i just signed my life away

i just signed my life away. the better part of it, that is.

was a slightly bittersweet feeling when I went to sign the deed with my company for the scholarship to study in Cornell. The deed basically tells me to be a mugger, study hard, acheive good grades, do not so anything that would distract me from studying, do not marry, do not engage in activities that would in anyway embarrass the company or to singapore. (to which my sis quickly chimed in I would not be able to join American Idol liao.. grrr)

very sad leh. like.. really no life lor. honestly... wow. all the restrictions just don't coincide with my studying philosophy liao.. which is study enough, but learn more through experiencing life.. haha! sigh.. dunno what to say lah.. slightly saddened, but has to be done. sacrifices has to be made. (and Gary stop making me feel worse)

ok.. on to some more light hearted stuff. played badminton with my BMT pals again and got a stupid blister on my right hand now. it's amazing how just one small blister can hamper a person's activities to such a large extent. just hoping it recovers fast enough for ALOT of things lined up.. cable skiing, OBS and so on.. and NO.. it ain't a lame excuse not to exercise.. haha

days are passing a lil' too fast these days.. countdown already..

cheap board games

first of, a big thank you to 0634 guys who gave me a pencilbox as a farewell present.. real real cool, special thanks to Gary for picking something that honestly, was something I was about to buy myself. haha. aniwez, the message (though written on foolscap) was really heart-warming and encouraging so yeah... THANKS ONCE AGAIN. (oh and perfect english too! haha.. ok kidding..)

seriously i think the teaching stint at nyjc was very fulfilling.. so, really thank God for it.

aniwez, went to play board games at Mind Cafe and played for like 4 hours for only like $5.50!!! DARN CHEAP LEH! wah.. most go more often liao, played a whole different assortment of games in which i realised just how competitive i was.. err.. it's just a game rite? heck it lah frank. =)

i'm back to slacktitude life.. no more work, just procrastinating and planning for my move to USA liao.. it's really really soon. OMG.. can't believe it too... really excited generally, but bummered by all the tedious pre-travel arrangements that must be done.

and yeah, speaking about the jabs again, I feel distinctly "feverish" or "back-ache"ish today.. wondering is it the jab's influence or is it just a psychological thing after knowing that one side effect of the jabs is mild fever. haha. aniwez it gave me a good reason to not exercise one day. my bad. haha.

the small print in going overseas

seriously, I was pretty naive when I thought I was going to have an all-expense paid trip to the US once I got the scholarship..

MY GAWD. the current hidden costs are just taking large swipes off my pitiful bank account, leaving me hanging dry. ouch! so scholarship doesn't cover deposits to the school, immunization jabs, health reports and the list goes on..

dude, that's like $600+ already!! WHAT'S a scholarship for!?

sigh.. ok i'm not really complaining.. cos most of my expenses are covered, but these "minute" additional costs are turning out to be much bigger than previously expected.

boo. today's swipe at my bank account was a $80 immunization jab for Meningococcal whatever (i'm NOT the doctor) and Influenza. sigh. so i'm paying for someone to inject dead bacteria/virus in my body. bleak.

on a happier note, i'm pretty happy today cos i finally got to drive my parent's car ALONE. yay! it take alot cos my mom's pretty hard to convince.. (she has her own driving test for me to pass before allowing me to drive).. like when my sis nearly scalped her car whilst driving up a carpark, she literally banned my sis from driving for quite awhile..

so yeah.. another step forward! =)

thanks alot!

to the students, teachers of NYJC.. thanks for giving me such a wonderful time teaching and talking to y'all..



I must say I was really touched these two days when my two classes E2/D3 each showed their "appreciation" for this "bogus" relief teacher.. I got presents, cards, msgs showing me their appreciation.. (wah.. like my bday liao)

all i can say is.. i'm overwhelmed. honestly, I don't think I have received so many presents on a single day besides on birthdays. and all for something I pretty much thought was gonna be clinical, purely altruistic, and money-centric.

guess I thought wrong. I guess that's the biggest satisfaction of teaching. that you actually manage to do something significant (hopefully) in the students and they appreciate your efforts. so yeah, I'm so glad for this NYJC experience.

NYJC is different from RJC. somehow I feel more homely here, people just seem nicer and not so cutthroat in terms of everything, be it grades, CCA, and so on. People genuinely support their classmates in stuff like oratorical competitions, which would otherwise have garnered a pretty pathetic or even sarcastic support in RJC. It feels good to know your friends are truly your friends.

oh well, aniwez let me prattle down a list of thank-yous..

to Ms Cynthia, thanks for approaching me and offering me the job. Thanks for the belief that I would be able to do my job and hence the free reign you gave. Thanks for the witticisms and genuine kindness throughout the job. Thanks for the muffins you gave us. haha

Boon Sin, thanks for intro-ing me the job as well as your frens, whom all seem to agree that you're pretty hyper at times. thanks for the guidance and the countless of essays I forced you to read.

Xiu Wen, Sanah, Vicky, thanks for being the "other" relief teachers, so that I didn't feel so awkward or out of loop. thanks for the "intelligent" conversations during lunch/ brunch that could span up to 3 hours where there were no topic boundaries. thanks for the presents, really really didn't expect it. WOW.. really appreciative of it.

to my students, (if you ever find my blog.. haha!)
thanks for letting me reach out and teach you all, even though obviously I looked pretty young. Thanks for NOT stepping over me and allowing my lessons to go smoothly. haha, if you all ever need help, yeah, just ask via msn/msg.

D3, you were always my try-out batch in terms of lessons, so really sorry if sometimes I seemed a lil' confused or when I didn't quite make sense. thanks for the gifts and the "good" homework that you all consistently handed in.

E2, thanks for bringing life to my otherwise(at times) pretty boring lessons with your silly questions and general enthusiasm. haha.. thanks for responding so well to some of my lessons and making me feel like I did a good job. haha!

to the rest of the english teachers, thanks for all the help you offered and the way your warmly welcomed us into the department.

thank God for this wonderful opportunity.

yup, that's all! I enjoyed my time thorougly. bye!

dental hell

i think humans are pretty amazing.

you will never ever manage to make a dog obediently open it's mouth whilst you jam pincer-like appartus into it and repeatedly drill away at its teeth and gums.

yet, humans willingly sit there and wimper whilst going through such "sufferings" and then after that pay a whopping sum to their tormentors, who's only word of advice is the generic "bursh your gums and teeth" statements..

geez, dentists DO have it good. (yeah. good work Edgar. good work Sophia)

and if you wonder why I was in such pain, yeah, it was due to years of neglect of my teeth and the many many ice mochas i indulged in in school to ensure I didn't fall asleep whilst teaching lessons.

so yeah, now my teeth are bright and shiny again. and honestly i intend to keep it like that. I think dentists purposely make it so painful so it forms an emotional scar in you such that you would be duly frightened into either ensuring you dutifully brushed every inch of your gums and teeth, or just heck it and wait for your teeth to rot.

then again, considering the money they bring in just for mere polishing and cleaning.. i doubt they'd be so kind.

***
tmr's my last day. I'm already very touched by my D3 class. but more of it tommorow when my relief teaching stint finally comes to an end.

students...

watched "jarhead" yesterday with the intention of letting my students watch the next day and figure out the senselessness of war and the actual reality of war which ain't just like the crappy stylized NS advertisments that clutter our television airtime.

but then realised it was M18. sheesh.

speaking of students, i still can't quite get their fascination and unwarranted attention towards teachers. i mean, i was quite shocked when other female teachers were commenting how students commented on how they dressed up everyday, whether they had a bad hair day, or who was speaking to who and so on.. worse still is how they like to create silly scandals for the sake of having some "excitement" in their lives.. geez.

WAH seriously lor, now i get it when they say if u want to be a mediawhore either try to be a star or go be a teacher. haha

*here's to hoping they dun ever find my blog. hehe* 2 more days left!

americans, you scare me

i'm a little apprehensive of going to USA liao..

watched Crash in the office today whilst marking another bunch of boring reading assignments. Crash paints a pretty frightening scene of USA cos the racism hits you straight away. and how misunderstandings arise and how people act on existing misconceptions just to vent, making the situation even worse. one side-story that had me on the edge was the confrontation between hispanic lock repairmen and the muslim shopkeeper, how the daughter jumped out to save the dad from the gunshot..

very very cool editing. and a surprise happy ending. (muslim guy fired blanks unknowingly)

what scares me is not only the racism, but the flagrant, wanton use of guns. When I read about Bill Bryson's comment that more Americans have been killed from the authorized sales of guns as compared to those saved by using the gun for self protection, I simply shook my head and shrugged it off.

but now i'm going to the country. where children mistakingly play with guns and shoot themselves. where ignorant people use guns to threaten others and accidentally trigger. in army, we are thought NEVER to place our fingers on the trigger unless we have confirmed our target, but these people know nothing of such rules.

americans, you truly scare me.

1 more week of teaching left

1 more week of teaching left..

in some ways.. i'm relieved.. no more waking up at shamefully early hours and having to shout at classes till I lose my voice after every lesson.

realised that "fierce" and "dominating" really ain't in my dictionary, neither am I a true-blue born commander or leader... more of like jason mraz's "geek in the pink" haha.. (thou I wouldn't be caught dead wearing pink).. no this ain't a grumble or a hopeless comment, but more of a realistic summary of myself.. i'm NICE. haha! too NICE to shout, such that even when I scold, my twinkling eyes betray my true emotions. let's just say it takes QUITE a lot of make me pissed. haha

Thank God for actually letting me live a pretty fulfilling life these few weeks since I dun sleep the morning away. So I manage actually to fit play, work and exercise all in most days whilst scurrying about trying to settle all my overseas stuff.

so after this stint, NO MORE WORK for me. must spend time settling overseas stuff and gettin' ready for a new chapter liaoz. =) yeah, leaving all the tainted reputation gained for RI/RJ, all the emotional baggage, bad blood and whatever.. kind of like escaping. but.. hehe...

seriously please

honestly, Kat screams her songs, she oversings so badly that Mariah would probably lose the title of ad-lib queen to her, plus all the negative flak of her being arrogant and snobbish (which i think is false..)

see.. i'm being objective now eh?

but.. when i see this..





I just want her to win. or at least cut a few albums. or best join america's next top model or something..

Kat, I'm meet you over the rainbow. hehe

(p.s. can you PLEASE stop oversinging! let me enjoy your performance without cringing at your screech notes...)

ok.. bad to the intended topic.

DA VINCI CODE SUCKS

i never has high hopes regarding storybook adaptations, especially books I have quite a clear memory of like the bland Harry Potters, atrocious Geisha and so on. But this REALLY tops it all.

Honestly i thought amongst the actors, Paul Bettany turned in the best, most real and most pity-inducing performance of Silas. But the acting wasn't the shit thing, it was just the snail pace the movie was going at, such that by the time they reached Teabing's Villete I was about to fall asleep, remembering distinctly that it was about midpoint at the book.

and honestly, all the glaring fallacies about Christianity and Da Vinci were quite offensive as it went on. Saying Mary Magdalene is in the painting so matter-of-factly when it is actually John is like so defamatory towards Da Vinci. Da Vinci probably has turned a few times in his grave with such a defamatory book written with such a title.

please realise controversial does not equal interesting movie. tsk

what a lame japan leg!

hmm.. i'm unimpressed by the so-called "Japan" leg in TAR..

ok.. so the teams were sufficiently baffled by the startling lack of English, the confusing signs and so on.. but.. WHERE are the subways? the confusing mass of entangled squiggles? WHERE's shinjuku? what's the obscure tea house place they went? and what stupid detour of "maiden"? u trying a harajuku thing?

3 words.

WASTE OF LOCATION.

serious. I'd rather it be something like transit from airport via train straight to shinjuku, then head to harajuku via subway. There either find special clothings for those cosplay characters at the harajuku bridge or head to meiji jingu shrine and search through tons of prayers plaques to find the next clue. Clue will direct them to MITAKA station where they search for the TOTORO museum and get the clue that the next location is at the scene of inspiration for the BATH HOUSE in SPIRTED AWAY, which is located 3 train stations down at the KOGANEI ARCHITECTURAL MUSEUM. There, the roadblock is to go to a RYOKAN and eat a full course Japanese meal complete with raw squid, raw fish, raw meat, puffer fish, sea urchin and all other delicacies. topped with wasabi of course. Then finally head to the pitstop at OMOTESANDO HILLS.

hehe.. sounds like my itinary liao.. haha

marking essays is the worst job EVER

honestly marking GP essays is one of the most excruciating things that can be placed on anyone. serious.

may i never hear of another example of Christy Henrych dying at the age of 22, or the multitudes of endorsements Anna Kournikova has made, or how Beckham's hairstyle is more noticed than his playing skills..

it's not the startling lack of creativity or thought tha irritates me. what's worse are essays that try to be cheem and try to use cheem-sounding phrases and the likes and end up making a complete joke of themselves.

try this: "parents propagate to children the importance of getting a rice bowl."

?!?! it's funny at the start, but after correcting 5 of such mistakes in a paragraph and you see yet another paragraph fraught with similar mistakes, it gets PAINFUL.

another excruciating group of writers are people who treat GP essays are biology essays and merely vomit our every single catch phrase they have heard in lectures or gleaned from their notes. what comes out are essays that are mind-numbingly boring and show no hint of a brain or personality from that individual.

so seriously.. i'm not too happy these days.. i mark like 3 essays an hour on the average. which is oh so sad. it's on the verge of torturous. thank goodness i'm gonna finish the common test pile soon.. 12 more scripts.. sigh.

ETA: i just went back and started "marking" my own blog post. SAD.

my record's getting better

mediacorp, you are officially INSANE to show Survivor till 2AM. honestly, you think people don't need sleep or what?

aniwez, my record of supporting winners has drastically improved with an Aras win.. haha.. so that's 2 in a row liao.. which pretty much means it has been quite a fun time watching.. loved Casaya's crazy antics, loved the love-hate relationship of Courtney and Shane, loved Cirie Fields, loved Terry's boot. haha.

hmm.. for the fun of it.. (i'm survivorfan for a reason)

Outback: supported Jerri (8th)
Africa: stank. hated the season
Marquesas: supported Tammy (8th), then Kathy (3rd)
Thailand: supported Helen (4th)
Amazon: supported Dave (9th)
Pearl Islands: supported Tijuana (6th? -- gave up on that season too)
ASS: HATED EVERY BIT OF IT
Vanuatu: supported Ami (7th? gave up at the end)
Palau: HATED EVERY BIT OF IT
Guatemala: supported Danni (won)
Exile Island: supported Aras (won)

wow.. to think last time i was so fanatical i could name every single challenge and who won what.. now i can't even remember like whether so and so was even on survivor.

it's a change dude. i'm wondering honestly whether there is a chance i can join when i go US.. haha!

needle talk

i'm a little afraid of med fac people.

seriously.

cos when they meet up, they just start their needles and medical teminology conversations that leaves any other person completely out of the conversation. wah.. even better then speaking code liao lor.

thing is, i dunno how people can be so excited about poking each other with needles and the likes. and then talk animatedly about it for a few hours. hmmm...

ok.. aniwez went to al's (haha) party yesterday, met some old friends, made some new friends..

which reminds me i can't celebrate my own birthday like that. cos i'll be in US, and it's exam periods that time. geez. so sian.=(

musings

1. Tom cruise's wife in MI:3 reminds me of Yolanda from Amazing Race. (oh.. and on the topic of tom cruise, he deserves his popularity drop thanks to his inane antics.. jumping on couches is so...)

2. i now have Absolut Blackcurrant and Peach. probably as I go more times overseas the list will grow, soon can have alcohol party liao. cos no one in my family ever drinks them. hmmm.. but nice collection of cool bottles

3. i only marked 6 essays today in a span of 3 hours. OMG

4. i am getting very frustrated over all the details and complications with the scholarship and school preparations. WAH. what with surety, deed signing, enrollment date etc. i think i need to schedule a date to leave singapore liao. orientation programme starts at Aug 14. i shud leave on... Aug 12? and yeah.. i NEED to find 2 sureties.. all done by 19th May.. oh no.

5. it is awfully boring and painful as you proceed ahead with Maple Story and your sole purpose is to level up by hitting countless of mushrooms, boars and the likes. is there ANYTHING more interesting? any suggestions? field trips to see mushmom? sigh.

irony of work

the irony in life is that when u are slacking, you feel like a complete bum and wanna push yourself to get a job and get some cash in yer account. Yet when you start working you dread everything that is associated with it - stupid executive wear, insanely early wake up hours and the likes...

anyway it was dreadful to pull myself to work today after such a relaxing trip. misery is having to face yet another pile of essays. misery is when you read one of your hardworking student's essay and realize he got it completely wrong. sigh.

back to the life of a relief i guess..

oh.. and photos of japan are up on flickr.. lazy to post some here.. see first lor.

Japan Travels - Day 7

Another Day, Another City

This time round we visited Mizunokuchi as we were going to watch a dance performance by our sis. (whom to her credit, i though was the best dancer in her segment..though i better add that there wer 2 old dancers trying to hang on to the jazz routine and looked really winded... bleah)

The hip-hop dances by the Jap kids were at times laughable (younger kids) but at other times catchy and enthralling.. realized that hip-hop is actually pretty cool.. haha..

Aniwez, Mizunokuchi was just another excuse for shopping so there... we didn't even explore the town past to mega departmental stores of OIOI and Nocty (i think Japanese think of really stupid names for their shops)

Aniwez. that's about it for the whole trip.. generally really fun and a gastronomical delight.. which means, I better start exercising.. =(

And as I stepped back into Singapore soil today, I immediately felt an urge to just return to Japan.. cos all the silent orderliness that permeates all aspects of Japanese life, the superb sales service that willingly wrapped each and individual gifts even though they didn't cost much, the complete sterile and sanitary conditions, the cute salesgirls.. sigh..

only thing i wouldn't miss is the irritating lack of dustbins. oh well.

aniwez.. here's the Amazing Food Race Across Tokyo!

1. Takoyaki, vendor outside Tamagawagakuen-mae train station
2. Hamburger Onigiri, convenience store, Tamagawagakuen-mae
3. Fish Cake, Tsukiji Market
4. Raw Sea Urchin, Tsukiji Market
5. Tsukiji Tempura Don, Tsukiji Market
6. Pork cutlet set, Ootoya, Shin-Urigaoka train station
7. Ice cream with toasted bread, Ootoya, Shin-Urigaoka train station
8. Jap Friend's Mum's Lunch, Chiba
9. Omurice, Machida City Shopping Center
10. Strawberries, farm at outskirts of Isehara
11. Mos Seafood Croquette Special, Isehara train station
12. Traditional Japanese 10 course meal, Ryokan, Isehara
13. Traditional Japanese 8 course breakfast, Ryokan, Isehara
14. Chinese Set Meal, Machida City Shopping Center
15. Succulent Pork Cutlet Special, Takashimaya, Shinjuku
16. Hamburger Hot Plate set, Machida City
17. Italian Rissoto, Tamagawagakuen-mae
18. Cheese-Mochi Ramen, Mizunokuchi
19. Vanilla Cream "Beard Papa", Mizunokuchi
20. Bacon and Potato Gratin, Mizunokuchi
21. Ramen, Narita Airport..

gee.. that's a long list.. =)

Japan Travels, Day 6

(whee! i'm finally back on my own reliable com!)

Travels @ Windy Yokohama

Morning was misspent at Machida City yet again to try and hunt down previously missed shopping bargains and so on.. hankered after the goods at Comm Ca and GAP though I was generally frustrated with my inability to communicate with the salespeople there... Got really pissed with my shopping companion's(my sis) comments regarding stuff I like.. like when I was eyeing some denim jacket from a cool vintage shop tucked behind the streets, she said it looked crumpled, then when I found cool vintage belts, she said it looked mouldy. -_- sian..

In the afternoon we headed for Yokohama city to find this expansive garden called Sankeien, with beautiful flowers and authentic wooden buildings. Stopped at Sakuragichio train station and my first impression of Yokohama was.. WAH.. so americanized. Ditching the traditional Japanese layouts of shopping centers, skypasses and a general squeezy, built-in environment, Yokohama was spaced out, windy and futuristic, complete with the wide roads so untypical of a Japanese town. I may be talking trash cos, duh... i haven't actually been to an American city, but well, Yokohama deviated from all previous cities in Japan I had visited.. so there.

And indeed, Yokohama was where we first saw other foreigners in Japan, and there was even an ang-moh neighbourhood near Sankeien where caucasian parents were teaching their children baseball and the likes.. how quaint.

Sankeien was beautiful.. like if you ever wondered how the producers found such scenic spots to film in Memoirs of a Geisha, look no further. the park is ringed in by towering trees, hence cutting it off from the busy port industries of Yokohama and giving the whole place a certain air of antiquity and stillness.. One interesting thing was that an old watchtower atop of one of the hills once commanded a scenic view of rocky cliffs and sea, but now gave a glimpse of the bustling port industry in Yokohama without any hint of the sea. sad thing i would think.. but that's progress for you..

Japan Travels, Day 5

Shopping @ Machida

Nothing much today, mostly on fashion trendspotting, agonizing hand-gesticulations to try and communicate and some real cool vintage shops tucked in nice corners of machida city. Honestly, shinjuku, omotesando, shibuya or whatever glitzy place that is constantly mentioned isn:t worth a visit on a shopaholic's list cos it's just too ridiculously expensive.

Machida city was quite fun cos it had the shops yet was ulu enough to have decent prices. Looked around and realised the japanese were still really firmly following along with the american male fashion culture - which meant (to my dismay) that what was 'in' now were the ugly bling-bling rapper stuff consisting of ostentatious belts, ridiculously oversized shirts and the likes. which is honestly kinda very stupid. cos japanese aren't exactly big sized already so wearing such stuff completely dwarfs them.

the other style rampant is the singlet and long sleeve shirt fashion which is 'in' as the weather starts winding warmer and becomes aircon temperature. that style is pretty cool with the decent variations of denim jackets, nice stylish white shirts, cool black blazers and the likes. alas, i can't quite buy any cos i would look pretty ridiculous in singapore. =)

so i guess with all this rubbish it pretty much hints that i bought nothing today. yay!

dinner was @ shinjuku's takashimaya in one of the glitzy restaurants, cos we were meeting one of my mom's old schoolmate. the restaurant served scrumplicious pork cutlet that was succulent, juicy, coated with batter that was fried to a golden crisp. yum!

of course, the bad thing is i have overeaten for every single day since I started the vacation. which is pretty deplorable. but honestly, which such a vast array of absolutely delicious and special food from crepes, dons, hamburger sets, okonomiyake, sushi, sashimi, ramen, onigiri and so on.. HOW can you not be tempted?!?

sigh...

Japan Travels, Day 4

the japanese countryside and the on-sen

day 4 was a trip to the wilderness as we headed to the hills of isehara to stay overnight at a ryo-kan(traditional japanese hotel with on-sen)...went picking strawberries first at a local farm, something which can never happen in singapore cos singaporeans don't dare to just pluck direct from the shrubs and eat and even if they dared, they would probably eat themselves silly and have wiped out the strawberry within the first few people. the strawberries were delicious but after tad too many, (mom was a good strawberry plucker.. those i found were miserly and small) it got a lil' sianz.. what made me even more dismayed was that i was the only idiot to smudge my white adidas sneakers with strawberry stains.. sheesh!

afternoon was some really boring shopping at the isehara shopping center before we headed to the japanese ryokan. i honestly think the ryokan's facilities don't justify it's exorbitant cost. honestly, you dun charge people ¥12000 a night when you merely offer a tatami-ed room for the whole family to sleep on the floor. i mean, it scores on traditional sense and uniqueness but to make our family sleep together akin to like a refugee camp is.. pretty paltry. and well, the on-sen was worth the cost, cos the waters were quite special and soothing, but really, it's just a swimming pool-esque thing. haha.. only thing that probably justified the cost was the confusing 10 course-ish dinner served all at once that included raw meat, raw fish, raw squid, sake, gluten and so on so forth.. hmm... i think it is only japanese cuisine that despite things looking green and slimy and wierdish, it still tastes pretty decent and nice. (my sis obviously begs to differ)

Japan Travels, Day Three

Yet another bleak fact about Japan's obsession with cleanliness - there are like absolutely no dustbins ANYWHERE around the place, perhaps to emphasize to everyone that eating on the streets is generally frowned upon (as my friend said, it's akin to having sex on the streets..　WOW)... so honestly i was pretty miffed to have to clutch my finished food wrappers round the train stations, searching in vain for a dustbin. Eventually i gave up and flushed it down the toilet bowl. =)

Today was like some amazing-train-race, seeing us criss-crossing Tokyo taking all sorts of railway and subway lines and trying to figure out which line connected to which and how the fares differed if we swapped lines and so on. Honestly, now I quite understand why TAR never came to Japan before, it's like Amazing Race Master Class here with a snake-and-ladders jumble of squiggly train lines interspersed with black-and-white JR railway lines. Ditzy teams would have gone round and round Tokyo without a clue of where they were.

Went to a Japanese friend's house in Chiba and was treated to a sumptuous lunch and a nice guided tour around the house where we saw each and every broom closet and toilet accesory... (the mom insisted - it's the pride of every housewife) We were most impressed by the toilet, which had *he-he!* a toilet-cover that automatically flapped up when you entered the toilet, and also came with many various functions from small flush, big flush to butt-washing functions. Call me country bumpkin but I think that's darn cool. =)

After that me and my sis were left alone to pursue our amazing-race fantasies of getting to somewhere obscure in the country. We managed to get to the Tokyo-Edo architecturual museum in pretty sakura-city,Koganei without much hiccups.. (except a spastic detour at a place called Mikata where the train looped and went back in the oppostie direction) The museum is pretty fun but what captivated me was seeing all the Japs dressed down from their normal black suits and having a blast, enjoying traditional Jap activities like the traditional badminton, stilt walking and fishing for baubles.. (The Japanese were having their Golden Week holidays starting today... hence the dress down) I was particular interested in the stilt walking, especially after seeing Tammy win the crucial immunity challenge in Survivor 4 which involved stilt walking.. (haha.. i have no life).. and aniwez when I tried it out, wah.. not simple sia.. couldn:t even stand for a few secondws without toppling.. wondered how people could stand and even joust like that...

Ok.. back to the main point of an architectural museum, it featured houses of different eras but what made it relevant to me was that the facade of the public-bath building as well as the replica train was drawn into the famous anime "Spirited Away".. so it was pretty cool.　

That's about it for today.. going to sleep early for once cause I think I've been falling asleep on the trains too easily today.. ciao! (oh.. and i heard Katherine bombed her songs.. sigh.. hope she stays alive and performs well next week)

Japan Travels, Day Two

It was quite an appalling experience yesterday night after i went to bathe. First of all, there was the prison-cell sized bathroom where I was told to squat like a Somalian kid at the pitifully small bath area and sprinkle water on myself. See, small bathrooms are common in many countries where space is limited, but coupled with the Japanese obssesion with cleanliness, (we're not supposed to splash water out of the bathing area)it creates a pretty deplorable condition,

The problem with cleanliness extends to the eating habits of the Japanese as well. Like I was happily eating my convenience-store-bought ramen when I was told by my sis to finish every crumb and morsel (with the MSG) so as to facilitate dumping it later on. WAH.. err.. in Singapore I simply dumped my unfinished noodles into the rubbish chute and gleefully heard the galoshing sounds and the silent *thump* at the end. Appalling honestly.

Ok, bleakness aside, today was a very fun day where we experienced my facets of Japanese culture, enough to make me eat my own words regarding Japan being not interesting anymore. Morning was spent traipsing around Tsukiji Fish Market, seeing really fresh Salmon and Tuna, trying out the "acquired-taste"ish raw Sea Urchin, which wasn't too bad according to me. (though it was anathema to my sis.... anything raw is apparently) Lunch was a gastronomical delight as usual, with HUGE tempura prawn, squid and fish... (which made my mom squirm in utter displeasure)

Afternoon was spent at glitzy Ginza with posh furturistic Nissan galaries to the friendly clothes-store Uni-Qlo... (somewhat like our home-grown Giodarno but of course LIGHT YEARS ahead in terms of style and development) Feeling tired after a day of shopping, we went kara-oking Japanese style and were pleasantly delighted to find updated English songs like Kelly Clarkson's "Because of You".. of course with the attached cheesy "woman-walking-around-looking-mournful" MTVs. Shame on you K-Box! Oh.... and they graded your singing after that... but incredulity of the scores seemed to hint that Paula Abdul was the judge behind this.. (my dad's warbled half-sang version of his song came first -_-)

Went to Omotesando Hills for some high class window shopping which has honestly very very cool. The shops had amazing window displays like moving carousels and Victorian furnitures and so on. The overall architecture of the building didn't dissapoint as well, though the prices were seriously roof-raising. Honestly how do you expect to sell a cool notebook for like 8000 yen? That's beyond daylight robbery...

hmm.. that's all for now.. overate for all my meals.. sighz

Japan Travels, Day One

i'm sitting in the living room of my sister's little abode trying to figure out the keys on her jappish computer (which is irritatingly translating every few letters i write into japanese.. bleak)

oh.. and to further irritate matters, i'm inflicted YET again by the going-overseas-sure-kena-flu sickness which always sends me wheezing and sniffing on the first day of the tour. which presents two problems from the start. firstly, the quarantine officer always looks suspiciously at me when he sees me shuffling by wheezing like a pneumonia-stricken patient. the bigger problem however, is the fact that japanese are absolute clean freaks. (in addition to them being complete queue freaks ~ if anything needs to be done, queue first) Hence, imagine their chagrin and distate when their fellow passenger in their sterile, septic train compartment is wheezing and biffing out feathers of tissue paper coated with icky goo. Hmmm.. guess I'm not too popular with the people here liao...

so that ends the frenetic day of traveling, transitting, sitting till my butt ached, eating repeated airline food (which i honestly think has improved greatly and tastes pretty good!), waiting for plane delays, shopping at duty free shops, and hearing a mixture of jappish, thainglish, and everything in between. oh, and the person sitting beside me on the flight to Japan was actually an Afghan! (cue patriotic, terrorist-suspicious music).. hmm.. it's actually pretty interesting hearing someone say his home town is Kabul, when most of the times u only hear that in the news.

my sis is chasing me to bathe liao cos she needs her daily dosage of mindless chit-chat and movement updates with her boyfriend, which she has gotten completely irrationally besotten over. my mouth still smells of the delicious tako-yaki and hamburger onigiri that I bought along the way up to my sis' house. japanese food honestly tastes SO good when eaten at the roadsides.. take that you lousy singaporean mass-made tako-pachi shit!

ok ciao!

nihon e ikimasu

leaving for japan in abt 8+ hours time.. not really whooping for joy.. yet.

hmm.. slight mixed feelings about the trip but when I sorta realise the is probably the last trip with my family, it makes it a little more significant. gonna visit my sis and i guess try to get back in touch with my japanese "nature"... =)

hope it'll be fun. sayonara!