ALL "Irritated" ABOARD!

After two and a half months, I'm finally back in Manila. But before I landed at Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 2, I was able to experience rudeness during my flight, for the Nth time. 

 image source: http://media2.ph.88db.com/DB88UploadFiles/2008/07/30/83BBDAF5-3433-4D0A-AF3C-4299813718AE.jpg

Everytime we go to Japan and back, we choose to ride Philippine Airlines, the country's flag carrier...trust me, it's been years! But none of those trips has been worth it. They never seemed to have improved on their services. And based on my experiences, the number one reason for their poor service is having a bunch of impolite, disrespectful, and annoying Flight Attendants. Let me share my actual experiences that made me arrive to this conclusion.

Other than saying "Good morning" upon entrance and "Thank you" upon exit with a smile, there's nothing else polite about them. In my flight to Japan last March 2010, I remembered how those flight attendants just stared at my grandmother and my 7-year-old cousin drag their hand-carried bags to their seats. It was evident that the senior citizen and the minor find it hard to walk along narrow aisles carrying quite heavy luggage and no flight ATTENDANT actually attended on them. I wasn't able to help much 'cause I was carrying another luggage as usual, which I had to put at the cabin stowage.

In my most recent trip, which was from Narita to Manila last June 13 on PR 431, I experienced the same thing. Thank God that there's a guy FA who helped me put our hand-carried luggage at the cabin stowage. But still, they didn't help my 69-year-old grandma and little cousin carry their stuff even if it was evident on their faces that they're having a hard time.

Upon take-off, my cousin (seated by the window), and grandma (at the middle) were both asleep. Then since I was at the aisle, a girl FA approached me and said "Pa-open nalang po ng window shades." The window shade covered just around 1/5 of the window. And mind you, that was already that way when we got to our seats. I was trying to wake up my cousin or grandma because I couldn't reach the window shade 'coz of my seatbelt. Fasten seatbelt for take-off right? Until the FA told me "Abot mo naman yata e ikaw nalang magsara." And in my mind I was like, "WTF?!? Edi sana before kayo magsakay ng pasahero inayos nyo yan, e inabutan namin yan na ganyan na tapos uutusan mo ko without using polite words?!" But I stayed calm, I just did what she said.

Came meal distribution time, a girl FA approached me and said they'll distribute meals to kids first. She asked what my cousin would want, Chicken or Beef? So I said chicken. But my cousin was still asleep so we let his food stay on his tray table. Then when it's our turn, we were informed that there's no more beef so we had no choice but to accept chicken. It's not just my taste buds, but I never liked a single meal they served since I started flying PAL. Anyway, that's not the main issue. A guy FA came holding a box, and he pulled out an ice cream cup. Without saying a word, he gestured his hand holding the cup, swung it twice towards my asleep cousin in front of my grandmother's face, implying that "THIS IS YOUR GRANDSON'S ICE CREAM FOR DESSERT, SINCE I CAN'T F*CKIN' REACH HIS TRAY TABLE, I AM ASKING YOU TO PUT THIS THERE." He didn't even look at my grandmother's face! Again, in my mind, I was like, "What the hell are you doing?!? Swinging your hand in front of my grandma's face, asking her to pass that effin ice cream to my cousin without saying a word?!? Not even please?" I think he should've just said "Ma'am ice cream for the kid's dessert, please put on his tray." So again, I stayed calm.

Oh, and they were already collecting trashes when they haven't even served us dessert! They forgot! My grandma asked another guy FA (not the rude one) about the dessert so he immediately got some, handed it to us, then apologized. Oh, thank God for at least ONE polite flight attendant!

I understand that FAs should speak fluent English because of course, they'll encounter lots of foreign passengers. But I guess speaking FLUENT English is a whole lot different from speaking OA English. They're talking to OFWs in OA English when those OFWs were actually talking to them in Tagalog. Let me define that for you. OA English - too much twirls of the tongue, twangs, conyo-ish effect that it gets too annoying already. Anyway, I'm not so sure if they were trained that way so I'll just let it pass.

And lastly, when we're on our first approach to landing, one of the foreign passengers refused to tighten his seat belt. And when the girl FA gave up on him, she approached another FA, who that time was standing just right behind me, and said "May pasaway na pasahero dun, ayaw higpitan yung seat belt eh inexplain ko na nga, blah blah" then the other FA approached that passenger involved. Whatever happened next, I didn't know because I was too far from that passenger's seat. But in my mind I was like , "Hello? Are you really talking about that in the middle of lots of passengers? Do you really want us to hear how you curse irritating passengers?!?"

I don't wanna compare PAL with other airlines but I think I get better treatment on budget airlines, which usually cost me just 1/4 of what I spend with PAL. I guess PAL should do something about it because passengers deserve to get the kind of service they really paid for. Now tell me, is it just me, or have you experienced the same thing too? I've got a couple of friends who experienced the same poor service as well.

My point of sharing this is not to humiliate PAL, but to call their attention so they can improve on their services, most especially, for them to train their flight attendants well. For them to pay attention not just on the safety of the flight but to the overall satisfaction of their passengers. I know that flight attendants undergo a tough training, but I just wish that special attention is given to their attitudes/manners because being polite and respectful is very important for anyone in that job. And with all due respect to PAL, its management, and employees, the airline you work for is our flag carrier. Let's not give foreign guests a wrong impression about Filipinos and our quality of service. And let's not disappoint our fellow Filipinos who choose to support by flying PAL.

Conquered my Fear of Heights at Fuji-Q Highland

I have this fear of heights so I don't usually ride high attractions, most especially rollercoasters. But when some friends and I visited FujiQ Highland in Yamanashi last June 10, I had no choice but to ride all of the rollercoasters there! Actually I was able to ride 3 out of 4 rollercoasters only because the scariest rollercoaster, the Eejanaika (4-dimension rollercoaster) was closed.

It's my first time in Fuji-Q Highland, although I've already seen the place one time when we visited Mt. Fuji. Anyway, I was so proud of myself that day because I was able to conquer some of the world's tremendous rollercoasters.

 didn't know I had to squat to get a better shot lol

I wasn't the one who paid for my entrance fee so I didn't know how much my ticket was. We headed to our first ride which took us more than 30mins in line. This ride was Fujiyama, the King of Coasters. According to my research, it's the 4th largest rollercoaster in the world. It seemed like it has the longest duration of 3:36. While up there, we can see the entire amusement park. Unfortunately, Mt. Fuji wasn't visible since it was covered with clouds. The only downside was, my neck and back hurt after the ride.

while at the queue for Fujiyama

 so high!

done!

Then we lined up for Dodonpa, which took us an hour and 30 minutes in line. The ride was so quick and it was unexpectedly scary. It's the world's fastest rollercoaster. It resembles a jet that's being launched so it accelerated so quickly. After the fast launch were a couple of twists and 360-degree turns. It was so cool!

Wasn't able to take a pic so I just grabbed a photo from Google Image Search (pic at the right)

We got tired from lining up so we decided to have a quick lunch first. Right after lunch we headed to the Panic Clock wherein we were hanging on its pendulum which turned 360 degrees too! I really felt that all I had for lunch will come out of me haha! Next was the Tondemina, a ride sponsored by Pizza-La. It looked like a pizza pie wherein 50 people were sitting around its outer crust (circumference, being tossed left and right up in the air. It's actually fun and not that scary.

 We're supposed to go to the Super Scary Labyrinth of Fear, which is probably the scariest ghost house in Japan. In fact, it was featured in the news to have real ghosts who got mixed up with the staff ghosts in costume. Even some of the staff inside who were acting like ghosts actually saw the real ghosts. That horror house looked like an old hospital. Guests will just walk freely inside this 4-storey building while being chased by zombies. They said that those fake zombies grab hands and even pull them. Fortunately, I got saved! When we got there, the attraction was already closed because the people in line were already enough until the closing time. That was around 2:40pm and the attraction closes at around 5pm.


So we just decided to ride the Red Tower. It works like an elevator. while seated, it pulled us to the top of the tower giving us a nice view of Yamanashi. And after a couple of seconds, it dropped us more than halfway then up again and down. It was a short ride so there's no queue.

And the best part of the day was conquering the world's steepest rollercoaster, the Takabisha! It was certified by the Guinness Book of World Record. It took us around an hour on queue and when it was our turn, I felt like backing out! Imagine, it's a 121-degree free fall! I never thought I would even survive it! I got my eyes closed most of the time during the 2-minute ride!

 speechless!

And that's how I conquered my fear of heights! The next time I go back to Japan, I will be trying the #1 in the list of the World's Largest Rollercoasters, that one in Nagashima Spa Land!:)

Here's the link to Fuji-Q Highland's website: http://www.fujiq.jp/en/

A Day in Heidi's Village

Last June 2, we visited Heidi's Village in Sutama. It was inspired by the Japanese anime "Heidi, Girl of the Alps" back in 1974, which I was able to watch on TV when I was in my early grade school days.

OUTFIT: Pink and Floral (Forever21 Floral Sheer Top, Shorts, and Shades; Unbranded Pink Cardigan, H&M Feather Earrings, D&G watch, Shimamura wedges from Japan)

The place is a huge garden, and it's being used a wedding place too. The best time to be there is during the start of spring, when there are lots of tulips. When we got there, most of the flowers were already withered. The garden was in transformation because they were replacing the withered flowers with new ones. Some roses we saw were still buds about to bloom soon. Here are some of our photos:

 church for weddings

 there's a viewing deck at the top of that tower

 garden wedding venue

 when you're lazy to walk around the village...

 me and my cousin

 Super love my Forever21 aviators and H&M feather earrings!:)

 flowers!

 HDR using Camera 360 app on my iPhone

 just like a kid...

 Peter and Heidi stuffed toys...so cute!!!

 red roses at the background

 emote like that! LOL!:))

 photography on iPhone. autofocus baby!:)

 Pink flowers to match my cardigan :))

 fountain at the background (which we kinda covered lol)

 view from the top

 water mist! brrr!

 Yuki (goat) and Joseph (dog) plus my cousins

quiet on the "set" haha

 Heidi and Lolo Alp

 Me, Kensuke, Tita Mama, Cherry, Nanay (Grandma)

 the background matched my top!:))

The last look before leaving...

 lomofied!:)

Our habit in the car: Photo Ops! haha!

The ANIMAL PRINT Craze!

I really love animal print!


Back in the P.I., I used to wear animal-printed sheer tops on a night out.

And when I got here in Japan, I wore animal-printed pajamas...

I bought animal-printed wedges and wedge sneakers...

And just earlier tonight, my cousin and I did a colorful animal print nail art! She did my right hand while I did my left. I think mine looked more animalistic...wild! haha!:))

 right

left

And it doesn't end there 'coz I'm still deciding whether to buy any of these cute Kitson Mini Duffel Bags, which are on SALE, from 12,000 yen to 4,000 yen! 

Or maybe this Le Sport Sac x Joy Rich Weekender Bag which is on 50% Off, from 22,890 yen to 11,440 yen! OMG! Super fighting the urge of spending!  I better buy the one that I could use more often, and I think that's the weekender bag since I go on domestic weekend trips more often than I hit the gym or the track.

Let's see what happens next haha!:))

The Love for PINK!:)

Since I was a kid, I've been a Hello Kitty fan. Maybe it's one of the reasons why PINK became my favorite color. And look what I've got from Harajuku last week:

Hello Kitty fashion eyewear!:))

and not to mention, I was wearing pink pajamas here too!:))

Last Sunday, we attended a birthday party of a 2-year old boy in Matsumoto. To look a bit younger, I decided to go PINK casual :)

Outfit: PINK CASUAL (Forever 21 Aviator, Forever 21 High-Low Lace Top, Pink Tank Top from my cousin, Forever 21 Pink Bangles, Forever 21 Denim Shorts, Love Junkie Cardigan, D&G watch, Coach Poppy Bag, Every 777 Wedges from rakuten.com)

The wedges I was wearing was my first ever online purchase from rakuten.com. This pair just cost me around 2,500 yen but the shipping fee was an extra 1,500 yen.

My pseudo-mom slash tita mama always checks our outfit before leaving the house. Haha!

 Pls. excuse my fat face! haha!:))

 Tita Mama is obsessed over LV! Bags, wallets, key holder, etc!

 My cousin was wearing: Momo Mullet Dress, Salus Wedges from rakuten.com, Coach Poppy Sling Bag, and Forever 21 sunglasses

 another full body shot. I just love brown, black, and pink stuff!:)

At the party, we played BINGO and our entire family won prizes. It was a simple yet meaningful celebration for the birthday boy and his parents.

Cookie: the birthday boy :)

 I was finally able to try the 0% alcohol beer from Asahi! It didn't taste good though!:))

she's like a sister to me :) 

It's been our hobby to take vanity shots while in the car haha! It actually makes us dizzy while on the road!:))

 Forever 21 shades!:) Mine looks like RayBan though haha!

It was my 3rd to the last weekend here in Japan. Got 2 weeks left and I don't wanna go...

and I also wore my favorite pink lipstick: NYX Milan matte lipstick!

there's a certain angle that makes me look like Kim Chui LOL!:))