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Depression
Out of nowhere, you appear and stifle me.
I cannot think, cannot breathe, I can only feel this heavy weight, this constant pressure, suffocating me.
I feel like I am drowning, I feel like another entity has taken over. Pressing me down, pushing, pulling, I am being torn apart.
Go away and leave me alone.
Go away, just go away.
I want to be alone, I need to be alone.
I do not want you around.
And yet, here you stay.
Is there no peace? Is there no relief?
Why do you appear now.
Cruise to nowhere
First time I am on board a cruise ship! Very suaku, I know....
The niece was actually sick the day before and on the way to Harbour Front, she actually threw up in the car. Luckily, a plastic bag was ready and the car need not be cleaned.
After throwing up, she said in the most pitiful voice that she did not want go gai gai (shopping/travelling) anymore. But once she was feeling better, she turned her words around and wanted to go after all.
This is also the first time I saw medicine being force fed to the niece.
Super pitiful lor!
Mum and dad grab her, one pinching her nose and another forcing her mouth open, and then a little syringe of medicine is force fed to her.
All the while, the niece will be crying and shouting that she don't want.
Sigh, little kids that refuse to take medicine.
But she is also quite wily. She will bargain that she will take her medicine at home. But if she's at home, she will bargain to take it at the grandparent's house.
And she is also quite the complainer.
She went to Grandpa and complain that she don't want to take medicine.
When her dad finished her ice cream, she came and complained to me.
Haha. Life with the niece is quite entertaining and very exhausting at times.
I think I was a little seasick on the cruise.
I had this headache that refused to go away on the second day. Jeez, I'm useless.
We watched a couple of shows. One was by the renowned singer Jenny Tseng. Her voice is really good and she can strike a rapport with the audience.
Isaiah was too tired due to lack of sleep the night before and he nodded off halfway.
The little niece saw it and proceeded to shout that "Shu Shu sleeping!"
Luckily the sleeping part was covered by her mum. Unfortunately, she proceeded to try to shout it again for a few more times. Thank goodness the show was ending then.
We also watched a topless show called Love Bites. Well...it's not really good.
I will recommend skipping it unless you like seeing lots of bare breasts.
It is basically a dance story about a vampire and his love interest.
When I tried to get the itinerary for the second day on the cruise ship, I managed to get a crew's copy.
It had names of supervisors, who's doing what schedules and dress code.
The funniest thing was a note at the bottom: Push Topless Show sales. We can do it!!!
I guess that should have been my first indication that the topless show would not be full house.
Overall, the cruise is a relaxing trip with family and it's family that made up the highlights of this trip.
I guess I will not mind going with family but just The Chosen One and I alone? Unlikely.
I would rather spend the money on a trip to Bintan or similar instead. At least there's no casino for The Chosen One to lose more money. :p
Durain in Malaysia
This blog is fast becoming my travel diary....
We had a one day trip to Johor, Malaysia for durains. The verdict is not so good. It's better to pay premium price and enjoy them in Singapore.
The only thing out of normal in our trip was the tour bus ending up in some remote little road which it had no business getting into.
In the end, it couldn't turn into another road due to the narrow little road and drains at side of the road.
I saw local kids grinning at the bus and making the cross sign. Haha, funny little kids.
In the end, the bus reversed all the way back.
We must make a trip back soon for Nando's and seafood.
Japan Part 3 - Tokyo
We took the Shinkansen back to Shinagawa in Tokyo. Our hotel was the Takanawa Hotel, part of the Grand Prince group.
in the same area, they have 3 other hotels : New Takanawa, Sakura Tower and Prince Hotel.
As we were informed that the hotel was a 5 minute walk away, we decided to push our luggages to the hotel.
Note to self: 5 minute = 5 minute sprint without luggage. With luggage, make that a hot and tired journey after 20 minutes.
Even though the weather was cool, poor him was sweating profusely by the time we arrived at the reception.
Luckily, the room was ready and we could go up to the room immediately to refresh ourselves.
Our first day in Tokyo was spent in Shibuya area. After the relative peace of Kyoto and Osaka, we were kind of shocked by the number of people using the trains. We never had any trouble getting seats in Kyoto and Osaka but here, there is so many people!
Thank goodness we have never met the rush hour.
Shibuya is crowded. Very crowded.
The junctions have a system where the pedestrains can cross in all directions at once. All the cars will have to stop and the human traffic will flow.
It's actually quite messy but the locals are used to it.
Almost every restaurant and cafe is filled. You have to wait to be seated. Lucky us managed to find a fruit dessert cafe without a queue and were seated immediately.
10 minutes after our arrival, the cafe was filled.
I managed to get a cardigan in Shibuya 109 but I don't really like 109. It's crowded and small, the shop assistants keep repeating their greetings and it grates on the ears after a while. He couldn't stand it especially because their voices are pitched high and cute but take a good look at the owner of the voices and you will revise the opinion of cute (his thoughts exactly).
Space is a premium so most shopping centres go upwards. The departmental stores here are easily 7-8 stories high.
Before heading back to the hotel to rest, I grabbed some Jill Stuart costmetics and happily trotted back to the hotel for an early night.
Day 6 - Saturday
We headed to the Meiji Shrine today and we managed to catch some brides in their traditional dresses.
we even watched part of the bridal procession.
After choosing some charms, we headed back to the Harajuku Station and walked around the Harajuku area.
We didn't follow our guide and just sort of let our instincts lead us. As usual, we had our cafe stop before continuing our stroll.
We walked into Takeshita-dori Street without realising but it was here that I love it! So many things to buy but I can't buy everything. Sigh....
But this street...is really really crowded. It's shoulder to shoulder and in some parts, we could hardly move.
After emerging from the street, I took a look back and all I see were people, people and more people. Actually, it's really like the Comex situation in Singapore. Except this probably happens every weekend in Harajuku,
I happily bought even more things in Harajuku. Oops.
After Harajuku, we tried to take the JR to Shinjuku but something was wrong at the train station. People seem to be stuck and no one was moving at all. After hanging around 5 minutes, he decided to take a cab instead. Luckily Shinjuku is nearby so our cab fare was not sky high.
We wandered around Takashimaya in Shinjuku and he was not feeling well. His right knee was giving him trouble and he was limping quite badly. So we decided to call it a day after an early dinner and headed back to the hotel.
Day 7 - Sunday
We decided to take it easy today because his knee was still hurting a little. We went back to Harajuku and walked to Omotesando Hills. Luckily, his knee was much better and we took a leisurely stroll as who knows but the Samantha Thavasa store was located all the way at the other end of Omotesando Hills. =__=
I bought a Samantha Thavasa bag! I really like it. It's a cute small white bag. He chose the colour as it seems the bag came in 13 colours.
He decided that white was the cutest and since I already have a pink Miu Miu, I shouldn't get another pink bag.
After that, we tried to find the Burbuerry Blue Label store and we had some help from the Burberry store. After another of our usual cafe stops, we reached the blue label store and window shopped.
The goal here is to get a wallet for Aelynna but I didn't see any satisfactory. The new short wallets had double metal closures for the coin compartment and the other wallet was slightly longer. In the end I decided on the longer one but I only got it 2 days later.
After Omotesando hills, we headed to LaQua. The objective here was Mother Garden. Or more accurately, Shirotan!
LaQua is next to Tokyo Dome and it's an amusement park with a shopping complex attached. The roller coaster was built with it's track curving around the shopping complex and it's actually quite cool. In the shopping complex, you can't hear the roller coaster or screams at all.
I admit, I really had my Shirotan fix here.
I now have Bumble Bee and Pink Strawberry added to my collection.
The sales assistant was asking if the items were gifts and he told her, no, they are all gifts for herself. TMD.
We wandered around the Tokyo Dome and looked at baseball memorabilia. We also had sushi at a restaurant in the Tokyo Dome. After a while, we noticed the crowd increasing and it seems that there was a baseball game. We were proven right when we switched on the TV in the hotel room later that night and there was a baseball game between the Tokyo Giants and Hiroshima Carps.
Too bad the Tokyo Giants lost the game.
Day 8 - Monday
We have been really having a relaxing holiday. We would wake up around 9 and take our own sweet time to leave the hotel. Since both of us are not into clubbing and checking our night life, we were usually back in our hotel after dinner.
But today, both of us were up at 6am. We dragged ourselves up and had breakfast at the hotel bakery at 730am.
By 750am, we were in front of the New Takanawa and waiting for the complimentary shuttle to DisneySea.
We arrived DisneySea bright and early at 830am. That's when we realised that the ticketing booths only opens at 9 and the park only opens at 10. *Faints*
We really did enjoy DisneySea. We took our time, caught a few shows and rides (especially those that did not require much queuing) and slowly walked the whole park.
That's also because we had a lot of time in the park. Our shuttle back to the hotel was at 1005pm.
There was a special show called BravisSEAmo and it's held in the main lake. Its about the love between the spirit of water and spirit of fire. the spirit of water was represented by a fountain on a boat. The spirit of fire was a structure in the water. When it appeared, it slowly rose our of the water, it's a metallic structure that at first looked at Dr Octo in spiderman. When it was fully extended, it looked like a dragon or a hydra. It's really impressive.
The whole show was beautiful and left a very deep impression on us.
We waited for the fireworks at 830pm but due to wind, it was canceled, sigh...no fireworks for us. But BravisSeamo more then made up for it.
And as usual, I overspent at Disney. Sigh....
A funny thing about Disney. As we were walking around, we saw people carrying this bear. It turns out to be called Duffy the explorer bear and is part of the Disney merchandise giant. Some of the bears were plain, while others were dressed up in clothes. There were even slightly smaller versions that were made for hanging off bags.
A lot of teens and kids were carrying the bear.
In the end, he got himself a Duffy bear too as he said, since everyone has one, he must also get one even though he does not know why since this is the Singapore spirit.
Okaye....
By the time we reached the hotel, it was 1040pm. But when we were very near the hotel, the bus encountered an empty parked car in the middle of the road, resulting in it not being able to pass through. The bus was forced to turn around and use an alternative road that was very narrow and I'm sure a tour bus had no business being in. But we still made it back to our hotel.
Day 9 - Tuesday
Our second last day in Japan.
Today we visited Ginza. Actually we were trying to find Burberry Blue Label and we found it in Seibu. The side result was a short tour of the Ginza shopping area.
I finally decided on a wallet for Aelynna which both him and I thought was nice.
After doing the tax refund in Seibu, we took the train to Akihabara.
This area is really like Sim Lim, except it's spread over a few streets. I had fun wandering around the streets and we even found one of the maid cafes in the area.
We had a late lunch at the maid cafe and it was quite an experience. The waitresses were all dressed like french maids and would kneel besides your table. when serving your beverage, they will prepare it for you. If you order milk tea, they will open the small container of milk and stir it into the drink for you.
After serving your food, they will ask you to do a smal chant with them in order the make the food more delicious.
Well, I'm not sure if the chant worked but the food was quite nice.
After the late lunch, I bought some snacks and we headed back to the hotel.
We bought more snacks at the supermarket near Shinagawa train station before taking a cab back to the hotel.
My right leg and lower back were protesting at the nonstop walking and today, they decided to stage a rebellion. So he decided no more walking and back to the hotel to rest.
Since we were leaving tomorrow, I decided to pack the luggage.
My half full luggage miraculously became very full. And that is not including my shirotans.
I suppose since my heavy coat is now in the luggage, it should take up more space but I didn't remember buying so much stuff!
So shirotans will be handcarried which I suppose is allowed. I packed his snacks into my luggage and now, my luggage is so full. And my boots are not in my luggage yet, Arggghhhh!
Day 10 - Wednesday
Today is the day back to Singapore.
One last top at Harajuku and we will be catching the Airport Limo back to Narita Airport.
It was in Harajuku that I spent all my money. Actually, I think I spent some of his too. :p
I bought a pet carrier for Minou!
Now she as a pet carrier I can bring her to the vet for a checkup. :p
It was in this pet carrier that I stuffed my last minute shopping.
The ride to the airport took 90 minutes and we were more then ready to go home to Singapore.
This has been a nice trip and I really love Japan, especially Tokyo and Osaka.
Already, I can feel myself missing Japan and hoping to go back for another holiday in the next couple of years!
Japan Part 2 - Osaka
After locating our hotel in Osaka, we went exploring in the Namba area.
There was a false start where we got lost and could not locate Den Den Town. In the end, we took a very short cab ride to Sogo.
We walked through Shinsaibashi and boy, was it loooong. We did not cover the whole street.
And now I am definitely in love with Samantha Thavasa'a bags. Why must they be so expensive!
After stroling through Shinsaibashi (which took hours together with 2 rest stops), we finally located Den Den Town and walked a small part of it.
He got side tracked by a Game Taito Centre which was basically a games arcade with six levels.
The first level was where all the UFO catchers were. The Japanese are big on UFO catchers. I see them everywhere. Together with Pachinko palours.
Second was arcade games with music theme. Dance Dance Revolution, DJ, drums....
Third level was for normal arcade games like street fighter, etc.
Fourth level and Fifth was for multiplayer/online games.
This is where he got sooooo excited. There were some machines for Gundam. They looked so futuristic, and basically you go into the station (it's like a mini room) and sit down and pilot your Gundam machine. it's first person view and you are really the pilot.
The game cost more then $10 to play. OMG
In the end, he decided not to play. But we did see some people playing and one of them was good.
The last level was for Mahjong. Unlike Hong Kongers who play with each other, Japanese seem to like to play mahjong on arcade machines.
Day 4
Today was spent exploring the Osaka Station area. We wandered around and got lost a little but still managed to find our way back to the Station.
I guess the main highlight would have been Yodobashi Camera.
This is like the Japanese version of Singapore's Sim Lim Square. Actually, it's much bigger and neater.
There is a theme to every floor.
Basement 2 was computer peripherals like ink, paper....
Basement 1 was Computer equipments, Level 1 was handphones and accessories, Level 2 was cameras and videos, Level 3 and 4 were electronic goods like TV and washing machines.
Level 5 was all about gaming, Level 6 and 7 were fashion and Level 8 was restaurants.
We spent a little time exploring and left immediately after lunch. I did toy with the idea of getting a camera, but nothing caught my eye.
We wanted to go visit the floating garden but it was quite a walk away and today was especially cold! There was a moment where I had difficulty walking against the wind.
We scrapped visiting the garden and took the train to Tondabayashi instead.
Tondabayashi is a small town where many old japanese buildings can still be seen. It's located in the suburbs and we had to take the JR train, then switch to the local Kinetsu line in order to reach there.
It's quite weird walking through Tondabayashi because it is a residential area, with preserved buildings side by side with residential buildings. I think some of the preserved buildings were occupied by residents as well but I am not sure.
Walking through the area, you can almost imagine Samurais walking by.
We made our way back to Osaka, hungry and ready for dinner.
Dinner was in a restaurant with a German Pub feel.
The food was great!
The carbonara was really delicious and the roast duck was soooo good. He had a beer, Kirin Lager Beer and I had Cassis Liquor with Orange.
Together, the whole meal cost around S$50. Which was really cheap in our opinion.
With the standard of the food and drinks, we could easily be paying S$100 in Singapore.
We bought some dessert back to the hotel as well.
I don't know how the Japanese make it...but the cakes were melt in your mouth.
Literally.
I usually don't like cakes due to the texture of the cake itself but oh my, I think I can make an exception for Japanese cakes.
Tomorrow, onward to Tokyo!
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Monday, February 22, 2010