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