a fruitful life.

Sunday, December 24, 2006

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 15, 2006

yesterday was another emotional end to youth conference 2006. despite not being at youth conference for the first 4 days, being there on the last day made ALL the difference. after being away from church for so long it was great seeing the pastors, teachers and all my friends again. and most of all, worshipping my King and learning from His word. brings joy to my heart.

the theme Seek first the Kingdom of God, comes from the book of Matthew and it was a lofty concept that i sometimes find hard to comprehend. so gotta listen to the mp3s of the sessions and get the notes so it'd be as though i was there at youth conference.

pastor challenged us to follow Him as we closed the conference last night. to establish a living relationship with God. to follow Him through good and bad. through the joy laughter tears and pain. i loved the testimony shared by cedric during the special programme. really spoke to my heart.

oh the special programme! we sang 3 carols. 3 of my favourites. O come O come Emmanuel, O come all ye faithful and O holy night. the last 2 were sang to close the programme and all the young people gathered on stage and sang our hearts out. it was a feeling indescribable. it was just so beautiful.

that's why i said it was emotional.

***

so i miss tokyo. happens everytime i visit a great city. tokyo ranks at my no. 2 favourite city in the world so far. fyi i only rank those cities that i have been to. it'd be no. 1 if i knew japanese haha. so no. 1 is sydney, even though i was there for a mere 5 days, but its charm rubbed off on me. =)

i know i should post a brief recap. and you know i procrastinate.

so days have been filled with grey's anatomy season 2 on dvd, season 3 on computer. admin work for US, which are almost done and finally i'm no longer lost in the big pile of paperwork.

spent a morning at the US embassy, listening to the interviews (hey you can't help but overhear 'cos you can. there's really not much privacy). most are going there to do business. one was a neuropaediatrics surgeon (how cool is that), and she's a woman! several were students. one was a potential phd student from N*S bound for ohio state university and he's from china. that poor guy was so nervous and couldn't speak properly and was flustered most of the time. he was denied visa many times before and kept changing universities. which led to rapid firing of questions from the american visa officer. (i wonder if i could get into trouble for writing this) but it was all good because he was granted his visa. i wondered as i sat there reading my newsweek if my interview would be just as bad. but it turned out ok. the woman was nice and she said seattle was a beautiful city and perfect for biology. so there's my embassy experience. complete with maximum security checks and anal woman who insisted that my hair should be tucked behind my ears for the photo. costing me another $10.

so with documents to GIP office and MOE more or less settled, air tix booked and paid and e-ticketed, SIA krisflyer membership applied and done, and all the rest, i'm just left with packing and buying of stuff and more packing. ohyes and meeting up with friends and christmas and discovering the meaning of christmas all over again.

i cannot believe i'll be leaving in less than 2 weeks. it's starting to hit me slowly. the reality. the excitement of a whole new world. the traveling. the space needle. the ferryboats. the cold and rain. living away from home. wearing my new winter clothes from japan (including many things from gap! can't help it if it's 20% off). the rush of adrenaline. the road trips and weekend trips to portland, to vancouver. visiting friends on the east coast.

and on the other side. sam. bethany. family. friends. hugo. the other friends on exchange somewhere else in the world. pastors. teachers. home. singapore.

yes my resolution to finish reading the new testement while i'm there still stands. it'll be a challenge finding a church that is suitable. but i know i can always find comfort in bethany. and the mp3s of our services, of ypg and of the special events.

***

it's a great test of many things. this trip.

a test of my strength.

a test of my faith. in God. in myself. in my relationships. with sam especially.

a test of my courage to face my fears. the greatest of which will be tested. and i'd prefer not to reveal my greatest fear. only a selected few know.

a test of my perseverence. to endure hardship. pain. tears. homesickness.

a test of my patience. waiting on the Lord. always.

a test of my hearing, seeing, understanding.

a test of my willingness to learn. the tangible facts of my studies. the intangible skills of life. the great provisions that God gives.

a test of my responsiveness. to respond to those lessons.

a test of my love. for sam. for my family. for my friends. for my home.

for God.

Labels: kingdom of God, seattle, tokyo, youth conference

This girl posted at 11:51 PM

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

hellloooo greetings from land of the rising sun.

the weather is colllddd. ok not that. quite pleasant at around 13 degrees in the day. people watching here is ssooo fun! i get inspiration and fashion tips for winter wear to prepare for my winter quarter in seattle! hehheh.

my stupid sister keeps taking pictures of me sleeping and uploading onto flickr for my family to see. i shall take revenge. and NO you don:t get to see those pictures.

its autumn here and all the maple leaves are turning from green to yellow to orange to red. and you have the coniferous trees still green and some premature leaves dropping trees that are leafless. so when you look at a bunch of trees its like a whole brilliant host of colours and it:s really realy beautiful. and i:m always so amazed at how God makes all things beautiful in His time. really. =)

hakone is a sleepy town just an hour by express train (not the bullet train) outside tokyo. it:s one of the best spots to view mount fuji and i saw it! in all its snow-capped majestic glory!! its really quite a sight and i can understand how it has been the source of inspiration for many poets and artists. in hakone we did the attractions in one day. saw volcanic springs and mount fuji and was SSSOOO cold on the mountains. so a nice hot spring bath to end it. 2nd day we went to 2 amazing museums. biennale style.

food:s good!! enough said. i can go on and on about food. and i:m just halfway through my trip.

in tokyo we did a lot of shopping. A LOT. and we still have 5 days to go. ahaha. i:m buying clothes for seattle! i:m so happy. we also went to a design exhibition. its like a flea market but filled with original stuff done by the artists themselves. we also went for an amazing jazz concert by lee ritenour. at THE jazz club of tokyo called blue note tokyo. sister club of the blue note in new york. he and his band were AMAZING!!! and we went to another art exhibition in a shopping center featuring the works of M.C. Escher. its really really amazing too.

i:m using english so little here my english is going down the drain.

sumimasen.

ok gotta go pack the messy room and sleep. will do a proper recap of the trip when i get back. filled with pretty pictures. =)

Labels: hakone, japan, tokyo

This girl posted at 10:58 PM