Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Hokkaido: Noboribetsu Mountain

As promised, here are the photos taken at the steaming Noboribetsu Mountain.

See how beautiful the scenery made by these hot steams.

The weather was real cold in mid November, though the sun was shiny bright.

Getting more steams now as we went further down the mountain.



This was taken quite steep down the mountain as you can see loads of steams coming from the hot ground.

Hubby loves the scenery. It's simply lovely.

Can you imagine yourself flying about above the ground with these steams rising just like those old day wu-xia heroes and heroins.

Hubby took lots of picture in this place. One of his favorite touristy place in Hokkaido.

Love this pic. What a happy couple with the beautiful scene, a memorable place and a must-visit place in Hokkaido.

Welcome To Noboribetsu Mountain!

This was taken when we were about to leave. It is the entrance to Noboribetsu Mountain.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

A Visit to Samurai Village, Hokkaido

Guess what, he is a real human.

There are lots of shops along the pathway selling special Japanese delicacies including some yummy ice-cream.

He is the most amusing Samurai. If you wanna capture a heroic shot, you will pretend to be killed by you. He brought lots of laughter after all. Everyone was eager to take photo with him. LOL

One of the shop selling Japanese delicacies.

Japanese are darn friendly.

Geisha show, co-starred by one of our travel buddies.

See the General seated in the middle, he is our travel buddy. It is not easy to co-star in this Geisha show, in addition to have to beat other representatives from other travel groups (by paper-scissor-stone), one has to be good in alcohol. Can you see that the Geisha is pouring sake into the "cup" - you gonna empty the "cup" or else they won't let you go. My poor buddy...

Our tour guide told us that it takes ONE and A-Half hour to dress up a Geisha including the makeup, hair style and kimono. It is sure very a long and tiresome process.

Ninja show. We were told to to snap photos when everything turned dark. Wonder why?

It was quite an action-packed show. Arhh, I forgot to mention that there is this culture that before we went in for the show, be it Geisha show or Ninja show, we were given pieces of white paper. It was for us to wrap some coins and throw it onto the stage when the show ended to show our appreciation.

Little mock-up of traditional Japanese village - depicting traditional Japanese lifestyle.



Traditional Clock Tower

Maneki Neko - the Japanese Lucky Cat

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Photo Sharing: Hokkaido Trip - Day 2 @ 15-Nov-2008

Second day in Hokkaido, the weather was getting colder. Sun rises as early as 5.30am, and sunset at around 5pm. Kinda weird for us Malaysian. Traveling in winter somehow gives you shorten time for sight-seeing and shopping as well. Shops only open at 8 or 9 am, but some close as soon as the night kicks in, eg. around 6-ish in the evening when sky turns dark.

Here are some of the photos taken in day 2.

Nice scenery surrounding the hotel we stayed on the first night - Toya Sun Palace, a 5-star hotel.

The view is really magnificent, which I thought can only be seen on postcards. LOL

Do you see the mountain topped with white snow? Our tour guide said it is the local version of Mount Fuji in Sapporo.

Our first stop for the day was the steaming Noboribetsu Mountain. Can you see the whitish steam vaporized at the back?

You will see more steams as you go further down. It gives the illusion of the Chinese KungFu movie where the heroes and heroins flying and jumping around in the sky with these white steams. Haha...

More photos coming up soon. Stay tune ...

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Travel and Black Magic

I just received an email with the Subject: Thailand... Must Read!!

This email was telling about a true story of an traveler who has bought a souvenir that hold black magic that eventually sucked her life out.

This is the story (copied as it is from my email):


Subject: FW: Thailand..Must Read!!


TO ALL FREQUENT TRAVELLERS.....

Hi friends,

It is the year-end, which is one of the peak traveling periods for many
Singaporeans. This is a true account that I would like to share as a
cautionary tale. I have changed the names of people involved to protect
their identities. Although it takes place on an overseas vacation, the
warning applies equally whether abroad or at home.

Jessie was in her early thirties and like many of us loved to travel and
her last trip was to Taiwan . While visiting one of the tourist attractions
in Thailand located near a temple, she decided to get a souvenir for
herself. She walked along the shops with curious eyes. A well-dressed sales
man managed to catch her attention. He asked her what year she was born.

She answered politely. He further pursued to ask her the month she was
born. "June,"she replied. As she answered, there was a sparkle in the man's
eye. He quickly pulled out an item and put it in Jessie's hand and she
looked at it closely. It was a small-sculpted stone, but Jessie could not
make out what the Item was. The man, with a serious tone told her that this
small ornament was a very powerful item that could grant all her wishes, but
she was not to tell anybody, not even her closest friends, boyfriend or
parents that she had this ornament in her possession. He informed her to
bring this item wherever she went and not to allow anybody to touch it.
Jessie was thrilled and thought she had stumbled upon a great deal as the
item seemed very precious. She asked for the price and paid for the item.

Vacations like always were too short and she returned to Singapore . On
The day that she returned, she felt very exhausted as if the life was
Draining out of her. She thought that it was due to the traveling and
excitement and did not bother too much about it. She went to take a nap and
as she rested, she started to feel an ache in her stomach that grew into a
continuous sharp pain. By nightfall, the suffering was so intense that she
went hysterical.

She crawled to the altar in her home and started to hit her head against
the altar. Her parents were shocked with her actions. Her father held her
tightly, to prevent her injuring herself while her mother called for an
ambulance. Strangely enough, in the midst of all the pain and before she
left with the ambulance, Jessie insisted that she had to bring along her
handbag before leaving for the hospital. When she was sent to the hospital,
it was already dawn and she was sent for different tests and scans to
determine the cause of her pain. The sharp pain persisted and even got more
intense. Her Aunt Maggie heard the news that she was hospitalized and Came
to visit her. While Aunt Maggie was with her, Jessie thought about Letting
her employers know of her condition and hoped Aunt Maggie could contact them
on her behalf. She took out her handbag and pulled out a pen to write the
number on a piece of paper. As she pulled out the pen, the small ornament,
which Jessie had bought from Thailand , dropped on the floor. Aunt Maggie
wanted to pick it up but Jessie stopped her. She said if Aunt Maggie were to
touch it, she would have to have it cleansed. While Jessie was not looking,
Aunt Maggie quickly picked the ornament up and kept it. When Aunt Maggie was
out in the hallway, she scrutinized it. The ornament sent shivers down Her
spine and she was very uncomfortable with the item so she decided to talk to
Jessie's mother.

On the third day, the doctors informed Jessie's parents that they had
confirmed that Jessie suffered from stomach cancer that had reached the
terminal stage and they had to prepare for the worst. Jessie's parents were
not able to understand this sudden diagnosis, as Jessie had not had any
symptoms of stomach cancer. When Aunt Maggie went to the hospital and met
with Jessie's mother, Jessie's mother broke the news to Aunt Maggie. Aunt
Maggie was shocked and also shared her discovery of the ornament with
Jessie's mother. Jessie's mother also had an uneasy feeling when she saw the
ornament. She felt very lost and desperate about her daughter's situation.
Jessie's mother and Aunt Maggie both knew of a medium; Master Lim and it
struck both of them that he might shed some light as to the events.

Aunt Maggie quickly called to arrange to meet Master Lim. When they
visited Master Lim, they showed the ornament to Master Lim. At one glance,
he told them that Jessie's life had been swapped with that of another girl
who was probably suffering from stomach cancer and was dying. The ornament
was an object to hold black magic, which would suck the life out of Jessie.
Both Jessie's mother and Aunt Maggie queried whether there was anything that
could be done. He replied that it was too late as the black magic cast was
very powerful and the ornament had been discovered too late. The black Magic
was targeted with certain criteria: The victim had to be a girl who was born
in a specific year and month. The black magic would lose its power if Other
people apart from Jessie touched it. However, in Jessie's case the black
magic had already taken full effect and had become uncontrollable. Thus,
only direct family members were to be allowed to visit her and
even to send her off at her wake. The strange ornament was left at the
temple to be handled and disposed of appropriately.

Silently, and with great pain, Jessie left by the seventh day on her
Return from her vacation.

Here are the precautions to look out for:

1. Usually you would not be instructed to keep it a secret about
buying anything, unless magic is involved.

2. It is untrue that other people apart from the owner cannot
touch blessed items. People that you are comfortable with can
handle the blessed items. Of course, it is not a good idea to let
strangers or anybody who you are not comfortable with to touch
any of your closely held items.

3. It is quite common for people to ask what year you are born in
when you are selecting items to suit your animal sign. If it is only to
deal with Chinese animal signs, they do not need to ask for your birth
month. If your birth month is requested for, you can always ask which
theories they are following. For example, when selecting crystals and
minerals according to astrology, we will need to know what is the birth
month and day.


4. Do not buy closely held items or jewelry from non-creditable people,
shops or organizations.

5. Many people may have the misconception that black magic can only
be cast on them if their eight characters (birth year, month, day and time)
are known. Eight characters are not necessary to cast black magic on a
Specific person.

I shared this true account as a caution to all that it is important
to exercise care when buying items, especially closely held items. It is
important to know whom you are buying from, where you are buying from and
what you are buying. Do not take things too lightly; else there may be much
to lose.