Throughout the trip, i’ve been using my phone camera as a backup to take some self pics at some of the sites.  I decided to upload these first as there were much less pics to go through and I can just post certain ones.  You’ll notice that I’m getting quite good at these self pics with things in the background!  Also note that I was lazy to gel my hair in China (hence the ugliness), but have been gelling my hair everyday in Japan (so it looks nice) . 

In reverse Chronological Order:

At Muscle Park: The Frisbee Throwing Game.  Note that the centre of the wheel is also a target:

Giant Gundam (from the back):

On the top of Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building North Observation tower:

Himeji-jo:

At Tenmangu (天満宮) in Osaka before the Tenjin Festival (天神祭):

Osaka-jo Ko-en (大阪城公園), in front of the castle:

Great Wall of China, Simatai Part (長城, 司馬台 野長城)

Temple of Heavens in Beijing China (天壇):

National Opera House (name check?):

人民大會堂:

A nice view of the Forbidden City (故宮):

故宮博物院前:

More pics later, I found a somewhat easy way to post pics:

Terence and Grace woke up early (so early that I didn’t notice them leaving) to go to Tsukiji fish market.  The rest of us were too lazy to wake up early and went to Odaiba later to meet up with them. 

First stop was the Gundam statue that has been built in Odaiba.  There were a lot of people there: kids, adults, teens, babies.  The gundam’s head moves and there are lights and steam that also come out.  Other than that, it wasn’t that spectacular.  There was also a 30 minute line up to go to the gift shop, so we all decided to not go there. 

After Gundam, we went to Fuji Television Station.  We didn’t go onto the tour, but we did walk around the gift stores.  Fuji TV has shows like Chibi-maru-san (小丸子), and other Japanese dramas that you may or may not know. 

We walked around Aqua City for a bit before heading to lunch.  We had it at a food court because the other food at Aqua City was relatively expensive (it is a tourist destination).  I ate a curry pork rice.  It was delicious.  I really like Japanese Curry, it’s so good! 

After lunch, we checked out the Shonen Jump (少年ジャンプ) Store.  Shonen Jump is the producers of Naruto, Hikaru no Go, Bleach, One Piece, and Dragonball comics, to name a few.  The rest of them spent a bit of time there shopping for things related to those comics. 

After lunch and the Jump Store, we headed over to Muscle Park.  If you’ve watched 筋肉雷台, Muscle park is basically those games.  There was a game called “Sasuke” (no relation to the Naruto comics) which required you to physically mve yourself across many obstacles.  It requires a lot of upper body strength.  Mok and John tried (failing 3/4 courses). 

At Muscle Park, we also played a frisbee throwing game.  Imagine a big wheel like a dart board with each slice marked off.  There were 8 segments and one in the center.  The goal is to try to throw a frisbee (a pretty flimsy and light one) and hit these slices.  If you get 7/9 or over, you get a prize.  You get 12 frisbees to throw.  Out of all the people who tried, only Chris got 4/9 slices.  The rest of us only got 3 (including myself).  This seemed like an easy game, but it wasn’t.  Of course, I’m not the best aimer in frisbee.  I wonder how the handlers will do on this game?

We also played a reflexes number battle.  There are three stages, first one with 9, second with 16 and third with 25 numbers.  In a 3×3, or 4×4, or 5×5 square, the numbers appear randomly.  The goal is to press them in numerical order (from 1-9, 1-16 or 1-25) as quickly as possible.  Finish all three in less than 19 seconds and you get a prize.  Sounds a lot like the Brain Age game!  Kevin finished in 17ish seconds; his prize was a pretty funny looking cushion.  Not that shabby because if you wanted to buy the same cushion from the gift store, it would cost you 1900 yen!  I finished in like 23 seconds.  Kevin, Terence, Grace and I went first, with Terence finishing second (20ish seconds), then me (23ish) and finally Grace (26ish).  The second set was Chris, Xiao, Gwun and Mok.  Grace was really happy when the 27 mark passed and Gwun and someone else was still doing it.  Haha!

After muscle park, we walked around the rest of Odaiba for a bit before going back to Ikebukuro for dinner.  Nothing special tonight, just Oto-ya (a cheap place that serves Japanese food) or others bought from the supermarket and ate at home. 

We went from Kyoto to Tokyo via Shinkansen.  Arriving  at Shinagawa train station, we changed to the Yamanote Line (山手線) to go to Ikebukuro (池袋).  The train ride totalled around 3.5 hours.  Lunch was bentos and sandwiches on the train, which we bought at the station beforehand. 

At Tokyo, we checked into Sakura Hotel Ikebukuro and waited for Terence and Grace’s arrival.  It was raining that day, and when Trace finally arrived at the Hotel, they were pretty wet.  It was kinda funny.  有啲似隻落湯雞咁.

After Trace arrived, we headed to Sunshine City (サンシャインシッティ) to have dinner.  We settled on eating Chirashi-don and Ramen noodles.  It was okay.  There was this weird mushed yam (とろろ) that tasted weird.  Gwun described it as “it feels like someone’s already chewed this”.  Other than that, the meal was good. 

July 28, 2009 – A Day in Shinjuku (新宿)

Our first full day in Tokyo, we headed to Shinjuku district.  As some of you may know, Shinjuku is known for it’s tall buildings, abundance of department stores and Kabukicho, the red light district. 

The first stop in Shinjuku was the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building (Tocho, for short) 都庁. The top floor (45th) was an observatory which was free.  From there, you can see the areas around Shinjuku, including all the buildings, Harajuku and Yoyogi Park, etc.  There were also cool guides that you can rent that told you about the buildings around there. 

For lunch, we headed to Kintaro (金太郎) for some Chirashi-don (Sashimi-rice).  This is the place that was highly recommended because it gets it fish directly from Tsukiji fish market.  I had a Kaisen-don海鮮丼 while Kevin had an Uni-don うに丼. They were both SOOOOOOO good.  It was the best we’ve had. 

After Lunch, we separated to explore ourselves.  Usually, Kevin and I would spend a lot of money buying things in Shinjuku, but this time, we held back.  we only bought a few gifts for family.  We did walk all around Shinjuku to plan out what we would buy later on for ourselves.  Haha. 

At around 6:30, we met back up at an Arcade area in Kabuki-cho and ate all-you-can-eat Shabu-Shabu/Sukiyaki (しゃぶしゃぶ/すき焼き) at Momo-Paradise.  Yes, the name of the restaurant doesn’t sound too much like a restaurant, but the sukiyaki was really good.  For 2000 yen, we got all you can eat beef, veggies, pork and eggs.  A very filling meal!

After dinner, we decided to walk about Kabuki-cho and Shinjuku at night to see what it’s like.  There were many interesting things about that area.  It’s the red light district, so there are a lot of people who approach you to go  to clubs of Izakayas.  Gwun was approached the most, for sure!  There were quite a few transvestites.  –____–;;;

We left after walking around for a while and headed back to Ikebukuro via subway, taking the Fukutoshin Subway Line (副都心線).  Mok keeps pronouncing it as “Fuck-you-to-shin”.  (sweatdrop). 

We went home early to relax and try some japanese beers and sake. 

Day 3 – Roppongi (六本木)

Roppongi, is definitely a place worth visiting on your first trip to Tokyo.  There are a lot of high-class and interesting design buildings, including the National Art Centre, Tokyo, Roppongi Hills and Tokyo Midtown.  Not to mention a lot of shopping and eats around there.  However, it is a relatively expensive area. 

We basically explored that area that day.  Kevin and I went to Roppongi Hills, stopping for a long time at TV Asahi (makes of Doraemon) to do some souvenir shopping.  We also walked around the area.  We’ve been to Roppongi before and knew it was going to be not that interesting. 

Leaving at 6ish, we went back to Ikebukuro to eat.  Since Terence and Grace have yet to try Kaiten sushi, we had that.  I think Grace had a really good experience at the sushi place.  She was really amazed by all the sushis that she could choose.  We made some recommendations in terms of what types of sushi to eat (Amaebi, Hotate). 

After dinner, Kevin and I opted to walk around Ikebukuro at night.  It was very busy and there were quite a few artists performing on the streets.  We also saw a few artists selling their artwork (drawings, calligraphy) on the side of the road as well. 

Ikebukuro at night is pretty good for shopping.  There was a 24 hours Jeansmate (selling Jeans and Casual Street Fashion).  I bought a pair of jeans that night at like 10:30pm -____-;.  There are also many arcades and clothing stores that are open at 10 or 11pm in Ikebukuro.  The drug stores and the 100 yen sores too!

July 30, 2009 – Nakano, Kichijoji (中野, 吉祥寺)

The rest of the guys went to Odaiba (台場) to go to Ooedo Onsen Monogatari (大江戶溫泉物語), the Hot Springs “Amusement Park”, which has multiple rooms with different theme hot springs.  We’re going to Odaiba again tomorrow, so Kevin and I opted not to go with them. 

Instead, we headed to Nakano and Kichijoji to do some shopping.  Nakano has the Nakano Sun Mall and Nakano Mandrake, which has a lot of gadgetty things to buy.  There’s a store in Mandrake that sells sets of the gachapon toys, so for a slightly higher price, you can buy the entire set instead of wasting money on gachapons.  We stared at the figurines for a while and looked around those two malls.  We saw “Pedo-bunny” for sale, only 980 yen.  Haha!

For Brunch, we went to Yoshinoya (吉野家), a fast food chain for gyu-do (牛丼).  It was fast and cheap, less than 500 yen for a decent sized bowl of rice and meat. 

After brunch, we headed to Kichijoji (吉祥寺) to go do some shopping.  In Kichijoji, there are a lot of covered streets (kinda like a strip mall), a lot of department stores (Parco, 〇I〇I, Loft, etc.), and many shops.  We didn’t buy much there either, but the adventure was fun.  We saw this one very persistent tissue-flyer giving person.  It’s common in Japan to (instead of handing our normal paper flyers) hand out a package of tissues with an insert of an ad on it.  This guy was just too aggressive with his techniques. 

In Kichijoji, there are also small streets with misc. clothing stores that sell new and used goods.  We didn’t have that much time to browse as we were getting tired. 

After Kichijoji, we headed back to Ikebukuro cuz we were tired.  Resting a bit at the hotel, we then headed to Sunshine City to have dinner (Ten-don tonight) and to walk around the area.  I’m still eye-ing this 6000yen vest that is really nice, but I don’t want to buy yet.  Maybe I’ll buy later, when I realize how little I’ve spent in Japan.

July 23, 2009 – Second Day in Osaka

We woke up at around 9am to go the Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum.  The admission was free, and for 300 yen, you can custom make your own ramen.  We made a few, some as keepsakes, others as gifts.  On these cup noodles, you can draw on the cup, pick ur soup base and ingredients.  Then they shrink wrap the ingredients and give you a nice blow up bag to seal it in.  Very cute!  The museum displayed the ramen that have been on sale since the beginning when Momofuku Ando discovered the Instant Ramen.  There was also a kids workshop to make Ramen, but it required registering ahead of time. 

After the museum, we split up.  The guys went to Kaiyukan海遊館 (the Aquarium).  They said it was really great.  Xiz went to Osaka-jo.  Kevin and I ended up going to shop around Umeda (梅田) and Shinsaibashi again.  At Umeda, there was a HUGE Yodobashi Camera.  There was also Namco City (and arcade) and a Gyoza Stadium.  We walked around for a bit, but didn’t buy much. 

That was also that day that I was really sick, so I was really tired. 

We met up at the Dotonbori Bridge at 5:30pm to go to dinner.  The guys were 15 minutes.  XIAO AND LIZ WERE 30 MINUTES LATE.  白白等咗佢哋半個鍾, 好鬼死煩.  I really HATE it when we have to wait for the two of them.  They didn’t even have a good excuse for being late.  They’re tardiness has been getting to Kevin and I and this was just the beginning. 

Because I was sick, I wanted to eat something quickly and head home.  However, everyone had such a hard time deciding where to eat.  We settled on Kaiten sushi 回転寿司, aka. Sushi Train.  130 yen per plate, not bad. 

After dinner, I went home immediately by myself.  Took a shower and just relaxed. 

July 24, 2009 – From Osaka to Kyoto

We woke up at around 9 to finish packing and check out of J-Hoppers before 11am.  Grabbing a quick breakfast of coffee and Onigiri (おにぎり), which a lot of the group pronounces as “Oh-nigri”, emphasizing on the ‘g’ sound, we headed to a festival. 

The festival was Tenjin Matsuri (天神祭), a fireworks festival, which is held July 24 and 25.  We arrived at the temple where it was held, Tenmangu, 天満宮.  It was early (around 11am when we arrived), so the stalls were still opening.  There were dancers, some Japan lion-dance, and a lot of games to play at the temple.  On the streets, we also saw these drunk Japanese men dressed in a Yukata-style uniform that were carry a shrine thing that was supported by a few bamboo poles.  They were yelling really loud, jumping up  and down with that heavy shrine thing on their shoulders, and was making the street very festive.  We were sure they had quite a few drinks…why else would you be doing that in public. 

The festival was at night, so we didn’t stay and left at around 12 to explore the area around Tenmangu.  We split up for lunch.  Kevin and I ate at the UCC Café.  Of course, the coffee was awesome.  The food was also exceptionally good. 

After lunch, we split up once again.  Kevin and I went to Umeda again.  This time, we walked around the department stores and the smaller streets and thee underground plazas.  Didn’t buy much that day except for some Nerd Glasses XD.  Xiao and Liz think they’re cool, but John seems to think they’re weird. 

Meeting back at the hostel at 5:00ish, we got our luggages and went to Kyoto.  Instead of taking the Shinkansen (which requires us to switch trains TWICE), we opted to go to Osaka station and take a Special Express Train from Osaka to Kyoto.  It would have taken around the same time. 

We arrived at the Hostel, K-House, in Kyoto at around 8:00pm.  The hostel was more like a hotel, with card keys and an elevator.  The style was also much more of a hotel, with a front desk that works around the clock.  Their sign says “Open 24 hours, closed between 3am and 5 am”.  I thought that was pretty funny. 

At Kyoto, our first meal was at an Izakaya (居酒屋), a Japanese style pub.  Kevin and I had a really great Ikura and Uni –don.  We also tried some Sake, warm and cold.  Warm was definitely better.  After dinner was straight to sleep back at the hostel. 

July 25, 2009 – 拋棄了朋友的一天 

我同啲friend傾好星期六朝力點出發出搵個day tour, 遊覽京都…但係佢哋力點半都未行得….成人都係我同呀永等人, 又冇人等我同呀永.  我哋咪ditch咗佢哋loh.  我同呀永去到京都駅 就好好運咁去咗個英文嘅information centre 攞咗啲information.  嗰喥個volunteer真係好好人, 教咗我哋兩個京都一日自由行點行好.  我哋嗰人嘅行程就係咁:

1)      金閣寺

2)      銀國寺

3)      清水寺

4)      祈園/八神寺

一個好頻撲嘅itinerary.  全部都係坐巴士去的.  Day pass 只係500円, 好低!  啲temple 好靚, 又好靜.  但係嗰日落兩, 所以啲照唔係影得好好.  我哋喺每一temple嗰喥留 咗半個鍾到.  差唔多啦 – 睇吓啲景, 買吓啲手信, 啲祔. 

Lunch 我哋喺啲temple付近食咗啲soba 同丼.  一般.  晚餐我哋去咗地下街食オムライス(omelet rice) 幾得意啦.  話哂都係日本嘢嚟. 

食完晚飯就去咗祈園行吓.  祈園(gion) 係以前好多geisha (藝妓) 的地方.  而家就緊係冇也啦.  嗰喥而家好多pub, club 同餐廳.  又有好多人喺街喥拉客.  有啲似大陸同香港. 

行完街街就返歸瞓.  返到hostel, 啲friend當一啲事都冇發生過咁, 好似佢哋遲到係冇錯咁.  唉…

July 26, 2009 – Free Day 

Instead of the planned itinerary of going to Arashiyama (嵐山) and then a half free day, we opted for a full free day.  We knew the rest of them weren’t going to wake up early, so at around 8:30am, Kevin and I left the hostel. 

Our first stop was at the UCC Café near our hostel for a breakfast of Toast, Eggs and Coffee.  Mom would have loved this breakfast because the bread was great and the coffee was even better. 

We caught a 9:45am train from Kyoto to Himeji (姫路), which houses one of the world’s ancient heritage sites, Himeji-jo (姫路城).  This castle was built in the 1500s and exhibits traditional Japanese architecture.  It was very pretty and definitely worth the 1 hour Shinkansen ride there.  We saw the big pillars which held the castle up, as well as weaponry used to protect the castle.  The castle also had many big wells and hidden rooms.  We were also allowed to enter the inside of the castle to look. 

Lunch was sandwiches on the train.  We were trying to save time 

After Himeji, Kevin and I went back to Osaka to shop a bit.  We went to Namba (難波) area this time.  At Namba, we walked around Namba Walk (underground strips), Namba Nan-nan (another underground strip) and finally ended up Namba Parks and Namba City (two large malls in the South of Namba).  It was at Namba Parks that we finally bought something from the Comme Ca Ism Store.  70% off sale, not bad. 

For dinner, Kevin and I stumbled across it very cool Curry Store.  What’s so special about that place?  Well, they’re curry is a specific dark colour, because they add in Squid Ink.  The taste was awesome.  I ate a Beef and Eggplant Curry (ビーフとナスカレー).  Kevin had a Ebi-fry Curry. 

After the dinner and shopping, Kevin and I were lucky enough to catch the last possible Shinkansen from Osaka to Kyoto (at around 10:00pm).  Got back to the hostel at around 10:45, pakced and slept.

Our Flight from Beijing (PEK) to Tokyo, Japan (NRT) was at 8:55am so we had to get to the airport early.  Baggage check in was a success, despite their system being very stupid.  They had those electronic sign in booths that you can swipe your passport and check in for.  However, there was a couple staff there who did it for you.  I tried to check in myself, but the dude there swiped my passport and just did it for me. 

The one trouble that we did face (well, only Trace) was that China Southern (their flight from Beijing to Seoul) only allowed 20kg of luggage PER PERSON.  So this means you can only carry 20 kgs in total between one, or two luggage.  After a bit of repacking and putting clothes onto the hand carry bad, Trace was ready to go. 

After saying our goodbyes with Terence and Grace.  The 6 of us (Liz’s flight was later and Chris’ was earlier), went from Beijing to Tokyo.  At Tokyo, after meeting with Chris (who’s flight was at a different luggage belt area), we went to get phones and get our JR passes activated.  The JR people at the airport were really nice.  After showing them our exchange order and signing a form, we were good to go.  They were also nice enough to get us reserved seats on the Narita Express and Shinkansen(新幹線） ride to Shin-Osaka(新大阪).  We were cutting it really close to the train, boarding only 2 minutes before the Narita Express for the city departed. 

Getting to Osaka from Tokyo Narita Airport, we took three trains:

1. Narita Express from Narita Terminal 2 to Shinagawa (品川).
2. At Shinagawa, take the Shinkansen (新幹線) to Shin-Osaka (新大阪)
3. Take any train from Shin-Osaka to Osaka JR Train Station

From Osaka station, we still had to take the Osaka-loop line to Fukushima (福島), where our hostel, J-Hoppers, was.  J-Hoppers was pretty quiet and quaint.  The neighbourhood was very quiet and there was a lot of interesting shops near by.  Our first meal in Osaka was at a Ramen Shop.  The ramen itself was very good, but the soup was a bit too salty and strong for my taste.  I had a Miso-with-Pork-Ramen (肉味噌ラーメン).  After dinner, we just went back to the hostel, unpack, and slept. 

July 22, 2009 – First Full Day in Osaka

Early in the morning, we went to Osaka-jo (大阪城), the castle in the middle of the city.  It was a very beautiful view and definitely worth going.  There, we ate Takoyaki (たこ焼き) and Ice cream.  Spending a couple hours there sightseeing and buying souvenirs, we went to Shinsaibashi (心斎橋) afterwards.  　

Shinsaibashi, is the shopping district of Osaka, with many stores and shops that sell everything.  The first time we were only there for a few hours, and we also had to have lunch there too.  For lunch, we found an AWESOME Ten-don (天丼), not to be confused with Tendon, place.  It was doing a promo and was only 500 yen for a bowl.  FYI, if the menu items say サービス, it usually means it’s free or at a discount!

After lunch, we went to Shinsaibashi-suji (心斎橋筋) and tried to do some shopping.  We only had an hour or so before Liz called us and we went to meet her at the hostel.  At shinsaibashi, there was also a Tokyu Hands, which sells many art supplies, kitchen utensils and bags.  Xiao was able to pick up a few cutesy lunch box items there.  She now says its going to take her a lot of time in the morning to make her lunch boxes.  Haha. 

We met Liz back at the hostel and proceeded to go to have dinner.  That night, we had Okonomiyaki (お好み焼き).  Liz, Xiao, Kevin and I ordered a huge one that feeds 3-4 people and couldn’t even finish it!  The sauces, katsuo and mayonaise was really good though. 

After dinner, we went to the Umeda Sky building, to the top  floor and viewing terrace to see the city at night.  Our trip from Dinner to Umeda Sky building took more than 1 hour because John and Xiao had to waste money at those doll-clamping games.  Xiao got a “Pedo-bunny” for Lizzie and John started his whole bunny collection that day. 

The view at Umeda Sky building was great!  The lights around the city, the bridges and the sky all made for very nice pictures.

• Terence + Grace = Trace
• Mok + John = Jock
• Xiao + Liz = Xiz or Xizzy
• Nick + Kevin = Twins or Kick
• Chris + Gwun = Gris

Highlights from the end of Hong Kong:

• The Peak at Night
• Sticker pics at Langham Place (Terence and Grace weren’t there, so we had to draw them in)
• Shopping
• Dinner at Luk Kwok Hotel on the last night (pics will come soon…haven’t even had time to upload pics onto my comp!)

Beijing was next and we had a 11:55am flight, so we didn’t have to leave our houses in hk that early.  Chris was on a different flight than the rest of us (his being 30 minutes earlier)…so when we were in beijing, chris was waiting for us at our luggage belt with some of our luggages already grabbed from the luggage belt.  Kinda creepy. 

Our first adventure in Beijing was getting to Chris’ place.  We went by taxi.  Problems? 

1. We only had me and Xiao (and Kevin and Chris kind of) that could speak Mandarin. 
2. The address and map on the business card was really difficult to read
3. Luggages could not fit into the trunk and the drivers refuse to put them onto the seats. We later found out that you had to yell at the drivers to get them to do that. 

We eventually all got the place in one piece.  Mok and John got gypped around 20 RMB cuz they were so pointless. 

The first night in Beijing we had Peking Duck at Da Dong (大董) which was more of  fusion restaurant.  The peking duck was awesome.  真的脆與下膩.  We also had other foods which was good.  It was a while ago, so I forgot exactly what we ate. 

Next day, we visited the Forbidden Palace (故宮) an Tian’anmen Square (天安門).  Don’t really remember what else happened that day.  dinner that night was Hot Pot. The spicy hot pot and the sesame paste sauce was really good. 

The day after we went to the National Art Museum in Beijing.  Not that greatest unless you like art.  THe calligraphy art was pretty though.  After that, we went to Yashow Clothing Market (雅秀) to buy some good fake goods.  I didn’t buy anything.  Terence, however, was very excited about the whole bargaining for the best price.  We also had peking duck that night. 

Saturday was Summer Palace (頤和園).  Xiao’s cousin tagged along.  It was a really warm day and we were outside the whole day.  The palace was nice, but we were all too tired and dehydrated to fully enjoy the experience.  Maybe it would have been better to go to Beijing during the fall or spring.  For dinner, we went to Beijing apm, 新東方市場.  it’s really like the apm in HK.  We had Shanghai food there.  After lunner, we moved onto Wangfujing Da Jie (王府井大街)and had street eats.  Gwun, John and Chris ate scorpions.  We also shared a deep fried Star Fish.  Other interesting foods (that we didn’t eat) were: Sheep Penis, Testicles, Cicadas, Millipedes and Centipedes, crickets.  They were gross.  It was also funny how loud those people would yell out the word “Pe-eee-enis” and “Testicles” with a straight face and totally serious about the thing.  Grace also found her 冰糖葫蘆 which she was dying to have. 

Sunday was a free day.  We went to the National Museum, which was closed till 2010.  FAIL.  Then we visited the national opera house (name check?) took some pics and left for Temple of the Heavens (天壇).  it was much nicer than the forbidden city and summer palace because it was cooler (temperature wise) and was not as crowded.  Dinner we had K-BBQ. 

Monday was a day that I awaited for a long time.  We went to the Great wall of China (長城).  We actually went to a part of the wall that’s not a tourist attraction (野長城).  It was unmanned, there were NO RAILS; it smelled of pee inside the towers.  We did some very AWESOME jumping shots at the great wall.  Will definitely post pics later.  Think about it:  No rails + jumping shots = VERY dangerous.  Did I also mention it was a very nice day (a lot of sun)?  A couple of us (me, Chris) were a bit sunburned.  Dinner was more Peking duck, but I think i got a bit of a cold from the hot Great Wall and the airconned mini-bus ride back.  Cold during this time when Swine Flu is still around is bad. 

Tueday – Off to Japan!  Our flight was at 8:55am, which means we had to wake up at 5, pack and leave by 5:30am.  Chris’ flight to Tokyo and Trace’s flight to Seoul were earlier than ours, so we couldn’t leave too late.  Chris also forgot to check which terminal he was at until the mornning before.  Sigh…

Updates with Osaka Later

To help everyone adjust their jet lag, we decided to have a free day the first day that they’re back.  Kevin and I decided to stay in Hong Kong island and go shopping.  We went to Causeway Bay again and bought a couple things.  In the afternoon, we went to Admiralty to help our Aunt buy some electronics and to go to dinner afterwards. 

At Night, we met up with everyone to have some drinks in CWB.  We ended up going to 茶軒 near the UA Theatre in CWB.  There weren’t that many people in CWB at night, but it was still very lively. 阿永同我嗰晚俾人擦身份證…我諗啲差侤以為我哋有毒品haha…  It was fun having drinks with the group and hearing their stories.  The best story of the day was:

Gwun and Chris were walking in Wan Chai at night when they came to a fork in the road.  Looking down at the choices, one road seem to be brighter lit than the other and they decided to walk along that street.  Little did they know, they ventured into the Red Light District of Wan Chai (which is one street away from where my Grandma lives XD).  As they’re walking along the street, they notice a lot of women sitting in seductive poses.  Out of the blue, some “woman” with a deep voice puts her hand on Gwun and says “handsome boi” (in an asian accent).  Gwun and Chris hurried away, chuckling at the matter.  Now, we’re calling Gwun “handsome boi”.

We left the BBT place before 12 and went home. 

July 9, 2009 – Stanley + Peak

The group of us met up at 11:30 in Wan Chai to have lunch and go to Stanley as a group.  We had lunch at Pizza Hut, which is very different from the Pizza Hut in Canada.  我哋唔知點解同班人meet up 之前又俾人擦身份證. 今次喺係街市付近…係12個鐘頭內俾人擦身份證真係好好運囉!

After lunch, we went to the bus station in front of Hopewell 合和 to take the bus to Stanley.  I must say, taking a double decker bus to Stanely, which goes through the mountains, is quite scary.  The turns are sharp and the mountains are steep.  It is very bumping and jerky ride, but I don’t get car sick from it. 

At Stanley, it was blazing hot.  We toured the area, stopping every 10 minutes of so to sit in the shade or for some photo ops.  We went to the Murray house, the Stanley Plaza and the Beach.  We all pitched in to get John a PINK BUNNY trucker hat.  Pictures will come soon.  We also got ice cream in the middle of the adventure, where there were two failures:

1. Terence pulled out the popsicle stick of a Haagen Dasz bar without pulling out the ice cream bar itself
2. John’s ice cream bar melted and fell apart (which he caught in his hand).  He proceeded to eat the ice cream bar out of his hand, sipping the melted ice cream from his hand. 

Stanely was too hot, so we didn’t stay for long and headed to CWB.  We walked to Times Square, shopped around a bit and went to dinner at the top floors of Times Square. 

After dinner we went to the Peak, I’ll update that later.

Kevin and I didn’t go to the airport to pick them up — we went to have dimsum lunch with our aunt instead.  After dimsum, we went to buy an iPhone ripoff for my aunt (it was only $1160 HKD and had even more functions than an iPhone – a TV antenna).  To test out the phone, we went to the nearest McD’s and used their Wifi to surf the net for a bit.  My Aunt, her co-worker, Kevin and I sat at that McDonald’s for a good 30 minutes testing out the phone and only bought a McFlurry to eat….haha

Kevin and I stayed in Mong Kok for the rest of the day until it was time to meet up for lunch with Mok.  We went around MK, buying CDs and just window shopping for now.  We also went to the apm mall, where they were having a MJ tribute.  張繼聰 was one of the performers there. 

At 7pm, we met up with Mok, Xiao, John, Chris, and Gwun for dinner with his Aunt.  Let’s just say it was kind of awkward eating with Mok’s Aunts.  We went to some restaurant in Kwun Tong (富年華) and had goose, wintermelon soup, and other foods.  I think xiao’s blog is going to document our eats during the trip: http://xiaoeats.blogspot.com 

Dinner ended at around 8:30pm and to prevent everyone from sleeping right away and waking up the next morning at 4am, we went to walk around apm. 

Other highlights that happened before Mok and them arrived:

• We saw a Google car taking pictures for Streetview
• There was a $7000HKD watermelon for sale at Sogo (it was shaped like a heart, I have a picture)
• The people in HK are so efficient – I went to fix my SE phone which had screen problems and they were done in 1 day!

pictures will come soon…

We don’t have regualr internet access as my uncle doesn’t have any wireless. I’ll try to somehow upload pics and update this blog using their home computer.

Jetlag was not that bad. I went to sleep at around 10:30 and woke up this morning at 8:30ish. I wake up a couple of times at night, but was able to fall back asleep quite quickly.

However, I have been very allergic to the air and pollution here. The insides of my nose and palletes are really itchy…:(

The rest of the Grad Trip group is coming in a couple days, which is when the activites will begin

That’s all for now,
Nick