Memories of Ashikawa 2001

It was in 2001. Kumiko and I were about to have the best 3 days of our life. When I look back, this is how I remember it: Kumiko was so kind to prearrange everything. She bought the train tickets, she called the onsen and asked wheather they had free rooms for two and if they were ok with a Westerner staying at their facility. The owner, later known as mr. Tomodo, was a very kind man and was very happy that we we're headed to his very far off village of Ashikawa (芦川). He didn't expect a guest from as far as Europe.

We met at the train station the next morning, waiting for the train from Tokyo via Maebashi to the beautiful mountain village of Ashikawa. It was quite cold, yet Kumiko was all perky and really behaved in a in way I haven't seen before. She hugged me right infront of all the people, even kissed me and couldn't hide her blush. She said she was so happy to go on this trip with me, her eyes were amazingly glowing. At that time it was very hard for us to be somewhere together and alone. Infront of her father, we always had to behave as if we were only friends. I couldn't offend the head of the family, so I had to restrict myself as much as I could. I knew he disapproved of me, because I wasn't Japanese. Why is it so hard to be with the person I love, I was wondering, while the beautiful Japanese mountains passed by. There was a time, when we argued because of this. Kumiko cried and I was angry, because she wouldn't even allow me to hold her hand infront of the father. The mother never said anything... She was very kind and pure-hearted like Kumiko, but she had no effect nor any will to change her husband's mind regarding me. I know she wanted us to be happy. Kumiko knew it, too.
That's how my mind kept slipping away while Kumiko was sleeping. Time passed by very fast. After few hours we've finally reached in Maebashi, the closest big city near Ashikawa. We knew our final stop was not far away. So I woke up Kumiko, who in the meanwhile rested her head on my shoulder. When she opened her cute eyes, she immediately smiled and kissed me. I felt so happy. With her Japanese kindness and dilligence, she always made me lose my heart again and again. It felt like I fall in love with her everytime she opens that radiant chestnut eyes of hers. It was electrifying.
She said with her sweet Japanese flavoured English: "Niko-kun, ale you happy?" I smiled, looked deep into her eyes and replied: "Yes, Kumiko, as happy as never before." Suddenly the train came to a halt: "Ashikawa station, please alight!" came out of the loudspeakers. I grabbed our luggage and we stepped out of the train. She took my hand, gave me that unforgetabbly joyful look and said: "Thele is de onsen, Niko-kun. Please hully, I want to enjoy wit you." So I sped up my pace and we reached there in less than ten minutes. The whole village was full of wooden Japanese-style houses. The nature was so beautiful. It was a mix of green and grey, including the sky. The gloomy and cold weather was a bit harsh, but that wouldn't stop us in any way. We were so determined to spend a beautiful weekend in this onsen, we forgot that everything else exists. Our world was only Ashikawa.
We scrolled back to reality when we reached the porch of mr. Tomodo's onsen. It was a small onsen, just big enough for the village, the few hundred people living there. Seldom tourists would come from as far as Tokyo, said Mr. Tomodo, who politely bowed and welcomed us. We bowed back and Kumiko spoke in very polite Japanese with him. After she signed the papers and payed the bill, mr. Tomodo brought us up to our room. He was a very reserved man of soft features, with a small moustache and a smile sometimes hard to notice. He walked very slow and kept asking about me, where I was from. He concluded he was very happy and honoured to have me as a guest and if we needed anything, he will be at our service day and night. I remembered Tokyo. People in Tokyo are polite, but mr. Tomodo was something else.
After he showed us the room, he quickly left and we threw down all the bags and hugged. We stayed that way for a minute at least, because Kumiko kept us stuck together with a big kiss. How can we make that kind of magic disappear? We had to! Beacuse we were eager to soak in the warm water of mr. Tomodo's onsen. So we changed clothes and walked off downstairs, turned left and there we saw it. A beautiful outside pool of water, literarly immersing itself into the valley below, into the purling river, the trees and rocks. It was magnificent. More so was Kumiko. Her white bikini was extremely sexy. It made her curvy body look voluptuous and made it even harder to restrain myself. When the water covered her body and messed up her hair, I (just for a moment) couldn't believe that there can be a woman as sexy and sensual as her. Luckily there was no other people around, so we had a lot of privacy. She wrapped her legs around my waist and kissed me, smiled and whispered in my ear: "I love you, Niko-kun. I want you to make me happy tonight."
Outside was night. All was dark. Inside the room was warm. Getting hotter and hotter. I remember clearly: Kumiko is all over me. We can't stop. She can't. I won't. What she was doing with me, no woman ever did to me before. All the prejudice of Japanese women... well, it was true! True and beyond that. Words cannot describe how she did it and what she did with me, but after a while we stopped counting and we were slowly losing our minds. We were like drugged. Literarly.
The next morning. Kumiko was sleeping with a smile on her face. Her hand touched me, her skin was so soft, it gave me goose bumps. It was 10 o'clock, the sun shone in very brightly and painted a pair of red cheeks on Kumiko's face. I spoke softly in her ear: "Wake up, baby. My Kumiko-chan, wake up..." She smiled again, my goose bumps increased. She whispered: "Arrigato!" I said:"Why?" "Fol yestelday, Niko-kun. You make me so happy. Arrigato!" I hugged her and told her, I will never forget yesterday's night. I went to put on some clothes, I turned around. There she was, so beautiful, sitting on bed. The bed which was our playground the night before. So I took my camera and snapped this memorable photo.
It is this photo I cherish the most, it is this moment that is forever engraved in my heart. The latter days in Ashikawa were also unforgettable, the latter months in Tokyo, as well. And even after her father managed to separate us, after all the tears, after all the broken and partly-mended hearts... We still love each other.
Everytime she calls me all in tears, broken and hopless, I tell her: "Kumiko, remember our weekend in Ashikawa few years ago. Remember how happy you were, sitting on that bed. Our bed. I will make you happy again. Be strong." That's the moment when her tears stop and she gets a grip of herself. But the only thing she manages to say is few softly spoken words with a shivering voice: "Niko-kun, I love you."

[Photos: Source]

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Winter, please go away already!

Gosh, this winter is long and it hasn't spared us with snow! Please go away already, it's March now! I can take the cold, but please no more snowing. I'm sick of the snow and ice... Luckily on top of our hill, the snow molt away already, but our yard, where the sun doesn't shine as much, is all covered in ice - which is even more sickening than snow. I wish there was a warm day to make all the snow melt away right away. So, please, no more winter!

[Photo by MKL, 2009]

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I'm home...

I'm now home few days and besides the jetlag, that makes me quite tired, I'm a bit lost. The difference is so huge between here and Malaysia... The climate, the food, the people. I'd never imagine I would leave so many new friends behind in only few months. And of course my love life is now facing another period of great challenges. I hope the winter goes away, because I was really used to the tropical heat. So all I'm asking is 15+ degrees. I'm very modest in that regard. Please. Give me something.

[Photo by MKL, 2009]

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Sunrise in Doha, Qatar

I caught the rising sun over the beautiful Gulf state

Boarding the airplane to Vienna.

That's how the sun rose over Doha, the capital of Qatar, a little over 6am in the morning. I was boarding my connection flight to Vienna, when I saw that I could capture a wonderful moment. My new Nokia E66 came in quite handy and I snapped many beautiful photos, probably the most beautiful photos with that camera ever..

The funny thing was, the sun appears so majestic and huge in the photos, while in real it was just normal. I love the effect, especially on the second photo. The third one is my favorite, because of the nice silhouette of the vehicle below the majestic sun. I love those photos. Unfortunately, everything was gone in one minute. We were soon in the plane and taking off to cold and rainy Europe. What a pity. But it was definitely a moment to remember.

The majestic sun over Doha and its airport.

My favorite photo.

Landed in Vienna in a cold and rainy February. It's always hard to return home.

[All photos by MKL, 2009]

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The sisters surprised me!

My girlfriend's sisters or my Chinese sisters (as I refer to them), really surprised me! I had the plan to buy the Nokia E66, I just waited for the euro exchange rate to rise a bit, before I change to Malaysian ringgit. Since december 2008, the euro got weaker comparing to the Malaysian ringgit for about 10%, so things became 10% more expensive for me. So the last weeks I was paying attention to the exchange rate on daily basis, plus I tried to find a good bargain for my Nokia.

My girlfriend's father likes handphones, likes to discuss the prices and other things. So last time he brought me to one shop near by the house, where they showed me this Nokia E66, the price was the cheapest of all previous ones. So after that, he got an idea for a farewell present for me. He told his daughters, who apparently started to collect money and bought the Nokia for me. In 4 days I will fly home, so basically yesterday I wanted to buy the Nokia myself. But suddenly the father comes in our room, passes me the Nokia and goes. I was so shocked! I was thinking, why he bought already, I haven't changed the money yet, how much did it cost and everything - I was confused! Then my girlfriend told me how they all treated me. Wow! I really didn't expect. And I was very shy and humble. I went to all of them individually and said thank you. My girlfriend said, they all liked me and they wanted to give me like a farewell present and the birthday present all together, since my birthday is in 1 month. I must say, they all grew even fonder to me. I will miss them when I go back. I hope I can see them soon. So... thank you again, da jie, er jie, san jie, ah Juan, ah Ling, ah Wen and xiao mei for surprising me that much. Best of luck to all of you.

[My MALAYSIA page][My BATU PAHAT page][Photo: Nokia promo]

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Genting: Malaysian gambling paradise

My first time gambling and I won!

Three days ago my girlfriend and I went to Genting Highlands, located 50km north from Kuala Lumpur. It was a trip, organised by my girlfriend's boss. We were a group of around 16 people, arranged in four cars, starting off from Batu Pahat.

It was my first time in Genting and also first time experiencing Malaysian cold highland climate. The temperature was around 15 degrees Celsius, which is no wonder to me, since the resort is located 1850m above sea level. Almost the whole stay, there was a thick fog surrounding the whole resort, especially the last day. It really felt like heaven. I mean, it's in the clouds, you have shopping malls, theme parks, restaurants, casinos and many pretty Asian girls. if that's not how heaven looks like, then I really don't know, how can it be any nicer. :)

Anyway, that doesn't mean, I liked everything. In fact, I was a bit disappointed at first. Since I told myself not to gamble. First shock is the climate change, it was about 17 degrees difference comparing to KL, so I felt pretty cold in my shorts and sandals. We stayed in the First World Hotel, one of the biggest hotels in the world, it has over 6100 rooms, it's like a small town itself. We parked the cars in the garage, took the lift up to the lobby. There was hundreds of people waiting to check in - it was like at the airport. We had to wait 1h to get the keys to our rooms. So, be prepared to wait if you go to this hotel.
The room was nice, quite big, 2 beds, so big, that 2 people can sleep on 1 bed. The TV was small and didn't have any special programmes, but we didn't watch it anyway. The water comes from the mountains, that's why you can drink it from the tab. I only missed a toothpaste, since I forgot mine. The hotel provides you only with towels, soap and a shower cap. You have no blow dryer, so bring one, if you wanna wash your hair every day.

Well, the first and second day, we were exploring the place. It's basically 4 hotels connected together by various subways, underpasses, lifts and even trains. There's some kind of a plaza in the middle, where you have many trahsy immitations of the Statue of Liberty, Eiffel's tower and Big Ben. You even have a part that looks like Venice, with Gondolas, who run in circles (automatically) and with a fake Gondolier. It was amazing to me, that some people actually ride these things. Besides all these fake touristy stuff, there's a wide range of international food chains (KFC, McD, BK and Pizza Hut), asian food restaurants, coffee shops (Starbucks, Coffee Bean, Old Town) and almost all clothes and shoe brands. So if you wanna shop, there's plenty of opportunities, but the prices can be from modest up to very high. Food is also more expensive than the rest of Malaysia, for example, McD set costs about 50% more than usually. You also have a lot of souvenir shops, cinemas, bowling, snooker, video games, karaoke, a big concert hall with international singers and an outdoor theme park. So that's the reason why Genting is called 'City of entertaiment'.
Anyway, if your a gambler and a fan of cheap trashy entertainment, Genting is the best place for you. But for me, it doesn't have a great value, since I'm not a gambler and not into theme parks.

But I have to say, it was exciting for me, to experience the world of Casinos. It was my first time. In Genting, there's 3 casinos, small, medium and big. I've been in the last two. First we went to the medium one and it seemed quite big to me already. But when we entered the big one, whoa, it was enormous. And so many people, of whiche were 95% Chinese, the rest was Western, Indian and some Arabs, I think. Anyway, Chinese people love to gamble, I knew that already before, but when you see it in real, it's even more impressing. Many come from as far as China or Singapore. And besides gambling, many are looking for some cheap China girls, who would follow you to the room for small money. When my girlfriend's friend was gambling, I stood next to her. Suddenly a 50 something Chinese man started a conversation with her, thinking she was a China girl. So inbetween, he emptied his pockets like he was searching for something and put a bunch of hundred ringgits on the table, but we knew he was just showing off with his money. The whole thing stopped when she told him that she's a local girl. Chinese girls born in Malaysia and Chinese girls from China are two different worlds. It's a different mindset and different mentality. China girls have a bad reputation of being cheap and willing to do anything for small money, while Malaysian Chinese girls are the opposite.

So while the first day I was a mere observer, the second day I decided to gamble myslef. I broke my rule and said: Why not! Juts to try. So I set myself a limit of 50 ringgit, which is only 10 euros. So I changed to two 25rm chips and I played the Banker/Player game, which had a minimum bet of 25rm per game. And guess what: I won 300 ringgit! Inbetween I even reached 400rm, but then I lost 100 and stopped playing. I changed the chips for money, so I won about 60 euros. Not bad for a first time player. My girlfriend lost 200 rm in 2 days, her boss even lost many hundreds, which is crazy. I would never bet so much and gamble so extensively. I was very safe and only bet 25 per game, sometimes 50. So I slowly reached to 400. I wanted to see, if I can make some big money, but I soon recognized my limits, so I stopped at the right time. But I feel it's not bad, starting with 50 and winning 300. So I basically got the money back for my trip expenses. This was the highlight of the whole trip.

The next day we returned to Batu Pahat, it took us 7h, because we made several stops. I'm happy that it's over, because I was very tired yesterday. We gambled until 4am the night before. So today I'm just taking it easy.

[My KUALA LUMPUR page][Related post: More Genting Highlands images]

[My MALAYSIA page][My BATU PAHAT page][All photos by MKL, 2008]

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Mahjong 麻將

My favorite Chinese game

These days we play mahjong every day and all the time. It's crazy. We play for small amounts of money, but if you play for a long time, you can lose or win a lot. I'm already a bit tired, especially because we played 2 days until 5am... So now I try to recover. And also lately my luck has left me. But it's fun to play. It's just not fun to lose :)

[My MALAYSIA page][My BATU PAHAT page][Photo by MKL, 2009]

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