Travel with Ally #3 | Ally

It's time for the newest edition to the Travel with Ally series!!! I've been doing a lot of this kind of posts because I didn't want them to just be kept in the drafts any longer and it would be best to just share them with you guys even though they may not be the most interesting. I'm still kinda just getting in the groove with being back to writing weekly posts so bare with me here. Now that it's towards the end of the year, I definitely have more time to improve on my writing skills as well as my socially awkward personality >_<

Where’s the destination for today???

In all honesty, I gotta admit that the last time that I actually went on a proper vacation would definitely have to be before our finals which seemed like decades ago. But I took sooo many pictures and noted down my entire trip from Day 1 so I really wanted to share them with you guys! Hope you don’t mind >_< I last visited Japan in about early to mid June…so that gives you a rough idea of what season it was.

Before flying to Kobe, Japan, I was actually in Hong Kong for a day or two. I have a whole post dedicated to my short trip in Hong Kong…Here’s the link: Travel with Ally if you haven’t already read it. Before the 3 hour flight, my family and I decided to grab a cup of coffee and a quick snack before getting on board so I suggested Starbucks because I’m obsessed with the Java Chip Frappuccino. I also got a chocolate drizzled croissant of some sort as a light snack.

We arrived at about late evening so we kinda just rested at the apartment for a bit before heading out to grab a bite. If you were wondering, my family rented out an apartment for our stay just cause it’s more comfortable to be staying in a more homie environment especially when you’re on holiday for a long period of time. Instead of calling a taxi, we wanted to experience the public transport so we got on a public bus to the town area (not really town area but more of the central area of Kobe so I guess you can call it town area…) The apartment was about a 10-15 minute ride on a bus to the nearest train station which was Sannomiya Station.

After dinner, we headed back cause we were just super tired from the flight and we head bigger plans for the next day. For some reason, maybe it was because I was overly excited or the Sun just rose really quickly and I woke up at about 7am (Japan time) *duh Ally…Japan is called ‘Land of the Rising Sun’ for a reason*

 

We planned to take a train to Nara (which is another part in Japan) because it was famous for it’s temples as well as the wild deer that roam around freely. You don’t see that very often but deer are considered a sacred animal and they’re not allowed to be killed so you could just be walking on the street and right next to you could be a deer. No worries though because most of them are tamed and won't bother you unless you smell like crackers and or actually have crackers with you. The weather was amazing on that day so I really enjoyed the stroll with big, shady trees leading the way… It’s kinda part of the fun to walk to the temples which are about a 10-20 minute walk from the station.

 

In Nara itself, I actually visited about 2-3 temples in a day because they’re all located relatively close to each other. So, just follow the crowd and you’ll probably find yourself at another temple in just about walking for 10 minutes. I don’t actually know how to read or speak the language so I can’t exactly tell you which temples I visited but I totally recommend for you to look up a few tourists spots and also the directions just in case.

Also in Kobe, my sister really wanted to visit an animal kingdom so I just tagged along. We visited the 'Kobe Animal Kingdom.' I gotta admit, this was the most interesting part of the day. There were sooo many animals and birds I’ve never ever seen or heard of before. Part of it was a petting zoo and it was sooo cool! I got to touch an alpaca and it felt so weird because it was SO fluffy! There were tons of other animals but I can’t name them all because there were that many….. The entire area was enclosed in like a greenhouse so it was really cool and there was also a flower garden.

 

The next day, I really wanted to take a cable car up a small hill/mountain to a herb garden. You’re probably like internally judging me but it was the highlight of the entire trip for me. Apparently, it was Rose and Lavender season so we got the chance to see full-bloom roses and lavenders. Although, there were soooo many other beautiful flowers I just felt like it was a flower-heaven on Earth. The herb garden is super big so just clear the entire day for this. Trust me, if you’re really into nature or just looking for some real healing-time this herb garden is amazing! You know how much I love flowers.....I couldn't possibly pass up the chance on taking nice pictures.

P. S. I didn’t mention this but of course sushi was on the list…..! It wouldn’t be a complete trip to Japan if you didn’t feast on sushi.

That’s about it for my post. It’s kinda long but mostly filled with pictures so I hope you enjoyed it. There were tons of other pictures that I wanted to include in this post but there were just TOO many so I apologise if this post felt a little compressed. We actually have an Instagram account dedicated to our blog so if you’d like to see more of the pictures not included in this post…..you should check out our Instagram: @fortytwocube #shamelessselfpromotime 

P. P. S. I'm pretty sure you noticed the new design for the blog. We wanted to change it up a little for our so called comeback after a few months. I personally painted the watercolour background to match our own individual colours. 

What's my next destination.....?

Hope you enjoyed this post,

Ally