I know i should be busy with my project (which is due later 2359).. or my essay (which is due tmr morn 9am) now instead of blogging.. but i saw somethings that really bothered me..
I am now seated comfortably in KAP Mcdonald's, getting materials of out the articles (see! i am doing work! =p). Here, there is a much coveted seat.. the table-seat which is nearest to the power plug.. because although this mc is so huge, they only allow users access to one (which im totally cool with). I do need my laptop to type my essay but i haven't reached that stage yet so im just sitting somewhere doing my reading..
there is someone at the "king's" seat for as long as i've been here.. maybe even longer.. probably i was engrossed in my work? i didn't realise that he kept his laptop charger until a girl placed her bag on THE seat, with 3 other guys surrounding the table in a flash. I didn't know where they were from, but i didn't have to guess. They are Singaporean, the kiasu-ism is unmistakable. i am quite sure she didn't even ask him if he was leaving, because he had the look on his face which i expected him to have.
For a moment, i wished that the guy originally sitting there would look up and tell them "im not leaving yet" but he was a nice guy.. he just packed up the remaining stuff and left..
well.. probably they had their reasons?
"Always put yourself in the shoes of others.. so that after a mile, you would at least have their shoes!" =p
maybe they really need to do their work using laptop and were desperate for the power source..
but does it really boil down to this? That we will be our ugliest in moments of desperation and survival? It really chills me just thinking so.. will i act the same way when im placed in these situations? Like.. when im on the verge of being kicked out of school cuz my results r not gd enough, i will backstab someone to get the marks i need? Will i? I wonder.. but if i do.. i will be so disgusted with myself.. =(
haha.. so negative thoughts.. guess im really stressed.. the deadlines r getting to me.. the project still ok.. i've got some wonderful grpmates who totally understands my situation and is covering me on that side.. but there's still the individual essay to tackle.. though i have the skeleton and structure up, i still have yet to fill in the flesh and substance.. i got 14paragraphs.. deadline: 9am tmr.. which means i must go at a rate of abt 1para/hr.. and that's not including bathing and eating time.. im so dead..
plus.. im bothered by things happening on the soccer side.. man management is really not easy as it seems. In your opinion, how would u get "2" mathematically? i.e:
x ( ) y = 2.
some would use '+', some would use '-', or maybe other ways..
how do we choose?
*sigh*
Friday, 14 November 2008
Thursday, 13 November 2008
I missed him again!
my idol~王力宏 came to singapore for a concert last week..
and i missed him yet again!
damn~
So many times he's here and i cant go to his concert!
This time, like any other, he choose to come at a time where the projects i have on hand are, well... let's just say i don't have enough hands to have my projects on...
and to make it worst.. the show was a hit!
"...he also gave us what most Chinese pop acts can't - a concert so good audiences were on their feet from start to finish." - 8days
well.. and having Sun Yanzi professed she had "fallen in love with Lee Hom", (although she's just obviously caught up in the euphoria) definitely says something..
i so love his songs.. just hope this won't be last trip here..
Wednesday, 22 October 2008
The Last Supper
was packing my drawer just recently, a mess due to the maddening work that has been thrown onto me.. found the notebook which I used while I was in Japan, and look through it, just to relive some of the memories (although most of the notes are like.. “study jap!”, “do lit as hist essay” or “kanji test tmr~” haha.. ) towards the end, I found the few pages which I wrote when I was on the plane back to Singapore..
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We arrived pretty late back in Tokyo last night because our flight from Asahikawa was only at 815pm. Parting with laura seemed weird.. before this trip to hokkaido, I don’t really know her at all.. I have seen her around, but the only time we went out together as a group was probably to… gHibLi museum? yeah.. and at that time, I don’t think we spoke much at all.. not that we spoke much either during this 7days, but the fact that we traveled together made me feel we are like a gang~ she seem a really nice person, with a good sense of humour (actually I think this is something all 7 of us have, ok.. maybe not ian~ haha..) so even though I only know her for a short time, 多多少少 will be sad..
when we reach back plumeIS dorm, we still had to repack our luggage abit cuz we bought quite a “few” things from hokkaido.. haha.. plus the fact that we had really late lunch at around.. 4pm? that’s why our dinner turned into a supper lo.. haha..
we ate at a restaurant nearby their dorm and headed off to a sleepless night of karaoke, yeah! it’s the 2nd time we did such a thing, the other time was like.. a day after we arrived back from nikko? yeah~ the time after we viewed the はなび at 浅草.. just that too bad this time yu didn’t join us.. cuz she was feeling ねむい, plus she hadn’t been feeling well throughout hokkaido, or even much before that, and she wanted to see us all off the next day.. so I guess she really need the rest ba..
throughout the k-ing, I was kinda pre-occupied with other things on my mind.. not that it wasn’t fun.. it was! just that I was distracted with my watch, keep stealing glances at it.. hoping with every glance I take, time would just move a fraction slower, or stop at best.. but dawn came sooner than I expected.. and the time to part was here..
we reached back at their dorm at close to 6am in the morn, and their grumpy, impossible resident manager saw us at the entrance. And since ian and I don’t actually stay there, he didn’t allow us to go in and collect our にもつ. In the end, the gals had to move our stuff from leona’s room for us. What an ass!
as we waited along the pavement, exchanging parting wishes, naturally, the gals got more emotional, esp amy, and started sobbing uncontrollably. 还跟我说不会哭呢~ =p
you know, I just so hate saying goodbyes. For the whole week in hokkaido, in between the crazy fun things we do, the long hours of driving, the sleeping pictures we took, the beautiful sceneries of intimidating mountains, vast oceans or swarm of moths, I have been bracing myself for this very moment. Every single moment I took my mind and eye off what’s in front of me, I get depress because I think of this parting day. And im glad to say I stayed strong throughout the goodbyes..
Well, throughout the wait for the taxi with the 3 of them (minchu n ian got into another cab first), we didn’t really say anything. There was so much to be said, yet, I was speechless. So many words of concern to be said, so much feelings to be conveyed, yet I was unable to express myself. I hated myself there and then.
I went to Narita T2 first to check in one of my luggages with minchu and ian cuz I have a feeling my luggage would be overweight.. =p but who knows, I give them 1 luggage liao still have excess baggage of 5kg wor.. and I have to pay for it lo.. damn SIA! have some common sense lah.. I have been here for 4months for study.. and u give me a mere 25kg?! *angry*
so I slowly pay lo.. give them all my coins.. just saving about 200yen in case I wanna buy drinks.. I took my own sweet time to walk around the airport but I was still kinda early, finding myself at the gate almost 15mins earlier than boarding time. So I sat myself just in front of the ceiling high window, over-looking the huge planes with the impressive greenery and the great blue sky peppered with clouds as a backdrop.
It was only then, that I realized that I was going to leave japan already. I think back of the life that I had here, what I would not see anymore when I get back to Singapore. I think about the friends I am leaving behind, the friends I would not see anymore when I return. Although maybe for them, I might not mean as much, but to me, they mean a lot. I don’t think I did a good job in expressing that, but I just hope they know how I feel.
Even on the plane just now, whilst watching movies, I could feel tears swelling up, (im quite sure its not because the terrorist blew up a plaza in Salamanca in Vantage Point) because it really kinda hit me strongly. 今日分离何時才能再相遇？ Although minchu, ian and I played around with the idea of going Australia next year as like a grad trip (so we can visit leona and yu~), it wouldn’t be the whole gang yah? amy and laura probably won’t make it.. on the train to the airport, we spoke of meeting in 5yrs’ time, at some country, probably Japan would be fitting, because this was where we started. Even though people would say it’s a childish idea, I really hope we can do it. It’s like.. so.. soo.. fairytale-like? 7 people from different background first meet in a foreign country, made a promise to meet again X years later.. awww… fun yah? =p
But even now, as I am on the plane back to Singapore, I know reality awaits me. My last yr in uni would be hectic, academically even though im not doing any HYP. And the added responsibilities I have from soccer.. I can no longer miss too many trainings.. This year we are in a particularly difficult group.. I don’t want people to remember my year as the year that didn’t made it to the top 4.. im really worried.. not forgetting the fact that I have to worry about my future.. *sigh*
For now, I will just lift the memories I had in japan, carefully, slowly into a box, 小心翼翼地把它合起来, tuck them into a corner, so that when I reminisce about it again, I can remember everything about it, for this is the best 4 months I’ve ever had in my life.
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As of now, i have a giant mountain of work to be done on my desk and im pretty worried about getting them done, tho im more worried about the grp projects.. i don't like people to think i don't do much work to contribute to the proj (bad experience in nm3216: game design). But i guess i should be fine? i like the way steph puts it..
"keep pushing! i mean, you climbed mt.fuji, surely you can climb a mountain of work~"
So, tmr onwards (actually since monday), i have decided to commit more time to do more wrk, because of the impending wrk ahead of me. the last few weeks i've been slacking quite abit.. can't blame me! i had a very frantic start to the semester~ so i probably won't be blogging for some time (and for that matter, sorry if im replying ur emails/facebook msgs late!). anyway, there's not much more to say about my life since coming back to Singapore. Everyday is wake up, attend lessons, soccer training/matches, do labs/assignments/projects, sleep. Occasionally get to go out walk walk, eat good food, watch movies..
well, hope everyone is well! =)
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We arrived pretty late back in Tokyo last night because our flight from Asahikawa was only at 815pm. Parting with laura seemed weird.. before this trip to hokkaido, I don’t really know her at all.. I have seen her around, but the only time we went out together as a group was probably to… gHibLi museum? yeah.. and at that time, I don’t think we spoke much at all.. not that we spoke much either during this 7days, but the fact that we traveled together made me feel we are like a gang~ she seem a really nice person, with a good sense of humour (actually I think this is something all 7 of us have, ok.. maybe not ian~ haha..) so even though I only know her for a short time, 多多少少 will be sad..
when we reach back plumeIS dorm, we still had to repack our luggage abit cuz we bought quite a “few” things from hokkaido.. haha.. plus the fact that we had really late lunch at around.. 4pm? that’s why our dinner turned into a supper lo.. haha..
we ate at a restaurant nearby their dorm and headed off to a sleepless night of karaoke, yeah! it’s the 2nd time we did such a thing, the other time was like.. a day after we arrived back from nikko? yeah~ the time after we viewed the はなび at 浅草.. just that too bad this time yu didn’t join us.. cuz she was feeling ねむい, plus she hadn’t been feeling well throughout hokkaido, or even much before that, and she wanted to see us all off the next day.. so I guess she really need the rest ba..
throughout the k-ing, I was kinda pre-occupied with other things on my mind.. not that it wasn’t fun.. it was! just that I was distracted with my watch, keep stealing glances at it.. hoping with every glance I take, time would just move a fraction slower, or stop at best.. but dawn came sooner than I expected.. and the time to part was here..
we reached back at their dorm at close to 6am in the morn, and their grumpy, impossible resident manager saw us at the entrance. And since ian and I don’t actually stay there, he didn’t allow us to go in and collect our にもつ. In the end, the gals had to move our stuff from leona’s room for us. What an ass!
as we waited along the pavement, exchanging parting wishes, naturally, the gals got more emotional, esp amy, and started sobbing uncontrollably. 还跟我说不会哭呢~ =p
you know, I just so hate saying goodbyes. For the whole week in hokkaido, in between the crazy fun things we do, the long hours of driving, the sleeping pictures we took, the beautiful sceneries of intimidating mountains, vast oceans or swarm of moths, I have been bracing myself for this very moment. Every single moment I took my mind and eye off what’s in front of me, I get depress because I think of this parting day. And im glad to say I stayed strong throughout the goodbyes..
Well, throughout the wait for the taxi with the 3 of them (minchu n ian got into another cab first), we didn’t really say anything. There was so much to be said, yet, I was speechless. So many words of concern to be said, so much feelings to be conveyed, yet I was unable to express myself. I hated myself there and then.
I went to Narita T2 first to check in one of my luggages with minchu and ian cuz I have a feeling my luggage would be overweight.. =p but who knows, I give them 1 luggage liao still have excess baggage of 5kg wor.. and I have to pay for it lo.. damn SIA! have some common sense lah.. I have been here for 4months for study.. and u give me a mere 25kg?! *angry*
so I slowly pay lo.. give them all my coins.. just saving about 200yen in case I wanna buy drinks.. I took my own sweet time to walk around the airport but I was still kinda early, finding myself at the gate almost 15mins earlier than boarding time. So I sat myself just in front of the ceiling high window, over-looking the huge planes with the impressive greenery and the great blue sky peppered with clouds as a backdrop.
It was only then, that I realized that I was going to leave japan already. I think back of the life that I had here, what I would not see anymore when I get back to Singapore. I think about the friends I am leaving behind, the friends I would not see anymore when I return. Although maybe for them, I might not mean as much, but to me, they mean a lot. I don’t think I did a good job in expressing that, but I just hope they know how I feel.
Even on the plane just now, whilst watching movies, I could feel tears swelling up, (im quite sure its not because the terrorist blew up a plaza in Salamanca in Vantage Point) because it really kinda hit me strongly. 今日分离何時才能再相遇？ Although minchu, ian and I played around with the idea of going Australia next year as like a grad trip (so we can visit leona and yu~), it wouldn’t be the whole gang yah? amy and laura probably won’t make it.. on the train to the airport, we spoke of meeting in 5yrs’ time, at some country, probably Japan would be fitting, because this was where we started. Even though people would say it’s a childish idea, I really hope we can do it. It’s like.. so.. soo.. fairytale-like? 7 people from different background first meet in a foreign country, made a promise to meet again X years later.. awww… fun yah? =p
But even now, as I am on the plane back to Singapore, I know reality awaits me. My last yr in uni would be hectic, academically even though im not doing any HYP. And the added responsibilities I have from soccer.. I can no longer miss too many trainings.. This year we are in a particularly difficult group.. I don’t want people to remember my year as the year that didn’t made it to the top 4.. im really worried.. not forgetting the fact that I have to worry about my future.. *sigh*
For now, I will just lift the memories I had in japan, carefully, slowly into a box, 小心翼翼地把它合起来, tuck them into a corner, so that when I reminisce about it again, I can remember everything about it, for this is the best 4 months I’ve ever had in my life.
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As of now, i have a giant mountain of work to be done on my desk and im pretty worried about getting them done, tho im more worried about the grp projects.. i don't like people to think i don't do much work to contribute to the proj (bad experience in nm3216: game design). But i guess i should be fine? i like the way steph puts it..
"keep pushing! i mean, you climbed mt.fuji, surely you can climb a mountain of work~"
So, tmr onwards (actually since monday), i have decided to commit more time to do more wrk, because of the impending wrk ahead of me. the last few weeks i've been slacking quite abit.. can't blame me! i had a very frantic start to the semester~ so i probably won't be blogging for some time (and for that matter, sorry if im replying ur emails/facebook msgs late!). anyway, there's not much more to say about my life since coming back to Singapore. Everyday is wake up, attend lessons, soccer training/matches, do labs/assignments/projects, sleep. Occasionally get to go out walk walk, eat good food, watch movies..
well, hope everyone is well! =)
Friday, 19 September 2008
hOkkaidO~
finally! the entry on hokkaido is here! and it cldn’t have been done at a much better time.. amidst all the stress im getting from the difficult assignments, the seemingly never-ending schwrk, the continuous deadline after deadline and strain from trainings, allowing my mind to be wholly taken up with reminiscences of the wonderful and happy memories will bring a smile to my face.. =)
we left Tokyo for Hokkaido on the 30th of july and again, it cldn’t have been more well-timed. for the past few weeks, Tokyo had been like a oven, slowly warming up the “ingredients” it has with in.. temperatures were close reaching unbearable (at least to me lah, for goodness, I was carrying my paper fan from nikko everywhere I go okay~) when we reached Hokkaido, it was like back to the past when I first arrived in Tokyo in late march! it was sooo cooling, i just miss the feeling of feeling the “air-con” when I was out walking in the open.. haha.. once we arrived at sapporo’s new chitose airport, we went to ORIX to pick up our baby~
our baby car~
in the end, we had to pay extra for it because it wasn’t the original car allocated to us.. if this car was out baby, the original car wld have to be our “foetus” cuz its so small!!! I wonder how they ever think it cld fit 7 full grown adults.. hmm.. “foetus”.. wonder how I ever came up with that.. sounds kinda disgusting huh? haha.. anyway, of cuz, our first driver was none other than our super driver~ (tho we wasn’t to know her superb driving skills till later..)
our super driver~
we spent the first day touring central Sapporo, first to the beautiful odori park.. it was really nice there, with all the pretty flowers and fountains..
odori park~
but we got bored soon and headed to the clock tower nearby. It was really small and museum-like and passages were in jap so we also left after a short while. Next stop: Sapporo beer musem, where we had beer ice-cream! innovative yah? haha.. it really tasted like those black beer lo.. although I don’t really like to drink, this tasted surprisingly okay to me.. hee~ oh oh.. and the beer here is cheap! for a small amount, u can get 3 glassful of beer to drink! I bet laura loved this place the most.. haha..
we had dinner at a ramen shop which we spent a long time trying to locate it.. apparently ramen’s quite famous here.. there’s like a whole street of ramen shops lo.. recommended by a certain “expert”, ramen tastes best when go with beer~ wahaha..
we headed down towards otaru the next day. but before tt, we dropped by the historical village of Hokkaido.. the place is like so big, so spacious.. its done in such a way to resemble how the villages were like in the past.. oso duno whether because it is a weekday, because Hokkaido is lydat, or is it because this place is not so popular.. no one de leh.. haha.. the place was pretty boring, but we had lots of fun at the playground, trying vainlessly to walk on stilts and reliving childhood with the see-saw and swing rides.. haha..
I wanted to go to the sea village de (don’t know y i always like things related to water~) but no time lah.. we didn’t cover some villages already leave so late le.. cant imagine if we try to walk everything.. since we left late, by time we reach otaru was already close to 2plus in the noon.. and it didn’t help we cldn’t find a carpark! haha.. our first task at otaru? ice-cream!!!! haha.. we walked into this store just beside our carpark which had a lot of weird flavours.. it seems unusual now for a ice-cream store in japan not to have weird flavours.. haha.. I got double scope butter-potato and rose, cuz tt was what my idol got as well when she went.. haha..
ryoko hirosue~
I still can rem Leona tricking amy into eating uni(sea urchin) flavoured ice-cream by telling her its vanilla.. haha.. and she fell for it.. think she trusted her ママさま too much.. keke.. the look on her face after she tasted it was so comical.. haha..
on our way to the famous musical box museum / store, we stopped by a street stall and eat some bbQ scallops.. totemo oiishi~ it was so fresh, I think they just caught it not long, when u order, they open the shell and bbQ it with the shell right infront of u.. even smelling it I was so hungry liao.. so eating it is a must! all of us ate except ian, even amy-who-doesn’t-like-to-eat-seafood tried abit lo.. n it was delicious! see… =p
we promised to come back for more on the way back, but who knows by time we turned back, it was so late the stall had long closed! tts because we spend most of our time in otaru at the musical box museum~ the place was pretty huge and filled with lots of different kinds of musical boxes.. got weird ones like sushi.. got cute ones like angels.. got extravagant ones like merry-go-round and ferris wheel… but those gals absolutely love their musical boxes… they were like choosing and picking.. yu even did one for herself! there was still shop by the side where u choose the music u wan, but its just a plain box.. then u go and buy the individual items u wan.. but the bad thing is u have to do it ur own (maybe good to some?) the worst was by time we got all the items ready to pay, they say we only got 5mins to do it wor.. jialat.. then later they extend to longer for us.. so okay lah.. the rest all shopping in the main museum, only left me to help yu with her box.. but lydat also better lah.. to many pple also difficult to wrk on one box.. keke..
yu's personalised musical box~
since we left Sapporo late, we had to delay leaving otaru late too.. we just managed a glimpse of the famous otaru canal then had to rush off le.. like tour grp lydat.. haha.. the drive down to lake toya was long n tedious lo.. its like a highway with only 1 lane.. wanna overtake slow cars oso difficult.. also don’t know why the route we take got so many huge heavy vehicles lo.. slow us down.. but got one speedster siao de.. one shot overtake 6cars.. in tunnel somemore.. he no crash count him lucky.. so dark somemore lo.. no streetlamps de.. rain somemore.. haiyo.. at least got nice view cuz the highway was by the sea.. I bet day time wld be much nicer~ but I driving so didn’t really get to admire lo..
lucky I had my 白い恋人! bought last nite to try, c nice anot.. if nice can buy as souvenir.. n it tasted pretty gd.. crisp biscuit layering with sweet choco inside.. yum yum~ by time we reached the hotel in lake toya.. almost 11 liao lo.. haha..
hunter and the hunted~
we spent the next entire day at and ard lake toya.. our itinerary was kinda impromptu because I didn’t really manage to research much on this place, but I just know this is a must-come place.. haha.. but luckily the 旅館 we were lodging at had this superb booklet which recommends the places to visit ard the area. Armed with tt, along with the formidable gps on our baby.. we headed out to the milk farm~ we had quite a cheesy breakfast with all the cheese products lah.. like cheesecakes and I had an assorted cheese plate.. haha.. just b4 we left the place, we had… ice-cream again~~~ haha.. but this time I didn’t eat anyway, felt too full from the breakfast anyway.. there was this wide piece of land where they played badminton.. there’s a rack where u can just take the racquets.. they got soccer ball too.. but so sad no one play with me.. haha.. apart from that, this was a special place, cuz it was where we discovered amy had supernatural powers!!! the ability to talk to animals!!! this lamb was the first of many animals she spoke to during our 1week tour of Hokkaido.. I will slowly introduce the rest of the cast when they appear.. and amy says later she was just trying to make friends.. haha..
"friend" #1
after tt, we wanted to go fruit picking de, but so sad no fruits in season… we had to be contented by just looking at them ripening ones.. but some of us bought some jam from there.. the jam was absolutely delicious!! it tasted very fresh~ the apple one was not bad but it was the strawberry one tt caught my attention.. I could feel the fruit bits while tasting the jam lo.. supposed to go up Mt Usu to view the Showa Shinzan, a new crater created due to recent movements of plates.. but the ropeway ride up to the summit is pretty expensive.. and there was no way to hike up the trail.. so we just ate lunch there lo.. as usual, laura got her “ramen + beer” set.. I ordered this seafood teppanyaki which looked so tantalizing lah.. Leona n minchu ordered tt too, but they share lo.. and amy ordered a Genghis Khan set.. when my order came, I was like.. “woah.. this is so worth it..” it was such a big portion with the scallops n muscles.. who knows they tell us later is 2 shares.. dammit! haha.. but more funny one is amy lo.. eat halfway only then realize it was lamb meat.. think she really hit off well with the lamb in the morn tts y now she totally couldn’t bring herself to eat anymore.. we had to swap our food for her meat else she wld just be eating veg lo.. haha..
no~ baba~
firewrks~
took a 2hr drive down to hakodate amidst the gloomy sky and the endless rain~ drop laura off so tt she can go meet her お母さん.. not her real family lah.. cuz she lived here, in hakodate, like a few yrs ago for a homestay program.. so now tt we r back just go visit visit lo.. anyway, we went to this really interesting place which had a park shaped in the form of a star! we went up to the tower and although the view was tt nice (probably cuz was raining), the sight of the park was amazing.. it was so huge n close up I cldn’t even take a full pic of the star.. haha.. but I managed to get a pic from goryokaku tower, which I think Josiah wld like.. haha..
God forgive me~
what will delight Josiah more is tt I visited churches after this! haha.. well.. don’t worry.. I am still an atheists (a nicer wrd for free-thinker, which I learnt from them in Japan! haha). They just wanted to see the architecture and since Hokkaido was rumoured to be first inhibited by foreigners, the buildings were very European in style..so they were pretty nice to look at.. the shopping warehouses at the pier (bay hakodate) was even more European.. u wldn’t feel u r in japan.. I think they have something similar to this in yokohama, the redbrick warehouses at minato mirai~ but I didn’t walk into the buildings in yokohama b4 tho..
gateway of russian church~
the day really had a series of unfortunate events.. first rain.. cant shop properly.. then wanna go up mount hakodate, also cant cuz so foggy also.. then cant find parking space so illegal park by the road lo.. kenna parking fine lo.. not 30SGD ok.. its like 15000yen? tts like 200SGD lah! so those in Singapore, u 生在福中不知福 lo… don’t always complain complain.. but I still think we had such a bad day cuz we were reduced to the power of 6.. missing the 7th element, everything go against us.. still got fireworks leh.. cancelled cuz of the rain lo.. damn u, rain!
bay hakodate~
ian, laura, yu, leona, amy, me, minchu (from left to right~)
weather the next morning wasn’t any better.. it was still drizzling when we head out to asaichi for sashimi breakfast.. yay! sashimi~ hakodate, the southern most tip of Hokkaido, is widely known for its fresh seafood~ so, nothing in the world will stop us from missing it.. well.. except if u r amy or ian.. haha.. we took quite some to order our food because there were too many combinations that we were spoilt for choice! don’t know what to order that we can really feel satisfied.. haha.. most of our orders r similar, just tt maybe leona’s one won’t have ikura, yu’s doesn’t have uni~ but most of us all got crab as one of the ingredients.. this says just how tasty the one we ate at lake toya was.. haha.. but laura ordered this additional ika somen which, was a hell of an experience. At first, when it came, we didn’t really notice it.. but when we really saw it, we like freaked out lo.. haha.. kinda lah.. well.. the squid we had on the plate was still moving lo.. I was like, no way am I going to eat it! you know there r purple spots on the legs of the squid, these spots were like appearing and disappearing from time to time.. its like they were breathing.. oh my god.. even now when I recall it, I still feel… eeyeeerrr~ haha.. but eventually I still ate it due to pressure from everyone.. unfortunately, I got one with the suction pores.. I put some wasabi on it and it like, squirm lah.. now THAT really freaked me out.. haha.. Its like screaming “ouch ouch, the wasabi’s hot” haha.. I heard that these pores may suck on ur tongue sometimes so I purposely made it face away from my tongue.. n it didn’t stick.. luckily.. haha..
later we walked ard the market and there was this section where there was a pond? there were many ika swimming ard in it.. they let pple fish it (or shld u say.. ika it? haha) then they cut it up there and then and serve it on a plate for u to eat immediately w/o cooking it.. it was so so gross..
we spend the next few hrs driving back up to sapporo.. it was still raining so we couldn’t visit the onuma national park.. heard from laura its quite beautiful lo.. wat a pity.. when we reached back Sapporo, we also didn’t immediately check in the hostel but went to the Sapporo factory shopping center to walk walk shop shop lo.. the open area was actually pretty nice, with sunflowers decorating the place.. we split up again up dinner cuz they wanna wat indian food but yu not really feeling well, so i had chinese food with her lo..
mini firewrks~
so anyway, that night, I got my wish! I got to set off 7 firewrks on my own~ mini ones lo.. hahaa.. got some is like parachute de, shoot very high.. some r like jets.. with the base below it sprays towards the top~ they were really pretty~ next time I go japan, I must do this again.. must buy more types to try~ haha..
after having lots of fun, we went to an onsen (hot spring) nearby.. since we came Hokkaido.. we hav been going onsen for like.. 3nites le lo.. no choice lah.. no night life here so only can go relax relax lo.. haha.. but the place we went was so scary lah.. the road leading up to the hotel had almost no lights.. and there were moths flying all around the place.. it was so difficult to run out of and into the car lo.. think ian smashed a few moths on our windscreen.. haha..
got back to the room, only then I realize got lan cable wor~ haha.. wasted my time in the evening doing nothing.. so I got down to blogging the Mt Fuji post with ian practising his magic trick, keep using me as experiment.. so irritating.. haha.. kidding lah.. anyway, b4 I knew it, all of them were asleep, and just as I was packing up to sleep, something weird caught my eye.. someone’s leg was crossed and propped up.. I was so curious as to whether she was asleep or not.. haha.. it’s funny isn’t it.. sleeping like that.. I have heard of pple sleeping with eyes open, pple who snores damn loud, pple sleeping with mouth open (those in the train in jap, they open really wide..) but I’ve never heard of pple crossing and propping their leg while sleeping b4.. haha..
after eating ice-cream again at the cheese factory, we spend our last day in Hokkaido at asahiyama zoo.. it was pretty big, but I think singapore’s one bigger leh, tho I cant be too sure cuz very long no go zoo le.. haha.. but they do have some weird animals.. like kapibara!!! till then, I have only heard of its name cuz of mawe, keep on asking me to get the soft-toy for her.. I thought it was just a made-up character like hello-kitty..
kapibara~
laura and yu~
haha.. there were the usual lions, tigers and rhinos too.. but I realized that laura really love bears quite a lot huh.. when ian keep on irritating her about hunting n eating bear meat when we were in lake toya, I thought she was just playing along with him by “growling” at him.. when we were here, she purposely must take pics of the bear.. take a few somemore.. when norm she hardly even whip out her camera.. but a lot of animals here like nocturnal de leh.. fox kun, raccoon kun, porcupine also kun.. haha..
we left for the asahikawa airport pretty early cuz everyone tired of walking le.. plus had to go settle the stupid fine.. don’t know can don’t pay anot.. haha.. but expected lah.. must pay.. 15000yen plus 10000yen refundable deposit.. though broke, we still shopped crazily in the airport, buying as many shiroi koribito as we could.. haha..i bought like 7boxes lah.. but worth it lo.. the friends who I bought for all say nice.. =)
don’t know whether is we tired or wait till sianz, we started telling each other lame jokes, riddles and 欠扁问答題.. haha.. all the way till on plane oso no stop.. then we played orientation games like Fuzzy Wazzy, What’s next.. but the most fun was black magic! because Leona cldn’t get it, haha.. cuz she usually very fast get these things de..(she got What’s next and im still clueless! stupid ian don’t wanna tell me.. like minchu say, must be a lame one.. haha) so the 3 of us were torturing Leona most of the plane ride..(i wonder if she knows it now le mah.. haha.. ) too bad we played for too long.. wanted to let her sleep then take pics de.. cuz throughout the trip, they have been taking pics when some of us were sleeping in the car.. everyone kenna at least once le lo.. only haven’t got Leona yet.. damn! even I also kenna le lo, the only time I sat in the backseat I kenna.. sianz.. but on the plane to Hokkaido I already got taken by laura le~ I was reading for most of the plane ride then lo.. only nap 10mins also 中! sian.. haha..
when we got back to Tokyo, we can practically feel the heat surrounding us.. grr.. back to horrendous heat.. we got on to the train and changed trains at Shinagawa to get back to their dorm. said our goodbyes to laura, cuz she isn’t staying at the dorm mah.. *sigh* sad, but it’s only the first of many goodbyes.. = (
we left Tokyo for Hokkaido on the 30th of july and again, it cldn’t have been more well-timed. for the past few weeks, Tokyo had been like a oven, slowly warming up the “ingredients” it has with in.. temperatures were close reaching unbearable (at least to me lah, for goodness, I was carrying my paper fan from nikko everywhere I go okay~) when we reached Hokkaido, it was like back to the past when I first arrived in Tokyo in late march! it was sooo cooling, i just miss the feeling of feeling the “air-con” when I was out walking in the open.. haha.. once we arrived at sapporo’s new chitose airport, we went to ORIX to pick up our baby~
our baby car~in the end, we had to pay extra for it because it wasn’t the original car allocated to us.. if this car was out baby, the original car wld have to be our “foetus” cuz its so small!!! I wonder how they ever think it cld fit 7 full grown adults.. hmm.. “foetus”.. wonder how I ever came up with that.. sounds kinda disgusting huh? haha.. anyway, of cuz, our first driver was none other than our super driver~ (tho we wasn’t to know her superb driving skills till later..)
our super driver~we spent the first day touring central Sapporo, first to the beautiful odori park.. it was really nice there, with all the pretty flowers and fountains..
odori park~but we got bored soon and headed to the clock tower nearby. It was really small and museum-like and passages were in jap so we also left after a short while. Next stop: Sapporo beer musem, where we had beer ice-cream! innovative yah? haha.. it really tasted like those black beer lo.. although I don’t really like to drink, this tasted surprisingly okay to me.. hee~ oh oh.. and the beer here is cheap! for a small amount, u can get 3 glassful of beer to drink! I bet laura loved this place the most.. haha..
we had dinner at a ramen shop which we spent a long time trying to locate it.. apparently ramen’s quite famous here.. there’s like a whole street of ramen shops lo.. recommended by a certain “expert”, ramen tastes best when go with beer~ wahaha..
we headed down towards otaru the next day. but before tt, we dropped by the historical village of Hokkaido.. the place is like so big, so spacious.. its done in such a way to resemble how the villages were like in the past.. oso duno whether because it is a weekday, because Hokkaido is lydat, or is it because this place is not so popular.. no one de leh.. haha.. the place was pretty boring, but we had lots of fun at the playground, trying vainlessly to walk on stilts and reliving childhood with the see-saw and swing rides.. haha..
I wanted to go to the sea village de (don’t know y i always like things related to water~) but no time lah.. we didn’t cover some villages already leave so late le.. cant imagine if we try to walk everything.. since we left late, by time we reach otaru was already close to 2plus in the noon.. and it didn’t help we cldn’t find a carpark! haha.. our first task at otaru? ice-cream!!!! haha.. we walked into this store just beside our carpark which had a lot of weird flavours.. it seems unusual now for a ice-cream store in japan not to have weird flavours.. haha.. I got double scope butter-potato and rose, cuz tt was what my idol got as well when she went.. haha..
ryoko hirosue~I still can rem Leona tricking amy into eating uni(sea urchin) flavoured ice-cream by telling her its vanilla.. haha.. and she fell for it.. think she trusted her ママさま too much.. keke.. the look on her face after she tasted it was so comical.. haha..
on our way to the famous musical box museum / store, we stopped by a street stall and eat some bbQ scallops.. totemo oiishi~ it was so fresh, I think they just caught it not long, when u order, they open the shell and bbQ it with the shell right infront of u.. even smelling it I was so hungry liao.. so eating it is a must! all of us ate except ian, even amy-who-doesn’t-like-to-eat-seafood tried abit lo.. n it was delicious! see… =p
we promised to come back for more on the way back, but who knows by time we turned back, it was so late the stall had long closed! tts because we spend most of our time in otaru at the musical box museum~ the place was pretty huge and filled with lots of different kinds of musical boxes.. got weird ones like sushi.. got cute ones like angels.. got extravagant ones like merry-go-round and ferris wheel… but those gals absolutely love their musical boxes… they were like choosing and picking.. yu even did one for herself! there was still shop by the side where u choose the music u wan, but its just a plain box.. then u go and buy the individual items u wan.. but the bad thing is u have to do it ur own (maybe good to some?) the worst was by time we got all the items ready to pay, they say we only got 5mins to do it wor.. jialat.. then later they extend to longer for us.. so okay lah.. the rest all shopping in the main museum, only left me to help yu with her box.. but lydat also better lah.. to many pple also difficult to wrk on one box.. keke..
yu's personalised musical box~since we left Sapporo late, we had to delay leaving otaru late too.. we just managed a glimpse of the famous otaru canal then had to rush off le.. like tour grp lydat.. haha.. the drive down to lake toya was long n tedious lo.. its like a highway with only 1 lane.. wanna overtake slow cars oso difficult.. also don’t know why the route we take got so many huge heavy vehicles lo.. slow us down.. but got one speedster siao de.. one shot overtake 6cars.. in tunnel somemore.. he no crash count him lucky.. so dark somemore lo.. no streetlamps de.. rain somemore.. haiyo.. at least got nice view cuz the highway was by the sea.. I bet day time wld be much nicer~ but I driving so didn’t really get to admire lo..
lucky I had my 白い恋人! bought last nite to try, c nice anot.. if nice can buy as souvenir.. n it tasted pretty gd.. crisp biscuit layering with sweet choco inside.. yum yum~ by time we reached the hotel in lake toya.. almost 11 liao lo.. haha..
hunter and the hunted~we spent the next entire day at and ard lake toya.. our itinerary was kinda impromptu because I didn’t really manage to research much on this place, but I just know this is a must-come place.. haha.. but luckily the 旅館 we were lodging at had this superb booklet which recommends the places to visit ard the area. Armed with tt, along with the formidable gps on our baby.. we headed out to the milk farm~ we had quite a cheesy breakfast with all the cheese products lah.. like cheesecakes and I had an assorted cheese plate.. haha.. just b4 we left the place, we had… ice-cream again~~~ haha.. but this time I didn’t eat anyway, felt too full from the breakfast anyway.. there was this wide piece of land where they played badminton.. there’s a rack where u can just take the racquets.. they got soccer ball too.. but so sad no one play with me.. haha.. apart from that, this was a special place, cuz it was where we discovered amy had supernatural powers!!! the ability to talk to animals!!! this lamb was the first of many animals she spoke to during our 1week tour of Hokkaido.. I will slowly introduce the rest of the cast when they appear.. and amy says later she was just trying to make friends.. haha..
"friend" #1after tt, we wanted to go fruit picking de, but so sad no fruits in season… we had to be contented by just looking at them ripening ones.. but some of us bought some jam from there.. the jam was absolutely delicious!! it tasted very fresh~ the apple one was not bad but it was the strawberry one tt caught my attention.. I could feel the fruit bits while tasting the jam lo.. supposed to go up Mt Usu to view the Showa Shinzan, a new crater created due to recent movements of plates.. but the ropeway ride up to the summit is pretty expensive.. and there was no way to hike up the trail.. so we just ate lunch there lo.. as usual, laura got her “ramen + beer” set.. I ordered this seafood teppanyaki which looked so tantalizing lah.. Leona n minchu ordered tt too, but they share lo.. and amy ordered a Genghis Khan set.. when my order came, I was like.. “woah.. this is so worth it..” it was such a big portion with the scallops n muscles.. who knows they tell us later is 2 shares.. dammit! haha.. but more funny one is amy lo.. eat halfway only then realize it was lamb meat.. think she really hit off well with the lamb in the morn tts y now she totally couldn’t bring herself to eat anymore.. we had to swap our food for her meat else she wld just be eating veg lo.. haha..
no~ baba~ after having our fill, we took a ship ride towards this deer island in the middle of the lake.. I so love this kind of adventures.. like go 寻宝 lydat.. haha.. but the island’s pretty small.. and we could only see the deers from behind a fence (though heard from Sabina sometime later tt they could enter the enclosure.. damn, I think we went too late.. ) but nvm lah.. at least I learnt something on the way there.. now I know tt these (below) are actually called “seals”.. according to some animal talking expert.. haha..
"friends" #2
"friend" #3.. laura's friend too~ haha..
for the first time, we split up for meals because there was the sushi gang and the non raw food gang.. haha.. so Leona, laura, minchu and I headed off to this nearby sushi place, which had really fresh sashimi and sushi.. I swear, even the crabmeat taste so good.. its not I 夸张, but I have never ever tasted anything like this b4.. the 口感 is so gd.. it was one of the few items I ordered twice lo cuz tt nite I hardly repeat any orders..
after that, we met up with them at the pier, to catch the nightly fireworks! so cool yah.. every nite of the summer they will let off fireworks by the lake.. and this is something special cuz the fireworks don’t always explode in the sky.. sometimes it is just over the surface of the water.. the effect of the dusts falling down towards the lake is marvelous.. to think the next day we still can see fireworks in hakodate I so looking forward to it..
firewrks~took a 2hr drive down to hakodate amidst the gloomy sky and the endless rain~ drop laura off so tt she can go meet her お母さん.. not her real family lah.. cuz she lived here, in hakodate, like a few yrs ago for a homestay program.. so now tt we r back just go visit visit lo.. anyway, we went to this really interesting place which had a park shaped in the form of a star! we went up to the tower and although the view was tt nice (probably cuz was raining), the sight of the park was amazing.. it was so huge n close up I cldn’t even take a full pic of the star.. haha.. but I managed to get a pic from goryokaku tower, which I think Josiah wld like.. haha..
God forgive me~what will delight Josiah more is tt I visited churches after this! haha.. well.. don’t worry.. I am still an atheists (a nicer wrd for free-thinker, which I learnt from them in Japan! haha). They just wanted to see the architecture and since Hokkaido was rumoured to be first inhibited by foreigners, the buildings were very European in style..so they were pretty nice to look at.. the shopping warehouses at the pier (bay hakodate) was even more European.. u wldn’t feel u r in japan.. I think they have something similar to this in yokohama, the redbrick warehouses at minato mirai~ but I didn’t walk into the buildings in yokohama b4 tho..
gateway of russian church~the day really had a series of unfortunate events.. first rain.. cant shop properly.. then wanna go up mount hakodate, also cant cuz so foggy also.. then cant find parking space so illegal park by the road lo.. kenna parking fine lo.. not 30SGD ok.. its like 15000yen? tts like 200SGD lah! so those in Singapore, u 生在福中不知福 lo… don’t always complain complain.. but I still think we had such a bad day cuz we were reduced to the power of 6.. missing the 7th element, everything go against us.. still got fireworks leh.. cancelled cuz of the rain lo.. damn u, rain!
bay hakodate~ian, laura, yu, leona, amy, me, minchu (from left to right~)weather the next morning wasn’t any better.. it was still drizzling when we head out to asaichi for sashimi breakfast.. yay! sashimi~ hakodate, the southern most tip of Hokkaido, is widely known for its fresh seafood~ so, nothing in the world will stop us from missing it.. well.. except if u r amy or ian.. haha.. we took quite some to order our food because there were too many combinations that we were spoilt for choice! don’t know what to order that we can really feel satisfied.. haha.. most of our orders r similar, just tt maybe leona’s one won’t have ikura, yu’s doesn’t have uni~ but most of us all got crab as one of the ingredients.. this says just how tasty the one we ate at lake toya was.. haha.. but laura ordered this additional ika somen which, was a hell of an experience. At first, when it came, we didn’t really notice it.. but when we really saw it, we like freaked out lo.. haha.. kinda lah.. well.. the squid we had on the plate was still moving lo.. I was like, no way am I going to eat it! you know there r purple spots on the legs of the squid, these spots were like appearing and disappearing from time to time.. its like they were breathing.. oh my god.. even now when I recall it, I still feel… eeyeeerrr~ haha.. but eventually I still ate it due to pressure from everyone.. unfortunately, I got one with the suction pores.. I put some wasabi on it and it like, squirm lah.. now THAT really freaked me out.. haha.. Its like screaming “ouch ouch, the wasabi’s hot” haha.. I heard that these pores may suck on ur tongue sometimes so I purposely made it face away from my tongue.. n it didn’t stick.. luckily.. haha..
later we walked ard the market and there was this section where there was a pond? there were many ika swimming ard in it.. they let pple fish it (or shld u say.. ika it? haha) then they cut it up there and then and serve it on a plate for u to eat immediately w/o cooking it.. it was so so gross..
we spend the next few hrs driving back up to sapporo.. it was still raining so we couldn’t visit the onuma national park.. heard from laura its quite beautiful lo.. wat a pity.. when we reached back Sapporo, we also didn’t immediately check in the hostel but went to the Sapporo factory shopping center to walk walk shop shop lo.. the open area was actually pretty nice, with sunflowers decorating the place.. we split up again up dinner cuz they wanna wat indian food but yu not really feeling well, so i had chinese food with her lo..
when we eventually did check in the hotel, I was so relieve to hear that there was finally a internet enabled computer for me to use.. nvm there’s no wireless and I cant use my own laptop, I was already so desperate for the internet that I can make do with it.. cuz that time was bidding period.. and this sem, I had really limited modules I could do.. and I had problems because I not enough pts lah and cors don’t let me add some modules.. I was so worried, yet so pek cek that NUS is so inefficient. Alright, the CNM guy did call me when I arrived in Sapporo on the first day, but till that day at the hostel, I was still unable to add and bid for the NM mod leh.. angry lo..
we went to a sheep farm the first thing the next morn, much to amy’s delight~ but too bad when we reach there, the sheep were enclosed in an area and was like quite far from us.. but it didn’t stop us from having a good time! at least we had ice-cream~ haha.. the milk ice-cream was really tasty.. =)
instigated by don't know who again~
laura-chan~
we went to this place called okura-san where people come here to race up the long flight of stairs.. haha.. just kidding.. but leona and I did race up the stairs.. just for fun~ I wanted to bet loser treat dinner de.. but she didn’t fall for it.. didn’t wanna bet.. sianz.. lucky her lo.. cuz I won in the end.. but when run halfway, I was really scared I would lose cuz she’s been keeping up the pace.. then I thought, the route so narrow, even she slow down I also difficult to overtake her.. if she used her body block me, I surely lose le lo.. haha.. anyway, pple actually come here to practise skiing during summer.. its not covered in ice.. just a long green slope.. it is abit impractical lah.. because skiing on ice and skiing over dry area is different.. but I guess they just use it to practise certain techniques, or maybe the timing of jumps.. I mean, better than not training at all during the summer break right? hmm.. but summer in Hokkaido is not tt long also mah.. wonder y.. haha.. but too bad we came quite late.. no one practicing le..
おくらさん～
since it was still early, we decided to drop by the moerenuma park lo.. it was really a place which left us with mixed feelings.. the park was a really huge place.. and it was grand and pretty and green.. I challenged Leona up this small mountain again.. although I did give her a headstart this time round.. haha.. and I was so happy we made the decision to come up because we could view the entire park from the top.. and it so happened to be sunset at that point of time so it was extremely amazing.. it was like a mini mtFuji.. haha.. but who knows when we went down, there was trouble awaiting..
top of mountain~
because laura and yu didn’t wanna climb the mountain, they decided to wait for us downstairs.. so when we went down we walked to go look for them lo.. who knows when we found them eventually, they were like in some kind of trouble? while we were up there enjoying the sunset, they were sitting somewhere near the pond, with some old otaku man taking their pictures w/o their knowledge. I think they didn’t even realize it lo, its because this jap family walk past then saw him taking pics of them.. Being nice people, they confronted him and told laura and yu abt it.. I think the family demanded him to delete the photos because they think he took photos of their daughter too, who looks like she’s only 12yrs old lo.. think they scared he’s a pedophile.. so anyway, when we arrived, the 7 of them (including laura and yu) had him surrounded in a circle.. and the Dad n Mum were like talking to him, at times shouting.. what they say I don’t know lah cuz most of the time they were conversing in jap.. but I know the Mum very agitated lah..
after awhile, we saw 3 figures running towards us hurriedly.. apparently, the son went to call the police and they rushed here lo.. after they come, one spoke to us, the other spoke to that disgusting man lo.. haha.. actually, I do think what the guy did was normal.. like yu said, I bet in Tokyo, a lot of people might have their pics taken by other people secretly.. this time we only know it because the family was kind enough to alert us.. but what I don’t understand is that, even after being asked to delete the pics, he still refuse to do so.. some may argue, u r in a public place, he is just taking pics of the place and u r in it.. it is his camera and u have no right to touch or delete pics of his.. but it is exactly this type of behaviour that irks me.. true, camera is urs, no doubt, but if u r taking a pic of me, I believe it is something personal.. and if I don’t like it, I should have the power to request for it to be deleted.. sometimes, my friends oso do this too lo.. I don’t agree with it, but I don’t know how to tell them.. it’s like, they secretly take pic of another friend, and if that friend finds out, and wans it to be deleted.. they refuse? and get really piss when it was deleted w/o their consent? I mean, we’r all friends right.. just delete it lah.. let’s show some respect for one another lo.. otherwise, how to be considered “friends”?
so when the otaku man insist there is no wrong in him taking the pics, I was so pissed lo.. if we could understand one another, I would have went up and yell at him lo.. actually throughout everything, I really wanted to go up to him and give him a piece of my mind.. I really couldn’t stand him.. but I couldn’t do anything at all.. as a friend, I couldn’t protect my own friends.. I couldn’t prevent it from happening, I couldn’t reduce the damage.. I felt so useless.. I felt like it was I who caused them such distress.. =(
anyway, the police made him delete the relevant photos in front of us and then informed us that they will take him into custody and destroy his memory card lo.. at least b4 we left he apologise to us, and knelt down somemore.. I think abit too 夸张 lo.. but I think that’s how they do things in japan ba..
as we left for furano the next day, we left all the bad memories behind.. the lavender fields here were fantastic~ not only the lavenders, the other flowers were in bloom and the whole farm was so attractive.. even im not a gal, I still found the whole sight very pleasing overall.. put in the tall mountains in the backdrop.. it really seems out of the world.. went to the melon farm just beside, but it was really small, and the fruits wasn’t really in season, so there wasn’t any in the land.. but we ate some at the store and it was sweet! we had melon ice-cream too~ I think the vanilla went really well with it else it would have been too sweet~ there were lavender ice-cream too.. but.. I didn’t try cuz I don’t wanna ruin the melon taste I had.. haha..
furano fields~
minchu cant wait to eat~
we checked in pretty early because there wasn’t really anything much to do in furano.. its like the いなか of all いなかs (countryside).. aha.. so we slacked ard the room we had.. this time a long corridor-liked one where all 7 of us shared.. the past days we always had to split into 2different rooms.. always headache how to split.. haha.. tho it looked abit run-down.. it was the story of our trip cuz we were on budget mah.. cheap hostels surely lydat de.. this one is long, the nite b4 was empty, the one is hakodate was small yet pretty, the one in lake toya was huge lah.. but the best was still the first nite.. the room was so posh ok.. soft comfortable beds, carpeted floor, tv, radio, bathroom in the room.. still got nice view of the ferris wheel.. awww.. haha.. but we got that room only because it was with the package mah.. together with the air tix and rental for car.. but I like this room cuz got wireless! haha.. for the first time I could use my laptop, but when I on.. I was like.. devastated.. cuz somehow, I cant detect their netwrk!!! ahhh~ I so sian I just lie there do nothing lo.. grrr..
we went for dinner at this yamadori grilled meat place just next door to our hostel.. and the food was decent~ its like seoul-garden style where u have to cook your own.. but of cuz not buffet style lo.. must order ala-carte de.. I ordered beef and mutton cuz i very long no eat mutton le.. I think ever since I went japan, that was the only time I ate mutton lo.. haha.. after we had our fill, we went to play firewrks~ yay! not watch, but play.. Leona and I bought some fireworks when we bumped into each other at harajuku just the day b4 we left for Hokkaido.. I always wanted to like, set off one on my own.. rather than always just watching only.. and I was afraid Hokkaido don’t have so I bought from daiso in Tokyo lo.. they do sell! and its quite cheap.. how I wish Singapore got sell.. wanted to smuggle home de.. but think the risk too huge le.. cant afford to do so.. haha..
we went to a sheep farm the first thing the next morn, much to amy’s delight~ but too bad when we reach there, the sheep were enclosed in an area and was like quite far from us.. but it didn’t stop us from having a good time! at least we had ice-cream~ haha.. the milk ice-cream was really tasty.. =)
instigated by don't know who again~visited the shiroi koribito factory next~ the place’s really beautiful.. the clock tower was magnificent with the surrounding buildings.. and there were pretty bed of roses all around.. we had this cake buffet in the café and all the cakes were so sweet and delicious~ actually they were so rich that after a few rounds, most of us couldn’t go on anymore.. haha.. we then explored the factory.. it’s done up like a museum.. we get to see how they make the famous koribito.. actually, just more on the packaging lo.. haha.. but well.. at least we got a free sample~ *bites* yum yum~
laura-chan~we went to this place called okura-san where people come here to race up the long flight of stairs.. haha.. just kidding.. but leona and I did race up the stairs.. just for fun~ I wanted to bet loser treat dinner de.. but she didn’t fall for it.. didn’t wanna bet.. sianz.. lucky her lo.. cuz I won in the end.. but when run halfway, I was really scared I would lose cuz she’s been keeping up the pace.. then I thought, the route so narrow, even she slow down I also difficult to overtake her.. if she used her body block me, I surely lose le lo.. haha.. anyway, pple actually come here to practise skiing during summer.. its not covered in ice.. just a long green slope.. it is abit impractical lah.. because skiing on ice and skiing over dry area is different.. but I guess they just use it to practise certain techniques, or maybe the timing of jumps.. I mean, better than not training at all during the summer break right? hmm.. but summer in Hokkaido is not tt long also mah.. wonder y.. haha.. but too bad we came quite late.. no one practicing le..
おくらさん～since it was still early, we decided to drop by the moerenuma park lo.. it was really a place which left us with mixed feelings.. the park was a really huge place.. and it was grand and pretty and green.. I challenged Leona up this small mountain again.. although I did give her a headstart this time round.. haha.. and I was so happy we made the decision to come up because we could view the entire park from the top.. and it so happened to be sunset at that point of time so it was extremely amazing.. it was like a mini mtFuji.. haha.. but who knows when we went down, there was trouble awaiting..
top of mountain~because laura and yu didn’t wanna climb the mountain, they decided to wait for us downstairs.. so when we went down we walked to go look for them lo.. who knows when we found them eventually, they were like in some kind of trouble? while we were up there enjoying the sunset, they were sitting somewhere near the pond, with some old otaku man taking their pictures w/o their knowledge. I think they didn’t even realize it lo, its because this jap family walk past then saw him taking pics of them.. Being nice people, they confronted him and told laura and yu abt it.. I think the family demanded him to delete the photos because they think he took photos of their daughter too, who looks like she’s only 12yrs old lo.. think they scared he’s a pedophile.. so anyway, when we arrived, the 7 of them (including laura and yu) had him surrounded in a circle.. and the Dad n Mum were like talking to him, at times shouting.. what they say I don’t know lah cuz most of the time they were conversing in jap.. but I know the Mum very agitated lah..
after awhile, we saw 3 figures running towards us hurriedly.. apparently, the son went to call the police and they rushed here lo.. after they come, one spoke to us, the other spoke to that disgusting man lo.. haha.. actually, I do think what the guy did was normal.. like yu said, I bet in Tokyo, a lot of people might have their pics taken by other people secretly.. this time we only know it because the family was kind enough to alert us.. but what I don’t understand is that, even after being asked to delete the pics, he still refuse to do so.. some may argue, u r in a public place, he is just taking pics of the place and u r in it.. it is his camera and u have no right to touch or delete pics of his.. but it is exactly this type of behaviour that irks me.. true, camera is urs, no doubt, but if u r taking a pic of me, I believe it is something personal.. and if I don’t like it, I should have the power to request for it to be deleted.. sometimes, my friends oso do this too lo.. I don’t agree with it, but I don’t know how to tell them.. it’s like, they secretly take pic of another friend, and if that friend finds out, and wans it to be deleted.. they refuse? and get really piss when it was deleted w/o their consent? I mean, we’r all friends right.. just delete it lah.. let’s show some respect for one another lo.. otherwise, how to be considered “friends”?
so when the otaku man insist there is no wrong in him taking the pics, I was so pissed lo.. if we could understand one another, I would have went up and yell at him lo.. actually throughout everything, I really wanted to go up to him and give him a piece of my mind.. I really couldn’t stand him.. but I couldn’t do anything at all.. as a friend, I couldn’t protect my own friends.. I couldn’t prevent it from happening, I couldn’t reduce the damage.. I felt so useless.. I felt like it was I who caused them such distress.. =(
anyway, the police made him delete the relevant photos in front of us and then informed us that they will take him into custody and destroy his memory card lo.. at least b4 we left he apologise to us, and knelt down somemore.. I think abit too 夸张 lo.. but I think that’s how they do things in japan ba..
as we left for furano the next day, we left all the bad memories behind.. the lavender fields here were fantastic~ not only the lavenders, the other flowers were in bloom and the whole farm was so attractive.. even im not a gal, I still found the whole sight very pleasing overall.. put in the tall mountains in the backdrop.. it really seems out of the world.. went to the melon farm just beside, but it was really small, and the fruits wasn’t really in season, so there wasn’t any in the land.. but we ate some at the store and it was sweet! we had melon ice-cream too~ I think the vanilla went really well with it else it would have been too sweet~ there were lavender ice-cream too.. but.. I didn’t try cuz I don’t wanna ruin the melon taste I had.. haha..
furano fields~minchu cant wait to eat~we checked in pretty early because there wasn’t really anything much to do in furano.. its like the いなか of all いなかs (countryside).. aha.. so we slacked ard the room we had.. this time a long corridor-liked one where all 7 of us shared.. the past days we always had to split into 2different rooms.. always headache how to split.. haha.. tho it looked abit run-down.. it was the story of our trip cuz we were on budget mah.. cheap hostels surely lydat de.. this one is long, the nite b4 was empty, the one is hakodate was small yet pretty, the one in lake toya was huge lah.. but the best was still the first nite.. the room was so posh ok.. soft comfortable beds, carpeted floor, tv, radio, bathroom in the room.. still got nice view of the ferris wheel.. awww.. haha.. but we got that room only because it was with the package mah.. together with the air tix and rental for car.. but I like this room cuz got wireless! haha.. for the first time I could use my laptop, but when I on.. I was like.. devastated.. cuz somehow, I cant detect their netwrk!!! ahhh~ I so sian I just lie there do nothing lo.. grrr..
we went for dinner at this yamadori grilled meat place just next door to our hostel.. and the food was decent~ its like seoul-garden style where u have to cook your own.. but of cuz not buffet style lo.. must order ala-carte de.. I ordered beef and mutton cuz i very long no eat mutton le.. I think ever since I went japan, that was the only time I ate mutton lo.. haha.. after we had our fill, we went to play firewrks~ yay! not watch, but play.. Leona and I bought some fireworks when we bumped into each other at harajuku just the day b4 we left for Hokkaido.. I always wanted to like, set off one on my own.. rather than always just watching only.. and I was afraid Hokkaido don’t have so I bought from daiso in Tokyo lo.. they do sell! and its quite cheap.. how I wish Singapore got sell.. wanted to smuggle home de.. but think the risk too huge le.. cant afford to do so.. haha..
mini firewrks~so anyway, that night, I got my wish! I got to set off 7 firewrks on my own~ mini ones lo.. hahaa.. got some is like parachute de, shoot very high.. some r like jets.. with the base below it sprays towards the top~ they were really pretty~ next time I go japan, I must do this again.. must buy more types to try~ haha..
after having lots of fun, we went to an onsen (hot spring) nearby.. since we came Hokkaido.. we hav been going onsen for like.. 3nites le lo.. no choice lah.. no night life here so only can go relax relax lo.. haha.. but the place we went was so scary lah.. the road leading up to the hotel had almost no lights.. and there were moths flying all around the place.. it was so difficult to run out of and into the car lo.. think ian smashed a few moths on our windscreen.. haha..
got back to the room, only then I realize got lan cable wor~ haha.. wasted my time in the evening doing nothing.. so I got down to blogging the Mt Fuji post with ian practising his magic trick, keep using me as experiment.. so irritating.. haha.. kidding lah.. anyway, b4 I knew it, all of them were asleep, and just as I was packing up to sleep, something weird caught my eye.. someone’s leg was crossed and propped up.. I was so curious as to whether she was asleep or not.. haha.. it’s funny isn’t it.. sleeping like that.. I have heard of pple sleeping with eyes open, pple who snores damn loud, pple sleeping with mouth open (those in the train in jap, they open really wide..) but I’ve never heard of pple crossing and propping their leg while sleeping b4.. haha..
after eating ice-cream again at the cheese factory, we spend our last day in Hokkaido at asahiyama zoo.. it was pretty big, but I think singapore’s one bigger leh, tho I cant be too sure cuz very long no go zoo le.. haha.. but they do have some weird animals.. like kapibara!!! till then, I have only heard of its name cuz of mawe, keep on asking me to get the soft-toy for her.. I thought it was just a made-up character like hello-kitty..
kapibara~laura and yu~haha.. there were the usual lions, tigers and rhinos too.. but I realized that laura really love bears quite a lot huh.. when ian keep on irritating her about hunting n eating bear meat when we were in lake toya, I thought she was just playing along with him by “growling” at him.. when we were here, she purposely must take pics of the bear.. take a few somemore.. when norm she hardly even whip out her camera.. but a lot of animals here like nocturnal de leh.. fox kun, raccoon kun, porcupine also kun.. haha..
we left for the asahikawa airport pretty early cuz everyone tired of walking le.. plus had to go settle the stupid fine.. don’t know can don’t pay anot.. haha.. but expected lah.. must pay.. 15000yen plus 10000yen refundable deposit.. though broke, we still shopped crazily in the airport, buying as many shiroi koribito as we could.. haha..i bought like 7boxes lah.. but worth it lo.. the friends who I bought for all say nice.. =)
don’t know whether is we tired or wait till sianz, we started telling each other lame jokes, riddles and 欠扁问答題.. haha.. all the way till on plane oso no stop.. then we played orientation games like Fuzzy Wazzy, What’s next.. but the most fun was black magic! because Leona cldn’t get it, haha.. cuz she usually very fast get these things de..(she got What’s next and im still clueless! stupid ian don’t wanna tell me.. like minchu say, must be a lame one.. haha) so the 3 of us were torturing Leona most of the plane ride..(i wonder if she knows it now le mah.. haha.. ) too bad we played for too long.. wanted to let her sleep then take pics de.. cuz throughout the trip, they have been taking pics when some of us were sleeping in the car.. everyone kenna at least once le lo.. only haven’t got Leona yet.. damn! even I also kenna le lo, the only time I sat in the backseat I kenna.. sianz.. but on the plane to Hokkaido I already got taken by laura le~ I was reading for most of the plane ride then lo.. only nap 10mins also 中! sian.. haha..
when we got back to Tokyo, we can practically feel the heat surrounding us.. grr.. back to horrendous heat.. we got on to the train and changed trains at Shinagawa to get back to their dorm. said our goodbyes to laura, cuz she isn’t staying at the dorm mah.. *sigh* sad, but it’s only the first of many goodbyes.. = (
Monday, 1 September 2008
あたまがいたい～
for those who cant read my title~ it means my head is pain! haha.. nope, not metaphorically, it is really painful.. sometimes, when i sit/stand very long, then i suddenly stand/sit, i can practically feel it throbbing against my skull.. since yesterday 就一直痛个不停.. どうして？私も 知りませんね～ Im just thinking ytrdae, just b4 the combine uni match i nap in car, maybe i kinda twisted my neck and its affecting my nerve and thus my headache.. because when i massage my neck, i feel moments of relief.. but very difficult to massage own neck leh.. だれ てつだいたいですか？haha..
well, just hope it goes away lo.. not like sch isnt giving me enough headaches (this time its metaphorically.. =p) particularly this week.. tmr got one lab.. i bet deadline is following mon, thurs got another lab.. following mon already got 1 assignment on JPEG2000 due.. not to mention the preparation for presentation and i have to start on my midterm essay soon.. tho that one i don't know how im going to do since i haven't been able to attend class for the past 2 weeks cuz of trainings.. this coming tues im going to have to miss it again and next tues too cuz next tues Singapore UNI games (SUNIG) start le.. against SMU.. then SIM then NTU.. hope this season wld be a gd footballing season for me..
anyway, on a happier note.. i got wishes on Septemeber 1st! Teachers' Day~ haha.. if my memory hasn't failed me, this is the first time i am getting such wishes.. haha.. (well.. although i hope it doesn't mean i haven't been a gd teacher to my other students in the past.. =( ) It really make me feel that my efforts towards teaching 没白废.. i really hope she can get good grades for her other subjects this year.. then next yr i can start tuition again~
well, for those who have been waiting patiently for the posts on 北海道.. please wait bit more~ haha.. im really sorry.. my hands r really tied now~ 我是泥菩萨过江啊~ im going to try upload finish all the remaining pics b4 i sleep, and for the gang~ i will try2 upload the remaining vids tmr when i get to sch.. its so much faster to get it on the server than when im at home~
till the next post then~
well, just hope it goes away lo.. not like sch isnt giving me enough headaches (this time its metaphorically.. =p) particularly this week.. tmr got one lab.. i bet deadline is following mon, thurs got another lab.. following mon already got 1 assignment on JPEG2000 due.. not to mention the preparation for presentation and i have to start on my midterm essay soon.. tho that one i don't know how im going to do since i haven't been able to attend class for the past 2 weeks cuz of trainings.. this coming tues im going to have to miss it again and next tues too cuz next tues Singapore UNI games (SUNIG) start le.. against SMU.. then SIM then NTU.. hope this season wld be a gd footballing season for me..
anyway, on a happier note.. i got wishes on Septemeber 1st! Teachers' Day~ haha.. if my memory hasn't failed me, this is the first time i am getting such wishes.. haha.. (well.. although i hope it doesn't mean i haven't been a gd teacher to my other students in the past.. =( ) It really make me feel that my efforts towards teaching 没白废.. i really hope she can get good grades for her other subjects this year.. then next yr i can start tuition again~
well, for those who have been waiting patiently for the posts on 北海道.. please wait bit more~ haha.. im really sorry.. my hands r really tied now~ 我是泥菩萨过江啊~ im going to try upload finish all the remaining pics b4 i sleep, and for the gang~ i will try2 upload the remaining vids tmr when i get to sch.. its so much faster to get it on the server than when im at home~
till the next post then~
Friday, 22 August 2008
firEwRks~
browsed through my folder of pics and found 2 quite okay (tho the firwrks sequence in each vid was kinda repetitive) videos of the firewrks at Asakusa which i was blogging abt in the previous post.
ja.. eNjOy~
coLoUrFuL~
raiNiNg goLdduSt~
Tuesday, 19 August 2008
bEaCh & firEwOrks~ wHat a dAy!
fiNaLLY, a visit to the bEaCh! camE tO Japan for close to 4mths le, haven reaLLy been to the beach.. well.. have been once, but it was pouring i cldn't do anything lo.. and the first few mths of my stay, it was still relatively cold so maybe go beach also not much pple ba.. but now.. its different! 夏休みだ～ 夏天还是海边最最最。。。棒！ 哈哈~
well.. the beach wasn't exactly clean.. according the my japanese frens, i think no beaches ard tokyo is clean.. haha.. but the beaches in the Izu peninsula r much more beautiful.. a pity when the gals went there during Golden week ian & i cldn't go along.. i wld be sooo memerised by the sea.. i just love it so much.. how i hope next time wld have enough $$ to get a house by the sea.. i would just sit ard all day long staring out at the calm soothing sea~
crowded~
ah.. back to the beach.. we went to the one in Kamakura, it is slightly off tokyo in yokohama.. there were abt.. 3 beaches there? I also not sure y they choose this one but i guess its cuz its the closest and most accessible from the station ba.. heh heh.. well.. not exactly clean like i mentioned but still full of bikini babes!!! haha.. just kidding lah.. i din really notice.. most of the time i was in the sea, chatting with steph, yuta , takuya and taiga~ sometimes we swam out into the deep, sometimes we just walked up and down in the sea, talking abt life after we part.. awww.. so saddening! even though there were only 7 of us including me.. it was really fun.. i mean, if too big a grp its difficult to communicate.. small grps are always gd for bonding.. and we played a really fun game~ see this watermelon below?
すいか～
bLindEd~
someone is supposed to be blind folded, turn 10 rounds on a rod, try to locate the watermelon with others' help and try to break the watermelon with the rod.. haha.. we were attracting lots of attention.. surrounding japanese people were joining in the fun by trying to distract taiga when it was his turn.. foreigners amused by our antics.. but it was really hilarious watching them trying to break the melon.. well, i did it tOo.. under their constant pressure.. but the thing is.. the rod was an umbrella!!! haha.. so, eventually, instead of the watermelon breaking, the umbrella gave way when taiga smashed it.. no surprise.. after steph, takuya and me whacked the melon several times with it.. haha.. the moment was real comical and it has to be taiga!
tHe gaNg~
so we had no choice but to use a knife to cut it.. earlier shld lydat le lah.. haha.. but then, if we did tt, there wun be such fun anymore.. but i think the effort was well worth it.. the watermelon was really sweet! altho it wld been much nicer if it hadn't spend an extended time on the hot popping sand.. i love my fruits cold~ hee~
taiga~
taKuya~
but as the saying goes.. "good times pass fast". it was 4pm alreadi and i have to leave for asakusa for the biggest firewrks of the yr! i was kind of having mixed feelings. I was really looking forward to see-ing the firewrks, but then, it struck me tt when i leave this beach, it wld be the last time i wld be see-ing them. well.. except yuta who would stop by Singapore on his missionary trip, and tts provided he is not too tied up with his wrk. Takuya would be in fRaNce for exchange.. taiga would still be in Japan ba.. but i guess i will miss see-ing steph the most ba, i mean, 怎麽说, i've known her for the longest time.. 和我最谈得来的也是她.. i would miss all the hanging out sessions, just chilling and talking for hours.. *sigh* but 天下无不散之宴席.. we belong to different parts of the world, we definitely have to part.. but if i have the chance, i will visit them in future.. =)
yUta~
stEph~
i reached asakusa close to 7pm, when the fireworks was going to start. after much difficulty, i managed to locate them.. phew.. u shld have seen the crowd, it was horrendous! i think tt's what u get when u r at the biggest firewrks display of the year. We had to change viewing location because at where they were at, the view was blocked by trees and we cldn't see anything. But all the seating spaces were alreadi occupied. We tried to stand ard somewhere in the baseball arena to catch the firewrks but the security personnel keep asking us not to stand there. So, we just keep walking in circles until the display started lo.. then they didn't bother us le.. haha..
hEart-sHape?
coLoUrfuL~
there were some nice sequences of firewrks lah, but i was kinda disappointed with it overall.. most of the time, i cldn't see the firewrks, don't be mistaken, the view of the sky in front of me was clear. it's just tt the smoke generated from the firewrks obscure the view of the next firewrks.. i just felt it was poorly designed, surely they could have foresaw this problem and come up with a way to tackle it.. like.. varying the height of the burst? im not too sure but hey.. they r the pros, im the spectator.. hee~ which reminds me of the coldest joke i ever heard.. from ian unsurprisingly.. keke.. it goes like this..
"there's a tree in the middle of the desert and on this tree there is a monkey. There is a fierce lion below the tree waiting to eat the monkey and from above, a venomous python comes slithering down towards the monkey, waiting to have it for lunch. What did the monkey have to do to escape?"
the answer? why bother? let the monkey think for itself.. diao... i so wanted to smash him with all the umbrellas we had!!! haha..
anyway, as plan, we went to "K" over-night! kinda considered my first time singing.. it was abit awkward but they were encouraging.. no1 laughed at me abeit my terrible singing.. haha.. we had lots of fun and i found out how amy spends most of her freetime.. haha.. she knows so many songs.. and so many raps.. like zhou jielun's 牛仔很忙, pan weibo's 反转地球.. even the 中國話 i choose she also can.. im amazed.. haha.. but i think yu was hilarious as well.. she was so tired she felt asleep but she can suddenly jump up and 恋爱 I.N.G.. haha.. and although they looked really pretty and cute in yugata, it was so funny see-ing the both of them singing in it.. tOo bad pics of them in yugata are not my pics so i don't think i shld anyhow use lah.. =p
it was only when daybreak tt we left.. if not for the fact tt it was a sunday.. leona and i wld have went to tsukiji again! tts wat i like abt her.. she's always so "on" on anything.. awwww.. now come to think of it.. i miss tsukiji.. i've only been there twice and i miss all the fresh sashimi and sushui.. b4 i went to japan, the sushis in SG tasted ok lo.. when i was there, i cldn't tell the diff.. only when i ate sakae sushi again when i was back in SG, i realised it was crap!! i think even the supermarket sushi in Japan was better lo..
anyway, i wanted to go straight to ueno to do some shopping but it was too early.. i bet the shop hadn't even open. And if i go, i would have to endure until 7plus in the evening again b4 i sleep, else it wld upset my sleeping cycle lo.. i was so tired i slept on the train.. i missed my stop several times cuz i had to change trains mah.. it was so frustrating! i cldn't wait to get home~
well.. the beach wasn't exactly clean.. according the my japanese frens, i think no beaches ard tokyo is clean.. haha.. but the beaches in the Izu peninsula r much more beautiful.. a pity when the gals went there during Golden week ian & i cldn't go along.. i wld be sooo memerised by the sea.. i just love it so much.. how i hope next time wld have enough $$ to get a house by the sea.. i would just sit ard all day long staring out at the calm soothing sea~
crowded~ah.. back to the beach.. we went to the one in Kamakura, it is slightly off tokyo in yokohama.. there were abt.. 3 beaches there? I also not sure y they choose this one but i guess its cuz its the closest and most accessible from the station ba.. heh heh.. well.. not exactly clean like i mentioned but still full of bikini babes!!! haha.. just kidding lah.. i din really notice.. most of the time i was in the sea, chatting with steph, yuta , takuya and taiga~ sometimes we swam out into the deep, sometimes we just walked up and down in the sea, talking abt life after we part.. awww.. so saddening! even though there were only 7 of us including me.. it was really fun.. i mean, if too big a grp its difficult to communicate.. small grps are always gd for bonding.. and we played a really fun game~ see this watermelon below?
すいか～bLindEd~someone is supposed to be blind folded, turn 10 rounds on a rod, try to locate the watermelon with others' help and try to break the watermelon with the rod.. haha.. we were attracting lots of attention.. surrounding japanese people were joining in the fun by trying to distract taiga when it was his turn.. foreigners amused by our antics.. but it was really hilarious watching them trying to break the melon.. well, i did it tOo.. under their constant pressure.. but the thing is.. the rod was an umbrella!!! haha.. so, eventually, instead of the watermelon breaking, the umbrella gave way when taiga smashed it.. no surprise.. after steph, takuya and me whacked the melon several times with it.. haha.. the moment was real comical and it has to be taiga!
tHe gaNg~so we had no choice but to use a knife to cut it.. earlier shld lydat le lah.. haha.. but then, if we did tt, there wun be such fun anymore.. but i think the effort was well worth it.. the watermelon was really sweet! altho it wld been much nicer if it hadn't spend an extended time on the hot popping sand.. i love my fruits cold~ hee~
taiga~ taKuya~but as the saying goes.. "good times pass fast". it was 4pm alreadi and i have to leave for asakusa for the biggest firewrks of the yr! i was kind of having mixed feelings. I was really looking forward to see-ing the firewrks, but then, it struck me tt when i leave this beach, it wld be the last time i wld be see-ing them. well.. except yuta who would stop by Singapore on his missionary trip, and tts provided he is not too tied up with his wrk. Takuya would be in fRaNce for exchange.. taiga would still be in Japan ba.. but i guess i will miss see-ing steph the most ba, i mean, 怎麽说, i've known her for the longest time.. 和我最谈得来的也是她.. i would miss all the hanging out sessions, just chilling and talking for hours.. *sigh* but 天下无不散之宴席.. we belong to different parts of the world, we definitely have to part.. but if i have the chance, i will visit them in future.. =)
yUta~stEph~i reached asakusa close to 7pm, when the fireworks was going to start. after much difficulty, i managed to locate them.. phew.. u shld have seen the crowd, it was horrendous! i think tt's what u get when u r at the biggest firewrks display of the year. We had to change viewing location because at where they were at, the view was blocked by trees and we cldn't see anything. But all the seating spaces were alreadi occupied. We tried to stand ard somewhere in the baseball arena to catch the firewrks but the security personnel keep asking us not to stand there. So, we just keep walking in circles until the display started lo.. then they didn't bother us le.. haha..
hEart-sHape?coLoUrfuL~there were some nice sequences of firewrks lah, but i was kinda disappointed with it overall.. most of the time, i cldn't see the firewrks, don't be mistaken, the view of the sky in front of me was clear. it's just tt the smoke generated from the firewrks obscure the view of the next firewrks.. i just felt it was poorly designed, surely they could have foresaw this problem and come up with a way to tackle it.. like.. varying the height of the burst? im not too sure but hey.. they r the pros, im the spectator.. hee~ which reminds me of the coldest joke i ever heard.. from ian unsurprisingly.. keke.. it goes like this..
"there's a tree in the middle of the desert and on this tree there is a monkey. There is a fierce lion below the tree waiting to eat the monkey and from above, a venomous python comes slithering down towards the monkey, waiting to have it for lunch. What did the monkey have to do to escape?"
the answer? why bother? let the monkey think for itself.. diao... i so wanted to smash him with all the umbrellas we had!!! haha..
anyway, as plan, we went to "K" over-night! kinda considered my first time singing.. it was abit awkward but they were encouraging.. no1 laughed at me abeit my terrible singing.. haha.. we had lots of fun and i found out how amy spends most of her freetime.. haha.. she knows so many songs.. and so many raps.. like zhou jielun's 牛仔很忙, pan weibo's 反转地球.. even the 中國話 i choose she also can.. im amazed.. haha.. but i think yu was hilarious as well.. she was so tired she felt asleep but she can suddenly jump up and 恋爱 I.N.G.. haha.. and although they looked really pretty and cute in yugata, it was so funny see-ing the both of them singing in it.. tOo bad pics of them in yugata are not my pics so i don't think i shld anyhow use lah.. =p
it was only when daybreak tt we left.. if not for the fact tt it was a sunday.. leona and i wld have went to tsukiji again! tts wat i like abt her.. she's always so "on" on anything.. awwww.. now come to think of it.. i miss tsukiji.. i've only been there twice and i miss all the fresh sashimi and sushui.. b4 i went to japan, the sushis in SG tasted ok lo.. when i was there, i cldn't tell the diff.. only when i ate sakae sushi again when i was back in SG, i realised it was crap!! i think even the supermarket sushi in Japan was better lo..
anyway, i wanted to go straight to ueno to do some shopping but it was too early.. i bet the shop hadn't even open. And if i go, i would have to endure until 7plus in the evening again b4 i sleep, else it wld upset my sleeping cycle lo.. i was so tired i slept on the train.. i missed my stop several times cuz i had to change trains mah.. it was so frustrating! i cldn't wait to get home~
Friday, 15 August 2008
niKko~
Went to nikko the very next day after we came back from mt fuji. Haha.. it’s crazy but I think tts what u get when u have 4 mad people who just loves traveling. Just kidding lah.. we din plan it this way de.. supposed to have a full one day break in between Mt. Fuji and Nikko de, but because there wasn’t any bus tix up to mtFuji on the 21st, tts y we had to postpone Mt. Fuji by a day.
I woke exceptionally early on the day we are setting off to nikko because I slept exceptionally early the night b4.. ard 7pm I sleep le.. the earliest ever in Japan. Blogged abit on gHiBli museum b4 leaving home to have mcdonald’s breakfast at Asakusa. Even tho I was early, they didn’t exactly tell me where we were meeting so eventually 早到也变成迟到了.. sigh..
I woke exceptionally early on the day we are setting off to nikko because I slept exceptionally early the night b4.. ard 7pm I sleep le.. the earliest ever in Japan. Blogged abit on gHiBli museum b4 leaving home to have mcdonald’s breakfast at Asakusa. Even tho I was early, they didn’t exactly tell me where we were meeting so eventually 早到也变成迟到了.. sigh..
dEep iN tHougHt~
Boarded the train and finally I get to read my much awaited book50 of one piece! And amy reads it as well.. always happy to know someone reading same book/comic.. justifies my taste.. haha.. like the other time at sensei’s gathering, torry and yuta keep saying one piece childish lah, boring lah.. make me so unhappy! *angry* Haha.. anyway, they were busy taking pics of people sleeping again.. this time the victims were minchu, Leona and ian. I didn’t really wanna participate in it cuz I always believe in 己所不欲勿抒于人.. but I still did.. haha.. after the train ride.. I made a mental note not to fall asleep in their presence cuz I know one day I will have 报应.. haha..
cRaZy gRp~
We went to Edo Wonderland first. It was a themed park to introduce Japanese culture and history. Everything was really nice, I even shot archery there. Everyone were like laughing at amy cuz she only managed to get 1/5 shot on the target even at close proximity. But when most of us tried it out, none were laughing liao. It was difficult! I think it’s because u r require to let go entirely and strongly, u lose all the control u have on the quiver. When I shot 4 and hit 1 only, I panic liao.. lucky the last 1 I got it.. haha..
leoNa coNcEntRatiNg~
Caught a ninja show which was really cool, got lots of fighting.. except that one kid was like crying for quite long because most of the time, the hall was pitch black dark. aiyaH~ 黑有什么好怕的? kEke~
cOoL niNjas~
But the highlight of the day was when we went to a performance and ian was called up to participate in the performance. Haha.. lucky the host din pick me.. I would have freaked out.. of cuz if he had picked me, I would have told him のどが いたいですから、ちょっと。。haha.. now I can say this lah.. I bet if it really happened I would have kangaroo kenna spotlight.. keke.. anyway, I was telling the rest, I hope they make him cut off his hair, to become similar to those we saw on the way in.. center botak! Haha.. in the end, his 造型 is something lydat lo.. keke.. it was really hilarious watching his performance. We were laughing so loud when the host made him laugh for the first few lines.. think we are so evil.. haha..
iaN caLLed oN stagE~
iN tHe midSt of pErfOrMaNcE~
After we headed to the ryokan to check in, we went to a nearby おんせん。。but the road to there was really dark, and it was a upslope lo.. not helped by the ever-present drizzle. We were so unsure of the location we even mistaken a vending machine for the ticketing machine for the onsen.. it was so embarrassing.. I mean, there wasn’t anyone else ard apart from us lah.. we were just laughing at ourselves.. the dumb things we do yah.. haha..
The next day, we went to the the nikko attractions.. ytrdae the theme park was like slightly off nikko, like a sidetrip from nikko yah.. but today, was the main attractions.. we went to the lake and paddled on the swan.. wanted to take motor speedboat de.. but too ex, and time very short.. abit not worth it so didn’t lo.. but the swan ride was enjoyable as well.. apart from the fact that we had to paddle!! And after fuji somemore.. haha..
bEautifuL lakE~
Visited the much-acclaimed 華厳 falls next since it was only a few mins walk away.. I always like waterfalls. There are many things I just like to see.. like isolated islands, long trails leading to mysterious unknown buildings, like 寻宝 lydat.. then the sea, bridges, especially those suspended rope-like ones, and of course waterfalls, but I felt it was just like any other waterfall leh.. mayb because we din go to the bottom of the falls ba.. = (
keigOn faLLs~
Went to a cluster of shrines and temples after a winding road down the mountain. Though all are shrines, not one of them are similar.. as in, the scenary and everything.. there was one famous one with the 3 monkeys portrait.. think it’s so cute~…
us aCtiNg duMb~
of cuz, dEaf aNd bLiNd tOo~
I think the shrines and temples are unique in their own way.. just that I feel that they are too commercialized. I been to other temples in Japan and they are all like that.. its abit sad, but I still try to believe in whatever they are preaching or selling at these temples.. the other bad thing abt these temples is that at many of them, we had to take off our shoes to 参观 the inside. Well.. that’s when we get all bored and do dumb things again.. haha..
likE i say, tHe duMb tHiNgs wE dO~
ended off with the sacred bridge, or scared bridge as *ahem* will say.. but was again terribly disappointed with it.. maybe its me, but no matter how I see.. it doesn’t seem that “sacred” to me.. I mean.. in my impression, it should be in the deep and quiet forest.. only the sounds of the close-by rushing river, or the occasion chirping of the birds can be heard.. although there is indeed a river flowing beneath it, it is located just beside a road which is heavy with traffic.. and the bridge looks so normal.. it just lost all the mysteriousness the name has generated for it..
it lOoks gOod hEre huh~
On the way back to Tokyo, they keep pestering me to teach them the matchstick trick. I knew the trick from very long time ago but lost the skill when I didn’t practise for a long time.. finally today I grasped it again at lunch, was so happy.. but I know I don’t show them.. cuz they keep asking me to teach them.. not tt i selfish dun wanna teach, but i just feel that, when u reveal the secret of ur trick, u urself the performer loses all value, u become, not important anymore.. but i still taught them in the end lah.. anyway, I was really impressed with Leona.. I only showed her the trick throughout lunch and she could get it le.. I didn’t even tell her how to do it, she just got it.. im quite amazed.
Left nikko with a really nice souvenir for myself, a ninja hp-chain! I didn’t really fancy it when we got it at the Edo wonderland cuz it looked pretty normal then. But now that I have it, I think its really fun, because the legs lah, hands lah, even the head can be moved in many positions, u can arrange it in many different funny postures.. and it means alot to me too. I treasure it because it gives me an “invisible” connection to my friends, esp now when we are separated in different countries. well.. hope they continue to use it.. it would be pointless if in the end, I am the only one still hanging it on my hp..
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