17 July: 千歳

• Past emperor’s temple, their amulets have Hello Kitty embroidered on them.
• Okura Ski. Nothing much here.
• Went to rera outlet store and bought lotsa cheap tops from GAP.
• And JJ introduced me to Make Me a Supermodel! I really thought Jonathan would win. :(

18 July: New Chitose Airport

• Plane was delayed so we spent our day shopping and eating in the airport. What a waste of time. :(

19 July: 台北

• Wanted to go up Taipei 101, but had to pay, so we didn’t go. Haha.
• Then wanted to go take pictures at some lake, but ended up at a temple. According to the locals, only locals visit that temple, so it’s prolly fate we stumbled upon it. Was kinda embarrassing cos I was not dressed adequately to visit the temple. Also, we freaking climbed up the mountain on foot to get to it. Unbelievable.
• Went to fisherman’s wharf to catch the sunset.
• Then to Shih lin night market hoping to grab some bargains. I broke the zip of a handbag and ran out of the shop without buying the bag. :x

20 July:

• Went to 故宫 in the morning, then home sweet home after.

14 July: 旭日

• The animals at 旭日山動物園 are wayyyyyyyy bigger than ours in Singapore. The size of their Orangutan makes Ah Meng seems like nothing.
• Went to see 男山 factory. Managed to collect some spring water from there for drinking. Haha.
• Free and easy for the rest of the evening.
• Stayed over at ToyoHotel for the night. This place had the best bed throughout the whole trip.

15 July: 富良野

• Went to Farm Tomita and Herb Hill Furano. Endless view of flowers were beautiful, and the melons were awesome. :)
• Went to see a couple of waterfalls after – 流星瀑布 and 银河瀑布.

16 July: 札幌

• Sapporo underground shopping mall is like the shops along our Raffles Place MRT. They prefer this kinda shops because the shoppers are not subject to weather conditions, as compared to shopping on ground level.
• Went to an old parliament building, which is now some educational building.
• Went back to hotel at night, we dropped our bags and took the hotel’s shuttle to ススキの.
• We saw very cute puppies in the pet shops there and went into a Pachinko. I won 1300 Yen with a 100 Yen coin. :D

Guess there’s no point making 10 posts about the trip, so I’ll just list out the notes I made during the trip in 3 posts.

11 July: Taipei Ximending

• 阿宗面线 was really tasty and peppery. It’s a real deal for only NT30!
• We ate some awesome fried pork ribs. The rice was real nice. The egg soup as well.
• Stumbled upon 西门红楼, which was a very interesting place. The row of pubs behind it was like discovering a paradise.
• Pub wanted to charge us NT499 for free flow drinks!!! We didn’t drink. :(
• Shops are opened past 10.30pm. Amazing.
• The bed was real hard, like a wooden plank.

12 July: Sapporo, Lake Toya

• Flight to Sapporo. Loved the natural air-con when I stepped out of the airport.
• There happened to be fireworks at Lake Toya, which was where we stayed for the night. :)
• First time sleeping on a real Futon. The blanket was super hot.
• Watched Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. They had it dubbed into Japanese, but we switched to English to watch. It was too weird.

13 July: Lake Toya, Otaru

• Wild life in your face. Loved it.
• Tried melon softee for the first time.
• Went to a zoo with bears only. Saw a weird bear.
• Was raining so hard, we couldn’t take much pictures.
• The only 白い恋人 factory is in Otaru.
• Fell in love with ornaments at music box museum. Bought a unique handphone accessory.
• Tried Le Tao at CS’s recommendation. Cakes looked super pretty!

Starting this Saturday!

View 3D Taipei 7D Hokkaido Trip! in a larger map

That other theme doesn’t allow me to have lengthy last blog entries, so it’s back to this. Also preparing for the trip as I definitely will be blogging long entries with photo montages. JJ’s sister will be bringing her laptop, so I won’t need to buy additional SD cards, and most probably can post photos every night. :)

I was nearly recovered on Saturday when I got hit by another wave of virus infection on Sunday. Down with fever in the evening so I went to see the doctor again, had another day’s MC on Monday, but still feeling relatively weak today, so I went home to work after discovering that I could work from home. Wasted my dad’s time driving me to and from work though. :( Hopefully I would have recovered by tomorrow, seeing that my trip is this Saturday. This wave of attack feels worse than last Wednesday’s, spoke to client on phone today and felt positively like dying. Craaaaaaaaap.

Tomorrow’s Sunday, my exercise day, but I can’t exercise due to my sore throat (which, fortunately, is getting better). Doctor’s diagnosis is that I am eating inappropriate food. Henceforth I’m not allowed to eat the following: dairy products (Yay!), spicy food (Nooo) and oily food (never liked them anyway). It was a viral throat infection, but he only prescribed me with anti-diarrhoea pills, Panadol and lozenges. Another of those doctors who believe that I should create my own antibodies. Tsk.

Was on the phone with a client on Friday when she told me that the indicative H1N1 symptom is not limited to fever only. I panicked a little cos I still had the sore throat, so I planned to get myself tested on Saturday morning. But I woke up feeling better so I didn’t get myself tested in the end.

Discovered a red box on the kitchen counter some time during the week, I thought it was a new bag that my mom bought. Oddly enough, it stayed on the kitchen counter for the rest of the week. I was wondering why my mom wasn’t keeping her new bag when she asked me if I’d like to try some Taiwanese wedding favors. I was so surprised! Inside the box was an assortment of delicious looking biscuits which I cannot eat (cos of my sore throat).

I will eat them all when I’m recovered! She’s giving me the box when all the biscuits inside are gone. Haha. She says I can use it to keep my makeup or my little toys. I’m such a child. :D