Happy Japan Travels Nov2007

"Dotombori is a long busy street that sells food, food and FOOD at night! Each building along..."

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 23:51:16 +0800

“Dotombori is a long busy street that sells food, food and FOOD at night! Each building along Dotombori is unique…there’s this hotel entrance with four big pillars that are actually 4 big faces supported on 4 big feet…(go figure, I don’t know how to explain this one) and there’s one that is fashioned in the shape of a ship, the other one has a very big crab that has moving pincers and legs stuck on the front part of the shop.”

Osaka is interesting

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 23:50:08 +0800

I can’t exactly put a theme to Osaka, it’s not like traditional Kyoto, nor like modern Tokyo nor even has the picturesque settings of Otaru nor the usual city life of Sapporo. Osaka is a mixture of retro and modern, the good and ugly, posters of murderers at train stations, excellent roadside food, bright neon lights, pachinko centres and business lounges, loud blaring music, rowdy colours, tall modern skyscrapers and weird architectures, stiletto boots and bikini tops, rastafarian braids and dreadlocks, old men and women, jazz music and hip hop, techno art, baroque art..aaaaagghhhh very confusing.

My Japanese language sensei used to advise us not to patronise Osaka streets on our own late at night, as there are bad people who dupe tourists into doing things (that he never really mentioned.) I love Osaka and am afraid of it at the same time. People in all kinds of clothings/makeup/hairdo rushing to their own thing around us. In fact, it was in Osaka that I started to have some culture-shock because Osaka is shocking!

Dotombori, Ebisu, Den-den Town and Universal Studios were among the nicest places I had been to! And the famous Umeda skybuilding is awesome to gawk at night. It made me feel as if I am looking into Stargate’s revolving gate. And the red Ferris Wheel that changes colours in the evening, oh! Gotta love that. Bathing with everyone else in the communal bath in our hotel suite is another thing. Ha ha ha. And nothing beats eating okonomiyaki (japanese pizza) in Osaka.

If I go back to Osaka, it would be for the food…. and Universal Studios.

Menu in an odd-pretty-intriguing eatery called Ika Tei in...

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 22:15:32 +0800

Menu in an odd-pretty-intriguing eatery called Ika Tei in Osaka…was quite affordable!!! And the ambience was just nice…fusion of jazz music and chinoiserie hanging from the walls, on the bar, the seats, the ceiling….a middle aged Japanese auntie waitressing…aaaahh…

urchin meat served raw with just a dash of boiling water poured...

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 22:07:49 +0800

urchin meat served raw with just a dash of boiling water poured over…Yum-Yum anyone?

"Strong winds and heavy drizzles wrecked Beezai’s plastic umbrella! Chanjie clutched her sides..."

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 15:59:06 +0800

“Strong winds and heavy drizzles wrecked Beezai’s plastic umbrella!
Chanjie clutched her sides laughing her arse off
Beezai’s umbrella had flipped inside out all of the sudden
Like Mary poppins’ umbrella gone wrong…..
She couldn’t stop laughing,
I couldn’t stop snapping with my camera…”

Me and my plastic umbrella with our little adventures

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 23:43:34 +0800

Me and my plastic umbrella with our little adventures

"Rain, rain go away, come again another day, Three of us want some snow to play, But there was no..."

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 23:40:29 +0800

“

Rain, rain go away, come again another day,
Three of us want some snow to play,
But there was no winter to our dismay,
“It’s kind of weird”, Auntie Minshuku had her say!

*Sigh*

”

Seriously, it was really this dark and breezy on the...

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 22:42:00 +0800

Seriously, it was really this dark and breezy on the beach….on an afternoon!

Phenomenal 'breeze'......(literally)

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 22:35:21 +0800

After getting our butts off the train and taking many wrong turns when we reached Hakodate, we finally reached a ‘minshuku’ owned by a Taiwanese lady to stay for 2 nights. She came out to greet us in her high hair, fluorescent pink turtleneck sweater and furry brown vest in a warm matronly manner. We exchanged introductions and she hastened us to take a rest in the guest hall.

The place was really clean and neatly decorated with lace curtains and china. A desk sits in the corner of the room with a computer, and there were a few luggage bags chucked on the sofa by other visitors from Singapore. Beezai started clicking away with her ixus, and then after seeking the lady’s help on getting out and about in Hakodate, we set off to explore on our own.

The sky was getting really dark although it was only noon. Wind was howling from the seas at the end of the long street. We set out to find the nicest place for a quick ramen lunch, as informed by Auntie Minshuku (her name changed to protect her privacy :P). We dragged our tired feet along, the wind kept blowing my jacket open (the zip’s spoilt, damn….) Then we reached a diner owned by 3 hunky guys who looked like each of them’d own Harleys, made us tasty bowls of ramen. If you’re curious how we’d order food in Japan, we had to speak in Japanese. So, better learn some Japanese if you want to backpack in Japan ya! By the way, I’ve never seen a real diner back home. Neva!

The 3 hunky men served us ramen in cute Hello Kitty bowls…so kawaii! And they were pink in colour. I felt as if I’m back in mama’s kitchen cooking maggi in my own favourite bowl~ aaah.. after much slurping, I took a look out of the diner, the door curtains were being blown crazy like a storm was hitting any second. We were like, “WAHHHHHHHHHHHH……………Go go go!!” And off we went out walking back to Auntie Minshuku.

Auntie Minshuku showed us another place to see. The beach! So we trudged along the street till we reached its end and by then the wind was blowing reaaaaally hard. Beezai’s long hair was flapping in her face whenever she turned sideways, and I had a hard time trying to keep my eyes opened. We photographed the tall waves, the nice house that sits directly on the beach, the big ugly grey clouds and also posing with each other with crazy hair flying in all directions. After that we explored around a little and went back to our cute little lodge.

To cut a long story short, which I think I will spend more than a page explaining…we went out again to look for food in the evening. We were walking along an unknown street next to the river and sea, and there was an overhead bridge that shows the temperature of the town. It was 11degrees celcius as I remembered it. It was quite strange that nobody was to be seen. The wind was howling even harder and I started to feel some air pressure on the right side of my head. Two kids were practically speeding towards us like they were escaping something horrible. The 3 of us soldiered on, and the wind grew EVEN stronger! Suddenly it occured to us why the town seemed deserted………………………………….

Each of us tried to keep ourselves rooted to the ground we were walking on. I had never experienced such strong winds in my LIFE!!!!! We tried to run, but everytime we lifted our foot, we felt the wind would blow us away. Chanjie being the cutest and petitest of us all had the hardest time. Luckily there were buildings that occasionally sheltered us from the sea “breeze”…We were shrieking whenever we almost got “blown away”. I wouldn’t say it was scary, it was quite the adrenaline rush. But you’ve got to feel it yourself, the wind back home is NOTHING compared to the wind by the sea in Hakodate. Trust me.

Photo

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 21:50:10 +0800

"If there’s any town that’d look tangled in a web of wires, I would point out Hakodate!!"

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 21:44:36 +0800

“If there’s any town that’d look tangled in a web of wires, I would point out Hakodate!!”

Our lunch of crabmeat and beef at Otaru was AWESOME! Although...

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 21:52:10 +0800

Our lunch of crabmeat and beef at Otaru was AWESOME! Although I’m not a fan of crabmeat, I could picture chanjie and beezai singing praises about the quality of crabmeat in Japan….

Do you like sausages? I love them but I don’t know what to...

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 20:24:19 +0800

Do you like sausages? I love them but I don’t know what to think when I see them curled up like this…kinda interesting, don’t you think?

the lovely otaru canal

Mon, 12 May 2008 23:44:08 +0800

the lovely otaru canal

Otaru is a lovely place

Mon, 12 May 2008 23:42:57 +0800

Otaru is a picturesque little town, decorated with the famous Otaru canal, pretty little houses and shops sitting in clusters, each unique in its own way with harmonised colours. It seemed almost fairy-tale like. The lifestyle is slow-paced and the people there whether Otaru natives or tourists take their sweet time breathing in the scenery and fresh air.

We visited the Orgel shops, where they make music boxes varying from all kinds of sizes. Interesting pieces of art and music fused together. I bought myself a little orgel chained to a keyring that hums a little tune of “Sekai ni Hitotsu Dake no Hana” when the clockwork is twisted thrice around its back.

The town is filled with cute carvings and decors and artistic pieces. Some shops blow glass to fashion out fantastic utensils and crafts. Everything is done with such perfection that mirrors the townsfolk’s passion in the arts.

Heck, we loved Otaru so much that we even sent ourselves a postcard each back home when we saw a cute little post office!

Japanese men are really fashionable…the carefully tweezed...

Mon, 12 May 2008 23:15:13 +0800

Japanese men are really fashionable…the carefully tweezed eyebrows, immaculate attire, smooth complexion whether pale or tanned, and the matching accessories; they are a sight to behold on the streets and on the trains.

mochi ice-cream (ice-cream wrapped in a mochi) is my favourite...

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 23:53:53 +0800

mochi ice-cream (ice-cream wrapped in a mochi) is my favourite dessert in hokkaido other than the famous Hokkaido soft-cream. Loveeee it! I had so much ice-cream in Hokkaido!

chanjie, beezai and me!

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 18:18:29 +0800

chanjie, beezai and me!

"T’was the night at Sapporo town. Chanjie, Beezai and I wore like clowns. Skullcap for beezai,..."

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 17:50:00 +0800

“T’was the night at Sapporo town.
Chanjie, Beezai and I wore like clowns.
Skullcap for beezai, black suit for chanjie.
And a long grey muffler for me.”

- written by me, me and only me

8Nov 2007. First night of stay at the Hostel ~ SPOOKY!

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 00:30:00 +0800

Beezai, Chanjie and I finally reached our very first hostel in Sapporo after dragging our luggage across several very clean streets. The hostel staff were old and friendly, but we thought it was kinda dingy when we reached our dorm. We were not allowed to lock the doors even when we were out and about (and it’s a rule!).

Chanjie was browsing through the logbook hanging from a bedpost. Beezai and myself were busy unpacking while she was flipping the book left and right, upside down and turning it around. And boy, did she have news for us while the 3 of us were checking out the dingy and dark old basement where the “ofuro” (bath) was.

“Hey, know what? I read something in that logbook written by a Taiwanese guest. She was in the loo before 6 in the morning and when she came out, she saw an old man butt-naked facing the window. He then turned back to grin at her and she wrote there saying she thinks he’s probably not human. Eeyearr..spooky..” Chanjie’s eyes were as wide as saucers.

Hearing that, it sent us chills. Was it because of the winter season approaching or was it F-E-A-R? And we were supposed to stay in the hostel and bathe in the dingy old basement for 2 nights…uh-oh!

In the end, we were slapping Chanjie’s shoulders hard for terrorising us with the story….and we vowed never to leave anyone of us alone when we go for a bath downstairs….YIKES!!!!

*wheeree areeee my paaaaants~~~~ m(-o-m))) ~~~