冬休み！

So far so good with the plans ~! turned out to be more eventful than I first imagined :P


22rd-23th Dec 2009


Since the last day of school happened to be the 22nd for everyone, naturally they want to party after-wards. But I finished the day before, and was just sitting at home all day, having very little plans...

The day kicked off with Saya waking me up from bed at around 1pm (lately that has been the norm) saying that she is sick of doin' her thesis and she wants to come over. So she came and watched a movie, and headed went home after that. So I went back to doing nothing...

...until 8:51pm, I get an email on my phone from Ingmar, saying 
"TODAY IS CLUBBING ! URE IN ! (^_~)" (he always types in capitals -_-).

 This was before I even had dinner, so I was thinking * ...huh?... wait, what? now?!?!?!!? * because of the lack of notice, and admittedly was a leaning towards not going.

However, it wasn't my choice to make (apparently) and I was expected to participate. Afterwards he came up to my place, rang the bell and pretty much said 'get changed, we're leaving in a few hours after drinks at Toni's place.' ><

So, just when I thought that I was ready to go... I couldn't find my wallet!! I was freaked out like crazy; tossing clothes around and climbing on the table, and searching the pockets of my bags many times over... and I did that for almost 10 minutes. But then I found it, right next to the TV. lol

After a lot of drinks I was drunk off my head, and only after that did I realise that we were going to ride our bikes all the way to Sakae (about a 30 min trip one-way). Which was a bad idea... hahaha
I couldn't focus my eyes on anything, and followed the vague shapes of Ingmar's and Rui's backs ... crashing everywhere, making everyone heaps worried.  But I made it there in one piece. It was one of the highlights of the night... to them at least. LoL

Once we arrived, we met up with Yuji, and we headed inside the club.
*club, club, club....*
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Finished up at around 5am-ish, and then everyone except me had a light meal at Matsuya before heading back to the dorm.. arriving after 6am...

23-24th Dec 2009


The next day was planned ages ago, and it was the "Nabe (hotpot) party @ Tom Bauerle's Place" (Tom is an English Teacher at the uni).

We left by bikes, meeting Lei at the Family Mart down the road, and then continued to ride to Tom's place. Upon arriving, it was a pretty nice first impression of his place...very cozy, BUT it did smell a bit :P (hope he doesn't read this hehe) It is fairly big with 2 stories, and quite a lot of rooms. It even has a kind of classroom up stairs because the former resident used to be some kind of calligraphy master or something!!

We had excellent food, drinks and everything--- and I was soooo full afterwards. Tom, Ben and Jesse are all musicians of some sort so they played guitar and sang etc. and it made the atmosphere so much better :) There was lots of singing, and people banging on tables and cardboard boxes... lol maria xD So we did that and yeahhhhh~ talked about stuff, and when most people left, Tom offered to read our fortunes via Tarot Cards! (although his voice was getting rusty and he wanted to sleep) It was very interesting and in some way we could totally relate to it~! But I won't blog about the results here unless it jinxes it or something :P Anyway, I can say although most people are supposedly having trouble now; according to the Tarots that night, we are all going to live happy lives in the long-run. :) I even learnt how it works so, to some extent I can now do tarots! hawhawhaw ... only if the cards that I remember come out! actually, even if I haven't seen the card before, I know the basics so I am pretty sure I can bullshit it :P

When everyone but 4 left, I agreed to stay over... so, we thought we'd kill time by watching movies. Since Tom had plenty of tapes and DVDs, we had plenty of choice. We watched the first 20 mins of the original "Christmas Carol" - the same story to the one that out in movies recently. But it wasn't really good... The disney one was a bit step-up imo. Then we switched to The Lord of the Rings - the fellowship of the ring. But, somehow the screen screwed up and the TV alternated between really weird images to a total blackout. I thought it was a problem with the DVD player or the DVD, but although we tried, we couldn't do anything to fix it. Eventually we gave up and just opted to listen to the movie without any images and imagine what was happening. Despite saying that they wanted to do that, people fell asleep almost instantly. hahah xD
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morning! and time to ride up ridiculous hills in that ridiculous mountainous suburb. I got lost! But eventually I made it to some place I knew, so because of that I managed to get home  :P


24-25th Dec 2009




So when I woke up I decided to broadcast a party at my place startin' from around 6pm. By that, I mean that I sent an email to pretty much everyone I know that would consider coming. But yeah, talking about short notices, this one is super-short notice, and as a result- out of the 20 or so invites I sent out, under 10 people came. That was expected tho. My place can't even accommodate that many people! :P

 In the email I sent to everyone's phone, I also added that everyone should bring a 500yen present, so we could do a secret santa! Which turned out v. good in the end actually. Presents were random so people like Toni got skin-beautifying tonic! lol! I ended up with slippers from Masumi~ keeps me a bit warmer when at home! thanks :)

So for dinner, we went to Lei's shanghai place once again, and made him work earlier than his before-determined shift. Good food once again, and stomachs very full... once again!

The girls all left early, because of early trains etc. and guess what some people did after that? Yuji, Toni and Rui went clubbing! again! (leaving around midnight) - man those guys are crazy...

Ingmar, Lei and I just talked at my place until late...



25-26th Dec 2009


Get in bed late, get out of the bed late - that's the way it is. It was Christmas day! And I wake up at 2pm again with half the day gone! mm but I guess night time stuff makes up for the loss in day time :)

I was planning to spend the day resting, since it was pretty much eventful all week... But Jesse gave me a call and invited me out to a dinner and parfait with his christian buddies. It was Christmas, and I didn't have any other plans, how could I say no? Screw resting hahaha

So, it was a bring-a-dish-to-share-type dinner, and I didn't have time to do anything grand. Plus, I had about 400 yen remaining in my wallet. So I made do with a vegetarian fried rice hahaha.

So I rode to the Community Hall and met up with everyone there. Played cards, listened to X-mas music, had yet another nice dinner.. and then we headed out to the Cats Cafe via Church Van to have a giant Parfait. It was about 4400yen, and I have heard about this legendary "Unbelievable" parfait from Jesse before, but it was shared between 11 people. So it was possible. Last time they had it between 6 people, and I heard it was painful joy. lol

When we conquered that dessert with ease and headed back. Some people wanted to go to Karaoke! again, why not? I love karaoke :) Jesse headed back tho, 'cause he wasn't prepared to stay up all night etc. :(

More caroling etc. and lots of Disney songs. There was an American in the crowd, and she was super good, so it made the Disney stuff and other songs so much more genuine hahaha
Aaaawesome fun! Started at 11pm
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finished at 7am. xD

Got home at.. around 8:30 or so.

26-27th Dec 2009

Okay this was truly a rest day. Although not too much sleeping was involved. ><
Got up around midday, and sat around the computer all day. A much needed day to clean up and get ready for...... a ski trip - which Sayaka organised ;)!! :D

We met up with everyone at the Meitetsu Bus Center around 10:30pm, and then we found out that Tomoka wasn't feeling well, and her brother and herself decided not to come :( But there was nothing we could do so we hopped on the bus and went to the ski resort at Hakuba arriving at around... 6am. Didn't get much sleep tho, so I was buggered by the time we got there. Pretty much spent the whole time talking with Misaki or listening to music.

So, we got our rental clothes, boards/skis etc. and headed out to the Snoooow! :P Breakfast was just 2 pieces of flavoured bread, but there wasn't any choice at all.

I hadn't been snowboarding for sooo many years, so I stacked it so many times. Ingmar and Rui had plenty of experience so they were flying down, jumping everywhere etc. while I struggled to just stay upright whilst picking up unintended speed at an alarming rate xD Saya seemed in control - sasuga! And Masumi wasn't bad either. Misaki was probably the most amateur, but her progress was crazy! At first she could hardly keep standing for more than a few seconds, and by the end of it, she was going down the slope with little problems!
Good job :)

The Japanese skiers/ snowboarders there were all quite professional too >< about 90% of them were zooming down at supersonic speeds with ease. I'm glad about that too, because they were people that could control themselves. Unlike me. (I am a danger to everybody :P)

After a whole day at the snow, I reckon everyone got soooo much better. Practice makes perfect, yeah :)
But... it hurts > <
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In particular, this one time:
I had my confidence up and I was zooming down the slope... and then... when I was facing up the mountain, I lost my balance, and the board dug into the snow catapulting me backwards! I handed on the back of my head against the almost rock-hard snow >< Broke Saya's Dad's goggles in the process too > <  sorry! I  probably lost a few IQ points on that stack to XD Yes, I was a reckless, but being reckless gets you fast results :P
Pain=gain right?
So, because of the many falls etc., by the end of it I was a heap of sore muscles and sore injuries.
Dead tired too.



The scenery on the mountain slopes were the best! The snowy mountains were covered in trees, but they were fairly spread apart. So you could see the snow in between them on the ground from a distance. As a result there is this beautiful effect where you could see white mountain sides outlined with a these dark trees, because they seem dense at the mountain peak.

When we were returning our gear we ran into a problem. The staff claimed that Rui didn't return his board despite me clearing remembering that he did. They claimed that they didn't receive a board with the number they jotted down next to his name, and he didn't have insurance. So, they said that it would cost 15000yen to replace >
BUT! It turned out that he did return A board, but maybe there was a mix up with the numbers or something in the beginning :S not sure about the exact details, but it turned out okay ><;

The bus ride back, was different in that... I really wanted to sleep this time. The first bus ride, they turned off the lights and said that you weren't allowed to talk! That was when I wasn't feeling particularly tired at the time :( But the ride back... they turned on a movie when I really really wanted sleep!! It was.. umm.. Will Smith's movie where he has superpowers... forgot the name.. but it was Japanese dubbed so there was novelty value in it, but still it got a bit annoying. Eventually, I was so tired that i didn't care anymore- and I fell into a deep sleep...







So far----- a superb winter vacation ^^V

I'll be heading to Nana's hometown, Fukui for New Years on the 31st, and I'll be there until the 2nd =] Looking forward to that ! ^^

明治村 (meijimura)

19th Dec, the day in which we were to have our touristy excursion together with everyone.

Coincidentally, it was also the first and only time that it would snow in Nagoya in 2009.

But that isn't a bad thing (although it caused chilling pains to our hands, feet and faces). In fact, it made the day a whole lot more fun.

Because SNOW = Snow Fights
and SNOW = Better looking scenery ^^

Also, thankfully, the university decided to pay for our entrance fees to Meijimura, which was 2200 yen. But, getting there itself took out quite a bit from our pockets. Especially because of extra trips which were unnecessary - caused by the ceasing of operation of the bus that we planned to catch originally due to the snow.

The place had really nice views, buildings and everything- but I didn't take any pictures with my camera, so you have to refer to facebook for them. 

Okay so Meiji-mura is a little place where lots of things from the Meiji-era (with a strong western influence) are gathered. So we see the European influence on the buildings and the trains/trams etc. But, there is definitely a Japanese feel to it still. Interesting place if you are into Architecture and the like.


--



Still another day of school/ another test -_- before a holiday until the 7th of January.
People are going for trips and all~ so not too sure who's left to spend the holidays with.

Yep, Christmas is knocking on the door, and we are still trying to figure out what to do- !
Unfortunately, it won't be one with a special someone, but should be good nevertheless.
One suggestion is that we go for a snow trip (skiing/snowboarding). Apparently, you can go there in the morning by bus, get rental clothes and gear, and then come back during the evening on the same day for under 100 dollars.
 Actually, without including food - so far (according to the brochure) we have found a deal for 6800 yen which runs until the 26th of December. Pretty Cheap- should be good if there are people willing to go.
 

--

January will be full of assessments and tests >.<
Gotta start getting that study done. And gotta do a bit a cleaning which I have been brutally neglecting recently.

Oh by the way, here is the December newsletter:
http://www.nagoya-cu.ac.jp/koryucenter/newsletter/Newsletter%20%28December09%29.pdf

chicken.. giblets??!

I went with Jesse to Amika a week ago, to buy some frozen foods during my break. And when I was there, I saw a huge pack of chicken (2kgs) for a good deal- so i bought that.

Only now, after confirming with my parents on Skype, did I find out that it was actually Chicken Giblets- (innards)
The texture is so hard, and it is almost impossible to eat~ and far out, I have to go through 2 kgs of it! > <

First it was a panfry attempt - texture was horrible.
So, I then cut it up into a 'fan' shape, and panfried it again- still bad, but slightly better
Then, I covered the rest in flour and deep-fried it!! rawr! = better, and more edible- but still crap

Apparently it is a 'delicacy' ....

I'll do my best to finish it before the year ends > < omg

Sick ><

For the last few weeks SOMEONE has been sick... and it seems to be just because it has been passed around between everyone...

First it was Ryuichi (1-2 weeks ago)... but it came up again, and he ended up going to the doc on Monday, but he seems to be fine

Then it was Cho (4 days ago)...who went to the doc on Monday as well, and he wore quite a scary doctor's mask to school today

Nana and Ingmar commented on a bit of a sore throat...

Then from this morning, Jesse and I seemed to have a few symptoms- coughing and running noses... despite the fact that I have been trying really hard to avoid the sick people, and keeping warm etc.!!! >< ...and I started getting a bit dizzy when I got back home... so I decided to have a bit of a sleep... Jesse phoned in, and he was doing the same thing- (also he said that he got a call from a lady, who wants to hire him in a commercial to participate in a survey at Nagano - paid food, accommodation and travel + some money... lucky!) Continuing on, 8pm, got another call- Jesse checkin' in. Feeling much better, but still have a blocked nose etc., Jesse saved me the trouble of making dinner by giving me one of his pre-cooked frozen food packs (thanks !! ><)

Gotta have more manuka honey and hot water... :/ Should get better fairly soon ^^:

Back2Sleep

市大際 (NCU Festival)

Heyyy
It has been a while, I know... just haven't been bothered lately to write in this blog~ lol
But despite that, I'm not going to compensate for not blogging because I'm going to make this short :)

So, last Saturday was the NCU festival where people set up stalls etc. and there are bands playing, events on, games and all- but what we were all there for was mainly to see Jesse and Ingmar appear in the university pageant-like thing called the Mr.Ms. Contest. (Because we thought it would be hilarious. :p)

Initially, we were approached a few weeks back at the canteen by some guys- and they just signed up for it. Winner gets 2 tickets to Tokyo Disneyland. End of story. Luckily for them, there were only 4 guy contestants all together so the chances of winning were pretty high :P ... and i think...there were 4 girl contestants too - guess not many had the guts ~

So here are the guys before they went up on stage - Saya and I drew the sign for Ingmar (院熊）.. and on the back it says 彼女募集中 (Seeking a girlfriend) + his phone number hahaha ^^

Yeah... besides that we didn't do much during the festival. In fact, mid way we left and went bowling.. lol
Comin' back after sunset for the results to this competition of course...

and guess who won ?
Jesse!! lol

The height difference between ms. contest and mr. contest is ridiculous. She is so small o_o

Afterwards we headed down to the restaurant where Nana, Takuya and Shuhei worked- and we had dinner there :) It was really nice~ and it seemed like a lot of people in that place got very drunk.. haha funny tho

That's all folks- take care :)

... as I feared... it needs a replacement because it was so worn out -_- 

I carried the bike all the way to Gokiso... my arms are sore.. 

At least this place had a nicer guy, and was cheaper... 3300yen

So, altogether I have paid 7800yen for my bike... that means that out of all the exchange students, I paid the most. Because the guys got their second-hand bikes for 7000yen... My luck just sucks...

Anyway-

Last night I made Shogayaki! Spent lots of effort and tears grating the ingredients (onions argh!) lol And it tasted superb - and Nana will second that :)

OMFG &!^&Y#E Now, my front tyre blew FFS! ><

Hopefully it's just a puncture... Hopefully I don't have to replace the whole tyre... again X_x


もう～！普通に乗っていたのに・・・ 何だよ・・・

Nana's Surpirse Party ~!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NANA! ^^　

So here's the wrap. Aaaages ago, Rina suggested that we should have a surprise party for Nana's birthday, so we kept that date free- and yar.. when the date got closer, I offered to hold in my room. So for the past few days we've been planning this party. Doing decorations, ordering the cake, buying presents, doing the accounts, and general preparations... all worth it tho ^^ Chorai (Lei) helped a lot! When Nana left the night before, I called him for help with the room decorations and he came straight away! And also, he did the cake and made it possible for us to have dinner at the Chinese Restaurant that he works at ^_^ All that despite the fact that he hadn't known Nana for more than a week! THANKS :D lol

Ingmar, Rina and I met up in the morning and went shopping for everything else that we needed ~ such as ガチャピン, a nice book where everyone can stick photos on and write messages, party goods and food :) And guess what? Rina slept only 3 hrs (getting home at 6am, and meetin' up with us at 10am). . . which resulted with her falling asleep at the end of the night--- people have their limits... Tomorrow is her TOEIC exam as well >< Good luck~!  Thanks Rina! ^^

So, Nana comes by a lot to watch movies and just hang over. And for a long time, she's wanted to watch ポニョ. By tricking her and being sneaky with numerous lies... I got her to believe that night we were just going to watch a movie together with Rina (who also wanted to watch it). And, for dinner I was going to cook something for them~ so until 7pm I claimed that I was out buying groceries for dinner that night... - which bought us more time to write in the b'day card/book, and print photos etc. (which we really needed) We had to make 2 trips to the photo place tho- and they couldn’t print the photos that I leeched off Facebook… So in the end, some photos were missing. Unfortunately for Jesse, he didn’t have a photo because I got them all from Facebook and the dimensions weren’t supported xD – we’ll stick one on for you later man haha

So, we turned off the lights and waited for the Birthday Girl’s arrival… Jesse was peeping out the peephole in the door for a good 10 minutes looking out for her to come… LoL

When she came, Nana was so deceived that... she actually brought popcorn with her!

Turned out very well ^^

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoPcKW5GXk4 <- taken by Rui

Haircut :)

昨日奈々ちゃんとRAY Field - Hair & Beauty という美容室に行き、奈々の５０％オフ割引券を使って、髪を切って、染めたんだ★
こういう感じになっちまったー

どう思う？

この店を選んだので、無料でメンバーのカードが作られた。 後、友達にその店を勧めるための５０％の割引券が2枚貰ったから、もし、要るのならば、連絡してネ ^^

Bike troubles

Ah far out...!!!

Usually I leave about 20-15 minutes to get to school by bike, which gets me there a few minutes before class actually starts... but something went wrong *uh oh*

So, I'm riding along, about 5 minutes in I hear a scratching sound so I look down and my back tyre was flat. So, I thought *okay, I just have to find a bike store or somewhere to refill the air*, so I got off the bike and was walking it to school scanning each side for such a place. I actually tried to get back on, because I was running out of the time... but that was a bad idea because it wasn't making a good sound, and I didn't want to damage the rim... (Sasaki-sensei is pretty strict about being on time *scared*), so I was kind of power-walking/ half-running with my bike. lol

Finally, I pass by a petrol station. In Australia we live next to a garage/petrol-station, and they have a bike (or all-purpose) air-refill station... so I naturally thought that they must have something... So I went in and asked the staff whether or not they have a air pump. He didn't look very amused, and he said that if it was a bicycle there wasn't anything they had that could help. BUT as I did my mini-bow and started heading out, some other guy ran out and said that he can do it... -_-;;

So I thought *yay* I might be able to make it to class on time!

So he refilled it with a car pump (which didn't quite fit, but it filled up the tyre super fast...lol)

Then we heard something....

*Hissssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss~~ *





Noooo!!! Air was pouring out a rip in the tyre like crazy > < There was nothing else I could do, so I just said thanks and continued to hurry to school by foot (with the bike of course)... And in the end I got to school about 5 minutes late... last. >

...But everything was alright after I explained what happened... I had a legit reason *nod nod*

I had a break in the 3rd period so I went to a bike shop in Sakurayama, and left them my bike... Usually punctures of the inner tyre can be patched up and that would cost about 1000yen each puncture, but unfortunately this was worse; 4500yen for a full replacement of the tyre~!! so expensive omg!! Rina said that Aeon did it for about 3000yen, but by the time I learnt that, I was already on my way to the bank to pay for my rent... and apparently, if you leave them the bike that means that you accepted the price. Oh well. At least I get a nice tyre then! :S

Fail enough tho... because I didn't actually pay for the bike in the beginning, and I received it for free... So, it's nothing I can complain too much about without being verbally bashed by those people who bought their bikes :P

So that's the end of that story...

Afterwards, I went to the gym for a bit, went to class, then went back for more gym-ing. Then I went to visit Chorai's house. But first passing by Seiyu (because he goes through lots of milk very fast o_O) - where I bumped into Rina (another Rina, friend of Misaki- who we met at bowling aaages ago). So at Chorai's place, just had a little bite, and played a bit of PS3 until he had work :) Thanks for lettin' me come over Chorai ! Oh Oh! Chorai also gave me his old-phone too~!! which was pretty much the same model, but it was black- and slightly newer! And he also had 2 batteries (So I got 3 now)... kinda makes me regret buying that battery pack for 3000yen... but then again, I'm getting these things for free so I am in no position to complain am I.. :P

Then when I got back, Jesse made me dinner again- and he showed me his website in progress~ It looks good-! http://jessesjapan.com/ - which will be up fairly soon. It'll be much better than this lame blog haha look he has his own domain! and he is doing all the designing himself with the help of his friend!

Also, half of Saori's (who is in Osaka) group has fallen sick in the past few days... Ta-chan, Saori herself, and now Takashi - who was diagnosed with Swine flu T_T...

We are all worrying, but in truth there is nothing much we can do... especially me... all the way here in Nagoya...

Hope everything turns out alright...(≧д≦)

オムライス！！(●⌒∇⌒●)

2nd attempt at it OMURICE

turned out better than before lol

... But it still broke ><

Saya made one too! She won. :)

「おばぁちゃんのみかん」

Trip Log

New addition to the room~

• TV! 
• 2nd hand TV stand - ridiculously cheap @ ￥７８０- because I cut it down from ￥９８０ with the ￥２００ voucher I got from buying the Kotatsu from the same place - I think you get a 100yen-off coupon for every 1000 you spend there :) 
• and I got 3 cushions for about ￥７５０each ^^　they're not the best looking, but are reasonable fluffy and comfortable!

Yesterday, Rina, Nana, Jesse and I went for a long drive the other day down to Nagashima- for some shopping because there was a huge shopping venue over there.

It started pretty rough because Rina lost her car keys in her house (and is currently still looking for them now...) so she was panicking quite a bit. She only had one set of keys so... in the end she ended up bringing her dad's van, which was soo big... haha. She was pretty scared because I think she said that it was the first time driving such a big car, and the roads are pretty narrow o_O. I would freak out a bit too if I drove around here.

Unfortunately, the weather wasn't great - raining. But neverless it was a fun day~ walkin around. Got some nice food and icecream at the place as well... not much point describing shopping- :P

So, when we got back they took us to some small Tonkatsu shop- where there was just 1 staff, his name was... i forgot his name ><. But apparently it is a pretty popular shop among them, and they knew him pretty well, and chatted like close friends o_O  But that's nice. :)
( it was really surprising for me and Jesse. ) lol

But yarr- he gave us 4xMochi for free- which the girls didn't even want to eat. lol - so I brought it home. Rina had to return the car to her mum, so she had to go home early... but afterwards, Nana, Jesse and Cho came over to watch movies at my place until late. The german guys were off at Ayumu's place doin something until late, so they didn't come.

Nana bought a lot ... so we (I) ate a lot of fingerfood. haha
Aaaah my room is so nice ^^

That was a pretty brief update. Gonna start studying for tomorrow's quiz ! Seeeeyaz

２８００円で中古のコタツを買ってきたよ！^_^

Yay I got a cheap second hand table! Which happens to be a kotatsu (heated table)- which is awesome for winter :D

But it is pretty big and there's hardly any space left in my room :P

Worth it tho !

里奈、運んで手伝ってくれてありがとうネ！

Potato salad

Bring it!

うわぇ！食った食った！

Jesse woke me up and made me breakie :D Thanks Jesse!

Then, later that day we decided to have a kind of cooking-party thing where everyone makes a few dishes and we bring it to Toni's room to have a banquet. Although his table is tiny, we managed to make do.

Saya and I made some salad and curry. lol
Looks awesome and tasted awesome haha

And then I had extra tofu so I just cut it up and smothered it hahahha

@ Toni's room (before)

There was more food than this... just didn't fit on the table.

After: (can't eat any more)

We should do this more often ! Yum ^^

typhoOon

Typhoon Melor came ashore in Aichi prefecture on the main island of Honshu shortly after 5:00 am (2000 GMT Wednesday), the meteorological agency said, becoming the first typhoon to make landfall in Japan since 2007.

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20091007/tap-japan-weather-typhoon-landfall-d1078a1.html

We were told that university would be canceled if there was a warning on the news. But luckily for us, the Typhoon missed Nagoya as it veered in another direction... which also meant we had school after lunchtime. *sigh* So don't worry 'bout us :)

Anyway, that night we sang til our throats were dying- karaoke until 4am (10hrs) ... lol

Trip Log 5.9

Yoz~!

Just a bit of a brief update on the weekend-

Aivy's b'day was on the 3rd of October... and from ages ago, her boyfriend Shaun tried to organise a surprise party for her by asking me and Rose to come to Kyoto for that weekend to spend some time with them~ however, due to that stupid thing called Facebook, she found out about it -_- so it wasn't a surprise anymore...


But still- we went down the Kyoto for the weekend despite the lack-of-surprise...and Kevin was able to come as well :)

So we went to some Japanese restaurant down in Sanjo 三条, where we had various interesting foods, including horse sashimi o_o... and yeah it was a good dinner! Nice furnishings and everything~ but it doesn't look like I took out my camera at all that night.


By the end of that night tho, I realised that my student card was missing from my wallet!!! which is really bad because that means I won't be eligible for any student discounts or anything--- and replacing it costs a lot as well  because it has some special chip inside which enables us to use the school computers.. > < 

The next day we went to some place with life sized weird dolls sitting on tables, staring into blankness to eat breakfast. This restaurant had only 1 dish, so the waiter just asked us how many did we want, not what we wanted ... and it was a 680 yen crepe-like thing... I didn't have any tho.   

So after that we walked around some very japanese looking places such as this...

Afterwards we walked around the place some more, dropping in some shops, and sampled some plum-based-food. Also looked at few bookshops and in the end, I managed to convince both Rose and Aivy to buy the exact same grammar book I had by recommending it to them. LoL 
Also went by a 交番 (police box) where I told them about my missing student card... and gave them my details in case they found it... but either way I was leaving Kyoto the next day so chances were bleak T_T

Oh, we had some mister donuts: this is tofu (apparently) - thx Shaun!

Went for bowling.... which we found out was ridiculously expensive for 2 games (possibly because it was on a Saturday), but I got a nice score--- also we played some Taiko at the arcade etc.

After that we went to an "all you can eat" cake buffet - which sold other foods as well... lucky tho, because I felt sick after just one full plate of cakes lol
In this place, there was a bday special promotion... and Aivy had to tell them it was her bday, and she also asked them to take a photo. In the end we got a photo which they printed out for us, and we sang the bday song amongst ourselves... But a few minutes later, all the staff crowded around some other table and the bday song came out from the speakers in the restaurant -__- yup, japanese people get special treatment lol

Then after a lot of negotiating, we ended up at Kev's dorm~ about 10 people turned up ;O

The next day we went to 清水寺 kiyomizudera, which was on a really steep mountain....which was killer-tiring coz it was melting hot as well... and we just went for a bit of touristy sightseeing before we split up and I headed back to Nagoya~ . 

Haha this type of photo posting is so much easier- but takes longer actually... because you gotta upload these one by one zz

Come on guys, comment comment!! :P

Trip Log (30.9)

It's been a while ~ 

Well not a LOT has changed i guess, but some things have been occurring since I last posted. Let me split this up into subcategories- so it comes out organized and be less of a rambling blog (although there's nothing wrong with rambling right?) 

1. SCHOOL STARTED! 

So I've made a temporary timetable for the while, and this is for the 2nd semester for the year (後期）which runs from now until the beginning of February. With just a 2 week mini-break in between for X-mas, new-years and my b'day lol :P STILL haven't been able to get my timetable done yet!! But that is because of a number of reasons; I'll list them out-

1. The courses I have chosen to take previously when I first filled in the Transfer of Credits (TOC) form were either non-existent, or they clashed with each other. (Therefore, future exchange goers, go get more courses approved if you can!)
2. There weren't enough classes of the right standard. For example 2nd year Chinese was soo basic... it was like "what is this? where is this? what time is it...?" etc. So it would be too much of a miracle to get that approved by the Chinese Studies headteacher who was adamant on making me get 4.5hrs of class -_- so i decided to drop it (for gender studies actually, which is easily transferable as an extra arts option. We'll see how that goes tomorrow -_-;)
   
3. It was too HARD omg. We all (all the exchange students) went to some course called 現代日本社会論 - which is modern society in japan. The lecturer literally just stood in front and talked for 1.5hrs, while referring to a few newspaper articles with a million and one kanji... I pretty much only bothered to translate the titles tho hahaha... So definitely not taking that, and hopefully there are easier subjects in the same field > <
   
4. Takes time to get things approved, because I have to exchange information with UNSW via mail- and that is really annoying. Especially when they need me to give them a detailed course summary, and all I have is a Japanese syllabus. (Yes, that means I have to translate everything for them to understand ><) Yeah, but it looks like it on the right track to being approved... I got until the 9th before I need to confirm my subject selection tho.

Apart from that school has been alright!... for these 3 days anyway! For Japanese class there are a few international students from Korea and China, and more older exchange students (2+years in japan) in the seminar class. They're very good, of course. Lots of them have lvl1 JLPT. Some dude has a really annoying way of talking tho... can't get used to it. Sure his Japanese is super, but gah... I wanna go 'Ninja CHOP!' right between the glasses lol 

Yeah, and apart from the tutors + their friends, and Saya and Tomoka, haven't really met anyone out of class. Always the bunch of gaijins that walk in the cafeteria and get stared at haha oh well. Also this is the newsletter where we just wrote a simple intro and took photos lol





交流センターnewsletter (Oct '09)


Mhmm that should be it for the school summary


 
2. FOOD!

Unfortunately,  there has been hardly any cooking progress as I planned. But I am surviving by making basic stuff such as... egg on rice.. or miso soup.. or just frying meat and stuff and eating that with rice... nothing in particular. If I run out stuff in the fridge I just get a pack of instant ramen, toast, or fruit- OH, and tofu. ^^

Stocked up my fridge with about 2000yen worth of food yesterday- such as eggs, chicken, veggies, sausages etc- all good stuff! Couldn't find the cereal in the supermarket I went to last night tho, but I'll survive :P Supermarket food near closing time is discounted by the way, so more night trips and later dinners from now on i guess :P

3. OMG I SPILLED TEA ON MY LAPTOP

Okay, I should have remembered this earlier since it was such a crazy stressful process >< I was drinking one of those green-tea sorts in a .. fairly tall glass next to my computer. Knocked it over, and it went ALL on my keyboard!!  > < I freaked out like crazy, but i did what was necessary to keep it from short circuiting and whatnot. I.e. Force-shutdowning the laptop by holding the power key, pulling out the battery and then tilting the laptop upside down. Also, I turned it on its side, and tea came out of the USB ports on the side!!!! nooo!

So immediate measures, i got a cloth, soaked it in water, and kinda cleaned it up- so at least the keys aren't sticky when it dries (so I thought)... then I left it on the side and used the hairdryer on it for a while. I heard tho that hair-driers can damage you're computer more tho - not sure why (something about static electricity?) but I'll keep that as a note for next time. So after I did that, I put it in my laundry basket on its side, and left it to dry until sunset- while I went to sleep because I felt so bad, and was worrying like CRAZY crazy CRAzYYY.

I did try to open it, but the screws are so tight on- and i couldn't get the cover off. Also a bit scared that the warranty might be void if i did open it (but I'm not even sure if it is covered for accidental spillage). I really wanted to clean the insides after seeing stuff come out the usb ports... > <

Well 2 days later I turned it on to see if was working *crossing my fingers* It turned on!! :D Bit skeptical still because the keys which the tea fell on are now a bit hmm... sticky. As in it makes a weird  plastic-y. crunchy noise when I press slowly down on them (especially the space bar). But other than that, I've been wary of overheating? Because the tea reside might burn or something??? I don't know... all I'm doing is being cautious, and paranoid - and perhaps smart.

SO, it is alive and I am now blogging on it. But just in case, I'm shutting it down and letting it cool off every 2 hours of usage. Which I can keep a pretty good monitor of due to the customisation tool, RAINMETER.

3. UNI'S TORE-NINGU RU-MU

The training room in uni (i.e. the gym) is a pretty run down shack with quite a lot of equipment. Albeit a bit old, and some rusty etc- but still usable. The most important thing is that it is free, and easy to access :) .. and not crowded. Well at least it wasn't crowded today because it was raining when I went there with Rui and Ingma ... and found Jesse training by himself in an empty gym hahahahaha. Dude, stop running off on your own :P

4. KEITAI!

Yay btw I got my keitai, so if you need to contact me desperately here- email me on wingking[at]softbank.ne.jp please :) It goes directly to my mobile, so I'll get it. However, I did try to email myself from gmail, and it arrived after 10 mins... I guess the delay varies a lot. It was really weird too because I sent 2 emails, and the 2nd one I sent arrived about 2 minutes before the first one i sent (although they were both late/delayed wtv.)

All is good. Can use internet on it, but I will refrain from doing so too much due to costs- but as you would know, you can do plenty of stuff on a jap phone. Oh yeah, by the way, this is TOMOKA's old vodaphone- which she let me have because it was .. old! Thanks soooo much Tomoka :D It's not even that worn down, I just had to replace the battery pack which was kinda gettin distorted and big o_O; So glad I got one tho, saved me a lot of money! ^^

So- a few things you can do. You can scan the docomo(?) barcode, which is the weird box-type barcode you see now and again. And what that is, is you take a picture of the barcode with your 'scanner', and then it comes up with information- such as contact details, or a url etc. Also, since lots of people have long long emails, and not just their phone number details- people exchange phone numbers via infrared! Which may be good for knowing who has your contact details (security measure) :P - but yeah, feel free to email me whenever, as long as you don't spam me with junk >:( - and only if i know you, of course :P

The process in itself was a bit bothersome- took a good 2 hours, because there was something wrong with some machine -_- But Tomoka was with me and kept me company while we waited the long wait- thanks again Tomoka!

Scrambled Egg on Fried Rice 24.9

Failed omurice because I didn't have cooking oil and the egg stuck to the pan lol

But still good to eat :)

My place

★While I was at it, I decided to snap various things around the place ★

 Fruit Basket =]

Food Storage + Boiler + Toaster + Microwave + Fridge

Inside the fridge ~ 

(Many litres of tea haha)

Kitchen area

 Convenient breakfast choice =]

 

My very super-awesome grammar dictionary!
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