Kevin's Birthday Party

Introducing Kevin Tan, the birthday boy.

Kevin turned ten last Sunday and his Mom was kind enough to invite me to his birthday party at their place in Toyocho, Tokyo. Well, it was actually a surprise for Kevin because his Mom kept the plan of us going there to celebrate his birthday from his knowledge. It was his second surprise birthday party, in less than twenty-four hours, after he had one the previous evening with his school mates. You know what? Kevin is such a lucky boy.

Until today, I have had twenty-three birthdays and so far, my birthday party count totals up to yilek haha!

Andrew with the birthday boy and his present. Kevin was still in his pajamas when we arrived lol!



Andrew spent two hours looking around for Kevin's present at Shibuya, and he got him Blokus, an abstract strategy board game.



Reading the love letter birthday card from his friend, Makoto.



Haha! I have no idea what the drawing's all about to be honest, but isn't it sweet to receive a drawing like that from your friend? 



Both of them played their super high-tech gasing while waiting for the party to start.



Kevin showing us how to use the top. It is known as Beyblade, according to Anonymous. Thanks for the info.




Hmmm, it looks like Kevin's eye are looking at something else haha!



Ichi, ni, san! Hanase!



Tried to ask the two little kids to teach me how to play their high-tech gasing haha!



Two-on-one wrestling match! They damn love to climb on me-lor, as if I'm a coconut tree lol!

So, how did I get to know them? Kevin's Mom, Crystal is actually my super-to-the-power-of-ten senior from PPKTJ. She was one of the students from the very first batch at the Preparatory Center for Technical Studies to Japan (PPKTJ) in 1992, under the Look East Policy. I was not even in kindergarten at that time yet as I was only five! I got to know Crystal in May this year at the annual Golden Week gathering in Tokyo. Since then, we have been keeping in touch every now and then.

Besides me, Crystal also invited Andrew, another senior of mine, and Amy, a Penangnite who is currently doing her graduate studies at Meiji University to the birthday party. It's a party for a ten-year-old boy, so Crystal invited her Chinese friend and her little son to join us as well.

When two married working ladies are having a conversation with a young girl and two guys, what do you think would be the conversation be all about? Yes, it's all about gossips about their husbands lol! The two ladies would and tell everyone their husbands' biggest dark secrets, while sharing a few tips and kinda brainwash the still-single girl to be really careful when picking her future husbands haha! The two guys would then just listen to them and pick up a few points to make sure they won't do similar mistakes like those husbands haha!

The three girls preparing the food at the kitchen in the communal room at their apartment.

And see what I discovered - 20 cents MIMI prawn snacks! Maybe it's just me being ancient because I feel that they have modernised their packaging.

Fried anchovies (ikan bilis) with dried chillies, peanuts and tempe!

Forgot what they call this already; mini popiah? "They sat on airplane all the way from Malaysia to Japan" (an inside joke) haha!

The potato salad I made, in which I got the recipe from Smitten Kitchen. Looks a bit messy, but they said it was good.

Main meal of the day - bak kut teh. I am not exaggerating, but it was sooooo nice!!!

Every bowl of bak kut teh has a hard-boiled egg in them, except for one bowl and that's Kevin's bowl.

But it was not all about gossips. Crystal shared with us her stories from how she met Kevin's Dad (both of them studied in the same kosen - Takuma Kosen in Shikoku and that's how their love blossomed), how she experienced and learned the term "drunk" for the first time in her life, how a New Year's Eve celebration with her husband and Kevin, who was only two-year old at that time ended up with an awkward but hilarious situation, etc. Believe me, they were really interesting and funny, but I guess I would save the details here.

Kevin's Dad was missing earlier in the afternoon. We thought perhaps he was busy with his office work, hence he couldn't join us there. However, he was actually busy working on something, which was meant as a surprise for Kevin. During his absence, Kevin's Dad was actually trying to ride on the bike around their apartment haha! It was a brand new bike, in which they got it as a present for Kevin.

The birthday cake had to wait until tea time to make its appearance. Finally, it was time for karaoke. Errr, I mean birthday song haha!

Our group picture with the birthday boy. 

Everyone sang karaoke for Kevin while he blew the candles lol!

Hmmm, I have no idea what Kevin was trying to do here.




Papa asked Kevin to close his eyes while passing something onto his palms. It was a bicycle key!

Everyone was ready to cut the cake but that surprise caught not only Kevin's, but every one's surprise! 
I bet Crystal had carefully planned this surprise with Papa for some time.



Birthday boy with his new bike.

Kevin's birthday cake.

After trying out his new bike, it was the cake-cutting session. But something was to happen seconds after this.

Makoto, the five-year old boy insisted to cut the birthday cake as well. His Mom asked him to let the birthday boy do it. Too bad the little kid suddenly turned so emo and he cried! Walao! Totally wrong timing at the wrong place. I immediately carried him outside and tried to coax him, hoping that he would stop crying.

The big problem however, is that I had to talk to him in Japanese. Even though both of his parents are Chinese, Dad is from Shanghai and Mom's from Guangzhou if I not mistaken, the boy speaks Japanese most of the time, and his Japanese is ten times better than me haha wtf! I had to ask him to talk slowly because I could hardly catch his word as he talked while crying.

After using whatever techniques and kung fu I have to console him, he finally stopped crying. Guess what, we made a promise to each other by locking our fingers together lol! He had to promise me to stop crying and in return, I would get him the biggest piece of cake once we get inside.

That's the biggest piece of cake I promised to get for Makoto.

Kevin's top two presents he likes the most. A Lego space shuttle and Blokus, which was from Andrew and me.

Birthday boy with his two of his presents and a birthday card I made for him.
 


Everyone started to like the board game and we just couldn't stop playing it rounds after rounds. In this round, Andrew, Amy and I berpakat to team up and attack Kevin. But in the end, he won against the three of us haha wtf! Lesson learned, never underestimate kids.



I decided to have a one-on-one game with him. Towards the end, he realised he was losing, hence he started to come out with his own rules haha!
That's what usually happen when you are playing with kids lol!



Emo boy reflecting on his loss haha!

We were so hooked on the board game that we didn't realise it was dinner time already. Kevin's Dad went out and get a few boxes of Shichuan signature dish - mabo tofu for our dinner. It was from the famous Chin Kenichi Mabo Tofu restaurant in Shinkiba, in which the restaurant has been featured in a few TV programmes and ran by Chin Kenichi, the Iron Chef Chinese from the television series Iron Chef.

I have eaten many kinds of mabo tofu at many places, but I gotta say this one was one kind of its own. The spiciness was just at the right balance and the texture of the tofu and gravy was smooth and nice.

Boxes of mabo tofu for our dinner!

It was one of the best mabo tofu I have tasted.

After dinner, we hung out for a little while more, playing some other board games like dam (draughts/checkers) and Othello. It was my first time playing Othello and playing against the skillful Andrew was the last thing I should've done. We played one game and he beat me kao kao even though he already gave many chances to me lol! So, I let him play the game with Amy while I play against the computer on his iPod.

The first two games was a total disaster because the game ended even before the board will fully filled haha wtf! I didn't give up and after several more attempts, I managed to beat the computer! My first win in Othello! Walao, damn proud I tell you haha!

First attempt- total failure. But as a consolation, at least I let the white to have a nice pattern on the board lol!

The second loss - 0:62. What a scoreline haha wtf!

I was so satisfied to finally able to put a sweet revenge to my earlier losses to the computer haha!

After getting bored with Othello, I switched to playing checkers with Kevin. That was when he came out with his own rules again. He has a few extra rules for the movement of the pieces. According to "Kevin's Rule" the pieces on the board can move left and right, and also they can even gostan!

Like that, how to win-lar right?

This is not a manga, but a dictionary!

So I went to look for new strategies from Doraemon's dictionary lol!

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.".