Hokkaido Trip Day 1
Have been procrastinating from blogging about the trip for awhile, partly due to that it was hard to squeeze out the time when i had work and school at the same time and im always out on the weekends. Now that my temp job is over actually i just started on another job but my time is more flexible now so im putting more effort to make my blog alive again! heehee.
Another reason why i havent written this post was because i wanted to touch up the photos that i’ve already uploaded on facebook, but i decided to just forget it. At the rate that im going with the whole pile of Hokkaido pictures, i will never be able to post it up here. LOL
Pre-trip research
Travelled with the agency called Super Travels (ST). Months before the trip, i was asking my colleagues if they have heard of this agency cos usually i hear people going on tour trips to Japan organized by Chan Brothers or ANA. Was slightly worried that we would get our moneys conned or something (haha) before the trip even began. Why my mom and i signed up under ST was cos our relatives were the ones who signed up first and we just tagged along. The reason why they chose ST was cos of the itinenary. It provided a slightly different programme than the typical ones provided by Chan Brothers or ANA. I think people who want to travel to Japan should start changing currencies bit by bit as it gets nearer to the trip, like Keith’s mom. i think it’s really smart of her. When we signed up for the trip months earlier, my cousin had some hedging thingy going on but my mama didnt feel safe doing such a thing so she only changed currencies near the trip, when the Yen has already increased. oh wells.
So while i was being bored in office (because all the social network sites were blocked, of course), i googled (thank God this wasnt blocked) for blogs, on people who just went to Hokkaido in 2010 and i found one really awesome blog! Awesome in my terms would be detailed enough writing and plentiful pictures of good quality. i was instantly hooked to this placed called Hokkaido! Previously, i’ve heard about this place cos of my relatives’ holiday trips and stuff but i’ve never seen pictures of it before (frog in a well, i know). However, that blog showed the couple visiting Hokkaido in autumn, so the itinenary would be different. Besides, this couple travelled under Super Travels too! EVEN BETTER RIGHT! Who knew, in the end her tour leader from Singapore and her japanese tour guide, Kevin Chua and Kelvin Lee respectively, were our guides too?
When i returned from my trip and did more googling, i found some blogs of people who went Hokkaido in December like me! (: Click here, here, and here. This was also in the 2010 winter but it’s in Feb. lol.
Super Travels’ itinenary has this option to pay a bit more for an additional 3 days in Shanghai, on the condition that we took the China Eastern airlines to Hokkaido, which transits at Shanghai. NEVER EVER TAKE CHINA EASTERN! it sucked bigtime for me! Food was mediocre, service was nothing near good, and there’s something with their cabin air pressure. My head was about to explode when the plane was landing for both the flight towards Shanghai and Hokkaido. Very bad experience!
i placed many pictures in this entry so please click on the link below! (:
(this picture is snapped, by Sharon, with most of my family group eating soft ice cream out in the friggin cold! good times! (: )
4 things to complete tonight!
First, i would wanna catch up on some
followed by
then create a kickass header picture for my blog
then complete my post on my 1st day in Hokkaido!
time is really short so this is an extremely short update! (:
Tong Lok Kuay Chap
Only checked out this kuay chap stall this late, after i know of its existence, cos my mom’s not so much of a foodie adventurer like me, and heard from an unreliable source (to think i trusted it. i know right! /slapsforehead) that it was expensive and didnt taste so good. But since it’s quite near our hairdresser’s place, we wenta check out this kuay chap for lunch today
Ordered a portion just right for 2 people to share, setting us back by $8. When we were asked which parts of the pig we wanted, we decided to order a mixture to give everything a try , but somehow we were only served some meat, beancurd and loads of intestines. They prolly screwed up our order la. /shrugs
Whoever doesnt think good of this kway cup ought to give their taste buds a thorough check cos it’s absolutely declicious to the max! The kway chup is so thin and smooth that it makes me want to eat a couple more bowls of it. The pork meat is well seasoned and really soft. Haven’t tasted such yummy intestines in a long while!
For a really thrifty person like my mom, she said that even though it costs $1 more than what other coffeeshop offers, she will definitely return back for more kway chup. It’s really that good!
The next time when we go back, i’m gonna stand next to the auntie at the stall and make sure she gives me a mixture of everything cos i wanna try the rest of the parts of the pig that they have! yay looking forward to the next trip (:
Tong Lok Kway Chap
114 Pepys Road
Closed Sun, Mon and PH
Opened 7am to 2pm
How To Restart The Apple Mobile Device Service
Haven’t sync my iPhone in ages, and after updating my iTunes with some new songs, i plugged in the iPhone and saw this pop up message:
this iphone cannot be used because the apple mobile device service is not started
PANIC! cos iTunes 10.1.1 is not jailbreak-safe. 
googled
the apple support forum had people talking about McAfee affecting iTunes. like hello, i dont even have that shit anti-virus program la what nonsense!
more googling!
and ah hah! found this! and it worked YAY NOW I CAN SYNC SHIT.
STEP 1: You need to restart your Apple Mobile Device Service (AMDS). This solution to restart your Apple Mobile Device Service if you used Windows 7:
- Close iTunes and disconnect the iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
- Click the Windows Start button
- Start Search program and files and type “Services”
- In the Programs section of the search results, Click “Services”.
- Select Apple Mobile Device and click Stop the service
- After that click Start the service again.
- Try open your iTunes and connect the device.
STEP 2: Sometime the problem you cant see the start and stop button at your services program section. This problem because Apple Mobile Device Service not automatically start. Here is a simple way to make Apple Mobile Device Service automatically start:
- Close iTunes and disconnect the iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
- Click Start button
- Type “Services” in search form.
- In the Programs section click Services.
- Right-click on Apple Mobile Device and click Properties.
- Set the Startup type pop-up menu to Automatic and click OK.
- Restart the computer or follow step 1 above to start Apple Mobile Device Service again.
2010 Gayo Daejun – Shinee
havent got the time to watch the entire show yet, so i just searched for SNSD and Shinee’s videos first.
Love the additional drums and electric guitar to Lucifer! Made it so much more rock which i like! (:
Jonghyun was still in the cage cos he prolly havent recovered from his ankle injury i guess.
——–
On a total different note, i cannot wait for Burlesque to be out in the theatres!
A fan of Fann
HELLO EVERYBODY PUT YOUR HANDS UP AND RAISE THE ROOF COS IT’S THE LAST DAY OF 2010!
Actually i’m not completely free to blog again but i just find this reaaaallyyy blog-worthy!
My favourite colleague OF ALL TIME is moving apartment soon and she was clearing all stuff that she’s not gonna bring over, including these bunch of magazines. Can you guess who is her idol of all time?
Quite powerpack aint she? Magazines collected for the past TWELVE YEARS!
She definitely deserve an entry for being the most die-hard fan! (:
P/S: Whenever i say OF ALL TIME it’s in the Kanye West tone when he snatched the mic away from T Swizzle when she was giving her acceptance speech. LOL click here to watch that moment (sorry embedding is disabled)
Post-Hokkaido blues
i am suffering from major MAJOR post-holiday blues at the moment.
Suddenly, our local traffic seems too much to handle. No i do not say it from a driver’s point of view, but a passanger and pedestrain’s point of view. Every other road is full of cars, and exhaust and jams!
I wished i could appreciate the Hokkaido beauty much better when i was there.. i didnt expect it to be this laid back, but more of a Tokyo-style place. i was so wrong.
Now i need to start getting used to my jam-pack schedule all over again. from square one. suucckksss.. it’s just this week. cos next week i wont have lessons cept on MOnday YAY. n then im just left with the mugging part when im done with my temp job contract YAY!
till then, i will have time to blog again.. will definitely put up an entry on my kick ass trip!
Buuf4
The other day, I saw my twitter friend – Dane Sanchez‘s Twitpic a printscreen of his idevice theme. It totally blew me away!
[Sidenote: MAJOR THANKS TO DANE FOR TEACHINE ME ON HOW TO GET IT DONE!]
I was a fan of the buuf2 theme, but buuf4 is even more awesome cos it changes all your icons on your otherwise boring status bar! the reception icon becomes bullets ( or are those candles? ok my chinese eyes tells me that they are bullets. LOL ) the 3g, wifi and the no-reception icons are cuter, and there’s a different icon to show that you have an alarm set ( as shown below next to 96%).
Other than icons, the DANE that he did, i did mine using makeitmine from Cydia. and the date displayed on the status bar can be done through the settings of SBsettings. Status Bar Battery Icon Hide will hide the battery icon cos it’s pointless and a space taker
oh ya! when you charge your idevice with a buuf4, a cute fat red plug will appear to show that it’s charging!
What i learnt from Dane is that this consisted of 2 different themes, no wait actually it’s 3 different things. i got buuf4 from Cydia for free, donated to Doreen (via paypal) to get the flip clock theme and donated to Eric to get bonus materials for buuf4. If you want the flip clock theme, just donate to dor@roadrunner.com stating that you want the flip clock theme. no really. cos she does lotsa awesome stuff! click the link to her site to see what she has done
If you want more bonus material for the default buuf4 theme, just drop Eric a donation via paypal at ericelm77@gmail.com
you know what’s the catch? you just gotta have an iphone4 for the bonus material to work. the flip clock works perfectly fine on a 3gs, cos i know. if you dont have an iphone4, the bonus material wont work properly. like how my 3gs is showing UGLY to my face everyday. boooo. oh yeah it makes your bitesms popups look really pretty in my favourite kind of green!
if you try to use it on a 3gs like me, you will have some cute buuf4 icons, and some ugly default icons. half fucks are even uglier than… fucks. you get what i mean? like when im going aww at the cute icons, then i look at the next default looking icon and go WHY SO UGLY?! sigh. oh well i heard that you have to put in more work to change the default icons to look cuter with buuf icons to have your idevice looking just as sweet as Dane’s. but i dont even have time to upload my photos into facebook, dont even say use the computer these days.. so.. till next time when i try, i will note it down here.
if you’re wondering how much i donated, im gonna be honest and tell you that im a cheapskate and donated 2USD each to doreen and eric. i could have donated it in SGD man. but i felt guilty enough. i rather feel cheap then steal, like what i usually do. so i donated! SAY YAY TO ME. but im stealing lesser these days. since i’m working already, i actually started buying things! i just bought Lockinfo a couple of days back.. and i am waiting for qTweeter to inform me that i need to buy the licence soon.. lol. but really, why the hell is qTweeter so expensive! i only paid 4.99usd for lockinfo, and qTweeter costs 3.99usd?? cheesus!
ah ok im heading off to bed now.. or else i’ll be dozing off in class tmr night, after work that is. here’s ending off with some of what donating to Doreen could make your dull jailbroken iphone4 look like!
SO CUTE, AIN’T IT?? /JealousMaximum
Halloween
It’s the Halloween weekend people!
Here’s a video to share with you all!
It’s about this guy called Remi Gaillard who dresses up in different mascots/outfits and annoys the people around him
Actually, i really like his other video too – the one where he and his friends dress up as PAC MAN and roam the supermarket isles! DAMN FUNNY! must watch!
HAPPY HALLOWEEN ALL!
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