Been listening to this song the past few days. Prefer Maddi Jane's version though. Anyway, this song reminds me of someone I used to know and somehow still very much missed. Check it out.
Friday, January 6, 2012
Thursday, December 29, 2011
I got married without getting proposed (and without proposing either). So sweet proposal videos like this gets to me. Anyway, in case you're wondering, nope, I didn't go Google for "sweet proposal videos", I am not 'that' pathetic! Heh. So how did I find this video? I found it featured on Yahoo SG this morning. Curious, I watched it and then decided to put it up here to share with my readers (that is if I still have any), in case anyone might want to check it out cos really, it's sweet!
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Tokyo Revisited.
Hi all. Here are some pictures taken in Tokyo early this year. Nothing much I would say. We did the touristy thing and so here are the touristy pictures. Check them out.
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Gamagori, Aichi-ken.
It's time I should update you with stories of my travels. So here goes. Together with this update, however, are some pictures taken at Gamagori, Aichi Prefecture, Japan in early March this year. Pictures aren't very pretty, though, nevertheless please enjoy.
It was months before we arrived in Aichi, and Kenji's mum had called us to let us know that she was going to take us to Ginpaso. Ginpaso, a large ryokan with hotel-like facilities, is located in the heart of Gamagori, a town only 2 hours drive away from Kenji's home.
In case you didn't know it yet, a ryokan is a Japanese style inn. Different from its western counterpart, a ryokan emphasizes on the traditional Japanese lifestyle and atmosphere. According to Japan-Guide.com, ryokan come in different types. Some can be small, family run establishments with just a few rooms, while others are large, hotel-like with hundreds of rooms and hotel facilities.
So it was on one of those days that I was in Aichi that I went to Gamagori. Gamagori, a popular resort town located on the Pacific Coast, is about an hour drive away from Kenji's home. I went there for the first time ever with Kenji, Hazuki and Kenji's parents. Supposedly a Kimura family trip, it ended up with only 5 of us going cos Kenji's brother and his wife, Mari-san, couldn't be around. As planned, we stayed overnight at one of the waterfront ryokan there, and as it turned out to be, it was an interesting first ever ryokan stay for me.
A popular resort town it is, Gamagori was said to receive an estimation of about six million tourists of all ages every year (Aichi Voice, 1997). The city's hot springs and numerous marine sports facilities as well as modern high-rise hotels that could be found along the coast were amongst some of its top attractions. Despite having a coastline that appeared to be somewhat eroded and, in the words of Rea (2002), "plastered with retaining walls and festooned with millions of giant concrete tetrapods", I thought it's amazing many still find the resort town scenic and its resort atmosphere beautiful.
Having been to some of world's finest beach resorts, I thought what was probably more appealing about Gamagori was its marine and urban development. Knowing Gamagori City had undergone a terrible damage following the occurrence of an earthquake in 1945, I thought it's impressive to see the city in its current state, all lively and developed. If, as reported, in 1945, thousands over of houses were destroyed and tens of thousands others severely damaged, today Gamagori showed little signs of it. In fact Gamagori is so developed now, it's not only filled with people, agriculture and light manufacturing, but also has become a regional commercial centre with a fishing port.
The waterfront ryokan I stayed in in Gamagori was called Ginpaso. It was large with hotel-like facilities. Check out the picture above. It shows a part of the ryokan I was staying in.
It had hundreds of rooms and 'my' room had an ocean view with a rotemburo (open air bath) on its verandah (see pic above). It was my first time ever staying at a ryokan, and I found the experience interesting, the rooms great and the hospitality very warm.
However, because (I'm guessing) I wasn't used to a ryokan service, I wasn't too pleased with the way certain things were done. For example, how the ryokan staff kept coming to and entered my room to ask me questions on dinner, hand me stuff, served me tea, helped me out with things such as fixing of the water temperature of the rotemburo, preparing futon whilst I'm out having dinner and clearing the futon whilst I'm out having breakfast, even though these were clearly help and services I need, to a large extent I find them very disturbing. Ha.
Above (pic) are amongst the things I had for dinner that night. Dinner at a ryokan is usually a course menu of washoku (traditional Japanese food). So there was the standard steamed rice, grilled dishes, steamed dishes, deep-fried dishes, sashimi, soup, and pickles. That night, too, I was being served with plenty of cold raw food, most of which didn't require any form of cooking but there was a few that did, and one of them was a fat and live abalone.
In case you didn't know what an abalone is, it is a type of sea snail that varies in size and can be consumed raw or cooked. The abalone, which was for dinner that night, was to be cooked, and so it arrived at the table on a table top cooker placed side by side with a piece of butter, and as I've mentioned earlier, (the abalone was) still alive (check below video out for better illustration).
I remember feeling quite sick seeing 'my' abalone not dead whilst the flame underneath it was being lighted. And I remember feeling sicker when I opened the lid several times to check if the abalone's cooked only to find it still full of life, moving around like a gigantic slug on a leaf! When it was finally ready though, I didn't eat it, cos I just couldn't! Dinner on the whole however was nevertheless not as gruesome, rather interesting and very filling.
So that was my story of my first ever ryokan stay in Gamagori. I hope you have enjoyed browsing through the pics and reading the post. There'll be more travel updates coming real soon so stay tuned!
References:
Aichi Voice, 1997, No. 7, Autumn, A semiannual publication of Aichi Prefecture, Japan, About Town, Blend of the Old and New, The Hoi Region, Available [Online]: http://www2.aia.pref.aichi.jp/voice/no7/town.html, 22/11/2011
Rea K., 2002, THE ZEIT GIST, Concrete -- modern Japan's blockhead obsession, Ultimately, one has to blame the Romans, Available [Online]: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/fl20020530zg.html, 22/11,2011
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 2011, Gamagori, Aichi, Available [Online]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamag%C5%8Dri,_Aichi, 12/11/2011
It was months before we arrived in Aichi, and Kenji's mum had called us to let us know that she was going to take us to Ginpaso. Ginpaso, a large ryokan with hotel-like facilities, is located in the heart of Gamagori, a town only 2 hours drive away from Kenji's home.
In case you didn't know it yet, a ryokan is a Japanese style inn. Different from its western counterpart, a ryokan emphasizes on the traditional Japanese lifestyle and atmosphere. According to Japan-Guide.com, ryokan come in different types. Some can be small, family run establishments with just a few rooms, while others are large, hotel-like with hundreds of rooms and hotel facilities.
So it was on one of those days that I was in Aichi that I went to Gamagori. Gamagori, a popular resort town located on the Pacific Coast, is about an hour drive away from Kenji's home. I went there for the first time ever with Kenji, Hazuki and Kenji's parents. Supposedly a Kimura family trip, it ended up with only 5 of us going cos Kenji's brother and his wife, Mari-san, couldn't be around. As planned, we stayed overnight at one of the waterfront ryokan there, and as it turned out to be, it was an interesting first ever ryokan stay for me.
A popular resort town it is, Gamagori was said to receive an estimation of about six million tourists of all ages every year (Aichi Voice, 1997). The city's hot springs and numerous marine sports facilities as well as modern high-rise hotels that could be found along the coast were amongst some of its top attractions. Despite having a coastline that appeared to be somewhat eroded and, in the words of Rea (2002), "plastered with retaining walls and festooned with millions of giant concrete tetrapods", I thought it's amazing many still find the resort town scenic and its resort atmosphere beautiful.
Having been to some of world's finest beach resorts, I thought what was probably more appealing about Gamagori was its marine and urban development. Knowing Gamagori City had undergone a terrible damage following the occurrence of an earthquake in 1945, I thought it's impressive to see the city in its current state, all lively and developed. If, as reported, in 1945, thousands over of houses were destroyed and tens of thousands others severely damaged, today Gamagori showed little signs of it. In fact Gamagori is so developed now, it's not only filled with people, agriculture and light manufacturing, but also has become a regional commercial centre with a fishing port.
It had hundreds of rooms and 'my' room had an ocean view with a rotemburo (open air bath) on its verandah (see pic above). It was my first time ever staying at a ryokan, and I found the experience interesting, the rooms great and the hospitality very warm.
However, because (I'm guessing) I wasn't used to a ryokan service, I wasn't too pleased with the way certain things were done. For example, how the ryokan staff kept coming to and entered my room to ask me questions on dinner, hand me stuff, served me tea, helped me out with things such as fixing of the water temperature of the rotemburo, preparing futon whilst I'm out having dinner and clearing the futon whilst I'm out having breakfast, even though these were clearly help and services I need, to a large extent I find them very disturbing. Ha.
Above (pic) are amongst the things I had for dinner that night. Dinner at a ryokan is usually a course menu of washoku (traditional Japanese food). So there was the standard steamed rice, grilled dishes, steamed dishes, deep-fried dishes, sashimi, soup, and pickles. That night, too, I was being served with plenty of cold raw food, most of which didn't require any form of cooking but there was a few that did, and one of them was a fat and live abalone.
In case you didn't know what an abalone is, it is a type of sea snail that varies in size and can be consumed raw or cooked. The abalone, which was for dinner that night, was to be cooked, and so it arrived at the table on a table top cooker placed side by side with a piece of butter, and as I've mentioned earlier, (the abalone was) still alive (check below video out for better illustration).
I remember feeling quite sick seeing 'my' abalone not dead whilst the flame underneath it was being lighted. And I remember feeling sicker when I opened the lid several times to check if the abalone's cooked only to find it still full of life, moving around like a gigantic slug on a leaf! When it was finally ready though, I didn't eat it, cos I just couldn't! Dinner on the whole however was nevertheless not as gruesome, rather interesting and very filling.
So that was my story of my first ever ryokan stay in Gamagori. I hope you have enjoyed browsing through the pics and reading the post. There'll be more travel updates coming real soon so stay tuned!
References:
Aichi Voice, 1997, No. 7, Autumn, A semiannual publication of Aichi Prefecture, Japan, About Town, Blend of the Old and New, The Hoi Region, Available [Online]: http://www2.aia.pref.aichi.jp/voice/no7/town.html, 22/11/2011
Rea K., 2002, THE ZEIT GIST, Concrete -- modern Japan's blockhead obsession, Ultimately, one has to blame the Romans, Available [Online]: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/fl20020530zg.html, 22/11,2011
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 2011, Gamagori, Aichi, Available [Online]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamag%C5%8Dri,_Aichi, 12/11/2011
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Back to uni!
Am back to uni - yeay! If you know me and know what I have been wishing for all these while, you'd know I would be over the moon to be back studying. Thanks to Kenji for sponsoring my uni fees (he even promised he'd give me time off the kids when I study later) and the uni for accepting my application. In case you wanna know here's a little bit more about my going back to uni, so read on. I am basically enrolled at a non-local university. I applied for and am offered a Criminology degree course about a month or two back. The course will start at the end of November, and I am already feeling excited as hell, I can't wait! As though taking care of a toddler and a baby hasn't kept me occupied enough, I can see myself having a very busy time in the next 5 years (yeah that's how long the course is going to be) and so am needing all the luck I can get in this world to carry out all the tasks I am ever needed to as a uni student! It sounds crazy I know, but I have a feeling it will all turn out to be good!
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Last Saturday's 'beachy' story.
It was Hazuki’s first time at a beach last Saturday (I wouldn’t consider the one in Penang her first). And so Kenji and I didn’t expect much to come out of it. Surprisingly though it turned out to be quite all right - we got to spend a total of about 5 hours doing nothing much but lazing around the whole time, enjoying the peaceful sea breeze as well as each other’s company, and introducing to Hazuki, other than the features of a seaside, the concept of self-efficacy; what she can achieve on a beach if she ever feels lazy to do anything at all for a period of 5 hours.
East Coast Park (beach) was beautiful that day. The weather was lovely and the number of beach patrons, especially, was unexpectedly low. Our time there was almost perfect in fact - almost!! - if I didn’t see Kenji being ordered to move away because he was blocking a man’s picture-perfect background, that is. Check out the pictures below for that very insignificant ‘beachy’ story of mine.
PS. It was nothing big, really. Somehow I just feel the need to write the incident down somewhere. Maybe I was feeling a bit sore seeing the person’s aggressive, commanding gestures and assumingly authoritative instructions on my husband who was just walking along the shoreline, with my baby in his arms. So whenever I recall my time spent at the beach, I got reminded of that incident, which then got me feeling quite unhappy. So here it goes:
Oh, before I go on with my story, overall tho, I had a nice time at the beach regardless. :-)
Man in white pants ordered Kenji (right) to get off his picture-perfect background. So Kenji (with Hazuki in his arms) walked off. I took this pic a few minutes after seeing the commanding gestures of the man to my husband. So by the time this pic was taken, both parties have already moved off from the spot. Man in white pants then posed at the place where Kenji was. And then man in white pants posed again at a couple of spots not too far away from the first and woman took picture/pictures of him using what looked like a mobile phone camera. Man in white pants then appeared to discuss with her about the background, and after much discussion and a few poses later, man finally climbed a breakwater for another pose. Check out the picture below...
Man in white pants on a breakwater posing with probably another picture-perfect background found. Picture-perfect background...the blue sky and white clouds?? Anyway, I was thinking if the man hadn’t used commanding gestures on my husband (and had told my husband nicely to get off from his perfect spot, or just waited patiently for my husband to move off instead), I am very sure I wouldn’t have felt this way. But anyway, the incident’s happened. Plus, it was so insignificant I shouldn’t even bother to blog about it! But whatever it is, I had a nice time at the beach! And, I don’t like that man!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)