Ixus on New Years holiday and a Kind Japanese

Young Ixus went on a holiday with Ivan last holiday(?). a trip from Kawasaki to Kanazawa to Takayama and back to Kawasaki was planned. But little did he know... what lies ahead...is ........

On the way to Kanagawa, he was sitting in the first class seat, a warm pocket, filled with...warmth. duh. He takes a picture of Ivan standing there. on a 3 hours train journey leg. with only a shuffle of space to move. Once in a while, he also did his job of taking scenery photographs. Mount Fuji, train tracks, huge black ridges surrounding Mr Fuji, snow covered coniferous trees, a driver that does actions no man can understand, Calvin: yawning and a 6 inch snowman with a mitten on its head.

At the first interchange, Ixus followed ivan to the toilet. Bad idea. Ixus missed the train by 1 minute. that added 2 hours to the beautiful journey. Wonderful. More pictures!! =)

After 15 hours by train, and much arguments by the tour guides later, he's there. KANAZAWA. The city that is like any other city in Tokyo. Concrete. MacDonalds. LV. Gucci. Prada. Addidas. Nike. Pretty cold day it was. It was dark though, so Ixus went back to the hotel to recharge. 9pm he arrived.

Ixus woke up the next day full of energy. His yearn for beautiful sceneries and magnificent structures was max. He went to the samurai street. Ya, Ixus doesn't exactly know where he has gone to. Someone just brings him around old remains of castles, old samurai streets, made famous by a samurai family living there. The souviners shops sells pretty much ninja stuff. Cute. But the weather was "great"! Snow generously showered upon us. Like cotton, they 飘 (chinese for float). It was like "romantic". Then, it becomes wet snow, "problematic", then it became rain, "idiotic". Ixus laughed at the sight of 11 nincompoops who got wet in their shoes. but little does he know....harder will they laugh back at him...

11 nincompoops went to get their socks dry and to catch some sleep for the new year celebration, and went to dinner seperately. They bought snacks and stuff for the new year. Oh what fun it will be! Gathering at 9pm, the nincompoops watch PRIDE special. A fight between figthers of different styles. Judo vs Karate, Sumo vs Tekwondo. Awesome. "UNO!! GAME!!". yea...some played UNO and downloaded photos too... oh. yar. That's pretty much what the nincompoops did till 12am. But Ixus ain't complaining. He was resting for the big night.

POP!!!CLANG!!! "HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!" "WHOOOHOO!!!" "HAPPY NEW YEAR!!" "YAAAAAAM SEEEEENG!!!" "okay, lets go sleep, got an early train tomorrow."
wat?!?!. on a new years day?! what happened to the photos!? "Lets go to the shrine to see japanese people praying!" AH. Sounds more like it!

"Whoa, the wind is strong today?" *WHOOSH* "WHOOA TURN BACK!! TURN BACK!!" *a white umbrella flipped over by the wind lies on the road* Ixus took his picture. it was to be his last....

As the 6 nincompoops walked back to the hotel, WHOOSH. they met pretty strong winds. 100yen umbrellas were breaking apart, the girls were going *wahahahaha!*. Then it's Ivan's turn to walk through that wind. in a split second, his new Nike cap was blown off. While Ivan was running after the cap, Ixus slipped away to play.

editor: This is getting WAY too LONG!!!!

As Ivan was still under the influence of alcohol, he did not realise it. He went to have a chit chat with 4 other nincompoops. When he realised IXUS was gone, he went in search for him. well. 10 minutes of search later, it was assumed Ixus went to play at 2 nincompoops' room. The search was called off and Ivan went to sleep. (not before watching the ending of "The legend of the fall" in japanese)

The next day, searching the streets got no result. there was no sign of Ixus. Where did he go?!
Ivan went to the police station in the end. Reporting the loss of Ixus. the guy there speaks no english. but Fangyi was there. they were exchanging what seems like japanese, and finally, a report was made. This time, the snow was in beads. Hail stones?! nah..haha. too small. Way too small. nice snow though. couldn't capture it. Ivan was danged.

Ixus was badly missed. There is SHARP..but it was never the same. Ixus was sharper, was faster, was more friendly than SHARP. so with just SHARP, ivan went to takayama. 3 hours journey. Couldn't miss IXUS more when the other nincompoops were taking photos every minute. Ixus was history. But life goes on!

Story paused, too tired to think in 3rd person!!!
TAKAYAMA. Hida Takayama. The folk village that is so famously famous in Japan. Winter. the wrongest wrong season to go. The first thing you see is SNOW. White all over...the road...ICE. Boys and girls, see the different spelling? now...you walk SLOW on the ICE. but its okay to walk FAST on the SNOW. okies?

Well. walking on the ice was a terrible task. firstly, my feet frooze. All thanks to the Emporio shoe i bought at queensway. its not a trekking shoe stupid! Icy roads, there are 3 grades. With snow, with water and compacted by cars. neither is safe unfortunately. 11 nincompoops just fall like penguins in a bowling alley. (?) 1 nincompoop fell the most funny of all.

She was crossing the T junction. a car was waiting for her to cross. She slipped. bang. Buttocks first. She steadied herself into "sedi yah" position. (?) lied down in that position for like forever. until we went over to pick her up. the driver must be puzzled why someone chose to sleep on the ground...And why do all people start laughing when they get up from the fall?! hahaha!

anywya, it was all snow and ice for the 2 days there. on the way to the dormitory, we were playing snowballs...plenty of it. the roads were lined with snow piles which took some people hours to clear, but we used them anyway...*SPLAT*


of course, we did alot of souviner shopping there. went to get some dolls(keychain)...red for couples, pink for finding love, green for health, blue for studies, yellow for wealth and black for some protection stuff. i got one each for my family and myslef. guess what colour i bought..hahaha....anywayz, bought a 4 leaf clover...time to ward off all those bad "qi" that i have gotten from the double sword keychain. eversince i got that, i lost many things. (apparently)

We stayed in a "temple"?? i dunno. cuz there were graves right outside my room door. yea. now you know why there were so many vacancies at this peak period. it was kinda nice though. the tatami mat, the futon...the toilets are better than our hotel's, seat warmer, butt spray , cleanest of the cleanest. but they forgot to clean the cob web off the door though. hehe. I was sleeping next to Tshush, was facing a mirror. haha..yea, but i can't see myself there, so i guess it's okay. There is a 10 pm lights off curfew too. great for my tired body. in the morning, we wake up to some music. Temple stuff. the scent of the room also gave away the place we were in. opening the door, yea, you know. I think if you respect anything or anyone, they will do the same to you. isn't this how it works in Japan?

We went to climb some slopes ....some hill...snow covered, by someone carveed a path for us in the morning..so we walked quite okay. Up and up we go...went to see the ruins of a castle or something...watch house...then went down again to a play ground...obviously, we played alot of snowballs along the way...though...the snow was too dry to compact...hmmm...At the play ground...kanna whacked by one nincompoop...she pinned me down on my legs with her knees...OWWWW!. oh well...thats what you get when you try to spin them on the merry go rounds at 100km/h.

did i say we saw a statue of someone on a horse? (i'm such a good travel story teller. haha)

We went to the Hida Takayama Folk village. okay i faked the name. i have only a vague idea where i went. haha. my brains went AWOL. like Ixus. The first thing we did was snow fight again! my gosh. but heck. How often can we do it?!?! once every 25 years?? it was freaking fun with the other nincompoops. Sneak attacks, flanking, faking, blatent SPLATS across the face.
fingers do get frozen though. Lesson 1. WEAR YOUR GLOVES.

okies, went in, 700yen, see the folk village. at first it wasn't much to behold..well..it was kinda small...then you see a pond...a lake...in the middle...something like 2/3 the size of a football field. behind it is houses. Folk houses. haha. Their sharp angular roofs. Made of wood. covered in snow. then you see the sun. shining across the lake, onto the houses. That's how my mind captured it. haha...sorry. if you followed what i was saying previously, you will obviously know why i didn't post the picture.. haha.

Then we went to take more pictures...ambushed our James Lai...played more ball...took more pictures..admired the scenery, rang the bell meant for town evacuation....hahaha...it was wet , cold and snow. so we went to a hut to warm up. In the hut, we found a machine making coins. Everyone got one coin....i got 3. why? cuz i couldn't get mine right. First, went to punch the wrong side. (hey i was the first one okay)...then i went to get another one to punch my name wrongly. LLIP...great....then i went to punch the 1st one on the right side...then i punched the 3rd one perfect. geddit? don't bother. See my coins. When Ixus comes home. At that point, it was quite certain everyone was tired. People were roasting their socks next to the heater, some were dozing off, and some were just punching coins. When we were ready, we went off...back to the town.

we got lost...somehow. we were walking in unfamiliar places...and at one point, i found myself bashing up a bridge's stairs. knee deep of snow. we had to cross that bridge i heard. So fiona and me went snow clearing. kinda fun till we reached the top. the pavements...whatever is left of them, is filled with waist tall snow. on the right is the traffic, zooming past us. wat the hell. Moments later...we were told to turn back again...wrong way. PHEW. we totally went the wrong way. luckily we didn't cross the bridge...it wasn't that safe anywayz.

after more souvineur shopping, on the way back to the dorm, we splitted...the guys went back first, leaving the girls and 2 other nincompoops. i was one of them. since the girls didn't want company, as someone was quite sad that she didn't get what she wanted to buy, i walked ahead of them. i walked straight and straight...it got lesser and lesser people...finally..i was walking alone...in the streets lined with dark japanese old wooden houses...in front...not a soul in sight...but i was certain i had to walk straight...was i lost?...as i walked towards the end of a straight road, there was this slope. i must be right...we have to go up a slope. but as i walked closer in this cold icy dark night...at the foot of the slope...a banner...i saw the word i didn't want to see.... "鬼“。(Chinese for 'ghost'). OKAY. wrong way. i did a kablakan buseng(180 turn) and went back. good thing i saw damien and yuhui, who pointed me to take a right turn. Phew.

the girls also lost their way. Took me a long time to convince one nincompoop that a RIGHT turn is all it takes...how many times must i say "yes, turn right" before they listen...incredible.
It turns out, the other guys also got lost...so we all went back together anyway. Went to bed straight. was too tired after all the snow.

We took a 9? hour journey back home...from 6+am, we set off, and reached dorm around 5+...actually quite short since we changed to a good train. And that ends the wonderful journey, which i am now contemplating to go with someone i really like. I mean, where can you find so much snow to throw at him or her?? =P

Back to the story..hehe

At takayama, Ivan made another friend Fuji. make that 2 other friends. Fuji and Fuji. Fuji is well known to be a photo taker. He comes as a whole package. So you need not worry if you need more friends than Fuji. He's all you ever need. hehe. Fuji had been very useful throughout the trip. scenery shots that he took should be reliable and nice. (okay so i am running out of steam). Ivan is already contemplating making friends with SONY ...but he has only 700 bucks till the end of the month...how to survive!

FAST FORWARD

one day, A kind Japanese found Ixus lying by the road weeping. she wiped away the "tears" and woke him up. When Ixus woke up, he knows he is lost...he showed his address and telephone number once she started to check his condition. She saw it and immediately decided to call Ivan up.

The kancho recieved a call today regarding a lost keitai(mobile). But called for Ivan instead. It was weird. They know who Ivan was, but it's a lost keitai. His is just next to him. Then, with the help of Detective Kancho, they were able to gather more evidence. That the lost item was..IXUS!! More probing later, the kind lady is going to send it over to Ivan, as she is going on a holiday...monday, it should arrive, Detective Kancho said. Ivan was overwhelmed. like real. (okay, how the heck do you ever get overwhelmed by a camera.) . He was greatful actually. that someone bothers to check out the address in IXUS's memory. (i took a photo of my bank application, oops). She is smart...and she speaks English! (okay, i am spoiling the story)...but really, gotta thank Risako Oya San... =)

Ixus should be coming back real soon..hehe...never to go out to play without ivan ever again!

ah....and they (including the 19 nincompoops here) lived happily ever after.

Howz that for a bed time story??
probably fell asleep at the 2nd line...hahaha..BIG POST.
temperature reading in my room...9 degrees celcius.
i'm putting myself in the fridge where it's warmer!!!

ah. Happy Birthday Jane!