Matcha everything :D

2008-02-18T22:18:00.004+08:00

ha.. i guess i would have never expected myself to be posting it again. But i seriously hope to make matcha everything my travelblog.. so here comes the very much "dated" post..
Its been so long.. i doubt i can recall well.. but i love the pictures.. and i missed hanging out with you 2.. the teeth clenching sounds.. and the murmurings.. HAHA.. I MISSED JAPAN!! T_T
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Saturday 30th April 2006 - Kyoto

Hmm.. Ying brought the both of us to Kyoto.. Think we changed train midway.. ahh..really cannot rem! HAHA.. but pictures say it all eh? :)
I kind of remembered that there's a takashimaya there.. and my fave MOS BURGER :D HEHE.. Think we bought some bus ticket for unlimited rides.. and hop on the bus or something :)
More pictures.. HEHE
Ah.. i rem this.. World heritage site! :) Kiyomizu-dera! My teacher's home as well :) Gotta pay a fee to go in though :S
Nice eh.. :D

We hopped on the bus.. i rem we were standing right in front and i was asking ying if we can take a pic of the bus uncle.. and ying took a shot of the uncle hehe..

HEH.. at kinkaku-ji! Read about it in my Level 1 textbook.. Nostalgic man.. Its a world heritage site too! HEHE.. *counting the no. of world heritage sites i've been to.. HEHEHEHEHE.. neh.. not like jin.. HAHA :P*
the entrance tix :)
Later on we went to this shrine.. I rem it was free.. Unlike the earlier ones.. HAHAHAHAHHAHA...
Think it started raining.. no geisha :( and i rem that i bought greentea icecream... while walking back to the station or something HAHAHA :) And we stopped by mos to grab a burger or 2? haha CHECK OUT ONION YING!! onion ring? HEHE
Back in kobe.. managed to find some sushi~ ha.. quite a nice place actually.. :)

2006-07-02T02:37:00.000+08:00

Friday 29th April 2006 - Nara (5-Storey Pagoda, Todaiji, Kasuga Taisha)/Osaka - Shin Umeda

What a long break! Its like almost 2 months since the trip and i'm still only at the 6th day? HA.. Amazingly snail slow. Well lately.. have been hanging out with the gals :) & it really made me miss the time we spent there.. and YESH... i miss matcha icecream!! So lets go back there again soon okay? :D Hokkaido icecream.. wait for me!!! I swore i will eat everyday just like back then! HEH..
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Ying prepared some curry fried rice for us.. nice.. but we still can't resist not eating bread with cereals & honey.. HAHA... how i miss the thick slices of bread..

just look at the thickness of the bread.. and its really nice. you can even eat it on its own!! MUCH BETTER THAN GARDENIA.. :P

After breakfast we made our way to the JR station.. HMM.. if i'm not wrong while en route we went to the pet shop right beside Kansai Super. And Wen bought quite a no. of items and stuff it in her backpack.. (which she is to regret later? HEH.. for the weight she has to carry.. HEHEHE)

@ Nara We managed to find a tourist information corner at the JR station and gotten a english map from the lady there. She spoke decent english and explained the route to us. Like where to go and such and that we should walk this direction.. towards some giant signboard and said its like only 15mins away to this point and another 15 to that? 15mins.. :| We walked like crazy..

along the way towards todaiji (bottom right)

This is the mailbox that i found at Nara to mail back my postcards. :) Check out the collection timing.. so many times per day!!

(bottom right) nice sewage cover huh? Saw many different designs all ard..

@ 5-storey pagoda.. saw quite a number of students there. Students with heavy makeup!! HAHA.. school excursion i believed.. wanted to snap pics of them.. but not brave enough.. HAHAHA but i feel that japanese are rather oblivious to surroundings/things. And they can happily sit near the toilet to wait and snack :|

Bought a pack of takoyaki near the pagoda. And the aunty gladly pose for me :D It's not really delicious (the one at osaka outskirts was much nicer).. and i think we bought something at the JR station and was happily eating at the pagoda area.. Wen.. what were we eating besides takoyaki huh? I rem i was happily drinking my fanta grape.. HEH.. was it some sandwich or something? HMMM...

FANTA GRAPE! Really nostalgic.. I believed i haven't drank it for like more than a decade?!? and it reminds me of my mom.. i rem her buying me fanta grape coz i used to like it a lot when i was a kid.. :'( For like ten over years.. i drank 2 bots in a day...

While along the way.. there's deer roaming around. Rather hungry ones in fact. One was like chasing me for food coz i was holding on to my notepad jotting down my expenses.. (they love paper).. Deer're scary.. and they shit all around. HAHAHAHAHA

While along the way to todaiji, there was a stretch of shops along the way... We bought some crackers.. think wen ordered the spicy one and regretted it. HAHA.. And i bought icecream again.. but later saw the MATCHA one.. :'( DUH...

The local delights.."土产" always in such wide variety & assortment.

Finally we reached Todaiji! Commercialised Temple! HAHA.. gotta pay 500yen to get in :| But well..all temples there are! :P and all the way there already plus i wanted to see the big buddha.. Not bad la.. I rem there's this elderly caucasian lady who squeezed her way through the pillar with a hole in it. :) I rem master mentioned this to me before.. saying those who can squeeze through it would have an affinity with buddhism. HAHA.. HMM.. what will happen if one gets stucked! :P

Then i bought a lucky charm there for my mom.. 500 yen again.. though 500yen is only a coin but its 7 SGD wor.

From todaiji we walked down to Kasuga Taisha Shrine, settled infront of this tablet and rest. All the walking was a torture.. Back home we don't even walk that much! HAHA

Actually walking shouldn't be that tiring.. hmm.. don't understand why were we so tired.. my feet were in quite bad shape becoz of my new pair of onitsuka tiger. Not seasoned yet.. AH.. i think it was due to the previous day's walking.. We walked too much! haha

Anyway we managed to take selfportraits there and had some fun. Then i walked into the taisha to have a look.. though i was dragging myself in.. simply don't wish to miss much.

From there we decide to get out of Nara and make way to Osaka. Walking to the bus stop seem to take us forever. Luckily there's bus to take or we would really collapse if we have to walk all the way back! LOL But we alighted too early and ended up walking again.............................

From Osaka JR station we had to WALK a long distance AGAIN.. to Shin Umeda.. and its really far... Anyway we managed to get there... paid 700yen to get in just to see perhaps 15-30mins(maybe it would be more value for money if one stays on.. Zzzz we were simply too tired) of osaka's night scene. Its really nice... but 700 yen is indeed too expensive.

(left) Shin-Umeda
(Right) Us.. at the top of Osaka? HAHA

(Top Left) Underpass from somewhere near yodobashi camera to shin-umeda
(Right)
Finally DINNER at First Kitchen! I would personally prefer this than Mos Burger. :) But well mos burger is nice as well.. *Drool*
Counter Crew is nice and polite.. same everywhere i guess.. but not here. :( When will our service level improve?

2006-05-15T22:21:00.000+08:00

Thursday 27th April 2006 - Disaster Reduction Museum/ Ijinkan

How time flies, its nearly a month since we were there happily shopping, sight-seeing & eating matcha icecream. I really do miss the times there... Again, i have been procrastinating thus for this long overdue post. Pictures were long ago uploaded.. just that i didn't make time to write. :(

While on our way to the JR station, Ying brought us to the post office - yesh.. becoz i wanted to buy stamps to mail back all those post cards i bought at the akashi bridge. ha.. but then i didn't managed to send any that day...

(Left)Saw this panda - reminds me of my master. ha..
We took the train to Nada Station.. the station's quite vintage.

Off to Yamada Electric.. Wen bought a PSP while Ying & I both bought a mouse. Nice mouse right ying? A really nice store to shop.. spacious.. loads to see.

That day at Osaka, i actually bought a set of earphones at Yodobashi for about SGD 30-ish? And just a few days back i saw it at CitiLink's HMV for 80-ish dollars?!?... Ying.. u should buy in bulk and sell. HAHAHA

Lunch @ Pastel Restaurant...

Ying helping us to order.. Menu's in all-japanese! (-_-")
Nice place.. very pastel colours? ha..

Our Lunch :D from Pizza to spaghetti..
Wen's (bottom left) tasted the best i think. HAHA.. but the pizza and spaghetti is nice as well.
Ying.."Gochisoosama deshita.."

PUDDING!! *DROOL* the pudding's the best..

Ying has to go back to work.. so we continued exploring the shopping complex. Found a arcade center there.. And guess what.. we ended up shopping again. Shopping at a 100Yen shop and uniqlo. HA.. Ying regretted letting us stay there. HAHA.. (-_-")

The Disaster Reduction Museum.. We first got to see a introductory clip on the great hanshin earthquake.. then later we move on to another theatre to watch another clip on the rescue work and how they rebuild the city.
There we met this guide who speaks cantonese and mandarin. She's really nice and friendly.. showed us the safety measures that can be done at home.. i.e. how furnitures should be arranged to facilitate escape during an earthquake.. its really quite interesting..
We later moved on to watch a short clip on.. The fall of Freddie the Leaf.. i guess its a story about dealing with loss. Later i even bought 2 musical box with the clip's theme. I would think its the theme.. ha..
Oh yeah.. we were the last 2 persons to get out of the museum.. everybody was waiting for us.. HAHA

After a lot of walking.. we finally reached Ijinkan. We went the wrong way i guess.. and walked all the way uphill... to the residences. Look how slopy it is..
There's really nothing much there.. Just that there're european style buildings.. not at all impressive. And well we did get to see Indian restaurants.. Italian and such..

While at Motomachi JR station asking for directions, we met this very nice pregnant lady. Though she doesn't know english at all she is still very helpful. Went into a shop to help us ask for directions and later after parting.. she RAN back to us with a map!! I was seriously impressed.. I guess people back here might not be as helpful.. :(
I guess back at Osaka.. we also met a very nice pregnant lady who led us to the JR station. I even rem i took a backview pic of her. HAHAHA..

So from motomachi JR station.. we actually walked all the way up to Ijinkan and then to Sannomiya JR station. Along the way a very nice caucasian uncle gave us directions... and then a nice lady (with heavy makeup.. heheh) showed us the way to Sannomiya.

Dinner @ some fast food outlet.. Now i can't rem the shop's name. Wasn't really fab but i rem i kept drinking the mugi-cha.. and we were really drop dead tired.. HAHA.. right wen?

(left) saw a Matcha icecream poster at Haagen Daz.. *DROOL*..
(right) @ sannomiya.. Think we saw someone performing at the station.. and i even video-d it down. LOL

2006-05-13T12:41:00.000+08:00

Wednesday 26th Apr '06 - Akashi Bridge/Porto Bazaar

The trip to Osaka made us really tired and after some considerations, we decide to give Hiroshima a miss. Ha.. and to stay back to check out more of Kobe or Osaka. But then.. we got behind our schedule... all because of... SHOPPING! HAHAHAHA...

(Top Left) Wendy at the "bicycle garage"...
(Bottom Left + Right) Ying's neighborhood...

(Top Left) Inside the train.. and i saw an avert with Itoh Misaki! :P
(Bottom Left + Right) At Hyogo JR station; The ticketing Machine, Quite vintage huh..

On the way to the bridge, we passed by Maiko Park; some aunties and uncles were eating there.. feeding piegons

Shots taken on the overhead bridge towards the akashi bridge..

US INFRONT OF THE BRIDGE! HEH...
I can still remember us happily trying to get a decent shot of ourselves and the bridge.. Either our face was too big or the bridge was off.. HA... And a uncle came by offering help. Probably saw our pathetic attempts?? LOL..
But i deleted the shot coz its ugly.. :P

Me infront of the bridge.. :D

Inside the Maiko Marine Promenade...

Akashi-bridge themed goodies

Cool huh? Glass panel floorings... I remembered Wen being very nervous but was brave enough to take a shot when i asked her to. :D Too bad that we didn't get to see a ship underneath.. Next trip then! HEH..

Nice shot huh... HEH...

Tea-Break at the Observation Lounge. :) The plum one was awful..(not really awful but way too sour!) but well i don't take beef.. :'( Anyway its a very comfy place to hang out.. checking out the goodies... enjoying the sceneries.. I think we were there for at least 2-3 hours (plus all that photo-taking)? :P Ying.. We really didn't over-shopped! HAHAHA... its because we relax for too long at the observation lounge! HAHA...and Wen was happily making long distance calls.. I hope her phone bills didn't make her jaw drop. HEHE :P

One of my favourite shot..

Cool huh? I made this pic myself! Stitched it myself.. hehe..
Just now i did a google search on the akashi bridge and I found this google map. The funny thing was the satellite view of the bridge & the vast sea made me felt weak, nervous and somehow frighten. I guess i can't really take "Top view down" well.:S But i must say that its really cool... you can see the shadows of the bridge cast on the sea...

Yesh... PORTO BAZAAR! :D A great shopping place.. Wen & I love porto bazaar HEHE...

Inside the west building... Wen was like stucked in Levi's for 1hr-ish? HA.. Anyway it was a really fruitful trip for us.. We bought things lfrom Jackets to shoes.. HAHA.. how fun... and I can still remember Wen's disappointed look when they started playing "auld lang syne". Shops closes at 8pm sharp.. how apt to play that song.. HEHE

For ladies only... HEHE

We realised that we can survive without eating if there's shopping! HAHA.. seriously.. we never thought about food until we can't shop. :S Anyway we walked from Porto Bazaar to Tarumi JR station and then decided to head back to Hyogo for Yoshinoya.. HAHA.. the Yoshinoya there is really much nicer than the local ones here..

Ahh.. our favourite toiletries shop. So nice, neat and so much to offer! If only there's something like that back home! Sigh.. And that suddenly reminds me of the 尿酸 hand cream Ying uses. HEHE.. okay.. its 10% 尿酸 only.. and its very good.. Ying.. buy 100 pcs back to sell la.. HEHE

2006-05-10T20:02:00.000+08:00

Tuesday 25th Apr '06 - Osaka

Ying & Wen planned the itinerary till about 2am the night before :P and i was already sleeping. HEH I remembered being way too hyper for the first 2 days & by monday night i was really drop dead tired. HA..

At Hyogo Station.. The JR station nearest to Ying's place.(15mins walk away?) The board shows the timing of the trains.. and the timing are very much accurate.

At Osaka.. Where we head towards the midosuji line to get to Tennoji.

Tennoji Station.. Thought the underground subway looks cool. :P

This is the tramcars on the Hankai Tramway Uemachi Line that run from Tennoji through the southern part of Osaka City.

We bought the unlimited ride pass (for 1 day) at about 600yen i think. Along the line are many shrines and temples.. HA.. But we only managed to visit 1 big Shrine and a very commercialised temple.. but then we got to enjoy a ride down to southern osaka.. a pretty interesting ride.. though we doze off on our way back HAHA..

This is the Sumiyoshitaisha Grand Shrine. A really big shrine(the most popular in osaka?). Actually we alight a stop earlier and we ended up at a small shrine beside it. I guess we were really lost and didn't have the slightest idea where we are. With the piece of paper Ying wrote for us.. We just walk upwards.. into the small shrine.

There we met this uncle.. He was pretty helpful and was relating to us about the shrine i guess. But we don't even understand a word. WAHAHAHA.. and then somehow he demo to us to pray to the sun.. telling us that the greatest god is the sun i think? AND WE ACTUALLY FOLLOWED HIM? LOL.. so funny. Later he gave us directions and we managed to get to Sumiyoshitaisha.. :D via the backdoor.. LOL..

We later also saw a uncle sketching the Taiko-bashi Bridge...

Wendy and I happily eating the "malt sweet".. HEH
The aunty was really nice.. seeing the 2 of us sharing the 5pc pack, she gave us an extra one.. :)
Nice huh? So i snap a pic of her.. HEH...

The commercialised temple that we went.. Myokokuji Temple. Nothing much.. Going in requires a entry fee of 500Yen.. So we gave it a miss. Nothing much also.. The monks looked real commercialised. We initially thought that the temple would be somewhere easy to sight.. apparently its about ten minutes walk away from the tram station. A nice aunty actually led us there.. "Do Ko deska.." V useful. HEH...

Again.. Its icecream that led us to food.. HEH.. we soon notice that the shop sells TAKOYAKI.. So we just point and order.. HAHA.. Cheap & nice..(250yen? for 8 pc) so we thought why not settle our lunch here. :D But the menu is in japanese!?! AND NO PICTURES AT ALL!!!! (-_-") Anyway with a lot of ???!!?? and pointing here and there, we managed to order yakisoba & okonomiyaki.. HEH.. Though they don't understand us much but they're really very helpful. :D

And do you know that when we first ordered Takoyaki.. and simply sat down to eat.. the uncle actually bothered to pour 2 glasses of ice water for us. How nice huh... i doubt i can expect such service back home :(

Saw this family walked past us..

A battery vending machine... interesting...

Back on board the tram.. and then at a "interchange" to change tram back to tennoji...

YEAH.. We finally got our way back to Tennoji.. The nice Densha Uncle who sold us the ticket was still there.. And he was all smiling when he saw us. So i thought.. Why not lets take a pic with him.. HEH..

In Osaka...

At Yodobashi.. And woo.. saw Paul Smith's boutique.. :D

Back in Hyogo.. Wendy took a pic @ Wendy's Hamburgers.. HEHEHEHEHE... How corny!

Ying's boss brought us to a japanese pub.. HEH... very different from what we had in mind. A rather vintage place..and very NICE food.. :D very nice... nice drink..

A very enjoyable meal & drink.. but it was really cold when we have to cycle home. I can't really remember if we cycled or walk.. HMM. but i think we cycled home. Ying.. was it the day where i cycled like crazy coz of the low seat post? WAHAHA... BTH with the upslopes... but i really do miss the cool weather.. :) Even though my nose was already bleeding.. REM the joke wen? HAHA.. :P

2006-05-07T16:59:00.000+08:00

Monday 24th Apr '06 - Himeji

Ying made cheesecake for us (and i ate it for breakfast.. plus the thick bread, cornflakes and milo HEH) :) Nice cheesecake... Ying, when will u make more cheesecake for us :D

Taken while onboard the fast rapid train (where stations are skipped). Instead of purchasing tickets from the ticketing machine, we bought them at a discount ticketing shop. Helped us to save a bit :)

(Top Left) That's the Himeji JR Station. On our way to Himeji Castle we past by the Himeji Tourist Information Centre. The lady there was really helpful and even suggest that we loan their bicycles to go around and to the castle. (Bike rental is for free for tourist!!!) How nice.. Nearby is the Himeji City Zoo. Actually it doesn't look at all attractive, but then since we're there we decide to go in to have a look. :)

Map of the Zoo.

Taken inside the Zoo.. I was snapping more pictures of the castle & the sceneries than the animals. Ha

The Himeji Castle, the most beautiful castle in japan...

Initially wanted to eat icecream but seeing ppl eating soupy stuffs urge us to order some food to eat. HAHA.. it was rather cold outside...

Center part of the zoo...

At the entrance of the castle.. what a small door.. for hobbits? HEH

Within the castle's compound...

Inside the main building itself.. pretty dark...

GREEN TEA ICECREAM!! 130YEN only :'( HOW I MISS IT.. MATCHA.. I love the vending machines.. How cool... If only i can buy one home :)~

Back at the initial entrance.. HIMEJI CASTLE.. I think we took quite a no. of shots there. HAHA.. Think Wen was already BTH with me :P Wanted a clear view of the castle.. HEH..

Here's where we gotten our free bicycles from :D At the Himeji Tourist Information Centre. We managed to make it in time to return them the keys :) Though they said that we can leave it in their mailbox.. Truely good customer service. :) Indeed impressed.. especially with the poor customer service we gotten from thailand HEH.. :P

We took a break at the MacDonalds.. (within the shopping street) and was thinking of trying something that we can't get locally. Well.. their small coke's indeed small. Like our Happy Meal's. HAHA... Tiny..

Finally reached the Himeji JR station and heading back to hyogo to meet Ying.. :)

2006-05-07T03:40:00.001+08:00

Sunday 23rd Apr '06 Kansai Airport/Kobe

After 2 days of shopping + a sleepless night in Bangkok, We finally reached Japan at abt 7am. :) We were so drop dead tired and the flight was not at all comfy. The custom officers were pretty slow but the lady who served us was nice and friendly, unlike the other guy. HA..

See the lady in the backdrop? She has to stand there to help commuters purchase the limousine bus ticket via the ticketing machine. (Automation?) And its so cold out there, seriously cold. Anyway if not for her we would need even more time to figure out how to use the machine.. and she speaks decent english. :)

Wen looking out of the window while i was snapping pics away :P The limo bus's really MUCH MORE comfy than the plane... and eventually we dozed off. Zzzzz...

After an hour-ish ride, we alighted at Sannomiya, Kobe. Ying & her boss was already there waiting for us :D We made our way home to unload our luggage and also managed to take a good nap while Ying was away for her kendo class. ZzzzZzz

Ying came back! And lead us around her neighbourhood. We first stopped at Kansai Supermarket for groceries then we went to her office to unload. And then we cycled past this McDonalds. (I thought of master thus took this shot specially for her..) But no chance to snap the menu yet

Later we stopped @ the post office. I think Ying wanted to withdraw some cash.. Ying 拜托你了 heheh

This is the nice ramen shop ying recommends. :P Near her gym eh.. yup i rem! Anyway gotta first pay using the vending machine. Interesting.. for a country pumpkin like me. HEH.. I think i was too hungry or what that i forgot to snap pic of what i ate :(

This shrine is beside a subway station i think. - Minatogawa Shrine

First time seeing Torii Gates... A real pity that we missed Fushimi Inari Taisha :(

The shrine's "store" selling amulets and such...

Ying & Wen trying to be funny..

Wrong routine.. HAHA.. should have wash our hands b4 entering the shrine (-_-")

The shopping street (Cycling there can be quite challenging... some sections are quite crowded huh or its just me haha) & they're having this flowers mosaic exhibition...

We stopped over this vintage tibits store to buy some tibits... (expensive tibits)

Chinatown in Kobe!

Dinner time! Ying recommends Omu-rice :D

The showcase

Wen looks real tired.. with all that cycling. Haha..

Salad + Omu-rice :D Since i don't take beef i have to go for the tomato one :'( Way too tomato... but its still nice. I miss Omu-rice....