Graduated! Let's embrace working life...

Graduation
** Personal recommendation, listen to the third song in my playlist while reading this post. Song name is Dear.

This comment is written on 3rd of August and may not apply to future readers.**

23rd of July 2016 is one the most memorable dates for me, because my graduation ceremony, the official seal of adulthood was being held on that day. A few days before, my best girl-friend told me that she's coming to the ceremony and honestly, that news brighten up my day by at least 1239301230 times, plus or minus 1000.. Haha.. She's coming at 10am, or so she said, so I grabbed the rented graduation robe, took some receipts and my out-of-juice camera and made my way to Putrajaya International Convention Centre (PICC).

Driving there, my feeling was really a mixed bag. I wasn't 100% happy about the ceremony and part of the reasons is because I know, despite all the promises that we are going to make about we will see each other soon or never forget about us, it's not going to be the same. Dinner or supper is not going to just be one call away, outings need months of advance planning and the worst of all, waking up each day not being able to just stroll into a classroom and you guys are just there. This happened to me as well for my A-level graduation, I guess I'm not too good at saying goodbyes huh?

Anyway, emo things aside, the only reason, I repeat, ONLY reason I go to PICC so early is because of you, Cecilia Voon! Appreciate it! And guess what, she came late! But she came, and brought me my first ever graduation flower and balloon. Haha.. A little bit about this brat, we met at Taylor College Subang Jaya during our pre-University course, Cambridge A Level. We never took any initiative to know each other, we just somehow became friends, eventually good friends and now crazy friends. So we took a few pictures together, and a few moments later, she had to take off.

Cecilia, the crazy.. Thanks for coming ya..
Photo by: Cecilia voon

Her eyes are crooked.. I'm telling ya, she's cray cray..

After she left, I realised that I have an outstanding fine with the university's library. So, I calmly initiate my panic protocol and went crazy with phone calls, only to realise that they set up a booth within the PICC in case cases like this happen. I have no idea when and how I got fined, but oh well, I'm not about to let RM10 ruins my day. Then, it's basically just waiting and waiting until the official ceremony starts, which is at 3pm. So, I walked around PICC, took a few pictures with friends that I met.

From left to right, Kristine, yours truly and Jasmine. Candid laugh....?
Photo by: Kristine

Crystal~ A sweet sweet girl..
Photo by: Crystal Chua

From left to right, yours truly, Vincent and Jye Er! *Whisper* She's the smartest one in our class, I bet she can smell this from far away..
Photo by: Jye Er

And that's Kaifen.. She should not be unfamiliar as she appeared quite a lot in the Japan posts. And yes, that's my reaction every time I talk to her..
Photo by: Kaifen

Victor Chua!
Photo by: Victor Chua

My parent arrived much later and my dad bought flowers for me and Kristine, which was totally out of my expectation since my dad never buy things for anyone before. Ceremony happened, we all took our scroll and certificate and had to sit through speeches after speeches. Nothing too interesting happened, except we kept taking selfies. Featuring, Crystal and Victor.

After the ceremony, my parent and I took some family photo, by both unprofessional and professional photographers. Here you go~

Mum and dad with flowers!

Hang around for a while after the ceremony ended, took some pictures and that's it.. A final goodbye being said and that time, I wasn't feeling as sad anymore, because I had a plan to go to my first ever Japanese festival in Malaysia, the Bon Odori 2016! After leaving the centre, Kristine found a nice spot to take pictures, so here you go~

I'm just going to credit myself for this awesome shot, don't even care.. :P

Met up with Hui Qi before departing to Bon Odori and she wasn't too happy with me for being late. Sorry Hui Qi... Off to Bon Odori.. It took longer than expected and by the time we were there, it was ending. To make matter worse, it was raining. But we still get to get our hands on some cheap Pockys and ice cream.

Bon Odori, featuring Hui Qi and Kristine~

And that's about all that happened that day.. Already did this on facebook, but once again, thanks to all my friends and family to accompany me throughout my 4 years of engineering life, it wasn't easy but alongside you guys, I have made it! Arigato minna-san~ Here are some post ceremony photos, enjoy~

Trying to fit a normal sized hat onto my super huge head? Not impressed..

So we went to Morib beach...

To take some graduation photos...

Yeap, we brought our robe to a mall just to take photo. It's not weird, I promise!

Because at this point, why not? Hahaha..

Japan, here I go~ Part 4

Day 4

It's a brand new day, brand new beginning. This day, we planned to go to Studio Ghibli and I've pre-booked the entrance ticket as they can be limited at times. I booked 8 tickets, 4 for Studio Ghibli and 4 for Fujiko museum for all of us through a site, Bridge.jpn. The people there is so nice and so responsive! I remember placing the order in the late afternoon and within 20 minutes, they replied me asking whether I can make the payment within 2 hours so that they can rush to buy my tickets for me. And surely afterwards, they replied me again saying that they already have my tickets and ready for posting. That smells like dedication to me! Impression for Japanese people, checked..

The tickets came in such packaging. Inside contains 2 folders separating Ghibli's tickets from Fujiko's.

Anyway, on our forth day, before we went to Studio Ghibli at Mitaka, we decided to walk around our Ryokan, which is located at Asakusa. It was raining on that day, but despite that, there were a lot of people at the shrine that we visited. Walking to Senso-Ji is only around 5 to 10 minutes from where we stayed, along the way there are people selling foods and souvenirs, so we went ahead and bought something for ourselves. 

It's basically red bean-ish sweet paste..

The famous lantern that every tourist will take photo of in Senso-Ji.

In Malaysia, we try to avoid the smoke.. But in Japan, they let the smoke on themselves. #culturaldifference

It was raining, but somehow it makes a pretty scenery to look at.

Saw this outside Senso-Ji Shrine, their vending machine provides free WiFi!

And then this, such a cute mini van and its eyes even blinked at us.

After that, off we go to the long awaited Ghibli Museum. To make things even better, Bridge.jpn emailed me on the previous day reminding me that my visit to the museum is today and that the weather is not too hot to do some sightseeing. Dedication at its best. There was no direct train access to the museum, so we had to take buses on top of subway to get there. We got lost a few times, even missed our stop near the museum. After asking a few traffic polices, running around in the rain, we finally reached its entrance.

The entrance itself impressed me so much, the receptionist is so friendly and gave us our tickets together with different languages of map. Every ticket is unique as it has 3 consecutive frames of a random anime from Studio Ghibli.

Portion of the map for Studio Ghibli.

The ticket for Studio Ghibli, it's like a film negative and everyone has different ones.

A giant stands alone in the rain, so was I.. The feels~

A secret path near the giant robot that not a lot of people know about.. Let's see where it leads to..

Fans of Castle in the sky, recall this? It's the core of Laputa!

We weren't allowed to take photo in the museum, so it's no surprise that I don't have a lot of pictures to upload here. But honestly, the museum itself did not disappoint. The museum is very well decorated with subtle callbacks to their famous art, and there's even a short tour showing the process of making an anime from scratch. Despite it being called a museum, it gives the vibe of a home, a home of the great artist known as Hayao Miyazaki, certainly a very heart warming feel.

We ended our visit to Studio Ghibli with a short film which every guest is entitled to watch once per visit. It was in Japanese so no one in the group can understand a thing except taking in the scenes and recall the techniques used in creating each frames.

Night view of the museum. I don't have a great camera back then, but you can see the giant at the rooftop. 

After we left Studio Ghibli, I wanted to visit Shibuya for its famous crossing. Once we reached Shibuya, we decided to have our dinner first. So we walked around and met 2 Chinese ladies in one of the pharmacies. they were so friendly and nice to give us a few ideas for dinner in Shibuya. The one that we went with, is takoyaki. We went to a random takoyaki restaurant as we were quite hungry at the time, luckily it turned out to be nice. 

Smokes, a lot of smokes.

After the dinner, we walked around and this time, to find a place to enjoy the crossing. Starbucks caught our eyes and it is at second floor, perfect! Also, we took some pictures with the Hachiko statue and it was hard moving around, let alone taking a decent group-fie with the statue.

Starbucks at Shibuya, overseeing the crossing.

The famous Hachiko statue in the middle of a large crowd.

Our visit to Shibuya is a short one, we didn't even get to shop much as the malls were closing and the crowd was dispersing. So we decided to call it a day and head back to our Ryokan.. Up next, Fujiko F. Fujio Museum, Tokyo tower, Harajuku and more..

Japan, here I go~ Part 3

Day 3

Things didn't turn up well on this day. All but myself were drunk from drinking beer in the previous night. I was getting really fed up as I see the time ticking away because this was suppose to be the day we visit the happiest place on earth, Disneyland! At around 10am to 11am-ish, they were awake and we hurried to Disneyland. I wasn't pleased at all.

Around 12pm, we reached Disneyland.. All the angers turned to happiness, honestly, how can anyone be angry in Disneyland. But it didn't last very long though, as they took their time taking selfies and group-fie all along the walkway towards Disneyland. I was restless and decided to leave the group to go on ahead. Here's some of the pictures that they took, and of course, I'm no longer angry with them lar...

The late comers... Hahaha...
Photo by: Tzer Maan

Featuring Disney resort in the background.
Photo by: Kaifen

The ticket cost around 6900yen per pax. At first glance, Disneyland is really underwhelming, sure there are a lot of decorations and it was nice for them to change the deco according to the theme of the nearest festival, but aside from that, there was really nothing else. Perhaps it was due to the low number of people in the area, or I was simply mistaken to judge before entering the main area of Disneyland, you know, the castle area.

The open area near the entrance of Disneyland.

We queued up to take picture with the most iconic character of Disney, the Mickey Mouse. Here you go~ (Thanks Kaifen, now I look like I'm not wearing pants on that day)

Why Kaifen why? 

Before entering the castle area, there was a band performance and it was very nice and nostalgic when they started playing all the Disney classic songs. One of the performers saw me taking video using a GoPro and he actually stepped forward and played the rest of the song towards me. Aww~ Too bad I didn't capture the footage of that happening, pics or it didn't happen eh?

Band performance.

The actual theme park is very very huge, and most of the rides are catered towards kids, but we had fun anyway. Imagine ever since you were a small little kid, you wanted to go the a particular place, and you finally have the chance to do so.. *Insert fan girl screaming*

The castle area of Disneyland.

We got separated somehow, me and Kaifen, Tzer Maan and Jia Wee.. So instead of waiting around, we decided the explore the rest Disneyland in that combination. Myself and Kaifen were lucky enough to witness a guy proposing to his girlfriend in front of the castle! It was so romantic and everyone was cheering for them! Here's the picture proof..

Nawww~ My future girlfriend, you can expect something like this.. :P

Oh ya, remember how I was impressed by the politeness of Japanese people? Here's another point that makes me want to live there now... Knowing that being parent is tiresome, there's an empty spot for them to park the prams. And the best thing about it is, no lock or chain is needed because stealing is not in their nature.

Parking for baby strollers.

I don't think I need to write in details of the rides that we went to, but most of the rides are well decorated and immersing. I'll let the pictures do all the talking, so be warned, picture heavy for mobile users!

Just a random attraction in Disneyland. Goofy's house?

Each of these cost around 100 yen. Insert the coin, and watch the machine shapes the copper plate into one of these tokens.
Photo by: Tzer Maan

A closer look of the token.
Photo by: Tzer Maan

Lots of people wearing BFF outfits in Disneyland.
Photo by: Tzer Maan

Photo and videographer of the year right there!
Photo by: Tzer Maan

Liking how their Halloween deco just blend into their existing deco.

Oh yeah, there is one system that I really don't like, namely their way of selecting people to watch the fireworks. It goes something like this, after you bought your ticket, you are entitled to play a "mini game" to see whether you are able to see the firework show up close or not. Why don't they make it a first come first serve basis is beyond me but it is because of that, I missed my firework show. Bummer.. On top of that, it was raining! So even if you want to watch the show from afar, have fun standing in the middle of the rain which is exactly what I did.

Disney castle lights up at night, too bad it was raining.

After the show, I was separated from the group....again.. After waiting for them around 20 minutes at the entrance, in the rain, and at night, I decided the best decision that I can make is to go back to the ryokan to wait for them. It wasn't fun riding the train alone when I was soaked and wearing a Mickey Mouse cap. But that's about all that happened in the third day, after around 1 hour, they were back and we were all like, "I was waiting for you at place X!"...

Got myself some onigiri for dinner that night. They are from 7-11 and they look delicious.

Hahaha.. Next, Studio Ghibli and Shibuya. Oyasumiiii~

Japan, here I go~ Part 2

Day 2

It was a chilly day, so we decided to go Odaiba for our first stop in Japan. We took the trains from Asakusa all the way to Odaiba, and a few things that I noticed about their train system is that it is fast, on-time and efficient. Same as the bus, the train ride is quiet and passengers are not allowed to pick up call in the train or even use their phones if they are near the priorities seats. Oh yeah, their train tickets can be purchased using a vending machine or if you are like me, you can buy a Suica or Passmo card through the vending machine and use it to pay for your tickets. Not just tickets, the card can be used in convenient stores, vending machines, taxi and buses as well. Convenient!

ICOCA and Suica card, a better implementation than Touch N Go.

"Mamonaku, Tokyo teleport". That means, next station, Tokyo teleport. And with that, we have reached Odaiba.

First thing we saw in Odaiba, the fuji TV station! 

First, we went to the Diver city. Shopping around, not buying anything because we have no idea what to buy and were under budget constraint. Had our first meal (proper meal that is) in one of the malls.

Curry Gyu Don if I remember correctly.
Photo by: Ang Kaifen

Aside from having very polite waiters and waitresses, I have also realized something. Customers in Japan are so cooperative and polite as well! They will clean up the mess and return the used bowl and cutlery to the counter before leaving, thus ensuring the tables are always clean and ready for the next customer.

Something about this picture just look so satisfying.. 

More shopping later, we came across a Burger King. They offered a Kuro burger, means black burger in their menu and we decided to try it out.. Luckily, it did not disappoint.

Kuro Burger. It doesn't taste as bad as it looks.

Last but not least, the most famous attraction by Diver city, the ginormous Gundam statue! It is said to be 18m tall and its model is called RG 1/1 RX-78-2 Gundam Ver. GFT. I;m not a Gundam fan myself, picture taking like a tourist~

A giant robot stands right outside the mall.

Walking around in Odaiba, it was sunny and I'm not sure about others, but I was sweating and getting really uncomfortable.. But the quest of finding miniature statue of liberty must go on! More walking later, we found it!

Hah! There it is..
Photo by: Tzer Maan

Group-fie! From left to right, yours truly, Tzer Maan, Jia Wee and Kaifen on the bridge leading to the statue of liberty.
Photo by: Tzer Maan

It was getting dark and we were tired from all the walking. Thus, we decided to try out the famous onsen (hot spring in Japanese) in Odaiba.. It is called Oedo Onsen Monogatari.. Stepping into the onsen, I was stunned by how its interior. Sure, I've seen videos and vlogs about the onsen, but experience it myself, it was stunning.. For some reason, it was quiet that day, so we didn't need to queue up to enter the onsen. First we paid the entrance fee, and off we go to choose our yukata~ 

Oedo Onsen Monogatari in Odaiba. I missed their Digimon theme decoration. *Sad panda*

Row of vending machine is not a rare sight in Japan. And they will change the item displayed on the vending machine depending on the season too! How cool is that?

Ladies and men will then being separated into different changing room where guests are required to strip down to their underwear before changing into the provided yukata. Being a Malaysian, that was definitely very awkward, but I wasn't going to waste time on that! Off we go to the main area of the onsen where there are food stalls, carnivals, drinks, chilling area and much more.

The main area of the onsen. Please excuse the image quality.
Photo by :Kaifen

Yours truly in my choice of yukata~

Us, in our yukata, having a foot bath!
Photo by: Tzer Maan

Time to get into the wet zone. You know, public bath that is. Despite the awkwardness that we were about to see each other naked (reminder, men and women have separate bath), we wanted to experience things that we can't find in Malaysia. All but one girl, Ang Kaifen! She refused to go into the bath no matter what! And I actually spent half an hour persuading her that it is a nice experience and it's a big bath, so the chance of bumping into Jia Wee is next to nothing. Much saliva was drained and finally, FINALLY she decided to try it out. And guess what? She took the longest time to come out from the bath! Hahaha.. While waiting, of course we take some pictures together..

And here is the picture.
Photo by: Tzer Maan

Spent our time there until around 9pm before we decided to walk to the train station. The onsen is quite far from the train station, Tokyo teleport, but the weather was nice to us. It was breezing ever so slightly making the walking experience very enjoyable, plus there was no vehicle on the street and only a few pedestrians. We talked and sang loudly on the street, enjoyed the night view of Venus fort before heading back to our ryokan.

Tried the shaved ice there, it tasted normal but the portion is huge.

Venus fort, a complex with everything from wax museum to Toyota car showroom.

And once again, oyasumi, minna..