Lost in Japan, again

I think I spend alot of time getting lost in Japan.

Since I extended my trip in Japan I needed to change more yen if not I'll become some broke shit, so I found this place at harajuku which is better rates (money exchange at Japan banks sucks to the max, I think it's alot alot alot worse than Singapore banks). 

So I reached harajuku at 3pm when I'm supposed to reach the place at 5pm. Woohoo I got lost for 2 hours wtf. I exited the wrong exit and followed google map directions. Don't know if I should blame myself or google map. I think for Japan address, purely entering the zip code is not enough.

So by 5 I was still lost and I have no usable phone. Wtf right. So I walked all the way back to harajuku station and called them using the public phone. Found out i used the wrong exit but the place they asked me to go to i actually walked past there to get back to use the payphone. 

While the person put me on hold still got time to take photo.

Then I arranged to meet the person somewhere and she came to pick me up. The place is really super ulu. 

Excitement of the day, after getting stranded at somewhere near mt Fuji on Wednesday. A story for another day. 

Taiwan Day 6 - Taipei Zoo, Maokong Gondola & Miramar Ferries Wheel

11/1/2013

The last full day in Taiwan. We were supposed to go pluck strawberries but since Muihong found that we can't bring fruits back to Singapore, we decided to abolish the plan. We still had rotten strawberries from puli in the hotel fridge.

So we started our day by going to Taipei zoo! The last time I went to zoo was in Korea which is close to 2 years ago.

Entrance fee into Taiwan zoo is damn cheap, only 60 twd.

Haha, while I was taking photos in zoo, Muihong said it was like butt collection day cause I was collecting butt pictures of all the animals. Haha, but I shall spare you all the butt photos. 

Panda

Most popular animal in the zoo.

Gorilla

The gorilla is so cute and acts like a human. The way he sleeps is really so human-like. Ever since I watched King Kong, I've always love gorilla.

After visiting other zoos, I realized Singapore's zoo is really expensive but Singapore zoo has performances which I find it rare since I found out other zoos (seoul and taipei zoos) don't have any animal performances.

After having lunch at Mac, we went to take the Maokong gondola which is within walking distance from the zoo.

They have the normal cabin and the crystal cabin. We had to queue for the crystal cabin but I think if you're okay with the normal cabin, you don't have to queue and maybe you'll even get one cabin to yourself? One crystal cabin can hold up to 5 people and we were sharing it with a taiwanes guy and his friend from vietnam?

It's damn cheap, only 50twd per way from the 1st station (Taipei Zoo station) to the last station (maokong station). They have 2 stations in between but I think people hardly alight unless you want to visit Zhinan Temple?
 

Our new 200twd shoes from Taiwan.

Alighted at Maokong station. Walked around and there's nothing much there. There's cafes and a 'foodcourt' there though.

The ride was exciting at the beginning but because it's quite long (can't remember exactly how long, maybe 20mins?), it started to get boring.

Went for the miramar ferris wheel after that at Jian nan road station.

Blur but precious picture. The last photo of my coat, I don't know where I dropped it after that.

Ticket Price for Ferris wheels: Weekdays: TWD150 (Adults), TWD120 (Discount Tickets)
Weekends: TWD200 (Adults), TWD150(Discount Tickets)
There's a Carousel there too and you get to ride it for 50twd for 2 person, which is 1-for-1. We didn't try it though. 
 
Like the gondola, this ferris wheel has glass cabin too. Likewise, you need to queue for this, I think there's only a few glass cabin ones, no queue for the normal cabin. While we were queuing, there were people taking their wedding photos at the Carousel. So sweet!

The ride is 12 mins according to the internet. I enjoyed this ride more. One is because they allowed us to have 1 group of friends/family to one cabin, so no strangers. More importantly, Muihong was freaking out on the ride so it provided entertainment for me. Haha okay, I'm mean.

After the ride, we went for N.Y Bagel nei hu station. Now I'm wondering why I chose to go to that outlet instead of the taipei main station one. Haha maybe we were worried we will die of hunger.

Muihong loves her breakfast set. I came to the conclusion I'm really not good at breakfast meals because before I can even finish 1 pancake I became quite sick of it already.

Anyway when we left, I realised oh crap, where's my coat. Went back in to find but it wasn't there. So that's how I lost my coat. :(

Almost coming to an end of the Taiwan trip. Left with the last day, where we only had time to go grab all the delicious food before leaving.
12/5 11:27pm
 For the rest of my taiwan post, click here.

Last Undergrad Exam

Sorry for the lack of the posts, I've been either really busy or lazy. Busy when i'm rushing out essays and presentations, lazy when i'm trying to break sleeping record and doing nothing on the internet. Taiwan day 6 post has been in drafting since forever. I hope I can finish my Taiwan posts before I fly off. 

Yesterday marks the unofficial end of my NUS undergrad life. So few people left having exams, they were only using mpsh 6, why can't they squeeze more papers together so people can end earlier. For my last papers, I managed 2 firsts to my undergrad life. I went to the toilet for the first time and I left early for the first time during exams. I was really excited the moment I was going to step out of the exam hall but once I did, the feeling died. So what's going to happen from here, I have no idea yet. 

So, when it comes to exam, what kind of person are you? Are you the kind who just feel damn happy that it is over or are you the kind who'll be thinking oh I should have written this or that. I'm the latter. And I think it's a very bad thing because it makes me angry at myself and sometimes make me ruminate my thoughts, which is damn bad because it's one of the cognitive causes for depression. I guess maybe that is also because why I don't like to check answers with people, avoidant coping skill. Then again, I like to clear doubts, like if I'm not sure I will want to check my notes then if I'm wrong I'll hate myself again. I also want results to come out fast because it gives me closure, it's either you give it to me fast or don't give it to me at all. Haha, but my school always takes damn long to give us our results. Results coming out on 4th june, so i should not think about it and I'm going to enjoy my holiday. 

So yesterday after lunch with Eileen, I went to city hall because I wanted to get something from peninsula shopping centre and on the way, I fell. Knees and hands on the floor, embarrassing. Then when I reached, fml the shop is not opened. Oh yeah, and my phone battery died. Then I walked all the way to raffles place to the arcade to change money. Then it started pouring and I was looking all over for an ATM machine. I was having doubts if I should change money yesterday or change plans and go today or Monday instead cause it seems like Yen depreciation just broke record and won started to depreciate after appreciating for quite a period of time since NK didnt attack, and seems like it will continue to (should have changed that time when won rate was damn good, big regret). Then I just went, in case later too late and fml, when I look at the exchange rate later on they just seem to keep depreciating, makes me sad. Haha, I sound like a pro in examining their trends now. 

Then I rushed home to put the money at home because my father didn't want to be walking around with it since I was meeting Carissa later. Then I rushed all the way to the hairdresser to get my fringe done cause I was supposed to reach at 5pm but I was late still. I'm back to bangs again now. Seriously contemplating to cut it short, but still thinking. 

Then after meeting Carissa, I went home and finally after so long. Being an itchy hand, I went to update my phone iOS which is 6? Now and my previous one was still at 4. Guess what happened, my whole phone just crashed and had to be restored to factory settings. I was so worried my stuff in the phone will be gone. Thank god, everything was backup  automatically before that. 谢天谢地! I like the new updates on my phone though, now I no need to ask people to help me press when I taking pictures and last time on phone blogger I cannot adjust where I want to put pictures (they will all appear at the bottom) but now I can means I can really blog more on the go now!

So yesterday was filled with relieve and happiness? of exam period finally ending, a bit of suay ness (trying to be positive here) and lots of drama. 

My whole body, like my back/shoulder and legs are aching now. Think from all the walking with a bag that was quite heavy (plus I always carry on one shoulder giving extra pressure). I was telling Carissa that yesterday and she was telling me I'm still young and shouldn't be aching. Haha, but I'm really aching and really don't feel young anymore. Also, really not young anymore, how long more can I actually wear my hoodies and my rabbit ears clothes (why?! Did I buy another one in Taiwan that time) without being judged?

Still have to pack my luggage later, do the messy Japan itinerary and book some of the things we need. I hope this trip will be good cause expensive ah! I have some worries, but hope everything go well. 

Going back to bed now, woke up with a runny nose and a bit of asthma. Took meds and thought I'll do something productive like blog while waiting for it to take effect. I can breathe well now. 

Air ticket prices

Today, my hand itched and I went to check airticket prices. Guess what? My air tickets price drop drop drop. Rahh, so much for booking early.

Through this, I learnt something or more like I ling wu something, air ticket prices are actually dependent on the airline company currency. Not sure how true it is, but that is the only reason I can think of that explain why the air ticket price drop. Hmm, or it is suppose to drop nearer to the date when there's no demand. Maybe, or maybe it's an effect of both. Fml. Or maybe somebody up there hates me. This happen everytime I book ticket, I'll always find a cheaper one or like now, it getting cheaper. It happens with hotels too. Wtf.

2 more weeks of school. :(

Itacho Sushi

So I met up Muihong on 22th March. Went to Itacho Sushi  at Ion for dinner. Wanted to try it out the previous time we met, but even though we went at 8 plus or 9, the queue was still uber long. This time we reached at about 6 and decided to queue.

The queue moved fast and before we know it, it's time for dinner. We got the counter seat but it's okay. However, food there take quite awhile to come.

Roasted Salmon Roll - $3.80 ++

Salmon - 40 cents for 1

Damn cheap, 40 cents sushi so as much as I hate fish, still have to try it!

Roasted Egg with Spicy Salmon - $3.20

Muihong really loves salmon. She ordered so many salmon-related food. Tried one, not bad but totally not spicy at all.

Shrimp Spring Roll - $3++

Roasted Egg with seaweed & ??? - $3.60

There egg rolls are generally quite nice.

Cha-Shu In Pork Small Udon - $6.80

I ordered this because they don't sell ramen. I'm glad I did. Usually I hate udon because eversince the first time I ate udon, I always felt like it tasted like rubber. This udon is nice!!! Don't have the rubber taste. Although after awhile still will get jialat. At least now I know udon can be nice, when I go to Japan I will now be open to eating udon.

Cold Green tea Noodle with Scallop - $6

Tried muihong's noodle. Don't like it.

Caramel Pudding - $3.20++

Nice sweet caramel, but otherwise pudding taste like normal custard? pudding.

The total bill came up to $40 exact, not as expensive as I have expected. Nice place for Japanese food which have a different and wide variety. Although it's sad they don't have ramen. 

Happy Birthday Carissa!

Happy Birthday Carissa!!! (It's amazing how her favourite orange is my hated colour and my favourite pink/blue is her hated colours especially pink.)

The girl I met in JC. (I still remember I met her because during one of the bridging classes (the 1st one?) I went to ask if anybody is sitting beside her.)
The girl whom I have managed to keep in contact even after we went separate ways.
The girl whom I'm going to live with if we both don't get married. 

She has the eye bags that Koreans and Japanese love. 

100th Posts

Happy 100th Published Post!!! Yay!
 
Met Muihong yesterday (22/5) for dinner and while we were at Royce. Below is an agaration of one of our conversation.

*After asking the person to separate the chocolates into 2 bags*
Mh: Wah I think you became braver.
Me: Haha yeah.
Mh: Just now, I was surprised when you asked the person to serve dessert.

Makes my "social phobia" sounds quite bad but at least, I've improved! ~

Another incident that happened. I was a victim of group dyanmics during one of my psychology classes on Friday. Apparently somebody sent on annoynomous email to my prof (no idea how) and she was asking the class if we preferred closed book or open book. Somehow, I raised my hand for closed book and my prof had to ask me why and I stupidly said "no time to flip". Actually I was thinking more towards because open book didn't help during mid-terms but somehow "no time to flip" came out of my mouth. I felt damn stupid after that, I think even my prof think "wtf is she thinking" because she ask "so you rather keep everything in your brain and spill it out?" and I dumbly replied "yeah". After that when I recall, seriously, what was I thinking because no matter what, having something is better than having nothing. I suspect it's because of group dynamics cause people around me all wanted closed book so I think I kind of got psychoed? into closed book too. Or maybe I'm just not thinking. After that when I think of it, although I think it's really not useful during mid-terms but it may be different during finals and like I said previously, something is better than nothing. Anyway the decision was closed book cause more people wanted closed book. I really think it's group dynamics because the people who wanted to open book were in one area and the people who didn't want in another.

Omg, I hope the people are not thinking "OMG this stupid girl, why she don't want open book. A**!" and slap me in their mind.I'm sorry, really.

4 more weeks of school left. I really don't know who I should be sad or happy. Conflicted.