Feb 5, 2009

Last day of the Semester

Had great fun the last day of my semester before coming back to Malaysia.. Fridays were never my favorite day of the week since I came to Japan.. Why? Because Friday is the day for my lab's seminar session and my Japanese grammar classes.. One is highly stressful while the other is a waste of my time.. (I think you should know which is which by now.. :p) But the last Friday of this semester, I was having a great time!!

We got back the results of our grammar exam.. I can only say that I scored more than 50%, but not much higher.. but I am not complaining.. considering the time that I spend revising, I would say that I deserved what I get.. After going through the exam paper, we had a small party.. a "final" get-to-know session.. which I couldn't really be bothered with.. as I know that I won't be crossing paths with most of them after this semester's class.. But this being Japan, I still have to be "nice" and appear interested in what the rest of my classmates are doing.. So as we eat we have to do a self introduction..

Majority in the class are Koreans, followed by Chinese. There are representatives from Taiwan, Australia, Argentina, Thailand and the US. Luckily, the irritating arrogant American wasn't around.. else the session would be torturous..

One interesting trivial is that our Sensei is a qualified chemist and nutritionist, but decided to teach instead.. Here she is.. Next to her is my classmate from Taiwan.. same age as my Sis.. The other Taiwanese classmate is a Tiger like me, which meant that she is 12 years younger than me!!! And yes, I think I am the oldest in the class, although not many realized it.. ;)

After the first class, we had the second Japanese grammar class.. again, the Sensei returned our papers for the exam taken the week before.. again, I passed but my result was barely satisfactory, yet I couldn't care less.. :p we went through the paper and took note of the mistakes we made.. then it was party time again! This time, we were to merge to the other grammar class and have a "tea-party"..

Some of the cakes we had..


The cakes tasted as good as they looked.. however, we had way too much food during the first party session, we couldn't eat as much cake as we had wanted.. :(

This was my Sensei for the second grammar class.. The two Taiwanese girls liked to tease him and see him blushed during lessons.. One thing is for sure, it is rare to have male Japanese Sensei, at least in my university..

After the party, we went for a karaoke!! The girls asked another Taiwanese guy from the second class to come along, so the four of us went to a karaoke near to the train station.. We sang for almost 2 and a half hours.. had lots of fun singing with them as compared to any other karaoke sessions that I had the last two years in Japan.. maybe it was because we knew and sang the same sets of songs.


We left the place slightly after 5.30pm... Just in time for me to walk back to my lab for my weekly seminar.. Even the monotonous presentations during the seminar would not damper my good mood.. ;)

Feb 4, 2009

Going to Singapore

Will be boarding the coach to Singapore later tonight.. Can't wait to see all my old friends and ex-colleagues.. especially my god-son Rio and his mum.. :) Not to mention eating all the good food!! ;)

Will be staying in Singapore for a week.. till 12 Feb.. at the same backpackers hostel that I stayed last year.. Hope that this would be a fruitful trip..

Feb 3, 2009

初九拜天公

福建人过年的习俗里就有包括年初八晚上在初九来临之际拜天公。。所以我家也有在初九午夜拜拜。。

以前小时候很少有机会能呆在阿嬷家呆到初九的,因为学校假期没那么长,老爸也不能拿长假,所以能够在阿嬷家拜天公是件很开心的事。。好像我长这么大,在阿嬷家拜天公的次数似乎不超过十次。。

自从阿嬷去世之后,我们家就自个儿拜天公了。。比起阿嬷我们贡品比较简单,就连要烧的“金纸”也不比阿嬷多。。但是这并不是场比赛,贡的丰富与否或是烧的多寡都是各家庭的一份心意。不必一定要相同或是更多,因为人比人气死人。

以下就是我家今年的贡品。。


现在已经不仅仅是福建人有在拜天公了,就连广东人、潮州人及客家人也都已经加入初九时拜天公的“行列”了。。因为有谁不希望自己以及家人在新的一年里事事顺利样样美好呢?人们常说:有拜就有保佑;多拜是有益无害的。这也就是为什么在华人多的地区,初九拜天公可能要比大年初一来得更热闹了。。我家隔壁的邻居更是家人齐聚,贡品齐全(少不了烧猪一只)地非常慎重地拜拜,而且还会大势燃放烟花。。今年他们燃放了三次烟花,这是我所拍下来的影像之一:



听说今年警方禁止了人们点放孔明灯,所以天空中孔明灯的数量减少了许多,但仍然可以看到零零星星的孔明灯飘在高空中,随着风飘走。。

初九的午夜,我家四周都炮竹声连连,烟花在各处不停地燃放着,天空不间断地色彩弥漫着。。这才是我心目中也是我所认知的农历新年!!

Feb 2, 2009

Food, glorious food of CNY..

One of the most important things that I looked forward to every CNY is the food.. Here are some photos of the types of dishes I had this year..







Even though their presentation might pale in comparison with Japanese dishes, but hey, I don't give much of a damn about how a dish looks like as long as it tastes GOOD!!! And seriously, these are what I would call "FOOD".. unlike the monotonous flavors of the food I had been eating for the past 2 years.. Do you agree??

Feb 1, 2009

The First Gensei-Ryu World Karate Tournament

Some photos from the Karate competition last Aug..