BACKIE~!

*breaths in*

ほっかいどからかえりました！！

:D Just got back yesterday evening, after one whole day of travelling on the plane. x_x damn tiring.

Spent seven days in various states of Hokkaido, with six nights in hotels and ryokans that has onsen (though I never went to the onsen in the end :/).

Hokkaido is pretty much like the 'kampong' of Japan, quoting from the guide, Elizabeth-san~ :) It has lesser cities/buildings like Tokyo or Osaka, and has more sceneries and mountains instead. According to Elizabeth, people in Hokkaido are more friendly than those in the big cities~ and from what I experience, the older generations are the friendly ones~ :D

This whole week pushed my japanese to the limits....x_x As Changmin from DBSK once said in a Japanese variety show: これはわたしの日本語の限界だ。
I'm reduced to using really simple sentences...and use gestures and body languages to express what I can't with my super limited vocab...^^; 大変です。But it was good experience~ :D Some of the japanese (the older ones actually) were a little surprised that I can speak japanese as well...^^;; ほんとにはずかしいでした！

I watched alot of japanese tv as well~ free tv has around...six to seven channels, and you get all sorts of things...though it depends on the time as well~ Morning tv ranges from news to places and food introductions and so on~ Not sure about afternoon tv, cause I'm usually out somewhere...evening features news, in which almost a person was reported dead everyday. =_= And after news you'll get either jdorama or variety shows or documentaries or reality shows. That also depends on the channels you are watching~

Anyway, I love japanese variety tv!! <3!! It's so interesting, even though I can only figure out part of what they are saying...they got ALL SORTS OF VARIETY SHOW. Like, ALL SORTS. There's this one which talks about laws...in which the guests are shown a particular scenerio, and they have to guess whether the law allows it or not or something...and they gain points based on how many they answer correctly~

There's another one that's like...team vs team, and each team will sit in a circle with a touch pad screen in front of them, and they have to answer textbook/dictionary questions...damn tough, but if you are japanese, it's really educational~ They have around five sections...and each sections has around ten questions with increasing difficulty(one for each person). For some of the sections, players can answer as many times they like, for others they have to get everything correct at first try, or the team fails that section...interesting, isn't it? :D

Then there's this thing called 'Sasuke Challenge', which is like some kind of obstacle course that's really tough and you have guys coming to challenge it...it has two rounds, though most people fail the first round...x_x it's really tough.

One show I really like was this hide-and-seek show...first section features families inviting the hosts of the programme to come to their house for the game...the familes will then hide themselves in their own house, putting obstacles and traps in the house as well, and the hosts have to find them within the time limit, else the family will get the money~ I cracked up at a part where one of the hosts was so damn frustrated that he yelled 'KUSOJIJI!' XDDD

Second part of the show features celebrities, with one group as the finding team, and the other as the hiding team. The hiding team are told to hide in a school in whatever ways they can as well as put traps and obstacles, and each of them are given 100 000 yen in which they can keep if they remained uncaught till the end. The finding team are then given around 2 hours to find all 10 people. In the end, out of the 10 people, only one managed to remain uncaught~ *__* Though all their hiding places were super.

Then I watched the last episode of HANAKIMI LIVE ON TV on tuesday night, 9pm~ 8D I was like 'OMG THIS IS HQ!!' XDD~ But there's ALOT of commercials....x_x so it was quite agonising. >_> The next night, while I was packing my luggage, Bleach came up...........^^;; And I watched it too, all the while complaining about the dropping standard of the anime...that eps features Orihime saying goodbye to Ichigo, who was in a coma after his intensive training, I think...and Orihime was really sad cause no one can see her...:( Still, the quality of it is BETTER than Reborn, which has too much stills. -.-

Hokkaido has alot of HELLO KITTY stuff as well....O[]O I was so utterly tempted to buy them, but I need to reserve my money...soooo, I only bought a few hello kitty stuff...:( Hokkaido has foxes and bears as its trademark as well, thus there's ALOT of foxes plushies and cute stuff. <33333 TOTEMO KAWAII DESU! >___>!!!

Then there's MARIMO~ 8D Marimo is a type of algae that's shaped in a ball, and it grows around 1-5 mm per year, I think...it's only available in Hokkaido (if I'm not wrong), and it's one of Hokkaido's trademarks as well~ :D Seeing marimo wasn't part of the trip though, and the guide didn't say anything about it...but I read about it in Junjyou Romantica~ XDD So I bought some marimo stuff as well~ :D

Basically, it was a relaxed trip, without much rushing around...and the scenery was really nice, especially on the mountains. The weather was cooling too (thought it nearly went as cold as Sydney's winter), and I SAW PACIFIC OCEAN! 8D It really look like 'World's End'~ XD

Anyway, I'll get the photos loaded ASAP and do a more detailed post~ ;D Please look forward to it~! 8D