"Home" Sickness

I hope that this will be one of my last few posts. The blog was opened for Japan, and now Japan has ended... the blog posts must end too. I will find some other blog to talk about my daily (boring?) Singapore life. But, here are some observations about Singapore and my Singaporean life.

1. Singlish on board SQ 617. I have no idea why, but when I heard Singlish on board SQ 617, I cringed. I do speak Singlish and add a smattering of "lahs" and "lors". But, Singlish seemed to just grate on my ears when I first heard it. YK and BK both used Singlish with me, I should be fine with it. But no... I felt a little alienated when I heard the Singlish accent. It's not like, "eh! Singaporean! I feel so at ease now". It's more of.. "Singaporean. Avoid, avoid!" (Which was how I usually behaved when i was in Japan anyway). But now, it's getting better...

2. Weather. Hot and humid. It's been such a long time since I experience heat discomfort. For the past 3 months, it's always been, "I'm damned cold". Heat was a blissful respite from the biting wind. No longer is the case! Now, it's "bloody hell! I'm melting! I'm gonna die from heat exhaustion!" It's so warm that my grapefruit lipbalm has melted =( It's amazing, this heat and humidity. I have to spray more perfume. =X

3. Getting back in sync. No jet lag for me, unlike other people. So, I'm getting back into the swing of things. Sometimes, I feel like I've never left Singapore. The ease with which I navigate the MRT system, how I get to school, how I get INTO school and around school. There's a familiarity in doing all these. Which is kinda frightening, because it shows that Japan is fading fast. It's just a memory now. It feels so surreal. While I've got friends in Japan I keep in contact, it's sort of not the same. It's not the same as being there, bundled up in 5 layers and navigating my way from heated place to heated place. It all feels so... different. I can't believe that it's been only less than a week since I've left Japan. It feels so long so long so long...

4. Chinese drama. My mom was telling me about the 9pm show. I seem to have partially lost interest in Chinese drama. Instead, I dream about Osaka comedy shows like Red Carpet. *sighs* And watching morning news in Japanese and waiting for the weather forecast and hope it's more than 10 deg outside... I miss breakfast, which is a normal slice of toast with butter, one cup of orange/fruit juice, and vanilla yogurt. Sometimes, maybe the sandwich is an egg mayo sandwich. Sometimes, the sandwich would be ham with lettuce and tomato. Sighs. And conversation over the table with Okaasan about various issues in Japanese. Watching news and asking her what it meant... Playing with Hikari and Wataru... Arg...

5. A few days ago, I stepped into the MRT, found myself a seat and promptly grimaced. I've been too used to cushioned seats on the Keihan. It came to me as a hard surprise when I realised that the seats were plastic. I'd forgotten what plastic seats were like - uncomfortable. Yesterday I sat in the train for about 1 hour and my back hurt lah! I swear those plastic seats... they're so uncomfortable. I want my Keihan cushioned seats. =(

6. Fashion in Singapore. I'm not a fashion police. Unfortunately, I know that fashion in Singapore isn't up to standard. I remember some time ago, I mentioned that Japanese fashion isn't all what is made out to be. I take that back. After stepping back into Singapore, i've realised that maybe, just maybe Singaporean males and females need to dress better. Or maybe, it's just because I don't embrace the beach babe kinda style, so, ultimately, I don't appreciate the style here. But then, plain shirt and jeans? shirt and berms? it's kinda.. I don't know. Strange.

7. In cleaning the closet a few days ago, I found clothes that I've all but forgotten about. Light, summery clothes. Well, it'd be nice to wear dresses again and not layer so much so that I look like some snowman.

8. When I came back, I found that the room was totally, utterly cleaned. Everything was in shelves instead of on the floor, and it was really really neat. [well, I came back and messed it up again, but thats expected. i'm a messy person!] But, I thought to myself as I entered the room, "You can throw away everything in this room (except my dolls and my psych books) and I wouldn't miss a thing." I was on FB one day and read my acquaintance's FB status, "It's scary how one's life can fit into a duffel bag." Yep, my life can fit into a luggage...

9. I need to repack my room =X Throw away stuff that I've not seen for years and just reluctant to throw away. Why do I have so much trash in my room?!

10. I was in the MRT beside this guy talking really loudly on the phone and remembered that in Japan, they'd ask you to switch the phone to manner mode or to switch off the phone. You're not supposed (at least, etiquette wise) to talk on the phone in the densha. It's rude. So, it came to me as sorta a shock when I realised that, hey, once again I can talk on the phone in the train!

11. Unfortunately, you can't eat in the MRT station. I miss those days when I can bring in icecream to the Hirakata platform and finish it in the biting cold. FORTUNATELY, there's no smoking corner in MRT stations.

12. One thing I'm glad about coming back to Singapore is that it's relatively smoke-free.. While sure, there are people smoking, but still, unlike Japan, you don't enter a restaurant's smoke-free section and STILL smell smoke. But of course, we can't expect smokers to sit in the cold and smoke, can we? (Actually, I can!)

13. Staying in Singapore. I used to dislike it when I hear people saying, "God I can't stand Singapore. I want to leave Singapore. I hate it here." Now, I can see sense in what they're saying. I don't hate Singapore, I don't not stand Singapore... I think, I just have an idealized version of things. "The grass is always greener on the other side." Maybe if I worked in Japan, I'd start hating it, and want to come back. Maybe.