lost in the thought

Only 12 hours later shall you be able to see
This moon that is in my sky

Another 12 hours it takes
For your message to reach me

Or has in penning the message
Have you forgotten who to send it to

rubbish part 1

flowers dance gently in the air, parachuting into a running stream
the brilliant colors, withered from the petals

like how life settles into a rhythm, throbbing a repeating life beat
except that now, you, who are not by my side

踊る桜は水川に落ちてしまう
もう枯れて色あせて花弁は

繰り返し日常生活に慣れ僕
不在な君を・・・

National Day with the CCHS4RP (sorta) gang

http://picasaweb.google.com/zhongwei.lu/20070809NationalDay

Buyo at NUS and my belated birthday waffle

http://picasaweb.google.com/zhongwei.lu/20070822BuyoAndBirthdayWaffle

強さ

会いたくて、君は傍で居ないのは、その気持ちはただ、
一人で人ごみに歩きながら、現実と切り離して、
目の前、通じた前者後者の顔はも掠ってしまった
自分自身も徐々にその魂の流れに失った

君にその気持ちを伝えられなくて、その気持ちは、
心が絞めていて、じりじり命が奪っていて、
その不安を、その苦しみを癒すため
誰かに、その弱さを見せられるのか

ベイコク

いとしい白鳩は遠くいった、
僕は春のお帰りを待つ

ここから一番遠い距離、あなたの面影

光、届けない寒さの石上、
花弁無し花の、
挟まれてる茨、
俺の身を刺す
深くて、苦くて、
叫んでる僕の声、
鋭くて、苦しくて、
夜に消えてゆく

北海道旅行第五日

Went to Asahi Breweries, Sapporo at the start of the day, got there abit earlier than 9am opening time, so went around its gardens for a walk. Viewed a video about how Asahi beer is so super delicious and how it rulez/p4wnz the other Japan beers like Kirin and Sapporo, how it is created for the absolutely awesome Dry taste, blah blah. After that is the free flow sample of beer (+tea/cider/soft drinks for the non-indulging), accompanied with a few naggings at the tour guide about how much better it would be to bring us to Asahi in the evening so we can go right to the hot springs after the beer and fall asleep in the boiling water. (by your favorite commenter - youknowwho)
http://picasaweb.google.com/zhongwei.lu/0806AAsahi

Sapporo Tower, the bus parked right beside it, tis the tallest building in Sapporo city (i reckon). Didn't go because the entrance fee is an additional charge, I personally didn't mind since Tokyo Tower / Kyoto Tower / Shinbashi Sky Garden were way taller than this... So moving on, we went shopping underground instead.
http://picasaweb.google.com/zhongwei.lu/0806BSapporoTower

Visited the salmon museum (shaped like a salmon itself). Showed how salmon is born from roe, swims all its way around the world in 3 years, uses it nose to guide it back to its birthplace by "sniffing" (yeah no joke), gives birth again and dies soon after. Then about how Sapporo NGOs instilled an breeding program to catch pregnant salmon, get its roe and kill it. Well, the salmon dies straight after giving birth, so the meat is "utilized" in a Japanese efficient way, and then the artificial breeding ensures survival of the eggs. Win-win situation?
http://picasaweb.google.com/zhongwei.lu/0806CSalmon

Next is shopping at Rera (near Chitose airport). The place features many European and Japanese brands, shops spread out in a Australian street style, quite a good selection imo.
http://picasaweb.google.com/zhongwei.lu/0806DReraShopping

北海道旅行第四日

Day 4, we went Cherry picking at one of the farm/greenhouse. It was a free for all kinda thingy, so we could pick as many as we liked and eat them, but we can't bring them away with us. I was bored after the 4th cherry, and everyone was done after like 15 mins, although the cherries are very sweet, free and everything, but cherries are just cherries. Anyway, people *ahem ahem* still smuggled the cherries back, and even plucked some apples and goodness-know-what-fruits from other *prohibited* trees nearby. Nuff said.
http://picasaweb.google.com/zhongwei.lu/0805ACherryPicking

Next to this romantic/medieval/cottage-like town called Otaru which is by the eastern coast of Hokkaido. It was previously a port, but was succeeded and turned to industries like glass-making, musical instruments, chocolate/confectionery outlets, wind-chime shops
http://picasaweb.google.com/zhongwei.lu/0805BOtaru

Lunch at a seafood restaurant which rears its own seafood
http://picasaweb.google.com/zhongwei.lu/0805CLunch

Hokkaido's most famous chocolate, White Lovers. We visited the factory/outlet and had some ice-cream. I captured a clockwork performance at 4pm.
http://picasaweb.google.com/zhongwei.lu/0805DShiroiKoibito
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuyL0quLW-o

Tanuki Kouji, a long covered street in Sapporo city where shops ranging from souvenirs, pachinko, eateries can be found. Kinda like Osaka/Umeda streets or the shopping streets in Asakusa.
http://picasaweb.google.com/zhongwei.lu/0805ETanukiKouji

Susukino, the more lively part of Sapporo, where nightlife (likened to Shinjuku Kabukicho) can be found, except the "Annai" is all clustered in a single building from 1F to 5F instead of littered around the place. The Ramen alley can be found here, where queues can be horrendous at dinnertime. Personally, I found the ramen a little above average. Sapporo is famous for Miso and Shoyu ramen.
http://picasaweb.google.com/zhongwei.lu/0805FSusukino

北海道旅行第三日

Day 3, we went to visit Edo Wonderland, or rather, Noboribetsu Olden Times Vilage. We caught a Ninja show on our arrival, seeing many flashy moves such as Ninjas rope-descending from the ceiling, escaping through revolving doors, unearthing through the floorboards, fighting and battling for a piece of secret scroll. Actually the origins of Ninjas was information gathering, and they were employed by Shoguns during Japan's Sengoku (戦国時代) period. There's a maze-trick building there, with slanted floors, tricky mirrors, secret doors and sliding-door-mazes to play around. Another attraction was the お化け屋敷, which is a Haunted Mansion - Monster exhibition thingy.
http://picasaweb.google.com/zhongwei.lu/0804AEdoWonderland

Following which, we visited the bear reserve. Black bears are Hokkaido's fiercest wild animal, which can grow to twice the size of a grown man in the wild.
http://picasaweb.google.com/zhongwei.lu/0804BBearReserve

Then it was a cruise to the Middle Island (中島) in Lake Toya (洞爺), where a natural deer reserve is housed. The lake was all misty and foggy because of the rainy weather brought by the nearby typhoon, but it was all airy and breezy. Rainy weather rendered the muddy forest unsafe for tourist exploration, so we had black sesame ice-cream and left.
http://picasaweb.google.com/zhongwei.lu/0804CLakeToyaCruise

Went to a milk ice-cream making farm after that. We formed a team of 5, making some delicious ice-cream using simple tools such as: 2 bowls, ice-cubes, fresh-milk, cream, sugar and salt. The ice-cream was superb, but it was pretty hard work to keep whipping the stuff for 15 mins, and to scrape the coagulated-frozen stuff and rewhip it. >_<
http://picasaweb.google.com/zhongwei.lu/0804DMilkIceCream

Returned to Lake Toya for hot springs, and a small fireworks display in the night.
http://picasaweb.google.com/zhongwei.lu/0804ELakeToyaHotel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wQIgH5SEbE

北海道旅行第二日

We left Taisetsu hotel and headed to Farm Tomita (located in a place Furano 富良野, central Hokkaido) to look at beautiful Lavender fields and many different types of flowers...
http://picasaweb.google.com/zhongwei.lu/0803ATaisetsuHotel
http://picasaweb.google.com/zhongwei.lu/0803BFarmTomita

Next we went to Four Seasons Hill (四季彩の丘), which was kinda more pretty because the hills were totally filled with flowers, and they stretched on and on into the distance, giving a very relaxing and back-to-nature feeling.
http://picasaweb.google.com/zhongwei.lu/0803CShikisaiNoOka
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgJGtL6K55w

Following which, we went to the Ainu village. The Ainu people are the native tribes in Hokkaido, living their lives off the land and worshiping Nature. The Ainu people only have a spoken language (no written words), and in modern times, they have intermarried and blended into Japanese society. We watched a couple of Ainu performances, included a few dances and a recital of their native musical instrument. Then we toured the replicas of their houses, the lake (complete with canoes), a Ainu museum, and a bear cage in the grounds.
http://picasaweb.google.com/zhongwei.lu/0803DAinuVillage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJzSm-Q9n7c

We stayed at Noboribetsu (登別) Hotel for the night. Noboribetsu is the name of the hill/hot spring town, and there is a valley called the Hell Valley (地獄谷) where the sulphuric water from the hot spring originates. Hell Valley was named after plants failed to grow along the valley.
http://picasaweb.google.com/zhongwei.lu/0803ENoboribetsuHotel

There was a small fireworks display going on, so we hiked up the Jigokudani (地獄谷) nearby to watch the performance.
http://picasaweb.google.com/zhongwei.lu/0803FJigokudani
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSZqEjopZT4

Displacement

夢の儚さ、落ちる春に咲いた花の淡い色・・・
drain away this sensory conception

北海道旅行第一日

Just came back from Hokkaido trip that was from August 02 to 07.

Here is the first installment of the photos:

Well, all international flights to Japan lands at Narita Airport (成田空港), Chiba Prefecture (千葉県) (near Tokyo). Then we took the domestic flight from Haneda Airport (羽田空港), Tokyo to Chitose (千歳), Hokkaido (北海道). Flight was 1.5 hours only, but our departure was delayed quite a bit.
http://picasaweb.google.com/zhongwei.lu/0802AHanedaToChitose

First awesome spread near Chitose Airport.
http://picasaweb.google.com/zhongwei.lu/0802BLunch

Due to the flight delay, the tour guide changed our schedules and brought us to see two waterfalls at this Taisetsu　（大雪) Nature Reserve. One is "milky way" and one is "shooting star", they are named male and female, because the flow of the water supports the other.
http://picasaweb.google.com/zhongwei.lu/0802CTaisetsuParkWaterfalls

Given how tired we were, we headed back to the hotel (大雪) for rest and the first hot spring for the trip. The 大雪山 the hotel was located on has a snow-peak all year round, thus the name.
http://picasaweb.google.com/zhongwei.lu/0802DTaisetsuHotel

More to come later!!