After the automatic machine checkout from Shinjuku Washington Hotel, we grabbed our baggage and headed for the subway to Nihon-Odori station to have a look at the Yokohama International Passenger Terminal in Kanagawa Prefecture. Continue reading
Today, we’re going to look at the decade-old argument on why you shouldn’t eat sugar or other processed foods if your aim is to lose fat. Let’s first look at sugar, which is not only a simple carbohydrate that our body readily absorbs, but tastes good as well. The difference between sugar, white rice, pasta, and mashed potatoes is that one tastes sweet while the other 3 don’t. The similarity is that they’re all equally processed and unhealthy. All the kernels and cusps have been removed to reveal the sugary white rice inside. Continue reading
Merry Christmas, friends and fellow bloggers! In view of the holiday season, I’ll keep this post short and to the point. As you make a Christmas wish to the stars this evening, please bear in mind that 1 of these tiny white dots is actually a red-dwarf star Kepler-438. And orbiting this star within the potentially habitable zone is a planet slightly larger than our own, Kepler-438b. Maybe at this time of year, the citizens on Kepler-438b are also celebrating Christmas.
For Day 4, we went to Roppongi Hills in the morning, Saitama in the afternoon, and Shibuya in the evening. It may seem a little weird that we chose to go to Roppongi, which is famous for the nightlife, in the morning. But remembering that this was 3 years ago and that I had to present my master’s project on the Roppongi site, it makes sense.
From an earlier post, you’ll know that Yama no Susume is my 10th favorite anime, mostly because of its relevance to hiking and camping. Since becoming a scout leader in July 2014, I learned to tie some knots and hitches, skills that may become a lifesaver in the country. Although Yama no Susume didn’t focus on rope-tying, it did talk about the 3 essential items for hiking: a backpack, proper shoes, and a rain jacket. This anime can provide fundamental knowledge for those who haven’t hiked much but are planning to hike more in the future. It may also inspire you if you’re into camping, backpacking, and even rock-climbing as these 4 activities are interrelated. Continue reading
Now I’m not interested in politics, but I must point out how Donald Trump’s argument on having guns readily available so that good guys can fight with bad guys is totally illogical. If guns are more attainable for regular citizens, then they’ll also be more attainable for potential criminals.
The Tokyo experience wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t look at the shoreline, so we headed straight for Toyosu station, near Tokyo Bay, on the morning of Day 3. The peaceful scenery, highly-engineered flood gates, artistic chairs, and kindergarten children, while being good themselves, were dwarfed by the Urban Dock LaLaport Toyosu shopping mall next door. It had been a while since I’ve been to a mall as welcoming as Toronto’s Markville Mall. The headroom was just as high and the Tokyu Hands was 20% the size of Walmart, which wasn’t bad. There weren’t any Twinkies or Clodhoppers though. Along the mall outskirts were some nice fast-food restaurants, where we had lunch at before going to our next destination, Kaihimmakuhari station. Once again, the surrounding neighborhood reminded me of Canada. Continue reading
Watched the Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 on November 24, 2015 and I thought I’d write a spoiler review. If you haven’t watched it and you’re wondering if it’s any good, I can assure you won’t be disappointed. If you already watched it and wish to know my personal viewpoint on it, read on.
Been riding on the bus everyday to work for quite a while and I just realized how steadily trees grow. The same Acacia confusa that I looked at from the upper deck of the double-decker bus was only 3 meters tall last year and is 4.5 meters this year (slightly more than the height of our bus). Acacia confusa grow much faster than regular trees but their lifespan is also much shorter, typically 30 years. That is unlike Cinnamomum camphora that grow slowly but can live up to 1000 years, 11 times the lifespan of humans. Continue reading
Once again I’d like to thank Leanne for starting this challenge where fellow travelers can discover interesting gifts from other countries. My last trinket was a souvenir magnet from Shanghai, China. This time, my good friend bought me another cool magnet from Harajuku, Tokyo, Japan.
MANTA Piece 