Photos: Sensoji Temple at Night

Sensoji temple is undoubtedly one of the most classic tourist destinations in Tokyo. Almost everybody that has been to Tokyo has photos of themselves in front of this beautiful red temple located in the centre of Asakusa. Mom and dad were no exception.

Our visit to Sensoji was not our first time. Actually, it was one that we did for the sake of nostalgia. We had a great time during our 3-yr stay here in Tokyo 20 years back, and we would like to see how the temple looks like now after 2 decades. We knew it is normally very crowded, and considering the frying hot 36C weather, we pushed our visit to the end of the day, just before it closed.

The sun was almost set, we gave up taking photos as the natural light has gone. Tired, we sat down taking a rest.

Little did we know this would become our best visit to Sensoji. As the crowd left, the light was turned on after dark. The temple looked majestic! The following pics were taken with iPhone 4S without any filter applied.

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Watching Singapore Chingay 2012 Parade

If there was not anybody gave us free tickets, we would never know the existence of this event that, later we learned, is apparently conducted annually. As what is said in their website about origin of Chingay:

A dazzling extravaganza of colours and cultural diversity, Chingay Parade Singapore is known for its resplendent floats and multi-cultural local and international performances that are an insight to our festive traditions and delight the hearts of many Singaporeans and tourists.

The word Chingay is from the Hokkien dialect, of which the Mandarin equivalent is Zhuang Yi, meaning "the art of masquerade". The festival began as a neighbourhood parade with only Chinese elements in 1973. Today, the Chingay Parade has evolved to be the grandest street and floats parade in Asia, showcasing the rich, vibrant multi-culturalism of Singapore and exciting cultures all over the world. To all Singaporeans, the next Chingay Parade is a parade of our people, our dreams and our pride!

This year's theme is "Love, Care, Kindness Everywhere" as showed by many heart shaped red big balloons that decorated the venue. Before the parade started, the ever energetic MC kept shouting, "Chingay Chingay. People people. Singapore Singapore" which in every phase audience had to answer with "we are one!". The MC went non-stop with the Chingay cheer. I am pretty sure he had a good sleep last night after the event.

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