Self Driving Trip in Hokkaido

Drove around Hokkaido back in December 2015 – beautiful place, precious family time – a very cold cool experience in short. The following is a special video I made and some personal travel tips at Hokkaido during winter. Many thanks to Bumblebee Mum who made tons of FREE Hokkaido travel guide and this video by DL Production.

The Driving Experience at Hokkaido

Some Useful Tips

  1. Plan your trip early, seriously – especially if you wish to stay in one of those popular ski resorts. We skipped Tomamu and Niseko because of hotel availability.
  2. It’s a little risky, but do-able. Most folks at Trip Advisor are strongly against winter driving at Hokkaido; and I agree. If you don’t enjoy driving (or have no confidence in your driving skill), don’t do this. Stick with the trains and buses – it’s Japan anyway, they have the most-developed public transport system in the world.  That said, however, if you are feeling adventurous, why not? This was my first winter driving trip and it turned out alright (with a few lucky escapes though).
  3. Must have – winter gloves, car snow shovel (mine was provided by the car rent company), winter boot, polarise sun glasses, a piece of cloth to wipe off condensed water on your mirror, and hours of good music supply.
  4. Keyword – SLOW. To stay safe, drive slowly, turn slowly. Accelerate slowly. Brake slowly.
  5. Your car will skid, no matter how careful or slow you drive. It’s just something you can’t avoid when driving in Hokkaido during winter (especially on frozen roads in the city). So be prepared and understand the concept of counter-steering.

That’s all I can think of right now – will update this post again.

I believe…

I believe, in random order, that…

  1. Prostitution should be legalised and governed in Malaysia.
  2. Most people are super kind and asshole in the same time, including myself.
  3. But some of the top persons in Malaysia look like latter in #2 no matter how I see him/her.
  4. The best way to make money online is to teach people how to make money online.
  5. The best way to survive cancer is to stay away from chemotherapists and look for cure elsewhere.
  6. Malaysians should be given the rights to choose their religion in regard of their parents’ belief and race.
  7. Most politicians (and I’d say 99%) in Malaysia are not helping our country at all. I think it’d be better for us as a country to have one very smart dictator, rather than 500 mediocre ministers.
  8. Mark Zuckerberg is one of the 100 smartest person in the world. So are Sergey Brin and Larry Page.
  9. “Team work” is often overrated.
  10. 9 out of 10 successful make money online gurus are just good salesmen, if not good conman.
  11. 7 out of 10 successful social media gurus are just good salesmen, if not good conman.
  12. You can never please everyone, but you can piss everyone at the same time quite easily. So it’s still better to stay low and reserve yourself in most situations.
  13. Arrogant people were brought up by arrogant parents; so are polite and respectful ones.
  14. Success = 10% luck + 40% brain + 50% determination! Strong heart FTW.
  15. iPhone is greater than Samsung phones in many ways.
  16. I can grow stronger physically, lose weight, master an art skill, and get smarter with computer and business whenever I want.
  17. But I can never play guitar well.
  18. Human, as a whole, is a disgrace to the mother earth. How we developed ourselves into today’s society made us a pretty sick parasite.
  19.  Karma and reincarnation.
  20. Only 3 persons in this world would finish reading my 20 points – my brother Low Kei and two friends – Wong Dog and Ah Yap (Tell me I’m wrong if you are #4).

Gotta go!

Bucket list #3: Draw something everyday for 30 days

This is part of a bigger post, check out Bucket List 2015 for all my self-assigned challenges.

Started this challenge on April 10th. Signed up and attended my first oil painting class (something totally new to me). I’ll be painting in oil every Thursday for the next 5 months. Will add in more photos of my doodles and art work as log in later stage.

Update April 24th

It’s harder than I thought. Half of the time I just don’t have the mood to settle down and spend time on the paper. This challenge is going to take more than 30 days to complete.

Bucket list #2: Stay as fit as possible for 30 days

This is part of a series post that I started early 2015. You can read the other inputs of my bucket list here.

Why do so?

Stronger and healthier body, better basketball game, and for fun.

The plan

I thought setting an end goal wouldn’t be helpful at all. After all experts said the best way to hack (and to sustain) any sort of growth is to focus on the system. So what I did was tweaking my life and changing my habits instead of putting up a “lose X kg of weight” or “grow X kg of muscles” in 30 days.

To do this, I considering my lifestyle thoroughly and set five simple rules/exercise routines  –

  • Kettlebell swings – 75/100/125 rep  x 3 times per week
  • 90 sec air bench + 60 sec plank – (2+3) x 4 times per week
  • Jog/cycle/basketball – 4 times per week
  • No calorie drinks (anything with sugar in it) for 30 days
  • No white food (noodles, bread, rice) after 18:00

Read More

Bucket list 2015

  1. Live free. (Update – Still fails to define ‘FREE’ till today.)
  2. Push physical limits, stay as fit as possible for at least 30 days. (Update)
  3. Draw something everyday for 30 days. (Update – Okay result. Didn’t draw for continuous 30 days but picked up oil painting and did many pages of sketches.)
  4. Learn 2 new words everyday for  at least 30 days continuously. (Update – Failed this miserably, totally forgot about this goal.)
  5. Pick up on one programming language (and build something cool). (Update – Failed. Went thru a few online courses and that’s about it. Nothing meaningful is built.)
  6. Study and write 30 KLSE-company analysis in 60 days. (Update – Studied a few, made some bucks, but never exceed 10. Failed.)
  7. Learn the Egoscure Method and help mom solves her back/leg pain. (Update – FAILED! Book also haven’t finish reading. Luckily mom’s situation is much better today thru rehab and various exercise.)