Availibility bias can let you overstimate, and journaling help

 

Took this picture of sunset when I was exploring some fresh market in Chiang Rai. I was pointed to the old clock tower which I didn't know of. Fresh market in Chiang Rai is hard to come by.

I am still reading think fast and slow at my Mercy hostel. Writting from the same old table of per yesterday post.

Today I got to read up on availability bias which say that an event occurance which attract your attention will increase the general estimation of the occurance. Like people who drawn to news of celebrities divorce or sex within politician, therefore they can wrongly estimate that this even will happen more often that not.

Also if you have difficulties in recalling "happy moment" and easily remembers your "sad moments". Therefore you would have a higher tendency to rate yourself being a sad person, subconsciously. 

It make me suddenly realise that I am not able to recall much happy stuff in my life, could I be getting depressed? Also Chatgpt had rightfully point out that I had been avoiding pain too much as my mechcanism and the by product of that will be the numbing of joy in life. Which mean that I became nonchalent on things therefore nothing can hurt me anymore, at the same time I tend to reduce expectation, and enjoyment for the fear of it leaving. 

Therefore, I think posting good moment of happiness in blog or journal can really you know helps in rememberance of these events. I notice the effect now I have to work on my mistake. I slowly wants to be a more joyful person and should smile more often.

I deservse it mah.

 

A small pond at Chiang Mai university, where I rode the old Japanese bike from W2 hostel and got there to realise that I was not allow to fish in the pond. But I took this clear reflection of a sunny evening. Its nice still. 

A kind of lifestyle call Dali

Update these 2 days in Dali. We experienced an earthquake just 60km away from us. 4.5 magnitude but good news is I don’t feel any vibration in our room. World is getting weirder everyday.

In Dali, we get to really meet different type of people. I become very E suddenly and start talking to random stranger suddenly. We get a meet an 50~ man name ah Wei and he talk to us and ask our Brompton. Thru him we get to meet other very strange hipper on the road. Last night we went to a cafe and bar to get some drink and we sit around and start pulling people and talk. One even can play piano very well and we start to sing KTV in the bar live. Many people stopped and listen.

Today morning we went to 无为寺 to eat veg meal prepared by monk. During the meal, which is free we are not allow to talk and take photos. We also have to finish all the food in the plate and wash them ourselves. Eat like this opens up our five senses and we get to appreciate the food bought to us by the farmer. I didn’t pray to the god even I was in the temple. I did hesitate to even acknowledge the god in the temple but ends up I did inform them to excuse me for being in the temple. Let them know that I was here. I suddenly realise that the best thing is not to pray for anything. It’s not about having is about not having pain, sickness, misery etc. The most ideal stage is not having anything and not to ask for more. The more we have the more we away from the path. Whatever god give us is the best and there is nothing more we should be asking for. 

It’s very hard to explain my feeling in English. But kinda just pen down my thoughts for future reference.

Finally we had concluded our Hainan trip with Brompton bike

 Finally have the time and internet to post my Hai Nan Brompton trip. Due to China have firewall to disable google etc. Currently I am seating in Kohibito near Hanoi, Cat Linh writing this post on my newly bought iPad mini keyboard. I am still getting use to the small keyboard and I immediately is able to feel strain on my forearms. Keyboard is really too small to be type comfortably on. A video speak a thousand words let me use video to do the talking. 

It is winter time and places like japan and mainland china is cold but Hainan being a separate island is hot and humid especially in Sanya. What I hate about this place is the splitting culture and eating of bing nan where people chew the fruit and split Silva all over the place.

This trip I learn that all China iphone is able to support 2 physical SIM card from iPhone 11 onwards. I didn’t know about this since I stop following iPhone since iPhone 7. Furthermore, iPhone which is bought in Sanya airport is duty free and with heavy discount and units sold are generately 25% cheaper for the new phone. This is super crazy. I didn’t get to buy one as the shop only allow same date purchase, my flight was in the early morning straight after midnight hence the shop is technically close by then and the salesman was not able to be flexible on this.

Finally we concluded that it is although possible to fly with Dimpa bag alone but you must have correct protection with your clothes as layering. The rear rack is also very prone to knocking and bending which Jacky experience when we fly from Hainan out to Hanoi with no card box protection. Her rear fork one of the metal is bend and this affected her rolling balances. Jacky was super sad about her black lacquer then but had get over it as bike is safe in the harbour but that is not what the bike is built for.

Moving forward since I have internet in Hanoi I will try to post more often moving forward.

2 days in 博鳌 and left for 万宁

博鳌镇 we stop over for 2 days. The highlight of the trip is that we get to know a couple running a cute van that sell coffee at the booth. We sat and we talk the whole day and keep drink coffee one after another. 

They inspire us to start coffee business on our back of kelisa. Our player really try to give us hint and tips. We are taught to use 拼多多 and 饿了吗？These are app in China to do online shopping and order food. 

Today we reach 万宁 via didi. Cause we really tired after 40km ride from 博鳌. The hotel is 108 and able to do laundry and drying services. We went to eat the 甲鱼机子牛鞭煲. Super full. I had problem walking back to the hotel. I even eat 清补凉 as desert before coming back to hotel. Tonight we going to turn in early. 

On the road when we saw people is herding bull and goat on the road. I sort of thinking about how the capitalist is trying to breed cow just to slaughter them. Even before cow were turned into wagyu beef, they had to produce dairy or fur and what not. If you realise your fate as a cow is like this will you still want to give birth to small cow? Your off spring will be born into the vicious cycle of being breed and slaughter by farmer. Just like us human is being make use to work for the banks and capitalist. 

Cycle 56km to 潭门镇

This morning we left 文昌for潭门镇。Total 50+km. We broke it into 3 parts and stop over for food in between. 

会文镇 is 14km away. We stop for lunch and eat goose meat (gnan) very fatty skin and thin. Meat is very little. Paid 110rmb. Hui wen is a place of many industries factory and they are famous for doing 佛珠。

长坡镇 is 20km more. We started to fail tired when we reach this place. We stop at one of the 清品凉. Owner very chatty and keep asking about our country and our foldies. 

潭门镇 is another 20km away. This trip is already enduring already. Backside super pain. I guess <40km each day is comfortable for us. More than that we starts to get aching all over the place. Suppose to be a seafood place but we too shag to go eat seafood. Or maybe we are sick of seafood already. We almost had it every other day. We met a couple selling coffee on the back of the car. We sat at the beach and start talking.

 

2 days in 文昌

First round island trip cycling is Hainan. We left Haikou and start cycling to 文昌. 90km away we cannot finish the whole trip so have to break into smaller pieces. We cycle 5 hours for around 50km and reach a half way point and stay in the small town 大致坡 for 2 days. We damn relax. I think we can take us 1 month to finish the island if this is the speed we are going. 

What 大致坡 had in store for us? Actually only 2 things that is memorable there. First is the 上央视的包罗粉. Super nice like beef noodle and a small little aunty shop that sell great bakery. 

The whole small town only have 2 cafe which is cotti and luckin coffee. And what we eat every evening is 猪脚饭. Stay 2 days leave for 文昌 soon. 

Next we travel to 文昌。one of the 老爸茶 is really good and we even can eat crab for lunch. At night we go to harbour and buy fresh seafood and get them to cook grouper fish for us. Now we are very tired. Tmr might have new place to go. 

Sapa trip video uploaded

Today I order from shoppe epoxy paint 300g. My plan is to paint my basketball with epoxy paint to make it slightly heavier and improvement of gripping. My lousy ball which was bought from Decathlon, the low end one had the skin all pealed off. I find it too light for my liking while I used other's ball and found them to be too heavy. Therefore I like to DIY to repair it with better grip. I tried finding it online to see if people had done this or not, couldn't find any so I like to try it myself. This time I tried buying something from Shoppe. Long time never do online shopping let start the ball rolling.

I returned my travelling bad to decathlon today as I like to get the green color version at JB. It is nicer and cheaper so why not.

I stumble upon TB challenger selling fan and they say they extended operation hours from 9:30pm to 10pm due to Christmas period. Aiks. All the Christmas shit I hate it. But I end up buying a 12' Toyomi Air Circulator. This is the first time I trying to buy these kind of metal fan. I didn't know they are a bit different than our convention plastic bladed fan. It was meant to circulate the air instead of getting a straight air breeze. A bit complicated. And I do not know how much of it is a marketing gimmick. Therefore although its slightly expensive over conventional fan, I decide to buy it to try it myself. 智商税

离婚有错吗？婚姻的本质是什么？

Today I come across this video that have a bit of the LLP relationship I am talking about. Marriage this old fashion thingies no longer work in this new era. Still 拾吓拾吓。From statistic POV already say so, further more still got percentage that is dragging one leh. Data never lie mah.

Okie enough of ranting.

My Sapa trip video up go and see if you like

No plan trip to work exchange and met with great accompanies

Today is the 2nd day we reach into Okayama. I don’t know about it. I used to think Kobe is boring but then I love it into the 2nd days onward. So far Okayama hasn’t give me a reason to like it yet. The shopping is clustered near the train station and our hotel “the onefive Okayama” was 20mins walk away. Nothing special and there are not much 2nd hand shop for me to shop around. Tmr got an event in the evening and Sunday we shall go visit Aeon mall for shopping. 

We drew on the toilet of the homestay we are at

Leaving the house is a bit sad as we met really great accompany in the house. 2 German girls, Hannah and Marke and 2 France girl, Joanna and Julie. Each of us was very polite and had good initiative. We will help each other on simple task like fetching hot water. At night as it was so cold the whole house only the living room table is attached with heater so we will curdle together and discuss on all topics under the sun, religion, education, culture, breaktalk and everything German and France related. So fun to hang out with them.

Met up with Kiyonori san and his mum gave us all some tidbits in Kimono bag!

We had the extreme honor to be invited Kiyonori San church where he explained to us his religion, 天理教。Where they focus on living a joyous life be it living in a joyous life or helping others to feel joyous. So their mission is to host and give to people. Kiyonori’s mum gave us a pouch that is handmade by Kimono fibre and she also teach us hand by hand to do Okonomiyaki, which is kinda junk food and comfort food at the same time. And his mum also run her own podcast show on her own when now she is 83 yrs old. Kiyonori also show us how he do his own rocket burner to cook his water using abandon wood. 

Kiyonori san’s mum taught us how to cook Okonomiyaki

As we are nearing the end of the stay in the guest house, we are planning to travel to Okayama. Julie just happens to want to discard a converse shoes. So happen that her feet size is 42 which match with my foot. As you know I didn’t even own a shoes back home as I only travel with slipper all the time. I faster say I want the shoes as a memento. Julie is also glad that the shoes will be taken care by me so we both had a good timing where one wanna discard and I wanna keep. I will love this shoes very much and I will wear until it is very broken.

We pose as the converse shoes is gifted over to me

It was a great stay and we make sure the toilet is painted with our youtube channel so that the future volunteer will be able to subscribe to us and see the video we post for this house. I didn’t know that I have a talent in painting and received good review for my drawing.

Please subscribe to our YouTube channel

We are advocate for no plan travelling. Sometime if you plan and rush for the trip you will miss out in fun and often fall short on your expectation. If not for our no plan trip we couldn’t have went to the sudden last min recommendation for work exchange and will not be able to meet up with all these great people along the way. See you at Okayama

The funny part we talk in the cafe during work exchange

Friends from the guesthouse gets together for coffee

The “flow” in old Japanese cafe

Yesterday at the house, morning we had an outing where all 6 of us will walk to the nearest cafe to get our coffee for the day. Well, when I saw the lady boss is working in the kitchen I was afraid that she might assume our order as all coffee drink so I went over to clarify with her on our order. Apparently she told me “Chottomatte” please wait and get back to her work. I suddenly realise that I had interrupted their work flow again.

In Japan when you get into a cafe usually you will not be entertained to until when the owner is finished with her tasks one hand and ready to come to you. You will know it is your turn when the owner brings over a hot towels and then they will have to serve a glass of iced water. There will be the time you put in your order. I think any other time when you just interrupt them for order will be rude.

It is very different from Chinese people where they can multitask and take order while maybe cooking fried rice at the same time. All Chinese cares are about is turnover rate and collection of money as quickly as possible. But in Japan, you will get the feeling that they don’t care so much about the money but instead they are very persistence in their sequence and traditions. Which they focus more on well being instead of the peruse of material procession. 

Question for personality test

In the cafe they asked us 3 questions and wants us to answer them straight when we think of the question.

When you are walking in a jungle and;

1. You see a color and what color will that be? And why
2. You see an animal and what will that be? And why
3. You come around an environment and what will that be? And why

You can stop and think of these questions yourself and I will be sharing my answer below and what does it mean in the end.

My answer for the color have 2 answer to it. First thing comes to my mind instantly was yellow and my mind was changing it quickly to black. The reason was that yellow was what i used to like as a kid where it symbolise energetic and happiness, but as I grow older I stop liking yellow and love black. Black is the absent of color or I should say more accurately the presence of all colours. As I grew as an adult I felt a lot of emotion need to be contained and not expressed so I choose black as my favourite color.

The animal that come to my mind was cat as i liked cat most as I was attracted by the car attitude and for them respecting distance. They are cute and comfy to hold in. Sometime they give you a feeling that they need you and provide comfort for you and yet sometime they are just on their own doing their stuff and they will not require your attention at all. Furthermore, I love the arrogance attitude from cat as they know they don’t need you as long they had their food taken care of.

As for the environmental scene that I can think of this, standing at the cliff looking down on the sea in front of me. This scene was the one that Sandy, Tracy and me was in Danang. The feeling attached to it was that I was so small compared to the huge and board world in front of me. That was a sense of liberation and I describe that something was “holding back and suddenly got released”.

They laughed hard as the answer correspond to these is, color is what you think of yourself and animal is what you are looking for in a partner and last question on environment is what is your ideal sexual experience. So literal right?

Bread vs toast

You know me and Jackie just had a heated discussion on the difference between a bread and a toast. For my understanding, bread and toast is the difference in hardness. As long as the bread was placed in a toaster and removed moisture where you know it became hard and warm is a toast.

However for the German they had a philosophy on bread. Just like wine and coffee per se. There are differentiation between sour, sweet and bitterness in bread. The after taste and the initial taste so on. They really respected bread a lot. On the hand, toast to them is like “junk food” like any bread that has a shape of a square is a toast. Like all our gardenia bread is call toast even without putting in a toaster. They call it the untoasted toast. 

Living expenses in Japan and farming

Today morning me and Jackie went out to do a cycling around the village to explore a little. It is an hour ride out and we manage to reach Teramae and stumble into a supermarket. Grocery shopping is expensive for us. Just simple 2 meals and some snack will cost us $30 - $60. It don’t even last us 2 days. Living in Japan can quickly add up I think $150 for a week or $600 a month would be decent amount to put aside. A side note is that being vegean is difficult in Japan due to the high price on vegetable and fruits. 

Rental is kinda expensive too. I believe $1,500 a month you can get quite a small single apartment. The basis is that we can only find daily apartment at the lowest of $30 given only if it was low season. On weekend the price run crazy as much as 10x the usual price. Crazy right. Don’t think I am exaggerating as the hotel can really go into $300 - $400 range on weekend like Friday and Saturday. Last time i asked it was due to the crazy amount of traveller coming in to Japan as they claimed that “Japan is cheap”. I don’t know where they got the idea from. So our solution to spend the night on weekends are using their spa during the night and sleep at their sofa area. Also some recommended us to use mange cafe to spend the night although we hasn’t try that yet.

“Sorry Sensei, we are wrong” , Bow before me~~~

Today our job is to do some quick gardening and the thing I worked on is compost, which is mixing the green and brown so they get to compose to some great stuff for the soil. What we are doing is the cold method which need least attention but longer to convert. We just find some weed and bad grass, cut them and throw it to the compost area. Layering chicken shit in between them and give them little watering down and sunlights. In time this will provide soil for us to grow more fruits :) 

I start loving the farming way of life and will want to learn more on permaculture for days to come.

Meet up with German and France friend at the guesthouse

 Today was a stay home day for us. We wake up for breakfast and lunch and then many people came. First is a Japanese neighbour came over and gave us orange and he told us that he is a priest from a church. 

Then we had another Germany Marke coming to join Hannah. So picture for the day is with these 2 girls. What is interesting is that Marke told us her encounter when she stayed at host house and it was funny. We spoke the whole night on different topics like housing, religion, politics and culture. Well it was very interesting to meet people and listen to their stories.

Hannah right and Marke in the middle

Later in the evening we are greeted by another 2 France girl whom have lots of stories to tell us. They are Joanna and Julie. A school teacher and a lawyer to be and they are travelling between their job. They shared with us the experience of doing a road trip in Australia where they bought a used Honda CRV with camping tent on the top and there are cooking wares and power in the back of the car.

Julie on the right and Joanna at the centre

The next day we bring the 2 girls to the Lawson and supermarket which is 35mins walks one way. We had a good talk and they detoured to a random temple along the way and they strongly recommended us to watch a Japanese cartoon later in the night. I am so impressed that the Germans are teaching their kids early to be independent. Like they will not help them to do things but will accompany them to let them complete simple task by themselves as young as 3 years old. France on the other hand is very lay back and chill where they are not really care about how people view them. They are more expressive in term of their emotion and opinion. Unlike Asian we are always trying to be nice and polite, many times i felt like we are putting up a fake skin and we care too much about how people view us.

Movie night in the house

At night we planned to watch the Japanese show Howl’s living castle which was recommended by Joanna. But we try connecting the old laptop with the projector and the speaker which we had difficult in sourcing enough electrical outlet from the house.Setting up the laptop was a slow and painful process as all of us watched patiently for Joanna to get the laptop up. Then we faced the wifi connection issue and then the Netflix browser is not supported and also prime video account can’t login so we had a series of issue and end up we still not able to get the video up working.

To every you I’ve loved before

Finally they gave up and I took over the laptop and proposed to watch another anime that is available on YouTube “To every you I’ve loved before”. 一头雾水。It is about parallel world theme suspend movie. End up we would never guess the outcome of the movie as ending we realised that the author broke up 2 separate story half into each movie. So the part we watch explain half of each story and it was super confusing. 

During we finally found out who Fred was. When we came to the house at the bathroom there was sign mentioning that watch out for Fred who will be watching you bathing if you are not careful. We had no idea who Fred was and the host gave us a clue that it has 2 eyes with 4 limbs. End up that night during movie we were greeted by a small little cute frog climbing around the house. And that was super cute.

Our Japan Osaka first week video was up and we started a new series walk the talk which we just speak while walking around Osaka.

And we had a short that I was walking along a stream near our guesthouse

Went to Himeji for Tuna sashimi and Fugu hotpot

You can see Himeji castle all the way to the back of the street

As the host is still not around as we heard from Hannah that he is working in Osaka and the farm house was just left open for volunteer to come and go as we wish. Since he isn’t around and yesterday we had done the heavy lifting of arranging the log for the farm, Hannah decided to let us go for a day break at Himeji. She will be heading to the Himeji castle but we plan to go out just to do some retail therapy.

The train station outside of Niino station

We have no jaw line in Japan due to the rice we ate

Hop on the JR train 10 station to Himeji will cost us $5.10 one way each. So today our transportation on MRT along is $20. Sianz. 

We are agreed with lots of small shopping mall just around the Himeji station and they are small enough for us to finish all these shopping and street walking using one day. So other than these handful of small shopping mall, the Himeji castle is just 15mins walk from the train station. 

We had curry rice for lunch and shop a bit till tea break where we drink coffee at one of the old cafe that use siphon coffee filter. Japanese do not really like using espresso machine to make coffee and they love to use drip coffee and siphon coffee filter which all these vintage shop had in common is the old fashion design and the rusty looking wood carpentry. 

Highlight after that was that we went to a Japanese sashimi shop Totto to had the tuna and some sashimi at a very affordable price. It is very popular among local Japanese. It make me realise that sashimi don’t have to cost a lot if you are eating it from Japan itself, maybe there are over supply in Japan itself.

Special tuna $22 and assorted 5 type sashimi for $9 cheap!!

We are happy with the down jacket we bought at second hand shop

We walked around till it gets dark in the evening and Japan sun set as early as 5pm where the sky get dark every early and we are able to get a nice view outside Himeji station. Oh ya, the sky are very clear in Japan and we can see stars in the sky so vividly and clear!! How long was that since I seen such clear sky? Since when i was in the army time?

Night view in Himeji station is breadth taking 

So after walking not long we went to take our dinner cum super at Fugu restrauant. Fugu is Japanese puffer fish which is deem poisonous to fisherman around the world but Japanese get to eat them as Japan had strict rules in cleaning the fish and removal of those parts that is poisonous. Only certain restaurant is given permit to run fugu and heavy penalty if process are not strictly followed. Therefore Japanese people feel safe to eat them and so am I. 

Tomorrow we are receiving a new guest in the house and we are meeting Taiwanese guy in the village who will want to bring us around town.

First day farming at Kamikawa amazing

Today in the house I saw the book making small farms work by Richard Perkins publish in 2016. The book belongs to Mark our new host and is talking about permaculture farming. Sustainable farming method which I will be interested in the further if we are starting our own farmhouse in either Kulai or Japan. So bookmark this for future me. Another book is the vegetable & herb expert by Dr D G Hessayon and the author had also written a series of works’s best selling gardening books.

Our job to be done today at the farm was very free and easy. We had to erect some wood pranks and make a barricage to build up a compose bin for some waste composition. After ward we had to rearrange the log at the site so that they are space out properly for airing. Those logs are heavy and it looks like they are part of a previous building for the roof and structure. The owner source it second hand so that he can build a shed if he needs to.

After work the showering is amazing. We are wondering to use the solar panel to heat up the water tank however it doesn’t work as the water were just dripping a bit before it just stopped working. The owner was kind to leave a hand pump shower for camping style. OMG i start loving this life as this is a preparing for me to do a car camping in my Alza in the future.

This is our host farm house in Kamikawa

Heading to our host village in Kamikawa

Today we are moving to Kamikawa a small rural village to meet our new host. We mentioned that we gonna to work exchange for him to get to stay in Japan for us to experience the authentic Japan culture. I didn’t know for sure if it is a hostel, a cafe or a farm. Let go over there then we decide. 

Today we met another traveler from China Guang Zhuo named Joesph and he smoke a pipe and basically go travelling alone with his wife and son’s approval. We spoke to him and as usual the tone is very similar to Shen Ge. They are Chinese that want to run away from China. (Pro USA). We had a lunch at soba shop before we part way. Joseph agrees with us with the Japan’s product quality and he told us that product bought in Japan can be sold at a profit back in China. I believe I can do a 中古店 in Singapore. See. I told you I am a hogger. 

Afternoon, after he left we walked along the Motomachi street as we heading toward the train station to travel to our new host place. Along the way, we stumbled into a Japanese 中古店 where they sold used branded clothes mainly the winter 冲锋衣和羽绒服. You know I had put off many things when Jackie asked me to buy one in Uniqlo and the other logos park one. Cause my player had planned to make me find this instead. A Columbia titantium down jacket that is going for $35. Which met all my requirements and the jacket is highly adjustable via tightening strip. So I immediately placed my order. So you see. You are only looking at the price because you are not seeing the value. Jackie got herself a brown Uniqlo down with hoody. 

Along the way special mention another purchase which is the Japanese “standard” shop which priced between $1 to $10. Super great product and we bought a reuseable pocketable bag. Very small it is like a zippo lighter and can use to hand carry or sling. 

Then we took 1.5hrs to reach niino station. We thought that there will be food mart for sure as it is an mrt. I am so wrong. This station connects us to a village with old Japanese house and there are no amenities around. Nearest Lawson is 20mins walk away. Oh my god. The weather is 4 degrees and luckily we still have our newly bought down jacket. We met up with Hannah from Germany and took us to our host house and then we are surprised that the house have no host other than volunteers. Host will not be back for the whole week and he left the house to the volunteers. 

It was so cold inside and the only heater is the small heated table and then the toilet seat. Other place all cold as fuck. The bathroom is mechanical pump and we had to boil water and pour it in. Whao. That was really new for us. We skid bath and went to bed with 3 thick blanket. Tomorrow will update you with the work we do at the house. 

Went shopping in Kobe centre

Lunch at a soba place which looks different by picture

Today wake up early to have home made breakfast below the hostel. It is mayo egg with butter bread which we bought at family mart yesterday at a discount. We had decided to do shopping at Kobe today. So we doing our walk to Motomchi and then to Montbell at the city centre.

I thought Kobe is much quite like nothing to do. But I was wrong. It was still a good retail area just not as crowded as Osaka. At Motomochi street we saw a couple of hand made leather shop, we went in to research on new ideas. And Jackie bought a pink leather for $8. Leather hide isn’t expensive in Kobe. Which I could have the ability to communicate with the owner which only speak Japanese. 

Weather had drop to 10 to 6 degree for the day. It was too cold and clothes start to feel cold to touch like a fridge. No choice have to go to Montbell to see what choice we had to bring temperatures up. End up in saw a last piece of the widely popular pocketable sling bag. As it was the last black (medium) piece. I took it and pay it. Waste money again. 

Kobe city centre has lots of branded that is isolated in a whole building one. Near Daimaru. All the sport brand, like north face, patongonia are too expensive to buy. Although their cutting is really nice. We are looking for something like a 羽绒服. Then we headed over to Uniqlo to see. 

The heat tech is something I like to buy but the fitting isn’t the nicest. Also wanted to buy the lightweight down jacket at a discount of $49 but I feel women’s cutting and the feature is better. Still thinking if I should buy the logo park (counterfeit) or not. As tomorrow we need to go mountain to do volunteer already. End up I brought a green cargo pant just to add layer for my bottom. 

Today night was funny. We went to a fried chicken rice store to eat. And we find $11 a meal is too expensive for us to eat 2 set. Therefore we try to order a large set and share a rice or order extra rice if they allow. Then the waitress knew that we are sharing. So she place 6 piece chicken into 2 set and gave us each 1 more extra chicken. With 2 rice / soup / prickles. So end up we had 2 set of small fried chicken bento at the price of a large set. Very kind owner and stuff. We eat till a last drop and left a good google review. 

Kobe beef meal and 2 person we met on the road

Selfie with Shen Ge and Karen

Today our second day at the hostel and we saw the male owner Shen Ge from China, Wuhan. He had been a teacher / coffee enthusiast / author and he shared with us a lot of wise experience. 2 points I want to share is:

1. people waste too much money to do decor or interior design on their house. As a decoration will need to display item that resonate with your identity and best is a piece that you have a story behind. Instead of buying decor to just purely beautify your house. 
2. He shared that his inspiration idol is 王小波. He credit that he gain a lot of knowledge and world view from reading his book and other author that he mention in his book. End up he can become an author of many books himself. “Why Kobe” and “I am a virus” is written by him. 

Another fun person we met is Karen from USA who had relocated to Japan to teach for 3 years. To do a proper closure for her chapter in life, she went on a pilgrimage trip in Japan. Visiting all shrine in Japan by foot. Covering 1200km by walking over the span of 60 days. That’s crazy. The whole of Malaysia from Johor to Penang is 800km + she had basically walked from Singapore to Thailand in under 2 months. Super crazy. And I don’t understand why American can quit their job so easily and just take gap years without feeling anxiety for the future. 

When ask her how she kept her expenses low, she told her that she can hitch a ride all over Japan along as a lady as Japan is a relatively safe place. She also recommended me to do couch surfing and apartment swapping in Japan. This is something we like to try up coming. 

$150 Kobe set. That is the last good meal for year 2024

Lastly, something highlight of the day is that we when to eat our Kobe beef for $150 tonight. That so long before I spend so much on food. The beef is so tender and juicy it had moved me to tears. The meat is great with just pepper and salt. Every month should go with a mouthful of rice. Very godlike. Worth it bro. 

Nanning uploaded

Arrival at Kobe coffee hostel

Yesterday sleep on the sofa of the spa room, i think many like us that couldn’t find hotel on the weekend are here to sleep for the night. It is also not kinda cheap as morning when we pay the bill it was around $89 including our dinner. Cost of staying over the night is $30 each and we had $29 for our dinner.

We took another hot spring bath again in the morning and decided to leave early toward Kobe town which is 1.5hours from Osaka and the journey cost us $7.10. 

We then check in to a hostel in Kobe name Kobe coffee hostel where it is a cute old Japanese guest house that is run by 2 Chinese owner who is interested in both tea and coffee culture. Hui Jie the owner introduced us to the Kobe meat which apparently cost a lot like Wagyu and told us that this place will only cost us a fraction $50 each. Unfortunately the restaurant was fully booked when we got there and by the price and award we saw at the restaurant we decided to book the slot tomorrow so please stay tuned for our tomorrow update okie.

Japanese map inside Kobe coffee hostel