The 9 B's

From A Humble Beginning

Well, after an entire tiring day spent at Aichi Expo, the next day was
spent travelling around Nagoya City and its not to miss 'Toyota
Museum'....you may think that it sounds boring, but trust me, unlike
museum in M'sia, this place is actually fun! 1st is maybe because of
the pretty ticket collector that gave everyone that very good 1st
impression? I don't wanna put her pics up here, but it is available at
request la....hahaha...okok...back to main topic, this museum shows how
Toyota managed to turn itself from a humble sewing machine maker in a
garage(why must it always be in a garage?? How bout ppl like me with no
garage at home? I can't do anything great dee huh?) and after 2
generations, it managed to be one of the top companies in the
world....its a long story, but for me a good 1 la...after the war stuff
and how the son risked his entire father's company to persuit his
dreams to design and produce cars for the Japs blablabla....and after
that, a part of the museum shows almost all the old models since Toyota
bacame a car producer. We can even activate some of the machines to
make some free souvenir such as key chains, plastic cars.....cool huh?


Bedtime

Well, this is where we bunk in on the 3rd night at Nagoya City...its
not actually a hotel, motel, capsule hotel, love hotel or what
ever...its actually a comic house!! Sounds wierd but this type of
'house' is actually open for 24 hours a day and even come equipped with
shower rooms and beds! Ya, there is about a few thousands of comics
inside, but since its in Jap...most of us spent time watching dvd(no
porn 1 ok!) or playing the PS2...or in my case, use the internet to da
max! Oh ya, another cool thing living in a comic house is that we are
provided with a drink bar where we can refil at our pleasure(there goes
we M'sians....rushing to get our moneys worth!)....I did actually acted
like it....drank so many cups of hot chocolate until, I felt so 'hot'
the next day!(cos Milo in Jap is really a rare stuff)...Another
suprising stuff was that I met with the Malays from my course too!! Out
of the entire Japan, without any arrangements, the Malays are actually
in a karaoke just beside our comic house's building! What a shock! So I
went to their place for a while, sing some songs and left at around
3am...or something like that...drank more Milo(until 5am that is), then
went to sleep...anticipating tiring day tomorrow...this pic up is my
room, with all the things I said earlier...the phone is used to order
food when we were hungry(got menu at every room), 24 hours service
somemore!


Beaches

Ok, this beach is NOT the beach I went to surf! This one is near Tokyo
so I just wanna take a photo to show how dirty water there can be...oh
ya, I stayed at my friends hostel with 4 more ppl at that time...cos
his place is near Tokyo and there is 'a way' to get there for almost
free(a trip from Nagoya City to his place is 6 hours and cost about
8000yen...I just paid 160 yen...not telling the 'way' here!)


Beaches Again...

Well, after a hasty plan, we all decided to spend our summer like all
Japs do! Go surfing! After getting some info from the tourist counter,
and another hour of train ride.....we found our beach....BLACK BEACH!
Notice that the sands are black in this pic...but it seems the Japs
here don't mind(maybe they got used to it dee?) But for the 5 of us? NO
WAY!! We spend money to find a beach with beautiful sand(i think ppl
also counted) not black ones! I know the only place we can find black
sand is in Langkawi's Pantai Pasir Hitam...but nono! No black sand now!
Notice that the waves are big in this part as we are facing the Pacific
Ocean...hear me? THE PACIFIC! not small South China Sea...but the
PACIFIC!!!!


Boom....Bang...!

We actually wanted lo leave that place but things started getting
strange....have you seen ppl in traditional dresses(yukata for the
Japs) around the beaches?(imagine ppl wearing Cheongsam to
beaches)....sure got something wrong 1 rite? Another thing was that, as
it was getting darker, there seem to be more and more ppl gathering
around the beach...which makes it obious to 1 thing...SOMETHING IS ON!
We decided to wait for a while longer, and there it is! An announcement
was made telling us(the only onces who don't know I guess?) about a
fireworks display at 7.30pm. So, without wasting time, we quickly
search for a nice spot, bought alot of junk food(it was dinner time
already!) and sat down at our 'VIP' spot for the next 1 1/2 hours
taking photographs non-stop while chewing on our 'junks'....it was
interesting at 1st, but 1 1/2 hours is just a tad to long..and we all
started complaining about how boring it is(this one is just a small
ceremony only, so nothing too special la!) Oh ya, most of you don't
know this, but during the summer holidays, fireworks are everywhere in
Jap! Cities, beaches, housing areas, gardens, parks,
stadiums...everywhere! Its a mandatory thing I guess?



Notice something wrong with this firework? well, nothing is wrong with
it, it was purpoesely shot towards the sea to generate a sunset(or
sunrise) feel...can find this in M'sia...duh!



This was one of those 'interesting' onces....it was a HUGE one, and
this pic was taken un zoomed at all....I don't know how to say it, but
it is HUGE!! The explosion was deafening! I can feel my eardrumbs beat
everytime one of these explodes!




After all this fireworks display, we dedided to move on to another
beach(a more beautiful one), even though it was already very late, and
the train we took was the last train(means no turning back)....it was a
risk we decided to take(imagine the horror if the next beach we went
was also BLACK!)...so, another 1 hour long train journey. Since we need
to change trains once, this pic was taken on the station where there is
no one else except the 5 of us....reason? Well, I hoped I can try to
get a ghost to be in this picture, so plz stare at this pic and try to
find 1 for me...Its supposed to work, I heard....now STARE......


Beds...

Now, did I mentioned anything about staying at hotels or motels or
anything comfy when we reached our 'new' beach? OK, here it was...my
hotel room! Its a little small and dirty, but hey! Its has natural
air-condtioning, a toilet just 2 minutes walk away and the best of all,
ITS FREE!! Well, I can't take the stares from passersby though..kinda
like kaypo-chi fella...so I woke up kinda early 5am(I slept at 3.30am
on that same day, after some venturing with my old Penang pal, Loke
Eng, hunting for supper) This picture was taken at 5.30am...notice how
bright it is already...and its soo cold!!! Brr!! William even used his
towel as a blanket...cold!


Baths!!

Guess what, we(not me only) did not bath for the past 2 1/2 days
already when this pic was taken....the was no water in my friend's
hostel so we didn't bath before we went to our beach hunting thing, so,
we were quite 'down' with our dirty bodies and corp's stench(just
exageratting a little, its not actully that smelly...yet!)....but after
asking around for public bathrooms, we actually found 1(after 1 hour of
walking, getting lost, because some Japs decided that a bankrupt public
bathroom was still worth reccomending)....we were damn relieved when we
found this place! Was like a dream come true! Ya, this pic might seem a
little bad(i took the pics! with the auto
setting) especially to my gal readers, but I did not place any faces or
reveal any really obscene areas(dream on!), means I won't put this as a
18-SX pic...


BOYS!!

Yup! After a nice bath, the 5 of us are fully energized and set to
enjoy the day! YEAH!!(the position of us now has nothing to do with the
position in the bathing pic)


BEACH!!

Yup, this was the nice beach we found...its called 'Kamogawa'. The sand
is a tad brown, but with the amount of ppl here! I think it was a
perfect place after all!! There was even a few life guards on duty(the
1 standing rightmost in this pic), taking care of everything....the
look really fit, I mean, all dark and the '6 packs' thing..And the
beach is really crowded! Its a holiday season, so what can I expect?
Everything there was damn expensive(the surf boards, parasoil, sun
block lotion...blabla...even the food was expensive!)



Everyone was just enjoying themselves, either sun tanning, surfing,
making sand castles, picniking...but the wierd thing was, I dont notice
any rubbish on the beach. I think that Japs are really law abiding
citizens to da max! How can they have picnic on the beach but leave
nothing behind at all? So unlike us M'sians where we tend to leave
almost everything behind...not on purpose, just that we 'forgot' to
bring it back...excuses...Back to my story, we get in our shorts only
ASAP and off we go! Playing with the water...swimming around....now
only do I understand why only during the hottest summer season can we
swim in the ocean, ITS FREEZING COLD!! The air temp was about 30++ but
the water I think was only 20++....brr! COLD! An hour later, after
getting used to the water, we rented surf boards, not real onces, but
just 3/4 of the real size, and started 'riding the waves' with it...its
such a cool experience! And I managed to master it half an hour later,
riding all those waves bring me back to the shore at high speeds...its
even better than car racing I did the last time! With so many ppl
around, its nerve-breaking just to control my board not to knock on
anyone(I did knocked on someone also, but it was her who knocked me,
travelling with her surfboard while clashing me by the side...thats WAS
FUN!! No more explanation about it) The 'surfing' thing lasted only for
an hour(we rented for only an hour since it was expensive)....damn I
wanna do it again!


BIKINIS!!!

Okok, before any bad impression starts to apear in your brains about me, let
me tell you that this photo was not taken by me but by a friend of
mine(I was still playing around the ocean at that time....I Swear!)
There is nothing suprising here too, as those who doesn't wear it that
get that 'are you lost' kinda stare...for most part of it, its just a
norm in Japan....another proof I'm not a maniac, when on water, I have
to take out my specs, which mean I don't concentrate on 'thing' like
this(unlike my lucky friends)....well, after playing until I got myself
darker and some burned skin, time to leave this place once and for
all(I don't know when I'll be back)..it was fun! Purely unforgetable
(the homeless nite, bathing thing, surfing...all of that was COOL!!).