Rewind 2010

A recap of 2010 - the first year of the new decade. 

• Welcomed the New Year at my new house in Inage, although technically I was still studying in Nagaoka and hadn't moved to the new place.
• This is the first time I celebrated the New Year in Japan, although I have came here for more than three years. The previous two years were in Taiping and Malacca.
• It will be our last time to spend the winter in a snowing area, so the
  crazy three - Muazam, Ridzuan and me decided to go out for a snow adventure,  walking under the heavy snow lol!
• Attended a New Year event - "Cross-Cultural New Year Get-Together" at the Chikyu Hiroba of the Nagaoka International Affairs Center in the Nagaoka Civic Centre.
• Just like the saying goes - "One second you feel like you're in cloud nine, the happiest person in the world; but the next thing, it feels that the whole world has come crashing down on you." That was what happened to me on the on the first month of the year, that I decided to take a break from blogging for almost a month.

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• Nobody's better to help myself to get up, if not myself. That was the moment I lifted myself and live like how I used to.
• February is the "farewell month" because the school calendar in Japan usually ends by this month. Had a farewell party, organised by the Yukitsubaki-kai (雪椿会) for the international students from the fifth grade, who will graduate in the next several weeks.
• Though this year marks our third-straight year not being able to celebrate the Chinese New Year at home, we continued our tradition of having our own version of the reunion dinner among ourselves at the hostel. By the way, Valentine's Day fall on the same day as the Chinese New Year this year.
• Our juniors had a farewell party for the seniors at the hostel. This party is also considered a tradition among us Malaysians, to bid farewell for the leaving seniors. One of my favourite farewell party because only Malaysian food are served haha!
• Another farewell party, this time by the school, held at the school cafeteria for the eight international students who are leaving.
• Attended the "7th International Cultural Exchange Get-Together", organised by Nagaoka City International Cultural Exchange Organisation at New Otani Hotel, Nagaoka.
• My third time to the Yukishika Festival, an annual snow festival in Nagaoka.
• Visited a local school -  Aobadai Junior High School (青葉台中学校) as part of the "Sekai-ga Sensei" programme to introduce Malaysia to the kids. It was so fun to have the kids asking me silly but funny questions.
• As one of the requirements to graduate, I had my graduation research presentation with my research partner. Glad that the presentation went smoothly.
• Went to the hot-air balloon festival at Ojiya, a small town near Nagaoka.
• Joined several foreigners for a Winter Nagaoka Tour around the city. It was organised by Nagaoka City International Cultural Exchange Organisation.

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• Spent more than a week to tidy up the stuff in my room before shifting to Chiba.
• Had a dinner with our Japanese language lecturer - Matsuda sensei at Satomi before we leave Nagaoka.
• The seemingly endless farewell parties continued. This time, it was MADINA's party and I managed to catch up with a few of my batch mates whom we hadn't met for almost three years.
• Went to Konan Junior High School for a similar "Sekai-ga Sensei" programme.
• After three years living in Nagaoka, finally it was time for me to leave the place with a heavy heart. Perhaps I missed the place too much that even Nagaoka doesn't wanna let me go, based on the dramatic ending on the day I leave Nagaoka haha!
• Started my new life in Chiba. However, I already got lost on the second day there lol!
• Attended the "25th Meeting of the Japanese Association of Sociolinguistic Sciences" in Keio University in Yokohama with Kai Cung.
• Most of the time this month were spent to settle the university entrance procedure and also some documents relating to visa and address changes.
• Had a small gathering with several of my batchmates in Saizeria, Inage, before heading back to Nagaoka later that night to attend my convocation.
• Returned to Nagaoka for a few days to attend my convocation ceremony at the Concert Hall of Nagaoka Lyric Hall. A three-year study at Nagaoka National College of Technology earned me a diploma in Mechanical Engineering.
• Tada-san, the office lady at our hostel held a farewell party for us as she will be retiring on the next year.
• Met up with Cliff and Ming Han for the first time. Got to know him through my blog. 
• Had a day-trip to Harajuku, Asakusa and Odaiba with Kai Cung, Shei Pien and Cliff.
• Had a simple house warming party at my new place with Shei Pien and Cliff who came over.
• Went to Tokyo Disneyland for the first time in my life! Too bad I couldn't spot Mickey Mouse.
• Joined the rest at Clement's place for Li Jia's farewell party. My mission to make her cry when watching the video I edited was successful.
• Went to the Embassy of Malaysia in Tokyo to meet up with the new batch of juniors who had just arrived.
• Visited Chiba Coop, as part of becoming an interpreter for two staff from Maktab Kerjasama Malaysia, who came to Chiba as part of their research project.

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• From an interpreter, I turned a tour guide to the same people. Took them to tour around Tokyo and the period just fell on the right time - the peak period of sakura season.
• Joined the rest of the Malaysian for hanami at Yoyogi Park in Tokyo, organised by MSAJ.
• Celebrated my 23rd birthday, which was loaded with cookies and snacks haha! 
• Paid a visit to Sakura town for the annual tulip festival. The place was quite beautiful and has a Dutch windmill as well.
• Started my new life at Chiba University, as a third year undergraduate in the Mechanical Engineering faculty, which began with the entrance ceremony.
• Participated in the blood donation campaign at my school; my second time in Japan.
• Was selected as one of the twenty Malaysian students to attend the welcoming ceremony at  Sori Kantei (総理官邸), the principal workplace of the Prime Minister of Japan, in-conjunction with the official visit of Malaysia's Prime Minister to Japan.
• Attended a dinner with the Prime Minister at New Otani Hotel, Tokyo. Upon arriving at the reception counter, I was told to seat in the same table with other distinguished guests, including Datuk Rais Yatim.
• Attended the international students' welcoming ceremony of Chiba University.

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• Went over to Bao Cong and Wee Kien's place for their house warming party. Everyone went crazy when we played Jenga later that evening haha! 
• I gave a skip to the annual Golden Week gathering in 2009, but this time I made sure I didn't miss out on this event; one of the biggest event every year.
• Andrew, my senior invited to to join him for a BBQ session with the rest of the seniors at Tamagawa. It was great to meet up with several seniors who are many years my senior.
• Had a trip to see the shibazakura and cherry plucking at Yamanashi prefecture with Kai Cung and Shei Pien during the Golden Week holiday.
• Underwent my intraLASIK surgery and from the result I got after that, I guess the money was really worth spending.

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• Meet up with a Japanese actress, who happened to be Andrew's friend at his farewell party in James's place.
• Was mostly busy with the mid-term exams, hence activities were quite minimal on this month.
• Attended the ASEAN Festival in Tokyo. Managed to try some local food from other South East Asian countries, which was really good.

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• Visited the forth country in my life - China. Kai Cung and I went to Shanghai to attend the World Expo 2010. The Malaysia Pavillion was nothing extraordinary, instead I personally feel that it was quite a let-down, compared to other countries.
• The Shanghai trip was not bad, in fact we had great fun going around several places besides the World Expo.
• Donated blood for the second time of the year.
• Attended the famous Inage Sengen Shrine Festival, which is held nearby my place.
• Went to Tokyo Disneysea, which is just next to Tokyo Disneyland. Though we only went on a half-day pass, we managed to ride on most of the rides in the park.

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• Joined a few other seniors and juniors to watch the fireworks festival at Ichikawa. It was my first time watching fireworks in the Kanto region and it was not bad.
• Met up with my former Japanese language lecturer in KL and a few other batch mates at Tokyo International Exchange Center Festival in Odaiba. Later that night, we went to watch the fireworks at Tokyo Bay.
• Set off to the southern hemisphere to visit Michelle in Christchurch in the South Island of New Zealand. We went on an eleven-day road trip around the South Island and the trip was just way too amazing.

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• A totally unexpected disaster struck the Canterbury region on the early morning of September 4, 2010. A magnitude-6.7 earthquake hit the area which caused damages to the city but miraculously, no casualties were report.
• My New Zealand trip suddenly took a major turn as I couldn't go around anywhere much due to the continuous aftershocks, which lasted a few months since the huge quake.
• After almost a month in New Zealand, it was finally time to bid farewell to the country and Michelle. My long flight back took me to three countries on three different planes through three days.
• Had a Hari Raya celebration with the Tourism Minister of Malaysia, who was on a working trip to Japan  at Rasa Malaysia restaurant in Ginza.
• Joined a field trip for the international students of Chiba University to Suntory Hakushu Distillery in Yamanashi prefecture.

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• Attended a Hari Raya open house by Puan Siti Zaharah at the staff apartment in Kami-meguro in Tokyo.
• Just slightly more than a month since I experienced an earthquake, I felt another mild on again; this time in Chiba.
• Gathered at Tokyo to have a futsal game among us. That is how "pathetic" we were, who desperate for some footie session haha!
• Attended the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council Youth Program as one of the delegates who represent Malaysia in Tokyo. It was indeed an informative and interesting program, which I was fortunate to participate.
• Watched "Ice Kacang Puppy Love" at the NHK Asian Film Festival in Tokyo.

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• Attended the annual Chiba University Festival, which was held for several days.
• Was invited by my senior, Crystal to join Andrew and Amy to her son's 10th surprise birthday party at her place in Toyocho.
• Participated in the blood donation campaign at my school; my third time this year, which makes it four times in total for me to donate blood in Japan.
• There was another festival held nearby my place - Inage Lights Festival - Yotoboshi.
• Met up with Pete Teo, who was in Tokyo to have a live gig with Miyake Yohei at Tokyo Time Out in Ebisu. Managed to have his first album autographed as well.
• Went to Hondoji Temple in Matsudo to see the autumn foliage, including the night light-up that was really beautiful.

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• Visited Showa Kinen Park for the annual Momiji Festival. The Japanese garden inside the park was amazingly beautiful with red autumn foliage. One of the most breathtaking garden I have seen in Japan.
• Chiba University had their biannual Universal Festival. This time it was the Vietnamese and Nepalese who introduced their country to us and we got to taste their local food as well at the end of the event.
• My senior, Crystal invited the few of us again to her place; this time to celebrate Windell's birthday. We had great food and fun talking about all kinds of topic throughout the day.
• Had a presentation for the "Engineering Design" class for our group and later that night, the fourteen of the transfer students from my course went out to have a year-end party together at a Chinese restaurant.
• Returned to home sweet home after more than one-and-a-half year being away from Malaysia for my short winter break. Spent one good week at Taiping, visited my aunt at Penang with Michelle, and attended the Bodhi Puja on New Year's Eve. One thing for sure, surrounded by good Malaysian food all the time!

I'm not a fan of making resolutions come the new year every time;

Anyway, though this might sound cliché, always remember to:

"Appreciate the people and things you have while you can before you lose them;"

"Live your life to the fullest like no tomorrow;"

"And love yourself first, before loving others." 

"Happy New Year 2011"

Puzzling World Wanaka

During our short time in Wanaka, Michelle brought me to Stuart Landsborough's Puzzling World, one of the most well-known tourist attraction in New Zealand. The place is just two kilometers from Lake Wanaka near the town, where we stayed for the night. This world unique attraction that specialises on puzzling eccentricity can be considered a must-see attraction in the South Island of New Zealand.

As soon as we arrived at Puzzling World, we instantly noticed its crazy architecture. One of them is the Leaning Tower of Wanaka. This whole tower leans at an incredibly 53 degrees to the ground, that makes it looks impossible to balance on one corner. It seems that this tower managed to defy the laws of physics, especially in gravity and moments. As a comparison, the Leaning Tower of Pisa only leans six degrees.

Puzzling World near Wanaka, New Zealand.

The photogenic Tumbling Towers, added in 1994. 

The Leaning Tower of Wanaka at the front lawn, which was built in 2000.



The unique Back To Front Clock.



Puzzling World has possibly the world's best puzzling and illusion museum.

One unique features of the clock on the Leaning Tower is that this New Zealand backwards clock has been moving backwards since the eve of the new millennium; something that we didn't realise when we were there.

Upon getting the tickets and walk pass the entrance gate, we came to the incredible Illusions Room, a place where one needs to see it to believe it. Each and every rooms are unique and is an illusion on its own right. The first room was the Hologram Hall, where there is a huge collection of amazing 3-D holograms. We have to stand at the right angle to see the full-effect of the holograms, which means tall people like me should bend down, while shorter people have to stand a little bit further away.

One of the holograms in the Hologram Hall.

Entrance to the Hall of Following Faces illusion room.

The seven famous faces that are used in this hall. Can you name every one of them?

These faces seems to turn and follow us around the room when we walk from faces to faces. Cool (and a bit scary haha!), isn't it?



There are 168 giant models of those seven famous faces on its spherical wall.

The Mona Lisa portrait is famous because of the way the eyes follow us. However, in this unique hall, the whole face appear to rotate and follow us left and right, up and down. Another amazing illusion in this hall is that although the faces are concave (inwards), they can appear to be convex (outwards).

Next was the Ames False Perspective Room. The technique of this illusion was used in The Lord of the Rings film to create tall people and little people. The shape of this room is totally distorted although when viewed from outside through a window, the room looks perfectly normal.

The Ames False Perspective Room is as the background.

Looks like just a normal room, isn't it?

Now you see a short giraffe.

Then suddenly, it grew ten times taller than the Twin Towers haha!

Look at how short Michelle is lol!

Two interesting aluminum puzzles, which were made from one sheet of metal without being joined or welded.

Elephant-to-be with elephants haha!

Christmas is just around the corner and poor Santa has a big problem.

The next room was the Tilted House. The room is built not horizontally but tilted at an angle of fifteen degrees. 

We will think that it is a usual room and all the displays inside are normal. However, when we walked into the room, we could not go straight and felt the gravity as a strange sensation. The illusion is so strong that our brain is convinced the room cannot be sloping. The brain straightens up the room at the expense of the displays that seem to hang at impossible angles.

:)

There is only one true level line in the room and it is the level that Professor Puzzle is holding!

Roll a cue ball on the left side and the ball will roll upwards to the right!

 


Here is a video of the cue ball.

Still standing straight haha!

The water looks like running uphill, against the gravity. The truth is that it is running downhill, one degree to the right.

After going around the illusion rooms, we went outdoor for several more attractions. Michelle insisted me to visit the public toilet there. It made me curious why she die die wanted me to go there. Anyway, on our way there, there were also many posters with magnificent paintings by M. C. Escher on the walls.

So, we finally reached the public toilets. You must be wondering what the hell would we wanna visit such place. But believe it or not, this entertaining Roman-style toilets is probably the most photographed toilet in New Zealand.  Apart from the usual ladies and gents, there is a third room - the Roman-style toilets!  Before entering the actual toilet, we arrived in this big hall where we saw a very realistic painting of people using the toilet. They are designed to replicate Roman-style ablutions with a magnificent Diorama (mural).

Posing with the monkey statue (who uses Fair and Lovely, I think haha!) under the monkey tree.

Someone's having constipation in the Roman-style toilets haha!

We save the best for the last - the world's first modern-style Great Maze (Labyrinth). This maze consists 1.5 kilometers of passages and it is estimated that on average, it takes 30 minutes to an hour to complete it. There are two challenges in this interesting puzzle; one is simpler and the other is harder.  There are emergency doors for those with limited time, patience or energy, so one can quit whenever they want.

We tried solving the maze by taking up the simpler version. However, for someone like me who had short-term memory lost problem, it was almost a nightmare to require me to remember all the passages we have passed by. Luckily, Michelle was there and most of the time, it was her who took the lead while I tried to peek through the tiny holes between the walls lol!

Too bad somebody complained that she was hungry already after almost half an hour. So, in the end, we didn't manage to complete it and exited the maze through one of the emergency doors, disappointed. However, we still managed to reach three of the four coloured corners where on most of the time, I cheated by using my giraffe height to look over the wooden walls to see if the passage leads to a jalan mati (dead-end) haha!

The Great Maze - Labyrinth.

Most of the time, it looks like you are very close to reaching your target-location, but in the end you find yourself coming to a dead-end!

We tried the standard challenge, in which we had to locate the four corner towers.

One of the four corner towers - the yellow tower.

These two ang moh look like they are lost haha!

It is unusual to see a maze which has two-storey. Photo taken from here.

We managed to conquer the green tower!

Last but not least, we spent some time at the lawn of Puzzling World to camwhore with the crazy structures there. I don't think there is even one person who has been to Puzzling World and did not take a photo with him holding or doing something stupid with the Leaning Tower of Wanaka.

I decided to be a bit siao, hence this pose below.

Wow, I can support the whole tower with only my butt lol!

In all, it was a great experience and recommended for everyone.

Scenic Road Along Haast Pass

It started to rain as we continued our journey from Lake Matheson. This was when we took quite a long one-lane bridge.

One bad thing about sitting in the car as the passenger during a road trip is that you tend to consume more snacks than you can ever imagine. That's what exactly happened to us; when either one of us was doing the driving, the hand of the other will slowly crawl to the back seat and try to look for some snacks. Our arms would suddenly become extra flexible in attempting to get the maximum stretch to reach our snacks. If they ended up in an empty plastic, they would continue to look into the next bag.

As our drive usually takes several hours, snacking non-stop in the car is certainly one of the contributor to our weight gain project during the vacation haha! Back to our trip, did I mention in the previous entry that we came across a few blue stuff along the way? Yes, we did, but they will come at the later part of this entry.

We stopped at a small town of Haast for lunch. See, eat again haha!

The white small shed is a bus stop. One of the smallest bus stop I've ever seen in my life, I guess.

Just in case you are wondering why almost everything in this part of the West Coast region is called Haast, here is a short explanation. According to what we were told by the guide at the glacier,  Julius Von Haast was a German explorer and he named the Franz Josef Glacier after the Emperor of Austria at that time to get funding for his exploring activities in New Zealand.

During the olden days, most of the things were still to have proper names. Haast was smart and he wanted to make sure his name will be remembered for many many generations to come. So, he took the opportunity to name things, almost anything after his name, such as Haast town, Haast Pass, Haast River, etc as he discovered more things in this southern West Coast of the South Island haha!

There weren't many shops around this tiny town, so we just chose this Fish and Chips restaurant.

The interior of the restaurant, as the girlfriend was doing the ordering.

Menus written on the wall.

Whitebait sandwiches, which cost us NZ$ 10.50, which is roughly about RM25.

To be honest, the sandwich was nothing extraordinary. According to Mich, it cost so much because whitebait is so tiny and it's hard to catch them. I wonder, if that hypothesis of hers proves to be true, then a whale sandwich must be damn cheap since it's so huge haha wtf!

Just off of State Highway 6 in Mount Aspiring National Park is a scenic roadside pulloff and a great place to view the confluence of the Landsborough and Haast rivers. Haast River rises near Haast Pass, joins the Landsborough River, then flows out to the coast near Haast township. This location is on the Haast riverbank opposite from where the Landsborough joins in. Unfortunately due to thick vegetation it is impossible to get a good view of the upper Haast.

The Landsborough and Haast rivers meet at this scenic roadside pullout in Mount Aspiring National Park.

The plaque, which was erected by the roadside.



The traveler in kesejukan lol!



Just look at how clean the water in the river!

The plaque reads:

"The Landsborough River is the major tributary of the Haast. Its source is 40 miles away at the McKerrow glacier in the vicinity of Mount Cook National Park. Towards the head of the Landsborough can be seen Mt. Ward a prominent peak on the Main Divide. In the middle distance Clarke Mound the long forested ridge between the Clark and Landborough was over-ridden by ice during a major phase of glaciation approximately 100,000 years ago. It is likely that earlier most of the major peaks in view would have been submerged by an ice sheet."

We continued our journey and made several stops after that at a few falls along the way. There are quite a number of falls that were recommended inside the brochure we had, but due to time limitations, we decided to only stop at a few falls we felt worth seeing. First up was the Thunder Creek Falls.

Thunder Creek ends as a spectacular 28-meter-high waterfall that tumbles into the powder blue Haast River.

I guess this is the most scenic waterfalls along the Haast Pass area.



The Gates of Haast at the Haast Pass that rises to a height of 562 metres above sea level at the saddle between the valleys of the Haast and Makarora Rivers. 
As such, it is the lowest of the passes traversing the Southern Alps.

Fantail Falls sits to the south of Haast Pass not far from Thunder Creek Falls.

During the spring, this 15-meter waterfall indeed can look like a fan as its name suggests.

The landscape changed from green bushes to a wide range of valley.

Reached the Blue Pools, one of the most popular stops along the Haast Pass.

Stopped for a photo on the wooden walkway.

A sneak preview of the Blue Pools.

This is however, just a fraction of what we would see very soon.

This is the world-renowned Blue Pools. You just run out of words to describe its beauty, don't you? I guess it is even better than the Hokitika Gorge.

The glacier-fed water in these deep pools is the colour of deep azure blue, and so clear that you can see right to the bottom,
making the resident brown trout look like they are suspended in the air.

Pokoknya, this place is just simply awesome; totally out of this world!

Girlfriend said must upload at least one couple photo per entry, so here you are lol!

It was during our walk back to the car park, on the gravelled path through the silver beech, that I told Mich one of my greatest secrets that left her laughing non-stop. Mich said it was that incident, that turned me like who I am today lol! Since it's quite, or should I say a damn stupid thing I did during my scouting days many years back, I guess I shall just save the story haha!

We continued our drive down south and this time, we got to enjoy the breathtaking scenery of Lake Hawea and Lake Wanaka along the beautifully scenic State Highway 6. It was a really beautiful drive. During the first part of our drive through the Haast Pass, we drove alongside the river, and then through the mountains that still have snow on the top of them. As we approached Wanaka, we came around two huge lakes - Lake Hawea and Lake Wanaka.

Did anyone notice the tiny white spots on the greens? Yes, they are sheep haha!

Nah, magnified version of the sheep. Good for counting before you go to bed lol!

 Beautiful lake with snow-capped mountains in the background.

One thing about the lakes here is that the water is blue in colour!

Acting stupid with the speed limit sign lol!

Lake Hawae.

Love the reflection on the water.

I tell you, these sheep are damn lucky to live in such beautiful place. Wake up already see mountain and lake, eating grass also see mountain and lake, sleeping time also still see mountain and lake. I wish I am a New Zealand sheep lol!

"Would you want me to take a pichure for you?" (an inside joke, thanks to the Caucasian lady lol!)

I think this is still Lake Hawea.

With this kind of beautiful scenery, I don't think anyone would complain even if the journey takes hours.

After driving for about six hours, including stopping time at the waterfalls and for lunch, we finally arrived at Wanaka, the final stop of the day. It was by far, the longest drive we had had so far in the road trip. However, driving along the scenic road certainly made up for the tiring journey and given a chance, I will do it again, anytime.

We decided to check into our hostel first before going around the town.

Wanaka town.



Our accommodation - YHA Wanaka.

No idea why they named it "Purple Cow". Wouldn't it sound better if it's named "Purple Sheep"? haha!

That's the main entrance to the hostel.

Not an overly luxurious place, but decent enough for a comfortable stay.

The room, which was not bad I'd say. They have heater for us as well, as it gets really cold at night.

The toilet is considered in good shape for a backpackers hostel.

Pool table at the lounge.

The super huge kitchen!

A warning for everyone, unless they are super generous and wish to donate food to the free-food shelves lol!

The majority of the people who stayed at the hostel were travelers from outside New Zealand. I spotted a few Japanese there as well. There was one time when I overhead them talking to their friend and the conversation was something like this: "Kit-chin. Bee-see".

He actually wanted to say that there were many people in the kitchen and it was busy haha! Anyway, among the many notices put up at the kitchen, there was particularly one that really caught my eye. It was written in some characters that looked very familiar to me.

It asks everyone to wash and return the cooking utensils after using them.

Perhaps I should have asked them if they need a Manglish version as well, which would read, "Your plates and spoons ar, don't simply throw everywhere wor. Clever clever ownself wash ar.".