Bing Says Happy Birthday

Clicking "Make a wish" gives this.

Tiffany Aching

I just finished I Shall Wear Midnight. I have read three books of the series. I also got the last book which I will read after I finish Maynard's book. I also bought Wee Free Men from Amazon lately so I have the complete series now.  Tiffany in the book is now a young adult, as she now wears midnight - black is the usual witch's robe color. She used to wear only blue or green.

When reading a book, the reader has  a mental picture of how the character looks like. In the Russian cover, here is Tiffany.

Clearly, the Russians has better imaginations. Rob Anybody and the other Nac Mac Feegles look more badass compared to any Google Images although they should only be like 6 inches tall.

Dashboard at SG

When this was announced, I was literally the first person to click Going on the Facebook Events Page.

The event location is somewhere in the far east, so this will be a small gig. I asked Floser to go. He immediately say yes of course. We watched DC five years ago in Richardson, Texas.

Days before the gig, the promoter annouced new $88 tickets, as due to overwhelming demand.

No biggie, we would have bought the most expensive tickets anyway.

The day of the gig, I almost got late as I rode the wrong direction of the bus when I arrive at the Bus Terminal. I like 2km just to be there on time but Floser, my concert buddy is still not there. His family is in town so he has a little quality time that afternoon. Still, we have a lot of time when the dude arrived. This gig has no front act.

The place is big enough but you know the promoters were not able to sell. The press release of overwhelming demand was a bluff. They sell it for lesser price because they cannot fill the place. The $88 ticket holders are still at acceptable distance from the stage. We can also tell that most of the people are not really that big of Dashboard fans. Real fans would sing along. Sing along hard. They sing a Justin Bieber song, which I already anticipated as I saw a video clip of 'Love Yourself' on my Facebook feed. That is a decent song from Ed Sheeran by the way. They also did a cover of The Cure's 'Just Like Heaven'. Still sounds solid. I will always try to catch them if I still can.

The Pathetic Filipino Tourist

Touring around, you will get to notice co-tourists if you see them especially if you happen to follow the same itinerary. Make them more noticeable by making that co-tourist Filipino too. You can hear foreign language and you process them as black noise, hear your mother tongue and you could focus on it like radar. 

So this family, we first saw them on our way down Fushimi Inari. The kids are complaining about the hike; the father told them they will go around the mountain. I saw this guy wearing NMDs. Pogi. Filipino tourists who have to speak extra loud strike me as boastful kabayan. I still don’t know why they talk that way.

The next day on Universal Studios, I saw them again. This time the guy is wearing Ultra Boost. Unfortunately for him, it rained hard. Outdoor rides were closed. Too bad for the shoes right? Nope. The guy managed to get plastic bags and wore them over the shoes. 

We Climbed Fujiyama

We went to Japan this summer and the main focus is to climb Mt. Fuji. For the five of us, I am the only one who owns hiking stuff. Carlo did it last year and he already has some things but he did buy some new stuff for this climb. The tour that they joined last year require them helmets and rain gear. Aside from the guys needing to buy all the necessary hiking stuff they need (hiking shoes, proper clothes, the required rain gear, trekking poles, bags and other accessories) I think this climb has the least preparation required from the other climbs I joined so far: we bought the bus tickets the day before; 5400 Yen round trip to 5th Station from Shinjuku Station; The hut in Goraikokan, Carlo reserved some days before. We also paid for 100 Yen this ornament we need to put our bags then we could start hiking right away.

We really needed to have our gears ready as there was some bad weather news on south of Japan. We also regularly checked the weather around Fuiyama and the forecast would be rainy. We had rains when we were at Universal Studios in Osaka. There's even flash floods happening in Kyushu that we see daily in the news. We have to be prepared if it rained on us during the hike.

We took the 8:30 bus coming form Shinjuku because the bus schedules from 9AM -10PM which we preferred were already full.

When we passed Fuji-Q, it was cloudy .We cannot see the volcano like we did two years ago. It was cloudy.

When we arrived in the fifth station, it was cold like around 10 degrees. It was bearable. We had our early lunch. I had udon - something light so to prevent my digestive system from acting up. This mountain is bare. No trees, no latrines but proper restrooms that cost 100 Yen per use.

This is the picture Carlo uploaded before we climb

We started climbing at 12. The trail is sandy and rocky in the Yoshida trail. The trekking pole is a must that there is nothing there to hold on to. No trees just seems like an endless zigzag of rocks.

They look jolly here

The mountain has several signs to which trail you are taking. There are also a lot of hikers so getting a guide is not really required. Just follow the flow of people. You won't get lost. The trails are clear and because it is a volcano, it is very bare. No big trees around.

This is the big group that we try to be with the same pace with, or faster if we could

Every once in a while, we get into these "soshi" spots in the trail.

We thought soshi means break as the big hiking tour group will cheer if they hear the term. So we say "soshi kudasai" if we want to take five. As it turns out soshi means "check". It makes sense though: to check is also like taking a break.

This climb was difficult for me though. The air is thin. I had a heavy load and I had difficulty breathing. I should have jogged more before doing this. I was only anticipating the altitude sickness might kick but not the thinness of air. People breathing on their oxygen was no joke. Oxygen is life.

We arrived at the eighth station around 6PM. We were fast as a friend told me when I told her about the time it took for us to get to the hut. When we get inside, the guy told us we don't have reservation there, but on the seventh. Which was like a two lifetimes ago. We can't descent to sleep then climb up again. It was tiring the first time and doing it a second time is just not an option. This hut is the closest to the summit. We need this.

Look at our faces as Carlo keeps telling him we have this hut reserved

We were allowed to stay. Which was quite a relief. I think I would pay any amount just to let us stay. I even forgot how much we paid. This was our pad then we had the usual curry rice for dinner.

We were asleep before 8PM. getting sleep was a struggle. both guys on my left and right side were snoring. OG who was on the farthest right keeps on farting. There were even another group of guys staying next to us. They would have smell the farts and got terrorize by the loud snores. Good thing they did not retaliate.

I woke up around 10PM because I have to poop so I stood up then went to the restroom. restrooms in Mt Fuji are maintained well. water has to be conserved. flushes on the urinals are scheduled only but the toilets of course are needed. I wonder how they fill the water tanks. Going outside at that time, I was able to see the heavens. I haven't seen the milky way in a long time. The sky was very clear. We were blessed with good weather even though forecast for the day was bad. I was very thankful seeing the sky that evening.

We scheduled our summit trek to start before 1PM. The guys overslept. I stood up around 1:30 because I need to take medicine because I was feeling light-headed. A tablet of Paracetamol + Ibuprofen would suffice but my stomach would not like it. I ate some crackers before taking the medicine. It worked as expected and hurt as expected too. I need to take antacid as we were walking up the mountain. We have to be close to each other when we walk because I was the only one who has a headlamp.

The sunrise is at 4:23. We reached the summit like around 4:10. We had ample amount of time to find a good spot, settle down and set up Alden's camera. His heavy backpack are just camera stuff.

It was worth it. It is my first time seeing a sea of clouds. It is cold, It was hard to breathe but the view reminds me that that is why I do this to myself. Nature's beauty.

When it started to get sunny and hot, We started our descent. We need to catch the 12:30 bus back to Shinjuku. We had our little snack of we have, like bread and crackers.

There's a separate trail going down but because of the snow maybe still covering parts of the trail, it is still closed from the summit. The single trail everyone is using right now is very crowded so splitting the sea of people saves a lot of time especially for people like us who are on schedule. After the eighth station they allow the climbers to go down the other trail. This other trail is just sand, easier to walk and you can also run. Just watch your knees. 

We arrived at 5th Station at around 9:30. A lot more time so we ate lunch there and bought some omiyage as well. I had a difficult time but I would do it again if given the chance. It was fun. 

At some point near the 6th Station during the descent, it also hit me that I may have dreamed of this place before: a mountain with similar terrain and that smell of I don't know but like burnt trash. It was very familiar to me in my dreams.

Some Useful Technologies

I honestly don't know who she was but thanks to Google Image search, I just uploaded that photo then her name came up. Now I know who she is and what she does. That trick has been around for a long time now but it is has recently helped me with the curiosity.

There are some useful stuff that for a curious person would be very helpful, like Shazam. I posted here some songs I would like when I hear it somewhere and I would like to know what that song is. What worked is to get a lyric then type it on Google. If I got the words right  then Google would return the song. It would be problem like for example is that Paper Boy Ditty song that I can't get hold to any words or that Chinese song we heard a lot back in Melaka.

With Shazam, just open the app let it listen for a while then it would give you the song. Very helpful indeed.

Another thing is that Google Translate app. You point your camera to words then it will try translate.

It was useful on our Japan trip when trying to read anything posted on signs or posters. The picture above was testing it the other way around and it works good as well.

The Best Tasting Chocolate Ever

The best tasting chocolate I have tasted so far would be Venchi, an Italian brand. We have learned about this brand because a former officemate bought some as omiyage for his officemates in Microsoft in Germany. Kat is buying some too - this must tasted good. We found a store in Venice so we also bought ours.

We bought this for ourselves then a smaller box for the family back home

It has been more than a year now but I still have some chocolate from that box of chocolates. I just love it. Luckily here in Singapore there's a Venchi store in Takashimaya. What's more, they also have gelato.

The gelato taste good as well,also pricey but that's the price to pay to get something that would taste like the real thing. It is just like that wen you know what the real deal should taste like. You just got to find that authentic thing. If my venchi stash would run out I bet I would be buying it here even though is very far from the price we paid for the same thing in Italy.