Hokkaido & Shanghai Trip (A White Christmas)

31st December, 2008
2210hrs(GMT + 8, Beijing, Singapore time)




Less than 2hrs till a brand new year. New year, new resolution. Do I have one? I think I have quite a few. Going to have my countdown on the plane. Exciting? First time I am going into a new year on a plane, in the air.

This trip to China turned out to be quite fun. The group grew to be very fun! :) Everyone warmed up and stick together once in here. It is true that what is worth the trip are the beautiful sights in China. There are a lot of changes since the last time I was here. But is the same is the China people. The way that they conduct themselves is still the same. Loud. Rude. Dirty. Inconsiderate. Parents here let their children take a piss just by squatting in the middle of the shopping street. They will just rush to the front of the lift even though a lot of people had being queuing. They will just knocked into you in order to walk their own way, the pathway is quite big mind you. I know that they are slowly changing. Maybe in 10, 20 years I would come again.

The next time I post will be the next year already. Good to had been on this trip. Tonnes of work are waiting for me back home. Going back to camp on the 3rd. Have a live firing on the 4th. Training all the way till 9th. Sigh. Have to work on a Sunday even. Cannot even have a good rest.

Goodbye Shanghai. Farewell Year 2008! Haha! :)

27th December, 2008
1213hrs (GMT + 9, Japan time)

Gonna be leaving Chitose Airport in less than 40mins. Today is a good day. The view at breakfast is damm cool. Imagine a huge golf course filled with snow? HAHA! Just said byebye to Sayuri. See if we are able to see each other in Singapore. Anyway, think I gotta change a passport. Really do not look like mine now... 19 merry xmas msgs. My god! Haha!

Shanghai here I come!


26th December, 2008
2305hrs (GMT + 9, Japan time)

Had an uneventful Christmas. But the scenery is really very fitting. A White Christmas.
Guess what? It is -9 degree today! My god! Freezing cold. Today we went to a place call "Jigoku " - Hell Valley. It is a boiling point of the region which produced 3000L of water for the hot spring.

Question! Anyone know where was the G8 Summit held early this year? Lake Toya! It is the lake that never freezes as there is a live volcano nearby. Too bad we cannot be treated with the full scenic view of the lake as the there was a very strong snow drift.

Went play the snow mobile. The kind Jackie Chan and James Bond filmed chases on snow? :p Quite cool. Went onto a guided trail up to 1000ft above sea level. Freaking cold but the view is breath-taking.

Tonight is the last night in Hokkaido, Japan. Tomorrow I will be taking a short flight to Shanghai. There are worries that we may not be able to fly on time. That is the case today. The flights are cancelled/delayed due to the snow and strength of the wind.

Today a candid shot behind Sayuri today. Not gonna let her know until I mail her. Haha. Today's onsen is so cool! Beautiful! And it was snowing when I went for the outdoor pool. My god! Too bad I cannot bring in the camera. Hmm. Nevermind. Maybe I will give it a try tomorrow. Haha! Gonna grab some sleep now.

Good Night Japan! For the last time. For now. Haha!


24th December, 2008
2016hrs (GMT + 9, Japan time)

Catching my daily dose of Japan drama. Haha. Here for 4 days and I am hooked onto a baseball-coach-turned-high-school-teacher drama. From what I understand (Haha!), it is something like GTO - Great Teacher Onisuka. There are even some real life baseball stories after each episode. And the funny thing is that when I chance upon it, it was the first episode! :p

Today I am at a place named, Akankohan. A town which is build around a huge lake! This lake is around 4 X the size of Singapore. The little red dot indeed. :p The drama just ended. Today's travels is quite boring. Most of the time was spend traveling. There were a lot of sight-seeing though and the scenery is breath-taking! Our route even took us past an active volcano. Sayuri told us to be quiet so as to not wake the volcano. Haha! We went to 2 waterfalls, Gin Ga No Taki and Ryu Sei No Taki, side by side of each other. The "Galaxy Waterfall" and "Meteor Shower Waterfall". They are nearly frozen solid. Cool! :p Sayuri was saying we are very lucky. When we need to see the scenery, it will not be snowing, the weather will be damm good. :p Thanks!

I think my photography needs a great deal more work. I still need to try out a lot of different shots to get a right lighting. And what is irritating is that I always cannot seem to get the lighting right out in the sun. The sun always get into LCD screen. :( But I am damm impressed by my Canon 10-22mm UWA. :p

Today we had the traditional Japanese food! A huge spread! There was even live sashimi! The fish is still gulping! My god! Jiang Zhen De?! Hen Nan De Leh. Haha! Check out the photos! Hehe.

Tomorrow will be the day which we will spend the longest time on the road. We are going back down towards Sapporo. It will be around 5-6hrs of traveling. Guess I gotta go and grab some early rest today. This Christmas Eve is really quiet. :p Gonna be Christmas here in another 3hrs. :p

Good Night Japan! And Merry Christmas Santa! :p Sleeping on Tatami again. So damm cool right?! Haha!


23th December, 2008
2230hrs (GMT + 9, Japan time)

Less than 2hrs to Christmas Eve. Listening to "Chasing Pavements" by Adele. This song got into my head after I watched the animation film, "Dragon Hunters" with Yuting. I think it is a simple story with something to tell. I like it. Back to Christmas Eve, I believe it is the one of most looked-forward-to holiday across the globe, with celebrations big and small, special to everyone in their own unique way. This year is the first time I am out of Singapore for this holiday. But I guess it is not as celebrated in Hokkaido as it is in some other countries. The festive mood is... lacking I would say. :p

Going into today's travels. Right now I am in this hotel named, "Crescent" in Asahikawa. Nope. This is not the place that Asahi Beer is being brewed, which what Yuting thought when I msged her. Haha. We went to Tomita Farm, a place where they are famous for growing lavender. Since it is winter, we only had a greenhouse to view. We were told that during autumn the fields are filled with lavender. The lovely scent will be spreaded miles and miles away. Had lunch at a stop in Furano.

After which we went to Asahikawa Zoo! Yea! It had been a long time since I had been to a zoo. I must make time to go to Singapore Zoo when I get back. :p When you visit a zoo in during winter and under snowing conditions, you tend to not to see much things. :p What are special here are the Timber Wolves, which is what I really want to see now. This is because of the series I am reading now. "The Song of Ice and Fire" series by George R. R. Martin. It is really not bad. Quite good actually. Oh. And "Santa Monica" by Savage Garden is playing. Nice.

Back to the zoo. I got to see cranes, huge polar bears, penguins big and small, tiger that keeps running around its enclosure and a constantly roaring lion! :p It stopped snowing after a while. That was after I can feel my fingers. :( haha.

We went to a place which had a sakae museum and had a sampling. It was not bad. The place even had a spring for us to take water back! It is said to be so good that the locals collected it by the bottles and use to cook! True enough, we saw one after another of them coming with bigger and bigger containers to store the water! Haha.

We had our japanese take-away today from a big shopping mall, named Aeon. It has the size of about 3 X Tampines Mall. Had some sushi, tempura, bento, ramen (maggie style), chicken drumlets, bananas and strawberries! The food here is really quite expensive but everything is very fresh.

Once we are in the mountains (since yesterday night), the scenery had been breath-taking. The powdery white snow and mountain ranges that reaches up to the clouds, the dainty little houses, icy streams, very nice and courteous people. I think I will really pick up Japanese language, Ni-hon-go. Thinking of coming here to stay for awhile.

Anyway to end of the post, I would like to wish a special someone, Merry Christmas Eve and Happy Birthday. Sorry I cannot be there. Glad that my gift arrived and you like it. :) Thanks for everything. You are lovely. Always in my heart.

Good Night Japan! Till tomorrow! 1hr more here till Christmas. :)


22th December, 2008
2135hrs (GMT + 9, Japan time)

The second day of my Hokkaido Trip! And it is snowing! :p

I totally K.O.ed yesterday. Had to dragged myself to bed. It was damm tiring just getting here. We took a 5hrs flight to Shanghai for a transit. It took us another 3hrs plus to get to Chitose Airport. Finally arrived! :) When the plane landed, we were welcome by the first sign snow for the season. :) We had to take another hour's ride to reach our first destination, Sapporo. Yes. Sapporo the beer. Sapporo is the capital city of Hokkaido. The city is not filled with sky-scrappers or any tall buildings. I think it can be comparably rural to most of the China major city. And our tour guide's name is Sayuri, a Singaporean too!

Japan is divided into 4 major parts. Kyushu and the Southern Islands. Western Honshu and Shikoku. Central Honshu. Hokkaido and Northern Honshu. What is unique about Hokkaido is that it has the climate akin to Siberia and its indigenous people, the Ainu.

We went to visit a couple of famous streets and a underground mall. Mum bought a Coach, Blue Label bag. :p By the time we were out of the place, it was already dark. The sun sets at around 1530hrs! After which we went to another cool shopping street and got us our, White Lover Chocolate! Guess what?! We took off with a box load! Haha!

First meal in Hokkaido! We had BBQ and... Abalone! The abalone was supposed to be eaten raw but we being Singaporean and not Japanese, Sayuri recommended us to eat it after is it slightly grilled. It is so tender! Dad even brought back the shells as souvenir. We had to missed one of the stops as it was deemed unsafe to go up due to the snow and icy road. After checking into the hotel, we went out to have stroll and had a mini shopping spree at the 7-11 of Japan, Lawson.

Today the first place we went to was the Asahi Beer factory, had a short tour and free sampling of first beer. It is very smooth and fresh! We should have this in Singapore, instead of having it locked up at customs for 1 to 3 months. :( Next stop, White Chocolate Lover Factory cum Museum. The owner designed and build it like a children's playground. I realised the factories in Japan used a lot of stainless steel, giving them a very clean look. With that, we took our leave of Sapporo.

Otaru! Lunch was at a seafood market cum steamboat house. That kind of place catered for tourists. We were given a choice of getting our own seafood. Guess what was on the recommendation list again?! :p Crabs! Ours cost us 12,600yen! Mum, Daniel and myself tried crab sashimi! So fresh! So sweet! So succulent! :) Next stop we were taken to Otaru's most famous street! Served high tea in one of the tea house. The cups are for us to take away after our drink! Dainty little shot cups. There is a famous steam clock on the street. Just 2 in the world. One in Vancouver, Canada and the other here in Otaru, Hokkaido, Japan! It was snowing very heavily the better half of the day. We ended our day trip with a 5-flavoured ice cream! It is Melon, Strawberry, Chocolate, Lavender and Vanilla! Yummy! Took another hr's ride into the mountains and checked into the hotel. Onsen! Hahaa! Had a go before dinner and now I am going for it again! Haha!

Back! YEA! So shiok! Gonna crash now. But there is a very upsetting thing that happened... I think there is a tiny little scratch on my Oakley lens... argh! :(