Tokyo Gurashi ~

i am going home this summer!

2008-07-03T06:18:14Z

back on 1st august.

weekend + hanadan final

2008-06-29T13:49:04Z

back from Izu. it was a really sudden decision to go there but i'm glad i did. rediscovered my love for karaoke after last night :P

it rained the whole of today so we didn't do much and headed back to tokyo. i decided to catch hana yori dango final with my sis cos it came out yesterday and i was quite excited about it. on the way to roppongi hills there were all these really amazing posters of inoue mao and matsujun in vegas and hong kong for the ANA ads but honestly the movie was just plain terrible. clearly they had a huge budget, and the overseas locations, private jets, cars were all pretty but even that couldn't save the miserable plot.

the only saving grace was fujiki naohito. when he appeared in that casino scene he stole all the limelight from matsujun.

i need to find some screencaps of him in hanadan final..

weekend!

2008-06-27T06:26:43Z

got good news in the mail today..so right now it's just down to THAT letter.

i finished a lot of prison break this week. i can't believe i started so late. season 3 will have to wait till next week, though. anyway, whoever rents from Tsutaya has to be incredibly loaded. after renting once, i decided that i'd stick with tudou. pixelated, a little laggy. but it's free.

this and that

2008-06-26T13:13:04Z

been real busy with preparations for finland. paperwork's a nightmare..

taiwan pics
this was the 孔子庙i think

chiang kai shiek memorial (i fulfilled my obligatory cultural,touristy duties)

and then we went off
BING!

omg

had to crawl up so early the second day to go round the temples i got tired in the afternoon so we checked ourselves into a cinema in ximending and watched sex and the city :)

our hotel was in the area...

my taiwanese friend warned me that taipei would be unbearably hot and true enough, it was disgustingly hot and humid. i don't even remember singapore being that bad.

random observations
-taiwan kind of reminds me of the less developed parts of singapore
-their transport system is rather undeveloped..
-the roads are dangerous. drivers honk all the time, cut lanes, and do not give way to pedestrians at all.
-they are totally 哈日。they've got Familymart, Royal Host..almost everything imported from Japan.

the shifan yeshi. i didn't want to go to touristy shih-lin. this one was awesome although it took us some time to find it.

ai yu bing, tian bu la (the fried one IS THE BEST), cong zhua bing, bubble tea, chou dou fu (i love the stuff)

taipei 101. because kisa told me about how the elevator is quite cool but it just felt like any regular one =.=

we took some artsy shots on the 89th floor..

random dessert at the food court(i think it was a singaporean idea)

went down to taichung to catch xiao jing teng cos my sis is quite a fan..

ji zhua dong? i think

the stage outside xing guang san yue (see, another japanese shop)..they even brought mitsukoshi in...

i guess in taiwan such events are a lot more common so there aren't crazy fans queueing up one week in advance with their tents and rations

...seriously he needs to come up with a better english name.

he looked really frail in person. but yes, he has a huge voice. i really pitied the hosts though, they had to constantly talk because xiao jing teng would always give his signature two-syllable answers and there'd be this awkward silence..

on the 高铁back to taipei. they imported this shinkansen wholesale from japan.

all in all, it was a great trip. nice weekend getaway. i'd go back someday to eat the food. but definitely not in summer.

one more month in tokyo and then HOLA EUROPA!!!

back from taiwan

2008-06-22T10:05:38Z

it was a really great 4 days..
food was good, although the weather was terribly hot and humid. and we caught xiao jing teng at taichung...although i'm not a fan..

really tired now. it's funny how i was so worried that it would rain a lot in taiwan and it didn't at all during my stay..and when i'm back here it is raining cats and dogs.

i literally pia-ed all the way from narita to akasaka for my scholarship meeting. but i was still the latest and the others were all in serious discussion about environmental issues and whatnot already. it was honestly quite an eye opener because most of the japanese youth i know do not engage in conversations relating to politics, environment, technology. there were lots of students from keio (i'm starting to think they're a whole lot more impressive) all I-WANT-TO-CHANGE-THE-WORLD-like, articulate and in general, very different from the average japanese twentysomething out there.

bath calls. photos and other stuff up later..

I AM FREE

2008-06-12T08:35:35Z

i finished the paper one hour ahead of time..dunno if it's a good sign. but there were just 3 plain, direct questions.

oh well I AM DONE WITH EXAMS. (well there's finals in like a month but nevermind..)

negi good luck for your essay. and we must go for sushi tomorrow!!

it's been a pretty good week. and..

TAIWAN HERE I COME!!

btw i've moved. if you're planning to send me something by mail ask me for my new address :)

the visa app for residence in finland

2008-06-09T15:53:51Z

takes 45 DAYYYSSS!!!!

and so, i cannot go home during summer. anyway the CIE thinks everyone's staying in tokyo for summer..from the rate they're doing stuff...so i will just stay here and travel around until late aug...

blah

2008-06-07T18:16:43Z

and so it suddenly hits me i've got to plough through 600 pages of stuff and commit them to memory before thurs :(

after this thurs i will start doing all the things i wanted to do, visiting the places i planned on visiting and celebrating the end of my one year contract....cupcakes...dried natto...tsukiji.....

on another note, helsinki's confirmed. london people pls fly over for christmas!!

this is how you settle an argument diplomatically

2008-06-06T16:36:01Z

by writing letters.

from my brilliant friend who knows all the karma and psychological theories behind fights.

so i wrote one

and i got this reply. all is good(i hope)

honestly i can't imagine japan without u either, amiga.

feeling better. i hope the-arse-next-door doesn't come home tonight.

2008-06-03T15:03:34Z

so after counselling and analysis i'm a lot better. if the person next door doesn't provoke me, that is.

my mum sent me a super random email today asking if yi and i want to skip school and go vienna to catch the uefa euro final =.=

anyway

taken during spanish. carlos was thoroughly annoyed..and exasperated HA HA HA

the good luck presents really worked for mids!!!! well i'll know for sure next week :)

sometimes i think japan is so screwed

2008-06-03T06:41:04Z

spent one hour quarrelling in the cold at one in the morning with my very inconsiderate japanese furi-ta neighbour who was drunk and not making a lot of sense.

most japanese flats have really thin walls and u just have to raise your voice a bit for your neighbour to hear your entire conversation. so anyway, this ass was having a party on a MONDAY NIGHT, the night before 2 of my midterms..and according to yi, it wasn't the first time, so i went over, rang the doorbell, ended the party and he came out to quarrel and tried to lecture me on how this is part of the JAPANESE culture and cos he's been living in the unit for 2 years (SO?????)

so anyway, after the very drunk and incoherent idiot made me stand outside in the cold listening to his stupid arguments, he ended the fight abruptly by shouting FINISHED OK? FINISHED

and we both went in, and the started pounding on the connecting wall. and went on drinking with his gang until 4 plus in the morning.

pissed off. but i really want to move now, much as i don't want to give him the pleasure of winning. the asshole..
___________________________________________________________________
very charged entry but i did a decent job for korean and corporate governance, luckily.

very stressed out..

2008-06-01T16:02:42Z

so i went on facebook..and saw that yasu posted pics from dan's birthday. and ya i know i have corporate gov and a lot of korean to mug but here are the pics

with teary dan, kenji, yasu

eating the leaning tower of pisa with VC

on the cruise cooking monja. this was taken before we squirted like half the bottle of oil. and then we called for help.

we had this really enthu table of teens next to us..got a couple of pics of the birthday boy and girl but those will have to wait..

hana yori dango. i think we were parked outside Odaiba at that time. too many cooks..but it still tasted good

pleased and happy after getting off the cruise

sigh KOREAN..why is it so illogical..

er so i..

2008-05-29T11:28:55Z

made it through wednesday even though i nearly dozed off while standing sometime in the evening..

screamed at the brat, no 2 brats yesterday. now that i know i can leave next week, i'm totally sarcastic when i talk to the brattiest one. not like it really works though..

did a rather decent job for my calculus paper..save for the stupid linearisation question..i'm quite pleased with myself cos i applied the d'hopital's rule without even knowing wad i was doing..i owe jordan one for teaching me this.

got selected for a second scholarship..but they want me to turn up on the days i'll be in taiwan..

am going for katita's farewell bash tomorrow. and then i have a weekend of studying ahead. exciting.

but maybe we'll go to bills for breakfast..they just opened their first branch in japan i heard. but all the way in kamakura...

.......and korean ..doesn't make any sense at all. i've got so many different permutations of circles and squares and lines to memorise by tuesday. if they hadn't done away with hanja the test would be a complete breeze. sejong, i hate you so.

dan's birthday

2008-05-27T23:39:44Z

more pics when i get back and sort them out.

we went on this cruise which went past odaiba and tokyo tower. cooked monja and okonomiyaki and this amazing strawberry cream thing (which everyone refused to try at first but i insisted and it turned out to be so good) then we headed back to the mandarin hotel which had the most amazing view of tokyo at night.

the amazing drinks at the very chic mandarin bar. mine's the pale pink one. yuzu no hana. with sakura wine..

dan with my present..a lot of green :P the green tea cake cactus!!!!

i dun have any shots of the nightview from the room! you can see a tiny part of the window in this shot. and kenji blocks daniel completely. cake with VC :P :P

omg.
had a lot of fun but i hope i can make it through my classes and work today..

seriously

2008-05-19T03:50:43Z

混饭吃, sejong-lover and idunnoifyouarespeakinginkoreanorjapanese are so damn boring. why did i choose to take 2 foreign languages this sem???

oh miss V...

had dinner with my host family at this pricey chinese restaurant last night. the owner was chinese,and most of the waiters were chinese as well. imo chinese food in japan is just overpriced and overrated. even if they are run by chinese people they still serve a whole bunch of japanesey chinese dishes, like エビチリ. and the funniest thing was, they brought us a platter of 寿桃 when they learnt it was my belated celebration ><

i am 20, fgs..

belated b'day celeb, mexican dinner

2008-05-16T14:40:23Z

liberation..for 2 weeks. and then i hit the books again.

i am not going to kyunghee because of a major technical SCREWUP. haven't made up my mind if i wanna go to korea for a short trip or just head home..my korean teachers are so unmotivational i feel like going to korea and giving the language another chance. but on second thought, i dun really have that much time anyway..

taiwan is confirmed though.

this arrived from london today.

thanks a lot egg. I LOVE THE SCENT!! wearing it now..i hope there will be enough to last me till sept when we meet again..

anyway, i had a belated celebration with sean and shaz tonight at a totally fabulous mexcian restaurant near harajuku complete with this live band singing happy birthday. luckily i was already drunk by then so i din blush when they started HAPPY BIRTHDAY ENFEEEEEEE which they sang so many times..omg

being stupid at harajuku..hahahaha..it took us so many tries to get this shot but it still din capture my bag..

so sean takes over the cam and we get a complete pic

at fonda de la madrugada

the mexican band

birthday flan

rather drunk shaz and me at baba. this was my lousy attempt at taking a pic

sha the expert takes over and we have a much clearer pic.

the food was AMAZING. so were the magaritas and most of all, the company, complete with stupid knock knock jokes and whatnot.

..to........an amazing year ahead.

lollipops

2008-05-12T11:51:51Z

i received a lollipops bag today. it's supposed to be really parisian..

anyway, it's really not me but i do agree it adds some colour to my stuff.

the inside is really pretty

i hope i get the kyunghee programme. checked it during work today and it's fully enrolled already..*fingers crossed*

after tomorrow i can book my tour to taiwan!!
if everything goes according to plan it will be taiwan in june, korea in august.

ok back to integration..and lagrange multipliers. i got paid 7000 yen to sit and study today cos all the kids had a school holiday and decided to stay home..

so...i'm 20

2008-05-10T14:37:29Z

finally of legal age...in japan. which reminds me, i won't be around for the 成人式 next year if i go to finland. i guess wearing the kimono can wait till uh..my graduation?

anyway, i am feeling old, because i was just watching gokusen3 and miura haruma, who is easily the best-looking among the whole cast, is 2 years my junior! so now the idols on tv are younger than me (and no, i am not talking about the boys in heysayjump or those johnny juniors who are like 10 years old or something)

he had such great hair in koizora, even though i didn't see the big deal about the movie

as kazama. those streaks are a little weird but he's still cute anyway

i still remember this incident at work. my 8 year old student wanted to survey me (she was supposed to ask an adult some questions for her math homework) and i said, "oh actually i'm not an adult yet.." and for the rest of the day, she went around asking everyone.."...do you know enfee's not an adult yet????"

although i always complain about how it's so hard to get things done in japan because i'm underage it was nice not having to take any responsibility for anything.

thank you to all well-wishers. esp the one who called from the forest at 12am japan time to wish me.

weather wasn't very nice today. but i prefer the cold to the heat anytime.

stuffed

2008-05-09T13:34:19Z

got a lot of chocolate today. kept pigging out during work because i was quite free. then after a very sinful dinner + dessert, i opened kat's present to find she got me chocolate cake and a lot of other types of chocolate =.= but we finished it anyway

pics from nagano

on our way there..all mountains..but sadly no more snow!!

peaceful..and really pretty. it was really hot though. much hotter than tokyo..

we were out walking maron the dog.

drove up the mountains to the monkey park. the ride up was so scary because there was only enough space for one car to pass through and there were quite a lot of people there during the golden week. but my host dad did a great job. he drove us safely down madarao during a blizzard in feb :)

with the monkeys. they are incredibly bold around humans.

these monkeys go to the onsen everyday. there was this poor guy standing in front of us watching the monkeys soak in the onsen when one monkey suddenly climbed out, shook himself dry and the guy got totally drenched

with my host family in nagano, minus my host dad who was taking the pic and chihiro who was at school. half of them drove in from tokyo during golden week.

monkey pron..

random shot of yi and i

the na no hana matsuri!!! the crowds were totally crazy. my host family had a whole patch in their garden as well. but yes the fields were gorgeous

my favourite bakery. miyoshi. too bad it's all the way in iiyama!!

we were bored while waiting to leave so we decided to take stupid shots in our room

i think this was at yokokawa when the fog suddenly came out and the temperature dropped.

anyway, after pigging out so much today, i decided i will start on my diet of soba and natto tomorrow.

stressed and chikans

2008-05-07T12:05:46Z

my frequency of blogging is positively linearly related to my stress level.

6 more days.

the golden week officially ended yesterday and the crowds are back in tokyo. was on the super crowded yamanote with my canadian friend after work and he couldn't resist complaining about the crowds, and how he won't miss the serious lack of space here when he leaves when we suddenly heard a commotion near the door.

japanese girl: 触ったでしょう (You touched me didn't you??!!!)
old salaryman: 触ってない (No I didn't) 込んでる...(It's crowded)
japanese girl: 触った。触った。次降りる。You did, I'm getting off at the next stop.

i've heard so much about the famous chikans in japan ..according to some survey, about half the girls in japan have been groped on the trains before. then my friend remarked, "oh, if she had insisted on reporting him he'd go straight to jail because about 99% of the time they're found guilty." well yeah, that's if the victims decide to pursue the matter, and insist on reporting the chikan. japanese generally don't like to create a scene so the majority of the cases just go unnoticed. at least that girl made some noise about it. but after she got off the train, all the chikan got was a few dirty stares.

this country has got some major problems...

golden week

2008-05-05T16:47:00Z

i'm back from nagano. the bus was 3h late because of the terrible jams(X_X) so the journey home took almost 7h(i can fly to sg in 7h!!). i'll just stay home the next time there's a long break. we didn't do a lot on this trip but we definitely rested a lot and ate a lot. the house was really packed ..i think when we had the barbecue last night there were about 13 people staying over. anyway, there wasn't much snow left and we didn't want to go all the way to myoko so no skiing done on this trip. the nanohana were really pretty but there were like swarms of people at the park. ugh.

pics up when i get them.

i just saw the vids of the hide memorial concert on youtube. it was like what i expected it to be..a very big party and generally not X JAPAN-ish...i wouldn't mind catching them in taiwan but i probably have to give up going to kyunghee so maybe not.

this is random but i really hate it when the temperatures start rising. ALL THE BUGS START CRAWLING IN. and i dread thinking about the next few months in tokyo. summer here is just so unbearable. i don't think it's a lot better in seoul either >< sometimes during winter i get annoyed with the cold weather but on second thought, at least u dun sweat, and the bugs don't bother you then!

long overdue pic post

2008-05-02T14:22:39Z

from eons ago

roppongi hills toho cinema. where tons of dramas are shot

outside tokyo dome..the most popular outfits were the yoshiki cinderella one and the hide long red hair era look..

and the irony. as if walking around with that sign is going to stop people from buying tickets..

the must-have shot. because i was there.. haha

will post pics of the x japan bag next time, heh heh.

at nikko. yuba lunch. we had steamed chestnut rice which was really good. everything else was made of yuba though :P

us posing at some shrine..can't remember which one. was never very interested in shrines. the weather was really nice though.

picking strawberries..with my mum

ps pic is like that because yi pulled the wire out before she was supposed to =.=

the lameness. ichigo ichie..

outside the strawberry shop. we still haven't opened the strawberry wine because we don't have a wine opener..how sad can we get :p

with mamiko!!! omg it's been 3 whole years. but we dun think we've changed much. she put on a lot of weight when she went to the states but she lost all of it after she came back to japan. the smart girl is now in her daddy's alma mater, keio, and looking as pretty as ever. i had two servings at cold stone. sinful. but ohsogood.

yi with miko.

this is quite a bad shot but nvm

off to nagano tmr. YAYYYYYYY. i hope there won't be traffic jams.

this is what happens when u google ur professors at school...

2008-05-01T16:18:12Z

this is a vid of one of my professors at school, he's supposedly some renowned brain scientist who moonlights as a タレント(celeb) on japanese tv doing weird stuff like this

http://youtube.com/watch?v=w8RicBW_Ff8
http://youtube.com/watch?v=cus5kfcyo-0&feature=related

in this very ironic programme called pabo talk (korean for idiot) the brain scientist teaches a whole bunch of giggly bimbos how to be smart. they spend about 10 seconds talking about the brain structure, 3 mins or so talking about his book, and the rest discussing their love lives and then he teaches them how to be popular, after he confesses he was never popular and was always attracting the wrong kind of people

giggly host: マジで彼氏ほしいんですけど (I seriously want a boyfriend). What should I do???

can't wait for june 12

2008-04-30T12:43:20Z

because that's the date of my final uol paper. and by then it'll be summer school at work so i don't have to turn up, heh heh.

anyway, i'm off to nagano for golden week..it's kinda bad of me to be going for a holiday on the week before my exams but then again, golden week only comes once a year. and chihiro and eisuke will be having holidays as well. i'm thinking of going to korea for the short-term exchange programme this summer. wanted to go to yonsei but i won't be able to make it to finland in time if i go there so i'll probably try for one of the waseda programmes.

speaking of korean, i absolutely cannot stand both of my korean teachers. one speaks such bad japanese we think he's speaking korean sometimes(he has this heavy korean accent and cannot pronounce all the 'z' sounds) and the other one (who is japanese) likes to drone on and on about sejon and the origins of the language. people always say that the koreans pick up japanese easily because of the similarity between korean and japanese but that's only half true. i've met many koreans who could pass off for japanese but there are also a lot who just cannot get rid of their korean accent and sound very weird speaking japanese. of course, most of them have trouble with the kanji because they did away with almost all the hanja decades ago.

anyway, even though i have irritating teachers for korean, i still want to pick up the language. there are so many koreans here in tokyo it would be a waste not to learn the language.

i'm so excited thinking about june. maybe i could squeeze in a trip to taiwan after my last paper.

i have to survive my papers over the next 2 weeks first though..

tell me how not to be sick

2008-04-23T12:16:53Z

i've been sick since last saturday. didn't have any voice for a few days but i still wasn't spared from answering questions..anyway, i went back to work yesterday and almost all the kids were sick as well. some were wearing masks, and everyone was sniffling or coughing. and it's the same everywhere. on the trains, roads, everywhere. maybe it's the change of seasons that's making everyone in tokyo sick.

my canadian friends always complain about how the japanese don't know how to heat and cool buildings. in winter it's sometimes freezing indoors, and in the trains, it is forever hot(makes it such a chore to dress). maybe that's why people fall sick too. i guess in canada they generally know how to manage the heating better..or it just never gets too hot so all they have to do is heat the buildings when it gets cold.

i did some translating work with yi yesterday when the chinese students came for the sino-japan symposium at waseda yesterday. they were cute and incredibly friendly, unlike the group from before which basically stoned and showed zero interest. i guess there are all kinds of people..