25 apriil, saturday KYOTO.. i repeat KYOTO

lookie~ my 1st sighting of geisha...

its a street with restaurants where geishas work.

we got lucky cause apparently it happened to be around the time they got off from work so can see them walking from the restaurants to the taxi stands.

we onli got to lay our eyes on one tho..

there was a row of ang mohs lining up the street with cameras waiting for geishas to come out...swt

ok.. time to rewind... mei ching who's just graduated from akashi kousen and entered kyoto daigaku invited us over for a housewarming party. so on friday nite we ended up baking cakes again. er.. to be more precise.. i 'helped' in baking the cakes.. or something like tat..watever..

the cakes joyce made were successful and tasted a lot better than the banana cakes which also tasted fine btw

mei ching's.. michael went home by the time we took group photo

a photo taken somewhere near mei ching's house in case me n zi can't remember our way back

kawaramachi.. the shopping district in kyoto

according to joyce.. there's a temple for the geishas to pray to become prettier. wanted to go in but joyce said its dark ady so better not go in?

kfc old man in samurai outfit

BAABA'S HOME 3rd saturday in japan

morning - joyce bring us jogging to nearby umi (sea)... around 15 minutes to reach there. forgot to bring camera so didn't take photo.. nvm.. next time go pasti take photo.. the sun was out.. its quite 'sai' but not heaty..
lucky... never tot akashi kousen would be soo... erm how to say.. 'well-rounded'?..its less than a 5 minute run from kousen to the eki... there's yakiniku, udon shop.. bank.. supermarket nearby within walking distance or even better.. less than 10 minutes by bicyle.. can go shopping at kobe..... well...not tat i've shopped there yet. so far still no time to go..but according to senpai kobe is better than osaka

today we went to nishinomiya (about 90mins by train) where tuan's host family lives. his host family invited him for lunch.. me and zi tagged along =P

plan: bertolak from hostel 10am.. reach nishinomiya eki by 1130 to meet up with michael senpai (who happens to share the same host family as tuan) who's supposed to bring us to tat house as we hav no idea how to get there..

so how did we end up taking taxi?

we reached nishinomiya eki by 1130 alright. nishinomiya JRline eki to be exact... michael was waiting for us at nishinomiya hankyuu line eki...poor us..how were we supposed to noe tat JR and hankyuu train stations are so far apart..

osaka trains lines are confusing.. i repeat... confusing.. there's a total of 3 train companies(at least so far i noe there's 3) : JR which we usually take, Hanshin and Hankyuu. beh tahan.. my brain is too used to kl's simple lines...

oya the taxi costed 1140yen..rm42.18.

when we finally reached...

from left to right: michael, dulguun, yours truly, tuan, zi

...

tuan's host mum who's known as baaba is like the 'ring leader' of all the host mums. if i'm not mistaken, she's the one who hooked us new foreign students with host mums. i'm not sure her exact age but she's over 80 years old and she's more hyperactive than me.

she gave us some pots and aprons..

sorry.. onli got photos of zhong ing in apron. u'd hav to cross over my dead body b4 i wear something of tat kind and take photos of it..

o.. there's a photo of me with the dessert tho..

baaba and other host mums treated us to dinner near the eki..

conclusion: host family SAIKOU!! all u hav to do is eat eat AND eat! for free! the onli price (if it even counts as a price) is u hav to talk with them... haha wat a weird and wonderful world we're in.

oya it seems tat when the senpais' family came over to japan, baaba let them stay at her house wor.. hehe =w=i'll ganbatte!

1ST MEETING WITH MY OKAASAN~~

today teman zhong ing to her church near akashi eki.. 1st time enter proper church.. well.. not exactly 1st time... i'm pretty sure tua yee brought me there several times when i was very young but i hav no memory of it so it doesn't really count? hehe yesterday i emailed my host family (who by chance live near akashi eki) telling her i'd be teman-'ing' zhong ing.. and voila! she picked up the hint pretty fast and asked if we both wanna go her house after the church thingy.

the photo below is a bit fake since i'm not really tat close with her.. yet. we just met the 2nd time.. but o well.. 1st time went in a 'japanese-style' house. her name is kodama haha... same as my chemistry teacher back at ppktj. since we don't know the way to her house we met up at the station 1st.





she didn't cook beforehand so she brought us to the super in the eki (station) and bought many many obentou and some cakes...
the halaman rumah very nice.. the pathway to the door are blocks of flat stones with small flowers growing between them.
the house.. many many decoration

the ichigo very different from malaysia's. here really really sweet and tasty.. malaysia ones sour

the park in front of the eki

after tat we went tarumi-eki. which supposedly hav a outlet store like FOS selling cheap clothes... haha we managed to get to tarumi-eki no problem.. but we couldn't find the store. serves us right for not asking senpai properly b4 going.

today 's the 1st time we rode densha by ourselves.. this pic is part of the train's schedule at the eki. not included in the pic but the left side shows the hour..

me and zhong ing were like.. eh so weird? how come same hour same minute got 2 train come at the same time?
when we realised tat the small numbers in circles means which platform we shud be waiting at.... it was too late...

when reached uozumi eki had to run all the way back to hostel again for the 930 tenko..

a birthday card we made for linh.. supposedly his birthday is today. he has 2 birthdays.. something about dunno when his real birthday is..

HANAMI #2 AT HIMEJI CASTLE

5 APRIL...

himeji-jou.. one of the prettiest castle at japan and is a world's heritage.. or something like tat...haha did hanami 2 days in a row.. this time is host family programme. akashi kousen special in tat it's foreign students hav a long history with host family.. so unlike other kousen we dun hav to apply for host families.. we automatically get one!
the feast they prepared for us... rather than host 'family' more like just host 'mum'. cos all are older ladies whose children hav gone tokyo and enjoy mixing with foreign students...

one of them brought this thing for us to play. haha i managed to master it.

oya there was this japanese kid who was nearby... he managed to play it on his second try! then in a few short minutes he began to do all sorts of tricks like tossing the plate into the air then catching it after twirling the stick... maybe japan toys like this runs in japanese blood...

dog in sailorsuit...

only 4 of us chit, tuan, me and zhong ing went in the castle.. the others went b4 and got bored with it liao.. inside really dun hav much sight-seeing to do tho...

some ppl dressed up as ninjas.... a kid cried when his dad tried to bring him near them

after tat all of us foreign students minus malaysian senpais went to 'motomachi'.. its something like chinatown. its the 1st time i saw imported stuff for sale since i set foot in japan

hehe this time we weren't late for tenko. reached hostel at 925 haha... linh brought us back while others had their dinner at motomachi.. me and zhong ing still dunno how to take train.. haihz...

1ST HANAMI

the nite b4 hanami... joyce baked banana cake, zhong ing baked butter cake and yours truly assisted them professionally.

4 april...

this hanami thingy is organised by kansai area's msaj (malaysia student association japan). all senpais and newcomers like us nearby goes to this sort of event. i even saw a few sui mu bringing their babies along!



msaj chose a park in osaka to do the hanami. it was almost a 3 hour trip with countless norikae (change of trains). i even lost count of how much i spent for the transportation. troublesome but worth it ^-^

this photo is somewhere in osaka on our way to change trains

yay!! finally reached! sorry forgot wat the park name is. something osaka kinen blablabla kouen. o well.. i'm not sure why but this statue thingy is the symbol of the park... if i'm not mistaken.

naze~! hehehe.. the students from suzuka kousen got come so got to meet up with naze, jet, arafah. really such a pity tat's all the ppl from my batch that came. nara kousen ppl din come tho quite near. kononnya my batch's students (yang chau, sabri, zamzam) studying there dun wanna come wor... as for wakayama.. haih... puisan... jiajie.. why didn't u guys come? was really looking forward to meet up one..

super shy afiq...

hehe.. finally got to use a transparent umbrella...

a pasar like thing at the park... din get to finish kaikai the park cos hav to go nanba in osaka to buy denshi jisho (electronic dictionary)...

behold the power of LOVE!!! gesi le... no promise! no contact!.. we were all walking towards the gate when rahaizal and asma strolled by us. rahaizal and asma's kousen at shikoku which is like on a totally different island from ours and is FAR from osaka...

theme park... didn't hav time to go near it... pity.. it looks very gorgeous from faraway with the sakura trees adorning the lower parts

pigeons...

btw.. u'll seldom see zhong ing in my photos cos it's owes me helping her take photos or vice versa

michael senpai. now in uni.. formerly oso studied at akashi kousen. michael and mei ching senpai have our deepest appreaciation and gratitude for leaving their bicyles for us! hehe.. okagesama de we straight hav bicycle to ride when we got there.

food...free food..everyone brought some food...hehe i haven't really start missing malaysian food yet

after tat like i said we went to nanba.. missed a train for coming back, totally late for our 930 tenko (girls' dorm got check attendance at 930 EVERYnite.. mafan) and ALMOST didn't make in time for 10pm when the alarm will sound if we open the dorm ater tat. ran all the way back from station.. running in heels wasn't any problem tho.. it was gasping the cold air tat was really difficult... throat felt very dry afterwards