crazy weekend

I was out the whole weekend from Saturday afternoon. I went to a friend's birthday party, followed by clubbing and stopped over at my friend's place for the night. The next afternoon was spend with a friend followed by another friend's birthday party. By the time I reached home, it was around 2am and I had to get ready for work.

My body felt like breaking this week. Guess I am not as strong and crazy as I used to be. haha. I will have to take off days to rest and to get my visa done. I will be online in a couple of weeks. See ya then.

Internet and me

Well, Internet is my life. I realised that I can't do without it. Been living in loneliness and boredom whenever I reached home. My place is a nice place, really, I just need internet. =(

My Tungsten Palm gave up on me yesterday. No matter how hard I press the screen and tap on it, it just refuses to respond. Even thought, I am still not will to give up on it. I guess this is the most expensive piece of equipment (other than my pc which isn't counted) which I dismantle and that is just what I did. Trying to take out the parts in such a way I could put it back together, I managed to seperate the case away from the LCD screen and even could see the different chips in the circult board. While admiring the internal beauty of it, I accidentally switched the thing on and guess what, the touch-screen worked again. The next few steps were the most scary of them all, putting them back together without short-circuiting it. I went on unexpectedly smooth and I got the whole thing back together again. To my happiness, the touch-screen is still working. I guess some of the wires got loose somehow and I had secured it back on.

It was on the news yesterday that Yoshinoya reintroduced beef bowl to Japan after about 3 years. Due to mad cow disease, beef bowl has been replaced by pork bowl and only yesterday did Yoshinoya tried to see if the market will accept it for 1 day. Guess what, there are people who waiting 12 hours just to be the first to get to eat their beef bowl. Talk about Kiasu Singaporeans who queue overnight for tickets. Japanese are doing the same thing. I wasn't into the craze but I did saw a long line outside the Yoshinoya near my place.

I am still in the office. I bought a whole 1.2 litre of bottled ice (left the water in the freezer overnight) and plan to leave the office when all the ice has melted. I don't thing I could leave so soon as I have work to do anyway. Till next time.

When my internet is up, pictures will be up too. I promise.

Using brains and eating chocolate

I'll like to open up a question the the web and hopefully someone can provide me with an answer.

I had been using alot of my brain power lately(not that I haven't been using it in the past) and I realised that the more brains you use, as in the more analytical thinking you did in the day, the more you want to eat chocolates or something sweet. I'm not sure if anyone else have the same revelation as me or if there are any research going on about this topic but do let me know your ideas and thoughts on this, and any articles or links will be helpful. have a nice day, and eat more chocolates..

movie and karaoke

On Sunday, I tried to find my way to yokohama station from where i am staying now. Turns out that I took the wrong train and had to make a big way round. Anyway, serves as a lesson to check before I go which also means. I NEED INTERNET CONNECTION!!. Still got to wait for about 1 month more.

Today, i caught the movie miami vice, which I am sure quite alot of you should have watched long time ago. Japan takes so damn long to translate a movie, or at least show it. Well, the movie was realistic, that's all I can say. Of course there are the usual car chase, gunfights and everything but for once, the gun shots in the show actually seems real. The sound of the gun shots just reminds me of my army days. The story is about the usual drug dealings and pretty girls and undercover cops.

After reaching home, I went out with my new roommate to meet his group of friends for karaoke. The group is well fun and happening, just brought karaoke to a new high level that I thought will never ever be reached. One thing I realised about Japanese songs is they really excite and intensify, depending on what kind of songs. Maybe I am missing out alot of the Chinese song community but only in the later few years did fast pace songs catch up in the song community. Right now, I am just practicing trying to catch up with the WORDS in the fast pace songs. Anyway, I had fun and now I am back to office, getting ready to start my work. Till next time.

Another new place

Sorry for the very long wait. Lots of things had been happening in my life lately. Firstly, in the middle of august, I returned to Singapore for a one week holiday. Had lots of food and met up with my family and close friends. Really did enjoyed myself. Although one week is kinda too short.

After coming back to Japan not long after about the end of August, I had to move to a new place to stay. Right now, I am situated on the south of tokyo in the prefecture of kanagawa. The place is still not too far from tokyo but it feels very very very rural. The distance from the staion is amazing as in my building can be seen just from a train passing by. The rest of the buildings are only about two or three stories high. I haven't yet found a groceries store in my area but there are tons of food places around. I just saw a pub yesterday, maybe heading there someday after a tired day of work.

My new place's station is one station away from where I work, which means, I could commute by bicycle which is what I'm doing everyday. Think it's a healthy lifestyle and I will probably be doing it everyday. It takes about 20 mins by bicycle which isn't too bad as the roads are not that rough and the scenary is pretty good along the way.

My new roommate rides a bike. I had to ride on it on the first day to go around getting stuffs for the house. Think I'm getting used being the back passenger. Also, I realised that getting a car license in japan isn't that bad. I just had to convert. again. haha. Just a passing thought, it definately beats travelling around by bicycle. Moreover, the traffic isn't that bad.

My new place is much much bigger than my previous place. Think about my room 1.5 times bigger than my old place, with an attached living room which is like 2.5 times the size of my old room. The pictures of my old room are in flickr. Anyway, when I'm done with designing my new room, pictures will be posted. Of course, with a larger place, all of you are welcomed to stay at my place althought, it's best to let me know earlier because bookings have already started. haha.

new place

I don't usually blog when the week starts but this is my first day of work in Sony and how to say, wow, Sony is the place man. For those who have been to U of A, the work place I'm in feels like Eller College. My workbench where I work has space for two people, two monitors connected to my pc and hmm really good environment to work. We can wear almost anything to work and by the way, there are massage chairs that we could use too. However, I got work to do already and I feel that life's pace is going to pick up within no time. Anyway, I think life is going to be busy but good for a while...so wish me luck.

busy weekend

In the morning, I travelled to one of the stations along the way of my train line as I had always wanted but in the end stopped at this cafe that I had been to last time. This place left such a good impression that I had to go there again. First of all, because it is in an area where there isn't alot of tall buildings and more of like a residential area between a urban and rural setting. Next, the cafe is at a corner which isn't really protronized other than ojiisan and teenagers. The cakes in the shop are really delicous and the coffee is good. The place where I sat had windows which overlook a designed passway and small bushes along the way. It's kinda hard to describe and I didn't take any pictures(will do next time). It's a really relaxing environment which doesn't remind me of anywhere I had been but it really feels like and escape from Japan(the people) in Japan. The afternoon was spent meeting 2 friends and passing them stuffs followed by 2 drinking parties at night with people from my company. This time, unexpectly, I spoke up more often then I think I would and actually enjoyed myself. Sunday which is today, I will be going out to meet Take, Kenya and Akiko, japanese people whom I haven't met for so long and I had spend so much time in usa with them. Looking forward to it.

My real job starts on Tuesday, which i'm really not prepared and not sure what is about it happen. Just hope all things are good.

about myself

Lately, I have come to realise few interesting about myself. Lots of times, you don't know things about yourself unless someone tells you about it. I was blessed with friends like that. Anyway, the one thing that I will disclose now is that on the phone, I actually sound like a 19-20 year old teenager. I'm not sure if it is a good thing or not but i'm pretty sure it's definately not an easy thing to change. Probably that will explain why I don't attract girls of my age. If anyone has anything to tell me which you think I do not know, please do. Be it good or bad, I will not explode at you. haha.

Anyways, my weekend wasn't as exciting as I thought it will be. I was invited to join a friend and a taiwanese friend but I rejected as I was tired. It's hard to mantain friendship especially when work gets busy and the only time left is weekends.

My train ticket to the office is provided. The same ticket includes stops at all stations along the way. I have always wanted to stop at all the individual stations and check out the surroundings if possible. Going to work at the new place means that I will have to buy a new ticket and I don't have much time left to check out the rest of the stops right now.

heating up

With the coming of summer, things are starting to heat up. To begin with, I was told that Sony had been searching for other candidates but couldn't find a suitable one and so they had asked me back to work there. As decided, I will begin to work in Sony from the start of next month. The working environment there seems tough, wish me luck. Next, summer also means fireworks festival and this time I went with my company friends to Yokohama. Anticipating the overwhelming crowd, we went there about 1pm to tour around the place and also to book a good seat. Last year's lesson taught me that because I had missed like a good part of the first half looking for my friends as I was late.

The day before, I went to a barbeque gathering with some Singaporeans and Singapore loving Japanese and a club that has a live band. The place we had barbeque was below a bridge in case it starts to rain which it eventually did. What was unexpected was instead of falling vertically, the rain was falling horizontally due to the rain. With no place to hide, we were all soaking wet pretty soon. The rain stopped like an hour later and all of us were drying our clothes in the sun that suddenly appeared. Barbeque continued and we had yakisoba(fried noodles). This day reminded me so much of Singapore. My Japanese friend know one of the DJs and so I was invited to this live band. The music was pretty good except that I could catch only about 5 to 10 percent of the English they sang due to the bad English accent. Looking forward to more fun next week...

For the first time in like few months, I spent the whole weekend at home. As expected, not a single cent is spent which is to punish myself for spending too much last week. Not that it's too much of a punishment as I already have alot of stocked up food at home and I got my chance to clear it. First time cooking pasta for me alone and I lost all sense of judgement on how much pasta to cook. I went over next door and asked my american friend, Leo and after only after cooking did I realised that Leo ate very little each meal. I ended up having to make another round of pasta, in order to finish up the rest of my sauce. My sleeping hours for Saturday was screwed up and Sunday was back to normal which I'm glad although I missed the last soccer match.

I just had an interview with my company's client Sony last week and the interview went ok but they wanted someone with more experience. So , I'm back to the doing-nothing-but-still-get-paid state of life again.

Before I realized, another weekend has passed. This week however has gotten a little busy. Starting to have stuff to do at work, meeting up with friends after work and trying to catch enough sleep so that I do not fall asleep the next day. These days has been coming and going since the last week and times flies very fast.

Father's Day

It was father's day last weekend. I haven't done anything or rather, I did not do anything for fathers day all these years so today, I have decided to wish my father a happy fathers day!! I was asked the question about what my father's job is today which gave me the inspiration to search the net for pictures about my father and surprisingly, alot of pictures and articles came up about him which i'm sure some of them even he himself did not know about it. Anyway, the best picture I have found so far about him online is this. I'll include the article together with it. This will be my first present to him on father's day and more to come from this year on. Thank you father. Without you, I will not be what I am today.

news article

this weekend

Another weekend has past. Went to an international party yesterday and had lots of fun. Met alot of interesting people too. Anyways, on the way back, saw a guy brought out of the train on a stretcher and also another guy sleeping on the station bench. People walking past were like looking at him and at that moment, it just feels like he is a lost and found item and people walking past are identifying if it's their item. haha. anyways, been watching world cup lately too although not all the matches. Everything else is the same otherwise.

davinci code

I might be a little slow cos I'm pretty sure alot of you people have watched the movie. The whole movie was pretty complicated but quite interesting, at least to me. Caught the movie with a few friends whom I haven't met in a long time. Found a good resturant that wasn't too expensive and the food was pretty good too. Also, today I realized there is one place that I am really afraid to go. I guess it's the least expected but the place where I'm really afraid to go is the mobile phone company's shop.

When I first stepped into Japan, the first place that I had the most trouble with was with the phone company, the fact that I'm not good in the langauge. Today, I stepped into the place to change the payment method(after dragging it for few weeks). After getting into the place, there is a sudden wave of fear that start to overcome me. Memories of the first time start flooding my brain and when thrown a question on what I want to do there, I actually paused for a few seconds to gather my thoughts. Anyway, at least this time, my understanding level of the language has gone up from 20 to about 60,70 percent(thanks to this 9mths of hardwork) . The process went on smoothly and I got all my doubts clear and leave with a full understanding of what the hell the plan is about and what I'm getting for as compared to the first time.

I hope that fear doesn't creep in the nex time I go there again.

Sunday

My roommate moved out of the apartment today and I'm back to living alone. Today, I went to the cafe at about 4.00pm and started timing how long it takes for me to finish a Japanese comic book. I'm not going to anounce my time but I'm really slow but I will try to improve. Suddenly find joy in reading a book in a cafe sipping coffee as I go along. After that is grocery shopping. Daikon(raddish) is really really cheap today. One whole piece cost about 100 yen=1.5SGD=1USD. Was going to buy 2 but I know I couldn't finish it up so I only got 1. Looking forward to the relaxing days ahead and a whole apartment to myself. bahaha!!

relaxing weekends

Another weekend where I spend most of my time at home relaxing at home. Yesterday there was a company gathering where few of the traininees met up to drink and chat. It was pretty fun. Anways, a whole week of full day work with nothing much to do is much harder to pass than a half day of crazy work to do. My skills in sudoku has improved, Japanese has improved and also interpersonal relationship has improved. Pay is coming in so i'm not really complaining. Life is good now...really good.

Golden Week

It's the famous once in a year Golden Week holiday. For most companies it's 1 week but for mine, it's like 3 days holiday which isn't too bad. I went to Kanamori on Wednesday and seen the big buddha and lots of other shrines. Thursday was spent at home packing and cleaning up the place. I went out with a friend to karaoke, bowling and walked around shinjuku for the whole day on Friday. Today is Saturday and I was looking for food to cook when I realised my potatoes in the cupboard had a purple stem grown to the length of up to about a meter. I guess I should really cook my stuffs and not leave them in the cupboard for too long. Pictures will be coming up soon.

SketchUp

Just downloaded the program SketchUp from google yesterday. I have never really touched a program on 3D designing and I was playing with the program for about 6 hours yesterday only to complete a rough model of my room. I'm just amazed at the size of the program and the simplicity of controls. I spent about 6hours maybe because I'm still not used to the controls but i'm pretty sure the time spent can be four times shorter if I'm more used to it. For those who wants to see my room 3D, ask for the file and I will send it to you. In the meantime, have a look at the 2D pictures in flickr. I have to warn you that it's not really that fantastic as it's the first time I attempt at such a program. Enjoy.

internet down

Internet has been down these few days. Reason....unknowned. Right now I'm in internet cafe, talking to my gf. Every once in a while scolded by the cafe-in-charge-person for talking too loud. Come to think of it. Which internet cafe doesn't allow you to talk. Moreover, I'm whispering. Something you got to come to accept in a foreign country.

television

Just bought a television which is about a year old for 2000yen. Now that I have a television at home, just felt that home without a television is not a home at all. With this, most of my free time is spent on the tv of course. One thing I hate about Japanese tv programs is the number of food introduction programs they have on and let me tell you it is really alot. When they introduce food in different parts of Japan, there is no chance that they will say something is not delicious and from the way the food is shot or filmed, wah, it looks fantastically yummy. Some of it is so good that it can make me hungry again even thought I just finished dinner. Friends are over here in Japan now but I haven't got a chance to meet them. Till next time