Bid Goodbye To My KK Second Home

Take a break for a while from my travel blog and giving someway to my personal life blog. Well, here I would like to announce today is my LAST day of working! I am free from the hectic daily life, no more work overload, feeling of stress and tension. Not forgeting, no more of keep counting down the time to passby to lunch time and off working hours.

It took 3 months for me to waiting for this day. I had tender my resignation letter 3 months ago, as what stated in the letter of offer due to my position.

But, it kinda a mix feelings when I'm about to leave because this can be consider as my second home. Imagine in 24 hours, I had spend at least minimum of 8 hours in office. Not yet including the 1 hour for lunch time where sometimes I bring lunch box and having at office.

Starting as a freshie level to a semi-senior level, it is the most priceless moment that had completed part of my life. Not forgeting too, this is the place where I met my current bf by the way=P. Well, the reason behind I resigned is not because I get a better offer but it's too further my study. Kinda complicated to explain but what I know besides becoming a full-time or part-time student (myself also confuse on this part), now I can even chase my biggest dreams in my life. Yeap, travel again around the globe to satisfy my wanderlust.

My seat in office. Next to me, it's my bf's seat.

My messy table.

The laptop that I used. Nice leh the design? My boss replaced old laptop with this when I came back from Hong Kong trip. I was damn surprised that time.

Besides my bf, only my 2 boss and HR department knew today was my last day. I lied to my other colleagues that tomorrow is my last day. Therefore, today no farewell celebration for me. Actually according to what I stated in my resignation letter, tomorrow is exactly my final day of working but I utilised my final day of paid leave to replace it. Sorry to all my colleagues for not telling you all the truth.

I went office early today just to snap some photo. Therefore, some of the light not yet on.

Exactly 2 years and 4 months, now it's time to bid goodbye to my first ever Company I'm working with. Not bad working with this Company that offer lots of activities such as company trip, company dinner and even some sports acitivities including badminton, futsal and bowling. Gonna miss there!

Feeling kinda sad too as I'm gonna leaving KK soon! Sob sob

8 Days of Adventurous Autumn Japan Trip (2010)

Before I went Hong Kong for summer holiday, I received message via MSN from Nicole asking whether I interested to go Japan with her or not. At that moment, I had another plan to travel to Australia with my mother and siblings for December holiday.

So I was thinking, if I choose to go Japan, I might need to apply more leave and of course might leads to unpaid leave, which means my montly salary will be deducted. But when reconsider again, when will I had this golden opportunity since most of my friends are recently busy working and lacking of money, therefore unable to travel with me. After thinking for almost 2 weeks, finally i said "YES" to Nicole and there goes two little ladies backpacking by their own. Oh yeah! I would like to stress here that Nicole and I are actually luggage draggers, not backpackers. Hahaha..

Before going to Japan, plenty of preparation need to be ready before enter Japan. For example, during application for visa, I need to go photo studio to take picture with white background. Not only that, lots of requirement needed just to apply such a small piece of visa such as letter from your company, full itinenary of the trip, a photocopy of fixed deposit and so on. Even Nicole had to contact her sister in Singapore in order to get the Japan Rail Pass. That's why some people rather to follow travel agency to avoid the troublesome requirement.

Some of the readers asking me how much had I spend for this trip. Well, including transportation, accommodation, foods and not forgeting madly shopping, roughly around RM5k - RM6k. But before this, I had compared with travel agency company where it costs RM5-6k for the tour package. That price not yet included your shopping ooo...

Started to make entry post on 14 December and just ended it recently on 22 June, it took me half year to finish positing of this Japan trip. So, for those who just recently read my blog, here is my Japan trip itinerary because I don't blog consecutively.

Day 1 (26 October 2010)
- 5 Different Airports in 24 Hours
- First Night Dinner at Osaka

Day 2 (27 October 2010)
- Kyoto City Tour (Kiyomizudera Temple, Yasaka Shrine, Gion & Arashiyama)

Day 3 (28 October 2010)
- Osaka at Daytime (Osaka Castle, Shinsekai, America Mura & Shinsaibashi)
- Osaka at Night Time (Dontobori & Umeda Sky Building)

Day 4 (29 October 2010)
- Asakusa Nakamise Shopping Street
- Akihabara Electronics District

Day 5 (30 October 2010)
- Tsukiji Fish Market
- Harajuku & Takeshita Dori
- Shibuya - Another Shopping & Entertainment District of Tokyo

Day 6 (31 October 2010)
- Lake Kawaguchi of Mount Fuji
- Tokyo Tower, the Looks alike Eiffel Tower

Day 7 (1 November 2010)
- Tokyo Disneysea

Day 8 (2 November 2010)
- Japan Transportation & My Last Day in Japan

Extra Features:
1) Accommodation in Osaka: J-Hoppers & Fukushima
2) Accomodation in Tokyo: Tokyo House Ikebukuro
3) Itadakimasu in Japan

SAYONARA JAPAN!

Small note: This afternoon, I received message from my bestie that she are leaving to Japan for 3 months for the training purpose. What a great opportunity she has! How I wish I got this opportunity too? To dearest Matilda, have a safe trip and enjoy your life there. Wish to visit you but now is summer season in Japan. Must be damn very hot!

Japan Transportation & My Last Day in Japan

Attractions? Checked. Accommodation? Checked. Foods? Checked. And now end my final post on my adventurous autumn Japan trip by sharing a bit regarding Japan railway and public transportation network.

Frankly to say that the actual period I had in Japan was actually 7 days, not 8 days because Nicole and I spend our last day mostly on the Shinkansen and Kansai International Airport.

What is Shinkansen by the way? Shinkansen, the first bullet train, is a network of high-speed railway lines in Japan. Running at the speeds of up to 300 km/h, Shinkansen is known for punctuality and it will depart exactly on the scheduled time. So ,don't expect for Shinkansen to wait for you.

Aerodynamic nose of the fabled Shinkansen



The journey from Tokyo to Kansai International Airport took us 3 hours by Shinkansen

The number on Shinkansen indicates whether the truck is reserved or non-reserved.

Similar to airplanes, most of the Shinkansen offer seats in two different type of classes; ordinary or enocomic class and business class or known as green car class. Due to Nicole and I are Japan Rail Pass holders (will talk about this later), we can only reserved the ordinary class. However, no matter what class it was, for me the seat is so comfortable and so spacious compare to the airplanes. Hey what! I'm almost forgot that everytime I on board, I had no problem with the tight legroom space because I am shortie by the way. Anyway, it is not a bad sign to have the Japan Rail Pass because we can reserve the seat for free.

Look at the picture at the upper right, Shinkansen offer a generous amount of foot space. Even their number are being numbered and lettered in the same style as on airplanes.

The safety guideline.

We knew that we were almost reach airport when we saw Hep Town.



Finally reached Kansai International Airport, which closer to the city of Osaka.

Japan's public transportation network leades the world in terms of efficiency, safety and comfort. Most of the places especially the attractions can be reached by taking the public transportation including Mount Fuji. However, when seriously look into their railway line, it is awesomely so complicated and complexity. On the first day we arrived, we were almost lost and confused for 10-20 minutes when we plan to buy ticket to the guest house from Kansai International Airport by using their ticket machine. At the end, we gave up and we went to the ticket office to buy the ticket instead of using the ticket machine.

Don't believe? Look at the map of the railway line on the top of the ticket machines below.

Not only one

But there are two. Really makes both of us scratched our head.

Talking about that Japan Rail Pass, Nicole recommended to buy it as we plan to visit more than one region of Japan. If you plan to visit Kyoto, Kobe, Nara and even Osaka besides Tokyo, then you need this as it offers an incredibly economical way to travel throughout Japan. This pass gives an unlimited travel on almost all trains of the nationwide network of JR lines, including the Shinkansen as well as on many JR bus lines. We can simply travel at anytime we want without reserve any ticket and like what I said before, we can even reserve the seat for free.

However, this Pass can only be purchased outside of Japan before the visit. It is not for sale inside Japan itself. Nicole bought this pass from Singapore by the way. There are two types of Japan Rail Pass and each of these types is available for either 7 days, 14 days or 21 days.

My name and details on Japan Rail Pass

We spend our last at Kansai International Airport, Japan's second largest airport.

For this trip, we took Jetstar where departed from Singapore and transit to Taiwan before reach Japan.

Not WELCOME but it's GOODBYE TO JAPAN!

Finally, that's the end of my Autumn Adventurous Japan trip with my university housemate, Nicole. It was really one of the amazing and wonderful trip I had. Before this, both of us had been travelled many places during our further study in Sheffield, United Kingdom including the trip of 20 days around Europe. It was a sudden invitation from her to ask me to go Japan. Honestly to say, that moment Japan was not in my current travel list but I am truly not regret on the decision I'd made to travel with her. Lots of exciting experience I had including lost in the middle while try to find the locations and not forgeting too the language barrier we encountered.

Hereby I would like to thanks to Nicole for the invitation and thanks to for doing all the planning and booking the accommodation. Well, she is the host for this trip. THANKS NICOLE!! Can't wait for our next trip.

[Credit to: Japan-Guide.com, Japan Rail Pass homepage and Wikipedia]

101 Followers Blog Tag Awards

OMG! What a surprised I had! I never thought after giving out my first ever blog tag away to the first lucky 51 followers a month ago, and now I am giving away again another second blog tag award for the additional 50 followers. This is also for my previous 51 followers of my blog.

51 + 50 = 101 FOLLOWERS!

APPRECIATION AWARD for my 101 followers

Here is the name list of the additional 50 followers of mine

1. zay
2. Iz ONE nY
3. !Oh! Azizah
4. tiara dryden

5. e'na binut

6. Why Why

7. MosePA
8. Miki Aya
9. CH Voon
10. Sera Kadir
11. Mr. Abang2

12. Henshin

13. Hertina Bulating
14. embun
15. LuLuLaLaLengLeng
16. anne
17. wan T A N ho
18. Lady Anne
19. JIPP
20. dydue A'eN
21. January2601
22. Chan Qing Sheng
23. Encik Saat
24. irene_shane
25. Bieby Hayati
26. ask ZhYe
27. Noor Alyaa
28. aRlen
29. aikoakito
30. Noorizram Zaizee
31. kemang~
32. Ms eMie
33. eLvy Valerie
34. Aki
35. izra sofia
36. hairyeda_herman
37. honeyamour
38. Lady Mariah
39. JEN
40. samizul.net
41. CathJ
42. virgo19
43. izwan harjan shah kamarjan
44. Haryati Molly @ Tunung
45. Fafa Rayn
46. Noorizram Zaizee
47. SedapHinggaMenjilatJari
48. LOHAN
49. missDza
50. Pink Diva

To my first 51 followers, in case you miss out my first blog tag award, it's as below. Actually is my mistakes/errors for do not inform you all. Now, I had sort out the name list and do check out those.

Refer to my previous post (click here)

The namelist of my first 51 followers

1. kxpeace_gal
2. Quirky
3. Shu Cyan
4. Mei Tzeu
5. janpiyer jane
6. Glay David
7. Aly8
8. Eric3231559
9. Angel - et_cetera
10. AnnieMing
11. Sabahan Bloggers Club
12. Michelle Sung
13. germaine
14. Mohd. Izzuddin Fitri Bin Abd Aziz
15. Kris and Nadia
16. ♥MinChun 민천♥
17. Seha
18. ♥Mitchell♥
19. Arif
20. byya - Traveller Atanomy
21. Captain C. & Beauty. Q
22. thebeybeh
23. HannaH AzhanA
24. Ariez Hazaril
25. Dave
26. sweetandspicy
27. Sailor
28. Kkzai
29. StellaClaire-Richard
30. Veanne - ~mEm0RiEs~
31. Armstrong
32. Deanona
33. Fadzmie Mohamad
34. TaufiqHadiifh
35. putra_chabee
36. SheNn
37. meichi
38. Afiqah
39. achie
40. Graxieparadise-ejm
41. pattyvenci
42. frecyllamAy
43. Devi da Lil’ Devil
44. aishah la bha
45. serendipity
46. myluv_carol
47. Kelly
48. echaRierie
49. David Hogan Jr
50. Kaoshi
51. the engienur

Thank you for following and reading my blog. I am so grateful and delightful to share every post of mine especially sharing on my adventure and experience travel around the globe. And not forgetting to those who always drop by and leave comments, thanks a lot for sharing your thoughts and opinions. Hope you all like the above 2 blog tag awards.

If you like to post the image in your blog, below are the guideline:

1) Right click on the image and select "Save Picture As".
2) In your blog, create a "New Post" and click on the "Insert Image" tool in the toolbar
3) A window will open. On the left hand side of the window, click "Browse" and insert the image that you save.
4) Post your blog and check it's worked.

Itadakimasu in Japan

Konnichiwa, everyone!

My Japan post almost comes to an end. However, still feel like something is missing if I don't introduce and share with you the foods I had during my trip there.

As you know, most common and famous Japanese cruisine is like sushi, salmon, sashimi and so on. We are so lucky to live in a country that offers a very large variety of dishes and regional specialities. So when Nicole and I went to Japan, their foods are not a big deal for us.

If you plan to go Japan and want to have a fresh Japanese cruisine especially salmon, sashimi and even the expensive sea urchin, plan your journey to Tsukiji Fish Market (click here).

How can you resist this and you might want order second bowl.

Japanese crepes from Harajuku

Besides the above, not forgeting to try the origin of where takoyaki from. Takoyaki or commonly known as octopus ball is a ball-shaped, pan fried dumpling made of batter. The best location to search for delicious Takoyaki would be non other than Osaka, as this is the city where it was first popularised from.

Shinsekai is the spot where Nicole and I had this Takoyaki (click here)

And in case you are green tea ice-cream lover, you should try the tastiness and sweetness of this dessert in Japan. Not only matcha, they do have houjicha - Japanese roasted green tea ice-cream.

Now I feel like I want fly back to Japan just to have this.

I can't have the above almost everyday during my 8 days trip in Japan or else it will burn a big hole in my pocket. Even the normal meal I had during my first night arrived in Japan which was Tori Kaarage (fried cutlet chicken) with rice, had cost me RM45 (click here).

Tori Karaage

From there onwards, Nicole and I hunt for our dinner at 7-Eleven or even other 24 hours convenience store such as Lawson, Circle K Sunkus and even Family Mart. These convenience stores primarily sell foods including a large range of meals from sushi to bento and even spagetti. Honestly to say their 7-Eleven are far more better than the one we have in Malaysia. They even offer services to heat your cold foods.

Nicole and I won't never miss a day to visit these convenience stores to get our meals from breakfast, lunch and dinner. I love to buy their bento where sometimes a completely meal set with chicken, egg, potato, fish and even prawn together with rice.

Yummy yummy Japanese dishes as my dinner.

So next time if you got the chance to visit Japan and run out of idea where to have meal, let's go to these convenience stores as they are everywhere and easily to allocate. I didn't took any pictures of these convenience stores but you can refer to one of my post during my trip to Taiwan (click here).

ITADAKIMASU EVERYONE!

Tokyo Disneysea

Date of Visited: 1st November 2010

If you came back from Tokyo, besides Mount Fuji, sure most of the people you know will ask whether had you been to Tokyo Disneyland. Tokyo Disneyland is the first Asia Disney theme park opened outside the United States.

Tokyo Disneyland is one of three main entertainment sections of Tokyo Disney Resort which opened on 15th April 1983. Then Tokyo Disneysea came in September 4th, 2001 with a park themed based on nautical exploration to create a world where imagination and adventure set sail. Due to the time constraint, Nicole and I can only choose one; either the Disneyland or the Disneysea. Since both of us had been to Paris Disneyland and I just came back from Hong Kong Disneyland, therefore both of us agreed to visit Tokyo Disneysea. The other reason is because this is one and only ocean theme park exclusive to Japan.

In order to get to Tokyo Disneysea, we need to take Disney Resort Line monorail.

Note: Tokyo DisneyLand and Tokyo DisneySea are separate themed park. So, if you want go for both, you need to purchase admission ticket for two.

Before this in my Shibuya entry (click here), I ever recommended that if you plan to go Tokyo Disney Resort, to take a safeguard in case you didn't bought the online ticket, you are advisable to purchase ticket from there. Why?

Don't wait until you reach there or else you will regret.

Once we reached Tokyo Disneysea, we saw a huge model of globe which similar to the one in Universal Studio (although I haven't been yet to any of the Universal) in the entrance of plaza. It is one of the two symbolic icon of Tokyo DisneySea.

DisneySea Aquasphere

There are seven uniquely themed areas or known as "ports of call". One of it, Mediterranean Harbour is the entrance of the park which opens up to another six more nautically theme ports; Mysterious Island, Mermaid Lagoon, Arabian Coast, Port Discovery, Lost River Delta and American Waterfront.

1. Mediterranean Harbour - the main entrance "port of call" and themed as an Italian port city, complete with Venetian gondolas. Here, we saw an artificial gigantic volcano, Mount Prometheus, located in the center of the park. is another symbol of Tokyo DisneySea.

Another Venetian replica

2. Mysterious Island - the smallest "port of call" features a large volcano and located in the center of the park. It is also known as Vulcania Island. This area has little greenery, and is mostly rocks and ornaments.

One of Mysterious Island's attractions which featured from Disney movie

3. Mermaid Lagoon - Tokyo Disneysea is incomplete without the home characters to "The Little Mermaid". The facade is made to resemble like the Palace of King Triton and features colourful seashell-inspired architecture. This unique "port of call" is mostly indoors and recreates the feeling of being underwater. Lots of attractions and rides are available in this area but mostly are geared towards younger children.

Time to be "Under the Sea"

4. Arabian Coast - recreates an exotic Arabian harbour, combining another Disney popular animated film, Aladdin with an enchanted world from the 1001 Arabian Nights. As such, the architecture and atmosphere are inspired by many Middle-Eastern and Indian influences.

5. Port Discovery - This "port of call" is hailed as the marina of the future. It is also sometimes known as "Tomorrowland" of Tokyo Disneysea.

6. Lost River Delta - features the most famous attraction Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull, which based on the Indiana Jones film and it is the sixth collaboration between Disney and George Lucas. Don't tell me that you don't know who is George Lucas. Still don't know? Go google it.

For this ride, both of us had to queue for almost two and half hours. Most of them are Japanese and I only saw few Caucasians in the theme parks. My most here define as 99% and I had checked the calender. Neither school holidays or public holidays but everywhere crowded with the locals. Guest they no need to work or school.

7. American Waterfront - represents the northeastern seaboard of the United States in the early 20th century. This land is dominated by the large passanger ship (picture as below).

The most popular attraction, Tower of Terror. Not sure whether similar to the one in Paris Disneyland (click here) but what I know I don't want another long queue again.

So there you have it. A brief introduction of the seven different themed areas and their attractions in Tokyo Disneysea accompanion with the picture I took. Lastly, never leave Tokyo Disneysea with empty hand.

There are 2 items unable to allocate to be part of my collection - fridge madgets and Mickey T-shirts. Too bad!

How to go there:

Take the JR Keiyo Line to Maihama Station which is adjacent to Tokyo Disney Resort. Turn left once out from station to take the Disney Resort Line monorail which cost 200 yen. For Tokyo Disneyland, it is just few walking distance.

The admission fee and opening hours is vary from time to time. For safeguard, do visit the website for more details. Before I forgot, do print out the map as I can't find any English version. Luckily I print out earlier for my research before I reach there.

[Credit to: Wikipedia, Wikitravel and Tokyo Disney Resort main homepage]

UPDATED: Tokyo Disneysea is being recognised as one of the world's best theme parks (click here).