In search of sunrise

Thursday. 7th of January, 2010. Sunny

Too fast! Too soon! Too quickly!
Time passes too quickly!

It's the last day of the winter vacation today.
I go back to school tomorrow! *ugh*
But then, I will have a long weekend.

Monday is a public holiday.
成人の日. Coming of Age Day.
It's a holiday held annually on the second Monday of January to 'congratulate' those who have reached the age of twenty.
For the rest of the populace, they get a day off.

I went to a friend's place for a gathering on New Year's Eve.
After that, we went to 乗蓮寺 (jorenji) to see the Tokyo Buddha,
the third largest Buddha statue in Japan, and to pray for a good luck.

Meeting place - Ikebukuro station

Japan - the land of vending machines

Last day of operation for Wendy's Japan
A line of people waiting to go into Wendy's...
The restaurant *tsk tsk*

Walking up, I saw...
I know her :)

Entering the courtyard

Guarded by angry deities on either side
Who wouldn't be? Guard duty on New Year's Eve...

People waiting to make their New Year wishes
Throw a coin, make a wish

Monks praying to the Buddha

Tokyo Buddha - 東京大仏
Third largest in Japan

ぶつけないで下さい - Do not knock

Up close and personal

Incense urn - sweep the smoke over your body for good luck

Got myself an amulet (お守り) for good luck
This is for bringing good fortune to the whole family
There are other amulets for other purposes like studies and safety

Like the 57842 other Japanese festivals, there were food
stalls that sold usual Japanese snacks at unusual prices
I bought a bottle of milk tea... from the vending machine. ¥120

It was an interesting way to start the new year.
How did you start yours?

Thursday. 31st of December, 2009. Windy.

The last day of the decade, the last entry of the year.
How will you spend this last day? Who are you spending it with?

Happy New Year.
In Japanese - あけましておめでとう (akemashite omedetou)
Or in short - あけおめ (ake ome)

Thursday. 24th of December, 2009. Sunny.

I know this person who is really into shopping. He really enjoys buying stuff on the internet. Recently, he re-discovered the joy of shopping in real mega malls.

He showed me what he got. I must say, he has got good taste. Really.

Since he likes shopping so much, maybe he should consider setting up a blogshop. Maybe I'll suggest it to him. What do you think?

Oh, by the way, winter break starts today.
Happy holidays... to me.

OK, ok, and to you.

Thursday. 10th of December, 2009. Sunny.

In life, there are different kinds of challenges. There are different kinds of people. There are those who sit around, wallowing in self pity. There are those who take the bull by the horn and forge on.

I used to be one of the former. However, life was not particularly bad to me. I had a job (which I resigned from). I had enough to eat. I had a roof over my head. I had no reasons to complain. But like every young Singaporean, I was not contented.

Life is not about self pity, complaints and complacency. I saw the pitfalls and stepped out of my comfort zone, landed in a place where I had no friends, no family, no means of subsistence.

Life is like a file; a file which contains what you can do, what you have achieved, your goals and what you need to do to achieve these goals.
I do not claim to be successful, for I am not. But I am happy to say that I have achieved what I set out to do a little more than two years ago.

Back then, I knew that things would not be easy. But I did not think of giving up. I knew what I could do, what my handicaps were, how I should overcome these handicaps. These are what anyone with a will is able to do.

I have come to another stage where I need to discover what else I can and need to do to move forward. Once again, I need to step out of my comfort zone and confront the unknown that lies ahead.

It's nearly time to update my file.

Until then, my new winter ensemble.

Shopping further away

Ben Sherman jacket. Really thick

Boxfresh jacket

Reversible

Puma jacket

Millet down jacket; my first real down jacket

I was down at Omotesando and Shibuya but these are the only usable photos.

Friday. 4th of December, 2009. Sunny.

Free as a bird. Well, not quite yet.
But in three weeks, winter holidays!

Jingle bells, Batman smells!
Robin laid an egg!

Last week I went to a 'Thanksgiving Party' at Shinjuku. I was told there would be good food, delicious turkeys and a great atmosphere.

In case you are wondering...
No. Not at all.

There were two long tables with some vegetables, bread, cheese, supposedly turkey meat served on paper plates or foil containers.

大雑把。ボッタクリ。

Cost me ¥4000 and I had to get something to eat on the way home.
A real ripoff.

The reason why it was called a 'Thanksgiving Party' was because the organizer felt that thanks must be given to the suckers (like me, who was, incidentally, invited by a friend) who fell for the American/western culture bollocks promised by this party.

In another party, this time, held in an elementary school.
Actually, not quite a party.

It was a school festival helmed by the first and second graders. They ran game stalls like those found in the usual Japanese 祭り.
It was free (of course, but no turkeys) and I got so many prizes and a certificate for 'outstanding performance at a game stall manned by kids'.

I have added the certificate to the list of awards and commendations to my CV. I'm sure future employers would be very impressed.

Sunday. 22nd of November, 2009. Cloudy.

What do you do when you take a break from writing?
You shop.

... and shop ...

... and shop.

Just the other day, I was out at this event. I met a Japanese man who has been to Singapore. He had great things to say about Singapore and her residents.

"Singaporeans speak pidgin English, right?"
"Singaporeans cannot speak good English."
"Singaporeans speak with a Chinese accent."
"When I go to the hotel, the staff does not smile."
-- I could empathize; neither could I.

I am a very polite person. So I did not point out that he spoke terrible English with a Japanese accent. Instead, I turned around and talked to some other people and politely stood up, leaving him there, alone.
Very much throughout the night, he was.

In any society, a person needs common sense, humility and tact.
Unfortunately, he had none.
Unfortunate.

The weather has turned cold here in Japan. For those planning on coming, don't bring too much winter wear from home. Get them in Japan. There are places selling cheap stuff that would get you through. No need to get expensive stuff, especially if you live in a tropical country.

Until the next entry...

Sunday. 6th of September, 2009. Sunny

The summer vacation is over.

For the past week, I stayed in school till 6PM every day, practising the speech with a student. The Japanese teacher felt that my reading was incorrect. He said it was not the way Americans read. He said the word before a comma must end with the sound trailing up, not down. He 'corrected' the student's reading with his perceived-to-be American way of reading.

The way he challenged my reading was really insulting. It is true that most Singaporeans do not have perfect diction and speak quirky Singlish. Therefore, I do not claim to have the most correct way of reading or speaking but at least, I guided a student to win third place in the city level speech contest last year.

It must have been this disdain that motivated him to ask another teacher of Asian descent to edit my speech translation. Indignant, I pointed out the incoherence in the edited piece, to which he replied that he found it good. I left it at that. I did not need to strain working relationship.

The student continued to read the way I suggested. She found it better than the 'American' way.

Snow Leopard came in the mail a few days ago.

Made in Singapore. Just like me.

I upgraded from Leopard without doing the complete re-installation much advocated by most Apple faithfuls. I popped the disc in, click on the install icon and that was it.

I am not using the Snow Leopard wallpaper that came with OSX. I am not gay. I see people showing off their desktops with that wallpaper in place. Gay!

I like OSX. But I am not gay.

Sunday. 30th of August, 2009. Rainy

Time for a new Japanese Prime Minister again.

Since Koizumi Junichiro, Japan has seen three Prime Minister handovers in three years. The fourth one is forthcoming.

2006 - Abe Shinzo
2007 - Fukuda Yasuo
2008 - Aso Taro
2009 - Hatoyama Yukio

The ruling LDP has suffered a crushing defeat, the main opposition force, the DPJ has won a landslide victory.

The face of politics in Japan is in for a major shake up, with reports that the new government will promise a more detached relationship with the United States.

This is going to get interesting.

Friday. 28th of August, 2009. Sunny

It's coming.
TS 0911. Krovanh.
Tropical Storm number 11 of 2009.

I keep myself updated on the weather every day. A few times a day.
So I notice changes in the weather like this.

Just this week, it was sunny weather throughout. But come next week, rain is expected nearly everyday. A gander on the Japan Meteorology Agency site reveals some excitement.

Based on the probability arc, it should hit land on the first of September and travel across Tokyo/Kanto region towards North-East Japan.

This satellite imagery shows the scale/size of the storm system. It's really near Japan. I'm looking forward to some windy days!

Thursday. 27th of August, 2009. Sunny

The speech piece I translated for a student was edited by another teacher working at another school. Apparently, a Japanese teacher had asked him to check the piece. It had become one with impact to one riddled with weird English sentences that do not flow.

This is the beginning part of what I wrote.

It was changed to this.

Now, what does "it is a kind of seal made of ivory which was handed down from her father" mean to you?

To me, it means that the seal is the kind made from ivory handed down from 'her father'. It is suggesting that there are other people with this kind of seal, seals made from ivory handed down from 'her father'. Ridiculous! Also, the sentence structure is incorrect. The words 'which was' are not needed and totally disrupt the flow of the sentence.

The first few lines have such glaring oddness that I do not even need to point them out. Then there's the rest of the article.

On to happier things.

Yesterday, I decided to visit Chichibu; the city where I officially started my life in Japan.

There were so many things to see, so many places to go; places I had never been to while I was staying there. Without a car/bike, these places are inconvenient to reach, if at all possible.

Driving back, I felt a sense of nostalgia, homecoming and an urge to shit (I did, at a supermarket along the way).