Happy New Year (a few days late for Christmas) (~_~)

Was back to Tokyo recently for some work stuff. Quite full-on, would work till past midnight then back to the hotel to work til about 4am. The whole thing wrapped up on the 24 th so instead of heading back to warm Malaysia I extended a couple of days…so yes! My first Xmas eve and Xmas day in Tokyo! Just arrived back in KL a couple of hours ago so forgiveness if my email sounds slightly incoherent and the image I sent lacks a linear visual theme – blame it on the jetlag heehee. I really wish I could write a long email about everything in Tokyo but this week is going to be crazy busy!

So let me sum it up in few sentences:

In Tokyo Christmas is the season for shopping, dating and christmas lights (but not trees or ornaments, just lights)

Very nice Xmas cakes because it’s more a Japanese tradition to give cakes than turkeys.

The Harajuku freaks can’t show obscene amounts of cleavage, fish net stockings and Gothic lolita french maid costumes because it’s too cold.

Besides looking like a tourist with digital camera, I blended in perfectly with the 1000s of other Tokyo-ites taking photos with their cameras and keitai.

Very yummy getsu-ramen at Shibuya for Xmas eve dinner and….

Very yummy French crepes on Omotesando for Xmas brunch (thank you Denise!)

Asahi beer.

And I was very happy to be back in warm Malaysia after all that.

Happy New Year and Best Wishes for 2006,

Shi.

I thought that I wanted to take a photo of myself paddling out in a Santa hat and send it as a Christmas email – but then the photos of the surf in Malaysia turned out to be so grey and depressing (and tiny uninspiring looking waves) that don’t photograph well…so I canned that idea.

Turns out that I got to go to Dubai for a few days. Nothing too exciting, a lot of meetings and a presentation. Before you read on, here is the disclaimer: This is not an insightful and in-depth look into the social, political and state of economic affairs in Middle Eastern countries. What it is, is an email intended for the reading pleasure and procrastination activities of cubicle dwellers on Monday morning. Now read on…

Dubai is one of the most westernized of all Middle Eastern countries. It used to be a major hub for international flights between Asia and Europe before dodgy airlines like Malaysia Airlines decided to fly direct. However with a far-sightedness uncommon in most royal families owning oil-rich lands (Brunei royalty being well-known for their need for gold-plated toilets and chocolate rooms in their summer houses), Dubai is determined to become an international cosmopolis before the oil supply runs out – hence the super-rapid development – most of the skyscrapers have been built in the last 3 years.Which is probably where people like me in the construction industry come in.

Dubai is not just Sheikhs in long white robes and full length black burkhas – I was told this a few times during my trip that Dubai is the world’s biggest market for….G-strings. If you’ve ever wondered what the ladies wear under that black coverall, its sexy lingerie. And those loose robes and leather sandals that the men wear to the office? Infinitely more comfortable than that noose they call a Versace necktie. And the young ladies not in burkhas looked like Shakira with flowing blond tresses, exotic features and skin-tight tops and figure-hugging jeans.

Dubai is also apart from desert, super-modern skyscraper, sprawling acres of Sheikh’s personal villas, wonders like a full ski ramp & snowboarding park and the famous 7-star hotel the Al-Burj. And the food – oh the food. Food is brought in from the other countries surrounding Dubai. Prawns, mussels, seafood so big and luscious, juicy apples, oranges, the best pineapple flown in this morning from the Philipines…imagine what you could do if your country were the international hub for flights between Asia and Europe AND had all the financial resources of an oil-rich nation. Oh yeah baby.

The only downside was the horrendous traffic. Rapid development and everyone wanting to get their own Porsche 4WD means gridlock – roughly 1 hour to get from place to place. Heat is not too bad since it’s winter now, it’s a cool 24 C at the moment but it gets to 50 C in the summer.

Dubai blows the mind. Different from Tokyo, New York, Hong Kong, Singapore…anywhere. Kind of a jaw-dropping astonishment at how all of this could spring up from the desert. Most cities have a kind of organic growth that takes place over decades or a century but all of this is all so new and decadent. Inflation is increasing 30% every 3 months and the Dubai property columnists predict that the bubble will burst soon.

I guess that if fancy shopping malls and flash cars aren’t your thing then Dubai wouldn’t suit you at all. Maybe it wouldn’t be for me after a while. But as a stopover on your way to Asia or Europe – it is definitely worth booking yourself into a nice 5-star hotel and taking a look around. I didn’t get to check out the Wild Wadi Waterpark with it’s standing wave machine but that’s for the next trip…

Till the next email…Merry Christmas!

Soooo not in a burkha,

Shi.

I went to bali for a week. Yes, again. In less than 24 hours after saying “I’m in”, went to the airport, bought a ticket and flew to bali. Week-long public holiday in malaysia because of hari raya adil fitri and deepavali (indian), I love muliticulturalism.

bali is a lot nicer during off-peak season, balinese people are friendlier, you see little kids playing in the shops and there are sessions where we surfed centres in kuta reef 2 days in a row with just the three of us, solid overhead (and bigger) and water so clear I correctly identified lettuce coral (it’s coral shaped like a lettuce, big duh).

Didn’t do much actually. Did all the cultural stuff during my long trip the last time. Just did a morning surf sesh, ate, napped, surfed, ate, went out, slept (X7).

A good holiday that I really can’t remember what happened

But here are some highlights (and lowlights):
I boarded the plane but my luggage and board didn’t – so had to borrow guy friend’s shirt and went walking around kuta for a day looking like a 12-year old japanese boy. Interestingly, I didn’t get offered drugs or women (if I had really looked like a man), and didn’t get chatted up (if I had looked like a woman)
Being introduced to everyone as “his little brother” for 1 week afterwards.
Hung out with a friend working at Hard Rock Hotel to do paddle board races in the Hard Rock Hotel pool.
Was fun, jumped on the slides after that.
Accidentally met long-lost american surfer chik whom I first met in bali 1 1/2 yrs back – in the lineup in kuta beach. (hooray!)

As the solo female, taking the boys window shopping with me and then having to wait 2 hours while they finished shopping. Got punched on the leg a few times for singing Elmo’s song out loud on the motorbike. Can’t help it if its the only song I know…. Eating nasi goreng almost everyday. Became malnourished after 5 days. Got cranky unless I sat in an air-conditioned shop/bar/restaurant/internetcafe for at least 30 minutes every night.

The swell that we thought wasn’t going to hit Malaysia did arrive while we were in bali. And in case you’re wondering, yes, there were still tourists in bali but mostly from jakarta, malaysian – mostly asians. Only asians in the Mcdonalds, KFC, Hard Rock and haagen-daaz. The aussies and europeans went underground into the local warongs.

hope you like the pic.

Cheers,
shi.

well I kinda have good news and bad news. Bad news first, I suppose. Bad news is no more Tokyo/ Japan photos. Good news are exotic Asia photos and bi-monthly tropical island paradise pics in the future.

Wouldn’t be honest if I didn’t say that I don’t feel disappointed about not seeing Tokyo for a while. But after getting 1 week upset stomach after swallowing Tokyo sea water – tropical coral island paradise doesn’t sound too bad. But Tokyo is sugoi. Always thankful that I had the chance to be there for a bit.

Surfing in wave pool on foam boards is slightly depressing though. Monsoon season for surfing starts late Oct- Nov. Puasa starts in October as well so Selamat Berpuasa!! (evil laugh) Starting work Thursday for slightly higher-than-average pay in architecture firm building Pakistani condominiums so I expect to work like a dog.

Also have laryngitis this week so if you hear nothing but deep breathing when you call my number, it’s not a kinky sex caller, it’s Shi trying to tell you in her loudest whisper that she has laryngitis. (Already done that a few times)

Am in the midst of juggling GMAT studying, a fever and the shop proposal. Went white water rafing as a final hurrah before becoming a urban zombie. Of course I brought my camera if only to prove that yes, I am turning into a yuppie tourist.

Kinda tired now, this fever/flu/laryngitis thing is doing strange things to me.

Have fun,
Shi.

Hey there

This weekend passed in a blur – last weekend in Tokyo for a bit. Going away dinner for me and another colleague who is being posted in another prefecture (different area in Japan).

Went to see hanabi (fireworks) at Sumidagawa River (’tis the season for hanabi..) with D, a Dutch expat who’s been in Tokyo for a while. It was pretty good, not as crowded compared to other hanabi, and all the Japanese girls were in yukata, which was really pretty – so we had a good time admiring girls’ outfits , but my all-time favourite, I think best of all the outfits I’ve seen in Tokyo was the goth yukata. Even her obi (sash) was all goth, with lace and teardrop pearls. Very cool. I wish we went in yukata too, but it’s a really difficult thing to wear and tie properly. Drats. Fireworks were great! 1 hour of fireworks (and sitting on newspapers on the road), there were some like golden streamers, star bursts, crazy alien rockets but the most stupendous was one that sounded like a great waterfall, and then the whole sky would turn red as a fountain of thick columns of light (about 10 storeys tall) gushed out…I love fireworks. As usual, there were police with megaphones telling people where to sit and walk – it is really common in Tokyo. Which is good, because there are so many people at these events that it would be chaos if there weren’t. Everything was really orderly and clean plus no garbage on the ground after. Finished up with a tops dinner (thanks to D’s superior Japanese skills) and cocktails in Japanese restaurant before going home.

Odaiba on Sunday for the Miraikan museum – long name is National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation. Coolest museum for little kids, you get to manipulate a 2-storey high globe with LCD screens showing changing weather patterns, temperatures, change the planet… and just swivel the whole thing, fast forward the years..and of course other stuff like Assimo (freaky how humanlike he moves), spider robots kids can manipulate with Playstation controls, VR…I think the Malaysian science museum has something on tadpoles turning into frogs. Hmm. And the Fuji televion building had some summer festival at the bottom with the weirdest giant elephants and celebrities heads, policegirl uniforms for Japanese girls to take photos in (although being Japan, the skirts stop ½ inch below the butt) And the Statue of Liberty with the Rainbow Bridge in the back. Dancing Elvises also on tour in Odaiba seaview deck.

Went to Omotesando on a mission to find Herzog and de Meuron’s Prada building before leaving Tokyo – and found it. It is now one of my 3 favourite Tokyo buildings. Love the treatment of the façade, the intersital spaces where stores rooms can be hidden yet appear if needed, the slanted planes with images projected at an angle so that person on the street can see catwalk show projected from the 5th floor, uber-cool creamy white honeycomb structure and custom made glass panes. Love the effortless cool. Then cooled down the hot Tokyo night with green tea frappucino on the 2nd floor while people-watching the Shibuya crossing.

Tired now. 3 days left, working till I leave. Will let you know if there is a second chapter of this Tokyo tirade.

Later,

Shi.

Hey there

Bit different weekend. Went off work an hour early (woo-hoo, 7pm!) on Friday because there was a neighborhood get-together. The businesses in the area pay an annual sum and that pays for barbecue, beer (mmmm..Asahi), chicken wings, nibblies, watermelon & shaved ice (japanese summer dessert) and fireworks for kids and kids at heart. People had tatami mats on the road, shoes off, eating at low tables, with lanterns strung up and kids and families everywhere, not just salarymen. It was fun and food was good. Had an interesting conversation with my colleague’s friend whom I asked why Japanese eat whale meat? He thinks that since Indonesia has so many whales and Japan so few, it justifies why they should hunt whales there..besides, whales eat lots of fishes at one go (with their huge mouths) Before I get any angry emails about what he said – yes, I do know that whales eat krill and plankton. I’m not sure if whales do eat sardines, but I doubt that the harpoon boats stop to ask the whales before they fire. This issue is touchy but from my personal experience, chinese people are also taking sharks to extinction (shark fin’s soup) and eating exotic clams and fish in protected dive sites and marine parks so I don’t want to point fingers at other cultures when my own is flawed as well. But I wouldn’t make whale stew or eat shark fin soup anytime soon.

The next day, got picked up at the Hilton (3 mins walk from my apartment) at 503am sharp. I sleep in my swimmers, T-shirt and boardies with packed backpack on the side so that the only thing I have to do in the morning is roll out of bed and head out the door. The purpose: surf at a spot 2 hours drive from Tokyo. After having to take the train and walking everywhere, it was great cruising on the elevated highway past Shibuya, Roppongi, Rainbow Bridge, Odaiba, Tokyo Disneyland…boys were checking surf reports on the radio and on their keitai (handphone). Taro-san’s 5’8″ was pretty short, but the wetsuit was a perfect fit – dunno how the heck he ever managed to fit into the wetsuit?? The surf was not as small as I was worried it would be, but pretty cruisy waves were good because I’ve been landlocked for the past 7 months. Nice shoulder to head-high sets (Japanese guy sized) in the morning that got blown out in the afternoon but still surfable. Really such a difference surfing in Japan – after the surf, they got out huge containers of water and a wooden rack (like the bathhouses) and took turns rinsing off. All the cars there had gallons of water in their boot, and all (no exceptions) the surfers stretched before going in. Post-surf we had soba or rice sets in a noodlehouse for lunch (complete with central rock garden, koi and bonsai) Taro-san called my suggestion of Macdonalds “dame-mono” – no-way food – Awww shucks.

Surf wasn’t as crowded as all the stories I’d heard but there were a lot of drop-ins. Japanese manners still pervade, and no one was shouting or hooting. The boys parked for an afternoon nap right in front of this Japanese chick sunbathing, who glared at us for perving. I was innocent, but she glared at me as well anyway. I didn’t understand why she didn’t just go down on the beach instead of lying in the parking lot sunbathing (???) – but then I noticed the nice manicure job with sparkly daisies she had on her feet. In this case its possible to go to the beach without actually going on the beach.

We had shabu-shabu when we got back to Tokyo at 11pm. Cool restaurant called Butaya (Pig shop) with so much kawaii piggy memorabilia – only in Japan. We had pork skewers, pancetta, pork in sauce, salad, shabu-shabu and noodles, felt like a real pig at the end of it. Got home about 130am. 2 different friends described Tokyo-ites as being “robot-like” but I think that they also like to laugh and joke a lot – only when they’re with their friends. It’s been good to see things from the other side. And compared to my past warong/little hut/meat pie/fish&chip post-surf lunches, the noodle house was really impressive. Heck, the noodle house was impressive, period.

Got fireworks and want to go to this cool robot/tech place in Odaiba next weekend and I also have to pack because my flight is next Thurs.

It’s been such an unreal experience in Japan.

See yall.
Shi.

Hey there

Weather has gone crazy hot again – summer is here with a vengeance. It’s as hot (if not hotter) than Malaysia, but in Malaysia, it’s possible never to have to step out of 16C air-conditioning…Anyway went to Mount Takao for a hike, that turned out to be a great escape from the heat because it was nice and cool in the mountains…although really hazy so I couldn’t see anything beyond the sewage treatment plant at the foot of the mountains (???) Went on the cable chair to the top and walked on trails that went past the monkey park, that I heard has “60monkeys that roam free!” No such thing, the Japanese are afraid of losing their 12 monkeys (not the movie) so they are all behind perspecs in a dirt enclosure with one barb-wired tree. Hmmm. But they also had a herb garden with 50 species of plants! Which would have been great if I could read Japanese like a Nihon-jin (but I read like a Mareeshia-jin which is pretty shat) and they only have ONE plant of every herb, so the walk took..oh 45 seconds.

The temple hike was pretty good though – fantastic for the stamina, it’s like walk up 50 stairs, see one temple, go up another hill, see another temple…the peak was disappointing though because I thought that there would be a fantastic temple on the top – only to see a café, giftstore and vending machines. Which makes it like every other mountain peak in the world, actually. This Japanese ironman went sprinting past me on the way up to the peak and then sprinting past me on the way down and a pair of obasan and ojisan (gran and granpa) doing the trek together, families with little kids, and of course, the quintessential Tokyo girl dressed in knee length skirt, cute top, trendy handbag, little dog (in trendy handbag), makeup and high heels for a dirt trail trek (???) This again proves that Tokyo girls can go everywhere in sparkly high heels (even trekking in muddy mountainous jungle). I predict that the next invasion of South-East Asia will be lead by Tokyo women in cute button-down tops, knee length skirts and sparkly high heels with vicious chihuahua attackdogs that fit in their Dior/Chanel/vuitton handbags. The resistance from the menfolk of SE Asia wil be minimal, if none at all. But the hike was a calming and refreshing respite from the concrete jungle of Shinjuku, and the people there were much nicer than normal.

Next day went to the aquarium in Sunshine city in Ikekuburo (aka gangoro central). It was like most other aquariums that I’ve been too, but I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t worse considering that we were in the middle of the city. The animals didn’t look too miserable, so that was good. A pretty small aquarium but a diverse range of exhibitions – and the highlight for me was a pair of (bored looking) Ocean Sun fishes (1meter disc shaped fish that can only be found in one place in the Phillipines) and deep sea Japanese Spider Crabs.

And then to the 60th floor observatory to look at Tokyo from above – everything seemed really quiet and serene from 60 floors up – totally different from the chaos and people perpetually rushing to get somewhere on the streets. Tokyo is a huge urban sprawl, buildings crammed to each other, highways, train tracks and power cables winding in the gaps, and patches of green for temples and Mount Fuji in the background, obscured by haze.

Then went down and found Tokyu Hands where I also found the costume department! Woo-hooo…I found (amongst other things), an eggplant suit, a mushroom suit, a policewoman, nurse and French maid (all with knee length skirts) costume, a salaryman’s costume with no back, and a Japanese schoolgirl’s costume! Also a girl cheerleading costume and a female tennis player’s costume….for men. Hahahahahaha…..I think I’ve started accepting alternative sexual fetishes as part of straight-laced Japan, but it will be a while before I can stop laughing….did you know that they actually hold schoolgirl camps for middle-aged salarymen where they can dress up as schoolgirls, and go shopping in malls? Mmph…hahahahahahahaa….

Tried to look for this place in shinjuku-koen (park) where there was supposed to be a tea-ceremony place…but didn’t find it. I did find a homeless persons campsite, where it was laundry day because there were mens’ shirts (collared business shirts, no less) and futons over all the park railings. There are homeless people everywhere in Tokyo – in parks, in cardboard beds at office building entrances, under bridges and they make little bed-coffins out of old fridge boxes. They are supposed to be unemployed salarymen who lost their jobs from corporate restructuring or when the bubble burst – but the strange part is they all look much happier living in a park than the other Tokyo salarymen their age who have jobs and sleep on the train to and from work.

Anyway back to work tomorrow, has been a good long weekend with good sleep-ins. Looking for a new place to live now, so spent 2 hours on the wrong train(s)few days ago. Ahhh wish me luck.

Have fun,

Shi.

ps: I don’t mean any malice by consistently mentioning the pretty Tokyo women – as far as I’m concerned, anyone who can hike a mountain, ride a bicycle, get through Shinjuku rush hour, sprint on wet sidewalks….with high heels 24-7-365.. demand high levels of respect.

Hullo..

Yet another slow weekend. It was raining crazily on Saturday night but before that, I went to an excellent acoustic live music session by Eric, a friend’s friend, who came on with fresh original scores and then wrapped up with an encore rendition of Halleujah. Surprisingly he’s still unsigned but he is so good it should only be a matter of time. Unfortunately before Eric came on a couple of Japanese bands were on, and after the accordian player’s set I really wanted to leave straightaway. Luckily Eric came on right after and my night got heaps better. Tokyo bars are really interesting, they’re mostly in the basements, or narrow 3m slots in the street, but I think that after a few stiff drinks, no one really notices how close the walls are anyway….

The weather was really good the past few days but after Saturday night’s storm the weather is horribly hot again. Went to the Edo-Tokyo Museum and it turned out to be much better than I expected (I had very low expections, the Malaysian museum has permanently scarred my perceptions of what museums are). The Edo-Tokyo Museum was interesting because it gave an insight on current items and practises in modern day Japan that are linked to practises dating back to the 1600s…I wish that they had given more explanation to WHY Japanese people are so ready to accept and assimilate Western culture because the rest of Asia (or at least South-East Asia) have mixed reactions towards Western culture – but I guess it’s not something someone can explain in a museum anyway. Museum design was pretty good, it looked interesting and impressive from the outside but inside it took backstage to the displays without being boring.

Visited the supposed Sumo Stadium next door because I read that they had a permanent exhibition, but all they had were sales on second-hand(I think they were) designer handbags and jewellery. I’ve never seen so many out-of-season Chanel/Vuitton/Gucci/Hermes/Tiffany etc stuff before. I might have bought something but the hordes of grandmas and grandpas kinda tipped me off that the stuff they were hawking weren’t super-cool… But they kept the most important thing open at the Sumo Museum, that is the GIFTSHOP where you could buy sumo shaped cakes, sumo mugs, sumo dolls and Hello Kitty Sumo mugs. Kitty-chan gets everywhere in Japan, the other day I bought a Kitty-chan snack! It had Kitty-chan on the front, and pink sparkly cereal puffs that tasted like Super-Sugary-Fruit-Loops.

My next foray into Japanese desserts shall be to try a parfait (dessert). You see Japanese girls all looking dreamily at the plastic parfait displays all the time. They are essentially 7 cubes of fruit, a dollop of whipped cream and a teaspoon of icecream, all arranged in kawaii manner and presented with the kawaii price tag of 800yen (US$7.50) . In comparison, a bowl of noodles costs 350yen, a Starbucks tall coffee costs 350yen and Haagen-Daaz costs 262yen. 1/20 a melon and a teaspoon of whipped cream must be awfully expensive in Tokyo.

After the visit to the (giftstore) of the (so-called) Sumo Museum, I looked at the Kanto Earthquake Memorial (it took less time than expected) but I had also seen Philippe Starck’s Asahi Hall (aka the Giant Golden Turd) from the train and proceeded walking..and walking…in the general direction. I found the hall after walking in the direction of the Japanese men swilling Asahi beers. Afterwards I realised that I had walked all the way to the Asakusa temple once I saw all the tourists and cheap souvenir stores.

No email last weekend because I somehow managed to get lost in all the red-light district in all 3 places I went to (Ueno, Roppongi and Shinjuku) I think I’ll try to get myself on a dive boat to a deserted tropical island with white sands somewhere off Malaysia when I get back Aug4.

Ahhhh…

Shi.

Heya

It has been really really hot in Tokyo lately, I’ve been becoming like har gau dimsum (a steamed shrimp in soft skin) Went to Disneyland last Saturday and it was more enjoyable than how I remembered the last times I went to the other Disneylands, think I was more cruisy this time (ahh yes getting old now) as compared to riding the triple looper 7 times in a row in Dreamland Gold Coast…anyway…

It was good. Went on Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Haunted Mansion, stood in a few lines, saw parades, had a bunch of Japanese girls screaming “Kawaaaaiiiiii!!! Kawaaaaaiiii!!” into my ear going nuts over a squinty eyed Elvis impersonator and saw too many girls (and their boyfriends) with fake animal ears (Marie, Minnie, Dumbo, Bambi, Stitch…), lots of 50′s Americana, Hawaiian stuff.. families laying mats on the ground to wait for parades. And saw a totally excellent Light Parade when it got darker. Fireworks got cancelled because of inclement weather, but then I joined the mob of Japanese people buying gifts from the giftstore and got bumped, shoved, elbowed and stepped on for my efforts.

For some strange reason there are a lot of the tanned blonde Japanese girls in Disneyland…

So I decided to go to Shibuya and check them out in their natural habitat.

I didn’t get any photos of the girls (yeah, I’m useless), but I got a photo of the Hachiko Crossing and a mob of angry pedestrians swarming over a helpless bus before the snippy Starbucks lady told me off (Advice: photos not allowed in Shibuya starbucks, so do it quietly)

Anyway going to get some rest, the combination of hot weather and then coming into cold air-cond is wreaking havoc on me.

Take care,

Shi.

Hullo..

It’s been another interesting weekend, but a little better this time because I got to sleep in sat and sun so got some rest instead of walking around all day on the weekends. Went to see the Yokohama International Ferry Terminal and it was AWESOME. It’s got to be the only large scale project that is so open to the public and so radical in design – subverting ideas of floor, wall, folding into each other, space and the natural and manmade – exciting and really inspiring. Especially when you see the freedom that people have to do on the roof garden and the level of interaction….a coffee cart and lounge chairs with stylish Japanese couples sipping lattes and enjoying the view of the bay, people on the roof garden watching a wedding on a docked yacht, dogs in hooded ensembles and stylish outfits chasing each other on the grass, Japanese couples making out on the lawn, a group of mates enjoying a carton of beer, 50Japanese students taking group photos, babies crawling on the paths and trying to push their strollers off the roof…

It is an awesome building and the roof garden is the best bit (best to go on a weekend evening). Again, too many pics to email out so check them out here.

www.flickr.com/photos/folio

And on Sunday went to Kamakura and visited a shrine, temple, temple in a cave and a giant Buddha. The temple was really cool, it had a huge golden buddha in it and there was a queue from the entrance to the top of the hill to see another Goddess on the top of the hill so I didn’t bother visiting that one. I also went to my first Japanese beach at Kamakura and immediately thought “No wonder Japanese go nuts when they get to Bali”. But gotta hand it to them, they are really stoked with whatever there is. Maybe 20 guys out on longboards surfing the knee high wind chop, it looked really fun but I don’t think I’ll be going surfing in Japan anytime soon, they’re still in steamers (3mm wetsuits) and I didn’t bring nuthin but a bikini. Whheee-ooo…I am tired.

I wonder where to go next weekend? I’m seriously considering…Tokyo Disneyland…I mean, why not? Happiest place on earth where Mickey and friends speak fluent Japanese.

Take care and talk soon,
Shi