004: Awa Dance Festival

Just found out in the mid of August, Masking tape had a mt school project in Shikoku,` Making is fun`. The school is like you pay 1000yen for the workshop and learn to make cards, photo frames etc using mt products.  Here is their work http://www.masking-tape.jp/mtschool/gallery/

I was in Shikoku during August, not for the mt school but for another program.

My first meal in Takamatsu, the most famous food in Shikoku, udon!

 See, another footprint I got from this trip.

After having my lunch, continued my way to Tokushima, another prefecture in Shikoku.

Awa dance festival is one of the famous event in Tokushima, which held in the mid of August.

There are seats in some reserved area where you need to purchase the tickets to get in.

Performers wear the traditional obon dance costumes sing and chant as they parade through the shopping street.

Also, there are groups of dancer are called `ren`, dance through the streets during the obon.

Usually, the Awa dance festival is held for 4 consecutive days and there are competitions for

 dancing of each Ren as well.

The taiko drum`s performers.

The kids wear yukata.

Besides, there are many vendors selling food, toy and etc.

This also one of the common vendors you could see during the festival, it`s a game where you try to see how many toys you can net.

You could always find interesting choices of fizzy soda in Japan`s vending machines.

003: Some footprints on my notebook

What do you usually get for yourself when you travel around? For example, a postcard, some local craft etc...When I started travelling around Japan by JR train, I found that they usually would have a rubber stamp at each station. Always the image that has been carved on the rubber stamp is the most famous thing or food or spot of that place.

These are some stamps I got for my recent trip to Tottori Sandune.

For me, it is like you check in yourself at certain place at facebook, what you stamp on your notebook is like leaving a footprint of the place you`ve been travelled on your notebook. You will never get the same stamp from one to the other station in Japan.

And, these are the stamps I got at Kobe and Izumo station.

As you flip through your notebook, you will know how many footprints you left in your travelling life.

002 : Essence of Life

When I first started tabiyo, I was wondering how should I create public awareness to people in Malaysia, who don't have much knowledge about how amazing Traveler's Notebook is. So, I come out with all these drawings, to show the different ways of using Traveler's Notebook in different occasions: Travel, Outing, Work and School.

It has been some time for me to do drawing since I graduated from art school. Thanks god it still come out quite nice and cute :) Do you like this?

001 : MY Traveler's

Some of my friends are curious on how am I using my Traveler's Notebook. Here I would like to show you the contents! :D

This is my regular size Traveler's Notebook, my friend help me to get this from Tokyo 3 months ago. The leather appear quite different now if compare with 3 months ago. Now, it looks so much charming and full of characteristic! I tied the little kitty on the bookmark :) Few weeks ago, I bought a pen holder <medium size> from Kinokuniya at Singapore, there is a little corner selling series of items for Traveler's Notebook. This pen holder is very helpful to keep my pen in place at all time.

When open up the leather cover, I pasted one of the Pocket Sticker on the cover, to keep all my loose paper and a Double-Sided Stickers. 

This is my first refill notebook - Free Diary (Weekly). This diary is still empty as I'm currently holding another diary from Moleskin which I bought early this year. When approaching end of the year, I will start to use this! Anticipating :D
By the way, for your information, Traveler's Notebook is launching 2013 diary series mid of this coming September!

This is my second refill notebook - Blank Notebook, it come with the starter kit when I purchase Traveler's Notebook, I was so amazed by the quality of MD paper - this paper is good for you if you like ink based ball pen and the ink will not penetrate through the paper. I use this notebook to write, draw and plan out anything that happens or going to happen in tabiyo.

I downloaded all these useful information from the official website of Midori Traveler's Notebook and paste it on the cover/ back of each refill. This helpful download includes calendars, country information, conversion tables, world map and timetables etc.

At the back of my leather cover, I pasted on another pocket sticker to keep my name cards and other business cards. If you can see at the back of my refill cover, I'm still keeping the notes that come with my starter kits. The notes for travelers is very inspiring and I always like to read them again and again.

This is the kraft paper envelope that I made by myself. This is for me to keep receipts, articles, tickets and vouchers, especially during my trip to other country.

I did customized a refill for my diving log. I made this according to the usual size of Midori refills and bind them together. It was easy and is good if you would like to customize your very own refill base on your lifestyle.

This is my third refill - Grid Notebook. I use this refill to record down my schedules and memories during my travel. I will put in all necessary information into this so that I can use them as future reference if I'm going back again.

Here it goes for my Traveler's Notebook with 4 refills.

There are a lot more refills/ accessories that I'm hoping to get, stay tune for the next shipment! :D