today is our last day in japan and i mus say it is a damn hectic morning. our return flight is at 1040 narita airport. we first woke up at 6am, then started to get ready and checked the room. by the time we left and checked out, it was around 7plus. Thinking that we have ample time to get to the airport by 0840, we then slowly dragged our fruitful = heavy baggage to ikebukuro JR station.
wat awaits us at the station was a series of nitemare:
1. wat !!! no direct train to narita airport !!! gotta change at nippori ... (-_-!)
2. wat !!! no escalator or elevator !!! we were shaking with our luggage up the stairs
3. arghhhhhhh !!! morning peak hour, everyone in the train was looking at us with disgust ... probably thinking "wat are these 2 country bumpkins doing with such luggage in the train at this hours, must be crazy"
4. so we r finally at nippori, but how to do we get tickets for skyliner to narita ... and why were we directed to platform 2 ??!!
5. so i got my tickets somehow from the vending machine ... but train will only arrive at 0843. the expected time arriving at narita (station -> terminal 2 -> terminal 1) is earliest at 0936 ... (*0*)
6. LET ME THRU !!! we reached narita terminal 1 at around 945 plus ... our adrenaline were pumping and hearts were racing, we wanna dashed to the ana check-in counter right away !!! but we got stuck !!! somehow our tickets seemed to be only meant for our seat reservations and we need to top-up our suica card ...
7. help me .... i m dying ... departure hall is at 4th floor and we are at basement 1. when we finally arrived at 4th floor, we were at the north wing. and of cos, ana check-in counter is at the SOUTH wing. still recalled back then dragging my faulty & noisy luggage, i was thinking "oh no ... pls shuddupp luggage ... when can i see the light !"
luckily for us, we did manage to check in at close to 1000 when our flight was due to fly at 1040. the attendees were frantically calling the gates to check if we could still make it for our luggage check-in ... we had at least 4-5 attendees serving us and yes reckon we somehow push their panic button. wonder if we were marked as their blacklist "destructive passenger who created chaos by wanting to change flight on arrival and checking in super-late on departure". well all's well ends well, we made it ...
u thght tats the end? NO WAY !!! with boarding time at 1015, we were still busy doing last min shopping fr crackers and sourvenirs for colleagues and frens back home at 1010 at the akibahara airport store. it was a frantic attempt with wild purchase, but we did it !!! we made it to the boarding gate at 1017 with a bunch of rice cracker.
for once, i was so glad to be seated after we board the plane ... and yes, WE DID IT \(^_^)/
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Friday, October 23, 2009
free & easy - day one in yokohama
time flies ... in a blink of time, we are now on our own in Yokohama Sakuragicho Washington hotel. things went smoothly this morning, we managed to board the limousine bus from Haneda airport and checked in our hotel close to 2pm. for a while, it felt kinda lonely after having travelled with our tour guide, driver and group for the last 6 days. then again, we are finally free now and can roam around as we wish with no time constraint ... only stamina constraint ha
shortly after we checked-in (we got drawn to the tv for a while, catching the news for trial of Manabu Oshio), we set out for our first stop - the Ramen museum ... i must say the actual place is rather different from what we reckoned it to be. it is made a replica of Tokyo in the year Showa 33 (1958), even the attendees are dressed up like obasan n ojisan. there were altogether 9 ramen stores to choose from, but we cant find any small-sized ramen !!! after enquiring with one of the attendees, we decided on Number 3 = Harukiya shoyu char-siew ramen. it was good with garlic and spring onion garnishes, but i still miss the one we had at hokkaido *slurp*
after filling our stomach, we then head back to minato-mirai for the nite view. Yokohama is a beautiful port, we started out at the theme park - cosmo world and decided to take the ferris wheel ride - 700 yen (considerably cheap, compared to goin up landmark tower). the view was fantastic and definitely worth the price ... though it was kinda 'high' for me, i dunno why i seem to have developed height phobia but only at certain circumstances. the ferris wheel ride took approximately 15 mins and the view around Yokohama Cosmo World is awesome. up above, we get to have a clear view of the port, theme park rides, queen square, landmark tower. the only pity is not being able to capture the moment :P the glass reflections are simply too hard to avoid for a goon photographer = me.
(left) the best shot i can get for the ferris wheel, the neon light changes every now and then ... erh i did not get the best color though. it was at most 17 degrees out there, who wanna wait for the right color to snap! ha!
(right) after a long day, we were too tired to eat and decided to head back for an early nite rest. we managed to catch a warm drink on our way back and look at wat i found. hee hee can u spot something uniquely japan?
shortly after we checked-in (we got drawn to the tv for a while, catching the news for trial of Manabu Oshio), we set out for our first stop - the Ramen museum ... i must say the actual place is rather different from what we reckoned it to be. it is made a replica of Tokyo in the year Showa 33 (1958), even the attendees are dressed up like obasan n ojisan. there were altogether 9 ramen stores to choose from, but we cant find any small-sized ramen !!! after enquiring with one of the attendees, we decided on Number 3 = Harukiya shoyu char-siew ramen. it was good with garlic and spring onion garnishes, but i still miss the one we had at hokkaido *slurp*
after filling our stomach, we then head back to minato-mirai for the nite view. Yokohama is a beautiful port, we started out at the theme park - cosmo world and decided to take the ferris wheel ride - 700 yen (considerably cheap, compared to goin up landmark tower). the view was fantastic and definitely worth the price ... though it was kinda 'high' for me, i dunno why i seem to have developed height phobia but only at certain circumstances. the ferris wheel ride took approximately 15 mins and the view around Yokohama Cosmo World is awesome. up above, we get to have a clear view of the port, theme park rides, queen square, landmark tower. the only pity is not being able to capture the moment :P the glass reflections are simply too hard to avoid for a goon photographer = me.
(left) the best shot i can get for the ferris wheel, the neon light changes every now and then ... erh i did not get the best color though. it was at most 17 degrees out there, who wanna wait for the right color to snap! ha!
(right) after a long day, we were too tired to eat and decided to head back for an early nite rest. we managed to catch a warm drink on our way back and look at wat i found. hee hee can u spot something uniquely japan?
Monday, October 19, 2009
jigokudani aka hell valley simply awesome
after a good nite rest, my day started at 7am this morning. i first went for a hot bath and guess who i spotted heh heh ... by the time, we went to the breakfast hall everyone else had started feasting ! wow a bunch of early birds (-_-!) as we settled in our allocated seat, we realised that one of the breakfast set had already been eaten! we were then later told that someone from another group actually ate it .... i wondered why no one stopped him/her, probably busy eating ha ha ??? our breakfast was again sumptuous with fish, potato salad, porridge, pickles, egg, radish (abit too much for me in the morning).
after a full breakfast, it's great to head out for a stroll and we definitely had a good one at jigokudani aka hell valley. strolling thru the suphurous valley, we enjoyed the awesome view of the changing colors of autumn. the sun, the leaves, the wind, i wanna remember every bit of this stroll.
after tat, we proceed to the outdoor ainu museum - porotokotan. the ainu is the indigenous
people of hokkaido with their own culture and language. the ainu settlement was moved and restored at the shores of Lake Poroto in 1965 forming this museum that preserve and exhibit the ainu's cultural assets. at the visitor entrance, we were greeted with an enormous statue of chief (right). till now, we still cant decide if he is carrying an umbrella or mop on his left hand hiakz hiakz ...
we also managed to catch the traditional ainu folk dance including the following:
1) mukkuri: ainu musical instrument mouth harp. the obasan performing this look abit cocky, but she is good ! the kind of sound that comes with such a simple instrument is amazing.
2) ifunke: lullaby
3) iyomante rimse: a ceremonial dance for sending bear's spirit back to heaven. at a certain part of the dance, they started singing "hon-sen, hon-sen, hon-sen" and i almost died of internal injury, preventing myself from laughing after jc started it. somehow it remind her of "blue-black" bruise (in hokkien).
after the performance, we toured around the museum briefly. it is too big a place to walk around completely with the given time. with tat, we were mainly at the resting place along the lake, the ainu dog and the bear cage.
nex come lunch *slurp* we went to a seafood market and ordered 2 scallop at 1000 yen each. the scallop sashimi is sooooooo big and yummy definitely worth the price (5 out of 5 stars). on top of this, we also had a seafood pot with crab, prawn, scallop and lotsa vege.
after the heavy lunch, we started our long journey to asahikawa. with ample time, we managed to visit otoyama sake brewing museum (jus before their closing time at 5pm) that contains many valuable items spanning 330 years of history and culture of sake brewing. after a long day, i can only recalled trying their award wining sake at 150 yen and rice crackers (tat were already sold-out).
after a full breakfast, it's great to head out for a stroll and we definitely had a good one at jigokudani aka hell valley. strolling thru the suphurous valley, we enjoyed the awesome view of the changing colors of autumn. the sun, the leaves, the wind, i wanna remember every bit of this stroll.
after tat, we proceed to the outdoor ainu museum - porotokotan. the ainu is the indigenous
people of hokkaido with their own culture and language. the ainu settlement was moved and restored at the shores of Lake Poroto in 1965 forming this museum that preserve and exhibit the ainu's cultural assets. at the visitor entrance, we were greeted with an enormous statue of chief (right). till now, we still cant decide if he is carrying an umbrella or mop on his left hand hiakz hiakz ...we also managed to catch the traditional ainu folk dance including the following:
1) mukkuri: ainu musical instrument mouth harp. the obasan performing this look abit cocky, but she is good ! the kind of sound that comes with such a simple instrument is amazing.
2) ifunke: lullaby
3) iyomante rimse: a ceremonial dance for sending bear's spirit back to heaven. at a certain part of the dance, they started singing "hon-sen, hon-sen, hon-sen" and i almost died of internal injury, preventing myself from laughing after jc started it. somehow it remind her of "blue-black" bruise (in hokkien).
after the performance, we toured around the museum briefly. it is too big a place to walk around completely with the given time. with tat, we were mainly at the resting place along the lake, the ainu dog and the bear cage.
nex come lunch *slurp* we went to a seafood market and ordered 2 scallop at 1000 yen each. the scallop sashimi is sooooooo big and yummy definitely worth the price (5 out of 5 stars). on top of this, we also had a seafood pot with crab, prawn, scallop and lotsa vege.
after the heavy lunch, we started our long journey to asahikawa. with ample time, we managed to visit otoyama sake brewing museum (jus before their closing time at 5pm) that contains many valuable items spanning 330 years of history and culture of sake brewing. after a long day, i can only recalled trying their award wining sake at 150 yen and rice crackers (tat were already sold-out).
our hotel stay was at hotel crescent asahikawa which is a walking distance from the asahikawa shopping street. dinner was my favourite - ramen !!! oishi, i love it !!! with scallop (nope i m not sick of it yet), char-siew, tamago, and even side dish - gyoza. after dinner was free & easy and of course being us, we got lost again walking in a completely opposite direction away from the shopping street heh heh we almost bump into our 'soy sauce' again after saying bye bye to her 5 mins ago in the ramen shop. asahikawa shopping street is packed with shopping malls, but unfortunately i did not recalled much about them other than taking off and putting on my coat. the malls are simply too stuffy and the streets are simply too cold. surprisingly not only does the days seem shorter in hokkaido, even their malls close earlier at around 8pm. we only found 2 exceptions:
1) a busker singer who was singing out in the cold - strong vocal
2) convenient store lawson
so with nothing much left open thereafter, hotel sweet hotel ...
Sunday, October 18, 2009
ready, set, go hokkaido
after a night flight (reporting at 2120) from singapore to narita airport, me and jc have set foot again in japan after 2 years. there and then, we made our first memorable blooper ... we somehow decided that we have to check-in at the ANA domestic flight to Sapporo !!! the attendee at ANA counter looked kinda flustered, she was probably wondering why there were pple checking-in at that odd hours. she briefly looked thru our e-ticket and enquired if we wanna chg our flight. at that moment, we then realised "oh ya! we are supposed to take the domestic flight from Haneda hor!". the kind attendee did not give up on us, she then to tried to explain to us (in english and of cos in great attempt) where we can board the limousine bus to Haneda. well, we were pretty lucky. jc later managed to find our tour group - with the help of our SA luggage tag. considering the possible what-ifs, i cant imagine our tour guide - kazama's reaction if she already had 2 missing pple at the start of the journey ha !
1st meal - haneda airport: saba fish with rice and miso (3 out of 5 stars). it was then i realised my hidden talent with eating fish haha.
after lunch, we then checked-in for the domestic flight to sapporo and our plane is decorated with pokemon theme (left). kawai ne!
1st place of interest - showa-shinzan kuma bokujo: prior reaching the place, i was kinda tired after a nite flight and barely excited over a visit to the bear ranch. our 'soy sauce' was telling us on the ride abt the tricks and stuns that the bears will perform to get food = apples. so "eagerly", i bought some with 200 yen, but wat come later was definitely un-expected in a good way :) i completely forgotten abt my fatigue looking at their stuns. (right) even the racoon wanna steal the show !
next, we headed to an apple farm and in there, we can freely pluck and eat the prunes and apple from the trees. the apples are big and juicy, yum yum ... everyone was happily eating and plucking apples. when it come to getting food, we have very "competitive" tour mates and somehow me and jc always seem to finish last :p. it was abt 5pm after fruit picking, though the sky looked like abt 7pm in singapore. days are getting shorter in japan as winter approaches.
1st stay - hotel yumoto noboribetsu: on the way to our hotel, our 'soy sauce' did a very elaborate illustration on the steps for taking japan hot spring bath. this is far from wat i have learnt in our previous trip and with tat i somehow managed to overcome my mental barrier and decided to go for it! i din regret it at all, the open-air hot spring (sulphur mineral water) bath is especially relaxing after a long day. then again, it was kinda awkward seeing fellow tour mates naked ... and for once in my life, i m glad to be short-sighted :p heh heh.
the dinner that follows after the bath was sumptuous with crab, sashimi, ebi, chawanmushi, steamed rice, tempura (4 out of 5 stars). after dinner, we had a short stroll outside the hotel followed by the usual shopping at convenient store. had my 1st ice cream back at the hotel and before i knew it, i was dozing off zzzzzz
1st meal - haneda airport: saba fish with rice and miso (3 out of 5 stars). it was then i realised my hidden talent with eating fish haha.
after lunch, we then checked-in for the domestic flight to sapporo and our plane is decorated with pokemon theme (left). kawai ne!
1st place of interest - showa-shinzan kuma bokujo: prior reaching the place, i was kinda tired after a nite flight and barely excited over a visit to the bear ranch. our 'soy sauce' was telling us on the ride abt the tricks and stuns that the bears will perform to get food = apples. so "eagerly", i bought some with 200 yen, but wat come later was definitely un-expected in a good way :) i completely forgotten abt my fatigue looking at their stuns. (right) even the racoon wanna steal the show !
next, we headed to an apple farm and in there, we can freely pluck and eat the prunes and apple from the trees. the apples are big and juicy, yum yum ... everyone was happily eating and plucking apples. when it come to getting food, we have very "competitive" tour mates and somehow me and jc always seem to finish last :p. it was abt 5pm after fruit picking, though the sky looked like abt 7pm in singapore. days are getting shorter in japan as winter approaches.1st stay - hotel yumoto noboribetsu: on the way to our hotel, our 'soy sauce' did a very elaborate illustration on the steps for taking japan hot spring bath. this is far from wat i have learnt in our previous trip and with tat i somehow managed to overcome my mental barrier and decided to go for it! i din regret it at all, the open-air hot spring (sulphur mineral water) bath is especially relaxing after a long day. then again, it was kinda awkward seeing fellow tour mates naked ... and for once in my life, i m glad to be short-sighted :p heh heh.
the dinner that follows after the bath was sumptuous with crab, sashimi, ebi, chawanmushi, steamed rice, tempura (4 out of 5 stars). after dinner, we had a short stroll outside the hotel followed by the usual shopping at convenient store. had my 1st ice cream back at the hotel and before i knew it, i was dozing off zzzzzz
Saturday, June 13, 2009
mao mao's special day
today is an exciting day for ah mao ...
1) he is making his special 'passenger' appearance on my chevy
2) he is gonna get a makeover session
so how did it go, here's my review for the day:
1) passenger experience (5 out of 5 stars)
- smooth & peaceful ride
- no symptoms of panic like frantic paw scratching
- no symptoms of anger like feet stomping, deep growling
- verdict: Excellent
2) makeover session (3 out of 5 stars)
BEFORE
BEFORE
- experience poor vision due to overly-long 'fringe'
AFTER
- intially displayed signs of fear upon first arrival back home
- after accustoming to home, increased activity (probably due to successful weight loss ha!)
- overall verdict: Practical, but not Charming
1) he is making his special 'passenger' appearance on my chevy
2) he is gonna get a makeover session
so how did it go, here's my review for the day:
1) passenger experience (5 out of 5 stars)
- smooth & peaceful ride
- no symptoms of panic like frantic paw scratching
- no symptoms of anger like feet stomping, deep growling
- verdict: Excellent
2) makeover session (3 out of 5 stars)
BEFORE
BEFORE
- experience poor vision due to overly-long 'fringe'
AFTER
- intially displayed signs of fear upon first arrival back home
- after accustoming to home, increased activity (probably due to successful weight loss ha!)
- overall verdict: Practical, but not Charming
my first car :) chevy love
it's been 3 weeks since i last went to collect my first car from chevrolet ubi showroom (25th may). at the age of 32, i am now a very proud owner of my chevy love *wide grin*
so where have my dear chevy's been sofar?
1. first supper trip to hk cafe at sun plaza
2. bukit gombak sports hall - abt / yoga lesson (hot hot hot, where can i get shady lots)
3. expo hall - cfa exam (many many many cars, many many many candidates)
3. first midnite movie trip to great world and subsequent supper at rail mall
4. clementi / imm with special passenger appearance - ah mao
chevy even got his first "bath" and got his sua-goo owner totally hyped with shopping at daiso for cleaning mats, wipes. even tried visiting the carpark in the middle of the nite (ard 12 midnite) jus to test out the new microfiber cloth for cleaning windscreen :O
am sure, chevy and i gonna have a lot of adventures with plenty of places to explore (especially now with my gps) and many happy times together.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
hong kong in a weekend
over a weekend, i have been in and out of hong kong... though this was not my first trip, i was all hyped-up last friday and here i am starting to miss milk tea and "yu-tan" (fishball in special curry-cum-chilli sauce) *drool*
21-feb sat morning 4am
*alarm ring* "huh ... have i slept?" apparently so, and cher's family (all of them - mum, dad, sis) will be coming to fetch me in another half an hour. it was an early trip to the airport and the route was clear, i guess everyone mus b feeling kinda sleepy with the peaceful silence in the car.
we reached the airport close to 5am and checked-in shortly. the usual wave-goodbye at the check-in then proceed to change money. the goon-me actually asked for smaller change when the girl at counter was already giving me in 100s HKD denomination = 20 SGD ... so malu (-_-!). next was breakfast at toast-box, it was not fantastic but our minds are not on the food. we were jus overwhelmed with thoughts of wat we can devour for the nex few days - bo-luo bun, che-zai mee, gong-zai mee, wanton-mee, yu-tan, nai-cha *slurp*
21-feb sat noon
yey, we reached hong kong \(^_^)/
21-feb sat morning 4am
*alarm ring* "huh ... have i slept?" apparently so, and cher's family (all of them - mum, dad, sis) will be coming to fetch me in another half an hour. it was an early trip to the airport and the route was clear, i guess everyone mus b feeling kinda sleepy with the peaceful silence in the car.
we reached the airport close to 5am and checked-in shortly. the usual wave-goodbye at the check-in then proceed to change money. the goon-me actually asked for smaller change when the girl at counter was already giving me in 100s HKD denomination = 20 SGD ... so malu (-_-!). next was breakfast at toast-box, it was not fantastic but our minds are not on the food. we were jus overwhelmed with thoughts of wat we can devour for the nex few days - bo-luo bun, che-zai mee, gong-zai mee, wanton-mee, yu-tan, nai-cha *slurp*
21-feb sat noon
yey, we reached hong kong \(^_^)/
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