Nokia N97

Can't wait to get my hands on it...

Windows Live Writer

I’m testing posting a blog entry using Windows Live Writer.
I find this feature quite convenient to use, coz I don’t need to actually log into the website, in fact I don’t even need to open my browser.

Anyway I’ve just got my hand into Windows 7 RC, so I’m currently playing around with it as well.
So far it’s quite an interesting piece of OS, although I found some of the feature advertised not working.
Anyway that’s probably because it’s an RC version or maybe becoz I’m installing it on VMware.

Anyway my Japan trip blog has not been updated for quite sometime… so I guess I should try to finish that one first…

Oh and Windows 7 is going to be available this coming October 22.

5h4d0w mark III Mk3

Officially alive with specs:
AMD Phenom X4 9950
MSI K9A2 Platinum
Sapphire HD 4850 Toxic with Zalman VF900 (OC)
Corsair 4Gb Kit (2×2Gb)
Seagate 500Gb
Seagate 1.5Tb
Enermax Modu82+ 625W (Modular)
Enermax ECA3052 Chakra with 25cm fan
Enermax Everest 12cm (x2)
Microsoft Sidewinder X6 Gaming Keyboard
D-Link DIR-655 Xtreme N Gigabit Router <- new addition to the family

Salvaged from 5h4d0w mark II:
BENQ DVD Burner
Linksys wireless G USB
Samsung SyncMaster 931BF (19″)

Japan Trip Day 4

Tue, Feb 03
I really hate winter... I woke up 4 hours behind schedule!
It's not that I didn't wake up when my alarm sounded, but I snoozed it coz I find it too damn cold to wake up...
It was around 8:30am when I went out from the hostel.

I noticed more activity along the way to Asakusa stn this morning.
It was dead quiet last night.

Anyway my first destination today is Sengakuji.
So I took train from Asakusa stn and it took me about 20 minutes to reach Sengakuji stn.
This temple is a must visit if you like the story of 47 Ronin. If you don't know the story, read here.
This is where all the Ronins are buried and many people come here to pay respect.
There's a statue of Oishi Kuranosuke, the leader of the 47 ronin.
There's also a small museum commemorating the 47 ronin inside as well.
Then I met up with Koo at around 10am at Shinagawa Stn.
After buying some onigiri for breakfast, we went to Nishi-Arai Diashi.
We took Asakusa line subway to Higashi Ginza stn then change to Hibiya line subway to Nishi-Arai Daishimae stn then walked to Nishi-Arai Daishi.

There's this Daruma Kuyo Festival that I wanted to see, but since we were late, the festival was already started and towards the end.
There were many people around to see the Buddhist monks burn Daruma dolls.
Daruma is a votive symbol for people wishing for the well-being of the family and flourishing business.
When you buy Daruma, it's eyes were initially blank (not colored).
So then you make your wish and color one eye.
When your wish came true, you color the other eye.
People bring their Daruma figures once a year on this day to the temple, express gratitude to them, and buy new ones for the next one year.
I can see some of the Daruma burnt there only have one eye colored... T.T
And of course when there's festival there are lots of street food vendors as well.
At around 12:30 we took Hibiya line subway to Ueno stn then changed to Ginza line to Asakusa stn.
We walked passed Nakamise-dori (it's a long rows of stalls towards Sensoji temple) to Sensoji temple (Asakusa Kannon Temple).
Sensoji temple, with it's giant lanterns (Kaminarimon and Hozomon) at its entrance gate is probably the oldest and most famous temple in Tokyo.
Both Sensoji and Nakamise-dori have history of several centuries.
Today one of my purpose there is to witness the Setsubun-e Festival (bean throwing festival).
We found out that the festival is starting at 2pm, so we quickly had our lunch there and joined the crowd to get the best spot (which is difficult considering the size of the crowd...).
The festival is to mark the beginning of each season, but usually refers to the start of Spring.
This festival is accompanied by a ritual to cleanse away all the evil of the previous year and drive away the evil of the year to come.
This ritual is called mamemaki (lit. bean scattering). Anyway, in the end we didn't get any beans... T.T

From there we took Ginza line subway to Ueno stn and went to Ueno Park.
Ueno Park is huge... There's a zoo, lotsa museums, temples, Shinobazu pond, Saigo Takamori's statue (I missed that one...!), Toshogu Shrine (Tokugawa Ieyasu's tomb, I missed this one too...!).
Anyway we managed to see the Flame of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at Toshogu Shrine.
We also saw some festival held at Hanazono Inari Shrine.
There were some performers at the park too.

From there we stopped by Akihabara at about 4pm, but the place was soo big I didn't know where to start...
So in the end I skipped that and we continued to Tokyo Tower.

As we walked towards Tokyo Tower, we stumbled upon this Zojoji temple.
Apparently it is quite a major temple in Tokyo. And more importantly, it has Tokyo Tower as it's background.
So we waited till dark and took some great photos of the temple with Tokyo Tower in the background.
There were lotsa cute Jizo statues in the temple cemetery.

After that we went to Shinjuku and we split up.
Koo went to meet his friend and I had a dinner with Kathryn and hubby, Niko. Thanks for the dinner guys!

After dinner I went back to Khaosan Hostel, but stopped by Asakusa again.
I took some photos there before going back.
The now quiet Nakamise-dori looked so much different at night.
There are some paintings on the stall's door that I think quite interesting.

I thought I know how to get to my hostel after being there once but infact I got lost...
After backtracking my way and checking the map, I finally reached hostel at about half hour past midnight...
I did took some photos of the hostel though.

Japan Trip Day 3

Mon, Feb 02
Again we woke up at 09:00 today and quickly get ready and went to Kyoto stn.
We took JR from Kyoto stn to Fushimi-Inari-Taisha Shrine (UNESCO).
As expected, this head Shrine of Inari (Inari is the God of business) is another amazing one.
It has thousands of Torii lining up from the base up to some of the smaller Shrines on Inari mountain.
There are also statues of Kitsune (Fox) which is regarded as God's messenger everywhere in the Shrine.
It is said that the two-storey entry gate was built by Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
We had our onigiri lunch there, then we made a move at around noon time to Saga Arashiyama.
We took JR train from Inari stn to Saga Arashiyama stn.

From there we went to Tenryuji (UNESCO), this is considered number 1 of Kyoto Gozan (5 mountains/great Zen temples of Kyoto).

Inside the temple there's this funny looking red Daruma.
I think he was one of the Zen masters that was the head priest in Tenryuji.

From there we headed to Bamboo forest, there are lots of small cute monk statues along the way.

The bamboo forest itself was quite a beautiful scenary, and there's also a small shrine inside it.

At about 2pm we took Subway from Arashiyama stn to Omuro Ninnaji stn.
We then went to Ninnaji (UNESCO), but we didn't went inside (coz we're behind schedule and there's entrance fee...).
Anyway the gate itself is quite interesting with statues of 2 Guardians (Nio), Ungyo and Agyo.

From there we walked to Ryoanji (UNESCO), my wife been wanting to go here becoz of it's karesansui (dry landscape rock garden), but as we guessed before, it was closed from Jan 5 - Feb 5...
Anyway this we managed to get into the temple ground.

From there we walked to Kinkakuji.
It's already around 3pm and most temple closes at 5pm, so we rushed a bit.
Along the way we walked passed Ritsumeikan Uni.
We reached Kinkakuji Temple (UNESCO) in 20 minutes time.
It was the highlight for the day... or maybe for the whole Japan trip itself.
The temple was superbly amazing in bright golden color standing by the lake.
But my camera ran out of battery... luckily I managed to take 1 good shot at it before the camera died on me...

After that we went back to Tomato Guest house and then to Kyoto stn.
We separated there, I have to go back to Tokyo, while wifey will go to Osaka and Nara.

I took the 17:56 Hikari Shinkansen from Kyoto stn to Tokyo stn.
From there I changed to JR train to Ueno stn then change to Ginza line subway to Asakusa stn.
From there I walked and checked-in to Khaosan Hostel Annex (¥ 1,500 per person per night, excl booking fee ¥ 200).

By then it was very late at around 11pm, so I decided to just call it a day...

Japan Trip Day 2

Sun, Feb 01
The plan was to wake up at 05:00, but Winter changed it all.
The weather was so cold that we refused to go up or even bathe...

In the end we started our day at 09:00.
We quickly bathe, get ready and made our move to Kiyomizudera (¥ 300 - UNESCO).

We took bus 206 from Kyoto stn to Gojozaka (means Gojo slope), and from there it's a 10-15 minutes up to Kiyomizudera.
It's about 10:30 by the time we reached Kiyomizudera (Pure Water Temple, dera/tera means temple in Japanese). And it is as amazing as we thought.
The temple, the garden and everything there was so well preserved that I really felt like I went back thru time to ancient Japanese.

At the top of the temple, there's this pair of "love stones" placed 18 meters apart. It is said that if you can walk from one stone to another stone on the other side with your eyes closed, then your search for your true love will soon end.

There's also this collection of heavy stuffs like iron sandals and monk's staffs.
It is said that if you cant lift some of these stuffs, that's how heavy your sins are. Hmm... but the logic is not really sound to me... maybe I'll check it out again.
Anyway for me, it's the middle iron staff that I can't lift...

Eventhough I don't think we came at the right time of the year (Spring or Autumn would be best), but Winter gave a different perspective of Kiyomizudera.

The temple ground is so big, it took us some 2 hours to explore Kiyomizydera, and honestly I don't think it's enough.

From there we went to Yasaka Pagoda (another link) thru Sannenzaka (Sannen slope) and Ninnenzaka, it was around 11:45 then.
These slopes connects Kiyomizudera and Kodai-ji temple.
And these two temples were rivals in the old times.

Yasaka Pagoda which lies in between these two were caught up in their fights and was burned few times in history.
This Pagoda is a good example of "the old meets new" in Japan.
It is so hidden inside some residential area and small streets, but you can see it stands out from afar.

Then we went north to Ryozen Kannon, which is relatively modern.
This is a monument built to honor those who died during WWII.
The statue is 24 m (80 ft) high and weighs approximately 500 tons.
This Kannon is is very big we can see it from outside the wall. But due to time constraint we didn't go inside.

It's 12:30 and we're very far behind schedule, so by the time we reached Kodai-ji (English link) & Entoku-in, we just skipped those two.
In all we actually skipped quite a lot of the planned itinerary, mainly becoz of the weather and the immense size of each temple grounds...

Just behind Entoku-in is the traditional looking Ishibe Koji Street, wifey shopped a while for some gift there.
This street is very unique with its stone pavements, a row of ryotei (traditional restaurants), ryokan (Japanese-style inns) and shop houses.

Around this area we also see lots of 人力車 (jinrikisha = rickshaw) and girls dressed as Geisha.

At about 13:05 we went north to Yasaka Shrine (another link), we stopped by here to buy takoyaki (fried octopus) for lunch.
This Shrine which is also called Gion Shrine, is a Shinto Shrine where the famous Gion Matsuri (Gion Festival) usually held.

Our next stop after lunch is Maruyama Park which is just opposite of Yasaka Shrine.
This park is famous for watching the cherry blossom viewing (hanami).
This will be an encouragement to visit Japan again at the right time of the year.
Anyway I took photos with these interesting statues of Ryoma Sakamoto and Shintaro Nakaoka.
These 2 samurai were quite influential figures during Meiji Restoration in 19th century.

After 45 minutes exploring Yasaka Shrine and Maruyama park, we made a move to Chion-in.
This temple looked quite ancient and had a long stairs down to the main gate (San-mon, at 24m is the largest gate in Japan), we did go inside the temple ground, but anyway we didn't see the entrance that should have entrance fee.

We stopped by the opposite shop to buy an umbrella as it's starting to drizzle.
It's the unique looking (or maybe not so unique...) transparent type umbrella.

From there we walked north and passed by Shoren-in and Kyoto Zoo on our way to Philosopher's Walk.
The start of Philosopher's Walk is Nanzen-ji.
We reached there about 14:45, and we only went around the temple ground.

In most part of this Japan trip we only explored temple grounds without going into the temples, which is good enough for us.
Temple grounds are usually massive, has beautiful Japanese style garden (like the one in the pic) and you can see the impressive Buddhist/Zen style temples and shrines

Philosopher's Walk is a 2km walk along a small river.
The lanscape should be beautiful during early Spring time when Cherry blossom can be seen along the river.
There are also quite a number of temples and shrines along the way, but they are quite a distance from the river itself.
It took us about an hour to cover Philosopher's Walk and this is were we managed to pick up the speed from the actual schedule, coz we skipped those temples...

The other end of this walk is Ginkaku-ji (¥ 500 - UNESCO) temple.
We went inside and the main temple is really under renovation...
One interesting point from this temple is the sand formation depicting Mt. Fuji (pic on the left).
Sand formation is quite common in Zen style Buddhism.
It is usually trying to depict their understanding of the universe, Buddhism or the land of Japan.

From Kinkakuji michi stn, we took bus to Shijo-Kawaramachi stn (Downtown Kyoto).
We stopped near Kawaramachi Catholic Church, it was 17:45 and we still got some time before the mass so we went for dinner.
After dinner we attended the 18:30 Sunday Mass at the Church, and guess what... it's a Japanese mass service... something new...

After the 45 minutes mass we went to Pontocho and cross Kamogawa (Kamo river) to Gion.
These 2 places are famous for geisha and home to many geisha houses and traditional tea houses.
Pontocho is said to be the first place where kabuki was born.
On the other side of the river we saw the statue of Izumo no Okuni, errected in her honor and to commemorate 400 years of kabuki.

Gion is quite an interesting place, it looks traditional with it's stone pavements and restaurants, but also a taste of luxury.
The roads are big enough for cars to pass by and we did see lots of expensive taxi drove in and out.
We also managed to take a shot of a geisha walking in a hurry (blurry pic but looked artistic isn't it?).

From Gion we took bus 206 at around 21:00 back to Kyoto stn.
We bought dinner and breakfast (it's onigiri!), then we went back to Tomato Guest House.

Too bad we can't make it to Nijo Castle and Kyoto Imperial Park due to the time constraint.

Japan Trip Day 1

Sat, Jan 31
Since I'm gonna be flying north from Singapore to Japan, so I purposely took a right window seat.
I was hoping to catch the sunrise, and I did.
Though I managed to get only 1 shot of it (it wasn't a nice shot really...), but the scene was beautiful.

Anyway, my plane was flying round and round for nearly 1 hour before landing at Narita. The captain said the airport was busy.

I reached Narita Airport Terminal 1 at around 08:15, then I proceed to the immigration counter.
I was happily taking photos of the airport when one of the airport staff told me not take photograph of the airport... oh well... maybe because it's near the immigration counter.
Anyway apart from the talking travelator (is that what you call for the walking kind of escalator?) nothing unusual about this airport, I still think Changi is the best airport I've been into.

After immigration I waited for my luggage.
It wasn't a long wait, so I quickly familiarize myself to the surrounding and went downstairs to JR (Japan Railways) stn.
I exchanged my JR Pass order for the real JR pass and booked my NEX (Narita Express) to Yokohama stn.
I forgot to buy a NEX&SUICA package (¥ 3,500) which can get me a SUICA card to use in Tokyo... but luckily my wife managed to buy it for me.
This is a good deal coz it's only for foreign tourists and 1 person can only buy 1.

I took the 09:15 NEX (Narita Express) train and reached Yokohama stn at around 11:00.
Then I went to Yokohama Tokyu Excel Hotel to drop my luggage there.
The receptionist was very helpful and told me to take local JR train (Yokohama Line) from Yokohama stn to Shin-Yokohama stn.
From Shin-Yokohama stn I took 12:22 Tokaido Shinkansen (Hikari train) to Kyoto stn.

That was my first Shinkansen ever and it was amazing.
It was so fast that when my train was stopping and there was another Shinkansen passing by, my train was slanted for that 1-2 second encounter...

Inside the train the seats are spacious, there's baggage compartment on top and there's also stewardess (I don't know if they're also called stewardess in trains...) walking around selling drinks and foods too.

I reached Kyoto stn at around 15:00, then I proceed to Toji Temple (UNESCO), it was a nice temple, but due to the bad weather I only went around the temple ground.
Talking about bad weather, the umbrella I brought with me from Singapore was spoiled (bad weather = raining & super strong wind...).

From Toji Temple I was suppose to go to Honganji Temples (Nishi & Higashi, both UNESCO), but then again, due to the bad weather, I decided to just go to Tomato Guest House and checked-in.
And that was my first lost experience in Japan.

The hostel was just on opposite side of Kyoto stn from Toji Temple, but I just can't find a direct way to go there... it took me about 1 or one and a half hour to get there.
But anyway I managed to get there and checked-in.
The room charge for a twin private room per night is ¥ 5,800 and for dorm type is ¥ 2,200 per person per night.

We will stay for 2 nights and wifey will stay there for another night.
My wife liked the Japanese style room that we stayed-in.
The staffs are very friendly and helpful bunch.
But the heater in the room is not really strong though, it can barely heat the room in winter.

After resting for a while, I went back to Kyoto stn.
Went to Kyoto Tourist Information Center and bought 1 day city bus pass (¥ 500 per day) for me and wifey.
I tried walking to Higashi Honganji temple (I was thinking maybe the temple is closed but the vicinity is open to public, like Toji Temple), but the temple was surrounded by wall and the gate beyond the wall was closed... so well next time maybe.

Wife sms-ed and said she's gonna be late coz she couldn't make it for the scheduled train, so I met her at around 21:30 at Kyoto Station.
Then I showed her the nearby Kyoto Tower and then we went back to hotel after a short tour around Kyoto stn.
We also bought some onigiri and sushi for dinner and breakfast tomorrow.
They became our favorite food for the entire Japan trip hahaha...