The Unfit Hikers: Taking Mount Fuji!

First, I will preface this by saying I don't think I want to hike Fuji anymore after this. It was an arduous journey with no decent pay-off at the end. I don't necessarily regret my decision, since it was still an interesting experience, I just wouldn't do it again.

The day before the hike, my hiking buddy Nabil and I stayed at this simple but comfy inn in Kawaguchiko called the Fujizakura after taking the bus from Shinjuku. We picked Fujizakura because it is close to the train and bus station, but that side of town is really boring. Still much nicer than South-East Asian villages I guess, but the small shops and businesses dotted along the main road are all spaced out so we had to walk about 800 metres to the nearest viable food option for dinner, a tempura shop next to the train and bus station. Honestly this tempura shop is probably the best place to eat this side of town if you can't afford the more expensive restaurants. And it's next to the train station! Little did I know this place would save our lives the following day...

Good ol' Fujizakura

Shots of our fav Kawaguchiko eating spot

The tempura master in his element

Good tempura, paired with beer, is like a matchmake in heaven

Ooh, I should probably mention about the Takegawa udon in the picture above, which is supposed to be a local speciality. I prefer the standard broth with Sanuki udon to be honest, but then again I didn't go to a proper udon restaurant in Kawaguchiko (there's quite a few around), pretty sure this tempura place ain't got any strength when it comes to udon, so I'll reserve my judgement till the day I visit a proper Takegawa udon restaurant. Anyway we slept early after watching some tennis on Japanese TV (I think Naomi Osaka was playing? Gosh my memory sucks). Woke up the next day and took a late morning bus from the train and bus station (which was really crowded, hiking season I guess) to Fuji-Subaru 5th Station where we had a proper lunch before starting our hike.

The 5th Station was swarming with tourists too. Mostly tourists who did not intend to hike, judging from their attire. If you ask me, I really doubt there's any point in coming to the 5th Station if you don't want to hike, because this place is just a couple of souvenir shops and a shrine... unless there's some amazing scenic area I don't know about. The weather was quite erratic IIRC, when we first arrived it was kinda misty with a slight drizzle, slightly chilly, and then after that the sun came out and burned all the mists to nothing, but then the mist and drizzle came back again and so on...

A photo I managed to snap when the mist disappeared

Gotta thank the gods for keeping me safe during this hike

Obligatory commemorative photo

After lunch we finally started our hike up. No fear at all about getting lost here, there are sufficient trail markers and hordes of people to follow. We weren't in any rush because we booked our rooms at Toyokan, which is only about half way up Fuji, about 3-4 hours away from the 5th Station. Even though that meant we had to hike at least another 4 hours to get to the summit from Toyokan, the reason for Toyokan rather than a hut closer to the summit was because after looking through tonnes of Fuji mountain huts photos and comments, it became pretty clear that Toyokan definitely had the best rooms. Fuji mountain huts in general are known for being expensive, dingy and spartan, so we were pretty happy to be able to get a booking at the best place Fuji could offer.

There's nothing spectacular on the way up, it's just rocks and more rocks really. And it was drizzling sporadically, but nothing too extreme. Reached Toyokan way before sunset, the friendly hostess briefed us on the house rules in perfect English and we had an early dinner of hamburger (Japanese style, no bread) and rice before heading off to our beds, uhh I mean sleeping bags, around 7 pm, because we had to wake up around midnight to continue if we wanted to catch the sunrise. Yup on Mount Fuji even money can only get you a sleeping bad in a small claustrophobia-inducing partitioned area in a room shared by 20-30 others.

I didn't sleep very well. Honestly I don't think I have ever slept at 7 pm before in my life (jetlag situations aside). A comfy mattress with feather pillows would have definitely helped, but ain't no one bringing those up to Fuji, so we had to contend ourselves with the sleeping bags. I wanted to make good use of my 10,000 yen though, and I knew I needed some rest if I wanted to hike another 4 hours to the top and then another 4-5 hours for the descend. so I squeezed my eyes shut and forced my brain to shutdown. Guessed it did work because I woke up a few hours later. So after a few sessions of fitful sleeping and waking, it was finally time for us to wake up for good and start hiking in the dark to the summit to catch the sunrise.

Ahh, the very beginning

The way up is a lot of this

And this

There's a lot of clouds too I guess

This is what 10,000 yen can get you

This second part of the journey was something of a torture. The path up is steep, especially the part just after Toyokan. The rain was also heavier now compared to during the day, pelting mercilessly at the steady stream of hikers going up towards the summit in the night. Although my Eddie Bauer jacket was good enough to keep my upper body warm and dry, my pants, socks and shoes were not waterproof so I got soaked pretty fast. Hiking in the dark is also a completely different animal from its day counterpart because visibility is so poor that one has to pay extra attention and tread very carefully if one does not want to break his/her neck or go crashing down into the people below. There was definitely no fear of getting lost though, because everyone wants to catch the sunrise so it almost feels more like a moving queue up to the summit, especially nearer to the top. The going was very very slow indeed, but it's not like I could have gone any faster anyway. I was shivering from the cold and wet and exhausted from the physical exertion and lack of sleep. I'm pretty sure Nabil felt the same way too. It got so bad, we gave up on catching the sunrise and decided instead to take a short break at Goraikoukan, the hut closest to the summit. This short break consisted of sipping hot chocolate while shivering violently and pitifully inside the hut. It was still raining and at one point we almost decided to pay another 10,000 yen to screw the entire thing and sleep till our hearts content at Goraikoukan instead. I don't know how and why we pushed on.

We were already too late for the sunrise when we finally reached the summit, and although the rain finally let up, it was still freezing cold up there (I think it was about 5 deg C). Unfortunately, due to the weather, there was no view to be had at all, just loads of mists blocking our view of the valley bellow. So you see, after about 8 hours of hiking in total, getting soaked to the bone and shivering our asses off for the last 4 hours or so, we couldn't even get a good view from the top. Fuji just basically gave us a big "Fuck You" haha. Sadly I took a total of 3 photos on the summit because photo-taking becomes a lesser priority when you're trying not to die from hypothermia.

Thanks for being a champ Nabil! We did it!

I think we basically did only 2 things before starting our descent:
1. Huddle inside a small cafe hut to warm ourselves up. Not very effective because the cafe's huge entrance way was kept open for customers to shuffle in and out. Also, I happily ordered corn sup to warm myself up and received... canned corn sup. In a drinking can, like the type you drink soda from. It tasted absolutely disgusting. Took a sip and then after that I used the can to warm my hands. When there was no more heat left to absorb I chucked it away (sorry).
2. Huddle inside a stinking public toilet to warm ourselves up. It was smelly, it was dirty, but oh we were so reluctant to leave because it was considerably warmer inside. Never in my life would I have imagined that I would choose to hang out in a stinking toilet under any circumstances.

Before coming here, I had plans of sending a postcard from the post office on top of Fuji, walking around... exploring... but I completely forgotten about those plans due to my sufferings. I just wanted to get down from there and huddle up in someplace warm. So after getting my souvenir wooden pole stamped in the shrine (yes there's a shrine), we descended the mountain. Descending was even duller. Imagine just circling round and round the mountain for hours and hours with this being your only view:

I was thinking miserably about how walking round and round like that forever with no end could potentially be some form of eternal damnation. It even started raining again when we were close to the bottom. Still, finally the reddish soil part ended and we found ourselves back on the path that we trekked up the day before, only now we were in the opposite direction. I was so thankful when the buildings of the 5th Station finally came into view.

While it was definitely a memorable experience hiking Fuji, but I think I'll just leave it as a once in a lifetime thing. Some things are better from afar:

From a distance... Fuji is all beauty and grace

Omake: When we finally got back to Kawaguchiko station, we were extremely exhausted and still soaking wet. Although we wanted to check into the swanky hotel we booked and crash into bed immediately, we thought it better to grab a quick bite first. Thanks to the tempura shop from the day before, we didn't have to walk any further. I traipsed water everywhere, made the chair I sat on wet and the tempura doesn't taste that great when you're cold and tired, but I am still extremely grateful for the presence of that little tempura shop. Ah, what would we have done without you?

The Unfit Hikers: Tiger Leaping Gorge 2018

Finally after all the bother of moving to Kuantan followed by a great 2 weeks in the States (which I will hopefully find time to write about at some later date), I got a laidback weekend with barely any plans so that I can just sit back and do some reflection… and also clean the house. The latter is still in progress and while I’m taking a break, I thought I would write about the hiking I did at the Tiger Leaping Gorge last September with Thamarai. This trip is monumental for me because it’s the first time I’ve ever done some serious hiking. Before this I had only hiked some small hill (name forgotten) in Sungai Petani with Anas and Maya. There was also that failed attempt in Switzerland (IIRC on one of the mountains near Lucern) where mum, dad, Anne and I started on a hike to some lake but quickly gave up less than 10 minutes in and turned back after we realized we were just not cut out for it what with the lack of gear and the sweltering Swiss summer sun (alliteration!).

Before we actually got to the Tiger Leaping Gorge we were in Kunming for slightly more than a day and Lijiang for another few. Kunming’s dull really, it’s just another grey and unremarkable big city. The stone forest about an hour away is pretty, true, but very touristy. I guess the only memorable part was when Thamarai and I were trying to find one of those motels where you could rent a room for just a few hours rather than an entire night. The story being our train only left in the night and we had to check out of our previous room at Holiday Inn by noon, so we wanted somewhere to shower before boarding the train. I did my research and found one near the train station but they didn’t accept non-local guests (racist!) so we were out on the streets trying to find another place with about an hour before our train was scheduled to depart. This lady on the street (there’s tonnes of people just hovering on the streets, not sure why) told us she could help us find one and started making all these calls. I don’t know why we didn’t walk away then. Then she asked us to follow her and let us to this 2-star looking business hotel. I was relieved because I was expecting something dodgier. Little did I know we were about to experience the epitome of dodgy. She led us straight past the front desk to the lifts to go up, and by that time both of us were beginning to sense something amiss, so we started to refuse and balk, but she and her guy partner who met us outside the lifts insisted that they were a legit travel company (my ass). The room they showed us was uncleaned but empty, and they told us to be quick about the shower. I guessed it either belonged to some poor hotel guest who was outside at that time oblivious to the hijacking or it was a room whose occupant had already left but was yet to be cleaned. Either way we should have just declined, and I did try albeit weakly, but between their insistence and my own tractability, coupled with our desire to shower before getting on an overnight train… we just gave in. Stupidest idea ever. To think of what could have had happened to us if they were also evil in addition to greedy. We took turns showering, one of us keeping watch at the door while the other was in the bathroom. It costs us about 70 yuan I think, my most expensive shower to date. But I’m just grateful that all they wanted was some extra cash and that we got out unscathed.

Lijiang is full of traditional buildings, whether original or built for tourism purposes I’m not too sure…. My guess would be original but refurbished since it’s a UNESCO heritage site. Being there makes you feel like you’ve been transported back to one of the dynasties of ancient China, if you can overlook the people walking around in T-shirt and jeans and your own phone beeping away in your pocket. 90% of the shops there sell either one of the following:
1. Freshly roasted rose tea
2. Rose pastries (a Yunnan speciality)
3. Souvenirs (that they all got from the same supplier)
4. Pu Er tea
5. Yak-made products

So yeah it was really touristy, but as a tourist I enjoyed it. And touristy and commercialized it may be, there is no denying its beauty and history.

Still, the main event of our trip was the Tiger Leaping Gorge hike and it was by far the best part of the journey for me. We took a bus from Lijiang and arrived at the starting point – the town of Qiaotou around 11 am and after dumping our luggage at Jane’s Guest House, we embarked on our journey, this block here indicating the start of the trail:

It all quickly became very disappointing because I didn’t realize that the first one hour of our hike would consist of walking along an asphalt road dodging huge trucks and their toxic exhaust fumes.

We had to suffer through this for an hour.

Sure, there was a nice valley view (albeit slightly marred by the huge amount of construction going on) but in the pictures online everyone was hiking through greenery and mountains and there we were walking alongside a village road with noisy and dusty trucks. I was starting to wonder if we had come too late, that human development had reduced the Tiger Leaping Gorge trail into this travesty, when we came upon the actual starting point, a gap in the fence bordering the mountains in the midst of some houses. The trail went steeply up into the mountains, littered with lots of what I presumed to be horse dung and it was about noon at this point so we were sweating profusely, but finally it was soil and grass beneath our shoes instead of asphalt and I was glad to be finally hiking in nature.

When we decided to go hiking here I was kinda worried we would get lost along the way, especially since my sense of direction is non-existent, but I needn't have worried, because throughout the trail there were these blue signs every now and then guiding us forward. There were also writings on the rock by the various guest houses indicating the direction to their establishments, which even though was a bit of an eyesore, gave me comfort that we were going the right way:

Occasionally there were well-meaning yet horribly translated signs on the dangers of forest fire.

I think we were about an hour or so into our uphill hike when we came upon one of the mountain natives with his horse. He asked us if we would like a ride since it would be a challenging hike but we declined politely. I didn’t come all this way just to sit on a horse and let it carry me to my destination. In the case of hiking, the journey is what defines and makes the experience memorable no? It was around this time also that we bumped into some other hikers – a local Chinese couple, which made me feel better cause I was starting to wonder if we were the only two souls around in this place. I’d read that from the start of the trail, getting to the next main stop - Naxi Guest House would take around 3 hours, but we took around 4 hours I think, which could be partially due to our physique not being as great as those writers I guess. More significantly though, when we were about half an hour away from the village where the Naxi Guest House was located, we met the local village doctor who told us that we had to make a detour because a lone elderly Australian hiker had passed away on the trail not too long ago. Then he took us and the Chinese couple on a detour through almost half an hour of corn fields after which we finally reached Naxi’s, where I had the best scrambled eggs and tomatoes in my life and a pretty darn good fried rice too. My own eggs and tomatoes are just inedible by comparison. I will also be adding the fried rice at Naxi’s to my list of acceptable fried rice, now of which only contains Hong Kong famous boat restaurant Jumbo’s.

After much ascension, we finally stumbled into a valley and came upon the first major village.

Best. Fried. Rice. Ever.

The lady boss of the Naxi Guest House is a sweetheart.

The sky was a tad bit dark when we were about to depart Naxi’s at around 4:30 p.m. and we heard a loud clap of thunder once. Another hiking group emerged at Naxi’s saying they turned back since it seemed like it was going to rain, and the Chinese couple also said they were gonna stay at Naxi’s for the night despite having bookings at the next guesthouse, the Tea Horse, because they weren’t confident that they could tackle the next stretch – the infamous 28 Bends, which is supposed to be the hardest part of the journey, and make it to the guesthouse by sunset. I didn’t really want to stay the night at Naxi’s because it would mean that we would have a lot more trail to cover the next day. Besides, I had already booked rooms at the Tea Horse and most visitors agreed that they had the best rooms in the Tiger Leaping Gorge. So Thamarai and I decided to go ahead and tackle the 28 Bends even though we didn’t have flashlights just in case we had to hike in the dark. We had just started out when we heard the jingle of bells and spotted one of those mountain natives and his horses behind us. The trail was still continuing upwards and we had ample self-awareness of how slow we were going, so we told horse guy to go ahead but he declined. That was smart of him and horrible for us. As he was on a horse he was moving much faster than we could have ever hope to, he was constantly hovering behind us, like an annoying fly. It made me, the person at the front, stressed out as I felt like I had to move faster and faster so that he wouldn’t be caught up behind us. Thamarai said she felt stressed too as the horses kept having to stop since they were moving faster than us, and they were also literally breathing down her back. We tried telling horse guy to go ahead again, but he claimed he was fine following behind. He said that we would never make it to the Tea Horse before sunset, and that the 28 Bends were perilous, that many other groups rode his horses to get across, that he was our only hope so how about we just hop on his horses? Well, his fear-mongering was starting to really get to me, and I almost gave him my backpack to carry not because I couldn’t carry it but rather because I just wanted to get rid of him. Thank goodness Thamarai didn’t let me do that. We tried again to tell him no thank you, we didn’t want to ride his horses and not to waste his time on us. I said he could give us his number and we’ll call him if anything. This time, after an annoyed “If I go back to my village I’m not coming back out to get you girls!”, he left for good. After that the hike was much more enjoyable for the both of us. Honestly, in spite of its reputation, I don’t really think the 28 Bends was that difficult to hike. If anything, I thought the stretch before Naxi’s was worse. The path was windy as it followed the side of the mountain, but I’m not sure what’s considered a bend and hence I can’t say if there were really 28 of them. The view of the mountain range across the canyon was just spectacular, and the clouds feel impossibly close by.

The apperance of a rainbow gave us so much needed hope and strength.

After a while, the trail started to go more down than up, and Thamarai and I picked up our pace. We finally made it to the Tea Horse at around 7:20 p.m., 10 minutes before sunset. Two middle fingers up to annoying horse guy. There, we proved you wrong. The family-run Tea Horse felt a bit like heaven after a long day’s hike with a pesky horse guy, even more so with its location tucked high up in the mountains. As we had our dinner in the guest house’s restaurant with its huge glass windows overlooking the mountains, our surroundings were already dark, and we could hear the wind howling incessantly through the mountains. Boy was I glad we were quick enough to arrive before it got dark. We got a room in the renovated wing, and for a mountain guest house I got to say it was a really great room. New, cosy, comfortable and with a slight vintage vibe. No wonder the reviews online said it was the best guest house in the Gorge.

Taken in poor lighting and does not do the room justice at all.

The next morning after breakfast we continued our journey. This part of the hike was very pleasant, we were basically walking on a narrow trail along the side of the mountain, with villages and the river below us. Not much ascent or decline so it was relatively easy. It wasn’t scary either cause it was just a gentle grassy slope to the side so no worries if you tripped or fell off the trail.

We arrived at the Halfway Guest House in time for a lunch of pancakes. The dining area faces the mountains so I had a great view while devouring my pancakes. It was also over here that we met a very cool Malaysian couple, but more on them later. The Halfway is also famous for its toilets with a great view so of course I had to try them out. As with all the other toilets up here, there is so separate cubicles, you’re separated from other occupants by a chest-high wall, and everyone pees or poops into this common drain so things can get a bit awkward. Thank goodness there was no one there when I entered. I didn’t take a picture but I guess it was definitely the best view I ever had while peeing.

The trail after Halfway was similar, but scarier in the sense that rather than a grassy slope, to our side was a much steeper, rocky cliff. The path was rockier and there were openings in the mountain wall that we had to passed through. There was one point where a whole herd of goats was coming from the other direction and Thamarai and I had to stand aside to let them pass cause the trail was only wide enough for one. This happened a second time but with horses instead. I think I almost got smacked in the face by one of the horse’s tails. We also had to ford two or three waterfalls during this part of the trail. It was slow going because the rocks were wet and slippery and a wrong step could spell the end of you.

The final, descending part of the trail was boring. It was a red mud road, and the scenery was relatively dull after all the beauty and wonder of the trail before it. We arrived at the end of the trail which was by the side of Tina’s Guest House:

This was where the Malaysian couple from before caught up with us. While checking with the lady at Tina’s (Could she be Tina?) on transportation back to Kunming, she also told us that we should visit the Middle Leaping Gorge, which is basically hiking and climbing down the rockface to this big rock in the middle of the raging river where a tiger was said to have leapt across the gorge to escape from hunters, hence the name Tiger Leaping Gorge yada yada. Well, the thing is we really wanted to go but couldn’t as we would have to pay the natives because they claimed to be the ones who developed the trail without any help from the government and built a tiny rickety bridge from the edge of the gorge to the rock, and we didn’t have enough cash, especially since we had to put aside some money for the next day’s long trip to Kunming. So feeling rather bummed, we continued walking by the side of the main road to reach our lodgings - the Tibetan Guest House. Along the way though, there was a signboard claiming to have a good viewing point overlooking the Middle Leaping Gorge for a payment of only 5 yuan per person.

The signboard and collection box.

The disappointment from not being able to hike down to the Middle Leaping Gorge still stung, so we decided to go for this one instead. The trail went through a farm before going steeply down through wild thickets, it took us about 15 minutes to reach the viewing platform and I was pretty tired by that time. The viewing platform was exactly what it claimed to be and nothing more, a stretch overlooking the famous rock with some barriers by the side to alleviate slightly the fear of falling over the edge and becoming fish food.

You can spy the famous Middle Leaping Gorge rock at the bottom right hand side.

The Tibetan Guest House was nestled in the area known as Walnut Garden about 2 km away from Tina’s, a family run establishment owned by a friendly elderly man. The man and his son were the only two people running the whole show from check-in to cooking meals. I think they mentioned that the chef was on maternity or something. The rooms were old and run down if compared to the luxury (going by mountain lodge standards) we had at the Tea Horse, and hot water was limited as well, but still, it felt cosy and homey, and had a great mountain view as well.

The Malaysian couple we met at Halfway were having dinner at the dining room and asked us to join them. Turns out they were not really hardcore hikers but enjoyed travelling and went on trips about 3-4 times per year. I had a great time talking to them, only wished I had asked for their Facebook or something, because trying to stalk the guy based on the name card I got has been a complete failure thus far.

The next day we took a bus back to Lijiang. Nothing much here except I guess for the part when we were getting our suitcases back from Jane’s and hauling them on to the bus that would take us back to Lijiang. All the other tourists had hiking packs or reasonably sized luggage, the locals had small briefcases and handbags only, and then in waltz Thamarai and I with our super duper gigantic suitcases and everyone just flat out stared at us. The Malaysian couple even started laughing. Oh well guys, we can’t help it, we pampered princesses need all our skincare and clothes and makeup ya know?

"All I wanted was to save you, even if it meant my life. "

I've been bumming around for more than 6 months and never bothered to blog even once throughout the entire period but now that I've (finally) started working, I decided to write/type again. Yup, that sounds like me alright. I have a thousand and one rants about my entire job situation but since it's dangerous to bitch about work, I have decided to talk about Final Fantasy XV because I just finished it last week before my induction started and it's also much easier talking about a game than it is talking about my feelings. And goodness knows when we'll be getting another major Final Fantasy title, they spent 10 years on XV, might be another 10 or more before XVI comes out.

Spoilers abound, naturally.

The game has been on a mind a lot because the ending was so (unnecessarily) tragic. Throughout the whole game, I, as Noctis, was motivated by the desire to destroy my bitter and vengeful ancestor Ardyn as well as all the daemons and restore light to my awesome kingdom of Lucis. Seriously, pre-daemon infestation Lucis is such a beautiful place, if it were a real country the main industry would be tourism and and it would beat Switzerland in terms of annual number of tourists. Just look at the scenery!

To be fair, Altissa is really gorgeous too, it's like Venice but even better. Except it's still a rip-off of Venice so Lucis is better.

(Looted from ulric-nyx's tumblr)

Really big kudos to the design team for designing such a beautiful world. Anyway back to the issue at hand. I was so pumped up because I thought in the end Noctis would be able to save his people, reclaim his throne (that's one of the game's taglines isn't it?) and marry the girl of his dreams, Luna. But I completely forgot that the FF team luuuuuurves tragic endings now not only does dream girl Luna die before Noct gets to meet her (And they haven't met for 12 years goddamit!), Noct had to sacrifice himself to bring down Ardyn so guess what? No more Oracle and Lucis Caelum bloodline. Great. So Lucis is gonna be a republic now? I was mad enough because I was shipping Noct and Luna so hard and not only do they kill her, they kill her OFFSCREEN ("Oh, her body just disappeared in the waves!" or some nonsense) after so little screentime. Romance in real life is frustrating enough, can we not have the star-crossed lovers theme for once? You know, at least in Westworld even though Dolores and Will were star-crossed lovers they were still together for a short period of time, but we're not even given that small satisfaction in this game. Noct and Luna just... never properly meet, unless you count looking at each other through a crowd of people as meeting. Sigh, they just wanted to get into each other's pants, but Square Enix is cold and heartless. It's also a lot of wasted potential, because Luna was such a strong female character. She went through a lot just to make sure Noctis became king and without her Noctis couldn't have defeated Leviathan. Seriously, taking down a boss monster together? #relationshipgoals enough said. I was quite upset when Luna died and the scene with the blue flowers was heart-breaking, but there are people on Reddit saying that they felt more emotional when Ignis went blind because they didn't really know Luna. So, Square Enix, Episode Luna as DLC please, if you would be so kind.

Omg Luna whyyyy *dries eyes* (Looted from mistress-light's tumblr)

Ok, if you want to kill Luna off, fine, did you have to kill Noctis too? Why couldn't he have survived and gotten together with Iris and have beautiful Lucis Caelum babies who continue to rule over Lucis? Joanne calls Iris a homewrecker because she's constantly fangirling over Noctis even though he's engaged to Luna and all but honestly, what girl wouldn't go crazy over him? If I were Iris I would pick up sewing and stitch moogle plushies for Noct-oniichan too. Heck, my ovaries would never be calm in his company. I say cut Iris some slack. Speaking of Iris, we never actually get to see her after the 10 years time skip, nor Cindy nor Aranea nor Cid. Hey Square, how about cutting some budget from the Cindy car washing scenes and channeling them into a few minutes of screentime for post-time skip Iris and Cindy? It sucks to hear Talcott (who's totally legal now, ladies) speak of how they have become strong, successful women but never actually get to see them in person. Oh it's not only the good guys who get shafted, besides Ardyn all the "bad guys" combined get even less screentime than Iris. I didn't know that this ugly bat-like daemon was the emperor Iedolas until I read Reddit:

I think a lot of people must have been clueless too, because the developers added a sidestory where you play as Gladiolus and finally showed Iedolas becoming a daemon in the latest patch. Ravus's downfall was really disappointing too. When Gladiolus got his ass handed to him by Ravus early on in the game, I was so certain that Ravus would be a major baddie, like the second-in-command to Ardyn, and that I would have to face him again in the future. Well, face him again I did, but he was weakened by Ardyn already (something they only revealed in the patch, not in the original game) and I defeated him so easily, the battle was kinda anticlimactic. It could be because I was like more than 15 levels above the recommended level at that point though haha. Still, I really don't know anything about Ravus other than he's Luna's brother and is actually a good guy? And I'm not even sure about the latter.

Yes, anticlimactic is the perfect word to describe FFXV's story, especially the ending. At the end I was just like "Is that it? I worked so hard and Noctis died?". It makes it hard to finish all the side quests and to play the upcoming DLCs because I already know that in the end Noctis is going to die. The rest of my boyband Ignis, Prompto and Gladiolus might all be dead too, for all I know, it's never explicitly stated in the game so it's all speculation. I really loved the boys' interactions, it was probably one of the best things about the game. Not much backstory nor character development was given to any of them except Noctis (No I did not watch the anime), but I still ended up liking all of them through their banters and quirks ("I came up with a new recipe!"). Which brings me to another gripe of mine. So Noctis disappears for 10 years before returning, and none of his friends are mad at him for being ditched? I would get mad if my good friend didn't reply to my Facebook message within a few days and the remaining 3 are so chill when Noctis finally turns up. I was expecting more drama, like some "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!!?" and tears and abandonment issues, but everyone acts like they've been expecting me. Did they manage to find another Oracle while Noct was gone that predicted his return? As consolation, there was a campfire scene before the final boss fight that was really poignant. I think Noctis' seiyuu and the animators did a pretty good job capturing the emotions of the character in that situation.

It's more than I can take too, Noct :'(

At the end, when Noctis said "俺 …お前らのこと好きだわ!", ahhh it was like being hit by a truc... eh not really, maybe a car. The truck came with the wedding scene:

Ok, make that 2 trucks. (Looted from kousuisetsu's tumblr)

Noctis is so dreamily handsome here. :') (Looted from kousuisetsu's tumblr)
Sometimes the development team handles emotional scenes so well, and sometimes they suck so bad. I'm so confused.

Anyway so the storytelling in FFXV is flawed, but the plot is actually pretty easy to follow, unlike Type 0, which was so confusing, although the tragic ending worked quite well in that game, and also FFVII, which is the most famous game in the series right? Well I never played the original, but I've read about the plot numerous times and I still find it incredibly difficult to understand. I probably play less than 5 games per year so I don't think I'll be much good at commenting on the gameplay and battle system, I will just say that it was fun enough for me most of the time. The Leviathan boss battle was the most epic (well the second part, because in the first part Noctis was close to useless), especially with Apocalypsis Aquarius playing in the background (My favourite song from the game hands down) and Noctis going all god-mode on Leviathan, I think I was close to spazzing. The only small letdown was that I was just mashing the O button 90% of the time during the fight, unlike in normal fights where I usually warp and defend and do teamwork stuff with my boys Ignis, Prompto and Gladiolus.

Eh, am I done already? Somehow I remembered having crazy lots of things to rant about FFXV. It sounds like I didn't like the game, but I actually really did, despite its flaws especially in the storytelling department. I do think that 10 years of development time is too long though, and with that much time, an even better game should have been produced compared to the one we actually got. The game is depressing enough as it is, so I'll end this post with a happier picture:

Genius! (Screenshot from achromatic-cai's tumblr)

Ok now that I've express all my thoughts and emotions, I hope I can move on and focus on work. I have to move outstation sometime later this month, feeling extremely apprehensive about the whole thing. :(

"Always. "

Yes, every summer I write a blog post, in a weak attempt to practice whatever remains of my writing skills. I haven't even started yet but I already feel so demotivated. Why is it so hard to collect my thoughts and express myself in a way that's not dull?

Words cannot express the amount of gratitude I feel for being given the opportunity to do research in the University of Tokyo, not only because Japan is cool and has great food (I think I had cheap sashimi once every 2 days) but also because I really wanted to try my hand at research since I'm considering that as a future job option. I only wished the programme was longer because I felt like I didn't manage to accomplish much in the span of 5 weeks, but I am grateful enough that I had the opportunity to make my own plug flow and batch reactors and hydrotalcite catalyst from scratch, something which I have never done before:

I could go on all day about my month there, but I'm far too lazy and too inept at articulating everything I want to say, so I'm just going to list down some facets that I found interesting:

1. One can go cycling at 10 pm without fear of getting mugged
The University of Tokyo Kashiwa campus is located in well, Kashiwa (duh), which is in Chiba prefecture. Compared to the hustle and bustle that is downtown Tokyo, it's much more serene here and a lot of people cycle to work and school, there are even bicycle lanes and bicycle parking lots:

Not sure if this is the norm throughout Japan, but I love this system because it is a much greener way to get around. I wish the same could be implemented in Malaysia, but cycling here feels like asking to be knocked down by a car.
Since there were plenty of events going on and running experiments in the lab is a full day business, there were many times where I left the university campus late at night. And whenever I could get my hands on Daniyar's bike, I would cycle back to the hotel. With the crickets and cicadas chirping and the wind on your face and hair, cycling in the night feels amazing, even more so than in the day - You're lost in the moment and for a while, all your problems don't matter in the very slightest.

2. The onsen experience
I told myself I would try going to the onsen at least once and I am proud to say I accomplished my mission and went a total of 4 or 5 times, albeit only in the last 2 weeks I was there. I find it interesting that a country with such a reserved culture would have a tradition of public bathing. I can't stand looking at myself naked, let alone looking at other people or letting others see me in this way, but everyone was telling me how awesome soaking in the onsen felt and the hotel's onsen was exceptionally beautiful so I thought, what the heck right? I should at least partake in this cultural experience at least once. After a few failed attempts at finding a time when the onsen is completely vacant (NEWSFLASH IT IS NEVER EMPTY), I gave up and just went during a time when there were less than 5 people around. Being short-sighed is a blessing in this case, the moment I took off my glasses in the changing room, I couldn't see anything but rough shapes, so public bathing ended up being not that mortifying after all. After the first attempt, I decided I kinda enjoyed it so I ended up going a few more times when there were less people around, namely after midnight.

3. Japan is a wonderland for drinks
I can't help spending money on drinks, it's been a really bad habit of mine since young. Every time I catch sight of some cool-sounding beverage on the menu, it takes enormous self-restraint to prevent myself from shelling out the sad remains of my purse. Most of the time I just give in and treat myself. Lucky for me, there is no lack of variety in Japanese supermarkets when it comes to drinks, alcoholic and non-alcoholic alike, and every season, beverage companies come up with new varieties of existing drinks or completely new drinks that are limited to that particular season. I remember there being a lot of melon-based drinks as well as isotonic drinks since it's summer right now. I regret not taking pictures of my favourites, I only have one of the green tea I love:

Normal green tea (Summer version, which is supposed to be more refreshing), ice lemon tea and jasmine green tea all by the same company, Suntory, coincidentally, whose whisky distillery we also got to visit.
After coming back to Malaysia, I tried looking for the same green tea in Shojikiya and they actually have it! Joy! And then I found out they wanted RM 8 for it. ROBBERY IT'S ONLY 100+ YEN IN JAPAN.
I really love this one too:

Kirin's Salty Lychee isotonic drink, picture looted from Kirin's website because I was a fool and forget to take a photo.
And back here I'm stuck with plain ol' 100 plus. :'( Don't even get me started on the alcoholic drinks, I miss Suntory's yubari melon chuuhai and Horoyoi drinks so much it hurts. Actually, I think variety is present in almost everything here. If you walk down the snacks aisle in the supermarket, you can see more than ten flavours of Calbee on the shelves and Calbee is but one brand.

4. Conveyor belt sushi is amazing
And I am not talking about Sushi King. I only went to two different conveyor belt sushi chains during my stay, the first (and, according to Masahiro, the best conveyor belt sushi chain) was Sushiro and the other was Kurazushi, and each restaurant has their own unique ordering system. Sushiro goes by a colour system where each table is identified by its own individual colour and everything you order on your personal screen will be delivered on the conveyor belt to you on plates with aforementioned colour, so that you know which is yours. You also know when your food will be coming because of a burst of cheery music from the screen and an announcement of "Your food is arriving shortly!"".

Photo from the time I Sushiro-ed alone because everyone had already left Kashiwa at that time. :'(
I should really franchise Sushiro and bring it to Malaysia, then it'll be goodbye Sushi Zanmai your service has been steadily deteriorating anyway. A potential problem will be having your food stolen by others who just couldn't be bothered to order their own, since there's nothing stopping people from taking someone else's food. So maybe Kurazushi's system would be more easily implemented in Malaysia...
Besides the normal conveyor belt with the different types of sushi on it, Kurashi has another belt? or what Masahiro calls "the shinkansen track", because after ordering on the screen, your food will be delivered by zooming straight to your table on this track (Hence shinkansen), bypassing the other customers' tables. HOW INNOVATIVE IS THAT. :D I was so fascinated I felt like ordering more stuff just to see them zoomed to me. I should also mention that not only is the tech cool, the food in all these conveyor belt restaurants is actually really tasty, no Sushi King or Sakae Sushi nonsense, but I guess that's kinda a given since it's local fare.

5. The curious case of the lack of rubbish bins
There is a serious lack of rubbish bins in Tokyo. I experienced this first hand when, after eating about three quarters of the crepe I bought in Harajuku I wanted to chuck it because I was feeling jelat from all the whipped cream that all these crepes seem to have. Walked down half a street, and not just any street but the main tourist attraction street Takeshita Doori and we couldn't find a single bin. Reddy was convinced there would be one in the JR Harajuku train station so we walked back there since we were going home anyway but we failed to find one there either which really surprised all of us but no matter, we were getting off at Akihabara to change to another line, the Tsukuba Express, that would take us back to Kashiwa, so there was bound to be one somewhere along the way right? Nope. We didn't find any until we got back to our hotel rooms. On the bright side I got tired of holding my half-finished crepe, so somewhere along the way back I finished it. Despite there being no bins around, the streets of Tokyo are still almost spotlessly clean though.

6. Summer is a great time to be in Japan
If you can stand the heat and humidity, summer in Japan is great because there are a lot of different festivals going on and every city seems to have its own fireworks festival. I was lucky enough to have had the chance to go for the one at Arakawa River near Kita-Senjuu, just a few train stops away from Kashiwa. By that time, everyone from my programme had already left, but Matsuoka-san from my lab said he was going too, so I had great company watching the most amazing fireworks I have ever seen in my life (Sorry Hong Kong Disneyland, I'm booting you to second place):

In my blog post about my 3 day visit to Japan last year I said

Next time I'm going to visit Hakone, Kyoto, Osaka, Hokkaido, Okinawa...... You know what I'm just gonna travel all across Japan.

Despite my month long stay, I didn't manage to visit any of the 5 places for a multitude of reasons: Having too much fun with my program mates and lab mates in Tokyo, not enough cash to shinkansen my way around Japan etc . etc., but I did visit Yamanashi and Tochigi (Gotta thank my lab mates for this trip). So... including Chiba and Tokyo, that's 4 prefectures down, and 43 more to visit! I'm pumped up and ready! Now I just need the cash and some good company. ;)