Halloween - 30 Oct

I know Halloween's on 31 Oct, but since we had the party today, I shall just put it at 30 Oct.

Robbie told me yesterday that the party did not have food, nor did it provide drinks. For me to go to any party, there must be the availability of food and drinks. For there not to be any... It's preposterous! But anyways, YK-san convinced me to go by telling me that it'd be interesting to get "get picked up by totally sober, hungry guys". Haha. Not that I've ever gotten picked up by totally drunk guys. Or guys, in general. But, hey, it's worth a try! haha.

So, this morning, I decided to dress up like so:




















The coat that Asuka lent me was too big for me, so I used my own coat. Her skirt was too long [below knee] so I folded it at the top to make it into a mini-skirt. While actual school girls don't wear tights [they just wear long socks], I'm afraid of the cold. So I wore both tights and long knee high socks. Plus boots, because my sports shoes have little holes in them for air ventilation and it gets freezing cold sometimes. The part about the get-up I most love is the tie and the pin. The tie is deep red and the pin has Asuka's high school's name on it. Haha, the overall effect, if I may say so myself, was rather impressive. I really look like a high school student... Okaasan, when she saw me, she said, "Doushitan? Kookoosei mitai!" [What/Why are you dressed like that? You look like a high school student!]

I'd on facebook convinced Kristina to wear her she-devil costume [which she did, but I have no pictures of that]. We felt a bit odd, especially Kristina, because few other students were wearing costumes. Haha. A guy in our class wore a Sherlock Holmes costume, another wore a cow-boy get-up.

But later, more people came in, dressed up. :) Here are the people i asked to take a photo of...







































This guy is dressed as a maid in maid cafe. He's wearing high heel boots. Haha, when asked if it hurt, he said it didn't. 5 hours later... It hurt badly. BADLY. So, he took off his boots and pranced [and danced, and twirled] around CIE lounge.




















I at first thought this was the Joker from Batman. Later I was told it's supposed to be the guy from Night Before Christmas [I think the name of the character is Jack?].




















I can only say this guy is hilarious. The swan guy. He won 3rd place I think in the contest today.




















Yuki wore a costume too! Haha, don't you think it's cute?! He said he rode the motorbike in this teddy bear costume. "People look at me twice," he told me with a grin. haha. "But I ride seriously." He's really cute and funny.

Today, we ended class early because of an exam and Asuka, Saki and I spent 1 hour drawing stuff on the board and they taught me a bit of Japanese as well. Haha. And I taught them the word, "narcissistic". Ehem, because I told them Daryn calls me narcissistic sometimes. Haha.

At about 530, we went downstairs for the costume party, which consisted basically of watching the contestants from the fashion show strutting down a make shift run-way :)









































I know, those are bad photos. I only had my phone, forgot my camera. Not my fault, right? =)

At the costume party though, I managed to find my other half... In Yugo!




















Haha, I'm dressed as a high school girl, and Yugo is dressed as a high school guy. Unfortunately, mine is sort of summer uniform, and his is winter uniform. But, nonetheless, perfect match!Yugo's senpai, Ryotaro was also dressed in his uniform, but then that picture is in Yugo's camera. I shall wait for Hiroshi, Ashley, Amy and Robbie to upload pictures onto facebook then steal them. Hehe. =)

Tomorrow, I'm still dressing up as high school girl, because tomorrow is the real Halloween. :) Halloween is so fun!! [Well, only if the whole group participates in it lah]

All that compliments I got today is totally getting into my head. Haha. It came from both guys and girls. If it only came from guys, then you know it's because of the mini-skirt only. But it came from both genders, so it's because I really did look good today. Haha, totally totally totally getting into my head... Making it explode. Haha, Yugo's was the funniest, "If you were in the contest, I'd vote for you!" and "We look like boyfriend and girlfriend." [with regard to the picture above]. I think I shall have to tell Robbie that he should stop day-dreaming. HAHAHAHA. [internal joke]

I totally didn't see Alex the whole day. Just assumed that we didn't manage to catch each other today [but that's almost impossible! KGU is so small!] But I found out that he's actually ill :( Aww, poor thing!!! He said he was gonna come as a giant frisbee [because he's always playing frisbee] but cos he got sick, he couldn't go shopping, though tomorrow he's coming to school. haha, I'd have people to show my costume to, who haven't seen it! =P

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww... I loved today. It was really really fun. Haha.

Videos I've been looking at on Youtube

Kanjani8 - 無責任ヒーロー



Southern All Stars - Tsunami



Last night, I was charging my IPOD when I found "Smiling Pasta" on my IPOD. I treat my IPOD as an external harddrive as well. Haha. So, I spent the entire evening watching "Smiling Pasta". It's such a silly show, but so... sweet. Very dream-like. haha.

More updates, no pictures =)

I'm very very very cold. My tolerance for cold stops at 18degrees.

According to the weather report, the highest temperature is 20deg [this is the temperature when I'm standing in the sun, wearing all black, soaking up the sun rays]. The lowest temperature is 10 deg.. You can't fault me for feeling cold. Singapore's night temperature is like 25 degrees and above! Of course, if I actually did go to Germany or USA, it'd probably be colder. I was told Ohio is now 3 degrees... A friend told me that South Korea's temperature is at 10deg.. Strange. Japan is higher up north, but it's not as cold as SK. And Birmingham, where Teddy is, is experiencing early snow. Nottingham, where Jia is, is 0 degrees. :X Thank Goodness I'm not in Europe. I'd just DIE I tell you. 死。

***
This morning, I woke up at 7.30, but because I wanted to do my readings, I only went downstairs at 930. Okaasan was worried about me. She asked me, "Shindoi?" [tired] and without waiting for me to answer, asked me with a worried look, "Byouki?" [sick] That's nice of her, right? =) But, don't worry. Although I have a slight scratchy throat, I'm　元気 [energetic]！

***
Every evening when Wataru reaches home, he'd run up the stairs, open my door to come and find me. He knows I'd be home, because I'm usually home before all of them. He usually shouts, "Ichigo-chan!!!" and I reply, "Okairi!" [welcome home]. Then, he wanders about in my room, messes with my grapefruit lip balm and then drags me off to dinner. That's so sweet, don't you think? haha. Makes me feel welcomed at home.

***

Ever since I've fallen sick, I've started to eat a whole lot more. Don't know why... I'm getting fat =( I've got a tummy now!

In Japan, I've broken quite a number of eating rules I've set myself in Singapore...

a) Don't eat after 8 - Since dinner is usually at 730 and because [some things never change] I eat super super slowly, I tend to drag till 830. :(

b) Don't eat and watch tv - the TV is always on when we're eating dinner. So I end up eating more dinner than I would usually cos the TV is distracting.

c) Don't do homework / read and eat - In school, sometimes I forget to do the readings, so I'd eat my lunch and read my readings at the same time at CIE. Very bad very bad :( Because my brain doesn't register, "I'm full" so I'll stay hungry even after I've finished the whole onigiri.

d) Don't eat a heavy dinner - Because breakfast and dinner are provided, those are my heaviest meals. For breakfast, I calculate at least 400 calories. And dinner is maybe about 800 calories or more, since Okaasan always gives me huge portions. Huge dinners = bad.

e) Don't finish the entire dinner if u cannot - because I eat everything that is put in front of me, I tend to overeat and feel stuffed every evening. That's why, usually in Singapore, on MSN, I'd say "I'm hungry" by 11pm. But in Japan, I only say it if I stay up till 1am or 2am..

f) Don't sleep immediately after a meal - Sometimes, when I'm home early, I'd eat lunch at around 330, and then go straight to sleep till 7pm. And then eat another big dinner. Hahahahaha. Greedy me.

Sighs, I need to re-establish my rules. And FOLLOW them. No wonder I'm developing a tummy. No wonder my favourite jeans has become a bit tighter. *sighs*

***
I managed to complete kor's scarf. Stopped knitting for two weeks or so till I remembered that next week I'm meeting Kor in Tokyo already! Haha. So hurried up and finished it. It's short. :( But then... I think it's warm. And a bit girly. HAHAHAHA. I think he won't wear it, but I'll MAKE him. HAHAHAHAHA.

And now, for Jie's scarf. I'm so not gonna be able to make it in time, I think. =X

***
Some people feel the need to apologise for not reading my blog. Haha, I find it so strange! I don't expect people to read my blog constantly, though I update it constantly. It's not like you guys are very free like that, to constantly check on my blog. Even I also don't constantly check my friends' blog during the week. Maybe only during the weekend, and then I'd catch up on what they've blogged about.

My blog fulfills a few purposes: a) To let my family (especially) and friends know that I'm well, and what I'm doing in Japan so they won't worry. b) To serve as a possible guide for other people. So, with the photos I upload, they can decide whether or not they wanna visit the place. c) Most importantly, its my means of keeping a diary. That's why I tend to update to often. Because it's a diary to me. When I return to Singapore, I will look back on my entries, read them, and remember the beautiful time here.

So, please do not feel obliged to come and read my blog. If on MSN, or facebook chat, or emails I ask you, "Did u read my blog about XXX?" it's usually to see if you know what I'm referring to. And not to scream at u if you didn't read my blog ["How dare you! Don't you treat me as your friend?"]. No lah, I'm not so evil. Hahahah.

Though, of course, anyone who's reading this usually reads my blog. So, this is actually the wrong place to say this in, ne? hahahahaha.

Doing well.

My Spoken Japanese score is, at the moment, at 98.1. That's not including the later half of the term lah. And not counting dropping the lowest scoring Vocab Quiz or Lesson Test. I also got my Reading and Writing Japanese results back too. 99.7. If only I said, during the reading test, twelve thirty instead of twelve, then I'd have gotten 100%. Damned it. So careless. I was very careless with the Spoken Japanese Listening bit as well. Arg, could have gotten just a bit higher. Maybe 99.. Oh wells. Better than nothing. I'd just get full marks for my next lesson tests and vocab quizzes and hopefully it'd work to my benefit..

Also got back my reaction essay for Issues. I got a B :( Sighs, seldom in my SMU career have I gotten a B. How disappointing. Must do a better reaction essay next time! Maybe I should have written on Soka Gakuen instead of writing on collusions. Sighs, I'm bitter about my B =(

Tomorrow I will have my 3rd project meeting in KGU. It's been such a long time since our last project meeting. I have that, "I hate project meetings cos they are a total waste of time" kinda feeling. *sighs* Can't imagine what it's gonna be like for me to go back to SMU, land of the project meetings on holidays and weekends. :(

***

I asked Asuka, and she's willing to lend me her winter high-school uniform for halloween on Thurs. I know halloween's on Friday officially, but then, everyone's dressing up on Thurs. Hence, I shall dress up too :) Kinda excited. Asuka said her clothes might be a little big for me. But I'll figure it out! So, byebye rock/punk girl image. Hello school girl image. haha.

***

One of the Japanese students in the student lounge is irritating the hell out of me on Mondays and Wednesdays. I don't read the readings for Issues class because I expect that the time from lunch will be used on the readings. Unfortunately, this girl keeps coming to find me to talk to me. I explicitly tell her, "I've gotta study because I have not read my readings." But she never ever ever gets it. She just introduces more friends of hers to me, who want to practise English and Mandarin.

Last Monday, I successfully passed her to the HongKongers. Fang Yu wasn't around for me to pass them to for practising Chinese. [he'd hit me if I did it. haha. But then, he always hits me, so it's nothing new.] I skipped classes last Wednesday, so they weren't able to come find me. Yesterday, I managed to pass them to Daryn who talked a lot to them about Shikamaru from Naruto. I wonder... Who am I going to pass them to tomorrow? At most, I just stop appearing at the fish tank lah. There's an empty classroom at Level 2 that I can sit in to really complete all my readings. Haha. Fortunately, tomorrow's readings is about hikokimori. I bought the book in Singapore and already finished the readings. So it's fine for tomorrow.

Daryn was surprised when I expressed my dissatisfaction. She liked them. But, she's not the one rushing to finish the readings either. haha. But, its SO ANNOYING. They just CANNOT get my hint. Isn't it a freaking obvious hint? I don't even ask them to sit down. I thought, this is the land of collusions?! They should bloody know what I'm trying to say, no?

Baths in Japan

In my homestay home, we have a bathtub. It's rather deep. At night, Okaasan is the first one to take bath, with Wataru and Hikari. They usually take the amount of time I take to wash the dishes.

In Japan, in the bathes, they add this mineral salt tablet, to make the water seem more like the water in the onsen. The water is always set at 40degrees. So, one does what you'd do in a sento/onsen. First, you soap yourself and wash yourself cleanly. Get rid of all the soap suds. Then, you climb into the bath and relax for the next however minutes you want. The water is not let out until the next day [at least for my host family]. It's important you keep yourself and the water clean when you take your bath because other people are using the same water.

I love taking baths in Japan. I'm usually very cold even though the weather is only like 20deg. Taking baths gives me the same feeling I get when I eat mee hoon kway. I always say, "Mee hoon kway 给我幸福的感觉". When you're cold, there's nothing better than a bowl of hot mee hoon kway. :) It was also one of my last meals in Singapore. :)

Taking baths can be a bit boring. Haha. Maybe that's why there are public bathhouses. For people to go there and talk to each other... Despite the boring-ness of it... I love the feeling after you've taken a bath. Warm, fuzzy and sleepy. Hehe.

I love baths in Japan. I love baths. I love baths. :) <3

***

I'm hungry.

***

Haha, Kor said something very funny in his last mail to me. Hahahahahahaahha. I'm so amused. Yes, I'll sit around and act cute. I'll bring along my heart shaped hair pins, ribbon earrings and many many cutesy stuff. HAHAHAHAHA.

***

時に、私は本当に馬鹿だよと想う。気分はじょじょに悪い。今、泣きたい。何で？何で私はあほな人？何で？！どうしてその人のことは全然忘れない？馬鹿を見る。絶対馬鹿だろ。私は疲れた。。。いつも想うの時は疲れた。。。もういいよ。もうよろしくてよ。想い飽きた！

Momodani and Korean Town (24 Oct)

This is my 5th post today... Haha.

***

No photos here, sorry to disappoint. Forgot to bring my camera today.

Exams finally FINALLY FINALLY ENDED. :) Hehe, well, till next Thurs. Next Thurs I have another exam, but who cares about it when the main bulk of the exams are done by this week? :P

Daryn and I decided to go to Korean Town, seeing that Daryn is a Korean American.

Walked to Hirakata-shi Station and had a mad rush through the town. Bought 88yen icecream. I'm recovering from my cough. So, am entitled to make myself happy by buying the 88yen icecream. Okay, the operative word is recovering. I may not have recovered 100%, at least not when I cough and Daryn replies with, "Don't die!" But the coughing fits are getting less frequent. Maybe every 30minutes, instead of every 5-10minutes. After icecream, went to hyaku-en store to buy crackers, to the other hyaku-en store to buy word pads [i need those now, from lesson 6 onwards, the vocab consists of words I've never seen before]. That took up maybe 1.5hours. Haha, we couldn't decide what to buy and what not to buy :P

We took the wrong JR Loop Line to Momodani. Haha. So only reached there at 3.30p.m. My fault lah. Read the signs wrongly. haha. Anyways, today's shopping theme was, "Halloween Party Dress up!"

The shopping we did today... Haha. I bought 1 very punk looking shirt. If only I have a short skirt to go with it. It totally looks sexy. Haha. Daryn says I'm narcissist cos I kept telling her, "Oh My God! I look so good lah!". hahahaha :P But, I really look good in it, so why should I lie?! It's gonna be my "Halloween" costume. Was supposed to go as McCain's Running Mate [from the discussion with FY] but then... I think my punk looking clothes would make me look more punk rock chickish. Though, there is NOTHING remotely punk rockish. A friend told me that I look like I'm a girl next door. Haha. plain jane, vanilla-ish kinda girl. Nevermind. I'd make sure I look punk-rock-chick-ish on Thurs for the Halloween Party!!!!!!!!! We walked along the Momodani street and found a 2nd hand clothes store. So, I bought 1 jeans dress, 1 very very comfortable long sleeve shirt, and 1 sleeveless top [for summer, for summer]. All that for 700 yen! Haha, around 10dollars. Cheap or what?! I love my jeans dress. hehe. :)

We sort of got lost walking to Korean Town [again my fault]. But found it by accident. Daryn found kimchi [she loves it so much] and we got ricecakes as tea break. Haha

What a totally wonderful day, with a wonderful friend.

Tomorrow's flea market with a whole bunch of friends :) hehe. asked Alex, but Alex lazy bum that he is, said he didnt wanna wake up so early. I mean, he keeps asking me to bring him places, but NEVER wants to wake up early. *$&*%(*$ ah well, he can go play frisbee for all I care. Idiotic human being who doesnt wanna go France anymore. I spent 1/2 before my exam, when I should have been studying for my exam, to convince him to go to France, to no avail. Stupid boy. :'(

Okay, need to shower, then to sleep. It's 1.41am now. If I dont wake up in time, i'm gonna get slaughered tomorrow. Haha.

More updates about things that happened during the week

Written on Thursday.

I'm tired. I suspect it's the medicine. The medicine is amazing, though. Within 5 days, I'm actually not coughing as much as I used to! Unfortunately, the walk in the rain yesterday may intensify the coughing later on. It wasn't my fault that it rained the whole day yesterday during the Jidai Matsuri and then the Kurama himatsuri. :( I had an umbrella, not that it was helping much of course. The downpour was so bad! I took no photos at Kurama Hi Matsuri. So will steal some from Lucia and maybe Kristina. Now I have to add Jidai Matsuri and Kurama Hi Matsuri to my "places to blog about". Aiyah, so sianz. Have all these blog entries that are late. :( Will do it tomorrow evening when I'm done with my exams.

This week, like I mentioned, was exams and more exams. Spoken and Reading were all right, though I suspect some penalty here and there cos I stumbled over some parts during the oral exam. But, oh well. What's done has been done. What killed me on Tuesday was not the Spoken and Reading. It was the horrible Entrepreneurship exam. I don't even want to think about it. Every time I read the readings, I fell asleep. I tried 4 times, and everytime the same thing happened. :( I'm just not cut out for business concepts lah. Even the marketing section that I'm normally interested in put me absolutely to a sound sleep. The exam consisted of 7 short essays. Reminds me of those econs essays we had to write in JC. 1/2 hour for 1 question, and sometimes, 1 question had 2 parts. So, 12 mini-essays in 3 hours. *shudders*

Since I'm recovering, I will, tomorrow, eat an 88yen icecream and a sweet potato apple pie [yes, you read that right] with Daryn. Following which, we will wander to Korean Town where we will find more food... It'd be a day of food hunting, seeing yesterday I didn't eat properly, and the craving for icecream is getting to me. :(

***

I must be one of the stupidest girls on earth! I took my clothes out of the washing machine and was wondering why my white skirts and clothes had pink stains on them. Then finally, when I got down to the last article of clothing in the basket, I found out why! I'd put my red lipbalm into the washing machine AND dryer together with the rest of the clothes. BAKA BAKA BAKA!!!! I'm STUPID. So, not only are my clothes stained pink [and I've gotta find a way to get rid of the stains], I need to buy a new lipbalm. Arg... Waste of money. That stick of lipbalm could have lasted me all of my time here lah. *sighs*

***

On Tuesday, a guy (I forgot his name, and his name isn't all that important) and I were talking about this White girl's fascination with Japanese boys. I was told the term is, "yellow fever" [ i.e. the White fascination with Asian people. The fascination goes to wanting them for lovers etcetcetc].

Hmm, in a strange twist, this guy asked me, "Do you have 'white fever'?" [white fever = Asian men/women's interest in White men/women]. What a strange question to ask someone especially if you're not very familiar with the person. -_-||| My reply was, "No, I don't have white fever." And the response from the guy was, "Oh, that's too bad for me and [insert name of another guy who was sitting with us]."

erm... -_-|||

The strange conversations that I have...

***

Daryn's House (18 Oct) and Shinto Matsuri (19 Oct)

Daryn's House (18 Oct)

It was chill out day at Daryn's homestay home. I bought some persimmons for her host parents because it's just wrong to go to someone's house without a present. I don't often go to other people's home but I'm quite sure it was drummed into me by my parents that I shouldn't go empty-handed. Actually, I forgot... Till I walked past a fruit stall with Daryn on our way to her home.. Then I recalled that I didn't have anything prepared for them! So, persimmons it was (ehem, cheapest thing that I could afford. hehe).

When I arrived, her Okaasan had guests over. So we were invited to eat cake [tiramisu! reminds me strongly of Nat. hehe, Nat! When are you going to make a tiramisu cake for me?!]. I made another Japanese friend! Haha. Megumi said, "I want to make an English-speaking friend." I said, "Me! I can be your English Speaking friend!" So, Daryn and I exchanged numbers with her. It was so funny how we make Japanese friends :P

Lunch was curry rice [huge portion]. Followed by Daifuku [a kind of wagashi]. Daifuku plus green tea. Hmm!! Delicious! haha. I know now why wagashi is eaten with ocha or matcha. It goes so well together! I liked the combination.

Was supposed to study my Japanese after that, but ended up listening to music and eating a lot of other stuff. Haha. Like wafers and jelly. :P It was a day of heavy eating lah...

Basically it was a day of slacking and slacking and more slacking.

So...

19 October

I thought to spend the entire day studying at home. But no! Every time I decide to stay in, be it on Saturday or Sunday, something has to happen that would take my time away from studying. I swear!!!

During lunch, Okaasan asked me, "Are you free today?" I said, " Maybe. Why?" and she said, "Otoosan needs a document I need you to send it over." Between sending it over myself, and taking care of Hikari when Okaasan sends it over, I'd choose sending the document over myself over that ANYTIME.

So I happily packed my bag, thinking to come back in 1/2 hour from Kyobashi. Sighs. But because my host parents are very very nice, Otoosan and I ended up at Korean Town walking around [I had no money, so couldn't buy a very nice coat I wanted that I saw at Korean Town]. And later on, went to a Shinto Matsuri, that was pretty interesting. I can't say the day was bad. It was actually quite interesting. Haha, except.. My plans to study were all destroyed. So I ended up sleeping very very early. Hence, the inability to study much over the weekend :P







































































The Shinto Matsuri has different villages(?) coming together and performing. Each village has its own cart and people who dance around the cart and on the cart. Then, they drag / push the cart [all the villagers] along the streets. Haha. It's kinda interesting. We followed one of the carts till some way before we went back :) We were only able to reach there just in time for the ending lah.. So, we didn't get to see any dances or performances. But it was still fun :)

Nijo Castle - 11 Oct 2008

Nijojo's admission fee is 600yen. A little expensive, I must admit. But it is a World Heritage Site. Worth a visit, I must say. If only for the nightingale floor boards! :)




















This is one of the palaces, but it was not open for visitors.

The following is the main palace. In the main palace, the boards are made of a certain kind of wood. So, when you walk on it, the boards actually have nightingale sound emitting from it. It was a defense mechanism, created so that ninjas sent to assasinate the lord would not succeed in his plans. There were too many people, and too many people talking at the same time, plus the recording of a woman explaining the exhibits. So, the sound was muffled by all that. Basically, nothing was particularly interesting in the castle, except for the paintings and the carvings [which we couldn't take pictures of]. And the nightingale sounds :) Which I liked very very much. While Daryn and Britney were looking at the exhibitions, I was walking around, testing the boards. Haha.















Outside though, it was just plain beautiful. Very green, very well preserved.



































































Around the moat, there were loads of Koi.















They were HUGE. The picture doesn't do justice to their enormous size. They were probably the length of half of my arm or something. Very very very big.




















I cannot help but wonder if Ninjas were trained to climb walls like this. Looks pretty easy for ninjas to climb leh... For them to attack.












































































Another of those super steep flights of steps. Two super steep flights of steps.















Another of those palaces.















There were two routes. We took the route that took us down the bush clover path. The entire castle has sections of seasonal plants. In Spring, you can see Sakura if you walk down one part of the castle. In Autumn, you get to see Maple trees if you walk down another path. I took this picture because there were just so many of those little seed thingies. I overheard another tourist commenting that that's gingko seeds but I'm not sure. They are pretty and pink too :)















And then I got "cheated".

There was a sign [i should have taken a picture of it] that said, Tea Ceremony 70yen. And so, we went, merrily thinking that it'd only cost us 70yen. Trust us, Tea Ceremonies are never that cheap. Daryn kept asking me, "Are you sure it says 70yen?" And fool that I was I said, "yeah! I saw 70yen!"

When we got to the counter, it was, *sighs*, "700yen". I don't know where the extra 0 disappeared to, but it was SUCH a disappointment. Nevertheless, we walked into the tea ceremony area. It's got such a beautiful view for a tea ceremony :)







































[just in front of the area where they were performing the tea ceremony]















I like the contrast between the red, the green and the light green. It's autumn!!! :)















Doesn't this picture make you wish you had a bento and were sitting by the side of the river eating your bento and enjoying the peaceful river? Except the tourists would occasionally disrupt your peaceful lunch.

There are other pictures, and I was going to upload them to Facebook but Facebook decided not to cooperate with me and everytime I tried to upload, they'd tell me, "Upload failed". So, I'm keeping these pictures maybe till later.















What touristy place would be complete without tourist traps!? Haha, these tentages consist of merchants trying to sell "Nijojo" wares. And dango. Loads of dango everywhere.

And warabimochi [see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warabimochi]. I love warabimochi. Once, Otoosan offered me warabimochi. I fell in love with it 100%. So, while Daryn and Britney shopped for omiyage [souvenirs], I sat at a chair just outside the shop selling warabimochi and stared at people buying them. It was very very expensive, for a very small piece. I'm sure if I asked Otoosan where he got his warabimochi, he'd tell me some place cheaper than at Nijojo. Haha. But it was really pathetic, that day. Daryn and Britney found me hugging my bag and staring forlornly at the warabimochi. It was so funny. "Why don't you get it?" Daryn asked. "Cos it's not worth it." I replied, all the time staring at the warabimochi. Haha. She gives up on me when it comes to food... Another reason why I didn't get it was because if I got it, it'd just whet my appetite for more. I'd want more and more and more warabimochi. So, to get only one piece would never have been enough for me.

Afterwards, we went to the Manga Museum. Like I said, I don't understand Japanese, so the Manga Museum was really boring for me. It was a good experience for Daryn though, cos she enjoyed the puppet show. Haha, which I also could not understand a single word of. Ah well, I'm at a disadvantage. Of course, the point is that I can appreciate the culture, even without knowing the language, but then, I cannot appreciate the subtleties of the jokes and all that. So, it's sort of... A left-out feeling lah.

I simply remember that that day was a very very very bad day for me. Bad cough, bad flu, bad headache. Just a bad day. Excepting the beauty of the Nijojo, I have nothing really positive to say about that day...

Kappa Sushi 2

I finally uploaded the video of the little Shinkansen that delivers food in Kappa Sushi :) It's not very clear, I must admit. In the 2nd video, the Shinkansen is delivering our cakes :) hehe.

A Special Post for a Special Friend

这次的 blog post 要献给我心目中的“神”。

我有很多话想对他说，但是，一旦上了网，想说的话全都忘记了。Words are inadequate anyway... 所以。。。

我画了一幅画，想献给你。你也知道啦，我不是什么天才画家，画得有点糟糕，但是，希望你懂我的意思。





























有空时，想着这幅画吧！不要胡思乱想哦！

加 油！！这世上，没有什么不可能的事。希望你能勇敢地站起来。我相信雨会过天会晴！一定会的，知道吗？不要一直以为你是个笨蛋啦！论笨，那我不是更蠢 吗？

I hope this will help ease the pain somewhat. I will keep this piece of paper till I return (or do you want me to send it to you? :P). So, wait for me to go back okay? =) Haha, and if no one wants to go drinking with you, I'd go (though it'd be 2 months later. I hope you don't mind). Won't touch a single drop of alcohol, but will send you home :) But let me crash over at your place overnight please. Haha, I don't wanna spend overt amounts on taxi fare :P

Meanwhile, enjoy Ohio! <3 And buy Reeses for me please. It's the only thing I miss from the USA. Hehehe.

Loving you all the more for being such a 傻瓜,
From another 傻瓜 :)

Random Thoughts

(A) On Food/Drinks

I drink things I would never touch in Singapore. Two days ago, I was experimenting with my drinks. So, I poured ocha powder into a cup and mixed the ocha with full cream milk. It was heavenly! :) Daryn gave me some ginger tea yesterday. I normally hate ginger. Don't know how Mommy can stand it on its own. But, the ginger tea was so good that I finished it all up and kept telling her Okaasan, "Oishii!" [delicious]. Her okaasan gave me 5 packets to bring home. It's good for cough too, so that's why I'm going to drink it all up. I'm gonna survive, I'm gonna survive, I'm gonna survive from this horrible cough!

Hmm, I never did get around to drinking that Choya that I bought. Cos the medicine I bought and brought along with me says that I shouldn't consume alcohol after or before taking the medicine.

(B) Medicine

I finally got round to buying medicine. but it was so bloody expensive. 2000yen [around SGD25 with my better exchange rate]. I dont even know why i bothered buying insurance because i didnt even bother going to see a doc. if this round of medicine consuming doesn't work, I'm going to the doctor. The cough is getting better though I wonder if it's just.. well, self-fulfilling prophecy on my part. Let's just hope in 5 days I get better [thats the amount of time the cough medicine lasts].

(C) On Midterms

4 Japanese tests, 1 Entrepreneurship Test. The following week, Japanese Buddhism test.

- Oral exam [holding a decent conversation]: Teacher will ask you several questions. And you must be able to answer accurately and fluently.
- Reading aloud: Teacher gives you 2 passages beforehand [I have the passages now], and you are supposed to read the passages aloud in front of the teacher. Graded on intonation, fluency and accuracy.
- Written SPJ exam: Listening Comprehension [which Im not very good at], sentence structure, grammatical patterns.
- Written RWJ exam: kana, kanji, reading comprehension, short essay on what I did last weekend [i.e. this weekend, which is nothing: I studied the entire weekend. End of story.]
- Entrepreneurship in Japan - Short answer questions and essay exam, apparently. I'm so sian thinking of it as an exam. *sighs* Don't mind the Japanese cos I'm keeping up, but entrepreneurship I'm not doing so well. Fell asleep [I'm sorry!!!] in 3 of his classes. The last two was this week. I try to argue that it's because I'm sick. Alex told me, if I was going to fall asleep in the class, might as well skip that class and gain my full 80minutes sleep. True. It wasn't very nice of me to sleep in front of him... Don't suppose he was very flattered.

(D) On looking Japanese

I work so hard at dressing myself up, and following the Japanese fashion/style that now, some people think I'm Japanese, and the Japanese don't make the effort to talk to me at the fish tank (CIE lounge). Sighs, how disappointing. 弄巧反作! Except one girl, who was trying to practise her Mandarin.

(E) On Guys

My opinion of guys is going down, down, down, down, down. DOWN. Let's just say, it has things to do with foreign guys (American and Europeans especially) picking up Japanese girls to have sex with them. *rolls my eyes* The stories I've heard... *rolls eyes again*

(F) Plans for the future trips

- Mt Hiei (late October) maybe with Lucia (because I asked her in class today if she wanted to go)
- Osaka Zoo :P It's been a long time since I last went to a zoo. hahahahahaha. I get to go into this for free, once.
- Field trip to a Pure Land Temple :)
- Umeda
- Shinsaibashi/Hirakatashi: All u can eat yakiniku/shabu-shabu buffet <3 haha, looking forward to it so much!!! :) Masayuki asked me, "Do you eat a lot?" I said "No." and he said, "Then it's not worth it." BUT STILL.. Once in a blue blue moon. When I get well, of course.
- UJI! Uji!!!! Cha soba, and famous matcha leaves for my parents, here I come! <3
- Spa World (Expensive, but Masayuki says it's a nice place. :) Robbie went with his friends, Ryo and Yugo. And he loved it so much he's going back.)
- Hence, instead of SpaWorld, it's gonna be sento! hehe.

(G) Events I'm late in blogging
- Nara [do I even remember what I did in Nara?! Other than the stupid deer who ate my map...]
- Nijojo and Manga Museum
- Kappa Sushi with Daryn and Yui

Yeah, not compulsory, I know. But I've got damned good pictures from Nijojo. Facebook would allow me to upload all of those [without the hassle of commentaries], but I want to comment!!! haha, at least on some of them :) Maybe after I'm done with studying for Entrepreneurship.

Next week Saturday is gonna be spent with the entire Sem House gang [I hope! *crosses fingers*] at the Flea Market. After which, i don't know, maybe we'll wander around separately. Sunday is gonna be spent at Hirakata Ko-en with the host family [amusement park near our place]. Afternoon is piano practice.

***

君は元気ですか？




















私は君のことをいつも想っています。

どうしょう？どうしょう？いま、気分がひどく悪いのです。とても、悲しいです。

君を忘れての仕方を教えてください。。。　：（

一期一会い。多分、私は決して君を忘れません。

***

最近，脑海里总是在想东想西。 都不知道到底在干什么。不能专心读书，什么都不能做。有时，只会在一旁发呆。我到底在干什么？李慧雯，请醒醒吧！ほんまに馬鹿だろ！！

Shinsaibashi + Umeda Sky Building - 13 oct

Hmm, Okaasan made bento for me that day. I don't know why, she never offers to make lunch for me during days when I'm out. But, that day, she made this delicious bento. There was grape, pear, egg, sausage, broccoli, potato, onigiri. Plus pretty chopsticks and everything... Very nicely packed. I was super impressed when I saw it. It looked so so so pretty.















It was really delicious too =) I ate the ingredients at home, but brought along the onigiri [which was very very useful when it came to 7pm.]

Anyways, the Interpreters' Club people, Daryn, Alex and I [plus several other intl exchange students] went on the trip to Shinsaibashi and Umeda Sky Building from Hirakatashi-station.

Shinsaibashi is basically something like the orchard of Osaka? At least, that's how I felt it was like. A lot of shops, young people, and young people's things. At Shinsaibashi, we saw this Hello Kitty shop [Kitty-chan], and I took this picture especially for XZ! Cos she kept mentioning about Hello Kitty shops...




















Huge Hello Kitty ne? Haha..

During our ambling walk, we stopped to take purikura [i.e. neoprint]. Haha, the number of people that could squeeze into the small area is unbelieveable! While we were waiting for the rest to finish drawing on the purikura, Nami accompanied me on this car game. Haha. It's been a long time since I last rode a car simulator. The last time was with Joel, a month before I left for Japan, and that was a bike simulator, not a car simulator... Haha, I crashed 3 times, but then I still was faster than Nami, who had not crashed a single time. Haha, Nami found it unbelieveable. She kept asking me, "eh?! I didn't crash at all, why did you win?" hahahahahaha. So funny.

So, we randomly walked on... Here are a few pictures of the streets =)


































If you enlarge this photo, you'll see a woman carrying a "Free Hugs" sign. No one hugged her at all. Maybe she should have done it in Japanese.. Then more people would have hugged her [yeah, right.]















We stopped by this place which sold very good Takoyaki :) If I'm not mistaken, 6 takoyaki for 300 yen. Very very long queue.. Opposite this Takoyaki stall was an okonomiyaki/yakisoba stall. I told Daryn that I've never had yakisoba before, and she egged me on into trying one. Nami (being the super nice girl she is) offered to share with me. So, we got 1/2 a yakisoba each. It was definitely good =) hehe. Alex got 2 taiyakis and did not share any with me, evil person that he is! Daryn didn't get anything, cos she was too full from her afternoon okonomiyaki. haha.















On our way to Namba station, we passed by a Turkish icecream stall! =)















This time, I got the picture of him pulling the icecream all the way up! =) Hehe, I'd missed it in Chinatown at Kobe. But this time, I didn't! Luckily for me, Nami bought a chocolate icecream so I got to see the guy perform. He's really good. :) I didn't take up Nami's offer to eat her icecream cos was afraid to pass her the virus. But, I tried Jimmy's icecream cos he's sick and so, I can't be accused of passing him any virus :P Also helps that his icecream was vanilla and hers was chocolate lah. Anyways, it tasted almost the same, except that the icecream was more stretchy than the icecream we're used to...

Had to take the subway to Umeda, and walk a little bit to the Sky Building. At the Sky Building, Dan pointed out this woman with a bunny on a leash. Haha. So, we asked for permission [like the stupid gaijins that we are] to take a picture of the bunny on a leash. But, like Dan said, where else do we find a bunny on a leash? We needed that picture. haha.




















Well, the view from Umeda Sky Building was damned cool. It's around 40 stories.. and it's totally magnificent. As I did not have a tripod stand, my photos came out really badly. But, I got 2 of the photos here to show you how great the view was from 173 metres up in the sky...











































Dan (right), Daryn (middle), Jimmy (left). Haha, we were telling Daryn that it was bad of her to two-time the guys! :P Cos that seat is a loveseat! hahahahahaha.















This is the picture of Alex and I, being kinda confused by it all. [???????]

Poor us.

Yep, that's about it for osaka. I'm kinda tired, from the constant coughing. So, I will go and sleep now. Good nights.