Kyoto - 银杏

During fall in Japan, one of the things you simply cannot miss, is this.

 银杏

Google told me it is called ginkgo biloba. It was close to sunset and the light made the leaves looked shiny gold.

 This was how the leaves looked like up close and without sunlight.

 Took us more than 10 times of trial-and-error to get this picture.

This was within walking distance from the Kyoto station, right next to 东本愿寺.

The Big Thing - Proposal

Who - Mr. Chin

What - the proposal

Where - 若草山 奈良 京都 (Nara, Kyoto Prefecture)

When - *checking calender* 20th Nov 2012

Basically the above explains everything. *wink*

 Hiking up.

 Scenery along the way.

 Reached the first level 若草山一重目.

 Finally reached the top.

 若草山三重目 - a mere 342 metre above sea level. It was a pretty easy hike.

 In Nara, deers are like dogs - they're everywhere!

The ring.

The Big Thing - Pre-Wedding Photo Shoot

I'm getting married. Hard to believe, I know. But it's true. Had been doing some research on the pre-wedding photo shoot package. Shortlisted a few that I like. Pricing aside, which one would you choose? Will tell you my decision in the next post.

The Keep Gallery
This wedding studio is like super famous now. Everyone who had done the least bit of wedding research had heard of them. And 3 of my colleagues have gone to them. Mixed reviews though. The Keep Gallery is more like a one-stop wedding studio. Their package (customizable) includes wedding gown (for actual day and photo shoot), photo album, DVD with slide show, car decoration, 4R photos (to be given to guests) and photo frames - most of which I don't want and don't need. Reasonably priced.

Here are some photos I like from the studio, snapshot from my Galaxy S3.

 

Eyeshot Studio
Small wedding studio with only one photographer. More like freelance. Package include wedding gown (for photo shoot only), photo album, DVD with slide show. Slightly pricey if without promotion.

Again some photo snapshot from my Galaxy S3.

71 Studio
Only visited the blog, never went to the studio. Location is a problem - it is in Shah Alam.Very pricey.

Kyoto - 中村藤吉 Green Tea Ice-Cream

Note: After procrastinating for more than 4 months, I finally have enough motivation to start to blog again (hopefully). The motivation came from my colleague, who asked me for help to plan his trip to Kyoto. As I struggle to recall the name of the train I took from Kyoto to Osaka, I told him it has been a year and I've forgotten the details, only to realize immediately that only 4 months had passed. If I don't write now, I'm going to forget everything! I couldn't take the pressure and panicked. But you don't have to write everything, Mr. Chin said, just write whatever you like. So I took his advice, and here goes.

This is something one must eat in Kyoto station - Nakamura Tokichi Honten 中村藤吉 is the name of the shop.

Located on the 2nd floor in Kyoto station.

 This is a must-eat - green tea ice cream topped with fresh red bean and some unknown flour-like balls.

 

Satisfaction.

This was 350 yen (approx. RM11) which was almost the price of a Haagen Dazs. I had Haagen Dazs green tea ice cream once but I thought it was no match for this. This was the soft and creamy type and Haagen Dazs was the hard frozen type. And besides, red bean is the soul mate of green tea flavour. It brings out the taste of green tea yet suppresses its bitterness - perfect! It still makes me drool merely by looking at the pictures!

Places to go before I die

List to be modified from time to time.

In no particular order:

1. Kyoto, Japan
2. Hokkaido, Japan
3. Tokyo, Japan
4. Paris, France
5. Greece
6. Spain
7. Rome, Italy
8. Vatican City
9. London, United Kingdom
10. Beijing, China
11. Yunnan, China
12. Guilin, China
13. Taj Mahal, India

Wedding Songs

A colleague of mine is getting married soon. The other day she asked us for opinion on songs to play on her wedding. I remembered when I was young I already had a list of songs in my mind. Some of them I feel now are kind of lame, for instance I do (cherish you) by 98 degrees.

But there's one that I still think I will play on my wedding - grow old with you by Adam Sandler from the movie The Wedding Singer. This song is so romantic and perfect for weddings. The only flaw is that narration at the beginning. But thanks to the advance of technology we can always use a mp3 editor or any of that sort to get rid of that.



I couldn't help compiling a list of songs ideal - in my opinion - to play on a wedding (not that I'm getting married anytime soon). But I think I'm going to play all the songs that I love. Definitely popular songs like marry you by Bruno Mars or I do by Colbie Caillat will not be in the list. It's not that I don't like them, it's just too predictable.

I'm thinking you and me by Olivia Ong...



Everything by Michael Buble..



Nothing's gonna change my love for you by Khalil Fong. One of the classic love songs that I like. Moving on...



L.O.V.E by Nat King Cole...



Last but not least, from the animated motion pictures Quest for Camelot, looking through your eyes by LeAnn Rimes...



What about you? What songs did / will you play in your wedding?

Depression, Suicides and Schizophrenics

I attended a health talk this afternoon about why people commit suicide or have suicidal thoughts. The speaker was the HSE (health, safety and environment) manager from the company I'm working with.

He said that the top reason that people commit suicide is because of depression. And that in terms of religion, the Muslims have the lowest suicide rate as oppose to Buddhists, being at the top of the chart.

People who actually have the courage to commit suicide must have somehow (either consciously or unconsciously) believed in God, and therefore the afterlife. I don't think anyone would (or could) kill themselves knowing there will be nothingness after death.

I couldn't help noticing that the Buddhists believe in karma - the relationship between cause and effect - and reincarnation. Whereas from Christianity and Islamic point of view, suicide is considered one of the greatest or serious sin.

I believe everyone is depressed (or mentally-ill) in their own way. But to gather enough courage to take your own life, that would take more than that. This somehow reminded me of a book I once read quite some time ago. (I was very young then and couldn't quite grasp the essence of it. I always think re-reading old books would give an entirely new experience.) There was an excerpt from the book that I really liked, extracted as below:

A powerful wizard, who wanted to destroy an entire kingdom, placed a magic potion in the well from which all the inhabitants drank. Whoever drank that water would go mad. The following morning, the whole population drank from the well and they all went mad, apart from the king and his family, who had a well set aside for them alone, and which the magician had not managed to poison. The king was worried and tried to control the population by issuing a series of edicts governing security and public health. The policemen and the inspectors, however, had also drunk the poisoned water and they thought the king's decisions were absurd and resolved to take no notice of them. When the inhabitants of the kingdom heard these decrees, they became convinced that the king had gone mad and was now giving nonsensical orders. They marched on the castle and called for his abdication. In despair, the king prepared to step down from the throne but the queen stopped him, saying: "Let us go and drink from the communal well. Then, we will be the same as them." And that was what they did: the king and the queen drank the water of madness and immediately began talking nonsense. Their subjects repented at once; now that the king was displaying such wisdom, why not allow him to continue ruling the country? The country continued to live in peace, although its inhabitants behaved very differently from those of its neighbors. And the king was able to govern until the end of his days.

P.S. There was free lunch after the talk. I wonder how many people attended for the lunch and how many for the understanding on suicidal thoughts.

那些年，我们一起追的女孩。You Are The Apple of My Eye

“成長，最残酷的部分就是，女孩子永遠比同年齡的男孩子成熟。“
(The most cruel thing about growing up, is that the girls usually mature earlier than the boys.)

It was not the type of movie that melt your heart, nor the type that feed on your tears. But it somehow managed to leave a profound impression to the audience. After the movie ended and the credits rolled, you remained at your seat, reminiscing about your first love, your young stupidity, your cowardice, things you should've done that just might change something.

My male friends told me they can very much relate themselves to the movie - the love that slipped (那些年错过的爱情).




Ke Jing-Teng (柯景騰) was a prankster and a mischievous student. He was caught masturbating during class and therefore was punished to be seated in front of Shen Jia-Yi (沈佳宜), a pretty girl famous of her outstanding academic achievement. They despise each other at the beginning but eventually developed mutual feelings for each other.

My First Pair of Contact Lens

It felt like it was only yesterday when ShinTien persuaded me to try on contact lens.

It's the greatest invention ever, she used to tell me. But the mere thought of touching my eye balls totally freaked me out. Until one day I was unable to resist the temptation any longer, I bought my first pair of contact lense.

The shop assistant could immediately tell I was new to this - a pair of spectacles and the hesitation must had given me away. He offered to help me put them on. I tried for less than 5 minutes then I gave up, couldn't bring my fingers anywhere near my eyes.

That time I was studying in UPM and Tien and I were housemates. I brought my first pair of contact lens home and told her I couldn't do it. I could never do it.

It was easy and all I need was a little getting used to, she said.

After spending more than 1 hour standing beside the sink, parting my eye lids with my fingertips, trying hard not to blink, forcing myself to put the contact in, hypnotizing myself that there was nothing to be afraid of - I finally did it.

It was the strangest feeling. When you're short-sighted and wearing glasses, you can only see clearly through the glasses. If you look up or down or sideways outside the frame, you feel as if you're looking at a smeared painting. But in contacts, you see everything clearly even through the corner of your eyes. And most importantly, I touched my nose and there was nothing on it. You see, I started wearing glasses since I was 10 and I had already forgotten what it was like to have perfect eye-sight.

Now I take less than 5 minutes to clean and put on my contacts every morning. In fact, I couldn't live without them.

Once I had to travel as early as 4 in the morning to Kelantan. Mr. Chin said that I should just wear glasses. I told him walking on the streets without my contacts was like going shopping without panties - it was more comfortable but it just felt wrong.

My Best Friend's Wedding

Not the movie by Julia Roberts. Indeed, my best friend (whom I know for 13 years) just got married last week.

 Audrey and Teck Guan on the lunch reception.

When Audrey made the announcement the first thing that crossed my mind was, so Audrey's the first one among us. It didn't occurred to me as a surprise or anything shocking. That was when I realized how grown up we are.

This was not the first time I attended a wedding of someone my age or younger. But attending as the bridesmaid and her best friend was totally a different feeling. Driving down the roads in Seremban was another nostalgic experience. And meeting Mr. Foo, our Form 6 class teacher was another bonus.

 

 If growing up means not having the rights to do anything childish, we did it anyway.

 

 At the lunch reception.

 From left: ShinYin, Xiang, ST, me, Boonlee, Ze, Snowfly.

I wondered who would be the next among us. And how old will we be by then. I don't know about the others but the very thought of getting married (and having kids) seem like a strange idea to me.

 Most of us brought boyfriends.

 The Georgians in the everlasting Murali pose.

 Mr. Foo and the Georgians.

 The bridesmaid at the church wedding.

  MUAKSSSSS!

Walking down the aisle in a church was my idea of a romantic wedding which I had always dreamed of. But when I did attended one, I thought it was more spiritual than romantic. I'm not a christian so I will never have a chance of having a church wedding of my own. I guess walking the aisle as a bridesmaid, in a way, fulfilled my childhood dream. Well, another strike-through on my list of things-to-do-before-I-die. ;)

 No, I wasn't sad.

 The bride and us.

We spent a night at ShinYin's after the church wedding ceremony on Saturday (the lunch reception was on Sunday). There were 4 of us staying over - Wee Tze Yee and Kin Chew (her boyfriend), SukTeng and me. During our stay, ShinYin's mom apologized that she didn't have time to take us out to lunch and all. I told her, it's alright, we'll make ourselves at home. And I realized that I meant it. It didn't feel like I was staying at a friend's house - it felt like I was staying at home. We felt comfortable even when ShinYin's brother came to our room to take his stuff when we were lazing in bed. That is how close ShinYin and I are. :)

Preparing the door gifts for lunch reception on the next day.

The door gifts, ready and packed in boxes.

I must admit the door gifts were really creative. And oh, I tied the ribbons on all the wedding dresses.