WINTER HOLIDAYS part two OSAKA

OSAKA

25, 26 DECEMBER 2009

MEMBERS: ME, JOYCE, ZI

25 DECEMBER 2009 FRIDAY

woohoo~ this is gonna be super lengthy

Because we have to take the night bus the next night to go the ski trip, i thought like might as well just kaikai at osaka before going.
 
Our first destination: namba parks!
In Osaka, there's just 3 parts you have to go to: Nanba(south part), Umeda(north part) and USJ (the theme park). If you've been to this 3 parts u can proudly say "I've been to Osaka" =). nanba parks is at the south part.
here's some photos of the views we passed by from our hotel to nanba parks.
Ok. I lied.
here's some photos of the views we passed by as i made the three of us walk from our hotel to nanba parks. Which is a couple of stations away. Its not that far. Really. According to google map its just a mere 23 minutes away! I'm positive it wouldn't n't have taken an hour if we didn't get lost (｡〇_〇).

 

personally I don't like to post too many scenery shots but mum loves photos of botak trees so....

 This building is actually a lot more gorgeous than it looks in the photo. I just couldn't get the feel of it in the shot. I think its some place especially for weddings to be held at. If i ever do get married, IF, and only IF, i'd like it to be at someplace dreamy like here =)

 
 
 
いよいよ、
  Nanba parks~!

If i'm not wrong, its designed to look like a canyon. It's geng and...cool. sorry i don't have much words in my vocabulary to describe buildings. but it really was very unique. i never saw an interior with curves like this one. i was like 'wow!!' when i first saw if from afar.

so sorry ling, i know how much u love stuff like this. if i knew about this place earlier i definitely would have recommended u to go when u came.

to take this shot we had to walked all the way to the opposite expensive looking hotel and ride the elevetor to 20+ floor. it doesn't look good at all when taken from the ground.

since i've already took the trouble to go all the way up, took some photos of osaka from up high too.. not really tat pretty huh.

yay~! finally photos with me in it~~~

 

hohoho.. legs look long here. will definitely remember this pose (ﾉ´∀｀)ﾉ

joyce was with us too but it just so happened i looked better in these shots.. apparently she's the better cameraman.

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damn i sounded so vain..

this is the shopping area in nanba.  and thats a refection of the glico man.

okay.. this is 1500yen room (rm60). its considered very very VERY cheap in japan. because japan hotel system is to count money per head not per room, we each paid 1500yen for 3 single rooms.

and i wake up at 5am to find ...this......=.=

a bit zadao..  in the end we all slept in one room haha

26 DECEMBER 2009 SATURDAY

this is tsutenkaku tower and the area is called shinsekai／ 新世界／new world..  its one of the poorest area in japan and i was really shocked to see the condition there.

and this is kushikatsu.. it's a famous delicacy in this area. but its really just some fried stuff that tasted slightly better than normal ones. we only spent a little time here before we went nanba to shop again =).

and the nite finally arrives and we ride the night bus to go nagano

MS SCROOGE

25 DECEMBER 2009 FRIDAY
OSAKA

Because we have to take the night bus the next night to go the ski trip, i thought like might as well just kaikai at osaka before going. This is like my REAL first time in Osaka even though its just 53 minutes away from my place. Paiseh (#-_-#). But the 2way train tickets to Osaka cost 1580yen (rm50) and I didn't want to just spend only one day at Osaka then go back but there weren't much chance until now soo....

I really beh tahan to use too much money on transportation. I mean I can still stand it if the money goes to good food. I get the satisfaction of eating it, but for transportation? In my mindset 1000yen = a normal blouse, 1500 yen = a really nice blouse, 2000yen = a decent one piece.
There's quite a lot events going on around here like activities with host family (okaasan outings) which are usually held in Kobe, or MSAJ (Malaysia blabla Association Japan) raya party in Osaka or xmas dinner at Kyoto. まあ、stuff like those.
So i don't really mind giving up a normal blouse to go Kobe, but a really nice blouse (Osaka - 1580yen) or a one piece (Kyoto - around 2000yen hehe i forgot) where i won't even have the slightest recollection  of the journey in the train once I get off it (cause i would be sleeping throughout the whole thing) just for some dinner?? No way!

ok... wait.. sorry.. i got too far away from my main story.. this was supposed to be about the Osaka trip before the Ski Trip. But now i really feel like talking more about this topic .. i must have kept it bottled up too long.  And its a bit troublesome to re-alter what I wrote on top so.. i'll just leave it be.


Looking back to when I first came here, I was wayyyy too innocent(=stupid, dumb, dim-witted.... call it what you want). The weekend I arrived, senpai asked me if wanna go 花見 at Osaka. I probably, no, I'm SURE  I definitely had asked if the transportation fee to Osaka is considered expensive  and she said

'no la!'

I was to find out much later she's the type who spend money like water =.=

Then  not long after that was the ex-akashi-senior-homewarming-party at Kyoto. -.- Really i was too too innocent back then. I mean its kinda nice to meet with new senpais and I wouldn't have minded as much if we did some shopping or sight-seeing (or if i really really enjoyed the time together). But to eat-talk-eat-come back? No way! I actually did something 'like' shopping after the 花見at Osaka..... There were like 7 people that time and some senpais breathing down my neck. .........I'm just not the type that can enjoy shopping while there's a whole group of people waiting for me outside the shop. And I bought a stupid expensive electronic dictionary some senpai insisted as a 'MUST HAVE' for 25000yen (>rm800)  . G.o.d. Why was I so s.t.u.p.i.d.


I think I only managed to grasp Japan's 'the money feel' (as in how much is 'expensive' and 'cheap' --> eg: udon outside 370yen =rm12 is considered cheap o.O) after the Hokkaido trip during summer.

Oya did you know? The Japanese gals my year who lives in dorm get pocket money 10000yen = (rm400) per month. But they have to pay the handphone bill themselves which is pretty expensive and usually costs around 4000yen so they're left with 6000yen which is NOT a lot if you consider the transportation fees in japan AND outside meal which can easily cost up to 1000yen per meal. I was kinda shocked when they told me cause I thought they would get a lot more. And the amount they spend to buy birthday or christmas present for their boyfriends is around 4000yen = rm160. I find stuff like this interesting ^^. bah... i'm just too 'pat' . There was this girl who spent 8000yen though o.O


anyways
Good bye, hasta la vista, and good riddance innocent me! \(^o^)／

ps:  My Japanese teacher invited us, akashi foreign students, over to her house which is somewhere in Kobe for a new year lunch party (if 10 ppl can count as a party) today. Yours truly will NOT be going though ^^.
I don't see why I should give up a normal blouse just to eat myself fat and spend time with the same old foreign students when I can talk to them here in the dorm if I want to.

HOKKAIDO 北海道

DAY 0

FERRY

12,13 August

 

 

and the  trip to hokkaido starts~!

We decided to take ferry because the plane tickets were too expensive.Our ferry tickets costed 12500 yen (rm500). Usually for that price we could have gotten pretty decent rooms but as it was peak season....                     

We picked the cheapest! We picked the lowest class of all class that existed! And....

 

.... this is what we got for rm500. An empty room enough for 12 strangers to cramp together. No beds btw! Can you imagine?? All we got was some stiff green blankets. But the room's quite wide and while its definitely not luxurious, it was clean and comfortable enough to spend the night.

You have to admire the sense of safety Japan has to offer. Though we had to stay with strangers, we totally had no fear or whatsoever of having our belongings stolen.

  

Some of the stuff we did while we left our luggage, money, cameras out in the room in the open as we roamed around the ship.

yes we are very 'xien kong' ppl... with 20 hours on a ferry/ship, what else can one do besides polishing one's take-pic-in-front-of-mirror skills

ah yes... we can go check out the sea... we are on a cruise after all...

hmmm oh... bo-ringg... You've seen one sea, you've seen them all. Within 10 minutes we got tired of the sea and resume our photo taking session.

The ship had a sailor's outfit hung at the receptionist for 'xien kong' ppl like us to try on.

How my 20th birthday was like:

About 15 mins after we got on the ship, 12am came along and.. its my birthday!

Pui San brought out the cake she baked for me in suprise. Really happy she waza2 baked it for me.

Its really such a pity that the knife she brought over to cut the cake was later confisticated during security check when we flew back by plane though =). 

Spending my whole birthday day on the ferry was kind of similar to how I spent my 19th birthday in Singapore. Without internet and sms thus without receiving wishes and bday congratulations, you sort of lose awareness that it's your birthday.

and tada~~~

 

this is one of the first view we laid our eyes on WHEN we finally reached Sapporo札幌 AFTER an hour of bus ride from  Otaru 小樽port WHICH our ferry finally reached on 13 august, 8.25pm.

How Jia Jie's 20th birthday was like:

Jia Jie's bday 14th August, so we stayed up till 12am and sort of celebrated his birthday.

haha Look at his half dead face. A mama's boy having to eat potato chips (which he refered to as rubbish) for his bday... how sadddd.... nvm.. at least you get to spend the rest of your bday with everyone from ppktj later in the afternoon...