Morning I get up at 6 o’clock.

Not too grumpy though.

There’s something awesome about waking up on tatami mats to bright sunshine through the wall-to-wall windows.

Maybe because it’s a scene I’ve seen too often in anime.

Two words for a cheerful morning: breakfast buffet.

Some adventurous items that I refrained from trying.

Yes Krishna, it’s a basin of bacon.

Honestly, don’t remember (probably didn’t even know at the time) what they were cooking here.

Yea, no, I’m not sick of these lanterns yet.

I don’t know why western culture is so bland. A few lanterns never hurt anyone.

What a Japanese payphone looks like. Kinda looks like a domo.

Outside our hotel:

Some of you might be wondering why Japan – a nation whose toilets both warm and clean your derrier with the push of a button – would continue to have so much electric lining above ground. The reason is because of the frequency of earthquakes, so everything is built above the ground.

We proceeded to a fruit orchard…

I didn’t come to Japan to do hard labour.

Then I tried one.

Pretty damn good.

CF Moment?

Passed by Fuji Mountain on our way to a zoo…

Fuji Mountain.

I don’t have any pictures of the animals at the zoo. I’m sure you all seen a captive animal.

It was the saddest thing I’d ever seen. This was a small safari but you can practically sense hopelessness among the animals.

For a cheetah to live in a space smaller than my backyard is a travesty.

At the store I spotted a cute seal:

They had these cute mochis that were too sweet for me:

Headed to one of five lakes at the foot of Fuji Mountain for sashimi:

We had 6 pieces of fatty tuna. The greatest slice of sashimi I’ve ever had. Too bad when we offered our tour guide some of our boat she took two pieces of our fatty tuna. I’m still angry about this. GOOD GOING HONG THAI!

Outside the restaurant:

Then we headed out to Gotemba:

It’s got this awesome tower:

Then we headed to our hotel which honestly I’ve forgotten all about.

Every flight I wear the same outfit. Same hoodie, same Waterloo sweats.

Don’t judge me, cabins are cold and you NEVER know what the weather is like over there.

The airport in HK is pretty well stocked:

Krishna, I am convinced you will love HK.

Gotta love my Chinese baked goods:

This sign should seem familiar since this bakery sponsored the TVB show Moonlight Resonance.

Strangest coincidence I ran into two of that show’s actresses at the HK airport. O____O

I LOVE ME SOME MARRIAGE PASTRIES! ♥

Some cool decorations at the bakery

That I do.

When we arrived at Narita Airport we ran into a bunch of screaming fans. We later discovered that a plane from Seoul had arrived at the same time as ours with KARA on board.

It took a five hour bus ride to arrive at our ryokan in Fuji Mountain.

This is the ryokan I stayed in near Fuji Mountain. I can’t read that so I can’t tell you what it was called.

After dropping off our luggage, we headed downstairs for our dinner:

Dad’s first reaction: Damnit, so expensive and they don’t even give me a chair!??

Individual shots…

I love the Japanese’s attention to detail…

I even have a video lol

I headed off to bed soon after. By bed I mean futon on tatami, I would not recommend you trying these Krishna, my back hurt like crazy for the first hour and I struggled to fall asleep.

But for some strange reason after I fell asleep I slept straight through to morning and my back didn’t hurt at all.

This morning I went out to look around Admiralty and Wan Chai.

Admiralty is home to the original Pacific Mall: TAI KOO.  But ours can’t compare to this.

Afterwards we walked outside and I spotted this awesome building:

I believe this is the HSBC building in HK. Near the top I think some of the architecture reflects the bank’s logo. Even their escalators look cool.

Near the HSBC building is this one. I think it’s a court house or something because the building has a Lady Justice statue.

It had the coolest sitting area.

We sat there as it rained in HK.The rain in HK is very strange. It almost seems like the city is too busy to even rain. It will rain for about 5 minutes before the sun comes out again. And it’s not even real rain, it’s like gentle spitting. Generally speaking this just makes HK more humid because the rain immediately evaporates into the air. =___=

If I could describe the weather in HK it would be a sauna, it’s difficult to breathe and makes me very dizzy.

**Warning: PIC HEAVY**

We woke up super early today to enter Macau.

We managed to catch the 9:30am ferry to Macau. It took about an hour to reach Macau, I wish I could’ve recorded the view from the ship, but I got seasick and couldn’t lift my head for the entire duration of the ride.

Macau is actually a set of three islands: the Macau peninsula, Taipa and Coloane. We arrived in Sa Tzi of Macau, about a ten minute car ride from the Venetian Casino.

The Venetian hotel is SPECTACULAR.

Even the ceilings are nice.

This one is probably an homage to the Roman oculus in the Pantheon.

I can’t believe this is the same place my brother and dad spotted a woman pulling down her kid’s pants and lifting him high enough to piss in a trashcan in public. Gotta love the Asians.

The casino is a huge place but I don’t have any pictures of it because we are not allowed to take photos inside the casino but only in the lobbies.

Obligatory lame tourist pose.

You gotta love the ceiling within the plaza. It was painted and lighted to look like the sky outdoors. Wicked cool. I later discovered a mall identical to this one in Palette Town in Japan. It was supposed to imitate Hong Kong which doesn’t make much sense since the original mall is in Macau.

There is a plaza within the Venetian as well including a man-made canal for gondola rides. I took one with my mother.

[video]

My dad gambled for a bit while me and my mom went shopping. My brother just wandered aimlessly for a while since he wasn’t allowed in the casino due to the heavy smoke.

Afterward we proceeded to the heart of Macau city. The architecture really took me by surprise because I didn’t know that Macau was previously a Portuguese colony.

Mi casa es tu casa. I totally just made that up.

Pretty.

Check out the ground! You have no idea how hard it is to get a shot of the ground with no feet.

Doesn’t it look like the fish is screaming because the man is stepping on him?

We eat these in Asia. We as in fellow Asians, not me.

Yea WHAT?

The two little Noel dots aren’t fooling anyone.

It was so hot that my brother finally succumbed to buying some Hagen Daaz for 33 HK a scoop. Mind boggling. But it was the best lemon sherbet I’ve ever had.

I think I was most impressed with the pavement in Macau; all painted stones.You’re practically walking on money!

The locals told us that the most famous landmark in Macau was the Ruins of St. Paul. So we went searching for it aimlessly.

To be honest this wasn’t what I was expecting.

I know, you laugh now, but let’s be honest, when all that’s left of a building is the front of the building – it can’t even be called a building, it’s a side essentially – and the plank is reinforced to said side of a building, one is allowed to freak out.

It got too freaky because you can see throught the ground you’re standing on up there. It’s just a steel plank.

My brother made it to the top, this is his video:

[missing video]

Here’s a picture of the famous Grand Lisbon Hotel in Macau.

The air in Macau was terrible, it was incredibly smoggy, I don’t know if it was the weather because it was super humid also. But at least it smelled better than HK. There are two very famous bakery shops in Macau.

Some of you may have tried the Portuguese egg tarts in tea shops and bakery shops back in Canada. I’ve always wondered why those were called Portuguese egg tarts. But I found out that those tarts actually originated in the city of Macau and were named after the colony there. The Portuguese tarts in Macau would shame the ones in Toronto that I’ve tried. Freakin’ amazing.

Greatest Egg Tart I’ve ever had in my life.

Afterwards we headed back to HK and dinner. On my way back to the hotel me and my brother split up from my parents to go to the grocery store. Food is so cheap here. Kalbee Chips are 10.9 HK for 3 packs here, in Canada it is 5 CDN for 2 packs. You can do the math at an exchange rate of 1CDN = 7.60 HK.

We were rushing back to the hotel after to put down our groceries before heading out for some late night dessert.  So as usual the elevator was packed and my brother and I were talking in English. As soon as we reached our floor my bastard brother said in Cantonese: “Joanna, quickly go take your shit before we go out!”

Bastard.

My brother’s actually a funny guy. My mom is on a constant mission to make him lose weight. While we were shopping I told my brother to get the ice cream he wanted but he said, “No, mom is going to bitch and complain. ‘Blah, blah, blah, you’re fat, fuck you’.”

MAN, this song is awesome. Especially the ending

YUM DAM CHA, SIC GOH BAO

Pre-Ladies Street:

Today we went shopping in Mong Kok. This is the only photo I have of that day as it was filled with shopping in what is referred to as “Ladies Shopping Street” in Mong Kok district of HK.

It has got the coolest street names ever.

Tung Choi Street, Sai Yeung Choi Street, they had others but I can’t remember anymore. For those who aren’t Chinese, those are names of Chinese vegetables. =P

At night this district was the largest night market I saw in Asia.

Edit: This was before I visited Hangzhou which had a similar sized night market. But the one in Hangzhou was WAYYYYY more varied than the one in HK which was incredibly and exhaustively repetitive. Seriously, if you get a chance to go… Hangzhou night market FTW!

I’m not joking. This is it.

DAY 3:

Bus ride to Tai Oh:

Arrival in Tai Oh:

The stands had a lot of beautiful stuff…

Food in Tai Oh:

…food stuff…

don’t really need to explain what this is

i’ll save the gambling for Macau (gotta love Conan)

does anyone know what this is?

…weird stuff…

And could this be an Asian trip without a rice paddy hat?

Of course not =D

Hard to believe Hong Kong used to be just a fishing village.

Note: I will upload videos as YT allows it.

Decided to head to Hong Kong Island today.

Looking for 2 dollars.

Aboard the ferry:

Shot from the ferry…

SOOO preeetty.

Approaching Hong Kong island…

Too close. =P

Hong Kong Island:

Pre-Bus Tour Ramble:

HK Bus Tour Part 1:

HK Bus Tour Part 2:

HK Bus Tour Part 3:

[insert 155]

[insert 005]

[insert 429]

I won’t bore you with any more videos =P

Unfortunately I have no pictures of Causeway Bay because I was shopping like crazy. (Shopping = busy = camera in bag)

I took this shot on my iPhone as I left HK Island…

♥

Since YT refuses to cooperate with me in a timely fashion, I’ve decided to make this post in the meantime. Really love this song.

What are you listening to now?

After having tried many of the more well-known participants of Summerlicious, this year we decided to try Lucien. (Which coincidentally was also one of the few restaurants that was open Sundays and had a table for six on the ONLY day all six of us could get together.)

Foolish me, I do not take a picture of the front of the restaurant because it was too hot outside. So I’ve stolen borrowed one from the Universal Lamp website (the people who designed the restaurant). You can check out more of the pics of the restaurant here.

I love the mirror in the back. Here we are waiting for our apps.

Krishna. Probably deep into a “conversation” about pure math.

All our other photos are blurry. GOOD ONE KRISHNA. =P

Heirloom Tomato Gazpacho
garlic toast, peppers, cucumber, olive

According to Roman, this was so, so. =/

~

Yellowfin Tuna Tartare
artichoke, shallot, almond, french bean, escarole, sherry

This tuna was so good with the stuff on top. I have no idea what it was.. tasted like some sort of pâte.

~

But the best appetizer was this one:

Berkshire Pork Belly
sweet peas, soy, pickled radish

There was a fair bit of time before our entrées came.

Roast Fenwood Farms Chicken
summer vegetables, parmesan dumplings, black truffle

This was SOOOOO DELICIOUS. The skin was crispy but the meat was so juicy. ♥

~

Almost everyone else chose this instead:

Naturally Raised Beef
potato gratin, french beans, pickled onion, spiced mustard

But unfortunately this was a little well-done and tough to eat. Although the mashed potatoes were so good. I suspect some cream cheese was added to them.

~

“Chocolate Mousse”
malted milk, mulled cherry and basil

~

I had the cheesecake but it tasted more like poundcake. The deserts were not nearly as delicious as their apps and entrées.

Strawberry cheesecake

~

My girls. =)

We took pictures of the boys too.

Goodnight!

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Afterparty?

This is a terrible photo of me but so worth it for Cheryl’s tongue. *wink*