千二百九十 : Late Late Dinner

we had a late dinner today cos Ryo by hook or by crook had to finish making his new year cards today. It's a big big deal in Japan, to send out the new year cards as a sign of courtesy to the bosses especially and to business contacts, and for some, a way to inform others of their new addresses, their new additions to their families, or their new weddings.

It was a really late dinner as we began our dinner at about 2.30am. haha. we wandered around Doutonbori 道頓堀　area (Shinsaibashi) and wanted to have some korean pot. that area is like shibuya at night, full of pimps and prostitutes and just alot of big groups of guys or youths loitering around. a place with night life. But the shop we went into was full and we had to settle for Ramen. I dun really like it but i was super hungry and had not much choice. so I got kimchi ramen & the kimchi came first.

i forgot about taking photos the moment the food came so no pictures of the ramen. haha. I managed to discover a new ad of Kimura Takuya today, so feast your eyes upon this one :

last day of the year tomorrow.. too fast too fast!!

千二百八十九： Gatherings..

I bought this Miffy Organiser.

isn't it cute?

Yesterday, went to Ryo's frenS' place for dinner. His friends are super good hostesses. and the kids loved the presents!! i got a scrapbook starter set for the little girl, and the alphabet toy for the boys. they happily engrossed themselves in the toys, i explained to them .. and they were on their best behaviour the whole nite, not running around like brats for the first time since i met them. I'm glad for his friends, who were there to give him advice tht i've always said but they have the experience of married people so they are right and he is putting things off too late. sighz. but it was great, fun dinner and we couldn't stop laughing. they took out their old uni year books and I saw how they looked in the past. well.. i would say men look better after they mature. hahaha.

I wanted to have sushi for lunch , have been craving it since I saw them eat it on TV. yum.... then we went to this place where most of the shops were closed except for Okonomiyaki.

the venue and the food b4 all the sauces

ack, I dun really like it, but Ryo was not in a good mood, and it was his fav food so I just said ok lets have that for lunch instead. and he was happy again. -.- and .. as we came out, when we were paying, he looked across the street and saw a sushi shop in operation. "oops... there was sushi.." was all he could say while he grinned at me sheepishly. argh!!!

千二百八十八 : 寄せ鍋

so let's see what i've done..

1. Cook Brunch
   
2. Shower
3. Go to Umeda
   
1. Buy 手帳
2. Go to Yodobashi/ Kinokuniya
3. Get Ryo a gift
   
4. Back to Temmbashi
   
1. Buy Microwavable Rice
2. Buy Bak Kut
3. Buy some small dishes
   
5. Finish up Essays (at least another 2)
6. Cook Dinner

Oops. the last part seems undone.

I couldn't find Bak Kut anywhere! apparently, the supermarket at Nishinomiya where I used to live was really good to have so much variety, but not the ones in osaka. grrr. so i had to last minute think of what to prepare for dinner and decided to finish the remaining 鍋　soup instead. so tonight its 寄せ鍋 yo-se-nabe(i dunno what it means but the soup is clear and it has chicken and fish in it instead of pork) for dinner and i already prepared the vegetables (cut everything up) and i'm just waiting for him to be back. i hate it when he can't even bother to inform me when he'll be back so i can have some snack in the meantime if he's going to be very late. -.-

i bought another 2 games & a diary for my sis oso.. its so cute, its better than the Disney ones i bought last year. haha. Tummy was aching very badly today, I dunno why, hope its not some virus. didn't have much mood to walk too much around.. so just came back after 2 hours ++ ... i'm hungry........ nvm i'll try to keep myself full with eye candy:

:)

千二百八十七 : Midnight Sun

I got this movie off the net and found out its another drama adaptation. 太陽の歌　is its real name. The show is quite slow, and I found myself skipping many parts, cos the romantic parts were not very romantic, the singing parts were too much.. but the last scene was quite touching. She died, in a coffin of sunflowers covering her body. (T.T)

& I suddenly came to a conclusion why I might look more mature. due to subtle changes. like. my teeth. the straightening in front might be a very subtle thing, and people can't tell why i look different. reminds me of Harry Potter, where Hermoine made her teeth smaller after an accident and people tot she looked prettier but didn't see why. Very small changes, but very significant differences.

I just woke up at 10.30am, spoke to my mom on the phone. drinking my favourite Milk Tea (only in Japan) by Nestle now, think i'll get my butt off the bed and go down to umeda to get myself some things b4 coming back to try to complete my essay and to cook dinner. argh. tonight's menu, is Bak Kut Teh. hoho. luckily there's a 肉屋 just downstairs.. will buy after I come back again later.

so Today's itinerary:

1. Cook Brunch
   
2. Shower
3. Go to Umeda
   
1. Buy 手帳
2. Go to Yodobashi/ Kinokuniya
3. Get Ryo a gift
   
4. Back to Temmbashi ->
   
1. Buy Microwavable Rice
2. Buy Bak Kut
3. Buy some small dishes
   
5. Finish up Essays (at least another 2)
6. Cook Dinner

i've also discovered a secret gift hidden in Ryo's luggage when putting his laundry into his bag. hehe. can't wait. oops.. i better add Get Ryo's Gift to the list as well

千二百八十六： Housework

I've met more colleagues for lunch... and they all have been super nice to me. Alot of them said my 雰囲気　is different. I give off a different aura now. haha. more.. adultish ? a colleague said I looked brighter. I hope so..

Any way, i've finished vacuumming the floor, got some net bags so that I can do the laundry.. and then later we'll probably have dinner outside together.

so fast.. it's 4 days le. I don't want this 2 weeks to end.

千二百八十五： 鳥羽 (伊勢志摩）

It was a trip to Toba (鳥羽）yesterday, in 三重県 (Mia Ken).

the trip was very worth it. There was some promotional passport (discount plan) that included the train ride return tix (8000yen), entrance to all the major attractions, (which cost about 4000 yen in total for the places we went) and internal transport. the passport cost only 9500 yen!

went to the Mikimoto Pearl Farm & bought something for my mom. the pearl cultivating process is quite cool, they even have a Mikimoto musuem. did you know the founder used to sell udon? & they use female divers to harvest the oysters..

there was a model of the liberty bell displayed

its made of pearls, all of it..

after that, went to the Toba Aquarium. it has so many weird fishes! like this:

& this vacuum cleaner type fish:

& i think this jellyfish is dying:

here's a normal jellyfish:

they got those normal leg things but the first one doesn't..

anyway.. most of the pics are posted here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexxis/sets/72157594436101694/

go see :)

千二百八十四：Xmas dinner (& some photos)

Me at Xmas Eve Dinner tonight. :) was wearing a knit dress, was sleeveless hence the jacket. think its my first proper picture i dare to post up with me and my braces.

everything tasted good except the strange desserts.



Very cute, all christmas themed but they taste anything BUT Christmassy. sour, sweet, fruity. the purple one on the right is the worst. We couldn't tell wat the filling was, except its a pear dyed purple. very weird taste. but overall the dinner was great. thank u mr Ryo..

Oh, the omikuji fortune from yesterday:


and this is what it means:


not that great huh? but at least its not a bad lot. all the photos were taken with the K800I. Pretty good quality hor?

千二百八十三： Tokyo Remnants

i woke up late, later than i had wanted to and only checked out at 11am when i had wanted to reach Shinjuku at 10am. Turned out to be a good thing, cos Maya was late for another 1 hour, after helping kev find his way and decide where to go, i still wandered around for about 40 min.

Despite me thinking I had wanted to buy some clothes, after walking around Shibuya abit, I didn't see anything I like and walked into the huge Tsutaya at the famous Shibuya intersection.

Maya finally reached and we went to Omotesando for lunch. She brought me to a pasta restaurant where apparently many artistes frequent, but we didn't have the luck to see any one famous that day. went to the SMAP shop, or the outside of it at least. -.- it was so chaotic. there was a super long queue of at least 50m, to enter a shop about 2m x 5 meters large. nothing much was sold inside, I could see from the outside, so I didN't think it was worth entering.

We met Miura-san at Asakusa, got a Omikuji. I'm 小吉。half of the luck in everything. not too good not perfect, but not too bad. sighz. ok i'll try again to draw a 大吉 lot during new year. Had dinner with somemore tokyo people near the office, chinese place with the spiciest 麻婆豆腐 i've ever eaten. it was shockingly spicy. but shiok. haha.

dinner lasted hours, they were very kind to treat me. and they sent me off at the night bus area. the bus actually took quite a short time, considering they woke us up twice at the rest stations, we started off at about 11.30pm and reached Osaka at 7.40am. 8 hours, and i felt that i barely slept but I must have.

Ryo fetched me from the terminal when I reached, i'm so happy to see him! after we dropped the stuff in the apartment, we went shopping for food for the next days, and some amenities. the apartment I used before in August, it was better even though the building was old, it had everything including utensils. here.. nothing. although the good thing is the washing machine. but they never provide washing powder!! and no soap no towels. sheesh.

will upload fotos in a day or so when i finally have a chance to breathe. cheers!

千二百八十二： Free P***

there's 3 free channels for adults or any one who's above 18 and that's pretty rare in a budget hotel. this budget has a 32Inch Plasma flat screen mounted on the wall tv for u to enjoy that even. woohoo.

today was in tokyo. landed at Narita at 7am. I had a scare that my suitcase was lost when it didn't appear long after Kev's but lucky, just a scare. went to deposit the stuff at the hotel, took a quick shower and went to the Shinjuku area. I will elaborate more on that in a few days but it was a happy incident. haha.

Hung around Shinjuku after that, and i finally got my game and luckily it was at a discounted price even! haha! happy about that.. but its a kiddy game, and I'm kind of embarrassed playing it in public on the DS.

after that we wandered around ginza and parted ways in the evening. I fell asleep in the subway, and woke up with a start when I dropped my bag on the ground. -.-

Dinner with maya and tokyo people at a korean place. I went to the tokyo office to say hi to everyone and i'll be seeing some of them tomorrow again i think. :)

ok going to watch more "tV" and play my game until i fall asleep. bye bye!

千二百八十一： Last Minute frenzy

Still unpacked:

1. Cosmetics + Brushes
   
2. facial products
3. Mini Shampoo & stuff
   
4. Contact Lenses + Case
   
5. Laptop + charger + LAN Cable
6. Pen?
   
7. DS Lite
8. Vodafone phone
9. Sling Bag?
   
10. Ipod
11. Pencil Case
12. Toothbrush
13. Spectacles
    
14. Do I need another skirt?? I realised I only packed about 5 t-shirts and 2 pairs of jeans. But my luggage seems filled to the brim. Weird.
    
15. Zara Winter Jacket
16. Cap
17. Lecture notes

& I need to remember to buy them some small gifts!!

Things I need to buy upon Arrival:

1. Wella Repair Essence
2. Facial Wash
3. Frizz Control
   
4. Games!!
5. Asience treatment
   

Plans for Friday onwards include dinner with the tokyo branch people, then riding the night bus on Saturday night. and on Sunday morning i can finally see my darling again! yay!

but.. tomorrow I have to get the damn presentation over with. It's not presentable as yet, but I dunno, the girl said she would do it, so I guess I can only trust her.

千二百八十： Cathay Surfing

Using the Internet for free at cathay Dhobi Ghaut.

Where am I supposed to get information about cars in Singapore? not too sure where the forums are as well.. didn't realised I was so suaku about cars until now. shucks. having a huge difficulty doing my competitor analysis. argh..

千二百七十九：Public Speaking

bleahz. i suck at it.

but at least i try..

so I volunteered to be the first pair to present our work today.. and he said good analysis :) of cos the proposition wasn't there, plain forgot about it. ah well. we learn and live I suppose.

another Major presentation on Thursday. sighz. I wanna get it over with so that I can be on a plane 2 hours after my presentation! wahaha!

千二百七十八： Takashimaya Squeeze

Today was a mad rush.

I had to rush finish my project due tomorrow. (only given one day to do..) and then I had to finish packing my luggage for thurs' flight, so that I know if anything I'm lacking, and also had to get the gifts for one more set of kids still. argh. There was supposed to be tuition, but at 1.30pm, was still rushing my proj, my sis went in my place. thanks thanks thanks thanks. she bought me some time, I had enough time to clear my work and then pack the luggage as well. all done while I was continuously sneezing and sneezing and my nose running like a tap. I dunno why that happened. and the rainy weather didn't help. I managed to finally get to the toy fair at Taka at 6pm, it was so crowded, and actually, very little variety too. Was supposed to get something for the Okubo boys, but i couldn't find anything, decided to buy a new gift for Akane-chan and just give the original gift intended for her to the boys instead. ...

The project work is still pending my partner's part. which she is supposed to complete by tonight. and i hope she does. hmm.

on a sidenote. Ryo went on his flight to London (JL421) at 11am this afternoon (singapore time), and his flight has only just reached London. hmm ok is going to reach in 5 minutes time at 1540 London Time (2340 Singapore time) so that's a total of.... 12 hours 40 minutes from Japan to London? wow, I hope he has good entertainment on the plane.. poor thing and he still has to wait for a connecting flight to Edinburgh (did you know this place is known as エジンバラ e-jin-ba-ra in Japanese?? haha) for another 3 hours.. gd luck and have fun!

yay, at the end of his trip, will be me flying to his land again. yay!!

千二百七十七： The Holiday

the show is so romantic and heartwarming.

The beginning of the show was reminiscent of Love Actually, but it turned out to be less complicated (less characters) but very much the same style, with narration, and the story progressed with many twists. Many witty dialogue lines as well, laughed very hard. :p Jude Law was so yummy!

my toe nail is peeling off. i dunno why but it broke off and blood gushed out. (yuck!) and I dunno what to make of the outing tonight. Maybe I should just not think so much about it. it was abit awkward at first, I didn't know what to say, but later conversation just flowed and it was pretty fun after all. haiz.

千二百七十六: Abysmal Day

Today is one of the lowest days of the year.

Besides the fact that my dad was shouting at me, picking on me the whole day for no reason watsoever, causing my mood to dip to super low levels, the call that was supposed to come didn't come. and they did not bother to write me as well. oh well. I should have seen it coming. I am just not one of those who are destined for a smooth search.

At least the Japanese consultant called me and spoke to me. Highlight to talk to a non-aggressive person the whole day. Even if he might be faking it, I didn't detect it and that was good enough for me. Gave me some job leads, asked me about my interest level, hopefully he can work up some miracles.

Today's lab session was finally individual work. Finally!!!! I could think and just write down my thoughts without having to defend them to anyone, and of course not having to waste time arguing to have my point made. (Thank you thank you thank you for letting me have a voice.)

And we analysed ads today, there was a Got Milk? ad among them. So happy, since it was one of the major ad campaigns that really caught my attention, something I'm really interested in, and I actually know the history of. I could give background info, and I could describe the why the ad was done that way etc etc.

Featuring Tom Brady

Some other ads of celebrities with that milk moustache:

The Olsen Twins

The very delicious Orlando Bloom as Legolas


Pete Sampras


Superman drinks milk too!


Mario too! very apt.. but usually it's his toadstools that make him grow.

yup yup.. that's all for today.. gd nite..

千二百七十五：It's only Thursday??

I can't believe it's only just turned Friday.

Last week went by really fast with lessons at night and going home exhausted. but this week, this week is like a slow motion tape. The days' are going by so turtlishly.. I'm seriously exhuasted.

I think I made a very silly move out of stupidity last nite. But maybe it would be closure to the horrible incident of 4 years ago?

I had a chance to speak to a Japanese guy today. at the recruitment agency. haha. He's a job consultant, probably came in to speak to me and test my language ability, and I'm glad I was up to it. The lady was mean though. dunno where she's from, she has not heard of Capcom (and she dares to call herself a job consultant for the Japanese market!?) and she was damn condescending in the way she spoke. Well, her own limited knowledge shows very much about her, I actually trust that Japanese consultant more. She obviously looks down on SMEs, well, and I would say she is very obviously the kind that is out for commission. well. Let's see how things go..

千二百七十四： Burnout

Burnout is one of my favourite driving games.

The fun part was not the racing but the crashing sections.

anyway. today I'm not here to talk about the game.

I'm feeling .. burnt out. The continuous lessons for the past few days are taking their toll on me and I was just so groggy today, can't concentrate in class, feeling distracted and all jittery. Luckily, there was less talking of new materials in class, rather going through some branding concepts and letting us watch award-winning adverts and making us think through wat type they were.

i dunno if i can make it thru til next week. I really feel like just sitting down for a day and taking a long rest.

千二百七十三: Moot point. moo point?

very worked up in the lesson today.

The partner in class was giving some mootpoints in her argument and harping on the same points again and again based on invalid or non-existent examples and illogical reasoning. and showing totally a lack of understanding of real people. I was quite pissed off. seriously. I hate it that she was somemore speaking stage whisper style, so that the lecturer can like hear her words very clearly (dunno whether he was listening) but I just can't stand this kind of person. ARGH!!!

千二百七十二： Sleepyhead

I haven't felt like that in a while. even though I only had to wake up at 7.30am? I was so heavy headed I dozed off in the office until about 10am. (#-.-#) it was ok at that time cos I still couldn't use the computer yet. but after that, I was still at that feeling of I can't open my eyes. Managed to stay awake until lunch at least, and time flew by after that.

Payday again in a few days, it's great to be receiving pay every 15 days. ;p of cos you receive only half month's pay every half month, but it still feels great to put into the bank those few hundred dollars bit by bit.

Have to start preparing a list of the things I need to restock from Japan, just nice alot of the stuff i bought back are finishing.

The first module ended with the presentation today, ok successful, but it's difficult to know what to do when I don't really know to what degree he was marking on. extra effort? content? Just hope that we did good enough to get the marks for the participation score.

anyway.. have a good night everyone.. i'm looking forward to next Thursday !!

千二百七十一： The Power of Braces

From



to



in a month. my top front teeth are straight!

千二百七十：

had a weird dream last night.

i was running around looking for something elusive (can't remember wat is it now) then it was tiring and disorientating to keep moving around in all directions.

there was a strange phenomenon last night. in dividing for groups for the class presentation, we split unknowingly into boys vs girls. 3 boys vs 18 girls in fact. hehe. it's like the apprentice. i dunno how the 3 guys became a group, but I dun think we can lose except we do lack in the media company work experience. oh well, i did my research last night, hope the stuff is useful.

dental appt today, ttyl.

千二百六十九：Playstation 3

I saw a guy walking out of Gamescore in Funan on Monday carrying a Playstation 3.



It was.. surreal? (a nice way of putting it rather than I never thought anyone would buy it yet)

The prices are still aroung S$1000 for a set here, and probably sooner or later, teething problems will show with the hardware and software as do all new technological products. without a HD-TV, the full graphics capability can't be viewed anyway. Hehe, sounds very sour grapes.. I really am not!! bUT I can't imagine buying that machine at that cost, almost full nett pay gone, and costing more than an air ticket?! hmm but then i might do that if i'm super rich... so .. hehe..

but I want a set of Nintendo Wii though. It's half the price of the PS3 and has the new remote control-styled game controller as novelty.



very interesting new concept isnt it? it's supposed to be more instinctive and interactive. watch this and u'll noe how it works: (if you dunno yet i mean)


looks fun right? but all sold out in Japan le i think. . have to wait for the next production batch le.... can't wait!

千二百六十八：感動

This morning I had set my alarm ready to go to work and I had woken up but just taking another 5 min more. my mum came in and said my dad had said i could take the day off since I still have tuition later, and lessons as well. He was worried that I would tire myself out with these long days consecutively until the end of the month. so grateful to my dad for letting me have the day to relax abit..

千二百六十七：FrontLine

Today, I met BD and went to the Toshiba recruitment talk together. not bad la, long time no see. If only I was an engineer (T.T) the chance to be a 正社員 and be permanently employed in Japan. sighz. But after that I went to speak to the HR person after the talk and he said I could send him my resume and he could check for a position for me :) . well.. got send means they have it. saw JX for the first time in more than 3 years? think he looks more handsome in short hair. heh.

We watched this video during class today.

Frontline: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/

Its about the controversy of Journalists becoming like celebrities and whether it was ethical for them to moonlight in scripted talkshows and provide opinions that do not reflect the truth, rather, reflect whatever the producers wanted to be heard. And the Revolving door concept. its something about political related people becoming journalists after their political careers to write and criticise about politics and becoming mini-celebrities and after that returning to the political scene again, leaving readers not knowing whether they can be trusted at all.

Unfortunately, I was so tired today due the lack of sleep during the weekend (now in fact everything is spinning a little, and I can't really concentrate liao) that I dozed off during the movie. I was actually enjoying it on Saturday, so it's unfortunate that I couldn't really hear what they were saying today. sighz. But we finally did a writing assignment today, and it was ok except my partners keep coming up with all their own opinions and refusing to listen to mine. too bad la. today's one was better, at least she made sense. Tomorrow lesson 4 le. almost half le.

Today he surprised me. pleasant surprise though. He, of his accord msged me to ask if there was anywhere in Japan I wanted to travel to. I was expecting a quiet New Year of staying in, since I didn't want to waste his money and he had paid for my accomodation liao. I was surprised, seriously, cos he had never suggested holidays b4, it was always me asking, so I was quite happy today. I said I wanted to go some snow-covered area, Hokkaido would be best but should be impossible and too ex, then I asked him and he said probably places nearer that we can go in a day by, to just sightsee and walk around together. so we probably are going to Koya-san 高野山, its in Wakayama (和歌山). (you can click on the top right's "English" to see the English site) I dunno about scenery of this place in Winter, snowy hopefully, but its more beautiful in Autumn actually. but, would be great, he was suggesting Kyoto, Nara, Himeji,Koya-san but we've been to most of Kyoto le, and Nara dun have much except deers (do deers feel cold in winter??) but Himeji and Koya-san we haven't gone yet so we're just keeping our options there. Anyway, its only a day trip, dun have to prepare much bah.

Pretty good day except for the fatigue.

I better go sleep liaoz. zz Nitez!

千二百六十六： Finally a Breather

YAY! finally this major exam i been cramming for is over.

Ok.. even though I know I probably won't pass, (can only pray that my guesses are more correct than wrong) but, at least I can gauge where my level is with all that intensive studying. if only they were kinder to set passing at 50%. but no, they had to set it at 70%. and I heard this boy saying today it's his 3rd time. argh! so to hope for a first time pass is abit too much I guess.. Listening Compre was super tough today, but the compre was quite ok, unless i understood wrongly..? argh.

oh well. but its's over at least! hoho. until next december that is. sighz.

have to gear up for the next exams, one in January, another in February and also for the 5 modules in June. 頑張れ！

Met the family at Bugis at the Crystal jade Macau for dinner. The food there was so ex, i think I prefer the normal Crystal Jade. after that we went Singtel and i finally got the K800i! wahahah! for free! cos singtel was offering it at $0 for Premium 1500 plans and my dad signed another 2 years on his line. else I had no phone to go to Japan with in case the tuition called or the company called etc. got the brown one, it actually looks better than the black, even though I was sorta biased toward that colour in the photos. but the real one looks great! hoho.

so Happy i can now surf net without feeling guilty and I have time to read the papers liao. 18 more days to Japan! hee hee

1265

wish me luck!!

千二百六十四： The 4 Characters You Meet

I haven't stayed at home and studied so diligently in a while.

With only a short break at 2 plus to eat my lunch of instant noodles, I managed to get the readings done and leave on time.

Tonight was the first lesson. Felt quite lonely, as most of the other people in the class already knew other classmates from the bachelor's classes liao. The classroom was freaking cold and I hadn't bring a jacket. -.- tomorrow i must bring..

The lecturer was quite funny, and he sounds like Forrest Gump, with abit of a Southern drawl when he speaks. The main thing we learnt today was the character behavioral recognition, where u recognise a person by his assertiveness and responsiveness. Based on this, you get 4 types of people: Amiables, Expressives, Analytics and Drivers. haha. He was an obvious Expressive (high responsiveness and high assertiveness) and his stories lecturing was very funny. At least i roughly understand what he spoke about, though I wish I had more experience to draw from when answering his questions that were industry related, eg, wat kind of policies for this industry is a programmed decision etc? that kind of question. But the whole feel of the class is still very much him speaking and the rest of the people were so quiet, all waiting for him to answer his own questions. sighz. I am not looking forward to group work though...

Lesson 2 tomorrow. I still haven't finish my japanese revision... (T.T)