my tanjoubi

My poor aching feet....we've been walking around so much that every night I need to soak my feet in hot water to relief the pain.

My birthday also falls on Day Three of this trip. I got to spend it with my mum. I love her so much! She even woke me up at midnight to wish me a happy birthday...hehe.

Strangely enough, I love communicating with the Japanese people. I'd be speaking to them in English while they reply in Japanese...and it didn't seem like anything was lost in translation. They are so cute...especially the older people.

This stone is called "Shape of Mind" and it is designed by Kan Yasuda

Pineapple KitKat anyone?

Had those rice balls for brekkie...hmmm

Customers of this noodle place can only dine standing up.

The soba was cooked to just the right amount of chewiness

I'd thought the white part was egg white...but it is actually mashed gooey yam?

Watching this on TV last night...prettyy.

We treated ourselves to this before heading back to hotel. It is the best dessert I've ever tasted.

Iron Chef MICHIBA! You can't go wrong with this (instant) soup...:p I can't wait to try this when I get home.

Cuteness

Day Two has been amazing...I feel like I'm this wide-eyed tourist who jumps up and down at every little thing I see! There are simply too much to see here...today we were taken around by mum's friend who has lived in Tokyo for over 20 years. She took us to this really cool discount store which is exclusive for certain people (I don't really know how she got the membership tho). The store sells everything from Japanese kimonos to cash registries..hehe. I guess it is a bit like Wal-Mart in the US except everythings in great quality and it is the kind of store that you enter only wanting to buy one item but end up leaving with a hundred. Me and mum are always up for bargains so we spent well over 4 hours at the store...

I'm usually not one who is into anything 'cute'...but today I got those cute lunch boxes with several compartments plus patterned linen sacks to carry them in. I can already imagine taking them to work next year and getting weird looks from colleagues! I like!

Posh mineral water...Norwegian design

Tokyo-ites love their bikes...thus pollution here isn't so bad!

Famous shopping district Shinjuku

Dinner at this place famous for its tempuras!

Cute Jap man frying the tempuras...

Menu

ita-daki-masu!!!!

Konnichi-wa

Got up at 6am to get to the airport at 8am...we got to our hotel at 4:30pm despite the flight only took 3 hours! Lots of waiting time in between...

As soon as we unloaded the luggage at the hotel, we headed off to Shibuya to eat some sushi and wander around. I had fun trying to communicate using lots of hand signals...still wish I at least know some basic Japanese tho...

Very nice hotel....free wireless too so I'm typing this while looking out into amazing Tokyo night view...and eating plum jelly hmmm. Oishiiiiii....

Matcha powder...self serve..

Everyone has their own hot water tap to fill up the cup

HUGE unagi!!

I have no idea what this black stuff is....supposed to be "sea vegetable" = seaweed?

Most japanese ppl don't eat off the rotating train...they write down their order instead..here is my first ever attempt to write Japanese...can you believe they actually understood what I wrote?

In the JR train...

Shibuya city centre

Day One

Hurrah! I am back in Taipei (only after 6 months!)

After almost 10 (unbearable) hours on the plane, was I happy to be greeted by my lovely parents and ready to get used to being spoiled by them :p Straight from the airport we went to grab dinner at 10pm. Yummo!! (Had horrible plane food...which served bacon in a cold bread roll + Cherry Ripe choc bar...Ugh!)

I'm glad life doesn't always turn out that way you plan, otherwise I might've been a stewardess now?! I noticed how exhausting the job must be...it isn't all that glam as I saw it thru my 8 years old eyes. Anyway, just a thought on the trip here.

I wonder how all the girls here manage to stay so thin with all the great & cheap food available at every corner of the streets. Shopping here can be pretty traumatising especially when the shop assistant kindly tells you that the top you are holding is simply too small for you and that you'd need a larger size. To make the matter even worse, after you try on the larger size you find it little bit too tight and when ask for the top one size up, you are told that that is the largest size availabe. Yup that did happen to me today. Luckily, due to a healthy self image, this incident did not leave me chewing on a celery stick for dinner.

But however, I was frustrated...hence the this is what happened when I saw Homer:

"Oh why you little...!"

Off to Japan tomorrow! See you there!

Shakespeare & Co.

Last night, I was browsing through a whole shelf of travel guides on Paris and came across this bookstore in one of the guides (I forget which one). This bookshop is located in the 5th arrondissement in Paris and in the old days was often visited by authors such as Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and James Joyce. What is also special about this bookstore is that its current owner has been inviting people to live in his shop from its very first days. There are apparently 13 beds among the books and more than 40,000 people have slept there at one time or another. All the owner asks is that people make their bed in the morning, help out in the shop, and read a book a day. Looks like I now have a backup plan if I cannot find accomodation in Paris :p




The travel guide mentioned about daily readings from various authors...which reminded me of the movie Before Sunset. When I wiki-ed the bookstore, I saw that the store was in fact in the opening scene of the movie where the Jesse (Ethan Hawke) was interviewed about his book!
Choice...!


Shakespeare & Co.
37 rue de la Bûcherie, 5e
Open everday noon-midnight

my find of the day

Introducing POMPEII, ITALY!

Now this is exciting! While talking to Rory tonight, we both recalled the old days when we took Latin together...anyone who has taken the Cambridge Latin Course will appreciate this forgotten city in Italy (near Naples?), which was destroyed when Mt. Vesuvius erupted in 79AD (and killed Caecilius!!)

Would love to go....

traveling aside...

While speaking to friends recently about my trip, one friend asked me a question in which I stumbled in answering. She asked me apart from having fun and going places, what are my goals...or what do I plan to achieve for the next half of the year? It seems that I've been so caught up in the whirlwind of planning after thesis...that I didn't pause to think about something so important! So far I've only come up with a list of books I'd like to read...

• The Screwtape Letters
• Indelible Ink ~ thanks Vivian :)
• Neither here nor there: Travels in Europe
• If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat
• The Kite Runner
• The Heavenly Man
• Out of the Salt Shaker & into the World
• Any other suggestions?

I also want to improve my French...however, as always I will probably embarass myself by speaking English with a French accent when I don't know the words...

During my time in Taiwan, I am hoping I will have time to visit pastor Chen at their new church and also the students we met from the STM trip last December...would be great to see how they are doing after 6 months...(altho it feels like its been years).

Oh, and I'm just hoping that my IQ will not drop too much after 6 months of vacation...maybe sudoku will help?

which tour?

To be honest, I am not too knowledgeable about Eastern Europe. But since this is going to be one long trip, I am going to be adventurous and attempt to explore eastwardly! I am sure the fusion of past and present in those countries will be prove to be an amazing experience. However, I'm kinda queasy about venturing out "east" by myself so today I've been looking into tours from Contiki and Trafalgar (not much to do at work today :p). Now I am stuck on which of the tours to choose from.

1. Trafalgar

Exotic Europe - 10 day tour

Munich -> Nuremberg -> Prague -> Bratislava -> Budapest -> Gyor -> Vienna ->Danube Valley -> Melk -> Salzburg

Dates:
Fri, 7 September 2007 - Sun, 16 September 2007 (guaranteed departure)
Fri, 14 September 2007 - Sun, 23 September 2007
Fri, 21 September 2007 - Sun, 30 September 2007
Fri, 28 September 2007 - Sun, 7 October 2007 (guaranteed departure)
Fri, 5 October 2007 - Sun, 14 October 2007
Fri, 12 October 2007 - Sun, 21 October 2007

I like this tour because I will get to visit "The Sound of Music" locations (!!) and Mozart's birthplace in Salzburg. Included in the tour is also an evening cruises on the Danube! Generally Trafalgar is more expensive (from A$2199) and has older tour members (as Jeff puts it nicely in the email today: "although u wil probably be younger than their grandchildren!!"), but I guess staying at much nicer hotels really seals the deal for me..hehe.

=====================

2. Contiki

Berlin to Budapest - 11 day tour

Berlin -> Prague -> Vienna -> Budapest

Dates:
Sep. 1 - Sep. 11 (Guaranteed Departure)
Sep. 15 - Sep. 25 (Guaranteed Departure)
Oct. 20 - Oct. 30
Oct. 27 - Nov. 6

Contiki is relatively cheaper than Trafalgar ($1459!!) and included is a Mozart and Strauss concert in the Schönbrunn Palace. However, being a Contiki (drinking) tour, I'm not sure how much sight-seeing will actually be done.

At the moment, I am leaning more towards Trafalgar...must call them up tomorrow to ask for more info.

Oh and of course, my 2 finds of the day!

Metéora

Wiki: Meteora means "suspended rocks", "suspended in the air" or "in the heavens above". It is one of the largest and most important complex of monasteries in Greece.


It is pretty amazing...just need to figure out a way to get there!


http://www.meteora-greece.com/howtocome.htm





La Tomatina!!!

Food fight with my all time favourite vege/fruit!

Wiki: La Tomatina is a food fight festival held on a Wednesday towards the end of August in the town of Buñol in the Valencia region in Spain....Once it begins, the battle is generally every man for himself. Those who partake in this event are strongly encouraged to wear protective safety goggles and gloves. In addition, they must squish the tomatoes before throwing for safety precautions.

Found out it is actually going to be on the 22nd of August this year. I'm not sure if I can make it there at that time...coz Spain has been planned for the later months of my trip.

Let's get it started!

I thought I should start this blog already. Putting my plan in writing may help me see the bigger picture of the trip...like what needs to be done! I cannot imagine how much time this going to take me....being the 'unspontaneous' person that I am! :p

So far the only planning I've done is dreaming about the trip. Dreaming, afterall, is a form of planning, no? Ok, so I have the dates already: that'll be August 22nd - November (basically until I run out of $$ and before I start work). So, let me check what I need to do for the rest of the week before I fly out to Taiwan this weekend: write to friends in Europe, look up flight rates within Europe: all permutation of airlines, prices, and EU destinations, look up Eurail, check out the rate difference between hostels and B&B, go to bookstore to read Lonely Planets during lunch break at work, compare Contiki and Trafalgar, compile a list of countries/cities that I def. have to go to.

Europe being my dream destination (for SO long), I wanted it to be perfect, afterall it's not something I can afford to do every year. Obviously, it's not clear yet how I want to go about it but I want to go on at least one package tour as an entree to Europe and travel around by myself and hopefully make new friends along the way :)

My 2 finds of the day:

Paris Museum Pass
Basically this will allow me to visit up to 60 musems in Paris without having to line up!!!

2-day pass: 30 Euro
4-day pass: 45 Euro
6-day pass: 60 Euro

I would probably get the 2-day pass. Which means I will be getting cultured for 2 whole consecutive days.





Laduree
Wiki: Ladurée is a luxury cakes and pastries brand based in Paris, France. It is known as the inventor of the double-decker macaron, fifteen thousand of which are sold every day

Apparently the afternoon tea there is just amazing...but will definitely burn a hole in my wallet....I shall see.

Ladurée Champs Elysées 75, avenue des Champs Elysées - 75008
ParisTel : 01.40.75.08.75
Restaurant is open daily from 7.30am to 12.30am

tentative dates

I haven't updated this blog for the longest time, so it is decided that this will be the place to keep a record of all my travel plans and future travel stories....oh the excitements! heheh.

tentative dates for now:

July - Spend time with parents in Taiwan + tour around the island.
August - Cruising to Europe
Sept/Oct/Nov - Fall in love with Europe...hopefully
Nov - Visit Cindy in Melb/Vivian in Brisb -> Cairns
Dec - Move to new apartment...Merry Xmas
Jan - PwC...here I come!