finger licking good

i should have written this a month ago..but time management is out. imagine after 10 months off duty and now being a wife, mom, friends, sis and worker again...i'm really me now..yeeeehaaa.. the day i arrived in klia, my sisters were waiting for me with a bouquet of flowers..very thoughtful of them..i couldn't hold back my tears of joy seeing my loved ones...

mr h: jija nak makan apa?

me: within split seconds (dalam kapal terbang tadi dah terbayang dah nak makan apa..hihihihi)...i reply satay..

mrh: ok..we go to the best satay place in malaysia..sate kajang

me: ling..u memang understandingla...hihihihi..

i'm back!!!

wow..been so long since i was here..the first thing i did after all the first things first was to go to tmnet to transfer the streamyx line to our new house..that was almost 2 weeks ago..after waiting for a long and lousy service there (in Kajang branch) we were told that our internet line will be working in 1 week! imagine? but we stay patient and waited...after 1 week, nothing happened..mr. hubby lodge a complaint report..even tmnet customer service could not do anything..
mr h: saya dah buat permohonan untuk transfer line streamyx ke alamat baru tapi masih tiada line
tmnet officer: saya dah tengok kes encik. memang tmnet kajang tak buat apa2 tindakan lagi.
mr h: omg..jadi labu peramla application aku tu (dalam hati la...)..habis tu camana encik?
tmnet officer: encik pergi ke cawangan tmnet lain dan buat permohonan baru. tak kisah la mana2 cawangan pun.
mr. h: KHBVS*&%^$^& GVBHS DBI#!$%^..HAMPEH!!!!....

Ikan kekek

Ikan kekek mak iloi iloi

Ikan gelama mak ilai ilai

Dapat bini cantiknya amboi

Tapi ketawa mengilai-ngilai

yeah...the place is JR Obihiro, the time was few weeks ago...the kick is a fish which the stomach content is mouthwatering...nooooooooo it's not fugu (the ever famous live threatening puff fish)..you guessed wrong, even i am a thiller but fugu is out of the discussion...jeng jeng jeng..taiyaki....that's my thriller this week.
literally 'tai' means sea bream or red snapper...the fish that brings good luck to bussinessman...yaki means something burnt or broilled..i'll post the recipe for taiyaki soon...arghhh..very difficult to explain about the fish..something like kuih bahulu dengan inti di dalam la...i cycled 20 minutes downtown after dinner just to grab few of this fish..yessssssssss..i really mean a few..actually i tasted choco, krim and cheeze...since the shop owner had known me by now..he let me have the mango taiyaki for free...hehehehe..you know, around here maybe there's less than 5 muslim girls with their special headgear..so he recognized i frequent his shop lately..yummy..cheesy inside..actually this traditional dish reminds me of crayon shin-chan....

Obon Festival

Last August 15 I went to see the Obon Dance competetion in downtown. In the old days, this dance is supposed to guide the dead people back to their graves after visiting their family but now it is just part of the entertainment and occasion to gather around. Few of my friends joint the big group to dance but I was late from chikudai and couldn't have time to put on yukata..so I went wearing jeans and carrying my bagpack instead of Japanese purse string bag..miss the chance to wear yukata...huhuhuhu..I grab these Japanese girls...coz never seen them in yukata before...they are barely 20 years old.

It's very interesting to see many Japanese group with different theme of dancing. Foreign influence was seen as some okasan (elderly lady) are in Mexican dress performing salsa dancing instead...pheew..and we foreigner were wearing traditional yukata and fighting to keep the geta from slipping out...hehehe... The steps in this dancing is very simple...since many of us come from different part of the world, our bon dance became the international version bon dance..I saw Joke san swinging his arms like one of those Thai dancers while Khatnaa tried to instil Mongolian version when it came to the jumping part..hehehehe...

This group in the red and blue yukata jacket are really performing bon dance, they sing n shout, jump and clap and reminds of the spirit of Japanese. These jacket are typical yukata or kimono (to foreigner) can be seen worn during any festival such as during harvesting season.

Stages were set up with vocalist and drummer to guide that dance through. Lion dancers came along and I even saw Doremon and Nobita was around...with big doriyaki cake.

It was a very warm night and it's a good exercise coz we dance to almost 2 hours! Finally we finished being in 2nd place..

Hanabi - fireworks

Summer in Hokkaido is almost like Malaysian temperature (cooler by 5C actually) and minus the humidity. During this season average temp is around 27C with occasional rain....mmmmm..maybe drizzling is the better word to describe the amount of rain drops here.

In Japan, summer festival is celebrated on August 13-15 which actually is a celebration of Obon...in simpler words the day to remember the dead. Many Japanese will take this opportunity for long holidays (only 3 times a year they took long holiday which is during new year, golden week and obon) to visit their hometown. It's not a good time to travel in Japan because of heavy traffic on the road, shinkansen (bullet train) and flight.

A firework display is usually the main attraction of the festival. One unique play was that a "teenage to be boy" will hold a big firecracker and withstand the sparks and sting of the fireworks marking the symbol of being brave...yep..you really need guts to hold those "sepemeluk" firecracker and survive the sparks for around 10 minutes..hehehehe..

I remember those days when we played fire crackers during Hari Raya festival....me and my big bro venture out with the red chinese firecrakers (mercun papan...shhh..it's illegal) but uniquely we separate them out and burn them individually..the tricky part is that the stump is veryyyyyyy short (you know what I mean..)..so when you lit the firecracker, you have like 2 seconds to cast it away or you'll be in the news tomorrow with a big bandage on your thumb....

I spent 2 hours watching these beautiful fireworks and tried to capture few shots..unfortunately they're too fast or the speed shutter is too slow that I got only few nice pic. Aha...I manage to ask these 2 cute Japanese girl to pose in their yukata (summer kimono)..kawai ne..