CHAGE & ASKA 『めぐり逢い』

After listening to my old C&A CD, i remembered why i had bought it. It was because of this one song. My fav C&A song. Pity ASKA didn't sing it today. :(

ASKA Symphonic Concert Tour 2008 "SCENE"

My very first Japanese concert!!
Nevermind that he is now one half of duo CHAGE & ASKA from decades ago.
Nevermind that he is now a 50-year-old ojisan (uncle).
Nevermind that i have not heard many of his songs... erm... or maybe had heard only one song.
Nevermind the pricey tickets. i wouldn't have gone if CQ did not jio me.

The thing is it would be my very first Japanese concert! And this might be the only time ASKA would be singing here! (Seeing how small the local market is for Japanese concerts). And he is collaborating with The Philharmonic Orchestra of Singapore, singing at the Esplanade. i'm sold!

The concert was attended by an expected predominantly Japanese crowd. Not sure whether was it due to the Japanese culture, or was it the "classy" setup in the Esplanade and with the Orchestra? The audience was rather subdued. Still, i think it was a SUGOI concert!

Sugoi seats! Our seats at Circle 1 Balcony A was the best in the house! Unrestricted view of the stage, orchestra and ASKA (even though we were looking at his right side most of the time. hehe.)

Sugoi singing! Gosh! He sounds exactly the same as his CD! i realised that i do have one CD in my mass collection and was playing it this afternoon to refresh my memory. lol. REALLY powerful vocals! You can even hear him sing standing more than 1m away from the mic! And he's so engrossed in his singing, so nice to see him sing! 认真的男人最帅!

Kakkoii ojisan! ASKA smiled at me!!! He looked at our balcony at the start of the concert and smiled when i waved at him. hehe. He looks so cute, he doesn't look like a 50yr-old uncle! Still looks like the ASKA on my CD sleeve (and that was from donkey years ago!)

He sang mostly songs from his solo albums. So for the majority of the concert, i'm hearing them for the first time. Perhaps it was the collaboration with the orchestra, perhaps it was his 有感染力的唱功, you just feel very comfortable listening to the concert. No gimmicky act, dance or costume. It was just his plain voice and the orchestra. Not even backup singers.

He's still on for another night at the Esplanade. Catch him if you can! (^^,)v

L.O.S.T.

Feeling lost all of a sudden... My life has no aim, no goal. Nothing that i'm REALLY looking forward to, other than living from day to day. Am i a living zombie??

Found & Lost

*Sob sob* The fish soup that i had found at Seah Im food centre is gone. :( The stall changed owner when i went there for lunch today. The new one is not nice.

Oh. Saw a number of celebraties having lunch there today. Michelle Chia, Yvonne Lin, Thomas Ong and ex-tcs/sbc Zheng Wanling were sitting at the table next to mine. And cos the table was too small, Julian Hee was sitting at another table. Yvonne Lin is really really pale.

王若琳 - 有你的快乐

Fell in love with this song in recent weeks. Been hearing it over the radio. i like the 编曲 very much. Makes me feel happy just listening to the song. (^^,)

Ajitei @ Bugis Junction

Had not eaten here for nearly half a year. Ate here almost every week when my Jap class was on Tuesday. Had only dessert since i was going gym. Forgot its name but it's mochi in red bean soup. The red bean soup is too watery. And i think it's weird that they serve it with pickles too. MOF's desserts are nicer. i think i'll just stick to my usual tonpeiyaki and rice set the next time i'm back.

for one more day

Finished reading this book yesterday when i should be revising for today's Jap test. Another sentimental tale from Mitch Albom somewhat pertaining to life and death. Reminded me to treat mummy better and not take my parents for granted. Not everyone could have one more day everyday!

[Sidenote] No guesses to what happened to today's jap test! :(

CafeBiz @ Traders Hotel

The boss treated to lunch today cos he got some best lecturer award. He said we contributed to his success in some way or another. Kudos to him for sharing his prize money. So i contributed by eating (a lot). hee... *blush* There goes my plan to diet (again!). The spread is quite extensive. Quite nice too. But there isn't a really mind-blowing, overwhelmingly delicious dish. $35+++ per pax.

Kuriya & OChaCha (Revisited)

Gosh! It's been Japanese, Japanese, Japanese since i came back from my trip. Jap food again today. This time must recommend the seiro (cold soba) that i took some getting used to the first time i was here. Simply oishii! But the dipping sauce was quite salty today. After we finished the seiro, the waitress came over to pour some soba water (the water that was used to boil the soba) into the dipping sauce. It is not bad... but seems we were like drinking soya sauce! hehe.

The other dish that i ordered - sushi balls in bamboo. Looks nice only. Nothing special.

Popped over to OChaCha for dessert. i had the panna cotta while the girls drank their mint and lychee rocks. Tried the matcha latte and sponge cotton previously. i think the hot tea looks more yummy than the cold ones. Not sure what panna cotta is exactly but it taste like some green tea cream / mousse. Quite yummy.

yummy mousse or whatever-it-is

MOF (Revisited II)

tan tan ramen at the recommendation of XJ. it was supposed to be spicy but i could drink the soup so that means it is not that spicy afterall.

Souvenirs From Japan 2008

Souvenirs :)

some of the food stuff we bought. We found Royce and Shiroi Koibito at Narita Airport!

my blue label

Black egg from Owakudani Valley. They actually taste quite nice despite the dark exterior.

Super kawaii chocolates from the Snoopy tin.

Japan 2008 (Day 7)

11 Apr 08 (Fair)

**Tokyo / Singapore**

ANA Flight NH 111 from Narita to Singapore

Watched The Golden Compass and Midnight Eagle (but missed out on the ending :( ) inflight

Ate frozen but oishii vanilla Haagen Daz ice cream

1700hrs - Touched down to reality

Home Sweet Home

The earth looks like a big globe from 11000m. Was quite lucky to be sitting next to the window on both legs of the trip.

Japan 2008 (Day 6)

10 Apr 08 (Rain <10 deg. C)

**Tokyo Disneyland**

Tokyo Disney Resort

Lunch @ the foodcourt beside the JR station outside Disneyland

Garden Hotel Narita

Very lonely balloon seller. The weather has made Disneyland quite desserted.

The ducks are everywhere at Disneyland. I was quite fascinated by them. :p

Disneyland Japan is celebrating its 25th anniversary on 15 Apr

Oishii miso ramen for lunch

This is the nicest tamago that i had eaten with ramen. (^^,)

Japan 2008 (Day 5)

9 Apr 08 (Fair)

**Tokyo City Tour**

Drive pass Imperial Palace

Shopping @ Ueno (where i bought my Blue Label! :p)

Sightseeing @ Asakusa Kannon Temple

Shopping @ Nakamise Shopping Street

Daiichi Hotel Sea Fort

View from hotel roof top. Mount Fuji! Compare to the view at Day 4.

Tried raw egg on rice for breakfast. Just crack it on hot steaming rice and mix with soya sauce. The empty hot plate at the top right hand corner was meant to cook the egg but then i tried it the Japanese way! Not as disgusting as i thought!

Asakusa Kannon Temple

A tree at Asakusa. :p

Japan 2008 (Day 4)

8 Apr 08 (Rain)

**Toyohashi / Shinkansen / Mt Fuji / Lake Kawaguchi**

Shinkansen from Toyohashi to Hamamatsu (Sunny)

On way to Mt Fuji, rain + strong wind. :(

Sightseeing @ Owakudani Valley => Shopping at the Omiyage (souvenir) shop due to the strong wind

Onsen & Dinner & Stay @ Kawaguchi Hotel Ohashi

The Shinkansen is so fast, it is extremely hard to get a good shot of it.

The road to Mt Fuji was closed. :(

Owakudani Valley (see the strong winds and clouds. The other white stuff are the sulphur fumes)

View from the Hotel roof top (see Day 5 to find out what is behind the clouds)

Japan 2008 (Day 3)

7 Apr 08 (Rain)

**Kyoto / Toyohashi**

Sightseeing @ Kinkakuji 金閣寺

Kimono fashion show @ Nishijin Textile Centre

Shopping @ Kyoto JR Station

Lunch @ Nishijin Onominasu (at the textile centre)

Sightseeing @ Kiyomizu-dera 清水寺

Hotel Nikko Toyohashi

金閣寺

清水寺

As it was freezing, i bought a cup of coffee from this vending machine at the rest station during the 2 hour journey to Toyohashi. This is a very cute vending machine. Note the panel at the centre above all the buttons. It will show you the whole process of making your cup of coffee! Cool!

Japan 2008 (Day 2)

6 Apr 08 (Sunny)

**Universal Studios Japan / Shinsaibashi**

Cherry Blossom viewing @ Osaka Castle

Universal Studios Japan

Shabu shabu dinner @ Ebisubashi

Shopping @ Shinsaibashi

Crowne Plaza Metropolitan Kobe

First breakfast of Japan 2008. Almost all the hotel breakfast buffet serve similar food. Japanese and western spread. i would always try to be as local as possible. So you can see the tub of natto in the top right corner. To the unsuspecting, natto is equivalent to the durian / fermented bean curd of Japan. It is very healthy and said to be a cleanser of blocked arteries. From L (clockwise): Hot spring egg, miso soup, cold somen, natto and miscellaneous appetisers.

First cherry blossom seen @ the hotel

Osaka Castle

Rows of Sakura trees on the grounds of Osaka Castle

Sakura everywhere but it is very hard to capture a nice shot

These are the some of the nicest in my cam but i don't do it justice

Close up of sakura

Sesame Street characters in Universal Studios

A little girl getting her face painted at Universal Studios. See the intense look on her face. Full concentration!

Land of Oz. My cam went out of batt after this. :(

Japan 2008 (Day 1)

5 Apr 08 (Sunny)

**Singapore / Tokyo / Osaka**

ANA Flight NH 112 @ 0820hrs (SIN time) to Tokyo Narita Airport

Watched PS I Love You and Hero inflight

Domestic flight ANA 2179 to Osaka Itami Airport

Dinner at Tonton Tonkatsu at Kobe Habourland Mosaic

Crowne Plaza Metropolitan Kobe

Taken above Manila @ 11277m altitude

Back to Earth

Time: 1700hrs.
Touched down to reality.
Having a bit of jet lag at the moment. Shall look through and post some of my photos when i'm more up to the task tomorrow. (o_O)

终于放假了

终于收拾好行李，准备出发了！七天的日本游，我来了！

じゃ、また来週！

Sushi Tei

First visit to this Raffles City (again) branch. The interior was bigger than expected. Besides the counter seats, there are normal tables as well as booth seats. i was shown a very cosy booth at the very far corner of the restaurant.

can you guess what is this?

Ordered the Okhotsk Nigiri (i think there's a spelling error cos the kanji obviously read Ohootsuku) which consists of 7 pieces of assorted sushi. This is a special winter promotion dish. hmm... But it is early spring now. You see everywhere else serving sakura cuisine now. Why are they still having this? Tasted fresh but no particularly wow factor.

Cafe Cartel

Had the set lunch which comes with a soup of the day, main course, dessert and a drink. i chose Set B which was the chicken and mushroom baked rice. Yucks. Looks and taste very mass-produced. Soup was cream of mushroom which looks like cream of chicken. Dessert was Walls ice-cream mini poppers which were tiny balls of vanilla ice-cream coated in a chocolate crust.

Caution: Don't ever try Thursday Set B again! Other than the price ($9.80 nett), i can't find any thing worth recommending.