2 news

Let's start with the bad news.

Sometimes things just reach a dead end even though you have invested much time and effort. I knew I already did the best I could and the end result doesn't matter to me, just like I never needed to check my results when I was in University. Honestly, I'm a little depressed because I was banking on this for so long but luckily it happened after my trip. Things just need to challenge your life and prepare you for the next stage, so thank you Alibaba for giving me the chance to hone my interviewing skills and giving me a view of what HR is looking for. At least I got into 2 rounds of interview. Sighs.

Dear Ernest,

Thank you very much for your application to the Alibaba Global Leadership.  We are grateful for your expressed interest our program. 

Your strong qualifications have caught the interest of the team and we appreciate the fact that you have spent the time to interview with us up to the 2nd round. 

As you may know, AGLA has a very limited number of spots, with a 1% final admission rate in the previous class. Hence, given the limited spots we have available in the program we unfortunately are not able to move forward with your application. 

Based on your impressive background, there is no doubt that you are highly qualified for many roles. We, therefore, will also keep your profile in our talent database, and will let you know if other opportunities arises within Alibaba that might match your background and expertise.

Best of luck in your future endeavors.

Kindest regards,

Alibaba AGLA Recruiting Team

The good news is...

I got my bonus today and it was higher than everyone else's, and definitely more than what I expected.  Plus, I'm the only one who got promoted in the last 2 years, with a good increment. However it's still not as high as I expected. Oh wells... so guess who's going to buy a $400 ski suit to celebrate?

Nobody.
Coz nobody ain't gonna spend my bonus on such expensive stuff. I'd rather buy 40 tubs of Ben & Jerry's.

Tokyo winter 2017

As usual, I have already listed down all the places I wanted to go and things I wanted to buy in Tokyo ever since my last trip so every trip is always same but different.

Meiji Shrine

We went to this shrine for a festival but it was over

Akihabara

Festival at Meji shrine, I didn't expect that.

Line store

Edition Koji Shimomura

Oysters in seawater jelly. Super yums.

Fish

Duck

Chocolate mousse

Zaku zaku

My descente ski jacket for $400 which I didn't get because I couldn't afford it. 

The fluffiest pancake in the world. Cafe gram at Harajuku. It's too good OMG. It's too fluffy and melts in your mouth. I can have 10 plates of this.

Cocktails at Ishinohana. 

The only objective that I didn't achieve this trip was to get my ski suit, to get ready for next season. I guess there wasn't enough time nor choices. And I didn't have enough money too. Oh wells, at least I'm quite happy with my buys, especially my made-in-japan working shoes.

I'm a little mixed with this Japan trip. I'm happy with the snowboarding but the overall experience in Niseko was overated, or maybe I had too high expectations. Hokkaido was colder than expected so I did feel cold all the time when I was outside. Food was good as usual, first time travelling with my cousins was not bad as well, glad that Ed knew where to take us so I can tick those food places off my list.

I didn't plan much for Sapporo except food but it turned out ok. I need to go back Sapporo this year to pick up my item in the hotel and visit my Jap friend. Anyway it's easy for me to travel alone in Japan. I'd rather go alone than with somebody useless who contributes nothing except his self-obsession and a serious attitude problem.

Sapporo

So back to Sapporo after Niseko, I took a 2.5 hour train from Niseko train station back to check in at Dormy Inn, which is pretty clean and nice as well. They have an onsen in the hotel, such a bliss after all the tiring sporty stuff at Niseko. I had some bites on the train so after checking in first thing I did was to explore the Sapporo Snow Festival.

Hot mulled wine in the cold... Mmm Mmmm

Food stores all around. It's really all food

This milk thing with riceball and grains and cereals and beans is so good

I am a Jedi

Final Fantasy 7

First meal in Sapporo was... their famous Soup Curry.

I can never have enough of soup curry so I had it again for dinner, this time we waited an hour for Garaku Soup Curry. It's really quite good, I'm not sure about the hour wait but it was manageable.

Are these even strawberries???

At night I went to a small cozy bar for some drinks and made some friends. I miss my friend. 

The meal at Nijo market the next day paled in comparison with the one at Otaru. It looks nice but it's a tourist trap.

We walked around Sapporo and ate Bake cheese tart and Sapporo Ramen on the last day before heading back to Tokyo

We took Air-do from Chitose to Haneda at 9pm to 11pm. Their cups are so cute.

Hokkaido is famous for their seafood, dairy products and vegetables. The only thing I didn't get to try is the Jingisukan (BBQ meat) and I need probably more seafood and desserts. That's why I'm heading back later this year to experience a different season because winter is really too cold for me. And I left something at the hotel I need to collect it lol. 

Niseko 2017

I have a love-hate relationship with direct flight to Narita by Delta. It's a 6.50am flight so I gotta wake up at 4.30am and the night before I packed my luggage till 1.30am. But the arrival time at Tokyo is just nice at 2pm, lotsa light and time to explore around when we waited for our next flight on Vanilla Air at 6pm to reach Chitose airport at 7.40pm.

We checked in at Sunroute at around 9pm after a bus ride to Susukino, the hotel was quite nice actually. After an izakaya dinner I was so tired from all the travelling and waiting and I didn't have enough sleep the night before so I crash sleep after supper.
It automatically came so unexpectedly because I was so tired and I wasn't feeling anything. 

The next morning we headed to Otaru to meet Yiting and Ed.

On the way to Otaru

Our official first seafood meal in Hokkaido in a market in Otaru

I booked Isezushi, 1 Michellin Star sushi in Otaru but I thought the meal at the market was more fresh and satisfying.

Letao! Otaru's most famour cheesecake shop. Mmmm Mmmmm.

European buildings. Otaru is quite beautiful but one day is enough.

Naruto Fried chicken for dinner

Then we headed to Niseko, where we stayed at Frying Pan while they went to their own accoms. The next day the snowboarding starts!

View from Hirafu slope

Supermarketing on the first night

We ate at Jirocho Izakaya on the second night, it was super awesome. Check out the wings gyoza. We also ordered some nice Oden but we finished it before I had the chance to take a photo.

Some sweet sour fish. Even Ed who doesn't eat fish thinks it's quite awesome.

Crab Porridge which is average but feels good to have in winter

Karage and skewers

Grilled scallops

Third day lunch at Milk Kobo! Omg so good. It's a vegetable buffet with one main. The vegetable were super sweet and delicious.

The award-winning and best yogurt drink in Japan, from Milk Kobo. We also had their cream puff which is out of the world.

That's Mt Yotei 

I liked Annupuri slope. It's long and wide and easy to navigate so I could play around.

Breakfast at Frying Pan

Finally I had Rakuichi, the famous restaurant in Niseko. We queued for 45mins while eating our Letao Cheesecake, before the shop opened for lunch. The soba was good but I had better soba in Nagano (Nagano is famous for their soba) but the tempura was really worth it. Hokkaido vegetable are so sweet and juicy and so ever flavourful, even as tempura

Back to the cold again after eating, I did night boarding and off-piste for the first time. So cold but fun with all the untouched snow powder.

Bye bye Niseko!

I have mixed feelings about Niseko.
The good:

• Snow powder is always amazing in Japan, same as Myoko
• The rentals are reasonable and delivers to your lodge
• The view from above is amazing
• The slopes are wide and not as challenging as it seems
• We could go off-piste
• Food is quite good
• Northern hotel onsen ;P

The bad:

• It's overcrowded with foreigners, not an authentic Japanese experience
• Long queue at gondolas
• Everything is quite far apart, need a car to travel around.
• Expensive accommodation during peak season
• Food and ski passes are more expensive
• Some lifts might not be open due to wind/snow conditions
• It's super super cold.

Well, Niseko is catered more for foreigners. I still prefer my Myoko and Nozawa in Nagano.