And so...the end of the Gu Family Book

Rather unexpected ending but it does make the drama a whole lot better! I do really hope that the ending leaves us with a possibility that there might be a part 2. I had watched this drama because of Suzy (from Miss A, also starred as Go Hyemi in Dream High and Jang Mari in BIG) but I was introduced to the rest of the awesome cast like Lee Seung Gi (planning to watch My Girlfriend is a Gumiho soon), Sung Joon (in the drams Lie To Me) and Choi Jin Hyuk (Panda and Hedgehog).

A short takeaway, a quote from the final episode which I'm not sure anyone caught it, but it means a lot to me.

"The first love helps one grow up, and the last love completes a person."
(Cho Ryeon Soo In, Jin Yeon Wan In 초련수인, 진연완인)

At least that's what I think it is written..It was used in the context of Yeo wool as the last love and Chungjo as the first love. Wonder if it does apply across different people.

Panda & Hedgehog ^^ 판다양과 고슴도치

Just completed watching this korean drama, pretty short - 16 episodes only but quite a sweet (and once again childsafe show). I decided to watch this because of Choi Jin Hyuk (plays Gu Wol-ryeong in The Gu Family Book) but I think I fell in love with the bad-boy character, Ko Seungji/Jang Minwoo, played by the famous Super Junior member, Lee Donghae! And yea, he is 26 (old enough to call Oppa) and SUPER CUTE...Ok now, Super Junior just won over one more fan..lols..not as if that matters.

The drama is named after the nicknames of the 2 main characters - Pan Dayang (Panda) & Ko Seungji (Hedgehog) and around the theme of making cakes and pastries - makes me wanna learn to bake nice cakes too!! Anyways they met when Panda desperately wanted to hire a new pastieur to save her debt-ridden cafe and Seungji decided to help her while looking for a job after being in prison. Unknowingly, they fell in love and realised that they had already met 20 years ago, and fate has brought them back together again! So sweet huh? Choi Jinhyuk plays a guy who also likes Panda but loses to Seungji. Turned out they were friends too and so, the story actually ended quite happily; something I like. Only the baddie is caught and everyone lived happily ever after :D

That's why Korean dramas are my favourite. They transport you to a fantasy world that seems so real and takes the worries (like the haze now) away from you. Though it makes me feel envious of the girls, they always have wonderfully eligible and goodlooking and nice guys fighting over them. What about myself? I don't even get the guy I like (although he doesn't seem very eligible, but I'm happy if I do).. Sheeshh..

Moral of this story: Don't bother about a guy's past as long as he's nice and goodlooking. And bad boys are actually always the nicest of all people..Bad on the outside but mostly pretty sweet on the inside.

Packed Weekend - JAY CHOU CONCERT OPUS & Aquathlon Handover Party

On friday, we had a test-brick training at ECP NSRCC which was like a resort and although it was super hot, we had quite a lot of fun.

Went for my 2nd Jay Chou full concert, this time with Leon - the last 2 times (concert and F1) I went with Minli and paid a lot more ($112) this time :/ I wasn't too bothered or excited with it because of the other more interesting stuff that was happening to me but I guess I would associate the concert & Jay Chou's songs with my teenage years.. All the songs brought back memories and strong emotions that I actually cried when he sang songs like Secret. He bantered with the audience, saying that he trained for a 6-pack (WHICH WAS LIKE OMG!!) because he didn't want to be called an uncle. Rather funny and the songs were pretty nice too. He sang many of his new songs and got Cindy Yen to be the guest star.However, I felt he used too much time to promote his new movie and gave his buddies a lot of air-time; which is a bit messy because of the lack of flow and the fact that you paid for a JAY CHOU concert and expect him to sing most of the time. Nevertheless, it was pretty good quality.

The next day I had Mt Faber training with the Aquathlon team and although it was only 11.7k, because of the slopes, it felt super long and I was glad that the girls were behind because I was so tired trying to keep up with the guys. Handover party was on that day at CP Tay's house and I realised that aquathlon guys are pretty rich - 2nd house which I went that has an elevator. O.o Anyways the house was huge.

It was a pretty cosy potluck party with yummy food. And attention went to the couples of the team, especially Yew Wee & Sherlynn. I mean, I was happy for them - the most fashionable guy of the team & one of the most good-looking with the sweetest girl & fastest swimmer. Pardon me but I couldn't help but feel jealous of all the couples in the team.They all seem to last & it was really nice that everyone can fit in so well because both were from the team. This made me kinda emotional & sad. Why not me? It's not fair - should I have joined earlier? :(

It's really not fair.

Lie To Me (내게 거짓말을 해봐) - Postdrama thoughts

In order to curb my impatience for waiting for the Gu Family Book, another Korean drama has occupied 4 days of my time. Lie To Me (내게 거짓말을 해봐) stars Yoon Eun Hye as Gong Ah Jung & Kang Ji Hwan as Hyun Ki Joon who met accidentally in an attempt to cover up Ah Jung's lie to impress her friend Yoo So Ran, who snatched Ah Jung's first love away. Because of that Ah Jung has been trying to get back at So Ran via different means to make herself feel better. She embarrassed herself time and again and also in front of Hyun Ki Joon, getting herself and Ki Joon into trouble. Sang Hee decides to help her since he was also infatuated with Ah Jung and made things worse. There lies the main plot. Ah Jung tries to continue impressing her friends and signed a 'marriage contract' with Ki Joon. Well, things were awkward at first but slowly, Ki Joon realised that he loves Ah Jung and has let go of his old flame,  Oh Yoon Joo (which Sang Hee also fell in love with). Its cute but sad to see the brothers liking the same girl a second time but things changed. Sang Hee decided to let go of both (although I was hoping for a better ending - getting together with Yoon Joo). Many crises also tested Ah Jung & Ki Joon's love but this time, Ki Joon wasn't going to make the same mistake and he did many extreme things to solve their problems. In the process, we see all the characters in the story mature, which was rather heartwarming, letting go of their pasts and starting afresh :D

There are a total of 16 episodes but I feel that a shorter drama is better because at least the story is not too draggy. Personally, I really enjoyed the drama because of its light-heartedness, good storyline, and not forgetting the good-looking casts :) Didn't like Eun Hye and Ji Hwan at first and it was actually Sung Joon (Sang Hee, Ki Joon's younger brother) who caught my eye because he's the good-looking Gon in The Gu Family Book. But this drama is sweet enough for me and it revolves around the theme of honesty, which I only realised towards the end, nevertheless, I think it is a good theme - that honesty is the best policy; and despite the lie that started the relationship, honesty is still most important. A good drama for the younger kids too - totally clean, sweet and pure love; something only korean dramas seem to have. And often, I feel that in today's society, it can be difficult to have clean shows to catch the audience's attention, so, I must commend the producers for this!

While watching this drama, I also came across this article on the difference between boys and men but well, I think I would kind of disagree with this article somewhat. Because I would want a mix of both? A mature man would be good, a reliable wall that can block any wind but I wouldn't like an old fogey who does not treasure life and have fun - that's where a boy-at-heart comes in! :) In this drama, initially we see the charming  'man-side' of Hyun Ki Joon but later on, we see that he does have his boyish charm - miniature toy collection, letting go and having fun at the amusement park, doing stupid things like drinking competitions to impress the dad...etc. That is my ideal guy.

Aigoo..seems like I'm discovering more about myself through these Korean dramas! ;)

Singapore Aquathlon 2013 - A first for me ^^

   A year ago, I ran Singapore Aquathlon as a runner, in the tertiary relay with Enid. We both achieved first as a team but as the race was pretty small, there wasn't much competition and hence, I was happy but it lasted for a short while. However, at that time, I was only a rookie in the field of biathlon/aquathlon (swim & run), my hopes wasn't too high.

   This year, after about a year of racing and trainings (especially my swims), I was a little more confident of my swims (which compensates for the lack of confidence in my runs after being down due to injury) and forked out $70 to take part in Singapore Aquathlon 2013. This event seemed much bigger, based on the publicity, number of participants, Metasports as the event organisers and definitely the higher cost, as it was replacing Singapore Biathlon (not held this year).

   Arrived at the race venue early at 8am, thanks to Leon who decided to go for a morning ECP run and offered me a lift. The event ground was pretty neat, with all the tents clearly marked and I was able to find out where was the information booth, baggage deposit, body marking, drinks station quite easily. And everything was pretty well-organised and there was not much of a queue at any of the stations, despite the high participation rates - I guess Metasports is an expert in organising such events. The only downside, which I was not too happy about were the meals/food for post-race where there was only nasi lemak available (whoever eats that after a race?!) and the electrolyte drink was pretty bad (had to settle for water).

   Anyways, I wasn't expecting much from the race because I was a little shocked when I saw the number of participants for the Sprint Distance was so much more than the Standard Distance and I haven't been back to my usual speed for my run. :( In fact, I was a little more confident for my swim in comparison because I have been working hard at it. Josh Li, Dereck, Debbie and Sherlynn went first at 830 & 840 while me, Max and his brother, Clement waited for 940 and 950 to start our race. Race cap, Oakleys, shoes, goggles, race bib, gel checked. Moved them all to the transition area before Max and I did a short jog to warm-up. You see, unlike runs, there is quite a number of things to prepare for a aquathlon (and even more for a triathlon) - the benefit is that it does diffuses the pre-race tensions :) Looking at the ships direction, I made a mental note on the swim course I should go (following it strictly is another matter altogether though). 

   Watched Max and Clement go off, I made a final mental check on everything and slowly headed to the starting line. Decided to stay at the front and do my best to attempt to draft the front swimmers. hahahas..which kinda failed but at least it was a try. 3min, 2min 30seconds, the organisers were pretty punctual. GO. Telling myself not to be afraid of swim kicks I rushed ahead with the front pack and tried to follow them - at least for the first 100m. The course, though it was only 750m, felt super long but at least the waters were not too choppy.

   Soon, I got out of the water and ran to the transition site. I spotted Yiwei in front of me and recognised her to be the SMU girl who won me during the run in SUNIG 2012. I was quite determined to chase her but my race plan was to tail her from the back until the last 1km. Good thing my transition went rather smoothly and I was out in a jiffy. Following her was quite comfortable for the first 2k all the way to the Sailing Centre u-turn, where my stamina felt it had taken a bashing. Slowed down a little but was telling myself, COME ON, YOU CAN DO THIS!

   At the last 1k, the gap was widening but I managed to catch up with her at the last 200m. Summing all my strength, I sprinted to the finishing line but the gap was a little too wide and I lost to Yiwei by a mere 3 seconds!!! :( Thank God that He gave me the strength to complete the race in a good time and that I managed a 3rd position for the 20-39 category! :D yays!

   

   Although we didn't enter as TeamNUS Aquathlon, it was nice that Coach David, Kenley, Jon Tan and Chunnie came to support us and that there were some of us taking part! Sherlynn and Debs were 2nd and 4th for Standard Distance, Dereck and Josh were 1st and 2nd, Max and Clement were 2nd and 3rd. Pretty good achievements for the NUS family :)

Hopefully, I will be brave enough to up the level next year to do the Standard Distance. But for now, my aim is still to complete a Sprint within sub-40 :)

Yays..i lost to Yiwei by 3seconds but oh well..

Much room for improvements - both run & swim

The $70 trophy - that's how much its worth

EDO Tokyo - beyond the land of geishas, samurais, sushi & temples... (16-19 May 2013)

Just back from a short 4-day trip in Tokyo, Japan with Leon and I must say, it was really fun and an eye-opener about the uniqueness of the Japanese culture for me! We left for the airport at 4am to catch the 6am Delta flight that will reach Narita airport at around 2pm.

Upon arrival, we bought train tickets to Ueno Station to get to the hotel, called Ueno Touganeya, which was pretty comfortable, clean and nice, not to mention rather affordable for a hotel that looks quite high end. First up, we walked along the streets which sold funeral stuff all the way to Asakusa to visit the temple. It's probably a 1-1.5k walk but because it started raining, it was rather irritating and felt really long. Finally when we reached, the temple was kind of empty - probably because of the rain and that it was getting kind of late. Nevertheless, I managed to buy some cute panda rice crackers which I thought would make good souvenirs (cost 105yen at this time) but I thought it was rather interesting to display the sights of Tokyo in a unique manner. It's located at one of the shops on Nakamise-dōri, the shopping street in front of the Sensoji temple. The shopping street sells many traditional souvenirs and snacks like mochi, senbei (rice crackers), kibidango (rice balls with suace) and anko (bean paste). We also walked up to the Sensoji Temple to take a closer look. This temple is actually a must-go in Tokyo because its one of the largest in the city and the most colourful  and the oldest. Its a must to walk through the main gate called Kaminarimon (Thunder gate), symbol of the temple and Tokyo. Because of the rain, we didn't go further to visit the Asakusa Shrine built in 1649 by Tokugawa Iemitsu, a pagoda-like building on the left.

Next, we headed for some shopping at Taito, Ameyoko Shopping Street. It was rather late and also rainy so many of the shops are closed or closing. We saw a store selling taiyaki (bean paste pastry) & we bought one with custard filling to try.  It was really yummy, steaming hot in the cold weather! After looking around for a while and walking over to the supermarket to buy some cereal, we went to a sushi-bar which Leon frequented to try some Japanese authentic sushi (105-605yen) and with compliments from the chef, we had some panda-style sushi! :D Finishing dinner, we walked around the area, crossed a bridge to look at Tokyo Bay ( i think) and headed back to the hotel for a nice hot bath to prepare for the next day.

On board to Tokyo

first ride in tokyo

short door

Panda bun i ate

Skytree view 

Thunder Gate

shopping area at night

touristy stores

the temple

huge lanterns

bridge across tokyo bay

moving chopsticks

supposed to be leon..took me a while to intepret

supposed to be me..lols

me in a yukata

On the second day, we woke up early at about 530am to run and was quite surprised to see that it was already bright and sunny - like 9am in Singapore. We ran from our hotel to Ueno Park (where there was supposed to be sakura viewing) then all the way to Tokyo Central Imperial Palace..Should be around 10k i guess? At least it felt like...And we ran past Akihabara (no time to go) and Tokyo Train Station, one of the landmarks in Tokyo.

Tokyo Central Train Station

breakfast on the go!

We then went back for a shower and got breakfast on the go from Douter and caught the JR train which took 3hours to Kusatsu Town for the onsen which costs 5000yen per person (do bring your own towel or it will cost another 3000yen to purchase one). Kusatsu is actually an old town dedicated to hot springs and the town was pretty quaint and popular amongst the Japanese elderly wanting to soak in warm sulphuric waters that promises to improve blood circulation for better health. Warning: do what the Japanese do - it's a nude bath with no frills so do not stare at others.

Old school train!

Steamed buns with interesting fillings (100yen)

Filtering the sulphur

After a relaxing experience at the onsen, we travelled back to central Tokyo and at night we went over to Shibuya, to experience the fast-paced way of life and the night life there. And of course, crossed the famous Shibuya cross junction and attempted a photograph. Tip: a good way to photograph the movements would be actually to go to the Starbucks facing the road and people-watch from there. We walked around for a while and also went to the largest Uniqlo in Tokyo. Bought a pair of jeggings for 1290 yen and I was also tempted to buy a pair of floral skinnys for 1290yen which really looked pretty on me :D Thereafter we went to Shinjuku to get to Korea Town (Shin Okubo), an enclave for the Korean community in Japan. It was a rather long walk but a rewarding one. We ended up at Korea town and it was rather ironic because we were supposed to indulge ourselves in Japanese, not Korean commodities. hahahas.. Tried plenty of sample kimchi and Korean food till we were rather full (tip to save money in Japan!) Well, we did try a hotteok from one of the stores and the Korean hyungnim was really friendly and made conversation while cooking. Cute ;)

We left Korea town in time to be the last few to enter the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building on the 43rd storey (202m above the ground) before the last entry at 1030pm. And another cheapo tip - it's free entry if you want to see a good view of Tokyo city below :)

Paranoma view

Photos like this require experience

View from Starbucks.pardon the reflection

HD pictures do look surreal

Jeans I was tempted to buy:/

People, people everywhere

Cute puppy in the pet shop

View from Tokyo Metropolitan Building

We started the day by visiting famous Tsukiji Fish Market (which I have read about in Anthropology class) in hope to catch the bidding for tuna but sadly we arrived too late to see the last group enter the restricted section wearing luminous vests, with their cameras ready. Thank God that a helpful old man (whom I've forgotten his name), who used to be a wholesale trader, offered to take us around, into the restricted sections. A dress was fine but DON'T think about wearing new or nice shoes there because they do get smelly and soaked. But I did get some interesting insights of the market :) Cool thing. I liked the morning hustle and bustle of the area, with the traders riding on funny vehicles, zooming in and out of the carpark, going about their daily business; I've never experienced something like that before!

After 2 hours spent there, we went back to the hotel to wash up. Then we headed to Kamakura where the famous Giant Daibutsu (Kotoku-in) lies. It cost 200yen to enter and additional 20yen to enter the Daibutsu (which is quite dumb because you can't see anything). Then we went on a short hiking trail of about 2k for a seaview. It was quite a tough course with all the tree barks and loose soil but it was a good thing that the weather was good and there were no bugs. It led us to a shrine and down to the beach. We were rather lucky that there was a Hawaiian dance beach festival at the beach and it was really cool to see pretty exotic girls dancing and also the kids enjoying themselves while building giant sandcastles! <3 We explored the town of Kamakura and I realised I loved this sort of laidback town a lot. There was a shop where we bought 2 buns and the lady was super nice and gave us an extra donut! Thank God too, for the awesome weather.

Hiking trail - see what i meant? Good workout though

It was a last minute decision but I'm glad we went there eventually - YOKOHAMA! :D
The great thing was that I managed to change Leon's idea of the city - it was bright, sunny and has a vibrant culture. Second-time lucky! We wanted to go to the Red Brick House because Leon said that it was an artsy place and when we were there, there was the Frulingsfest! A German festival to celebrate the coming of Spring:) I got to experience somewhat of a Rastafarian culture in Japan which was worlds different from the typical Japanese culture.

Oldest ship that landed in Japan

Paranoma View - See the famous ferris wheel?

Selca^^

Some famous surfer

:D Love the place

Lastly, we headed to Mori Towers Observatory Deck . The cost is pretty good - for us to go up to the 52nd storey, it costs 1000yen for students and it is inclusive of the art gallery entrance fee! We paid an additional 500yen to visit the Skydeck (53rd storey), which is an outdoor observation deck. The wind was really strong so we were only out for about 20min. But it was absolutely breathtaking. It was a good decision to go there rather than the Tokyo Tower or Tokyo Skytree (and of course, being the cheapo me!). I felt that it was a way more classier place and honestly, the gallery was the best (and the best exhibition) I've ever seen! However, they did not allow phototaking and I apologise for not being able to share this amazing experience with you. For your information, Roppongi Hills is like the Beverly Hills of California, or Gangnam of Seoul; where the rich stay and I thought that it was an interesting way to experience Tokyo. In the exhibition, I saw art pieces of Rodin, Magritte that I recognised and the pieces really touched my heart, because it was about LOVE! :) My favourite, though, was Sophie Calle's piece about the breakup letter - she reproduced the breakup letter by her ex and gave it to 153 people and videotaped the way they expressed their emotions after reading it.

Mori Towers

Tokyo Tower

One of the exhibitions that allowed photography

This is a super cool website about Roppongi Hills in lieu of its 10th anniversary: http://tokyocitysymphony.com/

This was by far my favourite day :D

On the last day, we woke up early to head to Mt Takao/Takao-san for a short hike to the peak to try our luck at catching a glimpse of Mt Fuji. We took a cable train up to the trails and it was a 30-45min walk/hike up to the top and back down, we took the ski lift..which was my first and whoa, it was rather scary; with legs hanging and no security bar :s Both rides cost 420yen but the ride down was way cooler. If I do ever come back again, I hope to climb the rest of the mountains (4 more) and reach the highest peak about 800m high! The view was pretty and I was glad the weather was good.

View from the top

Ski lift downhill

We rushed back to the hotel to check up before going over to Asakusa to catch the last day of the annual Sanja Matsuri - a 3-day celebration which is one of the 3 main festivals in Tokyo and involves carrying of mikoshi (portable shrines).

Dog won 1st! :) Cute

Toyko skytree in the distance

interesting street food!

After that, we went to the supermarket for some last minute shopping at Takeya, Uniqlo and hung around the streets of Ueno before heading to the airport.

Supermarket in Ueno which is super cheappp

Train pass!

And there concludes my short but interesting 4 days in Edo.