New Year's Resolutions 2014

Resolutions are meant to be broken, hahaha! Although I am pretty sure that I will not be able to fulfil all of my resolutions, I will at least successfully accomplish one or two resolutions!

1. Read at least one book per month. I just bought 20 books from Big Bad Wolf Book Sale. Even if I do follow this, I will use up to 20 months to finish all the books. Start small first, if too ambitious, maybe I will not do it at all. 
2. Do sit up at least once per week for exercise's sake
3. Cut down on coffee intake. (maximum 1 cup per day)
4. Improve my skill in parallel parking.
5. Attempt a 10 km marathon.
6. Learn basic Tagalog (actually, the target is just to finish reading the book)
7. Learn Microsoft Access
8. Improve my report writing skill
9. Always keep my room tidy (my desk in my office is very organized though)
10. Do not get angry easily (this is tough!)
11. Sleep early and cut down on internet time. 

Japanese people will pray in a local shrine on 1st January

Nengajo 年賀状

Four more days and 2014 will come. With the advancement of technology, no more hand written greeting cards, and no more SMS greetings. However, now we can get tonnes of greetings from friends in Facebook, Line, WeChat, Whatsapp and so on. Come to think of it, we actually save a lot of money on cards and SMS, it's not so bad. Although I don't mind the digital greetings, it's still quite heatwarming to receive greeting cards by mail!

In Japan, almost everybody still send out nengajo 年賀状 (greeting cards) to family members, friends and acquaintances every new year. Interestingly, no matter how early one sends out the nengajo, the recipient will only receive the greeting card on 1st of January. JP post will employ many temporary workers to handle all those nengajo. However, the cut off date is 25th December if one wants the recipient to receive the nengajo on 1st January. If one sends out the nengajo after Christmas, there will be no guarantee that the recipients will get the nengajo on the 1st day of the year.

Angels & Demons by Dan Brown

I have been quite productive this month, I finished two books already!(´・ω・｀)

Angels and Demons

The first book I read from Dan Brown was Deception Point, it's very interesting and engaging, I finished it in a very short span of time. So, I was looking forward to The Da Vinci Code (it was very popular that time), however I was disappointed with it, it was too hyped up by the media, so I didn't even watch the movie.

Popular Book Store vs Big Bad Wolf Book Sale

When I read the newspaper, I thought an advertisement on a page was the advertisement for the Big Bad Wolf Book Sale due to the big "RM8 nett each"!

A Popular Book Store advertisement in The Star

KFC Instead of Turkey for Chritsmas

The Star Metro Central highlights that turkey may not be easily available during Christmas time due to stringent halal certification. When I read about that, I am thinking that even if turkey is not available, KFC is abundant here, they can learn from the Japanese where the Christmas dinner is often made of KFC set meals.

When I first heard that Japanese eat KFC for Christmas, I felt strange, although I am not a Christian, I strongly associate Christmas with turkey. But, it's true, even weeks before Christmas, posters on the Christmas Set Meals could be seen around the KFC Japanese stores. A Japanese colleague even told me that sometimes, people queued for hours for this, Wow!

Wanderer in Malaysian Borneo by Pengembara

"Wanderer in Malaysian Borneo" is a book I got from the Big Bad Wolf Book Sale recently. In fact, I finished this book in less than a week after I bought this! This book became my first to read because it has the smallest page numbers (total 136 pages with not so small font), hahaha! In one of my resolutions for the new year, I hope I am able to read at least one book per month to finish my current unread books (so that I can buy more new books guilt free!).

Well, as the title suggests, this book is about the journey by Pengembara in Malaysian Borneo (Sabah and sarawak) from 1991 to 1993. The Pengembara utilised both land and water transports for travelling. Although the author travelled Sabah and Sarawak in the 90s, it seems that the transportation in Sabah and Sarawak is still not so good, just read a columnist article in The Star about how difficult it is to get a patient from a rural area in Sabah and Sarawak to get his or her necessary treatment, accessibility is still a problem, so sad, instead of building more white elephants in big towns and cities, government should really improve the health care facilities and resources in rural areas. Mmmm, in city too, many government hospitals are out of space and resources to take good care of the patients. Look at the Auditor-General Report every year, all the wasted money can really make a differences to the general well being on the public.

Front cover for Wanderer in Malaysian Borneo

Big Bad Wolf Book Sale 2013 - 6th December 2013

6th December 2013

I work in a 24 hours manufacturing company, although my working time is just normal working hour, if there are any issues, the operator will not hesitate to call at the middle of the night and weekends. So, I worked really hard this morning to ensure that I didn't have any pending items that will drag to next week. Right after the bell rang for lunch, me and my friend, Dila just picked our stuffs and left the company to go to MIECC (the venue for the book sale).

We reached The Mines area around 2 pm, however the traffic condition was quite bad, many cars were waiting to enter the junction that leads to MIECC, if it's only slow, I wouldn't mind, but there were many inconsiderate drivers who cut from left hand side, so annoying!

The roads around MIECC were full of cars, luckily we got a parking space on the main road outside MIECC, the parking fee was RM5 per time, I think it's quite reasonable, after we parked the car, we tried to find the parking machine to get a parking ticket, but couldn't find one, so we decided to ask around, the parking area was manned by a staff at the road curb area, so manual! After we walked towards the building, then we realised that inside the MIECC, there's a parking building! However, I noticed that the indication on the parking bays was full, no empty bay left. We came on a really busy time. Since we haven't eat lunch, we had our lunch in The Mines Shopping Mall. The Mines Shopping Mall and MIECC is connected to each other with a covered passage way. 

After fulfilling lunch, we went to the book sale. To my surprise, compared to 2010 sales, this time around, we didn't have to queue to enter the hall, just walked straight and entered. The crowd was smaller than I anticipated (compared to the cars outside the building). Then, me and Dila split to find our own favourites after taking a box from the staff near the entrance (a fellow book lover asked me where to get the box when she couldn't hold the books with her hands, please remember to take a box near the entrance, or else it would be very tiring to walk back to the entrance with all the books). Initially, I wanted to target on non-fiction, but all the fiction looked so tempting, so I ended up with many novels today!

Sony E-Book Reader

I like books and I like the feeling of it. Until now I cannot understand why I bought the E-Book reader in the first place. I bought this pink E-Book with discounts, I think I paid 10000 yen for this. After I got this, I went to the Project Gutenberg website to download many ebooks (since it's free)! I forgot how many ebooks I downloaded, but the only ebook I ever finished reading was Grimm's Fairy Tales. Then, I read a page or two from many other ebooks. Then, I just left it in the box, not even bother to take it out.

Luckily, it got a second life when my brother needed something to read his PDF course materials. He grew tired with looking at the computer screen whole day. So, I gladly gave away the E-Book Reader. The funny thing is until my brother played with the E-Book reader, I didn't know that the operating language can be changed to English, I just lived with the original setting.

Four Seasons in Japan (or More Precisely in Kyushu, Japan)

I lived in a city (Kumamoto City 熊本市 in Kumamoto Prefecture) and town (Nakatsu 中津市 in Oita Prefecture) in Japan. To me, Kumamoto City is an ideal city to stay. It's not too crowded and not so rural with all the necessary public transports and shopping malls. I visited Tokyo before and I felt the environment was too crowded to my liking, while my second home, Nakatsu was a bit 'kampung'. There're paddy fields in front and behind my apartment building! During summer time, whether you like it or not, the insects chirping will accompany you the whole night.

Both places gave me a very good safety sense, I felt safe even when I went out at the middle of the night alone. In Nakatsu, there's even no street light outside my apartment and there's a small graveyard nearby. Well, it's so well maintained that I didn't feel it's creepy to live so near to a deceased resting place. Anyway, sometimes I would go out on the middle of the night to buy things in the convenience shop on a bicycle and I totally enjoyed the quietness, it was kind of dark though, have to be really careful not to drop into a drain. One of my friends joked that we are just the temporary tenant who stay in a place, but the deceased is the permanent resident of a place. Good point!

Another plus point when living in a foreign country is I got the chance to experience four seasons, especially winter. However, me and another friend, Dila is done with winter now, still ok with autumn and spring though! Winter was too cold for us, no matter how thick we wore, plus the uniqlo heat tech, plus woolly socks, plus woolly gloves, plus heat pads (2 - one for each pocket), beanies, etc. The cold was chilling to the bones! Snows, when I first laid my eyes on the white snow, I felt very exciting, after awhile, I started to get tired about the slippery road and monotonous white. Autumn and spring was awesome, spring with the flowers and autumn with the read leaves.

Well, below are the photos that I have taken from my apartments in Kumamoto and Nakatsu. I missed the views.

Kumamoto
I stayed in the 8th floor, so I could get a pretty good view from the balcony. 

view from my apartment in Kumamoto (4 seasons)

Big Bad Wolf Book Sale 2013

I told my boss that I will take leave on 6th December 2013 to go to a book fair, he's OK with it. Hahaha, this will be the 2nd time I take leave to go to this "Big Bad Wolf Book Sale". 

I first went to this book sale on 2009 after reading about it on the newspaper, when I reached Amcorp Mall, the queue was so long, I think I waited for 2 hours to go inside, imagine that, Malaysians queuing up to buy books. When I saw the price, it's so cheap! So, I bought more than ten books home, so satisfying ♥! Actually I brought along a recycle bag, when I saw what I wanted, I just put the book inside the bag until I felt it's quite heavy. I took public transport then, I had to lug the books from the LRT station and walked quite a distance to a bus station, I had to change the bus twice too. I felt like I almost fainted on the roadside. Anyway, I had a very good impression on the book sales already. Among all the books, I like 'the Big Oyster' and 'and a Bottle of Rum' the most. That is not the kind of books I would buy if it wasn't for the price. Thanks to "Big Bad Wolf"! 

Then, on 2010, me and a colleague (a fellow books lover) decided to go on the opening date to feel the atmosphere. It's on Friday, so both of us took half day leave to be there. The space was definitely bigger than the first book sales I went on 2009. However, the crowd was huge! That time around, my colleague drove me there, so I bought more books! We were like fan girls, posing with the big bad wolf cutout. After satisfying ourselves, we queued to pay. I chatted with fellow book lovers when queuing up, all of us were so happy! One of them actually bought five boxes of books, I was so surprised when she gave a card to the staff and they lugged out five boxes from the storage area for her. Wow, that's a little too much!

My First Foray Into Gardening

May 2011

I reached Japan on March 2011 for a work attachment in Japan for two years duration. Away from home, suddenly I found myself have nothing to do on weekends. So, I planned to develop a new hobby which was gardening!

I didn't fancy flower because it's just for decorating purposes, I planned to plant something edible. After reading from many gardening forums, I decided to plant tomatoes because a lot of people claimed that it's a very easy plant, very suitable for newbies.

After deciding on that, I went to Daiso (there's a Daiso in the Kumamoto Station) after work and bought a plastic pot, pot tray, trowel, a bag of soil and a plant support. Sometimes, this 100 yen shop is like a convenient shop, we can buy almost everything in Daiso or Seria. Then, on a fine Saturday morning,  I cycled to a gardening supermarket to buy tomato seedlings. The supermarket was quite awesome, there were so many seedlings, seeds, gardening tools, soils, flowers, decoration stuffs for garden, etc. There're many kinds of tomato seedlings, finally I settled for a cherry tomatoes and momotaro tomatoes (桃太郎トマト). I bought only 1 pot, so I took a plastic container and punch holes under it and turned it into a pot.

Beppu Jigoku and Beppu Christmas HANABI Fantasia

23rd November 2012

After leaving Showanomachi, me and my friends (SK, Ari and CY) continued our journey to Beppu 別府, a famous place for onsen in Japan. However, except for SK, three of us didn't go into the water, we busied ourselves visiting the Jigoku 地獄 (Hells!!!). Actually, when I first heard about this jigoku, I thought people actually dip into the water, it's spring water, right? Then, SK was like "what!?, nobody in their right mind will go into the pool" Hahaha.

We had lunch in a restaurant near the Beppu Station, the restaurant is famous for the Toritendon 鳥天丼. Well, it's actually fried chicken rice, but it's very delicious. One thing I love about fried chicken in Japan is there's no bones, just the easy to eat part! Whenever I eat chicken dish with bones, I will leave a mess behind, very ugly and messy. Just one thing not nice about fried chicken in Japan, they do not provide chili sauce! As a typical Malaysian, I like to add chili sauce or belacan to my food. (*Japan is very famous for the Karaage 唐揚げ, fried chicken, very juicy inside, much more better than KFC!)

Beppu famous dish - Toritendon 鳥天丼

Showanomachi 昭和の町

23rd December 2012

A colleague told me about a place where many stuffs from Showa Era (昭和時代) is exhibited, well I am not a history buff, so I didn't feel like going. Then, me and my friends (SK, Ari and CY) wanted to go to the Beppu Winter Hanabi, however, it's at night and we would have the whole day free. So, after much discussions, we decided to stop by at Showanomachi 昭和の町 to kill time.

We reached Showanomachi quite early, the parking lot was still very empty. Wow, we were early birdies. We bought ticket to enter the place, one ticket costs 600 yen, not so cheap, but not so expensive too. Well, as the name suggested, this area is full of stuffs, memorabilias from the Showa Era. Some are really alien to us, some still existed in our childhood. Hahaha, good things last forever, or at least a very long time.

One of the examples is the Ultraman ♥! In a toys corner, there are many figurines, the most recognizable one is Ultraman and the monsters. I grew up watching all these Ultraman shows! Looking back now, the story is quite silly, since Ultraman can only be on the form for 5 minutes (not sure about the duration though), after fighting for a while, the "heart" starts to blink, means that Ultraman have to finish off the monster as soon as possible, somehow Ultraman always make it! LOL! Just knew that Ultraman is still going strong, a neighbour kid is following the series now. Wow!

Miniature Ultraman 

The Night Gardener by George Pelecanos

After reading a successive of romance novels, I needed a break, so I read a crime novel for a change. I have never heard of this author before, I bought this book for the cover, I feel it's money well spent after reading this book, hahaha!

The Night Gardener by George Pelecanos

Telenovelas, Soap Opera, Series, Serials Or Just Plain Drama

Compared to movies, I like dramas more. I grew up watching all kinds of dramas. Be it romance, doctor, police, crimes, lawyers, family, comedy, etc. 

When I was in primary school, well, my home didn't have the vcr, so what I watched was what the TV stations provided. There was three free TV stations back then, TV1, TV2 and TV3. I would watch the Hong Kong TVB dramas and sometimes, some Malay dramas. I still remember Opah. Hahaha, there wasn't much choices then. (My mother likes to watch Malay drama though, she said that compared to others, Malay drama is calmer, not so violent and more family oriented, she is getting sick of the Hong Kong dramas, people framing each other, siblings rivalry......)

Then, I remember I started to follow The X-Files and ER on TV2. The X-Files started my fascination with Sci-Fi dramas. Oh, another series that I love so much is Star Trek. Personally, I think Star Trek is much better than Star Wars, in terms of story lines. Then, there were many re-runs of old dramas, like The A-Teams, MacGyver, AirWolf, Knight Rider (hahaha, the talking car) and many more. When I was not studying, I would stare at the TV screen to watch all these dramas. Well, other than American dramas, Hong Kong dramas were huge during that time, other than that, Singaporean dramas were starting to show up on the free TV.

Time & Again by Nora Roberts

Hahaha, another romance novel. This time the theme was about time travel, interesting! Well, the story runs like this, a pilot (spaceship driver) named Caleb from 23rd century was stranded in the 20th century after his spaceship had an accident. Caleb was saved by Libby and they fall madly in love with each other. Then, although Caleb have a chance to go back to future, he gave up the chance to be with Libby and sent the spaceship back to 23rd century (autopilot) to tell his parents that he's OK. 

Then, Caleb's brother, Jacob (a very brilliant scientist apparently) managed to recreate a time travel spaceship and went to 20th century to bring back his brother. Before he have a chance to meet his brohter, Jacob met Libby's sister, Sunny first and they fall in love. However, Jacob didn't want his parents to be sad for losing another son. So, he decided to go back to his time. Well, Sunny sneaked into the spaceship to follow him to the future. So, two happy endings. 

Etude House: Vanilla Moist Eye's Cream

27th October 2013

Etude House: Eye's Cream (photo from http://etudehouse.com/eng/main.jsp#wrap)

I got myself a tube of eye's cream when I went to Busan last March. However, it stayed inside a drawer for months because I bought it on a whim. However, I am not 18 years old anymore, eye wrinkles started to appear, so I took it out from the long forgotten drawer and started to use the cream.

Interesting Cups from Daiso

In Japan, I would get my kitchen items from Daiso or Seria (100 yen shop). Well, not only it's cheap (Japan standard), the design is good and very often, very cute! So, I would end up with something most of the time after I visited 100 yen shop.

Well, I bought 2 cups from Daiso, not for drinking though. I stayed alone and didn't have guests coming to my house. I bought it for the phrases and words on the cup.

Interesting cups from Daiso

Fishing

16th October 2011

Well, this's the one and only fishing experience I have. My colleague, Kondo san and her family love fishing. They even own a fishing boat and many fishing gears. She spent her holiday on fishing. Sometimes, she even went out on the early morning (or rather, after midnight) to fish.

Anyway, one day, she invited me and two other colleagues to go fishing. I grabbed the chance and said yes! A day before, Kondo san even sent us the information about the fish, the weather and the proper attire (the weather was very cold in the morning!). Our targeted fish was Kisu (鱚/キス), during that season, Kisu was abundant in Yatsushiro Sea in Amakusa.

So, on that fine morning (no strong wind, good for fishing), I wore layers of clothes, with hat and applied sun screen. Kondo san fetched me, SK and Naz from our apartments early in the morning.  Then, we went to Kondo san's parents house. Finally, we left for Amakusa. It's quite far from Kumamoto City. We had a good view along the way, the sea was so calm and we could see boats (many of them). Kondo san explained that almost all the boats were owned by fishing enthusiastic.

Finally, we reached the harbour. Before I stepped into the boat, I went to the toilet first. Haha, Kondo san too. Well, it's very inconvenient for female to fish. Male will just settled it on the boat. The weather was good with clear blue sky.

blue sky and blue sea (so beautiful!)

Hibiscus Tea ハイビスカスティー

I bought 2 packets of Hibiscus Tea when I traveled to Okinawa. The promoter claimed that hibiscus tea can help improve the condition of the skin and blah blah blah. Well, later I checked from a website, it claims that hibiscus tea can help balance out female hormones, relieve tiredness, skin whitening (???), relieve the symptom of cold, etc. Ah, so hibiscus tea can be count as one of the healthy drinks! When something is healthy, the taste will not be so delicious! I can only say that it's an acquired taste. 

Mmmm, luckily I just bought 2 packets of this. Well, hibiscus tea is not tea, although it smells good (like asam boi), it's too sourish for me. Initially, I planned to add sugar, but then it will beat the purpose of this 'healthy' drinks. I didn't want to waste food, so I would make one cup of hibiscus tea when I feel tired. I still have many packets to go! 頑張って!

Hibiscus Tea

*Although hibiscus is Malaysia's national flower, we never really utilize the flower as a business opportunity. In Okinawa, hibiscus can be seen at many places, as hibiscus tea, motif on fabric and paintings.

Lantern Festival 寺町とうろう祭（七観音参り）

9th August 2012

Nakatsu has many Buddhist temples, and every year on 9th of August, the temple committee will organise a lantern festival in Teramachi 寺町 (temples street). Along the street and inside the participating temples, small cute lanterns will be exhibited.

I went to the Lantern Festival with my colleagues, we prayed in the temples around Teramachi too. When night falls, the view was very breathtaking! There were lantern making competition and the sea of lanterns made me speechless. The funny thing was that once finished praying, the committee member would give sweets, junk food or can water to the devotees. In the last temple that we prayed, the monks chanted prayers to bless us. There is another saying that if one prays in all the seven temples, one will be lucky for the next three year. Like what my colleague said, " san nen kan happy 三年間ハッピー!" (^^♪

a temple in Teramachi 

KTM (Mid Valley → Kepong ; Kepong → Klang)

A friend in Kepong was getting married and he invited me for his wedding dinner. Well, I hate driving and I had plenty of annual leaves. So, I decided to take public transport to Kepong and stayed for the night in another friend's house. I took annual leave the next day. 

This time around, I took KTM (Keretapi Tanah Melayu) and bus. Well, this was the second time I took train in Malaysia, I didn't have much memory on my first train ride though. First, I took bus to Mid Valley Station because the bus I boarded didn't pass by KL Sentral. Well, Mid Valley Station was quite busy that day, most of the commuters had to stand. However, the situation was not as crowded as the one in Tokyo (of course!).

I entered the ladies coach, however, a lot of men were inside that 'Ladies Coach' too! Well, if there's only one man inside the coach, maybe he would feel uncomfortable, but when there's a crowd, it looks like normal! Anyway, I got a seat very fast after the train stopped at KL Sentral, a lot of commuters departed there, there's only 5 people left on the coach,  the coach looked so empty. I reached Kepong Station very soon and called my friend to fetch me up. We went to a salon to prepare ourselves for the dinner that night.

Ladies Coach (KTM)

Hanami はなみ 花見

7th April 2012

When doing 5S on my photos, I came across this album, Hanami. Hanami (花見) means flower viewing in Japanese. Every year, during sakura season, Japanese will go cherry flower viewing with families, friends or colleagues. My colleague invited me and I happily joined. Well, when I first heard about 'Hanami', I thought it's 'Hanabi', and I told her that I thought Hanabi is a summer activity. She laughed so hard. "It's 'Hanami' 花見, not 'hanabi' 花火" She explained to me.

Anyway, on that day, I went to Heisei Park 平成公園 by train. I only realized after reaching there that the place was quite near, accessible by bicycle from my house! During that day, Heisei Park was having Sakura Festival, so there were performances and games for kids. A lot of people chose that day to 'hanami'. So, on that field, a lot of people can be seen laid down their sheet and picnic under the sakura tree.

Sakura Festival 桜まつり

Kōzakihana, Sasebo Burger and Plum Flower

24th February 2013

Well, the post title is not so standardized because this was just what me and my friends did on the way back from Sasebo. We almost couldn't get a place to sleep in Sasebo the night before. I booked for 3 single rooms in a hotel on Rakuten, however, not long after that, the receptionist from that hotel called and apologized because their rooms were overbooked. However, she offered us rooms in another hotel (more expensive type) with the same rate. Well, I gladly accepted that. At the end, we stayed at the original hotel I booked because someone from the hotel called and informed me that the rooms were available again. Anyway, as long as we had a place to stay for the night, Sasebo (Huis Ten Bosch) was too far from our place, driving back was out of question.

After we checked out of the hotel, we went to the most western point of the four main islands in Japan (Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu), Kōzakihana 神崎鼻公園. That area was being renovated. So, we could just see from afar. Anyway, actually scenery wise, it's not so special, just it's special geography wise. The most western point, hahaha! We were the only human being at the area that time. When we left, a senior couple reached. Well, compared to other tourist attractions in Sasebo, I think Kōzakihana is the least popular. Then, we went to a very famous sasebo burger shop to buy burger, I went to this shop before, it's just a small shop, but anytime people went there, the queue was there. Too bad, we went before 11 a.m., the shop still haven't open for business. So, we waited there. We met a family of three that we met the day before in Huis Ten Bosch, wow, we have same taste!

the most western point of Japan Four Main Islands (Kōzakihana)

Huis Ten Bosch One Day Trip

23rd February 2013

Left Nagasaki City early in the morning to go to Huis Ten Bosch. Among the theme parks that I went to, I enjoyed Huis Ten Bosch the most. Unlike Disneyland Tokyo and Universal Studio in Osaka, Huis Ten Bosch was less crowded, so I could enjoy more games and spaces, plus I spent less time to queue, that's a very important factor when visiting a theme park.

First, me and my friends (SK and Ari) went to the wrong car park. We entered the car park for WINS Sasebo, a race horse betting facility. It's next to a gate of Huis Ten Bosch. However, we were not allowed to enter because it's only for people with annual pass. So, we had to left and find for the actual gate. (#^.^#)

Huis Ten Bosch

Nagasaki One Day Trip

22nd February 2013

This was the last trip I went in Japan before I came back to Malaysia on March. It's a three days trip with two other friends, SK and Ari. Actually, I went to Nagasaki before, this time we stopped in Nagasaki because we wanted to go to Huis Ten Bosch the next day and there's a lantern festival in Nagasaki Chinatown (in conjunction with the Chinese New Year).

First, we went to Nagasaki Peace Park. The weather was nice and the sky was blue, so I managed to get many beautiful photos! The first time I was here, it was raining heavily, soaking my pants and shoes. This time around, finally I could leisurely walked around, reading all the information boards, enjoyed the fresh air.

Nagasaki Peace Park

Hidden Riches by Nora Roberts

Read another romance novel. To me, ending is very important, sometimes I would read the last chapter first before I proceeded to read the earlier parts. Hahaha! I did that even for movies and dramas, I would read the synopsis online first, if it's a sad story, I would normally skip it, if the story was really good, then I would first prepare a box of tissues. So, romance genre is a safe bet, normally the ending will be satisfying and happy. However, for this book, I read the last chapter first, just didn't have the patience to read from the first till last page!

Hidden Riches by Nora Roberts

Go Green with Baby Diapers

My mom helps to babysit a baby during the day for quite some time. Well, she gets to earn extra money and it's a way to pass time. I just realized that she re-use diaper's cover. Well, it's a trick that many mothers knew, just sharing this out for those who don't know.

1. Take a used soiled diaper, make a hole at one side, remove all the cotton, wash it and dry it under the sun (it helps to kill germ too!).
2. After dry, take a clean cloth, fold it and insert through the hole made earlier.
3. It's good to use! (after use, have to clean both the cover and cloth)

Green Diapers

Praying for Success in Exam

Exams are big in Asia. In Japan, temples or shrines make big bucks just by offering prayers and charms to the students. In any shrines in Japan, I think we can find a lot of charms (not free, of course!), ranging from safety, love, good luck, exam, etc. Well, hard work is necessary, but sometimes, luck is important. (^^♪

Train stations also offered this kind of services for exam candidates, I saw the notice in Kumamoto Station 熊本駅 and Nakatsu Station中津駅. I was kind of in awe when I noticed that!

The photo below shows a notice for exam candidates in Nakatsu Station. The notice was about the handling out of amulets that have been blessed in a local shrine. That's sweet! Sometimes, holding this kind of amulets make people calmer, less anxious, especially during exam time.  

合格祈願

Save Money on Food

Read something interesting in The Guardian today, due to the worsen economic condition, more and more austerity blogs popped out. In these blogs, the bloggers blogged about budget recipes, how to save money, how not to spend money, etc. The most famous is agirlcalledjack, she blogged how she survived with £10 a week and still managed to feed her child with nutritious food. Many articles were shown in The Guardian about families living just above the breadline too.

With the hike of petrol price recently, there is a possibility that ripple effect will cause more price increase in food, cooking gas, etc. Well, I cannot change the price of petrol, nor can I prevent the price increase of other stuffs, so what I can do is save more and spend less.

One thing that's very important is food. Some people argued that it's cheaper to eat out for a single person because it's just not economical to cook for one person. Some said that one can cook in a big batch and then freeze the rest. Well, I tried that before when I was in Japan, I cooked a big pot of chicken curry and for the following five days, all I ate for dinner was that chicken curry. It's still ok until third day. On the 5th day, I think I almost vomited out. When I told my friend about that little 'incident', she told me that no one do that, people will freeze excess food, but no one will eat it continuously for a few days. (^^ゞ

Selangor ⇔ Johor with Public Transport

24th August 2013

A friend of mine (MK) came back to Malaysia for her maternity leave holiday, since we haven’t met for a long time, another friend (SY ) and I decided to go to Johor Bahru to visit MK and the baby. Both of us are not used to long distance driving, so we took express bus. Well, SY and me, we stayed in Japan before and public transport was our major of mode of transportation. Travelling in Japan is quite a breeze because the public transport is on time and the schedule is easily available online. (*-*) For train schedule, if you don’t like to refer to the online schedule, you can always buy a train schedule book 時刻表 from the book shop!

Back to our Johor Bahru trip, compared to Japan, finding public transport information in Malaysia is still not so difficult thanks to the helpful netizens. Well, for the express bus, it's quite easy to find the information online. Now, buying express bus ticket is available online, easier compared to few years ago. I had never have to buy express bus ticket because I studied in the same state as my hometown. Before any long holiday, my course mates would go to the bus station to buy ticket in advance. It was a waste of time and money. Luckily, nowadays, one can book a ticket online in the comfort of one's home.

The Billionaire (Wai Roon Pun Lan)

23rd August 2013

The Billionaire (Thai movie) - source: moviexclusive

I bought a pack of Tao Kae Noi fried seaweed today, it's quite crispy, just like the way it's described on the packaging. Hahaha! Well, I bought it because I watched a movie about this seaweed billionaire before.

Two Days Trip in Saga Prefecture (佐賀県)

3rd November 2012

Woke up early to go to the Saga Balloon Festival, due to parking issues, me and my friends missed out the hot air balloons on the sky. Since the next session would be on 3 p.m., we decided to go to the Yoshinogari remains 吉野ヶ里 first.

According to the JNTO website, this Yoshinogari remains are one of the largest archaeological remains in Japan and there is a possibility that the Japanese originated from Saga. Interesting!

Yoshinogari Remains 吉野ヶ里歴史公園

Paying with Large Denomination Bills and Small Denomination coins

Read something interesting on Nikkan-Spa, according to a poll conducted by the website, one of the things that the cashier in the convenience store hates is customer paying with 10000 yen bills! Especially during rush hour or during night time when the cash register is short of 1000 yen bills. 

Another survey among restaurant cashiers shows that they dislike receiving coins for payment. It's inconvenient during rush hour. 

Well, this reminds me of my cashier days around 10 years ago. I worked as a cashier in a supermarket while waiting for my university entrance letter. Apart from meeting a lot of interesting and good people, I met many quirky and difficult customers. I can really relate with the cashiers from the survey.

Number one dislike is customers who bought small stuff (cheap, mainly) that costs less than RM5 and paid with RM100. I think their objective was to get small change, but that would cause trouble for the cashier later. The supermarket would only provide 10 pieces of RM10 note, 10 pieces of RM5 note, 100 pieces of RM1 note and coins worth RM50 every morning as a start up. (*Mmmm, not sure whether this is the correct amount or not, it was kind of long long time ago, but almost there). In a scenario like I mentioned above, I would run out of small change fast and getting a replenishment of small change was not easy, had to wait for the chief cashier! If there's no customer waiting in the queue, I wouldn't mind the wait, but it's not pretty when the customers started to show 'the face' to everybody! 

Saga Balloon Festival 2012

3rd November 2012

After I saw the poster for the Saga Balloon Festival, I wanted to go there. Me and my friends decided to tour Saga and go this balloon festival. Well, the weather did not agree with us. It was too windy! We reached there before 8 a.m. The sky was full of the hot air balloons, so beautiful. We couldn't get a parking space, had to wait for a long time. Finally, we got a parking lot at around 10 a.m. However, due to strong wind, all the hot balloons were grounded. The sky was so clear with no hot balloon, so disappointed!

(*from this incident, I think it's better to take public transport, don't have to worry about parking and have more time to enjoy the view.)

the only photo I have on the hot balloons on air

Kawashiri Half Day Trip (川尻半日コース)

14 April 2012

Kawashiri 川尻 is a small town in the southern area of Kumamoto City. 川 means river and 尻 means buttock, so Kawashiri literary means river mouth in Japanese. From Wikipedia, Kawashiri was a habour from Kamakura period 鎌倉時代 and it was a port with many traders from foreign countries. There was even a mention of one 開懐世利 in a Ming Dynasty literature. So, it can be considered a historical town.

Kawashiri Station is just one station away from the Kumamoto Station. I worked in Kawashiri, however, I had never walked around the area, I would go straight to the office from the train station, never stray off the route. However, since I would be transferred to Oita, I decided to tour Kawashiri.

Kawashiri Station 川尻駅

Japanese Calligraphy Class 書道教室

December 2011

My colleague told me about a Japanese calligraphy class 書道教室 in Kumamoto City Community Center for foreigners. Since I had nothing to do on weekend, I decided to join that class. All the teachers were volunteers. They were very kind and funny. It's an activity to make a calendar using Japanese calligraphy, there were 3 classes.

1st Class: learn to draw something using ink brushes
2nd Class: learn to write kanji 漢字 using ink brushes
3rd Class: carve on a mold to make stamp

Kumamoto City Community Center 熊本市中央公民館

Public Secrets by Nora Roberts

This book is quite engaging, I finished it in three days. 

Public Secrets by Nora Roberts

the synopsis

It talks about Emma, a daughter of a very famous rock star, Brian. She was born out of wedlock and when her own biological mother threaten to kill her, her father brought her back and stayed with her father's new bride. Then, her stepmother, Bev gave birth to a son, Darren. The family had a really good time, Bev treated her like her own child and everybody adored Darren. Her father's career was soaring high when baby Darren was killed. Although Emma saw the killers, she was too traumatized and forgot about it. After that, Bev couldn't take it and separated with Brian.

My Phones

I got my first phone, the 'Indestructible Nokia 3310' in 2002. It costs around RM500++ when I bought it. I used it for four years before it got pick pocketed in Klang Bus Station. I was so furious with the pick pocket, I treasured the phone very much! I had to go to the Maxis Centre in KLCC to replace my SIM card, waste of time and money!

Nokia 3310 (the indestructible Nokia)-photo from Wikipedia

Stardust vs Stardust

I like Stardust. However, I don't like the Stardust (movie version). So disappointed with the way it is rewritten for the screenplay. I think it is being sanitized. Luckily I watched it on TV, if I watched it in the cinema, I would feel so sorry for the money spent on the movie ticket.

Part	Book	Movie
The final	The Star was immortal and couldn't have children, at the end of the book, Tristran died and the star was left alone.	However, in the movie version, they had children and live happily ever after.
The 3 witches	In the novel, when The Witch Queen finally caught up with The Star, she realized that she couldn't take her heart because her heart belonged to Tristran (well, it means that she fall in love with him, kind of romantic)	In the movie version, it became a chaos, the witches tried to get The Star's heart even after she fall in love. This part was so unbearable to watch.
Victoria	She married Mr. Monday (Tristran's boss, not so young) and thus helped to free Lady Una.	She looks like a ××○○.

Another part is about Tristran's father, he did not wait for Lady Una, he married another girl and Tristran had a stepmother! There are other things that I don't like, but I have forgotten some details. I wanted to write this after I watched the movie, but I procrastinated. Ahhhhhh!

Genuine Lies by Nora Roberts

Ah, it has been sometime since I last posted about book. I got busy after coming back to Malaysia, and since I drive to work every working days, I don't read anymore during the time commuting to work. The precious time is wasted on staying alert on road and bracing for the traffic jam.

During weekends, I am more interested to catch up with the dramas, tv series, etc. So, it took me 3 months to finish this book. Another reason was on the half way through the book, I read the final chapter! Hahaha! Anyway, finally, I finished this book, yeah!

Genuine Lies by Nora Roberts (I like the dress!)

Red Leaves in Nakatsu, Oita (中津市、大分県) Part 2

18th November 2012

After leaving Aonodomon, we went to Rakanji 羅漢寺, a temple. For me, the only thing that differentiate this temple from other temples is the sky lift. However, according to the explanation from wikipedia, this Rakanji is actually very special. This Rakanji is actually built embeded into the Mt. Rakan 羅漢山. Mt. Rakan has many caves, and in the caves, there are more than 3700 carved stone Buddha.Very magnificent indeed!

the tunnel leading to Rakanji (very autumn feel!)

Red Leaves in Nakatsu, Oita (中津市、大分県) Part 1

18th November 2012

November is the month for red leaves viewing in Japan. Here's the link for the red leaves calendar in Japan.

I had bad lucks when come to red leaves viewing. I went to Kyoto too early on 2011, the leaves still green. So, after moving to Oita, I told myself, I must view the red leaves in their prime in Oita. However, I was one week late, the leaves almost half gone! (-_-!!)

Anyway, here is my collection of photos on the red leaves in Nakatsu, Oita. Well, plus some photos on the attractions in Nakatsu.

On that fine morning, me and my friend went to Aonodomon 青の洞門. In front of the cave entrance, there is a big ginkgo tree (i think it is ginkgo due to the yellow leaves!). When autumn comes, the leaves will turn yellow and form a unique matching view with the cave entrance. Too bad, by the time I reached there, the tree already almost bare. Still, coupled with the fallen leaves on the road, not too bad!

Aonodomon 青の洞門

Winter Holiday in Hokkaido (9) - Tomamu Hoshino Resort 星野リゾート トマム

6th January 2013

The last destination of my trip, the Tomamu Hoshino Resort (星野リゾート トマム). Most of my friends joined this trip for this place. I knew this place from another friend who went to Hokkaido just for this Hoshino Resort, she went to Sapporo on Saturday morning flight, stayed for the night and return to Tokyo on Sunday night.Well, one of the reasons we chose 6th January to go there because that day was Sunday and was the last day of the winter holiday, the price was cheaper! if my memory serves me correctly, the accommodation for the night costs around 14000 yen per person, we stayed in double room. However, I think 14000 yen is not so expensive, considering the sumptuous dinner and breakfast thrown in with the package.

Since no normal train was available, we used express train to go to Tomamu from Obihiro. Tamamu Station is a small unmanned station. So surprise when we got out of the train's car and the Hoshino Resort's staff was waiting there to greet us. Well, I think the only people who will stop at this station are Hoshino Resort's guests, or staffs. It is a very remote place. The resort pick up bus services coinciding with the JR train schedules. The weather was not so good, the cold wind and strong snow fall made me felt chilly the whole time.

Hoshino Resort is a ski resort during winter. There are many things to do other than skiing. I tried the banana boat (on snow though), snow motor, etc. I forgot what is the name of the activities. Two of my friends initially wanted to try fishing (dig a small hole on the layer of ice and fish), however they back off after knowing that before reaching the lake, have to hike for 3 hours. Another reminder though, remember to bring money for those activities, all the snow activities are not free of charge. The person in charge of all the activities would bring us to take photographs with the Tamamu Twin Tower for every snow activities. Haha, the proof we have been there.

snow activity

Winter Holiday in Hokkaido (8) - Obihiro 帯広

4th January 2013

After canceled the hotel in Asahikawa, we checked the hotel in Obihiro, there were still many empty rooms in Obihiro. We found out that Hotel Nikko ホテル・ニッコー still have a lot of empty rooms and the price was not expensive. Hotel Nikko is considered grand in Japanese standard. So, we decided to book the rooms in Hotel Nikko Obihiro. The accommodation settled, next transport. There are two ways to go to Obihiro, by express train and bus. Express train ticket costs 6510 yen, while bus ticket is around 3500 yen. By the time we checked the bus schedule, the next available bus would depart after 1 hour. Luckily, after inquiry, there were still empty seats available. So, we quickly left the hotel and went to the Odori Bus Center 大通バスセンター to board the bus to Obihiro. Plus all of us, the bus was full, so lucky, no one left behind. We reached the bus center just in time, so dangerous, almost miss the bus. We paid for the ticket on the spot.

By the time we reached Obihiro, the day have turned dark. It was very cold in Obihiro. Luckily, the Hotel Nikko is very near to the train station (the bus station is very near to the train station). (>_<!)

We checked into the hotel and I felt that the room was so comfy. Hahaha, although not very big in Malaysian standard, I had, well, for a long time, to save money, stayed in business hotel and dormitory style room while traveling. Seeing that room made me felt better. (Still kind of sad because had to miss the Asahikawa Zoo)

double room in Hotel Nikko Obihiro (they even had USB charger for iPhone)

Supermoon 23rd June 2013

When I send my brother to his friend's house, I noticed the moon is very round and big. Then, I remembered that the newspaper reported that on 22nd and 23rd June, the full moon is the closest and largest full moon of 2013. Luckily the haze condition is not so serious tonight and I could see the moon, it was kind of dreamy (I think it is aided by the haze too!). The only minus point is that the air is reeking of burnt smell from the haze. Ah, I miss the fresh air. I hope that heavy rain will come and wash away all the haze. Praying!

Closest and largest full moon of 2013 (taken using my phone, so blur and small!)

Innovative Way to Paint the Wall with Patterned Paint Roller

Although I don't buy stuff online, I like to visit the online retail shops. I love looking at the photos. I came across this cute thingy at eBay, I have to share it out, really nice, a patterned paint roller. Hahaha, who needs wall paper when this kind of tool is available! However, I will not do this kind of thing because painting is such a chore. I had other concern too though, the painter must have a very steady hand, he or she cannot have a shaky hand, or else the painted wall will become a disaster. For the normal paint roller without pattern, I could paint vertically or horizontally or in any directions that I like and the end result would not be too bad.

Another concern is what if I become tired with the pattern and want to change it. How to remove the paint? Or can I just repaint the wall with another colour? Will the wall surface become uneven? Wah, so complicated! My wall will be in green colour for as long as I can stand to it.

Ahhhhh, still it is very beautiful!! For those who loves DIY, this is a very good tool to own.

Patterned Paint Roller (photo from ebay)

Winter Holiday in Hokkaido (7) - Half Day in Sapporo City

4th January 2013

Woke up early to take train to Asahikawa 旭川. I have always wanted to see the penguin parade in Asahikawa Zoo. However, my dream was dashed due to the snow storm, all the trains and buses bound for Asahikawa were stopped due to the bad weather. Initially, the notice in the train station stated that by 12 pm, the train may resume running. So, we had to think of a way to pass the time. Some decided to go shopping (there are many shopping places around the Sapporo Station). Some decided to just go back to the hotel and rest in the lobby area.

Me and two other friends decided to go to Sapporo TV Tower, well, the underground shopping arcade is quite useful. Since we had no interest to walk outside the main road with slippery surface, occasional snowing and strong wind, we decided to use the underground shopping arcade to go to TV Tower. The underground shopping arcade is very extensive and long. If one wants to save 200 yen, one can walk from the subway station in Sapporo Station to the nearest station to Susukino (a place where one can find restaurants, karaoke and red light establishments). My friend told me that she went to a 'information centre' in Susukino to ask directions to a restaurant, then only she knew that the 'information centre' is the 'information centre' for the ''red light establishments''. So, friends, please don't simply go to a 'information centre' to ask for directions, it might be not what you think it is. Hahaha.

Traffic Light with Timer

One of the aspects that I don't like about the traffic light is I never know when it will turn red. Sometimes, from afar, I saw that it have been green for a while, so I slowed down, however, by the time I reached the traffic light, it was still green, that's still ok. The worst part was I accelerated and by the time I reached the traffic light, it turned red and I had to brake hard and face the danger of being hit from behind from another speeding car. I hate this!

traffic light with timer (located in an intersection in Banting)

So I like the traffic light with timer, at least I know when to decelerate and accelerate. The people who came out with this idea is very brilliant!

Winter Holiday in Hokkaido (6) - Snowboarding in Niseko ニセコ

3rd January of 2013

Snow board day!

I am very bad in snowboarding. However, that was my last winter holiday in Japan, so I went to Niseko to play snowboard! Niseko is one of the famous snowboarding place in Japan, even a Malaysian company, YTL Coroperation owned a resort  called Niseko Village in Niseko. Me and my friends chose not to stay in Niseko because all the accommodations there are very expensive! The Japanese word for Niseko is ニセコ, in Katagana form, weird, so I google search the origin of the name, oh, it came from the Ainu language, an indigenous language from Hokkaido.

Kutchan Station (倶知安 くっちゃん - cute name)

Say 'No' to Tobacco

31st May 2013 is World No Tobacco Day by WHO (World Health Organization). I really don't like smokers and I hate the second hand smoke. So, every time the prime minister announces the budget statement, I welcomed the increase of tax on cigarettes. However, many continue to smoke, don't understand at all!

In Japan, one of the things I don't like when having party with colleagues was that many of them smoke, so the whole room would reek of smokes. So difficult to breath. There is a campaign where 22nd for every months are "No Tobacco Day". 22nd is chosen because "22" looks like two swans, and swan sounds like  'suwan / スワン / 吸わん', which means smoking. The company that I worked for also tried to make the work place more inconvenient to smoke, previously, a designated smoking room was available inside the office building, however, now people have to go out of the building to smoke and the frequency also reduced. 

non smoking day (禁煙の日) - taken from http://blog.canpan.info/nobeokahc/archive/200 

Winter Holiday in Hokkaido (5) - Otaru One Day Trip

2nd January 2013

Otaru one day trip! Otaru 小樽 is famous for sushi and music box.

We took the normal train from Sapporo to Otaru. Since my visa was not the travel visa, I couldn't get the various discounts aimed for tourists. For every tickets, I had to pay full amount. The most expensive expense in this trip was the transport! Transport expenses alone cost more than half of my budget for this trip.

The train ride from Sapporo and Otaru was kinda enjoyable. Not many people were taking the train that day and we got seats. On the way to Otaru, the train passed by seasides and I could see people surfing. Oh my god! I felt cold for them. However, my friend told me that the surfers were wearing special suits that can retain heat inside their body.

around Otaru Station

A little thing called love (Thai Movie)

I watched this movie because it got high points in a movie review website (rating 8.2/10). I read the synopsis first and I thought, "Oh, another cheesy romance movie!". I am surprised that I actually enjoyed the movie, the innocent kind of love. Hahaha!

Movie poster for "a little thing called love" (taken from http://asianwiki.com/A_Little_Thing_Called_Love)

Freebies as a form of advertisement

After I came back to Malaysia after two yeas in Japan and looking at the various pamphlets and photocopied promotion papers, I felt that it is such a waste! For me, I seldom read it, normally it will just go into the recycle bin waiting to be sold to paper lama man. In Japan, although there are promotion papers too, there are many that utilise free tissue paper as a promotion method. At least people have to look at the cover before they take out a piece of tissue!

Free tissue paper (promote a place in Saga hoping to be listed in UNESCO  list)

Lighting Safety

My home was struck by lighting last week, and the casualties were router, television, my brother's desktop LAN port, my laptop AC adapter charger, two ceiling fans,  TV antenna and ceiling. Luckily, we were all fine, no one was hurt. 

I think that the lighting struck the antenna first, then the power transferred to the ceiling beneath it and caused the portion of ceiling to drop. The antenna was burnt into pieces. So horrible!

the damaged ceiling

even the wall has burned mark

The Face Shop (Sseal Syn-ake Mask Sheet)

I bought this mask when I went to Busan last January. The salesperson was promoting this mask sheet when me and my friend went to the shopping mall, buy two sets, free one set (one set contains 10 sheets). We tried the other skin care products by The Face Shop, we were awed by a cream, right after applied to the skin, it felt so smooth. So, we decided to buy the Sseal Syn-ake Mask Sheet from The Face Shop. It claims to tie skin tissues tightly and enhances skin firmness. We bought two sets and got one set free. I took one set and my friend took two set and split the cost. 

I applied the facial mask last Wednesday, well, like many other mask sheets, it couldn't cover my nose area. Anyway, I felt that it could stick well to my face and the liquid seeped into my skin. I didn't feel any discomfort while applying this mask sheet. After applying the sheet on the face for 30 minutes, the sheet started to dry out, so I removed it. My face is smoother and firmer after applying this. But, of course, the effect did not last long, only around one day. Hahahah! 

Shiseido D Program

14th May 2013

I love Shiseido D Program's skin care products. This series is for sensitive skin and there are acne care, balance care, moisture care and ageing care. I used the acne care type. My skin condition clearly improved after using that products for 2 months. I had very bad acne problem, now I still got occasional acne, but the redness reduced a lot. Too bad it is not available in Malaysia, so before I came back, I went to supermarket and bought 2 sets, enough for around 6 months use, hahahah!

I used the toner 化粧水 and moisturiser エマルション only initially. However, during winter, I felt dry, so I went back to Shiseido counter and the lady there introduced me to the essence 美容液. It doesn't feel oily, kind of comfortable after applying. My skin is improving, lalalala!

Shiseido D program - acne care