Brown

Got my brown belt (3rd kyu) and my certificate last night.. :)

After almost 2.5 years of practicing karate, I have something to show for it.. :) Something that I AM proud of..

Once I settled down with work and all, either in Singapore or any city, I will look for a dojo to continue my karate.. another 3 more promotion tests to go before getting black belt.. I would want to achieve that before I kick the bucket... So for the mean time, I just need to practice all the basics, including kata.. which I am very poor at memorising.. :p

Two more months..

I will be leaving Japan for good in two more months.. on either Sept 26 or 27..still waiting for the plane tix from Monbusho..

People asked me if my parents would be attending my graduation ceremony on Sept 20.. And when I told them that they won't be as it was no big deal, many were shocked.. Seriously, I don't feel that graduating with a Masters from this Uni of mine was a big deal.. Maybe if the courses were a little bit more challenging and difficult, I would feel like I had accomplished something to be proud of.. It was too easy and too effortless for me, that I sometimes feel ashamed to even call myself a Masters student, and now a Masters graduate.. Maybe I am just setting a too-high standard for myself..

When I first came over, I told myself that this 2.5 years would be the time to recharge my batteries and to gain some knowledge.. I had wanted to enjoy myself fully, doing things that I like but didn't have time while I was working.. It was more of "Me, Myself and Imm" kinda focus.. which was why I was very anti-social when it came to attending events and gatherings organized by fellow Malaysians here.. I pretty much just went on doing my stuff on my own.. However, everything changed when I moved into my current guesthouse.. Never had so much fun since my NUS days, just hanging out with my housemates.. In a way, I realized that I can be pretty sociable, when with the right people.. :p

Although it seemed that I have 2 more months in Japan, but since I am going back to Malaysia for 3 weeks in Aug, I have less than 5 weeks to explore Japan before leaving.. Wanna go Hokkaido, Hiroshima, Nagasaki and a few more places.. I haven't even finished exploring Tokyo yet.. So for the month of Sept, I will be doing my final tour of Japan.. :)

Europe 2009: Prologue

I must admit the decision to go to Europe was kinda unexpected.. I had wanted to treat myself to a trip to somewhere as a present for my graduation.. As I had missed out on going on a graduation trip while in NUS, so I was not going to allow myself to make the same "mistake" this time round.. :)

There are so many places that I would like to visit, and frankly I didn't have any idea of where to go next, since I have covered Taiwan, HK and Macau in the last few months.. Had wanted to go for Abig's graduation in Moscow and do some sight-seeing in Eastern Europe with her, but had to cancel it as the dates clashed with my final presentation.. So when Sarah (my housemate) mentioned that she wanted to go Europe, I decided to jump on the opportunity to go along.. Seriously, it is hard for me to find friends to go on a long trip, especially when most of my friends are either married and/or have kids.. not to mentioned that they are all working and taking long leave is just not possible.. I would be in the same situation too once I started working, so this was really a great opportunity for me to travel far and "long"..

With my Masters report and final presentation weighting on my mind in June, I didn't have much time to actually plan for the trip.. Sarah did most of the initial planning even though she was also busy studying for her JLPT (which I should be doing too, but gave up in the end due to time limitation :P ).. It was a pretty mad rush for both of us... Since we are going on a shoe-string budget, we decided to check out the in-thing for back-packers, Couch-Surfing.. Sarah became our contact person.. sending more than hundreds of emails out asking if we could bunk over in their couches.. Thanks, Sarah.. :) While I was to find out the cheapest way to get us from one city to another, either through rail or bus, and also how best to travel within each cities..

Initially, we had problems deciding where to go, since both of us had never been to Europe before.. We decided that we didn't wanna do just the touristy stuff - arriving just to take photos.. We wanna be able to savor each cities and take as much time as possible to get a feel of them.. We consulted many websites (Lonely Planets, Wikitravels, Frommers and many more) and asked advice from people who had been to Europe.. The more information we had, the more difficult for us to make a decision.. plus the fact that we wanna go to places where we can get hosted by Couch-surfers, if possible..

In the end, we decided on 4 cities each in Italy (Rome, Siena, Florence & Milan) and France (Nice, Lyon, Macon & Paris), plus day-trips to the Vatican City and Monaco..

At Sunset 무신무심 (無身無心)

Stumbled upon this poem in the in-flight magazine of Korean Air, the Morning Calm, on my way back to Tokyo.. It was written in Korean, but there was an English translation which I found to be very beautiful..

At Sunset 무신무심 (無身無心)
By Han Cha-hyun

You never know what you are to me.
A shot of tequila, a rain-soaked puppy,
A sheet of newspaper.

You never know what you mean to me.
Sad, irresistible, yet always passing by.

Because if you did.
You wouldn't be standing over there,
As you are now.

For those who can read Korean, here is the original article..

Going back Tokyo

Okay,I shall be ending my traveling tomorrow night.. with a flight out around 9:45pm..

It has been a tremendously enjoyable trip that I should have made more than 10 years ago.. But it wasn't too late.. Had a wonderful time with my traveling companion, my housemate, Sarah.. of course, not forgetting the people that we met along the way..

Will be arranging and tagging my photos soon, and of course blogging about it too.. but for now, I shall enjoy the last 20 hours in this continent.. before going back and face the "no-fun" reality..

偏愛

主唱 : 張芸京
作詞 : 葛大為
作曲 : 陳偉

把昨天都作廢 現在你在我眼前
我想愛 請給我機會

如果我錯了也承擔 認定你就是答案
我不怕誰嘲笑我極端

相信自己的直覺 頑固的仍不喊累
愛上你 我不撤退

我說過 我不閃躲 我非要這麼做
講不聽也偏要愛
更努力愛 讓你明白
沒有別條路能走 你決定要不要陪我
講不聽偏愛 看我感覺愛
等你的依賴 對你偏愛
痛也很愉快

把昨天都作廢 現在你在我眼前
我想愛 請給我機會

如果我錯了也承擔 認定你就是答案
我不怕誰嘲笑我極端

相信自己的直覺 頑固的仍不喊累
愛上你 我不撤退

我說過 我不閃躲 我非要這麼做
講不聽也偏要愛
更努力愛 讓你明白
沒有別條路能走 你決定要不要陪我
講不聽偏愛 看我感覺愛
等你的依賴

不後悔 有把握 我不閃躲
我非要這麼做
講不聽也偏要愛
更努力愛 讓你明白
沒有別條路能走 你決定要不要陪我
講不聽偏愛 看我感覺愛
等你的依賴 對你偏愛
痛也很愉快

==========================================
歌曲充分地体现了一切。。我是否会那么勇敢吗？

離“意”達“法”

到今天為止，我已經去了四個國家。。會繼續呆在目前所在的國家一直到下個星期，但不在同一個地點逗留。。

去了七個城市包括了歷史古都，郊外田野，文化之城，宗教之都，繁華都市，富豪樂園，蔚藍海灘。。看的不少，體驗良多。。

待會還會再去海邊一趟，因為實在太美了。海水比藍天還要蔚藍，不去多看幾眼並玩一下真的是太對不起自己了。。下午時分，會再次出發到第八個城市。。

我的旅程還剩下5天，會繼續好好地盡情享受。。

Status update

Okay, now I am at the final city of the first country... Having been to 3 different cities and staying in the 4th now, I must say that, so far, this trip has been, I can't emphasize this enough, a really eye-opening experience..

Doing it the backpacking way has its pros and cons.. even though the cons did cause us some minor anxiety attacks, it also allowed us to get close to the local people... and we did meet some really kind people who had helped us along the way so far.. when things seemed dire, they came to our rescue unconditionally.. I am very grateful for that..

Gonna enjoy this city before moving on to a new country tomorrow.. Ciao!

New Continent..

Okay, for those who knew, you know.. for those who don't I am not going to tell.. but the bottom line is I am out traveling.. to a new continent.. or more precisely, just 2 countries..

So far, everything has been okay.. nothing that we can't handle.. another 10 days or so before I go back.. shall update this blog whenever I can.. if I am not too tired.. :p Gonna enjoy this as much as possible before rejoining the rat-race end of this year..

Immism..

Here are some of my philosophical views on various things that I had posted in my FB.. :p thought I consolidate and publish them here too.. :)

Since all of them are in Chinese, I will try to provide an suitable English translation that is both vernacular and apt, which would convey the state of my mind/emotion when I wrote them...

回想走過的路途跌跌撞撞，滿身已盡是傷。。。
(Looking back at all the stumbling and falling suffered, wounds everywhere.....)
帶著平常心過著平凡的生活，這何嘗不是一種平靜？
(Isn't it not contentedness living a normal life in serenity?)
你把人家當朋友，別人把你當閑人。。
(You accepted them as friends, while they treated you like dirt..)
知足惜福，就已幸福。。
(Being contented and count our blessings is in itself a happiness..)
只要彼此關心，朋友不需要天天見面。。
(Daily meetups are not needed among friends as long as we have each other in our hearts..)
心中有愛，任何風雨都不是阻礙。。
(With love, nothing can stand in the way..)
無法主控他人，但能夠調適自己來面對。。
(You can't control what others do, but you can choose the way you react..)
與其感嘆著這短暫的相處，不如銘記著這有緣的邂逅..
(Rather than lamenting the short time we spent together, why not hold dear the memories we had..)
全心全意未必会换来真心真意，情场可能是如此，职场又何尝不是？
(Devotedness is not always rewarded with sincerity, it is the case in love, and maybe at work too?)
你不說誰懂,你不願誰肯？
(Who will understand if you don't talk; who would be willing if you don't? )
無意脫口而出的一句話，可能會影響有心聽眾的一生。。
(What is said innocently might affect the life of the person who took it personally..)
小孩的無邪，也許抵不過世間的險惡，但至少覺得希望尚在人間。。
(The innocence of children might not be enough to repel the evilness of the world, but at lease we know that hope is still alive..)
為喜歡的人，赴湯蹈火也在所不辭；對反感的人，舉手之勞也倍感負擔。。
(Would gladly go through hell for the people we like; for those we don't, even lifting a finger seemed such a chore..)
不能說出心中的愛是多麼無奈；不去試著活得精彩是多麼悲哀；
(What a torment it is to be unable to profess to those we love; What a waste it is to be unable to live our life to the fullest...)
無奈正全面蛀蝕着靈魂。。無力、無助、無言。。痛，無止境蔓延着。。
(Helplessness, gnawing my soul.. powerless, defenseless, speechless... pain, spreading eternally into the vastness..)
當年的低潮，當日的低沉，當天的低落， 原来當時低調的自己低估了低回的過去。。
(The lows of yesteryear were but a reminisce of my low-profile self downplaying the despondency of yore....)
就算已經理性地預知了，並不代表可以感性地接受。。
(Even though you might have predicted it rationally, it doesn't mean that you are able to accept it emotionally when it finally happens.. )
生命中終會有一些人：想遇卻遇不到，想躲也躲不了，想忘竟忘不掉。。
(In life, there are always people - whom you can't meet even if you wanted to, whom you can't hide no matter how hard you tried, whom you can't forget regardless..)
-------------------------------------------
More to come.. Any comments from those who are bilingual? How is the English translations? Good? Bad? So-so? Do give me some feedback..

It is OVER!! (Updates)

It is official.. :)

Wrote an email to Prof K to thank him for all the advice and guidance that he has given for the past few months, and at the same time asked him about my report.. And this was what he replied, in full..

Dear Imm,

You did very well. Professor Kt, in his question asked after your presentation was over, said that he was quite impressed with your work. I would mark your work, including your presentation as A+.

One request I would like to make is to send the electronic file of your report in full, and also that of your presentation to me. I keep all of the theses, reports and presentation files of all my students whom I supervised in my PC.

Other than that, I believe you do not have to do anything more to get your Master Degree from Waseda University GITS.

CONGRATULATIONS.

Warm regards,
Prof. K.

:) :) :) Yes, this email has confirmed that I did not have to rewrite my final report.. :) :) But most importantly, I feel a great sense of accomplishment because Prof Kt was impressed with my work.. Well, I must say that impressing Prof Kt is no easy feat, as he is the most feared and most demanding professor in my graduate school!! Most students avoid taking his classes and (literally) tremble while making presentation in his presence.. Yet, I do not fear him as I subscribed to his expectation of graduate students. Because, frankly, many of the students SHOULD NOT be allowed to graduate, much less earning a Masters degree with the kind of sloppy work that they churned out..

Anyway, except for a lone 'B' from Prof M, I have straight 'A's and 'A+'s for my Masters subjects... Haven't had so many 'A's and 'A'+s since primary school.. :p :p :p Out of my 4 theme researches (one for each semester), I got an 'A' from my own Prof.. :x while the other 3 Prof (Prof Kt, Prof M and Prof K) each gave me 'A+'... Never did I once get an 'A+' from him for any of his subjects, when even the strictest Prof (Prof Kt) thought that I deserved 3 'A+'s for his classes!! Enough said.

Now, I can finally put my mind to rest and concentrate on planning my holiday.. :) Will be flying off to another continent for a 14-days holiday next week.. :p Can't wait..

It is OVER!!

Finally... I am done with my Masters!! :)

For my presentation, I started off kinda shaky.. but I soon regained my composure.. in the end, I managed to present within the time limit given.. and more importantly, I think I managed to impress the Professors with my answers during the Q & A session.. even the strictest and most feared Professor was happy and satisfied with my responses..

The only concern I have right now is whether I need to amend or update my final report.. Other than that, I am not really worried about not being to graduate.. :p :p

Now that the presentation is over, it is time to plan for more trips in these last few months before I move back to Malaysia/Singapore for good around end of September.. :) :)