Hey Kitty Kitty

How To Install MySql

2026-08-26T19:48:10.090-07:00

Preparation

ssh ascy00224
mkdir -p /infrastructure/agk
mkdir -p /infrastructure/agk/sqldb
mkdir -p /infrastructure/agk/log
mkdir -p /infrastructure/agk/bin
mkdir -p /infrastructure/agk/cnf
 
CNF File
/infrastructure/agk/cnf/agk.cnf
 
[server]
user=sys_psggkadm
basedir=/infrastructure/agk/sqldb
datadir=/infrastructure/agk/sqldb/data
socket=/infrastructure/agk/sqldb/socket
port=3306
log-error=/infrastructure/agk/log/mysql.err
pid-file=/infrastructure/agk/mysqld.pid
bind-address          = 0.0.0.0
[mysqld]
server_id           = 5
binlog_do_db        = pice_vnc
log_bin             = /infrastructure/agk/log/mysql-bin.log
log_bin_index       = /infrastructure/agk/log/mysql-bin.log.index
relay_log           = /infrastructure/agk/log/mysql-relay-bin
relay_log_index     = /infrastructure/agk/log/mysql-relay-bin.index
binlog_expire_logs_seconds = 864000
max_binlog_size     = 100M
log_slave_updates   = 1
auto-increment-increment = 2
auto-increment-offset = 1
default_authentication_plugin = mysql_native_password
max_user_connections=3000
max_connections=3000
wait_timeout = 60
key_buffer_size=1500M
thread_cache_size=1500
innodb_buffer_pool_size=6400M
tmp_table_size=150M
innodb_file_per_table
skip-host-cache
skip-name-resolve
lc-messages-dir = /p/psg/ctools/mysql/8.0.20/linux64/share
lc-messages = en_US
 
Commands
Initialize New Mysql 
1.1 /p/psg/ctools/mysql/8.0.20/linux64/bin/mysqld --defaults-file=/infrastructure/agk/cnf/agk.cnf --user=sys_psggkadm --initialize
server startup
1.1 /p/psg/ctools/mysql/8.0.20/linux64/bin/mysqld --defaults-file=/infrastructure/agk/cnf/agk.cnf --user=sys_psggkadm &
server shutdown
2.2 /p/psg/ctools/mysql/8.0.20/linux64/bin/mysqladmin shutdown -uroot -p'' -S /infrastructure/agk/sqldb/socket
sql shell (to connect to mysql server)
3.3 mysql --socket=/infrastructure/agk/sqldb/socket -uroot -p
 
Step By Step
sudo as sys_psggkadm and ssh ascy00224
on one terminal, run server startup command
1.1 check /infrastructure/agk/log/mysql.err, where temporary password is provided. eg:
2026-08-11T05:26:02.042999Z 6 [Note] [MY-010454] [Server] A temporary password is generated for root@localhost: ly:!i5!jq()S
on another terminal, run sql shell with the temporary password
change password:
ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'newpw'
FLUSH PRIVILEGES
add new admin user:
CREATE USER 'lionelta'@'%' IDENTIFIED WITH mysql_native_password BY 'abc123';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'lionelta'@'%' WITH GRANT OPTION;
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
Done. You are now able to login as admin with following connection string
>mysql -h ascy00224 -P 3306 -ulionelta -pabc123

Display Not Found / No protocol specified

2026-02-23T15:47:00.000-08:00

When faced with these errors, it most probably means your X11 forwarding authorization is not set up (or messed up).

You will need to manually authorize X11 forwarding.

Here are the steps

`xauth list` --> this cmd will list out all the currently authorized list. They are 3 columns, and in the following format:

dpyname protoname hexkey

<dpyname> = this is your session, and can be gotten by running `echo $DISPLAY`

<protoname> = MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1

<hexkey> = can be generate thru `mcookie`

Here's the real example of the above mentioned steps:

>echo $DISPLAY
ascca05411310.sc.amd.com:5.0

>mcookie

e0ec4a52c92cf4c5d0798780eead4515

>xauth add ascca05411310.sc.amd.com:5 MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 e0ec4a52c92cf4c5d0798780eead4515

Test and see if it works now, run `xclock`.

How To Bypass Kerberos(kinit) Authentication

2023-04-04T00:59:00.009-07:00

Whenever you try to setuid and impersonate as someone else to run something, it is very likely that you will run into kerberos/kinit issues. Example:-

userA:> ssh_as_userB hostC 'someCmd'

This happens because when userA tries to impersonate as userB, and tries to run something from 'hostC' , userB isn't authenticated (yet) at 'hostC', and thus, it requires password authentication from userB (the kerberos/kinit thingie)

Solution #1

In order to prevent it from asking for a password, we can ask userB to ssh to 'hostC'. Once this is done, hostC now has confirmed authentication from userB, and thus, running this command again from userA will now no longer prompt for password:-

userA:> ssh_as_userB hostC 'someCmd'

Solution #2

However, that solution isn't always gonna make sense. We sometimes need to run the command without the need to key in password. Here's what we can do (in layman terms):-

1. create an encrypted password file for userB (keytab)
2. every time, before running any command, we auto-login(kinit) userB with that password file, then only we run the command.

By doing so, we can be sure that the command will not prompt for password anymore (of course unless the password in the keytab file is incorrect :P)

Here's how to do it

###############################
#### To Generate keytab #######
###############################
>ktutil
ktutil: addent -password -p userB@GAR.CORP.INTEL.COM -k 1 -e rc4-hmac
Password for userB@GAR.CORP.INTEL.COM:
ktutil: addent -password -p userB@GAR.CORP.INTEL.COM -k 1 -e aes256-cts
Password for userB@GAR.CORP.INTEL.COM:
ktuil: wkt /nfs/site/home/userB/keytab
ktutil: quit

###############################
##### To run a command ########
###############################

userA:> ssh_as_userB hostC 'unset KRB5CCNAME; /usr/bin/X11/kinit userB@GAR.CORP.INTEL.COM -k -t /nfs/site/home/userB/keytab; "someCmd" '

setuid as someone (ssh as someone)

2023-04-03T00:14:00.003-07:00

/* This binary is intended to be a setuid script wrapper for dbRsync.pl.

Usage:-

>gcc setuid_swap.c -o newfilename

>chmod 4755 newfilename

int main(int ac, char **av) {

int uid;

uid = geteuid();

setreuid(uid, uid);

execv( "/usr/bin/ssh", av );

}

How To Run ANY COMMAND As The Owner Of The Script (setuid)

2021-07-07T03:50:00.007-07:00

1. Save the below code as file a.c

    int main(int ac, char **av) {
        int uid;
        uid = geteuid();
        setreuid(uid, uid);

        char **arguments = av + 1;
        system(*arguments);

        return 0;
    }

2. As userA, compile it, ie

    gcc a.c -o aaa

3. As userA, set the sticky bit, ie

    chmod 4755 aaa

4. now you can run any command as UserA, like this:

    >aaa 'whoami'
    userA

    >aaa 'touch file1'
    >ls -al file1
    -rw-r----- 1 userA group

How To Create A Wrapper Script With Customized Environment

2020-12-15T22:50:00.001-08:00

When working in a team, everyone will have to conform and work in a same environment. But there are times that, a certain script of yours needs a different environment in order to run. An example would be, everyone in the team has their python version set to 2.7.13. But for some reason, you have a python script that will only work with python 3. Having a wrapper script that customize the environment before running your script would solve this issue. Here's how the wrapper script will look like

#!/bin/tcsh -f

setenv BNR_PATH /some/special/path/
setenv BNR_BIN /another/special/path/bin
setenv BNR_ROOT /special/root/path

/path/to/your/script.py $argv:q

How To Post Codes In Blogs As Html Using Pygmentize

2020-07-27T01:34:00.001-07:00

https://pygments.org/download/

For Command Line Help:-

>pygmentize -h
>pygmentize -H

To see all available lexer (language supported), formatter, etc ...

>pygmentize -L

To see all Options available for HTML formatter:-

>pygmentize -H formatter html

To convert lines of codes into html format so that u can post it to a blog:-

>cat report_waiverfile_errors.py | pygmentize -l python -f html -O noclasses

To include line numbers:-

>cat report_waiverfile_errors.py | pygmentize -l python -f html -O 'noclasses,linenos'

To Highlight certain lines:-

>cat report_waiverfile_errors.py | pygmentize -l python -f html -O 'noclasses,linenos,hl_lines="12 13 14 15 16 17"'

Example:-

#!/usr/bin/env python

import os
import sys
#sys.path.insert(0, '/nfs/site/disks/da_infra_1/users/yltan/depot/da/infra/dmx/main/lib/python')
import logging
import dmx.tnrlib.waiver_file


LOGGER = logging.getLogger()


def main():
    wf = dmx.tnrlib.waiver_file.WaiverFile()
    wf.load_from_file(sys.argv[1])

if __name__ == "__main__":
    logging.basicConfig(format='[%(asctime)s] - %(levelname)s-[%(module)s]: %(message)s', level=logging.DEBUG)
    main()

Fromatting Perforce Output For Simple Scripting

2019-05-03T00:48:00.000-07:00

Perforce has a global option -ztag

If you run a normal perforce command like this

p4 files -m3 ...
//depot/da/infra/dmx/main/lib/python/dmx/tnrlib/__init__.py#1 - add change 4491003 (text+kx)
//depot/da/infra/dmx/main/lib/python/dmx/tnrlib/audit_check.py#57 - edit change 5716075 (text+kx)
//depot/da/infra/dmx/main/lib/python/dmx/tnrlib/css/style.css#1 - branch change 4757380 (text+k)

With the -ztag ...

p4 -ztag files -m3 ...
... depotFile //depot/da/infra/dmx/main/lib/python/dmx/tnrlib/__init__.py
... rev 1
... change 4491003
... action add
... type text+kx
... time 1473325143

... depotFile //depot/da/infra/dmx/main/lib/python/dmx/tnrlib/audit_check.py
... rev 57
... change 5716075
... action edit
... type text+kx
... time 1556850031

... depotFile //depot/da/infra/dmx/main/lib/python/dmx/tnrlib/css/style.css
... rev 1
... change 4757380
... action branch
... type text+k
... time 1494905434

Now, say, I'd like to have perforce report out the following info in 3 columns, separated by :::, like this

1	depotFile ::: revision ::: type

All I need to do is run the following:-

p42 -ztag -F "%depotFile% ::: %rev% ::: %type%" files -m3 ...
//depot/da/infra/dmx/main/lib/python/dmx/tnrlib/__init__.py ::: 1 ::: text+kx
//depot/da/infra/dmx/main/lib/python/dmx/tnrlib/audit_check.py ::: 57 ::: text+kx
//depot/da/infra/dmx/main/lib/python/dmx/tnrlib/css/style.css ::: 1 ::: text+k

... and here you go :)

Europe Trip 2018

2018-06-18T06:01:00.000-07:00

2018 Europe Trip - Prelude @ Singapore International Airport DAY 01: 1/Jun (Fri)

Prelude - long vacation starts from Singapore International Airport 🇸🇬 Ming fetched us to airport. PIA definitely needs improvement on F&B choice in international hall. Spent ~1hr flying with Silk Air, reached around 9:40 pm. Connecting flight at 1:20am. Impressively found butterfly garden inside Singapore Airport T3. Unfortunately it was too late to have butterflies greeting us on that night. Met S gang straight at boarding gate around 12:30am. First time experiencing ~12hrs long haul flight, which I would rate SIA offers better food than Cathay Pacific, cabin crews are very efficient. We were given complimentary earphone which comes with different ear plug sizes (PS: Iike the idea of non recycled earphones for personal hygiene reason), in flight socks & dental kit. Experience learnt that aisle seat is more convenient for long haul flight as we can easily move around during the journey without disturbing others.

Photos: https://www.facebook.com/danielle.ho.9279/media_set?set=a.10155308016327312&type=3

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2018 Europe Trip - Zurich > Lucern, Switzerland - Part2

Photo1: https://www.facebook.com/danielle.ho.9279/media_set?set=a.10155308034962312&type=3
Photo2: https://www.facebook.com/danielle.ho.9279/media_set?set=a.10155308058907312&type=3

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2018 Europe Trip: Rome > Florence, Italy 🇮🇹 _Part1 DAY 07: 7/Jun (Thu) Rome > Florence, Italy

Went to one Cafe to have breakfast & coffee, then left for Florence. Oh, Florence is totally different from Rome, at least the places we passed by are so well maintained and clean. I love this place 👍 Checked in to Casa Mia hotel (€80 per night +€4 for 2 pax city tax). We got a deluxe room and it's quite a nice hotel except for the basin at toilet got stuck. Friendly front desk staff, breakfast included, we can get water refilled at the cafeteria too. Lunch at one of the Market area food court, tried pizza, pasta, sausage, gnocchi, fried onion. Bought €13 ticket per person to visit bell tower which made us walked up 414 steps to reach the top, appreciating art work inside the church, museum. Unfortunately we didn't manage to visit duom domo as the reservation was full until Sunday. Spent €223 for a nice dinner for 8 pax at Trattoria 4 Leoni. We didn't make reservation, luckily the restaurant manager manager to find a table to fit 8 of us. Ordered octopus, mixed seafood platter, 1.5kg steak, salads and red wine. They offered complimented starter sparkling wine before the meal. Very satisfying meal 😗😗😗 After dinner, we hopped over to Gelato shop opposite the restaurant, it's definitely a hidden jewel in Florence as it has very nice pistachio and Cafe Gelato. You can see this shop won some Gelato recognition since 2017. Ma ma mia 😍😍😍 We walked to Ponte Vecchio, someone baskeering at the bridge, Lionel gave him some coins while enjoying his performance. When walking back to hotel, we passed by a David statue (not the real one by Michelangelo), took some wefie then back to hotel. GTO, H&M, ASK finally got the chance to enjoy cup noodles 😁😁😁

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2018 Europe Trip - Luzern > Mt. Titlis, Switzerland 🇨🇭 DAY 03: 3/Jun (Sun) Mt. Titlis, Engelberg, Switzerland 🇨🇭

Woke up 5:30am and wore couples of layers to get ready for Mt. Titlis. Bought some pastries and coffee at Backmann for breakfast again. It took around ~40mins train ride from Luzern to Engelberg. Nice weather which wasn't too windy and no rain. Public toilets at train station and tourist info counter usually needs to pay, it costs CHF1 per time. There is shuttle bus service from station to cable car ticketing center, yet walking is better choice as you can enjoy scenery during the walk. It's ~600m from Engelberg station to Mt. Titlis cable car ticketing center and entrance. Cooling weather & nice scenery. With Europass, we are entitled for 30% discount for cable car ticket, so we paid ~€130 for 2 pax. The ride consists of 2 types of cable car. 1st part each cabin fits up to 6 people. It stops half way which you may alight to stroll at lake area. We chose to go up straight to Mt. Titlis before it gets crowded. 2nd part is shorter one which offers paranomic view by having cabin rotates 360° angle. Upon arriving, we visited glacier cave which is - 1°C and making you feel like walking inside freezer. Afterwards, we go to canopy walk and the view is breath taking. The bridge gets shaking if too many people walking on it at same time. We took a lot of pictures there. Then we walked around the Mt. Titlis area before going for lunch. Lunch @ Titlis Panorama Restaurant. 6 pax ordered for pizza, Rosti, pasta. After lunch we left Mt. Titlis. We stopped by half way when coming down from the hill, took a stroll and photo session before leaving Engelberg ~3pm. Back to hotel and rest until 7pm then we took a stroll at Old Town area, visited Chapel Bridge and started to look for a place for dinner. Went to the ship restaurant, but could see much choice in their menu. Before settling down for dinner, We had some Gelato €3.50 for 2 flavor - pistachio and Cafe. Dinner at Mr. Pickwick Pub. Lionel ordered Indian vegetarian bread set and shared with me, we pair the meal with Erdinger beer. Mr. Pickwick Pub Rathausquai 6 | 6004, Lucerne 6004, Switzerland Went home around 9:30pm and do some final packing before going to bed.

Photo: https://www.facebook.com/danielle.ho.9279/media_set?set=a.10155311154522312.1073741855.576862311&type=3
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZM3oNm8TJfY&list=PLF_CqFyF1RC1CeiHoyHSrl8Fuoo535sKs&index=3&t=0s

_________________________________________________________

2018 Europe Trip: Luzern 🇨🇭 > Tirano > Varenna, Italy _Part1 DAY 04: 4/Jun (Mon) Lucern, Switzerland > Tirano, Italy > Varenna, Italy

Sunrise ~5:30am ; Sunset ~9pm Woke up at 4:30am and checked out hotel at 5:30am to catch shuttle bus at 5:44am to go to Luzern train station. Again, we all went to Bachmann for some pastries & coffee take aways. Boarded to train and go on Bernina Express train ride. The seat reservation is required for Bernina Express train ride. The scenery is awesome just that a lot of electricity posts and transmission towers seen along the journey. Anyway, it worths a try as we captured a lot of picturesque scenery. Lionel didn't enjoy much due to motion sickness, so he slept thru the journey basically. Lesson learnt, I better buy the usually motion sickness pills that works on him next time rather than getting from clinic. There some refreshments sold in the train and we saw many local people are taking grappa as it was a bit chilling when we stopped by a small station for pictures. After completing Bernina Express train ride, we changed to another local train when reaching Italy border. Quite an old train compared to the ones we had in Switzerland, but the cabin is fully occupied by 6 of us 😂. Lionel slowly got better from his motion sickness after catching some fresh air when transit to Italian local train. Reached Varenna after ~1hr. Checked in Baretta hotel. Very friendly and helpful staff although some of them don't really speak English. It's OK as we can communicate using body language. We personally think that Italians are more friendly than Swiss. Lunch @ III Binario restaurant at Varenna Station. Tried crepe and dumpling pasta, Kaytee and black coffee. We all spent happily as the cost is much lower in Italy, just give you an idea, 1 black coffee (Cafe creme) costs CHF3.20 in Lucern, yet it is only €1.50 in Varenna. Settled down for 30mins and we walked up to Castello Di Vezio. 2km distance took us around 1hr to reach by walking up hillside. Tiring but satisfying trip. Entrance ticket costs €4 per person and it opens until 7pm that day. Took some pictures and went down via another steeper slope shortcut. Met a Japanese lady who was preaching near the castle. After the castle, we walked along the lake Como and explored the city. Sat down at one of the restaurant for some drinks (ordered Virgin Mojito, hot chocolate) & snacks (cheese platter). As time approaching 8pm, yet all of us still not hungry, we decided to go back hotel to rest.

Photo: https://www.facebook.com/danielle.ho.9279/media_set?set=a.10155314875292312&type=3
Photo: https://www.facebook.com/danielle.ho.9279/media_set?set=a.10155314175547312&type=3
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAoRSrj28TQ&list=PLF_CqFyF1RC1CeiHoyHSrl8Fuoo535sKs&index=4&t=0s
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnV10QQ1mSM&list=PLF_CqFyF1RC1CeiHoyHSrl8Fuoo535sKs&index=5&t=0s

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2018 Europe Trip: Varenna > Rome, Italy_Part1 DAY 05: 5/Jun (Tue) - Part1 Varenna > Rome, Italy Sunrise ~5:30am ; Sunset ~9pm

Woke up ~5:45am and went for morning stroll with H&M ~7am. Breezy morning and barely seeing people in the street at that hour. We walked around Greenway dei Patriarchi, watching how the local live their simple life, enjoying the ducklings swimming or chasing, what a beautiful morning. Passed by real estate agency, the listed property costs from €95k ~ €650k, always finds it interesting to survey different countries property prices. Back to hotel and had breakfast ~8:30am. Nice pastries, cheese & ham platter, yogurt, coffee, highly recommended cozy place to stay at. Departed from Varenna and headed to Rome. Upon arrival, it's quite unpleasant to see dogs poo everywhere and urine smells. That's also the day ASK started joining us, yay 🤗🤗🤗 Took a while to locate the hotel but very convenient location and near to termini. It's an old building which has an elevator that you've seen from Sharlock Holmes movie. Slow but it helps a lot when we need to send up those bulky luggages to 2nd floor. The receptionist is a young friendly man who tried his best to meet our requests. There are 5 rooms at 2F which we already occupied 4 of them. Spacious room, dim lighting, shampoo, shower gel and hair dryer are provided. The receptionist kept reminding us not to things other than toilet papers into toilet bowl, guess they encountered a lot of cases of causing the toilet stuck. My room had cigerrate smell, I think tha T could be the reason of they let my room windows open when we checked in. Settled down and we went out to Coloseum station, the Coloseum is just outside the station, there are armed army forces guarding the area, very touristy and of course all of us kept an eye of each others to ensure no pick pocket would dare to come near to us. Then heading to late lunch early dinner, had pizza, pasta, lagsane. Learnt a new dish which is burrata salad, means salad comes with Buffalo milk cheese, not salty at all. The waiter there offered complimentary lemoncello liquor at the end of our meal. After the meal, some went for a walk at termini and some went for coffee near the place we stayed. Breakfast at McD, tried chocolate and plain croissant. Then took. €1.50 train per person to Coloseum termini to meet out day tour guide, Julie. A post graduate student who is doing her 2nd degree i.e. Fine arts & History, she did excellent job throughout the day. Very informative and she took very well care of us. **will add in our tour itinerary later** Back to hotel to bath and went out for pizza & pasta for dinner again.

Photo: https://www.facebook.com/danielle.ho.9279/media_set?set=a.10155317562087312&type=3
Photo: https://www.facebook.com/danielle.ho.9279/media_set?set=a.10155317644572312&type=3
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvZmnMwNzQ4&list=PLF_CqFyF1RC1CeiHoyHSrl8Fuoo535sKs&index=6&t=0s

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2018 Europe Trip: Rome > Florence, Italy 🇮🇹 _Part1 DAY 07: 7/Jun (Thu) Rome > Florence, Italy

Went to one Cafe to have breakfast & coffee, then left for Florence. Oh, Florence is totally different from Rome, at least the places we passed by are so well maintained and clean. I love this place 👍 Checked in to Casa Mia hotel (€80 per night +€4 for 2 pax city tax). We got a deluxe room and it's quite a nice hotel except for the basin at toilet got stuck. Friendly front desk staff, breakfast included, we can get water refilled at the cafeteria too. Lunch at one of the Market area food court, tried pizza, pasta, sausage, gnocchi, fried onion. Bought €13 ticket per person to visit bell tower which made us walked up 414 steps to reach the top, appreciating art work inside the church, museum. Unfortunately we didn't manage to visit duom domo as the reservation was full until Sunday. Spent €223 for a nice dinner for 8 pax at Trattoria 4 Leoni. We didn't make reservation, luckily the restaurant manager manager to find a table to fit 8 of us. Ordered octopus, mixed seafood platter, 1.5kg steak, salads and red wine. They offered complimented starter sparkling wine before the meal. Very satisfying meal 😗😗😗 After dinner, we hopped over to Gelato shop opposite the restaurant, it's definitely a hidden jewel in Florence as it has very nice pistachio and Cafe Gelato. You can see this shop won some Gelato recognition since 2017. Ma ma mia 😍😍😍 We walked to Ponte Vecchio, someone baskeering at the bridge, Lionel gave him some coins while enjoying his performance. When walking back to hotel, we passed by a David statue (not the real one by Michelangelo), took some wefie then back to hotel. GTO, H&M, ASK finally got the chance to enjoy cup noodles 😁😁😁

Photo: https://www.facebook.com/danielle.ho.9279/media_set?set=a.10155317699542312&type=3
Photo: https://www.facebook.com/danielle.ho.9279/media_set?set=a.10155317842762312.1073741880.576862311&type=3
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVgKoXi_OLc&list=PLF_CqFyF1RC1CeiHoyHSrl8Fuoo535sKs&index=7&t=0s

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2018 Europe Trip: Florence > Venice, Italy 🇮🇹 DAY 08: 8/Jun (Fri) Florence, Italy

Woke up ~5:30am, get ready for breakfast. We deposited luggage at Firenze station, costs €6 per bag for 1st six hour then paid €13 per person a round trip to go premium outlet The Mall. It was 1hr+ bus ride including traffic. Shops are scattered, the most popular ones are Gucci & Prada with long queue. Bought some Prada & Tod's. The queue to pay at Prada was 1.5hrs, OMG. Then went to tax refund lounge to process refund, luckily H&M already there to take number and we just joined in to process the transaction. You must have a credit card printed in the same name as your passport and they don't accept debit card, else they can't help you to process at the counter there and you need to do it at airport. You must ensure getting the tax refund documents stamped at airport, else they will charge you back the refund. Had done quick lunch at dot.com Cafe, then we left The Mall. Collected luggages from the deposit counter and then took 5:30pm train to Venice. In fact there isn't train station inside Venice city, we alighted at one station which is 15mins bus ride distance from Venice. Checked in to Hotel and went for McD as dinner. The neighborhood of the hotel is surrounded by many foreign immigrants / workers it seems. Interesting yo see so many different nationality can mix in same neighborhood. Then went back hotel to rest.

Photo: https://www.facebook.com/danielle.ho.9279/media_set?set=a.10155317924652312&type=3
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXCmZTtMZdk&list=PLF_CqFyF1RC1CeiHoyHSrl8Fuoo535sKs&index=8&t=0s

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2018 Europe Trip: Venice, Italy 🇮🇹 DAY 09: 9/Jun (Sat) Venice, Italy

Checked out hotel ~8am, took a 15mins bus ride to Venice city. There is no tram nor train direct to Venice, so we took shuttle bus. When arrived at the bus terminal, we have to change to another LRT - Pepople mover to access to the port. We were lucky enough to reach the port early which we checked in luggages and got number group 3 for cruise check in at 12:30pm onwards. When we walked out from the port, we approached on money changer to try enquire the rate for Japanese Yen to Euro, came to our surprise the rate was extreme low, ie ~¥121 + ~17% service charge for €1. We decided not taking the deal since it's too low. Then we took speed boat to Venice center. Luckily Lionel manage to take one seasick pill before departure, else I'm sure he will be ended up nauseous. Things ain't cheap at Venice. Had a brunch at Florian Cafe, spent €271 for 8 pax for a brunch (sandwiches & coffee only), which the bill included €6 per pax for the music fee (we didn't know sitting outside will have to pay for this music fee as there are band playing musics while you enjoying the meal), Gondole ride costs around €80 which we didn't try since Lionel will not be able to enjoy it, a simple postcard costs €1 vs Santorini €0.30, etc. Many shops selling venetician masks, colorful stones, fountain pen. I bought a set of feather fountain pen to add on to my collection 💕 @ €15 which comes with 2 types of nibs. When time approaching 12:30pm, we went to Port for check in.... The security crew will take a device with strong flash to snap your headshot. That's the part I don't like it as it hurts my eyes. Arhhhh.. Finally we are on the cruise. Our room doesn't have balcony, the room is decent and just nice for 2. As expected, it's like a maze and we took a while to familiarize the cruise map. Cabin steward by the name of Ilham came greeted us and took down special requests from us. Very friendly and made us feel like at home. Then we went up to level 9 for buffet. The went up to top deck to see the ship sailing out from the Venice port. We also went for a so so magic show which LG felt asleep and got caught by the magician. After the sow, everyone went back to rest.

Photo: https://www.facebook.com/danielle.ho.9279/media_set?set=a.10155321569292312&type=3
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-x_EWdQKok&list=PLF_CqFyF1RC1CeiHoyHSrl8Fuoo535sKs&index=9&t=0s
video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXVscvndYcY&list=PLF_CqFyF1RC1CeiHoyHSrl8Fuoo535sKs&index=10&t=0s

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2018 Europe Trip: Bari, Italy 🇮🇹 DAY 10: 10/Jun (Sun) Bari, Italy - Costa Cruise Excursion

Code: 0116 Length: 5 hours Difficulty level: Hard Type: Cultural Description An excursion dedicated entirely to Matera, the so-called "città dei Sassi" (literally "city of stones", its cave dwellings being dug out of the rock), which was declared both a UNESCO World Heritage Site and European capital of culture for 2019, to discover its exceptional historical, artistic and cultural heritage and its wholesome, authentic folk. Alleys and dwellings dug out of limestone "Sassi" and rock-hewn churches with frescoes Left the port of Bari by coach for Matera, an ancient city of prehistoric origins that will amaze us with its exceptional artistic and cultural heritage. We started our tour of the city, accompanied by our local guide, walking through alleys and dwellings dug out of the limestone, retracing the life of Man from the Stone Age to the present. We then proceed with our excursion to discover the so-called "Sassi", ancient quarters of the city that are steeped in archaic charm. They are an example of an urban structure that is not found anywhere else in the world, and have been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In addition, there are also more than a hundred cave churches. As we walk around the "Sassi" we experience the same enchanting atmosphere that so inspired the American actor and director, Mel Gibson, in 2004 that it convinced him to choose Matera, a city in the heart of the Basilicata region, as the set for his colossal film “The Passion of the Christ”. The tour of the Città dei Sassi involved walking over rough terrain.The journey from Bari to Matera takes approximately 1 hour. In case of heavy traffic, the excursion may last approximately 30 minutes longer.

Photo: https://www.facebook.com/danielle.ho.9279/media_set?set=a.10155324787282312&type=3
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-9_RIFDaNQ&list=PLF_CqFyF1RC1CeiHoyHSrl8Fuoo535sKs&index=11&t=0s

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2018 Europe Trip: Kelafonia - Argostli, Greece 🇬🇷 DAY 11: 11/Jun (Mon) Kelafonia - Argostli, Greece

Costa Excursion Code: 00KE_PREMIUM EXPERIENCE: THE WONDERS OF KEFALONIA Length: 5 hours Difficulty level: Moderate Type: Cultural Family Friendly Description An intriguing itinerary to discover the wonders of Kefalonia, the largest of the Ionian Islands: from the enchanting Drogarati caves to the Melissani Lake, one of the most beautiful underground caves in the world. Mount Ainos Drogarati Caves Melissani Lake As the coach left the port, we were treated to splendid panoramic glimpses as we made our way up to Mount Ainos, and on to the Drogarati Caves. An unforgettable experience awaits us: a flight of steps leads us to a breathtaking vision of magical stalactites and stalagmites in an almost unreal atmosphere. Concerts are often held in the larger chamber, which is blessed with extraordinary acoustics. It has also seen a performance by the Divine: Maria Callas. Our tour continued towards the Melissani Lake: an underground lake, where the turquoise water is lit by the sun's rays. An artificial tunnel leads us down to the lake, where we climb aboard a small rowing boat to admire this incredible sight of nature. Ancient relics from the Minoan culture have been found in the cave, which used to be the place of worship of the god Pan. Before leaving the cave, we immersed ourselves in the enchanted atmosphere and admired the numerous stalactites and stalagmites. On our way back, we had a brief photo stop for a final glimpse of the cobalt blue sea and the beach of Myrtos. Again, the English language group that we signed to for was co-joint with Deutsch group. 2 guides were taking turn to explain the tour in respective language which most of the time we didn't enjoy such language switching. Also came to our surprise, our guide was asking us whether still wanted to go Melissani Lake before departure, I'm curious if we don't want to go there, where else she wpukd bring us to? 🤔🤔🤔😅😅😅 ps: Melissani Lake is one of the highlights in this excursion, guess no one will want to skip since we paid premium rate to visit. We spent 1.5hrs to queue for taking boat at Melissani Lake, which everyone had to queue under hot sun. The boat ride was less than 10mins, the boatman did his best to introduce the lake, also helped us to take some pictures, ended up we gave him some tips as appreciation.

Photo: https://www.facebook.com/danielle.ho.9279/media_set?set=a.10155328559617312&type=3
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7CQqbP00so&list=PLF_CqFyF1RC1CeiHoyHSrl8Fuoo535sKs&index=12&t=0s

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2018 Europe Trip: Santorini, Greece 🇬🇷 DAY 12: 12/Jun (Tue) Santorini, Greece

Temperature ~31°C Costa Excursion Code: 1919_OIA VILLAGE - AFTERNOON Length: 4.5 hours Difficulty level: Easy Type: Sightseeing Good For Shopping Get lost among the narrow streets of Oia, marvel at the whiteness of its houses and discover its fragrances, relaxed atmosphere and traditional shops. Reality will exceed your imagination on this unique excursion. The caldera Oia Fira We travelled by motor boat to the port of Athinios, where a waiting coach took us to the northern end of the island to visit the spellbinding town of Oia. En route, admired the breath-taking landscapes of the caldera, the volcanic crater now submerged by the sea, surrounded by the high cliffs of Santorini. Our guide showed us the village's most interesting sights. We ventured into the wonderful marble-paved alleyways that wind up and down, lined with the typical ochre-coloured houses with blue domed roofs that characterise the island. The village surprised us with its peerless panoramic views of the neighbouring islands of Folegandros and Sikinos, as well as the now extinct volcano. After browsing the shops, where we're sure to find something original, we will set off again, this time for Fira. We strolled through the island's capital, its narrow streets lined with typical white houses, and, after admiring the stunning panoramic views, we will take an unusual form of transport back to the port: a cable car! We saw some couples shooting pee wedding bridal photos there, ust imagine how challenging for the photographers to capture the shots when the places were crowded everywhere. During taking cable car, there was a group of KLK trying to cut into our line, many were staring at them so they didn't persist. Anyway, we saw them still managed to squeezed behind of us. The cable car cabin fits 6 passengers at one time. Quite a short ride and it's very steep. Finally, another of my bucket list is checked ✔️

Photo: https://www.facebook.com/danielle.ho.9279/media_set?set=a.10155328597862312&type=3
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkQk4vBa9M4&list=PLF_CqFyF1RC1CeiHoyHSrl8Fuoo535sKs&index=13&t=0s

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2018 Europe Trip: Mykonos, Greece 🇬🇷 DAY 13: 13/Jun (Wed) Mykonos, Greece - Free & Easy

Temperature ~30°C It's wise choice not following excursion tour organized by the cruise agency today. We all had breakfast at Taurus restaurant for the first time, food & drinks offering are same as 9F buffet restaurant, the ambience is more comfortable than 9F buffet restaurant. It's a sunny and windy day. Bought bus tickets at the selling booth, then we took shuttle to visit Windmills, spotted some cats & some dogs around that area. Then went to Platis Gialos beach, spent €15 for beer & €10 a coke to get sitting at the bar and watching the guys soaking in the crystal clear sea. There are many small fishes swimming and they don't seem afraid of the crowds at the beach. After beach session, went to have lunch at Nikos Gallop Restaurant. The food and service are awesome. Very friendly staff and we rated them ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐. We love their seafood spaghetti and fish cooked with salt. The owner even offer complimentary desert drinks. https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g659660-d3443554-Reviews-Nikos_Gallop_Restaurant-Platys_Gialos_Mykonos_Cyclades_South_Aegean.html

Photo: https://www.facebook.com/danielle.ho.9279/media_set?set=a.10155328643492312&type=3
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TazczNcXxw&list=PLF_CqFyF1RC1CeiHoyHSrl8Fuoo535sKs&index=14&t=0s

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2018 Europe Trip: Katakolon - Olympia, Greece 🇬🇷 DAY 14: 14/Jun (Thu) Katakolon - Olympia, Greece

Costa Excursion Code: 0842_A SOUVENIR FROM ANCIENT OLYMPIA Length: 4 hours Difficulty level: Moderate Type: Cultural Good For Shopping Family Friendly Description What better way to create the perfect alchemy between the origins of history, the ethics of sport at its very beginnings, ancient culture, the great classical myths and the modern world? Our excursion will offer us a chance to get to know all these aspects in one single place: Olympia which invloved 1.5hrs walking. Ancient Olympia: archaeological excavations and ancient squares Modern Olympia In Olympia a guide awaits us who led us in our discovery of this ancient sacred city, full of temples, monuments, priests' houses, athletes' homes and public buildings. A gem set in a valley crossed by the River Alfios in the north-west Peloponnese, the city held the famous Olympic Games in honour of Zeus every four years. Here in 776 BC, a list of winners was drawn up for the first time, presumably the results of the very first Olympics in history. As we strolled around ancient Olympia amongst the archaeological excavations, it felt as though we could still hear the spectators shouting to encourage the athletes and breathe the festive atmosphere which accompanied those 5, very long days, during which the best athletes challenged each other in the various sports: wrestling matches, charriot and horse races, the pentathlon and pankration (a primitive form of boxing). Let's delve into the past and discover the little secrets of the competition, which was first accessible only for male athletes of Greek origin and was later opened up to young Romans. Perhaps not everyone knows that women and slaves were banned from the town, the sanctuaries and the terraces, at the risk of a terrible death by being thrown from a nearby cliff. Then, we stopped in the ancient squares, where traders and citizens once met to carry out their business. At the end of our guided tour, we had to wake up from the spell of the past and return to reality if we're not to miss the chance of discovering the streets of modern Olympia. We can taste a typical, strong, Greek coffee, savour a cool glass of Ouzo or, if we wish, pick up a souvenir to remind us back home of a piece of history which, for a few intensely emotional hours, made us live a dream. Initially we wanted to cancel this excursion as we didn't enjoy much during the past 2 ones. We had to wait for tour guides to introduce places using dual languages and most of the time we could catch the ascent. However, Olympia tour guide has better English ascent yet we still had to wait for Costa crew to translate all his words into Russian as it became a bi-lingual tour again 😪😪😪 The time spent in Olympia archaeological site was too short, half of the time wasted waiting for Costa tour to translate to Russian 😩😩😩 After the archaeological site, the tour dropped us at the town for drinks and shopping at own cost. Bought some souvenirs. The bus drove us back to the port. 6 of us went to a restaurant for lunch. Then do some shopping around the areas then back to cruise. It's Gala night at the cruise. We dressed up for dinner at Taurus Restaurant. They served complimentary champagne and the captain and chefs came out to greet us.

Photo: https://www.facebook.com/danielle.ho.9279/media_set?set=a.10155328806702312&type=3
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKJHYYlImSY&list=PLF_CqFyF1RC1CeiHoyHSrl8Fuoo535sKs&index=15&t=0s

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2018 Europe Trip: Whole day cruising Day 15: 15/Jun Cruising whole day

Went having breakfast at Taurus Restaurant after we found out they offered pre-order menu. The Benedict egg was nice. After breakfast, we went for disembarkation briefing to understand the procedure. When you are at sea whole day, only 2 things you can do, i.e eat and gamble 😆😆😆 Half of us went playing roulette and some playing slot machines. Then lunch buffet at 9F. Most of them liked the fried chicken and Lionel likes optopus. Then everyone went back to respective cabins to do some packing. 😭 😭 😭 That also undi acted the holiday is going to end soon.

Photo: https://www.facebook.com/danielle.ho.9279/media_set?set=a.10155329397277312&type=3

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2018 Europe Trip: Venice > Milan, Italy 🇮🇹 Day 16: 16/Jun Disembarked from Costa Luminosa at Venice port

Woke up 6am and went to disco deck for final cash bill settlement. This time we did quite well budget control which we still got €4.70 credit refund. The process was fast, then we went back to room and found that Ilham had already made the bed and clear the fridge for us. We checked out the room at 8am, went to give Ilham €5 tops as gratitude. Afterwards, we went to meet the rest of us at Taurus Restaurant for breakfast before disembarkation. The process of disembarkation was fast and pretty easy to claim our baggages at port terminal, our luggage tags were in S group black color. After came out from cruise, we went to take People Mover to go and took shuttle to train terminal and bought ticket to go Milano station. Had quick lunch at train station during waiting time. The train took 2hrs 15mins from Venice to Milano. Walking 3mins to Canova Hotel, after checked in hotel, we went to Carefeur Express then visited Crazy Cat Cafe which is only 3 mins walking distance from hotel. The rest stayed at hotel to watch World Cup Argentina vs Iceland (final score 1:1). The cafe per pax cover charge is €1. We ordered a strawberry milkshake, an chocolate affogato, chocolate biscuits, total bill was €13.50. This cafe offers vegan menu too. The cats are fat and having their afternoon naps. Although the area we stayed seems quiet, could be due to it was Saturday, the cat cafe biz was really good and need to queue for entry. 5:30pm we met the rest for dinner. There is a Penny Market near the hotel, things seems cheap there. Dinner at one restaurant opposite hotel. Linguine with seafood tasted nice there. Then we continued to walk to another 24/7 Carefeur. Back to hotel to rest and some went down to watch another World Cup game Croatia vs Nigeria...

Photo: https://www.facebook.com/danielle.ho.9279/media_set?set=a.10155331282867312&type=3

Travel/Trip To Seoul, Korea, 2017

2017-10-24T23:05:00.000-07:00

Visit Seoul, Korea from 12.10.2017-21.10.2017

Here's the youtube playlist of the videos of the 9-day trip:-

Seoul 2017 (youtube playlist)

For a more complete list of photos, go here:-

day1-day5

day6-day10

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Here are the details (credit to my wife :))

Seoul, South Korea 101217 ~ 102117_DAY1 to DAY5

First mission: not to lose our way to place to sleep... and not to lose my T-Money card too.

Day 2: we spent most of the time to familiarise the subway route & touring around the city area... also bought some souvenirs from Line Friends Store at Myeongdong.

Day 3: went to visit Hongdae university area. The street here isn't as clean as other places we visited.
First, we stopped by Kakao Store and I found my new fav character - APeach.
Then we go to 三代炒马for seafood noodle & jyajangmyeong.
Stopped by flee market to see those handicrafts stalls.
After that, we go to Meerkat Cafe. We were greeted by wallabies at the entrance, raccoon, genet, artic foxes. Each guests were given 10mins to play with the meerkats. Check out the videos to see how playful the meerkats are. It costs ₩20,000 for 2 of us to visit this cafe.
Then we did some light shopping around there before treating our sweet tooth.
Cafe de Paris serves nice desserts. We had Hibiscus Ade (hibiscus drinks with ice) & White Grape bon bon (layered with grapes, fresh cream, honey roasted oats & shaved ice). Yummy !
Then going to Yongsan Station for Korean Traditional Steam bath @ Dragon Hill. Bought the entry ticket via KKDAY which made the check in very fast & efficient. We wore the towel to snap pics with sweet rice drinks & 3 colour eggs in the SPA resort.
That's called a day and we went home early for rest.
Day 5: Hiking to Seoraksan National Park by KKDAY tour.
Woke up at 6am to get ourselves ready to meet up the tour guide at Dongdaemun History & Cultural Park station exit at 7:30am. The tour guide is a Korean oppa, we called him Wonoppa. He speaks fluent Mandarin & English.
It took us around 2hrs + to reach Seoraksan and apparently many local do visit the park at this season which traffic wad quite busy near the park. We reached there around 10:30am.
First, we hiked for 1.5hrs to Biryong Fall (飛龍瀑布) and we had our lunch box ( Gimbap - Korean sushi) at the waterfall area. Then, we hiked back for 1hr and we went to visit the Buddha sculpture & temple at downhill.
At 2:30pm, we took cable car to visit the other side of the mountain. The view is terrific!
Overall the scenery is very nice, but the maple leaves have yet turning colour at most places at this time.
7:30pm we reached Myeongdong for dinner. Went to Red Hong for Korean rice cake hot pot which they offer customer to choose the level of spiciness. It cost us ₩16000 for 2 which I consider this is cheap in Seoul for 2pax dinner.
After dinner, we helped Ming to get her Laneige stuff and had some grilled ice cream before heading home.
Guess what, we walked 20k steps on this day alone 💪💪💪

Seoul, South Korea 101217 ~ 102117_DAY6 to

DAY10

DAY 6-1 (Tue): Visiting Gwangjang market (廣藏市場)
Took subway Line 1 to Jongno 5 (o)-ga and then exit at gate 7 to have brunch at Gwangjang market. Just learnt from a friend saying this market is famous of pajeon (korean pancake), we did order 8 slices (unfortunately that is the smallest portion they sell for take away) for ₩5,000, we don't quite like it because it's too oily. The ajuma also not friendly 😂😂😂. After that we took a walk at the market area. Although it's a very old market, it's well organized & clean. I bought some souvenirs from there too. After the walk, we stopped by a stall to have some japchae (korean fried glass noodle) for ₩5,000.
We found the ajuma there can carry stuff using their heads. Just like you see those Indians selling kacang putih during old times, quite interesting to see it here.

DAY 6-2 (Tue): Visiting Buchon Hanok Village (北村韩屋村) and Changdeokgung (昌德宫)
Initially, we planned visiting this place on 2nd day of our trip, yet due to some delays, we switched the plan to Day 6.
Took subway Line 3 to Gyeongbokgung Station (景福宫站) exit at gate 3 to rent hanbok (Korean traditional costume) at Hanbok Plus. If you downloaded Creatrip app, they will give 10% discount for each customers who show them the app. Paid ₩31,500 for 2 pax to rent the costumes for 4hrs. The staff there will help ladies to wear the hanbok and will help to style your hair to match the costumes too.
If you wanted to visit Gyeongbokgung, it's not open on Tue. We detour to visit Buchon Hanok Village & Changdeokgung.
Buchon Hanok Village is a very big area inside residential areas. You need to plan longer hours to finish walking at that area. Due to time constraint, we spent 1hr walking in Buchon Hanok Village only before we changed to Changdeokgung.
If you wear hanbok visiting the palaces, it's free of charge to enter the palaces. So, I will recommend you to try renting the hanbok to visit those palaces.
Changdeokgung is quite big, they have free tour guides who speaks English, Korean, Japanese & Chinese. Do check the time before you go, as the tour guide does explain the stories in details if you follow them. We only able to stay there for 1.5hrs before returning the hanbok.

DAY 6-3 (Tue): Seoul City Night Tour Bus.
After returning from the cosplay session, we headed to Seoul City Night Tour. We went to cafe for a simple dinner before catching the bus.

Here is the night bus route:
Depart from Gwangwhamun 光化门
Mapo Bridge 麻浦大桥
Seogang Bridge 西江大桥
Gangbyeon Expressway 江边北路
Banpo Bridge 盘浦大桥
Somesevit (rest for 30mins)
Dongjak Bridge 铜雀大桥
Seongsu Bridge 圣水大桥
Hannam Bridge 汉南大桥
N Seoul Tower 南山N首尔塔
Namdeamun Market 南大门市场
Cheonggye Plaza 清溪廣場 -- ended
It took about 1.5hrs for this night bus ride including the 30mins rest time.
Frankly speaking, both of us didn't enjoy this session as the seat we got was open top bus and you can imagine how freaking cold for 17 degree weather and we are sitting there for 1hr. Really freaking cold!!!

DAY 7-1(Wed): Korean cuisine cooking class #omecookingclass
KKDAY tour: https://www.kkday.com/en/product/9441

I'm so happy that L willing to join me for this cooking class session. Jegi-dong is famous of selling traditional medicine & herbs. This place is packed with a lot of golden age folks.
We were hosted by a young chef, Yuni. She stays at Incheon and she spent 4hrs everyday to travel to work at Seoul. Really respect her passion.
First, she took us to market nearby for a short tour. We saw a lot of different type & age fresh ginseng. She told us that those younger ginseng (I.e. 6 years old) are used for cooking and older ones are used for medication. Then we saw garlics are sold in big bundle. She shared with us that, local ppl eat a lot of garlic so there is no problem for them to finish those garlic in a normal family. They even will peel the garlic & store in freezer for few months to consume.
We also learnt autumn season is good for making kimchi as they harvest a lot of cabbages & White radish during this time.
The in season fruits are pears, figs & persimmon. There is an old shop selling freshly squeezed sesame oil everyday. It's really interesting to see how then produce the sesame oil there.
After the tour, we headed to OME cooking class. We are lucky enough as we are the only 2 ppl attending the class on that day. Usually, each session they can handle up to 8 pax of students. Yuni is one of the chefs teaching cooking at OME. Her boss is currently attending a Korean food & Cultural festival at Russia which invited by government. So, I think this cooking studio is quite famous.
We learnt 5 dishes that day, which are seafood pajeon, seafood toufu stew, Gimbap, bulgolgi fried beef, tteopokki.
After finishing the cooking, we had lunch together with all of the staffs at the studio. They told us that the cooking menu is the same for every week, but it always tastes different as the dishes are cooked by different ppl 😂😂😂pity them have to help us eat all the food we cooked 😃😃😃

DAY 7-2 (Wed): finally got to meet up with Yujin in her homeland 💕💕💕
We didn't inform Yujin before coming to Korea. It's to surprise her since we haven't met with each other for more than 6 years.
So fortunate that she is able to make time to meet up on her off day after our cooking class at Jegi-dong station (祭基洞站).
While waiting for her to reach, L helped an old lady who fell down from escalator. That area is packed with old ppl and almost everyone pushed their own shopping carts for marketing. That incident happen to be that old lady shopping cart got stuck at the end of escalator and she was able to react fast enough to adjust her position which caused her fell down. L saw it & quickly grabbed her & luckily she was able to stand up by herself with the help of L. We can't imagine what will happen if no one there to lend her a hand. After few minutes, the station official assign someone to standby near the escalator, I guess this kind of accident does happen frequently as you can see there is warning sign to educate ppl to be more careful when handling their shopping cart at the escalator.
Finally, we saw Yujin. We headed to Ediya Coffee for some long chats. It's indeed a good session to catch up with her.
After the coffee session, she brought us to try out this grilled fish stall. Very nice!
Yujin, hope to see you soon again 😘😘😘
Also, thanks for the coffee & nice dinner. Next meet up pls allow us to get you some good food 😊

DAY 7-3 (Wed): DDP (Dongdaemun Design Plaza) & Coex Mall - Starfield Library
Soon after say goodbye to Yujin, we dropped by DDP and after that going to Coex Mall to check out the library in a shopping mall.
Took subway Line 6 to Samseong station, and here we go to the Coex Mall. It's so special to have a library inside middle of the mall. So many books but all in Korean I guess.
Upon arriving at the library, L caught with some issue with his Gopro & karma grip again 😅😅😅 it took us a while to learn how to hard reset the Karma Grip gimble. Phew, at least we know how to get it work again!
Nice environment and ppl going there mostly take pics 😄😄😄

DAY 8-1 (Thu): Petite France Village by KKDAY Tour https://www.kkday.com/en/product/1922?qs=Petite

Boarded to KKDAY tour bus at Dongdaemun History & Cultural Park at 8:30am, our tour guide Winnie comes from Hong Kong who speaks perfect Mandarin & Cantonese.
This tour is one of the popular itinerary thus the bus is packed with tourists from Hong Kong, Taiwan & Malaysia.
It took 1.5hrs to reach Petite France Village (小王子村) and this is where they filmed My Love from the Star (来自星星的你). This theme parked is fully built by imported woods from France and the coverage isn't very big but there is a few exhibition centres & many statues and puppet performance that you can spend 2 hrs there to enjoy.
Winnie recommended few must or worth to try activities, which are snapping pictures with Petite France prince statue at the entrance, panaroma view of the scenery at the highest point of the theme park, attending the antique musical boxes show time & watching the interactive puppets show. We tried all of those since we had limited time to stay there.
It was a bright sunny day and a lot of students went there for excursions.
I love the antique musical box show time which the staff will play all the antique musical box at that time. The only regret is he only explained in Korean.
L loves the puppets show and the performers gave us 2 lollipops during the show as when he interacted with L.
Overall, quite a nice place for photo shooting.

DAY 8-2 (Thu): lunch as Gongchan Korean spicy fried chicken with rice cake (韩式辣炒鸡块和年糕)
After Petite France, we went to have spicy fried chicken & rice cake. This tour provides vegetarian meal to L.

DAY 8-3 (Thu): trip to Nami island (南怡島).
Nami island is very special as it is also called as Nami island Republic. It sounds like it's an independent country as it has it's own currency and stamps. You can change Nami island coins to spend there. Do check out the exchange rate from one of the pictures in this album.
This place is too commercialized and packed with many tourists. The view is nice but I just didn't enjoy quite well there as most of the tourists don't queue for taking pictures at popular spots 😂😂😂

DAY 8-4 (Thu): Gangchon Rail Park (江村铁路单车)
This park was repurposed from an abandoned railway. It becomes popular place for tourists especially a lot of local students go there for excursions. Running show also went there for shooting too.
Although it's sunny during day time, we took 5pm session for the ride, so tour guide kept reminding us to bring along jacket as the ride took about 1.5hrs (ride for 5km by ourselves & a train will took us for another 3km journey to complete the whole route).
The park is located at outskirt area and surrounded by some farms. We did have fun at this picturesque park.
The wind was quite chilling at night. Sky got dark at 6pm there, one thing I hope they an improve is they should instal more lights. There was an accident happen which one of the tourists fell down during getting down from the train. Our tour guide rush him to hospital after coming out from the park. Thus, it got some delays when we headed back to Seoul.
Then, we headed back to Seoul.
We had dinner at Myeongdong, since it's so cold, I requested to have hot soup. Guess what, L had naengmyeon (冷面) as dinner.
After the dinner, we walked passed several dessert stalls but we didn't try as those are all ice cream stalls 😂😂😂

aa

How To Create Chart In Linux (unsing gnuplot)

2017-09-11T19:39:00.005-07:00

Read this first

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/327576/how-do-you-plot-bar-charts-in-gnuplot

You need to create 2 files:-

#===================
#   gnuplot.dat
#===================
0 label       100
1 label2      450
2 "bar label" 75

#===================
#   gnuplot.cmd
#===================
set boxwidth 0.5
set style fill solid
set term svg 
set output "mychart.svg"
plot "gnuplot.dat" using 1:3:xtic(2) with boxes

Now, run this command:-

    gnuplot gnuplot.cmd

This will create the output file

    mychart.svg

To view the chart

    display mychart.svg

Tutorial helps a lot
http://www.gnuplot.info/docs/tutorial.pdf

How To Run A Script As The Owner Of The Script

2016-10-11T16:31:00.005-07:00

For the explanation below, just keep in mind that these assumption is true:-
- owner of file == yltan(uid=742)
- user that executes the script == icetools(uid=48102)

How to run a python script as the owner of the script.

1. Create any simple python script, eg a.py:-

#!/usr/bin/env python
import os

print "Before swap::" + str(os.getresuid())
os.system("whoami")

os.setreuid(os.geteuid(),os.getuid())

print "After Swap:" + str(os.getresuid())
os.system("whoami")

2. This is the magic wrapper script, setuid_swap.c. :-

/* This binary is intended to be a setuid script wrapper for dbRsync.pl.
  
   Example compilation on an hp machine:  gcc dbRsync.c -o dbRsync
   This compilation creates an executable called dbRsync. After compiling,
   chmod +s dbRsync (or whatever the executable is) to set the sticky bit or
   it won't work.
*/

int main(int ac, char **av) {
    execv( "/path/to/your/a.py", av );
}

3. Compile the setuid_wrap.c to wrapper_a :-

gcc setuid_swap.c -o wrapper_a

4. Change the setuid bit:-

chmod 4755 wrapper_a

5. Run wrapper_a as someone else other than the owner of the file:-

sudo su - icetools

./wrapper_a

6. ... and this is the output that you get (Running as icetools):-

Before swap::(48102, 742, 742)
icetools
After Swap:(742, 48102, 48102)
yltan

For a detail explanation of how setuid work,

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_HHt58thGk_MTVwQkhleWNmZE0

Alternatively, you could swap the users in the compiled code itself by doing this:-

/* This binary is intended to be a setuid script wrapper for dbRsync.pl.
  
   Example compilation on an hp machine:  gcc dbRsync.c -o dbRsync
   This compilation creates an executable called dbRsync. After compiling,
   chmod +s dbRsync (or whatever the executable is) to set the sticky bit or
   it won't work.
*/

int main(int ac, char **av) {
    int uid;
    uid = geteuid();
    setreuid(uid, uid);
    execv( "/path/to/your/a.py", av );
}

How To Diff A Directory Efficiently

2016-09-18T20:46:00.003-07:00

diff -qr -x '*~' -x '*.swp' -x '*.pyc'  -I '$Revision:'  -I '$File:'  -I '$Header:' -I '$Change:' -I '$DateTime:' -I '$Id:' -I '$Date:' -I '$Change:' -I '$Author:' directory1 directory2

How To Write Codes In Perl For Accomodating To Simple Testings

2016-08-17T20:50:00.003-07:00

In order to write scripts in perl which are testable, it is good to follow the following proposed method (assuming this code is inside file a.pl):-

#!/usr/bin/env perl                                                                                   

sub main
{                                                                                                  
    ### Your main code goes here           
    # ... ... ...                          
    1;                                                         
}


sub is_five
{
    my $num = shift(@_);
    if ($num == 5)
    {
        return 1;
    }
    else:
    {
        return 0;
    }
} # is_five


############################
# This loop will only be entered if this script is called explicitly, ie:-
#   $./a.pl
#
# This loop will not be entered If this file is required, ie:-
#   require 'a.pl'
############################
unless (caller)
{
    main();
}

Now, to write a test that tests the is_five() function, we can create a file call test_a.py, and write the test like this:-

#!/usr/bin/env perl

use Test::Simple tests => 2;
require "a.pl";

sub test_is_five___pass
{
    return is_five(5)
}
sub test_is_five___fail
{
    return is_five(3)
}

unless (caller)
{
    ok(test_is_five___pass());
    ok(! test_is_five___fail());
}

The Untold Story Behind The Christmas Tree

2016-08-04T22:09:00.001-07:00

Christmas Tree are a must during ....well......Christmas. (duh)

Especially when it comes to malls and huge shopping complexes, or theme parks.

People love gathering around a well decorated Christmas tree for photo shots.

Well, there was this mall which decided to make it different. They brought in a 1000 pound 100 feet Christmas tree.

2 groups of people are put in charged of making it happen
- one is responsible for decorating it with bells and whistles
- the other is responsible for making it stable so it doesn't collapse and is safe for people to stick around.

Well, I'm lazy to type. You know most of the drill. Along the process , debates on whether to emphasize more on the decorative or to put more budget and resource on safety is a never ending process.

To cut the story short, here is how it goes.....

If the tree stays put for the rest of Christmas, no customer or even anyone is going to even notice the existence of the group that puts in effort to make the Christmas tree safe.

But If the tree falls, they are the ones that will get all the heat first.

Well, as for the group of people that focus on adding bells and whistles?

Regardless of whether the tree falls or not, they will be the first to get all the credits during the first day of Christmas when all the people pill over and stick around the Christmas tree.

What if the tree falls on the next day? Well, these folks have already claimed their credits, and are already on their way planning on decorating their next Christmas tree for the next year.

That is the hard truthful fact of life.

2016 Tokyo Trip

2016-04-22T00:08:00.000-07:00

Ocean's 5th jab

2016-04-13T22:53:00.000-07:00

Brought Ocean to vet again as he seems to show signs of painfulness in his mouth and has not been eating well for the past few days.

We decided to seek advice from the vet to see if it is possible to switch to medication instead of jabs, if that is a better option.

Vet gave a jab that will last for 2 days, and gave us a week's medication. Dr. Amelia told us to start giving Ocean the medication starting this Friday, and we should bring Ocean in again for check out a week later.

We plan to crush the pill and mix it with can food, which is what Ocean seems to like lately.
Hopefully with this change, he does not need to endure so much suffering and can have a better quality life moving forward.

Tokyo day 8 - 08 April 2016

2016-04-08T17:21:00.000-07:00

7am woke up

8am leave house

9am reach Tsukiji Fish Market.

We didn't plan to visit the auction as it was too early.

We walked along and bought some dried seafood stuff. And also some seaweed from a 150 year old shop , which they claim that the people from the imperial palace are also eating their seaweed.

We found out that most of the food serving restaurant is not crowded except all those that are serving fresh seafood.

We settled for this one, which was recommended by some TV show and blogs...

The wait was around an hour.

But it was all worth it.

And then we went to tokyo Skytree.

Then queue for the tickets to go up...

And from here onwards.... we are up. ...

Of everything up there, I personally find this most interesting.

It's a glass on the floor, which allows you to see thru from above alllllllll the way down.....

After that, we did some shopping....

... and decided to buy some dessert back to our house as a light lunch and take a rest before we headed out again....

This shop is selling mochi which contains a full strawberry inside.

This is a cream cheese cake, with which strawberries. It's only selling from 1-31april as its seasonal. And it's also damnnnnn expensive.

This is the mochi with strawberry inside...

Headed out again for the evening.

We are going to have a hot spring ...

It's at Odaiba.

It's somewhere rather far away from the place we stay.... I presume somewhere near haneda airport ??

The main entrance...

And

.....

The inside of the Onsen. ..

Having some hot spring foot bath/spa.....

And some fish service...

This one need to pay extra ....

And the bill....

Since it's the last night, we celebrated and bought some beer and appetizer to go along with it, fresh octopus tentacles.

All gotten from 7-11.

And for the record, the is the place that we stay for the past week...

Tokyo day 7 - 07 April 2016

2016-04-07T16:42:00.001-07:00

Today is a rainy day.

It has already rained the whole night last night.

7am woke up

8am left house.

9am reach Roponggi.

It was raining, not very heavy but still the volume that will get you wet. Windy and cold and wet.

We reached Roponggi Hill and decided to stop by in McDonald as the rain is a bit disturbing.

This was the first time we patronized McDonald's in Japan. The intent decorating of this shop looks cool.

There were plugs for changing your mobile devices. We need those desperately as our heavy consumption on Google maps on our phones as well as the pupuru portable WiFi is drinking battery life like no body else's business.

We ordered a cup of latte, and a strawberry cake.

After that we entered the Roponggi Hill. It's a very high end shopping Centre.

We came across this shop, and decided to try it. It's a shop selling chocolates.

LA Maison Du Chocolat.

We ordered a dark orange macaron. .....

... and a tiramisu.

Man. It was nice.

After that we went to the Tokyo View in the Roponggi Hill building , but too bad it was closed due to the bad weather.

We found something very interesting.

We know there are motocar parking lots. There's motorbike parks.

There's also bicycle parking lots.

But have you seen unbrella parking lots?

You just drop coins into it and set you own personal pass code, and you can park your unbrella here.

Inside the Roponggi train station, we cam across this shop. Among the many restaurants we picked this one because it looks very different from the conventional Japanese local restaurants although it does serve local Japanese food.

It is like Japanese bento, served with rice and tempura. The only difference is that it provides you a pot of hot tea which u then pour it over everything and eat it.

.... .... ....

... .... .....

OK LA OK LA.

It's just like our lam pui (淋饭) LA. ....

But it's really nice. And the portion is really big.

I'll let the pictured do the rest of the talking ...

After dinner, we went into a book store inside the train station and walk a but.

After that, we went all out as Danielle needs to buy a watch.

We went all places, from miraina tower, to 109

Tower, and we still couldn't find it.

We meet with a very helpful guy in one of the watch shop which recommended us to a place call Big Kuro. He said that will be our best bet to get this version of the watch.

Well, again we meet with a gentleman which walked up to us when he saw our blurry clueless face when reading the Google map. He pointed us to the right direction.

He even ran up to us again to correct his previously given incorrect direction to us. We are really really greatful to this 2 gentlemen today.

OK. Finally we saw Big Kuro.

It turned out that it's actually BIG QLO.

It's a huge building of collaboration between the 2 of the biggest brand name of Japan, Big Camera (selling electronic stuff) and UniQlo (selling fashion stuff)

I bought a pair of long pants here.

Unfortunately the exact watch that we were looking for is no longer available. This 2 is the

Only 2 version left from the same brand...

... ended up we didn't buy it.

.....

And today we had another in house dinner.

This is another new flavor of the instant noodles we tried today...

Tokyo day 6 - 06 April 2016

2016-04-06T00:10:00.001-07:00

Woke up 7am

Leave house 8am

Got a train to Tokyo station, and then changed a 3 times to get to Maihama station.

The last train to MaiHama station was the first time we see so many kids/teens in a train. All these time we only see sea of working people with coats in the train.

The funny thing we notice is, a lot of those teens are wearing their school uniform. You can even see a lot of good friends/bff that even wear the same outfit, have the same makeup , and even taking the same bag.

Once out from Maihama station, sea of people are queueing up to buy the train ticket for Disney train....

The trains of Disney is so cute, with its own signature...

Disney already start grabbing your full attention and make you feel happy even before you reach the theme park. Look at what they did and the effort they put in decorating the internal of the train...

Once reached the Disney sea theme park, we were greeted with this.

There is a dedicated person there that helps you take picture , and gives you this sticker (the mickey mouse held by Danielle ).

A mile walk or so and you will reach the check in counter.

As usual, stick security check on bags to ensure the safety of all customers.

The first thing you see once entered the main entrence. ...... is this. ...

The globe us turning slowly.....

To give you an idea, thus us the view from the station once we got out from the train...

Right after thus globe is a lot of souvenir shops.

Walking further in, we saw a lot of characters.

The line for taking pictures with mickey was the longest. They asked us to come back and get number for the queue at 11am as this session has ended.

We spent some time looking around the souvenir shop, and then we proceed on with having some light breakfast.

At about 10:45am, we went back to the queue and got the tickets to take pictures with mickey.

While waiting for our turn ....

And finally ..... here you go ...

We took a boat trip to the Indiana Jones section.....

And quickly we queued up for the fast pass to the long queue that we see.

...... the time we got our tickets is 12noon, and the time for the activity is 4:25pm.

This is the longest queue and I believe the most famous activity in the park that we've seen so far.

Now that we have time until the Indiana Jones activity, we went ahead with other activities like.....

Taking pictures with some Disney characters. ..

One thing we noticed. All the people behind the characters are very very cheerful, energetic and always greet you with passion. Imagine that they have to do this everyday, 8 hours a day, routinely to everyone ..... you must really respect the level of passion they have for this job. Really....

Here's the Aladin magic show entrence to the theater. ..

..... and some people can just load up all their investment in Disney souvenirs way beyond the point that you could ever imagine... will ya just look at the amount of stuff (money) loaded onto this girls backpack....

Behind us is the theme park for the Mermaid they called it the Mermaid lagoon.

It's really very creative. The inside of the mermaid lagoon looks like this:-

The theme park was designed in such a way that makes you feel as if you were underwater.

We went there and picked up our fast pass tickets for the "king triton's concert", which will be at 5pm later. I tell you that, no matter which show you miss , this is definitely the one show that you should never miss from the Disney sea no matter what. It is a singing show. The little Mermaid was hanging in the air with wires, doing acrobatic stuff, singing and waving and flying here and there. You have really got to watch it to experience the awesomeness of the concert.

And guess what? Danielle bought a lunch box for herself. It's actually popcorn. They have the option of filling the popcorn in a Disney container. Well, Danielle says she is going bring this as her lunch box to work.

And well, it's time for the tour of Indiana Jones. ..... I love this very much, but Danielle not so much.

And below are some random pictures that we took along the way.....

The entrence to take the electric train... that tours you around the entire park...

I personally love thus phrase very much as I find that it is very meaningful ...

A scene inside one of the souvenir stores...

The place to take pictures with the characters. Noticed that every station has a dedicated pair of photographers assigned by Disney. They help you take pictures and you can go the the website and order them if you want to purchase it. No pressure at all.

Random scene....

This is another theme park, the 20000 leagues under the sea.

Some potato sticks which we find very interesting and..... not bad

And....Here's the last activity for the day. It's the dockside stage show. It is outdoor.

Mind you, it was freezing chilling cold. The stage is outdoor. As we were sitting there enjoying the show, those people are up there , most of them wearing mini skirts and dancing towards a chilling wind. I don't know about those local Japanese if they are already well trained or immune, but I personally can't even feel my nuts against the cold freezing wooden seat. These performers much have got a hell of a passion for the job they are doing.

And..... the finale.

Before we left we bought a post card from the park and send it back to our Malaysia home address. The thing about this is any mail sent out from the park will get a Disney stamp before it reaches the japan post office, which is, kinda something special, we think.

We left the part at 9:30pm.

Park closes at 10pm.

Back in Sumiyoshi which is the place we stay, bought dinner from the nearest 7-11.

This is the first time we tried local cup noodles.

The content. Even comes with pork slice. Didn't know there were pork slice in it when we bought it.

Final product. Not bad.

Tokyo day 5 - 05 April 2016

2016-04-05T06:47:00.001-07:00

Today is our most a adventurest day.

We are going to nagano to visit the Snow Monkey Park.

It has been my dream to see this ever since I watched this documentary in National Geographic.

5am woke up.

6am left house.

7am reach tokyo station.

For the benefit of those that would like to visit this place, I've decided to state down in minute detail the things that you must pay extreme attention to, especially the time, and directions.

Before this, we have bought the shinkansen ticket from Tokyo Station to Nagano Station.

You must reach nagano station before 9am, because the bus that takes of from Nagano Station to the Snow Monkey Park leaves at 10:13am sharp. Give and take some time that you need to get out from the train station and a few trial and errors, 1hour buffer is just nice.

In Tokyo station , we had breakfast in one of the bread shop. Very nice bread. Blueberry cheese toast and cinnamon raisin bagel. Goes well with cappuccino and latte.

we bought a kiddy bento for our lunch.

Once reached nagano station, go out and find the main front exit of the station. If you can't find it, you can ask any staff from the train station. Here is a phrase which u can use...

"Bus stop WA doko desu ka?"

The bus stop is at the left side right after you exit from the Nagano station main door.

After exiting the main exit, you will see 3 exits which leads to staircase that walks you downstairs. Take the left one. Walk down the stairs. The bus stop is just there. If you walk opposite the bus stop, this is what you will see towards the station...

The bus stop there has a time table on busses that go to the Snow Monkey Park.

If you miss this 10:13am bus, the next one will be 12 noon.

The fare is 1400¥ per trip per person.

Around an hour ride on the bus, you will reach the base of the park.

The bus stops at bus stop C.

You will need to walk around 800m until the main entrence of park, which looks like this...

Boots are available for rent, but it's not cheap. 500¥ (around Rm20).

It's up to you. If you don't mind your shoes get muddy , and you find walking slowly to avoid the slippery muddy road while enjoying the nice nature enjoyable, then you can forego and save yourself a bowl of Japanese Ramen.

In we enter the gate...

It's 1.6km till the place where the monkey hangs out. But along the way, there are a lot of interesting stuff to see.....

The final stairs before the ticket purchasing gate....

And finally the ticket purchasing booth...

And the rest ..... the wonderful pictures of the Snow monkeys enjoying life ....

Despite there are staff to pick up the left over (shit) of our close relatives (the monkeys), there are still a lot of it on the floor. So...... for those that plan to give this place a visit, please be very alert and look out for bombs on the floor.

OK. Now. This is very very important.

You need to get your assistance out from the part regardless of how much you love those monkeys by 12 noon. The only bus that heads towards Nagano station reaches at 1pm. And you definitely do not wanna miss it. Start walking out from the park at 12 noon, and you will reach the bus stop (the same one where you came, just opposite it) by 1pm.

We reached Nagano station at around 2:30am. But our shinkansen ticket that we bought was for 7:38pm.

Now here is another thing. You could exchange the time for your tickets. Just go to the shinkansen counter and let them know you wanna change your ticket to the next earliest available train, and they will do it for you at no charge.

We got our next train at 3:23pm and reached Tokyo station at around 5:30am.

In Tokyo station , we were fainted by a shop that sells a lot of bento. All kinds of it , you name it. The best thing is they has the sample stick on the wall for your reference.

Since it was still early today, we decided to go to Harajuku. It's a place that fits us well, because it's the shopping heaven for youngsters only.

We went back to the Line Friends shop. This time we went inside and took some photos.

Danielle suggested that we eat the most famous Japanese Ramen for dinner, 一蘭 Ramen.

Very long queue.

Open 365 days a year.

Waited around 20min until our turn.

Place our order thru the kiosk machine.

And then enter the shop.

Was very impressed. Even the seating arrangement is fully automated by machines...

Very nice.

Soup was very thick , and hot. Perfect for the cold chilly windy weather , especially after you stand outside for more than 20min wait.

The above picture proves it all.

Went back around 8pm.

Need to rest early for our next adventure tomorrow.....

.... the Tokyo Disneysea!!!!

And guess what, today we dint forget anything

Tokyo day 4 - 04 April 2016

2016-04-04T04:29:00.001-07:00

8am woke up

10am leave house.

Went to shunjyuku Calico cat cafe. Asked then and see whether they got any lost and found item. Sooooooo happy when they took out the Kiddy Land bag as if they were already waiting for us.

11:30am reach Yoyogi park.

Beyond words could describe.

Very disappointed is an understatement.

We packed food and mat in hope of having a picnic lunch here, and was expecting a very nice park full of people walking their dogs around. But we were greeted by a park filled with rubbish and a filthy smell.

We suspect that there must be a very huge event the previous night.

Anyway, with extra time to spare, we decided to go see the Tokyo Tower.

Nothing special.

No tourist seen there.

I guess it's another landmark, just like Komtar.

Our next stop is Sensoji Temple. We hopped into shinjyuku station.

Shinjyuku Station is a very huge station. We got lost every time we come here.

With its size, there is no surprise that there are a lot of shops around to shop too.

While I was trying to figure out the way to Sensoji Temple, this shop caught Danielle's eyes......

And she bought something from there.

While we were walking to another place to do the tax redemption thingies, this shop caught my eyes....

It's a custard

Very very very nice dessert. It's like a long crispy croissant filled with nice custard.

There is a note that says that the max a person is allowed to purchase is only 12 sticks per 2 hour.

The next stop we went to Sensoji Temple.

It's a temple, and along the way it's full of shops of food, souvenir , etc.....

Almost the same as our KekLokSi feeling.

Main entrence you can see a very Huge lantern.

All the shops along the 2 sides towards the temple...

We tried this thing. It's almost the same like what Doraemon eats. .....

We also tried this thing. It's a dessert which is something like a satay mocha , together with a cup of green tea.

This is again the common thing seems in Japanese temples, a place where u scoop water and wash your hands. I wonder what that really means.....

Done with the temple, and on our way to the train station, just the street right next to the temple, we see a few interesting and funny statues....

This one seen sitting on a roof....

This one seems to be showing off his manhood.....

And this one must be stalking on someone bathing I suppose.

Talk to the hand.

After that, we took a train to AmeyaYokocho.

The place is like petaling street / 女人街 / chi cheng Kai. It's a Lorong full of hawkers/shops/Pasar malam style .

But the most focus items here are sea food products.

Yeah yeah, I know. That's not seafood.

We bought melon for 100¥ and the 4 strawberries for 200¥.

The seafood range is huge.

From dried seafood product, seafood sweets, to fresh seafood like salmon, tuna, octopus tentacles, all in huge sizes.

Well that concludes our day. Reached home very early, 7pm, as we need to wake up very early tomorrow to catch a shinkansen train from Tokyo Station to Nagano Station .

Snow Monkey Park..... here I come !!!

Tokyo day 3 - 03 April 2016

2016-04-03T16:38:00.001-07:00

8am woke up.

10am walked to nearest 7-11 that we visited last nite. Hitting our luck and ask the joy if he sees a dropped pasmo card here last nite. After some challenging effort to make him understand pur request, To our surprise he really went to find thru a box full off lost and found and show us the card.

He asked us how much credit we have to validate, and then returned it to us. Man. That is so so so incredible.

11am First stop. Shinjyuku goen(park). Some labeled it as the most beautiful park in Tokyo.

Entrence fee is 200¥ per adult, and free for golden age and disabled.

And finally this is where our selfie stick shines

There was a Traditional Japanese Tea house there for people to experience the correct way to enjoy Japanese green tea.

700¥ each.

The bowl of green tea is served along with a small piece of dessert which is something like a mochi or maybe moon cake. It's sweet, and the smooth and slightly bitter green tea makes it a very good compliment.

A small piece of the mochi, let it melt in your mouth while u slowly pick up the warm green tea bowl, take a deep sniff of the fragrance from the bowl, let the smell travels through your nostrils up till it gets to your head.

Now sip a bit of the tick green tea. Let the bitterly smooth texture neutralize your sweetened taste buds.

Perfect combo.

(Hanabiramochi means "flower petal mochi". It's traditionally served at the first tea ceremony of the new year. This tradition began with the Imperial Family. Hanabiramochi has a distinctive shape and color. It's filled with mung bean paste. The shape and colors of the hanabiramochi have symbolic meaning (related to a new year).)

After the tea ceremony, we joined with thousands of other people picnic and had our lunch in the park.

Here's the place that we had our lunch, and our sushi lunch box which we bought near our place we stay.

... and then we spent the rest of the time at the park taking NatGeo quality of pictures.

3pm-5pm we visited Meiji Jingu Shrine.

Some photos from the main Entrence ......

It takes a while (long walk along the forest) to reach the inside.

Sat down in one of the rest place for our first ever Sakura Ice cream.

And here's the inside of the shrine.

Here after, Everything looks almost the same as in the Yasakuni shrine we visited yesterday, only that everything was in a smaller scale.....

Here's the place to do some wishing....

... and here's the place where people scoop water and wash their left and right hands.

OK. Now before I write this. Please hold on to your seat tight so that u don't fall off after hearing the stint we did.

We wanted to visit the infamous Calico Cat Cafe. We found it in Google and it says 45min walk.

We did not question it and just walked....... all the way from Harajuku to Shinjuku.

Actually we couldn't have taken the subway if we din follow what Google says. Nonetheless we saw a lot of interesting places along the way. Like this one....

...and this one , which Danielle spent 30min in that shop and bought some souvenirs from Kiddy Land. It's all worth the walk.

Finally we reached Shinjyuku around 8pm.

And this is the first thing we see.

The gozzila hotel.

With the help of Google map, and with some challenges and some luck, we finally found the Calico Cat Cafe.

It's already fully packed.

We have to book our slot and cone back an hour later.

1200¥ per person per hour to let the cat serves you.

Well, we walked down to find some food.

There are a lot of red district area there.

Although I don't understand what those guys are talking, I am quite certain that those are those red district area. Because all their pamphlets and their shops are in red color.

Along the way, one shop happened to caught our attention. The jazzy music that flew thru the Entrence of this shop led us into their shop underground.

Kuriya.

One word. Awesome.

Good service.

Nice food.

Cozy environment.

This is a plate of fried salmon with fried vegetables.

And this one really stands out.

It's served like a friend patty, 2 layers.

The bottom one is a layer of avocado.

The top layer is fresh tuna, sprinkled with fried almond, green onions and fresh tomatoes.

The combination is really wonderful.

After the food, we went straight ahead to Calico Cat Cafe.

It's sad to say that the cats hardly come to you if you don't have any treats. Lol.

With 300¥ , we get ourselves a box of treats, and viola, we are the most served customers in harem.

I'll let the photos speak for itself. ....

This is Kamachi. He is wearing a red scarf. All cats that wear a red scarf is not suppose to be fed with treats because they have kidney problems.

This is the fattest cat. It's definitely not fluffy.

After the session we went for some shopping around shinjuku before we head back to our house.......

....... only to find out that Danielle somehow forgot where she left the omiyage that she bought from Kiddy Land.

Tokyo Day 2 - 02 April 2016

2016-04-02T07:35:00.001-07:00

Woke up at 8am.
Left house at 10am.
Reached Otemachi Station at 11am.
Visited the Imperial Palace.

There were a lot of people, but the check point was very efficient despite the fact that they were very thorough.

They even requested us to open our bags, and drink the water that we brought along in front of them, still in a very polite manner.

The whole palace is like walking in a heavily guarded botanical garden.

One of the buildings in the Imperial Palace.

One of the side entrence/exit of the Imperial Palace. Noticed how huge and tick and tall is the wooden door.

The palace is full with historical buildings and lots of trees, not only Sakura.

One of The park outside the palace. The trees all looks like bonsai like. Stocky.

1pm we went to Otemachi Station and had our first ever local authentic Japanese ramen.

400yen per bowl.

I ordered tempura ramen and Danielle ordered prawn ramen.

ordering is done thru a kiosk machine, and proceed to the counter by showing them your receipt, and in less than 3min, your servings are ready.

it was really wonderful.

the soup wasn't too salty, and the hot soup was perfect at this 8degree Celsius weather. most importantly the people are all very gentle and polite.

love this place very much.

After lunch we went to Tokyo Station.

Bought the tickets for Shinkansen from Tokyo to Nagano for 5th April, as we plan to go there for a day trip to see the famous "snow monkey sauna" scene.

Man , the tickets are not cheap.

33000 yen for two and fro for the both of us.

We spent some time in Tokyo, and then took a train to Yasakuni Shrine.

There is a lot of people that says that this is the most hated place for Chinese, as this is the place where the Japanese build this shrine to pray and worship all their soldiers and heroes during WWII.

I personally have no comments. I'm just here to see and learn about the different culture of Japan.

back to the topic.

somehow, I'm not sure , but it seems like they are celebrating some special events here.

there are lots hawkers selling food along the way, just like our Pasar Malam.

Notice the hawkers lining on both sides towards the entrence of the shrine.

One of the food we tried along the hawker stalls. It's a thick like kogepan with red beans paste. Hot, not very sweet. Not oily. Just nice for a very cold and windy evening.

We walked around the shrine.

One thing I really love about Japan is, although they are a very developed country, their parks and places are all still well preserved with a lots of old trees which you can see from their huge trunks.

The whole place is again filled with Sakura.

One of the statue in the shrine.

Entrence of the shrine.

This is a place/hut where these is a pool of water. People go in and scoop some water and wash first their left hand, then their right hand, and then their mouth.

And there is also some wishing thingies.

You drop 100yen into the box, and you will get a piece of paper which says all the lucky stuff.

And then you need to tie that paper to the lines beside it, just like what thus Lil girl did.....

There are also other kinds of similar thing where u can buy a piece of wood, and cali graph your wishes on it and then hand it on this wall.

And this will be the shrine itself (I guess).

Lots of people are lining up to pay respect.

The note there says:-

1 bow, 2 claps, 2 bow

... which is what everyone does.

There is a place in it where it's a long room with heater. It displays a lot of nice floral arrangement.

We left Yasukini Shrine around 6pm and reached Shinya at around 7pm.

Shinya is a very busy city.

The first thing of course was to find the very famous Hachiko statue.

If you haven't watch the movie Hachiko, please watch it. It's a very touching movie (especially if you are a dog lover)

To show you how busy Shibuya is, here is a snapshot of the infamous Shibuya Crossing when the lights turn green.

Did I mention that Shibuya was a very busy city? Well of course, shopping is definitely inevitable then.

1pm went back to sumiyoshi.

We walked around our housing area, and noticed that it's in fact a small village of its own, having a few easily accessible 7-11 like store, and also a few ramen, sushi, and other food related houses.

We bought some food and drinks from 7-11, and then headed back to our house

.......

...... only to find out that Danielle lost her Pasmo (subway) card with around 10000 yen worth of credit in it.

Tokyo Day 1 - 01 April 2016

2016-04-01T09:24:00.001-07:00

5:30am dad and mum came fetch us.

6am reach airport. Very cold. Flight from penang to HK delayed by 2 hrs. Departing time is now 10am. We got rm25 voucher for McD each. Met song chiew as we were in the same flight. He was going to US for biz trip

10-2pm watched Revenant on the plane together. It was really a very nice exciting and intense movie. The flight was awesome.

2-4pm walked around HK airport. Damn. The food there is damn expensive. A bowl of Wan ton mee was Rm 30 and a bowl of fish ball congee is also Rm30.
Visited Disney shop in the airport.

4-9:15pm flight from HK to Haneda airport.

9.15pm reached airport.
Long queue in immigration. Gotn9ut of check in around 10pm
Went collect rented portable WiFi by pupuruwifi.com at ABC counter
Went asked around for directions around bought PASMO card for train and bus (3000¥ each)
Hopped on around train. Which turned out to went to the wrong direction .
Asked two japanese working guys , they were very good. Led us to the correct station and told us what to do.
Hopped onto it. Bang a few walls again, kept asking people.
Found out that the train in Japan is extremely confusing compared to all the previous subways (Singapore and taiwan) that we've taken.

We asked for help from some young guy inside the train who happens to be a Chinese. He gave us this 2 picture and asked us to snapshot it. It does not help at all. Lol

One thing that we noticed. All adult Japanese , when you walked close to them , you can smell a very strong smell of alcohol. I guess it's because today is Friday night. Lol. A lot of those can't even walk in a straight line when they enter the train. Some even need help from their friends to enter the train.

As the trains that we took are somewhat the last train , we had the privilege to experience packing together with all the working folks that are rushing back. I could not explain in pure words how packed it was. But you could hardly breathe, and you can not even change the position of your hand. The only thing that u could move is only your fingers. Imagine that!!

12am finally reached the place we stay. Setup WiFi, send text messages to everyone that we r safe. And oyasumi nasai. :)