Family trip to Japan (Part 1)

My family came to Japan to visit me and tour at the same time a few weeks ago. The trip went smoothly and we had lots of fun. They started at the hot & humid southern part of Japan, Amami-oshima, and ended at the dry & cool Hokkaido. Here are some pictures & stories on it.

Day 1 (19/6) – Amami-oshima

Afternoon arrival on the little island after a 6.5hrs international flight + 2 hrs domestic flight. Glad they managed to find their way here coz they had to take an hour’s bus to get to domestic airport. We rented a mini-bus to fetch them. They were surprisingly awake & energetic, so we did a little tour around the island. And went shopping too!

In the late afternoon we brought them to our place for a look before sending them to their pension hotel facing the sea. It’s a small pension run by an over-enthusiastic aunty who lived in S’pore for a year, 20 years ago.

Dinner was a BBQ feast at the pension. I loved the sausage attached to a bone. My dad was happiest with the big fresh scallop. Look at the happy & greedy faces!

Day 2 (20/6) – Kagoshima

In the morning we took some pic outside the pension before heading off to more sightseeing spots, shopping & lunch. The weather was great, sea was beautiful. To them, it's like going to a resort holiday. Except that their resort was a haunted one. Apparently in the middle of the night, in my mum & sister's room, they heard someone knocking repeatedly at the door (but they didn't open). They also heard sound of stones dropping on the roof and water gushing sounds somewhere. Only in the morning did they realise there's a graveyard less than a minute's walk away.

Lunch was at the famous chicken rice restaurant, Hisakura, where we had chicken rice (actually it's rice put in chicken soup & topped with shredded chicken & other veg), chicken sashimi, skewered grilled chicken, grilled pig trotters. My family ate chicken sashimi for the 1st time. It's probably their last coz they were quite disgusted by it.

After lunch we went to the airport to catch a flight to Kagoshima. After tea-time at Teru's parent's home, we did some supermarket food shopping before resting in the hotel.

Day 3 (21/6) – Kagoshima / Sakurajima

This morning we went to see the famous live volcano, Sakurajima. Nearby we enjoyed free hotspring for legs. Very relaxing to soak our legs in the hotspring and enjoy the scenery around.

After the hotspring we had a buffet lunch with Teru's relatives at a hill-top restaurant that overlooks the city. Then we went shopping for the rest of the day. Actually I'd say we went on a "Burberry blue/black label" hunting trip coz my siblings were on a mission to buy bags! We also bought lots of clothes at Uniqlo, our favorite clothes chain in Japan. It's like the old Giordano prices. A nice polo-tee costs about S$30. A spaghetti top is about S$10.

Day4 (22/6) – Kagoshima / Ibusuki

This was a fun day out to Ibusuki, 2 hrs drive away from Kagoshima. After driving through a foggy mountain track, we reached the land of sand baths. Dressed in a yukata, we proceeded to the sand spa area to be buried with black sand that has been soaked in hotspring waters. Now we know how it feels to be buried alive. It's recommended that we do not be buried for more than 15mins as we might end up with burns on our skin. Read about the history & benefits here coz i'm too lazy to write. Heehee.

Next we went to eat my favorite somen nagashi (素麺)! It's refreshing to eat it on a hot day. Catching the noodles in flowing spring water was fun too.

The grilled rainbow trout was very tasty. And we tried koi sashimi as well. Very crunchy flesh without any fishy smell. Dad loved it until he heard it's KOI fish, then he stopped eating. You see, he has koi fish at home. Eating his pets? Hehehe ;P

As Teru had to catch an evening flight back to Amami, he dropped us off at the hotel in the late afternoon. We did some shopping then bought dinner at a nearby supermarket. As most supermarkets offer up to 50% discount on cooked food after 8pm, we waited around the area till time. It's quite a funny sight, the 5 of us spilt into 2 teams. One team at basement waiting for discounted sashimi, another team at level 1 waiting for discounted cooked food. It's worth the wait. Look at the spread that cost less than S$50. We ate at our hotel's cafe area where they kindly allowed us to use their microwave to heat up the food.

After a hearty meal, we went back to pack our things & sleep coz we're flying to Hokkaido the next day! Excited!! Look out for part 2 of this post (^-^).

Wii or no wii?

The craze is now Wii for many people. I'm not well-informed on this craze, except knowing that it's a TV game? Just plug the console to the TV and you're ready to play games alone or with friends. Popular ones are Wii sports where you can play sports by holding on to the remote controller. I've never tried it but those who've done so claimed it feels very real.

I'm not a games person. But now I'm toying with the idea of getting one for Japan. Why? Coz I need to lose weight!! No swimming pools nearby my Japan home. Dun like jogging around neighborhood & having to greet every other idiot that passes by. So the best is exercise at home. Without any gym equipment, i guess the best motivation is Wii? There's a Wii-Fit that has aerobics, jogging, yoga & strength training. Sounds good?

However at a cost of min. S$600, I had better think through carefully....

And if the neighboring monkeys don't have the game at home, my home might end up as a playground for them. NIGHTMARE!!!

Food!!

With 2 days left before my trip to Japan, my cravings for all the sinful local food increases. As Japanese food is boring & I'm unable to cook yummy local fare due to lack of skills & ingredients, friends have joked that I'm on a "3-months fasting trip" to Japan. And each time when I'm back, I'll probably be like "a hungry ghost". Arrghh.....I already feel so homesick now!

I want to eat all of the below before Friday:

1) Wantan Mee (ketchup version)
2) Fried beehoon with fried chicken wings + cabbage + otah with nasi lemak chili
3) Goreng Pisang + Fried greenbean + Fried sweet potato + Fried chempedak
4) Youtiao + butterfly

Hmm.....actually not many items lah. That's because I've satisfied the following cravings over the past 2 weeks:

1) Char Kway Teow
2) Roti Prata
3) Century Egg porridge
4) BBQ Stingray
5) BBQ Chicken wings
6) Satay
7) Rojak
8) Popiah
9) Yam cake
10) Fried fish noodle soup
11) Soya beancurd + soya bean drink
12) Char Siu Bao
13) Egg tarts
14) Tutu
15) Ma lai gao

After listing the above, I start craving for almost all the 15 items again, especially Char Siu Bao. Must be after hearing my friends talk about how expensive it is in Japan (3 standard sized ones for S$10!!), my mind keeps thinking about it. Ate it at RedStar dimsum restaurant yesterday but not yummy leh. Must go buy from crystal jade tdy/tml! *drool*

Days of rotting

I've rotted away at home for the past 2 months. At the beginning I would reflect on weekends what I've done for the week to see if I've spent my free time wisely. I believed I spent it rather meaningfully the first few weeks. I went to the library to read & enjoy the air-con, borrowed books to read at home, watched movies, went swimming, posed at cafes with a book & a drink, met up with friends to eat & bitch, played the piano. However after a while, I began to be bored with the above activities.

The hot weather made me lazy to go out, so that meant less trips to the library in the day. And I cut down on swimming so that i won't get ugly swimsuit tan lines & dry skin + dry hair. As makan sessions increase with friends, i cut down on personal cafe posing time. Too much kopi & snacks liao! I still watch movies, but how many movies can you watch when there aren't many nice movies available? The last one I watched was "Made of Honor". Quite a nice romantic comedy but too predictable. Playing the piano? Need to have the mood to play piano leh, which i obviously didn't have! heehee

So after a few weeks of meaningful activities, my days were spent rotting at home. I would wake up at 9am, have my breakfast, read newspapers and go back to sleep at 10am. Wake up by 12pm, watch tv, surf net and prob take an afternoon nap. Or go out walk walk window shop before meeting friends for dinner followed by kopi/supper. With activities like that, it's no wonder that I've piled on almost 2kg in 2 mths!

And now I've a new craze --> watching dramas online! I've always watched dramas online. From Jap to Korean to Taiwanese dramas. But my craze stopped sometime in Feb when I ran out of dramas to watch. Now it's on again! I'm following 3 on-going dramas still showing in Japan/HK.

(1) Absolute Boyfriend / Zettai Kareshi (Japan)
Romantic comedy with eye-candy for the ladies! The male lead is very cute! It's about a robot "made-to-order" according to what the female lead wants in an ideal boyfriend. She treats him like a robot, he truly loves her (coz he's been programmed to!) and her boss falls for her too. Love triangle. Can't wait to watch the end!

(2) Last Friends (Japan)
Another drama about love, but this time it touches on more serious issues like domestic violence & gender-identity crisis. Feels like a sad drama. It was quite interesting initially but it's beginning to feel a little draggy. Superb performances by 2 of the leads, especially the psycho boyfriend who beats up his gf.

(3) Forensic Heroes II (HongKong)
Police drama. A bit like CSI. Starring Frankie Lam, Bobby Au Yeung & my favorite Charmaine Sheh! I enjoyed watching Part I of the series. So really looked forward to Part II. However so far the cases they've solved aren't that exciting. Hope it gets better.

It drives me nuts to chase after on-going dramas. But it's good also otherwise I'd probably just sit in front of my computer the whole day to complete the drama!

Haiz, 1 week left to nuah & rot away in S'pore. After that will be more rotting in a foreign land. Think I'll go crazy at the rate I'm wasting my life away......

Dermatofibroma

2 weeks ago, after much nagging from my parents, I went to see a doctor regarding a small little growth on my knee. It isn't painful (unless I go and pinch it) nor itchy. Its position is such that when i'm in shorts/berms/short skirts, it's obvious. Some friends thot it's an insect bite. In dim lighting, I've had someone mistaking it for a peanut!

It's been there for more than a year and really, I'm not bothered by it. But my family are concerned that it might turn cancerous. So I finally went to see the doctor on 13/5 who told me it's "Dermatofibroma", a harmless skin growth. I can leave it alone or remove it. I know my parents will ask me to remove it, so I removed it that day under local anesthesia. That marked the start of 2 weeks of "no seafood, no yam & no soy sauce based food". Down with a sore throat & cough, that meant no chicken as well. I had nothing much to eat that 2 weeks, making me very miserable!

3 days ago I went to remove the stitches. Doctor said I'm ok liao. Wound healing well. I hope it wouldn't leave an ugly scar and in 3 weeks' time it'll be completely healed so that i can go hotspring! Meanwhile I'll go eat to my heart's content!