autumn leaves

Autumn had arrived and its time again to witness the leaves changing color called here as kouyou (紅葉). For the past 3 years, I never really went out of Tokyo to view the Autumn leaves. The view in Yoyogi, Ueno and a number of parks here are more than enough for me to see the beauty of autumn. Until last Tuesday, my Indian colleague Hemanth told me about having a trip this weekend to Shosenkyo in Yamanashi prefecture to view some kouyou. I told him I would love to go to experience kouyou on a grand scale. Then come Saturday (good thing weekend work didn't push through), me along with Hemanth, Gap and Xu - a chinese colleague, met at Chuo line of Shinjuku station. It was very unfortunate that the Chuo rapid line was suspended on that day. Meaning we have to take the local train and then make some multiple transfers along the way. We left Shinjuku at around 8:30 and arrived at our initial destination Kofu at around 11:30 am. Quite a long journey indeed but we enjoyed chatting along the way which made our trip appeared to be shorter. From Kofu station, we need to ride a bus for 1 hour to get into Shosenkyo-our destination for the day. Upon arrival, our stomach was already grumbling so we decided to eat lunch first before starting the hike.

Houtou - vegetable stew with udon noodles

Preparing to eat the local food delicacy of Koufu

After lunch, we started our hike and went to the top via ropeway. I had hoped it would be as exciting as the ropeway in Hakone as you can see in Pia's blog - but it was not. Although the view when going up to see Shosenkyo's beauty was a real breathtaker.

Reaching the top, we moved around and was lucky enough to have a very clear sky to be able to see the majestic Mt. Fuji. Below are some more pictures I took at the peak of Shosenkyo. It was really beautiful seeing the view on top.

Mt. Fuji

After around 1 1/2 hours on top, we decided to go down and see other beauties that Shosenkyou has to offer.

Momoji - Red Maple leaves

Beware of wild bears

We decided to finish our hike around 4:30 p.m to catch the next bus going to Kofu station at 4:40 p.m. Unfortunately, we failed to catch it and have to wait for another 40 minutes for the next bus. In Kofu station, we decided to take the bus instead of the train going to Shinjuku. It was a 2 hours 10 minutes-trip but it was worth the ride since we were able to sleep soundly as compared to taking the trains which will make us transfer stations a number of times. Before we left the station, the bus driver informed everyone that we might expect some delay depending on the traffic we'll have along the way. Time of departure was supposed to be 7:10 pm and time of arrival in Shinjuku is 9:10 but we left around 7:13. Time we arrived at Shinjuku? 9:12! I was surprised that even the bus in Japan is also very efficient and right on the clock!

Overall, the trip was really nice! Houtou tastes good and made me really full for the day. Shosenkyou's nature is a real breath taker with special mention to Mt. Fuji's peak, falls, Arakawa river and rock formations. However, we haven't able to see its full potential on Autumn as the leaves are not all in kouyou mode yet. Nevertheless, it can't count out the overall beauty of Shosenkyo-considered to be one of Japan's most favorite scenery.

Pictures c/o my W995 and Gap's DSLR Camera.

a day with the ultimate tennis goddess

Around end of September, there was a mail from our HR that they'll be giving away tickets for Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo which was sponsored by our company. All we need to do is write a short mail to them and say something about our intranet website. Unfortunately, I read the mail late in the afternoon and the deadline of the promo was over. I then asked my colleague Vivek if he was able to participate since I know he plays tennis and a big fan. He told me that he wasn't interested since it's a woman's match but if I would like to watch I should ask Gap because he just won finals tickets for two! Then I immediately went to him and asked if he already has someone to go with. Then he said, no one yet. I just found out eventually that he invited Vivek first and I was lucky that he declined. :D

Having secured my finals ticket, I then checked out the list of players participating in the game and found that one of them is ultimate tennis goddess Maria Sharapova! I told Vivek that how I wish she could reach the finals so that we can see her in person. He said that it will be unlikely for us to see her because of the other great players competing in the tournament. Maria Sharapova had just came from an injury and had since fallen down in world rankings. Considering the Williams sisters and many top-seeded players, she doesn't stand a chance according to Vivek. Still, me and Gap kept our fingers crossed hoping that Maria would be able to compete in the finals.

Then 2 days before the finals, I checked out the latest news about the tournament. I was a bit ecstatic to find out that Maria is still competing in the quarterfinals and most of the seeded players had already lost! The following day, I learned that she pulled it through to the finals! I showed the news to Vivek and told him that God answered our prayers. He kept on laughing and asked me to give him the ticket instead. It was really fun teasing him that time knowing that we'll be on an awesome treat seeing the tennis goddess Maria Sharapova playing on the next day!

To cut this blog short, I will just let the picture speaks of what happened in the finals match.

Oh my....here comes the goddess...:D

Preparing for opponent's return

A failed service...due to Gap's camera :P

Jelena Jancovic - one of the fittest and toughest tennis player around

Jancovic: "Hey chief, can I still play?"


Sharapova: "Sorry for your wrist injury, it could have been a great match..."


joyful with her victory

Lovely Maria, receiving her 1st tournament championship after 18 months

As an added bonus, there was a doubles finals match featuring Alisa Kleybanova / Francesca Schiavone and Daniela Hantuchová / Ai Sugiyama in which the former team won. Daniela Hantuchová was also a sight to behold despite of not playing on top of her game. It could have been a great exit match for Ai Sugiyama should they have won.

You can watch the finals match of Sharapova and Jancovic here.

iphlip

Reading thru my previous posts, it appeared that I wasn't able to properly introduced myself (as if i have readers...ehehe). Anyway, might as well do the introduction now. I'm Philip from the Philippines, living and working now in Tokyo, Japan. Just like every Filipino searching for greener pastures abroad to provide a better life to his family (as well as to the extended ones... :D), mine is also the same. I have been here for over 3 years now but still enjoying everything this country has to offer. It had provided me a very big room to grow both as an individual and as a professional. Hence, I am really grateful to have this awesome opportunity.

Now on a lighter note, I'm a true-blue basketball and Manny Pacquiao fan (only as a boxer just like any other Filipinos...ehehe) , I enjoy going out with friends, reading random stuffs, watching TV series, documentaties and movies, traveling, strolling, running, having cheesy conversations with my fiancee and learning new things in life.

As to the iphlip as my pseudo here, I just thought of playing along by combining the prefix of internet and pun of my name Philip when being pronounced quickly. Hence, the iphlip ;D

Ohisashiburi!!

Ohisashiburi! Meaning "It's been a long time" in formal japanese. Informally, "Hisa Bisa" will mean the same thing. October had passed and I don't have even a single entry in my blog! I got so filled up with a number of activities and blogging still takes time for me so I decided to put it on the back seat for a while so that I can do some other stuffs. Until I saw Pia's blogs....it reawakened me! It reminded me of what was my intention when I started this and gave me a new motivation to continue blogging again. Thanks Pia! Now I'm back and will try to update my blog site of the things that I have done in the past month and the new things coming into my way now. Makes me feel excited again!