World Heritage Sites Built with LEGO BRICKS

Hey everyone! I earlier this month, I was super lucky and won some tickets from Osaka Bob to the "Piece of Peace" LEGO Exhibit in Osaka that features lots of artistic Lego builds and most if not all the World Heritage Sites around the world, built out of Lego.

Once again, thanks for the tickets!

If you're interested to still see them, the 600yen exhibit ends on December 12th, 2021 (this coming weekend as of writing this). There are also some Lego builts that are free to see all over DAIMARU and PARCO Shinsaibashi, though - which is also where one of the LEGO stores in Osaka are. So if you're in the area and don't want to pay, you can simply have a stroll around the mall to see some of the builts.

Let me show you some of the FREE TO SEE ones first:

This one is on the 9th Floor of PARCO (same floor as the Pokemon Center).

If you guessed "Shuri Castle", then you're absolutely right. This was built to raise money for the rebuilding on Shuri Castle, which I revisited recently in October. I will hopefully get to writing about that trip eventually... but the castle is still a massive work in progress. Don't want to get into it too much, but here's what's going on in Shuri when I was there in October 2021:

The Lego Build is there to get sort of create awareness and encourage people to help out with the charity - which is what this Lego Exhibit is really all about.

I hope they're able to raise some money and help out wherever they can!

Here's some more of the FREE TO SEE ones:

Ok, let's go inside to the exhibit!

This costs 600 yen to enter, but in my case - free... it's not a huge exhibit. It's one room and there's not a lot of space for people to pass through if it does get crowded. But it works for them, since these lego builds are big, but not THAT big.

These are some of my favourites:

This is a 360 "aquarium" that you can sort of duck under to go to the middle for a photo, like I did. It's really cool. Check out my instagram account for the 360 view of it with me!

I really, really love this one of the Japanese "osechi" - the bento box that Japanese people make (or buy, from department stores) during the New Years. I just really like the presentation and that lobster looks gooooood.

The exhibit also features some artistic Legos:

Some of them were quite cute, but I'm not sure I fully appreciate them.

Now, the main event - World Heritage Sites, first from Japan:

Can you guess where in Japan these sites are from? Comment down below if you know!

Now - some sites around the world:

The details are really amazing to see. I was really surprised at how long some of these took to do, but also how fast some of them took.

I hope you enjoy the photos!!

Do check out their official website for details. They seem to have had some world tours with these lego artworks before, so maybe fingers crossed, this will resume in the future!

Commuting Musings...

I was on the bus today, like any other day... and guys. I'm still trying to figure out what this lady on my bus ride was doing today...

If you've been on a Japanese bus, you've probably seen the ones where there is a door in the front and a door in the middle. From the middle door, the seating in the back is a 2-seat configuration on both sides - narrow middle aisle. In the front of the bus are single seaters for disability-seating.

Now bare with me here, but there's always a pattern of how people embark the bus and take the bus. Conventional bus riding goes like this...

1. Most people will take the single-seaters first.

2. Then the 2-seaters.

3. People don't want to seat near the folks in the 2-seaters, so they stand in the front. Also good options for people who don't stay on the bus for long and need to get off without pushing through a crowded bus.

4. Bus is getting crowded, people are now sitting next to people in the 2 seaters.

5. All seats are full.

6. Standing space only.

Today, I'd say the bus was at... a weird limbo of 2 and 3. There were people standing in the front but not many people sitting in the 2-seaters in the back. When I got on the bus, I went to one of the empty 2-seaters. There were still a few 2-seaters opened when a woman got on the bus and looked at my direction... giving my seat a longggggggggg look.

She didn't sit. She looked long and hard at her other options. Seat next to mine, the one in front of that, the back seats... looked at the seat next to mine again.

Then the bus started moving. She finally settled into the seat in front of the one that was next to my 2-seater. She was very hesitant to sit in it, but she did regardless.

Didn't really think much of it at the time.

But then, she stands up. Leaves her bag on the seat. But stands up. Looks at me, and only me.

Now I'm thinking: Does she just not want to sit??? Why is she not standing in the front if she wants to stand??? Why is she looking at just me???

Now the bus makes a few more stops and more riders get on. Because this woman in standing in a narrow aisle, she's obviously blocking people from getting to the other empty 2-seaters because she is standing. Not to mention her bag chilling on a 2-seater that could be sat on by someone.

Overall a bit of an unconventional moment here... lots of questions.

When I got off and looked back into the bus, I noticed she wasn't standing anymore. I'm not sure where she went but...

I'm very confused.

Maybe it's because I took her seat............... I'll never know.

Cheese Dessert Buffet @ NOKA Roast & Grill

Welcome to another blog! This will be a short one, as I'm not sure if this experience will benefit anyone in the future but I do want to share my experience at this restaurant for this limited time event.

NOKA Roast & Grill is located at the Osaka Intercontinental Hotel.

It's currently running a "OH MY CHEESE" Cheese Dessert & Autumn buffet for 5500 yen (plus tax).

NOKA is a... as the name suggests, a Roast & Grill restaurant. They are also one of the places you will find a lunch buffet and they are probably one of the top results on a restaurant booking site for buffets like OpenTable or Ikyu. I've always wanted to try their lunch buffet, but I can never really vibe with any of their "themes" and their price points for it.

I do however, very much vibe with cheese. And even though it's not a lunch buffet, I figured cheese can be savory & sweet - so it's sort of just a late lunch (this is considered an "Afternoon Tea" buffet, I suppose).

Of course, because we're at the Intercontinental - a high-class hotel in a smack middle of Osaka, there's ALWAYS a view. So enjoy the view:

A beautiful sight of Umeda Sky Building. Not the best Hotel View, but pretty good! The unfortunate part of the restaurant floor here at the Intercontinental is that they divided up the floor for three different restaurants. So you cannot get a lot of different views with just one meal. Oh well!

Anyway, let's talk about the CHEEEEEEEESE

The cheese buffet is MAINLY desserts.

Most of the cakes and bite-sized eats have cheese. Or it features some kind of autumn fruit & foods like chestnut (ew), grapes and strawberries. Thankfully the chestnut only appeared in the tiramisu... but that means I wasn't able to have the tiramisu. :(

There's a cheese fondue at every table. Yum!! It was really delicious, but I couldn't finish it since I mean... cheese is pretty heavy.

That's your drink menu. All-you-can-drink!

Service was very attentive, mostly. To keep the tables I suppose... clean... they would take the drink menus away and come back with them when it looks like your drinks are empty. It's a nice gesture, but I felt like they were a bit too short-staffed to really manage this properly, so I had to always awkwardly wave someone over to get refills. lol. #firstworldproblems I suppose.

Drinks were lovely, of course. TWG teas don't disappoint!

Everything was honestly really lovely.

But can we talk about THESE NUTS?!? They're cheese-flavoured nuts and oh my cheese they are SO GOOD. Give me like, a box of these PLEASE.

My only complaint is that there aren't as much savory foods as I liked. With the cheese desserts, it really needed some more carbs or meats to help complement and reset the tastes. The only savories they had were mostly the pictures I had, plus some veggie dip & stir fry potatoes (with cheese). All very strong-tasting foods.

Anyway, here's a short of some desserts they offered:

Overall, I definitely enjoyed my time here. It's a 90-minute buffet, which seems short but honestly with all the cheese... you'll be full pretty quickly anyway.

To finish off, here's more views & Xmas decor for you!

Thanks for reading!!