One Month Adventure: Self-Cook Only, AFA Thailand, Rainy Hiroshima and Osaka
It's been a month since I wrote the last blog, and it already feels like decades for me. Things have been going well for me. I'll tell you some stories about me while I was gone.
Self-Cook Only Challenge
I went back to Hong Kong from Cambodia last month. I was feeling so bad because my body weight is way more than my personal limit. So I tried to do the self-cook only challenge. The rule was simple: no cooked food made by other people except myself. Raw foods like Sushi, though however, are still okay for me to consume. The challenge lasts only for about 2 weeks. But I've learned a lot about cooking, chopping, cutting, and gastronomy.
I invited some of my friends over to cook together, too!
I cooked some wild ideas like blueberry fried rice, grilled lobster with squid ink cheese sauce, stir fries, curry, and many more.
Getting Lazy Because of AI
Recently, Claude Fable 5 was released. Even before that, I'm already getting super washed when it comes to doing programming and writing in general. Writing blog posts is like one of my last resorts to keep my sanity. I was recently assigned a mentee at work, and I felt like what he said was definitely true. He told me that at his university, everyone uses AI for their classes. But then, if you don't use AI and everyone else uses it, you're going to be the one who will be left out.
I was really lucky, I told him, that when I graduated, AI wasn't a big thing yet. I got to experience writing a thesis without AI. That is not really bad per se. My thesis was arguably worse than those that were made using AI, but at least I still got to retain all the information on how to write without AI. Also, I started programming and maintained a project without AI for 3 years. So I'm proud of that because, at least before the AI transition era, I still got to write non-slop code.
AFA Thailand
I went to AFA Thailand out of impulsivity. Initially, I wasn't planning to go there, but knowing that I have some time to spend and the return on investment is quite high (talking about money to experience), I decided to go anyway. There, I got to participate in 2 music concerts. It was good, I didn't know or listen to any of the performers before, though. It's just that because it's only a 3-hour flight from Hong Kong, and the Hololive community there was so welcoming that I ended up going there.
I visited the new Terminal 2 of Hong Kong International Airport just 3 days after it was opened. It's really good, but I feel like it was just a gimmick to separate passengers. After checking in, you'll still need to take the airport train back to Terminal 1 to your flight gate. But anyway, the process was so modern. I was mesmerized.
There is a 3D visualization of the bag while you weigh it to put in the check-in baggage. I feel like it's cool and amazing. The process was so fast that you barely needed human intervention. In Thailand, I cosplayed Cebo Kanaeru on Day 1. But considering it's gonna be so exhausting on day 2 —my flight is going to be on the same day, I didn't cosplay anyone— Initially, I was planning to cosplay Mizumiya Su.
I also met and hung out with Elysia.js's creator during the event, SaltyAom! Also got to do a meet and greet with Lam-sensei. The concert was at 7 PM, and after the first day's concert, I went to the off-kai party.
The Amazing Digital Circus
June 14th, after I got back from Thailand, I binged-watch The Amazing Digital Circus! It was so funny and interesting. It was partly because the movie was released and um... To be fair, I just want to join in the conversation and culture up myself.
After that, I went to the cinema and watched the last episode. Hard to explain, I would say, this is just another episode of Black Mirror, but with a slower pacing and some filler episodes.
My take:
I can't believe TADC was rated PG-13, considering the ending is super dark—for me. I feel Jax was so wronged. My personality is somehow similar to Jax--he's my favorite character too. I feel like Ribbit is too intrusive. I kinda felt annoyed by her. Everyone kept blaming Jax for what happened to Ribbit. Just act as if nothing happened and continue with life, why would she even care or apologize????? I rewatched some of the previous episodes after knowing the truth about Jax, and it all clicked. Everyone says Jax is an asshole, Jax is a bad guy, Jax IS NOT. He burnt down every relationship bridge with everyone because he knew that's the only way so that people won't think much, bother, or be concerned about him. How is he an asshole if he's trapped in a circus, where you can't die but abstracting? How is THAT being mean? Literally, there's no point in taking things seriously at that point? Life is just trapped in that circus bubble. Why would you think about anything that happened in the past? Ribbit is TOOOOO SENSITIVE — IM SORRY. IF I WERE RIBBIT ID JUST ACT AS IF NOTHING HAD HAPPENED. She took it way toooo far and depressed herself fr.
Getting The International Tickets
I've always wanted to watch the international. I had about 1600 hours of Dota 2, and it left so many core memories.
This is how I found some of my friends back in university. Hahaha. This year's International is going to be in Shanghai. I bought the ticket through tiket.com, and the tickets were sold out super fast, but I got 2 weekend tickets, which I'm gonna watch with one of my friends.
Watching This Sad Movie
There is this sad movie, 给阿嬷的情书, artinya "Buat nenek punya surat cinta"
The story is sooo crazy. So it's basically this married couple of 3 children, 木生 (Bhag se) and 淑柔 (Sog jiu). They were separated because of the Nanyang war. Bhag se found his way to Siam Lo—now Bangkok—, Thailand. In there, they have the Teochew community. Both Bhag Se and Sog Jiu are still exchanging letters, and Bhag Se was working hard for Sog Jiu back in Chao Shan.
南枝 (Lam Ghi) is the only child of an inn owner. Bhag Se somehow came across the inn and lived there for a while. Bhag Se raised awareness of reading and writing education. He helped Lam Ghi to study Chinese, dealt with small stuff, and saved his father from a fire that was caused by some locals who were not happy with the inn occupying a land space that is gonna be used to build another thing.
Bhag Se died in 1960. But funnily, this Lam Ghi still helped Bhag Se, continuing the letters to Sog Jiu (including some of the money remittance) just to not hurt Sog Jiu—Because Bhag Se helped Lam Ghi and her family so much.
Until 1978, Lam Ghi decided to unveil the truth, wanna tell that Bhag Se has been raising awareness to the Teochew community around Siam Lo, including a photo of them with the kids. When the letter arrived, there was a storm. Only the photo arrived. Sog Jiu and their children suddenly thought Bhag Se had been having a new family of 6!—Because the rain washed the letters.
So LMAO, until this grandchild of Sog Jiu revealed everything in 2022.
Everyone cried. The toilet after the movie was filled with people weeping. Absolute cinema.
PipeCat
I set up pipecat because I want an AI agent that can talk with me. We need the key for Cartesia, DeepGram, and any open router model. Cost-wise, it's cheaper than X's Grok.
Japan Again
Dragon Boat Festival - 19th June 2026
Back when I was in Japan for Kyoto and Osaka 2 months ago during the Golden Week, I didn't have time to explore Osaka's Umeda. I went to Futaket 36 instead, a bi-annual comic event for 男の娘 and sorts, which is my kink 😳👉👈. So Prabowo and I decided to go to Tokyo together for the last day of the last trip.
So I decided that I have an unfinished debt that I should pay. I took the HK Express flight in the morning, going to Hiroshima. It was funny; there was this announcement asking whether there were any medical professionals on board. A 70~80-year-old man got into trouble.
Funnily, because of this, the flight returned to base! What initially was a 210-minute flight turned into a 9-hour trip. FUCK!
I arrived at Hiroshima Station at 17.45 ish. My first impression was that I saw a bunch of high schoolers smoking and chilling near the station.
Nothing bad or wrong in particular, just... unusual.
The second thing was this Snorlax. HAHAHA! I was a bit hungry because I hadn't had lunch, only a Starbucks sandwich for breakfast.
Arriving there, I bought this Okonomi Taiyaki and Sushi!. I also saw the convenience. The store is selling earbuds. Bruh.
The Sushi was super good! I showered in my room and walked around in the Atomic Bomb Dome park. It was a bit late.
When I arrived, there was this. I believe it was some kind of activism, voicing and expressing that the war is not good. Walking around there, I found a lady opening a drawing commission. I kinda regret not requesting a sketch because after I got back from the furthest part of the park, she's already gone.
From there, I continued walking to Okonomimura, which literally means the village of Okonomiyaki. I opened Tabelog and visited a recommended restaurant there. Worst part, I didn't know when you order Okonomiyaki, you're supposed to order the toppings as well :"). The okonomiyaki I got was like eating rice without any side dish. Bruh.
Despite that, I also got the fried surimi paste, Hiroshima style, called Gansu. It's super good!
Miyajima - 20th June 2026
I woke up late today. One thing I don't like about Japan is that the checkout time at the hotel is very early. It was a bit drizzling today. So I was really lazy to tidy up my bag because the temperature inside my room was perfect.
It was cloudy. It took me about 40 minutes to go to the ferry station. The ferry is owned by JR, so we can easily tap in and out using our IC card. The ferry was really fast, only about 7 minutes.
I ate oiled oyster, gansu, and curry bread at 芝居茶寮 水羽 (Shibaisaryo Mizuha).
It was very chill there, I just regret I didn't try the Fried Momiji though.
I booked the Shinkansen at 15.30, so at around 13.20, I headed back to the station. I bought some more Gansu—Yeaaa, I know, too much Gansu, and a box of Sushi. I rescheduled my train to be at 15.00, and enjoyed the trip to Osaka.
When I arrived at Shin-Osaka station, it was raining. I took the local subway to my hotel, and stayed in the hotel until about 20.45, and walked to Namba and Dotonbori.
I went to https://maps.app.goo.gl/SMqCStnwQuR6LLtD8 this bar, called Turn A. I stayed there for an hour. The staff is cute. They are all femboys~! There was an in-house Taco as well. A bit stupid, I should've brought my チェキ and printed some photos for them.
After that, I went to remoncheri! https://maps.app.goo.gl/H1bzXexH1DEWrEUf7. Same, femboy bar as well.
I stayed there a little bit over 2 hours. There were multiple occurrences of Chinchiro (チンチロ) play. So I rolled a 4-4-4, and somehow the wild went crazy—idk why. And I remember everyone rolls a pair + one different die, and the unpaired die determines how much they drink.
I ended up getting 1 shot, but there's another staff getting 3...
And just like that, the day was spent in the rain in Miyajima and Osaka.
Late - 21st June 2026
Again, I woke up late today. Initially, I planned to check out at 10 AM. But come on, 10 AM is too early, so I decided to extend my room for another night—even though I'll just stay until about 8 PM on the same day. Today's agenda is just walking around Hep Five HAHAHA. I arrived there at around 11. While I was on the train, I was thinking about what to eat.
I checked out Tabelog for restaurants, and an omakase restaurant showed up on top. It's called Iwamoto Sushi, and they have a special 8-year anniversary discount. I walked around HepFive until 11.30, and knowing that Japan is hard to navigate—especially the subway stations, I decided to walk from there to the Sushi place, which would take approximately 10 minutes, based on the map.
A little did I know, it ended up wasting me 30 minutes to reach the sushi place.
The menu is quite packed! They only give you one piece of sushi for each item on the menu. My favorite one was the Uni (Sea urchin) bowl, and the last menu, tuna roll. They are smart because they let you pick the size for your last meal. I picked L, and it was big and literally filled with tuna from end to end. It was soooo good. There were honorable mentions: the seared fatty tuna and the raw squid sushi. They are amazing in texture and taste.
quoting from my tweet:
I just had my first omakase experience ever. The imatae san has 25 years of experience as a sushi chef. 👀
Clam soup, miso salmon, various tuna, corn cake, red snapper, horse mackerel, sea urchin, abalone, tile fish, eel, prawn, eggdrop miso soup, tuna roll, and pudding.
Also, this sake from Yamagata, くどき上手. I didn't expect myself to be full after all the dishes, but they put the tuna roll at the very end. Protein and fat at the end to lock everything in is crazyyy. Once in a lifetime experience, I probably won't do omakase again tho, but I think doing it once is a good try.
After the Sushi, I went back to Hep Five and looked for cute clothes again! This one was my favorite:
And that's all for the day, actually. Nothing was too interesting because it was already 4.30 PM after walking around. I went back to my hotel to visit the photo studio, where I would spend the next two and a half hours. There was a funny story. So my flight back was at 22:45. The check in gate was going to close at 21.55. But by 20.35 I was still in Namba! I only got 80 minutes to go to Terminal 2 KIX. FYI, my flight was the last flight of the day in Terminal 2.
I ran and ran, hoping that I wouldn't miss the check-in time. Peach airline, which is a Japanese airline, is known to be very strict. I finally hopped on the train to KIX, and it was going to arrive at 21:37. "I am so done", I thought to myself.
I remember watching a video on how to get to Terminal 2 on YouTube and remembered every single path and turn, so that I can run there as soon as I arrive. The thing is, there is a shuttle bus that would take you to Terminal 2, but it runs every 7 minutes. and the distance is... quite far.
By 21.47, I was still in Terminal 1. I'm so dead. I thought, I have 8 minutes left, and the shuttle just left Terminal 1.
But we made it, bois.
I was so hungry because my last meal was at that omakase place.
So I got myself a peach gelato and Japanese curry rice!
Funny thing on the airplane. There was this Hong Konger girl vs a random Chinese/Japanese guy. The girl initially said, "Don't touch me", or something. Followed by the gentleman, and they ended up having an argument. I was preparing myself to document everything until there's an announcement to not record or invade other passengers' privacy. LMAOOO. I cracked up after hearing that announcement.
Another funny thing was that the flight attendant asked me not to bring 2 carry-ons. But one was literally a box of cookies that I just bought in the waiting hall. When I put the bags on top of each other. She said "Yeah, OK"
I didn't quite understand the logic, but OK.