New Stuff.. that I bought..

2 weeks ago, went with Kuan to Shibuya and Akihabara to get my laptop, my hand-phone and a kettle.


We went around looking for this model of laptop from Fujitsu, FMV-BIBLO MG75U. In the internet, it was priced at \185,500 which is about SGD$2.5K. But most of the shops we went to in Shibuya are selling it at at least \220,00 and above. After going to an Internet cafe in Shibuya and went online to check for the shops selling at the lowest price, we went to Akihabara. In one of the smaller shop, we managed to get it at the lowest price..



Next on the list is my mobile phone.. I don't really care about the kind or brand of phone , cos seriously I'm not a hand-phone person, in fact, I can do without hand-phone!! But being in Japan, where they have all the sophisticated phone, it will be a pity for me to not have one.. But considering the bill, I opted for a simple phone which has dual language capability. It doesn't have the multimedia function, which will adds up to the bill (remember? I'm a poor student now.. need to budget..). There are 3 telecom companies in Japan, namely Softbank, NTT Docomo and au by KDDI.



As Kuan is an au subscriber so I became an au subscriber too, as it will be cheaper for us to communicate. I had always wanted a clam-shell phone, so I chose a black one, Toshiba A5523T, which is very slick, but in fact has the least functions.. The phone would have cost me nothing if not for the charger which cost me \986. The phones here have no sim cards and is proprietary to each telecom company. That explains the reason why lost phones are always returned, as they cannot be sold without the telecom companies' knowledge...



The last thing that I bought at Akihabara was a kettle.. The common kitchen does not have any kettle or water cooler. If I want hot water, I would have to have a kettle to boil my own water.. If I were to get a kettle that can reboil, I would need to keep it plug on all day. But considering the electricity bills that it might incur, I opted for a small and simple kettle. It cost me \2,990.

This month, me very poor... but at least from now on, I would be able to get connected to the Internet, be contactable and get hot drinks...

Weather.. whatever..

The weather here is really crazy, at least that's what I think.... for now..

It can be bright and sunny in the morning, and suddenly in the afternoon, it turns windy and rain non-stop for hours.. Sometimes, it's sunny and windy, and other times, it's rainy and windy... The rain here isn't heavy, but can really last the whole day or even days.. So far, I've noticed that it rained continuously for 3 full days last week.. The rain is more like an irritation than a means for collecting rain water or cooling down the place. It's seldom heavy, and the rain drops are so tiny that sometimes you need to really squint your eyes to see it.. And yet, people can still get wet and get sick because of it..

And the wind... Brrrhhh... It's cold.. It's strong.. In the beginning, waking up seeing the sun outside, I made the mistake of wearing only 1 layer of clothing and a jacket to school.. Along the way to school, (remember that I mentioned that I need to walk about 15-20 min from the train station to my Uni), I would regret not wearing more, cos the wind was howling away and it's soooo freaking COLD!!

According to the average yearly temperature, April is supposed to get warmer, but it hasn't. It's still hovering around 15-18 during the day, and 10-13 at night.. which is just tooooo cold for me.. as the coldest temperature I've ever encountered was 16 degree..

Inside the buildings/classrooms/trains, it is so warm that I'll sweat (because of the clothings I wear) and yet outside it's so cold, due to the wind and sometimes rain.. my body is starting to rebel.. I'm nursing a cough for days now, it's nothing serious, just plain irritating when the urge to cough comes in the most inappropriate time, like in the train or during class... It seemed so impolite to cough or sneeze here. The people here doesn't seems to sneeze, blow their nose, cough or whatever. Everyone seems so polite and composed.. Seemed so inhuman sometimes.. Add to that, my nose acted up the last few days too.. Must be the dust.. My room is locked and windows are closed off, and yet the coat of dust found in my room everyday is unbelievable.. Sometimes I need to hang my laundry in my room, cos the weather outside is so unpredictable, it only made things worse.. And also maybe all the rushing, packing, etc last Mar has finally caught up with me..

Really can't imagine how I am going to survive through the winter here, when I'm already having problem surviving the spring!! Hopefully, I can get used to all these irritants and be well to start enjoying Japan..

3 weeks of school...

So far, I've survived 3 weeks of school...

Frankly, it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be.. maybe it's because it really has been a long while since I studied full time.. The last time I studied was in 2005, for my Special Diploma in Translation, even then it was just 7 days per month for 8 months only, that adds up to 31 hours per month.. I'm studying 32 hours a week.. The stress involved is different.

The Japanese classes is getting tougher each day, and there is no way I could just 'cruise' through, like I do at work sometimes.. :P Every hour of revision and self study counts.. And I really need to discipline myself to do it every nite.. So far my in-class test results are above average, and I even got the highest in one of them, but I really need to concentrate and work hard.. Need to adjust my mind for it.. Luckily, I like to read, so I just treat those Jap text books as my reading material, and just go over them every night...although I did skip the revision a few nights..

Think I've yet to get into my studying mode yet.. My 'internal application' for studying is just being brought online after being decommissioned for years.. There are still some finetuning that needs to be done before my system is able to run at its optimum. Hopefully, it is still able to handle the new study load and will not crash or hung.. Hahahaha..

Waseda University 早稻田大学

Maybe my impression of a University is different.. Maybe I'm too used to see university campus being isolated in some corner of the city.. But here in Waseda, sometimes it's difficult to differentiate, where the University starts/ends. It's situated among the city..

It has several campuses, some within walking distance from one another, while some had to be reached via bullet train..

Below are some photos that i've taken of the Nishi Waseda University Campus..

The famous Okuma Tower in the middle of the Nishi Waseda Campus..








The road leading to the Main Library is lined with sakura trees.. Tail end of the sakura bloom...






The Main Library.. which I've yet to visit..




The Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Musuem within the campus, which is opened to public..




Statues of the University's founder...Prof. Shingenobu Okuma








A nice picture with the Tower as the backdrop...




Some of the University building..

Me Room

Here are some of the pictures of my room taken before I unpacked...

From within






Bedside..








To store, to freeze and to ventilate



Personal Water Closet






Room with a View

Photos of Komaba

The following are some of the pictures I took of my Dormitory.. Please be warned that the pictures' file sizes are huge (300+KB each), as I've yet to find a way to shrink them on my laptop... Be patient.. Some of them are worth the wait.. :)

My full postal address is:
Komaba International House
Room 2-528
4-5-29 Komaba, Meguro-ku,
Tokyo 153-8503.


The Entrance of the International House.






The view of the International House from the opposite site of the train track

第二天。。

04 Apr
今早睡到7点多，醒来之后，梳洗完毕才8点多。心里想说：不如出外走走，看一看附近有哪些设施，特别是Study Hall那栋大楼，想知道这里的健身房设备如何。所以就悠闲地走到了Residence Hall 2的后面。看到了Block B, C 和 D， 当然也看到了Study Hall。它有三层高，有图书馆、健身房、会议室、音乐室及温习室等。我只是站在房间外望进去，加上健身房被锁上了，必须向House Office拿钥匙。

参观了Study Hall，时间还很早，所以就打算去找地图上的99yen店。我朝地图所指的方向走去。一路上看到许多路人，男男女女、老老少少，每个人都走得非常冲忙。我花了大约15分钟才走到那间店。那里的确有很多实用的东西，在那我买了些必需品。

刚好赶在Komaba Orientation开始前到宿舍。在Orientation上我们填写了好几份表格，包括宿舍的合约、宿舍的宣誓、Alien Registration及National Health Insurance。我们也在各自的信箱放上了自己的名字。下午两点，宿舍的前辈们就带我们去办Alien Registration，到Komaba（驹场）所属的Ｍｅｇｕｒｏ－ｋｕ　（目黑区）Ｃｉｔｙ　Ｏｆｆｉｃｅ办。

因为下着大雨，本来打算到Ｓｈｉｂｕｙａ（涉谷）吃晚餐的计划泡汤了。只好在回家途中的便利店买了便当吃。

第二天约好了同宿舍的Ｃｈｕａ及Ｍｅｉ　Ｌｉｎｇ（印尼华侨）一同到早稻田大学看一看。。

First Entry in Japan!!

Finally had the time to write my first blog entry in Japan... I will try to write from the start...

3 Apr
Touched down at Narita Airport at 6:30pm. Cleared custom and found my luggage. It looks like it's still in one piece..

Met the JASSO (Japan Student Service Organisation) staff and was led to a room for registration. They gave us \25,000 as arrival allowance, which come in handy for purchasing telephone card. I bought 1 NTT caller card and called home to inform Dad that I've arrived safely in Japan.

Met a couple of Msian scholars too. Two of them were actually from the same interview session as me. Most of them are going University of Tokyo (Todai), only a handful are going to other Universities. Found 3 other fellas going to Waseda University and one of them, Chua, will be going to the same dormitory as me, at the Komaba International Student House.

We waited at the airport for the transport for more than 3 hours. It seemed that all Monbusho scholars are arriving today... Including those from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, etc. Very few Chinese faces, not counting Msians. There are only a few Malays among us.

Finally boarded the bus after passing our luggages to a transport company. The whole bus was full of Vietnamese. Took us more than 90 mins to get to our hostel. And there, even more Vietnamese.

After paying \1,000 for the utility, I finally moved into my room in Residence Hall 2, Room 2-528. The room is really really small, but it's bigger than the room in Eusoff Hall. It has an attached bathroom/toilet. At least I dont have to bring my barang-barang every time I wanna bath.. The room was relatively clean, so I did minimal cleaning. Unpacking was fast but not the setting up of my bed. Took me almost 20 mins to figure out what is supposed to be where, as there were just too many layers. All these while, I didnt eat anything. It was almost 2pm and the last meal I had was the breakfast on the plane. I checked out the kitchen and realised that even kettle was not provided!! I had to buy almost every cooking utensils!! From pots and pans to utensils (spoons & chopsticks) to washing detergent. And I was so confident the day before, telling Mum that I do not need to bring those things as they will be provided. How wrong was I!!

Compared to Eusoff Hall, almost everything here cost money. It's \150 for washing a laundry load of 4kg and \100 for using the dryer. We cant have electric stove or iron in the room. The utilities is charged for electric and water usage. As there is an attached bathroom and a fridge in the room, and the air-con also acts as the heater, so the total utility bill for the first month will definitely be a shocker...

Anyway, after packing I went around to check out the place. Met Chua, the Malaysian guy. Seemed like he went around the neighborhood for a walk. We decided to do another round of 'site-tour' and at the same time find something to eat. When we reached the train station, we decided to go to Shibuya to find food, as there are no cheap restaurant around the dorm. Paid \120 for the ticket.

When we got to Shibuya, we just kept walking. Everything seems so fresh to us. We went around looking at the prices of almost everything, trying to figure out how much are those, in terms of Msian Ringgit/Spore dollar. Finally we came to Yoshinoya and had my first warm meal in Japan.... I had my usual beef bowl, which cost \360.

After eating, we continue walking around to check out prices for Starbucks (slightly more expensive than Spore), Subway (cheaper than Spore), McDonalds (about the same), KFC (about the same) and all the other familiar brand names.

On our way back to the dorm, we stopped at the nearby convenient store and bought some food. I bought a bottle of orange juice and a loaf of raisin bread. Both cost me about \502, which is slightly more expensive than in Spore.

Slept early as I was very tired, and also because I didnt sleep well on the flight...

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Will continue with day 2 in the next entry.. and some pictures too...

40 min before departure...

I'm currently at KLIA, Cathay Pacific's customer lounge. In 40 minutes, I will be boarding JAL Flight JL0724 to Narita Airport, scheduled departure time is 2250 hours, at Gate C06. The flight should take about 6-7 hours.

So in short, I should be in Japan tomorrow morning, around 6am. In a way, my new life starts now.. I've yet meet any other Scholars, not least those going to Waseda University.

As mentioned before, I'm both excited and terrified. Now, add to that mix of feelings, a sense of dread and doubt. Have I made the right choice? Will I be able to graduate in 3 years with a Masters? Will my Professor approve of me? Will I be 'blur' to all the customs and cultures of how things are done in Japan?

Anyway, now is too late for a U-turn. I will brave on, do my best and hope that it will be enough for me to graduate... :) And also in the same time, I will not deprieve of myself and shall take full advantage of my being a student and tour around Japan, that is the least I owe myself... After almost 9 years of working, I seriously need a break... :)