I finally have time to upload this!!! *grin* It’s 2.20am now and I’m brain dead but I’m gonna try to finish this anyhoo… *laugh*

My Japanese language school recently organized a trip to Hotel Okura for give us a first hand experience with the traditional Japanese tea ceremony. *smile* Coincidently, it was also the same day that Janice@Jzelynn arrived from KL along with my ‘tumpang’ stuff – long sundresses, slippers and maggi mee. *laugh*

So on that very same day I got to wear slippers and a sun-dress for a change, the first time in 6 months!!!! Believe me, my feet had never been happier than they were that afternoon. *laugh* BTW, the weather in Tokyo today was insanely hot! It went up to 26 degrees in the afternoon and making my way to class in the heat reminded me so much of home. *laugh*

Back to the tea ceremony, I actually took a video of the preparation itself but I’ll leave that to the next post. For now, here are the pics from the quaint little tea house at the hotel. Take it as my little introduction to the post. Hehe.

In this room, we were introduced to the art of drinking matcha (finely-milled Japanese green tea). The preparation and consumption of this sort of tea was actually formed into a ritual by Zen Buddhists during the Song Dynasty, later brought in to Japan in 1191 by monk Eisai.

In Malaysia we’re so used to matcha being associated with ice-cream in Japanese restaurants but after doing some research I finally learnt that there was more to matcha than just being used in ice-cream. *laugh* To start, did you know that it’s actually made from shade-grown tea leaves, meaning the tea bushes are actually covered to prevent direct sunlight?

This is meant to slow down growth, turn the leaves a darker shade of green and cause the production of amino acids which make the resulting tea sweeter. *wink*

Only the finest tea buds are hand picked to be dried, de-veined, de-stemmed, and stone grounded into the fine, bright green, talc-like powder we are all familiar with. The fact that it can take up to one hour to grind 30 grams of matcha justifies the exorbitant prices high grade machas can fetch.

I’ll go into the preparation of this tea in the next post since I have a video of it but for now I’m gonna finish up a few things and head to bed. I’ve got my final recording session for the week tomorrow afternoon so gotta get some rest and gather all my energy to give it my best. Wah...I can't believe I just rhymed that!!! *laugh* Rapper in the making? *laugh* Yo, yo, yo~ Haha. Hope the rest of you will enjoy the weekend just as much as I will in the studio! *smile* Hugs~

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*laugh* I know the title says it all. *laugh* Disney again!!! Haha. My friends say I should get the yearly Disney passport since I make so many trips there. *laugh* I bet the next Malaysian friend that comes over to visit will want to go to Disney too! *laugh*

Anyhoo, as promised here are the pics from the trip to Disney Sea with Janice @ Jzelynn. Since I had the afternoon off work, I decided to declare it a no-makeup day. Having that in mind, please excuse the eyebags and the bad hair day ya. *laugh* Here goes!

in the train *smile*

dinner at last!!!! *grin*

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Not sure if I have ever introduced this old friend of mine to you here before, but anyways this is Janice @Jzelynn. *smile* We’ve come a long way together since back in our Penang college days, so she’s also a Penang-lang with a big appetite just like me! *laugh* Check out her website http://www.jzelynn.com/ *smile*

at Harajuku before the crossing to Takeshita Street *smile*

Well, she’s the one that’s in town to visit me for the weekend so have been doing my best to show her around in between work and school. She arrived on Friday and is leaving first thing tomorrow so not much time to discover Tokyo city on the whole but I reckon having the chance to catch up on things is what matters most to us so no complaints. *laugh* I left her in Shibuya while I was at school on Friday and since yesterday was the only day off for me at work this week, we did the Disney rendezvous – for me, it marked the 5^th time in the last 3 months. Does that qualify me as a Disney pro now? *laugh*

I gotta head off to the studio for recording in a bit so I’ll continue with pics from Disney in my next post. *smile* Meantime, enjoy your Sunday! *grin* Mwahhhhhhhh!

BTW, my big bro's company Hue Visualab is looking to hire more 3-D Animators so if any of you are interested, please email your resume to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ya! *smile*

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I realized I haven’t been posting up many pics on my work lately so since Issei my translator was around during this week’s session, I asked him to help me take some shots. Thanks Issei for the wonderful pics!!! *grin*

Hopefully by Sunday’s session we’d be able to finish this particular song we’ve been working on. Fingers crossed! *grin*

The week went by so fast, I didn’t realize it was already Thursday! I had my last Kanji test for the week this afternoon and believe it or not, I fell asleep on my books last night. Haha. Students, please don’t do this at home ya! *laugh* Anyways, today’s test marked the completion of our 100^th kanji before we start a new text book next week.

Tomorrow, the language school is organizing a Japanese tea-ceremony session outside class so the usual Friday Achievement test has been postponed to Monday. Yay!!!!!! *grin* And tomorrow morning, my college mate from Penang will be arriving in Tokyo! She wanted to go to Disneyland so believe it or not, I’ll be heading there again on my day off this Saturday! *laugh* I should get them to make a Disneyland loyalty card for me by now. *laugh*

I realized I’ve been drinking more coffee than I should lately. One in the morning, one before school, one during class breaks in the afternoon and one at night when I fight to stay awake to study. OD is probably an understatement but I can’t think of anything else to keep me awake la!

My partners-in-crime – the 3 musketeers – Manu, Tim and moi. Coffee junkies! Haha.

Ooooo, BTW have any of you watched Alice in Wonderland yet? The last time I went to the movies was in January for Avatar so I have a lot of catching up to do when God allows me some time to indulge. *laugh* Share your reviews with me on the movie if you’ve watched it k. Not sure if I should watch it at the cinema or borrow the DVD when it’s out. There’s also the 3D version in Tokyo but some people say it’s tiring watching 3D movies! *laugh* Your take?

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