Hakone - Pirate Ship, Owakudani, Mount Fuji and Tokyo

This is a continuation from the day before where the weather was so bad, we couldn't go sightseeing. Boo that. But luckily it happened too so we could go for the public bath (onsen hot spring) in the hotel.

Anyway, we woke up early in the morning to go to Yunessun. After that, we decided to give the Hakone Loop another try. If you need more information, read here and here. Both websites are super helpful if you are planning to go to Hakone.

We bought our Hakone Free Pass from Odawara for about Y3,900, which lasts two days. Basically this means that we can catch most buses and trains within Hakone itself, which saves lots of time. Better than having to search for small change or try to read Japanese words or ask people how to buy tickets. Most tourists opt for this because it includes the prices for most of the places tourists go to.

We took a bus to Hakone Shrine again. We are determined to go inside. I have seen photos of the place before and thought that it looked soo beautiful. Surreal. Nothing like our temples for sure. It reminded me of Spirited Away in the Japanese Anime cartoon by Studio Ghibli. Loved it btw. Its my favorite.

At the shrine, walking along the streets, it felt so peaceful being there, surrounded by trees and nature. It was still quite cool then; the wind blowing as we stood by the lake. It was so beautiful and calming somehow.

Huge torii gate on the street. Just follow the path and you will reach the shrine.

From the bus stop, we had to walk a short distance (about 10 mins or less) to the lake and the shrine.

Hakone shrine is actually on the shores of Lake Ashi. To get to the shrine itself, you have to walk up some more steps.

 I look like that because I didn't know Cs was going to capture me in the photo. Hmph.

The view was breathtaking. So was the walk up. Hahaha no lah. It was just a short walk, and some steps.

We copied the locals and washed our hands with the water.

If you can't tell yet, I have a thing for torii gates. Heheh

We didn't stay long there..just long enough to take some photos. You can pray there and make a wish if you want. I did.

The torii gate is huge! Its actually standing in the lake.

Boats for rent. Got a funny story to share. Cs was asking me should we take a boat out to somewhere, and I was like huh? Why? No babyy. Its cold. And I kept making excuses.

Cos I thought he suggested we rent that little boat below. The swan shaped one. Hahaha stupid. I don't know why I though of that.

They have hot corn soup!

Our first view of Mount Fuji.

We were waiting to take the pirate ship across to Togendai. We are going to Togendai to transfer to Hakone Ropeway to to Owakudani. All these are included in Hakone Pass, so no need to pay extra money. Cool eh?

This is the pirate ship. Weird name eh. There is a woman dressed as a pirate inside. Can take photos with her if you want.

On the ship! It was a good experience. I know it seems like a really touristy thing to do. But there is a reason why tourists go this route. It really is so beautiful. The cool wind blowing in your face, and the view! Mount Fuji, and can see Hakone Shrine from the ship. Really awesome experience. 

I remember thinking that I wish my parents could come here too. My dad in particular hates travelling far. He hates sitting on the plane. Maybe he has ADHD (Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). 

Haha joke please.

On the Hakone Ropeway to Owakudani. It looks like a cable car, I don't know why its called ropeway. It used to confuse me until I did the research.

We finally arrived! 

The place is crowded with tourists! We had to take a short hike up the mountain.

Mount Fuji in all its glory!

For more information on Owakudani, read here. Basically its an active volcanic zone with sulphurous fumes with good views of Mount Fuji. We got lucky that day. Perfect weather and thus good views of Mount Fuji. No clouds in the sky at all. 

Crowds and crowds of tourists. Most people buy the black eggs that are cooked in the naturally hot water, and the shells turn black due to the sulphurous fumes. The eggs supposedly prolong your life by 7 years. I had 2. They taste like normal chicken eggs but they smell a bit funny due to the sulphur. Its ok. Another experience.

Crates of freshly cooked black eggs!

We didn't stay long up there. Take photos and come back down again. Shop for souvenirs. We saw lots of people walking around with ice cream cones. There were many flavors and colors to choose from. 

Tastes like vanilla. Truth.

Took Hakone Ropeway to Gora.

Changed to cable car.

This is their so called cable car. Zzz.. Its a train please. Complicate me nia.

Saw cherry blossoms and asked Cs to quick quick snap a photo! Hahah I do that the entire trip. If I spot a cherry blossom tree, I would rush over and go: quick quick quick!!! As if the flowers would drop within the next few seconds. Hahah its no wonder Cs doesn't hate me. :) Love u baby. Heheh.

Waiting for the bus back to Hakone Yumoto. We checked out in the morning already and left our luggage at the hotel. 

On the shinkansen back to Tokyo. We are in the hallway because there are no seats! I don't know if we bought reserved seats or not cos the tickets were in Japanese. But we were carrying huge luggage cases and I was tired from the whole day out so I suggested we just camp in the hall way. Hahah.

Bloody expensive shinkansen (bullet train). Oh well. I wanted to try it at least once. I did. Twice. No regrets then. :)

We found seats later on. Hahah saw some people leaving so we rushed over. Smart. Quite a lot of business men drinking Asahi with their laptops. Makes me wanna buy an Asahi on as well. Next trip eh?

This photo always makes me smile. Got back story.

We arrived at Shinjuku or Tokyo station (I can't remember). It was crowded. No wait. It was SO CROWDED!! Typical. We had our luggages. We were tired. But I wanted to take a photo of the shinkansen. I wanted to go to the front of the train. 

Cs (pulling the luggage) ran/sprinted to the front of the train panting just to take this photo for me. I was following behind, and noticed people looking at him. Is he catching a train? No? He's just running to the front of the train? For a photo?! Hahha.. Cos we didn't know if the train was going to depart any time. And if he's not fast enough, he might not get the photo.

After he took the photo, he turned to me smiling: satisfied?! Hahah I burst out laughing. Sorry. And thank you. :D

Checked into our hotel at Tawaramachi. The station is about 2 mins or less from the hotel. Convenient to travel. And cheap. Did I mention cheap? We booked from Agoda. About RM 180 or was it RM 150? (I forgot lah. Memory of a duck) Including tax. in Tokyo! Rockstar!! :) Hahah no lah there are cheaper rooms like hostels but I didn't want to share bathrooms.

This hotel is small but good. Google it. 

Went to Freshness Burger for supper. I love love Freshness Burger!!

The bun is slightly toasted, and the beef patty just right, and the taste omg. Burger King lose in my opinion. It doesn't feel greasy or too heavy. Just nice! Cs loved it too!

Digress a bit. I think my skin was damn smooth in Japan. I don't know why. In the beginning, I thought it was the new cream I bought. But now that I'm using it in Kuching, no difference leh! So it must be the Japanese air, or the food, or the hot spring.. Something happened anyway. Is it the onsen? Is that why Japanese women's skin are all so smooth and fair? I wish I knew. 

Took this photo so if you're in Japan, try this. Try everything! I love their food. So many choices. We walk around Takashimaya's food court (at the basement I think) and drool over the food. Yeah just drooling cos we can't eat anymore! Not enough space to put all that food.

Oh yeah this is our hotel. Its essentially a budget hotel. But they have basic stuff like towels, shampoo, conditioner, hair dryer, and internet. Good enough for us.

Well we brought our own router la. Cos we kiasu. Hahah. Guaranteed wifi in the room. Fast connection and Cs was saying heyy let's go ask the other guests close to our room. Who wants our wifi password? Pay yen for it. Hahah 

Looking at all these food now is torture. This is from the Family Mart close to our hotel. There is a 7-11 close by too. Awesome for supper and breakfast! I miss.

Most hotels have washing machine and dryer. Awesome. We did our laundry there twice. So convenient!

OK bye.

Abrupt end. Typical.

Continue next time.

So hot I can't think straight

So I skipped exercising today to blog. Yay. I have more time today. Its so so hot today in Kuching. My home felt like a sauna. The kitchen was suffocating. Don't know why did I choose this hot day to make hot and sour soup for dinner. Haih. Should have made salad instead. Idiot.

Anyway. I'm watching the Voice now. Who else agrees that Shakira and Usher are way more entertaining than Cee lo and Christina? Shakira is so beautiful..she looks better and better the more I look at her. 

If only I can blog standing up. Then I wouldn't feel so guilty about not working out today. If only my period would come so I can stop blaming my food cravings on period. Haha. If only. 

If only we could work standing up. I wouldn't mind. I can boogie while I work. Or in between work. Like the footballers. Heh. Seriously though, I don't mind standing up for hours, or walking more. Better than sitting down for so many hours a day. My ass is expanding. This is bad.

Suddenly remembered an incident once when I was working in Mcd in London. I started my shift at 11 am. We only get a 45 min break in between to eat. The rest of the time, we are standing and busy working. By midnight, I was exhausted and ready to go catch my buses to go home. My manager kept persuading me to stay till closing. Mop the floors etc. I agreed.

 But that day I was so tired, I don't know why I cried. In the back room. As I opened the door to go out (I thought no one could tell), my manager exclaimed: why are you crying?!! (so loud and so embarrassing)

I ducked back in the room to hide. After I composed myself again, I went out only to be grabbed by another colleague in a hug. My manager let me go home immediately. Hahaha. That was the only time it happened. Lol. Idiot. Yeah, don't know why I suddenly thought of it.

God look how pretty Martina is. Damn. Even her side view is so pretty.

In my defense, I just got off work from Mcd ok. Oily face and flat hair from the hairnet and cap. Eww. Most definitely reeking of fries. Normally when I get off my shift, even my undies smell of fries! I kid you not. And I'm sorry if I put you off fries. Hahahah. Sorry.

 Haih. She's from Prague and is so pretty. She looks shy but after working together and we became friends, I found out that she had a wicked sense of humour. Sometimes, she would predict what customers would order.

If a guy comes in and order say, a hamburger, she would be like: no Big Mac today? Eyebrows raised and all. Just softly lah. No big deal but it was funny back then. Oh well. Kinda mean but funny. Heheh.

Reminds me of another colleague from China. We were talking in Mandarin, and this guy in front of our cashier said: ohh..I can speak too. And said how are you (ni hou ma). She (my colleague) smiled back and immediately said ni chi se ba (go to hell). Hahahhah so bad. But I burst out laughing.

Ahem. That was years ago. And we were young. Correction. We are young. Still. :)

Shit me. I miss London. Why did I go open them folders. I blame this on Matta fair. I got my hopes up. But now its back to square one.

My Gods! (I've been reading Percy Jackson recently) My legs. I look like I have no ass. And I look straight. I miss being straight. Hahahha.

That's Lien. We were on a day trip to Brighton. Its a sea side town about 1 hour plus (I don't remember) by train from London Bridge. Me thinks. 

We rented a car, and rented a ship to go out fishing. I caught a fish!! The only one in our group. Take that guys! Heh. Mackerel and we cut it open and ate it raw. A bit squeamish cos the guy's hands looked dirty. Not because of the raw fish. =.= Its sashimi without wasabi.

I think I talked about this before on my blog so imma stop. Here found it. Click.

Canary Wharf. Always loved it there. So beautiful. Its also like 2 or 3 stops from where we lived so we are there quite often. There are lots of office buildings there. Like HSBC and McGraw Hill. I only remember these two. Sorry. Hahah no idea if its still there.

Blur but I miss Nandos!! 

Anyway. Where was I?

I forgot. Moving on.

I let you in on a secret. Ok maybe not a secret. Cs and I are very forgetful. I don't know who's worse? I'm sure its him. 

Let me give you example: He lost his wallet (NOT FUNNY!), left his wallet in the taxi in KL at LCCT (NOT FUNNY!!), left it at home, forgot his phone at the office, or at home, or I don't know where, and loses every other thing. I'm better, but not by much. In my own house, my mum and sister HATE me cos I always forget things. This is my curse, I tell you. Hahah.

Anyway. We also always blame each other when we lose something. In Hong Kong, we forgot our luggage until we were about to board the plane. Zzz.. idiots should not travel together, or stay together. Super fail.

I'm telling you this because we bought this ball hand wrist exercise thingy in Japan. It comes with this red string. After unpacking our luggage, we realized we lost this red string. The exercise thingy won't work without the string. So we started a looong search and blamed each other.

I found it at last under the bed. Probably kicked by someone under the bed. No idea who. But yeah. 

Don't know if I posted this. Pizza is my love, my weakness and my downfall. Hahahha dramatic. 

I'm biased when it comes to Pizza Hut. No need to ask me if its good.

I love love love this!! Cheesie posted this (not this photo but this snack - Cheeza) on her instagram, and I was in Japan still. So I immediately went searching for it to try. Good that we did. Its good!!!

I brought one pack to mum's place and mum and Winnie fought over that small packet. That's how good it is. 

I have one packet left. Howwww??

Bo pien. Have to go back to Japan and buy home a full box. Heheh. 

OK that was an update.

Bye.

The Hardest Part About Exercising Is Getting Dressed For It

Right? Right?

The worst part is getting myself psyched/motivated while getting dressed for exercising. I would be dawdling and procrastinating and wasting time. I would go wash the dishes, vacuum the floor a bit, finish reading my book, moan to Cs, before letting out a BIG SIGH. 

Might as well get it over with. After that, the rest is ok. I start stretching, and open Jillian's video, then I go on the treadmill.

The thing is, I do like sweating buckets. I like how my face looks flushed, my complexion actually look better after exercising. My stomach is flatter, and my legs firmer.

So why am I still moaning about exercising. Its a freaking chore to do it everyday. I don't. I skip one or two days if I can. 

Because I watch Jillian on Youtube, sometimes the video stops because the connection is broken. When the video stops, I actually go: YESS!! Got excuse to stop now. Hahahha.

At least I'm exercising, right? Right?

On a positive note, I'm pleased to announce that my body is not aching anymore. This just means my muscles are working eh. Good news indeed. No more pain the day after. Awesome. 

When my body hurt that time (lasted about a week), every time I moved literally (my arms, my legs, my abs, my butt) reminded my Jillian. I kept cursing her and myself. Sorry.

But yeah. This is just a reminder for myself to stop whining. After this time I mean. I feel better and less guilty after working out.

Its ok to be a couch potato after doing my exercise for today.

Its ok to be a couch potato as long as you're not eating potato chips. Haha.



OK bye.

Labour Day and Food

When I was in Primary School, one of my classmates gave me one of these. It was my first time trying one of these. I thought it was SO GOOD that the taste stayed with me forever. Well, for as long as I lived so far. Kuching didn't sell this until recent years.

Before Ta Kiong, I bought them in KL when I saw them. In Kuching, these are quite costly, about RM 9 or 10? I saw these in Japan and brought a few packs back. Trust me, if I could, I would fill my luggage full. Not just these, but lots more other snacks.

Its basically just a Japanese cracker, some cheese and almond. But whyyy you taste so good?

Why does something so simple tastes so good? I'm thinking of Taiwan now.

Oyster mee sua, minced pork rice (ru rou fan), beef steak with pasta. Imma go drool at the photos later. Must be time of the month. I'm thinking of food all the time.

Or maybe its my new exercise regime. I have recently got into my mind that I want six packs. Yeah, for real.

So, I went to Youtube to search for Jillian Michaels (personal trainer for the Biggest Loser), and watched her 6 packs in 6 weeks video.

I tried doing that first. 30 mins in, I was sweating, heart thumping like mad, and wheezing and oh yeah cursing of course. Cursing her and myself. Hahah my body hurt for 2 days after. But the second day, I went back to exercise again with another cardio video of hers. Intense man! I don't know what has gotten into me. After that, I went to run on the treadmill again.

Hahahah so determined to get six packs. The first day after exercising, I ran upstairs to tell Cs (after 30mins): I don't want a six pack anymore.

So far, I haven't given up yet. I actually look forward to work out. See how long this lasts ok.

Yeah, so maybe that is why I'm hungry more often too.

Anyway, it was a holiday on Wednesday. Labour Day!!

We went up to Damai Central in the evening to walk on the beach, have a few beers at Escobar, and had a seafood dinner at Buntal. All in all, a happy day.

I took a few sunset pictures with my phone at different times. All no filters except this photo below.

This was at about 5 pm. It was cloudy that day, not too hot.. Perfect weather actually. 

There were quite a lot of people at the beach enjoying the holiday.

This was at about 5:40 pm - 6 pm.

This was about 6:30 pm. I bought the bubble blower thingy. What do you call them again?

These two photos were taken 5 mins apart, about 7 pm. No filters. Look at the colours! I love sunset!

It was so beautiful.

It would be nice to go for a swim in the sea, and go back to our room. Hmm..probably time for a stay there.