Observations and being hiao.

I shall do the being hiao part of my entry first :) So, yeah, basically, I get my friends to take pictures of me being hiao. hahahahaha. So, here are some!













The first two pictures were taken on the day of meeting my host family. I wanted to impress lah. And that's the dress that I bought from Uniqlo (for $26). The third picture is the dress that I really wanted. Lucia, who studies fashion designing, asked me as we were shopping, "Why do you always choose black and white clothing?" And later, I picked this out and tried it. It's quite pretty on me, if I may say so myself. And it's not entirely black. So, maybe green looks fine on me. I can add it to my colours to wear: black, white, pink, brown and dark green! =) In that same shopping trip, I bought a, well, sort of dress, but... I don't know how to describe it. Sighs, I'll get my friends to take a better picture of me in it some other time. It's featured in the 4th picture, but that picture I took myself today cos I was so bored waiting for entrepreneur class today. haha. Anyways, that article of clothing is VERY CHEAP: 500 yen (around SGD7). Haha, Lucia said it looked very very cute on me, and told me to get it. So, I got it. And I don't regret it, cos it's really really really cute on me. Makes me look a little japanese. Lucia and I were walking home today, and a lady mistakened me for a Japanese. She wanted to talk to Lucia, but didn't know the words and wanted me to translate. HAHAHAHAHA. It was quite funny, I tell you.

This is my speaking partner. She bought me an omiyage too :) I gave her the teddy bear that had an accident. It's now called Ichigo. HAHAHAHA.
Although both of us had a hard time communicating, we relied on: body language, pen and paper (in which I wrote english words, chinese words and she wrote kanji, and so we both cld understand from the kanji), and electronic dictionary. It's amazing how two people can talk 2 each other with limited language abilities for 2 hours and still enjoy ourselves. At least, I enjoyed myself, I hope she did too! :)




Like I said, I was very bored waiting for entrepreneurship class and didn't feel like reading 30 pages of the readings Prof Tracy assigned so, eventually, I fell asleep in the student lounge when Ann came along with Kosuke (the tall guy in white shirt) and woke me up from my beauty sleep. I don't know why, but I'm so tired all the time it sucks :( So, catching up on my sleep is very important. But nevermind, half an hour nap is equivalent to an hour's of sleep at night (or so I've been told). From left to right: Ann, Alex, Fang Yu (from Taiwan), Kosuke (from Japan), Weity (from Australia, but is Chinese).

First it was Ann and Kosuke. Then a few minutes later, maybe because I talk too loudly, Alex heard me from some other end of the room and came to join us. We haven't seen each other for AGES, since that day at Kyoto. Haha, cos he's at his host family, and I'm at mine and our schedules don't seem to match. And then, Fang Yu came along and saw Ann. I sort of introduced myself, cos I sort of knew Fang Yu from the bank session, except he doesnt know of my existence until today (I think). Haha. Then, Weity came along (we know each other from our "Issues" class) and she knew Ann and Fang Yu. So it was like, we just congregated cos everyone knew everyone else and then introduced each other. Networking, man, networking. :P But it's a fun sort of networking, cos u're just making friends :)

erm, p.s.: I think Kosuke is rather good looking in a way. hahahaha. His friend, Kohe, came along and introduced himself to us. Then, merrily told us, "Kosuke is a playboy." HAHAHAHAHA. That was so funny cos Kosuke tried to defend himself, but Kohe had already destroyed his reputation in one comment like that.

Was walking with the speaking partner (okay, her name is Mio). and chanced upon, on the pavement a picture of a cat! Oh my god, it's so cute. Haha, can rival yk's cat drawings. but of course, YK's cat drawings are specific to the conversation, so i'd give it higher points, but still, this is SO CUTE =) and also saw this graffitti on the wall. haha, is that cool or what?!










Well, okay, that's the end of the photos. I've got more, but sianz to upload cos it's taking some time and my computer is a little screwy today.

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Some observations:

a) Bread: Bread here is fantastically fresh. A loaf of bread (of 6 THICK slices) cannot be kept for more than 3 days. I bought a loaf of bread for 105 yen (very very cheap. it's like 1.50?). I can eat the bread for lunch for 3 days! yay :) 2 slices per day. 1 slice is like 160 calories, so its enough energy to last me thruout the day. plus it's so convenient to bring around!

b) Yogurt: Okaasan pours out very plain yogurt for me. And then, she adds strawberry jam to make strawberry yogurt! Isn't that cool? So if u want orange yogurt, all u have to do is to add orange jam. or mango jam, or blueberry jam, etcetcetc. And it's tasty too, but rather fattening, I must say!

c) Alcohol: Alcohol is, comparing to Singapore, cheap! Haha, I was at Lawson Plus (the convenience store nearby) and I was staring at a bottle of choya. So tempted to buy it to try it at home! :( very very cheap. Maybe around 200 yen? Or even cheaper than that. Very small bottle lah, but then, one bottle of whiskey / gin is around SGD25?? haha, cheap alcohol! But then, like I told my speaking partner: I don't really drink. Prob the only thing I'd ever touch is choya. haha

d) Roads in Japan: Roads in Japan are narrow. Very narrow. Cyclists, pedestrians and cars share the same narrow roads. I think I prob would have gotten knocked down several times had I not cultivated (only recently) the habit of looking out for cars. Once, while Masayuki and I were walking, he had to pull me to the side cos it was so dangerous to walk...

e) Cyclists: Cyclists do everything on the bike! They smoke, talk on the cell phone, hold an umbrella, eat, anything you can do walking, I think they can do cycling. It's quite interesting to see them hold the keitai (cell phone) and steering with one hand. Quite amazing, actually. I can never do that. Would fall flat on my face. Haha.