vids tat make me smile during this period of stress

we always see sleeping babies trying to stay awake, this time its a kitten. :)


he shd know better than to tread on thin ice!


hahaha!

yum yum!

yummy dinner with family at t3 today... arranged to meet at tcc, then my sis wanted coffee club instead. duh... waited for them for 45mins. i was the 1st to reach even though my class ended real late and i wasted time waiting for a non-existent train. :S

food porn at tcc while waiting... i was so bored! read the menu back and forth and i can even memorise whats in it!

lychee jazz, must try this! nice! 5.80
close up shot. yes, thats how bored i was!
potato wedges, also very nice!
coffee club seafood lasagna. so-so... seafood too chewy for my liking. dessert was nice, too busy eating to take pics.

i miss japan!!!

i miss pudding!
i miss hokkaido!
i miss ramen!
i miss kyoho grapes!
i miss listening to japanese talking!
i miss the rumbling sounds of trains!
i miss tonkatsu!
i miss jap tv!
i miss taking photos in japan!
i miss japan's weather!
i miss doing an itinerary!
i miss sightseeing!
i miss tokyo!
i miss returning back to my hotel room after a fun day of play play and play!

1 of my fave spots - Otaru Canal

57 more days to D-day
and
everything still sucks
crap
plus bad timing with projects coming in
crap x2

sianzzzz

Great Teamwork at Play

Chanced upon this army of ants building their new home. Was very amazed by the tremendous amount of teamwork they put in. Notice how most of the ants are stretched way out on the leaves and holding on to the adjacent leaves to form a closed wall, while a few other ants scurry around with white 'glue' in their mouths and sticking the leaves together. The wonders of nature!

Oh ya! Forgot to mention that the pics are taken by my trusty SEK800i's macro function. Whoots! SE rocks!

Shera Ceiling Board

ooh... this is sooo damn hilarious. fell off my seat watching this... hahaha~!

Biei

Prawnking just came back from a 25-day japan trip with his family... waa, lots of fun and photos. i miss japan~~~! i'm also tempted to put up some of my photos from my previous japan trips, to relive some of the memories. and yes, the photos that were taken long ago but still sitting in my hdd... untouched...

here's 2 pics from a half day trip to Biei. Biei is near Furano and its covered with lots and lots and lots of snow. it was a warm year when we went and the temperature was -7 degrees. normally, it will be -25 degrees. can u imagine how cold that is?

i booked a 1-hr taxi tour to bring us to a couple of famous sights. hmm, i need to review the area as i already forgotten what their names are... the tour was real worth it. 6000yen for 2 people and the warmth of the car was definitely well worth the money. i cant imagine walking to the sights which are mostly 1-hr worth of walking. no wayy~

snow in biei is very different from those in sapporo and otaru. very light and fluffy... ideal snow. and it wasnt really that cold. guess the air is relatively dry and there's no humidity to make one feel cold...

here are 2 random shots. will post more when i'm done editing them.

Sapporo TV Tower and Illumination at Oodori Park

glad i lugged a tripod on this trip, else i wouldnt be able to get such clear shots... Xmas was nice, had to brave the snow and cold to take photos... hmm, i wonder how would Oodori Park look like in summer....

taken from the sapporo tv tower. cramped and full of horrid light reflections. had to do without flash else i cant even get a clear shot of the outside. the huge mounds of snow seen in the pic are specially transported from by military trucks in order to build the huge snow sculptures for the sapporo snow festival.

back alley in macpherson...

Hello from the US!

very sleepy now... 19hrs flight to SF via seoul. was very impressed with the new plane boeing 777 - wider seats, more leg space, larger personal tv screen, handset stored in front and not at the side of the seat... ooh~ i watched so many movies - pirates 2&3, blades of glory, fantastic4: silver surfer, just follow law, a bit of 300 and listened to 2 violin albums (lullaby for zzz). ok... i will let the pictures do the talking.... yawnz... gotta sleep soon...

i like this guy! Choooo~ funky!



OK... now i'm more motivated to do Bach! Heehee~

Asahikawa Zoo

aching all over now.... trying my best... hope everything goes well...

well... here are my long awaited photos of my trip to the asahikawa zoo, hokkaido... we took 1.5hrs of train ride and then 40mins of a bumpy bus ride, before reaching the zoo. we were there about 15mins before the opening time and there was already a long queue of people waiting outside the zoo to go in...

the highlight of the zoo, the main reason why i made the freaking trip out and into the freaking cold... -7 degrees!!!, was..... the emperor penguins!!! the most exciting part was where the penguins were let out of their enclosure for a walk round the zoo. this only happens in winter and only when there is enough accumulated snow, to let the penguins get some exercise... we were very very close up to them... just abt an arm's length away...

here's some of the photos that i took...

Rabbit on Kachi-kachi Mountain

Went Lake Kawaguchi during the Jan trip this year. didnt had much luck with the weather and it was super cloudy. but at least it managed to clear up a bit during noon, and we managed to get some shots of mt fuji.

our 2,000yen pass included a free ropeway trip up the kachi-kachi mountain. had a very good, super nice view of mt fuji. there were many cute animal statues around the mountain... tanuki, rabbits, etc... some cuute~ rabbit shots...

Otaru Night View

i like otaru! small, peaceful town... sells lots of ornaments... and of cos their famous music boxes... made 2 music boxes myself... heehee...

some pics of otaru at night. it was snowing quite heavily at times, and it was quite difficult to get a clean, good shot. and i was so worried that the snow will go into my camera... but the snow resulted in the pictureque effect... i'm so glad i brought my tripod along, worth the effort lugging it around hokkaido...

i forgot the name of this building, but its opposite the music box museum. has an european feel to it, especially with the snow falling down.
the famous otaru canal... it was snowing like crazy a few minutes before and it just stopped suddenly. all the sudden, it was calm and peaceful, doesnt even looked like it snowed just now. the snow spoilt a lot of my photos and used up the last of my batteries... and it was a freeking freezing -3.6degrees that night.

Cute Kid

Couldnt resist taking shots of this cute kid i saw the at asahikawa zoo... kawaii!!! i wonder if its a boy or a girl...?

Tabiji at Hakodate

my fave at hakodate - the meal at tabiji restaurant in the asa-ichi fish market. another masterpiece meal. so superb. and very cheap. we ordered lots of food and the total bill came up to only about 3,780yen (sin$49). SO CHEAP! and for such high quality food! shiok!

here's what we ordered...

1) mini-don set (1,050yen, sin$13.65)
a mini rice set with 3 types of toppings, coupled with miso soup. 3 toppings are 3 of the most famous food in hokkaido - uni (sea urchin), crab and ikura (salmon eggs). the ikura is the best, very different from what is sold here which is preserved in lots of salt. the ikura is hakodate tastes very light and each eggs pops open when you bite into it.


2) Fish tei-shoku (1,050yen, sin$13.65)
we both ordered a fish set meal each. the fish portion was humongous. and it was the best tasting fish i have ever eaten. the meat was fresh and succulent and very light. mmm~~ yumyum!

3) crab cream croquette (630yen, sin$8)
ooh~ by far the most delicious cream croquette i have ever eaten. it totally puts the croquette that is sold at bugis to shame. this one has raised my standards for croquette to sky high... dun think i will eat the bugis croquette one again. haha~

Sushi

we ate sushi at otaru which is famous for its sushi. we ate at this place called "sushi yoko-cho" which looked quite good and the price range was within our budget... but the sushi was only ma-ma... i think we have better sushi locally and more worth the price as compared to what we paid in japan. this was the 2nd time i ate sushi in japan and both times i have the same thoughts. maybe a higher price range of sushi will be better but dun think i will want to try sushi out again in japan.

from top-to-bottom: ikura guntan sushi (220yen, sin$2.86), salmon sushi (250yen, sin$3.25), botan ebi sushi (880yen, sin$11.44)Remnants of our meal. Ending up ordering a set of 10 sushi for 1500yen (sin$19.50) as it seemed much more worth the price, but the sushi range was.... so-so...

Tempura Udon at Nikko

2nd best meal on our list. tempura udon and kusa dango at nikko. mecha oishii!

the udon is the best i ever eaten. chewy, tangy, not sticky. very light taste. the prawn tempura was humongous and there's also brinjal, mushroom and veggie tempura. i put the tempura into the udon and it still remained crispy and there was practically no oil coming out into the udon. the kusa dango was very good too. dango is glutinous rice ball and i think they mixed veggie into the glutinous rice to get the green color. the red bean paste on the dango was not very sweet. the best tasting red bean paste ever. yummy!

Best Meal at Lake Kawaguchi

my sis and i voted. and the result is unanimously.... "Best Meal eaten at Lake Kawaguchi"!!! ooh. we ate the houtou set for lunch that day. 'houtou' is the specialty dish at lake kawaguchi. it is consists of wide, thin noodles with lots of local vegetables. together with the set, came sashmi, 2 kinds of pickled mushrooms, fried fish, preserved fish, etc. very sumptous meal only for 2,625yen (sin34). cant get this in singapore at all, especially not at this price!

here's the pic of the 'houtou' set. 'houtou' is the steaming hotpot on the top right hand corner of the pic. the rest of the set is made up of the remaining 7 dishes. my sis also ordered the same thing, as u can see from the opposite tray... big spread for 1 person. haha...
close-ups of each of the small dishes in the set... in order of preference... 1st in place is definitely the houtou. 2nd came the sashimi, the tuna was good, for someone who doesnt eat tuna, and i actually finished it all up! the raw prawn was very good, very sweet. the raw squid was the best! very fresh and sweet... aahhh~ yummy!

3rd in place is the seasoned eringi. next is the tempura fish, with salad and spaghetti. 3rd and 4th spot is a tough fight bcos both tasted equally good.

5th is this seasoned/pickled mushroom, went super well with rice. last is the pickled fish. i didnt really like this as the taste was overpowering and too salty. didnt finish the fish. the yellow roe in the aluminium foil was okay. very crunchy.

i missed this meal the most after i came back. want to go back and eat this again~!

Oishii Ramen!

When you go Japan, you must eat their ramen! Their ramen tastes better than any other noodles in the world. even though ramen didnt originate from Japan. haha. pics from the courtesy of my sister. i was famished and already tucking into the ramen while my sis was still patiently trying to get a good shot. arigatou!

Sapporo
we found this nice ramen shop, apparetei, in the basement of the sapporo tv tower. it's ramen is super delicious. there were a couple of flavours - soya sauce, white miso, red miso, etc. we also had a short chat with the owner. he spoke a bit of english and has been to singapore better. rather kakkoi guy. haha.

white miso chashu ramen. most popular flavour in the shop. the chashu is perfect and the noodles is good. white miso soup tastes the best! the price is about 850yen (sin11.05 - cheaper than ajisen and tastes much better!).
red miso chashu ramen. a different type of miso from the above. we ate this on our last day before we left sapporo. the taste is slightly stronger and more salty than the white miso one. i prefer the white miso. will go back and eat the white miso one when i go back again. heehee.
Osaka
we ate the famous 'golden dragon ramen' at dotonburi in Osaka. it was also recommended by my fren who ate it during her last trip, i was very happy to find it. very yummy. the pig bone soup is very tasty and very light. it tastes very sweet and its not oily. the chashu is also one of the kind. very succulent and chewy. there are only 2 types of ramen in the store - normal ramen (600yen, sin7.80) and chashu ramen (900yen, sin11.70). the only difference between the 2 is 1 has lesser pieces of chashu than the other one. it's a very good buy, even for the 900yen one. there are no chairs in the store, only tatami-like platforms. then there is also a free flow of kimchi and vegetables to take. everything is self-service in this store, from taking the vege, taking your noodles and even returning the empty bowls is self-service. they enjoy very good business, and there are normally people waiting in a queue outside the store for a seat.