----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Misc YUI Rants:

I'm going to buy MY SHORT STORIES from Amazon Japan, because it is cheaper than HMV Japan, and free shipping too.

Not going to buy it from CD shop, lazy to look for stores which sell cheaper than Amazon Japan.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So I had a one day trip to Nikko and Edo Wonderland, with a bunch of international students. It was organised by Waseda University International Community Centre, for 3500 yen (RM 114), including one meal.

Damn cheap, because the entrance fee to Edo Wonderland itself already costs 3000+ yen.

There is another trip to Kamakura for 2000 yen. Being a YUI fan, I should have chosen this instead of Nikko, you know, Great Buddha, BARFOUT, Taiyou no Uta and all.


Our meal. I bought that Mocha from this interesting vending machine for 200 yen. I just had to try it out haha.

But Nikko is worth more the money, and it is located in another prefecture (Tochigi), instead of Tokyo ;P I can go to Kamakura by myself at some other time. One of my goals is to visit as many prefectures in Japan as possible. So far I've been to three out of 47 prefectures, which are Tokyo, Tochigi, and Chiba (Narita airport is located in Chiba muahaha).

It was kinda crowded, even during Friday. For more interesting/professional looking pictures and commentaries on Nikko, please check out asuna's blog, because I'm bad at taking pictures of buildings or sceneries, and describing things.


Mini group photo. Malaysia, Hungary, China, Japan, Korea, Korea, Indonesia.

That two Koreans are married couples. I sat beside the Korean girl during the bus trip. With my one month only Korean, I kept telling her that she's yeppoyo, and we talked about random Korean superstars haha. She's actually the first Korean I know who likes Bae Yong Joon.

Oh she told me that every month, Lee Jun Ki will reply questions from his fans personally in his website. I was telling her that someone I know likes Lee Jun Ki a lot haha. The website is in Korean though, too bad.

Next, Edo Wonderland, which is around one hour away from Nikko.



I kinda studied Japan's history for one semester, so I kinda know this Edo period (1603-1868), which was under Tokugawa Shogunate.

Yeah, kinda. So it is interesting to see the buildings, culture, people, how it is like, how they dress during Edo period. You know, the half-bald hair?

Ninja is not really a Edo period thing though.



The ninja show was interesting, reminds me of kung fu movies.

On our way back, I bought this:


I got the cake cutter thing for getting full points in some quiz given by ICC members. The Korean girl and I kinda cheated in the quiz though.

We were in a rest stop and I found this Nikko Marimokkori. I told some Japanese students that YUI likes marimokkori so I like marimokkori too. One of the girl's response was:" I'm kinda...how do I say, shocked or...out of my expectation."

YUI has a good image XD We tried to explain what is a marimokkori on our way back, luckily someone looked up in wikipedia using his hand phone. Whew.

After that I had my first ever motion sickness on a bus @.@

School starts on tomorrow. Hmmmmm...

P'sof cake! XD



PS: Imm has written the report on our badminton tour outing the other day, feel free to read it if you are interested in Datuk Lee Chong Wei's performance.

I met a bunch of cool Malaysians in that outing, guess that 3000 yen for the entrance ticket was quite well spent.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Misc YUI rants:

I found used YUI CDs at BOOKOFF. Only I LOVED YESTERDAY and CAN'T BUY MY LOVE. I think I saw limited edition of ILY. Guess that most of YUI fans don't really sell their CDs. I was planning to get all the normal edition CDs without buying them online.

Apparently there are three BOOKOFF branches around Waseda area O_O So far I have located two of them. Gotta buy cheap books from them~

I saw Nintendo DS too, selling at 14,000 yen.

Next, small small second hand CD shop (If I can find one).

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After two weeks in Japan, I finally managed to drag myself up at 6 in the morning. I used to wake up around 5 am everyday, give me another week to return back my old routine (hopefully).

Yesterday I decided to stay at my dorm whole day, as a punishment for getting level 6 in Japanese Language Placement Test (highest level 8), in the end I spent zero yen for the first time since I got here.

Hence this morning, I went out for a walk a did some splurging on food from various convenient stores around Nishi Waseda.


I'm addicted to tuna mayo, even in Japan. The big round bun is meronpan.

First I went to ampm, then Circle K Sunkus (didn't buy anything), FamilyMart, lastly Lawson. The amount of conbini in Japan is crazy.

After an hour, my wallet was 1041 yen lighter.

I love the fact that I can see the sunlight as early as 5 am in Japan, so that I won't have any excuses not to go for a walk/jog. In Malaysia, you can only see the sunlight around 7 am, and it gets very hot after 9 am.

I found that kanipan in ampm. Remember that YUI diary entry? Taiyou no Uta?


Thanks mono for the Budoukan live pick. Hmm where shall I attach it...

I'll try to eat it the YUI way during the badminton tournament. These buns and onigiri/temaki will be my lunch later.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Misc YUI Info:

YUI MOVIE SHOW updated.

Singing on the roof top, that looks like a typical cheering (応援) song PV haha.

And do check out YLRTS~ Our YL podcast.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I broke my YUI 3rd tour hand phone strap on the day I departed from Malaysia.


Whittard of Chelsea, Suvarnabhumi Airport, Bangkok.

If you have one attached to your phone, please be gentle to it.

Luckily I found a replacement for the rope thingy and my strap is complete again~


Stole the tissue outside au shop. The dog is a souvenir from SoftBank.

That is my new hand phone, SoftBank's 821SC. I bought it at Shinjuku's Sakuraya. I can watch TV on this thing, with Japanese subs!


That's my balcony. My room is on the second floor.

You might be thinking this phone must be quite expensive, it is actually 14,800 yen (RM 479). I spent quite some time doing research on Japanese phones, comparing the prices and what not, even considered getting a rental/prepaid phone (I'm cheap). I just need a phone to make calls and send emails, it happens that the cheapest deal I get comes with TV viewing function.

Any phone in Japan is much much better than my previous phone. Now I have to spend some time toying around with its functions, and put YUI stuff in it.

Ironically, the phone model name, 821SC, has something to do with my name. SC = My name.

I just realised there are second hand phone shops available, and prepaid phones are actually cheaper =.= I wonder how it works, with that contract with the telco and all.

Don't care, since I already got one. Just don't tell me that there are cheaper ones around, I might go insane.

Sorry dear YUI, for choosing SoftBank over au.

Tomorrow I'm going to watch Yonex Japan Super Series 2008 final, apparently our beloved Datuk Lee Chong Wei has entered final, and Malaysia's women doubles too!! I wouldn't wanna miss such historical moment, even though it will cost me 3500 yen.

This will be my first ever badminton match, I don't even watch it live when I was in Malaysia.

Maybe I'll go and check out this too, since it is free.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Misc YUI Observation:

I was saying that YUI doesn't really use her Stratocaster's tremolo and I was wrong.

Check out this No way performance in RIJ 2008.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So here I am in Japan, eating bananas everyday, because it is the cheapest and more fulling than other fruits.

I'll be here for the next 10 months, taking Intensive Japanese Language Course in Waseda University. Yes, same university as Mr. depyon.


I was nervous, so I didn't smile.

We went to MYLORD (mii roodo) in Shinjuku station, together with Reina, another YUI fan in Waseda University, and I had my first ever meal in a Japan restaurant. Ironically, it was pasta because we/I couldn't decide what to eat. So many choices, so many restaurants in Japan =.=

In the end we entered this pasta shop called Goemon.


I ordered scallop spagetti and ate with mai hashi (my chopstick). That is depyon's Roe Carbonara.

The spaghetti was nice but a bit pricey.

After that we walked around and I spotted Kirspy Kreme~! Without thinking further I 'forced' them to line up with me. Everyone will get a free donut so I was wondering if it is possible for three of us to just buy ONE donut?? Since they were companying me and happened to get free donut.

Hence I asked some Japanese students I met during orientation and they were like.....confused. I guess Japanese don't do such things, Malaysian does =P

In the end, depyon, Reina and me chatted until around 10.45 pm. They were talking in bullet train speed so there were times that I didn't catch what they were saying.

I just pretended that I understand and kept quiet. Hahah. It was fun, and Reina is cute. Hopefully we can go some other places again.

デニス、この１０ヶ月間、よろしくね（笑）。

And yess depyon IS a Japanese.

I better study for upcoming Japanese Replacement Test, and JLPT >.< I can take JLPT for three times in Malaysia because the registration fee is three times cheaper in my beloved country (Sept 16...). Everything is kinda expensive in Japan.

I wish to talk more on other stuff I've done in the past few days, it was really crazy, and this is a YUI blog. Maybe some other day.

Right now, I wanna buy electric guitar and Nintendo DS!! Akihabara is crazy~ Kabuki cho is interesting!

Greetings from Tokyo~ (Shinjuku to be exact).

Helixius has updated our SG food tasting session in his blog =D

Yay I don't have to write.

Since CCDDSS blew up my secret trip to Japan, here's the group photo from the mini outing.


Left: Teo, CDS, Helixius. Right: Ben, Mel, natsumi, asuna.

My conclusion is, after visiting Singapore for the third time in this year, generally SG hawker food isn't that bad as commented by my fellow Malaysian acquaintances.

But, besides Mr. Bean and maybe SG vegetarian food, non of the hawker food made me fell in love at first bite. The food is nice, just that I've tried better ones in Malaysia.

I kinda like SG Hokkien mee, Bak chor mee and Katong laksa, quite nice.

The next day I went out with ah Mel. Met her at Chinatown (her 'favourite' place), then Little India to have Paper Masala Thosai for the first time. It was very spicy >.<

That concludes my SG trip. I realised that I can read maps quite well lol. Gotta miss you guys, my makan kaki (eating buddies). See you guys again next year.


Btw, Thai airways in flight meal was good~ I finished them all except the dessert, I took a bite, it was too sweet, plus the dessert was white in colour, and I have white phobia.



The lunch was either prawn or chicken, so I chose seafood.

I feel so tempted to steal their stainless steel fork and spoons, in the end I took them out from my backpack out of guiltiness.


I'll explain why I'm in Japan in next posts.

According to Tokyograph (Thanks Rob!) and Natalie J-Pop News, a new compilation (title unknown) is coming out on November 12.

This new album will contain all the B-side singles plus something new, which YUI mentioned in her diary, I guess.

I read on somewhere that YUI is taking a year off instead of 'a while'. half-banana dot com is so gonna be less lively, without YUI, if it is really one year =/

Maybe from now onwards, I should post something else instead =3

EDIT: It is either a few months or up to one year, I was exaggerating. You know, because of the rain.


Fender Blog has revealed that Fender Jaguar YUI used in Matsuri~na live. It was YUI who actually requested to play that Jaguar Special HH.

I guess she's sick of Tele and Strat hahah.


Yeah, I'm back from Singapore. I'll write about it since no one bothered to blog our secret mission even though I gave them presents T.T

Maybe I should 自我反省. I must have done something wrong. I shouldn't speak Malay or Cantonese in front of my beloved SGYLs.

Enough ranting. Nobody's at home now, plus raining. And I'm a little crazy.