Japan the Third

Again, too lazy to actually blog about the trip in detail, so here're the (partially annotated) photos. Didn't do too much travelling this time, actually, but strangely enough the photos still piled up.

Junk foods of Japan

I didn't really eat out that much while I was in Japan this time, but I did try some of the weird stuff they sell in the supermarkets (and the local McDonald's).


The only reason McDonald's made it to the list is that this burger, the Teriyaki McBurger, tastes exactly like (my memory of) the Samurai burger, a limited-time item that was available sometime in the early 90s (I think. Maybe the late 80s?) and once again in the late 90s. (again, I think. It's not like I keep a record of these limited-time burgers!)

Basically, it's just a simple burger with a beef patty (Japan uses a sausage patty I think), some lettuce, and teriyaki sauce - and I'm lovin' it!


I've recently become a fan of corn chips, and here in Japan they must of course have wasabi-flavoured Doritos chips. Sadly, it wasn't particularly good, but it was interesting. As were those Pizza-la (a local pizza chain) tie-up ones I'd tried - yes, they are branded under both Pizza-la and Doritos!


Now this is just weird. They had some special edition (I think) black sesame cereal thingy and I thought I should try something Japanese for my breakfast cereal needs (yes, traditionally Japanese I know) as opposed to sticking to Crunchy Nut. Again, pretty interesting, but not something I'll eat on a regular basis =P

Maybe I should do a better junk food catalogue when I'm next in Japan! Then again, it's not really something I'd want to deliberately set out doing... Having proper food seems a lot more enticing, somehow.

Still alive

Here's a shot from Miyajima, just to let everyone know that, well, I'm still alive. =D

I think I'm done with travelling around Japan for this trip (not that I've done very much of travelling - just a weekend trip to Hiroshima, and more recently another busy weekend going to Yokohama for a Jack Johnson gig). It's been exciting enough, but I think I'm kinda drained from it all (Old already, no more stamina for all this moving about).

Plus, I really need to get working on my project...

So, guess I'll just be bumming around (and hopefully doing some readings and statistical analyses) in my remaining two weeks in Japan. Doesn't sound too bad, really.

Japan redux

A picture speaks a thousand words, so here's my 166k word essay about my recent trip.

Also - 2 video clips, not particularly exciting, but I figured I'll upload them so I can delete them from my hard drive =P


The sloth, it moves!


The bonito flakes, they move!

Hmm. I see a certain pattern with those videos. All about stuff moving. Oh well. I wonder how many words a video speaks?

Old holiday pics

In the true spirit of procrastination I've added some captions to my more recent holiday albums, so. Err. Yeah. Check them out if you like, I suppose?

Japan

Netherlands

And away we go!

I'll be off to Japan tomorrow to join Ailin (and kill the remainder of my summer holidays), with a brief two-day stopover at Bangkok first (since I'm flying by Thai Airways, the stopover was practically free).

I haven't really planned what to do in Japan (Ailin has done more homework than me, for that), but here's some stuff I'm hoping to do in Bangkok.

-Watch a Muay Thai match
-Get a Thai massage
-Ride a tuk-tuk
-Take a canal boat
-See, uh, Thai stuff
-Visit (and shop) at Chatuchak weekend market
-Take a peek at the red-light district
-Slack

Quite happening lah huh? Hopefully I've changed enough money for everything. I'm hoping to live like a king for the next 2 days =P

Weekend break

(I've just made some (backdated) posts about my Poland/Hungary and Scotland trips, you can check them out as well.)

Back from Stonehenge! Pictures up here, and Kenny's got a post on it too, but anyway here's my summary of it all.


Lester just returned from his stint in Tanzania, so he, Kenny and I decided to make a short road trip to Stonehenge. In a nutshell, it was pretty interesting, quite nice to look at, but probably a little overhyped. I would still go, but definitely do not expect an earth-shattering monument.


I'd never actually seen, or even heard, of the white horse hill figures before this trip. They're essentially just giant markings on the ground, made prominent with chalk. Kinda useless, but pretty fun to look at.


Come to think of it, I've never actually touched a cow before, either. The three of us spent quite some time trying to entice them with grass, but it was a futile task - considering that we were hardly the only source of grass in the vicinity.


We stayed over at Bath, which was really very pretty. The University of Bath would actually have been my third choice after York and UCL, and it was kinda interesting to see the place I could have been spending my university years at. I concluded that I'd probably have liked staying there, actually. York's still lovely, of course =P


Finally, a rushed dinner at Kenny's place in Cambridge, before I scooted off to catch my train(s) home.

All in all a very fulfilling trip, it kinda makes me miss home more, actually. All the people I haven't seen for quite awhile... Oh well. Just three weeks more...

Easter break summary 2

Continuing where the previous post left off, here's a brief recap on the Scotland trip that followed.


Lester did half a term of overseas attachment in London, so we arranged to go up to Scotland together, joined by Yiwen. Our first stop was Edinburgh, which I remember being really quite nice, although the major memory was probably the steep price we paid to get into Edinburgh Castle.


We did pay to get into it anyway, mainly to catch the firing of the One O'Clock Gun, but personally I think it was way too overpriced. Still, an experience, I suppose.


Scotland must be home to the most wonderfully unhealthy deep fried foods. We tried a fried Mars bar and a fried pizza, and I suspect my lifespan was reduced by at least an hour just from eating those items. Still, pretty good, at least on first bite.


We also tried climbing Arthur's Seat, the highest (natural) point in Edinburgh. It's an extinct volcano, and (because the path started going downhill for awhile) might not have made it to the top if we hadn't chanced upon a middle-aged couple who told us to continue along the path.


We got a car and began touring the nearby sites, starting with Rosslyn Chapel, which I felt might have been a little overhyped with the Da Vinci Code and all.


A couple of castles and ruins later, we made it to Stirling and the Wallace Monument. At the foot of the monument is a statue which is clearly inspired by Mel Gibson in Braveheart. It is funny. Really.


We made our way up to Balloch, around Loch Lommond, and stayed in a hostel which occupied the building which was preivously the hunting lodge (I think) of some rich person.


There we basically spent our time exploring the Scottish highlands, which were really pretty. I think we did miss out on the stories behind all this, though, from what I've heard from Ailin about her Haggis Adventures tour. Quite possibly I'll go back there one day (maybe with family).

And so, that's how I spent my Easter holiday (with much slacking in between).

Easter break summary 1

Backdated post, probably gonna be very brief since it's been months now, but just for the sake of archiving my travels, here goes!


The first trip was to Poland and Hungary, where Yiwen, Kevin and I spent about a week.


Krakow was really nice, and probably the best part about Poland would be that it was so much cheaper than the UK. Prices actually felt like back home in Singapore! The food was pretty good, too.


We did two day trips from Krakow. The first was to Wieliczka Salt Mine. Prior to the trip I'd wondered what the big fuss was over a salt mine, but apparently the workers practically lived there and actually carved out a nice little chapel down there, which was really pretty.


The second was to Auschwitz, the (in)famous concentration camp from the days of the Holocaust. The death of many may indeed be a statistic (as once commented by Stalin), but somehow being there made the tragedy more apparent.


After Krakow we headed to Warsaw. I don't really remember much of it, since we stayed there practically as a stopover - to catch a cheap flight to our next destination. The city was practically destroyed during WWII though, so it was really quite remarkable how it stands today.


Budapest, the next stop in the trip, was a city full of beautiful architecture. I really liked the buildings there.


The one I remember best is probably Matthias Church, which somehow had the most unique (and pretty) interior of any church I've seen in Europe. It was undergoing restoration works when we were there, but I still remember being extremely impressed by it.

I suppose that's the highlights of the trip already. We also went to a spa in Budapest, which was very nice with its heated pools (considering it was still quite cold when we were there), but somehow we didn't take any pictures of the place.It might have something to do with the fact that we weren't carrying any cameras on us while using the pools, though.

Anyway, it's a pretty long post already so I'll probably split the next trip into part 2.

Turkeys and Grease, updated

Pictures are up! Added captions too, so go look (and comment?) at them, if you're thus inclined. I think I got tired of annotating as I went along, so the later photos have funnier (and crappier) comments.

A (not-so-)quick summary follows.


We were trying to save on transport costs, so we chose to leave on New Year's Day. After a doughnut toast, some snoozing, and general bumming around in the airport, Jason, Yiwen, Ailin and I were off to Istanbul.


I was actually quite excited about visiting Istanbul, since it was actually an extremely rich historical centre (formerly known as Constantinople, it was formerly the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, then the Ottoman Empire, and I'd figured it'd have a lot to offer. Alas, it seems that it has fallen to a similar fate as its Western cousin (Rome). It's somewhat run-down now, and its greatest offering to tourists would probably be its array of mosques (many of which were converted from Eastern Orthodox churches after they were captured by the Turks).


The most famous example of this would be the Haghia Sophia, which was for a thousand years the largest cathedral in the world. It was captured and used as a mosque for about 500 years, then more recently it has been secularised and converted into a museum, showcasing both Christian and Muslim elements within. The juxtaposition was quite interesting, really.


Unfortunately we were in Istanbul during the Eid ul-Adha, a Muslim festival. Apparently it's the custom for all the locals to holiday during this period, so many things were closed. One of this was the Grand Bazaar, one of the largest covered markets in the world. We probably should have suspected something when we first saw its closed gates being used to display wares.


We did manage to go for a Turkish bath, which though refreshing was somewhat overpriced. The 'massage' aspect of it seems to be somewhat overhyped as well. I suspect these Westerners simply have never met an Asian masseuse. =P


Athens was a different story, however. Maybe it was just fresher from its facelift for the 2004 Olympics, but it was a good mix of modern and new with old and quaint.


The Acropolis, basically the ruins of the ancient 'high city' of Athens, was isolated from the other parts of Athens. While this is arguably touristy, I kinda preferred it since it allowed you to temporarily forget that skyscrapers existed. It was like walking in a gigantic open-air museum.


It was also a religious festival in Athens, Epiphany, but instead of everything being closed, we got to see a parade.


The presidential guards in Athens had the funniest uniform I've ever seen. Since it was a national holiday, they were wearing a traditional variant which is even more colourful and frilly than the usual one. They also have a totally unique way of marching. Funny stuff.


We took an overnight cruise ship to Crete, which turned out to be a really good idea because although it cost the same price as an air ticket, it provided us with (clean! comfortable!) accommodation for the night.


Crete, though pretty, was somewhat less exciting than Athens. Winter is probably the worst time to visit the Greek islands, since everything kinda shuts down during this time. We basically rented a car and drove around, which was still fun in its own way, though winding mountain roads are really quite scary to drive on. Especially at night.


After Crete, we went back to Athens for a day, then returned to UK via London, which resulted in another mini-adventure of its own.

I'd booked a bus back to central London arriving after midnight, because I was under the impression that Kings Cross station would be open all day (because of this site which lists the reception as being open 24h), but apparently the station shuts down for the few hours between the last train and the first. We were basically shelterless for the three hours in-between, and were about to just wait it out at the bus stop, but in the end decided to just fork out the money and stay in a hostel instead. I can't say it was the best value-for-money decision I'd ever made, but at least the others seemed happier for it.

(I wanted to take a picture of us at the bus stop, but I figured that the others would not take so kindly to my desire to document our hobo-ness)

But now we're back and school's started. Sigh. Back to work!

Sydney

Sydney Opera House, me, Ailin and Cuifen (plus unidentified building)

Whenever people ask me what I did at my most recent holiday, I usually have very little to say about it - partially because I don't do that much, but also because I've got a horrible memory that requires photographic stimuli.


I, Convict

However, for some reason or another, I always end up with many pictures of myself in various stupid poses (hrr hrr), so without some text commentary of the highlights I'll probably end up with a really warped idea of what I did.


Three Sisters (Blue Mountains)

Ailin and I flew over to Sydney to visit Cuifen (and tour around) a few weeks back, from 2-12 September. It was really more of a visit than a holiday, I felt, since we didn't really go around all that much, but it was nice, relaxing, and rather enjoyable.


The many dangers of the Sydney Aquarium

Among some of the places we visited was the Sydney Aquarium. Not being a big fish fan, I wasn't too enthused about visiting it initially , but it turned out to be pretty nice after all - it's way bigger than Singapore's Underwater World, and has more stuff too. Plus, that is where I fell in love.

The platypus is one of the many mammals unique to Australia, and in my mind definitely the weirdest. It is precisely because of this weirdness (best summed up in this Honda advertisment) that I find it so adorable - It's just too funny! This hodgepodge of an animal is my personal proof that God exists, and that he has a sense of humour.

(In fact I was pondering how to go about getting one of those squishable things on the black market until I found out they weren't as squishable as I'd imagined - they've got venomous claws (the males, anyway) which apparently cause massive amounts of pain in humans. Not quite what I had in mind for a pet.)


Instant stardom with the bluescreen

We also visited the Powerhouse Museum, which was essentially Sydney's version of a Science Centre (again, much larger than Singapore's). It wasn't mindblowingly exciting, but I've always rather enjoyed this type of place (like London's Natural History Museum).

Plus, it made for another opportunity to get photographed in another stupid pose.


Photographed with shaky hands hyper-realistic electrocution effects

We visited other places too, but there're just too many for me to cover in one post (more importantly, I don't really have many good photos of those). Otherwise we mainly slacked around Cuifen's house and had good food. Haha. It's a great place to live, and it made me actually consider moving to Australia as a retirement home. Although by then their immigrations laws would likely have tightened. Hmm.

Oh well. We can only wait and see.

What's up?

So Easter vacation's just about over already. Some people have actually (gasp) asked what I've been doing these holidays, and I figure sometime in the future I might actually want to have something to remind myself, so here're some recent highlights.


In week 2 of the holidays I left for a trip to Paris, Rome and Venice with some of the other York people. Details here and here, because I am Lazy. It was, well, the first trip I've been on with just girls (though I suspect most of them think of me as simply one of them... should I be worried?), and. Well. It's different. I've never really sat down and talked about, uh, feelings and stuff while on a trip with guys, like the Spain one. But all in all I must say it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience, for both the people, and the sights covered.

Although I seem to be the only one who was amused by how you could find SPQR everywhere in Rome, even their dustbins and drain covers.


In week 4 I visited Brussels and Bruges (in Belgium, in case you were wondering), land of chocolate and beer, and very little besides (I guess that comic museum in Brussels would have been more interesting if only I'd understood the language). Bruges was really quite lovely though, and I rather enjoyed the idyllic pace we went through the trip in the realm of nothing-to-do. And I suppose as often is the case, the company makes all the difference.


16 April was Ailin's 21st birthday. We had a murder mystery party - I was somewhat apprehensive since it was the first time I'd done anything of that sort (and forced to act a female, of all things, though apparently I simulate women very well), though it actually turned out really well. These York people, a lot of them are actually quite dramatic. And spontaneous. And funny. We had fun. And generated a lot of late night noise. And probably kept a lot of neighbours awake.

(The porter dropped in on us mid-game, in fact, to find out precisely what was going on, but he graciously let us continue despite the ruckus we were causing. Cool dude.)

And now I'm in London for a short visit, dropping in on many people who are studying. No one's free to entertain me, so I'm blogging. School starts next week. Sigh. Yet another ten-week cycle culminating in essays and exams. Hope I didn't screw up last term's too much.