I am craving this again even though I just had it yesterday with shabu-shabu partner in crime - the whiterabbit. We were there at about 7:30 p.m. and the next thing you know, we were STILL there at 10:00p.m. I’m so sorry for the waitress and workers that had to put up with us XD;;;

Satsuma, I really need to learn how to quit you D:

Anyway, guh I hate Wordpress coding. I really do. I finally got off my lazy ass and updated to version 2.5 ( which is pretty darn nice ) and I was obsessively tinkering about for a new layout. So the layout is done. But I shrink away in horror when I open up the codes and php pages ORZ I *want* my new layout up, because I am sick of this one. But everytime I open up Wordpad, I felt like my brain just took an emergency leave ToT

Oh well, lunch first. And before I go, I NEED to plug this badly.

My brother and his three friends + housemates found a newborn pup on a rainy day next to where he parked his car. They took pity and brought her back and nursed her back to health ( she hasn’t even opened her eyes yet and was drenched to the bones D: ) And they decided to update her daily progress on a blog. Much to my joy and dismay because now I had fallen in love with the pup and is definitely plotting to kidnap her from her four ‘fathers’

So, I present to you : Story of Siupok ( Just don’t ask me about the name. I feel so bad for the darling little puppy for having the stupid name >_> )

… and one of the best 8D

Basically the past weekend was a whirlwind of chaos and tight schedule since Thursday. I was sleep deprived since then.

Thursday : Work > Late movie > Packing up for the weekend

Friday : Work > Client’s event to attend to > Got drunk

Saturday : Woke up VERY early for my usual standard > Caught a taxi > Took a bus > Took the cable car to Genting Highlands > Checked into hotel > Sent on a wild goose chase for the Box Office > Rushed to the outdoor theme park > Got scared by the rides, got drenched by the rides > Rushed back to the hotel because we were kinda late and forgo dinner.

WHY ALL THE RUSH ON A SATURDAY?

It leads to this very thing I’d been waiting for NEARLY A YEAR 8D!

Yes yes I was there with Rachel and Emily for the concert!

五月天/Mayday’s JUMP! tour final leg in Malaysia ( 離開地球表面JUMP巡回演唱會)! The band tortured the local fans enough already with the massive delay of holding the concert here ;3; WHRYYYYYYY? And their new tour is starting already in Singapore next weekend! Evil EVIL 五月天 T___T But nevermind that. They are AWESOME as usual ♥

I’d written a OMG-verbal-diarrhea! account of the concert itself over here ( Please be warned, it’s uber long winded and with much tl;dr-ness *coughs* ) So proceed with caution XD But if it’s any console, there are several pictures from the concert taken ninja-style by Emily.

Currently I’m nursing horrible muscle cramps mainly on my legs ( from JUMP!ing waaaaaaaay too much being my fangirly self ) and various part of my unfit body. But was it worth all the pain for that three amazing hour of the concert? Hell, I’ll go through it all over again with this broken body 8D

MAYDAY ILU ♥ ♥ ♥

ETA : Oh yeah I forgot ..

Sunday : Was enjoying the last bit of Genting’s-not-so-cold air before heading back down to PJ around late afternoon. Ended up at Sunway Pyramid at night for the FREEZE! For World Earth Day. Why do I like to torture myself hrnhh?

I had a BLAST the previous weekend! I mean, I knew it’ll be massive exhaustion with the stuff I had to do lined up.. but it was worth every single moment of it <3

SATURDAY 01.03.08
I’d to miss the first day of GACC today. When I promised Rachel that I’ll go with her to see Mayday’s Fan Meet session; I did not realise that both the dates clashed ;3; Spent a good whole day wondering which events should I attend. Ended up deciding to go for broke and attend both XD

Emily came over to pick me up before heading to Rach’s place to have a quick lunch and many detours before driving off to KL’s Sg. Wang ) Loitered about the area window shopping until it was nearly 6:30p.m. before we headed to the area where the fan meet was to be held. Much to my dissapointment, there will be no performance by the band that day since it was just a ‘Fans Meet’ session ;3; Oh well, I’d got their ticket for the concert in April anyway :3

I think we stood there for a good full hour before the event started off. Luckily for someone as vertically challenged as me; we managed to get a rather good spot right in front X3

(more…)

HEART OF ROCK @ NIPPON BUDOHKAN

Ahhhh D-DAY. And the very reason I’m in Japan to begin with. Since we were planning on nothing else but to haunt Budohkan the entire day ( concert starts at 5p.m. ) I decided that we can have the slack to sleep a bit more to recover from the crazy tiredness since the day we started traveling.

Waking up around 10a.m. ( for once! I don’t feel half as groggy waking up ) we took the usual simple bread and hot drink breakfast at Smile Khaosan Hostel before setting out. Almost forgetting the mounting board banner that we stowed under the bed, we set out with nervous strides crossing the all too familiar Sumida River heading towards the train station. Feeling a little light headed all I can think of was “We’re REALLY going to see Siam Shade! LIVE!”

Something funny happened when we were waiting at the traffic light heading towards the train station though 8D An old Japanese man smiled at us are asked what were we holding while we were all waiting for the green light because the wind flipped the board every now and then revealing bits of the wittings INSIDE the folded board. He asked whether were we doing calligraphy and very much embarrassed ( because the simple message inside that stated “マレーシアから!” [from Malaysia!] was penned by yours truly *coughs* ) The old man was surprised and smiled and said to us “Ganbatte ne~” just as the lights turned green and we headed our separate way XD;

We reached Kitamura Park station at 12 o’clock in the afternoon. Still nervous, my heart did several flips as soon as we alighted and saw people carrying cardboard/signs asking if anyone has extra tickets for sale! My heart goes out for those fans who came goodness knew what time and stood there holding the signs. I’m really really lucky that Sam and I got the tickets during the pre-sale. Thanks to the ever wonderful Akiko ( and her Mum! ) again! ♥

View before Budohkan’s entrance. A lot of senior citizens were painting by the river here.

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TSUKIJI FISH MARKET > TOKYO TOWER > AKIHABARA > ODAIBA

Once more I failed to wake up properly before 4a.m. ( which I’m supposed to ) for the early morning rush at Tsukiji Fish Market. I’m terribly sorry that Sam have to deal with a grumpy and narcoleptic me every morning before it hits lunchtime ( my solar alignment tends to settle down somewhat then ).

Anyway, once more we hit Asakusa Station for Tsukiji Fish Market. I probably will not manage anywhere on my own without Sam because she was the one that made notes prior of which station goes where and what lines goes where next XD; The so-called planning on my side are purely selfish because all I can think of before starting this trip was “I wanna go there! I wanna see that! I MUST get my ass to this place!” without actually studying the routes to do so XD;

TSUKIJI FISH MARKET [ 築地市場 ]

To tell the truth, all the books and guides I ran through just told me that Tsukiji market is extremely near the station’s exit. But we REALLY didn’t have the slightest idea of WHERE exactly it is XD We made our way through an ACTUAL wet market ( filled with vegetables and what not ) weaving in and out following other gaijin tourists we see ( especially the ones with cameras in their hands! They HAD to be tourists, no? Yay us for being totally clueless XDD ) We thought reaching the marketplace as late as 7a.m. then will have the entire marketplace dissapeared ( like the Floating Market in London Underground a.k.a. Neverwhere? XD ) but thankfully we were not ones to be detered so easily. We’d already got a whiff of the smelly fishy smell as soon as we hit the station .. so following our nose, we managed to make our way to the ACTUAL fish market! 8D

Once again; a hell lot of pictures under the cut 8D And a bunch of too long text-diarrhea too considering this was the day we visited the most places out of the few days we were in Tokyo. (more…)

ASAKUSA > AKIHABARA > OCHANOMIZU > SHINJUKU

The morning started with the usual routine of “I-don’t-wanna-get-up”. I can’t believe myself. I’m in Japan and YET it takes forever to kick me out of bed >_> ( Sorry Sam! ) I was really too tired ( from the long hours on the plane ) and broken ( from lugging the luggage around SO much. Hello NON-ELEVATOR exit of Asakusa station, I shall remember you with much hatred )

We I finally got up around 8-ish and got ready for the first stop ever in Japan! Kaminari-mon! The area I’m staying in is a famous tourist spot in Asakusa [ 浅草 ] for it’s giant red lantern and temples so it’s definitely a good place for us to start exploring Tokyo!

View from Komagata Bridge.

It’s one of the three bridges ( and the one we used often ) that cuts through the Sumida River. The red bridge you can see in the second picture will be the Azuma Bridge, there’s Umaya Bridge further down but we never really bothered with that side of the town? O_o; Komagata Bridge is blue and in between of Azuma and Umaya, by the way. We used this often because it’s the shortest route from Asakusa Station to the hostel. Plus, since we’re kinda hopeless with directions, it’s really kinda good that there’s a little temple-like building at the side of the road here to indicate that we WERE INDEED on the correct bridge XD

And oh, being the stupid fangirl that I am …

Bandai building XDDD ( If you don’t understand the significance of this place, uhmm .. don’t ask. It’s better that way ^^; ) And like what Keroro would do, I pay my tribute to the building every morning as I crossed the bridge the whole time I’m in Japan XDD

By the way, tonnes of picture under the cut. Considered yourself warned? XD (more…)

There was a poll on Siam Shade’s official website last month. Visitors can vote up to 5 songs from the entire Siam Shade discography and there was a message option at the end of the poll to be submitted to the band/management too ^^ Result got in a few weeks back and here it is!

My crappy translation are in italics by the way.

Total number of voters : 6022
Top songs / Number of votes :

1 Dear? 1579
2 LOVESICK ～You Don?t Know～ 1380
3 Don?t Tell Lies 1303
4 Life 1077
5 せつなさよりも遠くへ [ Setsunasa yori mo tooku he ] 1030
6 曇りのち晴れ [ Kumori nochi hare ] 915
7 1/3の純情な感情 [ 1/3 no junjou na kanjou ] 850
8 PASSION 840
9 GET A LIFE 820
10 RAIN 741

11 Fine weather day 692
12 ブランコ [ BURANKO ] 684
13 RISK 638
14 NO CONTROL 632
15 MOON 621
16 Grayish Wing 606
17 Dreams 585
18 JUMPING JUNKIE 549
19 MONKEY SCIENCE 536
20 グレイシャル LOVE [ GLACIAL LOVE ] 523

21 D.Z.I. 517
22 NEVER END 507
23 大きな木の下で [ Ookina ki no shita de ] 464
24 PRAYER 430
24 Triptych 430
26 No! Marionette 420
27 CAN?T FORGET YOU 399
28 PRIDE 390
29 誰かの気持ちを考えたことがありますか？ [ Dare ka no kimochi wo kangaeta koto ga arimasu ka? ] 383
30 if ～ひとりごと～ [ if ~hitorigoto~ ] 381

皆さんが選んだ5曲は、ランキングに入っていましたか？
選んでいただいた楽曲にはそれぞれいろいろな思い入れがあるようで、楽曲との思い出はもちろん、SIAM SHADEのこと、ライヴのこと、たくさんの熱いメッセージをいただきました。ありがとうございます。
皆さんからいただいたメッセージをほんの一部ですがこちらに掲載しています。

Did the 5 songs you voted got into the Ranking? ( aya : IT DIDDDD!!! )
We’d received many passionated messages that a lot of thoughts were put during the voting whether it was about the memories brought upon by certain songs, about Siam Shade themselves or about the concert. Thank you very much.
Only a portion of the messages received during the voting are displayed here ( on the site )