Masak Masak..

Today I cooked..

Was kinda sick of the bentos from the convenient stores that I decided to cook.. As I do not have a kitchen in my room, I was very reluctant to cook when I first got here.. Even now, I hate going into the common kitchen as the state of it doesn't really 'inspire' appetite, in fact one could very well lost one's appetite after a quick 'tour' of the common kitchen.. :x

Thus I decided to cook something, without leaving my room, using the rice cooker that my brother passed me few months ago. It was a very simple rice dish with some pre-packed ingredient that I got from one of those economical stores.. Not too bad for someone who is using this particular rice cooker to cook Japanese rice for the first time. I had put a bit more water to it so it was slightly mushier but it was okay as I like mushy rice.. :) The rice cooker is also capable of making porridge, so maybe I would give that a try someday..

Here the raw ingredients are not much cheaper compared to Singapore, much lesser Malaysia. I bought 1 kg of rice at 498yen, which is more than SG$6! 4 eggs for 150yen (around SG$1.80)! Have yet to check out the prices for vegetables and meat or poultry, but I doubt it would be any cheaper.. thus frankly, it wasn't very economical to cook just 1 meal for 1 person.. especially with the kind of instant food that is widely available and so much more hassle-free.. The two reason I think people would cook, particularly in the dorm, is either religious (aka food must be halal, no pork/etc) or cravings (missing home-cooked food or the taste of home).

As this is my first try with the rice cooker, I think I will 'experiment' more and see what other dishes I can cook with it.. maybe I could even try cooking curry with it, :p before getting another appliance like the hotplate, slow cooker or whatever.. Also the dorm has a rule that says that all cooking should be done in the common kitchen, to prevent fire or whatever.. but frankly, the number of times I smell burnt 'stuff' from the kitchen tells me that I should be safe cooking in my room as long as I am careful about it.. cos hey I am going to sleep in the room after cooking, right? Who would want to start a fire in their own room??!! And I would definitely clean up properly after cooking, unlike those using the common kitchen!

So for the days that I'm going to stay in, I might cook something to eat for the whole day.. The one thing that I miss a lot is green cooked vegetables.. The vegetables here are either pickled vegetables, white radish or cold salad (lettuce, carrot,cabbage, etc). I missed my kangkong belacan, xiao bai chai, chai xin, bitter gourd and even mixed vegetables.. :( The only interesting vegetables here is mushrooms.. there are a great more variety of mushrooms available in Japan.. so maybe I might do a blog on the types of mushrooms next time.. :)

3 reports for Week 1

It was just the first week of school, and already I had to write 3 reports for 2 different classes.. :x One of them was actually not my class. I took that class last semester, but was attending the class 2 Saturdays ago cos my Sensei asked me to explain the survey site that I've created to the class.. I was 'arrowed', so to speak in Spore slang..

I do foresee lots of these kind of 'arrows' flying at me.. maybe cos I was one of the very few within my research lab who has the necessary technical skills to actually do something instead of just talking about it.. The global survey sort-of became my baby along the way, although I had no say what-so-ever in the content, yet I was asked to explain to the classes and get them to test it?!?! If I know in more details the who, what, why relating to the survey, I might be in a better position to explain it.. It was really a challenge for me to 'make up' things to say along the way.. Even the cover page was written by me, without knowing the whole story.. :p Not bad huh?! :) I still have my 'smoking' or 'sian' skills intact.. ;) :p ;)

Fruits.. Grapes..

Before coming to Japan, I always thought that temperate fruits like grapes, orange, apples, pears etc would be cheap and plentiful in Japan. But I was very very very wrong..

Fruits are very expensive in Japan, period. Yes, the size of an orange and apple is much larger than what is usually available in Malaysia and Singapore. They are maybe twice or thrice as big as the Fuji apple that we are familiar with.. and so is the price.. An apple the size of an adult's palm is between 250 yen to 400 yen! The only affordable fruit in Japan, ironically, is banana!! A comb of banana (about 4-5 bananas) cost between 105yen to 200yen, depending on its quality and source.

I once saw a durian, smaller than a basketball, being sold for more than 2,500yen! That is almost SG$30!! And the watermelon during summer was equally expensive.. Imagine paying more than 600yen for 1 basketball-sized watermelon!! :o :o Madness!!


This small bunch of grapes cost 400yen. Bought this in one of the supermarkets in Shimo-kitazawa. I had always liked grapes and had bought it once in a while during my stay in Singapore. Over there, it was between SG$0.69 to SG$0.69 per 100g. I will only buy it during sale period.. :p But here, the prices of fruits don't seem to go down.. After monitoring the prices of grapes for a while, I've decided to just buy it once.


Each grape is bigger than my thumb! They are very sweet to the point of being bitter in some instances.. Too bad they aren't seedless.. :p Else they would be perfect!! :)

Frankly, the prices of fruits here are so expensive that fruits had become luxury items instead of daily food. In the end, I just drink fruit juices (like apple or orange juices) or vegetable juices to get my daily doses of natural Vit. C and fiber.. A liter of real orange juice or apple juice cost between 200yen to 350yen, so they are much more economical..

My Research Lab

Had been wanting to write about my research lab since last year, but I didn't have photos to go with.. So I thought that I would wait for the photos taken (thanks Shinta!) during last semester's farewell party before writing. All the photos in this entry was taken in Jul this year.


This is my Sensei, Professor Obi. As he went to Columbia University and worked in the UN before, thus he is not quite the typical 'strict and conservative' Japanese professor.. :) Very approachable, when he has time.. :)





These are my English-speaking lab mates..
The Ladies (from left): Yao (from China, graduated last semester), Michelle (from US-Taiwan, Master's Year 1), Me, Hai (from Vietnam, PhD Year 1), Jayne (from the Philippines, graduated last semester) and Shinta (from Indonesia, Master's Year 1).
The Guys (from left): Rahim (from Malaysia, graduated last semester), Bobby (from the Philippines, Masters Yr 2), Arief (from Indonesia, graduated last semester), Ilu (from Samoa, research student) and Joe (from Taiwan, PhD Yr 2). Not in the picture is Luis (from Peru, PhD Yr 1) and Diana (from Russia, PhD Yr 2).


This was the big happy family of Obi Lab for last semester. There are about 38 students in the lab, either Master's, PhD or research students. This is the largest research lab in my graduate school. It is also a mini-United Nations, with Chinese and Taiwanese being the majority. My Sensei even joked that maybe he should start taking Chinese lessons, since the most commonly used language after Japanese and English is Chinese.. :p Most of the Chinese students in my research lab can speak fluent Japanese, thus I do not really have the opportunity to mix and hang out with them.. and add to the fact that most of them are all fresh graduates, so there is a 'small' age gap between us.. :p The English-speaking lab mates are mostly sent by their governments or had worked a few years, except for a few who had never worked full time before..

Hopefully my Japanese will be good enough so that I will be able to join the Japanese group in their weekly seminar with Sensei in my last semester.. :)

More photos of the farewell party of my research lab in Jul 2007.

Buzi, Buzy, Busy

Was quite busy the last few days....

Wednesday, 3 Oct
Went to the 9am class for Oral Expression 3E. What a shock! The Sensei, after finding out that several of us did not do level 2 and came straight to her level 3 class, told us straight in the face that she strongly 'advice' us to go to level 2 instead. The way she put it across was by no mean rude, but it was very direct. The impression I got was that she do not want to help us (about 5 of us) to catch up, even when the class was less than 10 people.. To me, she was just being truthful and direct, but unfortunately way too demoralizing. Suddenly, I had no confidence in my Japanese skills, no matter how little I had in the first place.. :x

In the end I started to have doubts about taking any level 3 classes!! Struggling to find suitable classes, in the same time not wanting to go to level 2 classes, Kim-chan and me went to the Independent Learning class to check it out, since Alex was raving about it.. But in the end, the Sensei for Independent Learning too said that it would be rather difficult for us as the IL classes are for Level 3-4. This Sensei was so unlike that earlier sensei who just told us to drop her class as she would not want to teach us level 2 grammar.. At least she told us nicely and explained the reason why..

So we were undecided now.. On one hand, Alex said that the IL class is doable, while on the other, the Sensei said that it would be difficult.. After some discussion, we decided to take the IL class and the 3 of us can work together to catch up..

We then went to Kanji (for Kim-chan) and Oral Expression 2 (for me) after lunch. The Sensei for OE 2 was very nice and the class is manageable for me. I was torn again. If I take IL, I would have 6 Japanese classes all together without taking into account OE 2. Yet, I really wanted to take her classes as I could sense that she is a good and patient teacher. I will see how the friday Grammar 3 goes.. So headache... :x :x

Later at night, I went for the karate practice. And I got my result for the promotion exam. I passed!! So now I'm in Level 9, purple belt.. :) Well, at least 1 good thing happened today...


Thursday, 4 Oct
No class for me on Thursdays.. but today I had to go back to school for a 6pm workshop by my research lab.. I woke up around 10am.. did my laundry, watched some anime (Kekkaishi - 结界师) and went out to get my lunch.. Body was slightly aching, maybe due to the karate session the night before..

Reached school at least 40min earlier, which was okay with me.. I just sat at the sofa near the entrance and read up some Japanese grammar.. Then 10 min before 6pm, we were asked to go to a small meeting room. Mr Utsumi, ex-Sec Gen of ITU was to be giving some lecture. About 15 of my Sensei's students came for this workshop. It was a very interesting talk by Mr Utsumi. It was about the workings, dynamics and process of organising the World Summit on the Information Society. Just like any major world-wide conferences, there are many hidden hands manipulating the processes. Every country wants to further their own agenda thus jostling and positioning are the norm. But to hear all these from the person within the very organization that organized and championed it was a different experience. To say the least, this workshop opened my eyes on the workings of international relationships..


Friday, 5 Oct
Fridays are going to be my busiest day of the week.. I have 3 classes and 1 seminar from 9am to 9pm...

First it was the Grammar 3 class at 9am. The Sensei gave us a test during the class to check our grammar proficiency level. She wants to know if our basics (of grammar level 1 and 2) are good enough to take level 3. Out of 30 questions, I only managed to get 14 correct. She said that those scored 18 and above should remain in this class while those scoring lower should seriously consider changing to a lower level class. She told me that this class is doable but would be difficult, that I should think about taking this class..

Kim-chan and I had a discussion after the class. I told her that I do not mind taking this Grammar 3 class but I don't think I would be able to cope with the IL class for level 3-4. In the end I sticked to my original plan which is to take Listening 3E, Reading 3E (both of which I do not have much problem, yet), Pronunciation 3E, Oral Expression 2E and Grammar 3E. In this way, I would just need to work harder on my Grammar which is 'only' 1 level higher as compared to IL 3-4 which is more than 1 level advanced. I really wanted to take the Listening class as I want to improve my listening skills and at Level 3, it was at a comfortable learning level for me.. So in the end, both of us decided to drop the idea of going to IL 3-4.. And we also decided that we will meet up on Wednesdays to have our study group in the morning and after our 1pm class.

So in a way, I sort-of decided on my Japanese classes for this semester... :)

Prof. Kano's class was interesting and so was A.Prof Suganuma's. I think I will learn a lot from these 2 professors.. :) And I'm thinking of doing my theme research with them too.. After these 2 classes, it was my lab's seminar.. which ended at 9.10pm... Went to have dinner with Michelle, Shinta and Jim.. Didnt reach home until almost 12am.. Super tired...