Furano Biel Asahikawa summer 2017

The main purpose of my trip this time is also to visit the famous Lavender farms of Furano.
During Summer there's a limted express train from Sapporo to Furano, and a sight-seeing train from Furano to Biel and most of the lavender attractions.

The curry rice that my friends recommended was closed but I stumbled into this restaurant Kumagera which had a queue before it was opened. Super good omurice with curry and only costs $12.

From there I missed the train so I took the bus to one of the sunflower/lavender fields.

Lavender actually smells like grass

I walked to the famous Farm Tomita, first stop at Melon farm. This melon tart is amazing at so many levels. The sweetness of the melons are indescribable, only addictive. 

Who wouldn't buy the lavender soft serve? I actually couldn't taste anything lavender about it I guess it's a tourist trap. 

Flower fields

All the flowers are in full bloom, a lot of tourists though

I bought some lavender essence and candles and they smell really good and natural. My room smells great now. Then I took the last train to Asahikawa and stayed for the night.

The zoo at Asahikawa is the most popular zoo in Japan. I wanted to skip it because I thought it's just a normal zoo but it was not. I was totally surprised that it's totally a different zoo experience, and the enterance fee was just $10.

It's quite an open concept and you could see the animals really up close. The penguins were swimming around me it seemed like they were flying.

I could actually touch the tiger or leopard if I just reach my arms out. They could actually pee on me when they are above me. 

This monkey was swinging so high up, without any cages or safety nets

The petting zoo were we could actually touch rabbits, goats and ducks.

I think this is the first time I saw a hippo. (besides the time one stayed with me in Niseko)

Totally recommended to spend half a day in this zoo. They have a large variety of animals and the best thing is experiencing the animals really up close.

Sapporo summer 2017

I met Kazuki-chan on Sunday night and he introduced me to more of his friends (mostly badminton friends: long story) and because it was a holiday on Monday, most of them came from other parts of Japan like Tokyo or Kyoto etc so it was like a badminton gathering.

Anyway we went to 3 different bars and stayed at the last bar for some karoke then it was 3am and I was super sleepy already so I wanted to go back to the hotel. Only Ha-chan and Kazuki-chan were singing so they were saying last song last song, then we went out of the bar at 4am. I wanted to go back hotel to sleep. And they dragged me to eat curry rice. At 4am in the morning and the sun already came up in Sapporo. And we were supposed to meet Habu-chan at the seafood market at 10am for breakfast.

I slept at 5am and we couldn't wake up in the morning and slept till 1.30pm on Monday. Haha poor Habu-chan and friends. In the end we ate breakfast at 3pm, they brought me to this super awesome soup curry place. I had prawn (ebi) soup curry base with chicken leg and extra hamburg and cabbage. I super love it. The soup was like lobster bisque with curry. The hamburg and chicken were so soft and tender. The vegetables were sweet and crunchy. The best soup curry I had in Sapporo.

We shopped around Sapporo and I realised it was end of season sale everywhere. Japan's mid year sale is crazy, especially H&M and forever21. One t-shirt can be like 100yen ($1.20), a pair of shorts for 300yen ($4), sweaters for 500yen. I bought underwear (3 for $4) and a winter beanie ($3) from H&M but the other bought lotsa stuff. Went to Sports-kan but there's no ski pants for me.

Dinner's at a izakaya with Maki-chan and I witnessed the famous Japanese alcoholism. The drinks they ordered are endless... it was so scary, once mug after one mug but luckily they were so nice to go dutch on the bill. I also had my authentic Japanese Karaoke box experience when we went for a 2 hour karaoke session. Drinks were endless as usual. I love to hang out with them but I felt lousy that my Japanese is not up to their level and I couldn't understand much of the things they were talking about. That's my sole motivation for my Japanese class now. I want to be able to understand and converse with them.

Their fruits are out of this world. It was cherry and melon season. I have never tasted melon so soft, juicy, sweet and crunchy at the same time. The cherry was normal, different variant from US and Australia.

I really love Sapporo. It's so chill and laid back, less crowded and less crazy than Tokyo. I definitely had a better experience this time than February. Food is hands down better than Tokyo, because they self-produce but it's expectedly more expensive. People are so nice and genuine, and they are less materialistic than their Tokyo counterpart. I will come back to visit my friends again.

Hakodate Otaru summer 2017

I have planned for this trip since March and then messed up the fireworks date but that was mentioned in another post... and was so looking forward to practising my Japanese and see Kazuki-chan and explore Furano and take a long break away from work.

So 2 hours before my flight I was thinking if I should get travel insurance, because Japan is super safe and nothing much could go wrong but I thought I was taking Msia airlines so just in case, so hastily bought it. Turns out to be the best decision ever.

My flight was delayed in Singapore to KL, and my luggage didn't go on board the flight to Narita so I didn't collect my luggage in Narita. That turned out to be a blessing because I was going to take the 4 hours train from Tokyo to Hakodate and didn't have to drag it around. They were going to send my luggage to Sapporo directly, which I was going to stay for the second night. WOO travel insurance claim. Extra spending allowance!

I bought a 7 day JR pass for $339 so I could take unlimited JR trains for 7 whole days in Hokkaido. One trip from Tokyo to Hakodate would already cost me $280 so this is really value for money for travellers.

My Itinerary

13-14 Jul Red eye flight to Narita, arrived at 7.30am

14 Jul Shinkansen to Hakodate, go Mt Hakodate for the night view, overnight at Hakodate

15 Jul Explore Hakodate, train to Sapporo, overnight at Sapporo

16 Jul Day trip to Otaru, evening spent at Sapporo

17 Jul Explore Sapporo whole day

18 Jul Train to Furano, Lavender farms, Biel, overnight at Asahikawa

19 Jul Asahiyama Zoo, train back to Sapporo

20 Jul Train all the way to Shizuoka

21 Jul Explore Shizuoka

22 - 25 Jul Back to Tokyo

Hakodate is pretty boring, the only famous things are the night view (which I thought was meh with lotsa tourists) and the reportedly best burger in Japan: Lucky Pierrot 

Their tram system is pretty old school and cool thou. I also went to the star-shaped park, which was relatively small and shopping at the red brick warehouse bay area. 

The burger is really quite unique, I had two different burgers and I really love their patty and fries. Their Chinese chicken burger is just ok, but the breakfast burger patty is so juicy and soft. They mix different meat in a good ratio and grilled it till perfection. I didn't take a picture of that coz I was eating it on the train to Sapporo but I would go back for this if I pass by again haha. Oh the best thing is there's a huge onsen in my hotel hahah. Look at the face after onsen. 

I was so glad that I didn't have my luggage with me to drag around on trains, the only inconvenience is that there's no change of clothes but it was fine since the weather was cooling and I didn't sweat much. I collected my luggage at my hotel in Sapporo, headed to the bars till 1am. Surprisingly there were a few foreigners there together in one night: Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. Usually there were none, and luckily some of the locals can speak English.

There are so many trains to Otaru from Sapporo so I just went there for breakfast. I still think the seafood market in Otaru has the best Kaisen don. Just look at the uni (sea urchin). The more expensive one is brighter in colour, sweeter and more creamy than the dull one. The dull one is also not bad, really fresh. This is legit the best kaisen don I  have ever had. No wonder so many people were on the waiting list in the shop.

Milk soft serve from a Hokkaido milk farm 

I had been to Otaru once before so nothing much there except the dessert shops like Letao etc. I went back to Sapporo for dinner before meeting Kazuki and friends.

2 days MC

Bad time to fall sick when I'm 2 days away from Japan.

Sore throat and coughing these few days argh. 

drinking weekends

I realised I have been drinking every weekend since....

12 May Friday - 2 gin tonics with extra shot, 1 guiness

26 May Friday - 1 gin tonic and 3 chivas neat- somebody forced them upon me
27 May Saturday - 1 gin tonic

9 Jun Friday - 2 glasses of wine and 4 gin tonics

16 Jun Friday - 1 glass of sake and wine
17 Jun Saturday - 1 glass of orange martini

24 Jun Saturday - 4 vodka orange in a club

1 Jul Saturday - Half a bottle of wine and 50ml gin neat and 1 gin tonic with extra whisky

7 Jul Friday - 1 glass of gin neat, 1 glass of gin tonic, 2 glasses of rum neat

And I'll be in Japan later this week and there will be more drinking..... so stay good, liver.

Jul party

Shikai wanted to go partying and this was the last chance that he had before he officially gets stationed in Shanghai in November.

We needed to drink before the event because the drinks inside is going to be expensive and sucky, so we went to my favourite wine place for a $48 merlot that come with free truffle fries (their monthly special). It was not bad, we finished the whole bottle before heading there and we were a bit flushed.

To add on, I bought a small plastic bottle of pure hendricks and an emergency 50ml bottle of whisky, just in case. LOL. The queue was soooo long, we queued for an hour before entering then Jarren came along, and we just finished the bottle of gin, neat, while queueing. That big mouth shikai said some inappropriate things to Jarren and I immediately regretted bringing him along.

A few words to summarize the party:
Crowded, a bit boring, more walking than dancing, ok music.

We walked a few rounds, met a few friends, then bought a gin tonic each and I downed my emergency whisky into my gin tonic. I was more sleepy than drunk, just one more drink to doing yoga but I still went dancing and some other things, then goodbyes and left at 3am.

Luckily I puked a little after showering. The hangover the next day was horrible.

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There, Joe
我进 KC
我要去日本了
ORD 后
8月跟 Matthew

some things are meant

I can barely focus at work today. 

I have decided to remove all the barriers and leave it all to fate.

If things are meant to be, things will happen on its own. 

Immediate regret

Shit.

Immediate regret I shouldn't have gotten so drunk.

I don't know how to deal with the situation. or is there a situation in the first place. I don't know.

I'm actually quite tired of this running in my head for so many months now. Everytime I do something it reminds me of something. So tiring and frustrating.

So anyway, acceptance. I don't want to think about it anymore. I hate complicated things.

This year is all about focusing on myself. I don't want to please other people or care about what they think.