Winter 2008 part 4: New year and Disney Sea

>stevelee
Yeah, you put it on the table, said it was Cheong's...then you ate it!! You did warn us....but you shouldn't eat it after warning us. That's like telling Adam not to eat the apple....

>Chong Shen
Wow....most of you guys have started working and I'm still a "student". Damn...I feel so left out. You'd probably say that student's life is the best...but after 16 years of staring at the blackboard smelling chalk, I have had enough!

>calvin
Well, yes and no...Mom was strict during the ski trip but she's ok on other times. Quite fun to talk to as a matter of fact. And yes, it's an annual thing...someone always step up to organize this kind of trip. Make sure to join us next year!!
By the way, I number people in my pic cos'....you wouldn't know them even if I mentioned names right??

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For me, 2008 started out with a sneeze followed by a cough. Then a few occasional shiver as my fever acts up(I had influenza, remember)? The year have not been that nice to me. Probably 2008's a shy guy...guess I'll have to work hard for him to warm up to me.

In Japan, they celebrate New Year by going to the shrine....you know, offer prayers hoping to get rich, get girls, those sort of typical wishes. Another tradition they have here is eating "Toshikoshi Soba(年越しそば）"　which means eating "New Year Noodles"......just like us Chinese always do with "Longlevity Noodles" during Chinese New Year. And, as sick as I was...I didn't want to miss out so.....


Empty boxes of instant noodles...eating instant noodles rather than normal noodles means that happiness/luck will come to me faster than everyone else.

Anyway, I've manage to get better and join a group of exchange students to Disney Sea!! There an old saying.....pictures are worth a thousand words......and i know that you'd rather see a few pictures that read a few thousand of my craps. So here it is...


Lining up to go in Disney Sea. This pic was taken 30 minutes before opening time...yes, people love Disney that much.


The surroundings near the gate...the olden-days-style buildings were very realistic. If not for my futuristic video camera, I'll be completely be back in time.


I later found out that these old buildings are actually hotels. Not too high class looking but cost hell-a-lot money to stay in them.


Wouldn't call it Disney Sea if they don't have a sea...


A volcanic mountain. It's actually from a ride called Journey to the center of the Earth. Your ride comes out from inside of the volcano. Only steam comes out during day time...but by night time, the volcano rumbles and a blasts out a HUGE fireball!! Cool...


The ride is full of cheesy fake plants and fake animals...only the volcano thing is good.


Aww......soooo cute. Makes me want to take a picture with Daisy Duck.


And that's what I did. Almost made me look cute standing beside Daisy right?


Some random picture of the road. It's really a nice place...


Close up picture of the new ride "Tower Of Terror". An elevator inside takes you to the top floor then free falls...


A crashed elevator door. I manage to miraculously survive the first crash to ride a second time.


Place where the half tuna lives....um, I meant mermaids....


Triton...the mermaid king who likes abusing dolphins.


No, they don't have a mosque in Disney Sea. Mickey is not Islam....It's actually Aladdin's place.


Once again, not a mosque. Look closely...mosque don't have carousels in them.


You could almost believe that this was Iraq during the better days...


This was from a ride that does the 360° turn....check out the stairs, they manage to set the water on fire. A cool effect but do not smell pleasant at all.


Taken from the Indiana Jones ride....apparently, plenty of people died to get to this ride. I know Tae Kwon Do...so, no one dared to mess with me...wah ha ha ha...


The group I went with.
The standing ones, from left:
Bird from Cuckoo land. Works part time for Disney.
Cute girl from China. Haven't been to Hong Kong's Disney before...
Guy from Switzerland. Doesn't carry the Swiss army knife.
Guy from Spain. Had straight hair but grew into two big ears...
Girl from Germany. VERY afraid of roller coasters...
Bird from Mexico. Shook hands with Colonel KFC once...

The squating ones, from left:
Guy from Malaysia. Spends a lot of time with cute girl from China.
Girl from India. This one don't smell like curry powder...
Japanese. The prettiest girl in the group....she have the nicest smile...captures my heart each time she smiles for the camera.


Another group photo during lunch break. I started by placing my camera on the table and setting the timer. 11 cameras followed suit afterwards....


Evening view of the bay.....


Picture by night time. It's more beautiful than it looks.


I forgot what this is...


The globe with the train station as background. A very pretty view...

Disney Sea was a fun experience. The most memorable moment I had was when I went to take picture with Ariel, the redhead mermaid. Couldn't post the pic yet cos' it was taken with a different camera and I'm yet to receive it. Having watch "The little mermaid" all the time when I was a kid, it was really a memorable moment getting to see Ariel. Especially when she flapped her tail as a welcome....totally priceless....such fantasy-come-true moment almost made me mad. Will try to post the pic of Ariel in the near future....

So there you go.....the end of my Winter Holidays. It was unfortunate that my holidays was interrupted with influenza....gawd damn flu....

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....

Winter 2008 part 2: Christmas

>ns29
Well, yeah....it was Malaysian Night after all. Had to have something to do with Malaysia right? And we couldn't just make do with "students performance".....if you get what I mean.

>ceddy
Heyss....thanks for reading up my blog. You are one of the few rare ones who actually visits after hearing it from me.

>mayC
Wah wah....you protecting Old Big....do I smell something going on here? It's okay if you wanna say out loud that you think he's handsome...

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So...how was Christmas? Bet many of you went out to look at them beautiful decorations...or spent your time with your love ones. As for me...I started mine with an apology.

In my previous blog, I mentioned that we had problems with Malaysian Night. Well, the problem was garbage disposal. You see, the way they do it in Japan is that you have to bring whatever rubbish you have with you when you leave their premise. Like, we have to bring back ALL of the rubbish from Malaysian Night.....which is impossible, right? I mean, we all came from far away so, what the hell do you expect us to do by not allowing us to throw it at your place? We paid to use your hall you know...

Anyway, instead of just throwing it at some back alley like we Malaysians always do, we politely asked the building management(guards at the lower floors) about where can we throw the rubbish....and they directed us to the service elevators that leads to the garbage disposal area. Problem is, the hall and the rest of the building operate on different management. And those b*stards(guards) had to phone up to the hall managers and demanded why they(hall managers) didn't instruct us about the service elevators. And the hall managers were pissed off about it cause he told us to bring the garbage home.....and they have got the nerve to demand that we show up the next day to apologize!!

Not wanting to leave any bad impression (status is now sour impression....not bad yet), I decided to accompany the organizer to apologize. And so we showed up the next day....10 minutes late (we ARE Malaysians after all). Also, before going in, the organizer(Lee Boon Hon) had to bring with him a bottle of Coke....it was a leftover from last night party. In case you were wondering what the hell was he thinking bring a bottle of coke(it was half filled) to the meeting, he said that he will get thirsty...thus the bottle of coke(What the hell were you thinking?!!) So, right before we head into the offices, he left it at the lounge under a table....hoping to pick it up after.

Anyways, we apologize like gentlemen and meeting was over. Everything was fine.....or should I say, suppose to be fine.....remember the bottle of coke? Well, the hall manager found it after the meeting.....he picked it up from under the table and had a weird frown on his face wondering who could have left it there. Now, everything is not fine....Lee Boon Hon had to walk up to him explain that it was his and why he left it there.....there you go, we had to apologize again. Sigh...NOW we left a bad impression.

LEE BOON HON....why oh why do you have to bring that bottle of coke!!!!! We are definitely blacklisted from that hall. Give it 5 years and us Malaysians will be blacklisted from all places in Tokyo.

Anyway....the rest of the day went on normally...like what Christmas day should be. We(5 guys) met up with some fellow Malaysians(3 girls) and headed to Roppongi hills later that day to enjoy the Christmas illuminations.


From the top left,
Guy 1, wore a Santa suit the night before...everyone else had holiday on Christmas so he took the day off too....
Guy 2, Short guy who won the "King of the Night"
Girl 1, shorter that the short guy who won the "King of the Night"
Girl 2, don't know my name and keep calling me Brad Pitt....yeah yeah laugh if you want.
Girl 3, prettiest among the three...
Guy 3, was some what very very excited around Girl 2....
Guy 4, my ex-rommie...he...all I have about him are bad comments so lets not waste time....hehe
Guy taking the picture, the one who carried a bottle of coke around the whole day...


The place was decorated very nicely and they had stalls selling Christmas stuff..


All kinds of decoratives that cost too much money. Saw a small key chain that cost 4000 yen.


Some Christmas carols performance. The stage had candles decorated around...very pretty setting.


Taken at a small pond nearby....the atmosphere was very romantic that night....which reminded me that I am still single....damn it.


Roppongi(六本木） literally translates as "6 trees". Well, someone lied...


Tokyo tower by mid-day....


Tokyo tower by night...with the heart shaped lights.....which once again reminded me that I was single....damn it.


Santa got overly generous and killed the tree with his presents...


Some bus we saw on the street. It's a special bus that have a built in restaurant and there's a party going on in there....aww cool.

Well, mostly we just walked around Roppongi appreciating the decorations....at least I was. Guy who took the pic and girl 3 was walking together talking a lot. Guy 3 and girl 2 was walking together talking and laughing loud(Fat girls and tall guys can talk real loud) a lot...Guy 1 (me), guy 2 and guy 4 was busy going round taking photos amidst romantic couples wondering why we were still single.....damn its....
AND In case you were wondering where girl 1 was....I have no idea...she simply vanished before my line of sight...

Anyway, after walking a lot and talking a lot, we decided to settle at some place to eat while doing more talking so TGI Fridays it is...


Marimo, girl who were our waitress of the night. I like her cos' she had a biiiggggg...br...smile. She had a big smile.

Had a lot of fun at TGIF. Had great food, had great waitress with two big...br...one big smile. There was a few girls at a neighbouring table who were celebrating Birthday so our group sang them a birthday song. Girl 2 challenge me to walk over to personally wish them Happy Birthday, so I walked over, wished her and got my picture taken with the birthday girl.

All in all, I had a lot fun that day....Merry Christmas once again peeps....

Winter 2008 part 1: Malaysian Night

>ns29
Yup, they are a good match. But too bad Japs don't know about the existence of kaya.....gotta teach them about margarine+kaya.....

>stevelee
To me, Malaysian Night was more like a disaster....but well done nonetheless....otsukare

>Kelly
To far far away....hope you had fun there. Damn....wished my college were somewhere near yours....would've asked you for some chocolates.

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Last year ended in ways that I could have never imagined. So much wrong that if I were a girl and had boyfriend, he would have to suffer my bitching and complaining for two whole weeks...but not all were rotten, though. Just that....we humans always had fun complaining and bitching, right?

Okay...the end of 2007 started on the 24th December. Do you know what day that was? No, I don't mean Christmas eve. Who cares about Christmas eve? Remember me mentioning it in my previous blog? Yup, that's right, it's the day we had Malaysian Night. The event was....let's look at some pics as we go on shall we?


3 hours before the event. Saw this florist(had a bunch of pretty ladies working there) so, I decided to buy 2 bouquet of flowers for the King & Queen event we are going to have. Not that I'm a hardworking co-organizer but...(once again, had a bunch of pretty ladies working there)

Anyway, Malaysian Night started with a lot of confusion and a lot of jogging. The leader do the confusion part then send me jogging to set things right. Long story short, we manage to set everything up in time to receive the guests...oh, forgot to mention that I'm still in "normal clothes" at the time.


The night started with a speech from the President(guy who were confuse and sent me jogging) We later had performances from Tourism Malaysia in Japan. FYI, the lady dancers are Japanese.


Next was another good performance from the guys....they can really dance...


"Dance? What dance....oh, you mean the stage!! Sorry Randy....very hungry here-la." *chew *chew *chew


Performance by one of the seniors. He sings very well...but apparently not good enough to win over chicken. The guest were more concern about the chicken which were decreasing frighteningly fast..


She was lucky as most guest were done eating and finally noticed the stage. By the way, she was doing some dance from Okinawa.

After the performances, we played some game called OX (not an ox or anything to do with a cow but more like circle and cross). Then, I came out from behind the stage with the Santa Suit to give the winners their presents...


No that's not me.....


This is me in a Santa Suit. Apparently, Santa Claus went to study in Japan when he was young. Remember the little elfs that help him pack presents? They were actually very short Japanese....


No one took pics of me giving out prezies...so this will have to do. Went round to take photos with people round.


Last performance of the day....guests were invited to join the dance on stage...


Who ever said that Santa couldn't dance!!! Santa can joget better than any Malaysian....well, except the one teaching.


Last event of the day...King & Queen of the night. The last 4 finalist...


Winner was decided by "loudest cheer". So King & Queen was actually the "most popular" guy and girl of the night. Well....yeah...nobody ever said that King or Queen had to look good right?


Well.....ehem...correction; Nobody ever said that KING had to look good. The Queen was as gorgeous as all the fairy tales we've read. The king.....the king was popular.

All in all, the event was a success.....although we had little complain about the food, most people left with smiles on their faces. And as for us organizers, it ended exactly like how it started....confusion. We've manage to clear the hall within the time limit set by Japanese(hall manager) though.

The thing about japanese, they were always strict with their time. I remember asking for another 5 minutes or so to properly clear the hall, but a firm "NO" was what I got. But like I said, we've manage to clear the hall in time.....so no problem there right?........ Wrong. While we've manage to put away tables and stage un-properly, we've also manage to not notice the small pieces of rubbish stuck on the floor.

We were called back to the office the next day to apologize ....but that's a story for another day....