The King Is No More

It has been almost a few days since this news broke out and gained massive attention worldwide. It was a cloudy Friday (26th June 2009) morning. I got onto the lift to the car park from home, the television in the lift that televised the CNN news non stop from morning till night in the lift itself (Yes! There's a TV in the lift) was again babbling away either it's Obama or terrorists or Iran or wait a minute...

CNN Breaking News

'King of Pop' Michael Jackson is dead. He was 50.

My eyes got stucked on the TV not believing upon what is going on. Michael Jackson... Dead... So young!?!?!? This is got to be a joke. The lift arrived into the car park level and quickly I got myself into the car, turn on the radio and almost every single channel is announcing the king is dead! So this is for real. The King of Pop... is truly dead!

I've even posted a message to announce to everyone in Facebook!

Over the past few days, the radio kept blaring the music of his past work and some radios even presents his future works which has yet being released. Times magazine announces that they will be publishing a commerative issue of the king. Millions gathered around the world to mourn the death of the king. The king brought upon the worlds greatest music as well as the dance that no other could immitate, the moonwalk! It's just like Elvis once again. The "King" is no more...

The moonwalk... the scream "Ow!"... the comeback... the scandals... MJ, being a childhood fan of yours gives me plenty of memories. I've seen my friends who tried their best to be the King wannabes, American Idol and Malaysian Idol monkeys who wants to be you so much... but no one could stand up to the massive pressure of this world like you do. I salute you with the biggest respect that I could possibly give as you touched the lives of many with your music.

MJ we loved you and we will miss you... forever and ever.

The song that I loved the most, Smooth Criminal by no other than the king himself.

A Movie That I've Seen Twice

It has been a while ever since I blogged of a movie that I've watched. And with summer's finally here, the United States cinema industry has been extremely busy and buzzing. There's just so many summer must watch movies starting with Terminator Salvation to kick things off which starring Christian Bale... I missed out on this one because I didn't think it's a must watch summer movie for me although there's just so many buzzing about this movie in the first place. I did watch something exciting recently and this movie really takes the kick.

Name: Transformers - Revenge of the Fallen

Language: English

Date of release: 22nd June 2009 (USA)

Director: Michael Bay

Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, John Turturo

The story basically tells about Sam where he has done his best to put the conflict at Mission City behind him and return to his daily routine, Sam is still an average teenager with everyday anxieties about heading to college, leaving behind his girlfriend Mikaela, his parents and his guardian, Bumblebee; for the very first time. Just as life is about to fall neatly into place at Sam’s new school, once again Sam finds himself at the center of a tug of war between the Autobots and Decepticons with the fate of the universe at stake. Unbeknownst to Sam, he alone holds the key to the outcome of the struggle between evil and the ultimate power of good. With the help of his friends, his pals in NEST and even his parents, Sam finally learns to embrace the Witwicky birthright, no longer hiding from his family legacy: No sacrifice, no victory!

Now I believe that everyone must have watched the first one before heading to the cinemas to watch the second chapter of the movie. I have always admired the movies that was directed by Michael Bay. No one can do the movies any better than him and I was awed by his movies ever since he made big movies such as Amargeddon in 1998 and Pearl Harbour in 2001. When you watch these movies again and again and you won't say that the movie are getting boring. Although the cling clang's heavy armour fighting between Autobots and Decepticons remained as the main core, Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox shows that they are indeed a real couple in the movie which were adored by many and John Turturo's funnies proves that this movie is not all about intense fighting. Michael Bay made many highlights of the mighty the United States military, showing its prowess, and not to mention even the newly elected President Obama did came to light showing the movie is very up to date with its current world.

If you were up for a movie blockbuster for this summer, you wouldn't want to miss this sequel of Transformers. For me, it seems like there's no flaw in the movie as it picks up from the last one and every plot are well narrated by Michael Bay. Some say that the movie are too draggy and some say the first one offers more plot than the second. To me, the second one offers more story line and action than the first. I'd even throw myself into the cinema twice to watch this movie (once with my dear and another with my dad) and it never gets dull, every second of it. I wanted more and I can't wait for the third installation of this movie which rumours has it, should be either by 2011 or 2012. Fingers crossed.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10 stars

I've included the trailer on this posting for those who has yet to watch this movie, you certainly have no idea what you have been missing out on. And those who snubs this movie, I think you have been under-rated yourselves with a D class movie buff goer.

I think I have gone head over heels on this movie that I've even got myself the latest release of Transformers toys by Hasbro. Bumblebee and Optimus Prime. Sorry guys for not taking pictures of the transformed mode of the models. I was kinda lazy to get it transformed as it requires some time to do so. Haha!

Lighten Up The Weekends

Hie everyone. I guess that my fellow readers must be wondering what have I been up to recently. Nothing much, it's just that I have been pretty tied up with work and life is rather busy these days on and off as my dear are in Penang for the past weeks, spending most of my time off sleeping or with her most of it. Again, sorry for not being posting and to make it up to my fellow readers, an advertisment that I saw in cinema recently. Really funny stuff. So relax and chill out for the coming weekends like I am.

Enjoy the weekends everyone as I will post some new updates on my blog again very soon.

A Night In Shibuya (Day 6)

The last of the 5 Part posts on Day 6 are finally here. Thank goodness! There's more in store for Day 7 and I am still juggling upon the idea to split to a few more parts on Day 7 itself. I'll leave that decision once I start blogging on Day 7. Now to finally finish things off...

After we dropped our shopping items from Ueno to the hotel room and had our evening drinks back at the hotel, the clock was showing 7pm, it's time for us to head out again. Passing through the Yebisu Garden Place, the scenery of the lights being turned on with little rays of the remaining sunlight is great sight not to be missed.

Even the flowers looked great in the evenings.

It's the rush hour in Tokyo! The train are jammed packed with people. My first experience being in the sardine environment on board a train. I thought Hong Kong rush hour was bad, this is worse. Lucky for us that our new destination doesn't require for us to be in the train for a long period of time. From Ebisu to Shibuya on the Yamanote Line, it's just one station from each other. Haha!

Shibuya (渋谷区) is one of the 23 special wards of Tokyo. The name are often refering to the central business district which surrounds the Shibuya Station (渋谷駅), one of Tokyo's busiest railway stations apart from Tokyo station.

Shibuya Station hauls at least 2.4 million passengers on an average weekday, I wonder who could beat that kind of passenger load? I almost got lost in the Shibuya station itself as it connects to many rail lines. There's the Yamanote Line, the Saikyō Line / Shōnan-Shinjuku Line, the Keiō Inokashira Line, the Tōkyū Den-en-toshi Line, the Tōkyū Tōyoko Line, the Tokyo Metro Ginza Line, the Tokyo Metro Hanzōmon Line, and the Tokyo Metro Fukutoshin Line. Now which country could beat this? Getting out of the station is difficult too. Unless you are familiar with this place, I wouldn't recommend you to go to Shibuya during the evening.

What is so special in Shibuya in the first place?

Well, Shibuya is famous for its scramble crossing. It is located in front of the Shibuya Station Hachikō exit and stops vehicles in all directions to allow pedestrians to inundate the entire intersection. Three large TV screens mounted on nearby buildings overlook the crossing. The Starbucks store overlooking the crossing is also one of the busiest in the world. If you could remember the Fast and Furious : Tokyo Drift where the drivers drifted through the streets of people, this is it!

This place are constantly known for its leadership in fashion. Why so? It's because Shibuya is the top shopping place in Tokyo. The place is so popular among the youths that almost every youths in Tokyo knows that the next best place to shop for clothes is in Shibuya. Along with many food chain stores and departments for the young generation, there are also plenty of karaoke bars and game centers.

You can also get concert tickets for the hippest Japanese pop/rock groups here in Shibuya.

There are serveral famous only dedicated fashion department stores in this area. The Shibuya 109 or called as "Ichi-Maru-Kyu", the name is actually a pun on that of the corporation that owns it. It is a major shopping center near Shibuya Station, particularly famous as the origin of the kogal subculture. If you were to ask where is the best place to shop in Tokyo for women's fashion? You will definitely get the answer from most of the locals... Shibuya's 109. Although I didn't manage to visit that place but it certainly attracts a large crowd at the entrance to the place.

We've decided to stop by a small Ramen stall on that night. The problem with this place is it doesn't write any English. The goodside of it, the employees can speak broken English. Sounds crazy? Not until you see what's in store. They don't take the orders...

This machine does! Punch in the Ramen that you want, make your final payment to the machine, pass them the ticket and they will serve you the food. Fast food? Doesn't really looks like it. In Shibuya, you will see people shouting at the streets promoting their restaurants and some of these people are so into it that you could feel that they are selling more of themselves rather than the restaurant that they were suppose to promote.

Myself and mom ordered a Cha-Shu ramen which was my favourite while dad ordered his favourite Pork Ribs ramen. We also got the Gyoza as our sides. For drinks, nothing fancy, just good old Japanese Green Tea.

A pose with mom in the little Ramen stall.

I did managed to get myself a few CD's from HMV and a few hairbands for my dear, while for mom she got a few BB Creams for her friends. Didn't shop much from Shibuya mainly because of the crowd.

Now I happen to stumble upon a Kogal (コギャル) as I was heading back to the train station to call it a night. Kogals are famously known for wearing platform boots, a miniskirt, copious amounts of makeup, hair coloring (usually blonde or brown), artificial suntans, and designer accessories. The one in the picture above, I wonder if she's a real Kogal or just a local who is active in the pornography industry. Hmm...

One of Dad's many cravings... and we happened to see it just before we reach the train station. For desserts on that night, we had crepe's. These little crepe stall grows like mushrooms all over Japan as every corner you go, you will definitely see crepe's (as long as the streets are busy enough, there's surely one there). I ordered a banana with caramel while dad wants his with vanilla ice cream in it. Didn't cost that much, around a few hundred yen for a crepe.

Now I managed to make a 5 minute friend with the counter person as I found out that she was from Beijing and she can speak mandarin. So we were engaged into conversation while she was preparing the crepes. Being extremely nice towards her own kind, she put in half a scoop more of ice cream for dad. Haha! I did ask her how often she manage to see chinese people appearing in front of crepes stall, she told me about 1 in half a year time. Hmm... is business this bad or Chinese people don't go to Shibuya at all? The crepes tastes nice though.

A few final shots of Shibuya area to end the Day 6 posts. Time for me to hit the books, exams are getting close. **Groans**

The Market Side Of Ueno (Day 6)

Ready for Part 4 of the 5 for Day 6 posting? This is turning out to be a long post indeed.The day turns out to be soooo long... and I know I know! I'm working as slow as a turtle here, can't put the blame on me as the exams are drawing close and I have lots of reading to catch up. Gosh! I hate exams!!! There's so much to read and the mock exams and the past year papers and the craziness of it...

Ahem! Enough complaining and back to the latest post. Ueno are not entirely consumed by the park itself as there's still part of the area that is bustling with Japan's modern jungle.

The Ameya Yokocho, a street market district that evolved out of an open-air black market that sprung up after World War II. Ameya Yokocho or shortly called out as Ameyoko (アメ横) also means candy store alley as candies were traditionally sold there or American alley because a lot of American products used to be available on the black market.

Opening hours and closing days depend on individual stores, but stores typically opens around 10:00 and closes around 19:00. Most stores are closed on selected Wednesdays. Here you can find everything from discounted brand name jeans to seaweed, hair cream to hats, any type of weird combination that you can think of, it'll appear in front of your eyes.

It's a truly cultural place where you will find Viet, Thai and Filipina girls buying shoes, Russian sailors eating doner kebabs from the friendly Iranian take-out, and local schoolgirls buying brand knockoffs. Mom had her fair share of buying as she bought a few souveniers there. I got myself a hat and my gundams from Yamashiroya (ヤマシロヤ), a 7 storey toy store where you will find yourselves lost in time when you are in there (applies only for a big fan of japanese toys).

We also stopped over at a 9 storey electrical store where it basically sells every type of electrical goods that you could name. From handphones to accessories, computers to camcorders, cameras to... I lost count. I got myself a brand new Sony headset, so does dad but he got a better one by Bose.

We had a very late lunch on that day. Dad suggests that we have KFC. Now in Japan, the KFC that they serve is different although the original receipe chicken is still being maintained. We tried out several other receipes that Japan KFC has to offer. No pictures though as our hands were extremely busy tearing up the oily chicken apart. Haha!

One last picture taken at the main entrance of Ameyoko before heading off the area. This place reminds me of Pasar Malam or the usual Sunday Market scene back home.

After all the sight seeing and shopping around Ueno, it was time for us to head back to our hotel for our daily evening happy hour drinks. Time to grab one last snap shot of the Ueno station before heading off.

The train ride back to Ebisu is another long one as I mentioned on my earlier posts that Ebisu is on the other side of town.

Passing multiple of stations along the way including the all time popular Tokyo train station where all trains seems to be concentrated there.

Reaching Ebisu, dad led us to take a long way around to our hotel; by walking on the hilly streets of Ebisu. However, we were pampered by great weather and scenery of the area where flowers blossomed beautifully. Although I know I was extremely tired from traveling the entire day already, but with this kind of environment, it takes any tiredness away for a moment. After that, I continued my brag to mom and dad... "It's a long walk uphill!!" Will blog again soon.