Tune on Tuesday: Buddhistson

Un-Coincidentally the band I decided to feature today is a Japanese band. It had nothing to do with the latest devastating event that hit Japan. I was listening to songs on my playlist and this song played. I instantly thought I'd feature Buddhistson. Buddhistson is so far the only Japanese band I listen to. A friend recommended I should listen to their songs about 2 years ago and I was hooked. "Wisely & Slow" is a song from their fourth album "Slowdance" released back in 2009. Love it!

Dr Seuss Quotes

Dr Seuss is famous for his books like Green Eggs and Ham, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Cat in the Hat,  One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, Horton Hatches the Egg, and Horton Hears a Who!. Apart from loving his books, I also love some of his quotes. It never fails to make you smile and believe in the unbelievable. 

My Top 10 Favourite Dr Seuss Quotes are:

1. You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.

2. Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.

3. In my world, everyone's a pony and they all eat rainbows and poop butterflies!

4. There's no limit to how much you'll know, depending how far beyond zebra you go.

5. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope.

6. He who makes a beast out of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.

7. You’ll miss the best things if you keep your eyes shut.

8. If you never did, you should. These things are fun, and fun is good.

9. Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.

10. I meant what I said, and I said what I meant. An elephant's faithful, one hundred percent.

Travel Thursday: Japan (Part 1)

As the world is well aware of, Japan was hit by a very devastating earthquake & tsunami last Friday (11.03.11). Watching the videos of the tsunami making its way through the town and engulfing anything in its path was unbelievable. You can't help but think about what were people doing when this was happening, what were they thinking about... The list goes on and on. My heart goes out to the people of Japan. 

Today's Travel Thursday features Japan. A country that I've had the pleasure of visiting twice. I love Japan. Everything about Japan is exciting. Its like going on an adventure when you're there. My family has a love-love relationship with Japan. My mum always wanted us to experience Japan so she sent my brother to visit Japan first. Then half a year later I went on my first trip during the summer of 2005 to Japan alone. I seriously went alone (as did my brother). But when I was there I met up with a few people (mostly people I've never met in my life). They were all nice enough provide a roof over my head and show me around.

I can still remember the excitement I went through when I was there. Before going to Japan I didn't have any expectations. I just wanted to go on just another holiday. But nooo.... Japan is not just another holiday. It was more than that. I visited 6 cities in 10 days while I was there - Tokyo, Yokohama, Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe & Hiroshima. Here's a little brief recap of my first trip to Japan. My second trip (Part 2) will be featured next week. 

Day 1

Meet Uncle Hiraoka! A friend of my parents. I've known him since I was three. Uncle Hiraoka & family was nice enough to be my host during my first 2 days in Tokyo.

Uncle Hiraoka's wife dressed me in a kimono to go to hanabi takai (firework festival). At first I thought I'd been an oddball in a kimono but I definitely was not.

Day 2

 The next day, Uncle Hiraoka's daughter & her boyfriend was my tour guide in the city of Tokyo. Our first stop was Tokyo Tower.

 Then we went to Asakusa. Later on we walked around the Ginza strip.

Day 3

That night I took the train to Yokohama to stay with Uncle Zamani & family. Since they had a 6 year old daughter, we went to Disney Sea. I heard that recently Disney Sea was flooded due to the earthquake. But I think it was only the carpark, not sure about the park itself.

 Mickey Mouse shaped ice cream! 

Day 4
The following day, Uncle Zamani's wife showed me around Yokohama and I did a little shopping of course!

That building is the Yokohama Landmark Building, the tallest building in Japan. You can see Mount Fuji from there on a clear day.

Somewhere near Mirato Mirai 

Day 5

After Yokohama, I took the shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto. I stayed with a friend. She was kind enough to let me stay with her for 4 days. She brought me to a few places of interest in Kyoto and one of them is the Kiyomizu-dera. I was hoping I'd get a glimpse of Geishas but I wasn't lucky enough.

Day 6

Since my friend had stuff to do, I took the shinkansen and went to Hiroshima all by myself. Was nervous at first because I couldn't speak Japanese but Hiroshima was an English-friendly city due to many tourists visiting this historical city. The Genbaku Dome (Atomic Dome) is one of the surviving building of the Hiroshima bombing.

Memorial for the victims of Hiroshima bombing. 

Before going back to Kyoto, I made a 3-4 hour stop at Kobe. Since I didn't have enough time, I just walked around the city.

Day 7

Then I went to Osaka for a day. My mum's friend's brother was studying there so he became my tour guide (my brother stayed with him for a few days when he visited Japan). Unfortunately I left my camera at my friend's room in Kyoto so I bought a disposable camera. Didn't take many pictures though.

Day 8

 On my last day in Kyoto my friend brought me to Arashiyama. Arashiyama is popular during the cherry blossom and fall season. There a number of places you can visit there and one of it is the Iwatayama Monkey Park. 

My two lovely tour guides

This bear is soooo huggable!

Day 9

My friend & I then went back to Tokyo to visit her friends (other Malaysians studying in Japan). We hanged out at Odaiba.

Of course I had to visit the Coca Cola Museum since mummy dearest was a very big fan!

They also sell Coca Cola stuff there. But now the museum/store is no longer there.

There were having a comic book convention at Odaiba. Dragon Ball is definitely one of my fave comic growing up.

Day 10

I stayed one more day at Yokohama with Uncle Zamani & his family. Spent my last day in Japan shopping. I know my post is pretty minimum but there's sooo many things to write about and I had to make it short and simple. 

Last but not least, the famous Japanese toilet! Haha.

Tune on Tuesday: Foo Fighters

Today's today Tune on Tuesday features a band that I love since the first time I listened to their song back in primary school (No kidding. Thanks to my older cousins of course). FOO FIGHTERS! I love love love Foo Fighters! I absolutely idolized Dave Grohl as a musician. His drumming skills while he was in Nirvana was awesome and then forming his own was even more awesome. I'm soooo happy their back with their new single "Rope". The lyrics are very meaningful.

Walking after you is my fave Foo Fighters song of all time. Couldn't embed a music video version of the song so I put the live version instead. It's as amazing as the normal version. Enjoy =)

Travel Thursday: Lombok & Gili

Travel Thursday's first blog post would be about my trip to Lombok & Gili in March 2009. I know it was two years ago but it was one of the best holiday I've been on. Seriously! The company, atmosphere, ambience and surrounding was beyond my expectations. We were only in Lombok for one day one night and spent the rest of our holiday in Gili Trawangan. If you don't know yet, Gili Trawangan is one of the three Gili islands: Trawangan, Meno, Air. My trip started off with a train ride from Yogyakarta to Surabaya. Then, I flew from Surabaya to Lombok. Stayed a night in Lombok then the next day we took a boat from Lombok to Gili Trawangan. Along the way we stopped in the middle of the ocean to snorkel and had lunch at Gili Meno. It was actually a gamble going to Gili Trawangan without  a hotel but we manage to find a "hotel" for less than Rp100,000 per room per night (less than RM50!). There was more than 1000 pictures to choose from but I chose some of my favourites. 

Let's meet the gang! The 5 of us are students in different parts of Indonesia. Aimi & I: Yogyakarta, Faiz: Bandung, Hasif: Surabaya & Alan:Bali. We all met up in Lombok.

(L-R: Hasif, Aimi, Alan, Didi, Faiz)

Sunset at Lombok 

Snorkeling

Yes, they have magic mushroom =)

Evolution theory

Sunset at Gili Trawangan

Jumpin' Jumpin'

We rented bikes and cycled around the island

Monkeying around

Our home away from home

Cute right?

They are no motorized vehicles in Gili Trawangan

One form of transportation is horse-drawn carts called the Cidomo

You can ride the cidomo to tour around the whole island

Sunrise at Gili Trawangan

Enjoying the scenery on our last day at Gili Trawangan

I don't think the pictures in blog post does any justice to Lombok & Gili. You really have to check it out to see how beautiful the place is. For more info on Gili you can check out WikiTravel. 

Any suggestions where I should write about on my next Travel Thurday post?

Merci

Syukur Alhamdulillah

Today was a good day

Can check off minor operation out of my list

Thank you to everyone who helped

I truly, madly, deeply appreciate it

Hoping for more days like today

=)

Just Breathe

It's only Monday (it'll probably be Tuesday by the time I post this) but I've been through enough to make me wanna scream. Why is the road to graduating harder than any other road? But I always remind myself to keep calm. Plus there are other people who has gone through worse things then me. After 6 (yes, SIX loonggg years) as a dental student in Yogya, the best way to survive is to breathe, smile (even if its a fake smile) and never ever give up.

{Images from tumblr & flickr}

Lucas/Lukas

Couldn't wait till Tuesday to post this.

This is awesome. Nuff' said.

MADE FOR YOU 

Lucas/Lukas

I'll probably be there waiting for your hope
I'll probably be there waiting for your hope
I'll probably be dead if I ain't got your word
I'll probably be there waiting for your hope
I'll probably be dead if I ain't got your word

Got your word

This time you're not alone
Get rid of old ideals
Do something on your own
Don't care about the things you are listening to

Read books not facebooks
The world's spinning up side down
Why don't you all join is
Is this my carousel of hope?

Got your word

Trust that I will always be there waiting for your love
Trust in the beauty inside, trust the name Explode
Trust the colors of rainbows, even if it's dark
Trust in the photos you did and the ones outside
Trust in people, religions and all their hopes
Trust in the meaning of life this can only be love
Trust the friends that we share, and the ones that we don't
Trust in me, trust in you
Over and over and over 

Travel Thursday

I miss traveling. I love traveling. I've loved traveling since I was a kid and blame it on my parents. Huhu. When I was a kid I'd always ask when are we staying at a hotel again even if the hotel is 30 minutes away. To me, staying at a hotel seems like an adventure. Weird, huh? Haven't been doing a lot of traveling as of late. Miss it a lot. Nowadays I sometimes go on a one day road trip with my friends. But haven't done that in quite awhile cos I'm back in Yogya. 

So now I have decided to dedicate my Thursdays on traveling. Just like how I dedicate my Tuesdays on tunes (like naming it Tune on Tuesday). So, expect blog posts on my past travels almost every other Thursdays and I am officially naming it 'Travel Thursday' (yeah, I know it doesn't sound original. hehe). Oh, I'm planning to go to Bandung with Wafa this month & am heading back home at the end of the month. =)

Tune on Tuesday: PS22 Chorus

Take a deep breath and breatheeee....
Inhale.... exhale....
Time to forget the series of misfortunate events that happened today. Ignore the tears that I shed (nothing new to the life of a dental student in Gadjah Mada University). Hoping for a better day tomorrow.
Breatheeee.....
Let's listen to PS22 Chorus' rendition of my fave Phoenix song "Lisztomania".

Breatheeee.....