Ozaki Yutaka, my inspiration

- Never Stop Dreaming -

My recent discovery of this iconic singer who have inspired so many other great singers like Nic Tse had me grooving to his tunes daily. In fact 2 of his songs, FORGET ME NOT and I LOVE YOU. Well, given my knowledge and ability to comprehand and converse in Japanese, I have found myself strongly inclined to these 2 songs and never in my life before, I felt so complled to master this song and I mean sing it. There is just so much emotion in Ozaki's singing that could well represent my inner feelings by simply singing his songs. His rage and passion from his singing clearly seperates his angst ridden yells from all other singers. Even when Nic sang the Cantonese version, it was not even close. I salute you with the utmost respect, Ozaki San.

Well there have been times in my life where I had wanted to sing and master certain Japanese songs just to polish my singing skills and also to expand to the Japanese genre. But at times, I simply gave up or fail to take off. This time round, I am pretty sure I will give it my best shot as I am simply smitten completely but Ozaki's songs. The raw energy I can expel and represent from his songs are the next best to hitting the sweet spot other than singing Nic's songs.

And like path of the other great singers, it's always better to die out than to fade away. Ozaki along with other iconic inspirations like Kurt Cobain, John Lennon and Elvis, your music was a gift from God to the world, and your parting was the beginning of a legacy.

God I love Singapore

- Never Stop Dreaming -

Well being away from SG, sometimes I do get a little home sick...yep just a nano fraction of home sick but there are always the following videos to keep updated of how crazy SG is in my abscence. I would strongly recommend these videos to any SGreans who are aboard and feeling home sick.

Haha I almost died laughing...enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nN829IyRWSc - Crazy Auntie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0ug2cBISwg - Michelle Quek attacked P1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpXpvXUPzwQ - Michelle Quek attacked P2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y43UQnxb41c - Ah Lam

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3NWm6mYUsE - Hokkien Fast and Furious

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tbJ4HavnKE - Hokkien Star Wars

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryfRtXfx2O4 - Hokkien Mac

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxhcLQUZa5k - Beng and Friends

Boy I can't even imagine all those insane stints that I totally missed out. Haha

A dash of White

- Never Stop Dreaming -

A couple of days ago, I was pretty excited when frost appeared on top of my car...well, it does look like snow but it's not. Snow is soft and can be easily wiped of with a swipe of my hand while frost bites into the car and can't be wiped off except to let it thaw or to scrape it off with a plastic card.

These are the frost that first appeared...



Alrite, here's the pictures of that fateful day where I woke up to be greeted by generous Mother Nature. SNOW, I LOVE SNOW! Too bad all the snow had already melted so there is nothing much now...looking forward to the next big SNOW! :p





Ok ok, don't you start cursing and swearing as I had just changed snow tyres this afternoon all geared up for the next big snow. Say, leave SG and venture out and you will realise how much you have missed out all these years of your life.

I really wish I can pen more but...*sigh* I will leave you with these pictures for your imagination for now.

1122

- Never Stop Dreaming -

1122 is the date today as shown on my watch, the 22th day of the 11th month of November. And why is this day special, as one will wonder so let me quench your thirst of curiousity.

An inch of snow is the reason why this day is special. Acres of white from Mother Nature presented a splendid view for me as I woke up today. Greeted by the gentle rays of the morning sun, I opened my windows to see little white fluffers of snow falling outside my house. Grant, my room mate was utterly shocked when I went bonkers the instance I saw the incredible view as I was shouting, screaming, yelling, laughing, jumping and then a sudden pause, where the whole insanity kicks in again. You see the ground was covered in snow, the cars were covered in snow, the roads, the rice fields, the trees, everything was covered in snow and it's just unbelievable. I can't help it but be like a little boy and do silly things. Put on my jacket, gloves and shoes, I went out to kick, jump, touch, blow and play with snow.

This is the first time in my life I am going through this incredible experience. The feeling is beyond description by any known words found in any dictionary, I would say experience it yourself and you will know what I mean and especially for Singaporeans who have never stepped outta the country. The latest news is that it will snow even more next week and I am definitely looking forward to it. I could still vividly recall the scenes from the Home Alone movie decades back where I really wished Singapore would snow. But since the chances of SG getting snow is as good as the sun rising at midnite, I knew I had to adjust myself to suit my environment.

Viola, poof, here I am in central Japan with snow, ramen, sashimis and sake. All I need is a nice log house, a car, a Japanese wife and a dog...haha yep I had it all going in my head. Well I can't say for sure I know what I am writing here as right now as I am penning these lines in my school, I could see snow falling outside. It's like tiny little cotton balls floating all around and it's really beautiful. And surprisingly, it's a lot warmer when it snows in winter. By the way, snow is like the ice shavings on ice kachangs except a softer and a hell lot more fragant.

Gosh, I am loving every second of this and yeah don't worry, I will get the pictures up soon. How can I ever miss the chance to tease and raise the level of jealousy from my fellow SGreans back home.

Enjoy your scorching sun while I enjoy my fluffy white snow.

Ｏ(≧∇≦)Ｏ

Yeah...finally it came!

- Never Stop Dreaming -

Out on Friday nite with Grant at a local pub near my place. Had a couple of drinks and sang some karaoke ( They had Chinese songs!) and then, upon leaving, found the car covered with a layer of frost which is apparently not good. But like what Grant had said, if there's frost, it will snow in a couple of days.

Partied Sat nite with the rest of the Assistant English Teachers (AETs) after we cooked a huge feast of Thanksgiving dinner, with 3 turkeys included. Crashed over at Erika's place for a while before heading home at around 11.30pm. The rest simply partied at Erika's place till 4 am.

Sunday morning, met up with Takehana Sensei near my place at 10.20am and headed with her to another fellow teacher's wedding. Held in a grand white chapel, I ate foie gras there and some extremely expensive Japanese mushroom cuisine. Eating foie gras for the first time, I cab humbly say, it's GOOD!

Got home with an incredible experience of Japanese wedding though not Shinto style which I am definitely looking forward to, nonetheless, i enjoyed every single moment of it. Not to mention the sweet smiles and looks from all those Kimono clad beauties when I spoke English. Haha I totally LOVE it.

And right now, at 7.17pm, as I am penning these lines, I an utterly blown away. The reason because, there's a layer of SNOW on my car...hehe finally after waiting for so long (almost my entire existence), I see snow. Sweet...I was out there touching it and looking up at the clear and most beautiful sky littered with zillions of stars. Although slightly covered with clouds, I was hopping up and down because it's SNOWING!

Haha...that's it for now, I am going to enjoy the snow!

Shiga Kogen via Akiyama-Go

- Never Stop Dreaming -

Here we go, the lost pictures of the trip to Shiga Kogen via Akiyama-Go. Yep you got it right if you were thinking of the road trip that I had mentioned earlier with the staffs of my Elementary School to the secluded and forgotten "sacred" birthplace of my Principal.

Though I do not have a lot of indepth information regarding his birthplace, all I can conclude from the trip is that he's definitely one real lucky chap to be born in such a wonderful place. It's like almost living in exile, away from civilization and totally ignorant of modernization and technological advances.

Alrite here's the full story with the pictures...

Starting the trip early in the morning at 0730 hours, the teachers gathered and boarded a small cute chartered bus.


Sticking true to their strong Japanese roots, booze and snacks were the usual conversation necessities.



Arriving at a place which I have clearly forgotten the name, we had a little lithograph session. Being apt to art, I let my artistic instincts take over...but being totally ignorant and new to lithograph, my instincts failed me terribly when the picture I had drawn with a piece of crayon, turned out to be nothing more than a piece of distorted and messed up lines when being reproduced thru lithography. Lesson learned - never shade like an idiot if you want to produce nice pieces.

And so coming across this magnificient structure constructed completely outta weaving strips of a wood like material, encompassed by a circular building where we did our lithography, I knew I had to capture this on film so here it its.




Nope not to worry too much, I know it looks like a giant bird nest but Big Bird from Sesame Street is not in there. So leaving for lunch next, the trip was completely just booze which comprises of beer, Japanese wine and sake which the teachers constantly stock up time and again from the quick toilet stops. The journey was like almost an hour to the lunch destination which was on top of the mountain somewhere near Akiyama-Go. By the time I reached the top, I was already high on alcohol so I took these not so perfect pictures of the little noodle hut which was housed beside an open onsen. Yep that's all on the top of the mountain, right at the end of the road was the hut and the onsen.

The noodle hut.


The road that we came up.


The view in front of the noodle hut.


And here we have what's actually in the noodle hut. A little sand filled fire place that you see in Japan Hour to BBQ food.



The mass feast...of possibly the BEST cold soba I have eaten which justified the long alcohol induced trip up.


BBQ fish that taste medicore because they were not deboned...


And the most insane soba I have ever eaten. They were so good I almost had a cardiac arrest.



Upclose of the BBQed fishes.


And after the hearty lunch, I was cajoled to the onsen which was...*sigh* not a pleasant experience. Ok ok don't get me wrong but the onsen was great, nice ambience, fantastic view but with that much alcohol content in me and with that half "high" state, the little dip almost prove too fatal for me. The moment I step out of the onsen after a 15 minute dip, the alcohol in my blood shot straight to my head which gave me an instantaneous black out. I struggled to regain my footing, got dressed and hauled my stuffs while staggering out of the onsen barely alive. Try walking with 2 full bottle of Absolut downed in 2 minutes straight...yep that's what I was going through. Got thrashed pretty brutally so the lesson learned - Never go to an onsen with an alcohol induced state. Other than that, the overall experience was beyond words.

I did managed to capture all these pictures in my hopeless and almost dying moments. We were just metres below the musky clouds.






So struggling last to board the bus, I did shot some extra pictures of the parking lot.



Feeling much better in the coach, these fantastic untainted rivers were just too kind to my camera


And this is the sacred little birthplace of my Principal and the little white school by the river was where he used to study.



Moving further up the mountains, we trailed the narrow path along Akiyama-Go where the beautiful scenes of fall were presented from nature to me and from me to my dear Singaporeans. At times the path were so narrow, the rear tyres of the coach clipped the edges of the cliffs and I could see the debris falling down the 1200 metres ravine. Scary...







After moving above the clouds hovering at the top of the mountains, we rise above to be greeted by a lush blue sky and blazing sunshine which I still detest.


Here are some pictures taken at Shiga Kogen which was way above Akiyama-Go as the latter was just a ridge. Ski resorts were still not opened yet and the numerous other gorgeous ski resorts were sadly absent from my camera. The reason being I was simply too lazy and too wasted to snap anymore. And I can't afford to damage my little baby EOS camera in my drunken stupor.







And so the part where we literally decended from the clouds was again absent from my camera. If I had captured it, I am pretty sure that had to be the best shot I had taken till date. It was pure perfection fusing nature and beauty sprinked with art flakes but it will forever be etched in my head that is until technology can print my memory.

By the way did you not know that the pictures can be clicked for a larger view?

Apples Apples and more Apples

- Never Stop Dreaming -

Apples has always been fruits that I simply just pop them into my mouth and crunch them away. Taking for granted that they are easily available, never had I once ponder about why some apples are more radiant than others or to take a little closer look at each and every apple. Not until last Saturday...

I was invited to help a farmer with 5 apples orchards to pick the apples...thus the term Apples Picking. For once in my life, I was overwhelmed by the bliss of being surrounded apple trees and a million red, juicy and priced apples all around me. They are up there hanging precariously over my head and dowon on the ground beneath my boots looking sullen. All around me, I could "hear" the little red apples calling out to me to either look at them, eat them or to pick them. I could "feel" the soul of these apples and really learn to appreciate them, for each and every apple tree there in the orchard was easily older than me and the apples on them were alive.

The experience was indeed interesting given that I am a huge fan of Ufuoma Urie's Apple Dolls so being able to feel the story of the dolls by being physically present amongst apple trees was truly rewarding.

Apples apples apples, I am beginning to fall in love with these little red wonder of hidden joy that are presumably among one of the best apples in Japan, costing ￥400 a pop. Deeply immersed in this new culture of appreciating the apples, the chilly 10 degrees and drizzle was almost negligible during the entire experience.

Gosh, I love apples and I mean not eating them...but to be "in" and among them so every day and night, I am will constantly be with my White Apple (pun intended) lappy.

My Web Store Now OPEN!

- Never Stop Dreaming -

Hello my dear fellow friends in Singapore, I have specially set up my very own web store which will carry cool Japanese apparels, gear and stuffs that are not available in Singapore. I will try to keep the price range below SGD$500 per item for the welfare of everyone as choking down cup noodles for the rest of the month is not what I would want from you peeps. Every item is extremely exclusive and limited to 5 pieces per item, which means that the probability of bumping into someone in SG with the same article is 0.0000011% (5 pieces divided by Singapore's population of 4,553, 009 as of July 2007). Of course if I know that an item will be made available to Singapore, I will not list, ship or put it up as this is to keep you people at the forefront of being a trend setter rather than a fashion victim who follows trends...

Remember the stuffs listed are ONLY for sale in certain parts of Japan only and I do not intend to ship it anywhere EXCEPT to Singapore. Items will be updated randomly and are on a first come first serve basis and you are strongly advised to set up a Paypal account to facilitate the flow of payments and the time for the item to reach you. Once it's gone, it will NOT BE AVAILABLE ANYMORE. And PLEASE read the terms and conditions before ordering anything.

So feel free to go spread the word and remember Christmas is just around the corner...hehe

Cheerios

Click HERE to jump straight to MY WEB STORE...

Just doing my bit....

- Never Stop Dreaming -

Being an avid lover for snow and cold weather, the hike up Mt. Asama last weekend also serves as a resolution for me to do my bit to preserve Mother Earth. You see last week hike up wasn't an ordinary hike...it was also to raise awareness for global warming which will destroy the winter season and all the snow and sports we love...so each of us had to write our sacrifices on a tailsmen-like strips of paper to pray for a good snow season this year at the little shrine. Although it wasn't an actual event that spans from previous generations, our friend Ben who started this stint years back affectionately name it, "Oyuki Matsuri" which means "Snow Festival". Like what the age old traditional festivals of Japan which folks prayed for good harvest or weather, they had to sacrifice something in return for their prayers to be answered and also to appease the Gods..

Well, for our little "festival", each of us had to sacrifice something ranging from something impossible like giving up meat completely (I salute you Desiree...) to donating some money to the shrine up in Mt. Asama. I took this chance to make my first ever sacrifice to contribute my bit for Global Warming and for Conservation, blah, blah, blah...you know which also had a deviated motive...to expand my shopping list...haha

So I took the chance to pen down these lines..."Thou shall not use disposable chopsticks and get thyself a pair of super cool portable personal weapon...!" Yeah it was indeed exaggerated here in this post but hey...I did managed to get myself something nice...and environmental friendly.

Snow Peak SCT-103 Portable Chopsticks (Click Here)


Yep these lethal looking ninja tools are gentle enough to pick up your sashimi, portable, uber cool and are made of birch wood from old baseball bats...plus, they are even awarded "Best Gear of 2007" from National Geographic in the Forest Category, click HERE if you don't believe...and besides, they are MADE IN JAPAN. And besides, the shop that I got it from offers free handling charges so I decideed to get another Titanium 450 ml Mug from the same company just to keep my uber cool gadgets collection healthy...haha

Jackets for orders...

- Never Stop Dreaming -

Alrite, from now on I will update whenever there are new items up for sale, be it daily, weekly or monthly. Because I do not want to mass these Exclusive Japanese items in Singapore, I will limit the quantity to 5 pieces per item and if they are sold or gone, I WILL NOT REORDER them again...feel free to spread the word around about my site and also if you want a particular item from Japan, please email me for details and I will source it for you. Here are some points to note when ordering,

1. Prices will no longer be displayed on my site, email me for details.
2. All prices quoted by me in the email are EXCLUSIVE of shipping and handling to Singapore.
3. Upon full payment, the jacket will be shipped to Singapore.
4. When collecting, charges for shipping and handling to Singapore still applies.
5. Prices are subjected to the prevailing exchange rates.
6. Please email me if you intend to order in bulk for pricing.
7. A Singapore representative will contact you for collection and payment.

Cheers and happy shopping...

01. Japanese Print Jacket

Colors - White (SOLD) or Black
Size - L ( Sleeve - 66cm, Chest - 54cm, Length - 85cm)

White (SOLD)





Black




02. Japanese Print Reversible Hooded

Colors - White or Black
Size - L ( Sleeve - 63cm, Chest - 55cm, Length - 85cm)

White





Black





03. Dragon Hooded

Colors - White or Black
Size - L ( Sleeve - 65cm, Chest - 56cm, Length - 86cm)

White




Black





04. Tiger Sweater

Colors - White or Black
Size - L ( Sleeve - 67cm, Chest - 54cm, Length - 85cm)

White




Black