Bollywood New Year..

Yes, have been listening to Bollywood songs since 11:30pm..
Nope, this is not due to the sudden change in my music taste..

The reason: my floor is having a Bollywood-themed New Year Party.. sort-of.. because I am unfortunate enough to stay near the tv room on my floor, I have to endure the blasting of loud music and the high-pitch screaming, especially one lady from Australia... :x :x :x :x But this being the New Year's Day, I will just endure it..

Maybe you might think, "since I can't beat them, why not join them??" Well, I'm never a party person, especially with people I am not familiar with.. p/s: you can ask my friends whom I had partied with, how difficult it is to get me warmed up.. :p

But well, anyway, Happy New Year everyone..

Looking back..

In just a few hours, the year 2008 will be upon us.. Don't plan to go anywhere.. No countdown parties or whatever.. I've always liked to stay in and reflect upon the year that is going to pass.. :)

What a year it was for me in 2007.. When I applied for the Monbusho scholarship in Feb 2006, I never thought that I would get it.. Even after I had cleared all the stages and submitted my choice universities, I didn't really think that I would be shortlisted as, in my opinion, I was not the ideal candidate.. The dream of studying full-time again was more like my secret escapism, from the everyday mundane work life that I had been living for the past 8+ years, that I allowed myself to indulge in.. But what do you know, Life seems to have some plans for me.. So once again, I had to leave the environment that I have grown accustomed & attached to and start afresh in an 'alien' world.. Alien to me in a way that I am handicapped by its language and culture.. As someone who needs to be in control, no matter what, and being in a place where I can't express myself effectively (even when I speak more than 3 languages), living in Japan is one of the biggest challenges in my life so far..

Even though I am still having doubts about my decision to take up this scholarship and quit my interesting job (especially right after a big fat increment), I aim to stick to this and try to gain as much knowledge/growth/whatever as possible from this experience. In the year 2009, I would need to start looking for a job, since I would be graduating in July that year.. so I will treat the year 2008 as the year where I will try and maximize this experience - study harder (especially Japanese) and play harder. Where else can I have more than 18 weeks of holidays per year to indulge in my interests/hobbies if not while in school? :)

Although people say that new year resolutions are made to be unkept, I would still make them.. Thus in the year 2008, I would hope to:

• Stay healthy and lose more weight.
  
• Master Japanese and clear JLPT 2 (at least).
  
• Explore Japan more.
  
• Travel to (at least 2) other neighboring countries/cities (China/HK/Macau/Taiwan/Korea)
  
• Keep/Update/Refresh my professional and technical knowledge
  
• Be open and stay truthful to my believes, feelings and myself..
  
• Continue growing - spiritually and mentally
  

Don't think I will put "Make more friends" as one of my resolutions.. Never the social butterfly and always the loner, I would prefer to use my time for more productive (in my opinion) activities..Don't see the point of knowing everyone but trusting no one.. I always believe the phrase, "True friends last forever", and I hope to believe that I am being considered as a true friend by some of my friends..

In 2007, many of my friends too have embarked on a new journey in their lives.. Some had gotten married, some had a baby, some relocated overseas because of their jobs, some progressed on in their professionals.. Each and every events is a milestone in their lives and had helped them grow, whether they knew it or not.. People change every day, every week, every month and every year.. Every one of us can only hope that those changes are for the better, even if in hindsight..

So to all my family, relatives and friends, HAPPY NEW YEAR 2008!! And may it be a fruitful year for everyone!! :)

小茉莉

作曲：黃建勳
作詞：周美玲、林書宇
主唱：楊丞琳

清晨下了一場雨，露水沾濕了小茉莉
白色花瓣純潔又清晰地、聞著妳的呼吸
晚風吹拂青草地，夕陽染紅了小茉莉
微笑綻放不言、也不語，看不透妳的秘密

月光靜靜、薄暮籠罩小茉莉
凝視著妳、捨不得離開妳
月光靜靜、薄暮壟罩小茉莉
等候著妳、走進我的夢裡

小茉莉，是否妳會把我忘記
小茉莉，請記得我 還在這裡
小茉莉，在枝頭上自然美麗
小茉莉，請記得我 不要把我忘記

Last few days..

Didn't leave my room at all between 23 Dec to 25 Dec.. :p

Been watching lots of movies, Taiwan variety shows and surfing the net.. Just didnt have the mood to study or do research.. Maybe I'll just allow myself to indulge in this laziness for a while.. since I have "only" 1.5 years more to enjoy such luxury before going back into the harsh corporate world.. :p :p

Yesterday, met up with Bro to have lunch.. He wanted to run some errands too before his trip to China with his gf. He wanted to go donate blood, get a SLR camera and get the plane tix for CNY. He would be going back for a week during that period. We met up at Shinbashi and went to the BBQ restaurant. However, the restaurant was packed with tourists and we decided to have ramen instead. The ramen shop was supposed to be one of the famous ramen shops in that area. But the soup was a bit too oily for my liking.

After failing to get his plane tix (the price he was quoted over the phone and the one he was going to be charged was totally different, so he didnt get them), we went to Akihabara, the famous electrical and anime (related goods) shopping area. He got himself a Olympus and we went around looking for portable HDD. We found one 500G external 3.5" HDD for 14,700yen, which is about SGD190. Then we met his gf at Ueno for dinner. We had yaki-niku (BBQ meat), something that I've craved for a while..

Reached home around 10:30pm smelling like a BBQ myself.. :p

My Day

Turned a year older yesterday... :)

The major program of the day was a visit to the Imperial Palace to greet the Emperor of Japan whom I am honored to be sharing the same birthday with. However, it had started raining since 1am and didn't stop until around 10am.. so I decided not to go out at all.. the line of sight of the Imperial family (on the balcony) would most probably be blocked... no point going there and not being able to see anything, since everyone will be carrying an umbrella..

I slept around 2am.. As a tradition, I will open all the presents that I've received slightly after midnight.. this year, I received only 1.. from Kim-chan.. this year no birthday parties, no birthday lunch/dinner.. only me and myself.. sounded kinda melancholy, but I am ok with it.. I rather spend it alone if I can't spend it with the people I like/can click.. I don't want to put on masks.. this was my day, I don't want to have to "entertain" people by being nice/considerate/whatever..

Usually, when I was in Singapore, this day will be the day I go shopping.. :p Cos I will just get myself any new clothes that catches my fancy without worrying much about the price, although I will never over-spend... It was one of the few occasions that I do shop.. :p But being in Japan, where all the usual clothes will not fit me, I had given up shopping for "nice-nice" clothes, only necessary ones.. I would have considered going to a karaoke and sing my heart out, but the karaoke in Japan are not really that Chinese-language friendly.. their Chinese songs' MV are all not originals.. so one can't really enjoy the songs as one would be able to as in Singapore.. :(

I woke up around 7am as I wanted to go out, but when I saw the rain, I decided to just stay in.. not wanting to go back to sleep (and waste my BD), I decided to watch a movie on my laptop.. I had saved the movie, 生日快乐 by 刘若英 and 古天乐 to be watched today. It was a sad movie, and yes, I cried.. then I watched a lot of the Taiwanese variety show called, 开运万事通 to know more about astrology.. :p :p I am always curious about what the future lies ahead for me, especially during my BD when the new year will arrive in less than 9 days..

For lunch I had rice and stew. Cooked rice and heated up the prepacked stew. For dinner I had rice and curry instead.. :) One of my classmates from Taiwan had given me some 肉干, 萨其玛 and 贡糖 from Taiwan.. :) :) So I ate them too.. Had 2 cans of beer too.. hahaha.. compared to what I usually drink, those cans of beer were nothing.. :p :p

At night, I watched 2 HK movies: PTU and 危险人物. Not too bad.. Then I had the usual family conference call with Bro and Dad. Sis was not able to join as her roommate was asleep and Sis didnt want to wake her up.. Didnt really talk much too, as Bro was with his gf (who coincidently share the same BD as me).. After that I had a mini karaoke session in my room.. as I have lots of original MVs, I just played them one by one and sang along with them.. :p

So that's about it.. that's how I spent my BD this year.. :p :)

倔强

詞曲：阿信 主唱:五月天

当我和世界不一样 那就让我不一样
坚持对我来说 就是以刚克刚
我 如果对自己不行 如果对自己说谎
即使你不原谅 我也不能原谅
最美的愿望 一定最疯狂
我就是我自己的神 在我活的地方
我和我最后的倔强 握紧双手绝对不放
下一站是不是天堂 就算失望不能绝望
我和我骄傲的倔强 我在风中大声的唱
这一次为自己疯狂 就这一次我和我的倔强

对爱我的人别紧张 我的固执很善良
我的手越肮脏眼神 越是发光
你不在乎我的过往 看到了我的翅膀
你说被火烧过 才能出现凤凰
逆风的方向 更适合飞翔
我不怕千万人阻挡 只怕自己投降
我和我最后的倔强 握紧双手绝对不放
下一站是不是天堂 就算失望不能绝望
我和我骄傲的倔强 我在风中大声的唱
这一次为自己疯狂 就这一次我和我的倔强
就这一次 让我大声唱
lalalala...
就算失望 不能绝望...
lalalalala...
就这一次 我和我的倔强

献给过生日的自己。。

YEAH!! Winter Holidays!!!

From today onwards, I will have 15 days of winter holidays!! :) :) :) There won't be any classes until 8th Jan 2008.. and then I will be going home for Chinese New Year on 3rd Feb 2008.. so it should be a short and exciting time in between.. :p :p Also, tomorrow I plan to visit the Imperial Palace to catch a glimpse of Japan's Imperial Family.. Will try to catch up and write on some interesting issues on my observation of Japan.. stay tuned! :p

Home for CNY

Just got my plane tickets for Chinese New Year.. :) :)

Went online to several websites, including airlines and tour agencies, to look for cheap air tickets.. After comparing prices, I realised that it would be better to book the tickets through a tour agencies as they would have access to all airlines.. So in the end, I went to a H.I.S. branch in Shibuya on my way home from class today..

Before going to the branch, I've found out that the cheapest air tickets to Malaysia is not, ironically, from MAS, but ANA (All Nippon Airways). Call me unpatriotic, but I don't really care which airline it is as long as it is the cheapest... I need to save as much money as possible, as I am now a poor student.. :p :p :p So armed with the information about a few possible flights, I went looking for the tour agency..

I got out of the South Exit at Shibuya Station and was kinda lost. This is not the part of the Station that I am familiar with.. so after walking up and down, and in circles in the station building several times looking for the agency, I realised that it is located at the building opposite the road!! what a sotong.. :p Once I got the right building, I found the tour agency easily..

Once I got into the agency, I was immediately approached by an employee of the agency. He asked me where do I wanna go, and I told him Penang and also added that I am not fluent in Japanese.. He quickly showed me to one of the empty seats at the counters, and asked a lady colleague to attend to me. I told her in simple English that I wanna go to Penang, the dates I wanna go and also the cheapest airlines I've checked on their website is by ANA. She quickly went back to her seat and started searching.. In about 10 min, she came back and told me that there are seats available on ANA and I would need to transit in KL for both trips. The ticket price would be 74,350yen. As it was really the cheapest I've heard (from my fellow Malaysians that I've met) and found out so far (from the Internet), I told her those dates and flights are okay, and do proceed to book me those flights..

Then it was a long long long wait.. At first, I thought that it was just the way things are done in Japan, where everything has to be double-checked, triple-checked by more than 2 person, etc.. I saw this lady, Ms Kittaka, kept asking her colleagues for help, and I thought (again) to myself that she must have been a new employee since she is still unsure about things.. But I am okay with her taking a long time, as I wanna make sure there is no problem with my tickets.. She kept apologizing for making me wait, but I told her don't worry about it.. I asked her what seems to be the problem, she said that she is having problem booking those tickets, especially the one transiting from KL to Penang.

I waited almost an hour when she finally got back to me. Seems like she is not able to book the transit flights (between KL and Penang) from MAS. The only flights possible is on ANA, even for the transit flights. Looking at the time between the transits, I was speechless.. For the transit from KL to Penang, I had to wait at KLIA for more than 5 hours, while the transit from Penang to KL on my way back to Tokyo would be more than 12 hours!! Then I told her to try searching for other transiting cities, maybe Singapore or Bangkok. Maybe the transiting hours would not be so long.. After a while, she came back with another option of transiting in Bangkok, and the transit hours are not much shorter. :( :(

Then I told her to look for the cheapest flight from Tokyo to KL instead. That might be cheaper. But in the end, my guess was incorrect. The cheapest flight is still the same ANA flight and with the same fare!! After much thought, I decided to take the ANA flight with the 5+ hour transit in KL (for the to-trip) and board the flight at KL (for the back-trip). So my flight would be on 3rd Feb (Sunday) at 10:30hrs, reaching KL at 17:05hrs with the transit flight to Penang at 22:10hrs and reach Penang at 23:00hrs... And my return flight would be from KL at 11:00hrs and reach Narita around 18:40hrs. As I will be boarding from KL, there is a small savings in the fuel charges, so in the end, I'm paying 72,100yen for the tickets. Since these are e-Tickets, Ms.Kittaka will be sending me the details/instructions and the e-Tickets via email. That was the main reason why the tickets were that cheap.. :) :) Compared to buying the tickets through the website myself, I would prefer to go through the tour agency as I do not want to bear the full responsibility of any error/problem that might arise during booking, especially when it involves quite a huge amount of money.. :p :p It is not that I do not advocate e-Commerce, but sometimes it is better to have a person to do it instead.. Maybe next time I will just book it over the Net myself. Previously, I've booked several plane tickets through SIA website to go back Malaysia from Singapore. Maybe that's because I have more confidence in SIA and its website reliability, than ANA or H.I.S.'s.

Anyway, I am set to go back to Malaysia for Chinese New Year!! :) :) :) Can't wait to eat all the local food... :p :p not to mention the warm weather...

Big Foot in Japan..

Been a while since my last blog.. been busy..

Today's entry is kinda late too, should have written this earlier.. :p

As someone with big feet, it has always been a struggle for me to get shoes and it is worse for a girl.. I can still remember, when I was growing up, the hassle and pain of searching for a pair of suitable shoes for Chinese New Year.. :( :( The average shoe size for ladies is size 5 or 6, while for me, I need a size 9 (at least)! So can you imagine the looks I get when I ask for size 9 and what they must be thinking..

Things got better when I went to Singapore. Over there, the shoe sizes of up to 10 are available.. Although they are slightly more expensive and only limited to a couple of brands, but hey, at least I can get something other than sports shoes..

Before I came to Japan, I am already half expecting the same issue of not able to find shoes that fit to occur. And yes, indeed it happened. :( :( Before, I had already made up my mind to wear 1 pair of sport shoes and 1 pair of flat heels for this entire year. However, the sport shoes that I brought over is neither water-proof nor is it wind-proof. So I had to get a new pair of shoes in Japan.. :x

One of first thing I noticed is that the shoe sizes here are all in centimeters... I was lost.. After searching and checking the web, I realised that my shoe size would have to be around 28cm.. And the thing is, the largest shoe size for ladies here is 25cm... so I can never wear those high heel boots or those fancy shoes that we used to see on TV, worn by those Jap girls, not that I would want to wear them in the first place.. :p

Thus the next option is to look for shoes that are unisex. With those, the shoe sizes will be from size 22cm (who the heck would have such small feet!!!) till size 32cm.. So I went online to check out the shoes sold in some of the big shoe outlets.. and found out that the average shoe prices would be between 5,500yen to 9,000yen..

Thus in the end, I bought these shoes... the main reason for getting this pair is that the sole is flexible enough and there are sufficient traction. I hate those shoes that is so stiff that it's like wearing a wood clog or so smooth its sole that one can fall flat on one's face anytime!! This pair of Puma cost 6,300yen, which is equivalent to SGD82.

I don't think I will be buying anymore shoes, except high heels maybe.. Almost everyone is wearing high heels, even some of the guys (not very obvious).. :x :x It is really amazing to see the kinds of high heels these Japanese ladies are wearing and the fact they could actually cycle (on a bicycle) with those, on top of the short shirts they are wearing.. :o :x :o Will talk about that some other time...

忘年会

Went to the Year End Party organized by my Karate-dojo. It was an interesting experience..

The party started at 6:30pm, but I only arrived at the place around 6:40pm.. It was held at Komae (狛江), in a small hall on the 3rd floor of a building next to where the HQ of my Karate-dojo is located. For ladies it was 3,500yen per person and 4,500yen each for men. I think maybe this is due to the fact that guys do drink more than the ladies.. which was aptly proven later..

When I got there, the place was already packed with people.. no one I knew, except for Narikawa Sensei and his wife, and Wakiya Sensei and his wife.. No one from my dorm went.. I decided to go because I am curious about how a typical Japanese Year End party is like. There were a couple of 'gai-jin' (foreigners who are either Caucasians or Africans) present too.. They seems to be 'attracting' lots of attention from the Japanese.. well, I must say that the Japanese always seems to have an 'obsession' with White Caucasians and Black Africans.. *eyes rolling*

Anyway, I don't really care if no one talks to me and I don't really feel like talking to anyone too.. with my (still) poor command of Japanese, I don't want to spend the night struggling to find words to have a decent chat with people whom I most probably won't be seeing again.. So there I was, eating and quietly observing the crowd.. :p The food was not too bad, there is tempura, sushi, pasta, meatballs, salad, beef slices, etc., but comparatively it seriously lacked the 'excitement' and variety of Malaysian/Singaporean food.. But one thing for sure, the Japanese sure like to drink!! :o :o To me, it seemed that all the men can't wait to get themselves drunk.. Maybe it's a culture thing.. As the alcohol flowed, faces got redder and voices became louder.. Some of the mums of the kids who took karate started to talk rather loudly and big gesturing, so unbecoming of the impression that I have of Japanese housewives..

Anyway, Narikawa Sensei seemed to be rather high as he was just sitting at the front, face redden by alcohol.. while Mrs Narikawa was busy walking around, being the competent hostess.. and their daughter, Ms Narikawa was busy organizing and making sure the programs went on smoothly.. The programs was ok, nothing fantastic.. the usual piano performance, a short sketch (that was supposed to be a comedy, but it was kinda of a stretch than a sketch to me), a solo dance performance by a guy (named Asrof) from Tunisia and song performances by a group of 3 guys (rapping, singing and dancing away)..

Around 8pm, the event that everyone was waiting for finally got started. It was a game of Bingo.. :) Everyone was given a bingo card when they arrived. Then the numbers were being called out one by one.. A lots of those numbers on my card matched, but they just don't seemed to form a straight line.. When more than 15 numbers had been called out, my card had around 11 of them and yet I can't bingo as they just refused to form a line of 5 (horizontally, vertically or diagonally).. :( :( When I finally was able to bingo, out of 25 numbers on my card, about 18 of them had been called out!!! Just the kind of luck I usually have.. "so near yet so far", "so close yet not enough"..
Well, I've gotten prize No. 19, which turned out to be a box of rice crackers... :x :x From the Net, I found out that the box of rice crackers cost about 1,000yen.. :p

Throughout the party, I only talked to a handful of people, especially the 2 guys (one French and the other Tunisian) and the coach from Russia who come to the dorm for the weekly karate practice .. From the French guy, I found out that the previous Sensei, Mr Oogawa was no longer with this Karate-dojo. Seemed like he was forced to resigned!! :o :o I was shocked!! I had thought that Oogawa Sensei was absent for the past 3 trainings was because he had something to attend to.. and the reasons I heard from him (which he had heard from another person) were very lame to say the least.. Although I am tempted to clarify my doubts with one of the older lady who come to the weekly trainings in my dorm, I am worried that I might not catch the whole story with my (still) poor Japanese listening skills.. :(

The whole party ended 10 minutes before 9pm.. It ended with a usual custom of year end parties in Japan, where everyone was to clap in sync 3 sets of beats together.. Then before leaving, everyone helped to clean up the place.. Uneaten food were packed for take-away or thrown into the organic recycling bags, while burnable items (like chopsticks, paper plates, etc) and plastic items (plastic cups, plastic wraps, etc) were collected and sorted in separate bags too.. The guys then kept the tables and chairs.. I left the place after saying goodbye to Mrs Narikawa and Mrs Wakiya.. Reached my room around 9:40pm..

Which way??

Anyone know where to get cheap air tickets back to Malaysia? maybe to Penang via Singapore??

Been trying to find cheap air tickets to go back Malaysia for Chinese New Year next year.. and I need to decide if I want to stop at Singapore and then take a flight to Penang, instead of flying directly to Penang from Tokyo.. I wanna visit my friends in Singapore during CNY, but I need to find a place to stay too since I no longer have a place to go 'back' to in Singapore.. also I need to decide how many days I will be in Malaysia and how many days in Singapore, if I do drop by Singapore..

The average price for flying directly to KL is around 90,000yen, while flying directly to Singapore is about 65,000yen and the most expensive of them all is to fly directly to Penang, which will cost more than 100,000yen.. :( And if I want to visit friends in Singapore, then I would need to spend additional transportation fare to get from Taiping to Singapore and back again, if I flew straight from Tokyo to Penang.. The air ticket between Singapore and Penang is about SGD485, which will come up to about 37,000yen.. so in a way, it makes more sense flying directly to Singapore and then take a flight from Singapore to Penang for the 'to' trip. And then when I wanna go back Japan, I can fly to Singapore a few days earlier to visit my friends before flying back to Tokyo from Singapore...

The main 'negative' point for the above idea is that the possibility of losing my luggage in any of the flights and the hassle of repacking my luggage on my trip back to Japan while in Singapore..

Which is the best way?? Mmm.. so hard to decide..

哭笑不得。。

现在的心情的确是如此。。为什么呢？让我好好解释解释吧。。

今天的seminar是轮到我发表。由于这个学期我必须发表两次，所以我就打算把我这个学期必须提交的研究成果留到第二次的发表，而这一次所发表的只是我这两年的研究计划方向及大纲。

老实说我不相信研究室里有超过3个人以上晓得我所要研究的主题，包括教授在内。但是在我发表我那两年的研究计划方向及大纲后，竟遭受前辈及教授的质问！章前辈给的意见很有建设性，让我了解到我要研究的东西太广了，应该更专注一些集中一些，毕竟我不需要写论文所以不需要什么假想或重大研究成果。而教授他竟问我的研究主题及方针是什么！！ :o 那个当下真的弄得我哭笑不得。。也许我野心太大了，想研究的课题也太广泛了，但是如果我有机会和教授仔细聊一聊，课题的选择就不会发生问题了！！ :@ 不知道是我有先见之明还是我变得蛮轻视这研究课程了，至今我仍未投注太多的时间和精神在这个学术研究上。。也许这是不幸中的大幸吧。。 如果他有时间给与我们指导，密切督促大家的研究进度，那么今天的事情就不会发生了。。

难怪从前辈们那儿常听到有关教授及我们这个研究室的一些非常负面的消息和情报。。

“最近这几个学期被保留的修士生们都是我们研究室的。。”
“教授常常会叫学生做一些无关课业但是关于他私人的事物。。”
“其他教授们都常常督促并经常会见他们的学生们，哪像我们教授，见个面还必须先预约！！”
“只有我们教授把他应该教的课变成了学生们的发表会！！”
“其他教授们的seminar都是在做相关的学术讨论，并且会买书让学生们当参考。。”
“其他研究室都有很多很多相关的参考书让学生们借阅，我们的研究室连本书都没有！！”。。。

老实说自从四月份进入这个研究室，单独一对一和教授交谈讨论的次数没超过三次！！而这几次仅有的交谈时限从没多过15分！！！！ 所以可想而知大伙都是自己在摸索探讨。。除非是研究电子政府或是相关的课题，不然教授本身也是门外汉。。但是最令我吃不消的是他那种爱理不理的教学态度。。 :@

但是话又说回来，我认为我们（教授和我）都是在互相利用罢了。。像我这样（瞎）的学生自动找上门来，又带着国费生（国家奖学金学生）的“光环”，私立大学的教授没有理由拒绝，毕竟他们要的是钱和声誉。。而我在不想再搞太过于技术性的研究的情况下，选择了一位我认为很有学术权威的大学和教授，谁知。。唉。。真的有点那种误上贼船的感觉。。 :x :x

所以现在唯一能做的事就是这两年里无论如何都按照教授的意愿，写/研究/做他要我写/研究/做的东西，顺顺利利地毕业。之后谁还会“鸟”他！！

Addicted to Facebook

Ya ya ya.. i know.. I'm kinda slow to catch on to the social networking craze.. more than 1 year slower.. :p Been resisting the urgings from friends and ex-colleagues.. finally I 'succumbed' to the craze..

Never one who really like to be in the 'in' crowd just for the sake of it, I didn't see much value in having such a social networking when my friends or ex-colleagues are just a phone call or email away.. but now being away from my circle of friends (including ex-colleagues turned friends) and alone in Tokyo, the urge to keep in contact and know how everyone is doing is the major push factor in my joining Facebook..

So here I am.. addicted to Facebook and all its quirky applications.. seriously, how can one concentrate on doing other 'more' important tasks when there are so much fun (read interactivity) built into it.. one can really spent hours fiddling and surfing around within Facebook.. :p :p

Test Week

It's going to be a 'Testing' week next week...

I will have tests almost everyday this coming week..

Monday (10 Dec): Listening Test
The 2nd of the 3 scheduled tests for the Listening Class. One of my weakest Japanese skills. Did not do too badly in the first test, getting 91 out of 100.. :p But still I remain fearful every time I listen to the test conversations or news that my brain will freeze and stop processing the information, which it does occasionally.. :x :x
[Stress Level: 3.5 out of 5]

Tuesday (11 Dec): Reading Test
This is a weekly test and the most un-stressful test of them all. Reading and comprehending essays and writing the hiragana for the Kanji is one of my strength..
As long as I study (a bit) I will be okay, although I have yet to score full marks so far.. there is always some small minor mistakes here and there.. :x
[Stress Level: 1.5 out of 5]

Wednesday (12 Dec): Karate Promotion Test
My 2nd promotion test for this year.. It's for promoting from 9-kyu to 8-kyu... but I will still be in purple belt when I pass this.. I think the probability of me passing this should be quite high as I am more confident now than I was my first time.. yet, it is kinda stressful to 'perform' in front of all the seniors.. :x
[Stress Level: 3 out of 5]

Thursday (13 Dec): NO TEST!!
A day of resting.. :p :p

Friday (14 Dec): Grammar Test
Another of my weakness in Japanese.. And one of the most stressful subjects this semester.. This is a weekly test that contributes about 30% of the marks and then on 18 Jan a final exam that has a weight of 50%!! The weekly test requires us to make new sentences or completed some partially formed sentences with the grammar we learned the week before. So far my lowest score was 1.5 out of 8 in one of the tests... :x :x Thus me damn stressful as there are students in the class who consistently score 80% or more in every tests, when I barely pass most of the time.. :x :x Think I just have to buck up and study more.. :(
[Stress Level: 4.5 out of 5]

In addition, I will have to make a presentation on my researches this Friday evening in the weekly seminar. I've already prepared the presentation slides last week. Since this presentation is just an introduction of what I planned to do during these 2 years and not my actual research results for this semester, I'm not that stress over it.. :p

Multifarious Confection

In the past few months, I've seen several interesting flavors of Kit-Kat in Tokyo.. Here are some of them.. :)

This one was on sale during summer, although I can still see them on the shelves of some shops.. Strong melon smell.. a bit overwhelming.. [3 out of 5]

Class vanilla taste.. since I'm no fan of vanilla, this flavor is so-so to me... :p [2.5 out of 5]

One of my favorites.. The slightly bitter taste goes quite well with the layered biscuits.. [4.5 out of 5]

This one is way too sweet for my liking.. imagine the sugar-filled caramel on top of the sweetness of chocolate.. [1.5 out of 5]

On sale during the last 2 months.. for autumn I think.. the taste is okay.. [3 out of 5]

This Kit-Kat tastes similar to cookies and cream in ice-creams.. quite good.. [3.5 out of 5]

The taste of orange was not that strong but it is quite sweet.. not so good.. [2.5 out of 5]

As with most white chocolate, (to me) it has a kind of smell to it.. don't quite like it.. also a bit too sweet for me.. [2 out of 5]

Of course, also on sale are the usual Kit-kit flavors, chocolate and green tea..which I think are still the best flavors around.. :) :)

Total Annihilation..

...but what the heck! :p

Yes, just got back from my JLPT.. and there is no chance for me to pass it at all.. unless my luck really turned with a monumental degree.. :D



Paper 1 is a 35-min test on vocabulary and phrases. Among the three papers, I think I have the best chance of passing this paper.. Out of 100 points, I think 60 or more shouldn't be a problem.. Paper 2 was a total disaster.. I couldn't catch what the conversations were about.. That 40-min listening test was a real torture.. Maybe 20 out of 100.. :p My Paper 3 was not as good as I thought it would be.. I did the grammar portion first instead of the comprehension part, not because I'm confident about it but quite the contrary, I gave up on it.. :x So I just read the questions and the 4 choices given, and then just chose whichever that sounded/looked familiar to me.. I had just enough time to finish all 56 questions in this paper within the 70 minute allocated..

Although all the papers were quite difficult, but I am confident that by next year I should be able to clear this level 2.. Now that I know my weakness, and with most of my Masters subjects taken in this semester ('only' 5 more subjects to take in the next 3 semesters) I should be able to pay more attention to my Japanese next year..

Level 2..

Tomorrow will be the day for the JLPT examination.. And I registered to take level 2, instead of level 3.. I had wanted a higher target to make myself study hard, but it didn't really work.. :p And add to the fact that only level 1 and 2 is of any value in the real corporate world, I don't see the point of taking level 3..

However, I must admit (which I did more than 1 month ago) there is no chance of me passing level 2 at all at this stage.. Maybe the comprehension, listening and vocabulary portion of the examination is still doable (maybe with around 50-60% chance of passing), the grammar portion is totally out of question.. Seriously, compared to English grammar, the Japanese grammar is way too complicated and confusing for me.. well, at least for me at this moment.. so for 2008, I will definitely work my way through this Japanese grammatical labyrinth (in my opinion) and attempt level 2 again..

Thus I am not at all nervous or worried about tomorrow's examination.. I will just treat it as a try-out to gain experience for the 'real thing' next year. Like I said before, as long as I have accepted the worst case scenario of any given situation/problem/issue, I do not see the need to worry or stress and will just do my best.. :) Just pray hard that I don't score zero in any of the 3 papers.. :p :p :p