Japan Winter 08/09 - New Year Special

Hee, finally got down to writing this 2nd post on Japan trip...Feel like I've had very decent work-life balance the past week, what with movies, tennis and chilling out with dear frens; some of whom I only see on yearly basis... :(

So after some 4 days of snowy adventure, the minshuku gang left the relatively uncrowded countryside and arrived in big-cityish Kyoto some 3 hrs later... Trip was planned such that we would spend New Year's Eve in Kyoto... since we could then witness the new year rituals/ festivities during Japanese New Year (正月 - pronounced as shogatsu). Kyoto was supposed to be MY destination, since I was clearly the most beguiled by guide books (they all hail Kyoto as THE quintessential Japanese destination). But lazy me clearly didn't do as much preparation as I should have, esp given my pre-trip enthusiasm... hee. Nonetheless, we got on fine (I think? ;P), and with the very extensive and tourist-friendly bus network, still managed to visit the key attractions Kyoto was famous for.

Apparently on New Year's Eve in Japan, most temples will ring the temple bell 108 times to "ring in" the new year... Apparently this is to curb the 108 mortal desires, which according to Buddhist belief, torment humankind. To witness this special bell-ringing, we set off at 10 something from our hostel to one of the more famous temples in the vicinity, Chion-in Temple... Unfortunately the buses headed towards our destination were all packed with the new year crowds, so we ended up taking a night stroll towards the temple....

Along the way we sighted hordes of people at the entrance of Yasaka Shrine (a pretty famous shrine in Kyoto)... Well, the original grand plan was to visit the temple and head over to a nearby shrine (the Japanese also have this tradition of visiting a Shinto shrine for new year... the first visit to a shrine for the year is termed 'hatsumode' and I guess it makes practical sense to do the temple ringing/shrine visit together...) Not so surprisingly, we were "immobilised" for a good half hour in the human jam while walking thru Yasaka Shrine and never made it to the temple... And so ended up ushering the new year in the middle of a human jam flanked by Japanese-style pasar malam stalls on both sides... ;)

Lanterns at Yasaka Shrine...

At the shrine, you can browse through a variety of new year merchandise for good fortune/health/warding off evil forces; from protective charms to... "demon-slaying arrows" (hamaya) :P

Or make a new year wish for your loved ones :)

More new year crowds at Fushimi Inari Shrine, late morning on Jan 1st (The one with the impressive tunnel of red torii gates)

This was also my first encounter with the omikuji (fortunes in the Japanese context, similar to what ppl do in Chinese temples here too), and the creepy omikuji machine... which we first chanced upon in a shrine in Takayama. We were curious what the machine does, and so I put in a 100 yen coin to test it out... This at once triggered the Japanese doll (originally positioned towards the fortune-seeker and standing right under the torii gate. she holds like a mini tray, i guess meant for collecting the fortune), who turns back into the temple-looking enclosure at the back.... We simultaneously screamed when that happened... Cos i mean, it was just kinda creepy... haha. When she like 'came out' again, we figured that the machine had run out of fortunes cos her tray was empty and there was nothing for us to 'collect'... Oh well, so no fortune for me. Both S and J were visibly relieved at the absence of any fortune, but somehow I lingered on... feeling a bit cheated... Our conjectures were subsequently confirmed by a staff who came out to put a "no more fortunes for the day" sign across the coin slot minutes after we tried it out...

Stole a shot of a Japanese lady reading her omikuji... I figured it must have been a decent one! We saw many Japanese tying their fortunes after reading them... but had no idea why... After reading up more on omikujis, I realised that there were many varying degrees of good/bad luck... And so you keep your blessings and tie your curses on the structures provided.... Makes sense i guess. Weird to say this, but the curses made a pretty sight... And so I was rather obsessed with them :P More omikuji shots taken at Fushimi Inari Shrine and temple in Asakusa...




Hee, stay tuned for the 3rd instalment of other random pics from my trip.... When I feel hardworking enough again :)

By The Boab Tree

I really like this song from the movie "Australia"... :) And of course, the gorgeous scenery...

p/s: I never knew that the Australian brand "Billabong" actually refers to "a small lake" in Australian English :P

Japan Winter 08/09 - *Snow Monkey Special*

This post is gonna be ALL ABOUT MONKEYS, so be warned! :) Japanese macaques, to be technically correct... Coincidentally, I chanced upon a photo in last Sat's Straits Times with 3 bathing monkeys from the same place-- Jigokudani Monkey Park. Jigokudani apparently means "Hell's Valley", cos the boiling onsen water coupled with surrounding steep valley/cliffs apparently conjure up the image of hell. Well, ironically they were in a most "hellish" place enjoying the most heavenly steam baths in winter...

Our ryokan owner, a pleasant grandfatherish figure by the name of Mr Yumoto, dropped us at the Snow Monkey Park entrance... It was kinda thrilling alighting in the middle of nowhere, cos I had no idea what to expect... And so began the "20-min" hike to see the famed snow monkeys... Well, if you walk as fast as the Japanese. If you dun stop to take pics every 2 min or so... :P

And so the hike continues... Well I suppose technically it was more of a snowy morning walk, cos the terrain was pretty gentle...

After something like 40 min, there were finally some concrete signs of civilisation! I really liked the look of these bright red benches covered by snow...

And the half-frosted Honda motorbike.

Entrance to the monkey park!

The onsen was tucked all the way inside the park, but we began to spot many many monkeys foraging for stuff in the snow almost as soon as we entered...

(Gazes painfully at sky) Why??? Why is it so cold???

Hmmm, he should join the clever guys bobbing in the onsen... :P

The little ones were irresistably cute. They looked like they were wearing brown eskimo suits....

Ah, the debut of my little guy... :) This is my most-photographed dude of the day... And this is one of my fav pics -- where he (I'm assuming it's a he) gazes pensively into the sky...

And checks out his very human-like fingers...

While the three of us were wondering how to get baby snow monkey to look straight into our cams, an ojisan standing (armed with SLR with telezoom) beside me did a brilliantly simple trick... He gathered some snow from the surroundings, shaped them into a tiny snowball and dropped it in front of the little one... It worked...

And the little snowball became his little treasure.... *Heart melts* :P

Little ones aside, there were also king-like figures.... presumably getting onsen massages from the more junior monkeys??? Unfortunately for the poor masseur, this customer doesn't seem too satisfied leh. In fact he looks pretty grumpy and annoyed? :P

A close-up of the red-faced Japanese macaque... Hee, if my experience has piqued your interest in these snow monkeys, you can read more about them on the official website here... There's even a snow monkey webcam... :)

Japan Winter 08/09- Trip highlights!

I'm back from my frosty winter holiday; with blue-blacked legs and terribly achy shoulders... And for once I actually appreciate the weather we have here in Singapore... :P It was refreshing visiting smaller towns nestled in the mountainous central part of Japan; though we eventually still ended up in the hustle and bustle of Kyoto/Tokyo, jostling with new year crowds in temples and shrines. And I made a not unexpected discovery that my spoken Japanese really isn't quite there yet hehe. It was also my first time going into public baths... :P Fatigue and cold-weariness towards end of trip aside, I enjoyed myself very much... Here are some trip highlights, in chronological order, from the four main places I visited -- Yudanaka, Takayama, Kyoto and Tokyo (more like a stopover destination):

Enjoying a snowy sunset amidst a lovely winterscape after a day of skiing; just before our sunset onsen bath in Yudanaka, Nagano Prefecture. (My glove-less fingers were almost frozen though :P)

Sake with tenzaru soba for dinner the same day. Kanpai!!!

In the middle of our supposedly 20 min morning hike to the Jidokudani Monkey Park... hehe, prob took us something like 40 min...

The snowy trees in the hills were a magnificent sight to behold...

Truly a winter wonderland... :)

One of my many many snow monkey pictures that actually turned out decent :)

Erm, snow monkeys getting steamy in the onsen.... ;P

Street food in Takayama-- Nigiri sushi with hida beef on a piece of rice cracker... The sauce created a pretty bloody illusion :P

Breakfast with teddy bears in a teddy bear cafe some 5-min walk from our accommo in Takayama...

Kinkakuji (or Golden Pavilion Temple) - Kyoto

Neatly lined pails I chanced upon in Ryoan-ji, a Zen temple in Kyoto.

A beautiful sunset at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto.

The beginning of thousands of torii gates snaking into the mountains at Fushimi Inari Shrine, Kyoto.

New year deco and swarms of people along shops leading to the Asakusa Temple, Tokyo.

Merry Christmas and Happy 2009!

This is my favorite time of the year... when everything at work winds down, good friends physically present double overnight; and everyone is more or less in a relaxed/ joyous mood. We also had our ERU celebration this afternoon, and coerced sporting boss into doing some seriously funny antics (such as wearing dark angel wings cum halo/ devilish hairband gear, compliments of ph2). The antics were captured on video.... but meant for ERU-sian eyes only. Uploading to Youtube was strictly forbidden :P

Am also leaving for the Land of the Rising Sun in the wee hours of the 26th and really looking forward to a week of frosty adventure with two dear frens :D

And so to all my dear friends who read this blog, have a blessed Christmas; and since I won't be back till next year, here's also wishing all of you lotsa joy and good health for 2009!

The lazy bum has finally attempted to prepare for her trip next Friday...

And so this afternoon I dug up all my "winter wear" :) Though almost everything is from abt 2 years ago, still feel rather excited being able to wear them again! So far have not been able to re-wear nicer long coat, cos forever travelling on tight budget and need to wear 'hardier' 3/4 coat for practical reasons...

Should I be vain and bring 4 scarves for a week...? (Only 3 featured above :P)

Christmas is round the corner...

During lunch we were just about to finish our bought-in lunches at the common table when Eunice walked in with two huge red plastic bags... She had purchased a Christmas tree from one of the HDB shops at a bargain price of $22! And it was a pretty tall tree for $22... While I was finishing up the last bits of my lunch, a very gancheong and excited Eunice began her little project of immediately assembling the tree...

The very inexperienced few of us were rather pathetic in the art of opening up a bunched up Christmas tree, but luckily as more of us returned from lunch ppl started to chip in to help with ERU's first christmas tree (according to Eunice, it's been a long 6 year wait. Though i wonder why had to wait so long... :P) And with the help of everyone, the tree was done up in half an hour! But then somehow the stand not very well built (discriminatorily a few of us joked that cos it was made in China) and so our tree is actually "seng-eh"...

The first thing we put on the tree was this cute furry little star, compliments of Leha. I mean, it isn't a beautiful kinda star, but with its girly eyelashes and red little embroidered mouth, I thought this soft toy star actually felt pretty endearing.

And ta-da! Here's the chapalang ERU Christmas tree... with everyone's random items hanging on it... including recycled decorations and stuff. Think we prob have the most budget-conscious tree around, but oh well, in the end it still looked somewhat decent... :)

Hehe, on a separate note, I am very proud of one of my self-wrapped prezzies. Yesterday I splurged some $20 buying ribbons... (sigh, on hindsight, can almost buy one big christmas tree already...) but I dunno, the lovely satinish ribbons just tugged at my heart and cried out, "Buy me!!!"... and so I gave in....

On kids...

Child rearing in sg seems like a daunting business. Or maybe having kids anywhere is challenging, but just more stressful in sg? While having bunch of in-mid-30s colleagues offers me this 'crystal ball' opportunity to see what I might be doing with my life some ten years down the road, somehow they have been more successful in scaring me of late... :P But when I point out how challenging/ stressful bringing up kids (properly) seem to be, ALL of them insist that the qualitative/emotional benefits of having kids is frequently unquantifiable/ cannot be easily expressed in words, so I only see a lop-sided picture when they commiserate abt the other realities of child-rearing. OK lor... :P

Nonetheless, here are some scary observations made recently:

i) Recently fly started bringing her cute lil fly to HDB child care, arising in increased frequency of contact with her when fly brings her back to office after office hours... I am particularly baffled by why adults, upon seeing NEW kids, usually automatically, quite instantly transform into high-pitched creatures (or maybe my motherly colleagues are an exceptional bunch!). They start to entertain the kid, to make the kid happy and ask the kid all kinds of questions. Well, xt once told me that studies hav shown that kids seem to be able to hear higher-pitched voices more easily... Dunno how true that is. (For one, I know that own boss prob thinks that of mrs boss haha, though recently dun get to witness that much anymore). Anyways back from tiny digression, I feel like I can never feel natural trying to be high-pitched and act their age so that the kid would take to me and play with me... Though I've successfully babysitted kids for an hour or so, do for one whole day, think will die leh.... So deep down I feel very doubtful whether if one day I have kids will they be so disappointed with their stone-stone mummy....

ii) With more colleagues' kids reaching p-sch age, the "in" thing is now parent volunteering. Someone is already considering buying ppty near XXX sch so that in like 3, 4 yrs' time son can go to XXX gd pri sch. Then apparently once you set your target on XXX sch, it's time to offer your valued services! And 2 years in advance is considered 'late'. I mean, everything just seems rather unpalatable. Taking leave to go and wrap library books with fellow parent volunteers REALLY doesn't sound too appealing :( Neither is sitting by sch gate to be "security guard" so that no trespassers enter the sch compounds. I just wonder how impt early childhood education is and impact of the 'gd sch effect' on the kid. Maybe it's all a matter of "face"... But maybe now I say everything unpalatable one day if I have kids I'd do exact same thing. Then again, I seriously hope not, cos I'd really prefer a happy carefree and inquisitive child to a "smart" but stressed out and unhappy one.

Say so much then I think... actually why so scared. Worrying abt something that might not even happen. Hehe, I suppose in meantime I should just treasure fact that I still have luxury of time & freedom to roam and explore the world :D

Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars

As usual, I have super delayed reaction. Just uncovered title of this song and its beautiful lyrics... though very not realistic :P Maybe that's why it's so popular, cos it lets ppl dream about ideal situation... :) But the lead singer seriously needs a haircut.

"Chasing Cars"

We'll do it all
Everything
On our own

We don't need
Anything
Or anyone

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

I don't quite know
How to say
How I feel

Those three words
Are said too much
They're not enough

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Forget what we're told
Before we get too old
Show me a garden that's bursting into life

Let's waste time
Chasing cars
Around our heads

I need your grace
To remind me
To find my own

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Forget what we're told
Before we get too old
Show me a garden that's bursting into life

All that I am
All that I ever was
Is here in your perfect eyes, they're all I can see

I don't know where
Confused about how as well
Just know that these things will never change for us at all

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

And so the book that acted as a convenient prop for my pics last Sat turns out to be an excellent read. It's been a while since I've gotten pretty glued to a non-fiction book on the MRT...

Here's an interesting excerpt in which the author tries to make the point that some seemingly 'natural' beliefs/ ideals are but ultimately mere human constructs... Yet we resigned and sometimes unthinking humans are just apt to accept things as they are, thinking that things are too entrenched, too well founded to be questioned etc....

He quotes from George Bernard Shaw in this alien title called The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism (London, 1928):

You must clear your mind of the fancy with which we all begin as children, that the institutions under which we live are natural, like the weather. They are not. Because they exist everywhere in our little world, we take it for granted that they have always existed and must always exist. That is a dangerous mistake. They are in fact transient makeshifts. Changes that nobody ever believed possible take place in a few generations. Children nowadays believe that to spend nine years at school, to have old-age and widows' pensions, votes for women and short-skirted ladies in Parliament is part of the order of nature and always was and ever will be; but their great grandmothers would have said that anyone who told them that such things were coming was mad -- and that anyone who wanted them to come was wicked.

This para (esp the first half) is pretty inspiring isn't it... I think it makes a lot of sense, but guess it requires quite a bit of 'rowing against the tide' and a thinking and unlazy person to make improvements to the status quo. I hope that I'll always bear this in mind, and that there will always be a little spark in me to want to change things for the better :)

A lovely little package... :)

The botched outing to Marina Barrage...

Sometimes, anything that can go wrong will go wrong. But sometimes that's also what makes life more interesting :P

The random Sat outing began with two 'girls' meeting in the lifeless CBD area for their outing to the newly opened Marina Barrage. The plan was to walk to Marina Bay MRT station after lunch, to take shuttle bus to Marina Barrage. I had no idea how to walk to Marina Bay MRT, except to blindly follow Miss M, who enthusiastically brought along her street directory map. Before the little walking exercise, I was supposed to be introduced to some yummy Taiwan porridge. Unfortunately, the place was closed. So were all the other nice eating places that Miss M wanted to bring me to as alternatives :( Nonetheless, we found a decent Indian eatery along Stanley St and had a pretty satisfying meal of chicken briyani....

Then it started pouring. Well, showers were forecasted for the day but I still harboured some hopes that the skies would clear up by afternoon. Since when I reached CBD area it was only drizzling slightly... So had no choice but to change plans, and hunted down a cafe by the name of 'Geek Terminal'...

After hanging out there for an hour or so we decided to try our luck again! And so we walked all the way back to near the S'pore Conference Hall... Along the way I had a running commentary from the CBD-seasoned Miss M, telling me who owns which building etc. For me, the most memorable building of the day though was this new Ascott Residences building, 'cos the exterior 'tiles' were of this old-fashioned looking/marbly greyish design that looked extremely ugly-- not very befitting of such a premium service apt block leh... :P

Alas, the closest we ever came to the Marina Bay MRT station was a sign which said 'MRT Station 500m away'. Somehow somewhere we made a wrong turn and lost sight of our 1st destination... and found ourselves surrounded by heavy vehicles and cranes... And of course, invited curious stares from amused construction workers...

Looking back at the construction mess we walked into...

So in the end we gave up our little hike to Marina Bay MRT station... Though Miss M subsequently suggested we take MRT from Raffles Place to Marina Bay, somehow all my excitement for the elusive Marina Barrage had evaporated... So we settled for early dinner at another cafe instead. What a productive day :)

But good things still came out of it... I stumbled upon a Christmas tree outside Geek terminal and managed to snap some Christmasy shots from inside the cafe for my own amusement... :)

I think it's really cool how the different christmas lights show up in the picture as little circular 'scales' of colors :)

The book I brought along to read, which ended up only as my prop :)

I like BooksActually very much.

Because it feels like a place set up by book lovers for fellow book lovers. And how the top of its pretty white shelves are lined with antiquish-looking cameras... Every single book on display feels unique and seems to yell out "I offer some precious insights about our complicated world" or... "Let me help you get away from the ultra-utilitarian/practical world you live in". And though it's prob but 20sm big, I can feel like someone/ some bunch of people poured all their heart and souls into it because the whole place is just so nicely and cosily done up. With little endearing things all over.

While browsing in the store today it started raining all of a sudden. And one of the staff actually asked me whether I needed an umbrella when I was about to pay and head out. I didn't need one, but was so tempted to ask if they were going to give me one? (Ok, maybe I was naive and he wanted to sell me one... but I choose to imagine that he was gonna give me a free umbrella :P). I dunno, but such warm personal touch is so lacking in most stores I frequent these days... I miss the little-independent-stores-by-the-street feeling.

Perhaps the sad reality is also that you prob also need loads of $$$ to comfortably live out your little fantasy without worrying about bread and butter issues. These BooksActually ppl certainly look like they threw in a little fortune for the place to materialise. (Maybe that also explains why the stuff in there's not cheap... :P)