Laptop and Soccer

Been watching most of the WC matches on my laptop but then 2 nights ago, came home, turned on my laptop and guess what...?!

Yup my laptop's spoilt.... again.

Wow. Incredulous really. After the huge trouble the last time, I was thinking that it should at least be able to hold out till I get back to Singapore right!? Ugh.

This time seems to be a different issue though, cuz even though I can turn the laptop/harddrive on, the screen is a perpetual black. Thinking maybe my graphics card burned out or something.

Doubt I'll be getting a Fujitsu ever again. Suddenly all this trouble (what with breaking down and the expensive/difficulty of getting repairs) is making me think I'll get a Macbook next. Seems alot more reliable. Hrmph.

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In other news, went out to dinner with my friend's Japanese class classmates last night, then looked for a place/bar to watch the Japan vs Holland match and every place was just about full! And then we saw a few people carrying signs for a bar and since the minimum was 1 drink and 500yen (7~8SGD), the 6 of us trooped there in haste since the match already started a few minutes earlier. And only once comfortable enconched on the sofa, did we start noticing the full sign that says "let's watch and support Japan team, with gays". So we had ended up in a gay bar haha. Was no big deal though, since there weren't actually anything going on then, and there wasn't even table charge. We just got to watch soccer in a comfortable place yup (not crowded). Funny where life takes you sometimes =P

Norwegians, Yokohama & Curry Party =)

Today was a busy but fulfilling day - spent alternatively with both internationals and Japanese.

Sissel - my norwegian friend from floorball - came back to Tokyo last Friday, and 5 more of her Norwegian teammates tagged along for a holiday! They all turned up for the recent Monday's practice, and it was seriously the best that I've ever had in floorball memory. Each may not have seemed individually dazzling, but just having their presence and inclusion in the line up, made a huge difference across the board amongst our own players!

Today, woke up a tad late but made it to Yokohama's Minato Mirai to spend time with them + Yui. Had Krispy Kreme, then made it to Chinatown (Chukagai) for a lunch buffet, which turned out to be just so-so. Have to say the best I've had is still the one near dorm/school. Really really glad to have spent the time with this group of very friendly Norwegians though! Would love to visit them in Norway one day! Hopefully =)

Here are some pictures of them!:

(Ivonne, Rebecca, Yui, Bea (spelling?), Sissel)

(At lunch, L-R: Ivonne, Lotte (sp?), Rebecca, Bea (sp?), Ello/Elizabeth, Yui!)

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Time for Curry - Curry Party!

Since I still had that few packets of curry gravy that Nobu so kindly brought/bought from KL on his last business trip, I decided to whip up some curry and invite Japanese friends over to try what curries in Singapore might taste like. Japanese curry is really quite different - thick, chockful of curry-powder taste, mildly spicy and sweet.

What began with just 3 of us Singaporeans (Isabel, Rachel & me) + 4 Japanese, somehow grew to 16 people in total! Some joined in the morning, others just in the last hour of meeting, and even some just in the dorm. Included 3 Thais, 1 HKer too. So the menu was:

- normal (red) chicken curry with potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, onions

- beef + chicken rendang

- lemak (coconut milk) chicken curry with potatoes and carrots.

- rice

- baguettes

- simple zucchini salad

- plus roomie Rach added a chicken curry of her own as well.

Seemed like a pretty good success on the whole I think! Ate, talked, had icecream/desserts/cheesecake (thanks to Hiro!) and ended up playing Murderer game (that Isabel and I taught some of them the last time at the recent Paddy camp). Decided to move on to the more complex game of Polar Bears, and it was pretty fun! Things rounded up at 10.30pm~ish since some had to catch last train, plus Manager-san started to make an appearance/hint for us to finish up.

Such fun! Really wanted to take some photos but completely forgot amidst the rush to cook 3 curries at one go, and serve and try to be a good hostess and teach/play the games!

Really glad that everybody seemed to have enjoyed it though! First ever time for me to 1) organise a large party 2) cook most of the food 3) cooked for THIS many people 4) cook curry. =P

Happy dappy! =)

Friends, Ping Pong and Food!

Last Tuesday, went to eat a Yakiniku Buffet (焼肉食べ放題）with 4 other Singaporeans on one of their recommendations. It was 1280yen (~18sgd; seems expensive but really quite 'cheap' by Tokyo standards) for 90 mins, including drink bar! No wonder reservations are usually required wow. Honestly, everything was pretty good - but a few dishes like the thinly sliced pork, and the squid were quite outstanding. Yum! Hopefully will be visiting the place again at least once more before going back to Singapore.

Good food (and great company of course) was followed by a leisurely stroll in the cool breezy night (~17deg) around Shinjuku and we went up to the Metropolitan Government Building to check out the city view. Not bad.

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2 days ago, on Saturday, went out with Isabel and 2 Japanese friends with the idea of playing... badminton! Shock shock! Especially since I don't have my badminton rackets here. But anyhow, this plan was born from the time when we played a little bit of badminton in the small garden in one of the Japanese friend's house, and he ended up wanting to play seriously/challenging me. Of course I said bring it on heh. But yeah, turns out, unfortunately, that the courts were seriously full that day. The system in that sports centre is kind of weird - you simply buy a voucher from the machine and go up to use the courts if any are empty. So disorganised no?! I like the system back home much better.

But anyway, not much loss, we ended up finding a place to play table tennis instead! And after some leisurely play between all 4 of us, the 'badminton challenger' became the table tennis challenger and well, since I've actually had 2-3 months of training before (looooooooong time ago), I guess there's really no point in delivering the results of this match-up. Then two people had other matters on, so we called another 2 to join us for dinner - Hiroshima-okonomiyaki! I'm sure I've mentioned this dish before - it's full of cabbage and soba noodles rather than the Osaka version that is heavy on flour batter. Really so yummy!! Turns out one of the girls that joined us later - a really cute and lovable Thai! - likes the place so much she's actually been there 4 times just this week! 0.0 Talk about staunch supporter huh.

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And recently, the weather's been okay - or honestly, quite fine. Ranges from 12deg (at night) to about 22 deg in the day time. Perfect spring weather I would say. Except that... I think I miss the cold. Being so used to feeling chilly and cold during trainings, I'm now really NOT used to perspiring at all! In fact it really feels quite uncomfortable. I'm sure I'll be re-adjusting soon though, especially since it seems like the start of summer is not too far off.

Oh humidity and sunlight, for good or for worse, welcome back to my life.

Golden Week Happenings

Am now in the middle of Golden Week - Japan's most expensive and most crowded travel period. Seeing how much more prices are in this week, you wouldn't be blamed if you thought this might be Japan's only holiday period. It's that bad. Prices jump by 2.5 to 3 times - and travel in Japan was never cheap to begin with. That aside, what is Golden Week anyway?

It's actually a few national holidays grouped together - namely 29th Apr, 3rd, 4th and 5th May. As to what each of the days actually are, have gone through several changes since day of inception, but as of this year, 29th Apr is the Showa Day, 3rd May is Constitution Memorial Day, 4th May is Greenery Day, whilst 5th May is Children's Day or Boy's Day. Of these few, I think Children's Day is quite an interesting one, because even though Singapore also celebrates a Children's Day, the actual practices and notions are quite different. In Singapore, Children's Day is literally a day that celebrates being a child - so the best thing is to give you a holiday of course! =P But here in Japan, Children's Day is actually more like Boy's Day, and koi-shaped banner flags are flown. The equivalent for girls, Hinamatsuri, is actually on a separate day - March 3 - and ornamental dolls in the Heian period style are displayed in the house.

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Aside from all these, some updates on recent events.

Thursday was spent with the floorball members - jointly in a celebration of our girls' team getting Champions for this league season as well as a farewell gathering for Jon, who will be moving back to Norway (with his lovely Japanese wife!) for good this coming Saturday. Sad but this is not the end and I'm sure we'll meet again some day soon! Since being so fortunate as to have met him and Sissel at floorball, I now have a reason to go visit Norway! =D So I'm sure I'll meet him again someday! He's really been a great player, mentor and most importantly, friend.

Friday was a visit to Masa's house! Because Bel and I were saying that we were really curious about how a Japanese person's house is like and so Masa very very generously invited us (and a few others) over! One of the most fun I've had in Japan! We basically chilled out at his house - played badminton, guitar, card games, Uno, Jenga, and even ate yummy curry rice that his mother kindly cooked! And met his cute sister too! =)

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And recently, I've been watching Xing Guang Da Dao (5th season) on Youtube, since chancing upon one of the episodes recently. And I've realised that I like 咪咪小眼睛的男生！^.^ Haha Lin Jie Yu and Luo Zi You are both very cute! Because of their eyes haha =P

Hiroshima Trip 23 Mar to 27 Mar 2010

There's a special kind of train ticket that's only sold 3 times a year during the school holidays: seishun 18 kippu 青春18切符 (Youth 18 Pass). It allows 5 non-consecutive and non-user-specific days of local train rides (in this sense, local means any type of train even express local trains, except Shinkansen/bullet train). So armed with this exciting pass, we (me and 2 other female friends) decided to make our way further further south to Hiroshima. By the fastest Shinkansen, it takes about 4.5 hours 1-way and 18,000yen; with local train rides, it took about 14-16 hours and 2,300yen. Thank goodness for the overnight train that runs during this special pass season, thus allowing us to use just 1 day of the pass each, instead of 2! 1 pass costs 11,500 yen so each day (5 days total) cost 2,300yen and the original journey cost about 10,000yen to 17,000yen - woohoo or what?!

So off to Hiroshima we went - and despite the tiredness of sleeping on trains and transferring on and off, there was a much more credible sense of travelling, of a journey undertaken. Many times, when I've sat in the window seat on the aeroplane looking out over the ocean and islands below, there's always been a surreal feeling. Especially when they start making the announcement "We have now arrived at XXX Airport. Thank you for flying with XXX Airlines. Please wait till the ...". Inevitably I think,"that's it?? we're here?!". Somehow there's no sense of a day passing, no feel of the geography, no idea of the cultures/people we might have flown by along the way. Now, passing by small fields of tea, and rice, cabbage, and chugging slowly by platforms that look different from the flashier city cousins, spying mountain ranges in the distance, and even passing by the sea glittering with sunlight - one could not help but feel, "yes, I'm travelling!" I'm traversing not just space, time and land; but cultures, people's lives, history and even the present." Yes, I'm travelling. I've never thought much about travelling in Europe before (except to visit Italy and Spain for food *slurp*), but now I'm starting to see the charm of taking a train across Europe.

Okay enough babbling and some pictures from the Hiroshima Trip:

1) On one of the trains to Hiroshima! Behold the fields of green and mountain ranges in the distance.

2) Himeji Castle - about midway on our journey to Hiroshima, so we stopped by to take a look. Especially since it will begin 5-year renovation work starting April 2010, so we were really lucky. Also known as the "White Heron" (due to its distinctive white walls) and is probably one of the few (or the only?) castle that has kept its interior intact. Very interesting castle - very defensive on the inside.

3) Lunch at Himeji - Anago Don. Unagi is freshwater eel, whilst Anago refers to saltwater eel or conger eel. Supposedly one of the local produce of the area. Both are equally tasty in my opinion, though anago is supposedly less fatty/oily than unagi.

4) Hiroshima-Okonomiyaki: Perhaps the most famous food dish in Hiroshima. Quite different from the Osaka version, in that it has just a thin layer of flour (the round white piece), usually includes noodles and more cabbage. This was served without mayonnaise too. We tried 2 shops: first was the very famous Mi-Chan and the other was Okonomiyaki-MuraChou (お好み焼き村長の店 = literally the Okonomiyaki Village Headchief's Shop). Funnily enough, I prefer the Hiroshima-okonomiyaki that's near my school in Tokyo instead! =P Like how I preferred the okonomiyaki I had in Tokyo compared to the one in Osaka! 0.0

5) Of course we took a walk around Peace Memorial Park - (clockwise from bottom left) Golden crane under the Children's Monument, walking the solemn path on a drizzly day, the Peace Bell, the Peace Monument, Aioi Bridge - the T-shaped bridge that apparently became the A-bomb's target, the Peace Memorial Museum from afar, and the A-bomb Dome.

6) And of course we entered the Peace Memorial Museum. 2 of the several things that struck me so much: (top) a clock stops at 8.15am; and the whole city has since stopped with it. (bottom) the self-sewn uniform of a 13-year-old girl that died from radioactive poisoning. what struck me was not so much her death in itself, but the tiny size of the uniform that looked more befitting of a 8-year-old perhaps. The costs of war...

But that aside, although the museum was so strongly geared towards peace and quite objective in its exhibits, I found that it was ultimately still a Japanese museum, and it served - albeit very subtly - to still further the Japanese story of WW2: Japan is an innocent victim and one that should be pitied and sympathised with for the very fact that the A-bomb was dropped upon her. Hrm, not denying this, but it'll be nice to have the whole story please.

7) Hiroshima's also known for oysters - we often saw oyster 'bed racks' floating about in the sea/river. So here's a meal with steamed oysters on rice. Not bad. Also tried grilled oysters in the shell in Miyajima, and Oyster Fry (deep fried oysters in batter).

8) Unlike most other cities in Japan where an extensive network of subway and train system exists, the tram/streetcar is the way to go for Hiroshima - largely due to the fact that Hiroshima is a delta, making it difficult and expensive to construct such a subway system.

9) Usually, every city/area in Japan has its own distinctive design for manhole covers. Hiroshima's is - surprise surprise - one of colourful cranes.

10) We also made the trip out to Kure City, to visit the Yamato Maritime Museum, which basically documented the importance of the Kure Naval Base to the WW2 and Hiroshima then. Interesting perspective. It also had an entire area for interactive play experience mainly for kids, but we 3 had a smashing time there. And I learnt alot about the science that makes shipbuilding possible. Neat.

11) Having made our way to Hiroshima, we could not possibly miss out the day trip to one of the top 3 scenic spots in Japan - Miyajima. Famous for its beautiful scenery and the Itsukushima Shrine with the bright orange torii (or Japanese Shinto Shrine Gate) out in the water. It was a welcome change away from all the peace and war. (And look mum! I'm wearing the giraffe dress! =) ) Miyajima by day was pretty but slightly crowded; Miyajima by dusk/night was breath-taking and awe-inspiring...

12) Besides tourism, another major industry in Hiroshima is none other than Mazda!

We took a (free -yippee!) guided tour around Mazda's factories, facilities and museum. Learnt more about car-making and got to see the assembly of cars in real life! The engineers are really quite amazing. Whilst alot of the big parts were assembled with precision robotics, highly-skilled workers were still necessary to put in the small screws, bolts, attach the dashboard etc etc. Each person only had 1min 48 seconds to finish doing his specific part on the conveyor belt!

13) Also chanced upon this special exhibition in Hiroshima Museum of Contemporary Art. William Kentridge is a South African, and his works - especially his animated 'videos' - reflect that. Really thought-provoking exhibition. The permanent exhibition was not bad as well - focusing on the theme of "Boundary" yet somehow the curator (unsurprisingly?) managed to incorporate the idea of 8.15am once more...

14) A good trip on the whole - and I do quite like Hiroshima. Oddly enough, what I find sad about the city is not the whole 8.15am A-bomb milestone event; but the fact that everywhere, everything was about that ONE fateful day in 1945, August 6 at 8.15am. As a history student, I certainly appreciated coming to Hiroshima - if not just to learn how subtle biasness can be so skilfully delivered. But on the whole, I really did like Hiroshima. Not for any of this war and peace business, but for the spacious wide thoroughfares that criss cross the city; and the graceful bridges that arch above the water ways; the quiet buzz of her people - completely opposite to the 'loud' mass of Tokyo.

How sad that she can't seem to move past her past though. For today's Hiroshima is almost as if characterised only by that one mushroom cloud that dominated her past, haunts her present and will probably shape her future.

Day 1 and Day 2 - Seoul

Day 1

Arrived in Seoul last night - cold, cold, cold. -2deg to -6deg I think.

Dinner with Ingle, a Dutch girl that I coincidentally met at the bus stop whilst we were both feeling lost and finding the same hostel. Dinner was good - grilled korean bbq with lettuce and kimchi, and a sweet sukiyaki-like beef stew with tanghoon.

Korean Air stewardesses are pretty - very much the idea of the Korean beauty - and their uniforms are a very smart beige formal blazer skirt type. Nice.


Day 2

Ming arrives. Nandaemun window shopping (everything is really so cheap! and nice!) and tried alot of food. Fried chewy dough balls in sugar, roadside kimchi soup noodles, meat patty with tteok in the middle, then bimbimbap for lunch and got canned sikkhae and seujeounghwa from the supermarket to try as well. Interesting!

Will be watching Nanta - a nonverbal comic performance with kitchen tools - with Ming and Ingle soon! Then probably dinner/supper. I like Seoul =)

Spring spring -boing!-

Just a short post to say I'm doing okay - more than okay actually... I'm doing great for some reason! Every day has been a pretty good day so far with many great moments and surprisingly quite abit of interaction with Japanese, Koreans and Norwegians.

Last Friday went to the Studio Ghibli Museum with Seunghee and co, then got called in last minute for my first ever part-time-job.
Saturday was floorball training in the morning then cooked phad thai for a few friends that night.
Sunday was Chofu Recreational League in the evening and a quick curry dinner with Sissel - floorball goalkeeper from Norway who used to be on exchange here at Waseda just up till last August before I came!
Monday was Karaoke with Seunghee and Paddy members (as a sort of farewell since she was leaving on 10th), followed by floorball training which turned out to be one of the best I've had since starting last October. Timely too - the last training before our first Japan Cup match this Sunday 14th Feb. Came back that night and managed to book my ticket to Korea for the cheapest price and the perfect flight timings! How lucky am I really...
Tuesday was spent sleeping late and weather was so good at 20deg that I dragged Isabel out to go randomly walk around for 3-4 hours with me. Exploring is fun - just grab a friend, a random direction and a Mister Donut (popular donut chain here)!
Wednesday was spent meeting Donna (a Singaporean friend studying at Monash, who came here to travel with her cousins) and Donna's Japanese friends and my friends. The "party" grew to be pretty big towards the afternoon, with 2 Japanese, 3 Singaporeans and 1 Canadian. Went to Ueno for a stroll, then to a calligraphy exhibition and a small art exhibition, followed by a walk to Akihabara (electronics place), then went to see the Imperial Palace and even visited the "entrance examination" deity shrine en route. Finished up with warm cuppa cocoa at Starbucks at Tokyo Station. Really comfortable company for some reason. Rushed back to near the dorm to meet my Norwegian floorball friend Sissel. Took her to try the new Chanpon (a Nagasaki Chinese-origin dish reminiscent of Hokkien Mee!!) place near the dorm, then she took me to a bar where she used to frequent and we got a drink called Sugar and Spice. Pretty name and delicious drink. Dropped by Picasso for a while for her to reminisce about staying at Hoshien just last year.
Today was spent with 6 Japanese friends from Paddy (my english conversation circle at Waseda) and Isabel - and the 8 of us went to Yokohama to play the arcade (cuz it just HAD to rain ugh) then did 2 rides in the cold, feathery rain; took purikura (neoprint) and found out how well Sou knew how to use those machines; then went down to Chinatown - biggest one in Japan - for dinner to 'celebrate' an early CNY.

A spring break travel report: I'll be going to Korea next Tuesday 16th Feb till following Monday 22nd since one of my friends from hall was free to travel too!
At this rate, I just know I'm going to have to work hard and find a stable part-time-job (not like now) once school semester 2 starts again in April >.< May not actually be bad at all - just the searching part is so tiresome.

But till then life is great =) Good night world.

Noodles Yum!

Today was a pretty tiring day - full day of class + make up class and a final exam. Hence the excuse to treat myself a little and I ended up eating out for both lunch and dinner - but I'm so glad!

Lunch was a great recommendation by ZQ - Japanese class classmate - to a tiny little shop selling Abura Soba (油そば). About 10-15 min walking distance from the main gates of school. And when I said tiny, I meant TINY. The shop had counter space for maybe 10? And enough standing space for 2 to cook behind the counter. The shop opens till 4am and apparently it is not uncommon to see a long queue outside at 1am. Abura Soba is actually more like ramen, with no soup and just a little bit of some kinda soy-based sauce, topped with bamboo shoots and a slice of grilled pork. On the table, there's some kinda of dried chilli paste, vinegar and (not spicy) chilli oil which you can add at your own preference. 600 yen for 1 regular-sized bowl may not seem very cheap, but the serving is SO filling. And YUMMY!

(Our shop looked pretty much like this one - though the picture is not taken by me. Too busy eating! >.<)

Dinner was a spontaneous decision to try Champon(ちゃんぽん)! There's a shop nearby the dorm that opened about 2-3 months ago by the same people at Ippudou and so finally got to try it today. Especially hooked when Jf mentioned that it's something like hokkien mee - which I loveee. And it certainly almost felt like it. It had a variety of ingredients from long cabbage to squid, egg, pork and fish cake (gosh! first time!) and was cooked in a flavourful gravy with ramen-like noodles. Again very yummy and very filling! Came back to find out that this was actually a dish that a Chinese created in Nagasaki - and apparently has Fujian origins hence the similarity to Singapore's hokkien mee huh. I like Champon! So much so that it helped me decide that I shall certainly go to Nagasaki/Kyushuu region this summer - whether on homestay or some other way.

Food =) yayyy.

Random Things

Interesting trivia:

Apparently Japan has one of the world's most expensive pizzas; second only to Norway.

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One of my floorball friends at the club is a Norwegian married to a Japanese; and they had met whilst studying in England. He can't speak Japanese (yet; learning but still very basic) and she can't speak Norwegian. Was just thinking earlier what it's like to be communicating in one's second language most of the time. Or perhaps for them it's close to their first anyway. Hmm.

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Just played my first match with Chofu today, albeit a friendly and not the Japan Cup. But didn't go too well, and the worst thing was, I forgot to enjoy the game. Hopefully won't be repeating this!

Winter Trip 2009 - Osaka/Nara/Kobe Part 1

So on the night of 22 December, Isabel, Dhani, Yang Chen and I boarded the night bus at Shinjuku bound for ....-drum roll-.... Osaka! The night bus was, well, quite bearable actually, except that I probably should bring a neck pillow if I ever repeat this experience - which I probably will since this is the cheapest means of transport for domestic travel... =/ Poor Dhani was not so lucky though, as he sat next to a rather (surprisingly) big-sized Japanese who kept talking with his friend the whole night. Arrived in Osaka the next morning at about 6am, and so the trip began!

23 Dec - Sze Ping, Osaka Castle, Peace Osaka, Namba, Okonomiyaki
Our hostel (Guesthouse U-en) was such a cosy place! We managed to book the private triple room for the 4 of us and paid just 300yen more than if we were to get the dorm beds. The whole place had an almost bohemian-feel and yet traditional Japanese style to it. Our room used to be part of a family home, so it was styled in the traditional Japanese decor of tatami mats, futons, and paper sliding doors. Nice!

Managed to meet up with Sze Ping (!) at the Osaka Castle Park, which was just a 15 minute walk from our hostel. Went into the main hall of the Osaka Castle as well, which has been converted into a museum of sorts, mainly detailing the life and exploits of the founder of the Osaka Castle - Hideyoshi Toyotomi. Pretty interesting but then again probably because I'm a history student heh =P.
(The Osaka Castle Main Hall - a converted museum about Hideyoshi Toyotomi.)

(Taking a photo together at a random face-cut-out in the Osaka Castle Park!)

Next up on the outskirts of the Osaka Castle Park was the Peace Museum Osaka, which I found to be a highlight of the trip. Having been to the Yushukan (War Museum @ Yasukuni Shrine) and seeing how amazingly biased it could be, this was surprisingly refreshing, with a whole exhibit on the WW2 atrocities as committed by the Japanese. At 250yen, this was probably the cheapest admission fee of the whole trip too.
(A pamphlet from Peace Osaka, of which the logo apparently reflects the whole universe if you look carefully.)

Went back to the hostel for a bit of much-needed nap, before heading out to Namba - one of the main nightlife/shopping centre of Osaka - and had Okonomiyaki dinner with Sze Ping! Unlike the bounenkai one at Chofu, the staff made the okonomiyakis for us here. I had extra cheese topping with my order and it was heavenly. Cheese = <3! Sze Ping and I were both lamenting that cheese in Japan is so darn expensive though blah. After dinner, Sze Ping went back to pack for her trip to China the next day, whilst we 4 walked around for a bit.

(At okonomiyaki dinner - Sze Ping!)

(Hungry Isabel, Yang Chen and Dhani looking sad whilst waiting for their okonomiyakis to be done.)

Paddy Xmas Party 22 Dec 2009

Amidst the rush of all the work due in the last week of school, and the never-ending small errands to do before going for the winter break trip, before one knew it, it was 22nd December - last day of school for 2009!

Had a Xmas party with the Paddy English Conversation circle at Shinjuku at a really pretty and cosy cafe/restaurant but my only gripe was that the food was far from sufficient =/ Tried a very yummy 杏酒(an-zu-shu) though. Pictures below!



Isabel, Dhani and I rushed off right after the Xmas party - rushed back to the dorm to pack for the Osaka trip! 45 mins to pack for 5 days haha. Oh well guess it's me, so what's new right? I remember having 40 mins to pack for Work and Travel in USA heh. Trip photos in the next post!

Last Weekend - Disneyland + Isabel's 21st

I feel so old - whilst my friend just turned 21 last weekend, I am going to be 22 in about 2 weeks! Oh well, age is but a number!

So last Saturday, we went to Disneyland for Isabel's 21st birthday celebration! 21 is big in USA and Singapore and a few other places, but in Japan, they celebrate 20 years old as the 'special' one - because it's the age when they can legally drink alcohol!

Some photos from Disneyland - went with Rachel, Isabel and Dhani from Canada!



Part of her birthday celebration 'criteria' was for everyone to wear 'ears' in Disneyland! In the 10million or so souvenir shops they have in Disneyland, they sell a variety of hairbands, clips, hairties etc with cartoon character ears on them! Like Dumbo, Shrek, Aliens, Minnie Mouse, Stitch etc etc. So Isabel got her Minnie Mouse ears, Rachel got Marie from the Aristocats and I got a huge pink, leopard-spotted Minnie Mouse ribbon hair tie. Felt like such kids lol. Didn't help that the park was full of toddlers and families.



Well, I honestly never ever ever thought I'd actually step foot into Disneyland (wasn't interested last year in LA either) but I guess since it was a special occasion, I had no objections either. Nonetheless, no offence to all the hundreds or thousands of visitors at Disneyland that day, but I doubt I would ever want to go back of my own volition. I've heard that DisneySea is better, because it is targeted at the adults after all so the rides are apparently more thrilling, but like I've said before, theme parks are never my thing. I can think of too many things to buy/do/experience with the money that's needed for the expense needed for a day trip to such theme parks. And the waiting time too. So no more Disneys and the likes - unless another special occasion comes along I guess.

Sunday, her real birthday, was a more relaxed day of karaoke in the evening - filled with songs by her favouritest favouritest artist Jay Chou - and dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant Tapas Tapas. The food was so-so, but honestly the service pissed me off for a bit. Firstly they didn't allow us to consume or bring out the cake there, unless we all bought a drink each. Ice water took a while to be served as well, and was never automatically refilled. And then, after all that initial fuss, the waiter blithely ignorantly spoiled the surprise by asking at the table if we would like the cake to be served now?! Sheesh, don't they understand the concept of service?! Coming from a nation who actually have a term coined out for this "saa-bi-su" (サービス) usually to mean that they throw in a freebie for buying alot though. Pshaw. Nevermind. Can't always have too high standards I guess, unlike at Italian restaurants in Singapore. Anyway, after the pretty birthday cake and dinner, made our way down to the Hub - an English pub where I just found out screens EPL matches!! - for a drink before calling it a night.



Certainly hope Isabel had a great time and a wonderful first few days of her 21st!

December Blabber

Went to Disneyland yesterday. Not a place of my choice but since it's Isabel's birthday today and she wanted to go Disneyland, so there we were. I can't say much about it except that there's ALOT of people and it's quite expensive and you wait alot for the rides, which end up being just all of 1/10th of your waiting time. Spent alot on food as well, because well, difficult to be there from 8am to 10pm and not eat/drink anything.

Will post pictures up soon.

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December is only halfway through but it's been and will be a busy one. Not to mention pocket-breaking too.

Assignments, quizzes, dinners, etc.

Disneyland, karaoke x 3, floorball, birthdays x 2, and of course the winter-break trip to Osaka/Nara/Kobe for 4 days.

And for floorball, I have to pay for the floorball club transfer (150ch = ~220sgd) and miscellaneous registration fees, club fees and uniform etc which is another 11610yen (~190sgd) and maybe a bit more next year/season. Sometimes I wonder why I go to such lengths to keep at it - travelling at least one hour each way each time I go for training, and paying the expensive accumulated transport costs, and now these. But it'd be such a waste to give it up now wouldn't it? Having brought my stick all the way here, going through all means to contact them and join the club, and faithfully going for every week even though it was difficult and awkward to make conversation... Such a pity if I let it all go because of money. So I'll keep at it. It'll be so sad if I trained with them but didn't get to play any matches with them.

$-wise, I'm definitely set back by quite a bit, but I guess will just have to cut back next month, alot. Guess that means no (too) expensive places for my birthday lol.

Upcoming Plans!

Today was a good day in all - pretty yummy curry with rice set lunch at Khana (Nepali, Pakistani Restaurant near school) with Japanese class classmates, and a comfortable izakaya dinner with WF, JF and Isabel. Food always tastes so much better with laughter and good company.

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Winter break will be coming up soon - from 23 Dec to 5 Jan - and plans are in the making for a trip to Osaka & Kyoto! Have yet to finalise transport and accommodation but hopefully soon! Can't wait!

The Japanese have a saying that goes:

“京の着倒れ、大阪の食い倒れ。”

Basically translates to "Shop till you drop in Kyoto (on Kimonos), Eat till you drop in Osaka."

Wonder if that is indeed the case - will find out soon!

Dinner at Asakusa with 5 Singaporeans + Nobu

After Yasukuni, all the 'followers' (the 5 who tagged along to Yasukuni except for Jon - so basically all the Singaporeans) trooped down with me to Asakusa to meet Nobu for dinner. Nobu just graduated from Toudai about 1 year ago or so and he was on a 1-year exchange to NUS during which he stayed at Eusoff (yay). He just got back from a business trip in KL and he got me KARI, which then became the basis for the meetup.

First time in Asakusa for me, though I've always heard it's pretty and a more traditional looking part of Tokyo. It was dark already when we got there at 5.30pm (the sun sets at 4.30pm) but the streets to the temple were prettily lit.

So pre-dinner snack at a tentage stall - amazake (甘酒), oden () and some bean paste soup. The bean paste soup and oden were okay - Yong Tau Foo is still nicer hehe - but the amazake was yummy! It reminded me very much of the peanut soup in ahballing (glutinous rice ball dessert). Contrary to its name, amazake actually has no alcoholic content, so even children can drink it.
(Pre-dinner in this temporary stall under the tent.)
(Oden - very similar to Yong Tau Foo but alot less tasty and soggier too.)
(Delicious amazake! Yoshi recommended it to Isabel and me the last time on Takao-san. Have to say he's right that it's yummy!)

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Then dinner. Walked into one of the many izakayas lining a street and what a feast it was. A feast of novelty. Take a look at the menu:

(Beer - Nama biiru; the first thing to order at an izakaya, then "kanpai" or cheers.)

(Buta kimchi - Grilled pork with kimchi. First time I've had kimchi in Japan and contrary to its fiery red appearance, it's actually not spicy at all! Sweet and tasty, and went really well with rice. I like!)

(Toro sashimi - Raw tuna fish. Yum. Again my first ever sashimi in Japan. Sigh.)

(Liver sashimi - This was dipped in a sauce of sesame oil + salt and it was surprisingly yummy. The usual liver taste was not as strong and the texture was silkier.)

(Cow stomach/tripe sashimi - Another surprising find. More tender than the ones I've had in beef soup noodles in Singapore too. Those I used to chew on endlessly.)

(Stingray/Mantaray fin with mayo - This was yummy. A snack food more than anything, it tasted alot like the dried cuttlefish snack, but less fishy and alot more tender and tasty. Two thumbs up!)

(Nikujaga - Basically translates into "meat and potatoes". Done in the usual Japanese 'stew' style with the flavouring of soy sauce, mirin, sake and sugar.)

(Tanyaki - Grilled skewered tongue. Third time having tongue, but still tasty. Managed to force Rachel to try it too haha yay for adventurous her!)

(Hot sake - This went down surprisingly smoothly. The alcohol wasn't fiery at all like shochu hmm. What a nice drink to have on a coooold night too.)

~All pictures courtesy of Alicia, since I was too busy being greedy. Ahem I mean eating. =)