Empty...

Believe it or not, you can find empty trains in Japan. It's not all rush-hour crush boarding them all day long! ^^

and to accompany the empty train photos I loaded up here, here a video from JYJ.

I love Japan and all that, but I'm nuts over Korean guys! *^-^*

Losing Sleep Over A Scandal

No, not a real scandal but over a Korean drama titled Sungkyunkwan Scandal. I have been sleeping late for the past week, watching whatever episodes that I've downloaded over and over and over and over again. I'm trying to pace myself and not watch the whole episode in one go by not downloading them all,so I've only watched 16 epsiodes so far.

I've always have a soft spot for romantic Korean drama, but the last time I was this obsessive was over Coffee Prince.

The drama was set in Joseon era, in Sungkyunkwan, the nation’s highest academic institution, founded in 1398. For info, Sungkyunkwan is still in existence in modern day Korea. It is the oldest national university in Korea and all of East Asia. Interesting fact, no?

There is a  bit of similarity of the story because it is about a girl cross dressing as a boy to make a living. In Coffee Prince, it was a case of mistaken identity (or rather mistaken gender) that started the relationship; in Sungkyunkwan Scandal, Kim Yoon Hee (which was played by Park Min Yeong) had to dress as a boy to make a living. The stakes are different, since the consequences of being found out are severe, it’s no longer a matter of losing the guy’s trust and/or love but of failing your family and facing severe punishment and possibly death. 

The story is of a girl beating all odds to enter a higher learning place which was forbidden to women back then, in order to help her mother and sick brother. A heroine slogs through all odds and triumph in the end; I'm such a sucker for this kind of storyline.

And watching three beautiful men (those three in the photo above) doesn't hurt either. Koreans does have a knack to make a strait-laced guy looks hot! And watching this drama makes me even want to try wearing a hanbok someday. If you want to know a bit about Korean traditional dress, click here for more info.

Anyway, enjoy this soundtrack from the drama.

Selca Moments

No, I'm not talking about a place in Croatia but rather a term coined by South Korean netizens. Selca is a combination of two English words together, self and capture.

For those who visited this blog often, you  should've realize that I'm not much into this "selca" shots. ^-^

I found this hilarious Samsung ad at youtube :

Many bloggers got this selca-ing thing down pat. For me, I'll just settle taking candid photos of my hubby and son. I'm not that photogenic anyway. XD

How about you?

Discover Your Seoul At Just RM99!

Booking starts 4 Aug 2010 (0000hrs, GMT +8)
	Kuala Lumpur Seoul (South Korea)   New Daily Flight   All-In-Fare from RM one way 99

I wish I have "kaki" to go to Seoul. Zaini still pretty much uninterested in going to Korea, even with a super cheap fare going on sale by Air Asia X this Wednesday. RM99 one way fare to Seoul. Who can beat that?

Now, if only there are cheap flights to Japan. The three of us would probably start spending all four seasons a year in Japan! 

This And That...

I've got panda eyes for the past weeks. I am sleeping less than 5 hours daily and it was worse on weekends because for two Friday nights in a row, I was totally awake and slept for a total of one/two hours the next morning. When I can't sleep, my house tend to be clean. It's something I used to do when I was an insomniac single twenty-something too; cleaning in the middle of the night. I can't vacuum because that would be too noisy but I clean-up the kitchen and the bathroom until they were sparkling clean last weekend!

Anyway, I'm not fretting much over my loss of sleep because I have my Korean dramas to keep me company. I used to draft posts to put in my three blogs when I can't sleep and sometimes I can draft a month's worth of post during one sleepless night but nowadays I really have not allocated any time to do much updating or much thinking for that matter.

Let's see... I watched the whole episodes of Coffee Prince four times already. Had a marathon watching another Gong Yoo's drama titled Hello, My Teacher - a drama that kinda reminiscent of Japanese's Gokusen; last weekend. Not a big fan of this though but I still watch it for Gong Yoo.

Am now finishing up another 16 episode Korean Drama, Personal Taste and I'm thinking of doing a re-run this weekend along with a revisit to Boys Over Flower (Korean version of Hana Yori Dango) that also has Lee Min Ho in it. And maybe watch one or two episodes of KimuTaku's drama - Hero.

While I was busy watching all these dramas obsessively, Zaini on the other hand was and is busy fine-tuning our itinerary for our September trip to Japan. Which reminded me - I really need to e-mail Kozue soon because by the look of it, we may postpone our trip to a week later than our original date. Kozue, gomen nasai. I haven't been in touch or commenting much for a while now.

We are still watching the promotional airfares offered by different airlines. JAL has yet to come up with a new promotion which kinda suck for us because we always, always prefer flying with JAL. But then, we have booked our JAL tickets at the last minute all these years anyway.

MAS has a promotion on-going now, with fares of RM900++ one-way.

SQ looks good too, simply because now SQ has flights to both Narita Airport and Haneda Airport. If we choose to fly in to Haneda instead of Narita, we can save money on transportation cost to get to Tokyo because getting to Tokyo from Haneda is so much cheaper than from Narita. For example, airport limo from Narita to Tokyo cost 2,900yen but it is only 900yen from Haneda. A big difference, right?

Money saved can be spent elsewhere! If only JAL has flights to both Narita and Haneda. We'll definitely choose JAL's flight to Haneda. But no news from JAL about it yet.

Postponing our trip a week later works to our advantage because the second week of our trip will coincide with Japan's public holiday that fall between September 21-23. Having a Toyoko-Inn International Club membership enable us to get 30% discount for our rooms on Sundays and Public Holidays. Right now, we are looking at three days of public holidays and one Sunday for a 30% discount for rooms and one Monday for a 20% discount for rooms. So much savings....

What are we going to do with the money saved? Zaini wants to visit Hanayashiki Amusement Park in Asakusa, the oldest amusement park in Japan. There's still an old roller coaster made in 1953 up and running there!

Zaini said that what's the use of me putting up my EC profile of Hanayshiki and yet I've never been inside it!

I Think I'm In Love Again....

With another Korean drama...

The Animax Channel on my cable, ASTRO put in a few Korean shows aside from the Japanese anime fares and one of the show currently being shown is Coffee Prince. It used to be shown on 8TV a couple of years back, but I wasn't too crazy about it back then because it was dubbed into Mandarin. I tell you... I really, really hate watching anything dubbed, be it into English, Malay, Mandarin or Cantonese.

Luckily, on Animax, I can watch it in its original language and OMG.... have I fallen hard for this show (not to mention fallen for the lead actor, Gong Yoo)! I've pulled an all-nighter for two weekends in a row watching all 17 episodes back to back. I spend a whole night just reading up all the episodes recaps. My eyes feel so heavy... I can only open them in slits today! LOL

The OST for this drama is another reason to watch. I love all the songs in there.

A brief synopsis:

The life of Go Eun Chan (Yoon Eun Hye) is not easy; she works many jobs to pay off debts and even gave up her feminine image. Choi Han Kyul (Gong Yoo) is the heir of a big food company, but his grandmother wants him to settle down, so she arranged many dates for him. After Eun Chan bumped into Han Kyul and was mistaken for a boy, Han Kyul decided to hire Eun Chan to be his gay lover in order to avoid the arranged dates. Desperately in need of money, Eun Chan had no choice but to accept. Han Kyul's grandmother also made Han Kyul in charge of a filthy coffee shop in danger of being bankrupt. Eun Chan begged to work at the coffee shop, and not long after, feelings start to spark, except, how would Han Kyul accept his "homosexuality"?

Zaini asked me why I am so infatuated with Coffee Prince.

Well, this drama reminded me so much of the two of us before we became a couple, ages ago. And Zaini can be rather like Han Kyul sometimes. He can be so annoying that I don't want to talk to him one minute and he can be so thoughtful the next. Let's just say this drama made me feel I was back in my 20s again. :p

Zaini surprised me on Friday with a box DVD set of Coffee Prince because I was grumbling over the fact that it was so hard to watch all the episodes online and downloading it was such a pain in the ass with my broadband connection. I wanted to buy the DVD but it cost so much.... I guess I was whining far too much for over a week that Zaini went ahead and got it for me. I was happy and touched as well but 20 minutes later I was ready to strangle Zaini for something he did (or rather omitted to do). ^-^!

Another reason I love Coffee Prince is this man on the left. Total eye candy.

And oh! oh! oh! You should see the kissing scenes. It'll make you want to pounce on your partner and share a kiss. I swear! *^-^*

Now, if you excuse me... I'm going for a third round of drama marathon. I'll be neglecting my blogs, my Entrecard dropping and pretty much everything else for a couple more weekends, I think.

Becoming A Billionaire/The Birth Of The Rich

I don't really watch all that much Korean drama, preferring the variety shows like Let's Go Dream Team and 1N2D but there is one drama I look forward to each week titled Becoming A Billionaire/The Birth Of The Rich (부자의 탄생).

The drama follows the story of a man, Choi Suk Bong, who believes that he is actually the son of a rich father and heir to a chaebol group (family business/conglomerate or something...). He meets Lee Shin Mi, who is actually a chaebol heir but acts nothing like one, with her scrimping and frugal ways. Although they get off to a rocky start, with her help, he struggles towards his goal of attaining wealth.

It is a fun story, with liberal doses of light hearted scenes and comedy. My only problem is that I only watch TV on weekends and the time slot of 8.00am-11.00am on Sunday makes me having to fight for the time slot with Raimie and Zaini. LOL 

Music I Listen To

All these while, I don't listen to music much but after getting obsessed with all things Korean and gotten into the Hallyu (Korean Wave), I found myself plugging earphones in my ears literally all the time!

Walking to/fro office, I like to listen to Eun Jiwon's songs from his album - Platonic . I always joked that Zaini look somewhat like him especially now because Zaini sports a shaved head just like Jiwon. ^-^

My favourite song from the album is Out Of Control. 

Another favourite singer of mine is Lee Seunggi.

These two men are also cast members in a travel variety show that I simply LOVE, LOVE, LOVE - 1N2D. 1N2D can be so addictive for me, I'm willing to forgo sleep watching it!

I need to listen to fast songs during my workout and since the gym that I go to changed ownership, they don't play any decent songs anymore to make me work out harder so I make sure I have plenty of songs handy for me to listen to during my cardio sessions.

Current favourites are Korean Idol Groups - SHINee & SS501.

Do you need to listen to music while doing your workout?

Nothing To Write...

because I am too pre-occupied with these 7 men (6 in the photo because I'm too lazy to look for one with Kim Jong Min in it).

I used to laugh at Zaini and Raimie because they memorised almost every single word and action in Ultraman and Kamen Rider series, and now I'm behaving the exact same way with 1N2D. I remember even the smallest detail of the things that these men did! I am soooooo sad. LOL

I've been too busy downloading and watching the back episode of almost every day. I'm obsessed!

This and that we've (Zaini and I) started talking about our next trip to Japan. I'm trying to keep a low profile about this trip because a few of my colleagues; whom I talked maybe only 5 times a year have been shamelessly insistent that they should follow me and my family to Japan for a vacation just so they can save a few bucks, instead of going with a tour group.

Brainwashing The Family

Well, if your family just happen to not share the same interest and enthusiasm as you do about something; what do you do?

Zaini had earlier told me that there'd be absolutely no chance for me to drag him for a trip to Korea and Raimie shared the same sentiment too. Can't blame them though, because in the past when I think of South Korea, I thought of a mall collapsing and of numerous demonstration and not much else. All that changed for me once I got hooked watching KBS World and the myriad of programmes it offers.

Because I do harbour hope to visit the Country one day with Zaini and Raimie, I'm trying to subtlely  acclimatised  them to things Korean. The easiest ones are Korean TV and food.

I cooked some Korean influenced meal the other day for lunch. I should say it was healthy and yummy.

 

Grilled beef, tofu with stir-fried kimchi and asparagus, lettuce, kimchi and gochujang dip

  

My version of beef lettuce wrap. Raimie enjoyed this dish so much and to think it's pretty easy to prepare.

You should know that one of my favourite Korean variety show is Happy Sunday's 1Night 2Days and some things shown in the show kind of rubbed off to us. One of the silly ones are playing kawi-bai-bo (rock paper scissors) complete with finger flick as penalty for losers. I tell you, this game is hilarious.

Here we were, having fun playing silly games and flicking foreheads while waiting for our order during a dinner night outing for Ikan Bakar.

Now, excuse me while I go and obsessively watch 1N2D back epsiodes and laughing myself silly and annoy my family some more. 

A Song For Valentine's Day

One of my favourite "mushy" song for the Valentine's Day. Enjoy! We'll be heading to Equatorial Hotel for a 2 nights' stay in a few hours. Rest and relax. Mmmmm...

p.s. and a Happy Chinese New Year to those who celebrate.

Warming Up To More Korean Dishes

I'm starting to love Korean food more and more nowadays. Zaini and Raimie are not total converts yet, but I'm optimistic that Raimie will not resist so much when I wanted to go to eat Korean in future (he resisted becaus ehe equates eating Korean food as going to the very friendly Korean lady stall at Food garden in Gardens Mall. The lady never fails to chat with him and he was kinda shy about it. That and the fact that Korean food is spicier than Japanese food). Zaini on the other hand doesn't mind too much as long as it's not Chinese food. LOL

Didn't stray too far looking to satisfy my Korean cravings though. Ample place at MidValley and Gardens Mall to enjoy Korean food. This time, we head to Ko Hyang at Gardens Mall.

Ko Hyang, located at LG floor at Gardens Mall. It's located beside San Terri Cottage and is opposite Cold Storage. Friendly staff here and efficient too.

 

 A big mug of tea for us and generous amount of banchan.

 

Our dinner; spicy squid with rice and seaweed soup for me, kimchi rice and seaweed soup for Zaini and bibimbap for Raimie. Raimie and I ended up switching rice bowls afterwards because Raimie seemed to be more interested in my rice than his bibimbap.

 

A total clean up of everything. A delicious dinner indeed. Our dinner just a little over RM50.00 which to me is not that bad or expensive considering that we were really full.

I'm not yet familiar with Korean food and taking baby steps in enjoying them. So far, we only went to food court and to Ko Hyang. Perhaps one day we can go to a good Korean restaurant. But, I have to find a Halal Korean outlet first! Any recommendation here in Klang Valley?

My Favourite Korean Variety TV Show

is KBS' Happy Sunday; 2 Days 1 Night show, much to Raimie and Zaini's chagrin. Why? Because I'll laugh hysterically all through the 70 minutes program. I usually laugh so much, I can't breath. Yes, it is that entertaining.

The premise of the show is Kang Hodong and five other members; Eun Ji Won, Lee Su Geun, Kim C, Lee Seung Gi and MC Mong together with  the dog Sang Geun, take off on a memorable road-trip around Korea and shows the viewers of the different interesting places to visit in Korea.

I don't watch much Korean TV shows before this and I do admit that I actually loath Korean dramas because I feel they are too sappy. Yes, I hate Winter Sonata, thank you very much. But their Korean variety shows are a different matter altogether. Another favourite of mine is Happy Together.

I really become more interested in Korea because of their variety shows and am warming up for their language too. If you want to check what's the hooha about the show, check it out here.

Actually, I wrote about how both Zaini and I develop a love affair with Japan and we attributed it to a J-drama titled Over Time aired on NTV7, 7 or 8 years ago. And now I'm falling in love with Korea through the variety shows. And currently I'm obsessed with SS501 too. I'm watching and listening to Love Like This over and over. :D

Any of you become obsessed with a certain country because of a TV show?  Do tell.

A New Tub Of Kimchi!

Kimchi has been an important item in our grocery shopping list for a while now. I am quite fond of putting kimchi into my Tomyam flavoured maggi mee (instant noodle) to add more zing to it, and to add some fire if I cook anything not spicy. There are non-spicy kimchii out there, but I love those fiery red ones best!

Kimchi is a traditional Korean pickled dish made of vegetables with varied seasonings, and is the most common form of "banchan" or side dish. Kimchi contains a high concentration of dietary fiber, low in calories and rich in vitamin A, thiamine (B1), riboflavin (B2), calcium, and iron. But as in all things, eating them in moderation is advisable because of the high-sodium content. A new tub of Chongga Kimchii. Damage to our wallet : RM25.90 for endless fun in eating kimchi. hahaha This tub should last us a month.

Lunch for the family. Sake kamameshi (salmon flavoured rice with vegetables), simple telur dadar or omelette and a side dish of kimchii. A international meal that represent 3 countries - Japan, Malaysia and Korea. ;-)

Am going to cook kimchi jigae next time! Oooo yumm.

New Haircuts For Us

New haircuts for me and Zaini. We went to Jantzen on Friday for our haircut. And yes, we share the same stylist. Actually, I used his and liked her so much I now only want her to cut my hair too.

Zaini said he went for an Eun Ji Won; a Korean Hip Hop singer inspired hairdo. Zaini knows I'm an addict of KBS' 1 night 2 days show in which Ji Won is a member. You should Zaini's head on the other side. He had it shaved a line there.

Now, he only needs to buy a thick frame spectacles to complete the look. ;)

I had my hair cut shorter this time. I joked that my new hair is inspired by Zaini's latest favourite anime: Pumpkin Scissor. Any resemblance with 2nd Lt Alice L Malvin? Wahaha

How about Raimie? Both Zaini and I jokingly agreed that he should have a haircut to resemble MC Mong;another Korean Hip Hop artist. LOL. However, we can't be too creative with Raimie's hair because he is after all, a schoolboy. He'll be hauled by the Discpline teacher if he sports a way too funky hairstyle. :) Anyway, Raimie refused to have his haircut at the moment. :D

I Uttered My First Korean Word Today!

Nothing much to write but nonsense today. LOL

I'm just being proud of myself for uttering my first Korean word to the nice Korean lady at the Food Gardens food court. I said "Kam-sa-ham-ni-da" to her instead of merely mouthing "thank you". Kinda felt guilty because she made the effort to say a few Malay words to us (she wrote them down in a piece of paper), apart from the extra food she gave us when we were there. This time she gave a bowl of iced watermelon to Raimie.

Next, I need to learn to confidently say "delicious" to her in Korean.

Korean Food Fair At MidValley Megamall

Apart from the J Card Members' sale at Mid Valley, there's a Korean Food Fair currently on too. Located at LG floor, the fair showcase plenty of food items from Korea. We had fun sampling the many kimchis available. Yesterday, there were some Korean mini melons (looks pretty similar to Cameron Highland's apple) that is sold at RM35.90 per packet.

These past two days, it was madness getting to MidValley. There was traffic jam each day! Lucky, no traffic jam for those walking. Lucky me, eh?