My bestest weekend ever (III)

Simple is more

Basically, I was blessed by the God of weather throughout the whole trip in Japan. The air was cool and crisp, puffy clouds were up high the blue skies, and despite some minor and short sprinkles of rain in the late evenings, the weather would turn back sunny again the following morning.
Sunday morning, Yui was coming over to meet us and have breakfast with ojiichan’s place for breakfast. Yui arrived around 9, after elections because she’s a good fellow citizen and wants to exercise her civilian rights for the very first time. I want that too!!! I’m 24 years old and I’ve never voted before…
Anyway, we headed to Yokohama, a place relatively newly developed. Right as we got off the Yokohama station, I was impressed by the new architectures surrounding the area. Modern, clean and crisp skyscrapers standing amidst well-developed chic district adorned with distinctive landmarks. Well, basically the whole Tokyo is like that, yet each city’s design, atmosphere, and how it’s presented is so different from each other it’s exceptionally unique.
Our first stop in Yokohama was in a mall. Not just any mall, but this mall had what I’ve been craving for 2 years—Cold Stone!! Aw~ how I missed their ice cream~ We shared a Strawberry Banana Rendezvous, and oh yeah~ it felt like paradise. Supposedly, Cold Stone’s opening a store in Taiwan, but I haven’t seen any yet… I want more Cold Stone!!!

Once we consumed our necessary nutrition/energy, we strolled towards the pier, passing by Landmark building (the tallest building in Yokohama, very impressive), by a ship that was left from the expo years ago (now a new site for flea market, yay!), and through another pathway filled with cherry trees. There were so many couples and families out that day, either enjoying between themselves, spending some good time with the kids, or walking their dogs. Seemed that we were the only “noisier” ones around, but hey! They were MY dates. Next by the pier, there stood 2 red-bricked buildings in a giant plaza (I call it the Red Square), and coincidently, that pace was celebrating its 5 yr Birthday, and for this reason, the plaza was filled with colorful flowers, attracting even more tourists like us. We took a few pictures of the flowers and with the flowers, also saw Bay Bridge from afar, later we window shopped in the red building. I originally planned to just window shop, but we found a cheap store where I contributed 2000 yen for a jewelry box and a new pair of sunglasses. Me like~

Junjun joined us after she finished her part of the shopping spree at the flea market, then we all walked again, in the park, this time to Yokohama’s famous Chinatown. We had Chinese ramen and some gyozas, however I wouldn’t leave Chinatown without tasting some Nikuman! (meat buns) But we were so full! But I craved for nikuman! But we were so full…But nikuman… Finally we found mini nikuman place so we could indulge in the savory juice of the nikumans without being at risk of exploding.

The Japanese Chinatown was very touristy, everywhere and everything you see was eh… food. A lot of nikuman, a lot of shiaolongpaos, a lot of dimsum. Food food food all over the place!
Since we couldn’t eat anymore, we actually got sick of Chinatown very soon, and switched the location to a different neighborhood right next to Chinatown (just across a bridge). Funny thing is, once we reached there, the first thing we looked for was a coffee shop to sit down. Haha, I think we aren’t far from the age where we need to sit down 1hr for every 30 min we walk =P

My order there was a sesame milk latte and a mont blanc (chestnut cake dessert), then we had a matcha latte, a regular latte and a strawberry latte on the table. The mont blanc wasn’t as impressive as I’d thought, because they always look so good on tv! The thick creamy chestnut/hazelnut cream topping layered over a soft spongy cake… Not that it was bad, but I guess I’ve expected too highly bout it. But the sesame latte~! Oh wow… that was really something. Don’t go ew when you hear sesame and latte, because it is very GOOOOOD~~~ who’d have thought?! And… why does coffee match with so many different flavors! I love coffee.

And I love coffee + friends! We sat in the coffee store chillaxing for hours, with no special plan in mind, but just enjoying each other’s company (and recovering from the walks, haha). If only these kind of things can happen more often…

Daikanyama was our next location, and who’s the best person to take us around there but our fashionable Kamechan?! Daikanyama is a trendy neighborhood with expensive clothing boutiques. Expensive but very pretty nonetheless, feels a bit like Soho in NY. For dinner, we ate spaghetti with chopsticks, yay for fusion food~! And yay for spaghetti! That’s another food that goes well with many other ingredients.Since all stores were closed by the time we got out of the restaurant, plus it was drizzling, so we didn’t stay out long, said final goodbye to Kamechan and hit back to ojiichan’s place for my suitcases for I was switching to hotel Chez Yui that night. I really didn’t want to say good bye to ojiichan tho… He was such a sweetheart! Ojiichan~ come visit Taiwan when you have the chance, ok? And thank you so much again for everything!

Yui’s place is near Haneda airport (old intl. airport), located at very convenient place: across the street from the station, next to the grocery store and above a take out place. Heh, she has everything she needs! Her apartment is not big or lavish, but cozy, some people think it’s too small, but I see it perfect for single person. At least I feel that it would be a perfect size for me. Being Yui’s place, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see everything GREEN. Green curtains, green sheets, green kitchen shade, green carpet, her green M&M… Yeah, pretty easy to get the whole picture.

The whole apartment thing made me reminisce our Northgate days, when and where we both would do goofy things together, laugh at each other, and have fun even if we were dealing with the most boring thing. Good times. I miss them dearly.

The apartment can fit another person, I think. Hm… maybe I can take Yui’s suggestion and live with her again.

My bestest weekend ever (II)

My pon du chocolat, you tombi!!

So yeah, after the tasty dinner that Aya’s mom prepared for us (Thank you so much Aya’s mommy~!!!), the 3 of us girls stayed up late again doing silly things and random chats like we always do. On Saturday morning, Yui was the first one to wake up, punctual and early bird person as she’s always been. For the record, I did hear the alarm, just didn’t pay too much attention to it, since I knew Yui will eventually wake us when she feels that we’ve slept too much. Then it was time to wake Aya up. Oh gosh~~ that did remind me of the good old UW times. “Aya, time to wake up~”, “Ayaa, okinasaiiii”, “AYA! Wake up~!”. Alright, we didn’t do that this time, but I always find it quite entertaining to wake Aya up. Our breakfast was another feast, with coffee, juice, variety of bread and salad ready on the table. In a way it’s good that I’m not living in Japan, else within 1 week, I’ll blow up like a popup-fish. We finished breakfast and got ready around 1030 am (or later?), and Yui was right, we ALWAYS take more time that we originally intend to. Oh well…

The outing of the day started from Kamakura station, which is really close to the main street of the city. I’ve also started the city tour with local city “sabire” butter cookie, in shapes of a dove. Needless to say, too yummy I regret now that I didn’t buy more.

Again, it was another pleasantly cool and sunny day, and there were already quite a few people in the streets enjoying the day like we did, in hopes to take advantage and contemplate the cherry blossoms widely spread around the city. In the middle of the main avenue there was a pedestrian walk that had 2 rows of cherry trees alongside the path, where everyone was walking, including us. At the end of the walk, there was the famous local temple (that I don’t know the name!! >__<), which was the place that we were heading.

Apparently, that Saturday was a good day for weddings, because there were 3 couples getting married that day in the old Japanese traditional way wearing kimonos. Being religious or not, I think it’s always nice to have God’s blessings on your special day, that’s why Yui and I kept on trying to persuade/brainwash Aya to have a Japanese wedding with Laurent as well. Since we’re joining 2 different cultures from 2 different countries, it’s the best occasion to have 2 weddings in different styles! I mean, this opportunity is really rare~! Aya, please have ceremonies to wear a white wedding dress AND a kimono, please~ because Yui and I want to wear the black sexy kimono as well! Hahahaha~

I liked this temple a lot. The place was huge, tons of greens, lakes, small bridges, and a huge plaza with FOOD VENDORS! We could smell the food from afar, before we even reached the temple: takoyakis, jagabatas, toriyakis, sweets… To be respectful to the Gods, we headed to the temple before we gave in to our cravings, yet we still stopped by each vendor to first check what was good for later.

The temple was up a hill, with a thousand-year old sacred tree resting at the bottom of the long stairways. After offering the proper regards to the Gods, we stopped by the souvenir stand where I got a small gift for a friend, in hopes to bring him luck since he’s starting a new life in a new place. I guess should have prayed for myself as well because we saw the fortune stand on the next window counter right after, and we all asked for our fortune. Both Aya and Yui got pretty nice fortunes; me, however, got the worst fortune. Ouchi. We immediately tied those papers onto the bamboos so I can get rid of that bad karma. Please God, don’t give me any bad luck!!! Take it away~~~

The bad luck fortune didn’t bother me for long tho, because we hit straight to the food stands, and that basically got us really distracted. For lunch: takoyaki (fried octopus balls) and jagabata (butter sautéed potatoes), found us a tranquil place to sit down and pigged out. I never knew that jagabatas were so good!! I wonder if that’s something feasible in a house kitchen… More touring and sightseeing around the temple and its garden before we hit the main street and continued out food feast again. Second part of lunch: taro-croque and honey ice cream. They were SO GOOD! And I regret for being so gluttonous, kept my eyes solely on the food, and forgot to take any picture of them!!! Sorry folks, cannot share my happiness with you this time.

Jagabata & Takoyaki~~

What’s good about Kamakura is that not only it has mountains and hillsides, but it is also close to the beach! And since the weather was so nice, it would be a waste if we didn’t stop by, and oh no, we cannot go to the beach empty handed. We picked up a donut each from Mr. Donuts (they were at 100yen each! Yui got a matcha fashioned, Aya got a pon du chocolat, and I got a churro), some drinks, and an exquisite small berry cake called “Nana” from a chic pastry store.

As we walk close to the beach, we could fee the breeze getting stronger, carrying the subtle salty scent of the sea, and we could also see a few birds flying on the air, crows, pigeons, other giant birds, maybe enjoying the day as much as we did. Too bad the water was still too cold to get in, so we sat down at a ramp, proceeded our fun. It was then, when the most hilarious thing happened.

Yui was busy cleaning her shoes from all the sand that she’d stepped in, I was chilling with apple/peach tea and contemplating the view, while Aya was very anxious to start with the dessert. She picked up the bag of donuts, took out her pon du chocolat, and suddenly, Yui and I heard a horrific cry from her. We turned our heads to where Aya was, and saw her jumping up from her seat, staring at her empty shaking hand while screaming: “My pon du chocolat!!!”. There it was. Better say, there it wasn’t. Aya’s pon du chocolat. It was gone, within split seconds. We rose our heads up where we saw a bunch of birds flying above us, cackling like mad. It wasn’t hard to figure out that one of the birds had stolen Aya’s donut at the speed of light. We looked around trying to find the little thief but it was pointless. That freaking bird must have flown far far away to finish that choco donut of Aya’s. Then again, Yui and I couldn’t seriously help Aya track her donut either way because we were cracking up from the whole incident. It was too hysterical to see Aya’s face in panic, hands shaking, and knowing that somewhere out there, some bird (or birds) is secretly celebrating by themselves because they successfully stole one entire donut out from a human’s hands.

Man, those birds are VILE! They honestly are! We have no doubt that they were watching us from the start, from the moment we stepped onto the beach with a bag of donuts, and they hid behind us, trying to catch the perfect timing to execute the burglary. But the most interesting thing is that it happened to Aya. For some reason, these are the things that would only happen to Aya. It was a LOL plus ROFL, literally. Not only for us (Yui was already tearing from all that laughter), but for other people that were next to us too. No wonder no one else had food with them! The girl sitting next to us had only a 6-pack but no food… Smart move. Someone should have warned us!! Poor Aya… We’ll get more donuts next time, ok?

To avoid the same thing happen to our precious cake Nana, we left the beach and went to a small park instead. Free from scary bird thieves. Needless to say, the cake was great. Although we did feel a bit funny and miserable having 3 girls with 3 spoons sharing a tiny cake. Hahahaha~~ We walked back to the station again to move my belongings to my next host of my Japan trip—Aya’s ojiichan’s place in Tokyo.

Aya’s grandpa is one of the coolest grandpa that I’ve ever seen. He’s 83 (??) years old, but still very healthy and super cheerful, it’s something in their family! Haha~ He bikes and does 300 sit ups EVERY day… How amazing is that for a person that age?! Ojiichan was really sweet in letting me stay at his place for the night and he even greeted us with more Japanese snacks! We had dangos (mochi balls) and sakura mochis (mochis with red bean paste) as our afternoon tea before we headed off to Shibuya, where we were meeting the old UW gang.

Shibuya was as crazy as it has always been portrayed, either in movies or tvs. There. Were. So. Many. People!! The intersections were extremely large, yet somehow, when the streetlights turn green, people can fill that empty space out like little ants charging towards sugar. Very scary. I never feared of getting lost except in Shibuya, when I felt the need of holding Aya and Yui’s hands. Junjun and Nobu were already waiting for us in Shibuya. We toured around the place really quickly and went to a game store to kill some time while waiting for the others to arrive. The game store was pretty cool, and we saw experts at the DJ machine and on the DDR. I want to call them nerds but they’re so good and so cool at it that I can only bow to them (~~ bow~~). We played Mario Carts (was so much fun!!!) and took pictures with the machines together~ YAY!! That makes me feel like high school again~~

Dinner was at an izakaya, and I was so happy that Hiroki, Asako, Yuka and Taro all joined us for the night! Too bad Dai was busy… Didn’t get a chance to meet with him this time =(

I had a blast over there~! And it was one of the best things that I can ask for now, being able to meet, hang out and relax with some good old friends. Years can pass, lives are different, maybe even people have changed, yet regardless of all these variables, once we all met, we could feel like the old times. Share our thoughts, share our dreams and lives, and share lots and lots of our silliness. Gatherings like such help me appreciate my own life so much more than I’ve ever thought of. It reminded me that I got friends out there who I can trust, share laughter and sadness, it reminded me of my past wonderful life at UW, and it also reminded me how lucky I am for being able to know them.

But like every other good old hang outs, it eventually came to an end. It felt GREAT to meet with them, after 4 years. Thank you all so much for meeting up with me!

Hontoni arigatou gozaimashita.

PS. Those who haven’t met up with old friends, I strongly recommend you do so. ^__^

My bestest weekend ever (I)

A spiritual journey to the ancient city

So I finally went to Japan last Thursday, after so many years of broken promises. Everyone else had visited it but me, so it was about time I decide to visit some good old friends. Excited throughout the entire flight, I arrived at Narita around 9:20pm, where Aya was already waiting for me outside the airport hall. It felt so weird to see Aya there, after all, we haven’t seen each other for almost 2 years, yet it didn’t feel distant for a single bit. We could catch right on on the very instant and start our silliness in split seconds.

From the airport to Aya’s place in Kamakuro took around 2 hrs, that’s when I first experience the complexity of the Japanese transportation system. They have a Metro, JR, and other small local trains that run around the city and its surroundings. It can be very convenient, but honestly, it’s quite complicated and the train maps look like a mess. I think people who aren’t familiar with the metro system in Japan are not worthy to live there. Hahaha~ but once you figure out how to take the train, you’re a true Japan master.

It was already past midnight when Aya’s mom picked us up at the train station and Hitomi was waiting for us in their cute warm house up in the mountains (yes, like Aya’s told us many times before, she does live up in the mountains, and the slopes were quite steep!). Aya and I caught up with some good old times and didn’t get to sleep until 3am, not because we were tired, for both of us were too excited, but Aya had to work the next day.

Woke up the following morning with some gorgeous bright sunshine. Aya had gone to work so Hitomi was my guide for the morning! First stop, we went to see Kamakura’s famous Daibutsu. The Daibutsu turned our slightly smaller than I expected it, but it was still a quite impressive piece of art. What I like about the temples and shrines in Japan is that they all have a garden in it, and all their gardens are adorned with plants that are well taken care of. I was also very lucky to arrive at Japan during the cherry blossom period, thus there was cherry trees blossoming everywhere I go. I didn’t have to fly all the way back to UW and the Quad to see the cherry blossom! Hahaha~

With Daibutsu and Hitomi

Hitomi and I quickly toured around the Daibutsu temple so we can go to our next stop that is another temple not too far from there. On our way to the next temple, we saw some very yummy taro/matcha ice creams. We couldn’t resist and got some! And it was sooo good~ I also got some taro yokan (I like anything with taro~) and local oil-absorbing tissue (that baby sucks oil like wonder!). Aya’s mom joined us for our next temple, this one looked typical but it has a pretty seaside view.

The taro/matcha ice cream was soooo goooooood~~~

Temple. I'm so bad at remembering names.

For lunch, we had spaghetti at an Italian restaurant near the beach. Although I was still full from my late breakfast and taro/marcha ice cream, I finished my whole plate of pasta because it was too delicious~~ I always wonder, pasta is such an easy meal to prepare, then how come mine doesn’t turn out that good??? Where’s the trick?

We later drove to the station to pick up Junjun, that was joining us for the rest of the afternoon. We were waiting and waiting outside the station until this Junjun-look-alike girl wearing kimono approached us. And it was! Junjun, coming back from her kimono class, wearing a kimono!! I’ve never seen Junjun being so “traditional” wearing such traditional clothing or any of my friends wearing a kimono, I think kimonos are a really interesting garment. They have 3 different layers, tons of way to tie up the knots of the obi (belt), and it takes 2hrs just to wear it on. The most attractive part for me is the neckline area, where the collar is semi-open and the subtle contour of the neck looks so sexy~

@ Aya's elementary school. They have very pretty garden for kids.

In any case, Junjun was wearing her kimono and it’s very fun to see her because her movements became softer as she moved slower with all cloths wrapped around her body. We first stopped by Aya's elementary school to look around, and the next place was a bamboo garden. This garden was drop dead gorgeous. After the main entrance, you enter directly to the bamboo garden, formed solely by tall, green bamboo trees. With the bright sun shining above, the bamboo leaves glisten as if they all spread tanning oil on. The place also reminds me of “Crouching Tiger”, hehe. At the end of the rock paved road, there was a small cabin that served tea. We sat down to enjoy our cup of green tea served with 2 cubes of sweets (made with wasanbon fine sugar), admired Mother Nature’s beauty with exchanges of interesting conversations. Very Zen-like. I think my tea was so good that it attracted a bug, and got drowned in it…

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon!

Tasty green tea and sweets

Classic background needs classic model to pose

After the bamboo garden, we headed back to Aya’s place because it was getting slightly late to be going to other places. So we moved back to the house, chat over more tea and yummy goodies to burn some time. We were waiting for Aya and Yui to come back from work, so we can reward their hard work of the day by having Sukiyaki~! Green onion, shiitake, onion, veggies, super silky tofu and uber tender meat. My first sukiyaki tasted so delicious~~ (drool…) Uh… I want to have it again…

Just seeing this picture makes me drool... I want sukiyaki again...

why do good times fly so fast?

just came back from japan, from spending the best weekend with the best people ever.

the trip was worth every penny, for i cannot ask for anything else to better complete the trip. the cities were unique, the scenery was gorgeous, the weather was perfect, but what makes time (and what made my trip) so unforgettable and precious is the company. always the company. japan can be as pretty as it desires, yet without my dear friends who generously shared their times with me, it would just be any regular, pretty tourist spot.

many many thanx to a lot of people: aya, yui, aya's mom, hitomi, ojichan (coolest ojichan ever), junjun, hiroki, nobu, asako, yuka, taro (hope i didn't leave anyone behind).

Thank you. there are no words enough to express my gratitude. thank you all so much. because of your company, i had the best time in japan.

aw... i miss all of you =( i wish i didn't have to come back to taiwan. if only i could just stay there~~~ what happened? why did my weekend fly so fast? i want to live the same weekend over and over again~~~~~

**trip details and pictures will be updated soon**

Ma monkey trip to Panama (part III)

Tuesday, March 6th
So… despite ALL our drunkenness from the day before, we still managed to show up at the exhibition to continue the with the pavilion, and hopefully finish the set ups and the final decorations and make sure all the requested add-ons were installed, everything ready, as soon as possible, because the Expo started the following day.

Charm and I were able to get up around 8+, both very tired, moody from lack of decent amount of quality rest and what had happened. Lydia was very tired too since she had just arrived Panama a couple days before. Long flight + jetlag + tiredness + drinks don’t make a good combination. As for Paul, well, he was suffering from hangover, because apparently while all the girls were in the restroom puking our hearts out, we forgot that Paul was singled-out in the table, unsurprisingly becoming the center of red wine attacks.

But we are professionals, we have duty to fulfill and we will complete it no matter what. Mr. G was worried that we wouldn’t wake up early enough to finish our jobs, and he made it clear to me, when he was driving us back after I finally woke up from my drunkenness, that regardless of all the crazy alcohol, we still had to work. I mean, Geez, Thanks for your f*kin concern Mr. G! If you are so worried, then why the hell did you let your colleagues kanpai-ed us throughout the entire night?! Why didn’t you get your cold SOB’s ass up and stop them?

Anyway, back to the expo. We hired a local contracting company to assemble our booths. Their job was: we give them our blueprints and designs, they help us put the standard skeleton, equipment and facilities together, and we provide the more artsy decoration in stickers so they can paste it up the walls. Fairly simple. Our main contact person was Juan David, quite cute young guy (22 yrs old!!), who has been in the industry after high school. Very cool person to talk to. There were also other construction masters who were in our project, very nice and skilled at what they do.

Then, there were other normal workers that would only work after a task was assigned. These people weren’t that pleasant to work with unfortunately. Here’s an illustration: (for a light installation) one of them standing on a ladder to fix the cables, one man holding the ladder for the cable guy (the light was only 2.5-3m away from the ground), and one last guy standing next to the latter, passing the light bulb. Another illustration: the glue-ing guy was walking around the place trying to find glue sticks for the hot-gun, and that took him at least 3 hrs. Not being critical, but based on past experiences, S. American workers’ efficiency is not the best. They. Are. Very. Lazy. Only move or attempt to do some work after a set of commands. It’s amazing how slow they can work, as if they had 10 days worth of time when the Expo inauguration was only less than 10 hours away.

At first we thought our progress was on schedule, but by that stage we were freaking out. Most of them disappeared to finish other pavilions, and the few left there would vanish every now and then as well. It was not a fun day trying to catch and drag workers to their workstations, and doing their jobs. In the end, we stayed until 2+am. The expo’s opening was 8 hours away, and my feet hurt like mad from all the walking.

Snack time~ we were still happy at that time, but our faces didn't look pretty around 2am.

Oh~ And Paul got us some midnight snacks! Panamenian Chicken soup. A bit too salty and oily, but not bad. ^__^

Panamenian Chicken soup and some fried stuff.