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Wednesday, August 31, 2005
crap stories... (part 2)
i really wonder how he got so much time writing these crap in the office... ah well, not that i dun have lah.. haha...
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Today something very surprising happened. However, it is hard to describe using one post. Hence, I will do it with a few post (Maybe 2).
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After the fight with Ichiwaru, Winz decided that he needs to seek for potential people who can defeat him.
Winz: (Thinking) I will find someone with enough hidden potential and will attempt to teach him so that he might be able to defeat me.
Passerby A: Miyazaki did it again.
Passerby B: The guy is really good at what he do.
Passerby A: Of course, I would say that he is the number 1 in our village. And, maybe world number 1.
Merchant: Hahaha, the world is big. Although I agree that this Miyazaki guy is good, but, I do not think that he can be number 1 in the world. He is lack of experience and skill. He depends mainly on his physical strength.
Passerby B: So, you think you can win him?
Merchant: Er... no, I am no fighter like him.
Winz: Excuse me, but, may I know where is this Miyazaki? I would like to meet up with him.
Passerby A: Oh, just head straight down, when you hit the 3rd junction, turn left and his training ground is at the right side of the street. You will be able to spot it once you are there.
A few minutes later ....
Winz: Are the Miyazaki?
A person who is lifting some stones with an arm turned around.
Miyazaki: Yes I am.
Winz: I heard that you are good and would like you to give me some pointers if you can.
Miyazaki: Sure. But, you do not look like you are from this town.
The fight begins.....
Winz moved very slowly. He sees the potential within Miyazaki.
Winz: Turn your hand to the left at an angle of about 45 degrees. Yes, that is the way.
Miyazaki: You are good. Until so far, nobody has managed to fight with me for such a long time.
Winz: Pay attention. This will be a bit tough.
Winz rises his "chi" and gave a normal blow. Miyazaki can feel the difference in the attack and he attempt to dodge it, but he is too slow.
At this instant, Winz moved swiftly with another hand and creates a shield that shielded Miyazaki from his first blow.
Winz: Can you continue?
Miyazaki: That is amazing! Please would you teach me that?
Winz: No, I will not. But, I will show you a few more times. You need to figure out how to defend yourself against my blow.
Miyazaki: Alright. I will...
The fight continues for a very very long time....
Both Winz and Miyazaki are exhausted...
Meanwhile, at another corner of the village.
August: I am overwhelmed with power! Ah..... I cannot take it anymore, need to release the power within my body.
As it is near to the end of the month August, August felt that the power that have accumulated in his body is overflowing. This is the first time he has experience such enomorous energy flowing within his body ever since he landed on Earth... ...
August: I can feel some fight taking place in the south.
With several leaps, August reached the location of the training ground where Winz and Miyazaki are fighting.
Without much delay, August picked up a piece of crushed paper and with a flash, changed the rough paper into a bat-shape (as in table tennis bat) weapon.
August: I must fight the best among the best. You, get lost!
As August said this, he pointed his finger to Miyazaki.
Feeling insulted, Miyazaki headed straight with his weapon and ...
Miyazaki: Argh ...
A flash of yellow beam can be seen from the index finger of August. It is a direct hit. With such speed, there is no way Miyazaki can dodge it. Furthermore, Miyazaki is already exhausted with the fight previously.
Lying tired, but not dead yet, Miyazaki do not even have the energy to open his eyes to see what is about to happen....
(To be continued ... ...)
posted by winz at 5:08 PM
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crap stories... (part 1)
remember i once told u that there's a forum that we created for our own little discussions and talk cock sessions here in japan?
well recently there's this really crappy guy (most of the time the not-funny kind of crap) who joined the forum... (well on a sidenote, he has a virus named after him)...
so anyways, he began writing crappy stories, which i must admit, is so ridiculous that it tickles me at times... hehe... so will post it up here for u guys to read... if u all find it boliao, pls dun flame me *holds up anti-flame shield*, flame the original author instead... hehe
must disclaim first as well - i am no way as good as he said.. he is fond of saying the opposite of the truth lah.. in the stories, he depicted me as an invincible table tennis player, but in truth, i damn laoya one, and he's the one who's the best among all of us... also, any grammar or spelling errors are originally made by him.. hehe.. so long me dun bother vetting through ;p
here it goes...
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In the gym 29th August 2005
Ichiwaru: I sense strong aura here!
Winz: This guy display a strong "qi" too.
Eyes met and without words, the two guys picked up their weapons (table tennis bat).
Time passed....
Ichiwaru: You are good. It have been quite a long time since someone can take more than 20 strokes from me.
Winz: You mean the match already begin? I am just starting to warm up.
Ichiwaru: What!!! You arrogant fool!
Ichiwaru uses 悪狼剣術(waruroukenjutsu). The ball spins with high speed in the anticlockwise direction.
Winz: (Thinking) A direct hit from this ball might be fatal. I need to slow down the ball first.
Winz uses "u Gu Jiu Jian" (独孤九剣), Stroke number 3. The ball just moved around his bat. Everyone was stunned. This stroke uses the pressure developed around the atmosphere to control the ball, hence the ball never touches the bat and suddenly, in a split seconds, with a swing, the ball hit the end of the opponent table. It was a nice move.
Ichiwaru: I have never failed to win using this stroke before. You are the first to be able to counter it.
Winz: Hahaha. That is because you have never meet people who uses taichi.
Ichiwaru face turned red. Winz still in his relaxed mode, prepared for another stroke.
Ichiwaru: Is it? I dun believe what you say.
The fighting scale of Ichiwaru rises up by another 3 times.
Ichiwaru: Try this then! Hey....ya.
Using the same technique, but with more strength the ball spinned violently.
Winz: (Thinking) The previous move will not work on this. The pressure created will not be able to smooth the ball. Looks like I need to use some "neili" 内力.
Taking a deep breath, "ai Yun Zhang"(排云掌) is used to "catch" the ball. No matter how fast the speed of the ball is, it seemed that the ball stopped in the mid-air. No, it did not stop. A closer look at it, show that the ball just slowed down, or if you look at it in another way, you can say that time of the region where the ball exists seemed to have slowed down. Effortlessly, the ball was returned to the opponent.
Stunned by the effect, nobody realised when the ball hit the opponent side. And, another score for winz. Note that the ball is completely "destoryed" after hitting the opponent table. Only dust can be seen in the empty air.
Winz: Enough of your childplay. Now is my turn. With a new ball, the final blow that dealt out from winz is "Sui liu Shi" (水流勢). At the instant this move is used, sound of fluid seemed to be heard. Splitted images of the ball seemed to occured. The ball splitted into 5 pieces ....
Ichiwaru: ... Which is the real one?
Without much thought, Ichiwaru uses "kagebunshin" 影分身 in an attempt to hit all the ball, but, all the balls seemed to be imaginary.
Winz: Hahaha. Look at the net.
The ball was spinning directly on the top of the net. Winz blew lightly towards the direction of the net and, in goes the ball.
Ichiwaru: I have to admit defeat!
Winz: It is always lonely to be number 1. How I wish someone can defeat me oneday. Though you look promising, but, you do not have the potential to win me.
Ichiwaru: It is sad to admit, but, what you say is true. No matter how hard I train, there is no way I can defeat you. I admit that you are the champion among the champions.
With a sad expression in his face and a lonely smile, winz walked away from the scene. His head was shaking as he moved...
Winz: (Thinking) There is no way I can improve myself now that no one can ever defeat me. Sigh......
Well, that is the most impressive match I have seen so far. This is what you can expect from the king of table tennis -- winz.
posted by winz at 4:52 PM
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happy birthday, malaysia..
hmm... it seems quite weird doing so, since i missed out wishing singapore on her birthday.. haha.. and now wishing her closest rival neighbour happy birthday instead... ;p
posted by winz at 4:34 PM
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my disney alter ego...
 | You scored as Sleeping Beauty. Your alter ego is Princess Aurora, a.k.a. Sleeping Beauty! You are beautiful and enchanting, and as sweet as ever.
Sleeping Beauty | | 75% | The Beast | | 69% | Goofy | | 63% | Peter Pan | | 50% | Ariel | | 44% | Donald Duck | | 44% | Cinderella | | 38% | Snow White | | 31% | Cruella De Ville | | 25% | Pinocchio | | 25% |
Which Disney Character is your Alter Ego?
created with QuizFarm.com |
beats me how it led to this... but hey, if they say i am beautiful and enchanting, and as sweet as ever, then it must be right!! err.. right...? ;p
posted by winz at 2:24 PM
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ok.. i am a werewolf
 | You scored as Remus Lupin. You are a wise and caring wizard and a good, loyal friend to boot. However sometimes in an effort to be liked by others you can let things slide by, which ordinarily you would protest about.
Remus Lupin | | 80% | Sirius Black | | 70% | Severus Snape | | 65% | Ginny Weasley | | 65% | Ron Weasley | | 65% | Harry Potter | | 65% | Hermione Granger | | 60% | Albus Dumbledore | | 60% | Lord Voldemort | | 60% | Draco Malfoy | | 45% |
Your Harry Potter Alter Ego Is...?
created with QuizFarm.com |
posted by winz at 2:23 PM
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which mental disorder do i have?
| You scored as Unipolar Depression. Congraulations! You are depressed! You know just how it feels to bear all the world's burdens, and the value of a 19-hour night's sleep. And you really hate that circle-guy thing on your Zoloft pill packets.
Unipolar Depression | | 58% | Antisocial Personality Disorder | | 42% | Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder | | 17% | Borderline Personality Disorder | | 8% | Schizophrenia | | 8% | Eating Disorders | | 0% |
Which mental disorder do you have?
created with QuizFarm.com |
hmm... although the test is kinda duh, but it is interesting to see that i scored a 0 for eating disorders hahaha... no wonder i so fat.. muahahhahaha
posted by winz at 2:15 PM
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what kind of job am i meant to be?
hmm... although scored the same pts for engineer, lawyer, and architect, think now if i were to choose again, probably prefer to be a lawyer... ah well..
posted by winz at 2:10 PM
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hmmmm....
a quick look at the statistics gathered by my mini poll shows that to improve my blog, i need to put up more pics of more babes and hunks... hmmmm... not enough pic of hunks meh?? see previous few posts... *fafa*
yesterday, a fren of mine commented that i lost the drive to blog liao, the recent blog entries all seemed a tad contrived and all... is that what's needed to be improve about this blog?? to get some drive and breathe life into my writings?
hmm... it is true that my blog is boring.. and it is true that there's nothing much to it besides my travel logs and stuff... ok, not much "and stuff" over here either... but i remind myself, "what was the purpose of my blog in the first place?" yeah, i started it primarily not to put funny or interesting stuff on it, or random, senseless rants... it was to keep my frens and family updated on how my life is in japan, is it not? true, making the blog interesting and all will definitely be a plus pt as well, but well as long as i satisfy my primary concern, i am pretty satisfied with my own blog...
there were of course times when i wished that i have as much readers (or blogders, as coined by a certain someone) as kenny or wendy, i could probably talk more crap about everything and anything, post more jokingly shameless pics of myself, etc. etc. on my blog, to entertain the mass, and to boost viewership (not that by doing so, i will be guaranteed to be as successful as any of them)... but hey... this is not what this blog is primarily about...
hmm... but once i go back to singapore, perhaps things may change, yeah? cos the primary aim of this blog will be changed for sure... well, just look at kenny's blog before and after he left sydney back for kuching... on the other hand, i may stop blogging altogether... hmm...
ok lah, of cos while satisfying my primary goal, i can also try to entertain my family and frens by spicing up what i post as well... will try for you guys and gals!!!
miss ya all!
posted by winz at 1:45 PM
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Tuesday, August 30, 2005
interview with tojo...
hmm... came across this article where yuko tojo was interviewed... she is the grand-daughter of general hideki tojo, the guy who led japan to war in WWII...
interesting... read her side of the story here...
posted by winz at 3:37 PM
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hokkaido part 4 - biei, otaru and back to hakodate... 7/29-31
we left furano for biei next... a small town in hokkaido famous for err... what again? i dunno... supposed to be some nice trees (but in the end look kinda normal to me)... anyway see the pictures and see how lah...
there were some famous trees, as i have mentioned, going by names like "ken & mary tree", "tree of the 7 stars", "parent-child tree" etc. well, first, we went for the ken & mary... and this was what it looked like...
nice? extraordinary? you decide...
by the omiyage shop, i saw a vintage skyline, and promptly took a picture with it ;p
vintage skyline... dunno whether it still runs or not, but sure looks cool!
on our drive to other trees, we ran into sunflower fields... absolutely had to be the highlight of biei for me!!
literally ran into sunflower fields... haha (from left: james, yuhui, tshush, ivan, me)
nice hor?? so nice being surrounded by all the sunflowers!!
anyway, everyone were like walking among the crops and taking pictures... so excited over it.. hehe... not that i wasnt lah.. ;p
afterwhich, we headed for the parent-child tree, which looked like this...
nono... me not in jurong... these are famous trees ok?? though they look like any one of those in jurong, or anywhere for that matter... ;p
how come they are famous? beats me man... anyway went to 1 or 2 other trees, but shant put it up, since they were equally boring.. heh... to think we spent 1 whole day doing this...
and ya, we were quite suay, cos it was like drizzling for the whole day... so our planned hike somewhere also went up in smoke... what to do? nothing much, we went to an ofuro, had dinner, and just stayed in our cabin playing cards and all... hehe..
how our 4-men cabin looked like...
the interior of the cabin... nothing like those singapore chalet-type cabins... haha... (top: siownan, damien, me, and the earphoneless fangyi)
so anything interesting in biei? less the sunflowers, i dun think so... but u decide lah... i have to disclaim though, i appreciate the efforts of individuals put in to plan the trip... not blaming them or anything, cos if i were to plan, i would probably do the same and come here... so not their fault, but well just japan lah...
we woke up early to drive to otaru, a small town famous for its glass factory and errr.. small port... it was pretty nice lah... (anything is compared to biei), but strangely, i didnt upload any of the photos taken there... here's the photos that i've uploaded.. ;p
cant remember what this is called, but it is a famous local product... something like muahchee on sticks...
we ate at a sushi place a fren's japanese fren recommended...
my jap teacher also said should eat sushi over at hokkaido because they are fresh... but to tell u the truth, i think there are lots of better ones in tokyo, and less expensive... anyway... maybe off-day for the sushis?
me, damien, jasmine, fiona, siownan, james...
we only spent like 2 hours in otaru, cos we had to rush back to hakodate to return the cars by 7pm... and the drive down was scheduled to take about 6 hours... and upon reaching the hakodate airport, to our horror of horrors, we found out that the airport was closed at nights... so we cant stay over at the airport to catch our plane early next morning... and the best (worst) part was that the security forbade us staying over outside the airport as well!!!
we didnt have planned accommodation, and neither did we want one at that time... thank goodness 2 guys from the mazda car rental came and help us out, and offered to find accommodation for us and drive us there... but we decided to just stay over near a 24-hour combini nearby, so they sent us there instead... how nice of them... they hung ard for awhile making sure that we were settled before they left... so paiseh, owe them a bunch... dun think they will ever read this, but thanks a bunch! especially paiseh cos one guy when he left us, he bumped the rental car into a fire hydrant... oops... hope he did not have to pay much for the damage...
rather than staying out in the rain at the carpark unauthorised, i decided to ask the combini staff if its alrite for us to stay just outside... they didnt think it would be nice, but they suggested a nearby park with shades and toilets, where we could do so... one of them, a 15 year-old-lad, even brought me there to take a look (the walk there was like 15 mins) so nice, the hokkaidoians (less the airport security)...
sunrise viewed from the park...
this was how we looked like after a tiring night of half-sleep...
i didnt sleep more than 20 mins for the whole nite, as i was battling the mosquitoes hard..
siownan still sleeping under the stars at daylight...
we were thankful when it was finally time for us to depart for the airport... it was a 30 minute walk to the airport from the park...
damien, james, august, me, earphoneless fangyi, tshush... at the hakodate airport finally...
tshush and me at the boarding gate...
our flight back...
finally the trip was coming to an end... a bit relieved that the night was over, and of course going back to our dorms for nice comfy sleep as well...
hokkaido was nice at some parts, but some parts can give a miss... i wouldnt mind going there again, maybe sapporo and other places... i like the fact that there werent as much ppl, and it wasnt as congested as in tokyo... so thats pretty nice...
that's all for hokkaido folks...
next trip i am probably going to cover will be izu/nagoya/expo bah... stay tuned...
;)
posted by winz at 2:39 PM
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hokkaido part 3 - furano... 7/28
we left sapporo for furano early next morning... along the way, we stopped by for a toilet break, and there coincidentally, was a nice little waterfall...
三段滝 (sandantaki i think)
the guy above was just some random guy... too lazy to wait for him to get out of the picture lah... that's why... anyway here are a couple of the pictures of the natural waterfall...
me with fangyi (who perpetually had his earphones with him throughout the trip... trying to look like shaman king? ;p)
our targetted destination was actually farm Tomita, a rather famous ones for belts of different colours of flowers planted around the farm... (especially famous for its lavendar).. but when we were nearing, we can't help but stop by and take some photos when we saw this ski-slope-turned-flower-bed...
me and tshush...
the long road up the ski slope (there's gondola on the other side of the slope, but to use, have to pay... so...)
many nice different flowers were on display there...
dunno what name, but the yellow and orange sure made them look real nice!!
poppy plant?? they have opium?? hmm....
yellow things are always nice... and of cos yellow flowers are included... nice hor? like a windows default wallpaper liddat...
of course, how can we forget the highlight - lavendar?
me amongst lavendar...
fiona and me ;)
the view from the ski slope... forebodding weather? turned out real fine in the end.. we were lucky... hehe
after spending like close to 2 hours on such a small patch of flowers, i was pretty apprehensive over how long we would be spending in tomita... the sight that greeted us after we got out of our car was this...
the sign says "tomita melon house".. hmm... didnt know they were famous for planting melons too...
what's a farm visit if a man doesnt get to play with some tools rite? well here's me with a tractor (display only lah.. haha)
well here are some photos of the lavendar fields...
as i have mentioned, farm tomita is famous for lavendar... and of course the products they make from it... they do make things like potpourris, perfumes, soaps and other shower products, err ice-cream (counted or not?), air fresheners, etc. etc. and there at farm tomita, we could see some of the processes...
lavendar picked and dried hung upside down...
machine and ppl bundling them up to form potpourris...
in another room, here's one person err injecting essence of lavendars into little bottles... for the scent perhaps? dunno...
and in the same room, 2 other persons are making lavendar soaps...
the person of the left, she's using the machine to press the soap into shape, while the right gal was wrapping up the ready soaps 1 by 1...
well, here's how the soap looks like at different stages of the process... if you are interested like i was... hehe
can see the shop slowly taking shape... ;)
here's a bit of the view from a porch high up the fields...
not too bad hor?
i was pretty elated to find sunflowers growing there as well... well sunflowers are my favorite u see, because, you guessed it, they are yellow! hehe... so bright and cheery and all.. heehee
so big... and they were almost as tall as me!
realised now that i hadnt uploaded a lot of the famous belts-of-flowers photos... but anyway, here's one...
nice hor? incidentally if you noticed, this is the photo were i got my blog header picture from... hehe...
anyway we spent quite a lot of time in the farm as expected... too many flowers for the gals to take photos with liao... when we finally could leave, we went to the cheese factory as well as the wine factory (and its vineyard)...
cheese factory... nothing spectacular, so no other photos...
chateau furano... where they make wines... rather mild ones at that... with fangyi (note his earphones again)
at the basement cellar... can sleep there... cos very nice and cool.. hehe...
some berries for wine making from the vineyard...
as it was turning dark, we went to check into our farmstay accommodation... and we had ample room for all of us...
stand-by bunk! haha...
how the interior of a bunk looks like... not bad lah... (again notice the earphones)
we went out to take some photos before the sun had set...
sunsetting at a distance...
did something unusual... posed for a photo with jasmine while doing weird faces... me usually dun do such uncool stuff one lah... ;p
a black-and-white photo of the farm... makes it look like macham world war 3 aftermath hor? haha
our buffet was farm style, which involved us actually bbqing our meat and veggie...
a family having dinner right before us...
the dinner was so-so, the stay was so-so, but didnt think the whole farmstay affair was worthed the 7k that i paid for it (that included milking cows, and feeding hay to horses the next morning)... well.. other ppl happy can liao lah...
we decided to go for star-gazing on that very night, as we could see lots of stars, and it was a pretty sight... but by the time all of us bathed, clouds covered the whole sky, and we coulded see anything much... so sad... no luck lah...
and that's how furano went...
next up, biei (pronounced as bee-ay) and i think can wrap up hokkaido liao... hehe...
posted by winz at 1:36 PM
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Monday, August 29, 2005
書かなくてすみませんでした...
havent posted anything for up to a week now... and hadnt given any warning posts as well... so sorry for those who constantly came by but see nothing fresh...
had been busy bringing frens around tokyo the whole of last week... really really tired...
and now, i am all alone in the office.. *boo hoo..* cos my other 3 singaporean frens are taking leave for today until wed....
hmm... will have ample time to blog then ;)
again, sorry for last week!
posted by winz at 10:13 AM
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Tuesday, August 23, 2005
wanna travel around the moon?
for a princely sum of 11 billion yen (S$166 million), now you can! (well at 2008 that is)...
at that kind of price, makes one wonder how many customers there will be... hmm...
if i have that kinda money, i will buy newcastle united fc instead, buy world-class players, rather than just going orbiting around the moon.
but then, it's just me... ;)
p/s: those out there who have the money and are seriously considering going for this, won't you mind giving me 1 million as tips? hehhe.. small sum to you right? ;p
posted by winz at 9:44 AM
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Monday, August 22, 2005
new japanese spell... heheh..
goes like this...
痛いの、痛いの、飛んでいけー
(itaino, itaino, tondeike-!)
spell is chanted when a person falls sick... (acc to my jap colleague... hehe)
cute hor?
posted by winz at 4:10 PM
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new week, new look
my department got reshuffling today... for me still the same... but for the rest a lot of change and hence seating arrangement changed as well...
my 10th month here and this is the 2nd major change... hmm... dunno why the need also...
anyways because of that, lots of enemy soldiers walking around behind my terminal... so better not blog too long...
see you guys tomorrow instead... ;)
p/s: the weekend was pretty laid back, sat woke up at 430 pm (hehe) and sun went for a so-so concert.... weekend just the way i like it...
posted by winz at 2:03 PM
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Thursday, August 18, 2005
duh...
times like this, really wanna strangle somebody... especially after slowly replying queries and helping... get this kinda duh answers!
somemore, not only once, a group of them like to give this kinda duh answers ALL the freakin' time...
not that i dun have a sense of humour... it just gets into you after awhile...
disclaimer: dazetwinkle still is a good fren lah... and she did gimme a decent reply after that, so kudos to her... ;p
posted by winz at 4:17 PM
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new poll...
vote now!
posted by winz at 4:03 PM
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hokkaido part 2 - sapporo... 7/27
after hakodate... sapporo...
nope, we didn't go there by train
sapporo (札幌) - city of beers and ramen, also the most modern city in hokkaido i think... we took about 5 hours by car to reach there, and by the time we reached, it was already close to 2, and our tummies were growling... we thus set off to look for the famed sapporo ramen...
there's this famous street somewhere were a lot of stalls sell ramen, but we didnt go there. instead we went to the 札幌ラーメン共和国 near the sapporo station (cos its near and we were hungry)...
it was an interesting place, even the lift up to the ramen floor was nicely decorated...
bet you cant find the lift among the mess... hehe...
ta-dah!! here's it!
me and tsutsen posing at the ramen place... (the train's fake)
here's my 激辛味噌ラーメン.... looks good and hot hor??
to tell you the truth, all ramen taste roughly the same to me, so it was good, but not so much better than the others to me.... i'm more a rice and meat person lah... ramen not my cup of tea (or should i say bowl of noodles?)
after lunch, we rushed over to the sapporo beer museum, to catch it before it closes for the day. it was just ok at best, since i expected to see real beer being brewed but didnt... just some history of the factory and stuff... not even free beer tasting!!
sapporo beer museum
little cute figurines showing the process of making beers... here they are harvesting the wheat? (just guessing)
err... mixing....??
ok.. i skipped a few... here's the end, where they finished with the beer, and one of them went up 7th heaven... hehe.. on top of the froth of the beer...
cute hor?? that's as good as it gets...
they have walls filled with commercials of old... and these were a little interesting...
macham teresa teng era...
they also have a nice looking pub at the end of the museum walk...
looks nice... but no free beers... だめ!
next, we went to a chocolate factory... one which i had not heard of, but was pleasantly surprised with thereafter.
looks more like a school/castle than a factory...
name of this place?
白い恋人 (white lovers, if translated to english, and pronounced as shiroikoibito)
this place is very pretty... although not like willy wonka's, this somewhat holds its own... check out the park around the factory...
small little huts for kids to play... interior furnished as well.. cute hor?
just because i play in them doesnt make me a small kid ok??!? ;p
pig farm!! dedicated to P.I.G. ;)
nice little lodge amongst a pretty little garden...
too bad i didnt upload more photos... but there are more cute stuff lying around (like dogs, hippos, birds and such)... and upon every hour, they all start animating and singing and what-have-you.... really really cute!!
let's take a look at what's on the inside...
as you step inside the mansion-like factory...
voila... a nice victorian stairway (dun shoot me if it's not victorian ok... just used the term loosely)
there's nice mr. pinocchio willing to pose for a photo with me as well...
the museum showcased an assortment of old things... including cups and toys as such...
nice stained glass...
photo spoiled by the guy on the right... hahahaha.... james ;p
one of the many errr... victorian cups tts on display... they have shelves and shelves of them from different parts of europe and era...
nice fountain inside, with nice ceiling painting...
they have a few rooms full of toys from the yesteryears as well...
here's a view from their restaurant... you can see a football field in the background... well they do own a soccer team as well... dunno if it is pro though...
okok... after all these views of the factory, finally came to the essential part of the factory... chocolates!!
came quite late, they packing up liao, so can only see the packing process...
the choc snacks are really quite yummy though... how good is it? hmmm....
they have a certificate, i think silver award (can't see from the pic) from an international panel of judges...
i dun really eat chocs, but i still bought some to eat... hehe... really not bad lah... ;)
be sure to drop by there if you are going to sapporo next time!
nightfall, and we roamed around downtown trying to find a place for dinner....
sapporo by nite...
not just any ordinary dinner, mind you... we were hunting for... CRAB BUFFET!! hehe.. eat all you can crabs!! although a bit expensive, but super shiawasedatta!!! (we got recommendations from the friendly police at one of the 交番s)
definitely my highlight of the day week
slurrpp!! the one i was holding is called the zuwaikani... it was the most delicious out of the 3 kinds we had (taraba, and kenga are the 2 others)...
after the good dinner, we went back to Ino's backpackers, a really cool place, and retired for the nite..
tired eyes...
the next morning, outside the backpacker's, while we were preparing to leave...
for furano... many beautiful pictures of beautiful flowers to come... next episode!
posted by winz at 3:57 PM
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Wednesday, August 17, 2005
hokkaido part 2.... NOT...
i wanted to blog about the hokkaido trip part 2... but after going writing a lot about it... halfway i deleted something by mistake.... sians...
so i so smart, went to click on the "recover post" to see if i can recover what i deleted (blogger saves the drafts periodically so that if anything happens, we can recover what we have typed)... i've tried this a few times before and it usually works....
but the end result.... everything went blank!!
there went 45 minutes of my effort!!!
stupid stupid me.... i should have just retyped the whole bloody thing...
sians....
no mood to rechurn whatever i have typed before liao...
tomorrow lah... ;(
posted by winz at 3:12 PM
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Tuesday, August 16, 2005
tadaima...
i am back... from my short yet expensive trip... sigh...
the beach was cool and all... and the babes there were amazing!! but the expo, well except for the singaporean food treat we had from the manager there, and the toyota pavilion, it was kinda boring...
to top it all off, i left my car parked just outside my dorm on the last nite, and it got towed away! fine was 12000 yen (180 SGD)!! sigh... bad bad bad...
will blog more about the trip with photos next time... maybe after i am done with hokkaido... hehe... so many things to blog about, so little time ;p
just now got a strong earthquake... i was in the elevator when it happened, so kinda scary.. but heng the elevator got contingency program for earthquake... so we all got off at the next floor... safe and sound... so no worries... ;)
something weird that i observed... i last blogged on the 11th Aug... but when i logged into blogger just now, i saw that my blog was last updated on 14th Aug??!!? i wasn't even near any computer terminals on that day!! hmm... was it blogger at it or someone got into my blog account?? either way, time for me to change my password...
later.
posted by winz at 1:08 PM
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Thursday, August 11, 2005
Away from 8/11 to 8/15...
dear frens,
i will be off for my second holiday of the summer season... to izu/nagoya/world expo this time round...
as such, again, i wont be blogging much... hence see you again after the 15th!
be sure to be back when i am ;)
posted by winz at 4:19 PM
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hokkaido part 1 - hakodate... 7/26
we got the shaoshan virus... all of us...
what's the shaoshan virus??
Shaoshan virus (n).
-describes the disease upon which if contracted, the person will, automatically and naturally (almost innate), perform the action of chapping in when other people are posing for photos.
i, too, contracted it during the trip... hehe... super irritating, but everyone's doing it... so しょうがない... ;p
anyway the photos above are taken at the haneda (羽田) airport... which is less than half an hour from kawasaki... 便利だね... and it is prettier than narita airport... much much better...
after the automated check in was done, here's my boarding pass...
first flight of 2005...
we had to take a bus to board the plane, and during the bus trip, we went pass the pokemon plane...
cute right??
the flight lasted around 2 hours... and i totally slept through it... missing the beautiful flight attendants free beverages offered... hehe...
first thing we did when we landed at hakodate (函館), besides renting the cars, was to head for the famed morning market...
it was still morning when we reached there...
hakodate, i heard, is famous for its 烏賊, i.e. squid... and we can see loads here...
ikas swimming around in a tub...
the ppl sitting at the tables in the background are ikannibals... those who pay, fish for ika, see them cut the ika straightaway, so that they can dine on them fresh on the spot...
ewww... (cos i dun like squids haha)
anyway, let's see one ikannibal in action...
errr... game-keeper showing young ikannibal how to fish for one...
young padawan at it now...
wheres that darn ika??
got it!
**scenes where ika was mercilessly cut up are not shown here, as they are not suitable for the PG audience of this blog**
of course, besides ika, the market offers many other seafood as well...
like wet markets in Singapore, only here they only sell seafood...
of course, some shops cook them on the spot to sell to visitors like us...
look at these yummy bbq delights! (ok lah, only the scallop looks yummy to me, cos i dun eat the rest ;p)
fiona now will give a demonstation alpha on how-to-eat-200yen-snails... (ok i'm sure they are not snails, cant remember the name, but they look like anyway)
ewww... looks gross right??? (i'm not talking about fiona...)
now for the more delectable one...
le pétoncle, aka. ほたて, aka. scallop.... slurrpp...
this one costed ivan 400 yen.. he was nice to let me have a nibble, and it was real great! thanks ivan... ;)
there are other ready-to-eat ones like...
うに (sea urchins) - ewwww....
and...
蟹 (crab) - slurrrpppp!!
resisted the temptation of getting crabs cos would be going for a crab buffet sometime during the trip...
the ice-cream lady looked mightily tempting and delicious... and they were!!
made from milk from hokkaido cows... heehe.. guaranteed freshness...
with all the tempting seafood around, we had to settle for this for lunch...
chicken spaghetti...
at this chain of restaurant named "Lucky Pierrot"... apparantly quite famous in that part of japan...
it was quite delicious (esp the chicken bits)... hence you can see me here enjoying my food ;)
we went to fort go-something... cant remember the name lah... but the interesting thing about the fort was that the perimeters are shaped like a star, so it made it harder for others to breach the fort...
miniature model of the fort.
the real thing from the top of a tower...
a customary photo of me with the scenery...
this nice structure is in the fort actually...
after this, we went to the motomachi area for some shopping...
look at the "clouds"... can't do anything else much becos of the rain...
the "clouds" also meant that we had to, regrettably, abandon our plans to go up the mountain for hakodate's famed "million-dollar view"... 残念だった...
inside of the red warehouses are really quite nice... lined up with nice stalls selling cute little things...
nice...
it was also a harbour... much akin to SF's Pier 39...
kinda melancholy day... suits me fine... the last photo here is my current desktop wallpaper.... hehe...
we did some driving around, stopping by some sights just for quick photos...
town on a hilly terrain...
actually cos of the hilly thingy, this place reminded me of parts of Montreal, the part near the what's-the-name-park?? where it is hilly as well?? those who've been there should know what i'm referring to... i must add... this part only!! cos actually the whole town reminded me of malacca - not too new, not too old...
we went to vivien's (a fren of yuhui) ex-host family's place for dinner... the host mum and dad were super nice and frenly and hospitable... brought us to ofuro after dinner too!
we passed by the motomachi area again late at nite...
nice feel to it, with the lights...
after ofuro, we headed back to our 1000-yen bikers' inn, recommended by michiyo, a fren of mine...
not entirely pretty, but serves me fine for a nite of good sleep...
after a good sleep, we headed to sapporo the next morning... which will be covered in the next post ;)
posted by winz at 3:05 PM
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what your music tastes say about you...
Check out My Music Personality results... somewhat accurate lah... but i guess it is logical how your personality would match the kind of music you like.. hehe...
try the test out here...
posted by winz at 2:37 PM
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it's quiz time again! hehe...
pardon me, but these kinda thing is kinda fun... ;p
| You Should Learn Portuguese | 
Muito legal! For you, learning a language is all about the lifestyle that comes with it.
And Brazilian beaches, hotties, parties, and soccer matches are just your style. |
portugese???? never thought of studying that one... french, spanish, japanese, yes... portugese??.. hmmmm....
| In a Past Life... | 
You Were: An Obese Jester.
Where You Lived: India.
How You Died: The Plague. |
haha... i was obese as well in my past life? ;p
posted by winz at 2:33 PM
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nostalgic...
yesterday, for our jap class, we had a relief teacher teaching us... after the lesson, calvin and i took the same bus as her back to dorm (she took to an eki station), and on the bus we were talking to her, and she showed us a book she borrowed from her school library (she's a primary school teacher by profession)...
the book is one on Singapore! and from the looks of it, it looks like it was published some 15 to 20 years ago!... hehe... so nostalgic, everything looking so old and all... i looked closer on the picture collage on the cover and found that there's one on kids wearing a familiar brown uniform - and i immediately recognised that as...
"これは私の小学校です。" i told the teacher excitedly... it was just so coincidental... although i was in Henry Park Primary School for only 1 year back in 1986 before i transferred, i still hold many fond (and some embarrassing) memories of my short time in the school...
i remember playing marbles (those kinda big white ones, not the small fishtank ones) with friends during recess, running past the field to RGPS to look for my sister who was studying there, going to school with my big kiddy waterbottle... (shall leave out the embarrassing ones... hehe)
inside the book, there's this section on education in singapore, and they featured their story on photos taken in henry park. i was looking through all of them, see if there's any slim chance that i may be in one of them (since the timing may be just right.. hehe...) but fat hope lah... dun have...
thinking of my time there led me to think of timothy and mustaffa, the only 2 classmates i remember from my time there...
mustaffa was my partner in primary one, those kind you have to line up with and hold hands while walking kind. he was a super fair malay then, but i kinda lost contact with him after secondary 1 i think (we talked over the phone for years even after i transferred school)... i know he went to st joseph's institution (SJI)... anyone out there knows of any Mustaffa from Henry Park that attended SJI as well?? it will be good to see him again after all these years...
for timothy, i was pretty amazed by him. seriously i didnt remember him at all after i left henry park. 10 years later, nov 1996, i was at the airport lining up my luggage leaving for taiwan for the taiwan immersion program, in which some students from the top 5 jcs took part. suddenly one RJC guy came to me while i was putting down my luggage and asked, "hey, are you winston?"
"yeah, do i know you?" i asked quizzically. i had never seen this guy before in my whole life, or so i thought...
"did you happen to attend henry park before when you were in primary 1?"
"yeah, how did you know?"
"i was your classmate then! i found you familiar and so i came to ask..." he remarked....
i was like, blown away can?? after all these years... and i was sure i changed much, and yet he can remember my name, and how i look like... my my.. either i left a pretty good impression on him then, or i did something terrible to him for him to remember me so long....
also, after jc, kinda dunno what happened to him as well... so any of you knows one Timothy from Henry Park - Raffles Junior College, do let me know too, yah?
hehe... enough nostalgia for the morning... ttyl...
posted by winz at 9:32 AM
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Wednesday, August 10, 2005
onjuku beach... 7/23
onjuku beach is located in chiba prefecture, supposedly one of the better beaches near tokyo... well you can judge from the photo yourself whether the beach is nice or not...
me thinks not bad lah... at least better than east coast and maybe sentosa...
sand is the smooth and fine ones, not like the grainy ones found in most beaches in singapore...
beach hot or not is debateable, but the bikini gals were sure hot!! but too bad no photos... dun wanna be thought of as a voyeur lah.
anyway nothing much lah, we played a bit of soccer, a bit of volleyball, slept in the sun, played a bit in the water... what else can we do on a beach rite??
to think in singapore, beaches are so accessible, yet i dun really go to any; here we have to travel like 2 hours one-way to go to one... i must be mad... ha...
here's a group photo without me, i was taking the photo of course... hehe...
all happy faces before suayness struck...
anyway in the afternoon, an earthquake happened... the epicentre was at chiba, where we were at... and it registered a strong 5 on the japanese scale (max of 7). i felt the earth beneath move of course, and it was a pretty cool sensation. i mean imagine you are standing on siloso beach and the sand and the ground underneath it are trembling... hehe... it lasted for a short while only lah, and no tsunami too...
so of course we continued our day on the beach as if nothing happened.... until we decided to head back home. we reached the ulu train station, and found quite a few ppl waiting in the station (not at the platforms though)... kinda weird.... the station officer explained that the trains stopped service because of safety concerns due to the earthquake.
what to do? wait lor... the suay saturday streak started here (rem the fateful fuji trip just a week ago... and it will continue the week after too, but must wait for my next post to read about it...)... we waited from around 630 pm all the way till about 1130 pm... finally a train came. we were fortunate that there were train services extended due to these delays, and so we got trains that took us until kamata (i think), just a stop before kawasaki. we reached there at around 2 am... because some ppl were unwillingly to part with their money, they walked back to dorm from there, which i heard took another 2 hours! me, with 4 other guys, we took taxi back - which took us 15 minutes or so. not too bad, cos we paid like 600 yen (9 SGD) each only.... considering japanese standards, quite cheap liao lah.... (although if you think about it, 9 SGD can use 1 taxi per person back in Singapore, so here it is 5X the price!!!)...
it's crazy... but hey we are living in a crazy world today... and i am living in a crazy country now... since we are at the topic of money and price, shall end this post with a quote...
"I have enough money to last me the rest of my life, unless I buy something. - Jackie Mason"
;)
posted by winz at 3:08 PM
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taiwan's anne frank...
dunno how credible this supposedly true account goes... but there's this taiwanese who apparantly hid in a small space in between 2 walls, with not enough space to even stand, for 18 years! why and what happened, do read for yourself if you are interested... here.
posted by winz at 10:37 AM
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Count on Me Singapore!!
Yesterday never blog cos National Day Holiday mah, hor??
but actually yesterday nothing much special happened... no ND dinner amongst us (not if you count the KFC dinner lah), nothing. the singapore embassy organising post-ND celebrations only in September... by then everyone forgot about ND liao.. haha...
Anyway as mentioned in my previous entry, will be going to Izu/Nagoya soon... actually as soon as tomorrow right after work... hehe... so guess you guys and gals wont be seeing me for the weekend until Tuesday liao.. hehe....
got meeting today, jap homework to do, and of course some other work to do... see if i have time to blog about my other outstanding trips or not later...
posted by winz at 9:37 AM
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Monday, August 08, 2005
no rest..
since i came back from hokkaido, hadn't really had any good long rest....
friday nite, i went for band prac... and afterwhich i went to roppongi with frens and took the morning train home on saturday. i slept at about 630, i was naive to think that i will wake up at 1130 on time for my sectionals at 1300...
shiratsuki (my section leader) called me, and i was like all groggy and all when i picked up the phone...
”今日は来る？” she asked (or something like that, i couldnt really remember cos i was still at doze-mode).
”はい... 今何時ですか？” i replied, wondering why she called since i already told her that i will make it for sectionals after band prac just the nite before.
before she replied, i looked at my clock, and was jolted up when i found that it was already 1415! super paiseh... since japanese are all very punctual and all... and there i was still in bed 1 hour into practice!
”すみません、寝坊．．．今行きます。” hehe... then i went to prepare to leave. reached there at 1545, was like late for almost 3 hours!
the practice was until 1830. i wonder whether it lasted so long due to me coming late and all, or it was normal for japs to have 5.5 hours of sectionals. that said, i was still kinda amazed by how thorough they are when going through the parts. if i were the one taking the sectionals, i would have glossed over many of the things we repeatedly practised.
anyways, had an ok dinner with the section that lasted until 2340. it was kinda expensive at 3k (total 30k for 8 ppl present, those who dun drink beers get discount)... reached back dorm at close to 1... do the usual internet stuff late at nite, and only managed to sleep at ard 230...
and then i had to wake up at 830 on sunday morning for basketball... which of course i overslept and eventually got up at 9... hehe...
the game was ok, first time we were able to use the court for the whole of the morning. well some japs wanted to use the court for full-court games, but we ignored them. and since they didnt really have a large no. of ppl, they LL... haha... that's a 1 up for us...
i left at 1130 to be on time to meet up my pal desmond, fellow clarinettist back in ntu, who was in tokyo visiting his jap gf who was in tokyo for some job interviews. the rest of the bball gang left to go for ktv again! hehe too bad i cant join them... but anyways the great meeting with desmond, aka jiji, more than made up for it.
we met at roppongi (not again), and went for some chicken rice... hehe... saw his gf, megumi, for the first time too, and she look rather cute, warm and frenly... and she sports an american accent of course... hehe... but desmond had to be her interpreter throughout lunch, not because she is bad in english (on the contrary her english was real good), but because we used too much singlish in our conversation... haha... and there were the usual band gossips and all.... coupled with large amount of chicken rice and the chilli sauce... really made my week!
megumi left to do some check-in and studying, while he and i wandered around shibuya waiting for dinner... megumi turned up at ard 5 pm, with one other fren, michi, who is desmond's best fren's gf. had a little izakaya dinner until ard 630 pm, since desmond had to catch the 740 shinkansen from tokyo back to kyoto (yup he is currently studying in kyoto, becos of his gf of course, who is also studying in kyoto).
went to shop hmv for awhile, wanted to buy some cds, but realised i didnt bring the hmv pt card... so will stall that for next time. reached home at 8+ watched some tv and bummed ard until 130 when i finally went to bed...
and today woke up late again. that makes 3 days in a row.
hmmm... really need to pack more sleep... maybe tonite? hmm i dunno... metal gear acid is pretty interesting you see.... ;)
-----
on a side note, after writing the above, finally felt that i wrote a blog, aka web-diary entry, instead of the normal usual nonsense or travel journals i write.... felt different after writing this one... but guess it will be boring for u ppl out there.
received a reply from fiona to an email i sent her answering her overdue question. she was encouraging and all... glad to have her as a fren after all these years... thank you...
posted by winz at 10:49 AM
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Friday, August 05, 2005
kiampah questions
taiwanese variety hosts like 吴忠宪 and 康康 entertain me quite a bit, one reason is because got a lot of 欠扁问答题... haha... some are really damn hilarious...
so i bo liao and searched the internet for some of them, and here are my selection... most if not all of them, you will need knowledge of both chinese and english to solve... haha... i posted them on a forum, so thought that i will post here as well, for fun ;)
1. Which chinese emperor was blind?
2. What creature is both blind and deaf?
3. 阿拉丁(Aladdin)有几个哥哥?
4. During wat game
5 is bigger than 0
0 is bigger than 2
2 is bigger than 5
?
5. -wat mouse use two legs to walk?
-wat dog use two leg to walk?
-wat duck use two leg to walk?
6. 放烟火为什么不会射到星星?
7. 打什么东西即不花力气又很舒服?
8. You take egg throw the stone. Which one will break?
9. 有一块蛋糕跌倒了,它气馁，情绪底落..... 什么动物能鼓励它站起来??
10. Who is the most happy youth ?
a) Jay Chou
b) Ali baba
c) Tang2 Lau3 Ya1
11. 用豬肝和熊胆作成的神奇肥皂叫什么?
12. 洗臉的盆的叫臉盆; 那洗手的盆呢?
13. two men sit on a stone. (guess one cheng yu)
14. 在树上唱 RAP... 猜一个字.
15. 新加坡有很多外地劳工。
来至印度，叫印劳。
来至泰国，叫泰劳。
请问在新加坡，哪一劳赚最多钱？？？
16. 武侠小说当中，那一柄刀最长？
17. da bai and xiao bai are brothers... xiao bai looks alot like da bai... 猜一个成语..
18. 小明喝奶长大，大明喝什么长大?
i have lots more... hehe... but i guess this will do for now... ;)
you are welcomed to guess... hehe just drop a comment! i will reveal the answers a few per day bah.. haha... ;)
posted by winz at 1:36 PM
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Thursday, August 04, 2005
TMNT
seeing these animated gifs on the web certainly brought back some childhood memories...
:)
posted by winz at 1:32 PM
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summer...
no wonder in countries with 4 seasons, summer is always greeted with great excitement. summer holidays aside (and the sweltering weather too), t'is the season to party! it's the season to travel, to beach, to climb mount fuji (rolls eyes upwards), to go rollar coasting, to watch fireworks, to wear yukata, etc... since i came to japan, it was kind of boring - ok not boring, rather lack of activities - in the autumn, winter, and spring. but suddenly, summer very busy...
let me show you what i mean...
16-17 July - FujiQ and Mount Fuji
23 July - Onjuku Beach
26-31 July - Hokkaido
6 August - Hanabi (tentative), and sectionals (**#*"$")
12-15 August - Obon Week, Izu and Nagoya and Expo
21 August - Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra Concert
24-28 August - Summer Holidays part II, "豚"を東京の名所へ案内する
3-4 September - Rehearsal and performance at the Industrial Music Festival
jialat hor?? my next free weekend is at 10/11 September... sigh.... i need a breather.
posted by winz at 10:34 AM
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Wednesday, August 03, 2005
you can bring me down, but you cant kill me!
hehe... this is good.. my frens discovered that using https, can still access gmail... hehe... so i am back! ladies and gentlemen... ;)
posted by winz at 11:28 AM
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mt fuji hike
continuing my adventures from the previous post, we went up mt fuji right after fujiQ. i think it was quite brave a thing to do... but anyways, am glad no one got exhaustion or anything after the whole trip (just weariness).
didnt really take much photos on the way up, cos concentrating my energy climbing the mountain instead. also it was raining most of the climb....
anyway this is how a hut on the climbing trail looks like...
looks quite cosy hor??
but damn ex. think you have to pay 1000 to sit inside for some time (an hour?) and 3000 to sleep... siao! and normal 500ml coke costed 400 yen (6SGD)... bo bian... cos on the way up, no water source at all... so heng my 1 2-liter pocari sweat was enough to last me throughout the climb. and err... nissan cup noodles costed 750 yen (11.50 SGD) hehe... talk about dragon-gate inn... ;p
siownan and me, exhausted.
that's a photo when we were at the 7th station i think. it was becoming cold, evident from siownan's sweater, but due to the climb, i didnt really feel the need for another layer yet, hence the t-shirt still.
we pushed on and on, resting when we needed to. and of course by some time, the large group (19 of us) splitted up, and in the end, i climbed with jianrong and calvin.... 4th floor integrity is strong huh! (3 of us stay at the same level in my dormitory)
since the beginning of 5th station (the starting pt), calvin had been voicing his regret over the climb. and throughout the climb, you could actually hear us swearing over and over again. it was that bad. i think the crowd and the rain made it worse than it was. without the rain especially, i think the climb would be much more pleasant, although, still i dun think it will be worth the effort. i'll explain later.
also for those reading this before attempting the climb hoping that there will be some tips on precautions needed, etc. well i guess the oxygen canister is optional, but better to have one in case. among the 19 of us, i think there were one or two who couldnt really cope with the thinning of air and thus needed a sniff here and there. for me, i dun feel any difference at all. also track shoes is good enough, although boots are preferable for the descent especially. good ski attire is also a plus, since they are both waterproof (against the rain) and keeps cold. otherwise normal winter jackets should suffice (tts what i wore at the summit).
ok, back to the climb. we started the climb at around 830 pm from the 5th station. the guidebooks stated that the climb would last for ard 5-6 hours, and so starting at that time brings us to good stead to catch the sunrise at the summit. or so we thought.
due to, yes again, the crowd and the rain, the progress was severely impeded. among the 19 of us, none of us reached the summit on time for sunrise (which is ard 345 am i think) the fastest (james surprisingly) reached the top at aroung 415. anyway, not that it matters, cos there was no sunrise to be seen on that day... due to the clouds. so suayness for all of us.
but knowing that we could never reach up there on time, we (the 3 of us) took our time up the mountain from 2 am onwards, resting more frequently than before. ok, i must admit i was the weakest link; from 4 am onwards, i was so sleepy that i could sleep standing up. and looking at the next photo, you can see it was quite a dangerous thing to do...
the long queue even at 5 am...
no joke... i think the crowd on the way up can compare with the train crowd in shinjuku in rush hour. we practically walked for 3 seconds, waited a minute or so, walked another 3 seconds, waited another minute, and so on. the queue like this started from 2 am... really sapped all the energy out of us.
i talked about sleeping while standing awhile ago being dangerous. yeah, cos many a times, during the 1-minute or so waits, i dozed off, and was awaken when i lost a bit of body balance. imagine if i were to really fall back, i think it will be a domino effect all the way to the 8th station below!! so anyways, not to risk any danger, we sat at where i took the previous photo for awhile for the crowd to slowly thin out a little first.
here are some photos i took when i was there.
cant really see clearly, but if you do squint your eyes, i think you can make out one of the 5 lakes in the photos.
and yes, i really think the blue filter is too much for this camera. and i can do nothing about it sigh... no money to get a new camera though. think my old minolta camera takes much better photos than this ;(
i must add that where we were, it was only about 10-15 minutes up the mountain if there was no crowd. but due to the crowd, we took another hour plus up the mountain.
the crowd thinning out - our cue to continue...
we finally reached the top at 630 am... spent a whooping 10 hours on the short climb!! all thanks to everyone (literally).
here are some more shots from the top, not very different from the previous ones.
sign didnt say anything glamourous... ;p it says "mt fuji summit - let's bring your trash down the mountain with you"
i ate a hot bowl of ramen at one of the shops at the summit... costed me 800 yen for a sub-standard-worse-than-instant-noodles one... and i paid 200 yen to relief myself there. sigh... kenna tok...
the dragon-gate inn at the summit...
this may not look like it, but the background is the crater.
another photo of me with the sea of clouds.
it was freaking cold after we resting awhile... hence we finished our business atop the mountain chop chop, and started on our way down. there wasnt much things to do anyways, and everything was sooo expensive.
our way down...
we took another 3 hours going down through the volcanic ashes (which got into our shoes and was super duper irritating). it was ok at the start, but after ploughing our way through the seemingly endless roads of volcanic ashes, it was super irritating.
the lies...
estimated timings... off the mark by quite a bit.
on the whole, there wasn't much redeeming factors in the climb. the view wasnt that great (i repeated many a times to my frens that the view from alishan in taiwan was soooo much better, and the best bit was no need to climb up ourselves... hehe), everything was expensive, there wasnt any sunrise. even without the rain and the crowd, i dun think there's much things to look forward to or be happy about. my frens without complaints all said that it was ok for the climb. but of course other than that, nothing much lah. that's why i said that the climb wasn't worth the effort. may as well spend the whole of 2 days at fujiQ, better and more enjoyable... hehe... IMO of course.
i could bitch on more things if i were to blog on this right after my climb, but well... ok lah... at least this wont make me sound like a sore loser that much.. hehe... yes i was slow, but at least after years of no exercise, can still make it to the top... a proud man i am. ;)
posted by winz at 10:22 AM
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blocked yet again...
today came to work, found that the IT department working overtime last nite... gmail and e-messenger are now blocked... hmm... heng i got my back up email in inbox.com hehe.. and gmail mails are all forwarded there so no worries.
but still kinda sucks though... *fuming*
posted by winz at 10:06 AM
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Monday, August 01, 2005
fujiQ continued...
continuing where i left off...
after the famed fujiyama ride, we went for the equally-famed dodonpa ride...
why issit named as such? hehe... i think it is the sound of heart beating bah... throughout the hour of wait, we here the do-don-pa... do-don-pa rhythm beating repeatedly... hehe... trying to create the atmosphere bah... anyway if you look at the pic below, its the ride behind the ferris wheel, featuring the 90 degree drop...
some close up shots...
looks fun hor?
but i must say the drop part is not exactly scary nor exciting, since it slowed down considerably at the rising edge. what's exciting is the 4G acceleration at the start... something like the one you get to sit in dreamworld...
some stats on the ride...
it held the world record for being the fastest ride for sometime, though this time, i didnt catch the proof on camera ;p
after the ride, we needed to relief ourselves, so we went to a nearby toilet...
and hilarity ensued...
"Is it enough? Wao! So big! (arrow pointing down at your member) Unbelievable!.... She loves it.
haha... that's what was written on the gents' toilet wall... morale booster for japanese male?? ;p
more teruteru bouzu spotted.
there's thomas land in the theme park as well... for kiddy rides... but no time to go lah...
wave before take-off...
look at the ugly tan-line... ;p rolling up the sleeve in an attempt to get some tan on my upper arms as well... heehee...
next we went to the world's longest haunted house...
okok.... more like haunted hospital.
i must say from the outside, it looks pretty good. from my frens, i heard that the atmosphere was pretty well done as well, though it was not exactly very frightening. i didnt go because one of the ladies, fiona, didnt want to go in, and so i stayed behind to babysit keep her company. i can always come again next time (i most probably will anyway).
during the wait, we each had a cone of ice cream, costing 350 yen (S$5.30) each...
the grey one is actually vanilla. pink is strawberry i think.
after they came out of the hospital unscathed, we proceeded to our next ride, the tsunami...
a standard feature in most theme parks this days...
that being said, the waves caused is very huge! think i have never seen a bigger wave than this anywhere before!!
check this out...
from where i was standing, totally engulfed by the wave...
took photos from a further distance next...
wave really very big hor?? that's why it's called tsunami ;)
took some other smaller and less interesting rides, afterwhich we left the park at ard 5 pm to prepare for our mt fuji ascend....
will stop now... hehe... since my bell is going to ring in about 3 more minutes.. ;)
next up will be a short kao-peh entry on mt fuji... hehe... stay tuned..
posted by winz at 4:40 PM
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i am back...
after 6 days of holidaying at hokkaido... didnt really feel like working today liao... sigh.. as such, spent most of today reading half-blood prince... ;p
i want to blog abt my trip to hokkaido!! but then there's so many others which are in line.. hmm... and i havent actually loaded the photos from my mmcs into my hdd yet.. hehe...
ok! will strive to catch up by this week... if not, by next week!!... if fail, another week... if not...
;p
posted by winz at 4:35 PM
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