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Wednesday, 04 March 2009

  • didn't blog much in hk... cuz i dont' feel like a tourist in hk!  lol 

    other stuff we did in hk, in no particular order:  disneyland, monkey park, lots of markets like ladies market and night market, computer district, more manga.  jgood got an 8GB CF card for his camera and we also got a 1TB harddrive XD  also got him a suit!  went to the peak on a cloudy day so we saw nothing.  took him to kowloon to look at hk from the shore.  ate at a michelin 3 star restaurant.  showed him where my old kindergarten/preschool place was. 

    and currently very sleepy in vancouver morning... which is the middle of the night in hk... i decided to not pick up the call to work today cuz i'll be jetlagged - too dangerous for driving... and can't quite teach when jetlagged!

    quote from my youngest bro, translated from chinese: "why is his [jgood's] nose so long?"  that cracked me up!  lol

Thursday, 26 February 2009

  • awesome day in hk!

    started off with dim sum...  then went to OCEAN PARK!  fav park since i was a kid!

    opend at 10am n we were the first ones in to take the long gondola to the other side of the park to start.  first was the roller coasters - i rushed there so i didn't have to wait in line later.  first ones on, no line-ups! 

    since jgood doesn't so rides... he went and got me a ticket for dolphin encounter, cuz we saw the ad when we went in.  it showed people petting the dolphins!  we figured it was worth the money to do this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! 

    watched the ocean show which has dolphins doing cool tricks and a sea lion too!  then it was time for my dolphin encounter!!  we had a lesson about dolphins... then put on a suit.  disinfected our hands (also disinfected our shoes before entering where the lesson was).  jgood watched - just me and another woman signed up for it~  her husband was watching / taking pics too XD  lol  i like how the women get to play XD

    i got to go into the water to pet the dolphin.  gave it signals to do things like wave and dance.  examined it closely.  take photos with it.  figure out its gender.  feed it.  i had a great time~~~  then went back for more lessons / fill out questionnaires~  it took about 1.5hr overall.

    after that we went to the atoll aquarium to check out the feeding.  then there was the jelly fish exhibit in lots of cool colours.  finally we took the gondola back to see the panda exhibit.

    while we were there we also got to see an acrobatic show and checked out the place for children~  yay~  fun~~  too bad they closed at 6.... 

    had dinner with family.  then went to 188 - where i got 42 books of manga!  i still have some missing though... ^^"  i'll need to do more hunting!

Monday, 23 February 2009

  • went to the kyoto imperial palace first.  had to get permission with my passport.  and there was only the 2pm tour... and i got there around 12... not quite enough time to go somewhere else and come back so i waited around the palace park - which is quite big!  i had lunch there too, an oden set. 

    it was an hour long english guide tour.  lots of info about the different roofs... and i found out why they have that orangish colour!  it's to ward off evil spirits that come out at night.  we weren't allowed inside any buidlings... it was just a tour of the outside.

    after the tour i went over to nijo castle.  no pictures inside, but at least we got to go in XD

    lastly went to the gion area where there's an art street... it turned out to be a high class art area where i didn't even enter a shop!  lol

    walked over to sanjo covered arcade area to check out what's there.  it was basically like teramachi street.

    at teramachi, i found a store... i was looking for the undergarment for the kimono.  turns out there are 2 layers under the kimono!  now i've got them both...  phew!

Sunday, 22 February 2009

  • went to tokyo yesterday.  jgood was sick so he didn't come. 

    it was almost a 3 hr ride to tokyo from kyoto on the hikari line.  when we got there we noticed a statue of three naked women at tokyo station... hmm... 

    we first headed off to akihabara.  wow!  anime and electronics galore!  wish i had a ton of money...  noticed one of the stores had cosplay costumes... and it turned out to be way more than just a cosplay store ^^"  wandered around there for a bit, but i guess it was still too early for crowds!

    went to the book district... seems like some of them close on sundays!  boo!  but there were still some manga!

    next we went to the sony building.  we saw some new modesl of things and got to try out some of their products.  the coolest stuff i think was on the first floor - the musical staircase and the 3d model of the building.  they've got a lot of detail in that!

    tried to go to nishiki market but turns out it was closed cuz it's sunday...  ah well...

    then went to tokyo tower!  woot!  the stuff of anime!  the line-up was long.  there was also another line-up to get to the very top.  i did wait and went up XD  i took a panoramic which i'll piece together when i get back to vancouver on my laptop.  now i can say i've been to major anime spots!  XD

    next was shibuya.  found the 109 building.  it was quite a busy area.  i didn't do any shopping (i'm not a hip young teenager... never was hip... lol).  i just took pictures of crosswalks and major things there.  like the moyai statue cuz that's in the game "the world ends with you" that i played XD 

    then i headed back to kyoto~

Saturday, 21 February 2009

  • woke up early to go to toji, where there was a flea market called kobo-san!  it was great!  lots of kimonos... the cheaps ones weren't even treated nicely so i figured they're prob not real ones.  and the ones treated nicely were too expensive... so glad i found the store where i bought mine! 

    lots of people, lots of stores.  i got two things: a furoshiki that came with handles (a piece of cloth that u can tie into various shapes!  they've got it down to an art form here!  so the cloth i tie onto two rings, which becomes the handle) and chopsticks with our names engraved on it.  i did my chinese name.  jgood did his in katakana. 

    also lots of great food there!  we had the best takoyaki!  they were BIG and the octopus piece inside was big too!  and also okonomiyaki.

    then we decided to go to osaka so i can show jgood yodobashi camera.  i found the toy/games floor...  it was unbelievable.  games everywhere.  there were also anime figurines.  and the machines where u put coins in and u twist a handle and u get a toy.  and most amazing find: a card game machine.  it's like playing yugioh from what i can tell.  the machine reads what card u put down and stuff happens on the screen!  the parent stands beside the child with their selection of cards and the child asks for a particular one to put in and the parents helps find it.  it's like watching a surgeon and their assistant XD  lol

    came back to kyoto and went to nishiki market.  i didn't find it that special...  food market of kyoto... 

    that's it for today!  tomorrow is tokyo!!!!!!