Starbucks Coupon and Blogger Don't Provide Unlimited Storage for Images

Starbucks Coupon (13th July 2012)

coupon for Starbucks coffee

I was transferred from Kumamoto to Oita office on May 2012. So, my colleague got me a farewell card with a free Starbucks coupon. However, Nakatsu has no Starbucks. And I did not go out of Nakatsu, so it expired before I had a chance to use it. 

Kyoto and Nara 3 Days Trip - Day 1

19th November 2011

Normally, November was the time to see red leaves. The red leaves 紅葉 viewing was very famous in Kyoto. So, we planned a trip to go to Kyoto. It was a farewell trip for our friend, Chu too. She would go back to Malaysia at the end of November. However, due to the prolonged hot weather, the reddening of the red leaves was delayed. It was not fully red yet. Plus, the weather was so depressing, it rains!

Anyway, I booked the flight tickets 2 months before that. I took Skymark flight from Kumamoto 熊本 to Kobe 神戸 on 18th November with another friend, Danny. After that, we took monorail from Kobe Airport to Sannomiya Station 三ノ宮駅, then JR train from Sannomiya Station to Kyoto Station. We reached just in time for dinner, we ate at a Hong Kong Cuisine Restaurant in the Kyoto Station.

After that, we checked in into Hana Hostel. It was clean with enough bathrooms and toilets. As with any other hostel style accommodations, I only got a bed and had to share room with a lot others. There was one person who snored whole night, so I did not sleep well that night.

To type "♥" with Japanese IME

I knew that typing "Alt + 3" gives us a ♥. However, I could not do it with my laptop's keyboard. So, I find another way, I understood some Japanese, so I add the Japanese IME (input method editor), when I wanted to type the "♥", I changed to Japanese.

1. "♥" is ハート (heart) in Japanese. Just type "ha-to" on the keyboard and pressed the spacebar. 
Then, something like image below will pop up. Just choose any heart you like!

heart ハート ♥ ❥ ❦

Golden Week 2012 - Meiji Mura Half Day Trip 明治村半日遊

5th May 2012

Reached Inuyama Station and found out there were no empty lockers. So, had to lug our bags until Meiji Village 明治村. Luckily, there were lockers there. The admission ticket was very expensive, 1600 yen for adult. Plus, if one wants to take the bus inside the village, another 500 yen is needed. So, me and my friend said to ourselves, no matter what, we would finish toured all the attractions before Meiji Mura close. Luckily, on that day, it closed on 6pm instead of the usual 5pm.

on the train to Inuyama, Meiji Mura gate and the retro bus

As the name suggests, Meiji Village houses buildings from the Meiji area. After industrialisation of the modern Japan, a lot of the historical buildings were destroyed, so a Dr. Yoshiro Taniguchi with his childhood friend, Mr. Moto O Tshuchikawa established this Meiji Mura. They chose buildings that were going to be destroyed and reconstructed the buildings in Meiji Mura. This buildings include prison, school buildings, churches, various government buildings, former ambassador residences, railways, factories, hotel, etc. 

Golden Week 2012- Hamamatsu Matsuri 浜松祭り Part 2

5th May 2012 こどもの日

After a feast of kites flying under the hot sun, we went to the museum. It was just next to the venue for kite-fighting competition.

Hamamatsu Matsuri Museum 浜松祭り会館

Once entered the building, we could see lots of kites in different shapes and colours. A volunteer uncle kindly walked us all over the building and explained all the details related to Hamamatsu Matsuri. 

kites from different machi

Pumpkin Pork Soup 南瓜猪肉汤

I must be out of my mind when I bought a big pumpkin. It sits inside my fridge for more than one week, I felt if I still left it alone, it will rot. I like pumpkin, however I did not know how to cook it. So, I video called my mom to ask for advice. My mom suggested that I cooked Pumpkin Pork Soup, she said that the soup will be very sweet with the addition with pumpkin.

So, on a fine Sunday morning, I started to prepare for the soup.

Ingredients:

pumpkin, pork, carrot, tomato, onion, etc.

1. Slice, cut, clean everything. I only had a small knife and to cut this pumpkin into half, it became blunt. I really had to use a lot of energy to cut this pumpkin into cubes. (Tired!)
2. Add enough water to the pot and start to boil. 
3. After the water is boiled, add carrot cubes and onion.
4. Then, add the pork. (use small fire)
5. Wait until the smell of pork came out. (around 20 minutes)
6. Add the pumpkin cubes and tomatoes.
7. After the bubbles can be seen, add salt to taste. 
8. For safety, I boiled the soup for 15 minutes more to make sure everything is cooked. Hahahaha, I didn't want to have stomach ache later.

Golden Week 2012- Hamamatsu Matsuri 浜松祭り Part 1

5th May 2012 こどもの日

After so many days of trip, finally reached the last day of the trip, kind of happy actually because I missed the comfort of the bed in my own apartment. As usual, woke up really early to catch train to Hamamatsu 浜松. We went there for the famous Hamamatsu Matsuri 浜松祭り, a Kite-fighting Festival. There was a parade too at night, however, it clashed with our plan, so had to miss it.

The kite fighting was held in Nakatajima Sand Dune 中田島砂丘. There are public bus plying to the area from Hamamatsu Station 浜松駅. However, during the festival, direct shuttle bus services were available from Hamamatsu Station and it was quite frequent. There were volunteers who were very enthusiastic outside the station. They guided us to the bus station and offered booklets about the festival.

After buying the bus tickets, we boarded the bus. There were a few young kids wearing their team clothes. Along the way, I could see people thronging to the same direction, the sand dune! Reached there and saw a big crowd of people, the sound of trumpet could be heard everywhere. Very happening!

Nakatajima Sand Dune 中田島砂丘

Golden Week 2012 - Brief Tour in Shimizu Area 清水

4th May 2012

After sending our friend to Shimizu Station. We went to Hotel Sun Port ホールさんポート to check in. The hotel was very near to ShinShimizu Station 新清水駅, but not Shimizu Station, I mistook Shinshimizu station as Shimizu station. Luckily, it was only around 10 minutes walk from the hotel to Shimizu station. 

Then, we drove to Miho no Matsubara 三保松原, an attractions nearby. It is a seashore with white sands and long line of green pine trees. If the sky was clear, one could see the Mt. Fuji from here too. 

Miho no Matsubara 三保松原

Peach and Cherry

Peach 桃 (15th July 2012)

After the delicious cherry, I bought peach. Summer is the season for peach! However, it was not so tasty compared to the one I ate before in Okayama. The one from Okayama was so juicy that once bite, all the juices were gushing out from the fruit flesh, some even dropped on my friend's hand who sit next to me. It was so funny!  Anyway, it was not bad, I will definitely buy again if the price is not so expensive!

Peach from Kumamoto

Cherry season (6th July 2012)

Went to supermarket yesterday, packets of cherry were arranged neatly on the shelves. Smitten by the red juicy looks, I bought a packet. It came from Yamagata prefecture 山形県, which is famous for cheery. It was very sweet, juicy and delicious!

I once had a bad experience with cherry. It was a cherry flavoured birthday cake for a friend. It tasted so weird that everybody had a hard time finishing it. At the end, we had to play games to finish it, anyone who lost had to eat a slice. We played "1,2,3 木头人", after the words were spoken, all couldn't move except the catcher, so she tried very hard to make the rest of us laughed, I lost once or twice, and were forced to eat while laughing until stomach ache. What a happy memory! So young then!

Anyway, after that, I avoided anything related to cherry until I came to Japan and tasted the real fresh cherry! Love it ♥!

cherries from Yamagata (small lovers 小さな恋人)

I accidentally knocked the box, so some cherries had black spots, but it didn't affect the taste though!

red juicy cherries

Golden Week 2012 - Mt. Fuji finally!

4th May 2012

After the rain comes the sun! Initially we planned to tour Fuji Five Lakes 富士五湖 the day before and went to Hakone 箱根 that day. However, due to the bad weather, we ended not going to the five lakes the day before. After discussions, we decided to skip Hakone and toured Fuji Five Lakes instead.

Since we went to Kawaguchiko 河口湖 last November, we went to Lake Motosuko 本栖湖 first, the weather was clearer than the day before, however, clouds still covered up the Mt. Fuji tip! 

Lake Motosuko 本栖湖

my favourite! Fuji Sakura with lake

Golden Week 2012 - Flowers in Kawaguchiko 河口湖

3rd May 2012

We took normal train from Matsumoto 松本 to Kofu 国府. Right after we reached Kofu, Cissy said that it gave the feeling of Tokyo, not surprising considering that Kofu is very near to Tokyo. Then, we walked to the Mazda car rental to take our car. Then, we went to Kawaguchiko station 河口湖駅 to take brochures. The weather was really bad. Our main aim was to see Mt. Fuji in white cap, however it was hidden behind layers of cloud. 

sculpture in front of Kofu Station 国府駅前

Raining Season 梅雨

Raining Season 梅雨 (5th July 2012)

raining season is here in Japan

It has been a depressing week due to the non stop drizzle. The weather just changed and changed. It would rain suddenly and then stop suddenly! 2 days ago, Oita prefecture 大分県 had the highest rainfall count in decades until the Yamakuni River 山国河 overflowed at the up stream and washed away buildings with a man inside. The authorities even issued evacuation order for the residents nearby the river, stopped the trains service and closed the highway. On that day, my colleagues told me that better don't passed by the river when going back home. They suggested that I took another route to go home. However, after office hour, the Yamakuni River's water subsided at the downstream. So, I followed my usual route. My colleague's father called him from Malaysia and asked him not to go anywhere (趴趴走) because of the flooding. Well, actually Nakatsu's rain was quite tame and the flood only happened at southern Oita. 

Golden Week - Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route 立山黒部アルぺんルート

30th April 2012

After a night of sleep, we woke up before 5am so that we could take the 5.42am train from Toyama to Tateyama. We used forwarding service for our bags at the Toyama station, and picked it up after finishing the tour in Shinanomachi 信濃町. We booked our ticket early online. So, once reached the station, we didn't have to queue up to buy the cable car tickets, we just claimed our tickets at a designated counter and proceeded to queue for the cable car. The slope from Tateyama 立山 to Bijodaira 美女平 was very steep and up to 29 degrees, so it was kind of scary!

reaching Toyama Dentetsu 富山電鉄 before 5.30 am to take the train 

Mango tree

Mango Tree (18th June 2012)

When we moved into our house, my father bought a small mango tree sapling and planted it in front of the car porch. The tree was kind of funny and stubborn maybe.  We didn't get to eat mangoes from that tree until a few years later. After that, depends on the tree’s mood, sometimes it bears fruits, sometimes it don’t. My parents once planned to chop down the tree, but I was against the idea. So, it stayed there. Later, a fungus infection caused most of the leaves to drop, so my father had to trim most of the branches and it became a ‘botak’ tree. The mango tree has a very strong will to live, not long after that, new leaves grew out of the bare branches. That year, we had a bountiful harvest of mangoes. However, due to the heaty effect of the mango, my mom discouraged us to eat. So, I packed many mangoes and gave it to my bosses and colleagues. I was so proud when they said that the mango was very sweet!

(After I came to Japan and tasted the famous Miyazaki mango, I found out that it tasted almost the same with my house’s mango! The only down point for our mango was it was too fibrous.)

Since secondary school, I was so taken with the biodegradable compost thing. So, I would diligently collect the unfinished food, fish bones, peeled skin of fruits, etc to bury under the ground because I believe that those things will degrade eventually. From this, I knew that for the vegetables and fruits, after it degraded, it would give a very fragrant smell. Well, for the meat, the smell was so awful. However, at least it became fertilizer rather than ended up in rubbish dump and emitted methane gas for nothing.

Although the mango tree hasn't bear fruits for a few years, we still keep the tree because it can become a shape before the sunlight enter the living room and keep it cooler.

Tokyo 4 days trip - Day 4 (The Vibrant Tokyo)

6th November 2011

First, we planned to go to Tachikawa, a garden. However, since we had seen the red leaves the day before, we decided to tour the city side instead. We took train to Akihabara station 秋葉原駅 and went to a sex toy shop. If I were alone, I would have never enter that shop. However, we reached too early and the shop haven't open yet. We were so "paiseh" to wait outside that shop and went to a cafe opposite that shop to wait. Business must be good for that shop, it had 5 floors. My friend bought a sexy lingerie for a soon to be married colleague as wedding present. There were many weird stuffs, some even with video demonstrations, and we were the only female customers inside that shop! However, my male friends only walked one round and left, they said they were not comfortable to be in that shop with us. Hahahah! We left soon after too.

We went to Gundam Cafe after that. Although tempted to buy the models, but didn't due to money issue, it was not cheap.

Gundam Cafe

Tokyo 4 days trip - Day 3 (Red leaves in Kawaguchiko 河口湖の紅葉)

5th November 2011 - One Day in Kawaguchiko

We woke up really early to catch the earliest train to Shinjuku 新宿 from Musashi Kosugi 武蔵小杉. This was due to the very early 6am bus ticket to Kawaguchiko that we bought. Everybody was like a dead fish. We slept on the train couch. After we found the bus stop and board the Kawaguchiko bound bus, we again slept on the bus. It was so nice to sleep!

We reached there quite early  morning and greeted by beautiful red leaves! We boarded the shuttle bus to go around the Kawaguchiko. When we passed the lake, we were awed by the view of the lake with Mt. Fuji 富士山. So, before we reached the destination, we decided to get down the bus and walked there while surrounded by the beautiful view. There was a Red Leaves Festival 紅葉祭り. There were stalls selling food stuffs. One stall owner offered us his home-made alcohol after learning that we came from Malaysia, I drank a little bit and it tasted like fermented yeast, I couldn't take it but my friends later bought cups of the alcohol from that stall owner.

Kawaguchiko 河口湖