day 5: exploring narita

Saw on the previous day’s news that the typhoon season is kicking in. Explains the sudden bout of really fierce wind and rain which successfully spoils a lot of fun. >___< With this in mind, our game plan for the day was to explore narita, and maybe go Aeon again.

To accommodate foreigners, the coffeehouse provided Japanese and Western-style breakfasts. Japanese breakfast basically consists of pretty hard and salted fish (I think it’s saba = mackerel), rice, miso soup and tea. I can’t actually compare the breakfast here to the one in the Takanawa Prince, since the standard is waay different (and so is the pricing).

Took the hotel bus down to narita town, and we started walking around. I was amazed at all the little knack shops along the street, selling everything; from umbrellas to sundry items to rice, herbs, traditional clothing, fans, cats… Saw some school students, all carrying tote bags (yep, even guys… it’s a trend. On top of that, they have a huge bunch of keychains dangling from one corner. Even from their handphones. Yes, this also applies to both sexes.) on the way to school. Or from school. If you look at them carefully, you can actually see a searching look in their eyes, trying to categorize you either as a local or tourist. Seeing a slight look of hostility the answer was quite evident to me. Soon after it began to rain, so we hurried on to find shelter.

First stop with shelter also happened to be the place we wanted to go to: the tourist center. I suppose mom was trying her luck to see if there are anymore 夏祭りbeing held during the remainder of our stay here. Well, as it turned out, we were out of luck, *piffety* seeing that the last festival being held last night...Which I happened to see but didn’t think much of it. T__T It’s okay, I still have bon odori to look forward to next year, and seeing how I have a summer yukata… XD Toured the place and saw abit of its history, the miniature shrines they carry around when the festivals come around, even a classic samurai warrior’s suit of armor. Must’ve been a real pain to preserve it.

Once the rain let up, we continued walking until we saw the Narita temple, which should be the biggest in the town. The drizzle got heavier, so we quickened our pace. The staircase was made of rough stone, which is slippery during the rainy season, not to mention that the steps are quite steep. At first, since they were in the midst of repairing some of the temple buildings, we thought we had entered the wrong place.

If there’s one thing about the temple; it’s huge. And it doesn’t consist of only one main temple, there are other big temples and a series of smaller temples spread out. We only stopped at the main shrine, the first one that we saw. It’s also the main shrine where everyone goes to pray to, and even when we went in there were people praying there. To pay respects we also prayed. I guess there’s something bout temples that make you do that, I suppose it’s an unwritten rule.

We spent quite abit of time there, as it was really breezy and it was just comfortable just standing there. But the weather acted up again, and the steady fall of rain prevented us from breaking cover. So we sat in the shaded area and had some tea. They provide tea for visitors to drink when they need a break, or if they just happen to pass by the area. So in that sense having hot tea and sheltered from rain, it was a pleasant experience.

There was a counter where they sold good luck charms and the sort, as a present dad allowed us each to have one; I had a red goodluck charm (私の赤色のお守りX3) and the guys bought a fortune coin each. Chatted with the lady for abit (at least I could~ XD I’m quite proud of that) before heading out of the temple and onward to exploring.

After abit more walking, seeing more quaint little shops and eateries we decided to head on to Aeon again. For starters, the guys were pretty riled up cause there was an arcade which they didn’t get to go to the previous day. Mom and I went strolling past the clothing shops, and the summer trend was to have flowy, crinkly tops with lots of lace and spaghetti stripes on the inside layer, paired up with cropped pants and slippers. Or that’s what most of the girls are wearing. I saw this really neat strappy top and matching jacket, but at its retail price equivalent RM300, I had to let it go. T___T So I consoled myself with a tee that said “Everyday, Earth day.” What took me by surprise that it only cost me ¥500, which is about RM15.

I had to go to the bookstore, just to see what it’s like. For starters, it’s almost like kinokuniya in KLCC. Just that it’s more open with slightly shorter and brighter coloured shelves. In my opinion, the asahiya bookstore in Sogo Hongkong is the coolest I’ve ever been to. XD But still~ apparently shoujo manga has its own huge huge shelf in this bookstore in narita; I think it's the hugest in the whole manga section, followed by shounen manga, and seinen manga. I suppose there are H-related ones, but I didn’t see it. I know korg will go, “Damn…That’s just too bad...for me….” and grin his Cheshire grin.

We didn’t eat at the food court for dinner, since it was agreed early on that we bought dinner back to heat up, as everyone was just about tired. The supermarket was quite fun to shop in, seeing all that foodstuff you usually don’t get back in KL, I mean, can you imagine ta-pau-ing complete meals and a pack of unagi back? XD Of course, it’s not supposed to taste all that great, especially how it’s stone cold and you have to microwave it to get it at a reasonable temperature so that you don’t end up eating rocks, but at least it was edible.

It started raining when we reached the bus station, so we were thankful we were getting on the bus, and not off it, especially when the rain was at its heaviest for the day. Although on taking the bus back to the hotel, some part of us got drenched. Not to mention I almost lost my beloved Al plushie on the bus if ti didn’t pick it up for me. =3 I think the worst part of it had to be that the bus from Aeon to the town station was stuffy, and the bus from the town station back to the hotel was freezing cold. I’m surprised none of us got sick despite having been drenched in the rain.

Siiiiighhh… my flight to KL is at 1pm in the afternoon. But there is one thing I’ve yet to do in Japan though, which is to stay here as a student, or exchange student. I do wonder where you can get info on this... Bah, I won’t think of it for now.

I think this wraps up my trip to Japan, as I don’t suppose I’ll be doing anything tomorrow worthy of noting here. If there’s one thing I’ve made up my mind on, it’s to come back here sometime soon on an extended trip or anything at all. XD Preferably with reeis and ai-chan, if not ideally.

day 4: byebye tokyo, hello shinagawa

Got to sleep in (abit) today…One thing about holidaying is that I just can’t wake up late. There are always things to do and so little time…

Wandered about shinagawa, since we had a bus to catch at 3pm. Went to a convenience store, and nii-chan found some chocopan with ken-chan from yakitate!! XD it was pretty funny. Didn’t think that I’d find it. Or rather, it was uncalled for. The breeze was cooling today, unlike the previous days, which was a good thing.

Ooooh~~! We finally had the chance to eat some real sushi for lunch. XD Funny how we didn’t have it earlier, but better late than never. It was in a little shop on the 2nd floor. Quaint, clean and neat place with good sushi. XD Back at home, salmon sushi was commonplace, but here it seems everything else is here! Everything else but salmon, that is. Maybe cause it’s expensive. Had chirashi-zushi (sashimi on a bowl of sticky sweetish rice) and they had the pink sprinklies which are sweet and crispy. I used to really hate it because of the sweetness, but I guess I got used to it. And and and! They’ve got super neat toilets! The cover automatically goes up when someone’s near the toilet seat. And you don’t pull or push levers, you push buttons to flush. And and you get to press another button and the seat lid lifts up! All this in a small sushi shop in shinagawa (Quad S XD)

The bus ride to narita was more like an afternoon nap session. Nothing much to see, until we actually entered narita town. It’s a lot like the suburbs you see in animes, narrow streets, squashy shops, students, and even the junctions…seems like a sleepy-ish town, but with a lot of foreigners (most probably flight crew since the airport is only 20-30 minutes away) lounging about the hotels, things are probably different. I wouldn’t know.

Spent the rest of the day at Jusco (or more known as Aeon) purely out of curiosity. Took a bus there, and if you recall, I did mention that the bus services are accurate down to the minute, which still amazes me. XD Aeon is definitely different from the ones at home, as it doesn’t just serve as a supermarket; it’s like a departmental store with all the branded goods and this you cannot tell from just glancing at the building… The Aeon in narita is built like an American Wal-Mart (I think so) with adequate carpark lots that stretches for a good bit. Definitely better stocked, and its shops sell quality stuff too.

And never ever EVER underestimate their food courts. XD The system is waay different here; after ordering and paying, you don’t need to wait at the counter while they get your meal ready. They’ll give you a pager-like device, which will beep to tell you that you can go and collect your meal. Quite a nifty trick I’d say =D And to make things easier for everyone, you send over your dirty dishes to a special counter.

After dinner, while strolling around, first thing I spotted was the music store. Wave is big, but I didn’t get to buy any maaya albums. Probably cause her last album was aeons ago anyway. Too bad.

Pocky is cheaper here too XP at ¥148 per pack… And anpan! And sake too! We stopped by the supermarket to buy some cakes for ah ee and family as a present from narita, since they’re reputed to be quite good. And of course we bought a box for ourselves XD after I pestered them to. XD They look so yummmy~ And like most things Japanese, the packaging was really pleasing to look at and also easy to carry around. I love their packaging and the fact that they place a lot of importance of it. I love that. =D We also bought some sake in a glass (I forgot if it was ume sake, but seeing how it was sweetish which kind of reminded me of drinking wine)

On the bus trip back, I chanced on people celebrating bon odori in a field nearby, but pretty hidden. Aih. Had I known, I would have gone for sure XP

day 3: disneyland tokyo

Got up bright and early. "Wheee~ Disneyland!" An hour bus ride, and we're at the gates! Could hear all the familiar disney tunes like "Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me~" and "Heigh ho, heigh ho..." You know the drill. Anyway, it was a great start. Sunny to the extent that I'd start sweating. I thought the day ahead would be great~

On entering...

OMG there IS something with people here and ears! Every corner I turn, every accidental glance, I see a pair of ears. Cat ears, Dumbo ears, Mickey/Minnie ears, Pooh ears, Tigger ears, Piglet ears... @_@ They come in 2 kinds; hair clips or hair bands. Hair clip ears are smaller (and cuter, if I may add) but hair bands stay on your head. Also, it's not only the girls who sport the ears...the guys too! Yep! With my own 2 eyes I saw 'em as sure as ears are ears. Guys with their girlfriends, mostly, wearing any and every kind of ear. I just...stared. Wow, can I imagine any guy from where I'm from putting on those ears and strolling about like it's normal?

...

...

..

*pukk*

*laughs to death*

moving on...

It's split into 6 parts. sooguan's right on this one; one day's not enough to explore properly. Which is why I won't go through all since I didn't anyway.

TomorrowLand:
Think futuristic. Covers Star Wars and Toy Story (for the most part...). Most rides here are VR, but they're amusing. Went on Star Tours, which is a VR ride based on Star Wars. It's very interesting hearing C3PO talk in Japanese. "R2!! nani ga atteru no yo?!" And the robots are so cute too! But the ride was for kids, which ended up in me and ti laughing throughout the ride. Maybe we were the only ones laughing. I don't know. Another ride was 'MicroAdventure!" Very cool. The effects actually jump out at you! Based on the show "Honey, I shrunk the kids" movie. (Wow, now when was the last time I watched that? XP)

ToonTown:
The town of all the main Disney figures. Saw a parade of characters throughout the ages of music... 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's. hahaha, you'd never think of Pluto in a car filled with chicks! Lucky dog XP

AdventureLand:
This was where I went on Splash Mountain! a flume ride. All the while I used to freak when riding these. This time was different. zettai chigau desu! I looked my fear straight in the eye (yes, literally and really really) and it was fun...in a way. I didn't get to pose for the camera. Damn. I shoulda gone a second time.

FantasyLand:
Didn't take too much notice since this was more for the little kids. Carousel, tame tame boat rides...But I did go for the rides though, cause mom wanted everyone to go along too. Imagine, 15 minutes of dolls chorusing "It's a small world after all~~" in various languages while you're in a boat looking at all of them dolls. In truth, the dolls are quite detailed, their actions are quite smoothly executed and not choppy like a machine. Quite impresesed. Although what was going through my mind was 'slightly' different: "All we need to make this picture complete is a sudden fire, burning all the dolls and maybe melting plastic and dying voices..."

@_@ just a thought.

Somewhere about 3pm there was a main parade. We got there just in time (me and ti just got out of Splash Mountain 10 mins before). The parade was wonderful; colourful bright floats and costumes to boot - saw Donald in a Hawaiian shirt and Aztec hat. Weird but effective XP and Mickey & Minnie (both spoke in Japanese - wow, something new)...and a quite grown-up Peter Pan & Wendy. And the rest like Snow White, Cinderella and Aladdin.

It was then when I thought, "Wow~ it's like a childhood dream come true-" When I was about 6 or 7 I'd always wanted to go to Disneyland (at the time the only one I knew of was in the US and I bugged my parents enough about it XP gomen~). There was a certain magic about the parade. I didn't know what it was, but I felt it alright. Childish as it sounds, it was like a long-awaited Santa's gift finally ticked off the wishlist.

Alas, alas, the weather didn't remain bright andsunny and perfet. Grey clouds hovered, and Zeus unleashed his wrath. Tears from the sky fell heavily, mercilessly,beating its anguish to the ground, instilling a sense of dread in myself. Damn, what about the fireworks?!

DAMN!! T_T

Not only did it ruin the fireworks, it left me in despair. I was devastated. I wanted so much a pair of ears...T_T but I had to leave before I had any chance of shopping for any form of DIsney merchandise for myself.

*dies*

Oh well. I suppose there'll be another chance. Fret not, I will get another chance to go again! X3

day 2: asakusa

There is the One Piece Museum which is on a boat, I think..since we were at the cruise ticket counter, and there are these huge posters on it, I thought it looked interesting~ I didn't even know it existed. XP

Went for a boat ride along..sumida river, I think. Most of what the guide was narrating was about the various colourful bridges along the river and the asahi beer building. For the tourists, but I wouldn't say it's worth it.

Had lunch at yoshinoya (yep, there's one at 1u). It's practically a japanese fast food joint, for those people who need a quick lunch and go. The doors don't automatically open, since there are the occasional people who walk too close to the doors. You push the largish grey button and voila, the doors open! XD haven't actually seen any of those here yet. And the food is ok, since most of us were hungry as it was already 2pm by the time we got there.

asakusa is a tourist-orientated place, since most of the shops on nakamise-dori (which is the way to the temple itself) are little souvenir shops. They sell alot alot of things; saw alot of lanterns, tengu masks, handphone accessories, yukatas (both the cheap and the really expensive kind), mochi, sweets, biscuits, purses, boxes, katanas (the display kind), fans,keychains, slippers, back scratchers...quite alot of neat little stuff. And especially the hand-made things(like the hand-embroidered handkerchiefs, designs on yukata); whoa, they cost. Really really.

Was tempted to buy alot of things, what held me back was the price. @_@ crazy. All those neat stuff like the various ningyou, tengu masks, little shurikens, katanas (which both my brothers were most interested in, but if we were to pass through immigration with those stuff, whoa man...we'd look like potential terrorists or hijackers) we could just drool at.

Reached the asakusa temple, and boy there are alot alot of people there. Took pictures with this huuuuge pair of straw slippers. My parents actually took a picture with it almost 2 decades ago, can you believe how awed they were went they came back here a second time, with their kids and all... so of course we took pictures with it. XP

I guess onii-chan was really happy especially when we saw these girls walking around in their summer yukatas. He nudged me, and said, "hey, could you ask those two girls to take pictures with us?" Hehehehehe, how could he not? So I thought, ok, why not? First time we took, it was me+onii-chan+the two girls..after that though, he whispered,"Take another one, just me ok?" surprising coming from him. Somewhat. Ok. So I complied. He was grinning from ear to ear after we were actually done. sama-sama faham larrr~

heyhey sooguan, you're right on that part. =D

So that was the height of his entire trip I bet. But mine was when... I saw this yukata shop selling the entire set for about 5250yen~ yukata+obi+geta! Most shops just sell the yukata itself, and that already can cost up to 3000yen! so I pleaded mom+dad..XDXDXDXD

bought 2 sets of yukata; one for me, one for ai-chan. hey ai-chan, you're paying me for this! XP spent a fairly long time picking one, since I'm not gonna get this chance again, I gotta get a good one. The lady at the shop was really nice, and I guess that moment was the closest I got to actually conversing with japanese people as japanese-ly as possible. It went ok, since we understood each other most of the time.. I think. XP It's fun to be able to put it in practice.

Had an early dinner. Dad was so intent on having yakitori at least once on this trip. So we did~ the shop is pretty hidden, in one of those little streets where most people wouldn't think of going into. The yakitori there is great~ XD Interesting experience. They served us some kind of salad, which otouto wouldn't touch, so we ate it for him. That we ate for him XP your loss, man.

day 1: check-in + akihabara + ginza

Flight was at 1130pm, so I'd reach there by 8.20am. Ok. Sleep then.

Sleep: Truly terrible, horrible, and uncomfortable. AAAGH!! I'm not of the avian species; it's not normal for me to sleep upright! Was shifting about trying to get some sleep so that I wouldn't wake up to a neckache or cramp, but that was to no avail. Still ended up with a neckache anyway. And in the middle of it all the plane suddenly dipped, could feel the sudden drop in altitude. Abit scary at first...but was too tired to freak. Slept on. XP

Woke up and greeted ti. Happy birthdayy ti!! XD

On reaching narita airport, I was thinking, whoa, so this is Japan. I’m in Japan. Neatness. And on the country entry form, there was this space titled: Alien Registration Number.

@_@ What?!

At the immigration counter..whoa. The queue melts away fast. Especially for the locals queue. An extremely huge crowd of Japanese re-entering only took at most 10 mins to settle ALL of them. While all the foreigners took almost half an hour to settle about one-third the amount. Cause of the intense security checks and stuff. But still….とっても早いです.. すごい….In Malaysia you could take ages to enter if you’re using a foreign passport.

One thing about Japanese guys (at this point the most significant were the immigration officers) is that they are quite…in touch with their feminine traits. They sound like guys trying to be girls. No offense, but they really do. I’m sure they think it’s natural to do so…well..I was gonna see more of it later. Had an inkling of it, but didn’t pay it too much attention. Until. Until. XP

Had a simple breakfast at the airport. Wow. It was just unusual to hear everything in Japanese, the intercom voices, the people around me, the cashier, the mothers, fathers, children…Absorbing everything in one go was very interesting. Imagine, something I only used to hear on my pc (yeah, while watching anime) was now in real-time situation.

As expected, I acted as my family’s translator. In truth, Japanese people do know English, it doesn’t matter whether it’s limited or broken or whatever, but they know more English than I do Japanese. It was abit awkward for me to speak it at first, cause I could imagine their faces once I uttered something in the wrong grammar or whatever it is.

From the airport to the hotel (which was in shinagawa) took about an hour..Fell asleep in the bus. For some reason, it was that comfortable. It was about noon by the time we reached there, checked in. Checked out the room for abit. And the bathrooms. The bathrooms kinda reminded me of the ones ming and tsing have in their rooms. The kind with the assorted buttons that do different things for different purposes.

After that, we headed out to akihabara.

By train.

At the train station had abit of lunch…and they blasted tunes I got 2 weeks back, pretty new…like Asia Engineer – Eternal Pose, home made kazoku – shounen Heart, Chemistry – Wings for words, Orange range – kizuna… XP it was good since I didn’t bring my iPod along. Should have, should have!!! X(

If there’s something else I was always amazed with in urban areas crammed with people like hongkong and japan, it’s the railway system. An integral component of the local’s mode of transport, it stretches everywhere, and is probably more useful than a car. Within a few minutes’ walk, you see an arrow pointing downwards, stating, “JR Yamanote Line” or Ginza Line…or the rest of it which I do not remember. There are at least 10 sub-lines and 4 different railway services. The most common is the JR (stands for Japan Railways) line. The core line, the Yamanote Line, goes to the main parts of Tokyo, so that one my mom’s most familiar with.

Ticket buying is something else too. The first time we tried, we nearly bought the wrong ticket. Cause you don’t buy by place, you buy by price. And for each price there are at least 3 different stops in vastly different trains going in different directions. So first check the place, then the price. And make sure you enter the correct gate. If not the train you wanna get on won’t be there, and you can’t get a refund for entering from the wrong gate.

Moving on…

Reached akiba. Omg. It’s like a heaven for tech junkies and anime junkies. My first stop (which was random) was into this 3-storey building where they have figurine stores on nearly every floor. I headed for the 2^nd floor first. There was a huge anime/manga shop there. Went in and drooled. They have an extensive collection of manga. One half of the shop was filled with manga to the ceiling. From shoujo to shounen to seinen to yaoi to shoujo-ai to doujinshi to hentai..It’s all there. I kid you not. And I do not make typos like hentai. Yea, it’s pretty common in Japan to have hentai or at least something ecchi-ish. No big deal. Just ignore those and move on to the more interesting stuff.

Another building I entered was even keng-er. XD 8 floors! I think the name of the complex was Gamerz. Anyway.

1^st floor is the new magazines, manga and games.

2^nd floor has the manga. New manga. Old manga. All kinds of manga. Every genre. One whole floor. Shelves are jam-packed with ‘em. Just drooled la really. Wanted to buy some manga, but decided against it. I don’t know why.

3^rd floor is where they have all the merchandise like the shirts, shitajiki, cups, pencils, keychains….@_@ I wanted to buy the ichigo mashimaro ones… T_T

4^th floor is the ultimate drool (for me anyway) the CDs!!! Original CDs, soundtracks, albums, singles, dramas…*DROOL, DROOL, DROOL, DROOL* and I couldn’t help myself from gaping at the amount of stuff they have..I wanted all the CDs….T_T the gankutsuou soundtracks…the..the….*drools just thinking about it*

5^th floor is where they place all the anime DVDs. A nice nice selection, and the champloo DVD covers I so wanted…the pictures are very funny, and represent champloo just nicely. XDXDXD Someone please scan it!!!

6^th floor is the figurine floor. Figurines from so many famous series and series I liked. Like the ichigo mashimaro, the One Piece…oh, especially the Basilisk one. Even if it’s just Gennosuke. And it’d cost me ¥3000+ which would drive me crazy as is. I’ve only got ¥3000 to spend. Must be extremely picky. *takes a final glance, takes a deep breath..and moves on*

7^th floor is the Gundam model floor. I still half-wished they had the Eva models though. My favourite Eva model is still Eva 00. シンジの紫色のEVA.

8^th floor was the only floor I didn’t visit; the trading cards floor. Not my cup of tea. Oh well. But I suppose they should have all the yu-gi-oh, naruto, pokemon…I mean, they must have others enough to fill an entire floor.

Then ti and korg went over to the namco plaza. It’s an arcade where they house most of the recent games such as Tekken 5..I think it’s the most popular one there, where people challenge each other and the winner gets to stay on and keep on playing till he loses.

Enough of akiba, we decided to move on and proceeded to ginza. Had shabu-shabu for dinner (it’s kinda like steamboat with slices of beef or pork that you dip into soup to cook it to your own preference; literally speaking I cooked my own dinner XP which was fun) and people were staring funny cause we sure didn’t know what the regular way to eat it was. But who cares. XD It was prolly the healthiest dinner I had. Lots and lots of vegetables and lean pork which was the main course, then at the end of it you have a bowl of noodles.

And strolling about ginza (by the time we exited it was about 9-something-ish and most shops were already closed) was interesting. All the branded goods, and yeah, the Apple store in tokyo is in ginza. The night lights (most of which are bright neon shop signs and the huuuge plasma tv on buildings at the main junction) were interesting, nonetheless.

Only got back at about 1030pm, and I’ve never enjoyed the comfort of a bed more than this. Fuuuuuuuuuuh~ but both brothers just had to experience Japanese tv shows (most are reality shows, by the way) which is very amusing. They rattle on and on and laugh and giggle and we have no freaking idea what is going on but we watch it anyway. Switched to mtv after the shows got decidedly boring. Loved this song even though the artist looked abit sissy in the video

Song currently ringing in my mind: toshinobu kubota – Club Happiness

airport lounging

I'm at the airport now..even though my flight's not due for another 2 hours I think.

For the most part I was playing around and getting ready to go~ scurrying around to stuff last-minute things, looking for places to go, provision checks and all that jazz...

And ming has a new phone!!! @_@ It's really really really nice~ the new sony ericsson 3G. In orange. Shiny orange doesn't really agree with me. Needs to be abit more plasticky. ^_^

I am going to tokyo. XD It's like alot of dreams come true all =D you don't know how long I've been wanting to go, and I am so happy I finally got a chance to! Yea, I know alot of stuff are expensive...so okay, spend but not splurge~ XD

ttfn, will keep a log of this trip for sure~and update when I have the chance.

charlie!

Friday saaaa! XD Class ended at 1300~ yayayay~ oji and I went to watch Charlie and the Chocolate Factory today.

Drool #1: Very whacky, Johnny Depp plays Willy Wonka very well! I thought he was the best character cause I enjoy the way he… enjoys watching the kids getting ‘tortured’ (in a sense anyway). Eccentric from every angle imaginable. Right from the very beginning. And all those eerie grins are quite becoming. XP Just that Willy Wonka looks too young, quite a contrast from the Quentin Blake illustrations.

Drool #2: Definitely the sweets. The opening musical before entering the factory, the chocolate river, the boat made of pink boiled sweets, the ice cream that never melts (even under the hottest sun), the three-course-meal chewing gum, Prince Pondicherry, whipped cream, chocolate waterfall, the glass elevator made of sugar…….. *drool, drool, drool!*

Drool #3: If there’s one other word apart from ‘crazy’ to describe the show, I would choose the word ‘synchronized’. From the beginning, where they make the chocolate, down to the Oompa-Loompas. There are a lot of indications of uniformity. Nut-shelling, rowing, dancing, singing, delivery trucks, chocolate selling…. @_@ Quote Grandpa Joe, “It’s a miracle...”

I don’t drool over the Oompa-Loompa, but it deserves mention. A very integral part of the entire show. It’s a mass cloned civilization you see popping up everywhere. It’s abit freaky, but good fun, especially when they start singing. Lyrics are funny, if you happen to catch the words. Direct from Loompaland, knee high, very mischievous, musically inclined, and every inch of them loves cacao beans. That’s the magic chocolate is made of.

gasp: Met alot of people too....mostly ex-schoolmates. Let's see, chris & co, chiayee and co, aaron & kweejin....maybe that was it, but I coulda missed something. And oji's mom. Nearly. XP hahahaha that was so amusing. ^_^

RedBox to kickstart the party period!

Wheeeeee XDXD Thursday’s come and gone; I loved every minute after 4pm!

I thought most of them went back already, so it was somewhat surprising to see most of them gathering at the school gates. Went to RedBox to get our throats hoarse and just go crazy.

Camera-equipped personnel: chengyee & vincent

Mishan came too! =D wow she looks really fresh with her hair cut short~ I nearly didn’t recognize her till I processed the information abit. XP Rowena reminded me of a tennis player. Must be the skirt. No matter, she still looks good. Houhou drove all the way to her place, waited for her to freshen up and drove all the way back, how nice of him~ =P Surprise, surprise, kwokthye came too- he looks the same, still the tall lanky guy. Still insists on wearing a cap indoors. Hehehe.

While most of us were singing along, not caring how we sounded, the less musically inclined were more interested in playing GT2 on PS2. It’s an alternative, I guess. Better than getting your ass bored off cause you don’t enjoy the singing part.

Most bullied: chengyee and kenken

Not surprising anymore, but that night… @_@ chengyee had her cheeks pulled, hair ruffled, tickled, ‘boo’ed, bag and other items hidden (and every other thing you can imagine children do) by sooguan. I have photographic evidence. XP Kenken also got tickled. A lot a lot. He was rolling over begging sooguan to stop. Notoriety is dominant in him, so there was really not much peace with him around. =D That’s good. XD

Then there was houhou trying to get physical with kwokthye. The guy kept on using suggestive phrases, and kwokthye was practically trying to worm his way out, despairing. Desperate cries of, “Omg, help me please, someone, anyone….Leave me alone……Please man, give it a break….” were heard. That not being enough, something snapped and several people tried to squash kwokthye (maximum 4 people -2 average, 1 small and one largish build stacked on him in one go). Method used: Run, dive and land on victim. Adds momentum and fun. But it was interesting to see the victim after everyone got off him, sprawled on the cushion, half-dead.

Then came a whole bunch of mtvs that got the shufflers on their feet. It was probably the closest the non-clubbers could get to an actual clubbing scene. Minus the crowd the crowd and smoke, for the most part.

We only got out at about 9pm..by this time most of us were starving already. Siangsern was ranting, “I’m Hungry Laaaa…..” all the way back to subang, and he was driving too.. poor guy~ XP Chengyee was on the vergeof fainting, so we hurried back to Salmon Steak at subang.

One thing about Salmon Steak is that it is NEVER open during daytime.. It’s a night-time hangout which serves mainly western food, and I suppose from the name its pride is the salmon steak. It was my first time there though, so it was a new experience.

Denny praying. He sure looks it right? Hahaha~ he’s actually sleeping. He was really really tired.

I won’t post the rest of the pics here; it’s on kenken’s and vincent’s blog anyway.

Gonna go crash nmow…

eyecatch

I spent 2.5 hours at an optician’s. That practically took up my entire afternoon. And alluva sudden I’ve been told that I’ve got a laaaaaaaaaazzzzzyyyyyy eye. Yep. So I get to walk around the house with an eye patch on my left. *harrr, mateys, we’ve got some stowaways on our ship!* =_=;;; Nevermind that. It was at the spur of the moment. Would you believe it, my right eye’s the laaaaaaaaaazzzzzyyyyyy eye. Not my left, but my right. And now I get a new pair of glasses too. It’s a plasticky kind, like a ‘blast from the past’. XP It’s nice though. Retro, my dad would say. XD I’ll get it on Tuesday. At first I was thinking, “Me? Talk bout going old school. It’d be fun.”

自分でもっとがんばれ！！！

+ point:
No class today! Waking up late on Friday is grrrrreat! XP

- point:
Replacement class on a Saturday. T_T WTF?! Of all days...Can't you add an extra period every day for a week? That would solve it just as well. Anything but waking at 7am on a Saturday morning...*sobs* On top of that, there are trials the following Monday. TT________TT Biggest irony is that on the day the college decides to give a holiday, the haze starts to clear up. Piffety.

Maybe it's a good thing there's no class today. Can study physics. Must study physics....T_T chapter 13 ish looong.... but I've covered chapters 11 & 12. Yayy =D

Current crave: David Mitchell - Cloud Atlas
I can't seem to resist the urge to read it... It's very intriguing. About 6 people. And somehow, some way, their stories have a connection to the next. And the next. I particularly like Sonmi-451's narrative. Yoona-939 ish very cool. But sadly for her, she died a rather...gruesome death. Kinda reminds me of Animatrix - The Renaissance. Somewhat. Just that it's not historical. It. Just. Is. Very. Neat. Really. Really.

haze

Today, I think I left home a little too late. I missed the bus. First time this entire year! @_____@ But I got dad to send me. XD Thanks sooo much! Sorry for making you late for work. Shouldn't happen again.

The haze...is bad. It's gone to that extent where you can barely see buildings 100m from where you stand. At first I merely thought of it as a heat streak since there was no actual haze yet, just the surrounding temperature rising. The following morning, the sky was downcast. Foolishly thinking that it was a sign of rain, I was pretty bright about it. Until lunch. Things started to get much more smoky, no way any sane being would think it was mist. I believe there's a distinct difference between the two. Anyway. Things progressed from bad to worse, and by the end of the week the entire college community donned masks. I don't particularly enjoy wearing them cause it's suffocating and it makes my face itchy.

It think the haze was at its worst today. Enough students complained to the office, leading to an early end to class. Though classes ended at 2, the bus didn't arrive till 2.20pm. turds. Not very amusing to inhale smoke for elongated periods of time now is it? My clothes and hair reeked of smoke when I got home. Egh.

akagami

I realize I haven't been posting for the past week...or soo...*shifty eyes* I've been lazy, yes yes.

akagami came over for a week. It was great fun having her around, since I don't see her very often. In fact, I only see her annually. For the most part, we went window shopping. Found a great top for the ばかばかサル-ちゃん. I hope she likes it. XD And I brought her to college too~~ kinda felt bad leaving her in the library while I rushed about finishing my IT project. Yes, my deadline was due monday, and I had akagami do abit of slavework for me.. muahahaha, talk about being resourceful. XP but it got finished in time. And mrs sue said that our class was the only one to have all students handing in their projects on time! *throws confetti*

Aaron for one was checking her out.

On Tuesday:

aaron: Hey, she's a chun chick yea?
me: Ya. And?
aaron: She's gone back yet?
me: Ya. And?
aaron: hmm...she's got a boyfriend?
me: No. And?
aaron: Means I still have a chance right?
me: No. XP *laughs*

It was amusing nonetheless, for me. To think of akagami's expression when I told her,"Aaron is the guy who pressed his ear against the radio during the english listening comprehension.." She gave me this stare...and that was the end of the matter.

I was so glad she came, but if only, if only the common test wasn't next week. Or that she came waay earlier. Sigh. Talk about bad timing. Let's see, we went to most of the malls nearby except for KLCC> And she's completely hooked on hareguu now, after watching my hareguu deluxe.

*AI-CHANNNN!!! People are stalking me for my hareguuuU!!! @_@*

moral of her visit: She pokes to kill. My body aches from them. @_@ And she pokes at regular intervals too.

*goes off to make a mental note*

Oooh yeah!! It rained hailstones today!! When dad was fetching me from college!! I was thinking, "Oh...rain." After a few minutes, the thumping sound when the hailstones land on the car was heard. Then I thought, "That's pretty hard rain to fall on the car..." Then realization hit me. *owtch* And my dad was going, "Nuooooo~ my car, my car~~!!" But it's ok, in the end no serious damage inflicted. All is good.

blurr!

@_@ I'm becoming more blur as time progresses. Bad, sa, bad! T_T What's happening?!

Today I forgot about my math textbooks (yes, both math AND specialist math) and left it in the shop I ate lunch in. It was so silly, me rushing back to retrieve my books. I didn't realize till I was standing in front of LT2 enjoying the aircon(the weather was so freaking hot). I was standing there, then a realization hit me; "I thought I was supposed to be holding something in my hands...wait a minute......!!!! Oh CRAP! My textbooks!" kenken was so nice~ XD he followed me there and back. =D arigatou!

Then after class today, we went to mcd and started chatting. This makes me realize we bond pretty closely as classmates. I mean, almost no holds barred, everything spills out when we talk. Raw crazy thoughts that we wouldn't easily share with others just flows like running water from a tap. And in quite alot of things we do, we do it in packs. Like a whole bunch of siblings on an outing, we are.

The heat wave has struck! I'm practically drowning in my own sweat. As I inch closer towards home, I think of how badly I need to rush to the bathroom and just sit there with the cold water running from the tap over my head. It's hottttt! And I'm crazy enough to walk around wearing my jacket. @_@ No way I'm taking it off since my top's practically stuck onto my skin!

a short one

I'll try to keep it short. A summary it shall be.

Thursday: Went to the audition thingy -again-. There were more people (both watching and auditioning) and I suppose everyone's nerves ran tingly all over. It's not easy to stand there. XP At least I think so. こちょうちゃん was so nervous she started crying. She was still thinking about it the day after.. I jut hope she gets over it soon.

Saturday: It was しゅくぼ の anniversary XD Everyone had great fun!! longlong was sooo cute that night, a true rock starlet~ and probably the most photographic next to ming who was busy looking moronic in all those hats. But I like them hats. I took a picture with it too~~ It didn't turn out too bad. Had abit of wine, wow that one was nice. For someone who doesn't regularly drink wine to say it's nice, it's gotta mean something. Food was great, but wasn't concentrating on it though cause there was too much havoc to wreck =D I couldn't help it. And what with the karaoke session held throughout the entire event. It was fun. Reminds me of my class in Redbox. And I took a good number of photos (and videos), enough to blackmail ming at any time of the day. XD

Sunday: Wine is good. =D I'm starting to appreciate it more. Even though I like Bailey's cream the best (It's the first kind of liquor that I've drunk and tastes good~ XD) but wine is gonna be another to add to the list. Had a glass..or two...or three...