Japanese Gardens

I visited so many gardens that I lost track of which ones they are. I think this is Shoyo-en in Kamakura. Kamakura an hour south of Tokyo by subway.

To-shugu in Kamakura



These are called Ajisai... they are plentiful in Japan in summer (and they adorned vases in restaurants) and look great as a wedding bouquet but I don't think that they last long

Heian Jingu, Kyoto (3 hour ride west by Shinkansen- bullet train from Tokyo)

Too bad... no little froggies but plenty of huge carps


Managed to go really close without scaring the little blue dragonfly

My view of Tokyo's city life

Taken from the 52nd floor of the Mori Art Museum in Roppongi Hills. The day was dark and stormy looking... and blur!

Can you imagine that i had to navigate the subway that does not have any english signs... thankfully the characters are like Chinese and so I do a character match...;)..

Many many subway trains... in fact there are 14 lines... and they are not integrated... hrrumph! Reminds me of Star and Putra LRT..annoying!

You can imagine why Hollywood did not shoot the movie "Memoirs of A Geisha" in Japan.. you cannot run away from all the lines criss crossing above the buildings... even in the villages!

A shot of outside Shinjuku station (the shopping capital of Tokyo) where the huge 14th floor Takashimaya is.. pure shopping .. the things are divine and absolutely mahal.

Japan- top 3 things

What really impressed me about Japan:
1) The toilet seats that are warmed up so that your bum will not be freezing when the weather is cold... the water that comes out to wash either your bottom regions... so very thoughtful of the Japanese
2) The smiling and bowing people that repeatedly say nice things (thank you, excuse me, sorry, and hello)
3) The beautifully decorated women who look like they are off to a dinner or dance.... gorgeous! And the beautiful men... I am not kidding... they look almost pretty... slim, fair and lovely....sometimes I could not tell the men and women apart.

Junia

I spent lunch with Junia today... she is 28 this year and she is still studying. Her background: Junia completed her SPM and then at the tender age of 17 went out to the working world of banking for the next 5 years.. when she left the bank (after a VSS) she took the RM10K that they offered her and started her nursing course. After 2 years in nursing, she found that she could not fit in an institution that had so many women could did not seem to like her. She did not do well in her examinations either... patients love her but her colleagues despised her. I think she could not cope with bitchy women who thought that just because her Chinese sucks and she speaks English then she must be too proud to bother to learn Chinese.

After leaving nursing, she was already 24. After much deliberation, she opted to do Broadcasting. She spent 3 years in her diploma and now at 28, she is currently pursuing her degree in Broadcasting.

I met her when she was 20 . we clicked immediately, but my then boyfriend never understood our friendship.. it seem we were poles apart but I still felt that we had some things in common. Junia comes accross to many people as strange. She is dark skinned, long haired- right to the waist and looked like a Malay (really looked like a Malay). The strangeness was not from her colouring but more to the way she giggles at the slightest things, her extreme friendliness that got all the boys her age thinking that she is in love with them and how she seem far younger than her age when it comes to conversation.

She shares with me how disappointed she is in Chinese men when it comes to relationship... how they tried to 'touch' her when they would not dare with the 'fairer' ones. How some avoided her when all she wanted was friendship. She shocked me lately with the story of falling in love with a Mat Salleh..he is far far away in the US and they met on the net. I kept telling her that this is too difficult and why not look closer to home. She glared at me and said "Did you know that all my life, I have been told that I am too dark, too unappealing, 'why don't you try whitening products?", "Yeah.. Chinese guys prefer paler women"... etc... and for once, now I get people who tells me I am beautiful and my skin colour is perfect... do you understand why it's easy to fall in love with someone who likes my physical outlook and appreciates my 'beauty'.

These things that she shares with me strikes a cord somewhere in my heart.... I think psychologically, i may see a little bit of me in her.

Missing Marido

Everytime that Marido is due for another trip, I would turn with fawning eyes at him and say in a manja voice "I am going to miss you sayang"...to which, he would always reply "But I am not even gone yet??"

Oh well, the idea of him going away puts me in a melancholy mood but the moment he steps out the door of our home... the melancholy goes away and I promptly forget about him... ah! That is how it should be..... ke ke. OTherwise, I am going to be needy like jelly!

Storm at Menara Jaya

Look at the damage caused by the storm that hit PJ....