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.