Second-hand lovin'

I am fond of second-hand shops. I love the quirky things and fashionable clothes that I cannot otherwise afford in real life, but I can buy at a fraction of the real price from ukay shops. One Sunday in Kobe after mass, I scoured the stores under the Motomachi train station to check out the second hand shops. Most of the stalls were closed, but some were open. Them offered everything from old Japanese books, vinyl records, toys, figurines, watches, samurai swords, cameras as well as clothes and accessories. At first I was really enjoying myself until I began thinking about Pinoy horror movies like Feng Shui and Segunda Mano. In any case, I saw a lot of interesting stuff for sale.

White Christmas

I am a bit of a Christmas junkie. I would start buying gifts for everyone as early as July or August when shops would hold their mid-year sale. I get a kick out of wrapping gifts and hiding them inside my closet so they would not get dusty. In September, we would already set up our Christmas tree in Bulacan.

Last year, I was on a plane to Japan in August, and settling in a new house in September. We were busy reading books and articles in October and November, and writing papers and preparing presentations in December. I barely had time to pick up a gift for the exchange gifts.

On Christmas day, we tagged along ours seniors' field trip to Kanazawa and Shirakawa-go. Being self-confessed free-riders, we wanted to explore much of Japan without having to plan the trip by ourselves. It was exciting to see snow for the first time but it was kinda sad, kinda cold that I didn't have parties and dinners and what not on Christmas.

For our field trip, Kobe University lets us choose from a list of destinations. We nailed two of the destinations in the list last November - Hiroshima and Kurashiki. Last December we wanted to experience snow so we went with our senpais to Kanazawa and Kurashiki. We used the johachi kippu, a less expensive way to get to our destination. We went to Kanazawa on Christmas Day. On our way there, we already passed by snow-covered mountains. We were expecting to see snow in Kanazawa but the weather apps say that we are two days too early. When we arrived in Kanazawa, it was really cold but there was no snow at all. First, we visited the Higashi Chaya District, an area of geisha teahouses. Some of the chaya are open as museums, but there are some which still operate as geisha teahouses.

Our next stop was Kenroku-en Garden, said to be one of the three most beautiful gardens in Japan. Our senior said the garden is more splendid when covered with snow.

The next day we visited Shirakawa-go, a UNESCO world heritage site famous for their traditional gassho-zukuri farmhouses, some of which are more than 250 years old. Finally, snow!!!