有惊无险

On a one fine day, as usual, I woke up at 745am, got ready and had my bfast..the usual, porridge with century egg, bread with butter and a glass of orange juice (FYI, this has been my bfast for the past 5 weeks!!!) at 830am, we walked to our office which is 10 mins away…cool breeze, nice air, with what seems like a million ppl passing by at the subway stations. As usual, we passed by the shopping mall, crossed the roads, heard the music played before a train was passing by, passed by veggie store, liquor store, family mart and headed into an expensive area of apartment…after 10 mins, we were in front of the office where we could see a few “bold” sakura tree…wind softly brushed your face…I love winter, I love the weather…

After we arrived the meeting room, I took our usual seat and set up our laptop and started to work diligently (ya, and I meant it!!! ^^) after x hrs of work, suddenly we felt like the building was being run over by a giant truck…it shaked..well..a bit but you could feel that something was shaking it….some of us still didn’t know wat happened, but I shouted, earthquake!!! I expected my colleagues to duck under the table…surprisingly, none of them moved…after a little while, the FC came to open our door, she said they have to leave the door open for emergency (ooohh..only after tat everyone started to panic…wat if the building collapsed?) suddenly, this reminded me of the time when I was sent to Singapore in the beginning of last year. One afternoon, I felt really bad shake in Singapore and I tot it must be a small earthquake..when I was watching the news on tv tat night, I just realized that Indonesia had a really bad earthquake where a lot of ppl died, and Malaysia felt the shake too…

Earthquake Information (Information about Seismic Intensity at each site)Issued at 01:39 JST 25 Mar 2008 Occurred at (JST) 01:34 JST 25 Mar 2008 Latitude(degree): 34.1N Longitude(degree): 135.2E Depth: 10km Magnitude: 2.7 *No Tsunami threat by this earthquake.

乌龙传

Last night, we had a bottle of red wine for dinner as all of us were having Japanese beef (no, it's not kobe beef （AKA 神户牛肉）, it's japanese beef called 和风黑牛肉)...Finally, after 5 weeks in Japan, we are going bek this friday (honestly, im not sure if i should feel happy or sad as i'm in love with Japan....真是百感交集啊。。。）anyway, let's not get out of topic...

There were 7 of us altogether and we had two tables merged together....coincidentally, one side of the table was filled by drinkers and the other non drinker...we ordered a bottle of french red wine recommended by our Jap colleague...it was quite good...with nice grape smell, nice grape taste and sweet after taste (well, i would think red wine tasted like grape..hahaha...DUH)... The drinkers finished a few glasses of wine with no sign of drinking on their faces .....whereas the other side, only one sip taken made them looked like they had taken the whole bottle...they were redtill they looked like they were gonna explode (聚血）^^Hahahaha...

I made a comments tat I don turn red even after x bottles of wine and i was wondering why i have such poor blood circulation...is it because im not healthy? then one of my colleagues were nice enough to tell me that i'm not abnormal, it's just that my skin may be thicked...真是哭笑不得。。。and he said it's the same for him too...haha..now i feel better ^^

After the dinner, everyone felt "high" and happy and some even sleepy...but we still have to take train back to our hotel...so we bot our tickets, crossed the gate and took the nearest escalator...eventhough i was feeling happy, at the time of taking the nearer escalator, i still asked myself, why did we use a further escalotor the last time we were here? i didnt ask the question out loud as we were following the jap colleague, a native in the country...oh well, he shld know better than me...we were so excited that we forgot that our jap colleague just had 3 glasses of wine poured by me...haha...when we got to the platform, we saw the train waiting and we just ran and hopped in...so now we were safely in the trunk chatting while another colleague of mine who had two glasses of red wine kept checking if we were on the right train...as for me, i just knew the direction was correct coz i remember that we took from the train from same direction as well...but after careful scruntinisation from my colleague, at the last min, he found out that we were in the wrong train but it was already too late ...4 of us were stucked in the train and were on our way to another station (luckily that the train stopped at every station...in japan, some trains are express and they only stop at certain stations) we kept laughing in the train..saying that our jap colleague must be already drunk..after x mins of "makan angin", we took another train bek to the station where we came from...my Jap colelague ran towards us and hopped in the train while we were gonna get off..he said this is the right train..we said no no and dragged him out..it turned out that that train was going back to the direction we came from...ie...still the wrong direction...haha..we kept teasing him..it was fun though..oh well, to be fair to him la, he wasnt drunk ..he was just not paying attention...

Mount Mitake - 去后的感想

On saturday, my colleagues and I decided to try something different...i suggested to go mountain climbing in Japan since we all couldnt get accommodation in kyoto and osaka in order to get out of tokyo....i have searched from the internet tat mt mitake is an amazingly beautiful place...and it's 2 hrs away from tokyo city....on saturday morning, i woke up at 650am, had a simple bfast and headed to the train station with my colleagues....it was such a long ride to the mt, so we figured we must leave earlier....after x mins in the train, we realised we were "out-of-map" and we headed into wat seems like the "village" in japan...oooohh...it was such a nice view...after 4 weeks of high rise buildings, we were finally in doraemon like neighbourhood....and we even saw mt fuji during our train ride...wat a beautiful scenery :) even the train station looked very different..it was peaceful and looked like one of those train stations in the movie...suddenly, i started imagining a gal sitting in the train, looking out the window while a guy chases after her in the train station *day dreaming* (see below pic to see if you will feel wat i felt ^^)

On the train, we saw alot of old folks in their mt climbing gear..only 3 of us were in casual wear...hhmm..suddenly we were worried tat we were not fully prepared for the challenge...at the same time, we were wondering if mt climbing in japan is old-folks' activity..hhmm...but still, we were hopeful of the mountain view in japan...afterall, all of us have seen from the movie and cartoon how beautiful and peaceful such view would be~~~~so after 2 hrs, we arrived at a small town....it was BEeeeaaauuutttiiffuuulll~~~ i took a deep breath after i got out from the train....aaahhh...the fragrant of plum blossom~~~~

We took a bus to the foot of the mountain....we took a cable up to the mid mountain....im pretty sure that the mountain would be much nicer in autumn and spring...in winter, everything is just dead...but still the view was magnificent...see below:

We "walked" thru the forest, thru the shrine, up the stairs, down the hill...there were a lot of houses, restaurants around....it was such a nice feeling to be in this place after such long period of busy buzy cosmopolitan life....all we could hear was birds chirping...aaahhh...and for one moment, i thought i am in one of those walt disney cartoons where the birds sing to you~~~

we walked and walked and walked...wanted to grab lunch but we saw the sign pointing towards the places we wanted to go....they were places i saw from the internet....We all agreed that since we are already half way, why not we just venture fwd and eat lunch later....so we walked and walked...the path was getting harder and harder as it wasnt stone-path...it was just made up of dead leaves, mud, rocks and tree trunks...now this is wat i called hiking!!!! we walked for 20 mins and we found the place we were looking for~~~天狗岩 (rock of heaven dog)...and we were so disappointed coz it was just...well....a rock!!!! at this point, my stomach was growling for food...but i ignored....coz we were in the middle of nowhere....

Just standing in front of the rock, we saw another sign, pointing downwards....ooohh..very steep oh....it said "nanaya waterfall, 5 mins"...so we all thought, wat the heck..since we are here already, might as well go and see wat it is...so we climbed downhill to check it out....it was a tough climb and i have to say, it was more than 5 mins k? anyway, during our climb, we were so excited as we heard the sound of water...ooh, gosh, this must be a very nice waterfall...and when we arrived...it turned out to be a mini waterfall...well, it was nice though :) there, we saw a few "ah pek" having picnic there...and we just couldnt help feeling even more hungry~~~~

after a painful climb up to the rock, i was exhausted and hungry...and yet, we saw another sign pointing towards the place we wanted to go....rock garden...saw from the internet tat it's a nice place...so we were in dilemma again...to go or not to go...the place would take 40 mins walk and if we go bek and come bek, it would take longer...again, we decided to chuck our hunger away and venture towards...so we walked and walked and walked...the place felt like one of those scenes from the kung fu movies....nice place....

after 15 mins of walk, we came across a T junction...the sign pointing to all sorts of directions but none mentioned the place we wanted to go...one pointed 20 mins and the other 110 mins....and we werent sure if it would be the correct direction..at this point..all of us were too hungry to make decision, so we decided to go back...oh dear...it was a long way to come this far, i couldnt imagine myself walking back...i wish i had the doraemon door..and my mind couldnt stop thinking abt the bbq beef tat we had the other night....so we all voted to go bek...by the time we arrived a restaurant, it was 1 hr++ later....i was so starved tat i could just eat a few cows...oh man...honestly, the lunch i had that day, eventhough it was simple, it was the most delicious lunch of my life~~~see below

this was my chicken and egg rice....yum...i ate until there was nothing left...and tat night, we went for bbq beef and the next day, i had terrible muscle pain...overall, i really enjoyed the trip...after this trip, we all learned something abt japanese..... whatever they say, try to divide everything by two... they tend to exaggerate.... what is the difference between 步行街 and 步行的天国? the latter gives u an impression that it's like heaven and full of things whereas the earlier tells u tat it's a street...rightt...the 1st one is used in china and the second is used in japan....u know wat i mean? ^^

赏花

this is the 5th week i am in Japan....we always wanted to see cherry blossom, as japan is famous for it, and up till now, cherry blossom is still not yet to be seen as it's still too cold for it....been searching up and down, hi and lo and always ended up disappointed....so today, my colleagues and I stumbled into a surprised...we were on our way for mount climbing and as the train passed outside tokyo...the cosmopolitan feeling is replaced by a relaxing feeling of "village"....we not only see mt FUJI, we also see a lot of colourful patch of forest in the mountain...so after our painful mt climbing, we decided to drop by to see what that is....it turned out to be a plum blossom garden...the town is full of plum blossom and all houses have at least a plum blossom....the garden is so pretty, it's filled with plum blossom....there were ppl picnicking, taking pictures and just walking around :) we were among those who walked around to take pictures...真是人间仙境啊~~~忍不住拍了无数的照片。。。我想赏樱花也大概是如此吧。。。虽然没看到樱花，看梅花我也心满意足了^^

Top picture: a forest of plum blossom; middle and bottom pictures: my photography of a plum blossom and two of the pics that i love :)

frustration

nightmare...just total nightmare!!!! for the past weeks, we all have problem trying to get accommodation in Tokyo, kyoto and osaka...and now history is repeating itself...it's not fun to travel in japan as you have to plan everything way ahead..when i say way ahead, it means way way ahead or you better be prepared to pay large sum of money...it's really not a cheap place..oh dear....because of the lesson we all learned in this trip, we want to avoid history from happening...so we plan WAY ahead for our next trip which is to happen in April!!! there wasnt any improvement at all coz all the hotels are still fully booked )@#$^&U*!!! crap...and guess what, we tried to book a room for one person and surprisingly, they dont accept???!!! they only accept reservation of at least 2 ppl...(FYI, they charge by head at this place), so i, being smart, told my colleague to help me book a room for two person....im willing to pay a room for 2 person while i will stay there by myself as long as there is a room for me....and guess what...they wont accept my reservation???!!! aarrrgggghhh....what the hell....so japan expects u not to travel alone? hmmm....kinda getting tired of it....sigh...what should i do??? stay in tokyo for another 4 weeks??? sigh....

Tokyo Disneyland

Tokyo Disneyland, Here i come~~~it was a nice sunny day, we woke up at 530am to get ready to leave at 6am...my japanese colleague told us that it will take roughly 2 hours to get there...since disneyland opens at 8am, we thought we might just be a little bit "kia su" to arrive earlier to beat the crowd~~~tokyo is nice when it's still earlier, with not much ppl around...and the air is fresh :) we didnt think it was tat crowded until we arrived at the transit station...WOW WOW WOW...where did the crowd come from...??? guess there are more ppl who are more kia su than us...haaaaiiii.....

Ppl lined up outside the park....gosh..it was mountain ppl mountain see (人山人海）...it was funny...there were a lot of ppl wearing disney costumes to disneyland...seriously, do you have to dress up for the rides? do these ppl want to be part of the disney photo taking session? hhmmm...is it more fun to be playing the disney rides in disney costumes so that you feel you are closer to your disney dream? not us...we are the normal bunch...there were ppl in mickey mouse costume, donald duck with the funny tail, aristocat, minnie mouse etc....wah, we felt like we were already in disneyland while waiting outside!!! hahahaha...when they gate was opened (felt more like 落闸放狗 ^^) then we saw the building of our dream~~~well, not actually, have to "run" a bit la...my sis and i ran like little kids all the way to indiana jones roller coaster only to find tat it was closed for maintainance.... !@#$%^& crap....wat a perfect timing..now we were being kia su for nothing!!!

came across this beautiful mini garden outside a restaurant so i had my sister taking picture for me...nice garden, beautiful flowers...i love it....but look below...disaster is coming...my sis is the little devil, trying to destroy my dream garden..hahah..it was funny though..my sis did all the vandalism in the kids' dreams....there are a lot of naughty photos of hers...she is a big bully..she bullied my favourite characters...CHIP　ｎ　ｄａｌｅ～～～

Japanese wedding

went to Meiji Shrine on Saturday....it was a resident of their king before...this is a blessing place i guess coz there were a lot of ppl having wedding ceremonies there....and a lot of ladies in kimonos too....it was a really rare sight...seeing 3 or 4 pairs of couples getting married....hhmm...actually to me, i found the wedding ceremony a bit too quiet and "colourless"...everybody was in black and the bride was in white...they had a parade while all the relatives followed behind them...quietly...dono why ar...i have attended so many weddings, seeing so many weddings, they are mostly noisy...especially the chinese...they make sound and noises soOOoo loud tat the whole world can hear...(I guess that's the purpose ;p)...anyway, the wedding ceremony caught a lot of attention and it was nice...to see it for the 1st time with my eyes...i like the ladies in kimonos...just bring me back to the past....i wish i could be in one too~~~

another weekend in tokyo

After going thru the emotional state last friday (yup, the one i wrote abt last friday), we ended up in tokyo this weekend....again~~~...didnt do much over the weekend, went to a new place with my colleagues...well, the place is quite nice...everything is man-made and like any other cosmopolitan, it's full of shopping malls....and thus, i spent again....im so broke right now....i told myself that i must control, but when u saw their merchandise, u just couldnt control and u had no reason to control...so i ended up with a few bags of things...both big and small....gosh, my luggage is exploding...i need more space...so today, i went to buy an extra bag~~~things here are quite expensive...so today, i didnt buy any clothes...coz they are just too expensive~~~i took pictures of my "achievements" to share with my friends :) here they are:

i got this on saturday at Odaiba....the three little things (see below) are for jenn...she's collecting magnet of different countries for the fridge...now our fridge in kuching is filled with magnets from quite alot of places :) Friends, u know what to get jenn when u go travelling now ^^ got myself a trench coat, a top, a bracelet, 3 magnets, a hair pin and a skirt :) oh dear, now i suddenly feel a bit broke~~~ :(

Close up of my "achievements"...i got myself a bracelet and the thing for the hair...very japanese..i like :)

These are my achievement on sunday...didnt get anything too expensive...got 3 pairs of stockings, an eye mask, a folded bag, 2 eye shadows, a name card holding, some really nice biscuits and a bag organiser for my handbag...this is so clever, now my bag will be tidier :) YAY ^^ some of the things are not visible here...because they are already in my tummy~~~ :p see bottom pic...the middle one is my namecard holder...it's love at first sight..so i must get it ^^ sooo, this is my weekend lo..what's urs?

emotions 2

Emotion emotion emotion..i'm still struggling to control my emotions.....i woke up on a perfect friday, thinking that everything would be perfect as it is a friday...turned out, it rained heavily in the morning...and while walking to office, i saw a crow on a tree...nvm, coz i usually saw crow flying around in australia...so, i still walked in the rain towards office, then i saw a black poodle shitting..oh well..i thought it wouldnt be that bad......it was just a normal working day...and it's weekend after today..yaya ^^ but then, i felt frustrated when my shanghainese colleagues talked to loud in a foreign dialect tat i dont understand...and i felt even more frustrated when i tried to book a hotel in kyoto...thinking that i have spent too much time in tokyo...time to leave this place..BUT....there was no luck in getting any hotel..we had a hard time getting a hotel room in tokyo and we had even harder time gettting hotel in kyoto, osaka and hakone...i called 10++ hotels and they all gave me the same answer...aarrggghhh..wat the!!! i was so angry that all of my anger exploded....within...of coz....so now, i gave up and have decided to stay in tokyo...anyway and go to hakone for day trip~~~

why emotions just flood when u thought like it is supposed to be perfect? why do you feel frustrated eventhough it's just small little matter? while sometimes, it just doesnt bother you at all?

my reflection

was playing w my camera....came up with a modern "poem"...for my hobby..mayb it just rhymes la....la~la~la~

i like taking pictures,

but don like to be in pictures,

i look ugly in pictures,

so i try to act cute in pictures,

hope you enjoy my pictures,

and not think they are ugly pictures.

this is not 哈哈镜.....somehow i have grown...not up but sideways...do you notice?

mood

feel like updating my blog...but the moment im sitting in front of my laptop, with my picture folders open, my mind just go blank...i don't feel inspirational eventhough much has happened over the weekends and for the past weeks....mayb ppl are just full of emotions and moods...one moment, u would feel happy, another u feel down for no reasons at all...my question is, how do ppl control their emotions like what the experts always say? how come i never seem to be able to do that? how come im always controlled by emotions? am i normal?

"I think I'm going somewhere but i'm not moving. I know that everyone gets scared, but I have become what I couldn't be."

guess guess guess

Guess: what has a black square at the bottom and a gold nuggets on top? do you know wat it is? Scroll down to see the answer: it's Asashi brewery factory in japan!!! the building looks weird..it reminds me of something else other than the delicious beer...hhmmm..wonder who the designer is ^^

tokyo under my feet~~~

this is the view from my hotel in shinjuku....i was staying on the 28th floor and i have the whole of tokyo under my feet~~~cool....the view is magnificent....eventhough the room is not that big, but my eyes are big and it makes my heart beat ^^ enjoy the view

nobody's looking?

I like this pic...hehehe....i like the kitty and the shocked look of the puppy....arent they adorable? who says different species cant live together...this is a perfect example of how wrong we always are...not everything is the way we think it is and not everything is the way we think it is not....语无论次~~~ @-@ LY, does this make u "w*t" (hehe...referring to your previous email :p)?

我的战利品

one for me and one for jenn...jenn wants the cherry blossom~~~ this is my favourite....CAT...it's a fridge magnet..i got it from a shop selling totoro stuff..i bot a totoro fridge magnet for my other sis...i'm such a nice sister~~~

work hard or play hard?

was chatting with pz just now...just realised that there are quite a few people who are as "unambitious" as me...we are all tired of our working life and wish to have more time to do the things we like to do....i was on conference call late at night for 2 hrs while pz was at home closing her books and doing claims etc....and we were saying that it would be nice if we could just find a simple job, work for 8 hrs and leave at 5pm sharp and go "lepak" (play) after that.....and pz was saying, if she found a simple job with more time for her, then she could travel around and do whatever she would like...but this would cause another problem....simple job = less income...so, do you want less income or more time?

on the other hand, if u have a complicated job like wat we are doing now...oh well..mayb not that complicated if compare to doctors, nurses, lawyers etc, but complicated enough in the accounting and finance world (sometimes i think accountants tend to make their own lives difficult la)...we have more income but less time and more stress....90% of ladies in our industries are not married but we are independent ^^ (phew, at least something postive)....so u have more money but less time....actually, come to think of it, i sometimes have plenty of time at night if there weren't any conference calls or meetings or OT...but i usually don't spend it wisely...why? because of the followings:

1. i don have many friends because i'm always travelling..the ppl i see the most in my life now are my colleagues....sadly, tat's the truth :( i'm pretty sure that they think the same too...how unfortunate....
2. i spend >80% of my life in a foreign country, 80% of my week in office working, 5% of my time doing conference calls at night, 5% of my time working overtime, 10% of my time for personal activities...there goes my 100%....so, do u think i have any private life? HARDLY....the key to happiness for me now is to make friends with my laptop ^^
3. after 90% of my time working and "talking on the phone", i feel mentally and physically exhausted....just want to fully utilised 80% of my 5% personal time to sleep~~~the key for a productive day is to get enough sleep~~~
4. i'm just an old lady

oh well, i sure hope we have 48 hrs per day with 8 hrs of work hours + 3 plus of OT & meeting and the rest dedicated to eat, sleep, play....just wonder, will our lives still be the same even if we have 48 hrs? i bet "someone" would make us work >16 hrs a day...

we know this is just a wishful thinking..but hey, it's good to have dreams....as per pz "Dreams give us hope and give us strength to continue to live" well said... :)

foodful post

This post is all about food…im turning into garfield…coz all I care now is only F-O-O-D :) I ate so much during my japan trip…initially I thought I could live healthier after coming to japan but I was soOOoo wrong…instead, I ate like there was no tomorrow…sashimi is fresh, variety is great, and most importantly, it’s the wrong mentality, 不吃白不吃…hehehe….:p and the consequence? Growing horizontally…and then the lack of exercise and cold weather are other contributions to growing horizontally~~~ Lunch at canteen was good…for these few days, I had udon, tempura rice, grilled salmon, deep fried pork chop, deep fried fish and squid, miso soup etc for lunch…how can I go on diet like this? i'm a good friend...so let's get fat together....by looking at the pictures, they will make u hungry and eat moreeeeee~~~ "tabemashyo" (transalation: let's eat) this is japanese satay....look yummilicious~~~~ this looks like an ordinary omelete..but when u tear it open, it's noodles~~~:p i don like to write this post at this time..coz it makes my tummy growl~~ this is wat i usually have for dinner....yup..it's just so normal here mah...notice the green thing on the shredder? tat's the real wasabi and u have to grain it urself...surprisingly, it's more spicy than the powder type....we had fun just graining it...hehehe oooohhh..this is my favourite...the cabbage was icy cold on ice..and with different flavoured miso...there were normal miso, peanut miso, pepper miso, chilli miso etc this is my tempura soba....they are expensive but delicious....i love it

Dubai

i went to dubai last weekend...look at the buiding behind me...hehehe...no la..it was a building in yokohama...havent had the chance to find out its real name..but i could trick ppl into thinking that i went to dubai :)

pictures say a thousand words

this is my first weekend in Japan...so must fully utilised it....didnt have anything planned for the weekend in tokyo coz initially, i wanted to go to hakone abut all the rooms are fully booked..so ended up spending in tokyo lo...on weekend, went to yokohama...then today, went sight-seeing around tokyo....it was fun...:) it was such a looOoooong day....am too tired to write abt it...but here are some of the pics i took....im sure pictures say a thousand words....enjoy

• this is the full view of yokohama...it's near the ocean..love the place coz it feels so relaxing and less crowded..felt like i was back in perth :)

• this is the outside of imperial palace of japan...it's huge..and it's humble...the garden is very nice...but somehow, i wonder if the royal family ever spends anytime to walk around there? look so boring unless u have a lot of friends visiting...my friend asked me if i wanna stay in the palace...i stopped for a while and went..."NAHHhhhh"

• just opposite the old looking imperial palace...there's the city of tokyo....hhmm...huge contrast right?
• this is the main entrance of sensijo temple...very grand and very the crowded...inside, i was thrilled with lots of little stalls selling all sorts of food and sourvenirs....and even kimonos....

• this is my work of art...i took this pic at the garden...it's sooOooo pretty...i havent seen any cherry blossom yet..but at least got "mei hua" to see :)

受了伤的人

天使问我手中紧握不放的是什么。我说是寻找梦想的灯火，有时我会失去力量，在艰难的旅途也要骄傲的走过。