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.

busy busy busy

I know busy is not an excuse but the truth is I have really been busy for the past few weeks. Firstly, I have to write technical manuals in Japanese, projects are abit behind and friends are coming back from USA. As per usual, my time is spent on learning Japanese except that my weekends are more fufilling. Last weekend night was spent outside. I managed however to catch the first train back home just in time to change and make it for my first part time job, conversation school teacher. Class size is about 4-6 people and ranged from different levels. In a way it is good for me to practise teaching which I realised requires alot of skill. Going back to Singapore on the 25Dec and will be there till 11 of Jan. Time to catch up with my friends in Singapore. Until then, I will have to clear as much work as possible so that I could enjoy myself in Singapore. Wish me luck and see you guys soon.

nostalgic

It has been a long time since I have been able to sleep till anytime I feel like, wake up and do whatever I want. Today is such a day. I was supposed to go out but changed my mind. Instead, I stayed at home and listen to Chinese pop songs and study Japanese. Listening to the songs that used to be popular few years ago, bring back thoughts of what I was doing during that time. I remember my university days where I will study in the weekdays, watch tv at night and go out with Lucian and Louanne in the weekends to do groceries or just to relax. Felt like I really came a long way and 4 years pass by so fast.

another week passed

This week is the same as other weeks before with few happenings. On friday, I went with my company to an embedded systems exhibition in Yokohama. It's a pretty nice place with many interesting building designs and the Yokohama landmark tower is there also. At the exhibition, just paticipated in a survey and got myself a thermal cup. Well, I take it that I used my travelling money to buy the cup. On Saturday which is yesterday, I had a gathering/drinking/eating party with people from my company. The gathering this time beats the one before as I could understand more of what other people are talking about and I have more new friends around. Also, we get to meet trainees from few semesters before us and they are working in other companies now. Their faces surfaced on the company website and this is like the first time I actually met them face to face. Quite an interesting experience. After drinking alot and eating alot, today was spend at home trying to clear the stomachache which I had from since I woke up till now. I am also trying to warm myself up in this cold weather and trying to attain better scores in a game i'm playing. Tomorrow is another day of work, I'm just glad that wednesday is a holiday which makes the week shorter.

Sorry guys for not updating my blog for a long time. I have been very busy trying to catch up with my projects and whatever free time I have left is spent on animation, japanese drama and studying Japanese. I did not step out of the house during weekends as well except for grocery trips. I had the sudden urge to start to cook Japanese dishes. I started with miso soup and some tsukemono( which wasn't good) and will be trying to cook nikujaga tomorrow. I am also making plans to go back to Singapore during the winter. Will post it in the blog when I'm confirmed with my plans.

back to normal..not really

ブログ始まる時から、英語と日本語と中国語のバー ジョン書けば良かったと思ったんだけど、時間がないし、自信も持 てないから、全然してない。日本語の勉強 が始まるばかりから、間違い所がいっぱいから、誰にも笑わせたくない。でも、最近突然気が付いた、間違い事は勉強中絶対出会った事だ。そして、間違いない なら、新しい事は学ばれない。だから、自分で決める事は今から日本語でブログを書く事だ。今まで私にとって、日本語はそんな本気に勉強しではない。興味だ けだ。これは日本語上手になるの第一歩だ。誰がブログを見たら、間違う所を直してくれない？

まじめ事以外、僕の生活は少し慣れた。友達会 うのが少なくなったんだけど、研修の仕事が増えてるから、そんなに暇ではない。いま一番気になるのはお金だ。 もっとセーブしなきゃいかない。そして、バイトも探してる。今もう晩いから、そろそろ寝る。今度は色んな面白い事を教えてあげるよ。また来てください！

How to say, after James left for Osaka, I am back to my normal life here in Tokyo. Everday going to work and coming back home to learn Japanese, ocassionally hang out with friends. With the start of the new phase of training, the hours that I have to go to work also changed. Instead of mornings for Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, I get mornings for Tuesdays and Thursdays which means I get more days of not having to wake up in the early mornings. Also, this phase of training that I choose is at a different environment, about 5 mins walk from the previous location. Also, one of my closer friends which I go to work with everyday is in a different program from me. Therefore, it feels to me like I have been to a totally new place. Lecture is in Japanese, friends around are all Japanese( or have Japanese blood in them) and I don't get to speak English much at all during work. I guess the environment is good if you are learning the language but it is also pretty stressing. Things are going okay now but there is still alot to come. Wish me luck. During the past days, I have been with James to many places including Odaiba, Asakusa(again) and Disneyland(again). Many stories to tell even if I went to some of the places more than once.