詳しく北海道！DIY Hokkaido！- Of Gratitude and ‘Koyo’xication (Day 3)

Allahu Akbar Allahu Akbar…
La Ilaha Illa Allahu wa Allahu Akbar…
Allahu Akbar wa Lillahi Alhamdu

It’s the tenth of Zulhijjah!

Celebrating Eid Adha in Obihiro, Hokkaido

Alhamdulillah I felt grateful to Allah for blessing me with a sempoi, cool and spontaneous family. When I suggested for us to spend our Raya Haji (Eid Adha) in Japan, my parents were quite thrilled and excited. It may be due to the fact that most of our family members spent quite some time overseas or living far apart. For us, as long as we are together, where we are is secondary.

詳しく北海道！DIY Hokkaido-Part 1

Map of Autumn Foliage in Hokkaido for 2014- credit to WeatherNews.Jp

 

始めの日本にドライブ、楽しみ！

It’s gonna be my first experience driving in Japan and I am sooooo excited! And it does not get any better than DIY’ing it in Hokkaido (the Japanese version of New Zealand).

The plan came about unexpectedly when I was researching for places to go since I have extra annual leave days for the remaining of 2014. I am that allergic to extra holidays. Initially, I planned to join my travel buddy Kokly with her husband for their trip in South Korea mid-October (what a meddlesome, ain’t I?). And I was tad close to buy flight tix and already had the itinerary done (save for next time insya-Allah). I was trying to get the best of autumn in South Korea since this is not my first time to the beautiful country. But the timing was just not with me given the relatively short period of autumn foliage (c.f. Japan) due to its geographical shape. (Un)expectedly, I ended up researching for none other place than Japan!! Somehow it just fitted nicely given the longer period for autumn foliage (Sorry Kokly!).

Destination: HOKKAIDO!

Delightful Turkiye- Deciding & Planning

Our backpacks for the trip to Turkiye in Summer 2014

The plan for encore trip to Turkey has been in my mind since my first trip there in winter 2008, right after I came back for good from New Zealand. My family and I went with travel agent and despite being a good trip, the independent traveller in me was left dissatisfied.