Getting into the kayaks

 One interesting thing about the landscape here, is that the many islands are shaped by rock-eating bacterias. As you can see from the pictures, this has created huge empty space between the island and the water surface large enough to fit our kayaks.

Kayaking beside one island where you can see clearly how the bacteria have eaten the rock

Kayaking past another island

Clear water

A plant that apparently eats flies.

The entrance to a small bay with jellyfish

Our guide led us to a small bay filled with jellyfish. These are not the same type as the ones in the jellyfish lake, as you can actually see if you compare their tentacles. Also, the ones in the jellyfish lake are less stingy.

Jellyfish!

Jellyfish and kayaks.

 ..And that pretty much concluded our kayaking trip.! After our return to the boat we had lunch at a beautiful beach (see the pictures below).

Enjoying lunch at the beach

Fallen tree at the beach

• All blogposts from Palau
• Sightseeing in Palau: The Milky Way!
• Sightseeing in Palau: The Jellyfish Lake
• Sightseeing in Palau: Kayaking the Rock Islands
• Palau: Visiting the Battlefield of Pelileu Island
• Diving in Palau - The Turtle Wall

Palau Royal Resort by Nikko Hotels

Airai Water Paradise Hotel & Spa

DW  Motel

Lighthouse  Hotel

Palau has some amazing natural wonders which definitely require a visit while staying at the island, and many of them are situated around the beautiful Rock Islands. One of the unique places that can be visited on a trip to these islands is known as the Milky Way bay where you literally can bathe in white limestone mud. The white mud is supposed to be good for the skin too, which makes the place even more popular among tourists from both near and far.

The bay area known as the Milky Way

My boyfriend Yuma and I made a reservation for an excursion to the Rock Islands with a tourist agency called Impac, which was offering relatively affordable packages to various sights in the vicinity of the islands. We ended up in a group that consisted of Japanese tourists (probably since Yuma was the one who registered us under his surname), with me being the only non-Japanese.



After having jumped out into the warm water and washed off all the mud we continued our day-trip to the Jellyfish Lake.

There are a couple of companies offering trips to Palau's most characteristic sightseeing spots, but Impac was the only one we found that offered a fairly cheap trip including both the Milky Way and the Jellyfish Lake in one go. In addition to the Milky Way and the Jellyfish Lake our trip also included kayaking and snorkling, and the price was USD 100 pr. person (additionally you have to pay a 120 dollar conservation fee to visit the Rock Islands + the Jellyfish Lake).

• All blogposts from Palau
• Sightseeing in Palau: The Milky Way!
• Sightseeing in Palau: The Jellyfish Lake
• Sightseeing in Palau: Kayaking the Rock Islands
• Palau: Visiting the Battlefield of Pelileu Island
• Diving in Palau - The Turtle Wall

Palau Royal Resort by Nikko Hotels

Airai Water Paradise Hotel & Spa

DW  Motel

Lighthouse  Hotel

The last week of 2013 was spent in the Palauan archipelago situated east of the Philippines. I'll be back with some blogposts from the trip soon!

• All blogposts from Palau
• Sightseeing in Palau: The Milky Way!
• Sightseeing in Palau: The Jellyfish Lake
• Sightseeing in Palau: Kayaking the Rock Islands
• Palau: Visiting the Battlefield of Pelileu Island
• Diving in Palau - The Turtle Wall

Palau Royal Resort by Nikko Hotels

Airai Water Paradise Hotel & Spa

DW  Motel

Lighthouse  Hotel

Nippon Television's program "ZOOM-IN!! Saturday"'s year-end special with the title 「ズームイン!!サタデー 年末SP外国人&グルメな絶景まつり」features a number of interviews with gaijins living in Tokyo, and apparently the interview they did with me will be included in the show^^
It will be aired from 5:30-10:00 on Saturday. I guess I'll update this post once I've had the chance to see the program..! ;)

Prince Hotel and Grand Prince Hotel in Shinagawa are hosting an annual Nordic Festival which gives you the opportunity to experience a Nordic Christmas in the heart of Tokyo. From the end of November until the 25. December you can visit their Nordic Christmas Market, and they also arrange various event such as a St. Lucia day and visits from Santa himself invited all the way from Norway.
I've added som photos of a recent visit to the Nordic Christmas Festival below, and there is more information about the festival here (Japanese only).

Sumi-e (墨絵) is a traditional ink wash painting style introduced to Japan in the Muromachi-period (1338-1573) through Korea. Although sumi-e originally was developed in China during the Tang-dynasty (618-907) it gained its own characteristic style in Japan by masters like Sesshu Toyo and under the influence of Zen Buddhism.

Sumi-e is still popular in modern Japan, and I've been lucky to meet Mimi Wada who is an contemporary sumi-e artist. She arranges workshops for people interested in learning to make sumi-e paintings, and since the year is coming to an end she gathered a group of interested painters (an amateurs like me) for a New Year card workshop.

Next year we enter the year of the horse, making the animal a natural choice considering the design for this year's New Year cards.

How to make a sumi-e horse

We received handouts from Mimi-san showing how to paint the horse step by step. Still, it was quite hard to make the horse look as natural as Mimi-san's version of the horse. Seemed like the other participants also had a lot more experience than me, so I kinda was the only one making somewhat disproportionate horses with crooked legs.

At least I made some improvement throughout the lesson

Mimi-san demonstrating

Mimi-san and Yuki

This is what it looks like when you're a Sumi-e master. Work by Mimi.

...And this is what is looks like when you're an amateur. Still, not too bad though.

Again, Mimi-san's skills are "slightly" better then mine..

Le saint opera decorated with Mimi-san's sumi-e scroll

All in all it was a great chance to learn more about sumi-e and its painting techniques. And now I also have my own original New Year cards to send of to some friends! Just hope they'll ignore my lack of artistic skills.. Oh well, it's the thought that counts, isn't it?? ^^

Mimi's sumi-e scroll has been exhibited in Le saint opera since mid-November.
For more information about Mimi's Sumi-e art, check out her website Sumiracle