The baju nikah

The Baju Nikah

For the baju nikah, I have already decided from long ago that I only want a simple totally white baju kurung modern. I know the trend nowadays is to have colored kain for nikah and white for reception but I’ve never been a trend follower anyway. I scout for the kain at Jakel in Shah Alam with my mom and aunt. I found this kain lace which I totally fall in love at first sight with but it was out of my budget. We spent few hours there because I just cannot decide whether to get a kain lace or chiffon. They have package for kain lace together with few meters of satin for kain baju melayu or kain chiffon with few meters of satin for kain baju melayu. All the kain chiffon beaded look so nice, pretty and flowy but in the end I decided against it because:

1.       I want my outfit to be totally white but I can’t possibly get kain chiffon with white beading, the beading won’t be seen in pictures.

2.       Although the kain chiffon’s package is cheaper but if I get one, I will need to spend more money for the beading work or if not it will look too plain. The kain lace on the other hand is already full of beadings.

3.       I haven’t found my tailor yet and I know that many tailors don’t accept chiffon beaded because it’s harder to sew and even if they do, they charged higher.

4.       Okla fine, I’m already in love with the kain lace.

I bought a few meters of plain chiffon for the skirt part of the baju kurung and the veil because I want the skirt and veil to be flowy. My mom and aunties bought few meters of chiffon for their outfits for the reception. We were given more discounts because Jakel’s owner’s daughter in law was there so since we bought so much she gave us quite a lot of discounts so some tips here, buy your kain when one of the Jakel’s family member is there, you will get more savings.

There are some leftovers of border lace from the kain lace I bought so my tailor sulam the border lace to my veil and it look so so gorgeous. I thought the tailor did a good job with the outfit and I’m truly happy with how it turned out. I wish I can show some pictures here but I haven’t got the photos from my photographer yet so maybe next time.End.

Preparation- The Nikah Doorgift

The Preparations

After the engagement, I have 8 months to prepare for my wedding. I started reading blogs and magazines to get inspiration. Ok..not so much on reading magazines because they usually feature grand, lavish malay weddings which was not my style. Ok fine, I can’t afford to have a lavish wedding anyway so maybe my style is budget wedding?

I will break this down into parts too because one of the reason I chose to write back is because I got so much help earlier on during preparation by reading blog posts from other bride to be so who knows I can help a bride-to-be who happen to google related keyword in this blog.

The Nikah Doorgifts

Now, when you have a mom and an aunt who’s over enthusiastic for your wedding please expect to change plan numerous times leading up to the big day. From the start of the preparation, I already know that I want to give Surah Yasin as doorgift. I start browsing through the net to find the cheapest deal. I found a vendor’s link http://facebook.com/tempahyasin  which offered Rm2.00 for 100-199 pieces of Yasin which was the cheapest deal that I can find. There are a lot of vendors which you can order Surah Yasin from so there might be cheaper deals out there but at that moment, that’s the only one which I can afford so I decided to just place an order. The procedure is simple; I chose the design I want, emailed Encik Zahir, paid deposit and let him edit the color, font and wordings to one that’s really my choice. You can even send in your own design but I’m lazy so I just pick the one that is in the website.  After that I just confirmed the design and within a few weeks, 120 pieces Surah Yasin arrived at my doorstep. One month before the wedding, my mom decided it’s not proper to just only give surah Yasin so my aunt in Johor decided to sponsor telur pindang as part of the doorgift. My aunt, her husband and her daughter took bus to come to Penang from Johor so imagine how hard it was for them to bring the 200 eggs in an 8 hour bus ride. They even have to change buses along the way so I felt so grateful and sorry to them. Another aunt baked some cupcakes for doorgifts to kids. We bought the sarung for the Surah Yasin, telur pindang and cupcakes throughout the 8 months at wherever we found discount. End.

The return and The engagement

Ok, it’s been a while since I last wrote in this blog. Fine, a while is an understatement..a dinosaur year maybe? I don’t think anyone even bother to visit this blog again. Err.. I’m sorry? 

The last entry I wrote was on my opah being very sick. Well, she pass away one day after that and I missed her every single day but I know she’s in a much better place right now.

 The reason why I chose to write again is because I just got married recently hohoho  and I think with my deleting memory it’s wiser to write the event in this blog than risk forgetting all of it because although my wedding is far from perfect,  I want to remember every detail of it because to me it’s perfect enough and exactly how I want it to be.

I guess I should write this in sequence so that it’s easier to refer on after this.

The Engagement

I got engaged on 15^th January 2012. It was just an impulsive decision really. I mean we talked about having a 2012 wedding from time to time but it wasn’t a solid decision yet. There was a Habib Warehouse sale or something like that in Ampang on the end of December and I decided to check it out just in case I can find a proper merisik ring. Then, when we look at the rows of display, I found out that they sold loose diamond with proper qualities (the 5Cs) at a much cheaper price so hubster decided to just buy that for my merisik ring. Yes, I chose my own engagement ring. I guess it will be much more proper if the hubster’s mom chose it for me but she don’t really mind since I’m the one wearing it in the end. Then, we went for lunch, discussed and decided to have the merisik event on January itself. I went back to tell my parents and hubster went back and told his mom. So, the date that was decided was 3 weeks after we brought the ring. So kids, that’s how I ended up married..a visit to a Habib warehouse sale, no proposal nor firework or anything like that.

I’ve already decided since earlier on that I don’t want an engagement ceremony and  just want it to be a chill merisik event. The parents meet up, her mom give the ring and the end. Obviously, it didn’t turn out the way I wanted. Hubster’s mom felt it’s not proper to just come to my house with just a ring. She decided to make hantarans so obviously my family have to balas the hantarans too so both famlies said might as well make it an engagement. I was panic and a bit mad to be honest. I don’t mind an engagement ceremony but I felt that if I need to have one it have to be a proper one.

We just decided to hold it in putrajaya so that it’s easier for hubster’s family to come. Now, I live with my aunty in a small apartment in putrajaya so no matter how, the amount of guests that my parents invite and hubster’s family rombongan will not fit in that house. To solve that, we rented a homestay near my aunt’s place for a night which hubster paid for. Then, I have to find caterer, a proper dress and things for hantarans so panic button ON. Thankfully, my family solved all that for me. The hantaran deco was done by one of my aunt. There were only 7 trays and we just decided to put sweets on the trays. My mom found chocolates and cookies while I ordered a brownies and cute cupcakes. There was the usual tepak sireh and some buah pala. What I received from the other side is mostly similar. The only non-food item on the tray is a telekung which I wore to my umrah trip 2 months after that. The catering was settled by my aunt and sponsored by my dad which makes me felt guilty because he have to fork out money for this. There were near to 100 guests on that day, all consist of my relatives. So not the simple merisik ceremony I wanted. I don’t want to get a proper makeup artist and photographer for this event because I don’t feel like forking out money for an event that I don’t even want to have in the first place. I thought that I could just hentam view youtube videos and make myself up with my minimal skill and equipments. Puteri saved me in the end. She offered to don the makeup for me. I am ever so thankful to her for spending time viewing youtube video tutorials, buying makeup equipment for me in the midst of her moving house period and being forced to work under pressure hehehe. I asked fatin to take photos of the event for me. Huda came all the way from Penang to help out with everything. Now, she’s one of my friends who don’t actually have that much time even for herself with the crazy doctor’s schedule so I felt touched honestly.  She brought the veil she wore in her engagement, helped adding up deco for the hantaran and even cleaned up the house after the event. So, all my best friends ended up forced to have a role in the event hahaha. I brought 2 readymade outfits for the wedding. Bought two because my mom was not satisfied with the first one.

The day came and the event scheduled to start at 11am. I woke up early to help to set up the house. Puteri came at 10am which actually still give me enough time to get ready if not because of hubster’s family who came at 10.15am. If there’s one thing I don’t understand, it’s the time management issue of hubster’s family. Yes, not being late is good but being too early really upset one’s program too. I remembered puteri  pressured by my aunties to don the makeup faster and I felt sorry to her for that. Then the discussion  last for only 5 minutes I think because there’s no intro or anything from the other side so I have to jump into my baju tunang after makeup and I remembered at one time, I have 5 pair of hands on each part of me to help me put on my baju and tudung. Total chaos seriously but somehow that’s one of the moments that I remembered clearly until now. Then the normal sarung cincin by hubster’s mom and I was engaged. End.

opah

This whole week have been a whirlwind of things for me. My grandma was admitted in hospital few days ago and I've been going back and forth hospital and home since.My grandma is already in her late 80s and in the past 10 years she had stroke so her senses was declining bit by bit.To be honest,anything that had and will happen from now is something that I'd have been prepared for cause her health had been quite the worst this year.But how are you supposed to be prepared for the event in case of death of someone that's been living with you your whole life?My grandma had took care and live with me from penang to putrajaya since i was a baby up till now.She stayed up at nights when i was sick even at the time she had stroke. I remembered that there's one time I told her while feeding her that I felt like eating lepat pisang and next thing I know she's crawling to the kitchen (cause she can't walk after her stroke attack) to make me some. Honestly i had nightmares that she's gone a few times since start of this year and i would wake up to check that she's still breathing.Only Allah knows how happy i felt seeing her breathing.When she got admitted to hospital last Monday doctor already told us that it'll get worse from now and to inform all family members.In short that's what doctors told you when there's no hope. I want to cry so much at that time and even now i felt like crying but the thing about woman in my family is they are calm,strong and do not cry or at least they don't cry in front of others so i felt like I would appear really weak if i cry now when everyone else is calm. I prayed so hard to God that there'll be some miracle and my opah will be back to her old state. Yes,she's bedridden and cause she slur so i don't understand her when i speak to her but at least she's breathing in front of me. But i do realize how selfish i am. My grandma is in so much pain and she told us that it's about time she meet her creator. Today the doctor told us that her liver is failing and her blood pressure is and will slowly drop so i know that however heartbreaking it is,it's time to be prepared. I just pray that Allah give me whatever strength to be calm in case of anything. End.

Dream high

It seems like the only things that I can update on this blog are summaries of my favorite shows but honestly sometimes watching some shows made me learn a lot more .
So this time I'm gonna write about this Korean musical drama I just finish watching "Dream High".

***********************Long rant on drama below**********************************

At first when I watch this drama I felt like it's a copy of "Glee" but it's not really similar.Some said this drama is inspired by movie "Fame" but as I've never watch "Fame" before so I can't comment on that.This drama starts of with a scene from Grammy award in 2018 where this singer named 'K' is the first Korean singer to receive the Grammy award but we never get to see the face of 'K' only that this person is wearing a 'K' pendant, so throughout this drama, we will have to guess who 'K' is.

Then we were took back to present day which is the audition day for Kirin Art High School enrollment.This school is actually a high school that trained students in singing and dancing with goal to debut as idol singers.This story centers around 6 kids but out of this 6 kids, only 3 made it through the audition while other 3 were recommended by the school's president who then leave the school.Because of the bad blood between the school's president and the school's director, these 3 kids were assigned to the "loser class" by a teacher who was about to be fired by the director.This story basically revolve around how these 6 kids develop their characters, facing so many obstacles throughout the drama to reach their goal in the end.What I like about this drama is that each of these 6 kids and the teacher has so many flaws and sad past but each of them graduated from their flaws.Throughout each episodes, we will have no idea who 'K' is because the 'K' pendant was passed around to each of the kids when they were facing something hard. I must say even though at first I found myself hating some characters at the start but as each episode goes by, I found myself rooting for all 6 kids to be 'K'.
This drama has so many different elements.It is really heartwarming and touching especially seeing the teacher's sacrifices in helping each of them to discover their potentials. It is really funny too with all the metaphors on k-pop though I'm not sure if people who don't really follow k-pop will really get the jokes. I am quite a follower of k-pop in the sense that I watch most variety shows, dramas and know most bands,singers and actors in korea, even the rookie ones so that's part of the reason that I found this drama so entertaining.The actors in this drama are from popular idol groups in real life and the songs they cover in this drama are familiar to me so that's a bonus cause it's relatable.The love stories are really sweet and cute too but most of all the freshness and excitement of starting something new make it a great premise and it even made me feel like going back to high school, when all dreams were possible.

Honestly, the reason I abandoned this blog for so long is not because I don't have time but because I realized that through time I've become a really dark person inside.I stop believing that I can do anything and I felt so lost.I don't seem to be moving forward or even know what to do.People kept on asking me to change something if I don't like it but how?I don't know how to or even what to change.Even if I know how, I don't have enough confidence to do it.When I saw my family and friends achieving something, I was genuinely happy for them but as human I can't help being jealous.I kept on asking why was it that I work as hard or even 2 times harder than these people but these people get to achieve something that I want while I'm still here with nothing.Why was it that I always have to be the person that have to go through things the hard way.It's like if we were to go on a journey from A to Z ,I have to crawl and be lost along the way while everybody else found a shortcut and even have a car to take them Z.All these thoughts made me hate myself even more.There was a line in the drama "not being able to congratulate a friend on her success is living in a hell of your own making" which is so true.I'm in a hell of my own making.

I think this is too long of a rant already but anyhow this is a good drama to watch.I'll finish off with this quote from the drama which somehow gave me some hope

“Your drama has a long way to go before it’s over. So don’t worry about taking things slowly. Compared to those who walk fast,the ones that walk slow, are able to see more things much clearer. If you ask who has the greater potential,I believe the person that walks slower will be the more enriched person.”

Tribute to adam couple

-------------------------------Long rant ahead-------------------------------------------------

Ok I'm really too old to be obsessing and writing about this but I just want to really remember this as something that had once made my days filled.

This is a story about a couple in a reality show that I love so much.First of all, this is a korean reality show titled 'we got married'(WGM) with the concept of pairing up a male artiste and a female artiste and making them into a made believe couple.So this made believe couple will be shown once a week living together and doing the common things that a married couple do (minus the sleeping together part and having baby of course).For example, having a wedding ceremony, house warming,celebrating anniversaries or meeting up parents.There are all together 3 couples for 1 season and adam couple is a product of this show's 2nd season.Adam bubu which is a korean word translated to petite couple is a pairing of jokwon who is from a boyband and gain from a girl group in korea.They are very talented singers but both underrated before the show because well compared to other idol singers they are not the prettiest of the lot. I had watched the 1st season of WGM before this and adored a few couples before this as well.But what differentiates this couple from the other couples are while other couples treat this show as just work and out of the show treating their "fake wife" or "fake husband" like total strangers , but adam couple bring out their couple-hood out of the show.They commented on each other's blog,scolded each other when they worn too sexy outfits in magazines,talk about each other in other tv shows,celebrated each other's win when 1 of them win award in any music show and they even wrote a song for each other and produce a song together.They are somewhat like how a real idol couple would be like which is really fresh.In Korea for an idol to admit they are dating is really unheard of because their fans are seriously scary.This couple didn't even bother trying to show that they are perfect.They fight just like other couples and showed their ridiculously silly side of themselves.Seriously I can watch an episode of them without subs (of course I don't know korean) but can still laugh my heart out and felt the warmth when they made surprise events for each other. They can just show an episode of this couple talking about nothing to each other and I'll still find it a nice episode.They are that entertaining.I guess if they are just this romantic couple out of the book I won't even like them this much.Both of them are not the ideal boyfriend or girlfriend material that everyone wants but that's why they are special I guess.They are just normal people who were just right for each other.

There was 1 point when I thought that maybe they were just acting on the show and not showing their real self cause how can a couple be so entertaining.Of course the show is scripted a bit and there is a director but this is somewhat like truman show, there's a direction but everything else is just up to them. All doubts cast aside when they recently tried acting for the first time and honestly as much as I love them,they are not good actors so there's no way they can be so entertaining in WGM if they were acting.

I look forward to saturday evenings so much for the past year because WGM were shown on saturday evenings. Somewhat the weeks seem to pass faster when there's something to look forward to.I really really want someone I know to watch this show too cause I just wanna spazz about it with someone but of course the concept of the show is quite childish to ask someone else to watch it. I know this but it just made me so happy.I know at 27 years old instead of watching other people play house,I should be in a real marriage myself but let me be. I remembered when I was gone for the tokyo trip I look forward to going home because I wanna catch up on the episode.I remembered fidgeting in the office on saturday evening from 5pm onwards cause I wanna go home so much after reading tweet updates from other adam couple fans. When they finally have their first and probably last kiss after a year and 3 months, I smiled so much that I thought my mouth will tear out.I just wanna jump and force other people to watch it so I can spazz about it.Another thing that I like too is because they still have the conservative asian values in them.They treated holding hands,hugging and kissing like such big deal which makes me able to relate to them.

Well, the reason why I'm writing such long entry about this is because the couple left the show yesterday after 1 year and 3 months.

Needless to say after only 6 months in the show they grow from being unknown singers to being 2 of the most deserving popular singers in korea.Even old people watch this show and dote on them.But being too popular is also the reason why they have to leave the show.They get too busy and the couple brand is too attached to them that people are treating them like real couple.They can't talk or dance with opposite sex without being accused of cheating.

Now,I don't know what to look forward to next week onwards.When I read the announcement from their couple homepage about them ending the show in the office this morning,I felt so depress.I guess I was too attached to them. When I heard their announcement in radio about them leaving the show I felt so sad and empty.Kinda like how a breakup feels like.

I will miss them so much.I will miss going to fan forums to read gossips about them,waiting for the subs to come out,using goggle translator to translate what they say about each other in their blogs. Most of all I'll miss the feeling knowing that on Saturday however depressing the week is,I can just forget it all for a while cause there is my remedy.Of course my loved ones are my real remedy but God knows,at this age with such stress I really need a distraction in my life.

End.

2011

I haven't been blogging so long that I had even forgotten my password.Anyway as always,I want to write something about 2010 but I don't really know what to write about.Everything seems to be the same as previous years except that I get older.I'm still not married, my mom still worries that I'm still not married, and I still at my same old job having the same old people around me. Physically, suddenly the day i turned 26 I felt like I have wrinkles all over my face.Scary...and vain I know.
I think the most unforgettable time for 2010 is the Japan trip.I enjoyed it so much and it's so much fun from the time of preparing it to the time that I was there. I somehow felt some sense of liberation cause I used my own money for the whole trip and still survived it despite not knowing the language.
Work has been pretty much the usual except that I'm more bulletproof now.I guess that can be counted as an achievement?Nevertheless,I still get depress from time to time and I know that I need a change.
Resolution for 2011:
1) Get healthy and not fall sick every 3 weeks.
2) Not get depress that often.
3) Change something in my life.
4) Get a flat tummy.(yeah i know lame)

Well that's all for now.End.

Tokyo Trip: Wrap up and Tips

Since Fatin had already written some of the tips in her blog I'm not sure what else to write here.Frankly if anyone were to ask me if it's a good idea to go to japan without following tour, I won't know what to answer. The reason that we didn't take tour is because we wanted to go to places that we want to at our own pace. I think most tour groups will bring you to souvenir shops and shrines that you don't really want to go anyway. I knew cause I checked out on some tour group schedules. You can follow our way of not following tours but there are extra things to do beforehand. That brought me to the tips. This would be more or less like fatin's but in my own words:

1) If you don't know japanese language, learn some of it before you go.Some of the basic words that you have to know in japanese are : left, right, station, how much, what, where is, (numbering systems), alone or 2 persons, excuse me,sorry, thank you, please, write it down, etc.Although this might sound funny but it will really help a lot to know.Try to learn how japanese pronounce the english words as well like hotel= hoterru so that at least even when you can't ask in japanese they could still catch some of your words. Japanese are really warm and helpful people so don't worry. As long as you start your sentence with sumimasen they will be ready to listen.Don't start your sentence with excuse me,that might scare them away.Most japanese we met can't speak english much but they really go out of their way to help.There was 1 time we got lost finding oak hotel and when fatin asked someone outside his office, he actually went back inside the office to print the google map to help us find our way.I bought a small phrase book before we go to tokyo but I don't think it's much of a help anyway.

2) Going around-We took subways to everywhere in tokyo.We only took the bus once from airport to hotel on our first day. I can't give much tips in this cause I don't understand the train system myself. I think the train system in tokyo is more confusing than most country and added to that everything is in japanese and you can't ask around much anyway if you can't speak japanese. Firstly it have too much systems and routes and secondly to buy the ticket, you have to know the price to go to the station first.Unfortunately the words on some tokyo subway maps in some stations are in japanese so it's hard.Fortunately,Fatin aka the best travel partner studied the subway systems and record down the stations we have to stop to go to our destinations including the prices months before we go so we didn't got lost.If you think you have the time and determination like fatin to do all that then you can go there without tour.1 day ticket could help you sae a lot if you want to go to many places in 1 day so prepare and optimize your schedule.

3)Prepare all the documents needed before the trip.Print out the hotel booking and flight ticket itineraries before you go cause you would be asked to show them to the officers before boarding your flight to tokyo. Visa would take around 1 week to be prepared so prepare it early.

4) If you decide to go in spring, check the sakura report and compare it with last year's ones.

5)Don't bring so much clothes.I made the mistake of bringing too much clothes and it was hell to drag the luggage on the subway trains and the station stairs.Because I decided that I don't want to buy a new jacket, so I wore 3 layers of clothes during my stay.I wore a long sleeved tshirt,a cardigan, and a jacket as the 3rd layer.The thing is that I brought too much jackets and cardigans.You have the option to wash your clothes in hotel at night when you came back so just bring a string to hang your cloth and hang it in the toilet through the night.Oh and just bring 1 jacket will do.If you still want to bring lots of clothes then I'll say don't change hotels and don't ride the subways cause if not you will really suffer.I was rather lucky that some japanese pakciks decide to help me when they saw me dragging the luggage up the stairs.

6) There are elevators and escalators in some of the stations.Only some small stations don't have them, the rest especially major stations would have them if you look for the signs.Why I'm telling this is so that you could limit your walking distance there.If you were travelling like us,trust me you will do a lot of walking.So much that at the end of your trip you don't have the energy to walk anymore and you might even tore your shoes so try to limit them by taking the escalators.Mind your maners while taking escalator.

7) Wear a super comfy shoes with thick base cause like I said a lot of walking is required.I wore sport shoes that is light and comfy and still my leg hurts every night.

8) Japanese working hours is 9-6pm so try to avoid getting on trains from 8-9am.We get on once cause I thought that japanese work from 8-5pm and I almost die from suffocation.Another thing is that,if you don't understand the language just follow what others do.There are some trains that don't go till the last station so at some point you could be asked to clear the train.So when everyone got out,follow them and when noone get on, don't get on.

9) This has already been noted in entries before this but don't try to cook rice in tokyo hotels.The voltage is too low to do so.You can always buy cooked rice from yoshinoya or similar cheap restaurants.If I'm not mistaken,it's only sold around 70 to 80 yen which is still cheap.

10) Check weather report when watching news.Somehow the weather report in japan is more accurate than in malaysia so you could trust them.I mentioned that I bought an expensive umbrella there but the umbrella sold there is quite unique so it's not a waste anyway.

11)Souvenirs sold in narita is cheaper than some souvenir shops out in tokyo.So, you can opt to just buy them in the airport on the day of return. For disney items, you can buy cheap ones at odaiba if you want to.

12) I can't give much tips about food.If you are a nonmuslim then it's easy.There's a lot of yoshinoya around for cheap food and even the convinience store food look really yummy.The food sold in kombini is usually around 100yen++ and you can get a meal in yoshinoya for only 270yen.I hafal the prices because it kept coming in the news.If you are a muslim, there are also a lot of kebab shops and turkish restaurants around in the city.You just need to keep your eyes open.Otherwise you could opt like us bringing canned food and eat them with bread.You could have picnic in the parks while sakura watching.Trust me,it's a lovely experience.

13)You can find cheaper flight tickets if you booked earlier.Like us, we traveled to singapore then took the delta airline to tokyo.A lot of work yes, but it saved us a lot of money.

14) Even though you go at your own pace,please sacrifice some sleep, do go out early from hotel so that you could go to more places cause there are so much things to explore.In short, be disciplined.

This is all I can think of at the moment.

Honestly, I am really glad I went on this trip.Yes, it caused a lot of money and preparations but I really had fun in the trip. Months before the trip felt quicker because I look forward on the trip so much and the trip itself is so enjoyable. Now, my days had become slow and mundane again, After I came back home, I got busier at work and things at home itself doesn't go right so I am really stressed nowadays but when I think back on the tokyo trip, it somehow makes me happy again.In some ways, it's kinda like an anesthetic for me. I hope fatin had fun too cause I was the one who suggested the trip. I remembered we plan to go on the trip last year during the pantai kerachut's hike.Even at that point I doubt that we will make the trip and we really do it in the end.Fatin's preparation for this trip is even more extensive than mine that at 1 point I even think she can make a thesis or a travel book before even getting there. Her itinerary is so perfect.If I could go to tokyo again I want to go to harajuku to eat the crepe, go to disneyland on sunny day to eat churios and to get on as much rides as possible, to harajuku park to see the cosplay kids and to tokyo tower to listen to the band while seeing the night scenery.Oh how I wish.End.

Tokyo Trip: Day 10 9/4/10

Last day in tokyo. We checked out around 10 am from oak hotel and went to ueno station to take the train to airport.Before that, we bought a turkish kebab for lunch in ueno first. I have too many coins left on the last day so I decided to use them to buy train ticket and kebab.Because fatin was too embarassed that I used too much coins, she ran away when it's my turn to pay -_-. Oh day before that when we were checking out the train schedule, a homeless man approached us. He talked in fluent english and asked us about malaysia. He made some racist comment after that and I started to feel uncomfortable so I kept on siku-ing fatin to walk away.But alas we stayed till he decided to stop. He said he was a writer and a korean. He hated the japanese people and japan which makes me wonder why he was there in the first place. Anyway, I was expecting him to ask for money like the homeless people in malaysia but he didn't.Apparently, he just wants to talk. The homeless people in japan are suprisingly not that dirty. I wonder when they washed up.

Along the way to the airport, I saw the a pizza hut there which is suprising cause I can't see any in tokyo. Ok random.We spent the entire time until our flight buying last minute souvenirs in narita.It's even cheaper than buying outside. At 6.15pm our flight depart.The moment the flight took off, I have already missed japan.I slept along the way, just waking up to eat. At some point I felt like the stars are just outside the window for me to grab. I wonder if I was dreaming at that point.I spilt some salad dressing on me while eating though so I can't wait to get back home to bathe.

We arrive in changi at 1am and since we were in terminal 1,there's not much seats left to sleep before going into the boarding terminal.Fatin manage to sleep anyhow.We ate breakfast before boarding the plane.Although I miss malaysia while in tokyo because of the warmth but being in malaysia itself for the first few days after i return felt especially extra hot. Even until now, I'm more tolerant to coldness. Apparently the coldness in disneyland had already numb some of my senses. I arrive in penang at 8 am the next day so that wraps up my journey there.End.

Tokyo Trip: Day 9 8/4/10

The plan for the day is shopping!!! but before that we went to the edo tokyo museum first. If you planned to go to the museum, try to go early so that you can get 1 of the guide there that can take you around the museum. We got this nice japanese pakcik that can speak english as our guide there.It's really helpful since without him, I don't think I can understand some of the exhibits there. He said that the tour will took approximately 2 hours but I think it's shorter than that. The museum is really impressive. However, I guess because I am from a country that was colonized by the japanese before, when he showed us the pictures and recordings of the hiroshima bombing, although I do symphatized a bit but at the back of my head I still think that if this doesn't happen my country could still be colonized under them.

We ate our sandwich in 1 of the special room there that can be used to eat meals. No food is sold there so you would need to bring your own bento. After that, we head on to nippori, the fabric town.My aunt asked me to buy her some japanese cotton before I go to tokyo so I've already researched on where to go before our trip. I bought cottons for my aunt, my mom and myself. I was really spoilt for choices there cause the prints are really pretty. Then, we went to harajuku. We don't spend much time there. Fatin was looking for shoes before that and cause she accidentally stepped on dog poops she ended up buying 1 in harajuku.

After that, we went to shibuya 101.Since fatin don't want to shop, we seperate our routes. The clothes in shibuya 101 are really trendy but of course it's really really expensive. I still end up buying 2 handbags and a pair of shoes though. I don't know how they do it, but the tokyo girls that shopped in shibuya and the sales girls are really really pretty.It's like they jumped out from magazines with perfect hair, and trendy fashion. Tokyo is really the land of dolls.After shibuya, we went back to ueno and bought some jerseys that we've already scouted day before that. On the way to go back to our hotel, a malaysian guy approached us to ask if we were malaysian and if we know where HRC is.It's really absurd cause throughout our trip, we hardly saw foreigners except in oak hotel let alone malaysian and he's asking us about the place that we went to before that. I think the housekeeping mistakenly took the remote control for heater for our room so we were freezing cold until fatin went to talk to the receptionist. They gave us 1 of their portable heater so saved.

I can't really sleep on that night thinking of going back to malaysia and to reality.All the days in japan is really like a dream to me, a nice long dream where I get to leave all the stressful things behind.It's like the entire japan is my disneyland but I have to go back at some point anyway.End.

Tokyo Trip : Day 8 7/4/10

This day, we had to check out from Hilton hotel.It's really hard leaving disney resort cause I had so much fun and it's such a magical place,I felt like I'm allowed to be a kid again while I'm there. It's equally hard leaving the big room, the soft bed and the nice service of hilton hotel. I asked for iron day before that from the housekeeping and it's so hard to use when I can't even understand the words on the iron. We checked out from the hotel around 10 am and head on to ueno for our next hotel, oak hotel. Honestly, the room in oak hotel is the smallest hotel room I've ever been in my life. It only have 2 hangers,1 for each of us. Unlike the hotels before this, I don't bother asking for iron cause there's no space to put it anyway. Because we just checked out from the huge hilton hotel room, I got a little bit of shock there. But, it's still comfy and clean nontheless.It's a good hotel for backpackers cause it's quite cheap for japan standard and it even provided free internet with some pc available in the lobby for anyone to use.Of course, it doesn't have automatic warm toilet seat like the previous hotels.

We left our baggage and went out to ueno park.The distance is not that far from our hotel, around 500m and because it's cold it's possible to walk there.We went to 1 of the art museum there first which have really nice view. We even made some postcards there using the stamps.A few days before that I think on our second day, fatin's mom checked the sakura report and told fatin that the sakura trees in ueno park were already in full bloom which is bad news for us.Sakura tree only bloom for 4 days if I'm not mistaken and after that the petals will fall. I was ready to expect to see only bald sakura trees but I guess we were really lucky, there were still lots of sakura trees in full bloom.Similar to other park,there were a lot of people having picnic in the evening.We saw a group of serious salarymen as well as a group of people in flower costume having picnic there.By that time, I've already embrace the weirdness of japan that even the group of people in flower disguise don't suprise me anymore.

After that,we came back to hotel.I was thinking the day before that on what to buy for my dad and bro.I remembered that my dad love collecting Hard Rock Cafe t-shirts so we thought of going to roponggi's HRC the next day.We use 1 of the pc in hotel to google for the location and accidentally found out there's another HRC in ueno station.Since we don't have any plan for the night,we went out to search for it.There's actually 1 station between our hotel and ueno station bur since it's cold, we just walked there and frankly we don't really feel the distance.It's actually a 40 minutes journey to go there if we walk fast. I bought t-shirts for both my dad and bro and even get a matching t-shirt with fatin.Lots of japanese girls seems to love dressing alike so it won't look weird if we wear the same t-shirt anyway.The journey back to hotel seems shorter cause I was happy with the purchase.The salesgirl attending us is quite pretty too.Ok random.End.

Tokyo Trip: Day 7 6/4/2010

This day is the Disneysea day.We woke up to a really nice weather.It was bright,shiny and warm in contrast to the mind numbing coldness day before that.We planned out a mission night before to get as many fast passes as possible and it made us into such competitive mode till at 1 point I felt that we were in amazing race.Our strategy is to take rides that cannot seat many people at 1 time which means that the queuing time will be longer.At the fast pass,it will be written the time frame that allow you to take the ride and the time for you to take the next fast pass so you have to keep that in check.In the end after much strategies, we only got 2 fast passes but manage to ride on all the fast pass rides.The park is seriously big, my feet hurts from all the walking. People said that Disneysea is a must go destination since it is only available in tokyo and I'm glad we did. Some of the differences I noted between disneyland and disneysea:

1) There are more adult rides here so there were more adults while disneyland rides mostly caters to children.
2) Not as many people wearing the disney characters headbands/ hair clip.
3) The staff here are not as cheerful and chirpy as the Disneyland's one.Seriously, the staff in disneyland are so happy and cheerful, it's hard to be gloomy there even when the weather is bad.
4) The queue move quicker that the rides in disneyland cause most rides seat many people at 1 time.
5) They have more staffs that can understand english.

There are many rides that I like, tower of terror, 20000 leagues under the sea and even the 3d aladin show in japanese. But my most favourite is journey to the center of the earth.I think the ride is even scarier than solero shot cause it will start off dark along the way until 1 point at the peak it will open up like a door for us to see the view from the peak and wooshh plummets down after that.It's been a while that I've been on rides that resulted with my knee feeling shaky and feeling I've left my heart behind.

Our lunch is another story. Guess what we had for lunch? Uncooked rice and sardine....mmm yummy (blue face). Ok what happened was I brought a small hotplate used for travels to tokyo.This hotplate can be used to reheat the food we brought and cook rice.But, what my mom missed to tell me when she asked me to bring the hotplate over is that the electric voltage in japan is only 200v.The thing is that the voltage for hotels are even much lower: 150v which makes it quite impossible to cook even 1 cup of rice.I kept on adding water to the rice cause I thought the reason it can't cook is because I didn't put enough water. This resulted to some of the cooked rice turned into porridge texture and some rice remain uncooked. I tried to cook the rice until 1 or 2 am and gave up in the end. The next day we thought we could bring the rice to disneysea and since the uncooked portion don't look much , we could still eat the rice and just spit out those uncooked ones.We were wrong.1 spoon of rice in my mouth and I aleady felt like throwing up.It is that disgusting.But fatin is so gung ho,she finished half of her rice portion.If you actually taste the rice,what fatin did can be considered a feat.She seriously can join amazing race cause like fatin said even if we feed this to the birds,they won't want to eat it and here she is eating half of the portion.The after effect though is quite bad,I can't eat any nasi lembik or porridge until now or I would queasy.Fatin on the other hand can't eat or smell sardine after that cause it reminds her of the rice. So next time I go there, I guess I'll just eat the churios or the popcorn. Anyway I really had fun there and if I could I want to go back there 1 day.End.