From Noboribetsu it was time to go on to the last leg of our journey which is Sapporo. After checking out from Takimoto Kan, we took a bus ride to the train station. As we were quite early the missus and I explored the surrounding for a quick look and see at this quaint little town.
 |
| Nice Little Post Office There - Galaxy S23+ |
From lovely Hakodate we made our way to Noboribetsu via a 2.5 hours train trip. We were welcomed by bear and oni signs at the station. After all Noboribetsu is well known as the gateway to hell (Jigokudani) as well as for their bear park.
 |
| Hello Bear - Galaxy S23+ |
This year's Japan trip was good for sure. Ironically because I didn't bring Lincoln along. I had been firm with him, if his grades didn't improve then he can forget about going with us. And by mid-year I didn't see any improvements in both his grades and attitudes and made the call to leave him behind. As usual he never proved me wrong when he got 31 points for his L1R5, even making excuses to avoid taking the report book home. In any case..... this year's trip has been more satisfying for sure too. I covered most places I want to visit in my itineray and I didn't lose temper at all from having to deal with that boy.
 |
| Lindsay Enjoying Her In-flight Entertainment - Galaxy S23+ |
A lot of things transpired in August..... My colleague who's transferring out of the department finally got the conclusion he's been searching for, his last day with my friggin' team will be on 30th September and he'll move to his next team from 1st October onwards. I'm happy for him, but that also means I'll be left alone to fend for my own. So I'm taking his departure really hard...
 |
| What Kind of Ass Is That - Galaxy S23+ |
From white snow land Furano, it was time to trade serene white sceneries for the vibrant and glitzy lights of Sapporo which is the final leg of our Hokkaido expedition. The missus was getting better, but not 100% yet, same as me, runny nose and coughing still by then. But I fared better than her for sure. The cold seemed to have struck her quite hard.
 |
| On Local Train From Furano to Takikawa - Galaxy S23+ |
After our extremely short stop at Otaru, we made our way to Furano next. The journey to Furano is more difficult as on the last leg we could only ride on the local train without any reservations and only 4 trips a day. Fortunately I decided to send 2 luggages to our last stop in Sapporo, but it didn't make our journey any simpler as on the train we bumped onto many similiar travellers like us, so the train was quite filled up with luggages. It was just a one car train, strangely.
 |
| The First Leg of Our Journey to Furano - Galaxy S23+ |
From Hakodate it was time to go to Otaru next. The journey to Otaru was quite convenient, the first leg was a Hokuto ride to Sapporo, then we switched to the airport rapid train (at least that's how I remembered it).
 |
| Departing Hakodate on Hokuto - Galaxy S23+ |
I can't possibly skip Tokyo Disneyland if I visit Tokyo can't I? And while at it I must visit Disneysea too! And that's exactly how we ended up in both Disney parks 2 years in a row. I absolutely love it! From Disney Ambassador Hotel, we need to take a shuttle bus to reach Disneyland, which we did promptly to best utilize our Happy Entry. The moment we were allowed into the parks, I was ecstatic.
 |
| Run Run Run! - A7RMk3 + FE24mm F1.4GM |
 |
| Let's Go! - Galaxy S23+ |
October has been a plain sailing month, even to this date which is the last day of the month. Work was OK, I mean I'm still doing lousy stuff which won't give me any promotion and such, but I'm cleaning up 💩 from the SAP integration project, where scenarios and situations the analysts did not think of finally showed up as service tickets. These "cases" appear on the KPI dashboards, or in some cases are missing... So it's up to me to fix those. This month I also went to a Salesforce event in Raffles Hotel. It was the first time I attended such a glamorous vendor event. Prior to the start of the event I started feeling my panic attack returning. I guess it was because the place was rather dark, packed with so many people and loud sounds that almost triggerred another attack. Fortunately a staff ushered us to the front seat where I picked the corner most seat to get more space. I managed to get the panic attack under control.
 |
| Waiting For The Event to Start - Galaxy S23+ |
In less than half an hour, 2023 will come to an end. This December has been delightful for a number of reasons, the main one being that I spent the first 2 weeks of the month on my Japan vacation. It is a long overdue vacation since 2019, so I made sure to make this trip well it's worth. We travelled across Tokyo, Kawaguchiko, Kyoto, Osaka & Karuizawa before finally ending the trip with a bang in Tokyo Disneyland & Tokyo Disneysea.
 |
| Waiting to Board Our Flight - Galaxy S23+ |
I felt like October just whizzed past me. So many things happened over a span of less than 31 days. Work has been unforgiving as usual. I'm strongly considering to ask for an internal transfer as soon as I'm eligible because I really cannot stand the pace and an ambitious team mate who's willing to make me look bad so that he can get ahead. There's also this other colleague who's so stubborn, sitting with him for a meeting earlier this month almost triggered my panic attack again. It was a sensation that I haven't felt in a while but suddenly returned this month. I guess I have been quite stressed out at work. I have finished almost 24 muscle relaxant pills this month..... That's how difficult this month has been...
 |
| Waiting to See The Doctor - Galaxy S23+ |
Day 2 started with a trip to Kuta Beachwalk again as the missus wanted to exchange the kiddos' swimwears. After the quick trip to Kuta Beachwalk, our next stop was Seminyak where we tried to trace back the trails of our past trip back in 2019.
 |
| Let's Explore Seminyak - A7RMk3 + FE 20mm F1.8G |
So about more than 1 week ago, the missus and I made an impromptu trip to Bali. It was a last minute trip as one of our houses there was finally going to be sold. I'm so relieved that one of those "burdens" is finally gone.
 |
| Some Shophouse Installation in T4 - A7RMk3 + FE20mm F1.8G |
Hello June, it's been a rough ride isn't it? Things have been changing from one end of the spectrum to the other so diversely, hence... "jigly".
I've been doing a lot of praying as of late, I really hope that something good will come out. Whenever I go to office, I never fail to go to Yueh Hai Ching temple which is just nearby to pray for good luck in my job search.
 |
| Yueh Hai Ching Temple's Facade - Galaxy Note 9 |
