Gibberish of an Insane Person: A trip to Nagano

Hai, Assalamualaikum. Dah berkurun lamanya tak menulis. Rasa segan ar pulak nak bercerita dengan korang. Hihi. Malu tak bertempat. Untuk pengetahuan semua, aku tengah WINTER BREAK sekarang ni, and it last up till about three and a half weeks in total. Hooreyyy! Tapi today, dah masuk minggu yang kedua. Cepat je masa berlalu dan macam biasa lah membazir macam tu je but feeling good :D Sekali sekala being away from school stuffs. It just feels AWESOME.

Back to the main topic up there, ski trip. Sebenarnya, plan nak pergi trip ni bermula dari aku yang sangat cerdik dan bijak menggunakan kesempatan yang ada terhadap kawan aku yang dah ade lesen memandu semenjak summer break bulan June haritu. Okay, run-on sentence ni nak menyatakan yang betapa seronoknya perasaan aku because plan aku tu did worked out. Alhamdulillah.

Tak senang jugak rupanya nak organize trip sendiri ni sebab selalunya under sekolah kan. Nak survey harga, survey tempat, survey safety. Lagi-lagi as orang luar macam kitorang semua ni. It takes a whole lot of things especially communication. Kebetulan pulak parents kawan aku ni akan melancong ke Bali and she'll be staying here in Japan with her boyfriend who's back from the navy. Bila aku dan driver dah capai kata sepakat, kitorang pun ON. Dah set date. Set destinasi. Set bilangan orang. Glad that Samy's parents nak tolong uruskan tempat. So they booked it for us. Can't thank them enough for the cooperation. And mine was just convincing people to join. I guess I cannot be a marketer sebab ends up just the four of us. Sad. Sad. Sob. Sob. Tapi its not like they don't wanna join, its just that they could not make it on that date. So how's that? Penat jugek cari orang bagi cukup. Last-last tak cukup jugak. Ada yang balik Korea, ade yang on trip with family, ada yang parents tak bagi. It ends up with just the four of us.

Ira and Nana, penumpang berhemah!

Samy, Ira and Nana

Samy, Ira, Nana and Peter

So we were the awesome four. This trip was actually last Wednesday, the 19th of December. We met at 8 in the morning at our lovely driver a.k.a Samy's station. I have to say that it was the most horrible train ride I have ever experienced in my life(in Japan). Well, because I experienced worse in Malaysia. Tehee.

Kalau pakcik baju coklat tu was a woman macam mana? Errrr___

So the above picture is basically what happened that morning. Since we planned to meet Samy and Peter at Denenchofu station by 8a.m, Nana and I met at Sakura Shimmachi station at 7.30 sebab dah alang-alang pergi direction sama, kitorang decided to gerak sama. It was totally a terrible mistake coz it was the time when people go to work and school. When Nana and I arrived Futako Tamagawa, we had to walk to the next platform and our first attempt of getting into the train was a failure. Dengan our backpacks and baju winter tebal just made it impossible to get in.

stolen from pakcik google

Selalunya pekerja yang berdiri kat platform and berpakaian seperti polis ni, merupakan penjaga keselamatan seperti memastikan penumpang yang berdiri berada di belakang garisan kuning/garisan keselamatan. But that morning, I learnt a new thing. The thing that kind of strikes me was that, the workers who stand on the platform are also functioned as the "pushers"/"packers" or also know as "oshiya". Diorang ni kerja berbayar specially to push people in order for the doors to close..and they work only during the morning and rush hours. Interesting kan?

So at that poingt of time, I can only think and feel how syukur I was to not have to go through that terrible moment of life every morning. Sebabnya, daripada station rumah aku(ikejiri-ohashi) to school(yoga) takde la hectic sangat. So aku tak payah nak minum vitamin untuk tambah tenaga supaya dapat tolak orang. In the end, we made it in at our second attempt of getting on the train. Memula masuk rasanya closed to pintu. But at last, we realized how further we were from the pintu sebab we got sucked and pulled in by the people who came at most of the stops. Since I was not used to it, memang rasa tak selesa sebab berdiri rapat-rapat dengan orang, like seriously what the heck ni tolak-tolak orang? Padahal diri sendiri tolak orang jugak waktu nak masuk tadi haha! Kalau ade mamat hensem takpela kalau boleh tolak kuat lagi..haha! But glad I was alive and we managed to made it on time. Reached Denenchofu at 8.00a.m. This is what I love about Japanese. Bila janji dengan diorang ni always on time. It is always good to be punctual kay people.

Japanese navigation that's provided dalam kereta. Kalau tak pun boleh beli.

So there we go. We took an hour sesat in Tokyo city sebab cari jalan highway. Walaupun ade navigation, it just did not work sebab traffic jam teruk. Mula-mula try jugak stick dengan navi tu, lepastu dah jam teruk sangat dan kami bukan orang Jepun patient, sanggup tunggu traffic yang stuck tak bergerak langsung tu, kitorang try buat navi sendiri. We took that one really tiny selekoh and just get on with it. It was hilariously ridiculous! haha. It was a whole lots of mistake sebab keluar waktu rush hours. But its okay, we learned from it and try to plan better next time.

After wasted an hour sesat, we finally made it to the right highway. Memandangkan Samy merupakan pemandu yang masih panas(baru masak) wlupun licik, kami tidak dibenarkan tidur untuk memastikan yang die tidak keseorangan memandu. So we talked about a lot of stuffs and it was pretty much a "bonding moment" dengan Peter, boyfriend Samy. He is cool. I met him once before, so dah kenal la jugak. Probably new things for Nana who's never met him before. I think I have a lot to say about this guy. Like most other guys, memang lelaki kan kelakar. Sense of humor diorang best kan? He is considerate & matang and at most time selalu give in kalau berbalah apa-apa dengan Samy yang jenis tak pernah kalah ni. Pendek cerita, sesuai la mereka berdua ni.

curry puffs

Kitorang stop dekat dua perhentian. Holy moly, it was freakin COLD. Subhanallah. Cuaca sunny but sangat sejuk. Had to wear gloves, scarves and everything possible. Bought hot coffee from nice, clean and function-able vending machines kat Jepun ni and ate curry puffs Mak packed for all of us. Also Samy's favourite since she once tried it waktu sleepover at my house. Arigato mak. And Peter yang sangat gentleman ni bought us some curry crackers. One thing we all learned about him is that he is a CURRY FREAK! Kat mana-mana mesti carik kari. Seriously tak sangka American suka kari. I thought Asian je yang layan kari k. I was actually expecting to see snow somewhere tapi takde pun. I realized it was actually a bit too early for Nagano. Rasanya kalau pergi atas utara lagi tu snow dah banyak. Kinda sad :(

Pukul 12.30 we reached the destination. Bila dah sampai pekan Miyota tu, we called the owner of the place we're staying and informed her that we will be there in about ten minutes. Tak sangka jugak tempat kitorang bermalam tu pedalaman betul. Tak nampak orang langsung. But who cares kan? I was there to CHILL. Suasana nyaman is preferable.

So we met the owner and she was like "wow so international". Blonde ade, japanese ade, hijabster pun ada. Ahh biasala we are cool like that. So bila dapat kunci, dapat masuk rumah. Urm I think it is more like a chalet. It was WOWW! Cantik. Kemas. Selesa. Besar. Enough keperluan like oven, peti ais, pinggan, mangkuk, semua lah senang cerita. Bilik lebih pun ada. Haha sebab tak cukup orang kan. Here are some of the photos....

the room Nana and I chose to stay

My bed and my pinky backpack

Ruang tamu tempat melepak

Cannot believe this! I totally forgot to take photos of the beautiful kitchen, bathroom and the other two bedrooms. Can you believe that? Sebab I was so attracted by the view outside.

View outside the window of our room

Another breathtaking view. I love the blue sky!

Subahanallah. Cantik semuanya. Alhamdulillah. Lepas settle down, prayers and everything, we went on google and search for a close by place to ski. Paling dekat takes about 30min from our place and the total harga ski rental dan ticket untuk lift pun boleh tahan. So we decided to just chill and ski tomorrow instead. We got in the car and navi search any places yang sound interesting to us. And that navi brought us to a place called "Karuizawa Plaza". Shopping, lunch and bowling + cuci mata were fun!

Italian restaurant where we had lunch

Bowling centre

Besties. Got this from my instagram @nmaj9406

Nana baru lepas drop ubat dlm mata aku..it was refreshing

Sweet couple during their bowling battle..

Unfortunately, one really bad thing happened to me. Sob sob. Mata I got swollen. Sebenarnya waktu sampai chalet tu dah start sneezing alot coz I am allergic to dust. My immune system untuk lawan dust just does not function anymore! Dont know why??!! Besides sneezing, eyes pun got really itchy. Boleh tahan ganas aku tonyoh and gosok mata ni. Tak perasan sampai la waktu lunch diorang bagi tahu mata dah bengkak. Diorang suggest aku beli ubat tahan allergy and all were so concern cari kan drug store. Thanks to Nana for being my nurse/doctor/babysitter yang tegar. Waktu bowling tu mood low je. Main satu round je while diorang tambah lagi satu. Rasa tak sihat, demam and such such. Spoil je mood petang tu. Antibody? Kenapa tak functioning? :(

Sebelum balik, we stopped at a convenient store to buy some foods and snacks for dinner and for our movie session. Baik gila diorang ni semua concern about aku yang "kononnya" tak sihat waktu tu. Nak belikan jus, air limau, ubat, biskut, semua la yang berkhsiat. Terharu. Nana bought me crackers and bubur vegetarian. So nice of her. She said it was as a treat coz she owed me 400yen during lunch which I have already forgotten. Peter bought like alot of curry!!! A LOT! Rice and Curry. Curry and rice. Like seriously Curry freak!! Samy ikut je boyfie die..hohoo.. And I learned one more new thing about how American differs from Japanese. Japanese are very concern about money. Err I cant think of a proper word for this. Bukan kedekut tapi berkira. Kalau kita hutang 50sen tu jangan anggap diorang halalkan. Make sure bayar balik. And vice-versa. They will do the same if hutang kita. Kalau makan kedai ramai, bila bayar diorang akan minta "betsu-betsu" meaning bayar asing. Dah 3 tahun kat sini I kinda got used to it. Lain la macam kita kat Malaysia salu "open table" kan bila dapat gaji. Setakat belanja kawan Mc'D tu tak heran sangat pun. Malaysians kira in common juga lah dengan Americans. Nak belanja, terbelanja, tak kesah sangat pun. In Japanese culture, when someone borrows money is viewed as a serious obligation that it must be paid back They don't like to be in debt. Sebab tu orang jepun kurang mengamalkan penggunaan credit card and they prefer cash! However, in American culture, no one thinks anything of borrowing money even when they know they cannot pay back the money. So its a completely different culture.

On our way home, Peter suggested kitorang tengok cerita hantu bila balik nanti. And we all agreed. Haha. Aku ni dah la penakut. But why not kan? Thrill sikit. Perjalanan balik tu seriously scary. Tempat shalet kitorang tu dah la pedalaman, sunyi, gelap gelita, pergh~ Dalam hati hanya mampu berselawat and I was kind of thankful that Peter was there, at least. Dah la askar kan, kalau pape jadi at least ade seorang lelaki. Samy, Nana and I dah start freaked out sebab takut. Masuk rumah je terus tutup tingkap, tarik semua curtain and again prayers, settle down and started our movie session. One thing I love about my friends, diorang respect my practice tau. Like lastime, sleepover dkt rumah Samy, I forgot my kiblat compass and she helped me searched the arah kiblat. Kalau kita respect orang, orang pun respect kita. Alhamdulillah, if we pleased Him, He will always be with us..to ease our life. InsyaAllah.

Port lepak and movie

fire that helped us alive over the night

Mata I dah elok sikit kan?

We chose to watched the cabbin. It was not scary at all. Samy our lovely driver fell asleep in the middle of the movie. So Nana and I decided to change. We ended up watching "Brave". Best la cerita tu. I was so into it. Satisfied enough. Nana and I slept so late coz we had a cit-cat and finish-up foods sessions after the movie. I love the sound of water flowing from the river outside. Loved it!

The next morning we started our journey at like 10.30 am. Semua bangun and mandi awal realizing it was snowing a bit outside. Sikit sangat. Snow turun sangat tiny tiny. So bangun awal tapi melepak je lebey. haha. Nana and I got to spent that last few minutes there to capture the beauty and keindahan view kat situ. It was freakin cold.