Then there is the Nijō Castle (二条城), built in 1603 as the official residence of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first shogun of the Edo Period (1603-1867). But Ieyasu did not see the completion of the castle. It was his grandson Iemitsu who completed the palace buildings inside the complex some 20 plus years later after Ieyasu’s death….
Category: UNESCO World Heritage Site
Lakwacha with my KRM loves or why travelling with peers may be a better option
Almost a decade ago, my flatmates and I decided to have a weeklong break in Phnom Penh and Seam Reap in Cambodia, Bangkok in Thailand and Bintan in Indonesia. It was what at the National University of Singapore (NUS) calls the Reading Week, a weeklong break for students to do what else is expected of…
Nope, it’s not only about the Geisha, but something more in Kyoto! (Part 2 of 3)
From the Golden Pavilion, I took a 35-minute bus ride going to Ryōan-ji (竜安寺、龍安寺) or the Temple of the Peaceful Dragon. Some visitors call it the Silver Pavilion. Going to the actual site was a bit tricky. The bus stop was quite far from the actual site. I had to navigate a long street then I…
Paris, moi aussi, je t’aime, mon amour (Part 2 of 2)
And so the flaneur in me started to walk. It is something I don’t usually do (or more so, I cannot do) in Manila. But then, my friend Oscar, who accompanied me in Paris, informed me that I should be taking care of my belongings. He even remarked: “You’re in Paris!” Me musing: “huh?” Then,…
Nope, it’s not only about the Geisha, but something more in Kyoto! (Part 1 of 3)
“Oh, you are going to see some Geisha?” asked by a friend when I told him I could not go on the tour that our hosts at Osaka University prepared. (I told our hosts, I already had a tour of the city on the day of my arrival. On my first day, I already visited…
Vigan! or entanglement of the “foreigns” and the local in a Southeast Asian City
In 2021, the Philippines will commemorate 500 years of Hispanic colonial “legacy” in the archipelago. The most celebrated Hispanic legacy in the islands is Catholicism. Hence, in 2021, the Philippines will also commemorate 500 years of Catholicism in East Asia. Up north in the Ilocos region, Spain’s legacy remained intact through the preservation of…
Paris, moi aussi, je t’aime, mon amour (Part 1 of 2).
When we think of Paris today, we often think of it as the most romantic city (read here as lovers posing before the Eiffel Tower and smooching as they pose before the camera) and one of the most picture-perfect colossal pieces of architecture (also read here as posing before the Eiffel Tower). Several people I…
Jaipur City, finally a UNESCO World Heritage Site
This week is the 43rd annual convention of UNESCO World Heritage Committee. Baku, the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan is this year’s host city. For over 10 years, I have been following and documenting the proceedings – as if a participant or a delegate representing the Philippines in this important convention about cultural preservation…
The Photogenic City that is Bruges!
Fall 2017, I represented my University at the Frankfurt International Book Fair. The trip was official but I made sure to have time to explore the city plus Cologne, the closest heritage city to Frankfurt. Back then, the only city I wanted to see outside of Germany was Brussels for a very practical reason: lack…
The Great Wall, not of China, but of South Korea: Hwaseong Fortress
It was cold winter. The temperature was dropping to 0 degrees Celsius. The good thing about this kind of weather was the coldness. I would not get sweaty and I would be very comfortable to move around. The bad thing about it was also the coldness: moving was limited and it ironically it was also…
