Tōdai-ji, Nara. A site not to be missed when visiting Japan. It's the location of Great Buddha of Nara (or 'Daibutsu'). One of the posts inside the main hall has an opening which allows visitors to pass through it. According to Wikipedia (2008), the hole is said to be the same size as one of Daibutsu's nostril and legend has it that those who pass through it will be blessed with enlightenment in their next life

Today I came across this awesome website which has a collection of royalty-free landscape, flower and plant photographs. Probably this website has been reviewed before but I cannot remember where. Anyway, all the photographs in this website is worth saving and sharing. Get it here

Today, was one of those bad.. bad days of my life. But when I saw this clip, it completely turned upside down. I became the happiest person around. Well, I hope more movies get reviewed in the future in the same manner. View it here

Eihei-ji, Fukui

Before entering this ancient Zen temple, we were advised not to disturb/speak with the monks as they are training. When I heard this, on the back of my head, I’m imagining the monks are meditating on top of stone or performing sacred martial arts techniques. However we found out that a monk was actually conducting a presentation for tourist apart from others who were performing their daily routines. To my surprise, there was even a flat screen TV in here. Yeah, that seems right! Overall, our visit here felt like a perfect Zen

Bbrp hari lepas, sambil aku berbasikal dlm kesejukan, aku ternampak suatu sudut permandangan yg dirasakan perlu dirakam dlm kamera utk kenangan masa hadapan. Kadang-kadang aku pun jakun gak melihat kejadian alam seperti ni

Blu-ray. Today Japan Times reported that Toshiba will completely shut down its HD DVD operations, ending battle with Sony Corp's Blu-ray system to become the industry standard for next-generation DVDs (Takahara, 2008). I guess for those who bought a HD DVD player, too bad for them. On the other hand, some of us are relieved because now we know exactly which format to choose

Yoshida shrine, Kyoto. The Setsubun festival was celebrated on the 3rd of February throughout Japan this year. In Yoshida shrine, it’s a special 3 day festival. I’ve yet to fully understand the rituals involved during this festival. However, before the adoption of Gregorian calendar (I don’t know when), this day marked the New Year similar to Chinese New Year

LISA. Ada bbrp kawan aku memang minat sungguh bidang yg dipanggil FEA ni ('Finite Element Analysis') . Ya-lah, nak jadi otai FEA-lah tu! Problem-nya, ramai drpd mereka pakai perisian brand lanun kat rumah. Antara sebabnya, universiti pakai software mahal, student nak belajar kat rumah kena pakai brand lanun.. cobaan! Maka aku cadangkan perisian LISA ni, ia percuma setakat 1300 nod. Boleh-lah utk permulaan nak belajar dan saiznya juga tak-lah berat mcm 'commercial application'. Aku rasa kat universiti, utk assignment kelas bagus jugak diguna perisian ni. Tiga minggu lepas aku terima email perisian ni keluar versi terbaru. Dimajukan oleh org Germany dulu, sekarang diedarkan oleh sebuah syarikat Canada. Muat turun dari sini

Noh. It is said to be revised from the older art of Suragaku-noh under the appreciative eye of the Shogun in the 14th century. Today it is recognized internationally as a theatre of great sophistication and beauty. Five categories of plays that are synonym to Noh are God, Warrior, Woman, Human interest themes and Demon. The masks used in Noh plays are pretty expensive. This particular mask shown in the picture named ‘Hannya’, is said to be priceless. As scary as it looks, it only represents a woman transformed by jealousy and resentment into a serpent-like daemon with horns, fangs and wide gruesome mouth (The information written in this post is summarized from a leaflet obtained from Kyoto Prefectural International Center)

Baidu. A decent search engine that is less popular outside of the chinese speaking community. I must say that at first it is difficult to use. But very soon, it will be a perfect alternative to anyone

Reshade. Today I came across this cool application at 'Giveaway of the day'. It's offered for free for 24 hrs.. Sometimes, we would like to enlarge an image but have to face the fact that it's quality will be severely degraded. However, I must say that this application does the job with minimal degradation to the image quality. For those of us who will miss the opportunity to downlad this application, an online version (I have not tried it) is available here

Shirakawa-gō, Gifu. I know nothing about it except that it's a another UNESCO World Heritage Site in Japan. However, according to the brochure we received in Wada's house (Important National Cultural Property), the gassho-style houses here present a typical example of large-scale wooden Japanese buildings along with their environment of rice paddies, fields and mountain forests. In the past, residents of this village obtained cash income by manufacturing gunpowder...Holy cow!

Plot opera ni adalah kisah dua org jejaka yg cuba menguji kesetiaan bakal isteri mereka. Yg payahnya dlm bahasa Itali!

Così fan tutte. An opera by Mozart, the plot is about two men trying to test the devotion of their future brides. It was little bit difficult for me because it was in Italian!

Yase, Kyoto. Tempat ni mcm Ulu Yam gak. Bbrp bulan lepas di sini-lah lokasi bebudak berenang, berendam & 'release tension'. Lepas enjoy tak tahu mcm mana.. 'sate' disajikan, Itadakimasu!

Bicycles in Kyoto. Probably there are equivalent number of bicycles to the number of people in this city. Surprisingly, there are also many unclaimed bicycles.. maybe for a good cause. According to Japan Times (Yasumoto, 2008 ), unclaimed bicycles in Japan are saving lives in other countries. In Zambia, people suffering from malaria are forced to walk or even stagger hours to see a doctor, as neither public transportation nor private vehicle ownership is common (Yasumoto, 2008 ). However their lives changed dramatically since they received a batch of about 40 bicycles from Japan in 1998 (Yasumoto, 2008 ).