The Full of Treat Street, The Crafty Arts & The Friendly Neighborhood of Arashiyama, Kyoto

The internet told me & my wife to take a walk to Gion when we're in Kyoto. But hell with those internet sayings, me & my wife decided to go to Arashiyama where you can find the Tenryuji Temple & The Bamboo Grove (actually the Bamboo Grove weren't that great at all, as the bamboos aren't as tall as you'd seen in pictures). Arashiyama is full of good foods along the road, and the views are beautiful too. You can find some of the finest "mochi"s here, as well as those traditional ramen or noodles and the cheap hot snacks. The only thing that's a bummer was that most of the shops don't accept Cards, and the ATM (if there were any) was really hard to find. Well I'm not that good in writing this down, so let me just show you the random snaps from Arashiyama. Make sure you stop here when you're in Kyoto, and bring cash money.

^we didn't know why we decided to enter this shop that turned out to be some kind of beauty treatment shop

^near the train station, there's a Piano Museum that got a Steam Locomotive in front of the museum

^the famously bamboo grove

^there's a long queue at this little shop where they sell unique hot skewers of squid produce with the mix of cheese, crabs, and so much more. 

^magical umbrellas that shows unique patterns when the rain falls. damn.

^can you feel the friendliness of Arashiyama from her smile?

^Kimono Forest

^Some kind of rice cakes with a browned sugar that taste insanely good

Stay put for more traveling snaps ;)

The Sandal Game

It seems that since last year's summertime, Sandal has become somewhat popular in the style game, and I don't think it will go anywhere anytime soon. We're not talking flip-flops or beach sandal kinda thing, we're talking about these "Sandal Gunung" & Grandpa Style thing. Today, many designers are using sandals as their key elements in style. From luxury brands, high street & niche labels, fashion retail giants, to designers, all got their own pair of sandal. Givenchy, Celine, Margaret Howell, Zara, H&M, A Bathing Ape, Neighborhood, Mastermind JAPAN, you name it.

In Japan, the sandal game is always on. They have been incorporating sandals as their element of style on their everyday outfit since long time ago. There' a reason why the birkenstock always has wonderful selection in Japan & better than any other country in Asia.

  

Looking at online shops all over the world, people tend to search for sandals from Birkenstock, Teva, Suicoke, or Chaco. But, aside from those nice brands, you can actually find some good quality sandals from less popular brand in menswear/streetwear genre, and of those brands is FitFlop, or Camper. Yes the two are example of footwear brands that got some good sandals.

Today, even the locals here in Indonesia has start challenging themselves in this game, one example is this new brand, Hijack. While some others are more focused on the leather boots and some shift to the premium leather kicks, Hijack is one of the brand that is more focused on developing a high quality sandal. Still taking inspirations from other brand, but at least they are start designing their own and that is good. I'm looking forward to see more from this Hijack brand. Here are some of their products available right now.

How long will this Sandal thing going on? We'll see. Here are some of my likings when it comes to sandals, these are from Teva, Suicoke, Mephisto, Visvim, Givenchy, Chaco, Triop, and Birkenstock.

Pictures via Digital-Mountain, Hijack, Camper, FitFlop, Highsnobiety, and Silver & Gold.