xMas songs and ZHOU JIELUN!!

I FINALLY GOT A LISTEN AT november chopin!!!! I LOVE IT!!! haiz, bu kui shi zhou jielun.. am going to buy the album straight after i get home to singapore hehe

and been getting some xmas songs cos getting into the xmas moods. everyday hear the dept stores playing the music and i realise i'm unconsciously singing/humming along to the tunes.. so decided to put some in my Ipod to listen too. heh.. and some M-Flo too. this is a Jap duo that does realli catchy remixes of other japanese singers' songs with rap and hip hop incorporated. very very upbeat esp in the mornings when i'm going to work and feeling terribly sleepy, i'll just full blast the tunes and bop along.

aniwayz. DEsperate Housewives is getting so exciting!!! finally they are getting rid of that stupid disgusting George pharmacist guy who's after Bree and who killed her husband. he really looks like a weasel.. and suddenly i can't remember the name of the hot short latin girl in the show. damn. argh! nvm but her marriage in trouble again. i cant wait for the next episode!!!

let's talk about...

mm let's talk about me?
haha its my blog of cos talk bout me, else talk about you meh?

was reading yingyan's blog today and i realise its almost been a year since i saw her. and the last time we met is still so fresh in my head. me her and mingjie in Nude (indochine) having a blast talking crap. heh.. she is totally right.. some of us can don't meet for super long yet we can never lose the familiarity we have with each other and fall into place as though we had just met yesterday. no awkwardness, i guess thats really friendship bah.

tired today. brain is tired i guess. spent the whole work day reverse engineering a excel sheet of the budget figures and i actually almost finished when i closed that stupid sheet by mistake and press No when they asked if i wanted to save. ARGH!! i was so dulan after that cos it was like 2 full sheets of excel workings i didn't save!! haiz. then worse still it was already like nearly 5pm when that happened. i mean, i don't have to hand in my work but i hated to leave things incomplete before going home. and i Also dun want to leave past 6pm. dilemma hor. sianz. then i piah all the numbers and drag all the formulas everywhere and manage to finish one sheet b4 realising one row didn't tally with the original. siao liaoz. no choice but to ask my sup wats the formula for that row after like half hour later cos i still couldn't figure it out and turns out it was not possible to calculate from the figures i had and he sorta explained to me how it was derived and i half understood only but i guess i have to figure it out myself again bah. sighz. but at least i really did use my brains here in this dept.

finally wednesday tomorrow. 2 more days b4 he comes back.

Swollen Eyes

yah i cried and cried last night after the show and even after i got off the phone last nite i was still sniffling and i was too far gone for my eyes to get better in time to sleep. and when u sleep after you cry, you wake up with swollen eyes. haiz. so this morning i could barely open my eyes.. but managed to get myself out on time to catch the train (deja vu; here comes the same story again.. ) haha.yah.. and he told me bout his plans of buying a house with his gf during the weekend and how he celebrated her bday on sunday (nothing special; just a dinner haha) and it was like so xing fu! as in.. even hearing it from him, i feel so happy and excited for him that he has found this right person and they are planning a life together liaoz. and its like when you get to share such happiness you feel so happy for them and u're influenced by their enthusiasm and happiness too. this is one of the rare days that i actually walked home alone with a spring in my step and feeling pretty light and cheerful and it wasn't too cold an evening too. (^-^)

this morning I made the announcements for the CAPCOM R&D building! we have like an announcement every morning at 9am to tell everyone to start work. and this is on a roster basis every week and like this week it was me. it was soooo embarrassing cos everyone could tell it wasn't a japanese who spoke, i dunno maybe i spoke too slowly.. but super duper paiseh after that even though it was really just work. yikes. now the whole building knows who i am. (#-.-#) haiz.. but at least it wasn't for anything bad.

okie going to sleep earlier today.. i actually almost fell asleep at work again at my desk when i already slept at like midnite yesterday. how much earlier should I sleep? argh.

The Notebook

i just watched the Notebook and it made me cry and cry it was so sad. please watch it.. i think its a great movie.. and seriously super touching and i think any human being with a heart will probably start crying too. after the crying part of the show everything seemed so sad after wards that when i called ryo to talk i couldn't help but keep crying and crying oso.. haiz.. esp thinking of when i have to go back to singapore and we'll be apart liaoz. haiz.

Dino Show

went to the Dinosaur exhibition today and cos it was the last day, had no choice but to queue up. the queue was 90 min. haiz. just like at disneyland or USJ. haiz. but at least the weather was great. a little too windy though. but the museum was in this park in Nagai （長居） and the atmosphere was good. very relaxed, there was a baseball little league thing going on.. and a soccer game in the stadium areas too.

but the most beautiful thing is still the trees changing colours.

箕面公園

紅葉を見た！



isn't it beautiful??

autumn leaves viewing outing with Jaclyn today at Minoo Park.. the word Minoo reminds me of a cow moo-ing i dunno why.. will just put up a few picts first cos i really need to sleep now.. going to a dinosaur exhibition tomorrow haha.. will take alot of picts too! (^-^)



shaded by the leaves in the hills



we saw a waterfall today!!



a Japanese Jinja (temple)'s courtyard with hills behind me and leaves of all colours



the hills in the midst of changing colours



in hell... arhhhh!



and finally.. a top down view of the leaves (from the tree-top..)

more photos at www.flickr.com/photos/alexxis of cos..

bejeweled 2

addicted (kinda) to the game Bejewled 2. cos of their new badges system, i feel the urge to earn all the badges and i can't stop playing until i do. argh

my supervisor left early today. some family emergency i think. which left me free the rest of the day to figure out work on my own. and to surf the net. wahaha. friday is like the worst day of the week cos there is just no mood to work. wore my uncomfortable pair of boots today and felt really tall. heh.. but of cos feet hurt after that, although not as much as the first time.

went to Tsutaya and rented to DVDs to watch while eating my lonely dinner. sad hor. heh.. but anyway, after the trip to Universal Studios with Jaclyn, was very very gian to watch Backdraft. the whole idea of the fire exploding and moving backwards air thing is super intriguing. its an old movie with firemen and super duper exciting action movie. i haven't watched it though, planning to watch it tomorrow with rYo. also rented Legally Blonde 2.. heard jiunlih said it was very funny blah blah and was just suddenly in the mood to watch chick flicks and comedies again. was even tempted to rent shrek just to watch and feel happy but stopped myself b4 i could waste the money. hiakx..

going to see autumn leaves with Jaclyn tommorrow.. at 箕面park (Minoo) haven't walked around in the nature for a while, hope i still have the stamina. (-.-!)

back to work

terribly sleepy today.

ryo stayed up til 3 am to finish his work and he only left at that time. i went to bed at midnite, woke up every hour to see if he was sleeping yet.. but at 3 when he finally finished his work, he decided to go straight home else he had to wake up in my room at 6.30am anyway and if he went home straightaway, he could still catch an extra hour or 2 of sleep. and he had to pack for his bizness trip to Tokyo for tonight since he went straight from work and it was going to be until Saturday. argh. shucks. but anyway.. woke up feeling shitty. managed to rush washing up to catch my usual train so that i was in time to talk to the IT guy. haha..

i could be a stalker i suppose. but that would be illegal and i wouldn't be talking to that person anyway.. oh yah.. continuing the conversations saga, i found out he and his gf have been together for 4 years le (!) and this sunday is her bday. i didn't ask about that, he volunteered the info himself after asking when my bday was. and then i had to be polite and ask him when his was (21st Jan) haha.. ah well.. more and more personal info everyday.. and his car is a Honda Step Wagon (so that he can drive to snowboard cos only MPV/SUV can put the snowboard/ski container on the roof).. and he told me all about his drinking session on tues nite with his dept that lasted all the way till dawn and then the next morning he had to window shop with his gf near his house. hehehe.. this blog has almost become a gossip blog bout him liaoz. okok.. i shall stop volunteering info bout this person ..

but it really helps to have someone to talk to on IM now that i changed dept. i dont speak at all to the people beside me, cos they are guys and they can't speak english and they look like really serious people so i can't make jokes also.. and seriously its super duper lonely. i go shopping like everyday after work nowadays alone aniway.. not that i buy something everyday but just walk around looking at clothes and thinking bout my personal budget and trying out stuff myself etc without anyone to share stuff with. very sad actually. but i think i pretty much got used to it liaoz.. (see.. growth & maturity!) but of cos i do wish sometimes that i have a good fren here whom i dun need to be afraid of saying stuff behind my back or getting angry at me for every little thing. and someone i can talk to about anything and everything. haiz..

ok.. less depressing stuff.. my sup took a look at the stuff i did, the budget tables of all the titles in development in Capcom, and he was pretty impressed cos it actually picked out some mistakes in the other girl's work although of cos there were mistakes in mine, they were consistent mistakes like a wrong formula in all the same type of figures. so it didnt take me too long to change that.. but pretty cool that he's happy with me. heh.. yay friday tomorrow, then saturday again! woohoo!

Labour Day

today did nothing much hah.. woke up at 10.30 am unwillingly.. i guess thats really how tired i was .. although i really didn't do anything tenuous. weird. but had to wake up cos i needed to wash my bedsheets and it takes a whole day for the damn dryer to dry anything properly. helped ryo check his work stuff. impt days this week, cos of the financial results release and them having to meet investors and all, they had to prepare materials in both English and Jap and spent the whole day cooking his meals and checking his powerpoint slides and playing bejeweled 2 heh. i'm addicted to bejeweled.. watching harry potter on TV now.. yay! just saw the ad for the goblet of fire.. i must watch it! had 鍋料理　for dinner again & this time i pretty much prepared everything.. cos the poor guy was sooo busy with his work even though today was a holiday. oh well.. at least we spent the day together. (^-^) tomorrow work again . argh.

oh i bought bobby Brown Bronzing powder! wanted to buy MAC one actually after using Junli'S one when we were living in hall but i just couldN't tell which one it was at the jap counter. they had all sorts of weird stuff and the counter advisors looked like those tokyo ultra tanned blonde ah-lians. hehehe.. oh well.. but the Bobby Brown counter person was just less tanned but also lian. heheh.. i'll see if it works..

Bobby Brown

wanted to buy a jacket today but i think i saw the price wrongly the other time. the type that looks really nice costs like 40,000 yen!! thats like $700 and its not even branded.. i think i better head to zara.. at least their prices are not exorbitant. this is seriously crazy. and i was wondering how come i don't buy more Japanese brands for clothing.. well their size might fit but their numbers don't. at least the international brands are about equal in pricing all over the world. its really disgusting these prices here. and apparently the GST is going to become 7%. DAMN it! oh i know about this cos i saw a protest demonstration on the streets today. there were actually more than 100 people marching down the streets of OSaka. but it seemed pretty mild.. oh and i saw a major accident on saturday nite. 2 taxis involved. one was overturned and glass was all the road. the other one had its front all smashed in. they had to cut open the overturned one to rescue the driver. and i think luckily there were no casualties. cos i saw 4 teenage guys hanging around the area with the drivers apologising to the police. how polite are these people huh. but apparently not polite enuff to give way to each other so that the accident was avoided.

VLooKUP

finally figured out how to use the VLOOKUP function in excel today. quite ez but was like wondering how come logically, the sums didn't add up. I guess figuring out the why behind the numbers is a good way to remember how to do these budgeting stuff. i mean, who doesn't know how to count money? its just that everyone has different ways of counting money and to learn someone's way, first you have to understand why he counts it that way. wahaha.. i sound so preachy.. but anyway.. apparently my questions made my sup stunned and stumped him for a while and he had to dig up some old files to check when they changed the method of calculations etc. cos they did some dumb percentage thing when all you had to was to add up the numbers. talk about redundant and inefficient. he also does the addition method so he was quite surprised when i said the 2 methods dun add up to the same figures. wahah! but after he explained, we started talking about games and i let him play burnout on my PSP for awhile and he got really exciting and it was quite funny watching him making exclamations when racing hehe.. he's 35 by the way.. so i guess at least we have one thing in common.. BURNOUT! woohoo!

btw, this wednesday is a public holiday here again. yAY!

USJ with Jaclyn

tired to blog.. but I'll put a few picts here..



went to Universal Studios Japanw with Jaclyn .. it was soooooo fun! firstly, finally made use of my yearly pass again.. secondly, there were celebrating xmas so the whole place was sooo christmassy and happy.. and there were of cos the deco and the theme performances and thirdly, cos it was just a normal sat.. we didnt have to queue like 3 hours, at most only an hour half, we took almost all the rides and they were fantastic! and also.. my legs hurt like mad now.. from standing around for the whole day.. in the cold no less.. feel like i lost a little weight haahah .. but yah.. the whole place was playing xmas songs the whole day and being so cold it really felt like those movies u see where people in New York or wat durin the xmas season.. hee hee.. and at the end we were running around like mad women to see the fireworks and performances and to finish up the last rides as many as we can.. and then we lingered in their shops until nearly 10pm even though closing hours were 9pm. hehehehehe .. i'll really super duper miss her when she has to leave.. even though i didn't really know her when she came but i think we click so well that its going to be weird and lonely again when she's gone.. haiz.


okie.. this is actually a polaroid taken by the staff and we had to buy it but we both looked so cute heh.. acting cute there.. i had to buy it.. gave it to jaclyn as a present though.. (^-^)


see the xmas deco..


the silly moose who kept shoving me.. grr..


the shrek float in the parade with the 3 blind mice.. the dancers were really cool!


of cos there was elmo..


the spiderman ride...


twilight .. it was actually only 5pm..


a USJ paper cup.. ironically, we didn't visit the snoopy studios at all..


I'm at Sesame Street!


the gigantic xmas tree.. 5 stories high i believe.. yes.. my face is super round.. (T.T)


the Jaws ride! we screamed our lungs out hehe.. and the last ride of the day.. no queue! it was super dark and the scare of the sharks lunging at you was even greater than prolly riding it in the day


the shark has been deco-ed for xmas as well hehehehe


the night xmas show in the lagoon


fireworks.. part of the show..


yay we've been to Universal Studios!


the end..... tired but happy!

zZz day

stupid me took a too early train today. of cos that means i didn't see him. haha. well.. i dawdled at the 7-11 however and i did bump into him. but it was super awkward.. nothing to talk about. hmm ah well.. intro-ed him to IP chat today and had a chat on and off and found out he has a gf. ah well.. too bad.. for all the single girls i suppose. hehe.. kinda ruin the cute guy image but at least i know the boundaries now.

eyes in pain now argh. going to USJ tomorrow with jaclYn..

haven't seen Ryo in a whole week. miss him alot. sighz.

train ride part II

Hehe.. as I said yesterday, we will meet again today on the train. And we did. This time he took the initiative to remove his earphones and stuff his newspaper in his bag to talk to me. So found out that he was going to be 30 years old this year. ! totally can’t tell.. omg.. and he lives in Amagasaki .. hehe… I guess that’s good enough information for now.. yah but it was kinda awkward when we both kept quiet at some point where I don’t know if I was allowed to ask stuff like is he married etc cos that was kinda personal and I didn’t him to get the wrong idea even though I did think he was cute. Hmm ah. We shall see tomorrow.

Oh it was so cold this morning that there was steam/my breath was visible like thin white smoke when I was walking to the station. Weird huh..

There’s welcome party tonight.. at a Chinese restaurant haha.. hope it will be fun

happy train ride

hehe

this morning i took the same train as the IT guy and because this time he was behind me, there was no pretending to not see him. he walked in front of me said ohayo to me and i was like "omG!! he spoke" and i just said ohayo back to him but after that he just went back to reading his newspaper and i was like erh ok i guess we're not going to chat .. and i guess it would be tomorrow's trip liaoz..

lunchtime snippets

finally mid week.

i realise i countdown every weekday to the weekend. and then the weekend goes by in a big blur and suddenly i have to countdown to the weekend again. that is why time is going by sooooo fast!!

too fast..

i am not ready to say goodbye to anything or anyone here yet..

(T.T)

ok.. i must stop feeling sad.. i been trying to stop feeling sleepy at work so i tried sleeping earlier. but even though i feel exhausted and i keep yawning at work, i don't feel like sleeipng the moment i reach home. and i try hard to doze off at 11.30 til 12+ and i wake up feeling tired again. had the weirdest dreams these few nights, of family, and friends. i guess mainly of people i miss. sighz.

i guess once a person is feeling depressed its diff to get cheered up again but when a person is happy, that can go downhill really quickly. why is that so??

diligent update

ok today was like quite a good day at work, main reason being: I had work to do!! erh it was more of self-given work, continuing my table of all titles' under development and their budget etc.

but bad day in the sense that my eyes hurt the whole day. i think it was myself who did it. yesterday when i came back, i went to take off my contacts, and i found that my contacts case was open and there was solution inside. i couldn't remember if it was cos i forgot to empty it in the morning or was it cos i put new solution and forgot to close it. i didn't think i was so absent minded and it looked clean so i chose to believe the second reason and guess wat. this morning it kinda irritated me and i didn't think of that reason until both eyes just hurt and hurt more as the day progressed even though i went to the loo and washed the contacts several times. usually if it was just dirt that would do it, but apparently it wasn't and i realised my reasoning the night b4 were wrong and i could probably turn blind for this moment of folly. (T.T)

but luckily hongsing had a bottle of solution (for soft lens though ) but i used a little of it to sorta rub the protein residue off.. then let the lens soak in tap water for bout a minute and bingo! it totally was ok after that.. but came back and just took it off and immediately washed the lences properly and wore specs instead. it sux to can't see.

and this morning cos my eyes were so irritated, even though i saw the cute guy from IT in my train, i just was too shy and feeling too ugly to talk to him even though he was right in front of me so i just pretended i didn't see him and faced the door instead. haiz.

oh and this year the emperor's bday is on 23rd Dec, which is a friday, which is a public holiday... which means i will have a long weekend for xmas! hehe.. planning a trip to go skiing and hopefully .. my coordination is ok for that.. cos i have nv been able to do skates-related activity without being a klutz and here's my chance to do all those tricks you see in SSX! heh.. hopefully .. but i am sooo looking forward to seeing SNOW!! real SNOW!!

レラクス

The weekend was pretty relaxed. Didn't study much and feeling a little guilty but at least I feel like I played enough.

Friday:
I came home to eat dinner I cooked and to clean up. My Friday routines are pretty much fixed.. do laundry, cook dinner, check laundry, put in dryer, eat dinner, wash up, vacuum/tidy up room, throw garbage, shower then zobo until Ryo comes. He usually comes at 12+ am so by that time I can barely keep my eyes open. But I couldn’t stop sneezing and I think I probably caught a cold (it was pouring on Friday) and by the time he came I had a fever and my nose was all stuck. and i was dozing off. he felt my forehead and forced me to put on socks cos my feet were freezing and tucked me into bed. i guess when he can really see me sick (such as flu/fever), he can be really sweet.

Saturday:
So the next morning, he headed to the office (after i woke him up).. yah the sick person. ... his alarm wouldn't stop ringing and i woke up on the first ring. argh. but anyway.. he was supposed to leave b4 the caretaker guy comes so it was like 6.30am and finally got him to get up and shower while i continued dozing. b4 he left, gave me a goodbye kiss and told me to sleep till noon. hehe.. but i couldn't do that. i usually can't fall back asleep UNLESS i'm supposed to go to work which sux so when he stays over on sunday nights i usually can't get up on time and monday mornings are hell when i wake up late and has to rush for the train and be all sleepy at work too. haiz. so i just mucked around in my room b4 deciding to go trim my hair at bout 2pm. oh .. to add on.. i was actually feeling much better only a little headache left. so anyway.. this time.. i dyed my hair black again.. hehe.. i want long silky black hair!! mm but anyway.. dyed the hair, did treatment, and i still had 30% off from intro-ing Robert there.. so it was quite cheap.. and i bought 2 books over the weekend.. The Devil Wears Prada and Everyone Worth Knowing.. both by Laura Weisberger. Chick lit. as usual but damn funny and always happy ending. I like!! we met for dinner after i wandered around in Umeda after the haircut.. alot of time to kill and we had okonomiyaki.. tried my best to avoid the oily smell in my clothes this time.. succeeded.. heh then went to play the Monopoly Medal machine in one of the arcades.. been wanting to try there ever since i saw it in Shinsaibashi but it was always occupied but here there was no one at all! played bout an hour plus and we headed home to zobo and oh.. we bought a electric pot stove .. like those in jap movies where in winter they have the mala pot in the middle of their living room table eating something like steamboat. yah that kind.. hehe.. cos of our common plan to eat more vege.

Sunday
cooked french toast for him for breakfast.. made him coffee and then woke him up. spent the day playing PS2, going to the supermarket to buy Veges for the Kimchi pot for dinner.. and after that i plucked the head and tails from the bean sprouts and skinned the radish for dinner. argh. i will become a very good wife i tell u. well dinner tasted great.. and right after dinner he fell asleep... haiz.. oh but this time he helped to do the dishes first..

Monday
so since he fell asleep last night, this morning was one of those days when i woke up first again to wake him up . and i woke up late after he left so had to rush. argh. today work was better. had nothing to do at first but realised i had finally access to most of the databases i needed to finally properly learn stuff. and i realised the damn superior did not send me the file b4 and i didn't feel like asking so i just basically recreated the whole excel thing myself. yah the file for the costs and budgets for all the games currently in dev in the company. figured would just do it up and use it as a template next time. haiz. so spent the whole day getting numbers from all the different programs and realised i pretty much understand where i'm supposed to retrieve stuff from and that these people spend an awful lot of money. argh. okie.. thats all for the day.. bought small little presents for the rest of the singaporean girls.. hope they like it.

final instalment: adventure world

4-nov friday 2pm

oops. been really slow in updating.. i apologise..!! but just been very tired after work and came back check email have dinner and then just fall asleep. and even so i already keep yawning at work.

ok anyway, friday after Sandanbeki, we went to adventure World. we thought it was half zoo half theme park since it was famous for its pandas but other than that, didn't really know what it was.



so we bought 2 tix and went in and we hadn't had lunch so we were like looking for a place to eat. but they didn't have anything and we found the food court and there wasn't much choice. so we chose curry rice. which sucked. i just couldn't force down like the 2nd half and i just gave everything to Ryo. he wasn't picky and he thought it was ok so .. i guess thats good, nothing wasted.

after lunch, took a look at the programs they offered on a board. realised with shock the place was bloodsucking. to touch the dolphins we had to pay 2000 yen and to take pictures with the baby lion we had to pay another 2000 yen. to ride the safari bus or cycle was another 1000 yen. mY GOD! and entrance fee was already 3500 yen! disneyland looked really cheap in comparison. and very value for money (only 5500yen!!)

so we walked around, figured out the only thing worth seeing (paying for) was the safari bus, since the safari was like half the Adventure world. and there was like only one bus per hour. (duh) so we went to see the pandas. they are like cuter than bears!!





i didnt know pandas could climb trees, i thought they could only climb bamboo shoots..and it was so destructive it broke like half the tree off. ! it apparently was stronger than it seemed. and there was a baby panda just borned like 8 months ago and it was kept with the mom in a separate room.



it was so sweet.. the mom was cuddling the little panda..

well there were alot of time left so we took the ferris wheel ride.. and then watched some dogs try to catch a ball.. there was this not very bright dog who just kept lagging behind to find the ball when another dog had actually found the ball.. poor thing.. after a while it just sat on the bench and decided to not join in the games at all.. maybe he was pretty smart after all..



poor little thing hehe.. oh and the lion you had to pay 2000 yen to take photo with



hmm.. after that finally went on the safari bus.. it was actually quite good and they even had a white tiger.. the ride lasted for bout 30 min and after that we just went about the last few places and we saw penguins!



there were even more penguins than in the aquarium and that was no good cos it was too crowded to see anything clearly. after... it was home sweet home.. the bus ride home.. i still couldn'T sleep, so i was sitting there like a zombie for 3.5 hours. (o.O)


and that's the end of the shirahama trip. yay!
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ahh its finally the weekend again. this week has been hellish. with the horrid pimple scar on my chin and me feeling super ugly and tired the whole week, only today was better cos the scab went off and i had been frantically repairing my face of its peeling (Stupid autumn air!!) the whole week and not daring to make my condition worse by putting on makeup at all.. so i went to work looking like a panda and felt so blah on the streets of japan where all the girls looked pretty. yikes. and at work, just felt so dead.. cos there was nothing to do. i understood what i was supposed to learn, but i had no system access, i had no real work, so i just sat there reading my accounting book and made myself very sleepy instead. argh. i better go sleep now. zzz

Friday 4-Nov

4-November (Friday)

Happy belated bday mr Ryo!

hehe.. just typed that for fun cos thats the day of his real birthday!

so we woke up super duper early at 7am cos the obachan had told us that breakfast was at 8.30am. so we set the alarm at 7, woke up, shut it off and then slept til 8am. Argh! Forced ourselves to wake up and took a bath and let the obachan set up breakfast while we shut the paper doors heh. And then at about 8.30am went back in for breakfast. Once again… I shall let pictures speak loudly:

it was quite good actually, despite being so much.. the fish had too many tiny bones though.

After breakfast (only 15min later hehe) we took a bath again until 9.30 and rushed to get ready for check out. And we didn't realize the beach was so near the Ryokan until we went to take a bus to see Engetsu Islet(円月島). It was practically just at the doorstep and it was beautiful!!


see what I mean?

But the day's schedule was quite tight so we just took a few pictures on the beach and went to wait for the bus. It comes like every half hour so it was no joke to miss it. So we went to see Engetsu and it was a beautiful natural landmark. One of the weirdest I have ever seen to tell the truth. Looks like a big wooden toy block that kids play with.



but anyway.. it was just that. The island is only that landform and has no like beach for people to go up on so we just viewed it from afar. The next bus was like an hour later and so, we decided to walk to the bus stop where the Ryokan was (1.5km away!) in the hot sun no less. But we managed it.. and just nice that bus came bout 5 min after we reached the bus stop so we took the bus to Sandanbeki　三段壁　next. I took a pict in the bus and its one of the rare picts in which I don't look tired. Wahahah.



Sandanbeki is a cliff. A very high cliff. There are even signs there to tell you to please consider twice, your life lost will have nothing earned, call this helpline if you need someone to talk to.. etc.



Boards with msgs to help the suicidal.



And they will definitely die if they jump.



and this is how it would look if you were standing at the top and looking down



horrible huh.. so we climbed to the nearly very end of the top, and sat together watching the pacific ocean and feeling the ocean breeze in our hair.


Here and there, I almost lost my footing (ahhhhhhh!!) but I managed to pull through. Hehe.. although I did see a guy with like 2 kids and one was still being carried in his arms and the other one was like running ahead of him towards the fatal drop and he couldn’t catch up so I hope the kid has more common sense than to run around.

So we left 15 minutes b4 the bus came and we walked to the bus stop in case the bus came early. There was a minimart there and apparently the place is famous for plums. Heh.. and we got onto the bus to Adventure Land but that's the next story. Hmm I think we left Sandanbeki around 12.30pm… paiseh ah.. it took me hours to write this (in the office)

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Writing about the weekend makes me feel like I'm doing time traveling.. and now back to the present..

I had dinner with Jaclyn on Tuesday cos she came to Capcom to get a talk from one of our marketing guy and a new lady. Yah.. her class from Kansai Gaidai came actually, cos I helped her!! hehe.. my Corporate planning dept has all the big shots, including the PR dept, so i helped her to ask to arrange a talk where they could learn about Capcom and yay the talk was arranged! So I had okonomiyaki お好み焼 with her. That's like erh.. egg and cabbage with anything you wanna put inside. It sounds weird and it is, I don't really like it but I love yakisoba 焼きそば which is basically just fried noodles and is also part of the okonomiyaki family so I ate that. But yah so before that we went shopping at 心斎橋 shinsaibashi and after that food and we ate and sat there until 10+ I think? Yah.. I like talking to Jaclyn cos I don't talk to the other Singaporeans much here (too much hidden agenda in some of them and too empty-headed another one is) and I barely talk to anyone in my office about my life cos its too difficult to explain or say anything with blank stares.

Last night my Corporate planning side had a welcome/farewell party for me and some new people in the law department. It was so fun cos we played drinking games and there was this lady from law who was really funny cos she was slightly tipsy but towards the end, I just got more disgusted. She started holding the hands of like the guys next to her (one of them was married!!) and ask them to marry her and told the guy sitting opposite her that she loves him etc and she kept holding on to the hand of the married guy and he just let her and she kept touching him all over and it was like “omG!!” I couldn't bear to look and could only just grimace and tried to talk in some other direction. Argh. But overall a good evening, the food was delicious and I hope to have dinner with my team again. (^-^)

7 months together

3-November (thurs)

11:00 we met at umeda station
11:15 walked to Westin Osaka. did not know there was a shuttle bus there from JR Osaka.
11:30 I had made lunch reservations at Imperial Palace, a dimsum restaurant in the hotel. we had dimsum BUffet!! super duper delicious.. and i gave him a wonderful surprise.. wrapped the mont blanc pen box in a cheapo yOdobashi plastic bag and when i passed it to him, he had totally no idea it would be a MontBlanc pen inside engraved with his name. he was so surprised and i hoped he felt touched. hehe.. of course lunch was on me too. yay!
13:20 boarded the shuttle bus to go to JR Osaka
13:50 boarded our Express bus to go to Shirahama. we were assigned seats seperated by an aisle, unfortunately. the piggy felt asleep soon (tsk tsk and we just had a heavy lunch) and i played DS the whole trip. i can't sleep on bus trips at all. seriously.
17:00 Reached Shirahama..yay! but we got lost trying to find the Ryokan (旅館）
17:15 wandered around for 13 min and finally went into Lawson's (a convinience store) to ask for directions. turned out we had headed into the rong direction after we alighted. so we trudged on the total opposite way this time.
17:25 Finally reached 白浜館 (thats the name of our ryokan). the service was so great that cause we made reservations and they were expecting us, someone was at the door waiting for us to arrive and check in. so when they saw us reach the door, they asked if we were so-and-so and yah we were and Welcome! hehe.. felt like VIPs.
17:30 Checked in. an obachan (aunty) showed us to our room while explaining to us where the various facilities were. she even offered to carry our bags! being a healthy youngster, and my bag was pretty heavy and she looked so frail i felt totally bad and of cos i stopped her and said it was ok, i would carry it myself.
17:35 our room was one of the special rooms with a private (small) outdoor onsen attached and it was called 温暖室. there were other rooms named Asahi etc also.
17:40 after the old lady had confirmed our dinner time we wanted, she left us and we of cos enjoyed our first bath in the tub. the water was supposed to contain some sulphuric nitrium salts and was supposed to reduce fatigue, cure mental illnesses etc. hahaha. suitable for me i supposed. and the water was like 65 degrees celsius!! i couldn't get in properly at first cos it was too hot for me and when i stood up like after 20 min, i almost fainted haha. blood circulation problems i suppose.
18:30 got out of the 2nd bath and toweled off and we put on the yukata provided. the yukata even had a jacket so that you could just wear that if you wanna go walking outside the ryokan. hehe. basically we just sat there watching tv without underwear in the yukata (hehehehe) and waited for the old lady with our dinner.
19:00 Dinner Time! i shall let the picture speak for itself

for the pot
of cos it was delicious, especially the nabe (鍋料理）stuff
20:00 finished dinner and headed for the bath again. the lady came in to clean up the food and set up the futons so we shut the paper doors to block her view to the bath. hehehe.
21:00 had a very relaxing bath and showered off afterwards with the 温泉 water as well (becos its so nutritious!!) ..
21:30 went to Family Mart (another convenience store) to buy some drinks and snacks. we walked out in our Yukatas and jacket and wooden slippers!

obviously the jacket is too big for me
22:00 came back zobo, watched TV until bout 12 and i fell asleep while he did his work on his lap top until 1+ am

will continue the rest of the trip tomorrow. hehe..
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today .. didnt do much at work except changed my PC to a lap top that was a little faster i think. but the laptop only has 1 USB port (*gasps of shock all round*) yes only 1. but at least i had admin rights still and i prolly will buy a PS2 to USB port converter to attach my old keyboard (from the old PC, the keyboard is actually only a few months old hehe) and then get a USB hub too i suppose. 1 USB PORT!? weird. its like the company is still living in stone age.