Tokyo & Los Angeles

Still having my rest days for my Tokyo - Los Angeles Trip, decided to blog first before i totally forgot about the details of this wonderful trip.

glad to have found 2 pallies in Julian and Wayne, the other is a very nice person and good company to have but too sticky for my own comfort. Nonetheless, we stick together for most of this trip... first nite in narita was drinking in wayne's room, before planning to go to Magic Mountain on LA. Being my first time to LA, i was basically a follower... our hotel is in Anaheim, just beside Disneyland - FANTASTIC!!! the whole place was like a make believe sorta thing but Disneyland wasnt our objective this time as not very often you get people who wants to travel so far out. I reckon i can always go Disneyland the next time round. Magic Mountain here we go!!!

We rented a car and drove up, with the help of some vehicle commander and a GPS system, it wasnt that difficult except for the fact that its left hand drive and its my first time doing so. On the freeway, everyone was zooming past our car like crazy, but i had the luxury of driving at 160km/h, that being still within speed limit... singapore just dun have that luxury... Reaching Magic mountain, it was breathtaking seeing those high structures of roller coasters. I, being a roller coaster fan, weirdly din get excited, i also din get the fear before going on the ride like i normally do.. maybe cos the drive up was too energy sapping. everything was just going thru the motion and trying to complete as much as possible. We were lucky, cos it was weekday, if its weekend, the best they said was that we could only get maximum 6 rides cos we gotta queue an hour plus for each ride. but guess what, we managed to cover all the major rides and had a tally of 18 rides all in all... wat a day!!! Tatsu, Deja Vu gotta be my personal favourite. its breathtaking and exciting, the rest are not bad, but just that the other 2 are too outstanding. X2 is suppose to be good too, but its apparently closed due to some accidents (phew!!). Wayne got pretty sick after first few rides and he missed out on quite a bit, but i think me him and julian has struck up quite a bond that after the whole flight, we still went out clubbing and KTV together... but some mis fortunate incident happened and we antagonized a senior japanese crew... whom, to my disgust decided to throw her weight ard and keep harping on the incident even after we decide to give her a treat to make up to her... utterly disgusted, to think she still followed us to the trip and was stuck with her the whole day, having to entertain her...what the *($%#@%!!!
Apparently, there is still a lot of places to visit in LA, i shall have to make a point of visit the next time i come, i shall try to do a Taipei-LA soon. there is still the Laguna breach, Newport Beach, OC, downtown LA and Hollywood to go... too many places for too little time....

At least i dun have to face her anymore after going back to Shinjuku, cos i was meeting up with Kaori and she brought me ard, Shinjuku was happening!! it has to be one of my fave city, but there wasnt enough time to thoroughly explore, many things were touch and go. Nonetheless, i manage to cover Shinjuku, Harajuku and Shibuya quite a bit. It a good place for shopping and the fashion there is whomping good, made Singapore looks backward, but its too fashionable for Singapore that if i brought some back, people might think that i am crazy... maybe next time i shall get a few. Shinjuku was just super major shopping, but Harajuku was happening!!! lotsa youngsters ard, hipsters, cosplayers and i visited a cosplay costume shop... the clothes inside are SOoooooo NICE desu?? wish i can own a few sets oso... got a bag for my bro and i was ripped off for that, that birthday present cost me 200 bucks. got roger the tweety bird that he wanted, i have yet to pass it to him. After that, it was moving on to the famous Shibuya... remember Tokyo Drift when the 2 cars were racing in the street trying to escape from DK? yea, the multi crossroad traffic light is in the heart of Shibuya and that scene was shot there.. magnificent. Shopping ard there and eating there was good... in the end, we sat at Starbucks to camwhore and people watch at the traffic lights. Interesting.

If there is one thing bad at Tokyo, i guess it has to be the clubbing scene, cos after that we went to roppongi to club, the entire place was pretty pathetic in my opinion, and i mean the club and music. but the people are openminded and fun thou.. lotsa eye candies... This seeming holiday trip was to come to an end after this stay at Shinjuku, Tokyo. The next day marked the end of the trip and i decided to spend some time along and went up to the Tokyo Metropolitan Goverment building, to go to the observatory towers, to view the scenic beauty of Tokyo city, the night view is suppose to be good, i shall go again next time. But this time round, i wasnt lucky enough, cos its was foggy, Mt Fuji was hidden from view. maybe i can make Mt Fuji a destination i come to Tokyo again...

I miss this place... I shall be back....

Kansai BANZAI!!!

think its my 4th or 5th time to Osaka already... Extremely happy to come here, despite its not the first time... just love the atmosphere... had orginally planned to visit the Osaka Castle, fatigue almost got the better of me, almost wanted to give up and just go to shinshaibashi and namba.

but in the end i forced myself to wake up and dress up to ask the concierge on the directions to go Osaka castle. they recommended taking a train but i decided to tracked my own way there without a map... that wasnt too difficult since it was a straight road down from the hotel, that was merely my guess. i decided to ask ard to double confirm my guess. ask a japanese student, but all she gave me was a long sentence which i assumed was that she doesnt speak english(which is one of the reason why i think working in japan holds much prospects). den i headed in the direction which i told was correct, came across a convenience store, despite the busyness, the lady over the counter hurriedly dish out a map and told me in japanese that its very far away to walk... but nonetheless very helpful to tell me that i am heading in the right direction. God Bless her kind soul...

Proceeded along the road anyway, until i came across a signboard which states that ahead lies the ruins of the Naniwanomiya Palace, which is basically nothing left except a huge park, which leaves me wondering what happen to the castle. but there were plenty of people hanging out, pinic-ing with family, playing badminton, throwing baseballs. Almost wanted to turn back after roaming the park, cos initially i thot tts it, this is Osaka Castle... until i caught a glimpse of a tall majestic building not too far away, den i knew that was it.... hurriedly, i rushed over, to my surprise, the whole area was jam-packed people, families, couples, taking photos of the blossoming cherry sakuras... not a single green patch can be seen as every single spot is covered by people... but i must say the peach cherry blossoms is indeed beautiful, i never regretted walking through all that much to get here... After marvelling at the sakuras, its time to turn my attention to the castle itself, grand a majestic... i can imagine the shoguns and the samurais in the past hanging out and around in the castle... fending the castle from attackers and the deeps moats all around.. glad i made the trip!!!

took a train to Shinshaibashi, quite proud of myself cos I figured out japan’s railway system myself… haha… big deal… but nonetheless, next time I can travel on my own further, maybe to Kyoto!!! Or Sendai!!! Or Hiroshima? Sendai is where Rukawa and Sakuragi, characters of Slamdunk originated from… so I am quite interested to visit, thou it just gonna be a small backward village.

I must say that I am learning new things every time that I come to Osaka, the last time I came, I found the early morning wet market where the fishes were brought to the market and skinned live… now I found the Osaka castle.. shopping in shinshai and namba is always enjoyable… I just love walking along and buying food off the streets… think I got some ideas of what kind of food to serve in a café now. Plus, after so many trips to Japan and eating all kinds of different Japanese food, I finally tasted the authentic Japanese sushi… now I understand why daming say after u tasted sushi in japan, you will feel that sushi in Singapore is crap. In Singapore, sushi slices is small and the rice is huge, but here the raw fish slice is so big that it can go around the rice, and the fish is more fresh and tender… wasabi also taste a bit different… think I shall make it a point to taste sushi more often here… the only thing left is I haven drank sake in japan.. haha..

Ended up buying a nice looking overcoat in Uniqlo and a sling bag from muji… think I am becoming spendthrift… sigh, I better curb my spendings… these are unnecessary actually, cos I got similar stuff but it just look nice… and I had a taste of the popular crepes here, the sushi and shopping at 100 yen… and bought the famous Osaka cheesecake from Rikuro’s… After combing and backtracking the paths which I took when I first come to Osaka, I finally found the dragon balls which I like so much… I know I promised to get it this time round, but they are not exactly cheap with each of them at close to 30 bucks and there are 7 of them, as I had already spent a lot for this trip, I shall make it a priority to get it the next time I come…. Hope I come again soon, I dun mind a japan flight every month…I just love japan… they can gimme Osaka every month also… haha…

From Zurich to Munich

this is overdue, think some of the feelings has also faded... i am trying my best to recall, so there might be some discrepancy... not like anyone else will know anyway, its for my own reference... haha...

2nd time in Zurich, this time there is no mountain climbing as me and chris planned to hop over to Munich to explore Germany. Got up at wee hours in the morning to try to catch a train from Zurich to Munich, armed with a winter jacket and a haversack, we made our way to the train station. The train ride took us 4 hours, passing thru Austria even to get to Munich.

Reaching Munich at 11plus in the morning, 2 excited explorers zoomed off to grab some food at the train station before setting off to Dachau, the Nazi concentration camp during WWII... train ride plus bus ride finally got us there, everything was in an air of seriousness and solemn-ness. seems like everyone is grave and quiet.. adding on to the already serious atmosphere. Walking thru this historical site, allowed me to realise how bad the conditions were back then and how the prisoners were treated like animals, given bare minimum food and slogged like cows. tortured, mishandled. looking thru the relic photos, one would actually feel for them...

leaving the place, the most unfortunate incident of the whole trip happened to us. we were stopped by 4 unreasonable train conductor who demanded that we pay 40 euros each for not stamping our bus ticket when nobody told us to. being tourists and new to the place not withstanding, they were totally unreasonable and not understanding and even threatened to call the police when we have the valid ticket. of course not wanting it to turn into a police case, we paid up and proceeded with the journey feeling aggrieved.. IS THIS HOW THEY TREAT TOURISTS?? thinking back, i should have wrote in to the German Embassy to complain, then again, maybe i should still do it now...

Coming back to the city, we pop over to Marienplatz first where the famous Glockenspiel is... supposedly the battleground of Van Helsing and one of the freaks at the start of the movie, the miniature dolls at the clock tower is suppose to move at certain times of the day but we din managed to catch that. we roamed around the area, saw the St Peterskirche, tallest building in Munich and a few other more famous churchs. The most beautiful one has to go to Asamskirche, located at one of the small alleys, camouflaged between other buildings. The Virktuelianmarkt was closed by the time we got there, so we planned to go back the next morning... after that it was off to hunting for bed and breakfast for the night and we managed to get a good deal at HBF which allowed us a buffet breakfast... we crashed out after reaching the bedroom, too shack after the whole day of travelling, any plans for beer was thrown right out of the window. The funny thing was that getting to the room, we had a lot of difficulty trying to open the door, spent a good 10 mins there at the door, before chris said, please let us in, we are very tired... and the door opened... *freaky*

Next morning, after scouring Viktuelienmarkt, we begin our ascend up St Peterskirche, it was a crazy upward climb with no life, every step was taken with much effort with all our belongings on our back. Reward was sweet thou as we could really see miles and had an unobstructed view of the city all around. Off to Frottmaning we go... guess where is that place? Its the AllianzArena, home of Bayern Munich... the place is kinda out of the way but the stadium is highly beautiful, shaped like a balloon, able to emit different colours... luckily it was open, we manage to get in without having to pay. took plenty of photos as momento, cos i doubt i will have a chance back here again...

After AllianzArena was Schwabing, the most happening clubbing and nightlife street in Munich, but since its day time, its pretty dead, but we managed to visit the Ludwig Maximillians University, sneaked into the school compounds and take a look all around before lunching at one of the restaurants at Schwabing, the first time we have proper food in Munich. The Olympiapark is next on the menu, the oddly shaped structure looks very futuristics even for now, i cant believed that it was actually built in 1972. Feels good to be there thou, I am now part of the Olympics.. haha.. Then it was the BMW museum, but we went to the showroom instead, saw all the nice futuristic cars instead of the antiques.. we missed that out man... -_-

Konigsplatz was the last destination before heading back to Zurich. Konigsplatz was the Nazi 3rd Reich Square where all the parades and march past was conducted. Reaching there, we could only lie on the grass and enjoy the serenity of the place and caught a glimpse of the Obelisk.. before heading back to HBF to catch our train back to Zurich. This pretty much sums up our 2 days of adventures at Munich, though tiring, but I guess its still time and walking well spent... Looking forward to the next adventure!!!

Night out with Sindy, Lianie

Long time never see my cheena pok... i just flew with sindy... she is on leave now, feeling bored.. i jio her go ktv with thams and rozel... sindy is a dman good singer... and i finally got to sit in her honghong.. haha... but for that she drag me to dragonfly with her... Mel is there, so is terrence and i got to know steve and Levl... all from the same gang... me and cheenapok are starting to become better friends.. happy happy... long time never see her.. so quite happy to see her again since dec... mel jio zouk soon... hopefully my schedule permitting.. its always fun to hang out with them... mel is a real nice chap, sindy and cheena pok is just crazily fun to hang out with... love their company.. :)