☆Greetings from the South☆

Gulangyu
Gulangyu I'd say is the "Sentosa" of Amoy.
Just that it's rich in History, unlike ours.
This little island used to be a place
of residence for the Westerners
during Amoy's colonial past, and it's
made famous cuz of its piano-laden past.
(majority of the residents in Gulangyu love
and play piano. A lot of them play violin too!)
It's where China's largest PIANO Museum is
located.
There's no cars on the island, and the
only means of transport are bicycles and
battery-powered vehicles.



We were lucky that the weather was just nice
for the beach. Ain't too cold, though the sea
water was chilly. Got to see cloudless BLUE sky
which was so rare in China. (That's how I felt)


A nice shot of Thom with the backdrop of Amoy

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My trips are never complete without FOOD.
Eating is an important part of socialization.
You get to know more about the people
at the table while eating and you experience
the culture and understand the history of
a place through their food and table manners.

I've been forcing　lots of stuff down
my stomach every single day in Amoy,
as long as it's not cat, dog, rabbit, insects
or other protected animals.


seafood restaurant


fried oyster


a typical lunch at aunt's

And the coldness just made me
crave for more nuts and Chocolates.


sweEEeet!!

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2nd week in Amoy was much more exciting.
while mom and dad occupied with their own
middle school, high school, university
and whatsoever reunions, I had my own time
to spend with my friends.

Not that I have lots of friends in Amoy...

Thomas came during the last few days and
so we did a little sight seeing,
lots of DVD shopping, had KFC which was
really horrible, complained that we've
been eating too much, and spent lots
of time in Internet Cafe bidding for modules
and of course more movies.

Almost everyone was impressed by
the French boy's Mandarin.

Met my one and only friend in Amoy,
who used to be my neighbour and
kindergarten buddy who plays really
good er-hu. She's one of the few
Chinese girls who dares to admit
that China lacks civilization and
spitting on the street and burping
in front of everyone is uncool.



Went to a city beside Amoy,
called Quan Zhou to visit my cousin.
Nothing much to do in QZ.
Visited a couple of temples and
a mosque. Temples are beautiful,
but it gets kinda boring after visiting
a few because they all look and smell
the same.

There was this kid who said to Thomas:
我就知道ni是ー个大和尚！
(I knew that you're a big monk!)
It was pretty funny.



It was a city without sky-scrapers...
or should I say, it's less developed??


my adorable god brother & sister.
A 10 years old who knows the first
20 elements on Periodic Table.
and a 5 years old who knows how
electric circuits work...
kids today are creepy.

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2 weeks of China has finally come to an end
and I'm more than happy to be back
in my little room with my 12Mbps Broadband.
It's been quite a while that I once again appreciate
the warmth and humidity of Singapore.

Nevertheless, the whole trip was sweet.

Spent most of the first week at my aunt's
place, hung out with their families and even
attended a wedding.
I've not been to any wedding in SG but I
guess it should be some what similar.
By the way, my aunt's side of family
lives in an apartment which was built in
the 30s. It looked really old with squeaking
narrow wooden stairs and mosaic floor.
It's under conservation but I though they
should at least paint the outer walls...



I love my aunt's cooking
and once she knew that I like seafood,
prawns, fish and crab became normal
in our daily meals.



And you've gotta try the Sand-worm Jelly
and fried oysters if you're in Amoy.
Sand-worm jelly sounds really disgusting,
but it's a cold dish and it tastes really good
with garlic and soya sauce!


sand-worm jelly

Stayed a couple of days at my grandma's village
which is about 1hr away from the Amoy main island.
The village used to have no street lamps because
it was near an important army camp. I hated going
to the village when I was small because it's pitch dark
at night. The village used to be a place where the
ethnic Chinese from Southeast Asian countries settled
down, so you can find a small community of Thai,
Vietnamese and Indonesian Chinese.



The area around the village is still less developed
than the rest of the Amoy city, but it's getting
much better recently. At least there's street lamp,
hot water and supermarkets.
However, lots of efforts are needed for a better
civilization.

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　Happy New Year!!!
　あけましておめでとうございます。
　元旦快楽！

祝大家有個快楽的一年！中国好冷阿!!!
我好想念新嘉坡温暖的天気！

Ok. done practicing Chinese for today :p
been here for a week, but Chinese's not
improving. Instead, I'm picking up some
Hokkien. wth. China is so cold.
Though Amoy is supposed to be "warm".

Spent my new year eve watching DVD
while Henry(my cousin) was playing with
his DS, and mom went for her university
class gathering and dad went for Karaoke
with his secondary school friends.

wait... why are parents having so
much fun partying away while the kids
are stuck at home!?!?

I heard there was countdown at the
downtown area, but it's too cold to step
out of the house.

well. I'm just procrastinating.


these keep me occupied.

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We made a short trip to France on the last few days.
France is the country of LOVE!
And French is the Language of LOVE!



Colmar was a pretty city, where you can find those
REAL French styled architectures made of timbre and stones.
It was really colourful and resembled chocolate boxes! haha
But some of the houses were built waaaay back in the 1500s
since the Middle ages or Renaissance,
but they're still very well preserved!!

We had a night's stay at Dijon, on our way to Paris.
Beautiful town with richness of its architectural heritage!
And they had the Arc de Triomphe too!!!

Paris - the heart of France
I think it's one of the most painted, photographed, filmed and sung
city in the world!!!

Ok... i'm too lazy to describe any further cuz I'm just too sleepy...
There's a couple of pictures Here

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Italy had a temperature of scorching 36 degrees
while Switzerland was somewhat only between 15-22.
What a vast difference in climate though the two countries
are just next to each other!!!
And it's supposed to be mid summer!!!
I'll blame this on the Global Warming....
the weather system is so screwed up everywhere...
(Japan had hit as high as 40 degrees! omfg)

Anyhow, I got to see parts of the Alps range in Switzerland!


Mt. Matterhorn, on the border of Switzerland and Italy,
over the village of Zermatt.
It is elevated at 4,478m high and it's famous
cuz you see it on the packages of many swiss chocolates
such as Toblerone!! Haha
It also one of the most feared mountains in the Alps cuz
lots of mountaineers lost their lives while climbing it.
I was unlucky not being able to see the peak cuz of the
stupid cloud which refused to go away the whole afternoon!

We also went to Titlis (3,238m), which is a mountain in the Urner Alps.
It's famous for the world's first revolving cable car!
It was FREEZing and I regret not bringing thicker clothes.... :x
Anyway, I heard that Titlis is popular among Asians, cuz it's
cheap... LOL!!

But what's more amazing than Titlis is Jongfraujoch (3,471m).
Jungfraujoch is often referred to as the "Top of Europe" in many
tourist literatures. (Cuz it's where the highest railway station
of Europe is located, in an elevation of 3,454m!!)
This place is marketed as the most beautiful place in Switzerland.
I've gotta agree, cuz it was really really beautiful.
The combination of the snow and blue sky just make
it so picture perfect.


Singaporeans are so overjoyed when they see snow
that they don't really care the temperature is -5 degrees... haha

Btw, the Global Atmosphere Watch's atmosphere research station
is also located here. I hope they'll find some solution for
the damn global warming thing....

It's gonna be the greatest sin to destroy such a
beautiful gift from the mother nature!!! =(

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So what's unique in Italy was the architecture,
satues, Roman Catholic and Gothic Churches.

Switzerland is Mountain, traditional swiss houses
(which had been turned into hotels & guest houses)
and COWS & SHEEPS ...

I had a 2 nights stay at Interlaken, which is located
at the heart of the Swiss Alps. It is basically a tourist
town, lots of Japanese and Koreans, so you won't
have trouble shopping here, cuz most shops have
Japanese/Korean/English speaking staff.
(Not that you have many things to buy beside
chocolates!!)
And I finally found some Asian restaurants!!
Korean food ROCKed!!!
It's a real small town with just one
main street that's less 400m long probably... haha


Anyhow, what's exciting about this little street is
the famous Fondue restaurant.
We had a 3 course fondue dinner, where you had
Cheese fondue, Meat fondue, followed by the usual
Choc fondue!!!! Cool eh?
The meat fondue intrigued me, cuz I imagined it to be
dipping something into some meat sauce.....But
it turned out to be dipping the meat into a pot of OIL...LOL!
But overall, it was a great experience, with the
overly active and funny owner and his assistants!!!



The hotel we stayed in was actually a backpacker's hostel.
It looked very nice from the outside!
And they still have those olden day lifts where you have to
pull open the door! super cool!!!
They also had a really pretty english garden
and the view was great!
I could actually see part of alps from my balcony,
and the room was supppppppper HUGE and I had a room
for MYSELF!!!!

BUT

It's creepy at night.... the furniture's old
and and you feel like you're in a haunted house...
And the TV was black and white!!
I was so scared that I went to squeeze with my mom
on the 2nd night!!! Haha...
The thought of it still give me goosebumps... Yaiks*

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I think I better blog down everything before
I forget what I did and where I went.... lol*

went to see the prof at Waseda. Thanks to Jun
for accompanying me there, if not I would have
spent half the time searching for the Asia-pacific
building!!!

I dunno why but he kept asking me if I was born in
Kobe. I reminded him trice that I was born in China.
I think he's confused.

His office was packed with books...
books of all languages!! So many
books that I could hardly see the wall!!

Anyway, we had a good 45min chat
where we communicate in 3 languages.
Oh we even spoke Hokkien, so that makes it 4!!
(Btw my Hokkien was really atrocious.
Though I'm a Hokkien, I hate speaking the dialect
cuz it sounds so crude..)
I think I got quite a positive response from him,
so I'm really excited about studying there!
I've gotta submit a good research plan before he
accepts me though!!

Waseda ain't that huge compared to NUS
so it's lesser travelling to get from campus
to campus.
And the students there really spend lots of
time dressing up.... What I would consider
over dressed in SG looks plane in Japan.WTH.

The estate near Waseda is kinda student friendly.
With lots of cheap eating places, funky cafes
and salons. It looked very happening!!!



After visiting Waseda, which was my main purpose
for this trip, we headed down to Harajuku to meet Toubi.
Heard that it's the gathering place for Cosplayers especially
during weekends!



Walking down the Takeshita Dori, which is the
emblematic shopping street in Harajuku,
you'll come across lots of small clothes shops
as well as crepe shops!
The place is like a collision of street cultures,
where you can find Hip-hop boutique next to
stalls selling retro-punk fashions, Gothic Lolita
nurse and maid uniforms, 300 yen accessories
shops as well as those stalls selling photos of
fresh-faced idols. It's really a culture shock.



Anyway, their Crepe was really good!
There's 100 over types of crepes for you to choose!
I had Cheesecake with strawberries
both are my favourites!! YUMMY!!!

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On the second day, we had lunch with Toubi's
parents at a near by Kaiten Sushi Restaurant.

We passed by a park on our way there and
I got so excited when I saw the swings and slides
which I used to play when I was a kid.
Unable to overcome my childhood nostalgia,
I ran for the swing...



I wonder why there aren't many swings in the
parks in SG. Oh ya... most kids here probably have
no time for swings or jungle gym cuz they're simply
to busy!! The Kiasu parents of SG would probably
rather send their kids to piano lessons, drawing classes,
swimming classes, tuitions than letting them play
with other kids at the playground. Or, Singapore kids
nowadays are too engrossed with their Computer games...
what a pity.... tsk tsk

Anyway, back to the Sushi restaurant,
Sushis in Japan are CHEAP and fresh. Their menue, taste
and freshness is 180degrees different from Sakae Sushi.



We headed down to the shop where toubi used
to do work, which was famous in their fried meat balls.
Heard that people line up for more than an hour just
to buy them and some customers come all the way
from Hokkaido and Okinawa!!!



Her supervisor was a really funny guy whom reminded
me of those actors who appear on the comedy shows.
And as you walk down any neighbourhood, you will
come across lots of mobile phone shops with phones
of brilliant colour and style. I'm so envious!!
Oh and it's sooo troublesom to throw rubbish in
Japan cuz you've gotta put it into the right hole...
and there's err.... 6 freakin' holes for you to choose!!
But if it's good for the environment,
Singapore should learn from them... haha....

And finally, we headed down to Shinjuku to meet
the NUS exchange people!


Shinjuku is said to be the most cosmopolitant
area of the city. It's filled with department stores
on one side, and you can find some sleazy strip-clubs,
bars and gay porn shops in other streets. The Shinjuku
Station is also the world's busiest station, with 2 million
people passing through everyday!!!

Anyway, it was such a miracle
that all of us could have a reunion in Tokyo!!!!
Though I can still meet them next year,
I'm still gonna miss them so much!!!!



Thank you guys for the wonderful night!!!

See you next year!!

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