Nagano revisted.

Of all the seasons, I like winter the most.

Yes, the cold can be a bitch, but nothing beats skiing down a steep slope. It's not so much the rush of adrenaline that it gives me, but rather the sense of freedom that it provides me when gliding effortlessly on powdery snow. And you don’t even have to consciously move your body...when you are comfortable enough, your body will react on its own. And during that short glide down the slope, my mind is set free...mind as clear as snow.

But 2 years ago was an exception. The ski trip I went was horrible. Not only that there wasn’t enough snow, I was unfortunate enough to fall sick. Had a fever...a really bad one.

I have to say that I love nothing more than skiing...even more than a girl(so much that I'm willing to give up dating my girlfriend just to go ski). Had to wait for almost a year before I could ski again, and when that time comes, my body start burning up...but I wasn't going to let a mere fever stop me!!
When it comes to ski, fever is just a minor inconvenience.

And so I went up the mountain anyway...
Randy, you stupid boy...

Of all the stupid things I've done in my life, this rank the worst.
Felt like I was going to die...well, not exactly die but felt like I was going to faint and cause trouble for a lot o people. But I smarten up a little bit the next day though...rested and took a slow walk around instead.
I left that place completely unsatisfied.


The slope 2 years ago...

Last weekend, I revisited the same place. I was fortunate enough to be invited by my colleagues at TOPY to join their ski trip. It snowed beautifully that day.


The slope THIS year...

I was skiing like a demon; jumping off snow mounts whenever I can, going off course on purpose, skiing as fast as I can while desperately avoiding other people. Oh, I had fun.



And to add sugar and spice, one of my seniors brought along a bunch of Christmas theme costumes. One dressed as Santa, giving presents to ski goers. I was the Christmas tree...they wanted a "tall" full grown tree.









The kids were especially happy to see Santa. There was one cute one who shouted "SANTA...WAIT!!", then rigorously made her way to Santa, smiling as bright as any innocent child could when she got her gift.



I have to say that this was a whole new kind of experience for me...never had I the chance of dressing up as a mascot just to cheer people up. It was very very heart warming. The smile on the kids' face easily made this year one of the best I've ever had.

Btw, I'm going for another ski trip this Saturday...haha.



Merry Christmas folks!!

Ski at Fukushima

Yesterday was a field trip organized especially for foreign students(a.k.a Aliens) in my college who are going to graduate this 14th. It's like a farewell gift for us...well, sort of.

The original plan was to take us Aliens to cultural sites of Japan....something like "Lawatan sambil belajar". Well, It is a good thing to know more about Japanese culture....but I've been here for 3 years! I've seen my share of Shrines and wooden houses with straw mats for flooring.....and I'm bored of it!! Just in case you are wondering about Japanese sub-culture, there was no way the Aliens supervisor was going to take us to the "hanky-panky" girls-in-various-costumes Museum.

So I suggested....

Me : Instead of going to those boring places, why not go for a ski trip?
Aliens supervisor: Hmm...give me 3 reasons why.
Me: One reason is good enough. I want to go.
Aliens supervisor: I said 3 reasons.
Me: Okay, there are no snow in my country. And that makes skiing a part of culture exchange too!
Aliens supervisor: Sigh...alright. Ski it is. to be honest, I wanted to go skiing too!!

And that was it. College trip plans changed. Aliens conquered humans in Japan.

Anyway, for the ski resort, we went to Fukushima, somewhere north of where I am, Ibaraki, which is somewhere north east of Tokyo, which is very very much faraway north east of Kuala Lumpur.

The day started with a 3 hour bus ride to Hotel Listel, the hotel that we stayed at. Didn't occur to me to take photos of the hotel at that time....but I did take some pictures when I'm inside...


View from the hotel room overlooking Lake Inawashiro...

Bunch of 15, 16 year olds....they made a point of avoiding me by standing in the furthest corner and huddling together....typical behavior when facing a predator such as me.


18 year olds. I like the one on the right....made a mistake of telling her she was pretty during my first year in Japan. The term should have been "cute". Damn....

The guys...well, one of them is a girl. Can you guess which?


Seafood pilaf for lunch....if you think that the arrangement of the spoon is weird, that's because it was me who arranged it.


After lunch was the main event. Time to eat fresh snow for dessert. Everyone you see in the picture above are beginners. The ones who have experience was me and Alien supervisor only....but Alien supervisor arranged instructors for them so....yeah, everybody had fun.

Ah....the feel of wind against my face as I glide effortlessly down the mountain. The feel of the ski board straining as I make a tight turn round a corner. The look of frighten small kids as I raced towards them at high speed.... Makes me wish that Malaysia have snow too...

Later that night, there was some illuminations on display in front of the hotel, so I invited the girls out for walks....ehem, invited guys as well but turns out that girls were more sporting than guys....8 girls and 3 guys turned up for the walk. Too bad for the rest of them, I get "the bigger piece of pie" so...good for me.


Santa already preparing for next year's Christmas. This proves how hardworking and efficient Japanese can be.


Plastic Santa was so happy to see me it grew organic limbs!!


Tricked two girls to imprint their body line on the snow.....nah, just kidding, didn't trick them, I just shoved them into the snow and jumped in after taking this picture.


The same two girls now expressing their love for me.....


Had a lot of fun that night...as a matter of fact, I had more fun that night than the ski itself! The girls were so crazy that they infected me with their "youngness" and suddenly I was among them rolling on the snow, running across empty fields, climbing statues...damn, it's good to be young again.

All in all, it was a fun trip although everyone was having too focused on skiing despite the fact that it was a farewell trip for us Aliens who are going to graduate soon....or did they mistook me to be a "Young Alien" instead of "Old Alien going away"? Hmm....don't know if I should be happy or sad with either answer.

Winter 2008 part 3: Ski

>ns29
Nah...they don't have any prejudice against foreigners...it's our way of doing things that's wrong. Personally saw a Japanese group that booked the place 2 hours before the actual event to properly do the preparations. And Japs always end parties/functions in time....and Japanese don't linger around after parties to take photos. Unlike Malaysians who always like to linger to chat, take photos...not lifting a finger to help those were clearing the place....

>stevelee
Here you go...



>Kelly
You've been to UK with Clement....you tell me....
When you see or experience something beautiful, don't you wanna share it with someone special?....I guess it was my fault for walking into a romantic place with 4 guys...

>chong shen
Yeah....I do what I can here to stay happy. If only girls in Aussie wore mini skirt all year round...haha. Planning to be back in August...you back then?

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Just like all winter holidays, I joined a ski trip to Nagano(somewhere in Japan). This trip, joined by 40+ people, was organized by Ki Lian Chuan(gave her a nickname, "Mom")...a rather fierce girl with a matching face to go along. Tried to take her picture once, but she was so fierce that my hands shook so bad I couldn't press the shutter. She more or less assumed the role of a strict mother throughout the trip. By strict mother I mean...
Laying down rules when we got into the bus. Rules are as follows...
1. No making noise in the bus
2. To go to toilet when the bus makes a stop.
3. No leaving rubbish in the bus
4. To give her our phone numbers so that she can get us when it's nap time.

Laying down rules when we got to the ski resort...
1. To only get the ski equipment when told to and NOT to move on our own accord.... I actually got a frown and nagging for going on my own to get my ski set.
2. To group together and ALL (40+ people) head to the slopes together like one big happy family(with a strict mom tagging along)
3. Instructed us on where to place our ski sets while waiting for the rest to arrive...

Laying down more rules at the party later that night....
*I was absent as I was sick that day. Too bad.....but I was pretty sure she laid down some rules.


Mom's the third girl from left...

Sincerely, I was grateful towards her for organising this trip but does she have to be that strict on us? Come on....relax!! This is a trip where we ARE SUPPOSE TO have fun. I know that you are the organizer and it's hard controlling a group this large...but then again, the youngest in the group is 20 years old. We don't exactly run around wildly and scream when we don't get our cup of orange juice.

Anyways, ski was.....crap. The worst ski trip ever. It's not Mom's fault though....just look at the pic.


God damn global warming.....gonna start recycling tomorrow.

The pic above should explain everything. What the hell are those patches of grass doing? They are not due till 3 months later! There's too little snow to have fun skiing!!!
Even at the top, the snow is just...terrible. Instead of powder snow, we had hard ice and wet snow. Although the wet snow is perfect for making snow balls that can crack skulls(powder snow makes softer snowball that dissipates on contact, wet snow makes good weapon), but there wasn't anyone that I particularly hate so....waste of wet snow.

But I did have fun skiing at fast speed. There was a course at the top where the slopes are steep and the surface is hard ice. As the following formula explains...

Steep slopes + Hard ice surface = Grinning Randy going down the slope REAL fast...

Don't really have anything else to write here so let's look at some pics...


Snow covered picturesque.....gets me every time.


See the top of the mountain that's partially covered by clouds? That's where the "Grinning Randy" formula worked....


Line of newbies getting ready to try out the snowboards....can't help but laugh at them newbies when they fall.



View from atop a chair lift....


These two guys stole oranges from a girl later that night...poor girl almost cried


View down a not so steep slope...

Actually, we spent a total 3 days (28~30th Dec) there. Those pictures that you saw was taken on the first day. Didn't really take that many pics as I had an unexpected visitor the afternoon of the first day.
Guess who came to visit me? My old buddy Influenza!! He brought along his friends Flu, Fever and Cough as well. We had lunch together, then we spent the entire evening together. Had so much fun that I went to sleep early that day....missing the party later that night. Damn friends.

Anyways, fell sick on the first day....but I've been wanting to ski for so long that I kept it secret from Mom and played anyway. My body lasted till afternoon that day.... Being a crazy person I am, I went to the top of the mountain the very next day despite feeling a little weak and coughing occasionally. What a Bad mistake that was...I suffered from 3rd day onwards all the way through 2008.

Things I would do to ski down a mountain....

Nagano 3: Jack, Jill and Randy went up a hill. One came tumbling down..who?

Okay...Kelly's right, i can't keep writing old stuff....but it's not like i wanted to write old stuff ya know. I was seriously busy with this and that...mainly studies. I did quite badly for my last, so, in order to ensure myself a ticket back, I had to put in some effort. You see, if i do badly again, i have to stay back here and have a retest....

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My previous entry was a bout what a good job we did, making M'sia famous...with a not so "friendly" way, but Hey!...whatever goes to get the job done right???

Anyways, snow....hmm...let me give you a better description of it. To me....snow is like God's suffering a serious dandruff problem and He just have a knack at shaking em' off at this time of the year. You see this white flakes falling down from the sky just like dandruff flakes falling off a non-Pantene consumer. The only difference is that snow flakes don't smell and we don't have fun throwing dandruff at each other.
Snow....it's actually a real nuisance ya know, they block traffic, they block trains, they kill...yeah, plenty of cases where snow piled on the roof just come sliding down and next thing you know, you're all naked and you have a pair of wings with a glowing ring above the head.

Otherwise, snow is great. Since everything is white, you get an impression that the place is very very clean. No dirt, no rubbish...all concealed under dandruff-from-sky. Here's a few pic for your pleasure...











And of course...I went snow boarding. That itself made me 13.67% cooler than any of you out there. You can dress up like a supermodel and all, and i'll just come and say "hey! ever done snow boarding?? No? haha....you dare call yourself a person??"....nah...just kidding yo....but seriously, snow boarding is cool!! Actually...to be precise, boarding isn't cool for the first day. All I did was climb up the slope then roll all the way down....climb up again, and tumble all the way down again...Sigh...such embarrassment. There were chair lifts but us P.I.Cs figured that it'd be a waste of money since we are beginners and resorted to climbing. But thank g.....no, thank my parents they gave me this …umm… this…dunno what to call it but by the second day, I managed to slide all the way down without falling even once. And at mid-day second day, I was already a speed demon.

*no pic of me snow boarding...I was the cameraman....and as skilled as i am, I can't take pic of myself while i board....I did take a video though..*








That was the time where I felt the true pleasure of snow boarding….the effortless gliding….free to go any direction I want to…it was like the whole slope was meant for me…free….like a bird….
But too bad I’m not a bird and I don’t have a 360 degree vision. I keep crashing with chics around me. I was like sliding with my body sideways when this chic comes from behind me and WHAM!! Next thing I know, I was seeing all white and I’m drooling like a retard…. Damn those amateurs….ehem….I mentioned chic because the only guy I crashed with was P.I.C Jeremy. The others were all jap chics looking for a good time. The truth…is out there….du DU du Du du duuu…..


And so ends my wonderful winter holidays….there’s more to it (We went Disneyland!! did my New year countdown there....don't know whether can call it countdown but what the heck..) but scared Kelly might mengamuk…and when she does…she tweets up a loooong tweety blog to torture any readers who tweets by her site…and that includes me.

Nagano 2 : Misdirected hostility

Okay, gotta apologised again for blogging a late entry. Just came back from yet another trip. Too busy having fun...

Anyways, for this blog, it's about how us M'sians men 'sia sui' kan M'sia's name by accidently commiting 3 misdirected hostilites...may be a bit long but interesting-ness guaranteed.

Chapter 1:
Scene: Night when I reached the Backpackers inn
Time: 0030

Owner: I want to explain about the kitchen rules here, can someone come with me please?
P.I.Cs: Randy, you go la....with that mafia headgear, he might give you free food!
CRAPPED!!: Sigh....okay,okay...

At the Kitchen....

Owner: Here, you can cook anything you want but please clean up afterwards. Please don't leave it like this frying pan here, I wonder who used this. And about food, you can have anything here that's marked "FREE" with black marker, like these peanut butter and margarine. Please don't mistaken with "OWNER" or "NAO (Owner's wife)" . That's ours.

CRAPPED!!: Okay, understood. I'll let them know....thank you and goodnight.
Owner: Goodnight, hope you get good rest.

Next morning at the kitchen...

P.I.C Jeremy: Morning Randy...
CRAPPED!!: Morning...breakfast??
P.I.C Jeremy: So, what can eat and what cannot eat??
CRAPPED!!: Uhh....from what I heard yesterday, he said the ones "marked" means can eat....
P.I.C Jeremy: You sure?? Sure ah?? then i'm frying the eggs...okay right? it's marked "NAO"
CRAPPED!!: Yeah, why not...I think so...maybe....uhh...maybe....
P.I.C Jeremy: SURE OR NOT??
CRAPPED!!: Yeah yeah, sure....say, can fry one for me, thanx.

And so he opened a new packed of eggs, fried them. I saw an english guy sliced some bread .... I went on to slice some for myself and Jeremy. We later had breakfast at the common hall, adjoining to the kitchen. At that time, P.I.C Fook Hee was helping himself with an egg as well....happily frying it when Nao, owner's wife walked in the kitchen and opened the fridge reaching for the eggs....her new and shiny pack of eggs, carefully decorated with her name "NAO". Me and Jeremy, both noticing her, tensed up a bit when....

Nao: Eh?
(Looking around here and there...then counting very slowly...)
Nao: 1..... 2... 3... 4... 5...6...
(Looked around again furiously, then counted again, this time using her finger.)
Nao: 1..... 2... 3... 4... 5...6...
(She looked around again. This time noticing P.I.C Fook hee frying an egg...happily. Guess what fook hee did in response? He smiled.....smiled at her and said "good morning" in a cheerful voice.....)

Sensing the situation, I immediately rushed to the kitchen and apologized to her. Damn it was scary...since she had that "garang" look, I apologized profusely, saying i made a mistake and promosing to replace them. She must be super mad cause' she didn't utter a single word....hell, she didn't even blink!! Sigh....know what?? turned out that the bread wasn't free as well. It belong to that english guy. Worse, I sliced the bread in front of him!!

Can't blame me right?? I-I was tired and sleepy that night before...and I was never a good listener at "taklimat" .


Chapter 2.
Scene: After a tiring day of snowboarding, P.I.C wanted to have a nice hot shower...
Time: Evening

P.I.C have been waiting to use the bathroom for almost an hour...couldn't be patient anymore, he asked around and one of the "ang mo kau" said that it might be his friend Jerry. Take note that he said "might"....So, Jeremy, being impatient went to the bathroom which is downstairs...

P.I.C Jeremy: (Irritated voice) Excuse me, Jerry? Can you hurry up please??
From inside the bathroom: Okay...okay.....
P.I.C Jeremy waited for another few minutes....couldn't be any more patient than that,
P.I.C Jeremy: Excuse me! Oi! Hurry Up PLEASE!!

Then, Jeremy's prayers was answered by the sound of bathroom door unlocking....and guess who came out?? The Owner and his wife!! P.I.C Jeremy had apparently done a very good job at asking the two owners of the place to "hurry up" while they were having their own private (and intimate) time in the bathroom. Sigggghhh.....Jeremy, jeremy.....congratz la....

Chapter 3

Scene: At the driveway.
Time: Evening.

Remember the egg incident? Well, in case you don't.....OH MY GOD!! You should see a doctor or a psychitriast...get help!!! Ehem.....Anyway, i said i will replace the four eggs i stole from her. Not those "eggs" ya...just normal chicken eggs. So...

CRAPPED!!: Excuse me Mr. Owner, uhh...do you know where can i buy eggs??
Owner: (with a smile) Yea, you can get them from Jusco. I'll give you guys a lift there later okay?
CRAPPED!!: Sure, thanks a lot. I appreciate it.

And he drove us 4 fellas all the way to Jusco, which is about 10 minutes away...just to buy a pack of eggs. Don't make sense right? Wasting petrol on a freezing night just to buy a pack of eggs. Sigh....*malu*...*malu*....


I think from now on, M'sia will be blacklisted d....bet we'll be labeled as "Egg robber"....hahaha...funny, we come all the way to Japan only to curi telur ayam!!

Nagano 1 : snow....Snow...Snow!!.....SNOW!!!!!

Foreword:
I feel soo good today I suddenly feel like writing my blog again. Why is that? well, I think i did quite well for my final papers just now...YEAH!! I feel good...nah nah nah nah nah nah nah...



Okay, I'll pick up my story from the braided part. After surprising my P.I.Cs with my hair and getting a dozen bitter and sour comments from them...(as a matter of fact, I've never get any good ones from them before...) . We slept at the Malaysian student house in Tokyo, city that never sleeps. I was sooooo unfortunate to be placed beside J.C. He pulled the blanket all to himself I've to get myself another one from the closet. Ceh, selfish)%!#"##&%

Next morning, we made our way north to a place called Nagano. For those who don't know what kind of place dear Randy chosen, it's where they had Winter Olympics. Anyway, the journey there was ...umm...how should i say it? painfully wonderful? horrible but exciting? Hmm....the story's like this. We get to enjoy the scenery as we took our 12 hour journey north, it was brick and glass...then changing to greeneries....and then a sea of snow that streches as far as eye can see. Wow....I....I just can't excatly describe what i felt when i first saw snow....just...wow. Forgetting my cool (braided my hair, had to pretend i'm a cold-blooded killer)...I started jumping up and down in the train while pointing outside the window, shouting "SNOW!! OH MY GOD!! SNOW!!!" .....well, not exactly jumping up and down (are you kidding? I'm not a bunny, I'm a freaking cold-blooded killer!) ... but just staring outside the whole time without even blinking my eyes once. The shouting was true though.

As nice as snow looks like, it's never good to have snow on the train tracks...especially when I'm travelling on it. We stopped for about an hour at almost each station. But can't say that was a bad thing also....when the train stops, we get to play snow! Okay, snow feels like....just like the ABC without syrup, soft and cold. Well, for a moment we were all enjoying snow with our bare hands....you know, all peace and tranquil.....until a snowball flew across the delicate atmosphere and landed on "I forgotten who" ....shattering all peace and tranquility the moment it struck "I forgotten who" . SNOW FIGHT!!!!! And then we were there, throwing snow at each other, until the train master had to blow the whistle at us...oops, time to hop on the train. Hmm...when the next stop again??

The actual plan was reach nagano by 6 that evening...but we instead reached at 11.30 at night. Can't say I was pissed at the delay cos' I was having soooo much fun throwing snow at J.C. anyway, at the station, we had the Backpacker's Inn fellas to pick us up with a van. No....not because we're manja...although we had the very manja Sze Ting, but that's not the point. It was late and bus service's over. We reached the backpackers at 12 something after travelling through 3 meter high snow walls...actually, not snow walls, just that it snowed so much that they had to pave a road! Funny, I felt like I'm a lab mice, going through a maze, just no cheese at the exit.

Oh, before I end, I had to comment on the female P.I.C in our group, Chin Sze Ting. On the train, she was the most energetic of all, with energy rivalling the Bunny from Energizer. She was like "Wei...don't sleep early tonight larr....why not we play Chor Tai Ti...or build snow man...or just snow fight lar hor...you guys don't sleep har!!!" Well, easier said than done, she was snoring like a pig in the van. And when we reached the inn, she was mumbling and grumbling how tired she was and that she would sleep without having a shower 1st. The bomb was when I told her she had to put on the sheets 1st...hah hah hah...man, you should have seen her face!!

And being the leader of the group, elected because of my hair I suppose, went to receive "taklimat" from the owner...on rules concerning food in the kitchen. Well, I was dead tired from travelling the whole day, so, did Randy paid enough attention?? or didn't he......


PS: Have to apologize for no pics....my pics is with J.C...