We were lucky enough to be in Tasmania during the fruit picking season. Because of Tassie’s cooler climate, the fruit picking season is shorter than the rest of the states in Australia and runs from December through to May.

We stopped off at the Sorell Fruit Farm, which is just 25 minutes away from Hobart and is not only a pick-your-own fruit farm, but a restaurant and a fruit wine & liqueur store too.

I believe it was just $5 a box to pick your own berries. You can fill the box up as much as you like, as long as you can close the lid. We got there a bit later in the day, where we thought most of the berries had been taken by other people but there were plenty of big juicy strawberries left!

Above is my mum and brother with boxes of strawberries they picked.

And here is my brother and my dad.

Here’s a list of all the other fruits you can pick! You could spend your whole day there picking fresh fruit to eat! Yummm.

Above is the strawberry, cherry and blueberry liquers they had to offer. Beautiful!

Here’s my brother with a bottle of Honey Ale!

This place had beautiful home made desserts. Here are the cakes, and below were fruit ice cream. *licks lips* 

If you’re not sure whether to buy their jams, you can taste test them. I spent a lot of time tasting each one of their jams a couple of times… Hahaha. The best thing about their jams is that they also had sugar free options which is good for those who are worried about their sugar intake but still were deliciously sweet.

Here are some of the items they had on sale:

Tasmania is full of beautiful scenery. Clear skies, blue water and lush green mountains. Above and below are snaps we took on our way to Port Arthur! Nature is lovely in Australia, and especially in Tassie!

So what’s so special about Port Arthur? I’m sure everybody around the world knows that Australia’s first settlers were British and Irish convicts. But if you didn’t know already, Port Arthur was actually Australia was first colonised. This is where all the convicts stayed and worked and it became Australia’s largest penal station.

Port Arthur is now Australia’s most significant heritage sites and have thus has become one of Australia’s top tourist attractions. As a large open-air museum, you can walk around the large land and feel history come to life. Most buildings are still in tact, but some have unfortunately been destroyed in two large bushfires in the 1990s.

Above is a photo of me standing at what would’ve been the convicts first view of Australia. Lucky, I say! Look at how pretty the mountains are in the background. But just in front of the mountains, are the various buildings such as church, penitentiary, guard tower, policeman’s residence, commandment’s office, etc.

Here’s my brother and I inside one of the buildings.. Hahahaha.

Once you purchase a ticket to enter the Port Arthur Historic Site, you receive a complimentary ticket to sit on the ferry which takes you around to see the other islands. This is the way to get to the POint Puer Boys’ Prison, where three thousand boys, some as young as nine years old stayed and worked.

Most people jump onto this ferry to visit the Isle of the Dead which is a separate island where thousands of burials were made. I was not game enough to visit there, but I sure loved standing in the sun feeling the cool breeze on my skin while riding the ferry!

This is me loving the sun and water!

Here’s a photo of my mum and dad. Cute!

Believe this is one of the guard towers. If you tried to leave the island, you’d be shot from this tower!

You can also walk through the prison (it’s very eerie!) and see what it’s like to live here. Here is a typical prison cell where they slept and worked.

While the buildings for the convicts were so horrible, this is how beautiful the Roman Catholic Chaplain’s house was. Isn’t it stunning!

This is my favourite room in the house, it’s so pink! Love!!!! <3

Here’s me and my brother in the court room where convicts were sentenced.

Doesn’t this bell look real? Well it isn’t! It’s paper!

This is one of the churches at Port Arthur, where you came to repent your sins. Too bad a lot of the building has been destroyed.

While you may have been treated poorly as a convict at Port Harbour, it was well kept. Check out how beautiful it must’ve been to live here!

In all, I recommend visiting the Port Arthur Hertiage site. It is located at the southern end of the Tasman Peninsula, 90 minutes’ drive south-east of Hobart. We spent a whole day here, there are so many things to see and do and we still didn’t get to see everything. There’s so much to experience and learn here, it was great. Make sure you put on your walking shoes though, this place is huge but well worth the whole day visit!

Last month I decided to invest in a zoom lens (18-200mm) because I like to travel a lot and I hate changing lenses. I decided on a Sigma lens as it’s significantly cheaper than a Canon but just as good.

Before this lens, I had the 18-55, and while I could get a wide range at 18mm, I couldn’t get up close at things at 55mm. I’m really happy with my 18-200mm lens so far!

Here’s some example shots I took with the lens.. They’re not great shots since it was a horribly cloudy day, so just disregard the image quality for the moment and check out the zoooooooooooooooom.. Professional photographers are probably rolling their eyes at me right now thinking “amateur……” Hahahaha.

Here’s the lens at 18mm. See how it’s really zoomed out.

This is my lens at 55mm (the closest my old lens could get)

This is my new lens at 200mm. See the difference!

OH MY GOSH! It is now the final countdown until the SGI-Canada Youth Festival which is on May 15, 2010. This means that there is only twelve days left. TWELVE!

This has been a long anticipated event. One whole year of planning has gone into this day and I’m sure it will be spectacular. Out of 3,000 tickets available at Roy Thomson Hall, there is under 500 remaining! I’m sure it will end up being a packed house and full of Soka Spirit! Remember, if you haven’t got your tickets for this event yet, you can purchase tickets online at Roy Thomson or directly at the box office.

Just to reiterate, this event is an event in conjunction with two wonderful organisations, Me to We and Free The Children. SGI Canada have partnered with these two organisations as they share the same values of empowering youth and we hope to work together to create many good things for this world. The co-founder of Free the Children, Marc Kielburger, will be guest speaking at the event.

Last weekend we had our dress rehearsal in the Ikeda Hall (main hall which we have our large meetings) and it was all cleared out to simulate the stage. It was a long day (10am to 5pm), where we had two run throughs and then leaders including Tony Meers (SGI Canada General Director) gave their encouragement and sincere thank you to each and one of us who has put their time and effort into making this event such a success.

This includes all the performers (Hip Hop Dance Group, Latin Dance Group, Youth Chorus, Youth Band, Musicians) and the Behind the Scenes group (marketing, public relations, hair & make up, people movers, coordinators) and so on and so forth! There are so many people participating in this event that I just know that the weekend of May 14 to May 15 is going to be amazing!

Here are some photos of the dress rehearsal and another sneak peek of the event!

Here’s Mai (Public Relations) and Louise (Hip-Hop Dance Group Coordinator)

Below are the hip-hop dance group getting their make-up done!

Leslie, Sammy and Young Chul after we got our hair and make-up done.

Here’s us being “gangsta”.. hahahaha

Above are the boys being gangsta..

Funny how there’s that little girl in the bottom-right hand corner! Haha.

Youth Chorus rehearsing while waiting to be called on stage.

Latin Dance Group waiting for their turn to go on stage. Do you recognise where they got their costumes from? It’s a H&M Dress from the Spring Garden Collection. Aren’t they lucky!!

Below are the youth band! Their shirts look so sharp and spiff! Cute!

Please keep in mind that there are so many other performers and segments that I haven’t shown in this post. The youth of SGI Vancouver, Ottawa and Montreal are also making their way to Toronto to perform with us!

IT IS GOING TO BE AWESOME!!!!!

Last Friday, Kaori and I made our way up to High Park to see the Cherry Blossoms for Spring 2010! These Cherry Blossoms (Sakura trees) are such a wonderful celebration to see and experience in Toronto as they mark the end of winter! It is an old Japanese tradition of Sakura Hanami which is roughly translated as “cherry blossom flower viewing” and typically occurs in late April – early May. Toronto’s winter is just too harsh and cold, even for these most cold tolerant flowering cherry tree species! I’ve been told that these flowers don’t last very long as they fall very quickly and if you want to catch a glimpse of these photos, you only have about a 1-2 week window to go! Sakura blossoms are seen as a metaphor for life itself, luminous and beautiful, yet fleeting and ephemeral.

History of High Park’s Sakura Trees

In 1959, the Japanese ambassador to Canada, Toru-Hagiwara, presented 2000 Japanese Somei-Yoshino Sakura trees to the citizens of Toronto on behalf of the citizens of Tokyo. The trees were planted in appreciation of Toronto accepting re-located Japanese-Canadians following the Second World War. Many of these trees were planted on the hillside overlooking Grenadier Pond (immediately southwest of the Grenadier Café) and around the west shore of the pond.

In 1984, a grove of Japanese cherry trees were planted along a pathway west of the Children’s Adventure Playground in High Park. The trees were donated by Yoriki and Midori Iwasaki as a special gift to the people of Toronto and “a joyful symbol of life”.

Through the Consulate General of Japan in Toronto’s “Sakura Project”, 34 Yoshino ‘Akebono’ and Kwanzan ‘Fugenzo’ Sakura trees were donated toHigh Park in 2001 on the west shore of Grenadier Pond near the Maple Leaf garden.  In 2006, 16 additional Yoshino Sakura trees were planted near the original 1959 planting site.

Plaques commemorating each of the plantings can be found under the cherry trees in High Park.

Source: High Park’s Cherry Blossom Website

Image Source: High Park’s Cherry Blossom Website

There are two walks that you can take at High Park to see these trees. Walk 1 involves a 30-45 minute walk along the paved trails which can also be quite steep in some places. This walk is definitely worth it as you’ll see the most beautiful views of High Park’s Sakura trees as well as Grenadier Pond and Hillside Gardens. Also watch for Baltimore Orioles that have just migrated back to the park feeding on nectar from the Sakura blossoms! I didn’t manage to see any while I was there though..

I didn’t do Walk 2 but this walk features the grove of Sakura trees donated by the Iwasaki family in 1984 as well as the Children’s Adventure Playground and the Lower Duck Pond. While there are fewer Sakura trees on this 20 minute walk, this walk will be good for your little ones :)

Below are photos I took while I was on Walk 1. You will get a little viewing of some of these truly beautiful flowers! It of course is not the same to viewing them up close with your own eyes.

High Park becomes a photographer’s heaven at this time of year. From amateur to professional photographers, this is where they gather to capture this beautiful moment in Toronto. I didn’t see one group of people without a camera!

As mentioned a little bit earlier, there are some beautiful wildlife that come to stay at High Park.

These birds aren’t the only birds who come to enjoy High Park, but so do “Love Birds”.

And so do families and friends..

High Park also has other beautiful flowers such as this pretty pink one below.

Location & How To Get There
View Larger Map

The most convenient and easy way I find is to take the TTC to High Park station (on the Bloor line) and just as you cross Bloor Street, you’ll see High Park. It’s too big to miss!

If you prefer to drive, there’s free parking available at the Grenadier Restaurant (enter the park from the intersection of Bloor Street and High Park Avenue and follow the one-way loop to the Grenadier Restaurant in the centre of the park) and the lot immediately east of the Zoo (enter the park from the intersection of High Park Blvd and Parkside Drive).

I had one of those moments where I was absolutely starving and I had no idea what to eat! I opened up the freezer and saw that I’ve had a packet of udon which has been sitting there for a long time now because I had no idea what to do with it. I knew I had to use this up soon (especially since it’s taking up precious freezer space) so I googled some udon recipes and tried to throw something together with the ingredients I had!

I started off by boiling the udon in a saucepan. Cook this until it expands a little and is nice and firm, yet smooth and a bit soft.

While that’s cooking up, I fried some onions, spring onions (green onions), shitake mushroom and beensprout in a frying pan.

Add some soy sauce and seaweed and mixed this up. Cook this for about 2-5 minutes.

Once the  udon is done, add this to the pan and mix. I also added some black pepper (because I love pepper so much)

Then serve! :)

This was actually surprisingly more tasty that I expected! Must be the flavour from the shitake mushrooms and the seaweed! When I ate this, I added some Shichimi Togarashi (Japanese spice) and it was amazing. Yum yum.