Taiwan trip

whee~~~

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My Taiwan trip was amazing....

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I LOVE TAIWAN!!!

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I love the country and it's people!!!

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Taiwan is now No.2 on my list of countries to revisit. No.1 is Japan and No.2 is now Taiwan. haaha....

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Just like Japan, Taiwan's public transport system us also very very efficient and thus it's very easy to travel around. Plus with bullet trains, one would hava no problems travelling up north or down south.

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I guess spring is the best time to travel there as the weather is cool and there's not much rain. So it's easy to travel about without having to worry about bad weather.

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Even though I've only been to Taipei and Kaohsiung, I still love the country. I especially like Kaohsiung as it's less packed compared to Taipei. It's a clean and beautiful city with nice people.

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Plus food, accomodation and shopping is cheaper compared to Taipei.

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Hiphop culture there is huge compared to here and there are a lot of great dancers there. My jaw totally dropped seeing them dance live!!! The way they move and freestyle to the music, you'd think that the different movements from their body were responsible for making the music.

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Yea, the way they play with the beats and hiting on them at the right time....woooo~~*jaw dropped*....how I wish that I could freestlye like them. Just 10% of their skills and I'd be super happy! That's how good they are! hehe...the dance party was definitely an eye-opener. People starts dancing once the music is on and it's party time!!

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Having to meet 'the legends" there was one of the best part of this trip. How many people would get to meet them and what more, to see them dance live!!!! My jaw totally dropped to the ground!!!! Especially during the house showcase. I felt like I need to learn house....I want to dance like that too!!! Omg~ the way those legs moved and the body.....ahhh~~ I never thought that anyone could dance like that!!! OOOoo..I need those fast legs!!!

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Seeing the legends dance and hearing them talk about dance was amazing. Their viewpoints and hearing them share stories from their trips!! Then to see them crack jokes!! Ahh...I only wished that it would last longer.

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Unfortunately my trip there this time was too short and I didn't have enough time to visit more places or experience their culture more. Overall, it was a greatexperience and fun trip. Just dragging out luggages from places to places and sleeping few hours per night. Moving on here and there every now and then, and munching on meals bought from7/11.

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Hope that I would be able to visit the country again~

...will break down my trip in the next few posts because I wanna keep a record of all these amazing memories!

台湾(タイワン) へ

whee~ last round of practice tonight and I'm off to Taiwan tomorrow!

I'm so excited for my trip....but at the same time I couldn't help but think how much I've spent or will be spending there!! ahh...and for such a short trip with such an expensive ticket! Plus I'll be staying only at Kaohsiong....

Well, the reason why I wanted to go initially was to see the dance scene there. Then now that we'll be performing there, it makes the trip a whole lot more meaningful.

There'll be several workshops organised there by the original hip-hoppers. Omg~ but it's expensive and all the way in Taipei!! My plane lands in Taipei and we'll be travelling by shinkansen to Kaohsiong which costs like around RM150.

If I were to take the work shop, that would means that I need to travel 4 times between the 2 areas....which means RM600 on just shinkansen fares!! Omg!! Another round and it would be equal to my air fare. My goodness~~~ plus I need to pay for the workshop and dance party.

Crazy~~~ all my money would be spent only on travelling alone....

Plus there's the scary thought that it might be a waste for me to spend so much on the workshop because with my level of hiphop, there's no way I could catch up with the workshop. Maybe the steps, yes, but the bounce and feel....I'd be happy if I can even get 1% of it!

Another thing is that after the workshop, I'll have to take the shinkansen again, back to KS for the perf.......tiring~~ I wonder how though will be workshop be....hehe....testing my stamina here!

Ok, not forgetting that I want to shop too. Well, there goes all my money just for travelling!!!

Argh~~ my mind is playing tricks on me.

At some point I'm worried that I might regret for travelling so far and to be so lucky that they have the workshops there too, not just in US.......and I didn't go!!!

Then I'm worried that I might go there and gain nothing from it because I'm too stupid to remember any thing!! Ahhh....and worse yet, having to spend so much travelling to the workshop location and paying so much for it!!! When I could've gone shopping and pamper myself with some nice stuffs.....

Argh~どうしょう......

*fuun...*

Anyways...I'm hoping that this trip would be a memorable one. I know my jaws would definitely drop when I see the ppl there dance. Hope that I'll be able to get some nice shoes, clothings and taste some yummylicious Taiwanese food. ahh~~~ please let everything go smoothly....

I think I can only decide to go or not for the workshop when the day comes....because my mind keeps jumping back and forth....

:D

今日のランチ

Thanks to my lovely thermoflasks which keep my food warm. Rice+ 3 pieces of pork ribs+ fried thinly sliced lotus roots with pork+ soup. Hehe...I call this the chinese style bento which is quite different from the rectangular japanese bentos.

The little ones used to store the rice and veges fit into a separate thermoflask which doesn't seem to be as good as the big one used to store my soup. The big one is really good for keeping food or drinks warm. The soup burnt my tongue when I tried to drink it immeidately after opening the lid.

Hahaha....of course I cooked neither the soup nor veges. I'm only responsible for eating them up! nyom¬nyom¬

たこ焼き Party

About a month ago, we held a takoyaki party at my centre as a farewell party for my sensei who would be returning to Japan.

It's my first time making takoyaki and therefore I was pretty excited. I love takoyaki!!

Here we are trying to figure out the correct composition of water and flour. Sensei read the instructions and we just followed. We added less water than required though.....and we already mixed in out cabbage bits by mistake....

Lol...the beautiful maker belongs to my classmate who bought it from HK. Ahh~~ after the party, I wanted to get myself one too so that I can hold my own takoyaki party too....

It was really hard to get tako here in Malaysia but luckily my classmate managed to find some and they certainly don't come cheap!!! Ahh....fresh takos!!!! I bet outside stalls don't use takos like these because it's just too expensive.


That day must be our lucky day because an uncle from Osaka happenned to be there and he taught us all how to make it. Lucky~ After all たこ焼き is an iconic food from Osaka. Simple and easy, unlike those you see from supermarkets where people make half and then leave it there till customers orders it. :P Bleh!!! 全然食べない！(I don't eat those!)


Our 1st round of takoyaki!!! Beautifully decorated with katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes), aonori(green seaweed powder), mayonnaise and takoyaki sauce. Nyom-nyom YUMMY!!! Hot and fresh!!! The more sauce you add in, the tastier it is!!

The first round ones were a bit too dense as we didn't add enough water. Subsequent rounds got better and better. We even used sausages, cheese and "chilli chips". Yea...potato chips-yaki!! Weird...but yummy!! Another reason why it's yummy could be because we added katsuobushi into the takoyaki too while cooking.

Tada a super huge card and a beautiful home-made marble cake decorated with rainbow candies in sensei's name.

See how big the card is?

hehe...at the same time, another class was having sushi party where they get to make their own temaki. Went in to have a look and managed to sample some sushis!

lol....

二十八宿 (Twenty-Eight Constellations)

Interesting findings.....hehee~

Recently I've been watching back the old school animes of the 90s and oohh....so nostalgic! I miss them so much! I was watching Marmalade boy, I think it's my forth time. Anyways, one morning I decided to read up on the 28 constellations of Fushigi Yuugi as I wondered where Yuu Watase got the idea from.

So interestingly....I found that the Lunar calendar was somehow related to the 28 constellations. I never knew about this before cause no one told me.

Based on ancient astrological grouping from India, the 27 or 28 points that the moon passes through in one month is associated with star constellations. Each of these points (constellations) is associated with a deity, although the point-deity association varies among nations and sects.

A similar grouping of 28 was developed independently in China. The Chinese merged their system with that from India following the introduction of Buddhism to China. Unlike India, the grouping in China was always 28. It is the Chinese system that was imported by the Japanese.

The 28 moon lodges or 28 lunar mansions (as they are often called in English) are divided into four clusters, with each cluster made up of seven constellations. The four clusters represent the four cardinal directions (north, south, east, west).

Each cluster is associated with one of Four Celestial Emblems, a Buddhist guardian deity (the Four Heavenly Kings), a season, a color, and numerous other attributes.

Credits all the infos to HERE<<

North- Genbu the Tortoise
South- Suzaku the Red Pheonix
East- Seiryuu the blue-gree Dragon
West- Bakyo the White Tiger

hehe...it's exactly the same as in Fushigi Yuugi. so cool~

Imagine the immense amount of research a mangaka has to go through in order to create a good manga. The background research to make sure facts are right, then research on architectural designs and clothings.

Lol...wehn I was younger, being a mangaka was one of my dreams because I love drawing pretty boys and girls. Plus all the influences I've gotten from watching animes which I later found out were based on mangas. At that time, I was really amazed by their works as they were able to create such wonderful stories and at the same time create beautiful illustrations.

^_^!! according to the star signs...I'm supposed to be under Seiryuu and my birth date is the closest to Nakago (心/ Heart).

Ahh...Shock-da! my tamahome's enemy!!!

The hot blonde in the middle~

*sniff* meawhile my tamahome belongs to suzaku!!

hehe...if you read mangas, you'll that all characters have a biodata just like all of us and their own characteristic characters.

hehe...it's late to only realise this so many years after the manga and anime ended but FY is still one of my all time favourite!!

lol...anyone directors wanna turn this into a drama???

Cone Pizza revisited

Yea, revisited the place with my colleagues.

We claimed 2 free mushroom soup with the coupons that they gave us form our last visit.

Since it's free, can't complain much......

Iced tea

Hot Tea

Forgot what's the name of the pasta but it's the same dish, we just ordered it in different pasta type.

The tuna cone pizza! Looks like ice cream right? It's so cute! Next time I must try it!!!!

Spaghetti Arabita

It looks like I will be visiting the place again. Why? well...cuz they gave me another 2 coupons and this time is for free garlic bread! haahah....what a great way to keep customers coming back! Give them something free everytime they come!!!

Yea, this is something Hot Piper has to learn from. We went there for lunch today since they just newly open in the area. A colleague came to know of their buy 3 free 1 lunch set. There's only 3 of us but we went anyways. The service was horrible. We couldnt' get waiters to serve us and the food was bad too. We asked if we could get the free set since it's stated there buy 3 free 1 right. He said if we can finish our food, he'll serve it to us!!! What?? like we can't finish it ??? Oh well....but according to the waiter they have very nice a la-carte meals.

2010 Petronas F1 Grand Prix

Ahh...no time to update so many things.

I've been super busy last week. I had prac almost every night and had been lacking sleep! We were preparing for performance.

One was for the F1 event which took up my entire weekend!! The waiting and the running part were the most tiring part of all. Spent few hours waiting every day!!! omg~~~ It's really tiring to wait for time to pass!!!!

While waiting for the bus)

(Our ride)

(Tada!)
(Note: my lou gong on the top left!!! wakakaka!!!)
(Lou gong with Petronas Girls)

(Us! going into the paddock!)

On Sat, it was drizzling and we had to practice in the rain on the Sepang tracks! ahhh...what an amazing experience that was!! It was my 1st time there and I danced on the tracks!!!

Some of the crew members were still there tending to the race cars! I could see the garages right behind us. Can see the race cars with their humongous tyres...ooooo~




haha... my position was in front of Jenson Button!! The crew members were still checking the cars after the race. wakaka.....I wanna see the leng chai driver!!! Michael Schumacher was just a lil further to the right! Ahhh~~~where are the drivers!!!??


Then yesterday, when we actually performed, the sun was burning hot!! Oh well...at least we managed to see some beautiful air display! It was so cool to see the planes go 360 degrees, then zoom here and there up in the sky! Ahhh...it was so up close!!! I love the sounds from the planes, could really feel the vibrations!!!

The race itself was super cool! I though that the 1st race was loud and the cars were already quite fast but boy, was I wrong!! When the....actual race??....started, OMG~ I thought I was going to be deaf!!!


56 laps!!! One moment you hear *Vrrooom-vroomm* on one side and next moment you'll heat the same sounds on the other side and then suddenly the sounds just keep coming here and there because the drivers were all around the tracks and we were in the middle!!!

Initially, it was super fun because I got really excited to see the cars zoom past SOOO up close but then after a while my ears started to hurt! The vibrations were so strong that I had a headache!!! We stuffed tissues into our ears and I was covering my ears with my towel the whole time we were up on the grandstand. SUPER LOUD!!!! Plus it was at the bend, so you could clearly hear the cars slow down and then change their gears and stuffs!!! My eyes started to become blurry too after a while!

After half an hour we couldn't take it anymore and decided to just walk around, even then you could hear the cars super clearly!!! *ouch* my ears!!! We couldn't even talk to each other because it was too loud. We had to sms!

The first race that we saw was during our lunch and I had no idea who the winner was initially but he looked cute from the screen. So I said that the camera should zoom in closer to his face. My friend then told me that that's the closest the cameraman could go and all of the sudden, the winner ran up to the camera and gave it a kiss!!! Lol~ naturally I went crazy~~~ ahhh~~~ still no idea who the racer was.

haha...read the papers today and found out that Sebastian Vettel won the Petronas F1 Grand Prix! Congrats to him!!!

Was hoping to see more drivers in person, but I guess to be able to see the 2010 Grand Prix live was already an amazing experience. What more, having the opprotunity to perform on the tracks with 200 other dancers!! whee~~~ a tiring but great experience!


(Our view)

(Our entrance and exit)

(The beautiful tracks in the evening)

(The Dancers!)

Lol...I stole all the pics from another dancer!!!