So familiar, so far away

Time seems to pass within just a heartbeat, and it's been almost 8 years since I was there.

Browsing through the website of worldneighborhood and looking at some pictures of Tama Plaza in Yokohama bring back a lot of sweet memories of being together with loved ones. 
 

 Picture credits: http://worldneighborhoods.com

The above is a familiar sight indeed.  Of all the pictures I saw on the said site, this is one I remember most lucidly.   One thing I regret is that I did not have a digital camera of my own at that time, or else I might have captured many many photographs for the sake of memory whenever I miss the places.

Down memory lane

During the 3-weeks holiday, I used to go with my dear grand-aunt to the shops around Tama Plaza, I recall seeing Tsutaya across the street.  I've been to this Tsutaya once when my grand-aunt wanted to rent the drama video - back in 2005 video cassettes were still widely-used until DVDs took over almost fully nowadays.

From what I've gathered, the area surrounding Tama Plaza had undergone tremendous transformation since my pioneer trip there, especially the rail station.   Speaking of which, it reminds me of my first experience with the local rail to Shibuya (which line, I don't remember...), as well as the almost daily window-shopping at the nearby Tokyu and Ito Yokado. 

I used to write about the 2005 summer holiday in my old Friendster blog, which had since been demolished after Friendster changed boss.    

Up the Hill of Jioufen

This is Jioufen (九份), a former gold-mining center on a highland located in New Taipei City (新北市).

On a busy and crowded afternoon in summer along the corridor of shops.


This place attracts many visitors during the weekends and holidays. I was there on a Saturday. From my brief observation on the day of my visit, the visitors comprise mainly of local people from around Taiwan itself, overseas Chinese, Chinese from mainland China, and some Japanese.

Non-foodie talking food
I'm neither a foodie (except for milky, fishy and spicy foodstuff) nor a specific fan of Taiwanese cuisine, but nonetheless had an enjoyable time trying a few things at a few stalls in Jioufen. :) Among them:

Dessert
I'm unsure of the name of this, but I call it the beancurd dessert. The white portion of it is it is "tau-hueh", silky-smooth and soft... nice!

The coloured little chunks looked like fruits, but actually they're not. They're sticky in texture, made of glutinous rice flour. This dessert is sweetened with gingered-syrup.

I generally enjoyed this dessert, except that I omitted most of the yellow-coloured chunks because I do not quite fancy sticky stuff.

Lunch

Cold Chicken...
This is steamed chicken with wolfberries and ginger. Do you know that the chicken is served cold as opposed to hot, contrary to our impression on typical Chinese food? To my delight, this dish was surprisingly tasty.


I like this vegetable very much - it's crunchy and fresh.


Meatballs in soup, and rice with minced and braised beef. Not bad too... The portion of rice is pretty small, but I think it's just nice because it doesn't fill up the tummy too heavily and thus still leaves enough "room" for if you'd like to try out other food.



On Taiwanese sausages:
It is one of the famous snacks in Taiwan. They are a common sight along local food stalls. There are a variety of them with different flavours and sizes. However, I did not try any (I seldom consume sausages), so I do not have any picture of them.

At one of the souvenir shops...


Other food that I came across

This reminds me of "popiah" because it looks somewhat similar to one.


Some "kuih". Wonder how they taste...


Meatballs...

Another type of "kuih"...


Barbequed mushrooms


Cutie...
So cute and gentle a dog, I love! :P


Away from the crowded corridors, the street of Jioufen suddenly reminded me of Japan, specifically the hilly town of Hakone （箱根). High on a hill with cool breeze, little shops and wooden buildings.


In the bus that ferries visitors up and down of Jioufen:


A view of the gloomy sky and the sea from the hills...

Bukit Bintang reminds me of my beloved summer...

Monday was public holiday, so it's a day to walk around. I met up with my bro for lunch at Lot 10... there's a 'cha chan teng' feeling at the food court of Lot 10. We've not met for a long time in about 3 months already, although we're not that far from each other.

The "Shibuya" of KL...

A few years ago during the first time I stepped onto this place around Bukit Bintang, this place reminded me a little of Shibuya (a district in Tokyo). I've been there during my summer holiday visit at grand-aunt's in Japan (my paternal grandmother's youngest sister) in '05. I remember going there by densha from Tama Plaza station in Yokohama, and if I remember correctly, took about 30 minutes. I thought I was just being sentimental for thinking too much of the 'surprise holiday'.

Later on, I read somewhere that this particular place here in KL was indeed inspired by the street design of Shibuya. Oh, no wonder. To me, this place looks more beautiful during night time when the streets and signboards are brightly-lit. Here's another view, facing the monorail track.

This is near outside Lot 10:

View of Sg Wang from the overhead bridge connecting Bukit Bintang station to Sg Wang & Lot 10:

In conjunction with Chinese New Year that's around the corner, there were a few Chinese cultural shows in Sg Wang to entertain its patrons.

Chinese New Year decor outside Sg Wang:

Sg Wang was very crowded, so we walked to Pavilion for a drink.

"Hanami" (flower-watching) in KL? ;P

Cherry blossom decoration at Pavilion... though we actually don't have the plant here in our country. Looks pretty real isn't it?