Kyoto 23-25 Nov

Apologies for the recent neglect - caught up doing too many things and nothing at the same time heh.

Last Wednesday (23 Nov) was Labour Day and a public holiday, and since I usually have no classes on Tues and Thurs, that left me 3 days free, so I went on a solo trip to Kyoto! =)

Days 1 and 3 were on my own, but day 2 I was lucky enough to have Sze Ping come down from Osaka to join me. It was great catching up with her =)

Anyway here's some pictures from Kyoto. Even though it's supposed to be the start of the perfect momiji (red maple leaf) season, but the unusually warm weather so far meant that it was still pretty much multi-coloured with just some red trees. Still pretty though:

Famous Kinkakuji

Sze Ping and I at Toufukuji

The thousand Torii Shrine - Fushimi Inari

Kyoto Imperial Palace

It's Autumn =)

Europe next week on, but I still have lots to prepare. What's new? Heh...

Midterm Red Magic at Nikko

The past four days were the first school break in a while. Thursday was Culture Day - Bunka no Hi (文化の日); Friday was a school holiday in preparation for the Waseda School Festival on the subsequent Saturday and Sunday. So yay, no classes for 4 days in a row, and since I usually have classes 10.40-12nn, and 2.45 to 4.15pm on Saturdays, this was my first ever free weekend!

Thursday was spent recovering from the all-nighter that I pulled on Tuesday night that preceded a 9am-6pm day (with 2 reports and 1 presentation due), and so Friday we went off to Nikko (日光）to see some of the autumn red leaves.

Nikko National Park is quite an interesting place actually, with a World Heritage area, theme park area, onsen, mountains of deciduous forests, Lake Chuzenji, plateaus and waterfalls too. Definitely worth a second, and much longer, visit, but for now, mission accomplished.

More photos up on facebook.

Too bad but am now back to reality of more midterm reports, assignments and presentations.

Tokyo Hike

Waseda had an event whereby students could sign up to 'hike' - by which they actually mean saunter at your own pace - for 20km, through 5 different university campuses for one whole day.

It was quite fun, despite taking up my Sunday, leaving me with no weekend again, but then again I never usually do have free, lazy weekends.

Pictures up on Facebook.

Weather changes

It's more than midway through October; and today was the first day I felt an autumn chill. 15degC. Took you long enough, Autumn, but I did so enjoy the past month of summery cool.

Time to pile on the autumn layers and break out the furry jackets. Hooray. ...Or not. More layers do mean taking more time to decide what to wear though. Ugh.

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And just because I have glue and a stack of receipts (I always keep my receipts in Japan), I'm making a recycled post-it pad. It's still a baby, but I'm sure it'll stack up in no time at all. My only grouch: I just wish it were more colourful.

Butter vs Margarine

Just earlier tonight at 6.39pm, I'd thought to myself "It's a Friday night and I'm off to the library. Gosh." ^^

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On the way back to the dorm from the library, I made my customary rounds at the supermarkets (so I guess it's not surprising at all that most of my expenditure is at supermarkets, so much so that I think I have accumulated enough food to hypothetically last me through a world war...). To my horror, I realised that the supermarket seemed to have started selling much fewer brands of butter, and many more of the cheap affordable, claim-to-taste-like-butter margarine. I've always been some sort of purist when it comes to food and ingredients: Want it to taste like butter? Then use butter, not a replacement! Want to be healthy and ingest less oil/sodium/polysaturated fats? Then ingest in moderation, but never ever replace it with less-salt/fat/etc items that more often than not compromise a lot on taste. I tested this out recently by purchasing a low-sodium soy sauce, and can I just say it must have had a totally opposite effect. Its taste is so mild and mildly off-putting at that too, that I probably have ended up putting in salt just to try and remedy the taste. Ugh. The only reason why I'm still putting up with that low-sodium fake of a soy sauce is because I'm holding out for fish sauce, which I have yet to locate.

Anyway, back to the point of my post. It all got triggered because when I got back, I checked my mail and the daily quote that I subscribe to and received today was none other than about butter and margarine!

"As for butter versus margarine, I trust cows more than chemists".

-Joan Gussow

So true, don't you think?! Hehe. =)

Dinner - Asian Minestrone?

Cooked dinner last night and it was yum.

Made a soup with the onion confit, snap peas, mushrooms and tofu. Cheated a little by using half a chicken stock cube but oh my, the end result was delicious. I had bought some french bread a day or two ago so that was my carb for the day. Felt like a weird combination at first - toasted sliced baguette and the soup - but it turned out so well that I just dipped the bread in the soup and ate it plain. Did not need the butter as planned. Healthier and yummy choice yay.

In other news, I've been on a hunt for arubaito - which is part-time job in Japanese but apparently with a German etymology. The yen is way too strong that even the thought of withdrawing from my Singapore account is hurting my invisible pocket's heart. So as of now, I have about three random jobs. One is a conversation partner for dinner meetings once a month, to be conducted in English, Japanese and Chinese. This one is a brain-fryer - it is so difficult to keep switching every ten minutes - so thankfully it's only once a month. The second is not really a paid job, but I get so much out of it still. I babysit - in English - an adorable two-year-old Japanese girl for one hour, and in exchange for that, her mother helps me with Japanese for one hour. Wonderful way of language exchange isn't it? Last (for now) but not least, I had an interview yesterday with a guy who set up an international babysitting company, and I got a job scheduled for Sunday already. Exciting but a little nervous because unlike the one hour, this one is minimum 3 hours and may include infants. We'll see how it goes. If all else fails, I can always apply for a waitress job that I've been eyeing, or go work for the ramen shop that I worked for in Singapore. We'll see how it goes. I'm thinking of giving up floorball too. Think of how much money I could save with that hmm.

Activities...

I've been feeling bored - I guess I just have to get used to doing less and slowing down - so I went to reply to all sorts of ads and stuff. Before I know it, I'm travelling places to get discounted shoe racks, guitar (!)... but still trying to get an electric kettle/boiler though. Worst comes to worse I might buy one - the kitchen ones are just too disgusting beyond description.

And suddenly an empty Saturday (today) is filled with language exchange with a little 2-year-old girl and then her mother will teach me Japanese; followed by a dinner for conversation exchange in English, Chinese and Japanese. Wow.

Out and About on a Sun(ny)Day

Whilst its howling wind, lashing rain thanks to a raging typhoon out there today, just three days ago was a bright, 33degC sunny weekend with not a cloud in sight.

Saturday was spent walking around Harajuku for a bit, before joining some of the girls from the dorm at Yoyogi Park for a Vietnamese Food Festival!

People bought food from the many many tents, sat down on these stairs and tucked in. =)

One of the things we tried was Banh Mi - a pork sandwich in Vietnamese-style French baguette. It was SO good!

People trying on the traditional Vietnamese attire and taking photos on rickshaws.

After visiting this fair, a never-before-urge to visit Vietnam surfaced. Combined with the Vietnamese dishes that I've been seeing on Masterchef Australia, I cannot wait to go Vietnam and try the food there sometime soon hopefully! This is how travelling itches always hit me - first the food, then the travel. Oh dear.

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Sunday was even more blazing hot than Saturday, hitting 33 degrees Celsius or perhaps a bit more. But the sun was the bright cheery type and humidity was not very high, so that made a good day out for walking (and tanning! -.-'').

I started the day with one of my favourite activities in Tokyo - visiting flea markets!

Look beyond the row of bicycles, through the trees and see the ... flea market!

Tada.

I reached there pretty late though - about 2.20pm - and only had around 40 mins to browse around before people started packing up to go. Nonetheless it was a good experience, chatting up storekeepers, checking out bargain wares, and even randomly striking up conversation with a Japanese uncle, who was browsing the flea market too. Knowing a language and a place really opens up windows and doors of opportunities.

The flea market wound up by 3pm and the day was still too beautiful for me to just head back to the dorm. So I decided to take a stroll and indulge in another of my favourite pasttimes - getting 'lost'. Initially I thought I was somewhat headed back in the direction of my dormitory but I soon realised that I went off the opposite way. Nonetheless it proved an enjoyable time with new things and new sights. Ended up in Aoyama - the Beverly Hills of central Tokyo - and had a chocolate shake at a Lindt shop. Wandered into the back alleys of Harajuku, where rather than cheap garish girls' fashion, these were the more chic, funky and creative shops and facets.

Photos and captions to be up on facebook soon; uploading photos and captioning them on blogspot is just too much of a pain. Here are some examples though:

Typhoon No. 15

Another 'present' for Japan - Typhoon No. 15.

I applied for a part-time work permit yesterday and whilst waiting in the queue - 150 plus people! - to submit my application form, there was a TV there broadcasting news of the Typhoon and its effects. Nagoya seemed to be one of the worst hit areas, with people having to evacuate and floods reaching waist-level, subway stations being submerged and all... Really sobering. I hope casualty numbers will be minimal or even zero after this Typhoon but that may be just hopeful at best.

Japan seems really hard-hit with all the natural disasters this year...

And yet, as horrible as this may sound, I think all these disasters, if carefully handled by authorities to minimise casualties, may actually prove to be some kind of timely intervention for the society to rebuild herself and her economy.

Waist-high floods in Nagoya.

Submerged subway stations.

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I understand that Japan's economy has been stuck at a stage called stagflation for some time now - stagnant growth, high inflation. I'm not sure if the government is using exchange rate to mitigate the inflation, but the Yen is at a freakishly high rate as of now. 4 years ago when I first came to Japan for a floorball friendly match, the rate was 100yen = SGD1.30. 2 years ago, it ranged from about 100yen = SGD1.50-1.55. Now, the rate has climbed to an almighty 100yen = SGD1.65, just up from 100yen = SGD1.60 a week ago. And it's not like the Sing dollar has been weakening; in fact, it's been reaching stronger rates especially against the US dollar and the Euro.

I'm so not withdrawing any money from my Singapore account right now - the exchange rate is way too horrendous. I can only hope it'll go down some in time, and hopefully by the time I'll need to draw cash out.

Tadaima!

16 months later, I'm back.

Tadaima Japan. =) ("tadaima" is a Japanese way of saying "I'm back!")

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1 year on, there doesn't seem to be a huge amount of change in Tokyo, unlike the 1-year difference that I keenly felt upon return to Singapore from Tokyo in Aug 2010. There are certain signs that linger on after the earthquake and the Fukushima incident though. Unlit vending machines. alternate lamp posts switched on, etc.

Doing my part too, with the table light switched off now and air conditioning turned off in the day. Plus I'm folding paper boxes now out of scrap paper, and as in the past, attempting to limit the number of plastic bags I take from shops.

Edit: Added pictures of the little boxes

one for my nail polishes...

one for my accessory box and sunglasses...

another for my moisturiser, just 'cause it fits...

another to hold my to-go stuff: handphone, mints, lip balm

one more for keys& watch, one for charger, and below them both: 100yen coins

And there's more lol. For tissue papers, food... yeah. Lots.

Hmm paper boxes, anyone? =)