Some updates

Okay, I haven't been writing much the past two weeks cos I was busy doing research (aka reading journals and academic papers) and writing 2 reports.. each about 10 pages or so.. :x and there was a presentation due last Friday too.. So I was swamped with all the readings.. Didn't realize that people from the academias could write so much and yet say so little.. :P at least in my mind, of little use in the "real" world..

Anyway, I have submitted the reports last Friday but that was not the end of it.. I need to revise one of them, while the other is yet to be read by my professor.. but no deadline given for any of them.. :P So I had spent my last weekend doing some catching up of my R&R.. ;) Will need to start studying again, since my Japanese grammar finals will be in 2 weeks' time.. :(

Can't wait for this semester to end..

They lost

ya... Germany lost.. Spain was crowned the champion of Europe last night.. :(

Is Google making us stupid?

That is the article I read recently.. I would encourage everyone to read it.. it is located here.

So have you read it? How do you feel? Do you think there is any truth to it? Also did you struggle to finish reading the article at one go?? Did you have to suppress the urge to just skim through the article? Truth to be told, I must admit that I did.. I struggled to read that article in a continuous manner and had to stop myself from skimming through the article to reach the end.. Although I had some inklings about the current "state" of my reading habits and abilities, but this article just knocked me off my chair.. So I wasn't the only one being affected by these...

I has been a avid reader since my school days.. and still are.. a paperback novel of 300 pages is nothing.. I could finish that in 4 hours, max. But now, after spending more and more time online - reading news, articles or snippets of information, I felt that my reading ability is slowly but surely regressing.. I couldn't read books as fast and I tend to skim through passages that I deemed too long.. If we do not do something to regain back these skills/abilities, we are not just getting dumber but we might just lose the ability for critical thinking or reading in-between the lines, so to speak, since we are not training our brains enough to analyze and process the information that are presented to us.

For me, I shall pick up my readings after this July.. I would try to reach the 60 books a year target that I had listed as one of my new year resolutions this year.. :)

Predictions: The Finals..

So the finals will be between Germany and Spain.. :) :)

No complain from me.. Although I had predicted that the Russians might edge out the Spaniards, I changed my mind this morning.. I was cursing them to lose.. because some d**k-heads were making so much noise in the middle of the night.. :@ So luckily for me, they will not be cheering for their team this coming Sunday night.. Padan muka!!

My wish of having the Germans in the finals has came true.. now I hope that they would clinch the championship and be crowned the kings of football in Europe.. :) :)

I really hope that they...

ROT IN HELL!!!

It is almost 2am and I can't sleep... why?? Cos some a**h*** and b***hes decided to have a party!! yep, that's right.. party on a Thursday night during school term.. can you imagine that?!!? what a bunch of inconsiderate pain-in-the-ass idiots!!! :@ :@

I seriously doubt what good does it bring for Japanese government to be sponsoring these nincompoops to come to Japan?? All they do is to party, party and party!!! Good money down the drain if you ask me.. Maybe if the government use the money to buy a couple of monkeys, they might even generate some money from tourists!!

I have 2 Japanese grammar classes and 2 presentations TODAY.. and I can't sleep because of the bloody noise... And what the hell are the night guards doing?? Sleeping on the job??? :@

I think this is the final straw.. I will move out as soon as I can.. It is bad enough to be inhaling 2nd hand smoke every day courtesy of my next door neighbor from Russia, who also seems to like to talk and laugh LOUDLY.. :@ :@

Seriously, this semester is the worst.. first with the PNs, then the RNs.. Enough is enough...

Predictions: 10

Ok I was only 25% correct.. Netherlands lost to Russia and Spain won on penalty shootout.. Like they say, the ball is round.. anything could happen and indeed it did..

So let's move on the semifinals...

Germany vs Turkey
No need to guess which team I will be rooting for.. ;) Just hope that Turkey's fantastic run will lose steam.. :P

Russia vs Spain
This is a real tough one.. Based on my gut feel, I think Russia might just edge out the Spaniards this time.. although they were beaten 4-1 by them in the earlier rounds, I think the Russians will be able to dig deep and find that extra fire to come out a winner in this semifinal clash..

The past few weeks..

Okay, I have been quite busy the past few weeks.. I had a couple of reports to write and a few presentations slides to prepare, thus I have not been updating my blog as much.. But no fear, only four more weeks to my summer holidays!! :D :D :D

Can't wait for this semester to end.. this has been one of the most "heavy-loaded" (with school work) semester so far.. been neglecting my Japanese.. the only Japanese stuff that I have been doing is for my grammar classes on Fridays.. Compared to the 13 Japanese classes that I took during my first semester here and the 3 Japanese classes that I am taking this semester, I haven't had much practice with my Japanese.. even the time for Japanese drama has been taken up by the required readings for my Masters classes.... :( :(

Hopefully from next semester onwards, I will have less reports to write and more time to work on my Japanese...

Predictions: 09

The first match decided via penalty shootout!! And Turkey won.. :)
This meant that my prediction was wrong.. again.. :(
Hopefully I will have better luck in the next two matches.. :x

Netherlands vs Russia <= Netherlands (3-2)
Spain vs Italy <= Spain (2-1)

Predictions: 08

YES!!!!! :D :D Germany won!! :) :)

Although I did predict a close match, but the actual score was more exciting.. too bad I wasn't able to watch it.. :( :( Anyway, I am happy that Germany will be proceeding to the semifinals.. :) :) :)

The match between Croatia and Turkey would interesting too.. but I would still give Croatia the edge.. It would be either 2-1 or 3-1 to Croatia..

Predictions: 07

Now it's quarter-finals time!!

Again, it was 4 out of 8... :(

Netherlands vs Romania <= Netherlands (2-0) <- correct! :)
France vs Italy <= Italy (1-2) <- partial, Italy (0-2)
Greece vs Spain <= Spain (0-1) <- partial, Spain (1-2)
Russia vs Sweden <= Sweden (1-2) <- wrong, Russia (2-0) :(

Anyway, tonight's first quarterfinal match would be between Portugal and Germany.. It will be a very exciting match, I think.. My heart is rooting for Germany, while my head thinks that Portugal has the advantage... :x :x :x Germany has some injury concerns while Portugal is wary of the German's aerial power because of its height disadvantage.. But I would still make a prediction..

It will be 1-1 till full time and 1-2 to Germany after extra-time... *cross fingers*

Predictions: 06

Okay, I must admit it.. I sucks at score prediction.. luckily no money is involved in this.. :P

Switzerland vs Portugal <= Portugal (0-1) <- wrong, Switzerland (2-0) :(
Turkey vs Czech <= Turkey (1-0) <- partial, Turkey (3-2) :x
Poland vs Croatia <= Draw (1-1) <- wrong, Croatia (0-1) :(
Austria vs Germany <= Germany (0-3) <- partial, Germany (0-1) :x

Again, 2 out of 8... :( :( :(

Netherlands vs Romania <= Netherlands (2-0)
France vs Italy <= Italy (1-2)
Greece vs Spain <= Spain (0-1)
Russia vs Sweden <= Sweden (1-2)

See how these predictions will turn out... :x :x

Predictions: 05

Not too bad.. :) Seemed like I fared slightly better in my last prediction.. :P

Italy vs Romania => Draw (1-1) <- correct! :)
Netherlands vs France => Netherlands (2-0) <- partial, Netherlands (4-1) :x
Sweden vs Spain => Spain (0-2) <- partial, Spain (1-2) :x
Greece vs Russia => Greece (1-0) <- wrong, Russia (0-1) :(

So this time it was 4 out of 8.. Let's see the next 4 matches..

Switzerland vs Portugal <= Portugal (0-1)
Turkey vs Czech <= Turkey (1-0)
Poland vs Croatia <= Draw (1-1)
Austria vs Germany <= Germany (0-3)

Personally, I would hope that Germany could get into the quarter finals.... :)

私の夢 My Dream 我的梦想

This was an assignment for my Japanese writing class. Since I haven't written any blog in Japanese, I thought this essay would be a good starting point.. :) Of course, this essay has been heavily corrected by my Sensei.. :P :P

Also, there will have English and Chinese versions of this essay.. enjoy!

　私は子供の時、恐竜が大好きですから、古生物学者になりたかった。恐竜と関係がある本を読み、またテレビ番組は欠かさす見た。中学校に入った後で、この夢は実現できないと思いました。マレシーアの大学には古生物学の学部がないので、海外へ留学するしか私の夢は実現できないと思った。しかし、二人弟と妹がいますし、両親はお金持ちではないので、アメリカに留学することが無理です。
　今の私は、一つ単純な夢がある。大きい車とか、きれいな服とか、私は欲しくない。しかし、有意義な生活がしたいと思っています。好きな事をしますが、お金の心配がないということです。毎日自分の小さい本屋を持って、本を読んだり、小説を書いたり、新いことを知りたいです。時々お客さんを占ってあげます。本屋がしなければ、フレキシブルな時間の仕事をして、好きなように自分の時間を過ごの仕事をします。単純そうな夢じゃないか。ただし、現実と夢の距離が大きい。この夢を実現するために、一番大切な条件はお金です。シンガボールにいるうちは、毎日一生懸命働いていたのにか、貯金が少なかった。家族と住んでいるより、一人暮らしの費用は高いのです。
　来年卒業後、どこで働くかは、まだ決めていません。仕事は、高い収入以外に、他の条件がない。収入が高い仕事を見つれば、５年間ぐらいしか働きません。このあいだ、頑張って貯めます。理想的な目標は２千万円くらい。それから、生活のリズムが遅く、人が少ない都市へ引っ越ししますが、あまり忙しくなくて収入がちょっと低い仕事をします。希望は、4５歳を迎える前には引退してしまうことです。
　人の寿命は短過ぎるので、働くだけの人生では哀れだと思います。


　　I was so crazy over dinosaurs when I was young that I had wanted to be a paleontologist. I would not miss anything on dinosaurs, be it books or TV programs. When I got into secondary school, I realized that my dream would not be possible. Since there was no faculty or schools on paleontology in any of Malaysia's universities, I would have to go overseas to pursue my dream. However, with 2 younger siblings still schooling and the fact that my parents were not rich, it was quite impossible to go to US to study.

　　Right now I have only one simple dream. I don't want big cars nor beautiful clothes. I just want a meaningful life - doing the things that I like and not having to worry about money.. Spending each day in my little book store, reading books, writing my novel and learning new things. Maybe once in a while do some fortunate telling for my customers. Even if I don't have my little book store, I would want a flexible job where I can choose the way I spend my time. It does sound simple enough, right? However, there is always a gap between dream and the reality. The main ingredient to realizing this dream is money. Although I worked very hard but I didn't manage to save much during all those years in Singapore as staying on one's own cost more than staying with family.

　　I have yet to decide where to work once I graduated next year. One thing for sure, I would consider high salaried jobs only. If I could find such high paying job, I would spend about 5 years working, during which I would save as much as I can. My target would be to save at least 20 million yen. After that I would move to a less crowded city that has a slower pace, and find myself a not-so-highly-paid job that would allow me plenty of free time. Hopefully I can retire before my 45th birthday.

　　Life is short. For me, it would be sad to have a life that revolves around work only.


　　从小就对恐龙着迷的我，小时候的愿望是当名恐龙学家。只要有关恐龙的书籍或是电视节目我都从不放过。可是上了中学之后就渐渐地意识到实现这个愿望的可能性等于零。因为马来西亚的诸大学里没有古生物这个学部，如果真要当恐龙学家的话，唯一方法只有出国。但是我还有两名在学的弟妹，加上双亲也不是什么大户有钱人，到美国留学是绝对不可能的。
　　现在的我只有一个很简单的期许。我不稀罕什么豪华汽车或是高贵名牌衣服。我只想过个有意义的生活：做自己爱做的事，不必为钱烦恼。每天窝在我的小书店，看看书，写写小说，学学新的事物。偶尔为上门的客人占卜一下。就算书店没开成，做份非常有伸缩性的工作，可以自由地安排自己时间的工作也不错。听起来还蛮简单的吧？可是梦想跟现实之间的差距还算蛮大的。如果要实现我这个梦想，钱是主要关键。在新加坡的那一段日子，虽然拼命工作，但储存不到什么积蓄，因为比起与家人同住，一个人住的费用真的是高了许多。
　　明年毕业之后要到哪里工作还没决定。除了高薪之外，其他的条件都不重要。要是找到了份高薪的工作，我大概会干个5年左右吧。在那段期间，我会拼命存钱，目标为2千万日円。之后我会搬迁到一个生活步伐缓慢人口不多的城市，打份薪水不高但时间很多的工作。希望自己能够在45岁之前退休。。
　　人生太短暂了。我认为只有工作的人生实在是太悲哀了。

Predictions: 04

Again, my predictions were very bad... :(

Czech vs Portugal => Portugal (0-2) <- partial, Portugal (1-3) :x
Switzerland vs Turkey => Draw (1-1) <- wrong, Turkey (1-2) :(
Croatia vs Germany => Germany (1-3) <- wrong, Croatia (2-1) :( :(
Austria vs Poland => Austria (1-0) <- wrong, Draw (1-1) :(

So my accuracy was only 1 out of 8.. :( :( And the worst was that Germany lost their match against Croatia, so they are not through to the next round yet.. :(

But I will continue making predictions.. just for the fun of it.. since I am unable to watch the matches, this is the only way for me to feel involved... :P

Italy vs Romania => Draw (1-1)
Netherlands vs France => Netherlands (2-0)
Sweden vs Spain => Spain (0-2)
Greece vs Russia => Greece (1-0)

Let's see how many I would get correct this time... :x

Interesting Tests from BBC

Found some interesting tests from the BBC - Science and Nature Website...

What is the sex of your brain???
My result:

Check your brain's sex here..


The "What Am I Like?" Personality Test
My result:
Your answers suggest you are a Realist
The four aspects that make up this personality type are:
Planner, Facts, Heads and Introvert
Summary of Realists
* Loyal and steady workers who meet deadlines
* Believe in established rules and respect facts
* Think of themselves as mature, stable and conscientious
* May appear too logical or tough-minded and forget their impact on other people
Check yours here..


For more such tests, go here

Predictions: 03

Well, I sucked! My last predictions missed the marks totally... :( :(

These were what I predicted:

Romania vs France => Romania (1-0) <- wrong, Draw (0-0) :(
Netherlands vs Italy => Draw (1-1) <- wrong, Netherlands (3-0) :(
Greece vs Sweden => Greece (2-1) <- wrong, Sweden (0-2) :(
Spain vs Russia => Spain (1-0) <- partial, Spain (4-1) :x

So it was 1 out of 8.. Combined with the earlier 3 out of 4 predictions that I got right, my accuracy rate is 33.33% (4 out of 12)..

Mmm.. let me try to see if I could guess the next 4 matches correctly..

Czech vs Portugal => Portugal (0-2)
Switzerland vs Turkey => Draw (1-1)
Croatia vs Germany => Germany (1-3)
Austria vs Poland => Austria (1-0)

Wedding of the Year 年度最受瞩目的婚礼

Or so my Professor said, commenting on my Senpai's wedding last Wednesday.. with the number of guests reaching 1000 and all the big-shots from LDP attending, I don't think I can argue with him about that.. 我不觉得老师有在夸大，毕竟出席人数高达1000人。。先辈嫁的是日本自由党的议员，到场观礼的都是有头有脸的政客或是学术界的人物，只是感觉上这像个“发表会”或是“展示会”多过于婚礼。。

The wedding was held at the Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka. All of the English speaking students, 13 of us, were kinda made to attend as my professor had paid the 20,000yen fee for each of us.. This was the first time I heard of the need to pay a fee to attend a wedding, but it seems like this is a common practice in Japan. On top of the "attendance fee", one is required to give a token of good wishes too, much like the "ang pao"/red packet the Chinese would give. So it seems like the "attendance fee" would be to cover the dinner banquet, while the ang paos would be the "profit", so to speak.. Luckily, the Chinese did not adopt such practice..:P 参加婚礼是被老师逼得，至少对我而言。一向都对参加婚礼感到反感的我不得不给老师及先辈面子，特别是当老师说他已经为我们每人交了2万的出席费。。骑虎难下，无法编造任何借口推辞了。。只好自我安慰地说难得有机会参加日本人的婚礼，就去开开眼界吧。。 :x

Before I proceed to write about the wedding, I must thank Michelle, Shinta and Jim for their photos.. as I left my camera in my bag when I "checked" it in at the cloak room.. :(

When we got there the place were packed..

Not surprising considering the fact that the groom is a Member of the House of Representative belonging to LDP.. so all the politicians and related academias from Waseda and Todai were present.. But one interesting observation I made was that there were very few young people, people in their twenties or thirties around.. most of them are in their forties, fifties, sixties or older.. Guys are all in suits while the ladies are in their kimonos or evening gowns.. For me, I wore my suit since I don't have anything formal to wear.. I didn't expect to be invited to nor attend weddings while in Japan.. Think this is the first wedding I have attended in the last 3 years!! :P 到场之后，更是感觉到老师叫我们来是为了充场面，壮声势的。在会场的99%都是日本人，以老先生及老太太占大多数，平均年龄应该有55-60岁吧。相比之下，我们这班外国人更是显得与场面异常的格格不入。

Since the groom is from LDP, it was not surprising that LDP politicians of the past and the present to be present at this wedding. The VVIP of the evening would have to be the most charismatic ex-PM of all, Mr Koizumi! 亲眼目睹了前首相小泉的个人魅力，果然名不虚传，师奶、阿伯、年轻人、小孩无一幸免全部都被他迷倒。。尤其是那些师奶们更是争先恐后地排队和他合照。。 ;)

No prize for guessing the person they were swarming around.. taking photos after photos..

Everyone just crowded around him, taking photos with him as if he was some super star!! which I must admit he is.. women of all ages just couldn't resist taking photos with him.. And Mr Koizumi was ever obliging.. From the moment he arrived till the time he left the banquet, throughout that 1.5 hours he was taking photos with anyone who requested.. Even I couldn't miss this rare opportunity.. :P
Frankly, no one was paying any attention to what the MC was saying nor what the newly weds were doing..

Only when Mr Koizumi was invited to the first speaker for the wedding did everyone settled down. Somehow everyone is mesmerized by him.. People lapped up his every word, laughed at every one of his jokes and clapped very enthusiastically.. One thing for sure, he was not your typical Japanese politician.. In the ballroom, everyone seems to conform and no one stood out more prominently than him... I sorta felt his charisma and yet I can't quite explained it..

Then it was my professor's turn to give his speech..

Can see very clearly that he was beaming as proudly as a father would be, seeing his "daughter" marrying so well.. :P 老实说大家都怀疑这门婚事是老师一手促成的，但没人敢当面确认。。由于先辈似乎24小时全天都在老师身边帮忙，她突然说要结婚大家都大吃一惊。相信每个人都在猜想她哪有时间去拍拖啊？在研究室里听说了一些不是很好听的话，似乎在影射一些什么的。对，她确实有如麻雀飞上了枝头变成了凤凰，但对我而言，这又干我们什么事呢？？每个人几乎只看到了她现在风光的一面，但我想她也肯定有大家所不知的辛酸辛苦，不管是以往或是将来。我坚信任何的风光背后都不免会有不为人知的辛苦及牺牲。。

After all the speeches by almost every prominent person in the room and a thank you speech by the groom, the couple then proceed to cut the wedding cake..

It was a buffet style banquet.. As we are requested to present a song, we did not tuck in when it was time to eat.. All of us were starving and thirsty.. also all of us have been standing for almost 2 hours.. Then finally green light was given for us to eat as our "program" was scheduled at almost the end of the dinner.. The food was good.. not too sure if it was because I was starving or maybe it was really good.. :P

A while after the buffet had started, people who had eaten started to form a queue to go on stage to get their pictures taken with the newly weds.. So the bride and groom did not have a chance to eat at all!! And I thought it was bad (for the bride and groom) during the Chinese wedding dinner where they barely got a chance to eat! :D 从头到尾，新人都没有离开过在台上。虽然说他们是今天的主角是众人的焦点，但看他们俩不停地笑得脸颊都已经僵硬了有点虚假了，我很难不可怜他们。还有，从开始到结束，双方的家长从没被提起过，他们是否在场没人知道。所以这一切的种种更加证实了今天的晚宴纯属“公事”。

By the time it was our turn to sing, almost 20% of the crowd has left.. Due to the short time given to us to prepare, one of my Senpai chose the song, "Fly me to the Moon" which is rather simple and short.. And luckily for us, he was the lead singer and all of us just stood behind and provided some vocals.. :) The master of ceremony (MC) introduced us as the bride's students, which in fact was incorrect, but none of us bothered to correct him.. She was our Senpai who got her PhD last year and is now one of the lecturers in our graduate school. 老师吩咐司仪把我们介绍为先辈的学生，大家听了都心知肚明了解老师的用意，没人出来纠正。老师爱怎么讲就怎么讲吧，毕竟他是老师，大家都还要看他脸色毕业。。按照逻辑，老师说的也不完全错，先辈已经当了我们大学院的讲师，而我们都是大学院的学生，所以说我们是她的学生也不为过。

Shortly after our song, the wedding sorta came to an end.. The newly weds stood in the middle of the stage while the MC concluded the wedding and thanked everyone for coming.. then the couple left the ballroom..

真的是郎才女貌！

The MC came over and talked to us.. unknown to us, he is actually the Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs!! No wonder he was such a good talker.. :P
We took a photo with him.. He is the gentleman sitting in the middle in bow-tie, between 2 ladies..

Outside the ballroom, the bride and groom were thanking every guests for their presence.. sorta like what the Chinese would do at the end of the wedding dinner..
Before leaving, each of us were given a door gift.. which I had written about in my earlier blog entry.. All in all, the wedding banquet had lasted from 6pm to around 8.30pm..

Once again I would like to wish Naoko-Senpai a very happy marital life ahead and everlasting happiness!!
在此诚心地祝福尚子前辈：婚姻美满，白头到老。。

Predictions 02

I will be doing some predictions of the matches for EURO 2008 just for the fun of it.. and to make things more interesting, I will try to predict the final scores too.. :P

Let's see by the end of the tournament, how accurate my gut feel is.. ;)

Previously I have predicted the following:

Switzerland vs Czech => Czech <- correct (0 - 1)!
Portugal vs Turkey => Portugal <- correct (2 - 0)!
Austria vs Croatia => Draw <- wrong, Croatia won (0-1)
Germany vs Poland => Germany <- correct (2 - 0)!

So I got 3 out of 4 correct.. not too bad huh? :P

The predictions for next 4 matches:
Romania vs France => Romania (1-0)
Netherlands vs Italy => Draw (1-1)
Greece vs Sweden => Greece (2-1)
Spain vs Russia => Spain (1-0)

Let's see how many out of these 8 will I get right...

Not another case?!!

Just read the news.. there was a knifing incident at Akihabara this afternoon.. so far six has been confirmed dead and another 11 classified as injured..
Click here for the news..

The suspect is a 25 year-old male who was overheard saying that he was "sick and tired of life". Isn't it sad to have someone who is supposed to be at the prime of his life saying such things?? What might have been tormenting him to such a state that he chose to go on such a rampage?? In a society where even the most outrageous conforms to the social norms, at least most of the time, it is unthinkable that such a crime have been committed.. Yet, due to that same expectation of conformity, it is not difficult to understand the amount of stress these younger generations of Japanese is suffering under..

With its aging population and stagnating economy, the younger generations have a lot expectation to live up to.. They have to maintain Japan's innovative and competitive edge while at the same time embrace globalization. They are exposed to Western thoughts and values which made them want to exert their individualism but at the same time are tied down by their society's and cultural norms of conformity.. They are torn. This is a proud nation, yet from my observation, Japanese has this sense of unexplained inferiority complex while dealing with Caucasians or Western people. They will respect you if you speak English, no matter how grammatically incorrect it may be. While on the other hand, Japanese tends to look down on other Asians, especially those from East Asia..

Due to its homogeneousness, they are a nation that relies on culture and traditions to keep the society harmonious. People are expected to obey and do what is expected of them, even if that is not what they want. Guys are expected to go to a prestigious university, then get a job and devote their whole life to the company. Job hopping was unheard of until recently. and job for life was the norm. In between, they are supposed to get married to a nice lady, have kid(s) and work even harder to provide for the family. It was normal for children to only see their fathers during weekends, as they had to work overtime almost every night. That was how the economy miracle of Japan was created in the 1970s and 1980s. While the women were expected to get married and quit their job, and devote their attention to their family. They are supposed to take up the role of the mother and the father most of the time, nurturing and disciplining the children with their husbands barely registering their presence..

Thus these are the kinds of environment the younger generations of today grew up in. And this is what they did not want to emulate for their own life. Yet, the pressure from the society is unrelenting. Everyone are conditioned to think of the greater good of their companies/organizations/families and never of their own well-being.. It is no wonder that the suicide rate of Japan is hovering around 30,000 per year when people are unable to reconcile these two opposing forces..

Hopefully, the Japanese society as a whole would evolve and adapt to this new world and globalization. Certain traditions should be kept while some should be customized/changed with the times.. With its already shrinking youth population, the last thing Japan wants would be a ticking time bomb as its younger generation..

WWF-Not-Friendly

Went to my senpai's wedding a couple of days ago. She married a Member of the House of Representative. Due to the fact that he went on 2 whaling research expeditions to the South Pole and his active involvement in promoting whale meat industry, the door gifts for the wedding was a box of whale meat related products!! :x :x :x

In the picture: 2 whale-meat sausages, 1 prepacked whale-meat curry and 2 cans of whale meat cooked in different sauces.. :x :x

When I first saw these products I thought to myself, "Oh no!! I am an accomplice in killing these whales!!" :o :o and "How could they kill these whales for meat??" :@ :@ Then the pragmatic side of me emerged. I couldn't possibly throw away these products, as it would be a unforgivable sin of wasting edible food!! The whales were already slaughtered and canned (to put it mildly), so even if I throw away these products, the whales would not come back to life.. The least I could do is to taste these products and spread the word that there is nothing fantastic about the whale meat, so that I would be more convincing in dissuading everyone around me from buying whale products.

R.I.P. :( :( :(
I will write about the wedding in another blog entry..

Let the game begin!

EURO2008 starts today!!

This year's EURO 2008 is being held jointly by Austria and Switzerland.. which will climax on the 29th Jun with the finals being played in Vienna..



One of the most obvious absentee in this year's championship is England.. With the world wide popularity of English Premier League, soccer fans, particularly in Asia, will miss watching players like Wayne Rooney, Steve Gerrard and John Terry in action. But personally I wouldn't be as I think there are far better non-England players in the world. So in a way this championship will forces soccer fans to take note of other soccer players that are not as glamorous as those England players who seem to be creating news with "talents" other than their soccer skills.

Having been a German soccer team supporter all my life, there is no surprise which team I will be rooting for in this EURO 2008.. :) I was mesmerized by the German team in Mexico World Cup 1986 lead by Lothar Matthäus. Then came players like Jürgen Klinsmann, Thomas Helmer, Oliver Kahn, Dietmar Hamann, Oliver Bierhoff and Bernd Schneider. And now the new generation players like Clemens Fritz, Christoph Metzelder, Torsten Frings, Oliver Neuville and Miroslav Klose.. Hopefully, Germany will perform better than the last EURO where they didn't even make it to the quarter finals..

As with any major tournaments, there will definitely be a handful of players who will emerge as play makers and dominate the matches. Some soccer players' fortune will rise while some will fall. Who will it be? We shall see in the next 22 days.. :)

Ever since soccer betting was legalized in Singapore, I would make a bet on the soccer matches during these types of major tournaments.. :P Although the odds weren't that fantastic, staking a small amount of money onto the game would greatly influence one's emotions and would actually enhanced one's viewing pleasure.. :P Usually I would set a amount that I would spend on each tournament, and once I have reached that amount I would stop. So there was never a danger of being addicted nor the possibility of incurring huge gambling debts..

Just for fun, I will make some predictions for matches this weekend.
Switzerland vs Czech => Czech
Portugal vs Turkey => Portugal
Austria vs Croatia => Draw
Germany vs Poland => Germany

Anyone know of any sites that I could watch these soccer matches for free????

Oh, how I miss watching soccer.. :( :( :(

Up and up and up...

Nowadays we are swamped by news of price increases or news caused by price increase.. Everything is going up, from petroleum to basic food items to average temperature.. The only thing that refuses to budge is everyone's salary.. :(

In Tokyo, Japan, the raining season was not supposed to arrive until mid or end of June, but a couple of days ago the Japan Meteorological Agency has announced that the raining season (梅雨) has officially started on 03 Jun!! :o So the weather condition here has gone from huge daily temperature fluctuation to huge daily temperature fluctuation AND rain... :x

Seriously, I don't like all these weather changes.. The last thing that I do before I sleep and first thing I wake up everyday is to check the weather forecast. Cos it will affect what I am going to wear and bring for the day... And more often than not, my mood is affected by the weather too.. Then with the craziness of the rush hour crowd on the train, ARGGGHHHH... How is it possible to not get any kind of mental disorder(s) living in such a cramped and "oppressed" environment????

Anyway, after experiencing all the 4 seasons in Japan, I think I prefer autumn more than the other 3.. :) where everything slows down, shows its best for the last time before hibernating for the long winter ahead..

Recap: Golden Week Outing (Part I)

Went to Ryōgoku Kokugikan (両国国技館), an indoor arena for Japan's national sports, Sumo during the past Golden Week. It was an outing organized by the RA (Resident Assistants, aka the Japanese students) of my dormitory. Well, I must say the planning and execution of the outing could have been better.. I had expected it to be much more organized.. but well, that's just me, the planning/control freak.. :p

A couple of Malaysians from another dormitory came to join in. So by and large, there are about 8 Malaysians, 5 from my dorm (including myself) and 3 from Soshigaya. We met at 10:30am at the lobby of Building 2. Other than the fact that we are going to see Sumo, we have no idea where the location nor the (train) line that we are going to take.. It was like, "Ok, let's just follow the RAs..." :x Seriously, there are about 35 of us, 外国人(foreigners), thus at least they should tell us the itinerary, which station, which (train) line so that if any one of us gets lost, we can still find our way there...

We took Chuo Local Line from Yoyogi Station and alighted at Ryōgoku (両国) Station. Unfortunately for us, it was drizzling, so the added hassle of carrying an umbrella. After walking a few blocks from the station, instead of going to see Sumo, we were lead to a temple, Ekoin Temple (回向院).



There was a 両国賑い春祭り, a kind of spring festival going on. The main hall was filled with people as the memorial service was being held.



All around the hall, there are miniature statues of bodhisattvas hanging on the walls.. but because the service is being carried out, I didn't use flash while taking photos, so all of my photos are blurry..


After a while, we got out of the hall and started to wander around the compound of the temple which proved to be more interesting..

There are several statues that seemed to be dedicated to the souls of animals, and finally I saw the statue which confirmed it..



Other than the memorial statues for animals, there is also a cemetery behind the compound..

A statue of the 地蔵菩薩 is seen here on the left of the entrance to the cemetery..

The whole place is serene and well maintained. If not for the kanji that identified the place as a cemetery, one would just assumed that the whole place is just an extension of the temple..



Unlike the cemeteries in Malaysia and Singapore, the Japanese tombs are nicely aligned and although seemed narrow, but are clutter-free..



Other than cemetery for humans, there are also rows of wooden tablets for pets that have passed away.. If you could read from the photos, most of them were for cats (猫) and dogs (犬).


There is also a site for aborted fetuses... they called it 水子塚.


It was lunch time. We were given 1 hour to eat and then meet back at the train station to proceed to the main attraction of the day, Ryōgoku Kokugikan (両国国技館) to see the sumos..

To be continue in Part II..

Being part of the statistics

From the media (main stream or online), everyone seems to accept the fact that the security situation in Msia has been deteriorating.. everyone gripes about it.. we all seemed to know someone who knew someone who had been a victim of crime.. unfortunately last Sunday, my parents fell victim to the growing crime rate in Malaysia.. :@

When it was time for our weekly family conference call, my dad was not online. So we called our home's land-line phone instead. It wasn't anything out of the ordinary... Imagine our surprise when my mum picked up the phone and told us that our house was broken into!! :o :o And dad was at the police station at the moment making a police report!! All the three of us were shocked beyond words!! :o :o :o

Coming back from KL and reaching home around 9.30pm, my parents were shocked when they opened the main door and found that the house was ransacked!! After much hesitation, they decided to make a report so that there would be a record with the police. The police who came advised my dad to go to the police station personally to make a formal report and not to touch anything as they would need to come back to photograph the crime scene.. so my dad went to the police station leaving my mum alone in the house..

Thus there was nothing the three of us could do except to keep my mum company over the phone.. :( :( And since making a police report is well-known to take a long time, we decided to keep talking with my mum until my dad comes back.... Then I decided to call my dad over his hp to check on his status. Luckily as a decorated air force veteran, he was attended to immediately. So he has done with the report and was waiting for the chief inspector to go with him back to the house..

More than 45mins after our first call home, my dad was back at home with the police to take photos.. The lady chief inspector told my dad that there has been an increase in crime rate the past few months, everything from drug problems, house break-ins, vehicle thefts, snatch thefts, etc. Crime has been increasing and the lock-up/jail is over-crowded.. :x Even the local magistrate is having problem keeping up with the charges and proceedings.. The local policemen are all over-worked, underpaid and very demoralized.. with the rampant illegal immigrants problems and deteriorating economic situations, the crime rate would only go northward... :( :(

From the look of crime scene as described by my mum, there might be more than 1 person involved in the crime here.. They came in via one of the back windows and went out the back door, sawing through some locks.. All drawers were wrenched open and their contents thrown on the floor.. The thieves did not take any valuable things, except cash and jewelries..

Sigh.. This is the first time our house has been burglarized.. but luckily my parents weren't around when it happened.. Thus they were safe and unharmed... only cash and some jewelries were taken.. and going by the messiness of our house, I think the thieves had a hard time looking for money.. :P but still it was very unnerving to be hearing about such news and yet not being able to do anything to help.. :( :( :( There was a lot of knee-jerked reactions from the three of us, but none helpful to the situation at hand.. I think all of us felt very helpless and guilty for being away from them.. not to sound unfilial, but this is life.. since Msia is unable to offer a better fairer life to us, we had no choice but to go out to the world to find one for ourselves.. and for now, we are still looking and evaluating the pros and cons of living away from our parents.. by next July, my sis would be returning to Malaysia, hopefully things would be better then..

I really really do hope so..