nostalgic X 2

I met up with my secondary school friend on friday night. Just found out two weeks ago that he just arrived in Japan friday night was his first night. Got lots of information about how our secondary school classmates were doing and all changes. Had a really nice chat with him and also had a nice clubbing night out with him. Also, met up with friends at the club whom I had totally not expected to meet. Came out as an interesting surprise.

The next day afternoon, I met up with a friend whom I know since primary 5 and we were talking about stuffs that happen in the past(which i choose not to say) and also the people we know from then. I went to chinatown for the first time and had dimsum. We were so hungry that 5 of us order like 10 of 2 or 3 items and 5 of like everything else. Nearly died from overeating. It was fun thought. Looking forward to fun on 31 and the 1st. Hopefully, things will be good..

Japanese Exam Level 2

After a whole year of not much of studying, haha. I dragged myself into the exam hall for Japanese level 2 examinations. The exam is seperated into 3 sections, vocab, listening and reading comprehension/grammer in general and takes up the whole morning, including break times inbetween. Results of the test will be out in Feburary but I think I did not too bad. I was walking home today and was thinking back about all the effort that I had spent on studying and felt really good. Now is time to brace myself up and to start attacking level 1 which I am taking at the end of next year. Hopefully I don't start slacking.

10degrees celcius or less

I think it is the weather but I'm not sure. I had been sleeping for 3/4 of my weekends and almost nothing was done. It's a super relaxing weekend and I think I cleared all the sleep debt that I ever had in all my life. Feeling refreshed and ready to go. I hope.

settled at last

Two weekends ago, my aunt, a friend and I went to kyoto on a trip. The place is pretty interesting with streets that mantained the traditional look, temples that are close to 900 years old. The whole place is just rich with history and culture. Transportation around the city is easy. 500 yen and it is enough for the whole day's travel. First time in kyoto but it had been pretty fun. Last week was spent mostly with my friends. It's a week where everyone wants to go out on the same day and my programs are packed from day to night. That explains why I could only blog now. Anyway, life is pretty much settled back to normal and I am trying to catch up with the same old pace again. Still organizing the photos(about 500 pictures in all) and will post them up soon.

trip to kawaguchiko

Today, we left early and head down to kawaguchiko. It is basically a lake near to mount fuji. My aunty came to visit me and we decided to go there today. It took us about 2hours something to reach the place. The scenary was not too fantastic as it was pretty cloudy and hazy. The boat ride and the cable car ride was good thought. Some of the leaves were red and some where changing. It's a beautiful scene. Today is like taking a holiday and yet it doesn't feel like as I have to go to work tomorrow. Anyway, till next week.

Internet is up!!!~~

The new world is borned, drought is over, sun is up, life is beautiful. Internet is up at last and life is going to be good from now on. Sorry for the long wait thought, anyone missed me?? Anyway, will be seeing you guys soon.

There and back

The day that I went with my friends to hakone was perfect. There was almost not a single cloud in the sky and the weather was windy and sunny, not too hot, not too cold. Took really alot of pictures this time round, so much until I had to delete my old ones which happened the first time. The place wasn't really big and could be covered within one day, just that the weather was so good and the view of fuji mountain was so fantastic I had to take more.

Anyway, enjoyed the scenary, the onsen and the food at the hotel. My friend told me to expect a feast with so much food that it was unable to finish. Turns out that I was able to finish the food as it wasn't as much as expected, although really good. I returned home on the 2nd day and slept from 6.00pm all the way till the next morning because I was so relaxed from the trip. Just wanna lay out and not do anything at all.

All in all, the trip was really good, all thanks to the nice weather. A really recommended place to go...depending on the weather.

blogging chance

Without internet at home, it is really hard to find time to blog. It is especially hard to find the chance to blog with people walking pass at the back. Although they are Japanese, I think almost all of them can read English.

Last friday, my company has a drinking party and I met up with Take and his friends from work later that night. We ended up heading to the same club I was the week before till the next morning. After sleeping the rest of the day, my night was then spent again with some friends from Singapore. The world is pretty small or rather, why are people from my BMT coming to Japan. I mean in such a small percentage of people in Singapore. I already met 2 of them who are in Japan which I am going with one of them to Hakone next week.

Hakone is a very scenic and nice place, from what I heard from reviews and friends. Being so near the train line where I was staying at, looking at the poster everyday as I go to work, that really is a place where I have always wanted to go. I am going to say the same thing, going to put pictures up when my internet is up.

Catch you guys soon again.

blogging chance

Without internet at home, it is really hard to find time to blog. It is especially hard to find the chance to blog with people walking pass at the back. Although they are Japanese, I think almost all of them can read English.

Last friday, my company has a drinking party and I met up with Take and his friends from work later that night. We ended up heading to the same club I was the week before till the next morning. After sleeping the rest of the day, my night was then spent again with some friends from Singapore. The world is pretty small or rather, why are people from my BMT coming to Japan. I mean in such a small percentage of people in Singapore. I already met 2 of them who are in Japan which I am going with one of them to Hakone next week.

Hakone is a very scenic and nice place, from what I heard from reviews and friends. Being so near the train line where I was staying at, looking at the poster everyday as I go to work, that really is a place where I have always wanted to go. I am going to say the same thing, going to put pictures up when my internet is up.

Catch you guys soon again

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

Singapore food and culture festival

There is a Singapore food and culture festival in Japan starting from Saturday. Me and a group of Singaporeans went down on Saturday and I went down again on Sunday because I forgot to bring my camera. Basically, there is an area where they sell Singapore food and another area with a stage and some booths that explain about Singapore. On the opening day, Dick Lee was present with Sachiyo, a Japanese who have stayed in Singapore for many years and they were talking about Singapore. After that, Tanya Chua was singing some of her songs. The thing good about the event here is because there was not many people and we could go near to Tanya to take pictures with her and also chatted with her a little. Quite an interesting experience. During that time, we met a few more Singaporeans and was invited to one of their houses for a spendid dinner. After that we had karaoke and had lots of fun. Next week, Valent and his gf will be here on a holiday. I should be bringing them around so get ready for more pictures...

sakura

Hey people! First of all, I will like to apologize for the lack of entries. I was swarmped with my job, updating my ipod with songs, going out with friends and teaching classes until I realised that I did not have time for myself. Last week, I received Clifton's really long email about life and began thinking about mine. I actually planned to blog about this but needed sometime to sort out my thinking and stuffs. I will like to thank my friends, who are always there to support me and reading my blog while what I do is just go about my way of life. I do not have a habit of giving presents and rarely try to contact my friends and sometimes I feel that I neglected all of you guys, but believe me, I still remember you guys all. Back to Clifton's email, I will just like to comment that I had that idea way back in my army days and planned to carry out that idea and live the best of my life. Sometimes, I really wish I could put everything away, sit down under a tree, read a book, lie down under the sun to relax. Taking 2 hours chatting with friends over lunch followed by tea or coffee at a coffee shop, this is the kind of life I love to live. Reality is always different. Life in usa had been fantastic. The first 2 years were pretty normal. I tried not to concentrate too hard on my grades and just take my time, mixing with the community and getting used to the environment. As I advanced into my 3rd and 4th year, work load increases. Living my normal way of life starts to get difficult. With things I want to achieve and get done within a short 17hours of awake time(I usually sleep 4-6 hours during then), it's obviously too short. Then, the next comes balancing. I start sacrificing things, sleep, time with gf, hanging out with my friends and last of all my grades. At that moment in time, near the end of my 4th year, I began to think to myself, when you start to put a huge load on yourself, it is good in the sense that you are on your toes, ready to accept anything that comes. What's bad is that you start to lose your ideas of living life, and sink into the society's pace of life, in another words, loose yourself and important things around you. I didn't totally lose myself thanks to the friends around me who had taught me the enjoyments of life, food, wine, party and fun. I am really glad to have you guys around to support me and always there for me.

Now in Japan, it's flower viewing season. Japanese have hanami parties, where they sit below sakura trees in groups and chat just about anything. Although, it's flower viewing parties, flower viewing isn't really the theme. Beer and food is the theme. I had the honor to join one pretty big group yesterday and had lots of fun. I think we had the most food and drinks among all the groups in Ueno Park yesterday. It's also during this time when I relax and though about what's mentioned above. Pictures will be up later today and I got to start work soon. see you guys.

This weekend I had the rest I always wanted. For 2 days, I slept till after 12.00( about 2pm) to be exact. Relaxed around till about evening, had dinner and slept early. Think I was dead beat for the past week. Bought the 5g ipod(black) and was arranging my songs for most of the week, together with presentation practise and resume writing all to be dued for next week. Unknowning ly, I have stopped noticing if a Japanese show have English subtitles or not. If they do, I will unknowingly look at them and understand more of it. If not, I will just look at the show and understand not 100 percent and still be happy after that. I can feel that everything next month will get exciting. Job interviews, friends visiting and friends returning to Japan. I've got to save money...

Busy is good

Hey guys, it's me back again. Yesterday was a totally filled up day. First of all, I woke up around 6.30 so that I could be ready to leave my house at 7.30 to go over to my parttime place. It takes about 2 hours trip and it starts about 9.30. Anyways, I had about 4 hours of classes yesterday which means more money and also alot of teaching practise. Can say that I am getting more comfortable with teaching but still need more time if my target are kids. I am just glad that the learning cards I bought over from Singapore helped. I had to travel a little and lunch inbetween and everything ended pretty late when I returned home.

Today woke up at about 12.00(make up for the whole week's lost time) and I was watching memoirs of a geisha. It's weird that they try to put in English conversations in Japanese environment. It's like not important words in the background are in Japanese while the important conversations are in English. Later when the Americans come into the picture, it just seems that everyone can speak English really well. Other than this, the rest of the movie was really good. Read the book long long time ago so I can't really judge on the acurracy of the movie.

These days, other than studying Japanese and working, the rest of the time is spent on rearranging my mp3 songs. I am renaming the tags, arranging them in Itunes and getting them ready for ipod(which is coming). I am still deciding when I should buy it.

Heard about a festival in Japan now. It's called Hinamatsuri. Basically, people make dolls in the shape of gods. What happens next is that say for example someone has an illness or something, this illness is transferred to the doll and people put the dolls on boats and sail them off in a river. Suppose to bring illness and badluck away. This explanation is based on what I heard, didn't really researched into details. Let me know if any part is wrong. Anyways, thinking of relaxing the rest of my day. Till next time

update

Took me quite some effort to come back in and write a blog. First of all, the project required for graduation has been finished and now I'm working on a different circuit board. Also, more time is spent on Japanese langaguage. Saturdays are spent on working, Sundays are spent on keeping the house clean. Time just go past so fast. 2 more months before I really begin working, but first of all need to get past the interview stage and lots of other things to prepare. So till then, keep you guys updated as much as I could.

Relaxing day

This saturday, I woke up thinking I had to go teach tution when I realised that it is a public holiday. yeah, in Japan, if a public holiday lands on a Saturady, there will only be a holiday on Saturday. Anywayz, I stayed at home and lazed around, packed up the place, watch a movie called "Stealth." Another movie waiting for me but I guess I will watch it tomorrow.

Something interesting happened on Friday thought. I was writing a program for playing sounds on speaker on my circuit board. When I was running it, weird sounds was coming out(because it is not working properly) but after that, "hello world!" starts showing up in the console( message from the circuit board). This hello world thing is actually a project that i done a few months ago and no where in my code tells the board to show the message. My friend was telling me it is a curse. haha. After correcting the program a little, the word that start flashing was "給” which means give. I decided to call it a day as I don't want to see what is next in the series of message. haha. Anyway, I think this is not as scary as what my friend got the last time.

During the message displaying project, instead of "hello world!", the message that came out was "死”which means death. I think that would have been more scary. Glad I didn't get that.

harajuku

Today went to Harajuku with some friends. Explored parts of the street where I didn't explore the last time I went there. Luckily, this time I'm equiped with my camera also and took some interesting pictures. Look out at the flickr link at the side bar. Basically, there is a gathering area where people who like to dress up in gothic style costumes gather. Be it for making friends, or for photographers to snap away, there are quite a big group of them standing around and enjoy the company of their own kind. Me and my friends mingled into the crowd and emerge with some cool shots of them. After that, we headed for meiji temple and witnessed a little of a traditional Japanese wedding. According to locals, these wedding are pretty rare and really glad that we got to catch it. What's different is that the wedding is kinda quiet and I only caught a part of it. Quite interesting thought. Back to work on Monday. Can't believe the weekend passed so fast.

Earthquakes

Felt three light earthquakes these few days when I'm in the office. Not to the extend when things on the table start to shake, more like hangers swaying and coffee in cup splashing. All these makes me realize how fortunate Singaporean are in Singapore when they don't have to be born with the fear of earthquakes and typhoons. Also, they don't have to bear with the hot weather in summer, cold weather in winter. On the down side, there is no "real" snow to be seen in Singapore which is quite a good exchange I think. Tomorrow going to carry on my parttime teaching job, just when I thought that I have a weekend to rest at last.

train blog:maid cafe

my friend introduced me to a maid cafe today. basically, it is just a cafe except that the waitress are all dressed as maids and they call the customers master. these places are usually found in akihabara and usually frequented by otaku-term that mean people who are crazy over manga and anime. other than that, i was shown shops that sell manga characters and dolls. can say today is quite an eye opener for me.

train blog:new grave design

there is an advertisement about a new grave design that allows the pet to be buried together with the owner. one thing for sure is that there will never be advertisement like this in the trains in singapore.another thing is that i do not know how advance the technology goes for grave designs but i am pretty sure buryin with pets is not really hard to do.not sure if it is a really good point to advertise.lookin forward to 2 days of holidays next week but i will probably go office the whole time.

Ghost in the shell

Today watched an animation movie which I borrowed from a friend which is called "Ghost in the Shell 2:Innocence." The story is pretty interesting and futuristic. Movie's animation is very realistic and the 3D graphics are really well done. Kinda impressed at the level of clarity and how far we have came from animation movies in the past. Been walking past a stationary store which I have never been before and went in to have a look. They sell templates for comic books drawing and have lots of designs and interesting backgrounds. Kinda of wonder how they draw the comic books using the templates. This Saturday there is a gathering for the people staying in my dorm. Also, I might be meeting a friend whom I had met when I went over to San Francisco when I was there looking for a job. It feels like a long time from the time I was in San Francisco till the time I got the job, which makes me feel like blogging what happen when I went over to San Francisco.

Basically, I went to San Francisco just to attend a 2 day Japanese-English Bilingual Career Fair. Bringing only my friend's suit(because I didn't have my own then), and a few daily necessities in a backpack, this is the trip where I travelled with the least luggage. I stayed at a co-ed youth hostel, the cheapest and nearest I could find. The rooms are like army style, double decked with cheap mattress but what is there to complain, the price is cheap. I would expect that the people staying there are there for travel but turned out to be wrong. There are actually people there to take exams(2 japanese in the common rooms), to look out for graduate courses(the lady sleeping across my bed) and looking for places to stay(someone I talked to in the hallway). The Japanese guy that I am going to meet on Saturday was in the common room and had trouble with booking hotel rooms as his English is not really good. He is doing a round america tour with another friend. So I sprang at the chance to practise my Japanese and went to talk to him even till the extend to help him book his hotel rooms.

On the day of the job fair, it is kinda exciting and nerve wrecking. I didn't expect the whole environment to be totally Japanese, all the way from greeting you in Japanese at the door till the presentations all done in Japanese. Basically, it's more of a Japanese Career fair than a bilingual career fair. Walked around first to find some Japanese friends from my school, followed by getting brochures of companies and free goodies. The first booth that I really find out information from is actually the one that I am currently working in now. Sat through their lecture knowing only about 40 percent of what they are saying and talked to their representative in English followed by presenting my resume. They were asking me for interviews and I agreed to go for it after going for toshiba interview which was planned before I reached san francisco. Toshiba intervew was kinda packed with people sitting in about 8 seats behind and 3 interviewers at the booth interviewing us. The whole interview took about 1/2 hour and they told me to check the board to see if I qualify for the second round of interview. My name never appeared on it apprantly. So back to the original company where they lead me to one of the hotel rooms for the first round of interview. It went quite smoothly with a translator to help me on the parts where I did not know how to say it in Japanese. Following that, I went to the next room to have an interview with the President of the company. Kinda shocked that the president actually came down for the job recruitment. It went pretty smoothly and he offered me the job depending on my chances with toshiba. So in the first day by the afternoon I already had a job offer and so kinda relax on my search. Went to a few more letures and looked at a few more companies but didn't really talk to them. Met up with Thiha, my ex-roommate and walked around San Francisco for the rest of the night. For the second day, I had an interview with sandisk and got a free 16MB CF card. Quite cool. Nothing much happen for the rest of the day and so went with my Japanese friends from University to a food court nearby for food.

Anyway, all in all, the trip was indeed an eye opener and alot of first times for me. Just thought of writing it down before I forget about it later. This trip can be counted as a big changing point in my life and so it is quite important to me. I think.

snow

it begin snowing this morning. wanted to stay at home but have to go for a company meeting.it is not thd first time i see snow but seeing it outside your house is something different. feelin kind of exited. will take more pictures when i reach home.

testing

please forgive me on the capital letters. it takes too much time to change them on my handphone. waiting for the train now. in today's japanese class, we did alot of cooking. we prepared 3pots of nabe(hotpot)and some other assorted dishes. most of the people that come today are chinese so it is more of a chinese class than a japanese class.

testing

Hi, i am just testing on sending blog by email. this entry is sent by my phone actually. just want to see how fast it takes. now i am at home. nexttime when i post my blog will be from the train

present myself

arrgghh. Presentation tomorrow. My heart is beating really fast. 今はどきどきしてる。Wish me luck.

new year

A year has passed so fast. Didn't really feel anything this time round. Anyway, everything is still the same. This trip to Singapore wasn't that bad but it wasn't that good also. I fell sick just before I go back to Singapore and was sick all the way till when I go back to Japan. I'm just happy that I am able to meet my gf and hang out with her.

In this new year, I redesigned my room and throw more stuffs into the cupboard, which means my room is neater and nicer. I have extended my table(adding another box) and made space for some of my electronic items on the table. Pictures are in flickr.

Throughout the next few blogs, I will introduce the place i'm staying to you guys so keep a lookout.