Japan! (part one)

Warning: Image intensive!

And so I'm back from a 10-day trip to Japan, which is a really long time away from sunny Singapore. Kinda missed the food here heheh. We went on a tour of northen Honshu, including Nikko, Akita, Sendai, Morioka and Aomori, before going free & easy in Tokyo for 5 days.

The main motive actually was to see the cherry blossoms, but by the time we got to Tokyo most of the sakura trees had shed their petals, while those in the northern areas were still sleeping. Suay man. Anyway, after touching down in Narita airport on Thursday, we met up with the guide and the rest of the group (only 11 people from 3 families including us) and headed off to the hotel to rest.

I caught this in Narita on the first night



On the way to the hotel I saw this Pachinko shop with persuasive catchlines


Kinda subtle eh? The last one's "No pain, no gain". We didn't do much that first night except to have a dinner of deliciously piping hot ramen on a chilly night and explored the small town. There wasn't much life except a few convenience stores and salarymen making their way home.



Their egg yolks are always orangy in colour which I don't know why. Tastes kinda sweet too. Maybe the chickens there get to eat sushi? :/

The next morning we headed off towards Nikko. On the way the bus stopped at a highway pit stop (bladders weren't built to withstand 3 hour journeys) and I found THIS



Marimokkori! Its a new fad in Japan, lots of keychains and stuffed toys of this rather perverted looking green guy. Refer here Marimokkori for more information.

Anyway after arriving in Nikko we had a hotpot lunch before we headed off to see the shrines and temples in Nikko. I never knew the difference between a shrine and a temple - maybe categorised by the religion?



That is a tree bearing paper slips telling your fortune, much like the kind you find in fortune cookies. The Japanese tie slips that foretell bad luck onto trees in the hope that the bad luck goes away. I hope I didn't incur their luck by taking such a close up photo.

Took a long trek through a pine forest where the trees were damn tall. Apparently they cut down the dead trees and use their trunks to construct the temple pillars.



Finally reached the main gates, or torii, of the temple grounds.



This headstone is supposed to protect the families that walk into the temple grounds. I think the 3 spades emblem symbolises one of the 3 powerful shoguns that ruled Japan during the edo period. I remember seeing a lot of those on the hilts of samurai swords and the charms that can be bought from the temple.



These are wooden blocks where you write your wishes onto and then hang it up. I saw wishes written in numerous languages including arabic, tamil, french, korean, chinese and german. Funnily enough, most of the Japanese ones wished for success in exams and love, while the rest wished for general health and happiness.



I dunno what these are for, but they look really nice in this shot XD. I think its some kind of fortune telling thing also, like the type we chinese shake and see the one that drops.



Most of the shrines in the compound didn't allow photographs so I don't have much internal shots. This one is famous though - the 3 monkeys!



Saw a priestess running around the grounds. The clothes she wore reminded me of Motoko from Love Hina and Kikyo from Inuyasha.



Thereafter we visited this lake and a nearby waterfall which looked really majestic, it fell into this valley of sorts which was probably created by the waterfall itself. On the way up the mountains to reach the waterfall the bus we were in had to wind through 20 sharp corners, and 28 corners to get back down. Really tough on the driver.





Before the end of the day we went to an Edo Wonderland, similar to another theme park in Hokkaido. Lots of old houses, with samurai and geishas walking around. We went for this ninja show in which we didn't understand anything, and a comedy performance.
The stars of the ninja show:




This was a water show, in which water sprouted out from every single thing you could find on stage, including the fans and flowers the performers were holding. I suspect hidden water tubes inside those voluminous kimonos.



This guy is a mask switcher, he switched masks in a split second. Was quite shocked when he did it haha.



And finally a row of samurai bidding farewell to everyone who leaves the park. Every single person!

That night at the onsen hotel we wore yukatas to a buffet dinner. We were joined by a huge group of Japanese obasans and ojisans, together with another huge group of university students on an orientation trip. Their orientation is to visit an onsen!?!?! Good life man.



And that concludes the first day. Geez that took up the entire blog space.

Japan! Ikuyo!

I'm flying off to Japan on the 3rd of April! yooshh!

Touring the Sendai region until the 9th, before going down to Tokyo for some free and easy!
Will post lots of pictures and stuff when I get back on the 13th (or even during the trip, if I decide to lug my laptop around)

Finally some respite from the crazy hot and humid weather here. Sakura blooms, here I come!

Manchester United beat Liverpool 3-0!

I'd say Mr. Bennett helped us score those 2 goals in the 2nd half by sending off Mascherano for being a loud mouth. He was really Liverpool's best player, blocking shots and making tackles, if only he could keep his mouth shut.

Update: I'll be going to India this October! The land of the perfect naan and curry! LOL.

Will be supporting Charlie battery for 23 SA's live firing exercise in India. Not exactly looking forward to it, since taking over from Kevin will entail lots of tedious paperwork, anxious standbys, tiring outfield exercises and preparation work. I'd definitely prefer to shake leg in Singapore and wait for ORD, but of course, as boss puts it, "You can't call yourself a gunfitter if you haven't seen the gun fire."

Not that seeing the Pegasus fire will be exhilarating (I heard it looks absolutely hilarious). But working with the Peggys will be one of my motivations for this trip - love their stupid looking, mosquito/tortoise shape. And that coughing engine sound with the rattling exhaust! Really sounds like an ancient motor car. I'll probably laugh throughout my work LOL.

Ok all that crap about motivation is fake. Everyone knows my REAL motivation will be that perfect plate of crisp, yet fluffy, yet abit chao da, authentic naan!

Its been a hazy, tiring week.

I found out the reason for my lethargy throughout last weekend - Woke up early Monday morning to a thermometer reading of 38 degrees, a headache and sore muscles. Talk about having Monday blues =/

Anyway I wasn't feeling THAT bad, so I made my way to camp, albeit in a slight daze. And so throughout the day and the next few days, I pretty much did my work interspersed with bouts of vertigo and wooziness. Thankfully the workload wasn't that high thanks to several feedback sessions with the bosses which I found very fruitful (and somewhat depressing thanks to some "bad" news which I shan't elaborate until everything is confirmed plus chop plus guarantee plus warranty).
Thursday was the worst. Cycled up and down between workshops to fix some stuff which took 3 hours to complete, thanks to limited working space, insanely tight nuts (lol) and loads of spilled, slippery hydraulic oil.

Also had to contend with an aching back since last Wednesday's guard duty. Can't stand up straight or lie down flat without feeling a twinge in my lower back arch. Was contemplating seeing the MO and get a possible downgrade until Eugene said it was probably due to strained muscles. So far so good, haven't felt any pain the whole of today after doing some stretching last night.

Bought Olivia's "A girl meets bossanova" on Wed ^^. Perfect CD to fall asleep to.

Today feels like a Saturday, for some strange reason. I was looking for Weekend Today in the stack of papers piled up on the dining table lol.

Anyway happy Good Friday everyone! Been pretty good so far =)

Olivia Ong @ The Esplanade

Olivia who?

That's some of the responses I got lol. First got to know about her when her "A Girl Meets Bossa Nova" album was released in Japan. I was rather surprised that a Singaporean could actually cut an album in the crazily competitive Japanese market, much less become relatively popular over there.

More about her: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olivia_Ong

Anyway, me and a group of YL peeps went to catch her (FREE!) at the Esplanade for the Mosaic Music Festival. We reached there around 8.30pm, and managed to catch the previous performer, Kathleen Harris, doing a couple of jazzy songs on the piano. Had to squeeze into the crowd (the whole foyer of the Esplanade was practically filled), of which most were there to catch Olivia. Quite obvious really, the moment 9pm arrived there wasn't any more space left to walk.

She started off with a cover of "All out of Love" by Air Supply...


and ended off with an encore piece, the overplayed "Fly Me to The Moon" (though she did it really well)

Check out the bass solo! Throughout the whole performance I found it hard to stop tapping along to the bass lines ^^

-credits to dusty for the vids

In between she sang some of her original songs, and other covers which I couldn't recognise. Her vocals were pretty clear though not fantastic, but her music was really unique and fresh! Her band (the Olivia Ong Quintet - nice band name =.=) deserves credit for that, especially the bassist, who was using an electric cello! Most of her songs were "funked up" and given a jazzy twist, yet still retaining that little bit of pop which definitely made them much easier to appreciate. I liked "Make it together", one of her original songs which was a originally a dance track but she twisted it to fit the whole jazzy theme.

After the encore (which her fans repeatedly shouted for), she was mobbed by people wanting to take photos with her. Looks like she has a pretty large fan-base here! And she's only 22, with at least 3 albums to her name already. That's quite impressive. I'm seriously considering buying her 2 "A Girl Meets Bossa Nova" albums already =)

http://www.youtube.com/abottchen

Even if you're not a fan of Ayumi Hamasaki, you gotta check these guys out - they do piano covers of her songs. And I dare say some of the covers sound better? Or at least much more soothing than her rock-ier songs...

Back to camp for the past few days, quite relieved actually, to see the guys again and do some work on the guns. And to eat canteen food again!!!! Strangely I feel this attachment to the canteens of Khatib Camp and NSDC. Quality aside, its this raw feeling you can't get from sanitized cafes, fast food outlets, restaurants and home-cooked food. Even hawker centres don't evoke the same feeling.

Having received 12 years of education in institutions that operate old-school canteens (think dark, gloomy stall interiors, grimy floors and bird-fecal-matter-stained tables), I naturally feel at home. I still remember how I was probably the only guy in class who actually liked to eat the Indian food in VJC. *snigger*

sigh.

Uncle! Chao fan jia dan! Jia ji rou! Ling karly zhi! Xie xie ah!

IT SHOW!!

The IT Show is here again!!

Which means........ Sim Lim and Funan will be devoid of people! LOL.

I want a new 22" wide screen LCD monitor under $300, which is probably impossible to find unless the guys there are really desperate to get rid of stock on Sunday, the last day of the IT show. And a reasonably priced (i.e below $50) gaming keyboard and mouse. My only hope is that some obscure (Chinese) brand will pop up somewhere selling the above at dirt cheap prices without anyone else noticing. With good quality and reliability to boot.

Just another dream. No offense.

Anyway I won't step inside Suntec unless I really, really have the urge to spend my cash (and fight through a mob of kiasu geeks) just to get a deceptively good bargain.

A-level results are out! Still considering if I should re-apply for the new NTU Engineering + Econs dual core processors. Ok bad joke.

The thing is the additional 1 year for an additional degree in econs, and I don't even get an Honours for the engineering degree. If it were business, which is more practical in this current world economy, I'd have gone for it without hesitation. Or as my dad says, "focus on your Enviro Engi, then take MBA part-time when you get a job!" I think I'll do just that. At least I'll have some breathing space to "enjoy" my 4 years in university. And maybe pursue my rock band dreams at the same time. ^^ Sean and Wes, are u reading this? LOL.

here's an interesting and sobering (though gimicky) site.

http://www.breathingearth.net/

reminds you that the world keeps turning even as we stone in front of the computer.

^ what's that?
Its Chatmonchy's 2nd album - "Seimeiryoku".

What's so special about it?

I FOUND IT IN MUSIC JUNCTION VIVOCITY ROFLWTFLOL.
I don't remember even seeing an AKFG CD (Overseas version) in Singapore, much less Chatmonchy.

Bought it without hesitation of course.
I'll write more about them soon.

Anyway here's the guy who designs AKFG's CD covers - Yusuke Nakamura

He has this funky, distinct style =)

In other news, I (as Kevin puts it) opened my very own Amazon.co.jp box for the first time! Surreal.
Now I have 6 hours (or more) to burn watching 2 DVD concerts by AKFG and 1 by Chatmonchy =)

I've burnt my Sunday, Monday and the whole of today staring at a computer screen trying to stick videos together, and then trying to get them out in one whole piece. Unfortunately an error box always prevents me from doing so.

After a lot of trial and error, I managed to get the final video rendered. And I still don't know how I solved it.

Now it starts to pop up again.

I'd say this over and over again - the computer is meant for entertainment. Not work. I'll never be forced to do work on a computer again (yeah right).

Anyway, the A level results are gonna be released soon I guess? Gotta get in those scholarship applications before the current batch of graduates, armed with their 4As, 3 Distinctions and 2 A1s, flood them providers.

And you'd better reply this time, Mr. PUB and Mr. Sembcorp. Or you'll be missing a great talent. XD

Quote an interview by Excite:

Excite: So as seen in your lyrics, "you look up to the lights in the house; you look at the sad faces reflected in the puddle of water". These little actions by the character (in the song) actually gives the idea of the whole story (to the listener), that is difficult to express in words.
YUI: Also in the lyrics, "I tried saying I'll be fine. But that's not possible." The word "fine" (daijyoubu) is the key word. When someone asks you whether you're fine, the natural reply will be "Yes I'm fine", but when you cool down and think about it, you'll realize that you are actually not. (How can it be possible?) This is what the main character in the story feels. As a detective (the main character in the drama), it's inevitable to feel afraid or uneasy at times, but one always tries to deceive himself by saying he's fine. But the truth is otherwise, isn't it?

Excite: How about you yourself?
YUI: Of course I feel the same way, like everyone else. Taking a couple/ lover as an example, when both of them are parting for one month (say, for work), when the guy asks the girl whether she'll be fine. Her natural reply would be "Yes I'll be fine. Go for your work." Isn't it so?

Excite: Yes, indeed. She'll try to act tough. (to assure her husband/ boyfriend)
YUI: Yes, a phrase that we always use "I'll be fine", "Don't worry about me". It's something that's said too easily.

-Credits to depyon

That's so true, ain't it?

ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION

I was just reading about a forum thread debating the quality of Japanese rock bands out there, when I thought about AKFG. Since I'm kinda bored right now, why not introduce them over here?
Of course with Wikipedia and all that stuff, everything can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_Kung-fu_Generation

I'll just give a (biased) personal review of them =)

Right. ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION, or AKFG, or ajikan (as fans call 'em), is probably one of the more popular indie/alternative rock bands in Japan right now. How did I discover them? Unsurprisingly it was via anime, Full Metal Alchemist to be exact - the song was Rewrite. It wasn't until a few months after hearing that song did I search for more, and discovered 4 albums filled a bunch of alternative, rock, slow-rock and punk rock - styled music. While their style wasn't new, it was a refreshing change from the typical Japanese rock band - low, sexy vocals, fast drum beats, crazy solos, and (most of them) visually appealing.

AKFG has none of those, yet their songs are catchy and unique. Credit goes to songwriter/vocalist/guitarist Gotoh. Compared to other more accomplished vocalists, Gotoh's voice bends towards the raw side, which works well with their high-octave and powerful songs (think Chester Bennington from Linkin Park, though not as screamy). Musically-wise, their star man is drummer Ichiji. Complicated drum patterns dominate their songs, most obviously in Blue Train. Bassist Yamada provides steady, powerful bass-lines, while lead guitarist Kita compliments Gotoh's power chords with rhythmic riffs. While not musically superior compared to other popular bands like L'arc en ciel, they exhibit great chemistry and are great to watch live. Just do a search on YouTube and you'll get what I mean.

I'm just disappointed that I can't get my hands on their CDs and videos in Singapore stores. Which is a pity, considering their album cover arts are bizarre yet stunning.

My favourite playlist of their songs would include these: Rewrite, Kimi to machi Made, Kimi to iu Hana, Loop & Loop, Re:Re, Blue Train, Aru Machi no Junjou, Understand, Powder Snow, Mirai no Kakera and their latest single - Korogaru Iwa, Kimi ni Asa ga Furu.

And I'd like to say one more time - they sound GREAT live.

If I'm feeling bored another day, I'll probably dedicate posts to YUI, chatmonchy and Mika.

*Beep* Nuclear Launch Detected *Beep*

Thats the sound of someone nudging me on msn.

YES!

Custom-made Starcraft sounds for msn messenger!

Now whenever someone signs in I hear "U want a piece of me, boy?"

The possibilities are endless.

Ok enough reminiscing about the good ol' days.

These few days have been enlightening and relieving for me. Even though I feel tired out from all the late nights, its hard to not be in good spirits.

Looking forward to the weekend!

The average human being: "Bugs are dumb, they fly and bang themselves on light bulbs the whole night and drop dead."

The naturalist: "Poor bugs. We humans screwed up their senses by inventing light bulbs (hear that Mr. Edison?) instead of enhancing our night-vision via evolution."

Random musings gleaned from observing dumb moths crash and burn against my fluorescent lamp tube.

Come to think about it, we have devolved (Greymon to Agumon style) in a sense that night blindedness and short-sightedness are becoming increasingly common. What next?

Xin nian kuai le, wan shi ru yi!

Probably the most spoken phrase these past few days.

Well, its the Year of the Rat, so hopefully there'll be lots of rice to eat this year. Remember rat <3 big rice? LOL.

CNY has been rather mixed so far for me. Got to see relatives which I haven't seen for a year, eat delicious food, wake up late for 4 days (cheers for CNY falling on a Thursday!), get ang pow and relax.

On the other hand, I've had to contend with some project to be completed by next week involving Photoshop which I'm still terribly noob at, a pain in my nose probably caused by excessive "heatiness" and an overall lethargy carried forward since guard duty.

Plus the sheer bad choice of movies showing on TV (i.e. the 1st Harry Potter, I Do I Do and Kung Fu Soccer) Oh alright Kung Fu Soccer wasn't that bad, at least it was funny, but its probably been shown a zillion times already.

Where's a Jackie Chan police story when u need one?

Oh well, Happy New Year everyone!

ruido.

Voila, the project I've been working on for the past few weekends! Finally finished recording last night, after a few hours of trying out different solos.

Still not very satisfied though - I found the solo a tad too slow (and simple) to match the upbeat tempo of the song. Oh well, at least it fits =)

Click to play!

or if u wanna hear it over and over again on your computer(LOL), download link here:

RUIDO (instrumental extended ver.)

Somehow I went to sleep last night with sore neck muscles (I don't know how it happened, maybe a combination of a few headers in soccer, weird sleeping positions in the car and some head-banging to Japanese rock songs), and woke up this morning with no neck muscles.

Ok I'm exaggerating here, but I nearly couldn't get up just like how you feel after chionging 40 sit-ups in 1 minute for IPPT.

I need a brace.

fried.

I fried the USB ports on my old Compaq P4 PC this afternoon after a freak accident. I was connecting the USB cable for my external hard drive when a balloon popped up and said something about USB ports not working, then I noticed that my USB-powered mouse couldn't work. That was when I smelt this faint chao da smell.

Oh shit.

Turns out I short-circuited the chipset which controls the USB ports. Which means no more USB connectivity. Luckily, I found a solution over the (what else?) Net - get a PCI card with USB ports! Never knew it existed in the first place. Thankfully it costs below $20, otherwise I'll be wasting the advance CNY pay I received today.

Lesson learnt: Connect all your USB gadgets very carefully! And don't plug them in and out repeatedly like a pair of rabbits in heat - apparently the ports can get fried from the excess, erm, heat.

beefing up time.

Chinese New Year is coming!

As with all festive seasons, I'll be careful with what comes together with all those "Gong Xi Fa Cai" e-mails and greeting cards. Who knows, a bak_kwa.exe might just be the next killer of computers.

Plus with all those reports coming out about super trojans and bugs, its starting to get me uneasy, even with my extra paranoid (by ungeeky standards) security systems in place.

Best 46 Free Utilities

Thats a really useful site, especially if you're tired of paying $60 every year to renew that Norton Anti-virus license. I personally don't like Norton and McAfee, 2 common AV programs that come pre-installed in our PCs. Why pay when you can get better ones for free?

After another revamp of my system(s), it stands like this:
AVG Free Anti-virus 7.5
AVG Anti-spyware Free
Spyware Doctor 5.0 Starter Edition (Free)
Windows Defender (Free with Vista)
COMODO Pro Personal Firewall 3.0

and CCleaner to clear out the crap from my temporary files (thats what the "C" stands for ^^)

As a testament to its prowess, I haven't had a single virus attack (minor one last year, detected and cleaned immediately), and no serious spyware/trojan attacks. Bring on those pineappletart.exe and hongbao.exe buggers!

part2.

^see that lil' bugger? That bugger bit me on the ear today, after I made several attempts on its life. I hope it doesn't come back to me in the form of the D & G fevers. Definitely not Dolce & Gabanna. If I don't blog by the end of this week, you'll know what's become of me. I can probably take some consolation from the fact that my camp is nowhere near Clive St. Which leaves...

Not much consolation huh? Oh yes, and the chance that the bugger didn't go round sucking up to random, sick people.

Anyway to continue where I left off last night... Ah yes, the feeling of being a 1 year soldier. That's what the people "up there" like to call us, but frankly I'd rather think of me being $20 richer every month. Money talks =) Not to mention the coming-soon additional stripe that earns another $50. Of course some people, after attending a certain course (plus that guy who went thailand), will earn much more. *hint* Big Treat *hint*

Saturday started off with the routine soccer game with the CO guys at Bedok reservoir, followed by the customary, refreshing drink of tau hway zhui and a plate of queue-up-to-buy chicken rice.

Went off to SimLim Sq to shop around for an external hard drive to backup the PCs and laptops at home, just in case something disastrous happens. Lugged my acoustic guitar along since I was meeting some YL members after that. Which was a rather bad idea in the crowded tech heaven. In the end, after walking a few rounds up on level 3,4 and 5, I managed to squeeze out with a Western Digital 500GB HDD for $200, which goes for less than 50cents per GB. Space keeps getting cheaper - I remember paying nearly $100 for a 128MB thumbdrive a few years back. And they say we're experiencing inflation. To a geek like me - What inflation?

Rushed off to Bugis to catch a train to go City Hall to meet the YL gang. Bad idea again - this time with extra hard drive package. The crowd at Bugis Street was crazy. I think average speed was 1cm per second. Since I was unfamiliar with alternative routes, I had to plunge in and snailed my way through. All the way I was cringing everytime someone bumped into my guitar, which was nearly every nanosecond. I'm always amused by the Sex Shop in Bugis Street - I can't imagine how people, after a loong day browsing through hordes of shoppers for a bunch of clothes and bags, still have sex on their minds. I personally would treat fresh air as an olfactory orgasm of sorts, and sink into a nice soft sofa instead of under the sheets anytime. Still I could see plenty of teenagers (some probably not even 16 yet) hanging in and around the shop. Prominent meeting place? ("Hey, tomorrow, 2pm, Bugis Sex Shop, ok?")

Finally got to Gelare at Citylink and had some latte while getting to know the YL members who were there. If I remember correctly, DJ, Fanny, sonic, dusty, uchihamel, lamevil and the_chap were there. Great bunch of people, though some were kinda quiet. We were joined by Meron, the" guitar sensei", before heading off to Peninsular Shopping Centre to drool at the guitars. I really love those PRS guitars with the bird fretboard inlays. Santana uses them!!! <3.
Then we went over to Fort Canning Park for a guitaring session where yonghui and gnax joined us.
Pics Here

Dinner at Oasis Taiwan Porridge! Best porridge in Singapore IMO. Too bad they tearing down the building for the Sports Hub. T.T

Sunday was a day to relax. And relax I did, until I forgot to wake up. zzz. XJ came over for lunch (she volunteered to be my mum's CNY dish guinea pig). The experimental dish was this fusion Japanese + Chinese + Vietnamese prawn, asparagus, carrot and pei dan spring roll. Good stuff! Although the century egg tasted rather bland... The chicken probably chao kenged and incubated it for a decade or something.

Helped XJ with her Econs homework and I found myself remembering stuff like opportunity costs, CBA, marginal benefits and whatnot. Plus the not-so-welcoming voice of an infamous VJ econs lecturer ("REVIEW!"). XJ was quite amazed that I managed to conjure up charts from Microsoft Excel - no thanks to that 15-page report writing =P

Uni life seems rather hectic. Wonder what awaits me in 2 years' time...