Last day class at Nihongo Center -- Winter break

The time flies without notice. I never thought of that I had been staying in Kyoto for 3 months. This was my last day class at Nihongo Center and I had to leave Japan after few days. 寂しい　(samishii) ～～

Anyway, my sensei (teacher) like to write a lot of kawaii (cute) words or draw a lot of kawaii icons on the white board. I'm gonna miss them so much.

During the last section of my class, they decided to have a small farewell for us (Jonathan, Charles, Simona and me). Thus, we were playing some games (with using Japanese conversation) for our last day class. In this games, for those who were standing in the middle of the circle more than 3 times, they had to sing a song.

While playing this game, we kept charging our seat. Thus, I just took this opportunity to take photo with those who seat next to me. I miss all of you .. !! ~~

After the class, Ueda sensei and Kubota sensei decided to have a farewell dinner for our class and 5Th floor class. A lot of people attended this dinner. Thus, we had to target those not so many people Izagaya (Japanese bar restaurant) and big enough to fit 2 classes of people.

Thanks you guys. I had a wonderful dinner. You guys are awesome.

~ Final Day ~ I miss you All ~

Kansai foreign Students Music Festival in Kyoto 21st, 2010

Last year I went to Japan, I felt that I was lucky to join this festival. This Kansai Foreign Students Music Festival in Kyoto 21st is an event that foreign students from universities around Kansai can introduce music and dance from their native countries. In fact, the aim for this festival was to deepen each other's understanding of everyone's culture and foster friendships among the performers and audience alike.

This music festival was held on Sunday, November 28 at 2pm, at Kyoto Kaikan Hall (Second Auditorium).

Nihongo Center's classmates and I were invited to join the world stage performance which was sing a Japanese song with the title of "Tomodachi Say What You Will" from SMAP. We went to practice in the morning. Luckily, I still can remember the dance step and the song lyric.

Food were provided for all the participants. We had a great dinner and met up a lot of people from different countries. But, I was the only Malaysian there.

I had a wonderful moment with all of them because we sang, we practiced and enjoyed this festival. I gonna miss you guys ... ^.^

Yes, My dear Nisse Nisse, haha .. because she sticked my name tag on her chest.

Je t'aime ...

A video - during rest time ~~ haha .. ^.^

Gifu -- Shirakawa

I do away from my blogspot almost 2 weeks time due to many reasons. Anyway, I am back !!! This time, I would like to share about wonderful Gifu - Shirakawa. For those who watched the "Last Samurai" before, you may think this place is familiar to you. Two words to describe this village -- "amazing" and "extraordinary".






Shirakawa village is one of the UNESCO traditionally village that located in Gifu Prefecture. In fact, all the houses here were built with wooden beams that connect to each other which called as Gassho-Zukuri. Furthermore, the triangular roof built to avert the heavy snow fall.





Anyway, we took about 2 hours to reach Shirakawa from Nagoya city by car. However, this is quite difficult if you take any public transport, unless you join with the tourist agents. Free entrance to access into Shirakawa, but not inside the houses. The entrance fees usually are 200 to 300 yens and these are varies from house to house.

Don't worry if you are new to here. In Shirakawa, there is a tourist information center. You can collect Shirakawa map from here. The clear and detail maps are prepared in many languages such as Japanese, Chinese, English, Korean, and so on.

A lot of Gassho-Zakuri built houses here. Basically, some of them are souvenir shops, motels, cafes, museums and private houses. You can get a lot of Shirakawa limited products here.

Inside the Gassho-Zakuri house, this was built with wood and tatami in the living room. Each floors display with many olden used living tools. Anyway, you must be careful you head because the ceiling is quite low.

Follow the map, you are able to climb the mountains nearby. On this mountain, you can have a beautiful view of Shirakawa village with plenty of wooden houses and paddy fields.

What can you eat here?? haha ... I like to eat ice-cream in extreme low temperature !! OISHII ~~

Shirakawa Information website: http://shirakawa-go.org/english/index.html

Kobe free and easy

Kobe city is part of Hyogo prefecture. Kobe is a prominent city which the sixth biggest city in Japan. Previously, this place was known by Owada Anchorage. However, Kobe was formed after 1889. Kobe was opened trade with "West" countries. Thus, there are a lot of old western style building around the city now-a-day.


Anyway, you can take JR line and stop at "Sannomiya" station which is the nearest to walk around in Kobe city. Around the Kobe city, there were a lot of information tourist center. One of the center is located just outside the Sannomiya station. You can get a map from them. They were helpful to us. Anyway, the map is very detail enough. =)







One horrible disaster had affected Kobe city. This is called as Kobe earthquake a.k.a Great Hanshin Earthquake was happened January 17th, 1995 at 05:46 JST. Furthermore, the earthquake magnitude scale was 7.3. This disaster caused about 6000 people lost their lives.





About 5 minutes walks from Sannomiya stations, there is Kobe Memorial Monument to memorise this incidence. Every year December, light festival which called as Kobe Luminaries will be held to memory scarify victims and reconstruct the city. Kobe Luminaries Official Website: www.kobe-luminaria.jp.

This is a port. Definitely, there were a lot of foreigners around in this city in the olden time. In this city, you can realise the building construction was more likely to Western style compared to another prefecture especially in Old Foreign Settlement. I felt this streets were quite even though there were a lot of shops around.

This big fish was located at Meriken Park. According to my friend, he said this was a production from a well known Japanese Artist production.

Meriken Park is Port of Kobe Earthquake Memorial Park which was destructed by Kobe earthquake. However, this is a famous travel spot now. Moreover, this is a beautiful waterfront park in Kobe. You can have wonderful and busy sea view at this park.

I not sure what is this for. But, I think this is an interesting building structure that built near the seaside. This is one of the famous building here.

Around the Meriken Park, a red tall ironic tower which called as Kobe Tower was built. This is 108 meters high. The tower is opened for tourists to visit with each entrance fee is 600 yen.

Beside the Meriken Park, you can ride the ship to have a better view of this port. I not sure the fees for each ride. Anyway, there are few types of ship you can choose to ride such as Royal Princess, Ocean Prince, Villaggio Italia, and Fantasy.

Even though there were a lot of people walking around this port, a lot of birds still staying there too.

Another 5 minutes walk from Meriken park, there were a lot of shopping center, amusement part and restaurants which called as Harbourland. For instance, those shopping center are Konan, Mosaic, Kobe Hankyu Department store, Ha-re and etc. In December, everywhere had a lot of Christmas decoration and Santa Clauses was coming to this town as well.

One of the landmark in Harbourland is Ferris wheel at the small amusement park of Mosaic.

Next attraction in Kobe is Nankinmachi which normally known as Chinatown. Along this streets were decorated with a lot of red "tang lung". Basically, there were a lot of Chinese restaurants.

Another interesting attraction in Kobe city is Kitano-cho. In this area, a lot of houses which opened as museum to introduce the olden time of Kobe. Those museums are Moegi House, Kazamidori-no-Yakata, American Teddy Bear Museum, Kobe Kitano Museums and a lot more. Each museum has to pay entrance fee. Hmm ... I think this is impossible to visit all museum because this might be cos a lot of money. Anyway, you still can snap a lot of wonderful photos surrounding this Kitano even though you are not enter into the museum.

This house is called as Kazamidori-no-Yakata a.k.a Weathercrock House. This was an old resident by Thomas who was German architect. Furthermore, this is free entrance fee. Anyway, this was a double stories house was built in 1909. You can enjoy the ancient living style in Kobe. (*^_^*)



~bye bye Kobe ~

Nara - here and there

Nara is part of Kansai region as well. In the period between 710 to 784 years, Nara was capital city of Japan which called as Nara period. However during Heian period, the Emperor Kammu decided to relocated the capital city in Nagaoka-ku. Now-a-day, Nara city brings up a lot traditional ancient style of Japan from the olden time.

No matter you are going from Osaka or Kyoto, you can take JR line or Kintetsu line to Nara city. Once you reach the Nara station, you can get the tourist map from railway counter. You can request help from the allocated staffs there if you have any enquiry. For me going from Kyoto, JR line was cheaper than Kintetsu line. However, Kintetsu line is nearer to most of the landmarks in Nara.

One of the famous animal is mouse deer. There were a lot of mouse deers walking around the city especially at Nara Park. For Nara people, they believed that the white mouse deer was transformed by god in olden time. Thus, the deer was classified as animal from heaven that came to protect the city and country.

Around the city, you can buy the deer food which called as senbei to feed the deer. For you information, senbei actually is rice cracker.

Anyway, I found out an interesting notice board in 4 languages which advised visitors be careful to those mouse deer. The reason is the deer may attack people especially to children and old people.

Due to time consuming, I was able to visit one of the famous place in Nara which called as Todaiki a.k.a Nigatsudo.

A kid with antlers was a famous mascot in Nara. You can get a lot of cute deer relate merchandises at near by souvenir shops as well.

Anyway, bye bye Nara...... Wonderful trip even though time consuming. The most important experience here was due with the mouse deer all over the city. At the end of the trip, I went back by Kintetsu line.

All about Osaka travel story

Osaka is the second largest economic city in Japan also known as Namba in olden time. However, the name had changed into Osaka during Meiji period. In fact, Osaka is a big city. In my opinion, shopping is the best thing to do in a city. Nevertheless, there are a lot of places to visit in Osaka as well. What are the places ??



Shin-Umeda City




Shin-Umeda City is a floating garden concept's building. Moreover, this is 173 meters high building. The entrance fee was 700 yens per adult. You can take the JR line stop at Osaka station and get out from Center North Exit. Then, you just need to walk about 5 to 10 minutes to reach Shin-Umeda City.The specialty of this building is you can go out to the sky walk and enjoy the 360 degree panoramic view in the open air condition. I can say that this is very cold during winter with the strong wind blow. However, this provided an amazing view of Osaka city especially at night. In this building, you can find out a lot of couple dating around. Moreover, you can have a cup of nice coffee and enjoy the view. This was quite relaxing as well. Official Website: http://www.skybldg.co.jp/.



Shinsaibashi area and surrounding




Next, of course is shopping time. Shinsaibashi is one of the best shopping area in Osaka. Depend where are you from, you can take either take JR line or Hankyu line to Osaka Station. After that, change to Midosuji subway to Shinsaibasi station. Then, you can reach there easily. You can find out a lot of different brands here or big department store such as Daimaru. For those who like H2M, you can get those average price items in this shop too. I was staying in Kyoto. For fashion items, you can get cheaper items here compared to Kyoto. I found out that Japan's stocking and leggings were very feminine and cute. That was a reason why I bought a lot of them.

Uniqlo is one of the Japanese economic brand here. In this shop, they sell all kind of clothing such as the clothing range from kid to adult, from female to male and from casual to formal. I bought a lot of heat tech clothing and legging because these kept me warm during winter with reasonable price. Official website: http://www.uniqlo.com/

Dotomboni is famous because of delicious food available here. This is just next to Shinsaibaisi. In this photo, this is basically sixth-stories building. Furthermore, you can get a lot of interesting stuffs such as costume, funny items or "unknown" items here. Next to Dotomboni, Americamura is not so far away. In this Americamura as known as American village, you can get a lot of Europeans and young fashion items. Furthermore, there is a 300 yens store which you can prepare cheap and nice souvenir for your friends.

In Dotonboni, you can't miss the famous ramen. Move over, the soup was sweet and tasty. Another famous food in Osaka is takoyaki. You can get the most originate tasty takoyaki from Dotonboni as well. However, I didn't try this even though I went there a lot of times. The reasons were too many people line up to buy the takoyaki and I was rushing time as well. (CRY) .. Anyway, I had no fate with with it. Next, yogurt from Yogurtland is worth to try too if you like dessert. But, please remember that the price is based on the weigh of the yogurt in your paper cup.

Osumiyaki is worth to try as well. Basically, there were some vegetable, meats, egg and something unknown stuffs gill on the hot plate in front of you. This was quite interesting. However, you may smoke with the food's smell all over your body.

Umeda City

A lot of higher end department store around Umeda Station. One of the special department store is Hep Five. At the top of Hep Five building, there was a bright red colour Ferris wheel. For this Ferris wheel, you can observe the Umeda city view. Official Website: http://www.hepfive.jp/.

Besides Hep Five, there are a lot of department store such as Hep Navio, Yodobashi, The Hilton Plaza, Comme Ca Store, Hankyu department, Hanshin department, Loft and etc. For those not so higher end brand, you can get it from Hankyu Sanbangai or Hankyu market street. All the places listed above are not so far away, and there are just walking distance apart only. For those who like electronic stuffs, you can get it from Yodobashi.

Christmas was just around the corner, there were some decoration around Osaka city. There were not a lot of illumination decoration. But, this was beautiful enough.

Osaka Castle Jo / Kyobashi

Next, Osaka jo is somewhere around Kyobashi. A lot of people wander around this park. Furthermore, there are mini train service which travel around the Osaka Castle park. Each ride is 200 yen.

Osaka castle is one of the historical castle. Anyway, the history background you can check from their official website: http://www.osakacastle.net/. The entrance fee is 600 per adult. The castle is opening from 9am to 5pm. In this castle, you can spend 300 yen and try to put on their traditional clothing with photo taken.

Next to the castle, there is Osaka Historical Museum. Each entry cost about 600 yen for adult and free admission for children. Basically, this is exhibited about the history of Osaka. Official website: http://www.mus-his.city.osaka.jp/.

In Osaka, I found out reading the railway map was a challenged to me. Anyway, once you get familiar with the map you can travel smoothly all over the place in Osaka. Enjoyy ~~ Yahooo !!

Universal Studio Japan (part 2)

Continue from Universal Studio Japan (part 1)'s post which talked more about theme park, this post will talk more about event activities, restaurant, and merchandise.


Animation characters parade are available few times per day. To be sure, you can check the schedule from Japanese written leaflet because this schedule was not written in other language version leaflet. Nonetheless, this is not so difficult to know the exact time from Japanese version leaflet because you just need to identify the time that's all. And, you can actually ignore those others "unknown" words.




From the parade, you able to meet Snoopy and Friends, Hello Kitty, Pink Panther, Sesame street characters and etc. During last Christmas season, snowman and ginger bread were joining the parade as well. On the other hand, some artificial snow was dropping from the sky. Thus, I can feel the Christmas was just around the corner.

As I said that Christmas was just around the corner, of course we cant miss the giant Christmas tree and Santa Claus. You can take photo with Santa Claus as well. However, you have to pay about 1000yen to get a print out from Universal Studio. Anyway, worth or not worth still depend on you.

In this studio, you can get some face painting service from the staffs. There are quite a lot of design for you to choose. For this picture, this little girl was painting with their winter limited edition design. Kawaii ne (Cute) ~~ Haha, Actually, I asked my friend to do this. Anyway, he said this was not a problem to paint on face when you still inside the studio. However, this is kinda weird too when leave the studio with your painting face. (=.=''''') Haha...alright... Anyway, we were staying in Kyoto which quite far away from this studio.

Is time to EAT !!! Snoopy Blacklot Cafe is the cutest cafe here. For instance, Snoopy shape bun and a lot of Snoopy food products are available here.

Hello Kitty bun and Snoopy bun's street food are available between Waterworld theme park to Jaws theme park. In fact, Hello Kitty bun is stawberry bun, and snoopy bun is banana with sweet bean paste bun. One of it is 370yen and price for three buns are 1100yen.

Amity Landing Restaurant and Mel's Drive In Restaurant are western serve restaurant. Basically, most of the food here (and other restaurant) are a bit pricy with small portion of food. Anyway, you can choose the best theme restaurant environment that you like most to have your meal(s).

This coin pitch games's gifts were cute. Furthemore, It looked easier to win the prize because I saw a lot of children were hugging those kawaii Elmo. After that, we bought 10 chances to throw the coin with 1000yen. But unfortunately, the Elmo did not go back home with me. (T.T) cry ~~

A lot of sorvenier shops are available there. In addition, you can get a lot of limited editions only from USJ here. Sesame street is the most famous products there. Even though I like it, I didnt buy anyone of it. Haha.... Because I spent most of my money on something else.

Yes, here is she -- my beloved Hello Kitty. I hope I can bring the whole shop back home. Kitty chan is soooooooo kawaii. I bought two note books, 2 mechanical pencils, few key chains and ....forget. I wish to buy those soft toy. However, this is a bit difficult for me to bring back to my home country.

In Jurassic Park, you can find a lot of dinasaur mechandises. I found out one of the interesting product was the T-rex cap. When you put on the T-rex cap on your head, other people may think that your head is bitting by a small T-rex. Kawaiiii ~~~~ XD

There are a lot lot more shop and activities available. Unfortunately, I did not have chance to visit all one by one. my advice is early planing is the best. Therefore, you will not miss the particular themes that you desire to go.


Anyway, end of the trip ~~~ Bye bye my beloved cartoon characters. I will miss you ..