Before this video is still up in YouTube.


Source: YUI 情報館 and みぃ汰さん.

Omg I have this feeling that this song is gonna rock hard.

まだ人生ながいでしょう？

Time to pick up my red Telecaster again.

This is actually the first time I see artist being featured heavily in anime CM. Even Edward is promoting it =O

April 5, I'm gonna sit in front of my dorm's TV on 4:50 pm.

This is the loongggg delayed second part of my Tohoku & Hokkaido trip on 24 December 2008. Part 1 is here. This post has something to do with YUI.

Christmas eve. I reached Sapporo (札幌) around 6 in the morning. It was still in complete darkness, and I had 3 hours to kill before meeting up with my friend from Otaru (小樽). Lawson saved me from wandering around Sapporo alone.


I love Lawson.

I camped inside Lawson, brushed teeth, washed face, and charged my phone until the sun rise. While waiting for my friend to come, I decided to go visit Hokkaido University on my own. It is just 10 mins away from Sapporo station.


It took me more than 10 mins to have the courage and asked someone to take this picture of me outside Hokkaido University. Unlike the university tour in Singapore, I don't have any connections in Hokkaido University, so I was just wandering around.

In Sapporo, you can 'clear' all the so called tourist spots in half day. I don't know much about Sapporo, I only wanted to go Hitsuji-ga-oka (Hill of sheep), and the place where YUI did street live.


Me and Sae in front of clock tower. I knew her through mixi and Shiina Ringo. She didn't really want to take photos because she was afraid that her friends might see her doing such tourist-y thing in her home town. Don't be fooled by the picture, this 'famous' clock tower is actually in between two high buildings.

On our way to my hotel, I 'passed by' the place where YUI did her street live while she was on I LOVED YESTERDAY tour thanks to my guide.



Google サンドラッグ 狸小路２丁目店 (SUNDRUG store in Susukino) or 名取川靴店 to find the exact location.

Tanukikouji (狸小路) is a famous shopping arcade near subway Susukino (すすきの) station. Actually you can walk from Sapporo station as well. Btw Susukino is a famous red light district in Sapporo too.





Sapporo is famous for its miso ramen. After checking in my hotel which is located near red light districts (sorry mom), we went to have miso ramen.


Not really my type because the taste was too strong (濃い). I don't really like ramen anyway. Not extra toppings even though it was char siu-less, still costed the same, they really don't know how to please the customer =/

And then we were off to see Hitsuji-ga-oka (羊ヶ丘) mentioned in YUI Diary. We went to Fukuzumi station (福住) and took a bus to there.


BOYS BE AMBITIOUS!! Dr. Koto anyone? I wore like 4 layers on top and 2 bottom, so pardon the fat aunty look.

Actually that was the first time in my life seeing so much snow, and seeing sheeps.


Not a bad place but besides seeing Dr. Clark and sheeps, there's nothing much left.


Those freaking sheeps ignored me completely by showing their @sses.

Next, Sae's home town, Otaru (小樽), which is 30 mins away from Sapporo by train. Love Letter anyone? (never watched it before though)


Go see this river/canal, and you can tell everyone that you've been to Otaru. Someone told me that he likes this place a lot though. It is quite different from Sapporo I must say.

The train to Otaru was included in the Hokkaido & Tohoku pass.

Nobody wants to spend Christmas Eve alone, especially in Japan. Luckily I found out that another bunch of Waseda students were coming here and decided to meet up with them in Otaru. And thanks to Sae, my first ever lone trip wasn't that lonely after all ;)


They only 'group' photo I have. I was checking the phone. From left: US/Canada, Australia/HK, Taiwan/SG, Malaysia. Camerawoman: UK/Japan/Korea. Another US girl was hiding.

It took us a while to meet up each other in Otaru because my guide was lost, in her home town lol. They wanted to have crab buffet (4000 yen) for dinner. Since I'm stingy, I chose to go back to hotel and had food from convenient store. On my way back, I saw this radio station in Sapporo station.


RAD's radio station. Maybe YUI has been here before?

After spending two nights in the train, seeing this bed was a huge relief.


My only 'real accommodation' for this 5 day trip (3675 yen). Come to think of it, in my whole life, I don't really get to stay in such fancy hotels that often.

Fell asleep after having a super long hot shower (I supported Earth Hour yesterday).

End of day 3.

Part 1: Tohoku & Hokkaido Trip Day 1 & 2 - Niigata, Yamagata, Akita, Aomori

Part two of Shizuoka one day trip. Part 1 is here.

After having lunch, we took orange train to this place called Shimada (島田).


Orange!!

Shimada has this world's longest wooden bridge called Horai Bridge (蓬莱橋).


Guinness Record of longest wooden pedestrian bridge, 897.422 metres.

From Shimada Station, it takes about 15 mins walk to reach Horai Bridge.



It takes another 20 mins to cross the bridge. World's longest wooden pedestrian bridge of course it is quite long.


The other side of Horai Bridge, there is another hiking trail here, but we already had enough in Satta Pass so...

And another 20 mins back to the starting point, plus another 15 mins to go back to Shimada station. Total: 75 mins of walk. It depends how fast you walk though.


Shimada station looks very new.

If I were alone, I won't come here for sure. Any place which takes more than 15 mins of walk will be a no for me. Yahoo Dome in Fukuoka is 15 mins away from subway, that's why I didn't go there ops =x

Then we went to Bentenjima (弁天島), which is three stops away from Hamamatsu (浜松), Shizuoka's largest city, to see this floating Torii.


This is Shizuoka, not Hiroshima.

The wind was super strong and crazy, so we cancelled our plan to see the sunset and went back to Hamamatsu station, and took train all the way back to Tokyo. We reached Takadanobaba station at around 10:30 pm. That sums up our long day trip.

My pedometer stated that we have walked for a grand total of 21 km.


YUI, happy 22 birthday and welcome back!!

Expenditure:
1. Seishun 18 ticket: 2300 yen
2. Food (Curry rice and other crap): 1030 yen
3. Entrance for Horai Bridge: 100 yen
Total: 3430 yen

Takadanobaba (高田馬場) -> Okitsu (興津) -> Yui (由比) -> Shimada (島田) -> Hamamatsu (浜松) -> Bentenjima (弁天島) -> Atami (熱海) -> Takadanobaba (高田馬場)

Special thanks to がりさん for providing such a detailed trip, I just followed his itinerary haha, and Megumi, Kate for accompanying me.

Next time I'm gonna see Mount Fuji!!

Since we are still celebrating YUI's Birthday, I will talk something slightly YUI related.



The first time I went passed by to Shizuoka (静岡) was on January, during my lone trip to Shikoku and Kansai.

Besides Mount Fuji and hot springs, I had no idea that Shizuoka has something to do with Chibi Maruko-chan until my junior pointed me out.

Since now it is still Seishun 18 season, when I was checking out suitable cross prefectures day/hiking trips from Tokyo for this ticket, Shizuoka prefecture was the best prefecture to visit.

Plus, I wanted to see Mount Fuji (never seen it before),

and this place called Yui (由比) is located in Shizuoka.



AND, we can see Mount Fuji from somewhere nearby Yui Station. AND it has a hiking course. Perfect place to be featured in half-banana blog on YUI's Birthday =D

Hence on March 25, 3 Bekka students from Waseda University had a day hiking trip to Shizuoka prefecture. China boy was still in China, so he couldn't participate this trip.

4:50 am: Takadanobaba (高田馬場) Station.



After one month being away from Tokyo, I was surprised to see that our beloved Takadanobaba station has new signboards! with Korean characters!!

4:58 am: Inside Yamanote line train towards Shinagawa (品川).



The best way to spend your time inside the train is to sleep.

5:23 am: Reached Shinagawa station. Every gaijin in Tokyo knows this station because the Tokyo Regional Immigration Office is here to 'provide' work permit and re-entry permit when leaving Japan temporary during your stay.



Still looking genki, good.

5:29 ~ 8:26 am: Inside the train towards Okitsu station (興津駅), Shizuoka.



Second time inside this type of train, I was kinda excited because normally this train is express type train, means more expensive. Halfway, Slovakia and Taiwan girl decided to let two uncles to sit down. Since we were sitting facing each other, I asked one of the uncle whether today we would be able to see Mount Fuji inside the train.

He answered:"Judging from today's weather, impossible."

Sad case. According to today's weather forecast, it is going to be cloudy and rain. However, another uncle comforted me that: We wouldn't know, the weather might turned better.


Damn depressed when I saw this train station. FUJI STATION. And the sky was getting darker.

No Mount Fuji from the train, what about from Satta Pass (さった峠)?

8:30 am: Okitsu Station (興津駅). RAINING.



Satta Pass (さった峠) is a mountain pass in between Okitsu and Yui Station. You can choose to hike from any station but, it is easier from Okitsu station, and the view is prettier.

Btw I think there is no such character in Chinese: 峠

Okitsu station (4 km) -> Satta Pass (3 km) -> Yui station


Signboards are everywhere so it is not that difficult to go Satta Pass without a map.

Apparently the town is having some election on March 29, we could see people 'making noises' around the streets with their beautifully decorated vans. If you guys watched CHANGE by Kimura Takuya before, you should get what I mean.


Candidate number 26 from Slovakia. Normally in Malaysia we have less than 5 candidates, different system I guess. So many of them driving around with the same looking vans, how to vote?

After walking for more than one hour, passing by countless number of mandarin orange trees, we finally reached to the top. But couldn't see mount Fuji!!!

Starting point:



Halfway:



Top:



Pardon my lousy photography skills, the scenery was really breathtaking and we were supposed to be able to see Mount Fuji as shown here. Bad luck.

Apparently three of us were the only group of people on top of Satta pass. Well, who wants to go hiking on rainy day anyway.


Mount Fuji where are you???? T.T

After hanging around and chatted for quite some time, eating mandarin oranges like ojisan does, time to go back. Now it is Sakura season so we got to see beautiful sakura along the way.


That picture with Mount Fuji makes me depressed.

It is another 3++ km journey to Yui Station. My shoes, jeans and bag were getting wet, plus not able to see Mount Fuji, I was kinda in a not-so-good mood. But, seeing YUI characters here and there definitely cheered me up ;)


YUI Manhole


YUI Pole


Yui Landsli deCenter?????

And finally, YUI STATION~!!


Taiwan girl was saying that the SMAP vending machine spoilt the whole picture.


Map nearby YUI Station.

Yui (由比) town is famous for its Sakura Prawns (桜えび), you can see sakura prawn related signs everywhere in Yui town. Since it is a small town, plus raining, it took us a while to find a operating restaurant to have lunch.



Lunch! Some restaurant opposite Yui train station.


Sakura ebi teishoku with different types of sakura ebi (1100 yen), I ordered curry rice (470 yen).

Not bad. The rain started to stop after we finished our lunch, yay.

To be continued.

Part 2: Shizuoka (Shimada, Bentenjima)

From YUI-net,

////////////////////////////////////

新曲『again』
2009.06.03発売
着うた 4/22～3ver. 配信スタート！

MBS・TBS系アニメ「鋼の錬金術師」オープニングテーマ

////////////////////////////////////

Full Metal Alchemist opening theme song??? Another tie up I guess.
Since I like the previous FMA, might watch this though I'm on TV diet now.
Single will be released on June 3, and after one month I'll be back in Malaysia =/ Gahh.


YUI DIARY (2009.03.26)

おはようございます！
Good morning!

皆さん、いかがお過ごしでしょうか？
How are you guys doing?

今日は、ご報告があります。
Today I have an announcement to make.


昨年の秋より、リフレッシュのために休暇を頂いていましたが、
新曲『again』をもって、活動をスタートしたいと思います。
Since last year's autumn, I received vacation leave in order to refresh myself but,
I would like to restart my activities with new song 『again』.


休暇中は、多くの方々に心配をかけてしまいました。
申し訳ありませんでした。
Sorry for making a lot of people worried during my absence.


たくさんのメッセージも、本当に励まされましたよ。
ありがとうございます！
All these messages by you guys really encouraged me a lot.
Thank you very much!


これからも、リラックス＆マイペースに
音楽を続けていけたらいいなと願っています！
After this, I hope that I would be able to continue pursuing music with my own pace (relax and my pace), that would be great!


今後とも、
応援よろしくお願いします！
Please continue to support me from now on!


YUI

As I was browsing on random YUI blogs in my Google Reader, I stumbled on this blog. I still check out YUI stuff, even though not that frequent =x

Someone made this announcement in yesterday School of Lock. You guys can check it yourself in the YUI 掲示板 of YUI LINES.

Can't wait to listen to it on April 6 =D Not really a fan of I do it.

YUI's birthday is coming soon, I have nothing to give her because of travelling, sleep and stuff, but I will come up of something.

YUI Collaboration 3 anyone?? I've been neglecting my red Telecaster these days......so I will just organise and not participating.

Are you guys prepared to rock out with your guitars, again??


This is YUI's Fender GDC-200SCE muahaha. I like the sound of this guitar =3

That guitar is not mine, I was just posing with it. And I have to admit that I'm getting fat when my mom said so after one month didn't see me on Skype ><

To complete my Japan tour, I will be going to Ishikawa and Toyama prefecture on March 27, might be alone again.

YUI IS BACK!!!!!

I kinda miss Yamanote Line.

In Kobe now, tomorrow going back to Tokyo.

30 days, 12 new prefectures, 2 new countries, it is time to go back. I am tired of being a tourist/traveller, for now. Just don't really care where I am, or where I must visit.

Feb 19, I left Shinjuku and took 14 hours bus ride to Hakata, Fukuoka prefecture (8000 yen).

Feb 20 - 22, Fukuoka



Shingu beach. The weather on that day was horrible, I spent quite some time looking for WEST restaurant and the beach itself because the maps I had were incomplete, and the freaking wind broke my umbrella. My plan to see night view at Mount Inasa, Nagasaki gone because of the bad weather as well.

Feb 22 - 24, Nagasaki, Saga, Kagoshima



I spent quite some time in the Atomic Bomb Museum of Nagasaki, first time witnessing the impact of atomic bomb with my own eyes. From there, I realised the importance of museums and started to be more willing to pay RM 20+ for the entrance fee.

Since I was using this unlimited bus ride pass for 4 days, I spent most of my time in buses, watched three movies as well. Due to bad planning, I didn't get to see Atsuhime in Kagoshima T.T I only passed by those Atsuhime related places....and completely forgot that GO!GO!7188 is from Kagoshima.

Feb 25 - 27, Miyazaki, Oita, Kumamoto.


Went to the wrong 'hell' in Beppu. YUI went to the some other hells aiks. Not really a fan of such place so I went to Yufuin after entering this Blood Lake Hell.

Feb 28 - March 1, Kumamoto Homestay.


Lithuania girl and me visiting some primary school at Tsunagi town, Kumamoto.

It was fun because I got VIP treatment from the people in Tsunagi town =P

March 2 - 6, Yamaguchi, Shimane, Hiroshima, Okayama, Tottori.


This place is VERY beautiful, no joke (Miyajima, Hiroshima).

Yes you can cross 5 prefectures in 5 days. 2 nights in Yamaguchi, 2 nights in Okayama. I 'passed by' Okayama again, 4 times now. Only spent my nights in internet cafe near Okayama station.

March 7 - 10, Busan, Seoul and a little bit of Cheonan, Gyeongju.


Fooling around near Yonsei University (廷世大学) with my new found Slovakian friend, thanks to some Korean guy I met in Malaysia.

I spent most of time in Korea inside the bullet train, wandering around, sleep, and with friends, so I didn't do much sight-seeing. Plus my Korean is so horrible that in the end I chose to speak in English and ignored all the Korean characters.

March 11 - 17, Taipei, Jiufen, Alishan, Chiayi


Big thanks to Shirley for 'adopting' me for 7 days!!

It was a relieved seeing everything in some language I could understand. Now I can understand how people read Chinese characters, it is just like me, reading Korean characters. L.O.S.T.
Taiwan aunties are just like people I know in Malaysia. They are so funny.
They have roti canai in Taiwan! Alishan was freaking cold! Who would've thought that instead of Hokkaido, I was freezing to death in Taiwan.

March 18 - Okinawa

Bought all the souvenirs in Okinawa. Since I stayed in Naha, I didn't get to see the beach. What an irony, going to Okinawa without seeing the beach.

The monorail in Naha is called yui-rail.

March 19 - Kobe

Met MARI san again~ Spending the last night here, internet cafe again.

Tomorrow going to Himeji castle, then take train back to Tokyo. Will write a proper entry, if I can finish the previous ones =X

It is a miracle that I didn't get sick at all, gotta thank my mom for forcing me to drink all those Chinese herbal stuff since I was small.

Special thanks to people who willing to show me around the places they are staying at, replying my messages when I'm feeling lonely, providing me a place to stay, giving me information on particular places, I cannot complete all these if I'm all alone. My longest trip ever, has finally come to an end.

Time to sleep. Tonight I have two 'neighbours' beside me, hopefully they don't make that much noise.