THE FOXES IN THE AFTERNOON

I've wanted to visit Fushimi Inari Taisha (伏見稲荷大社) ever since being blown away by the beauty of that one scene from the Memoirs of a Geisha movie where Chiyo's running through the red gates (aesthetically beautiful movie, if a little questionable with its casting etc. ...but I digress).

As with a lot of other temples and shrines in Kyoto, the quiet escape of forests and the scattered sunlight filtering between the trees made it a wonderful escape from dense, bustling city life.

The shrine was much quieter than, say, Kiyomizu or Kinkakuji but there were still a decent number of visitors.

TASTE MAKERS

Two days before exams and time for therapeutic harddrive scanning for un-posted photos... You wouldn't think that street food making, ice cream (Messina, Round Two) and food from upcoming restaurant reviews (that are very delayed, admittedly) would go together that well but they're all accomplishing the common purpose of making me wish for the end of finals so there's that, right?

Enjoy - I will be here sipping lemon water and ensuring I can prove all the elements of a murder charge.

FRESH FROM THE OVEN

Unfortunately, I did not inherit my mother's talent for cooking and was not raised in a household where baked goods (let alone desserts) were a regular thing (we are more of a Chinese hotpot kind of family). Despite that, somehow I developed a fondness for pastries and basically all things involving shortbread and crumbly, rich, decadent sweet things that constituted your weekly serving of saturated fat (mm!).

But every once in awhile, I attempt to make things and, in this case, it was dark chocolate and walnut brownies, a beginner-level dessert if there ever was one.

Let's be honest, part of this was for the novelty of taking cooking photos on a sunny, well-lit day. No shame.