Hokkaido: the quiet part of Japan

Onuma Park

Its the same reaction I got from everyone... "Japan again?". Yup, we went for vacation to Japan. Again. Do not ask me how many times I went there. Again. But undeniably, it is a country with so diverse there are many attractions for everyone. The shopping in metropolitan city. The rich culture. The fresh sashimi. And of course, the peaceful nature. Each part of Japan offer different focus in each visit. And this round, we decided to challenge Hokkaido.

Onuma Park

Hokkaido would be slightly different from the rest of the major cities in Japan as it is vastly huge. When someone decide to visit Hokkaido, the next question to ask is, which part of Hokkaido? We decided to concentrate on south and work our way to the central, just because it is early November and we want to try our luck to see autumn foliage. Best time to see autumn foliage in Hokkaido, generally, is October, but in southern Hokkaido, being the warmest among the cities there, there may be still some autumn foliage to see.

The next question everyone ask me is.." got itinerary ah?"... Please read on then...

Mt Usu

Day 1: using AirAsia, we arrived to Haneda airport at late night. If you confident and familiar, it is actually cheaper to book accommodation in Kamata area or even Tokyo (if the trip is to Tokyo). Since we are going back to the airport the next morning, and we just need a decent place to spend the night, we stay over in Toyoko Inn Haneda. This is our second stay there. Never disappoint us. Free shuttle to/ from Haneda, and very nice pastry for breakfast (and its free as well!)

Day 2: took ANA flight to Hakodate from Haneda. This is where the logistic comes in. We all know the both Jetstar and Vanilla Air is the cheapest but they all fly Narita- Sapporo route. We want to fly from Haneda to Hakodate. There is a promotion for foreigners from ANA so need to check it out regularly. (booking need to be done earliest 3 months before the flight). Stayed in Kikuya Hotel.

Sapporo Clock Tower

First place to visit in Hakodate is the market. Great seafood bowl (domburi). Next, we took the tram to motomachi. Few western influence building to visit here including the town hall and Russian orthodox church. Get some great view from the town hall as well. We later went to the Red Brick House, which basically is for shopping only. We ended our night with Mt Hakodate which has one of the best night view of Japan. (yup, after so many night views in different cities of Japan, this has to be in the top 3)

dessert in Shiroi Koibito Park

Day 3:  One of the main reason we came to Hakodate is to visit Onuma Park. It is a quasi national park and very convenient too. There are enough path to spend at least half a day with great view too. Too bad in our visit, the weather is so cold that it was raining ice so we had to cut our visit short.
We plan to visit Goryokoku Fort but since we had seen too many forts and castle and we are too tired from Onuma's trip, we decided to spend the rest of the day just jalan-jalan in Hakodate market and red brick house.

Otaru Canal

Day 4: We took the train to Toya, change to bus to Toya-onsen town. We are practically staying next to Lake Toya, with our windows facing the lake. We had to take the taxi (using toku-toku promotion) to Mt Usu, since in Nov, they suspended the bus service in preparation for winter. This is where we manage to catch so many snow mountain pictures. Next we walk around Kompirayama trail in the town, enough for us to visit the building rubble from the previous volcano eruption. Stayed in Hotel Manseikaku Lakeside Terrace.

Day 5: We manage to put our name in the free shuttle by the hotel to Sapporo using bus chartered by the hotel (one of the main reason we picked this hotel in the first place). The first place we visited in Sapporo is Hokkaido University. The free museum is very impressive, the ginkgo avenue is the main reason why we made the stop here. The poplar avenue behind the museum is fairly average only. We moved on the Sapporo Beer museum, do not forget the beer tasting at the end. And finally we ended our day in Sapporo Factory , which again is just a shopping complex. As for the night, we visited Mt Moiwa, which also offers a very nice view of Sapporo city. Stayed in Frame Hotel.

tram in Hakodate

Day 6: we made changes since the weather forecast say it will be raining today. We visited Odori Park and later to Clock Tower. Then, we took the subway to Shiroi Koibito Park, which is a chocolate wafer factory. Quite a nice place to visit. We went to curb market for lunch, which is not easy to locate. One should not miss the crab here, and we opt for taraba or king crab here. We spent the afternoon in the Okurayama ski jump museum. We did our shopping in the shopping street in Sapporo at night.

Ginkgo avenue, Sapporo

Day 7: the day of our Otaru visit. And it was actually snowing in Otaru. We visited the Otaru aquarium (nothing to shout about, in fact, rather old), then we visited Sakaichi dori, the preserved street. Few shops to visit here such as the glass shops (the famous one would be Kitaichi), music box museum and few eateries. Do not miss Letao for its dessert. We ended our trip at the Otaru Canal which I think, is over-rated. Because of time constrain, we did not visit the Otaru bank or Mt Tengu.

Day 8: took the train to the airport and fly by Jetstar to Narita. Took the NEX to Tokyo (again, there is foreigner's discount). We could actually spend more time in Hokkaido and probably visit Teine/ Furano/ Biel, but since we wanted extra days to shop in Tokyo, we allocated the last 3 days here. Due to the logistic, the whole day is for travelling. Stayed in Smile Hotel.

Day 9: shopping at Akihabara. Whole day. Nuff said.

Day 10: again to Akihabara to buy some last minute stuff. Visited Odaiba, mainly for Gundam Tokyo Front, but there are enough attraction in Odaiba to spend for 1-2 days. Took the night flight back to KL and arrived in day 11, 0600.

ratings: 4 half poink!
comments: should have been perfect if I did not underestimate the weather. The raining ice is the worst experience ever. Cold, wet and the wind that could break my newly purchased umbrella in just 10 minutes.

The Hunger Games, Mockingjay (part1): the making of....

Since Colleen had finished the whole series of book on the Hunger Games series, she had told me enough spoilers to know what to expect from the story. I still think the series borrowed heavily from Battle Royale but I bet lots of fan would think otherwise. Still, I did enjoyed the last 2 movies. Jennifer Lawrence carried the whole of last 2 movies and no regrets of watching her in the big screen.


Colleen again warn me of Hunger Games: Mockingjay (part 1) that there will be not much of action sequence. I told myself, then again, there are not that many actions in the first 2 movies as well, and I still end up enjoying them both. The story picks up from the end of second movie. Katniss was rescued by the rebels from District 13 while Peeta was left behind in the Capitol. To cut the story short, the rebels wanted to make Katniss the spoke person for the rebellion, and she reluctantly agreed, partially to make sure Peeta will be accepted into District 13 once he is rescued. At the climax of the part 1, Peeta is eventually rescued and they discovered he was re-programmed to kill Katniss instead. The end. And I did not even bother to put a spoiler alert there.


Watching the whole movie is like watching those "the making of.." on TV. They showed the interview, bit and pieces how the show is made. The bulk of the first half of the movie centred on Katniss reluctance to take the job, to her conviction to fight against President Snow, and how her promotion video was shot. And you remembered in those "making of..." where they kept repeating the same trailer again and again. Here, you would see rubble, and rubble, and rubble again. Basically nothing happens in the first 1 half hour. I would know. I kept on looking at my watch.


On the other hand, the acting are good. Again, Lawrence carried the show. I guess if it was not her, I would probably slept in the cinema. The action sequence is too few in between, and even in Peeta's rescue mission in ending, there is also not much of adrenaline rush.

Disappointed? yes, I am. It is not bad movie, some may even argue that they would use this movie to develop Katniss character. The fans would argue that they are faithful to the book.My answer? They could have just shorten this film and combine it with the second part to make a longer movie.


rating: 2 half poink~!
comments: while Rurouni Kenshin should have been split into 3 movies, this should have been kept to just one. Like the book.

Rurouni Kenshin : the Legend Ends: less than perfect ending

Less than a week after I reviewed Kyoto Inferno, it's time for the second movie, Rurouni Kenshin: the Legend Ends. I would prefer this method rather than waiting for a year or two for the second part (and another year to the ending in most trilogy). By the time I waited a year or two, I would have forgotten most of the earlier movie.

For those who have read my review on Kyoto Inferno, my main opinion stays. The actor has embodied the character well. I have come to accept most of them to portray the swordsmen. All except Sanosuke, since I still think the hair should be more spiky than that. Kudos to Tatsuya Fujiwara who played Makoto Shishio to near perfection. He may be slimmer and taller in the manga but the viciousness is played to perfection. By the third movie, I could not imagine anyone but Takeru Sato to play Kenshin.


The action is fast paced. Watching the sword fights will make one's hand itchy to swing a blade. Fast and exciting is how to describe the fights. However, compare to the first movie, Kyoto Inferno, relatively there are less depiction on the individual style of swords fights. Rather, we have more of generic swords-swing-and-fight. Do not get me wrong, I totally enjoyed the action sequence, but I wish so much to see more of Kenshin's hitten mitsurugi, or Saito's thrust or Aoshi play with 2 swords. Even the depiction of Kenshin's ultimate technique is a bit of letdown.

Which come to the biggest flaw of the movie. The writer tried to stay as close as possible to the original material. Although there are some creative deviation, but I do agree that this adaptation is one of the better adaptation that stick fairly close to the manga. But because of that, they have to cram too many things into 2 movies. Shishio's arc is a HUGE arc in Kenshin's storyline. By the time I finished the first movie, I still doubt how much could they depict in the ending. At the end, Aoshi's appearance seems rushed and not important. Even his conversion to fight by Kenshin side appeared bit forced. I was really disappointed as there is only 2 fight with the Juppon Gatana that was featured. All this after Juppon Gatana was introduced with style in the first movie. And the fight between Saito and Usui was ended in a flash. Yup. Less than 5 second. One of the few highlights of Shishio's arc in the manga are the fights of Juppon Gatana. Even the way how the Shishio allowed the good guys to invade his warship is rather puzzling. Someone who is as manipulative and smart as Shishio (who always resort to assassination) would not see the government ploy to play for time to build cannons? Holes, holes, and more holes. If they have taken the time to stretch to 3 movies, or at least omit the Aoshi's story, they would have more time to make more sense of the story. The whole story is about struggling to find one's meaning of existence in a new era, and the message is reminded in every single opportunity. Up to the point of feeling of being nag to.



Despite my long rantings on the movie, it is still one of the best manga adaptation ever. It is an epic film (based on an epic manga). However, given a completely perfect build-up by the first movie Kyoto Inferno, I felt bit short changed at the ending.

ratings: 3 poink!
comments; go read the manga.