Yesterday I hung out with two of my friends at Jurong Point, Boon Lay (extreme east of Singapore). I felt like an village girl or something cos’ I don’t remember ever having been there in my life, but that’s also what makes it a good trip for me.

One of my friends, Doreen, wanted to check out this “Japanese cuisine street” called Shokutsu 10 Osaka that recently opened, I think, in the mall. Apparently it’s inspired by a famous food street in Osaka, although I don’t know if that’s inside a mall as well.

Unfortunately, this Shokutsu 10 Osaka is still under construction and only a small section of it is open at the moment, so there weren’t really a lot of restaurants to choose from for now. However!! OMFG!!!!! I am SOOO glad I went there cos’ that’s where I *GASSSSP* finally found okonomiyaki here in Singapore!!!!! @___@!!!! *DIES*

I forgot to take a picture of the entrance to the restaurant, Yakiyaki Bou, but damn! Seeing okonomiyaki on the menu alone already got me so excited!! ^__^!! Once again, I was like a village girl when I stepped into the restaurant cos’ I’ve never had/seen teppanyaki and I was going like “Oooo~~” and “Aahh~~”. XD Anyway, I ordered suji (beef tendon) okonomiyaki while my friends had ebi okonomiyaki and it was awesome~!! (That is, by my standards/opinion) I miss it so much already and I’m definitely going back for more next time!! T__T!!

Next, it’s back to Slam Dunk. =P Well, not really. I just wanna say that I finished re-watching Slam Dunk about a week ago and I’m feeling empty again. LOL. Yeah, it gets to me like that each time. I’ve always hoped that the anime could continue on like the manga so that it’s complete, but alas we all know that’s not gonna happen now. However, there is still one good thing for me – reading the manga. I know it’s hard to believe that a Slam Dunk enthusiast such as me has actually never read the manga. XD But not having read it means that I can look forward to something new now that I’ve never seen before in Slam Dunk. XD! So YES! I still can have more Slam Dunk in my life! Nyaahahahaa!!

And so, because I’m still so nuts about the series (it’s been more than a month now), naturally I went looking around different online shopping sites to check out what they might have on anything Slam Dunk. And then… that’s when I found out that the author, Inoue Takehiko, actually has another basketball series entitled “REAL”. @__@!! I never knew that OMFG!!! And so I checked that other series out… and in under two minutes I found it on eBay and bought it without hesitation. XD!! It’s only got 7 volumes so far (it’s still ongoing very slowly) so it wouldn’t be hard for me to buy it all and to keep it in my too-small-and-cramp-for-anything room >_>;

My manga hasn’t arrived, of course, so I’ve not read it and I won’t peek at it (through online scanlations and stuff) until I’ve got the real thing in my hands, so I don’t actually know anything about the story, or even who the main character is just yet. But, the least anyone should know about it is the interesting fact that REAL is not about regular basketball like Slam Dunk, but wheelchair basketball. Interesting aye? =D At least, that totally piqued my interest, especially when they keep showing the Paralympics on TV in the bus these two weeks. ^_^!

So yeah, after I finish reading Slam Dunk (man it’ll take a while cos’ I’m taking it slow… to maximize the enjoyment XD), REAL will be next on my priority list. Wikipedia says that it sold very well in Japan but not overseas, but I trust Inoue sensei and I’m sure it’d be bloody awesome. I so can’t wait!! ^__^!!

But er... for the next few days I think I'll be SOOO busy scanning a shitload of invaluable photos from my childhood times!!!! @___@!!! Busy busy... but this is sooo nostalgiicccc!!! T___T!!!

West Coast Park Outing (a.k.a. Mid-Autumn Outing)

This was definitely one of the best outings I’ve ever had. Yesterday, the Tanoshimi gang (four of us coworkers) hung out together the whole day, and our agenda included lunch, neoprint, West Coast Park and dinner.

So, our first stop was Ajitei, a Japanese restaurant at Bugis. Natalie was late, so we (the other three) ate first while we waited until she came. I’m not exactly familiar with Ajitei’s dishes but there’s this one dish that I must order no matter what – grilled curry chicken rice (it comes with melted cheese!). Oh maaann~~ <333 It’s so made of pure awesomeness and win. And, it’s cheap. =P *Thumbs up* Actually, it’s just one of their side dishes but it’s actually enough to count as an entrée in my opinion =)

After finishing our meals, the four of us continued to sit on the table chatting, until we decided that we should ‘plan’ out what poses we’d like for our next stop – neoprint. LOL So what we came up with was:

1. Two in front row: Loving
   Two in back row: Angry/violent
2. Four on same row: Blow a kiss
   (We scraped this in the end cos’ it didn’t turn out well)
3. One in front, two on the sides, one in back: Any pose
4. Three fans going after a celeb
5. Martial arts/fighting (sort of)
6. Four on same row: Model side view
7. Freestyle
   (We scraped pose #2 so we had to come up with something spontaneously)

See if you can match the correct pose type with the resulting neoprint below. XD!!

After finally taking Tanoshimi’s first neoprint (w00t! And we bloody love the outcome!!), which took a long time cos’ the machine was a little faulty and we had to re-decorate the neoprint, it’s time for our next stop and main event of the day – West Coast Park! Yaay~~!! God knows how many years it’s been since I last played at a playground! (I’m thinking more than a decade) Yes, I know I’m a kid, and I love being a kid.

We went there by taxi and I was pleased to see that the sun’s finally out; it rained in the morning and drizzled a little before noon (that had me worried!). But oops, I realized that I’ve burnt most of the energy from my lunch from being too excited while taking our neoprint (LOL) and I needed a little bite before we begin playing.

The only eatery there was Macdonald’s, so we sat down to have a few drinks and some French fries. Of course, while we’re at it we camwhored a little as well. =P You gotta love being a girl, aye? XDXDXD!!

And then finally!!! It’s play time!! ^__^!! Nyaaahahahaha!! I was so excited……….. until the main attraction there failed me along with smacking me hard in the back of my head.

I bloody insisted on West Coast Park just for THIS (I call it the spider-web) and THIS is what I get!?! That’s atrocious! =_=##!!! It’s disappointing… but I soon got over it cos’ I didn’t have a choice and there were still other things we could play. Phew. And so the playing began…. =P

Other than the spider-web, the second most interesting plaything there was this hanging slide…. Whatever you may call it. ^^; It was pretty fun, but it was a little hard to get onto and we didn’t know how to push the rider hard/far enough to the other side. LOL. Maybe we were on the wrong end of the slide? >_>;

After that we continued to the next part of the playground where there were more obstacle thingies. (I really dunno what they’re called >_>;) I did only half of it cos’ I kinda hurt my palms trying to do the rope monkey bars (the other three didn’t quite try). >_<; But it’s a good thing it didn’t really hurt; it’s just red due to internal bleeding…? LOL. So I just went back to my camera and took more pics of the other three instead, along with more silly shots right after =3 Mufufufu~

The other side of the playground was filled with more kids and since it got humid and the girls were getting quite tired we ended up walking around for a bit while enjoying the breeze. Too bad the view of the sea sucks cos’ Singapore’s just got too many industrial ports and harbors all around.

Lastly, it was dinner time and we had steamboat at Kallang area. Again, it’s also been who-knows-how-long since I last had steamboat outside (homemade ones don’t count), but to be honest I’m not a super huge fan (the other three girls are). I don’t mind it of course, it’s just I don’t find it ultra delicious. Maybe it’s cos’ I didn’t grow up eating it, but I’m guessing it’s more the fact that all the meat is boiled in soup and I prefer my food stir-fried.

Anyway, that’s what we had and man, the girls really could eat! I think we ate a total of 8 plates (of ingredients)? I was full at the end but I think how much I ate was barely comparable with the other three. LOL. It was also a shame that I realized I didn’t really like ‘ma la huo guo’ (麻辣火锅) cos’ of those little things they put in it that numbs your mouth (feels a little like pepper but it’s not, and it’s not spicy, just numb). I, for one, would like to be able to feel my mouth when I eat. ^^;

So yup! That’s it for the outing! It may not sound like much from my lousy blog writing skillz but it was really a lot fun ^_^!! I iz a happy cat!! ^__^!!! Wahahahaa~~!!

Matsuri (Cosplay day) - 31 August 2008, Sunday

Two consecutive weeks of having to dress up as Lolita is a little tiring, but well, that’s actually cheap for the price of vanity. LOL. I went for last week’s event just for the ‘Best Dressed competition’, but this one’s for fun. I’ve planned to come to this since last month cos’ it’s the same as the Matsuri back in March at Vivo. And I love taking photos at Vivo. =P Mwahahahaha!! (I know, I can haz motive… XD)

So yeah, I went to Vivo at around 1pm, meeting up with my friend Vania before that. But when we got to the amphitheatre there weren’t very many people, yet. I was worried it was gonna be a very lonely event or something and so I stopped by the event organizer, whom I sort of made friends with two weeks ago, at the booth and asked. He said the show/event is not gonna start till 4pm so like… the hell, we had three hours to burn.

Since there wasn’t much we could do at that time, Vania and I decided to walk around the mall as we looked for some food and water. We got our water at this supermarket called Giants, where… dun dun DUN….!! I bought some Hello Kitty panties!!! LAAWWWLL!!! XDXD!! They were cheap, so I couldn’t care less if I really needed them. LOL. Plus, I’d still have wanted at least one in memory of Joker. WAHAHAHAHA!! However, I only realized at home that I accidentally got the panties at size S and that’s too small even for me =_= I can squeeze into them but it ain’t comfortable… Gggrrrr…!!!

Anyway, eventually we went back to the amphitheatre where more people finally started gathering. Lucky for everyone, it actually didn’t rain despite the rain-everyday-for-the-next-few-weeks weather forecast. So how can this vain little cat let go of that chance to… camwhore!??! =D So thanks to Vania, I took quite a number of pics and this time, I tried my best to be a little more varied in my poses…

The thing is though… even though it was a cosplay event, there really weren’t many cosplayers at all. If you ask me it was actually disappointing; it looked like there were less than 60 cosplayers in total. It also didn’t help that a lot of the cosplayers were cosplaying the same old characters from the same old anime/series. It actually gets pretty lame after a while, really. =/ (Namely D.Grayman and Vampire Knight or something, where every character’s costumes look the same as far as I’m concerned) *Sigh*

Cos’ of that, I didn’t go around taking a lot of cosplay photos this time. It’s not like they were that awesome anyway, but here are some of those that I took:

As usual, I found an Ichigo. I know he’s everywhere but this one’s got the most orange head ever. LOL. And then I also found a whats-his-name from HunterXHunter (I seriously forgot). I like the wig and the necklace-bracelet thing around the hand, that’s about it. A few more steps after that and I found a fellow Lolita dresser whose dress actually caught my attention. The red and black along with the back lacey thingy reminds me of my favorite dress (even though I really love this one I’m wearing too). I really should have taken that picture from a better angle; I took it from this angle cos’ there were too many people behind her and I didn’t want a cluttered background and I had thought she’d turn her angle around for me…

Anyway, soon after that I bumped into the best cosplay I’ve ever bumped into here in Singapore – Nero and Kyrie. Mind you, it’s not like I love these two characters nor is it because their costumes were that awesome. It’s simply because I was exhilarated to even find anyone who knows DMC, let alone cosplay it. Yes, Singapore is that lame when it comes to knowing/cosplaying game characters. Most everyone thinks that by knowing Final Fantasy 7, they know all about games. It’s sad. And to show how happy I was to see them, I kept telling the two cosplayers how awesome they were =D As a result of my enthusiasm, they gave me their name card or something, saying that I could add them to my Friendster account if I have one, which I do. That’s when I heard their accent, which kinda sounds Thai… so I’m guessing that they’re a cosplay group from Thailand, which isn’t surprising to me cos’ I know how big Thailand is on cosplays. But then that makes me sad again… cos’ now I have to re-face the fact that again, no one in Singapore would/could care to cosplay DMC, or anything like it for that matter.

Next, whoo hoo!! I found my favorite cosplayer, again! Wahahahaha! It’s the boy with the white hair in the first pic above. I first saw him back in EOY 2007, and then Streetfest 2008. He was cosplaying as Sasuke in both events, and it was his Sasuke cosplay that made me his fan (I wasn’t even a Sasuke fan then). LOL. I know I sound like a pedophile (he’s only 15… Jesus) but yeah, I do think he’s cute. I wouldn’t have mind stalking him. Mwahahaha. Alas, he’s cosplaying as some character from *argh* D.Grayman.

Anyway, around 4pm Vania had to leave for her dance class, and so I joined another friend sitting in front of the stage waiting to see the cosplay show. I stayed with her for quite a while, watching whatever comes on stage, until my other friends finally arrived. Oh right! That Nero and Kyrie cosplayers joined the cosplay competition thing and man I totally screamed/cheered for them. XD!!! Cos' if I don't, no one else would. =/ And I don't give a damn if it was a futile attempt; I just wanna make sure that I did my part as a DMC fan/supporter. =D

After that we walked around Vivo some more, blablablabla… went to Bugis again, had dinner there and took some neoprints. Sounds familiar? The end. =P

And oh, on a random note, it’s LitterBox’s 3rd birthday today!! *Cries and cheers!!* Whoooo hoooo!!! ^__^!