Japan Trip 2014 Day 3 - Kyoto

Onwards to Day 3! (After loads of procrastination *cough*). Here's the itinerary for Day 3

Itinerary

1. Kiyomizu-dera
2. Ginkaku-ji
3. Hounen-in
4. Nanzen-ji
5. Gion (Night)

Up early in the morning after we took breakfast, we proceeded to depart from Osaka to Kyoto. Osaka to Kyoto is quite a short distance, we took the express train (via JR Kyoto Line) and it's only about 30 - 45 minutes away from Osaka. After we dropped off our luggage at our hotel, APA Villa Hotel Kyoto Ekimae, we made our way to Kiyomizu-dera.

Japan Trip 2014 Day 2 - Osaka

Konbanwa! It's finally time for Day 2 (after much procrastination). Today's journey would be to focus more on the temples and shrines of Osaka. After much needed rest from yesterday, we had a quick morning breakfast with buns from the nearest convenience store and we head off!

Itinerary (Day 2)

• Shitennou-ji
• Sumiyoshi-Taisha
• Q's Mall
• Dotonbori & Houzen-ji

After a little travelling from Nipponbashi Station to Shitennou-ji Mae Yuuhigaoka Station and approximately 5 minutes walk, we arrived at the side gate of Shitennou-ji.

Japan Trip 2014 - Osaka, Day1

Finally! My first time going to Japan! Like finally! Although it's a family-oriented trip the thought of visiting there is just overwhelming. This trip was actually the first time my family (only me and my parents though) go on a self-organized vacation. So we (or more like I) had to plan the itinerary and find my way around the place. On the plus side is I'm so glad my years of learning Japanese on my own has paid off haha!

My trip covers Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo. The places I stayed at are decent hotels that won't have you crying for your wallets but it's not to say the cheapest place either lol. For those who wish to go on a pilgrimage on your own, here's what you need to prepare before hand:

• Pocket Wifi - I recommend Pupuru. Great rates and service!
• Google Maps (Smartphone App)
• Google My Maps (Smartphone App)
• Japan Trains (Smartphone App)

Pretty much that's what you need so you won't get lost, it's really simple. Oh perhaps a few simple Japanese terms would help you a little. But not to worry as at most big subway stations, the staff there knows a little bit of English.

So I will write about my trip day by day. And Day 1 is my first day at Osaka! Well, I prefer to let pictures do the talking, so here we go :D

Itinerary

• Osaka-Jo (Osaka Castle)
• Osaka Kaiyukan (Osaka Aquarium)
• Tempouzan
• Dotonbori

We took the afternoon flight, so we arrived at Osaka at about 10.25pm. The sunset view from the plane is amazing. Anyway, I didn't count this as my Day 1 as the whole day was spent travelling lol. We stayed at the airport hotel for the night and prepared for tomorrow.

Johnny Rockets Malaysia

Greetings, I do realize that I've been absent for over a month, I sincerely apologize for that (I say this every time lol) After the much awaited opening of Johnny Rockets Malaysia over at The Curve, I had a chance to dine in this American diner restaurant early November.

As me, along with another 3 friends of mine, marched to the direction of Johnny Rockets, we were greeted by a long line of customers waiting for their turn. It was early 7pm so I put my name in the waiting list and wandered around the mall as we wait for our turn. Finally about 8.30 or so, we got a seat inside the restaurant (we were worried if we get the seats outside the restaurant D: )

Tips on how to learn Japanese, the fun way

I've received a lot of questions as to how I got myself to learn Japanese up till this stage without attending any classes or spending a lot of money on books. Though firstly, I have a great advantage as I learnt Mandarin back in primary and secondary school (Though I only took Mandarin till Form 4 :P) Knowing Mandarin gives you a great advantage in a sense that it helps you learn Kanji way faster!

To learn Japanese the fun way, pretty sure most who reads my blog are anime/manga/games enthusiast (or also known as fans of the Japanese sub-culture), I'm 100% sure most of you started picking up words and phrases from anime. I'm no different, my first Japanese word I learnt back when I was in primary school was "Harahetta" (はらへった) which means "hungry", and the very anime I picked it up from was Gensomaiden Saiyuki, where Goku's favourite word is Harahetta!! Few years along the road more vocabulary entered into my brain, though I was still unable to form phrases, let alone sentences. (Okaylah, maybe the simplest Watashi no namae wa ___)

Corporate Social Responsibility Event - Giving Back to Society

So yesterday, my school (SuwayTES) organized a CSR event. It's a chance for the students to engage with the needy people. Initially I was contemplating whether to join or not as I have a class on that day itself. Luckily my lecturer promised that she'll find a replacement class for us lot, so...okay!

Upon arrival at the hall, we registered ourselves, got to know our bus number and team number (code named as HOME). Luckily enough, I was teamed together with Nala! (Sorry Chermaine QAQ). Each HOME was assigned to different tasks, I heard one of it was to organize books at a local library. Sounds interesting enough! I love the smell of books, however, my group was assigned to visit a Rumah Cacat Akal (Mentally Disabled Home). Although feeling a bit disappointed, but I look forward to it as it was my first time visiting a home such as this. Previously I only visited Old Folks' Home back in Melaka.

They provided breakfast for us. And it was a whopping huge pack of Nasi Lemak. It also had sotong cili as a side dish, talk about a heavy breakfast indeed. But it was fulfilling XD Not only that, they also gave us a mask, and also one glove (note : not gloves, but glove).

Facebook Album : http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10201347154775705.1073741844.1078550061&type=1&l=58f69d1f76

Nuffnang Food Fest

So me the girls (..and 1 guy) decided to attend the Nuffnang Food Fest on the 5th of October 2013 at Sunway Pyramid. I first noticed this event via Facebook, the concept of 'eat for free' is of course very enticing to us university students. A little planning and some rescheduling, all of us managed to make our Saturday free and ready for the food fest!

We all decided to go a tad bit earlier, so I first met up with Chermaine at our uni roughly about 3pm. Somehow the others were late so the both of us went ahead first.

Of Coffee and Ensembles

Konnichiwa! Have been updating VocaParty lately but not my own personal blog, oppsie. So here goes! I have a few backlogs to clear so I'll start motivating myself with karipaps somehow.

A couple of weeks ago I was walking around Isetan's food section at KLCC. Then an aunty came over to me and called me out to promote something fairly interesting.

It's an instant coffee, but not-so-instant at the same time.

AniManGaki 2013

Ready for a long post? :D Well, now that AMG is over, I feel a wee bit empty inside. But look at the bright side, I'm back into Vocaloid, and I have time for my studies! 

AniManGaki 2013 was a yet another great experience for me. Learnt about more stuffs regarding event management. This is my 2nd year in the community. Took up more tasks than I'm supposed to handle though.

Official Website : http://animangaki.com/

1/8 Lily Anim.o.v.e Quick Review

A very long overdue figure review! It's been very hectic lately thanks to AniManGaki @.@ My workload is actually more than last year, definitely felt the pressure. But now that it's over, I feel empty inside D:

Moving along, I think I used up my life long's luck by winning myself a 1/8 Lily Animo.v.e figure. Credits to Hobby Frontier for this amazing lucky draw! It was their first 1/8 giveaway, and lady's luck shone upon me. As a Lily fan, I'm really happy to be the owner of this 1/8, and I'll treasure her forever T_T

See also : Lily Nendroid by Phat Company, Reigan's Review

I received the figure, with a badly damaged box. The sides were dented QAQ Thank god for Good Smile Company's packaging method, the figure is safe and unharmed. Utmost care had to be taken when I tried to extract Lily since the box is badly dented. (Thus no pictures of the box :P)

                                 

The both of them look so lovely together I CAN'T----

Medan, Indonesia, Day 3

Woke up early in the morning on Day 3 to visit a temple! A little detour from our original itinerary :)

Medan, Indonesia, Day 2

Hello! It's been awhile since my last post, thousand apologies for that as I was pretty busy with studies, AniManGaki and some drama in between (lol). Well, here's the Day 2 of my trip to Medan! :D

We went over to Berastagi (I think, lol) to visit a small town, some historical places and a waterfall!

On the boat in the morning! Because we're at higher grounds, it was freezing cold as the wind hit our skin >_<. Though it's great passing through the waters of Lake Toba.

Medan, Indonesia, Day 1

So my whole family went for a vacation last week to our neighbouring country, Indonesia. Well, we booked the tour before the haze hit Malaysia, it's not like we deliberately wanted to escape the haze :P Haha, but anyways, Medan's air is actually much fresher than Malaysia. You can say that there's no haze at all. 

We reached Medan's airport at approximately 10.00am (Medan time, Malaysia is one hour faster). And was quite shocked when the tour guide/driver said that he'd bring us for lunch. at 10.00am?! Not long later only we understand why the rush. The roads in Indonesia are very small. (Read : Very) There's only 1 lane roads and the amount of cars and motorcycles are amazing. As you know, Indonesia is one of the highly populated countries around the world. It actually took 2 hours just to get to our restaurant lol.

After satisfying ourselves with Minang Melayu (Malay cuisine) at Simpang Tiga, one of the more famous restaurants there, we head off to a 4 hour road trip to our destination for the day, Lake Toba. Lake Toba was what used to be a super volcano and had the largest eruption ever known. It is not a volcano anymore, but thanks to the huge eruption, it turned into a lake! It's the largest volcanic lake in the world. How big is this lake? As big as Singapore, well, used to, until Singapore embanked some land and ended up becoming bigger than Lake Toba. Here's a random picture that I took.

Reflection

With the recent ups and downs I'm experiencing, it's really a roller coaster ride. With my finals coming soon, feeling stressed up and all, really gets me thinking, about what I've done, what I've experienced throughout my 19 years+ of life, what I've yet to experience and many more.

Looking ahead, my future is so uncertain, I feel so insecure. Choosing my path to pursue ACCA was a rather quick choice I made when I was 17. Not much thoughts were given, I expected it to be tough, but now that I'm in it, feels totally different. And the disappointment continues when I'm told by lecturers that your life as an auditor is suffering, and if you want to continue to work your way up in an audit firm, you'll have to suffer at least 9 years. Don't think this applies to everyone, but I'm pretty sure it's the norm. Working at odd hours, overtime till 2am in the morning, work until you've become a zombie, that's what I'm afraid of. I think, maybe I'm just afraid of graduating and start working, maybe I'm just afraid of growing up.

Blackout!

With the recent Malaysian 13th General Election causing a stir among us youngsters with all the potential frauds that occurred, all the black out black out! parodies. It's getting fascinating, heh.

and well, the power supply at my hostel decided to join in the fun too! By giving us a 4 hour black out on one fine Tuesday.

Well, all's good, luckily my housemate with their smartphones have these fancy torchlight apps in it. I'm using an old phone (aka stupidphone lol) so yeah. 

Decided to go out to university and hangout until the power comes back. It only came back at about 11pm+ though, and I was already fast asleep in my room lol, I didn't even realize power came back lmao.

Here's a funny parody made by Malaysian Youtuber, Dan Khoo

And with that, I shall end my nonsensical post. Exam is approaching, specifically in two weeks' time. I'm stressed out and whatnot, but I'll do my best. 

Nendroid Lily from Anim.o.v.e

*Ba Dum Tss*

I have finally received my long awaited nendroid, Lily, from Anim.o.v.e.! Decided to a very brief/short review, well, I'm not really sure how to do figure reviews since...I only own two nendroids and a couple of nendroid puchis LOL, plus, my camera isn't really good enough to focus on the details of D:

But welp, here goes!

Burgertory Experience

So one fine day, me and my brother decided to go Ss15 to find dinner, in fact, we were looking around for Crayon Burger, while swirling around Ss15, as we passed by the row of shops, I noticed a fine looking burger sign on the top floor of a building. It pique my interest as it stated 'Burgertory'

I immediately told my brother about it, he took an interest to it too, since the both of us have went to myBurger Lab. And off we go, my brother found a nice parking space, got off the car and started off to Burgertory.

Burgertory Facebook fan page : http://www.facebook.com/Burgertory

The entrance to their store looks fancy too!

Hot Air Balloon Fiesta

So I went to the last day of the Hot Air Balloon Fiesta! With the help of my chauffeur/kuli, managed to get to Putrajaya. Fortunately (or...unfortunately) it was raining heavily that day, so everything had to be postponed D:

Good thing is that, the activities postponed, so we managed to enter one, which was supposed to end long ago ww Bad thing is that, they had to keep all the hot air balloons, so to inflate it again takes a lot of time :<

Here's a few that we spotted :3

First my Burger Lab Experience

The long awaited trip to myBurgerLab!! It was definitely a great outing since I went with him XD

What's BurgerLab?

So, on a fine Saturday, we arrived at 5pm, right on time when the shop just opened. Stood in line, waited for our turn. I was kind of shy to take photos, thus the amount of photos is just sad lol...

And here's a photo of my black burger! XD

 

【Hatsune Miku】Kohakuiro no Kaze 琥珀色の風【Romanized Lyrics】

Music/Lyrics : Rerulili (mylist/16274546)

Illustrations : 5-gatsubyou Mario (mylist/6918587), Ichinose Yukino (http://p.tl/m/1661253)

Video : Maki no Sena (mylist/27603195)

Mastering : Kagome-P (mylist/13631314)

It has been a long while since my last lyrics post...and well, Rerulili uploaded a super nice song..I just...T^T Graduation song, reminds me of Sakura no Ame by Halyosy. Dammit, ninja cutting onions..Well, enjoy the song!

Lyrics after the jump!