I salute you PRCs!

Know I have been slacking for quite some time, allowing my blog to rot. But can't help it, most are work related, not sure to reveal or not. Lets start with the ultimate working/eating habits of PRCs in my institute.

At the pantry, a colleague found an opened pipette tip wrap in the bin, thinking why is there lab stuff doing in the eating area, he went around and saw this PRC, eating his lunchbox, with a 1ml or 5ml pipette tip (broken into half), like a pair of freaking chopsticks! Wah biang eh... is this one below lay...


These people are really tekong, eat shit sleep also cannot be separated from work. I wonder whats next, eating EtBr agarose gel for dessert like agar agar? Luckily no one is like this extreme in my lab, or else I change job.

Ore sexy?

Yo yo recently kept myself occupied with job searching, now sort of confirm a job and i spend every less freedom watching dramas! The Absolute Boyfriend ,aka Zettai Kareshi or 絶対彼氏, is extremely nice! Abt a robot lover who is handsome enough for me to watch the whole thing....kawaii! That's one part where he asked his owner,"Ore sexy?" means "I'm sexy?" after exercising to seduce her hahaa. OMG shall not say to much spoiler, where's some pics of him.

Cont Hokkaido trip

My com is finally rescued from a virus attack, yay, and i shall con with the hokkaido pics. We took a ferry to an island in the middle Lake Toya. The ferry is 4 levels tall and look like a fairytale castle.

Its a peaceful island deliberately planted with pine trees 60 years ago, so the tress are neatly arranged. Only deers and a pair of swans live there and they're considered wild as the people employed there only take care of the park and not the animals. Some pathways are covered with shredded pine trees which were teared down by typhoon, making them more comfortable for ppl to walk on.

The second hotel stay was a tradition tatami style, and the dinner looked more exquisite too. But we had to sit on the floor to eat, and my legs got so numb that I had to stretch both my legs out beyond my eating table, so no class hahaa!

The next day, we went to a place for our lunch and the scenery around that place was so beautiful and relaxing. Really starting to like the countryside of Japan where there are little high rise buildings, and everything is neat and clean.

One thing we couldn't miss about Japan is the vending machine culture. Hot, cold or things that have already been made convenient like instant noodles are sold in convenient vending machines lo.

Next, we reached a home-made jam shop. There were many jams for us to try from, but we didn't get any as the taste was too weird. The anpanman shop is just beside it, fully packed with toys, sweets and children clothes, very cool.

Lavender farm, too bad most flowers were not fully bloomed yet. The lavender ice-cream is a must! And there were also lavender cream puff and pudding and so on.

Snow crab!!! It costed abt S$60+ and we had to share it with another couple, ate all the meat but couldn't finish the roe. Frankly speaking, the meat tasted better than the roe, which is really bland.

The famous Otaru, a preserved heritage that will look more romantic at night. It was said so beautiful that even a camera idiot can take nice pictures of it hahaa. Too bad we went in the day.

This is a music box shop cum museum, just remember to keep bag close to you and not break anything.

A real chocolate factory!!!YAY!!! It has European design, and even the staff looked like a toy soldiers. There's even a performance by singing toys, just like the ones in Charlie and the chocolate factory. The only disappointment was that the shop only sell 3 kinds of chocolates, at usual price also.

For hardcore shoppers, these are the two places you cannot miss. The 1st is the sapporo shopping arcade, good for buying tibits and food, some shops are tax-free for tourists. The 2nd is Mall Rera, a factory outlet that has nike, swatch, levi's to coach. I'm glad that i my 1st trip to japan is Hokkaido, not Tokyo cos i heard city ppl are not as friendly as countryside, which is also quite true in other countries i guess. Still, I look forward to another Japan trip heh heh!

Met my mentor a few days ago and we talked about what's going on in our own lives. We even ate lunch together and he dropped me off at clementi cos he going somewhere else and couldn't drive me home. The point is that it was the 1st time we talked so much which mostly not work related hahaa. I really own him a great favor for teaching me so many stuff and unconditionally giving me advice whenever i need.

Feeling tensed

Damn my computer!... It keeps breaking down, no internet connection for no reason cos everything else is working fine. Sian sian sian... Need to use the old but faithful laptop again, can't blog abt hokkaido just yet as the pics are in the computer.

Feeling tensed and uneasy cos the release of results is coming soon! 5th june ppl, watch out! Looking back at how i spend most of the time slacking and not studying in the past 4 years has made me feel so regretful. OMG just thinking already make me feel so depressed, can't wait to find out what i would get. I can only distract myself by thinking of the convocation day woohoo! We can get together again for probably the last time for the whole cohort. Some already shot own portrait in graduation gown.

Haiz what class would i get~~~

Hokkaido

Kenny and I went to Hokkaido in a guided tour during mid-May. Before the trip, there's a briefing of what to expect, the guy told us the weather will be ard 10+ to 20+ degree. And guess wat, the first day there was 0 to 10 degree sia! Not only that i didn't bring jacket with adequate thickness, i wasted luggage space by bringing 3/4 pants, slippers and tanks, OMG. Other than the weather had caught us by surprise, anything else was extremely relaxing and fun.

This is the view of Tokyo from JAL plane before we touched down. Although Hokkaido is considered more "kampong" than Tokyo, there's still farm lands in the capital.

Then from Narita airport, we took 1 h to rush to internal airport and take another JAL flight. Heard from my friend that JAL is a good airline as SIA had lost to them before as the best airline. I really doubt that cos the food was bad... okay maybe i'm not used to it. Service is comparable to SIA though.

First stop, we went to the Japanese Ainu tribal village. They all look like Japanese to me hahaa.

They rear bears and dogs. Ppl can purchase cookies to feed the bear by passing it through the pipe.

They put up a performance, like praying for rain ritual and celebration.

Next, the ninja house/museum! This man had been greeting us loudly ever since we got down from the tour bus, which was still pretty far away. He goes, "YOSH!" "HAI!" "YASAY!"etc. As he handed me the sword for the photo shoot, he said,"Hold with da two hand... verli heavy." I just couldn't stop laughing. The whole place has an ancient feel~ that's why some traditional jap shows were shot there.

This was taken after the ninja show, wah so oiishi~

and kawaii neh~hahaa.

This is the view from our hotel room, damn nice, like a postcard. Every night there will be firework display that is released from a boat, traveling along the river from left to right.

When we went there, cherry blossom was about to end, so there were still some trees blossoming, like this one just outside the hotel entrance. The tour guide said Jap like sakura cos they look beautiful even when the flowers wilt and shed the petals, which will paint the ground pink.

Let's get down to biz, infinite strawberry picking! The owner allowed us to pick and eat any amount of strawberries there, of course cannot "dapao" la. It is the BEST strawberry i have ever tasted! They look perfect, firm, and shiny. And the taste is as good as its appearance. SOOOO SWEEEET and JUICY, with a slight pinch of sour. Mhm hmm~ The owner also planted apples and cherries but still not in season yet.

We went to another farm, milk farm, to make ice-cream in one of the farming tents heh heh. After mixing and beating milk, suger and cream tgt, the hardest part is this, keep turning the mixture in a bowl of ice so it would become frozen.

It was hard work, we also got free pudding to take away with us! The two "cow" sisters behind were the ones teaching us to make ice-cream.

Opposite the tent was this lone chained goat. The mountain behind it is called "羊蹄山", so appropriate rite. We went close to take pics with it and this is wat it did to us.

Distracted

And traumatized.

We later went to bear range. Most of the bears here were caught because they steal food from farms, destroy properties and threaten ppl's life or livelihood etc. The worse of the worse goes in and never comes out... just kidding. Anw, we bought cookies (100yen) and apples (200yen) to feed them. Bears which were hungry will make gesture of waving and begging to attract our attention to feed them. They prefer apples to cookies, and they're very good at catching food with their mouth, provided if you throw well enough.

We could also go to this area that is much closer to the bears. Just a wall and metal gate apart, i can feed them cookies by dropping it into the pipe hole above. One bear wanted more cookies from me by blowing into the hole and making sounds, like some kind of flute instrument hahaa. Scary moments when bears were fighting each other for the feeding spot, right in front and so close to us.

Shall stop here, more updates will come.