Fukuoka, Japan

last week was my payday and how wonderful that i've finished everything in just a week. i've even used up almost all i have in my account. i went to Fukuoka. it's a nice place, beautiful, but i did nothing much there. on the first day, i was so tired that i slept till the noon and later met up with a friend in Fukuoka in the evening, after her work. on the second day, i went to Dazaifu, the City of Ancient Culture, which according to some resources, Dazaifu is a place that one must visit when one is visiting Fukuoka, especially the Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine. and in the evening, i went to the city centre and back to Malaysia again the very next morning.

i met up with Ami, a friend whom i knew when we were studying in London. she brought me to the city centre and showed me around. we went to Kego Park which is located right opposite her working place, Solaria Plaza in Tenjin. the theme for this year's Christmas is Chapel on the Water, and the park has been decorated with beautiful, shimmering illuminations. she then showed me her working place, it's located at this corner, next to the entrance to Solaria Plaza. she's working as a director in a free wave radio station. we then walked to Iwataya, a shopping mall like KLCC where you can find all the high fashion labels. next, she brought me to this place which i couldn't remember what it's called for supper. we had a plate of vegetable (not sure what it's called), prawns (yummy), chicken, a glass of oolong tea for her and a glass of coffee for me and everything cost us a bomb, ¥3500++. *jaw dropped*

the next morning, woke up early and got myself ready to explore Dazaifu. well of course i'm not that smart. i knew where the train station is, got my ticket and damn, i have no idea which platform should i wait for the train to Dazaifu because EVERYTHING IS IN JAPANESE. arghh... seriously, if next time you wanna go to Japan, anywhere in Japan, learn Japanese or go with a friend who knows Japanese because people there don't really speak English. well i got my map, thought it's easy to travel around with a map, but heck no, almost all the signboards are in Japanese too. i know that to get to Dazaifu, i need to take the train to Nishitetsu Futsukaichi Station and from there, i need to take another train to Dazaifu Station. but don't know which platform to wait. well luckily, Japanese are really really nice people. i approached this old lady who doesn't speak English (well she was the only one there at that time) and mentioned the word "Dazaifu" to her. she was saying lots of thing in Japanese when she already knew that i don't understand Jap. bla bla bla, and then she said Futsukaichi. there, finally i know what she's saying. she was pointing to me, then pointing to herself again, and she's trying to tell me to follow her. great! the train came, and she was talking to me all the way in Jap, and hell i really don't understand a thing. when we reached Futsukaichi Station, she grapped my hand, direct me to the train which is going to Dazaifu and told this gal inside to bring me to Dazaifu. yay, i finally know what she's saying!! i was sitting next to the gal whom the lady talked to, and suddenly she looked at me and said, "Do you speak English?" OMG!! finally there's someone who can speak English. she told me that Dazaifu is a very beautiful place and there's a very famous shrine located there, which i suppose it is Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine. when i reached Dazaifu, it started to rain. stupid!! i ended up standing at the Tourist Information and waited for the rain to stop before continuing my journey. by the end of the day, i can tell you that the shrine is beautiful and the views are breathtaking. AWESOME!! everything looks so...Japan.


So 'canggih'! butt spray toilet bowl. finally i got to see one myself. unbelievable and i find it quite funny. comes with a heated seat as well. very useful especially during winter. still remember how i always "jump" when i landed my ass on my toilet seat every morning during winter when i was in London.


It's your choice, you want it back or front? choose..


Kego Park 1.


Kego Park 2.


This is where Ami works.


In the restaurant.




While waiting for our food, i gave Ami a surprise. her birthday is on 11th December but i celebrated it with her earlier. bought her a cake from the bakery from my hotel and i brought the candle from Malaysia. Happy Birthday in advance to you, Ami!!


The veggie, quite nice.


Prawns, super yummy.


Chicken, not bad.


Cigarettes vending machine, very very common in Fukuoka, probably throughout Japan.


Tenjin-sama Street, heading to Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine.


Aiyo..Hello Kitty shop situated along Tenjin-sama Street. went in for less than 1 minute then came out. felt so out of place.


View 1.


View 2.


View 3.


View 4.


Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine.


Part of the shrine.


View 5.


View 6.


View 7.


View 8.


Kyushu National Museum.


Flowers.


They are everywhere. very beautiful.


Lots of fat Koi.


Please cross the TAIKO-bridge and you'll become the Taiko.


Japan's McChicken.


Ami bought me this; green tea snacks with green tea flavoured chocolate on the outside.


Umegae Mochi, recommended to me by Ami. she said it's very famous in Dazaifu. indeed, there are like 10 shops selling this mochi along the Tenjin-sama Street.


Have a break, have a strawberry KitKat. i read about Kit Kat Noir and Kit Kat Wine from this blog, tried looking for both of it but couldn't find any. only found Strawberry Kit Kat. it's yummy though.

Don't Gross Out The World...

to all the food lovers out there...give this a try..!!

Rosh and i are moving out together end of the month. her Dad owns an apartment in Bukit Jalil and no one stays there except for her step bro, so we decided to move in and i'll pay her the rent. the idea of staying together seems to be cool, but when disagreement and misunderstanding happen, then that's gonna be bad. that's what i fear most about living together with friends. i just hope that we'll be alright, just like Monica and Rachel, or Joey and Chandler in Friends. yes i know, they're not staying under the same roof now but they used to, right? so we went to have a look at the apartment, it's nice and we're sharing the same room. gosh, so many things to pack and i haven't start packing yet. and unpacking, arghh hate it. i'm going to miss home, again. going to miss Hailie, my pc, the internet, games, astro, home-cook food and laundry... oh no, i hate doing my own laundry. no one to wash my clothes, no one to iron them. *waaaaaa....

before we went to the apartment, we had our breakfast in McD. it's my FIRST time having McD's breakfast. ok, i know what you're going to say. so just shhh...


McD's Big Breakfast.


Big Breakfast!

Hong Kong

i went to Hong Kong, but it was a very short trip, it's like a 2 nights trip. we reached there late at night and left early two days later. don't ask me why. i wasn't there alone, i was there with some colleagues. it wasn't a very nice trip though because some people wasted my time and spoilt the whole plan. if not, i believe it's going to be a good one.

well you see, i decided to walk around alone the next day but this one gal wanted to go with me. so i gave her a wake up call at around 10:30am. by 11:30am i'm done, and so i believe that she's done too. called her and she said that she's still on the bed. what the hell! so i asked her if she still wants to go, otherwise i'm going alone. she said yes, asked me to give her a few minutes. how dumb of me for waiting, i should just leave her and go by myself. so another friend of mine and i waited for her. then one by one started calling and said that they wanted to go with us, asked us to wait. and so we waited and waited and waited and guess what, we only left the hotel at around 1:30pm. gosh, so much time wasted.

went to Mong Kok right away and these bunch of people just kept wasting my time. they spent like hours in this one place and they bought nothing. i then walked by myself and so unfortunate, we met again later. they decided to go to the Ladies' Market and i followed. Ladies' Market is just like our Petaling Street, they sell the same thing throughout the whole stretch of that street. i looked at my watch, it's almost 7pm. decided to leave to the Avenue of Stars to catch the light show, A Symphony of Lights at 8pm. told them that i wanted to leave but according to them, we're reaching the end of the street. and some of them wanted to see the light show too. so alright, i waited again. by the time they're done, i looked at my watch and it's already 8:05pm. oh well, good bye my light show. then one of them, my senior colleague said, "i'm sorry if we're stopping you from your plan". duh!! you know, there's like so much to say about them but i'm sooo mad thinking about it, so to cut it short, that's the story. next time i should just go out by myself and not wait for people like them. wasted my time and spoilt my plan. arrghhh!!!

everything in Hong Kong seems to be quite cheap except for their food. but it's ok for me coz i'm the type who don't mind spending on food, i...guess

some pics...


Took MTR (Mass Transit Railway) from Tsim Sha Tsui to Mong Kok.


Buses.


Esprit.


Image 1.


Image 2.


Hey, it's Kwon Sang Woo.


Sang Woo again, handsome yo..


Food...


Food again.. Eww...cows' part (top left), yucks..


Curry fishball - HK$5.


Fish meat 'siu mai' - HK$5.


Image 3.


Image 4.


Taxi.


Image 5.


Wow, what a name. Babi-la.. =P


Wonton noodles for dinner - HK$18. i tell you, it's super nice. and in Malaysia, the dumplings are usually filled with pork, but there dumplings are usually filled with shrimp. good for me coz i don't like pork. yummy...


Red bean and ice lemon tea - HK$16 and HK$12 respectively.


"Thong sui" time; red bean soup - HK$13.


Black sesame - HK$15; looks a lil disgusting but it's super nice man.


Papaya tapioca, forgot how much.


Chocolate milk (nice) and soya bean milk; commonly seen in the HK drama series.


Marlboro Ultra Lights - HK$30. that’s like RM15, very very expensive but i bought it because of the box.

a few days ago, i went to this karaoke pub which i've never been before with this bunch of people. few minutes after we're there, this man whom all of us fear most asked us if we want to watch strip show. he's sooo desperate that all of us ended up watching strip show with him that night. well i've seen a strip show before, male strip show when i was studying in London. it's a ladies only event organized by the university's Forum students' union together with Ann Summers. but watching naked girl dancing around was my first time. after the show, that man started asking money from us, he wanted us to pay for the show as well. i was like, what the hell!! you want to see strip show, asked us along, then that naked girl went dancing around you and you stupid pervert ass want us to pay for it! this is totally absurd and ridiculous. but what can we do? nothing but to fork out the money unwillingly. yeah, we're all mad about it. i even heard from the others saying that that man wanted that girl so badly that night and he wanted her for FREE. WHAT THE FUCK!! hellooo, nothing is free in this world ok, you stingy bastard!

i was talking to my brother online, and we were talking about food. he called home and talked to my Mum the other day, saying that he is getting quite bored with the same food they're having everyday. hmmm...he's just not as smart as me. hehe.. so i told him about the brand of frankfurters which i usually had (super nice) and i was telling him about some other dishes which he can cook. told him about the nice food he can get from the hypermarket there and also the junk food he can buy. omg, i miss UK so much. i miss London especially. i wish to go there again someday, and get to stay over for a longer period. i wish i could migrate over and be a Londoner. h-o-w i w-i-s-h..

yesterday's movie was good but we were late for almost 20 minutes. so we were quite blur because we don't know what was happening in the beginning. after watching that movie, we started to be afraid of 3am. if you've watched the movie, you'll know what i mean. it is quite scary thinking about demonic possessions or being disturbed by the "entity" from a different world. scares the bejesus out of me.

after movie, we fetched Tracy G home and we went to Q-Bar to meet Rosh's friends. since she's not going home to sleep coz she's sleeping over at her friend's place (Tracy M), she took the opportunity to party till "early" and she wanted to get drunk. her parents are very strict and everytime when she's out, she needs to go home early, just like the Cinderella, and she has never got drunk before. so yesterday was the night. unfortunately she wasn't drunk although she had lots and lots of vodka. i think she's a born drinker. but she was tipsy though. Tracy M's bf was the one who's drunk. and he puked. Rosh didn't puke coz she wasn't drunk, she was just tipsy. but she was laughing all night like some mad mad woman. as for me, i didn't drink much so i was so sober. i only had a glass of vodka lime and a shot of vodka. didn't feel like drinking that night. i felt so bad that they actually need to find a way to fetch me back. Rosh was supposed to fetch me back but she was tipsy and we wouldn't let her drive. i wanted to drive her car then, but she doesn't trust my driving. obviously, coz i usually don't drive, or should i just said that i don't drive. in the end, her friend decided to drive her car and fetch me home. everytime when my friends ask me out at night, i always feel bad because they'll have to fetch me back. sometimes i do not feel like going because i don't want to trouble them and i know, sometimes they're not willing and not happy to drive me back although they said that they don't mind. i think i should just go out less. or if i'm out, i should be back earlier by myself.

you must be wondering why didn't i drive? i think i'm scared. what? you think i don't wanna drive? of course i wanted to, but the fear is overwhelm. it's like a phobia to me to drive on Malaysia's road. the motorcyclists are scaring me to death and Malaysians' drivers are way too reckless when they're behind the wheel. that's the fact that no one can deny. even the 'guai lous' said that. Malaysians' drivers are very the HORRI-THE-BLE. ok not all Malaysians are like that but most of them are. Malaysians are nice people but when they're behind the wheel, they're NOT. that is the ugly side of Malaysians. if you're to give me a car in London, who said that i'll never drive? i will drive for sure because i feel so safe driving on the road there. well as for now, it's either i learn to overcome my fear or i'll never drive forever.