Harbinger

- Never Stop Dreaming -

Geez, life's new experiences just seems to be so ever interesting. Yep, it's definitely related to snow...as snow is a harbinger of a white christmas. Saturday, 22 December, just 3 days short of Christmas, was a really really special day. It snowed non stop since evening and by late nite, everywhere was SMASHED with snow. Snow was below the ankles in Komoro and way above the ankles outside my little shed. I was overjoyed and beyond reasonable sanity. It was gorgeous and was everything that I ever wanted. Driving thru the heavy snow fall on slippery snow covered white roads...yeah it was dangerous but it was definitely fun. You could feel the car losing traction every 10 to 15 seconds and on slight 10 degree bends, you can only navigate it under 20km.

The experience was outta this world and my soul literally left me. I couldnt think, talk or do anything but to be an effigy of retardance in a dimly lit intersection with snow falling on me. I spread my arms, looked up and spun around...with snow falling on my face, I closed my eyes and imagined the world zooming out from micro to macro. It was the most beautiful experience I had in years. How I wished there were people close to me to share this joy.

The journey home was really slow which was exactly what I wanted as I knew it wouldnt last long. Taking a slow drive home, I couldnt see anything more than 5 metres in front of me even with high beam. Snow as big as 50 cent coins was blanketing everywhere and the roads were rough and slippery to navigate. I felt really secured in my snow encased car... but it would be better if I had a lady paassenger beside me to share my joy. And so I endured thru the chilly nite alone and with only myself and my memories.

Luckily I had my little Canon to register some memories into the cyberspace.

Little Komoro was snow filled...





My little blue Starlet in front of 7 eleven.




A change of the shutter speed and snow was captured in big round pieces...


Fresh tracks in warm lighting amidst heavy snow fall




View from inside my little car in front of my house.


My friend's marshmallowed car...



Days before I lost my sanity...



Thank God the there is still snow outside my house now...

Whoooo, send in the troops!

- Never Stop Dreaming -

Here we go, for those of you who are obsessed with Japan and wanna join me in my eradication, now is YOUR chance. My Boss is hiring!

But the criteria are as follows:
1. Min. a degree in any field or a working visa.
2. Loves children
3. Have a STRONG interest in Japanese cultures
4. Some experience in teaching preferred.
5. Knowledge of some Japanese is preferred.

Alrite, I am here to help you out by putting in a good word for criteria 2 to 5 but without a degree, I can't do anything.

Cheers and keep dreaming while I go collect some snow.

Fantasy Surreal

- Never Stop Dreaming -

Here are the pictures of my trek up Mt. Asama on Nov 4th. The scenery that I captured along the way up the base camp.





This is the foot of the base camp where a outdoor onsen resides. The main gate bears a Japanese significance that a shrine is up ahead which also indicates a sacred place...



Here is looking back at the initial trail from the gate...


And here is looking forward at the rest of the trekkers.


Passing little streams and dense vegetation.



Then the abscence of greenery is replaced by the vast blue sky and meadows of gold. Being the last in the group, I captured the second last photographer in out group who would not hesitate to expand a couple of minutes for any shutter chance. The blue in the sky is greatly enhanced by the PLD filter I got which makes exceptional scenery shots.







The summit in the backdrop of Asama with streaks of snow. Notice how the scenery is so wickedly gorgeous it's almost unreal where reality is illutionalize into a surreal painting.


Arrival at the second and last base camp for a break. Nothing here except a log hut with loads of firewood stashed up, toilet, an outdoor dining area and a little shrine.



Here is the little shrine where we prayed for snow.




One last shot of the fantasy like scenery before going for the final acend.


Notice how I cropped the top left of the above picture and flipped it horizontally to rid the modern technologies to create a perfect fantasy scenery which I have titled, Fantasy Surreal.


The last acend.




Taking a much deserved break which have depleted almost 80% of juice in my battered body. My heart burning strong and my soul whisking my sanity closer to the summit. I have set out for a cause so I am determiined to complete it despite all set back which was totally uncalled for. I have to summit.


More shutter chance...



A prospective chance to utilize my photography skills and also to test my current level. Using the PLD capabilities, and some amateur experience, I managed to obtain these satisfactory shots of last ardous acend to the summit. It's was also here that I managed to get a superb bokeh shot of the weird rock structure which resembled a grave. The distance between the main subject and the backdrop slope to the summit was pretty long, this was an opportunity to capture an artistic view with a bokeh effect.





Gifu in Gunma Precfecture in the back


The summit (literally)...rising above all odds and emerging from the clouds...


The prohibited path to the crater of the volcano...


And the prohibited last 100 metres to the top.



Aaaaahhhhhh...FRESH air

Dampen Disappointment

- Never Stop Dreaming -

Well, it rained so much yesterday nite and continued till this morning leaving so much moisture all around. The grasses were emerging from the dead of winter displaying the bright green of spring which I utterly disgust. The only consolation is the gloomy nature of the overcast skies with a thick fog blinding visions.

Yep I have a fad for gloom and dead environment and I have since made it my ideal utopia. There is so much mystery and danger such environments have to offer which makes life a little more "interesting" I would say.

Back in SG, snow is nothing but a busted myth in stories and old wives' tales which have little or no scienctific values. That was then I fell deeply in love with Lady Rain. The overcast skies she brought, the rain drops knocking on my windows and the gentle chill was all that I ever wanted. Gloomy grey skies void of colors, angry people disgusted with rain, accidents...OooOoohh...Pure Bliss for me eventhough one might consider me weird. When everyone detested and complained, I simply basked and dance in the rain...

For a long time the rain was my friend, my silent confidante and my pillar of support. The rain cried with me when I was destroyed, the rain shared my joy when I was out of control and the rain washed away sad memories and bring new ones. It was then I knew that she would never be there for long for the sun will always shine after the rain. And that simple philosophy became one of my life's principles.

Now being able to experience snow, I am deeply regretful for having invested deeply in my new found friend. Sometimes I do hope that it would snow instead of rain but I felt no remorse or guilt for turning my back on the cherished times. New experiences are indeed adventurous and tempting but it was only until this morning where I realised how much I had missed her, my Lady Rain. The rain had completely deviod me of any snow which I had been eagerly anticipating to an extent that I actually felt betrayed. It's winter so snow would be the proper path of nature and not rain.

However, the dampen greyish ambience with a complete abscence of other bright colors, combined with the cold morning fog created my ultimate utopian vision which brought back those sweet memories instantly. I was relieved and disappointment left me abruptly.

I'd guess I would just have to love the both of them in the end.

Cheers

Bright Spirits

- Never Stop Dreaming -

Waking up today, I could sense the light of dawn creeping into my dimly lit room as I snugly arched into a little shrimp like position beneath 3 layers of blankets. On cold winter mornings, the tendency to snug a little longer is much more prominient than any other seasons. The reason is because the little warmth that was built up beneath the blankets was to cosy to trade for the chilly temperature in the room.

Ultimately, due to work and a sense of responsibility, I had to get up and make breakfast, wash up, check my gear and get ready to go to work. With a little peek outside to check for snow, I was deeply disappointed as the view from my heavily frosted windows clearly showed expose ground and grasses. So I went out to grab my PSP from the car to load it up with the tunes I wanted for the day and "My Gosh!" I exclaimed. The view from my window was clearly not a sufficient indicator for accurately predicting the entire scenery. I was deceived by my own pre-judgement.

On the outside, I was denied of an entirely pure white eye feast but instead, it was 90% close. But it wasn't snow, it was frost and so I put on my slippers to take a stroll. The next thing I knew I was on the ground...you see the slippers I had wore had ZERO grooves and so I slipped on the little slope outside my house with barely 5 steps.

Well, I wasn't even pissed and much to my delight I was actually happy. The little tumble had added a much crucial experience to my life that is, winter is full of surprises. I was happy...the view was great, everywhere was covered in a thick fog with visibility reduced to a measely 6 to 10 metres. Even when I am penning this right now in my school, the view outside the windows are simply a plain sheet of white. Along the way to school, there was a really nice shutter chance but too bad I didn't have time to snap it.

So the moral of this entry...winter is cool (pun intended), full of surprises and everywhere is slippery. Ha...I am still enjoying my first winter and still looking for more surprises awaiting me.

Cheerios and make sure I get discredited if you do get caught by your boss reading my blog during work hours. Enjoy...

Partied Weekends

- Never Stop Dreaming -

How was your weekend? Not too bad I presumed or would you rather correct me and contemplate how bland and uninteresting your usual weekends are. Well, weekends are after all something that I am pretty sure everyone looks forward to unless of course there is something brewing between a certain individual and the weekends.

Ok ok this weekend, I started off on Friday nite with some Christmas caroling at Sakudaira Station with some fellow English Teachers. Was skeptical initially as I merely wanted to be the paparazzi peeling for juicy news. But in the end, I ended up joining the rest. Not all Japaneses were impressed with the caroling but some did and eventually we had 2 high school girls and 1 other Japanese dude joining in the fun.

And as usual, being an Asian amongst the Caucasians, I would usually get the question "Are you Japanese?" which I would humbly decline and then stress strongly that I am a SINGAPOREAN Chinese which is DISTINCTLY different from a CHINA Chinese which I have something against. Well I had to be really firm and compelling to justify my identity since I do not and totally detest being labelled as a China Chinese. Even the slight association with them will pissed me off big time. Alrite, so moving on we went on to sing in front of a mall which we eventually called it a day and dispersed. The reason being the security guards had summed up some officials and denied us the rights to congregate in a public place without a permit. Ha what a joke, as I thought only SG would have such policies.

So moving on I headed to Komoro and crashed at Nigel's place with Adam and Grant (the usual 4 renegades). The rest of the 3 went out at around 1230 hours leaving me snoozing in the house. Well I was dead tired so I kinda wanted to forsake everything else for my beauty sleep.

Sat nite, I partied (Again?!) at a mini "United Nations" get-to-gather at Pete's house somewhere in Komoro. The party was planned and released a week ago to confirm attendence. So as usual the various English Teachers from Nagano Prefecture's various pocket of towns turned up. There were Americans, Brits, Auzzies, New Zealanders, SGrean, Canadians, Japaneses and Welsh all crammed into a little house. Booze was the main fare for everyone although there were tons of miscellaneous food available like cakes, chips, etc.

The party was indeed furious and wild with quite a decent number of people getting wasted but Thank God none actually did a Merlion impersonation. Some wild romp went on in the midst of the party so I will leave that to your imagination. Given that I had to attend an art expo on Sunday, I left the party at 0200 hours. Went to check out DJ Lisa's den but too bad she wasn't present so I ended up chatting with Takuya. Say I must confess that I really like this little den that kicks out trance and hip hop music on different days. Sometimes guest DJs and Dance Teams will graze certain events and not to mention there's a huge flux of Japanese babes and hunks from all over Japan. Now that's what I am talking...*Evil Grin*

Alrite so much for the weekend rave, tonite (Monday) there will be another party organised by my Boss to celebrate Christmas. Though there's work tomolo, I will substitute alcoholic stuffs with my usual shot of diabetic causing fluids. I am definitely in for a big Japanese feast tonite. Well, I might take some pictures just irritate my dear SGreans, See ya later.

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