some withdrawal

Am I crazy for having repeated thoughts to just quit my job and snowboard whole day long? and then 1 hour of onsen afterwards? and have a nice bowl of ramen or oyakudon for dinner? then some sake or beer and sleep the night away?

yeah I will be penniless after.

Nozawa onsen

It was really epic-ly random.

I had 4 days of leave to clear before the end of April or else it will be taken away so I was looking for a place to go and do something that I can't do in Singapore. Some of my friends and cousins went to ski and I thought it was a great idea and after researching, it seems like Niseko and Nozawa Onsen in Japan has really good snow and skiing facilities.

Then I saw on Facebook that one of my university acquaintance is working in a lodge at Nozawa Onsen! and so I chatted with her and then went ahead to see the air fares and booked the $620 Delta flight to Narita and the accommodation. The next day I saw Issey online and realised he's working in Japan so I told him the dates I'm going and he immediately took leave to join me. It was actually one of the holidays in Japan and he was also wondering what to do too. So after 4 days in Nozawa and I will stay at his place for one night in Yokohama and save on accommodation. All things decided and settled within 16 days to the trip.

Day 1

Arrived at the Narita, took NEX to Tokyo and Shinkansen to Nagano station. I was wondering on the platform waiting for the JR train and knocked into Issey who took the same train as me to Nagano and we met coincidentally at the station platform which was damn amazing. I was so excited to see pure white snow. There was a soba/ramen shop in the middle of the train platform. We took the train and then bus to Nozawa and walked to Toemu in the rain. Luckily Issey knows Japanese coz I would have gotten lost there. We got upgraded to a big room with private bathroom coz we are the only guests there I think.

Kah Hwee brought us to some place to eat yakitori, where this Japanese couple recognized our Singaporean accent and reminded them of their 3 years in Singapore 20 years ago and he said he wanna retire in Singapore. Ha. Oh and he loved Singapore so much that he named his son "Singa". LOL
The food wasn't enough so we went for ramen second round dinner and drank beer n sake. Sleeping in a ryokan isn't that bad.

Day 2 
Woke up to a heavy snowy weather and I was damn excited coz it means powder snow!!! Omg!! The view is amazing. We rented snowboard and equips for 3 days and she got us free passes up to the mountain.

Snowboarding was damn difficult. We fell every other 50 meter until we were so immuned to falling and getting up. The snow kept falling and visibility was really bad. I lost Issey on the basic slopes and went down the forest trail by myself which was horrendous because it was so curvy and I keep falling and the snow keeps falling on me. I fell so many times that I started wondering what I was doing here torturing myself, just sitting there n emo while the snow dump on me. 

The trail was too long and difficult for a first time snow boarder. I eventually got down the mountain and went to KH's lodge to use the wifi to find Issey and after a while he came down too. Then we went to another beginner run to practice a little while more. We saw this little boy who was really epic coz we saw him try the off piste route; once he was "ah ah ah ah"-ing because there's a group of person who fell down in front of him and the second time he faceplanted into the snow. We decided to call it a day after falling so many times and so tired so we went back to onsen in the lodge.

It wasn't that awkward at all being naked coz he's used to it and it was good because he didn't make it awkward. Dinner afterwards at a soba place and we slept damn well.

Day 3

Woke up to a bright sunny morning with the body aching in places where we never knew existed. We realized that when we fall, we didn't even know our bodies can twist and turn until like that. We went to the beginner's run to practice in the morning and then went up to a advanced slope and fall many times but the powder snow was really good to cushion the fall. I went to practice on the basic slope a few times and falling was still as bad. 

Issey met this guy on the lift who said that he knew this guy who named his son "Singa" LOL.

My body was bruised like mad but we improved a lot compared to the first day. Around 3pm we decided to call it a day and head to shower and then explore the streets a little bit. Had dinner at a ramen shop and witnessed a 15 min opening ceremony for scissors paper stone tournament. Wow.

We went to chill at a bar with kh and then went back to our lodge.

Day 4

Skiing day. Went up to the basic slope in the morning after breakfast and found out that skiing is quite easy after 2 rounds. We went down to paradise slope and then down the forest trail. Issey decided that skiing is too boring then changed to snowboard while I went down the forest trail again. 





Then I went to the basic slope I practice my turns and brakes etc until I'm really ok with skiing. I looked at Issey's face after falling down so many times I wanna laugh. Falling down again after 2 days of falling down is damn painful. It's the first time I went down the run without falling down! So after lunch I was thinking if I should change to board but thinking of falling again I changed my mind. 

I was about to settle the rental bill, the shop keeper told me 21000Yen and then i was digging in my wallet and I watched him frowning, murmuring and calculating the bill again so I thought he was giving a further discount. And then he looked up with bright eyes and took my cash. I was very amused and puzzled by this whole event so later I asked Issey, he said that it's the Japanese way of not looking or making eye contact at you when you are reaching for cash, so they would pretend to do something else until you are ready to pay. That means that the shop keeper is very polite.

Went back and bathed at the onsen which was so damn hot so I decided not to go in but Issey just went in for less than a min and came out. It was scalding the skin. I wondered how the other 2 old guys managed to just dip in like that for 3 times.

We went to explore the streets and bought apple juice for the party later. The party was crazy. We played beer pong with a cherry tomato because we didn't have a ping pong ball and then cards and pick up sticks was damn difficult once u r not seeing straight. Haha then Issey was really drunk and high and wanted to sleep already and kh was hitting on me heavily and then I was too tired so I went back to sleep while Issey slept over at the couch.

Day 5 and 6

Took the bus, then Shinkansen then train and bus again to Issey's place. After packing his room we went to Kawasaki, which was top 3 sex city in Japan. No, we didn't visit prostitutes, we went for a traditional yakitori, shopped for a while in the gundam stores, supermarket and tokyu hands then headed back to sleep.


I can see Mt Fuji from his room which was really awesome in the morning. After helping him resize his bike box, we went for lunch at Tsurumi at a tonkatsu place and then I headed to Tokyo for some nice stuff to buy back to Singapore. Narita airport is really awesome. There are so many things to buy and once inside the departure area Tokyo banana is tax free! But they do not have all the other special flavours.

Delta airlines was exceeded my expectations coz it was quite nice, except that the touchscreen TV screen were too bright and didn't have any polaroid filters.

One of my most fun and random trips ever and I had the budget a little bit more than $1500. We came back a changed person.

"buying drinks"

My mum told me while she was hanging the clothes to dry at the corridor at 1am, she met the young married neighbour who said he was out buying drinks at 7-11. Before that she had saw him a few nights already, around the same time, buying drinks.

Now 7-11 is around 10 minutes walk away from my place. The drinks are expensive there. She is puzzled why he is buying drinks in the middle of the night.

"Buying drinks" huh.

Nice excuse for running out of some protection for a sexy good time.

TWD at night

Ok that's it.

I'm banning myself from The Walking Dead on Monday nights because I keep having nightmares when I sleep, right after watching it.

So I shall watch it in broad daylight, before 5pm like my coffee/tea rule, which gives me plenty of time to forget it before I sleep.

I think zombies are getting more and more scary. argh.

Booked 3 flights this week

Yeah like I said, I think I'm crazy this year. I'm travelling overseas every month and vacation ideas are popping up endlessly!

I'M SO STOKED!!!!!

Within this week I booked 3 flights for the next 2 months and I'm so broke that I'm isolating myself every weekend instead of going out and spending money for the next 3 months. I was lucky that the airline freed up the cheaper ticket today or else I'm going spend my holiday at some place I didn't really wanna go and lose the opportunity of free accommodation.

I'm so excited!!
I'm so glad most of the stuff are settled. It came at a great cost, of course, but costs can be recovered with time.

Gravity review

I watched Gravity for a second time and it still remains on top of my list of favourite movies.

Alfonso Cuaron became my favourite director after I saw Children of Men for the first time. I really love his signature long shots and in and out perspective and they are really really difficult to shoot. Watching long shots triggers this sense of continual and audiences hardly have time to blink or space to breath. This movie took a total of 4 years to make, with many innovations in visual and technical aspects just to make this movie and hopefully it will set the benchmark for innovation in other movies.

The first shot was an incredible 15 minutes long with ever changing camera direction, which depletes the sense of directionless space, no right left up down, and different perspectives like zooming in and entering Ryan’s suit to feel what she’s feeling inside and then zooming out to feel the emptiness of soundless space. I love this “through glass” zooming, which is also one of his signature style (in Harry potter and Children of Men).

The movie has themes like birth (scene where Ryan was a baby in the womb of the ISS, with a tube symbolizing the umblical cord) and rebirth (Ryan came out of the waters and on the beach like an amphibian). The difference between the warm earth and darkness of space, the longing for earth and feeling of loneliness in the ISS window scene with Ryan’s reflection etc. 

The sound effects were also incredible in bringing the audience in line with what the characters are feeling (the drowning scene when Ryan reached Earth)

I really love the last scene of Ryan's landing, slowing transiting from weightlessness to weight in water then eventually full fledged gravity on the entire body and it all happened in the last few minutes of the film. So intense. Sandra Bullock's performance was excellent and I can't imagine the pain of all the puppet strings tied to her while she's filming all the floating scenes.

cold curry potato

My mum cooked curry and put the leftovers in the fridge.

While I was eating dinner I found the bowl of curry and was lazy to heat it up so I ate the potato cold.

Taste so awesome and exotic!

Cold curry potato is my new favorite now.