Scenes from Taipei (trip made during O-bon holidays)

Young pastry cooks at work at Din Tai Fung. 1 rolling out the dough, 2 scooping in the fillings, and 3 finishing the folds and sealing the bun. Yum! (as an onlooker, I could only distinguish them from the numbers on their hats...)

Taipei Confucius Temple. Not at all crowded and there was this retrofitted arcade game that you're supposed to ride a horse-drawn carriage and shoot the boar (?)

View from the main gate of National Taiwan Museum. To clarify (also for the future me), the yellow shapes on the street are taxis and the black ones are motorcycles (I was pretty short on time that day...)

Lotus pond at Shukugawa Community Center

Despite the overwhelmingly famous Cherry blossoms at Shukugawa (even the local JR station is named as Sakura Shukugawa), the lotus pond was still worth the visit (and the mosquito bites thereof) There's even Nishikigoi swimming between the weeds!

Hyogo Profectural Mansion (or what I think the name should be)

Drawn during a drizzle while fending off the mosquito attacks. It used to be the main administration building of Hyogo Prefecture over 100 years ago and is still within close proximity from the one right now. Believe me, the building is much bigger than it seems in the drawing (shows how important framing is lol)

Kita-no-saurs and Naniwa bridge, Osaka

This cute little statue was in JR Kita-shinchi station. The sign underneath reads: Kita-no-saurs, it stretches its neck so long, in hopes of meeting you soon. Apparently few Osaka dwellers know about this statue, even though it was unveiled in 1997. Love the eyebrows!

The other half of the page, the iconic lion statue guarding Naniwa bridge (Naniwa-bashi). But history of the bridge traces back hundreds of years, but the current structure dates back 1912, closer in age to its neighbours in Nakanojima. In the back ground is everyone's favourite, Osaka city public hall (1918)!

Kyoto Aquarium!

Fun day out sketching with Kyoto Sketch Club!

Museum of Literature (former Kansai Gakuin University Chapel), Kobe

The journey afterwork to the Museum of Literature started in the worst possible way; sky suddenly clouded up and an electrical malfunction down the line trapped tons of people in the train station. But after I finally got on the train 20 minutes later and headed towards Kobe, the sky cleared up and there came a perfect sunset! Well worth the wait!

Sanjusangendo, Kyoto

Literally means the temple with thirty-three spacings, hence the long hall. As I was almost done sketching the buddha on the left, with only the facial features left to finish, a staff approached me and said, Please do not sketch here. I replied with, well, I know photography is not allowed, why not sketching? She said, it will cause trouble for other visitors, especially when it's crowded. Please ask for the permission to sketch from those monks sitting over there. I was like, great, even this temple works on strict company hierarchy. And so I got a long lecture from the monk in charge of how pens and inks are not allowed in the building, blah blah blah it may potentially harm the precious buddhas. So I guess had I pulled out my watercolour gears instead of my pen, I would be sitting in detention right now lol

(He did end up lending me a pencil to finish my work though)