家族 (kazoku) : family

Chinese New Year together.
That's all that matters.

*smiles*

A Japanese Summer: Chapter Two (iii)

So after breakfast, we left our little cosy homestay and head off to the Zoo. The trip to the zoo was a last minute plan that we decided the day before after spotting posters and cute polar bear biscuits sold around the train station.

It was because of this that we got the chance to ride the bus.

Yup. In comparison to the fast pace bullet train and subways, etc, the bus was a ride that takes you back to the old-fashion way of doing stuff. So what's the difference with the bus system in Japan? For one, we board the bus from the rear door and exit through the front door. Hah! But this is also dependent on the area you are. Generally it works this way everywhere in Japan except in Tokyo, I think. And we only pay the bus fare when we were about to get off the bus. There is an informative digital board in front telling you how much your ride will cost and since our stop was the last, it was pretty easy to guess how much ours were.

And so we arrived

to Asahiyama Zoo

Right at the entrance! There we were taking each other's picture one at a time. The dilemma! When two kind Japanese ladies offered to help us out. *click* And in return, we help them take a picture of them together, too. Hey, you scratch our back we scratch yours. Thank you!

I assure you there's more to this post than animals. *smiles*

One of the two best attraction of the zoo. Being up north in Hokkaido, it's the best place to have penguins around and this is one pretty fellow don't you think?

Cool dude from another angle. Hehehe..

Must lah take a picture of me being there to prove prove a bit right.

(^_^)V

Isn't this just totally kawaii?? It's summer so I guess it's pretty hot for the penguins. Nothing beats a cool bath in the middle of a hot day, neh?

In fact, it was so hot that all the animals in the zoo were pretty much lazing around. -.-;;

Except for maybe this guy? Hahaha..

And I caught some arse-scratching action followed by making out session on video. I must say, I think I got potential for Animal Planet! XD

While we were at the monkey section, there was an announcement going on about a show and the crowd was shuffling in. Of course we were just as eagered, so we went over and keh poh. Mana tau the great performance all the Japanese were waiting for was Orang Utan!!

Vin & Cub: *in unison* Ceh!

HAHAHAHA!

And we walked off. Time is precious! Precious!

Thirsty? Have your pick!

The rest area was located up a little hill. Yup, you choose to either walk up the slope or queue for the shuttle ride. We queued, along with all the obachans and ojichans. *embarassed* But at least we stand throughout the journey up and let the seats all filled by the elders. Come on, we got another whole week of walking, we could do without the hill climbing right now.

We got lunch up there. Dearest Mogmog lunch box.

Someone tell me why the word "terrace" is there?

*shrugs*

Inside of Mogmog. We got 2 Onigiri (Rice Balls), 2 Ebi Tempura (Prawn), Chikin (Chicken), Tamago (Eggy) and Umeboshi (sour plum that we both left untouched XD).

*there you go, some Japanese lessons while you read this post*

Oh ya, we ate out on the bench somewhere in the middle of the little hill. The trees were pretty there. Kinda autumn-ish feel neh?

This post's header picture was taken here. *hearts*

By the way, random Japanese people can be so much more amusing than the animals in the zoo. Believe me, you.

Who goes to the zoo dressed like that? WHO?!?

You should see how she walked. Very kesian her.

Vin asked: Say, who got the fluffier hair? ^^;;

Duckie answers: Umm... Lion head on the left?

HAHAHA. Okay, am evil doing that. Sorry sorry! *bows and apologies*

Oh, here we were in the interaction area, a place meant for little kids to play with the animals. The duckies here were one-of-a-kind, they laughed at you. HAHAHA... it's really amazing as you watch little kids trying to touch the ducks and in return the ducks splash water all over and laugh right back at you with a "hak hak hak" kinda laugh. Whoever said duckies go Quack obviously haven't met Asahiyama Duckies!

Cute stinky furballs for you to touchies.

The Toilet Sign are total cuteness!

Bunny for the girls

.

.

.

and Bear Bear for the boys!

.

.

.

And and Kangaroo Mama for the babies!

*Cuteness 100%*

>.<

Beh tahan!

Meet Cub the Seal?

And her friend, Vin the Seal.

Jelly Jelly. Amusing yet geli.


LAST BUT NOT LEAST...

Jeng Jeng Jeng!

Polar Bear-san!

This video is a must watch! Full credit goes out to dearest Cub and her superb camera else we won't have gotten such a great view of Polar Bear-san amidst the insane crowd.

Sunset from our hotel room's balcony.

Our hotel. Dearest Toyoko-inn.

Toyoko-inn is a hotel chain all over Japan. Anywhere you are, you can almost get yourself a room at Toyoko. Furthermore, every hotel is located within walking distance from a train station. Got one fully booked? No worries. Chances are there is another Toyoko nearby just a few stations away. The best part about it is bookings are done online without any pre-payment. *at least at our time of travel* How cool is that? And the staff there speaks English. A Definite Plus Point! Rates are affordable and you'll get a complimentary breakfast and some branches even offer free dinner. How do I know that?Because we stayed over 3 different Toyokos throughout our journey, from Hokkaido down to Kyoto. Meals may be simple with curry rice for dinner and onigiri for breakfast but if you're on a budget like us, Toyoko-inn is the choice!

I'm totally promoting Toyoko-inn right here. So remember this link if you ever plan your own trip to Japan: http://www.toyoko-inn.com/eng/

Oh and if you're a fellow Internet addict. Computers with internet connection are available at the lobby area for your usage. A mere 15 minutes of mail access can take away the addiction. HAHAHA... and it's useful for transfering insanely thousands of photos we took every day to our thumbdrives and such.

Hotel Chain Toyoko Inn - Vin & Cub's Choice!

*phew*

That's done.

*******************

So we stepped out of our hotel room and head out to the train station.

Again?!?

That's because the biggest shopping complexes are usually connected to all the main train station. And Sapporo Station has lots of hustle and bustle going on with designated areas for food, clothes and just random shopping!

Gosh. You even find a radio station located inside the train station!

And Indian Food! *snickers*

Or cute bakeries.

And I got myself an issue of Myojo here!

*Jap mag. Jap mag* XD

Curi take picture of people buying their train ticket. =P

Outside the train station. Told you it was big!

Way bigger than KL Sentral. x_x

And then we called it a night with a can of classic Sapporo beer which we never finished.

Next up: Back to Tokyo to meet the great Thunder Gate

Previously on "A Japanese Summer" *hahaha*

A Japanese Summer: Prologue

A Japanese Summer: Chapter One (i) Arriving in Japan

A Japanese Summer: Chapter One (ii) A Day Out in Tokyo

A Japanese Summer: Chapter Two (i) Hokkaido Saikou!

A Japanese Summer: Chapter Two (ii) Off to the Farm

Happy Chinese New Year!

Gong xi fa cai!
I'm off to get my share of ang pows and of course in return spread all good blessings to these wonderful people. If you're reading this, you're one of them too. :-)

That's my first ang pow of the day, of the year. From dad of course. :-) yup, am in the car right now heading to my grandparents place. Lol. Does this made this a live teleblog or something? Hehe..

Alright, dad's pretty bored driving alone so I'm off to bug him now. Once again, 恭喜发财!

Happy New Year

A New year, a new entry with my new phone.
Hah. Indeed where have I've been the past month.

Blowing bubbles!

NOT! I rather call it reminiscing childhood memories. Lol.

I'll attempt a post again if this works out. Totally cool.

Edit: It did work out. Except the picture appeared right at the top since I can't do formating from my phone. And it cost me RM5.00 to post this up. Too expensive for a post. It's the biggy file size from the photoz. Did one with only text earlier and that cost me under RM1.00. Gosh, how I wish my phone got Wifi. That will double the coolness of this post. And my edit turned out longer than the actual post. I really need to blog soon.

Of Internet and Crows

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

ABOUT CROWS
by John Ciardi

The old crow is getting slow;
the young crow is not.
Of what the young crow does not know,
the old crow knows a lot.

At knowing things, the old crow is still
the young crow’s master.
What does the old crow not know?
How to go faster.

The young crow flies above, below, and rings
around the slow old crow.
What does the fast young crow not know?
WHERE TO GO.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Stumbled upon this while surfing for web 2.0 in the office. Loved it! *hearts* In fact, I hearts it so much that even the lazy me is determined to "pen" this down to remember it in the future.

Oh! And in case you're interested, I read this here:
Moving Towards Web 2.0 in K-12 Education

Though you got to read till way down to get to the good part. Then again, you can just skip and scroll. But I'll say that's knowledge goes to waste, such a shame. In other words, R-E-A-D!

Through Thick and Thin

Just before he left for a meeting, Mr Cool out of nowhere...

"Through thick and thin."

"Huh?"

"Thick is good or thin is good?"

"Woot?"

*inner thoughts begin*
The thicker the dough the more the money mah, right?
So thick is good.

"So?"

"Not too sure. I check I check"

Aiyo... so money-face punya answer I paiseh wanna say lah.

Better check to confirm.

*click click*

After a series of googling, I came to... NOTHING! Some said, thin is bad cause thin is always associated to bad stuff, such as walking on thin ice. Thick is solid therefore thick is good. Then there this association towards horse riding. DOT! Thick woods = bad and thin is good. While the straightforward definition reads "including both good times and bad times" taken from thefreedictionary.

Howlah? Mr Cool will sure ask for an answer upon his return. So I did the next best thing for him, which I believe is good blogging material at the same time. Win-Win Situation. For me. For him.

*started looking around for potential "victims"*

Victim No.1:

Team Partner aka the A.D. aka Cik Datang

Vin: You know what "through thick and thin" means right?
Cik Datang: Uhuh.

Vin: Through good times and bad times mah hoh.
Cik Datang: Yaya!

Vin: So thick is good or thin is good?
Cik Datang: Thick is good.

Vin: *Yay* Why?
Cik Datang: Because thick more money mah...


DOT! I forgot we click so well for a reason. Too Alike! =.=''


Vin: *pif* Money-minded!
Cik Datang: Yamah!!
Vin: *sheepishly* Ya... same here! Same answer. Same reason.


And that was followed by lots of laughter. HAHAHAHA....

*******

Victim No.2:
The English Educated DTP aka Ms Serenity

*same intro as above* You get the idea...

Vin: So thick is good or thin is good?
Ms Serenity: Thin is good.

Vin & Cik Datang who is now just as eagered: W-H-Y?
Ms Serenity: Thick is hard. Thick is Kesusahan. Thin is... Kebahagiaan.. hahahaha....

Vin & Cik Datang: =.='''

*******

Victim No.3:
The My-Hands-Must-Be-Clean A.E.

*same intro* This time through the intercom.

Vin: So thick is good or thin is good?
Mr Clean Hands: Thin is good.

Vin: Why?
Mr Clean Hands: Thick very hard to penetrate.

Vin to Cik Datang yang kepoh: He say thick hard to penetrate woh...
Cik Datang: Huh? Penetrate? Wall ah? Why go through thick wall? Got door to use...

Vin: HAHAHAHA....

*******

Victim No.4:
The Everyone loves to hate A.E. aka Mr Skimmer

Vin: Thick good or thin good?
Mr Skimmer: Thick good lah!

Vin & Cik Datang: o_O W-H-Y?
Mr Skimmer: Cause thin is bad. Walking on thin line...

Vin to Cik Datang: Same gang woh?
Cik Datang: I don't want to be same gang with him.

HAHAHA... that's how much we love to hate him. Mr Skimmer Dude.

*******

So I went on and asked a few more people and when Mr Cool came back, I gave him my report.

Vin: Aiyoh... no specific wan lah... it's just good times and bad times mah.
Mr Cool: Oh... one is good and one is bad ah? I thought it's more like one is like normal bad and the other is worst.

Vin: W-H-A-T??!!!

What's ですよ。

No Work Today, It's SA-TUR-DAY!

Yup. No work today. No work on Saturdays.
No more 3 hours of travelling for 4 hours of working. <- That maths never did add up correctly, no matter how hard I try to rationalise it.

Then again.
No more Saturday breakfast get-togethers.
No more Saturday lunch adventures.
No more Saturday shoppings or window shoppings for that matter.
Saturdays are now declared FREE... and probably a little lonely.