月光族

Month End... no money = 月光族!
Will be going back to TTSH for review and then to Suntec for the PC Show.
am going to buy 3 HDD in total. One for myself, one for Vel and another as bday pressie for Michelle.

and... I need to clean up my room when I get home... tired! even the thought of it is tired...


another good news... Rachel is coming back to tonight!!

Sweets from Japan!

Some of the more unique ones...
the Daimonji biscuits and the sweets...
of cos, I missed out the Buddha-face cookies from Nara.
It was so delicious that we finished it even before I had the chance to take a pic of it!
shld of bought more boxes of it!

=)

back!

I'm back from Japan! The schedule of the last 2 days at Japan was so tight.

We got up real early on Saturday morning and made a trip to Osaka Castle instead of the original intended Himeji Castle due to the travelling time. It would take 2 hours to travel to Himeji and that makes it 4hrs to get to and fro which we will definitely miss the check out time. However, having that said, it doesn't mean Osaka Castle is near us... takes abt an hour to get there...

Anw, we weren't sure of the way to Osaka-jo and that kept us from reaching on time. We were kinda later than expected. This castle is unlike those I have seen over the past few days cos it has now become a museum.
Enough said, a picture means a thousand words!

The Osaka-Castle!





The Paradise Bridge.

Unknowing to Rachel, I took a picture of her while on the Paradise Bridge...
so natural...







The highest level of the building...
at the viewing gallery...



Some of the exhibits in the castle...
the different flags each federal lords used.





We took time to go through almost each exhibit in detail and we ended up leaving late. In the end, we were late by an hour for the check-out and the staff at Hearton Hotel waived off the late-checkout charges for us. In fact, I find Hearton Hotel better and is recommended if u come by Kyoto. It's near to the subway, has free internet and vending machine, washing machine, ironing board and ice-makers on every level from 3rd~9th! They even have haagen daz ice-cream vending machine at their lobby/3rd level.

After checking out, we made our way to Tokyo station and left our luggages at the coin lockers. It wasn't easy to locate empty lockers of the luggage size but we still did! Went for the final shopping of the foodstuff and back to the coin lockers to deposit more stuff.

It was about 7pm when we finished our shopping and time to make our way to Daimonji. It's either we go to every mountain and view the light up or we go to this park near kinkakuji where we see 4 of the light-ups on the mountains and of cos, we chose the latter, forgoing one of the mountain light up.


opPs... before I forget... here's our lunch cum high tea cum dinner...
this is the salad course... how unique!

okie, here comes the Daimonji...

Gozan no Okuribi (五山送り火) also known as Daimonji (大文字). It is one of the iconic festivals of Kyoto, Japan. On this day, August 16th 5 giant bonfires are lit on mountains surrounding the city. It signifies the moment when the spirits of deceased family members, who are said to visit this world during O-Bon, are believed to be returning to the spirit world—thus the name Okuribi (送り火) (roughly, "send-off fire"). This is akin to our Hungry Ghost Festival in the Lunar 7th month.
Starting at 8pm, the giant bonfires are lit, each with a distinctive shape. In order of their lighting times....

The Daimonji (大文字)...

this word this 妙 in chinese

and 法 for this...

they are together from one mountain... so here you see 妙.法.

this is the Funagata (舟形), the shape of a boat.

and lastly, the Toriigata (鳥居形), the shape of a torii or shrine gate, which we couldn't see from our location.

me with the Daimonji behind me.


Rachel and Me!

You wouldn't believe it if I said we ran to the Subway station, which was 6-7 bus-stops away, right after we took the above picture. We ran cos the bus-stops were crowded with people and one bus just departed, the next one wouldn't arrive so soon... and we had to catch a connecting night train back to Kyoto at 10plus. *by the time we left, its about 8.30pm*

It was hectic. We got to the Subway at 9plus, took the train back to Kyoto station; took our stuff and time check, it's almost 10pm and we got to rush to some other stations for our connecting trains with our super-duper heavy luggages... turn out that our luggage weighs 30+kg altogether... Luckily, we got to the train in time, just before it departs.

After we boarded the overnight train, me and Rachel took turns to "towel cum powder" bath in the washroom. After that, we settled ourselves onto our seats and slept through to Tokyo. Finally, we reached Tokyo station wee hours in the morning so we decided to make our way to Narita airport and check in my luggage.

At the Airport, the people speaks Japanese to you, as if you can understand them. I mean, it's an International Airport, why can't they learn to speak simple English, at the least! Anw, we changed into fresh clean clothes at the Airport and took time to brush our teeths cos the toilets not only have cubicles but also spacious changing room for such purposes. Another hassle at the NWA check-in. my baggage exceed the stipulated weight and we've got to repack everything... and finally, we got away with a little overweight.

Breakie at the Airport's Mac. the meal is oh my, so small, like a kid's meal and the ang moh seated next to our table had to order 2 sets of McMuffins.

Headed back to Tokyo station to do some last minute shopping... but we were later than expected cos we missed the train back from Airport to Tokyo and due to the limitations, we couldn't take the Express trains.

Again, it was a rush-here-and-there scenario again. My flight is 6.10pm boarding and we got back at the Airport at 5.40++pm. Anw, again, things got screwed up at the customs check-in counters and I had to run to the gate. Overall, my experience at Narita wasn't a good one!

And this time, I am detemined to catch the movies I have missed on the flight cos each seat has an inflight entertainment system. That's the best part of flying... always able to movie marathon the movies you have missed recently. For me, I watched Kungfy panda *hey, hor*... Transportor and.... Man of Honor.

Back in Singapore, bb came to fetch me!

Yukata day....

heez... this is the much awaited post! am wearing a Yukata for today... heading for Nara's Todaiji Temple!
Here's a preview of what I wore for the day!

me with the 扇子 Rachel bought for me the night before.



Here we are at Nara! We went to the Park where there are many dears roaming around...
and also, shitting around!!


and so... we took a pic with them...

Here, tourists are free to buy biscuits from the pushcart stalls by the streets and feed these dears... and Rachel suggested that I give it a try but have to be careful cos they can be quite aggressive. The biscuits are sold for 100 or 200 yen and it's quite a big stack so I shared some with Rachel.
When I got the biscuits, the dears 'charge' towards me and surrounded me... but the funny thing is, I didn't see them surrounding those stalls that sell the biscuits...

Reaching Todaiji Temple. There were quite alot of people and of cos, alot of shops tOo, selling foodstuff, souvenirs and place for meals. The weather was so warm that we had to stop by the ice store to eat and ice-ball before entering the temple.

There are many dears roaming around freely here too!




I toOk this when Rachel is taking a picture.








There were alot of people offering incense and praying, likewise, we did that.

The Buddha statue... and very big one.

There were also other statues among the Buddha statue but what caught my attention was a long queue towards this hole!



Rachel that me that this hole is the size of the Buddha nostrils and not everyone can go thru. *Obviously, the young children can go thru* She also mentioned that when one's in it, make a wish on the way out and it will come true. Of cos I didn't try cos I was in Yukata. But coming back, even if I wasn't, I don't think I can get thru cos Rachel barely went thru it 2years back when she came and if she could only barely make it, I don't think the much bigger sized me can do it! So we stand and watch the children going thru it...



End of temple tour so we went out and around to visit other temples.


It was really hot and it's time we stop for lunch.
No pics for lunch but a pic of our dessert! ICE-CREAM!




Again, we continue walking around the temple, with a few invitations from strangers to take pics with us...
sidetrack//as there were quite a few people who requested to take pics with us, we decided to pass off as Japanese. The funny thing is, we always try to confuse them... the people *all foreigners* will ask*in Japanese* if we are Japanese, and Rachel will reply yes since she also speaks Japanese. and if they asked and we reply in English, they will be surprised how come Japanese can speak English so fluently.





After Nara, we went to Sanjo to shop for the purses from Rachel's favourite shop.
After a long choose, I finally decided on 3 purses which I may or may not have use for it.
Then we went back to the hotel around 8/9pluspm, showered, changed and rested before we made our way out for dinner.
By the time we are ready, it's about 10/11plus... and we found this 24hrs restuarant just along the street adjacent to the hotel. It's service is not too bad, food is good and price is not too expensive tOo! and it has free-flow of rice!

went to their 7-11 to get some drinks and food for tml and I saw this very cute lighter so I bought it. No pics yet but will take it sOon... and post it if I remember...