjoyed a lot of filipino cousins, beautiful beaches and sunset. 

I was impressed that the Philippines has a lot of the potentials of tourism and  the tourism would be an opportunity to accumulate the  internal reserves in its own country if it establishes some sort of collective powers or driving forces to reconstruct the accessibility around the countries.
It is necessary to consider the urban design and to discuss among the federal government, the local governments, industries, academia and communities, then proceed the renovation projects; it will work.

Monet

I traveled to Giverny to visit Monet's hose.

He loved flowers and Japanese "UKIYOE".
The pond and the bridge he always drew in the pieces were there.
I took many pictures and show some of them below.

Here below, this is what Monet saw during painting.

Camera is not capable enough to capture how the genius observed and imagined.

He also drew the panoramic paints in l'Orangerie Musium in Paris.

There are two rooms that have four panoramic paints each, which means all walls are covered by Monet's paintings.  

You may feel how large they are, comparing to the size of people in the picture above.

The Golden Week Journy 2017

I am in France now, to see my son studying in Lyon, France.

From Japan to France, it was long flight for more than 12 hours and it hurts my lower back.

However, traveling around the world is always inspiring and refleshing me every time.

Staying at hotel near the Disney Land at Paris, I took the TGV down to Lyon.

Lyon used to be the center of Gallia in the ancient Roman Empire.

This picture shows the sceneries of Lyon across the river Rone.

The statues below is Luis the 14th. 

The Little Prince with Antoine de Saint‐Exup´ery (below).

This church is said the first church in France.