A very long time back

The Taj, originally uploaded by KittyKaht.

My city burnt like never before, like not even during those ghastly riots of '93. I hurt, I cried and I was angry. Someone had dared to come to my home and decided to rape my essence.

Today, I hear news that the one living perpetrator of this attack has finally been sentenced to death. And I don't feel much really. Was it really so long back that I drank like never before to forget and try and make peace with what had been done...

It was a sacrilege that was committed against my city. But we found the will to move on, to my surprise, au contraire to what I said before and work towards a better tomorrow. Look at the commitment of the Taj management towards restoring that lovely hotel and looking after their staff so well!

Life does cast its shadows. Kasab is a shadow that is best dead. I said that before, I will say that again. Democracy or no democracy, a man who commits evil deeds like that deserves to die.

I miss my home, more than ever now that I am in a different home of my own making. Reading this sort of kickstarted that feeling. You realise that there are still things left to do, many more trains to clamber into and experience your city at its fullest.

Viva La Bombay - she will always be a Queen in my eyes :)

Otaru - a hidden gem

Otaru is a town/city which is about 30 or so minutes away by train from Sapporo where we had gone to experience the (crazily cold) delights of the Snow Festival or the yuki-matsuri as it is called in Japanese.

Otaru is known for its Canal - ever so pretty that I ended up buying a portrait of the Canal which looks pretty too!

The town knows how to make money of tourism too. They had a Snowmen street - where there all different kinds of snowmen and people of course took photos with them :D

They are both wearing matching blue scarfs!

Outside a glass shop (which Otaru is well known for)

But I forgot to mention the most wonderful thing about Otaru - its near the coast so this mean the train was like about 10 feet away from the Sea of Japan :D Do you know how cool it is to go on a train ride where the sea is just inches away with the line between the sea and snow merging even!

All the same innit?

We had reached early afternoon after a failed attempt to get to the number 1 attraction in Sapporo, the Historical Village but that is a story when you are drinking some whisky with some good company.

Anyways, Otaru I knew looked wonderful in the evening according to the photos we saw so we kept faffing until a point where we knew we would be able to experience it. We saw 'live' crab sitting inside a tank waiting to be eaten, wee snowmen like below...

Interesting candlework and lights like these

A whole family of wee snowmen :D

and bought delicious chocolate too :D As evening beckoned,

The lamps got lowered into the water

End result

The Canal all lit up at twilight

At the end all you can really say is this Go Otaru :)

If only Otaru was accessible from Tokyo that easily :)