day 2 - fukuoka & nagasaki

the very nice scenery outside the hotel room that we stayed for the first night.




after a yummy buffet breakfast, we went to glover garden, located on a hilltop overlooking the nagasaki port. the view of the port is magnificient.






there were some very nice exhibits too.





we head to the first shopping centre of the trip. i dunno how to describe the shopping centres in japan, but the first feel is that they are better than the ones in singapore.






there is a starbucks outlet, and my younger sis is super excited. she went in to buy alot of souvenirs for her colleagues. the girls at the starbucks outlet are very friendly. :)





had our lunch at the basement of the shopping centre. it is a bit similar to the food court of takashimaya. we ordered lots of yummy food! my dad ordered a ramen set, which consists of a bowl of ramen, a bowl of rice, a plate of gyoza and a dish of spiced pickles, cost only 800 yen, which is about 11 sing dollar, which i think is very affordable. my sisters bought strawberry shortcake mcflurry from macdonald, strawberry ice cream crepe from this ice cream shop called baskin robbins, and some omelette thingy, where inside the omelette got sliced cabbage and egg noodles, that is served on a hot plate. i went to order tako yaki, which is octopus balls. my mum just sit down and wait for us.








because the food court stalls have alot of customers. so to minimize the human traffic and also dun let us wait at the stall for too long, we are given this small device after ordering our food, then we can go back to our table and sit, the device will ring when our food is ready. cool rite?



went to walk walk at the supermarket. only got one word to describe. SOLID. ntuc can go fly kite.






the next place that we went is chinatown. nothing much to see there. so we took some crazy photos.

this is not to impersonate bruce lee. but to impersonate yang zong wei. =p

funny jump shots. it took quite some time for me to finally capture a shot of my little sis jumping in the air. she has to NG alot of times, not because she jump not good, but because my photo taking skills very cock up.

nagasaki is the next destination. if you all remember your history, nagasaki and hiroshima are the two places that kenna america's atomic bomb during WWII. so we went to the atomic bomb museum. inside the museum showcases all the remains from the atomic bomb, pictures of bodies, and video footage of the atomic bomb. if you all dunno, the atomic bomb was dropped on nagasaki in the year 1945, on 9th august (which also happens to be our national day), at 1102 am.

the museum has alot of paper cranes. millions of them. these cranes are folded by the future generations, to commemorate the victims of the atomic bomb, and also to spread peace. i bought a peace t-shirt at the museum, which i wore it on the last day of the trip.

after the museum, we went to peace garden. there is a statue of peace which is super tall. the garden has alot of very nice maple leaf trees. reminds me of the song 《枫》by jay chou.

finally, we head back to the hotel. this hotel is a hot spring hotel, which means that its a traditional japanese hotel, which also means that we sleep on tatami, and we also can wear our japanese robe called ya-ku-ta and walk around in the hotel. in western hotels we definitely cant do that. wear the ya-ku-ta got certain rules and regulations. for example the left side must be over the right. then for women, if you tie the knot at the back means you are married, if you tied in front means you are single.

this hotel also quite power pack one, cos the emperor and empress of japan got stay here before.

our dinner is fabulous! its a traditional japanese dinner! we were all wow-ed by the fabulous spread. its exactly wat we saw on tv during japan hour on channel news asia.

after dinner we went to the hot spring. the hot spring is 男女分开 one. so i go with my dad, my two sisters followed my mum. bathe in hot spring also got rules and regulations one. when you go for the hot spring, you can only be dressed in yakuta and slippers. then upon reaching there, you must strip everything, and go in naked. you are allowed to bring a small towel to cover your dick. as for the females, you can only choose to cover either one of your breasts or your vagina, cos i dun think the small towel is big enough to cover both at the same time.

ok then when you go in, there is a place for you to shower yourself, so you must rinse yourself very clean. there's also soap and shampoo provided. after you clean yourself, then you step into the hot spring. cannot spend too long in the hot spring, just five to ten min is enough. if you spend too long inside i think you will faint, due to loss of water from the body.

we went to the outdoor hot spring, and its damn shiok, because on that night the sky is very clear, can see all the stars. the water is not as hot as the one in hokkaido, and the sulphur content is not that heavy also. so i guess its a artificial outdoor hot spring.

that wraps up day 2. :)

and to side track a bit, this post is also the 500th post! woo hoo! *open champagne to celebrate*

back from japan!

konichiwa singapore!

i am so glad to be back, although i also dun mind staying one or two more days in japan. i love everything there, the food, the pple (especially the cute pretty jap gals), the hygiene, the fantastic weather, and the hot springs.

my tour group is quite small, only 26 pple, got two gals quite chio, one of them is in ntu, and the other one is studying veterinarian science in australia. my tour leader is a woman called YE, as in Wai-Yee, not YE one word. she has this trademark laughter, and address my mum as aunty, which i think is very strange, cos she herself is not that young to call her aunty. and then my tour guide is a very nice and gentle guy called henry, he is from hongkong, he studied and worked in japan for about 20 years, went back to hongkong and start a family, and always come back to japan to work as a tour guide, cos he is very familiar with the place and also the japanese language. there is something a bit funny about him, in which he likes to address himself as the third person.

normally if i address a group of pple, i will say, "我带你们去那里玩."

but then he will say:

"henry 十一点钟，在这里等你们"

"henry 的酒店房间号码是 _______ "

"henry 已经为你们安排好你们的酒店房间"

yah that's wat i meant.

and i really miss darling very badly when i was in japan. the stupid thing is that my hp's auto-roam finally decide to pms, and cant receive any network. so i cant sms her. but luckily thanks to the advancement in technology, a few of the hotels that i stayed provide free internet service, so i was able to email her. thank goodness.

i am super tired now, cos its already 944 pm, and in japan its 1044, which i am already sleeping. back in japan i wake up at 6 am and sleep at 9 pm.

so before i go off, let me blog about the first day in japan.

we touched down at fukuoka in the early morning, where we head to our first tourist destination, which is this placed called huis ten bosch. it is a dutch theme park, so can see european architecture, like windmills. huis ten bosch has some rides which are quite boring, but got some exhibitions which are very interesting.

we went to this exhibition called super trick art, which showcases some famous art pieces, and also other random drawings. the most fun thing about this place is these art are drawn in such a way that we must do actions together with the art, or pose at a certain angle, so that it seems that the picture came alive, and we are really interacting with a supposedly 2-D picture, which makes it 3-D. ok i noe my explanation very bad, so let you see the pics.

even my dad also wanna try it. haha.

we met a very interesting ang mor, who noes how to converse in japan and a bit of mandarin. he make a very nice teddy bear out of a balloon for my little sis.

that wraps up day one. our hotel is the best hotel i had stayed so far throughout this japan trip. first, the toilet has a dispenser for soap and shampoo, which the main purpose is to prevent wastage of products and also for recycling purpose. and, the toilet bowl got a device which shoot a powerful jet of water into ur asshole after u shit so that ur ass will be more clean. dun think anything crooked. haha.

the view outside the room is marvellous, which i shall blog about it the next time, which is day 2 of the trip. :)

bye singapore~

i am flying off in five hours!

this morning went to yueting's house to complete the puzzle.

YES! we completed it!

*great sense of achievement and satisfaction*

the puzzle looks lovely isnt it? quite hard to do, especially for the sky and green grass parts.

all rite, take care to everyone when i am not around!

especially my darling~

i will miss you~

oh my little sis is very resourceful. she found the list of movies that is showing on the plane. haha. wonders of world wide web i must say.

http://www.singaporeair.com/saa/en_UK/content/exp/entertainment/movies/thismonth1.jsp

some of the nice movies i watch already leh. sianz.

think i will only watch bourne ultimatum. and the prison break series.

day 3

this is a very important day, because in the morning the minister of education mr tha__________nam and malaysia's minister of education came to the camp for a visit.

there were many reporters, from singapore and also from malaysia.

and i am NOT being interviewed. haha. actually among the singaporean teachers, we choose among ourselves a person to go and be interviewed. i chose not to be interviewed of course. so we give the chance to the most lao jiao teacher among us. =p

there were some performances: malaysian students playing malay orchestra, a military band from one of the malaysian schools, another secondary sch performing fusion dance, and my secondary sch performing malay dance. the malay dance item got a gold in syf ok. so li hai.

(the lady in blue is ms marini, who gave me a lift out of camp)

the reception was damn nice! food was top class! got yakitori, shishamo, ebi fry, sushi, cheese cake, custard puffs and chocolate eclairs! ate alot. haha.

actually the most sian thing is got super heavy rain on that day. so alot of activities cannot be carried out, such as kayak expedition, flying fox and rock climbing.

its the last day for me. although i am only with them for 3 days, but i get to noe my students much better, and get to make new friends also. its a good experience! :)

day 2

kayak expedition!

the route of the expedition was from the campsite to east coast park hawker centre. so before we start on the expedition proper we must get into the water with our kayaks to do the capsize drill. very scared of losing my oakley shades when i capsize but luckily never.

its good to do the capsize drill first before we move out, cos we will noe wat to do if we really capsize out in the sea (hopefully we wun of course).

reminds me of my memories in army, when we have to do overturning drill in the tank before moving out.

all of us must shout "Crew, VEHICLE OVERTURN!"

the tank wun overturn of course, but we must quickly cramp ourselves in tight positions so that we will suffer minimal injury if the tank really do overturn.

ok back to the kayak expedition.

i take the single kayak. yay! actually i really dun like to take the double one, because must coordinate movements with my partner, and if we dun coordinate, the kayak will go haywire. and if one of us jia zhua and dun want to kayak, or worse case both of us jia zhua, then no need to say already.

its better to kayak alone, cos i can kayak at my own speed and freedom.

actually i think i am also quite brave to take the single kayak. cos the last time that i kayak-ed was 7 years ago? wow that's a long time back. =p

the trip to the east coast park was pretty smooth. we completed the trip in one hour and forty min, which is pretty fast. one of the instructors say that previously she lead a group of students and they took 3 hours! wow.

we had lunch at the hawker centre. all of us were damn hungry and tired. i ate this very nice sambal nasi goreng, and drank a cup of super sweet bandung! i will definitely make a trip there one of these days to try the nasi goreng.

now for the second half of the expedition, which is to kayak back to camp. the wind and current was against us! and the weather was scorching hot! we kayak until damn siong and we were still like making no significant progress.

in the end the instructor decide to stop at one of the beaches, and all of us walk back to camp, which takes about twenty minutes. i think the kids will rather walk, cos their arms super shag. actually same for me also. then some instructors come to the beach with two powerboats, connect all the canoes together with ropes and tow all of them back to camp. haha.

when we reach the camp, all of us were sunburnt and super shag. but we still have to hurry up to wash up and have dinner cos we going to night safari. was supposed to leave the camp for night safari at 6, but when we reach the camp it was already 630. -_-'''

night safari was fun! we went in to see the animal show. the highlight of the show is the big big snake with my room mate.

dun see he so muscular, so macho, is a professional muay thai boxer, is also a guards officer, but he is terrified of snakes! and the snake has to be so damn big!

after the show we sit the tram ride to tour around the safari. many of the students slept throughout the ride. =p

its a waste lah, cos its very fun to see the animals. and some of these animals were so close to us. not the lions and tigers of course, but the more harmless animals like deer.

that's day 2.

even though i was super tired, but i still cant sleep well. no prizes for guessing correctly.

day 1

reached the campsite at 9 am in the morning with my kids.

was greeted by a bunch of pple in orange, who were actually the instructors, from this outdoor activity organisation called camelot.

the malaysian pple were supposed to arrive at 10 am, but the camp commandant called them and they were still at johore. -_-'''

finally they arrived at 1 pm! yay~

so the malaysian and singaporean kids start to get to noe one another. and this goes the same for the teachers. the teachers are quite old. except for one that is 23, the rest are in their 30s and above. the singaporean teachers are quite young compared to them. =p

we started our heritage tour. went to little india.

after that took mrt to orchard. taught the malaysians how to buy the ez link standard tickets, and how to get back the one dollar deposit.

had dinner at cineleisure. the kids ate at long john silver. me and a few teachers ate at this newly opened restaurant, name i forgot le, it is like the more expensive version of kfc, and has a wider range of menu. besides fried chicken, they also offer ginseng chicken and bbq chicken. and one of the singaporean teachers treated us! so sweet of him.

walked to plaza sing, and at the same time admiring the christmas lights, plus taking photos.

the malaysian kids and teachers were very shagged, which was understandable, because they din get any rest after the long trip to singapore from johore.

we were supposed to walk all the way to esplanade, but in the end we took mrt.

the art works at esplanade are very nice! they are done by primary sch kids!

so that concludes day 1. was very tired but i cant sleep well, because:

1) i always cant sleep well for the first night at a foreign place

2) my room mate who told me that he dun snore in his sleep but still snore very loudly when he sleeps.

but anyway who noes whether you yourself snores when u sleeping? you only will noe when someone tells u rite? apparently he is not married. and of course i nv go and tell him, cos i dun wanna hurt his feelings. or should i say i dun wanna get beaten up because he is a professional muay thai boxer.

haha no lah. he is a very nice and gentle person, despite the fact that he is a PROFESSIONAL MUAY THAI BOXER. so i forgive him.

i am back!

yay 我回来了!

feeling super tired and shag, because i haven been sleeping well for the two nights at the campsite, although my room is quite comfy with bed, pillows and air-con. maybe its because of my room-mate who snores super loudly. =p

the weather was good on monday and tuesday, without any rain, so the activities can be carried out per normal.

but when wednesday comes, the rain comes too. and it has to come during the ministers' visit. -_-'''

and it also has to come when i am going back home. thanks marini for giving me a lift out of the campsite. if not i have to call a cab, cos the campsite is super ulu.

when i reach home i quickly took a nap, cos going out to meet darling in the evening.

we watched two movies! enchanted and golden compass!

enchanted is very funny! i love the chipmunk! super super cute! it is my favourite character in the movie! i like the prince too! i cant believe that james marsden can act this kind of corny character so well! btw james marsden is also cyclops in x-men. :)

golden compass is cool! in this show, every human being has a daemon, which is also a soul, and it is in the form of a animal. human die, daemon die, daemon die, the human also die. nicole kidman's daemon is a golden monkey, which looks very hideous. the female lead's daemon can shape-shift, in the forms of a cat, racoon and bird! but my fav character has to be the super big polar bear with amazing fighting capabilities.

today morning went to yueting's house to finish the remaining of the puzzle. din manage to complete it, but nevertheless we did quite alot! now only left a small portion. when finish must frame it up and take picture together with the puzzle. haha.

will blog about the happenings of the camp very soon, but sorry got no pics, because the pics taken with the standby camera is of super low quality, and the other pics are with the professional photographer, which i can only get them very much later. so just bear with the words first lah. :p

o school dance recital

went to watch sophia's dance performance, which was held at far east square.

o school is a dance school that gives modern, jazz and hip hop lessons. the objectives of setting up this o school is to give talented dancers a career as dance instructors, a platform for dancers to showcase their talents, and also to use the profits generated to provide bursaries for secondary school students from low income families. so noble and meaningful isnt it?

i get to know sophia very recently when i joined nus chinese dance. she was actually a jazz hip hop dancer, and fen pulled her in to try out chinese dance, and she liked it, so that's the story.

she is 31 years old, already married, but doesnt look like her age at all! she look so much younger than that! yueting even thought that she is still a undergraduate. =p

i think that dancers really look younger than their actual age. for example fen, he is older than me by two years, yet he look younger than me! maybe i should dance more often to 保养? much better than injecting botox. haha.

the whole dance performance is very nice! guys are handsome, babes are hot and sexy, and their dance movements are so full of energy and vigour!

the sian thing is that there are no seats, so the audience have to sit on the floor, and sitting on the floor for nearly two hours is no joke, cos my legs were super sore and cramped after that. and then we were sitting quite behind, so when the dancers were doing all the crazy breakdance stunts we were unable to see... :(

and the highlight of the whole dance performance has to be the instructors' item. cool, marvellous and fascinating! they attracted the most cheers, screams and applause.

after the performance went to vivocity with darling for supper! we ate at superdog! the hotdogs there are good!

ok must rest well this weekend, cos next week is a fully packed week for me!

camping from mon to wed, wed night going out with darling to celebrate the completion of her exams, thur finishing the jigsaw puzzle that we had yet to complete, and fri i am off to japan!

woo hoo! :)