Shima Onsen 四万温泉 acquired its name from Shima = which means 40,000. It is reputed that the healing effect of its water has the ability to cure 40,000 diseases.
The most famous Shima onsen is Sekinzenkan Kashoutei 積善館, whose fascade has inspired Studio Ghibli's anime Spirited Away. We were lucky to arrive on December 18th, on the cusp of the newly fallen snow early winter 2022.
Hujan rintik-rintik is expression in Indonesian meaning rainy days.
I love being at home at night with rain falling around the house. It created an illusion that our house is a sole sanctuary. Cooling air. Peaceful and ever so quiet. Nothing can penetrate the serenity...
I always love this feeling as a child.
Alone in my room, looking out the window.
Barely can see anything beyond a few meters of rain curtain.
The white noise and soothing sounds of rain falling on the ground.
Feeding the ground to be fertile again tomorrow.
Tomorrow when we wake up in a bright new day.
Bright new days sunny and full of hope.
A beautiful place at Ngee Ann place.
The opener, pumpkin tofu with jelly is refreshing.
The tempura chef bought us the fresh ingredients before start cooking.
I spent a good part of my 2021, playing online RPG game ROX.
Met a good community in Singapore, especially with my guild SG Forsaken.
Had argument (big one) in the chatting channel.
Met a few times over meals and ice cream with my guildmates.
Funny memory of "lucoa" getting non-sensical crystal during the gacha (after a terrible lifeshow dancing), was always hysterical.
The gathering of the old "uncle" like is funny.
I sat on my eyebrow embroidery, chatting with "aurice" who was trying to make people guessed his age. We said he is eighty, like a grandpa.
the casual flirtation with Chris, xiaogou, and with Faerion, syen, and fake-female Alice, PH gamers.
For now, I just want to recall the memory which seemed to start to fade away since I quit the game in June 2022.
Memory and time sometimes is a scary and yet healing things. Given time, even the deepest wound can heal. But you are often left with reminiscing the gentle memory of wonderful moments, and often we have the urge to collect them and secure them in a mental box, hoping to preserve it.
Today I want to remember Lucky, our first female robovski "robo" hamster. Agouti in color, H adopted Lucky during the depth of pandemic in April 2020. Her cuteness was beyond compare, and observing her antics kept us entertained during Singapore lockdown and subsquent time.
Lucky was like ninja, she mysteriously scaled the walls of her enclosure, often find herself wedged in gaps between boxes, or even running around at our living room tamely. She in fact, scaled the wall, and somehow jumped to ManMan's enclosure barely a week or so ManMan being adopted. The mystery we have not solved even to this day. Since she and ManMan were united, she stopped her escapade.
Lucky was skittery at first, similar to typical temparent of robo drawf hamster. But soon enough, she was very comfortable with human touch. Jumping up and down H's thigh when he played with her every morning and evening.
Lucky's favorite spot was being caress just over her neck, and she would contentedly sit and allowed herself to be pet.
Lucky loved mealworm and hazelnut. She had a very strong sense of edible and healthy food, including a good chunk of egg yolk. Lucky can peel sunflower and pumpkin seeds leaving a perfectly cutout shells.
Lucky survived until 5th October 2022 when I was away at business trip in San Fransisco. The week before I left for my trip, Lucky rested her head on my hand when I was trying to feed her, and feel asleep on my finger. I felt so sorry for seeing her weakened state as she appeared to be blind and limping through her enclosure. She also started losing her fur, starting from her head creating a bald patch, but later on past her 2 years of age, started to spread to the right side of her body. She also often shivered during her sleep, and often found herself looking for ManMan as sleeping companion, potentially for both warmth and comfort.
I am trying to console myself that Lucky has lived through a wonderful 2.5 years of life, in hamster age 140 years old, and was well loved. She would not have to suffer through the old age any longer. And yet of course, me, H, and my mom were sad about this loss. Mom even dreamt about Lucky again this week, and especially touched by her presence.
Rest in Peace, Lucky. Thank you for being a cute, wonderful pet of yours.
Lucky ~ March 26, 2020- 5th October 2022.
Watched youtube about viral tiktok on an Indian wedding: and the group is Asian-Norwegian with some crazy skills~! Followed by youtube video of their other dancing such as Sorry Not Sorry Episode 4.
WOW!
Kissaten is Japanese adoption of coffee house. Kissaten 喫茶店 literally means tea-drinking place. It often hosts a place for afternoon coffee with assorted cakes.
For breakfast some kissaten served, at Asakusa area;
The cafe has numerous short books that seemed to cater to customers wanting to chillout and read. There is single person counter facing the wall, as well as, a small table of 4. Currently during Covid restriction, all dining places only accommodate up to a party of 4.
Onsen is one of my favorite, so whenever I had the opportunities I would spend an hour soaking in onsen. There is a couple of sento or bath houses in downtown Tokyo that are wonderful.
To visit sento, you also need to get armed with an open mind and some Japanese yen. Optionally you should bring a small towel for scrubbing/drying off, a quality body lotion and soap, with a bottle of water to keep you dehydrated. However, all the optional items can be bought or rented at inexpensive price. Sometimes a public bath chooses a day in a week to be closed for regular cleaning and maintenance, so it is good to check which day it is, commonly Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday. Public bath normally operates from 3pm onwards through midnight, but some public bath is open a shorter during in AM for a morning soak.
A sento commonly provides small and medium towel rentals, as well as soap and shampoos/conditioner either complimentary or at sale. Normally there is also a laundry shop next to it.
You approach sento, remove your shoes in one of the shoes locker, keep the key, and purchase a ticket on vending machine. Then, hand your ticket to the cashier to obtain entry.
The cashier is located at a lobby or bathing entrance area that generally also has multiple items available for purchase such as travel size soap, shampoo, conditioner, souvenir towel. It will have a drink vending machine that has mineral water and milk.
Notice the entrance to women and men changing area, and do watch out to enter the right area! There is often a smaller red and blue banner over the entrance of each area respectively.
At the changing area, remove all article of clothing and store them in the lockers provided. The lockers would use coins that is either refundable or costing 100yen per use. There is also a toilet which you can use to relieve yourself prior to entering the bathing area. Slippers are always provided for you to wear while using the toilet.
With a small towel and bottle of water, enter the bathing area and start washing yourself. The courtesy is to cleanse yourself and shower as well as cleanup the area afterwards without hogging a seat. From health standpoint, showing with super hot water allow you to acclimatize your body to the heat of onsen water at the start of your bathing experience.
Once you are clean, you can choose the first pool to soak in. Enter the pool carefully, holding the railing if needed to test the heat of water. I generally keep my towel folded on my head or safe on the shelf. It is considered rude to soak your towel, and long hair in onsen water, so do tie or bun up your hair before entering a pool.
Some of the recommended bathing houses in Tokyo:
Daikoku-yu 大黒湯 nearby Skytree: This public bath house is one of my favorites in Tokyo. The name literally means 'big black bath'. It is a really nice onsen especially with an outdoor area that has divine pools and a chillout area on deck where there is swings. Note that this outdoor area which every day and is on the men's side on odd days, and women on even days. One of the two outdoor pools is a large pool with milky bath that has a spacious soaking area and a sitting spot. The other outdoor pool is a refreshing cool plunge bath where you can see the top of Skytree on a clear sky. The smell of the oak/pine? pillar that is being heated from the onsen water gently wafted through the air, is so relaxing to your sense of smell and well-being. Then you can return to indoor area where there are four pools: a soaking bubble pool kept at 35 degrees thus popular for long soak and for children, a seasonal herbal pool with different water every day (when I was there on July 8th, it was rose), massage pool with super jet (at super hot 42 degrees water), and a small cooling pool. Soap and shampoo/conditioner is provided for free with no charge for hair dryer. Closed on Tuesday.
One of my favorite past time is onsen or Japanese hot-bath. But when I was in Japan in summer 2022, sauna, which is relatively late introduction to bathing ritual is super hot in Japan. In every single onsen, almost everyone would bath in the hot heat of sauna.
I generally do not prefer sauna, as I found the heat, which can go up to 100 celcius, is oppresive. But this practice has been very popular in Nordic countries, especially Finland (thus the term Finnish sauna) and Iceland. In Iceland, there is a beautifully design Blue Lagoon that is hosting a few interconnected geothermal baths. The sauna is extremely expensive and offer multiple treatment such as the 5-hour Blue lagoon retreat, that includes entrance to Retreat Lagoon (a private lagoon), five spaces, and Blue lagoon ritual that seemed to combine practice of scrubbing with beneficial minerals, lava mud, and silica.
Sauna come from Finnish language. It is a ritual associated with well being, relaxation, and often combined with the practice of dipping in natural lake.
In Japan, onsen often hosts a combination indoor and outdoor pools and saturated with beneficial minerals. All onsen that I have been to, has at minimum a hot pool, cool pool, and a jet pool - as well as nowadays a sauna room.
Lately the rental prices had soared in Singapore. My tenant of 2 years since pre-Covid is moving out and getting their own place. We managed to get new tenant 2 months before the place is available, after posting in market for just few days and received 3 offers from the very first viewing! In any case, we received offer that was even higher than the publicized price.
Finally this weekend is the handover.
In Singapore, based on the current law, the minimum rental period of any residential units is 6 months. A property agent can be the facilitator, and commonly the agent would represent the landlord and collect commission. The renter generally should not need to pay the agent commission, unless the agent exclusively worked for the renter over filtering multiple units and thus earn comission based on mutual agreement.
For a rental period of 1 year, it is common to pay agent half-month's commission, and for the renter to be keeping 1 month's rental deposit to the landlord that shall be returned at the end of rental period. For 2 years' rental, agent commission is a month's rental and the security deposit is 2 month's rental.
During the period, the renter can enjoy the unit in peace and quiet, and potentially accommodate viewings if/when the unit is open for sale, or at the end of rental for new prospective rental. In my case, we discussed and agreed whether the renter would continue to extend their lease around 2-3 months prior to the end of lease.
Today's Ginza is one of the premier shopping destination and high-end
dining and shopping location in Tokyo. It is located nearby an islet,
and it is thought that Ginza was originally marshes land that was
reclaimed including the surrounding Hibiya and the site of former
Tsukiji market. Ginza, Shimbashi, and Kanda area are the heart of downtown old Tokyo.
According to this article, Ginza name originated from gin 銀 or 'silver' and ja/za 座 or 'seat' as it was the site of silver mint that exclusively designated by Tokugawa shogunate in Edo (old name of Tokyo. Ginza was the centre of the artisans, merchants, as well as theater actors of Kabuki and Noh players who provided entertainment. It sits on Tokaido which is the old Kyoto to Edo highway linking the two top towns of Japan in olden times.
Later on, Ginza was redeveloped after big fire with bricks to be fireproof and thus developed a number of unique Japanese-Western style buildings and became known to be bricktown or Rengagai. One of remaining building from that era is Wako building with clock on top that was made by clockmaker who founded Seiko.
Ethics is also known as moral philosophy. This discipline studies what is morally good and bad, and what is morally right or wrong.
Normative ethical theory branch studies on what people ought to do, in moral sense. There are 2 general theory of normative ethics:
1). The Teleological theory that focuses on consequences, and hence it is outcome based theory or consequentialism. Teleological derives from Greek word telos or "end" / "goal". Ethical egoism is one of them, and it is based on self-interests. This self-interest as principle is not the same as selfishness, that disregard the interests of others. Restricted ethical egoism is further restricted or bounded by law or the norms. Depending on what is considered as important (axiology), an alternative to ethical egoism is utilitarianism which focuses on choice that provides the greatest benefit to greatest number of people. The challenge with this theory is that logical weighing of pros and cons of each options is often complex and not straightforward.
2). The Deontological theory focuses on the intention. Deontological derives from Greek word deon or "duties". This theory argues that decision should be made considering one's rights and duties, thus this theory lays down strict rules. It can be rights based, or justice based. Rights based ethical choice respects the rights of individuals. The challenge with this is that there is no hierarchy of rights, so a right of individual could infringe another right of the other. Justice based ethical choice focuses on providing fairness and equity. This distribution of rights or disadvantages could be very complex, and it can be needs-based, merit-based, or equality-based.
Sublime unaju at Ginza. Near my hotel at AC Marriott.
Sunday morning upon login at hotel, I went again to Kanda Myoshin shrine near Akihabara. The exhibition by is at its last day and I was awed by his inkwork. Then it was time to visit outdoor markets at Shimo Kitazawa that was teeming with vintage and used shops with lots of music and open square full of knick-knacks and shoppers. I enjoyed some afternoon tea time with scones (eating properly for first time) at cafe Palette, a gem.
At Akhihabara area, I was resolved to visit Kanda shrine or Kanda-myojin (神田明神). At early July it is also hosting an special exhibition by brush-master Masayuki Kojo, a well-known warrior painter. Kanda shrine has been an important shrine especially for warrior class (Japanese samurai) and common folks. It is said that during Edo period, even Tokugawa Ieyasu shogun even paid respect to this shrine.
Firstly, navigating the large Akihabara station is amazing.
Over a sturdy stone bridge on a sunny summer afternoon, I learned the bridge was built on early 20th century and named. Next to it there is a quiet shrine dedicated to Confusius that is set on a rocky green space.
Kanda shrine is one of the oldest temple in Tokyo. It hosted a couple deities, especially for students and mechants.
It is quite interesting that there is many historical site in Tokyo coming from its association with Tokugawa shogunate such as Zojo-ji shrine (三縁山増上寺) in
Daimon area. This was the former family temple of Tokugawa and one of
two official shrine where remains of Tokugawa shoguns rested; the other
one being Kaneiji (東叡山寛永寺円頓院) which is the site where Ueno park is now.
Today I'm awake at 4am... can't sleep. My emotion is in turmoil. I wonder can your feeling get attached to someone that you know over game? apparently my soft heart does. Yes I admit it in the full glory, I have a squishy softie heart. I lay with broken heart, as I mourn a loss of a dear friend in the game that I have dedicated time in the last 10 months. He was the only reason I continued playing when I wanted to quit several times, especially late 2021 and early this year.
I pray and hope for a strength in my heart, to overcome this feeling. My rational mind trying to console myself by rationalizing that this happens for a reason, and must be a good reason. I prayed in the Buddhist temple on May 1st and suddenly this happened immediately after. This must be a god-sent gift. That he quit playing. Maybe he is a player. Maybe he already married and had a wife and kids. Maybe he got attached during his trip to Malaysia. The fact that he quit suddenly without bothering to let me know himself means he only cared about himself. He took decision to travel without prior notification, meaning that either his decision was not planned or he didn't bother to tell. Was he stressed? Did I do thing to add to his stress? Did I do anything wrong.
All these thoughts flying away, I found normally means that I overthinking certain things. Because a lot of thing that people do often relates to what happened to him. Not because of what happened to me. The gaming chat is only a sliver in people's life, and I often wonder what happened to the others' fuller life. I am still curious about him. Wanted to meet him and see how he looked like. Want to know more. But it's over now. The funny thing is I worry about the things I said in case I did something wrong. Maybe I did nothing wrong. Things happened.
As a celebration of this virtual relationship, I will celebrate the encounter from the cave of Dokebi. I celebrate getting to know this man. I cherish finding him kind-hearted but non-sense. He can be sweet at times and persistent like getting me to join his guild. I really like that he treat me like normal human being. I appreciate that he helped me to level my characters. Laugh at my jokes like I laugh at his and celebrate his 3rd job achievements. Thank you for the memory, the care and the recommendation of the Modern Family and Elite. I will forever laugh at the manga he mentioned he read about picking up girls at dungeon, to which he shyly replied. I cherish the twitter in my heart when he asked who I was having staycation with.
Now, hoping to move on. I couldn't sleep. And decided to delete all games in my iphone. Okay, all except 5. It took a while. I figured I might as well learn from this episode, and get inspired by taking active and positive step towards my gaming time.
Thank you for the memories. Let my heart mourn this loss and heal this broken heart. I will wait for 1 month, I have decided. Then when my heart heals, it will be time to move on.
We went with my best friends Lisa and Ming to restaurant Euphoria last Friday night. 3.5 hours dinner full of laughter and good times.
Ming encountered a traffic accident on her route home to restaurant, so she decided to drive. A brave decision after incident she encountered during her journey dealing with her diabetic condition. And she was late as a result of convoluted CBD traffic rules and circumstances of Friday-night parking. So Lisa and I were able to catch up between us for a while. We discussed about our past, as well as I shared with her my discovering on psychology of self-shaming as well as we touched on some of her experiences dealing with choosing to go on her own path on a job offer, a while ago.
I will post some pictures later on when my photos are uploaded to OneDrive. What compelled me to write this blog now is that I am reading the blog written by a lady in Sydney, about FIRE. Her blog was written as she discovered FIRE movement (Financial Independence, Retire Early) a bit late although she was only in her late forties: https://www.latestarterfire.com/.
