Here is the first photo album of my Japan trip. This one shows photos taken at Tokyo Disneyland. Click the photo to enter.

Back from Japan already :)

Had a 5-day holiday in Japan, starting from the 20th to the 26th. 20th and 26th is mostly traveling while the days in between is when we were there.

First day: Tokyo Disneyland :P
Very very nice place to be. Too bad have to queue up for almost everything!!! The place was very very clean as well and very very well maintained. My parents went there before i was born, so this is disneyland is quite old, but the stuff inside are all new. Stayed at the Shinjuku area.

Day two: Asakusa, Ginza and Toyota's Megaweb.
Visited the Asakusa temple then proceeded to visit Megaweb, Toyota's theme park where all the toyota models are there. got to Toyota Passo there and managed to obtain the Passo catalouge. Why passo? coz Passo = Myvi with some cosmetic differences and also the passo has a lot more hi-tech stuff that can be installed from Toyota somemore. Makes our myvi like crap and P2 very kedekut. After that went to Lake Kawakuchiku (very very hard to spell) near mount fuji. The best part was that it was beginning to snow heavily as we arrive there.

Day 3: Lake Kawakuchiko, Mount Fuji, Hakone, Shinkenzen
First thing in the morning head over to the visitor centre of Mount fuji to buy some souvenirs and play with snow. Since we arrive early got a foot layer of snow in the adjacent road near the car park to play around with. The snow is still very very fresh after the snowing heavily the night before. But cannot go up mount fuji coz the road is covered in snow and visibility is very very bad. No matter, got snow to play with :P

After that went to the Hakone area to eat the black egg which was cooked hard boiled by a nearby hot spring. The hot spring is located at the top of a hill with an incredible view of mount Fuji in the background. too bad the peak is covered with clouds. Then proceeded to go around lake Ashi for cruise and lunch.

At night sat the Shinkenzen bullet train to our next destination, a small city of Hanabashi (sp correct?). I tell you, when waiting at the station the other bullet trains whiz by VERY VERY fast. No wonder it is called a bullet train.

Day four: Kyoto
Visited a kimono arts center to see a kimonos being made there as well to buy any souvenirs. My bro bought a very nice yukata (summer garment) for his gf; green color with cranes. Costs about RM 100++. Sorry girls, didn't buy any yukata or kimonos :)

Then head over to the Kiyomizu temple to drink its spring water and look at its architecture. Also ate in a small japan restaurant where you have to sit on the floor. The ones you see in japanese restaurants here with the sunken area for your foot is for our convenience, the real thing don't have that luxury. Very hard to get up after that :P

Day five: Kobe, Osaka, USJ, Kanzai
Stayed in Kobe coz no hotel room in Osaka (supposed to be Osaka), but quite near Osaka. In osaka when to the shopping district where there is one sushi bar with the kaitan belt with one special feature, all you can eat sushi. Imagine Sushi king where you pay a flat rate and eat your heart out and the belt is always FULL. All for 890 yen per person. Yes, the plates were piled high:P

After that went to Universal Studios Japan (USJ) to sit a few rides and buy some stuff. Again, long queues are a norm. Luckily got an express ticket which costs 50% extra over the original ticket price. Can get in in under 5 minutes one time :P But Disneyland dun have such a feature, so have to queue the old fashion way.

Then we head to the Nikko hotel Kanzai international airport, located right beside the main terminal coz the next morning we need to fly back in the morning.

Several things I noticed in Japan:
1) The place is clean, very very clean.
2) Safe; almost everyone dun lock their bicycle or moto at train stations or outside shops. Outside the shops no one jaga the goods, they assume you will enter and pay for the item
3) Small: Kelisas, Kancils, Myvis, Kenaris,Jazz type cars thrive here. The number of Camrys on the road can count with 1 hand, Accords... have not seen a single one. Oh, alot of Passos. At Disneyland lots of MPVs like Alphards, Streams etc. The buildings in Tokyo are build soooo close apart. The highways are double decker over roads and several feet from the nearest tall buildings.
4) Courtesy: Everyone greets each other, no one is rude. Everyone queues orderly, even though they may dress like a punk. The bus driver and everyone has pride in thier work (funny thing was, the taxi we took back in M'sia has its speedometer totally broken and was always showing 0 kph)
5) Hi-tech: In all the hotel toilets, got an electronic toilet seat. heated heat? yup Oscillating water jet? Yup. Automatic odour removal? Yup. Press button and it will wash your butt? yup. Flip phones there makes our flip phones a toy. Almost everyone takes photo using a flip phone (making our SLR a big dinosaur from yesteryear). Everyone I see uses a flip phone. Ticketing machine can accept 2 tickets in one go and able to read both of them (1 big, 1 small).

and many many more.

Will soon upload the photos.

in the meantime, meet my new soft toys :P

From the left, Hello Kitty dressed up as the volcanic black egg, cool relax guy and mount fuji.

I made a simple excel file to keep track of all my transformers. To be frank, I have a lot of transformers, but didn't expect to have SO many transformers till I have spend RM 1700++!!!

That's including a few I have not gotten yet :P

So time to budget I guess.

*** better find something else to craze about otherwise this is getting too expensive ***

EDIT: It's 1700++, not RM 1600++, I missed out 1 :P

This week alone I saw 3 rear-end accidents, 2 on the LDP, 1 in KL. And the last 2 that happened was very very near me; within 2 cars length.

The first was on Monday, on the LDP in front of the Kelana Giant. was quite near me, but I was on the lane closer to Giant and not on the road from the flyover. 1 green iswara crash into a kembara.

Second one was at the Bank Negara roundabout on Thursday. A van crashed into the back of the Perdana under the flyover.

Then today I was in the middle lane, one Honda Odyssey rear-end into a ford ranger in the inner lane. This time it happened in front of me (about 2 cars length) and if I had not noticed why the honda was accelerating into the ford I would have kena too. Not a simple slight bump; a crash.

Very very weird week indeed. Have one day whereby I had no less than 5 blaring ambulances at different times of the day past by/overtook me.

Managed to get my Jetfire+Grimlock twin pack at TRU subang Parade for only Rm 134.90. Quite cheap and it is at I believe at the non-goreng price. Grimlock is kinda like a nostalgia TF for me. Recalled seeing him in the Transformers movie when I was a little boy. A big T-rex with very funny lines (his intelligence is rather lacking, so he is a dinosaur of a few words) but big on character. Not to mentioned decepticons are afraid of this guy, except maybe Devastator of course. Little wonder in Beast Wars the Predacon leader wants to be a T-rex.

Oh, Grimlock kick butt too. Grimlock tried to death from above Devastator also (but failed).

Here's Grimlock in dino mode.



Here's Jetfire.


Jetfire has a nice sculpt too. The reason i want him is becoz he is a veritech. Well a not so perfect clone of a veritech but it can have robot mode, gerwalk and jet mode.

Gerwalk mode


Jet mode


Bought a special Gundam stand to make my TF fly :P

On the 3rd of November, went to another play at the Seafield school hall. This time they were playing the play Ma Ma Mia, How Can I Resist You, a play which uses the ABBA songs. Used to listen to Abba very often since my parents would play the CD very often during weekends.

Of course the storyline is cut to suit the secondary students crowd since there are some parts which make no sense like the girl can't really find out who her real father is (use a DNA test!!!!) or the 3 fathers didn't realized the girls mother is screwing them over since ALL 3 are supporting the girl. Only 1 father and 1 mother right? OK, apparently the scrip isn't meant for this generation. But the students sure can SING. SING very well I might add. At least the Abba songs I have been listening to all this while finally make some sense.

Anyway, I was able to obtain the highly coveted, no.1 scalper target, BB08! Bumblebee 2008. Bought it for Rm 120 and with Payload, a Decepticon armoured truck. Payload is not worth mentioning since his transformation is ok but he could have been better, but BB08 was sound from its construction standpoint. Unfortunately Hasbro's QC has failed in the panting department. You see, I got a 2-face BB08. 2-face = Batman 2-face? Yup, But not as bad as Batman's one, just that some paint wasn't applied properly.

Here's the picture of it.


Oklah, boleh tahan. Atleast its joints are tight and the head is there. i have heard about headless BB08s and Takara BB08s with loose joints. At least this problem can be rectified easily with some paint.

My next target?

TFTM Ironhide and the Grimlock/Jetfire Twin Pack. 1 T-rex and 1 Veritech!

Transformers so far:
1) Voyager Thundercracker
2) Voyager Rescue Ratchet
3) Deluxe Jazz
4) Deluxe Brawl
5) Deluxe Bonecrusher
6) Voyager Blackout
7) Leader Megatron
8) Leader Brawl (ppl think I'm crazy buying 2 versions of Brawl)
9) Deluxe Recon Barricade
10) Deluxe Longarm
11) Leader Optimus Prime
12) Deluxe Bumblebee 08
13) Deluxe Payload
14) Legends Optimus Prime

14 and growing strong!!!

Yes, my 360 is hates me.

But last weekend I finally bought Halo3 to with play! hooray! the 360 is saved....

anyway, TF2 is not that fun anymore since now everyone knows all the tricks and are skilled already. No more noobs to own :P

Which made me finally getting around to play Episode 1 & 2. I was surprised EP1 was.... short. Hey, what do you expect from an expansion which is cheaper than a full game?

Hope EP2 is longer.

... and my 360 still hates me :(

p.s: coz i never played it everyday and rather be with my 8800 GTS.

yes, this will be another post about Transformers, but now I practically have almost ALL the available toys I can buy except Bumblebee and Ironhide. Both are in Insane demand now and I'm better off buying one later this year or next year. Which is good news for my pocket.

Oh ya, forgot to mention I already acquired my last (hopefully) leader class transformer toy, Optimus Prime. Bought the Takara version instead of the usual Hasbro version. Cost me RM 245 inclusive of shipping. The most expensive purchase so far.

So let's see what I have:
1) Voyager Thundercracker
2) Voyager Rescue Ratchet
3) Deluxe Jazz
4) Deluxe Brawl
5) Deluxe Bonecrusher
6) Voyager Blackout
7) Leader Megatron
8) Leader Brawl (ppl think I'm crazy buying 2 versions of Brawl)
9) Deluxe Recon Barricade
10) Deluxe Longarm
11) Leader Optimus Prime

Deluxe is small size, Voyager is big size, Leader is well... biiiiggg size.

wow... that's one long list.

On another front been playing Team Fortress 2 ALOT. So alot that I didn't bother to play Half-Life 2 Episode 1 and 2 that has a hot chick called Alyx to guide you along. Must devote time to play everything in the Orange box AND my xbox 360. need Halo3.. need Halo3... oh wait, too busy hunting Transformers and enemies in TF2.

Have been a very busy past few weeks. Until no time to blog :P

Anyway, on the TF front, obtained Leader Class Brawl during the Raya week. Then this week obtained Deluxe Longarm (the tow truck that towed Bumblebee) and Barricade in different colors.

How I obtained Leader class Brawl is bothering on desperate and giving in to temptation.

It started on Friday when I brought my mom to the Gardens Mid Valley for her Raya Shopping treat. After lunch we parted to look for items which are of interest to each other. So i began my search around the entire Mid vally to look for.... transformers.

I started at Toys'R'us, found nothing there, continued to Jusco, only to have all the leader class toys snapped up when I arrive (ARRGGHH!!!), moved on to Metrojaya, then to Isetan and lastly to Robinsons. All came out fruitless. It is like a marathon mind you since Gardens+ Midvalley = very very long walk.

As I arrive home, Woon called to tell me that there was leader brawl at toy workers, a shop at subang Square. Cost around RM 195. But after the fruitless search at MV, I was too tired to get it.

Then late that night as I was on the Lowyat.net forums, someone posted that there is ALOT of Leader Brawls at Jusco sunway pyramid. He was there around 6pm, and no one seem to know there was a restock there.

Since it is like my second chance to get it, the next morning I went to Sunway pyramid to visit the jusco to buy the brawl.... the only problem was, it is the first day of raya and Jusco only opened at 1pm!!!!

So I balik and have lunch with family and then left the house around 1.30pm to go to pyramid. Parked my car and entered jusco around 2.15pm and lo and behold, there were 2 leader brawls there. It was as if there were waiting for me. I took one and immediately after that a family bought one for their son, less than half my age :P

Desperate? Crazy? Lucky? you decide. But leader brawl is too complex for a 5 year old. So do megatron. But since I bought it from Jusco I only spend RM 189.90. But the double trip to jusco cost me RM 6 = RM 3 * 2 times, so it turns out roughly the same price if I bought it from Toyworkers 24 hours before. Then there was a time so long ago when woon called that there were 6 brawls at Toys'R'us and he was getting one. Didn't buy that time since I wasn't desperate enough :P

Tried to upgrade my blog to have a better look. Unfortunately I will lose the C-box (the one that you can post messages) as well as the Xbox 360 gamertag thingy. Can't they just let us access the html code like normal instead of making us their customizing software?

Oh well, at least i tried.

Anyway, MANAGE TO BUY LEADER CLASS MEGATRON!!!

ALL HAIL MEGATRON!! Jazz and Ratchet so kesihan now. Bad enough they got no range weapon, but now the deceptercon leader is in the house with the majority of his army. Megatron and Jazz is the right scale though, and if you put them side by side Jazz is very very small.

Besides that bought the Orange box ori. going to try out Team Fortress 2. Atleast got something to keep me busy this long holidays.

Here are some of my photos of the Deceptercons having some sort of discussion.

Blackout: Take a look at my cool spinner melee weapon!! Can spin really smooth!!
Thundercracker: You have the ability to fly. Why bother with melee combat? You can just fly away! Besides, range combat is better than melee!
Bonecrusher: Not fair, you get cool weapon, you are voyager class, and your alt and robot mode rocks!! I hate you Hasbro! I hate you Michael Bay!! I hate you Blackout!!!!
Brawl: Nice weapon, but better have a large big-oh cannon just in case :)


Frontal view


View from the side


How the blades are positioned on blackout


Scorponok given with blackout. As you can see, it is like an afterthought.


Edit: I have made some photos smaller to fit the blog. You may need to click on it to see it clearly

Here are the photos which I took for my transformers. Much easier to upload to photobucket than to upload to Blogger. So enjoy :P

Transformers photos

Supposed to post this on Saturday, but nvm, too lazy during the weekends.

Just happened to be near Subang Parade that day coz my dad brought his car to fix his radio and alarm. So I decided to check out Toys'R'Us to see if there are any Transformer toys. To my expectation, there ain't any. But in Parkson, found something which 1-2 months ago scalpers will LOVE to buy'em all:

Bought myself the G1 redecorated Jazz. You know Jazz from the Transformers the Movie? The small silver car which Megatron tore into 2? Yup, that guy in his original white colors and racing stripes. There was about 10 of them there. So if demand is still good he will vanish by Monday.

Yes, I know this post is useless without pictures, but too lazy (again, haih) to upload them. :P

Posted some poses on the Lyn.net forum and it'll just use the pictures on photobucket instead of uploading to blogspot.

Thundercracker: Ratchet is sleeping. Time for...


Ultra KICK!!


Battle pose

Ratchet

Thundercracker

Another battle pose

A talk with Philip the penguin.

Bought something from Jusco IOI mall Puchong :P




Yup, you say that right, it's Thundercracker and Rescue Ratchet Transformer!!! Was very lucky since that was the last ratchet there.

HAPPY 50th MERDEKA EVERYBODY!

Didn't really do anywhere this merdeka, just stayed at home playing computer :)

This month has been the month of the sedans. From the start there is the launch other Civic Type R and Civic hybrid. One is a performance sedan upgraded into a sports car. The other is a 'green' car that theoretically gives more mileage. Both are from Japan. Both are sold faster than the Myvi.

Then came another sedan; the Lancer 2.0GT, also from Japan. Think of it as the prequel to the EVO X. Also snapped up like those Transformer toys and I guessed all the stocks for this year is gone.

Launched with much anticipation is the Proton Persona, the much awaited sedan from Proton. Saw it and my verdict: BOUT BLOODY TIME THEY GOT IT RIGHT. Good for you Proton. Need to suffer a bit then only you understand what the market wants.

At the same time the new Kia Optima large size sedan was launched as well, but kinda got HEAVILY overshadowed by the Persona. Note to Naza, pick a better date than too close to something as big as a Proton Persona.

Lastly is the newly launched Aveo sedan. Again, pick a better date to launch your car DRB Hicom. Comparing your car to the Persona, it is grossly overpriced. If you came out earlier you might have a chance.

Anyway, I keep hearing ppl complaining that the Persona is nothing more than a Gen2 with its butt lengthen. Well the following sedan cars are actually from a car with a hatch butt:
1) New Vios = Yaris
2) Aveo sedan = Aveo
3) Honda City = Honda Jazz

Do you see ppl complaining that the new Vios is a copy of the Yaris extended?

What I really want to see is a Myvi sedan. See if P2 is capable of doing what Proton did.

This is something I posted in a Toyota forum at Lowyat.net

Second Son, still in college: Vios
First Son, working: Corolla
Father: Camry
Grandfather: Lexus 460

First Daughter, working: Wish
Second Daughter, in college: Yaris
Mother: Innova
Grandmother: Alphard

Adventures uncle: Landcruiser
Playboy cousin: Celica
Contractor uncle: Hilux
Rich uncle: Harrier
Adventures cousin : Rav4

Added in for this blog:
Toyota fanatic cousin: AE86
'Green' cousin : Prius
Cute Male Cousin, just got lesen: Passo (Myvi)
Cute Female Cousin, just got lesen: Mira (Viva)
Uncle who runs business: Hiace van w/o windows
Auntie who runs a tuition centre: Hiance van w/ windows


One for every one of the family

I wonder why do Rolexes or other well known brand watches cost so much. Do ppl feel 'POWER' when they are wearing car priced watched on their hands? It must be the name. Rolex sounds more glamor than swatch or Seiko.

But i find it ridiculous that you must adjust the the date of the watch every now and then simply becoz it can't tell between a 30 day month and 31 day month and a leap year. Pay so much still you need to adjust. Granted you still need to adjust the time when you go overseas, but shouldn't be date changing be automated since it is pretty much predictable; as in once every month.

That's why I will buy a watch with a perpetual calender of some sorts the next time I buy a watch so that I don't need to adjust it at all. Just wear and go!

Ever wonder how Jazz ended up getting killed in Transformers the Movie 2007?

Well it all went like this:-
OP= Optimus Prime, J= Jazz, I= Ironhide, R= Ratchet, B=Bumblebee

OP: Guys, the director says that one of us must die in this movie, otherwise it is less "cinematic".
J,I,R,B: Oh man!
OP: So who it's going to be? I mustn't die in this movie since I am the heroic Optimus Prime and I have already sacrifice myself in the first movie. The director is trying to avoid the same negative response like what happend during the first movie where I was killed by Megatron.
I: Me neither! I have already been killed in the first movie when Megatron and gang boarded our shuttle last time! All Optimus fault for sending me to earth coz he needs some extra..
OP: Stop passing the blame or I'll choose you to be the one this time. In fact if you had been a little more patient and stop complaining maybe I won't send you anyway. Rachet, what do you think?
R: I'm with Ironhide on this one, I got blown to bits on that shuttle too. Darn barely a few seconds on screen and I'm dead.
OP: OK, ratchet and ironhide is out. Bumblebee?
B: Ohhh noo.... it will be very anti-climax for my character to die. I'm more famous than Opti..
OP: Bumblebee....
B:... Ironhide and gang. Besides, are you going to make the kids sad to lose his friend?
OP: Alright, so that leaves Jazz.
J: errr...look I understand that you and Ironhide and ratchet got killed in the first movie and don't want to be killed again, but can't it be Bumblebee? He got more screen time than me!
B: I repeat again, i am the main character..
J:.. and main characters do die.
OP: Any other reasons compared to screen time? I need to make a decision.
J: Can't you persuade the director to not have someone.. I think any Autobot killed? There is only 5 of us max in the movie!
OP: I have no choice, it's needed.
J,B,I,R: Haih.......
OP: Most likely it will be you Jazz, coz Ironhide will be the pickup truck for the human soldier at the end and he is needed for the next movie to teach the humans 'weapons and tactics'. Ratchet, the directors says he needs you for some 'repairing' scene in the next movie as well. Bumblebee the main human hero needs a ride he knows bests so you are to kept alive. As for Jazz.... so far there is no scene for you in the next movie.
J: haih....
J:If I have looked a little harder into Moon base one's sensors and spot Razor beak on that window...

The End.

Note that you need to watch the original Transformer movie to understand part of it. But still funny nonetheless.