Going Places : Fukuroda Waterfalls

As I flipped through old papers and documents, I stumbled upon brochures of several places that I visited in Japan from 2008 - 2009. I guess there is no point of keeping those papers and letting them become old and yellow with time. But I can't just throw them away. The memories are precious and while it resides fondly at the back of my mind and in my heart, I thought that I might as well write a few things about it to share, as another way to preserve the memories and the information acquired through the visits (and I won't feel guilty recycling the written memorabilia...). So here is my first entry of the places, Fukuroda Waterfalls.

Date of travel : 21st February 2009

Organized by : JICA TBIC

Fukuroda Waterfalls in Fukuroda, Ibaraki Prefecture, is one of the famous, beautiful and powerful one in Japan amongst the other waterfalls  as Kegon Waterfalls in Nikko and Nachi Waterfalls in Wakayama. The River Taki flows swiftly through a 73 m wide channel over a drop of 170 m. This waterfalls is known as "four times waterfalls" because the water falls down over four big rocks, as in four steps. But it also refers to a saying that people should go to this waterfall four times in a year (meaning once in every season) to see the different beautiful faces of the falls. During the best time of autumn, you can see the autumn colours in trees surrounding the falls. And they say the falls present a different but equally beautiful face in winter, when the water become a cascading of ice.

The rest of the entry I will present through photos from myself and a few from my friends as we went there during the winter...however, at that time, we could only see a little bit of icicles here and there, not much of ice. But it was really cold.

Stopping over at Tomobe Service Area (like the PLUS R&R here..)

At the entrance to go near the waterfall

Omiyage anyone? (It means souvenirs..)

It was difficult to get all the four steps in one frame..

Regardless of age, Japanese really love climbing hills..I was surely out of breath!

In the middle of winter, it must be so beautiful when the leaves changed colours..

Smoked (..or roasted??) rice cakes and salted fish.

Yesss, we enjoyed it so much in the cold weather..very nice.

~The end~

(Photo collection from Titi, Nelson and mine.)

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

A hot day, with the air feeling so stuffed, is not giving me such pleasure today. Homebound, restless, and with sore muscles, I survived the day playing in the 'farm', watching the final episode of a Korean drama (which I have no idea of what it was about before but comprehended all by this one finale episode), savouring a kimchi-like dish that my house mate made, and finally, completing reading this Agatha Christie's novel that I have bought quite a while ago but haven't been able to finish it. I dare say, this novel is the first one that I've succeeded in finishing after a long era of reading hibernation.

google image (the same cover that I bought)

Always a fan of Agatha Christie, I am. And I have read a lot of her books. As I said, I have been in hibernation in terms of reading novels lately. So, putting my dear FB to sleep (and that means my loyal Mr. LappyToppa too), picking up this book, and reading it in every possible position I could, and reading the last chapter aloud (as always...a long time ago) finally giving me a rush of satisfactory feeling. The joy that has long been dimmed by the advanced technology of virtual entertainment and plenty of other distractions.

But anyway, TMoRA is one of the many brilliant works by Mdm Christie that you can enjoy. Usually, I could never guessed who the murderer is behind the mysterious crime right until the very end, and that is usually in a gathering of all the suspects, but in this one, I am getting better....I have guessed who is the culprit just a chapter before the finale...hihi..I guess I need not to relay the plot here, interested readers can just pull it out from Google easily. This mystery case is one of the Hercule Poirot mysteries, meaning the author made this story as one of Poirot's cases and not the other popular protagonist in her novels, being Miss Marple. But even though this is a Poirot's case, it is being told from the perspective of another person being Dr. Sheppard, one of the key characters in the story. 

Need I say more? Hmm, I don't think so. It's a mystery novel and it is brilliant. There's elements of humour here and there that kept me chuckled in the effort of unraveling the case. Be prepared to be deceived. Mystery and detective story lovers, this is something that you cannot miss!

Movie : Buried

www.experienceburied.com

If you are claustrophobic, then perhaps it is not advisable to watch this movie. 

How can I write about this movie when every word that I've think of would only give away the story, thus the spoiler! Maybe that's why the movie reviewer in The Star newspaper just wrote about what he thought about the main actor, Ryan Reynolds and just a little glimpse of the movie....just a little, by a hair. Yet he gave a high star rating...which is the reason why I found myself in the cinema today.

Okay, an ordinary truck driver, Paul Conroy, wakes up and find himself trapped inside a coffin, and buried underground. With only a lighter and a cellphone, he has only 90 minutes to save himself before lacking oxygen. So that's it! All through the movie, it was tense...and I feel out of breath, perhaps those who never thought that they are claustrophobic could become one while watching this movie. With limited space, limited time, we are left in suspense, wondering if he will be saved and how. With nothing left to do but watching him battling the situation with dwindling physical and mental strength, we are either stuck in our seat and having buttock cramps or munching popcorns with the same pace as the suspense music beat, or both. 

And the ending.....truly unexpected...and I kind of said this to my friend, What! Is it really finished??!

Aiyo...thriller lovers, I don't know if you will be disappointed or not with the ending, but if you'd like to test your patience, then this movie is recommended. Enjoy.   

Theater : Muzikal Tun Mahathir

(Tulisan ni dah lama terperap dalam draft tapi baru ada masa nak tengok balik dan publish...)

Apa kes?

Pengalaman pertama menonton teater muzikal di Istana Budaya. 

Apa cerita?

Muzikal Tun Mahathir.

Dengan siapa?

Adinda ku yang tercinta yang ku heret saja. Ternyata beliau boleh me'layan'nya..hehe

Apa yang 'besh'?

Teruja. Pertama kali menonton teater semasa di USM, itu pun kalau tak silap produksi student sendiri. Tapi ini kali pertama menonton sebuah produksi besar di Istana Budaya dengan cerita mengenai seorang tokoh negara. Dan ramai pelakon 'silverscreen' dan 'small screen' yang dikenali. Lagu-lagunya sedap didengar. 

Apa yang 'kureng'?

Tak dapat tiket 'besh'. Dapat seat kat Upper Circle, bila duduk macam biasa tak dapat tengok keseluruhan pentas dan screen besar di belakangnya. Last-last kena duduk condong ke depan, nasib baik kat barisan depan, ada tempat nak letak siku. Bila duduk macam tu, baru lah dapat tengok pentas sampai ke bahagian paling depan, tapi screen tu dapat tengok 60% je kot.

Adinda di IB

Alkisah...?

Oklah, sebab cerita dia pasal Tun Mahathir, ceritanya bermula dari zaman Tun dilahirkan, semasa budak-budak, ketika di kolej hinggalah ke zaman universiti. Tang menariknya masa zaman universiti tu masa percintaan Tun M dan Tun SH...(betui ka Tun M dulu meng'ayat' cam gitu sekali..? hehe). Apapun, persembahan Zizan Nin dan Erra Fazira masa tu kiut sekali. Pastu masuk lah bab bekerja di Klinik Maha dan akhirnya tiba lah zaman penglibatan politik. Masa ni Zizan Nin dah bertukar menjadi Esma Daniel. Adakalanya aku rasa loghat Kedah Esma tak berapa menjadi, tapi bila babak Tun M ditemuramah wartawan dalam satu wawancara tv, aku rasa cara dia bercakap begitu sebijik sekali dengan Tun (agaknya dia berlatih tang situ lebih sikit kot). Sesetengah babak tak diceritakan melalui dialog tetapi melalui lagu dengan lirik yang merangkumi keseluruhan episod babak itu secara simbolik. Contohnya ada satu babak berkenaan hubungan Tun M dengan timbalan-timbalannya...hmm...Tang politik-politik ni cek kureng sikit noo..

Apapun, oklah..ia adalah suatu cerita yang menarik dan pengalaman yang menarik juga...Cuma, kalau dapat tempat duduk yang lebih munasabah, dapat le menghayati cerita dengan lebih baik rasanya. Aku minat tengok teater dan lain kali bila ada masa dan bila ada cerita yang dirasakan best, aku akan tengok lagi.

Akan datang?!

Movie : Magika

Magika is another brave experiment from the KRU brothers. As I remember, the KRU brothers always try something different and do something that is not usually done by other people in the local entertainment industry. There may be some loopholes and brickbats but they keep thinking and moving forward. For that effort and vision, I salute them.

Back to Magika, if we can enjoy Narnia, Harry Potter and other fantasy movies alike, why can't we enjoy this Malaysian version of children fantasy movie, Magika? In a nutshell, this movie is entertaining and fun. First, it is a musical. So, between dialogues you may expect some songs and those songs are also the story. Some dialogues are delivered through singing. The songs are very nice. I must confess at first I almost laughed at the starting of the movie as I 'tak tahan' (couldn't stand it) to see Maya Karin in a fairy-like costume singing at the river. Feels like watching old Malay movies from the 50s - 60s era., but with colours. But then, I started to accept the concept of a musical film (in this modern days).

Talking about colour, the colours are amazing. Technical aspects aside (for I am not a tech-person), watching the movie is like watching beautiful pictures. Actors and actresses, they are all famous and widely known around the country. Characters? They are all of famous Malay heroes and mythical characters like Nenek Kebayan, Hang Tuah, Mahsuri, Awang (Lembing Awang Pulang ke Dayang), Naga Tasik Chini, Bawang Putih Bawang Merah, Pak Pandir, Orang Minyak and others (Funny I have to ransack my memories of Malay story characters just to find out who "Bad" is at first, ha ha). But there are so many characters that most of them appeared only in a short while, just to accommodate the journey of Ayu in search of her brother.

Oh, I have skipped the main part. I should have told you the main plot. Ayu and Malik are two siblings living in this current era, who are grieving for their mother's death, especially Malik as he thought that he was the cause of it. One day, Malik is being difficult and run away into the forest. Ayu, his older sister has to find him. Malik then lost into the world of Magika and is caught by Nenek Kebayan. Ayu, following his tracks, also went into Magika and had to encounter many strange things and meet strange people, whom later we know as the famous characters, in search of Malik. In Magika, their journey began.

Perhaps the ending is not so much alike as in fairy tales, and not so strong (not that I wanted it to be like in fairy tales..). The positive message (for Malik) is there but kind of hidden by the feeling of lost and longing in Ayu for Magika (sort of). Malik is the one benefiting the most lessons in this story but the sense of his accomplishments is only revealed by Ayu talking to her mother's grave. So, okay, but all in all, this 1 hour and 45 minutes movie is nice, fun and suitable for all ages. Kudos to KRU. Enjoy.

Footnote (added on 25th October 2010):

Congratulations to KRU Brothers on winning the Best Film and Best Original Music Score for this film in The 23rd Malaysian Film Festival 2010.

To know what other awards this film has won, click the newsclippings;

The Star

Utusan Malaysia