Sunday, December 24, 2006

as promised.

pictures from tokyo and hakone. =)


my first meal. bento set from the airport. ate at the train station while waiting for our train from narita airport to tokyo. it's eel. and it's nice!


view from the train. in between narita and tokyo.


near our inn. we stayed at a japanese inn and slept on tatami sheets on the floor. not normal beds. it's actually really cosy.


near shibuya, but at the outskirts of the shopping district. shibuya has the jap street fashion, where all the latest trends converge and where all the young people hang out. hence prices are not steep. its like a mega huge far east plaza.


this is hakone. a small sleepy mountainous town where views of mt. fuji are splendid. this is the view from our inn at hakone. the water runs from the mountains and the maple leaves are still autumn-red. really really beautiful.


another shot. =) i could just sit by our window all day, except it's cold.


this is in the hakone open air museum. my favourite museum of all! it features mainly sculptural works, a lot by henry moore. this is my favourite work, titled Hand of God. it has a man standing on a huge hand and is perched high up and the backdrop of the mountains and skies is just so apt. that's the concept of the open air museum really. where instead of confining the sculptures to indoor museums and the 4 walls, it stacks them against the natural elements of earth, wind, water, sky, mountain and the occasional human terrain. it really shines a very different and very fresh perspective on the works. you'll fall in love with it if you were there. i've got tons of other pics too. but i can only upload a few.


another one. titled Wedding Chapel. it's so beautiful, the glass and the backdrop of trees and the sky.


just to give you an idea of how beautiful the trees are in autumn. maple tree in yellow. the previous picture, the maple tree was red.



another bento set! this one bought at the train station. we ate our lunch under the cedar trees of the old takaido highway. this highway is where the old samurai warriors of japan used to travel from the old capital (kyoto) to the new capital (tokyo). and it was REALLY cold here.


spot mount fuji! or mount tokyo. hahaha. this is taken on a cruise along lake ashi, a crater lake which is humungous. you can see mt. fuji, the white snow-capped mountain. mt. fuji is the highest mountain in japan. about 3000+m. it's really so beautiful.


close-up. be mesmerised.


the poisonous sulphur dioxide and hydrogen sulphide fumes of the natural hot springs. it was a difficult trek up. and it was cold. but we survived. me and my sister whose only exercise for the past few months was the run from the immigration counters to our gate at changi airport.


after a long day at hakone, time to retreat to our inn, with a feast of seafood steamboat. =) really really good. oh not forgetting beer too.


back to tokyo. rainbow bridge. very pretty. this was taken at dusk from the monorail.


the biggest ferris wheel in asia. i wonder if our singapore flyer gonna be bigger or not. but this is nice. and we went on it! at night. offered spectacular views of the city.


harajuku. another shopping district. slightly more upmarket than shibuya. so prices are around the mango/zara/topshop range.


lunch at a western eatery with really sophisticated interior design. looked super high class and we were thinking it was gonna be expensive. but our lunch set meal of the pasta, free flow of drinks (coffee, tea, ice peach tea, ice lemon tea, juices) and free flow of dessert (mango spongy cake and apple crumble pie) was only SGD13. and our drinks (i had a variant of cosmopolitan) was also SGD13. we were so surprised and happy. haha. =) and the restaurant offered beautiful views of the city too.


the restaurant. nice ain't it. it also has a wine cellar that extends from the floor to the ceiling.


sidewalk at harajuku. all the beautiful trees. =)

alright. next time for the rest of the photos. it's christmas day. =)

time to scream because i'm leaving singapore so soon and i don't feel like leaving. and yes i have a million things to do and yet i'm here blogging.

merry christmas everyone. may this christmas mean joy, peace and faith to you all.

Labels: christmas, tokyo

This girl posted at 11:35 PM

Friday, December 22, 2006

O Come O Come Emmanuel.

it's 4 days to christmas.

that means it's 6 days to seattle.

i'm in the what-have-i-gotten-myself-into phase. and the super-excited-but-so-upset-about-leaving-home phase.

***

so with reference to the article below, wee shu min has gotten herself not only famous within the blogosphere, but even the wire agencies are writing about her. along with a not-so-desirable report. but i think it's time we focused on our society. long have we channeled much resources to our economic development, defense, life sciences, aviation, tourism, PR and alllll that. not that they are bad, but maybe we gotten start turning our heads onto our own people.

like japan, which has an excellent welfare system in place and great domestic development, ever since their defense was taken away from them since WWII.

reading lonely planet is getting me quite excited as i pour over the maps and get myself oriented even before i get there. which is good, 'cos then i can get my bearings right early. anyway i think my sense of direction is quite good. good genes, since my dad, sis all have good direction sense too. so the university resides just on the banks of lake union facing the south, which is where a beautiful stretch of volcanoes are located. i just realised mt. st helens is near there too. i've always thought it was in california state, but guess for 21 years i was wrong.

i'm going to miss bethany so much. dinner with teacher aileen, louisa and mel at manhattan fish market (it was good! better than f*sh&c*). i'm so looking forward to bringing ian to christmas concert, and seeing everyone for the last time during christmas lunch.

spending money preparing for the trip. a new camera. webcam. new ext hard drive. still contemplating on extra RAM for my dearest ibook. another coat from mango but with vouchers. i'm so thankful MOE is so kind to top up my allowance and sponsor all kinds of admin fees. at least my parents won't have to fork out so much money.

ok i'm just rambling random stuff that pops into my head. planning the traveling plans in US is baadddd because there's so many places to go. even within washington state there's SO many things to see and do.

this is bad.

arrgghhh why isn't sam back??!!?? =(

i wonder if i'd freeze to death if i went alaska. i wonder if anyone would wanna go with me.

***

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.

Rejoice, rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, O come, Thou Lord of Might,
Who to Thy tribes, on Sinai's height,
In ancient times didst give the law,
In cloud, and majesty, and awe.

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan's tyranny;
From depths of hell Thy people save
And give them victory o'er the grave.

O come, Thou Dayspring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death's dark shadows put to flight.

O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.

O come, Thou Wisdom from on high,
And order all things, far and nigh;
To us the path of knowledge show,
And cause us in her ways to go.

O come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Bid Thou our sad divisions cease,
And be Thyself our King of peace.

i love this carol so much. i love corrinne may's arrangement a LOT. she's just so amazingly gifted with music. but more than that it was a carol that spoke of the coming of Jesus. prophets have long spoke about it. the angels rejoiced. the wise men came from lands far away, looking toward the shining star. gifts were presented. it was something to be glad about. to shout for joy. this baby is the Son of God. =)

speaking of corrinne may her concert at esplanade was gooooddd! i would have preferred a more intimate setting like damien rice's concert. the lights could have been MUCH better (sorry i'm just really critical about lights and it was not very nice for the lights to be shining into your audience's eyes). she played all the tracks from her latest album, all the beautiful christmas carols. she sang several new songs not on any of her albums. quite a few actually. and they were, like all of her songs, beautifully arranged and delivered with her strong, round, yet poignant vocals. in between songs she told stories from her memories of christmas, in singapore and the states. her vocal range is quite wide, although the quality goes down when she climbs to higher notes. her lower register is strong, full and very clear. i really admire people who can play the piano and sing at the same time, 'cos i can't do that unless i know the score really really well.

anyway i really enjoyed the concert, because she also did remind us of the christmas story. telling of how the wise men saw the bright star shining in the east, how gifts were presented, how baby Jesus laid on the hay in the manger, how people sang of His coming. she reminded me of that special night which we all celebrate now, 2006 years later. and that was really special. =)

***

ok i promise i will post tokyo pictures before i leave. really. for now, good night.

Labels: christmas, corrinne may, random, seattle

This girl posted at 1:01 AM