China 2010 – Going Broke – 18.05.10

Today’s weather was pretty bad… Annoyingly humid, and… foggy? It’s like when it’s supposed to rain, but the rain evaporates before the it reaches the going? It was only 23 degrees celcius I think, but wow…

And, I bought my DSLR today. Phew… I’m pretty much broke now… I haven’t had a real chance to play around with it yet, but once we go World Expo-ing…

Continue reading China 2010 – Going Broke – 18.05.10

China 2010 – Getting Acquainted – 16-17.05.10

Only just managed to gain access to the internet. For some reason, my laptop doesn’t like Chinese Ethernet Cables? And so… I’m using my uncle’s computer.

Days One and Two of my 2010 trip to China, the first day, essentially just the flight to. Planes are so boring…

Continue reading China 2010 – Getting Acquainted – 16-17.05.10

My Plans in Shanghai

Okay, so, I realised that I hadn’t completed a list of what I had planned on doing in China, but one thing’s for sure, I’m going to be broke by the end of May. =( (So much for saving money) In my head, there seems to be so much I plan on doing, but once it’s written down, I expect that it may not be so much at all… If it’s anything like the goals I plan on completing during the holidays, very few of these plans will get ticked off. (I am also aware that this list is pretty late)

Where my money will go
At least I have relatives in China eh? Saves me (and us) a ton of money on accommodation and food. But that just means I/we will just spend that money we ‘saved’ elsewhere… Like I plan to:
> A DSLR (Canon EOS 550D paired with a 18-135mm lens I believe)
> A whole lot of SD Cards
> A new keyboard/mouse set? (A Logitech DiNovo and MX Revolution?)
> A pair of in-ear earphones or a bluetooth headset? (Since my current EBs are under going a warranty fix, I’m travelling without high-quality audio. And that depresses me…)
> China is an mp3 player wodnerland! There are all sorts of cheap and half-working mp3 players, I wouldn’t be suprised if I bought one home with me.
> Anime Merch that I really want. (But I’ve been informed by Atashi that there really aren’t any good places to buy Anime merch in Shanghai. Which is depressing…)

Where I plan on visiting
> Expo 2010 – Pretty much the main reason I’m going to Shanghai, as well as one of the reasons I bought this laptop, and the reason why I’m buying a DSLR. Basically, if it weren’t for this trip, I’d still have money.
> Shanghai World Financial Centre – Currently the 3rd tallest building in the world. I’ve been up the Oriental Pearl Tower, and the Jin Mao (8th tallest I believe?) The SWFC is new, and I haven’t been up before.
> The Bund – A relatively famous stip of land along the Huangpu River, opposite the side where the SWFC is on. Of all the times I’ve been to Shanghai, I’ve only been there once. And I don’t even remember that…
> Xujiahui – Shanghai’s geeks and tech-ies wonderland. The hub of all gadgets and gizmos. (Where I plan on buying my camera)
> Nanjing Road – Also relatively famous, it’s a long road/plaza known for it’s shopping and lights…

> Nanjing – A neighbouring city of Shanghai, also very big, and, as with the rest of China, is growing rapidly.
> Nanjing Greenland Building (or whatever it’s called). I’m not even sure if it’s completed, but all I know is that it’s nice big tall skyscraper, that looks pretty as far as I can remember from some of the renders I’ve seen…
> Huangzhou – Also another neighbouring city, smaller, but still interesting. I don’t know too much about the city, nor do I know if we have enough time to visit it… We shall see…

Any other random stuffs
> I heard that the world’s largest store for Barbie Dolls is on Huhai Road =P
> If there are any markets around… You know… some pirated dvds, and what not… I don’t actually think there’s anything I want in particular… And, many of the times, they are rather low quality too…

What I will miss
My friends. (Awww… I know right?)
Good Coffee
REAL fruit juice
Real Milk, Cheese and other dairy
Sydney Water
The clean air
The super slow trains of Sydney
A fair bit of school work…

Oh, and… Facebook doesn’t work here.

Shirakawa-go Featured in The Sun Herald – 18.04.2010


Click on above image for enlargement.

During my lunch break on last Sunday, I was browsing through what was a generally boring Newspaper, until I ran into the Travel section of The Sun Herald from the 18th of April. At first, I was unaware that it was Shirakawa… I saw the big picture of the Grasso Huts and I asked myself “Hmmm… That looks like Shirakawa…” . I was actually surprised to find that it was an article about Shirakawa! *mind blown*

I forgot to steal the article from work when I finished, so I asked if my dad was able to somehow pull me out the travel section of a newspaper from the day before… So, he managed to get me the article, and I’ve been able to scan it, and show it to all you curious readers!

If you were unaware, Shirakawa-go is, in fact, the village Hinamizawa (from the Anime “Higurashi no naku koro ni”) is based from. Of course, there’s no mention of the… violent, and somewhat controversial anime series in the article, and more about how chilly the village gets at night, and about the historic Grasso Huts that I think are pretty awesome.

Anyway, so there’s the article about Shirakawa that I have had on my “to visit” list for a long while now. I hope to be able to go sometime 2011 once I don’t have to worry as much about school as I do now. As well as needing the money to get to Japan first…