NUTS!!

Yet another choice in life...

2011-03-07T14:55:00.000+09:00

I was sitting in the bullet train heading home after a presentation at a joint research facility. To summarize it, it was well received...along with the usual “Would you like to work for us after you graduate?”

Anyway, as I heading back home on a snowy night, I started reflecting back on my life so far. Maybe it’s because it was the end of my long one year’s work, maybe it’s because my 26^th birthday is approaching(Getting older!!), or maybe it’s because my seniors are graduating and going away…what ever the reasons are, it is at this times where I rewind.

I was thinking to myself, “It’s been 6 long years since I left Malaysia, and god damn it I’ve come a long way!!”

I can never forget that day on New Year’s Eve as I sat on a flight of stairs at Dataran Merdeka, Malacca, pondering about my future as I watched the fireworks light up the skies.

One lone spark of light bursting into a thousand possibilities.

I just graduated from high school that year and it was as if I was that firework, shot up bright and proud into the dark of the night...and I've risen to a point where I was about to burst, was about to decide what I want to do for my future. Well, at that point, it was a tough choice of either private college or the local university, and what major to go into.

Guess what? My spark ended up lighting the skies thousands of miles away.

Until today, I can never figure out what was it that truly drove me to apply for overseas studies…much less the reason for choosing Japan. I’ve been asked many times by many people about why I chose to come to Japan, and in response, I’ve given many answers…none of them real.

My answers had a wide range of “could be true stuff”

Wanting to learn a new language

Malaysian cartoons are boring and that a country that could create Doraemon must be one hell of an interesting place, where the mind is free to imagine and create

Want to see how is it that Tokyo is rebuilt by Thursday 5p.m each week after Ultraman destroys the city

Sexy legs in mini skirts (Again, not a valid reason, but I’m glad I chose Japan. I can’t get enough of them!!)

Naked fat guys grabbing each others tits, namely sumo….WHY???

The all famous “Japan have greater technology than Malaysia, and I’m going over to learn so that one day I’ll be able to help progress Malaysia”…I’m actually ashamed when I had to say that.

I don’t think there’s ever a real reason to why I chose to come to Japan. Just like what The Joker said in The Dark Knight,

“Do I really look like a guy with a plan? You know what I am? I’m a dog chasing cars. I wouldn’t know what to do with one if I caught it. You know, I just…do things.”

After 6 years of living in Japan, I’ve come to know my true value, my strength…and recently, my weakness. I’ve met people who made me laugh, made me angry and made me cry. I’ve met people I’ve grown to respect, and I’ve met people I just want to slap. Oh, if I only had the chance…I would spread my legs a little, throw my right arm back, tense my muscle and then deliver one powerful slap that goes “thwack!!”

Well, what I’m trying to say is, going abroad have really taught me a lot about myself, especially about my weakness, and more importantly, to admit my own weakness. I gotta admit that I am a somewhat proud guy…always believing that I’m strong, that I can solve problems on my own, and that I’m above emotional setbacks. The event that led me to finally admitting that I’m weak destroyed whatever illusions I have about strength. It left a huge scar in my heart, a reminder that will forever haunt me. A harsh lesson, but a lesson to remember.

Thinking back, there weren’t many who supported my decision of coming to Japan. My family, some of my friends, my teachers…they all had a reason to why I should not choose Japan or why I should consider other country. Well, I’m really glad I ignored all the advices. Sometimes, you just have to know when not to listen….risky stuff though.

To be able to learn about oneself is truly valuable...for that reason, I'm really glad I chose to come to Japan.

Now, I stand once more at a point where I have to make yet another big decision: To go back home or to stay after graduation. My parents want me back, my friends are expecting me back, former Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir’s son, Mukhriz Mahathir told me Malaysia hope I’ll be back…but Japan have taught so much and I feel like there’s more to learn!!

So I guess I’ll stay a little while longer.

I promise I’ll “visit” Malaysia someday…haha

恋をしていない時間も、大切にしてください。

2011-03-03T16:40:00.003+09:00

相手に届かない気持ち、
すれ違うお互いの気持ち。
どんなに想っていてもうまくいかない
「恋」もあります。
自身をなくして落ち込んだり、寂しさに
戸惑うこともあるでしょう。
でも、そんな時だからこそ、
もてる時間があります。
今まで、相手のことばかり考えていた毎日が、
自分のことを見つめる時間になる。
その時になって初めて、自分の弱さや、
周りの人の優しさに気がつくのです。
一つの恋を終えたばかりの人も、
今が、あなたにとって大切な時。
自分自身と正面から向き合える、
素敵な時間なのです。

変わらずに、あり続けること。

電車の中に読んだものです。
この詩、いい！！！
泣きそうでした～ (´＿｀｡)

Farewell Choi Choi!!

2011-02-25T13:18:00.002+09:00

Woke up in the morning as usual at 7 a.m.
The morning air was still cold and I felt great reluctance to leave the warmth of my bed. I spent 5 more minutes in bed mustering all the willpower I had and was finally able to kick away my warm blanket. With my shivering hands I pulled back the curtains to allow sunlight into my cold, dark room.
It was raining slightly outside..."damn, looks like I have to take the bus to campus today" I thought to myself.

After that was all routine. The same thing everyone does in the morning, put the water to boil, take a shower, have breakfast with coffee...the same old mundane steps we each never fail to do in the morning.
The bus ride itself was a typical deja vu experience. The driver mumbling safety precautions, the old lady struggling to maintain balance while the bus moves, students with sleepy faces clinging on to their bags to their chests, which I'd imagine that they thought it was a pillow.
The bus once again reached the campus with haunting punctuality. Even after spending 6 years in Japan, it still fascinates me how the public transport system can be so efficient. Unless during winter when snow and ice are inevitable, the bus is never late for more than a few minutes.

I climbed the familiar stairs heading to my lab, hung my wet umbrella on the stand, took off my shoes and changed into my lab's flip flops. Then, I looked to the left, a habit I've developed over the past one year. I looked stupidly at the empty chair and dead monitor screen...and that's when I realized " Oh yeah...Choi choi's gone back home."
At that moment, I can't help but feel my heart cried just a little bit out of loneliness.

While the friendship that exist between me and Choi choi's was nothing special, we did enjoy each others company. I would poke fun at her with otherwise cruel remarks and she would come up with something funny or witty to say. Oh, the things she would say!!!
It was a tiny nothing, but it was something to look forward to in the mornings.

I still remembered the first time we met. I asked her for her impression towards me and she said "pervert, liar, bad guy, disgusting..." and I myself have said uncomplimentary things, both which was nothing good and quite childish now that I think about it. But it was based on those childish remarks that our unique friendship was built on.

While not many, we've shared quite a few fond memories. The weekly parties among foreign students, a triple date with Dino, Megumi, and a Japanese couple from Yamaguchi, the many times where I cause small quarrels between her and Dino, the time where she was assaulted and I helped her make a report....
Yeah...we definitely shared quite a few fond memories.

9 months or so have passed since she first came, and as they say "Fond times passes quickly". It was at last time so bid farewell to each other. I'm definitely most glad to have met her as she left a big splash of color on my life's canvas. Leaving a bright, vibrant color to my otherwise mundane life in campus.

I wish her all the best and I hope for all the good things to come.
Goodbye Choi choi!!

Learning how not to give a fuck...

2011-02-19T20:46:00.005+09:00

This past 9 months have been a particularly interesting one.
I've been happy, sad, love, hate, confident and insignificant...all at the same time.

You see, I fell in love deeper than I've ever did in my life.
I had a wonderful girlfriend and we did almost everything together...she showed me a world so beautiful and full of happiness. I was actually happier than Barack Obama when he won the presidency.
Then she showed me how dark and cruel a girl can be.

We were happy with each other for about half a year, when suddenly, she started getting irritated about almost everything I do!! It's not like I changed suddenly or did anything outrageous...I walked the same, talked the same, acted the same. While we always had our private laughter between us, this time it was replaced with petty quarrels.
I knew from the start that we're different in personalities; I'm the kind of guy who celebrates human differences, she preferred uniformity. But we did do ok for most part.
Well, I guess you can say that I'm like the US while she's like the rest of the world, everyone using the SI system while I stuck to pound and inches.
Like oil and water, you can forcefully mix them up, but eventually the oil will float up again.
Needless to say, my eccentricity made her tired and our difference drove her away from me.

But what the hell...some things just aren't meant to be.
Just like Ryan Reynolds and Scarlett Johansson, can't manage to stay together...and they were both Sexiest Man and Woman of the year!!

After breaking up, all I wanted was for us to remain friends. But instead, I've got the cold shoulder...she downright ignored me at every moment possible. Not even a "hello" when we met again at a party one and a half month after "Armageddon".
I confronted her, asking her to not give me the cold treatment and let's just be normal friends...I mean, what the hell? We've known each other for so long and suddenly we can behave like friends no more??

She got angry and we got into a quarrel again.
The issue once again me being different from everyone else.
She was annoyed at me because of other people's misunderstandings. What the hell have other people's misunderstanding have got to do with me??

But I've always loved her...even after she broke my heart. Oh, who am I kidding...I worshiped her. And so I started to take her words very seriously and honestly thought that I'm the bad one...
I thought that my character really is fucked up and I started to hate myself.
I lost sleep, appetite and motivation to do anything at all...
To be very honest, I was going crazy(yes I loved her THAT much)...
The only thing that kept me sane was my few brief, but very important times spent with some friends. The other times when I'm alone, her words and my mind takes over.

Then, I came upon an ancient wisdom used by men since the beginning of civilization.
"Why worry? How about try not giving a fuck?"
I mean, she for one didn't give a fuck. She found a boyfriend a little too soon after the breakup(very very suspicious)....and nothing says "I don't give a fuck" more than that.

I've always been good to her...
I stayed up late at nights just to cook for her after she finishes work.
I made myself available whenever she faces work stress.
I've even decided to stay in Japan just to be with her. This was a pretty big deal to me...and making this decision was a really difficult one. (Interestingly, she left me just when I was about to begin job hunting.)
And yet she decided that she can't get over the little differences between us despite the things I've done for her. She let the small quarrels we had in a short time take over the good things I've done for her in a long time.

Aww fuck it, I'm done blaming myself. That's it. Enough.

I am who I am...I'm proud of who I am, and will forever be the way I am.

I would like to say a special thanks to a special friend Yumiko who stuck by me all the way.
Without her, I would have no doubt done something stupid.

Job hunting in Japan.

2010-11-24T16:09:00.003+09:00

When I first set out for Japan, I decided that I would finish my degree, then work in Japan for 5 years, then head back to Malaysia to finally enjoy a plate of authentic Nasi Lemak...

After my diploma, during my undergrad, I realized that "Shit!! I still don't know what I want!!". And it was either I start job hunting or pursue my masters.

My university offers a half year internship program for those who wants to do masters. Those who plans to stop at degree will have to write a thesis instead of the internship. I thought that the half year internship could help me figure out what I really want in life...so I registered for masters program.
If you are thinking "Why not do internship, then quit? That way, you can get your degree without writing a thesis AND you get to do the internship"
Well, that is possible but it would be messy...and it would hurt the chances of Malaysians who are trying to get into my Uni in the future...

Anyway, I went for internship...and boy, I made the right choice. I finally knew what I want...and I pursued masters.

Now, I'm facing what I avoided 2 years ago...job hunting.
And let me tell you...it's a pain in the ass!!

*Read in National Geographic kind of voice
(Job)Hunters on the prowl...armed with sharp pens and a hard folder, they pursue their prey from sunrise till sundown. These hunters usually dressed in their hunting attire when they go for the hunt...a pair of leather shoes, business suits and a tie. These hunters often stalk their prey for months before they attack. However, if these hunters fail to make the kill, many will hide in recluse...refusing to even see the light of day.

Job hunting in Japan starts freaking early...too damn early. Students here start job hunting a year and a half before graduation!! That's right, right after finishing the first semester after enrolling, you have to begin worrying about job hunt. What a load of crap...this practice pressures students to engage in job hunt during college and most will not get to experience a normal college's life.
What the hell Japan...everything is too early here. They can't wait for their fish to cook, they start decorating for Christmas in October, start job hunt more than one year before graduation, arrive 10 minutes before an appointment, ejacul....ehem, let's leave this part out.

In all seriousness, I think Japan have this practice because they have that tendency to begin everything in Spring, or early April to be precise. Companies and corporates all over Japan, even schools, have welcome ceremonies for newcomers in Spring. So, they selfishly wants to recruit by then. Since recruiting during the last few months in the final semester is just plain cruel, they decided to do the lesser of the 2 evil, begin recruiting a year before.

The process of job hunting here is:
1. Survey various companies or attend a job fair. Identify the companies you want to apply for.

2. Send in entry sheets.

3. Attend a special explanatory seminar in the head or branch office. This is usually done on business days. Yes, this means skipping classes.

4. Attend interview and exams.

5. Attend second interview.

6. Start working for them 1 year later.

Yup, 6 simple steps. Sounds easy...except that the whole process takes about 4~6 months!! And you are applying for dozens of companies!!! You can see here that job hunting in Japan is a waste of money and energy. If you are aiming for a job far away, well, good luck traveling 3~4 times there.

So, you can see here that with this amount of time and energy required, college students can't undergo a normal college life and that they can't concentrate fully on their studies. Furthermore, applicants are evaluated based on their past performance, not their achievements during the last year in University. So, that means that if you have a shitty record in your previous school, and if you can't get a job...you can do your best and be the best god damn student in Japan and still be jobless after graduation, just because you missed the job hunt window. What's the point of learning and maturing in University then?!!! Isn't that the point??

So, many of you asked, why does students in Japan sometimes commits suicide after failing a mere paper in high school??
Well, the answer is : pressure of society.
Society demands that we excel all the way...one misstep and your future is screwed. Such stress and pressure often push students over the edge when society should instead offer them a chance to improve.

Well, you can argue that students here commit suicide because of bullying. Yes, that's true but there are cases where a failed paper is the cause.

Recently, a bunch of students protested in Shinjuku, saying that they want to live a college's student's life. And that they did not enroll into college just to job hunt. Oh my heart goes for them...

But to be fair, there are a few of my Japanese friends here who say they like the way things are. They said that they hate spending time idling around for more than 1 week after graduation...now, this is the part where we all say "What the hell?!!"

So anyway, I'm job hunting at the moment. My choice of work will take me either to Aichi prefecture or here in Nagaoka. If I stay, well, I guess in 10 years I'll be the old one at the Uni's foreign students party....hahaha

Oh god, I wish I get a job here!!!

The nice places and food around Nagaoka.

2010-11-21T21:15:00.006+09:00

Well, I haven't been writing for a long time.

It's time to pick up writing again since I need something to do with my "free time".
You see, I used to spend my free time with my girlfriend, but now that we're no longer together, and everything else that I can do just reminds me of her(anime, manga, movies, taking a walk...everything), I figured that I might as well pick up writing again.

So, I would like to share the nice places and food in the otherwise "boring" Nagaoka.

The park near the Nagaoka Red Cross Hospital

The statue of an old man pointing to a beautiful girl across the river.

I have been to this place more often than I can remember. This park is free and accessible at any time of the day, be it noon or midnight. It's a really nice place for walking your dog, jogging or just to hang out. There's plenty of people around at day time but it is mostly empty at nights.
Beautiful flowers of all kinds are on display most of the time. The department store Apita, the Nagaoka Art Museum and the cinema T-Joy are all within walking distance from the park. What's really nice is that there's a path along the Shinano River that connects my apartment directly to this park. You can usually enjoy the sight of ducks frolicking in the water...and did I mention the breeze? Well, there's always a nice breeze to go along with your walks. Oh, by the way, Shinano River is the longest river in Japan.
I used to jog here and back, just sit on the bench at night staring at the stars, strolling while enjoying the variety of flowers...I even went with my in-line skates here.

Italian - A curious mix of yakisoba and meat sauce

I call this "what??" noodle...

Now, this is indeed a mysterious kind of food called Italian. Now, when one mention Italian, we automatically expect pasta, spaghetti, pizza...you know, "real Italian food". But no, this is instead a mix of yakisoba and meat sauce(the one meant for spaghetti).
The taste? I...I don't know how to describe it. It's not bad...but it certainly wasn't that good either. I guess you can call it...strange.

How this came to be?? Well, my guess is that many many years ago, some Japanese dude was about to eat his dinner, yakisoba, when he realised that he have leftover meat sauce from the previous night's dinner. Not wanting to waste the sauce, he poured it over his yakisoba. He must have thought "Hey...this is not bad!!". He quit his job and opened a restaurant selling "Italian", the name as a tribute to the meat sauce.

Anyway, Italian is only available in Niigata prefecture. In Nagaoka, you can get them from shops named "Friend" at either Jusco or in Harashin supermarket near Musashi Home Center.

Echigo Park

Pictures taken during Summer Illuminations

This park is also one of the park which I visit quite frequent. It's really a nice park with a huge area of lawn grass for you to do practically anything you want on it. A picnic, roll around, kick a ball, kick 2 balls, badminton, lie down...you get the idea.
There's a flower bed around but it's quite small compared to the other parks(that collects money) but it's beautiful nonetheless. There's also a hill which you can climb either by stairs or up a grassy slope. Quite a nice view from up the hill. Oh, on the way down, you can try rolling down...it's really quite fun!!!

Me and Maureen preparing to roll down the hill....

There are quite a few notable events at this park, to name a few; tulips festival, rose festival, Summer Illumination Night. They also have various days where entrance is free of charge.
There are also various attractions at this park, for example, foot-pedaled car that goes round the park, Frisbee golf, playground with a rubber dome to bounce on, mini water park with stepping stones...all kinds of stuff.

As far as I know, it is the only park around Nagaoka that collects entrance fee.

Eguchi dango

Dango, rice dumpling.

I have to say...the dumplings here are delicious!!! My favourite is soy sauce flavored dango.
The green tea is quite nice too...and if you are lucky, you'll get to see Japanese tea preparation ceremony as well.
Not to forget that you'll get a very nice view of the nature from the window.

Soleine

Tasty Colours...

They've got all kinds of gelato...you name it, they've got it. Pumpkin, strawberry, vanilla, green peas, tofu, cherry, dark berry, black sesame, yam....they've even got beer gelato!! Haven't tried beer but I absolutely love their vanilla gelato...

New Town Park

Sorry, don't have(can't find) a better picture.

Needless to say, another park. Not much different from other parks except that its got a lake.
A decent park...enjoyed it.

Bushiya- Ramen Shop

Tsukemen...personal recommendation on this one.

Yeah, Japan's famous for ramen and they've got thousands of shops....
So, what's special with this one? The soup's base is katsuobushi....and it's very nicely done!!
A treat for your taste buds if you are looking for something other than the usual salt, soy sauce or tonkotsu(pork bone).

Higashiyama Family Land

Ponies...cute as they are, the sight of them urinating and defecating is disgusting nonetheless.

This is yet another park...but it's a park with ponies!!! Kids or adults who is very much shorter than me can ride on it. You can even feed the ponies if you want to.
Not only ponies, they even have bunnies!!! Bunnies and ponies!!! what else can you ask for?? Goats and chicken?? yeah...they've got them too.
They also have a course for extreme mountain biking...along with ramps for jumping. Cool huh? They've even got summer-ski as well!! FYI, summer-ski here means shoes with two big ass wheels on it.

Alpaca Farm

Alpacas are cute. Nuff' said.

Momiji-en

One of the reason why I'm staying in Japan; I'm a sucker for autumn leaves.

Well, this brilliantly taken picture says it all. Bright red leaves that will bleed your heart of passion...
This place once belong to someone...you can see the house in the background. That person took into the art of Japanese Garden, and this wonderful garden was later donated to the city and it has been a popular spot ever since.
This place is also open at nights and there will be spotlights around to highlight the gorgeous red.

That's all that I have in mind at the moment...think I may have covered all the places I've been to. Well, for folks who are planning to visit Nagaoka and see this post, you're welcome!!

Roses at Echigo Park..

2010-06-28T13:53:00.002+09:00

People have once commented, "Randy...you? Flowers?!! For real?? You like looking at flowers at the park?? YOU?!!"

Well, yes, I admit that flowers don't really suit my image. I guess my image is more suited to violent and extreme stuff...but guess what? I'm a sucker for pretty flowers...

Just over 2 weeks ago, roses were in full bloom...and they were put in display at a local park. Until now, I've mostly been to the park alone (Well, people mostly thinks I'm joking when I say "Hey, let's go the park to look at flowers!!"), but this time I was accompanied by my lovely date, Megumi. And it's nice to have company...except that this time, I'm limited to looking "only" at flowers...nothing more...haha
Nah, just kidding...why would I want to look at "other flowers", right? After all, I am dating the 2nd best rose of the day....

My junior, Spaghetti-girl was supposed to join as well but canceled at the last minute...
Too bad...really needed a cameraman at that time...haha

Anyway, the weather was bright and sunny that day...perfect day for a stroll at the park looking at roses. After a simple sandwich for lunch under the cooling shades of the parasol while listening to a relaxing piano performance, we joined the throng of crowd walking through the rose filled park.

I took plenty of photos..about 100++...I'll only display my favourite ones here...

I have to say, I really enjoyed myself that day...
Looking at the vibrant colours, sniffing at the sweet fragrance...can't imagine any better Sunday than that day.

And Megumi was a very good sport!! Well, you know that I don't(and will never) say normal things when giving comments....which applies to comments on roses in this case. For example:
"That one looks like a 40 year-old Lady in an 1840 English court"
"This one look like a prostitute...looking all nice but empty inside(no fragrance)"
"That one look like a 12 year-old Russian girl all dressed up for her party"
"This one looks like a 14 year-old teen dressed in gothic fashion"

*Please don't ask me why and what those comments are....these just come up in my mind when I looked at the roses that day.

While most people will give me the eyebrow or ignore me completely, Megumi was with me all the way...laughing along to my silly comments. The fact that she enjoyed my silly, incomprehensible comments worries her a little....well, a normal, average Japanese wouldn't react to my nonsense like she did...hahahaha.

We ended the day with a rose flavoured ice-cream, the chilled fragrant sweetness savoured at a picnic table while reminiscing on my silly jokes...

Life...is good.

Mitsuke part 2 : Homestay with a pair of old folks...

2010-06-22T10:02:00.002+09:00

I don't know how many of you believed my kite story in the 1st part, but it's true!! It is too interesting a story to be false...right?? haha...

Anyway, like I mentioned before, I was there to participate in a homestay program...

So, after the supposed to fly, but can't fly giant kites event, us foreign students all separated and went back with our host families...

The "lucky" folks who got me was Mr. and Mrs. Kobayashi. Just in case you are wondering, no, they are not related to my girlfriend who also shares the same surname.

Anyway, they are a pair of very nice old folks. 71 for the lady and 72 for the old man. Apparently, this is the first time they participated in the homestay program and was worried about getting a foreign student who can't speak Japanese, have religious restrictions on food and drinks...etc. So, they were quite relieved to find that I speak decent Japanese and also eat/drink anything.

The Kobayashi's ...

The lovely garden at the front...

Vibrant colours welcoming me into their home...
A very nice place...very comfortable and relaxing.

It was still early in the evening, so me and the old man went for a walk in the nearby paddy fields and we talked about various things....and for the first time in many years, I actually enjoyed my conversation with an old folk. While other old folk would ask the same silly questions everytime single time like "Where's Malaysia?" despite knowing quite well where Malaysia is, or "Does it snow?" despite knowing that it is warm throughout the year near the Equator.
This old man however, surprised me when he asked "So, why do you come all the way here to Japan? Have you benefited anything from your stay?". I don't mean any insults here but, I wasn't expecting these questions from a 72 year old farmer. He was a very intelligent man with quite a unique sense of humour...thoroughly enjoyed my evening walk with him.

Anyway, it was dinner time and he prepared a feast for me!! Table was filled with fresh produce picked from his very own farm, and also a rosted spice chicken especially for me...well, he knew I was Malaysian and prepared something that he thought would suit me. A lovely dinner joined by the old folk's daughter and granddaughter...
Mrs. Kobayashi kept trying to strike up conversation for me and her granddaughter...hahaha. Typical old ladies playing cupid...

The next day, my morning started with a Japanese full breakfast...fish, egg, natto, miso soup, pickled cucumber, various vegetables...I especially love the vegetables, very rare can you taste fresh produces like these.
They then took me to Yahiko Park....quite a famous tourist spot in Niigata...

The torii, a typical gate to an entrance of a shrine. This one was made out of wood taken from Ise Grand Shrine.

A place where people wash their hands and mouths...

The road leading into the inner shrine complex..

The shrine....

Entrance of the inner complex....

It was said that Shinto is the way of life, more like a culture, not a religion. While religions are mostly filled with restrictions with plenty of Don't-s rather than Do-s, Shinto evolved along with the lifestyle of people...

A popular trend among the Japanese is getting blessings from the shrine when they buy a new car...see these 2 cars? They are Toyotas but they don't over-accelerate...they've got the shrine's blessing...haha.

Anyway, after a short tour of the shrine, we went up the nearby mountain Yahiko.

Well....honestly, nothing special with this mountain except a nice view from the top...which I have seen many many MANY times....
But the company from the 2 old folks was nice...^^

And then the inevitable farewell came to be...

The farewell picture...

Most of us returned with souvenirs of all sorts...me? I've got a loaf of bread(from other family who have a daughter of 21 years old...^^; Wants me to visit them sometime..) a bag of potatos, two bottles of instant coffee, and a small bottle of home made Plum wine...

Them sending us off...

I had a very very good time at my home stay...not so much because of Japanese culture(I've been living here for 6 years, have seen much, done much) but more because of the nice people I meet.
And, I've got a big surprise when I reach home to find that the old lady had hidden a letter addressed to me....such a nice gesture.

When I have the chance, I will definitely visit them again some day...
But I wonder if I should bring my girlfriend along....well, I partly suspect that the reason they liked me so much was because they suspected I was still single. I guess I'll just leave my girlfriend behind and visit them myself!! hahaha....

Mitsuke part 1 : Lazy giant kites festival in Mitsuke City

2010-06-10T10:57:00.007+09:00

Last weekend was spent at an old town called Mitsuke City.

There was a giant kites festival going on and they held a homestay program in conjunction with it. Well, this is my 6th year in Japan...and people keep asking me,
"You still going to homestays?? What for?? You've been here for 6 years right??"

That, is very true. Why indeed...
Well, one day some guy came to me during a meeting, asking if anyone was interested in a homestay program. At that time, there was absolutely no reason not to join...so I did. So what if I've already seen the kites festivals 3 years ago? Nothing wrong with going to see it again right??

Anyway, there you have it...I joined the damn event. And it was surprisingly fun despite kites not flying.

There were 12 other foreigners from various countries who joined the event, Thailand, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Philippines, Costa Rica, Columbia and France.

The homestay event began like any other Japanese events, with fake hand claps and warm smiles. We were then introduced to our host families and of course, the inevitable "Introduce your country" session. I was paired up with another Malaysian girl and was given like, about 5 minutes to decide what to present to them Japanese Folks.

Me and Habirah talking about Malaysia...

I talked about the same old boring stuff...you know, the one about Malaysia being a country with various races, looks different, speaks different languages, eat different food, but curses in the same language, Hokkien. Others did their bit too...Thailand doing dance, Philippines doing the put-your-feet-in-and-out-of-bamboo-sticks kind of dance while the rest used Powerpoint slides to introduce their countries.

The old folks who were kind enough to host my stay...

Anway, the hosts who participated in this program were mostly old folks. At one point, one of them asked me what my plans are after I graduate, and I answered my usual "If I can get a Japanese girlfriend, I'll stay here" . And instantly, a few of the old ladies starting giggling and said "Well, I have a 22/23 year old grand daughter at home..why don't you drop by for a visit??"
Hahaha....suddenly I was the Mr. Most Eligible Bachelor year 2010.

After the International exchange session, we moved on to the main event of the day...the giant kites festival. Along the way to the festival was shops selling various things such as balloons, toy guns, cotton candy, Kebab, Turkish Ice Cream....yup, nothing Japanese. Just because it's a Japanese Festival, don't expect it to have Japanese stuff...

Local stalls selling various things mostly made from China...

Games corner where we shoot rubber corks at toys...

A Shrine. A must have at any Japanese Festival...

We soon reach a local shrine, and right behind the shrine is a river bank, and on both sides were giant kites laid on the ground...

Giant kites of various designs were laid on the ground....

Well, as you can see, we have a big problem here.
See those kites? They are lying on the ground. ON THE GROUND!!!
They are supposed to be flying around up in the sky!!
What good are kites if they can't fly??

Sigh...apparently there wasn’t enough wind...
Oh what the hell...lack of wind isn't going to stop me from having fun!!

So, along with a crazy Columbian, David and a tiny Thai, Waen, we headed out to find our own adventure...

Once again, the event of the day was supposed to be giant kites festival, where various groups battle their kites to gain superiority in the sky. It was supposed to be windy and there were supposed to be fierce battle of kites and excellent display of kite flying skills. It was supposed to be...but it wasn't.

Anyway, we went for a walk around, took pictures of kites lying on the ground. Thank god David and Waen was around...well, they look more foreign than I do(I get mistaken for Japanese a lot), and we got treated to beer and snacks...

This is a picture of me bullying Little Waen...
Just look at her face....hahahaha...sigh, I'm going to miss her..

Anyway...if it was windy that day, I would have exhausted my English vocabulary trying to describe the day's event here, but I can't.
So, instead I'll write a short drama involving a love so great they made a kite event out of it....

Once upon a time, there was a lonely samurai who traveled to the unknown lands of Mitsuke..

One day, he met a very beautiful lady who captured his warrior heart with her beauty. "I'm in love!!" thought the lonely samurai...
But just as soon as he caught her glimpse, she vanished from his sight.

And so the warrior spent his days looking for her...
Oh, the poor samurai, now love stricken, he looked everywhere for her...
He looked around the village..he looked around the river banks...

He even went as far as to climb a tall tree to try to find her from above...

But the beautiful lady was nowhere to be found...
And for everyday he failed to find her, he wept...and he wept...
But, his heart, pure with love, never gave up trying to find the beautiful lady he saw that day...

Years passed...he grew old and his beard grew long...
But his love for her only grew stronger and stronger...such was the charm the beautiful lady had on the lonely warrior..

And one day, as he was walking the banks of Mitsuke River...he saw her!!
After all these years, he finally found her!!
With tears flowing down his cheeks, he finally found the beautiful lady among the crowd...
And she looked so beautiful to him...skin as fair as the white paper on giant kites, and lips as red as his loving heart. Years passed by but she looked as if she didn't aged one bit...

And so the lonely warrior confessed his feelings to her...
The beautiful lady, touched by the effort he spent looking for her, agreed to marry him.
They decided to get married right on the bridge spanning across Mitsuke River...the bridge symbolizing a joining of two river banks, a joining of 2 hearts..

And they lived a happy life until old age...
The people of Mitsuke city now hold a giant kites festival annually to remember the love that these two people once shared....

The end.

Bye Bye Waen...T_T

2010-05-31T13:29:00.003+09:00

Here's a tale about a tiny girl from Thailand who came to Japan only for a mere 3 months, but manage to make an impact larger than I did...she manage to charm more people in 3 months than the people I scare in 5 years. Now, that's a damn great achievement.

Once upon a time, came a cute girl from Thailand named Waen...of course this is not her real name. Her real name is somewhat more hilarious...(sorry, Waen, just my personal opinion, no offense intended.) She was tiny, as most South East Asian girls are, but she had a smile as sweet as ice cream on a hot afternoon. And she was very friendly...In a school dominated by boys with high testosterone levels, her cute smile and cheerful nature quickly caught everyone's attention. As for me, I just enjoy teasing her....haha.

And so she got invited to many parties....and party she did. Oh boy, there was never a normal day in her life here!! And it was through these parties where she made many dear friends. She can't speak Japanese much but, dudes here strive hard to speak in English just to get to know her. I personally think she single-handedly inspired a quarter of the guys here to seriously learn and speak English.

Anyway, she had a lot of fun living here in Japan. But, as people say "good times flies by".

So, a dear friend(sister?) of hers organized a costume party to bid her farewell(she still have about 3 weeks here though)

Mexican wrestler and little Waen...

Two lovely girls and me...haha.

Kamehame vs. Baseball bat. Guess who won...

A whore(said so herself), baseball slugger and gossip girl...

Guy with sunglasses, and 2 of Waen's friend, Yoko and Eri...super cute.

Son Goku, the ghost and the Taiko drummer...

This guy with skirt...he actually lifted up his skirt when he made his entrance...
Gutter belt....
Oh, my eyes!!!

The poor guy, my little angel...and guy in white shorts...

Vampire, emo guy and a failed cat..

Good or Evil....tough choice!!

Terrotist, cheerleaders and Jack Bauer after10 years and too many beers.

The bunch of cheerleaders....the guy to the left...one had to admire his many "disgusting" poses...

At the party, she became emotional and droplets of pure emotion came rolling down her cheeks. I'm sure that many of us would like her to stay longer but, reality is often harsh and unforgiving. She have to go back in 3 months time.

Such an unfortunate news...my Uni could really use a bubbly girl around. We've got too many guys who have forgotten what girls are.

Anyway, just want to say here that I've enjoyed her company a lot and will miss her. Once again, many thanks to Mark Zuckerberg and his Facebook, we can all still keep in touch.

Waen, when I do visit Bangkok, and I will, do show me around your hometown!!

Take care little one!! Remember to never lose that sweet innocent smile...

10 white pins and one angry charging ball...

2010-05-24T23:34:00.004+09:00

Last weekend was once again a fun filled weekend.

Saturday was...well, I'll save Saturday's story for another time as that will definitely draw many surprises!!

Let's talk about Sunday instead.
Sunday was a fun-filled bowling competition!!

But first things first...a brief intro to it.

My university houses almost 200 foreign students, and we all know how much us foreign students hate to mix with other people when we're on foreign lands. Well, of course there are super friendly ones among us....but it's sad to say that if we are left alone, we will forever be among people of the same country.
I dare not say much about other country, but I've seen how Malaysians tend to stick among Malaysians. Well, not that it is a bad thing...you get to practice your mother tongue and not forget Bahasa Malaysia(like me, god help me but I can't speak proper Bahasa) But every single day for 3 years?? Why the hell did we choose to study abroad in the first place?!! Might as well stay in Malaysia...no offense here, just my opinion.

To counter this sort of thing, associations exist for foreign students where it acts as a platform for us to mingle and mix around both with locals(Japanese) and other foreign students....giving us a chance to widen our horizon and realize that the world is indeed a big place.
The same applies here in Nagaoka University of Technology...the association here is called NUTISA, which stands for Nagaoka University of Technology International Students Association.

And I'm proud to say that I'm the President of NUTISA for year 2010!!!

Some members are missing from the picture..

And as the president, I am given the responsibility of promoting communication among foreign students, and also with Japanese. Along with me are 14 core members from various countries such as Malaysia, Thai, Vietnam, Laos, Mongolia, Rwanda, Columbia, China...etc.

So, last Sunday, we organized a bowling competition as a get-to-know-each-other event. More than 30 people joined and we had a lot of fun, and also got closer to each other as we secretly hate the person who scored more than we do. For example, of all the foreign students here, I will always remember Jimmy from Mexico. That guy beat my ass in bowling...and I will never forgive him for it!! haha...

But seriously, I saw many people exchanging pleasantries and self introductions so, I guess the bowling balls did more than just knock down pins...;)
Yeah, it was a great event and it ended with smiles on everyone's faces.

Would like to make a special mention here for Tony, Fiona and Aline who handled the presents and drinks. David who did a wonderful job as the MC of the event....he wore a bright red shirt that really caught everyone's attention, and also. Thuy and her boyfriend for helping with group management. Chuka and Sun Sun for helping with monetary issues. Everyone did their part generously.

The president?? The president gave orders, then got busy enjoying bowling and flirting with girls.

See? Mr. President is busy...hahaha.

But seriously, the event was a success because of the work of many. Couldn't have done it without them!!

The Master's life in Nagaoka...

2010-05-20T17:55:00.003+09:00

To summarize the whole post today, I'm tired.

When I signed up for masters, I imagined it would be mostly research work, where I sit at my desk, analyze data for some time while listening to my iPod, come up with credible results which I will use for my presentation. I will then go back when the sun is down, cook myself a decent meal and then sit down to blog my day...

Well, I got part of it right....only a tiny bit part of it...

It's been two months now since I began my graduate life, but already I'm used to the lifestyle centered on my laboratory. Attending lab at 9 in the morning, then reaching home at 10 at night. While I imagined a smooth sailing life, reality insist that I be buried with class assignments. And the more time I spend on assignments, the less time I have for my research work, which I have to do anyway regardless of my reports.
"In graduate life, classes are just distractions. And don't you use assignments as your excuse for not producing results" says my professor.

Damn...

But the one thing that tires me out most is....parties!!
Hahaha...well, as tired and stressed as I get from research work and assignments, I have to try to have fun whenever I can, right?

So, this is to explain those pictures of me on facebook...

You see, there's quite a large number of foreign students in my University....about 200 "aliens". And somehow, foreign students here likes to party....well, not so much Malaysians(I am the only Malaysian attending these parties), but Mexicans, Venezuelans, Thais, Vietnamese, Germans...and oh, one lonely Rwandan.
And we have these parties for any reason at all!! Someone would make a shout out, and 50 of us would turn up for the party.

Parties here are different from normal Japanese parties which mostly centers on Karaoke or drinking at Izakaya(Japanese restaurant-pub). Parties here can be described in two words, beers and dance.
At each of these parties, liquor, mainly beer and others like tequila(courtesy of the Mexicans), Japanese sake, whisky, are plentiful. After a few of these "social lubricants", we will be dancing 'merengue', a kind of Latin America dance which involves a guy twirling a girl round and round to a music which has a distinctive beat. Yes, I can somewhat, more or less dance to the beat...although I'm nowhere nearly as good as the "professionals" here...haha.

Anyway, yeah...I have a lot of fun here. Through the parties I get to meet plenty of people, among them are some of my most memorable friends. Not just "beer buddies" or "dance partners" but friends with whom I can have intelligent conversations with. Friends I can share an innocent laugh with...
Pol, Omar, Joe, Karel, Yumiko, Megumi, Waen, Hiroko, Aline...the list goes on...

And there's another party next week...man...I am busy...haha.

At the end of my studies here, I think I'll be graduating with masters in "entertainment" instead of engineering.

But seriously...I'm doing serious work on normal days.
Ehem....not that I'm trying to sound like a hardworking graduate student here...heh heh.

Return from hiatus...

2010-05-17T13:03:00.003+09:00

I haven't blogged for quite some time now...
For those who have been following my blog since year 1, you might notice that my blogs will be on hiatus every year from the January to May period. The reason is plainly laziness, procrastination, didn't have the mood, too busy...but still, it all comes to the same time of the year. So yeah...I was on hiatus again.

Anyway, the last time I blogged was about my trip to Tokyo, which happened in January.

Well, it's not that my life has been THAT boring since January...in fact, a lot of things have happened. Just didn't blog about it...
Boring, mundane, everyday stuff...just can't be bothered.

Well, there was one thing though. A bitter sweet memory.
As some of you may know, I found love...lost it. But found it again...
Nothing interesting here, right?? =p

Anyway, now that I am a graduate student, I've been mostly busy...staying in lab until 9.30 p.m everyday...I sometimes spend my Saturdays in lab!! Yeah...life as a masters student is really quite busy. I do enjoy research anyway so, busy, but not all that stressful...

But as busy as I am, I try to have fun whenever I can...

Been attending quite a lot of parties and more parties...
I think I may have increased my tolerance towards beer, and I've learned quite a few dances as well...^^

Well, I've attended parties before in the previous years, but this year is special as I got to meet quite a few interesting people who really made a big impression. People whom I will not forget forever...except guys maybe. I tend to forget guys...haha.

Well, will blog about more things from now on.

Peace out!!

A simple guide to dating sites in Tokyo...

2010-03-14T14:00:00.003+09:00

Truth be told....I don't really fancy Japanese girls.
Well, yeah I do have plenty of Japanese female friends but...the idea of dating one is somewhat...uninteresting.

During my 5 years stay in Japan, I've dated a few Japanese girls but none of them really struck me as "fun". or maybe I just hadn't had the luck to meet the fun ones...

Girls I have dated are cute but...the conversation is just plain boring. You know how I like to crack stupid jokes and throw silly puns...and Japanese girls mostly give me the "?" look on their faces.
And so, I've remained mostly single for the past 5 years...

But up until recently, I've dated a Korean girl...and man, Koreans are fun!! Not only my jokes are met with sincere laughter, she was cracking silly stuff of her own. And she was the spontaneous type...with her, I was able to have fun no matter where we went...even a trip to the historical museum...

Anyway, at the end of year 2009, we went for a trip around Tokyo...mostly places I've always wanted to go to but didn't because...well, felt it would be awkward to go without a girl in hand. This year however, having a girl in hand, I finally get to fulfill one of my dreams in Japan. I went to all the places I never got to before....

So, thought I share these here...^^
Oh, btw...I lost the pictures I've taken so, most pics here are stolen from the internet... sigh -_-;

1. Asakusa Temple

Also known as Sensoji Temple. If anyone ask me, I'd say this place is overrated. I mean, everyone heads there just to take a picture of that famous Kaminari gate.

As for the shrine itself, well, I've seen better ones...

But what makes this a good dating spot is the row of souvenir shops that leads to the shrine beyond this gate.

These shops sell everything from local cakes, sweet sake to various kinds of novelties. You don't have to buy anything, just simply browse through and I guarantee you that you will have a good time with your date here.

Oh, for those who are willing to spend, you take a ride around in rickshaws. About 3000yen or so for a 15minutes ride.

Btw, the word rickshaw originated from Japan. It is pronounced as riki-sha, which more or less sounds like rickshaw.

Also, things to watch out for is the Asahi Building. For those who don't know, Asahi is one of the leading brands for beer in Japan. And guess what their building look like...

Do I see a beer? Yes I do...

2. Akasaka
I LOVE this place....and there's plenty of reasons it.
Well, first of all I like the layout of the area...unlike Tokyo or Shinjuku, where I honestly think is a little bit messy, this area is well planned. I feel somewhat more relaxed here than when I am anywhere else. In Tokyo city center, you will somehow unconsciously walk at a faster pace...heck, everything you do there is faster. But in Akasaka, you have that mood to walk at a slow pace, taking in the city's view one small step at a time....

As for places to visit, Akasaka Sacas...
This place is a little bit pricey....but whoever told you to head there for the food/clothes right??
Well, this place is just plain pretty...especially at night. Plenty of affordable cafes around for light cakes and coffee. Also, there's a ice skating rink for those who feel like it. Very recommendable during winter nights.

Another place to visit is the shrine located nearby Akasaka Sacas. In my opinion, this is one of the very beautiful shrines I've been to.

Really...this is a nice place to go. It's not just the shrine and Akasaka Sacas, but the whole place itself is quite romantic.

3. Odaiba
The whole area of Odaiba is built especially for couples...at least I think so...haha.
Well, there are spots where a mini Statue of Liberty is located, a water fountain display, place from where you can get a good view of the rainbow bridge...

But among all, my favourite is Venus Fort.

Definitely the "must-go" place of all!!

This place is actually a shopping arcade with Venice style setting....minus the water. A very very pretty place to go dating. There's this one spaghetti shop located deep inside that I particularly like...one of the most romantic dinner I ever had...

4. Roppongi Hills
I've been here only at the end of the year when Christmas/New year celebration is still up so I can't say much else except...well, visit here during that time of the year.

If there's anywhere else that have a better Christmas atmosphere, I don't know about it. This place have got the whole open space filled with shops selling all kinds of Christmas novelties. Not to mention cakes and chocolates...the lights...the decos...you can truly feel something special in the air at this place.

The view here is much more beautiful than it looks on pictures. Oh yeah...you can trust me on this.

5. Disney Land/Sea

Mickey and friends....need I say more??
Anyway, info for those who don't know, Disney Land have better shows/parades while Disney Sea have better rides. You can meet Mickey at both sites, but certain characters at either sites. For example, Ariel only at Sea and Pooh only at Land.

6. Illuminations in Shinjuku
Mostly from early D Places where you get to see for free, or places where you have to pay a humble amount to get into. ecember onwards, there will be plenty of illuminations around.But if you are just looking for easy to access, non time-consuming, free but very beautiful nonetheless kind of place, I'd recommend Shinjuku Southern Terrace, located right beside Shinjuku station.

Note: Couple in hand is NOT me...

7. The other famous places around...
Harajuku, Shinjuku, Shibuya, Ginza....you know...the usual places where tourist are bound to visit anyways.

If there's anything worth mentioning, I'd say DON'T visit Akihabara...unless if your partner is the very open minded and adventurous one. Reason being that Akihabara is famous for Maid cafes and...well, 6-storeys porn shops with different theme for each floor. Porn don't make a good dating spot. Period.

Well, there you go, the simple guide to dating spots in Tokyo. All these should be about 3 days worth of going around...
By the way, I'm sure I've missed a few good places...so, feel free to share!!

And so the internship ends...

2010-03-10T22:41:00.003+09:00

It has been 5 months since I started my internship at TOPY Industries.

And it has been a loooong 5 months. While some of my campus mates commented on how relax and fun work was at their companies, I had to do work right until the very last day...

Not that I'm complaining though....

Sure, there was a lot of work to do but I gained invaluable experience from the work I've done.

Okay, first a brief explanation of my work. The department I was placed in was in charged of R&D of standard steel wheels. You know how there are holes on the wheels?? My assignment was finding the best conditions on strengthening the holes to prolong its fatigue life so that the wheel will last longer.

Now, the plan for the project was already mapped out before I got there...and I could have had an easy and relaxed life just following that plan....but damn it, Randy have to "speak his mind" no matter what. What a pain in the ass.
Instead of following the planned experiments, I proposed a new idea, i.e. a new set of experiment parameters. After listening carefully to my idea, my supervisor agreed to my idea and allowed me to proceed any way I want. And since it was "my idea", my supervisor gave me full freedom to use the research budget. So, I designed my own experiment and spent a few hundred thousand yen of the company's money purchasing new machine parts.

Well, lucky for me things went as I planned(I did spend a lot of the company's money for this...so, there is pressure for me to produce worthy results)....and my new idea actually sparked a new debate on how to better manufacture that cute little hole on the wheel.

I did my last presentation was last week's Tuesday....finally, my task ended.

I have to say, I gained a very good experience during that 5 month long internship. Gave me a solid preview of what it meant to work in a Japanese company.

I also learned a lot on human relations, presentation skills...and most important of all, to be confident of my own ideas and not be afraid speaking them.

To think that I tried applying for overseas internship...I originally applied for India and Germany. But, from what I hear from my friends who went overseas, they didn't get to do as much. Yeah, getting to live in a foreign country for 5 month sounds cool...but I still think I'm lucky that I stayed in Japan as I got to work in an environment where I actually get to do some solid stuff.

Hah...I guess I did make the right decision to enroll into Nagaoka University of Technology after all as no other university offers the same internship program...

Now that internship has ended, life as a Masters student begins!!!

Crap....

A new chic arrives!!!

2010-01-08T21:29:00.002+09:00

Today, a new young pretty gal arrives at Topy!! What more, she's placed in the same department as me!! Too bad she's in a different group, but under the same roof nonetheless...

She's around my age, she's slim, got a pretty face, long flowing hair that swishes from side to side as she walks...she's got the whole place buzzing with news of her even before she arrives.

That new chic's name is...Haidar Najiyah.

Yup, the very same Haidar from my Japanese Prep School in KL many freaking years ago. The one we all came to call "Dart".

I'm sorry if I have been misleading...haha, my blog have always been that way anyway. But the thing about how she's got everyone talking about her is true.

After all this years, it still amazes me to see how Japanese reacts to having a person of a different culture around. Especially when they are Muslim and are bound by certain practices. When it was confirmed that she's going to do her internship here, they all turn to the nearest Malaysian they can find...Me. I was bombarded by questions like how to pronounce her name, why is there no family name, what can't she eat, if she wears a headscarf...etc. All the silly questions you can ever think of asking a Muslim.

I wonder if anyone got excited over me when I first came here....

I mean, I'm a Malaysian too but...looks like Japanese, eats like Japanese, drinks like Japanese, and speaks Japanese better than Mandarin. During my recent trip to Tokyo, I've even came to comment "Wow...there are so many foreigners here", despite being one myself.
Duh... (>_<) ;

AND I'm a guy. Just another one added to a bunch of people with hairy legs.
FYI, there are two more guys from her Uni as well...never heard anyone said anything about them. Yeah, middle-aged balding men are suckers for young girls.
It's so bad that they didn't even give me my name tag until today...3 months I've been working there and only today they give me a name tag. What the hell man...

Oh well...at least it’s nice to see fresh faces around.

Nagano revisted.

2009-12-25T21:28:00.002+09:00

Of all the seasons, I like winter the most.

Yes, the cold can be a bitch, but nothing beats skiing down a steep slope. It's not so much the rush of adrenaline that it gives me, but rather the sense of freedom that it provides me when gliding effortlessly on powdery snow. And you don’t even have to consciously move your body...when you are comfortable enough, your body will react on its own. And during that short glide down the slope, my mind is set free...mind as clear as snow.

But 2 years ago was an exception. The ski trip I went was horrible. Not only that there wasn’t enough snow, I was unfortunate enough to fall sick. Had a fever...a really bad one.

I have to say that I love nothing more than skiing...even more than a girl(so much that I'm willing to give up dating my girlfriend just to go ski). Had to wait for almost a year before I could ski again, and when that time comes, my body start burning up...but I wasn't going to let a mere fever stop me!!
When it comes to ski, fever is just a minor inconvenience.

And so I went up the mountain anyway...
Randy, you stupid boy...

Of all the stupid things I've done in my life, this rank the worst.
Felt like I was going to die...well, not exactly die but felt like I was going to faint and cause trouble for a lot o people. But I smarten up a little bit the next day though...rested and took a slow walk around instead.
I left that place completely unsatisfied.

The slope 2 years ago...

Last weekend, I revisited the same place. I was fortunate enough to be invited by my colleagues at TOPY to join their ski trip. It snowed beautifully that day.

The slope THIS year...

I was skiing like a demon; jumping off snow mounts whenever I can, going off course on purpose, skiing as fast as I can while desperately avoiding other people. Oh, I had fun.

And to add sugar and spice, one of my seniors brought along a bunch of Christmas theme costumes. One dressed as Santa, giving presents to ski goers. I was the Christmas tree...they wanted a "tall" full grown tree.

The kids were especially happy to see Santa. There was one cute one who shouted "SANTA...WAIT!!", then rigorously made her way to Santa, smiling as bright as any innocent child could when she got her gift.

I have to say that this was a whole new kind of experience for me...never had I the chance of dressing up as a mascot just to cheer people up. It was very very heart warming. The smile on the kids' face easily made this year one of the best I've ever had.

Btw, I'm going for another ski trip this Saturday...haha.

Merry Christmas folks!!

Cold hands, warm heart.

2009-12-18T10:06:00.003+09:00

Cold, the word we use to describe the unpleasant absence of warmth.
Cold have been associated with many things; death, a witch's heart, bottom of a pit, Eddie Murphy's recent comedy movies, etc. None of them pleasant...except the idiom above.

It is now officially winter(based on my standards), and I'm shivering my ass off. Well, not really...just my hands, not my ass. I've only recently discovered the joy and wonders of long johns, so ass shivering is history. For the past 4 years, I've thought that wearing a pair of johns is for old people, and that it is not "macho" for a "macho" man like me.
Oh, the stupid things we do when we're young.

I'm currently doing my internship at a factory manufacturing steel products. I managed to keep my body warm by wearing suitable undergarments, but since I need to operate a few machineries, damn safety protocols won't allow me to wear gloves!! Being in the machining space also means that there’s no central heating like in the office. My fingers are numb with cold!!

There's a saying "Cold hands, warm heart". If that's true, then my heart must be burning a blue flame. Given my current condition, I think I'd rather be a son of a bitch and just be cruel to everyone. You know, jump queues, not greet old folks, steal candy from babies, kick a dog on the way to work...just so that my hands would warm up a bit. And as far as it goes, no, my hands are still not warming up.

So far, I've tried various alternatives, like;
・Buying hot cans of coffee. They cost money and only last about 10 minutes. Going to the toilet after finishing the coffee, washes hands with cold tap water....my hands ended up colder than before.
・Tried breathing into my hands, but that made me look like a nervous freak. Not to mention that my hands smells like grease.
・Thinking dirty thoughts. I just could not succeed in directing the heat to my hands.
・Tried the "mental trick" thing. Ignored the cold completely and focused on other jobs at hand...tricking myself into thinking that "it is not as cold as I think it is". Failed miserably when I had to touch cold metal pieces. My hands were to smart to be tricked by a cold piece of metal.
・Tried praying to god. Prayers answered but only with moderate success. I later found out that keeping my hands together reduces heat loss. But still not warm enough.

Damn, I think I might have to rob someone tonight.
Warm my hands at the price of other people's sufferings...a fair trade don't you think?

PS: Please, share whatever ideas you have on warming hands...before I start being cruel.

An Appreciation of a Wonderful Life...

2009-12-15T22:37:00.003+09:00

It’s been 5 months since my father had a major scare with his medical condition.

5 months ago, my father suddenly experienced a terrible headache, subsequent nausea and numbness in the legs. When scanned, doctors diagnosed a brain hemorrhage on his left side. He was sent to various hospitals in Malacca, but was promptly refused admission by reasons of absence of specialist, and the absurd "he's too risky".
He was considered "too risky" as he had a heart condition as well. He had a valve replacement and was under a certain medication that prevents blood clotting. But even that, there's no reason at all to not admit anyone seeking medical assistance!! That's the point of hospitals, right?? I will forever harbour grudge against hospitals that care for reputation above duty.

Anyway, he was then admitted to Prince Court Medical in Kuala Lumpur. A very very VERY costly place...but considering the job they done on my dad, I’d say it was worth it. After all, what is money for if not to spend??

I was a coincidence that this tragedy occurred at the end of my semester. With just one class and last presentation to go, my lecturers graciously accepted my request to have my presentation done earlier so that I can get to my dad as soon as possible. I would like to thank a dear family member, Walter Theseira, who generously sponsored my flight back to Malaysia and helped me get those tickets with such short notice.

My flight back was...dramatic. What happened was, my flight got cancelled. Who could have imagined any interference at a time like this!! Meeting my dad would have to be delayed by 2 days.

You see, my dad knew I was coming back to see him and being anxious, any delay would undoubtedly cause anxiety and stress which would exacerbate his condition! You could say that the flight cancellation was...untimely.

However, the smile I saw on my dad's face when I finally got there makes all the trouble seemed trivial.

During my stay in Kuala Lumpur, another close family member offered his place to my mother and I to stay. He also kindly, and patiently taxied us to the hospital and back every single day. He is a working man, and we all know how busy Kuala Lumpur’s traffic can be...and yet he was always telling jokes and making us laugh. I can't imagine a more difficult task than trying to tell jokes while swallowing your own stress. When we expressed our appreciation, he always replied a heart warming "We're family."

My going back was mostly daily trips to the hospital, cheering up my dad and giving him strength. It was then when you really understand the true significance of family bonds...and also genuine friendship. During his stay in the hospital, many friends and family members visited him, people who would take the trouble to come all the way just to offer mental support to a dear friend. It envies me to see my dad surrounded by such beauty of life, making me wonder if I will have mine when my time comes. Heck, even MY friend went to visit him.

And so, he underwent an inevitable surgery but made out of it without any recurring complications. The doctor who performed on him was very unusual. Doctor Jack, we called him. He was the kind of man that would say anything straight forwardly, not tolerating any kind of nonsense...even his own. Have never seen him telling white lies just to ease our mental state, he'd just come right out with the harsh facts, speaking in percentages and various numbers concerned. He scolded my dad a few times for his pessimism and another family member for umm…trying to win favour from the doc(Hospitals are the worst place ever to play politics). Fills my heart with respect for him every time I think of his straightforwardness

That was 5 months ago...

My dad grew stronger and could do all kinds of daily activities back again.
I guess it's safe to say now that my dad has completely recovered.

I would like to say thanks to the many people who have given their support during that time of need. To families and friends who visited him. To a relative who offered his hospitality and warmth. To Walter who supported me in every way. To the doctor who saved my dad’s life. To the doctor who tended to his sutures without any charge. To a consultant that is never too tired to received my father's constant calling. To Samson who came personally to visit. To Kulvinder who gave me company that evening, which was the one thing I needed most that time. To Danny, Kenny, Ern Suey, Ai Jun, Chong Shen for taking me out, making me drink that horrible coffee. To Audrey for the brief car ride. To Cindy(not your Cindy, Chong Shen, but another Cindy) for being there.
And of course, to all my friends who lend their support via messages in facebook(I read them to my dad).

Thank you.

A Trip to Imou Bog...

2009-12-13T22:54:00.005+09:00

I first visited Imou Bog for the purpose of looking wild miniature flowers. My trip there ended up in a big disappointment as I realized that I did not have the interest of hunting for small flower and that Japanese photographers had once again tricked me into thinking it is a nice place.

The REAL Imou Bog...so very different from the photograph above...

The bog boasts natural seasonal flowers which were grown and cared for by Mother Nature herself. Lured by this, I made my way there only to find tiny little flowers among grasses where you'll have to look hard to find....and there's always a ridiculous line of people taking turns to snap photos of that one, lonely, possibly terrified wild flower.

Do you see that???

I traveled one hour for this...

Damn, I've allocated a few hours for this...now what do I do?

There was, however, a hiking path nearby that leads up to a mountain range...but I was originally there to look at flowers, not hike up a mountain. Being under-dressed and having no food or water, what do I do?? The answer is obvious, hike up anyway....

The hike up was nice and fairly easy. I got nice view of the city from up there...

Once I was done looking down on the citizens of Toyohashi, I was preparing to hike back down when I noticed that there was another path that treads along the mountain's spine. Again, being underdressed and having no food or water, what do I do?? Do I go back down?? The answer is obvious, go on anyway....

Oh boy, I regret going down that path that day. You see, that path was longer and more treacherous that I thought it would be...by late noon, I was overwhelmed with thirst, hunger, and exhaustion. Not to mention that the way down was still nowhere to be seen. Here, I had to choose between going on, hoping that the path down would show up along the way; or turn back, going back to where I came from which took 1.5 hours. Now, the usual me would choose to go on, but this time, I didn't have the energy to do it and chose to go back the way I came.

I practically ran down the mountain as I was desperate for water. That bottle of drink I had at the bottom was the best I ever had.

But now I am intrigued to find out how far that trail really goes, where does it ends and what can I find along the way. You can say that this represents my nature; I'm never truly satisfied with anything until I've gone all the way. It doesn’t matter what lies at the end, the reward is getting to know yourself little by little with each step you take.

So, I went again a second time.

I went prepared...jacket, proper shoes, food and water. Now, I'm ready.

I managed to finish the whole course this time, which took me about 5 hours. Along the path I got to see more cities, the Pacific Ocean, and Mount Fuji with its trademark white hat.

But most notable in my hike was the meeting with an old man.
Well, actually, I met a cackle of old folks up in the mountains. Yes, a cackle, as in "a cackle of geese". Call me rude and unappreciative if you want but I find most old folks annoying. Just like on my hike, I met dozens of them and they always say/ask the same thing. And I just find them annoying...just like a cackling goose.
"Aren't you cold? Dressed like that?"
"Where are you from? Malaysia? Wow, I've been there before...20 years ago"
"You speak Japanese? Wow you are AMAZING!"

There was one, however, whom I met along a trail who really interests me. He did not ask me any of those silly questions...didn't even care to ask me which country I was from!!
We spoke a little about a fell tree and effects of the recent typhoon....then we somehow ended up hiking together. He'd shown me various hidden paths that offered beautiful panoramic views, talked about the soil, the plants, people who climb the mountain...

We hiked all the way to the end where we said our farewells...

And we didn't even know each other's name. I treasure meetings with people like this . They colour your life and leave a mark that can't be washed away.

After my hike ended, I still didn't know what is it I was looking for, what did I obtained from it, or most importantly, what made me come back in the first place.

I guess I was looking freedom. By not knowing where it ends, I can take my time and leisure hiking at my own pace...I didn't have to care about anything in the world, just the conscious action of putting my foot in front of each other.

Yeah...for that 5 hours, I was free.

Happily ever after...

2009-12-03T21:18:00.005+09:00

It’s all over the internet now so, this shouldn’t even be on my blog as everyone else have written about it...still, can’t resist giving my two yen worth of thought here.

So, a Japanese man marries his Nintendo girlfriend. Wow, I am jealous.

And why not?

She is cute, has big eyes(with an incredibly sexy mole under her right eye), perfect skin, boobs with a satisfactory size. She’s forever nice, never demanding anything more than a few strokes of the plastic pen on touch screen, never argues, always there when you need her to be, always “not” there when you need her to be, won’t date out in expensive restaurants ordering something expensive which she can’t finish and will later complain about, and won’t ask you why your neighbour has new furniture/TV/car/curtain but not you. She also has no need for a Prada bag or a dozen shoes.

Wow...why have I not thought of that sooner?? I could have married Tifa Lockhart from Final Fantasy 7 for strangeness sake. That way, if anyone tries to rob me...

“Don’t you know who I am married to? Tifa Lockhart!! She will kick your ass!!!
Now, can just wait for a moment while I switch on my Nintendo?”
Push start…loading…select character…
load game…tifa…tifa…I’m going to load my best weapon…
Emerald Gloves of Dread. Oh ho ho…you are dead meat now!”

Now, wouldn’t that be awesome!! hahaha...

But seriously, I don’t understand why the world is so interested in this one dude. People have been having strange marriages all around!! Married to chicken, a tree, a dead spouse(I do think it is romantic, but some things just aren’t necessary), a partner twice/half your age. So, what is it so strange about this guy marrying a virtual girl?

Instead, it kind of makes sense in a few ways...

For example;
If Tiger Woods had married a Nintendo DS, he wouldn’t have crashed his car into a tree.
Bill Clinton would not have lost his presidency.
O.J Simpson would still be a loved actor.
Chua Soi Lek would be filmed sitting on a couch holding a small size gadget instead of...you know...

Just so you know, it isn’t all that easy getting a virtual girl to marry you. You first have to get to that “Marry Me” button...and it takes a lot of patience to get that option to appear on the screen.
I myself have tried a dating simulation before and, GAWD DAMN it’s frustrating!! It is almost as troublesome as dating a real girl in life. The only difference being you can’t slap the girl in game.

So, I say we applaud that guy who pioneered the way for us. Lets give him credit for being brave enough to actually hold a wedding reception in Guam. Lets be thankful that he gave us something interesting to read about and something for me to write about.
I shall forever remember him as NDS Guy(not Nintendo Dual Sreen but, Nippon Dude is Strange)....

Hah...I bet Charles Darwin did not predict this kind of evolution for mankind huh?

Japanese Zen : Power of mind over matter...

2009-11-30T21:25:00.002+09:00

I know that you all have the stereotype impression of Japanese; that they eat sushi everyday, and that everyone practices Zen. While the former is false, the latter is very much true. Japanese from various places and of various ages practices them, from farmers to city folks, from secondary school kids with Nintendo at hand, to old folks with walking stick at hand.

One of the more famous zen practices around is "mind over matter"...the one teaching we've heard over and over, but hand still hurts when punching a brick. However, just because we can't do it doesn't mean it isn't true. With enough dedication and willpower, it's amazing how you can achieve control over your body, enabling you to withstand pain, heat or cold. As far as I know, there's a particular group of people who have been very successful at this.

Having said that, I would especially like to focus on zen practices by young Japanese city girls.

Young city girls here wear the shortest of skirts/pants during autumn and winter. And after living here for 5 years, I have learned to stop asking "Are they not cold??" I've settled for the assumption that they all meditate for half an hour each time before leaving their houses, thus their superhuman ability of extreme cold resistance. If you have any other better explanation, please feel free to enlighten me.

Recently on the news, was a TV special reporting on how young Japanese girls no longer wearing just a mini skirt or hot pants, but paring them with leggings. This trend started only very recently but already with over 60% majority wearing leggings...this means lesser bare legs around, much to the dismay of boys who "appreciates beauty".

On a survey done, they asked these girls...."So, why leggings? Is it because of the cold weather?"

Amazingly, they expressed shock, then answered "Cold? What cold? Leggings are more fashionable..."

Chics and dudes, if only I can express my amusement here other than the usual "hahaha".

I could not help but laugh at their statement...I could swear that everyone in the cafeteria(was eating when I saw this) now thinks that Malaysians are crazy people. No other foreigners would have laughed hysterically at a TV report like that.

Randy is very sorry for causing a wrong perception towards Malaysians by the Japanese.

But how can I not laugh at that? I've known for years that they endure the cold winds just to show off beautiful slim legs, stare angrily at guys who ganders at them, then laugh happily among themselves in secret.
Now that they finally start wearing leggings, I thought that they have finally given in to Mother Nature...who could have known, huh...

On a different note, guys have started wearing leggings too...
Every time I see a guy wearing shorts with leggings underneath, it stupefies me to the point where I actually believed that leggings are meant for guys too....

Japanese Office Ladies...

2009-11-19T21:35:00.002+09:00

They are called OL, which stands for...well, the title said it.
This group of workers has always been the "main" topic of conversation amongst Japanese men when they talk the men talk...which is almost always about girls(yeah, as if anything else could interest us...other than sports anyway). And FYI, there's a lot of Japanese pornography that involves OL...

This picture here, was the only picture I found where the girl isn't showing off garter belt or underwear while in a compromising pose.

Warning : This is NOT a real OL...this, is a model dressed up like an OL

Me being ignorant in the pass, I've never gotten curious over this particular group of workers who seem to sow seeds of sexual fantasies in men who are otherwise bored of work. Never made any real effort to truly know what they actually do in an office.

So...what do they do, other than getting sexually harassed(in the fantasy world) all the time??

Well...

They are one of the most important units in the office!!

Yeah, I'm in a R&D department dominated by men...us and our powerful brains researching and discovering things. But god help us when the phone rings...one annoyed plastic receiver with 20 guys staring blankly at it.
And I imagine that the rubbish bin would be full of instant noodles containers after lunch.
Also now that it is cold, who would take the initiative to make a hot pot of tea??
or organize meeting rooms so that there would be no awkward coincidence?

Office ladies know everyone by their names and contact numbers. It always baffles me how they can be that efficient in connecting calls.

Always polite...always smiling...

They are our mothers, always taking care of our well being.

And do you know what I personally think of them?

Nothing much really...I'm just bored again. My test pieces arrived yesterday(finally, I have some real work to do), and while I had a productive day yesterday, the machines got hogged up today. Will have to wait for my turn to play with it. And about yesterday's work...everything went as smooth as I predicted it would be, experiment results ending up just like I thought they would be...and while that is all good, shit, what am I suppose to do during my free time when I don’t have any problem solving to do??

Yes, Randy smiles brightly when he has a problem.
Randy frowns only when he is peaceful.
Randy, is a strange guy.

ANYWAY...
Back to my story about OL.

As far as I know, only Japan have the work-group called "OL". It is a low tier work class whose job is mainly clerical work, serving tea, ordering lunch...everything on that line. For some reason, only women does this kind of job...as if men sucks at making tea and taking down messages.

Japanese stereotype of an OL is that they are mostly attractive, witty, but more often than not, stressed in life, being under constant pressure from their parents. Most of them are unmarried, which is probably the main reason why they appear in pornography so much. Yeah, us men are wolf....and why not? In an office full of balding men with sagging skin, any young clerk can claim to be Cleopatra....

I shamelessly declare that I am under her spell too...

Randy, the restless one.

2009-11-11T21:14:00.002+09:00

The English dictionary explains the meaning of "randy" as "boisterous" or "full of sexual lust".

I have always denied that the unfortunate meaning of the word that is my name, have got anything to do with my true nature. I'm sure that parents didn't intend me to be that way either. Which right minded, normal parents would want their kid to be like that?!!
Oh wait, my parents aren't exactly "normal"...
Nonetheless, those who know me, knows that despite the fact that I speak a lot of dirt, I don't soil myself.

But…

Seeing how restless I can be when idle...I may very well be "boisterous". The dict speaks the truth after all...what a dic*.

After my senior destroyed one particular piece, my work was substantially delayed. Long hours to go with nothing to do...where to put all my "energy" to? You all know how randy I can get at times, right? My restlessness always gets the better of me...I need to be doing something at all times.

Well...a delay's a delay. Can't be helped, can't be fixed.

So, I've taken it upon myself to embark on one of my original project.

I've made a few researches on the topic that I was to do. While my internship program dictates that I should recommend which material to use, comparing it using one arbitrary augmentation, I instead research on the augmenting process itself. Now I'm currently reading up on it and drafting a report(written in Japanese...oh gawd translation can be such a pain in the ass!!). Will submit it to my superior and see how he deals with it. So far responses are good...

There you go, always make yourself useful and do beyond what you're told. Appreciation comes along that line.

So, am I proud of myself? Am I happy with what I am capable of?

Nah...I'm not proud, I'm just bored.

And gawd damn the Americans, using inches instead of metric unit...
Can't they agree with the world for once? Use what everyone else is using!! Makes life easier. Even with English they have to do changes to it...coloUr damn it, not color.
And what the hell is with that pound per square inch?? Now I have to convert both pound AND inch...

Sorry, I'm just bored. Do you know of the proverb "An idle mind is the Devil's Playground"? Well, even the devil is starting to feel bored from playing in the same place...

Sigh...word is that my real work will begin next week.

Will stay bored and churning up ridiculous blogs til' then.

The coffee dependent.

2009-11-05T19:24:00.003+09:00

Days like these goes on forever...time slows to a crawl when I have nothing to do at work.
I am the traffic wreck and time is slowing down to look at me.

Time flies? Yeah, I'd prefer it walking away from me rather than flying around my head.

It's funny how you will always manage to feel sleepy at places where you not suppose to fall asleep...meetings, classes...for my case, at work. Times like these makes me wish that time machine exists...not to speed up time, but to go back in time to thank that brown person from Ethiopia who invented a drink of the same colour as him. Also, thank god for including caffeine in that drink.

Much wonder can come from a small cup of coffee.

I don't know why I can be this bored when just yesterday I had to stay an extra hour just to finish my day's assignment. Either I'm too efficient(doing too much in a short amount of time, thus having nothing to do later) or I'm just bad in balancing work.

Or maybe they are afraid that I might break another machine if I'm active...

Either case, I badly need a forecast just to let me know how much coffee I'll need to stay awake for that day...

Something like,
Forecast of the day: Cloudy with 75% chance of boredom. Put down the umbrella and grab 2 cans of coffee.

This, my friends, would be of much better help than reading lame, repeating horoscopes. I don't need to know if the love of my life is showing up today...my workplace is full of men anyway, so tell me if I'll have work and stay happy, or will I be bored sitting on my ass all day.

Sigh...actually, I did have a report to write yesterday that I planned to do today knowing that I had nothing else scheduled. But, just before I left, my chief, who had 1 hour left before finishing(he came an hour later than me to work) called me up to discuss plans for some future assignment. We talked, and he asked me to draft up a summary. I said "Ok, will get it for you first thing in the morning". He grunted an "OK" to me.

This morning, I arrived at work to find that report already done!!

Shit!! What the hell? Why did he do my work for me?!!!
Wait, oh right...he had one hour left yesterday. He was bored too.
Damn, he took away my work. Now, I'm bored earlier than I thought I would be.

Sigh...

Scary isn't it? Economy depression can really make people rushing for work to do.

Now, let me take a sip of coffee before I fall asleep and wake up with a keyboard on my face.

Tale of the destroyer

2009-11-04T20:08:00.002+09:00

Remember the 1984 film "Conan the Destroyer"?

The one where he goes around destroying big things and human lives? Well, I'm more or less the same...although with significantly less muscle fibers, non-Austrian accent, and destroying smaller things minus the human lives.

To date, everything I've touched (aided by my senior) will go under...you name it I’ve destroyed it.

Band saw machine: used wrong speed setting

Automated polishing/buffing machine: used wrong buff

Water-cooling cutter: Filter got jammed with residues, resulting in water overflowing from the bottom, which in turn results in that machine being put through overhaul...

Micro Vickers indenter: Supporting rod got dislocated, inaccurate indentations

Deep drawing machine: Speed dial got jammed temporarily, and on a different occasion, the punch was operated too fast and it hit the upper dais, deforming both the punch and the dais. Repair cost 130000yen.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that each of those cases was "my fault". And the term "destroy" was a little bit exaggerated…the term "temporarily disabling" might sound better.

Well, when each of those "calamities" happened, I'm told that it wasn't really my fault and that I just had rotten luck of it breaking down with me at helm. BUT, they go on saying that they have never seen it break down in their many years of working with that particular machine...then finishing their sentence by once again saying "It is not your fault".

Gawd damn Japanese ambiguity...

Well, I'm not saying that it's my fault(If I've learned, but forgotten or just plain careless, then only it's my fault). But can't they just say what they really want to say? What the hell do they mean by bad luck? All engineers know luck have no effect on machines!!
Machines are dumb assembled parts, they only do as they are told and break down only when some machine part's lifetime is up, or by the misuse of its handler.

Bad luck my ass...

But, at least they have the guts to tell me what was it that caused that particular mishap and "How I can prevent it in the future".

So anyway, life goes on at TOPY...

And as far as the learning process goes, I've still got a few more machines to destroy...

PS:
While typing this, keyboard suddenly loses function, not responding to anything. Had to unplug and re-plug the cable...thank god it worked. Would have been soooo awkward for me to ask for a new keyboard.

And I guess it is also worth mentioning the one thing I didn't touch that broke down.
The automatic sliding door at my hostel....it stopped being automatic 3 days after I moved in.

Maybe I do have bad luck after all...

Toyohashi Festival..

2009-10-28T20:48:00.003+09:00

ええじゃないか！！！

Means "Whatever goes!!".

While most festival all around have themes that hints at Global warming, world peace, perseverance, humanity....all kinds of make-you-feel-good bullshit imaginable...finally, a theme that makes sense, "Whatever"

Haha...whatever dude! I'm having fun!!

So many people lined up along the street....does this represents how popular this festival is??
Well, no it doesn't. This picture only shows how late I was to the festival. Spent the night before at Jeremy's place playing some cartoon-ish online game...
Woke up late the next day....nuts....

Even though I only managed to attend this festival for 2 hours, I had tremendous fun.

Even though I arrived late, I was instantly absorbed into the festival mood. Everyone jumping up and about, dancing crazily in pink.

Such energy!!

And they somehow managed to get a black midget to join them!
That little dude is not a kid, this group represents a local bar, and we all know that bars don't allow kids so....that must be a midget.
Woo Hoo!! Just saw the first midget in my life!!

And further up ahead is a bevy of beauties in red. Dancing to some barbie song or something like that..

Ay ee ay ee ay
I'm your little butterfly
Green, black, and blue
Make the colors in the sky

Yeah...that song. That annoying song from the 90s...but they had ladies in red dancing to that tune, in a cute way if I might add. Suddenly I was able to tolerate that song.

These guys seem to enjoy the song though.
See that some of them are just letting their cameras hang from the neck and not taking any photos?
Well, their memory card ran out.

And, as if to emphasize the generation gap, a bunch of old farts parading at the back..

This group of old farts was promoting road safety. Seeing how the group is consists of old people only, they are trying to tell us young people "Wanna live til' old age like me? Drive safe".

Oh my gawd...what a boring bunch!! Can't they do this some other time? or can't they pick another spot other than behind the ladies in red? Who's gonna drive safe when there's beautiful women right in front?!!

Moving on....

The next group I came upon was some dancing school group.

The kids were....I suspect they suffer Attention Deficit Disorder.

"I said...DANCE LIKE ME!!!"

Come on now, do the OOMPHAH!!!

Following behind was a brightly colored group of...oh, I don't know. Lost interest in knowing which group is which.

After this group, there was some kind of big gap before being followed by the next group...

See how organized Japanese are during festivals??
Love it when I see how people respect each other and try not to break the rules...
Not even to take a picture such as this.
Ehem...I broke the rule just so that I could show you how diligent every Japanese are at not breaking rules. Just wished I also had the chance to show you a picture of a group security personnel swarming in on me.

Next was a group dedicated to their local treat "おでん". It's umm...a Japanese version of Yong Tau Fu.

Oi!!..Do your dance properly, don't need to feel so happy of me taking your picture...

Ever wondered what Japanese worship in Japan? There you go...
A fish stick. Never has any deity or holy figures of great religions being heralded like this. God and friends up in heaven must be so jealous of this fish stick.

Two girls leading a team on...

This dude is just angry it's not raining on the day he remembered to bring an umbrella..

A member from KISS ??

They will grow up to fill in the red dresses some day.

The saddest looking piece of konyaku ever...

I saw him reach for that Pikachu mask!!!
Nah, just kidding, he took the green ranger mask..
It's a wonder that this kind of masks hasn't gone outdated...

A classic Japanese must haves at any festival...rescue the goldfish game.
You are provided a scoop which is made of paper...it tears if you try to scoop too fast, but if you don't, you'll never get to rescue any of them ugly, big eyed monsters...
And kids LOVE them...
But I wonder why they call it "rescue the goldfish"....
Ever seen goldfishes in the hands of a 3 year old? They live a better life in that tank, dying of old age instead of in the hands of a curious 3 year old. Nothing in this world...not even the devil can be as evil minded as a 3 year old kid with a goldfish when there's no cartoon on TV.

This stall allows you one cup of fries...
Haha, reminds me of my adolescents days...used to do this all the time.
Good job fat boy....

Yet another common sight to see at any festival...
While we fry our bananas, Japanese decorate them in sweets...covered in colourful rice chocolates. Japanese somehow claimed this to their own food culture. Well, yeah...who else in the world would decorate bananas like this?!! Even the hungriest monkey would stay away.

I think westerners with long black hair is hot....

But Asians with blond hair is not...

Anyway, look at them 2 punks....at any other times, all they do is loiter around with cigarette in hand, making noise and are of nuisance to everyone else. And yet, it is these good for nothing punks who manage most of the festival!! They set up the stalls, sells food, AND they tidy up after...

Amazing...completely different from punks in Malaysia who just loiter and spit on the ground, who vandalize things, who robs...
Here, punks like these two are just for the looks, minus the attitude.

Anyway, although the festival was a "Whatever" festival, they still stayed on plan and ended accordingly. The last group to parade was...

A bunch of party killers here to clear the streets...

Yet another Japanese quality, streets was reopened to traffic in exactly 30 minutes!!

Been here for 5 years, but this sense of punctuality and effectiveness always manage to impress me.

An intern's life so far...

2009-10-26T21:09:00.002+09:00

I'm entering the 3rd week since I started my internship here in TOPY Toyohashi.

I am allocated into the R&D department, placed under a guy named Kakami, whom I will describe as a 18 year old looking, 29 year old man. But let's talk more about him later. Also in the team is a Chinese Chinese called "Cho" and a fellow Malaysian Chinese named "Tan".

Now that I'm into R&D, you must be thinking I'm designing or developing something right?

Well, not exactly...

During my 3 weeks here, I've learned that what matters most to a manufacturing company is cost of material. It doesn't matter whether other materials are superior in terms of hardness or yield strength, being superior doesn’t always means it’s good(In my case, superior means hard but low yield point). Instead, inferior, cheaper things bring good news. In a society full of stingy bastards where people are always going for cheaper things, it makes sense not to sell them your best item, just your cheaper ones(Ask Microsoft, they know best about not selling you good, reliable software).

And this is where I fit in.

In my 5 months internship here, I will have to perform various observations, and fatigue tests on different types of steel, and make comparison of them so that I can recommend the best one for mass production.
In these 3 weeks, I have identified which among them are best for use, but I was bluntly told, "Really? Wow, good work. Nicely done. But we are thinking of using this instead. We know it sucks, but it's cheap. Now, try to think of a way to make it better."

So, I've come to understand that when it comes to steel manufacturing, R&D here means Research cheaper material and Develop a way to make them better. And amazingly, there are many cheap, simple tricks in order to get them to perform better. Well, at least we are making effort in making it better...
I know, it sounds a lot like a big middle finger to people who discovers new, superior materials. This time, it will be MY middle finger...haha, take that you arrogant inventors!!

Ok, I've jumped ahead too much in my story telling...

What I really do here is, I've studied a lot on the various works involved, like punch process, and types of test I will need to perform on them. Also on my schedule was learning to use all kinds of machines; band saw machine, refine cutter, polishing machine, that damn microscope...etc.

And the one tutoring me is Kakami.

And, in all my lessons, we've managed to cause problems to all of them, except the microscope...he hadn’t manage to misguide me into breaking the lenses yet. I can go on and on describing the various "misguidance" but let's just settle for the fact that he tends to forget "certain step". The worst resulted in a machine being sent for overhaul just because he forgotten a "certain step" of checking the filter...

This dude...Kakami tends to speak with that teenager attitude, with no command in his voice when speaking to me.

Ehem, here's a fact you never knew about Randy...

I'm constantly looking for people to look up to...someone I can respect. But if I meet anyone who fails to establish control over me, no matter how old they are, I tend to "take charge". It's a bad habit of mine...but I can't help it, certain events in my life have sculpted me this way. Before you judge me further, I do try to make an effort of suppressing my dark side...

So, this Kakami fellow... you very well know which category he falls in.

Anyway, I'm busy most of the time, always having something to do...be it studies or preparation of test materials. But there are times when I'm suddenly free...like when the machines are hogged up. Times like that…well, guess when I wrote this post?

Sigh...the worst thing in life is having nothing to do.

A new intern arrives at TOPY...

2009-10-22T22:02:00.003+09:00

My first day of internship...I have to confess here that I didn't start off good.

On my bus ride there, I fell asleep and missed 2 stops. Had to pay extra fare and I had to walk around trying to look for the right place...and did I mention it was also raining? Let me tell you, getting lost in industrial area was no fun...factories are far apart from each other and I had no way of telling which way to turn at any junction. Thank god I went early....and thank the pretty lady at the station who gave me a map.

After reaching the company, despite missing the stop and getting lost, I realized I still was half an hour early. In Japan, where punctuality is religion, arriving too early is a no no...it means you don't respect their timetable.

AND I forgot to bring along my pen and my stamp...do you know how awkward it is when they push a piece of paper to you, expecting you to start writing when all you have is a pencil? Damn...that was more uncomfortable than the time I forgot my wallet at the supermarket.

But that guy who greeted me was a nice guy so, no trouble there. I was then introduced to the boss, my section leader, and head of safety. Then, I was fit into a yellow hard hat and a black hard boots, and things kicked off with a tour of the facility and a spectrum of rules to follow.

Remember the phrase "Rules are meant to be broken" ??

Well, no they are not.They are meant to keep you from harm's way...keep you safe.

So do your best to obey them like pathetic slaves.

It used to be "Quality First" but now it's "Safety First". Apparently, they realized that an injured fellow worker and an interrupted machine costs a lot of money, and also that lawyers these days are more cunning, so your safety(their money) concerns them.

Having said that, you would have guessed it, most of it involves rules when walking around or handling machine. They have a manual on every piece of machine in that factory. Yeah, that means they also have a guidebook hanging from a vacuum cleaner, so in case you hurt yourself while sucking dust, it's your fault for not reading that damn guidebook first.

Like most factories in Japan, they adopt a system called "指差し呼称", which means point and speak. For example, when you step into a factory, you have to point while saying;

Point to the right "右よし" - migi yoshi(right ok)-

Point to the left "左よし" - hidari yoshi(left ok) -

Point above "頭上よし" - zujou yoshi(above head ok) -

Point to the ground "足元よし" - ashimoto yoshi(ground ok) -

FYI, Japan Railways adopts the same system. You'll always see a station master gesture along the train before blowing the whistle. Amazingly, no mistakes by station masters was ever recorded, proving that this troublesome gestures actually works to reduce accidents.

When switching on a machine,
"スイッチオンよし" - suichi on yoshi(ok to push START button) -

When switching off a machine,
"スイッチオフよし" - suichi off yoshi (ok to push STOP button)-

And, the interesting thing, my manager's name is Yoshii.

Yoshi to everything!!

But seriously, safety is the highest of importance in my workplace. We haven't had ANY serious accidents since 1980. The last accident recorded was some dude who caught a splinter in his thumb from a wooden chopstick...apparently, he was an operator for a production line and he couldn't push the buttons.

The company lost 2 days of productivity.

A City called Toyohashi…

2009-10-17T23:09:00.003+09:00

And so I arrived at the city of Toyohashi one day before I had to report in.

This is the first time I set foot in Toyohashi... And oh boy...so many Brazilians around!!

Brown skin amongst small eyes…

But of course, it’s not just their brown skin that sets them apart. It’s the way they dress, the way the walk…the way the look around. Like, I saw this one family walking by…father was dressed like punks do, mother was dressed in a bright pink tube top and denim short pants, and along was a little girl. Mother was enjoying her stroll and father was eyeballing everyone who looks at them. If that lady dressed like that, of course everyone will look!! Why the eyeball?? Why not put a coat around her or something!! Please don’t mistake me for a conservative, I’m all for bright pink tube top but…there are better places for her to dress like that, not at the train station!!

Anyway, the reason why there are so many Brazilians here is because, about a century ago, Japanese saw a very intriguing posters posted all over...

Says "Come on! Let's go to South America!!"

For every participant, they will be given a hoe and two tiny dolls along with a miniature flag. Now, we all know how much Japanese like small dolls...so, hundreds of thousands of people signed up and emigrated to Brazil. And they liked it there!! While Japanese women are all covered up in kimono....well, we can all assume emigrants there visited a popular beach.
Japanese Brazilians started to spring up everywhere...so, Brazilian government and Japanese government drew up some kind of deal that provided them with Japanese citizenship. After some time, these JB decided they wanted to "make use of" their citizenship. Thus the number of Brazilians here...but only god knows why they chose Toyohashi and not any other city.

And the high school girls here are…very different compared to where I came from. Let’s put it this way, I have never seen so many upskirts in a single day before. I mean, they don’t even make any effort to conceal their undies!!! They wear this ridiculously short skirts, then sit on the ground with their knees raised….sort of reminds you of the “Welcome” sign hung outside shops isn’t it? Call me a pervert all you want, but, if I didn’t look at them legs and nylon (some are silk), all my guy friends and my girlfriend will have something to worry about...my gal pals would probably start asking me for chocolate muffins recipe.

At least I was decent enough not to take pictures of them just so I can upload them here…

Okay, enough of me being a salivating wolf...

They have trams here!! A cute one too...
I thought trams only exist in Hiroshima and Hokkaido.

They had a band going on right in front of the train station.

And I started thinking that Nagaoka is way more “kampung” than Toyohashi.

Anyway, I met Jeremy, Kelly, Chin Wooi and Siew Ling later that evening. My god it’s good to see Siew Ling again!! It’s been like…5 years since I last saw her. Haven’t seen her for so long that I almost instinctively offer a handshake and say “hello, nice to meet you”. She still looks pretty much the same though…prettier than I remembered, but still the same I knew her to be. Good to see you, girl..

Well, had a wonderful dinner…had to bore myself listening to them talk the “Toyohashi Talk”…but a nice evening nonetheless…

Jeremy was kind enough to offer me his room floor for the night. The next day, I get ready to start my first day in TOPY!!!

TOPY : A new beginning

2009-10-11T15:32:00.003+09:00

As part of my Uni's unique program, current undergrads who plans to pursue masters in engineering in the same institution can undergo a 5 month long industrial training. Somewhat like a long-term internship. And, as far as I know, no other institution in Japan offers the same thing to undergrads. Yes, they also have internship programs but they last only about 2 months at most.

As for me, 5 months internship sounds swell...I mean, I'm bound to learn something useful right? And that’s why I chose to enroll into Nagaoka University of Technology. 80+ students joined this program and were sent to various places in Japan and also overseas, including Malaysia, Thailand, German, Spain, Mexico and many others.

And I chose TOPY Industries...

what? Never heard of it?

Don't worry, neither have I!!

Why I chose this? Well, part of the reason is that it is situated in Aichi Prefecture, the farthest one away from my Uni.

But that's not the factor which made me choose it. You see...in Japanese, it is written as 「トピー工業」, pronounced as "toh-pee-kou-gyou". When I first saw this I mistakenly read it as "toh-pee-ei-gyou". In Japanese katakana, "ei" is written as 「エ」, similar to Japanese kanji, "kou" written as 「工」.

So, during background check (Yes, as reckless as I am in making decision, I still always do a background check!!), try as I might, I couldn’t find out anything regarding 「トピーエ　業」. After many minutes of futile effort by me and my Japanese friend, it finally dawned upon us that it is ｢トピー　工業｣.

One click and tada...there you go, full corporate details. Some 2000 employees working for this misunderstood company.

Those who know me well, will know that this is reason enough to make me want to do my internship here. I go with the flow of events, never any planned ones. Any other companies are boring anyway. Yes, there are other big fishes like Toyota, Honda, Hitachi, Mitsubishi...but that doesn't mean you can get good experience, but only a name to show off to your friends to.

And besides, I spoke to a senior who went there last year, said he learned a lot. So, yeah...good choice for my part (no matter how ridiculous the reason was: reading the name wrongly).

So, yeah...here I am in Toyohashi, Aichi Prefecture...here to do my internship for the next 5 months...

here to corrupt them if they don't corrupt me first!!

Japan movie titles are hilarious!!

2009-09-25T09:59:00.005+09:00

It has been a LONG time since I could sit down and write stuff. I was so busy with so much things...well, busy until I lose sleep every night but, writers would know what I mean. When you have many things to attend to, you just can't sit down and compose proper sentences.

Anyway, I just completed my biggest task yesterday...YEAH BABY!!!!

ehem...excuse me.

Now, on to today's topic...

Dudes and chics, I have been living in Japan for a long time. And there are many, MANY things here that you can always count on to put a smile on your face...

One of them is Japan movie titles...they are freaking hilarious!
So now you know why overseas movies take so long to show in Japan...they have to think of a funny title first!!

First off, let's start with the lame ones....

Disney's UP...
While UP sounds intriguing, Japan made it "Old man Carl's Flying House".
Well, it may be true. But to literally name it like that...lame...

The Proposal became..."You will be my groom".
Well, not exactly 'groom' but 'a guy who move in with his in-laws'....
Still....cheesy isn't it?

Now, as for my favourite title of the year,

My Sister's Keeper....
They renamed it "You Inside Me"...

Maybe it's just me but, sounds an awful lot like a sex movie don't it??

31st August...Merdeka for Japan's Opposing Party.

2009-09-01T22:26:00.004+09:00

The news is in...LDP lost the election..

LDP, Liberal Democratic Party...Japan's largest and longest ruling party. This party have ruled over Japan for 54 years. But after a series of failed Prime Ministers, the people of Japan realized that the country needs a change, and thus voted for the opposing party, the DPJ, Democratic party of Japan.

As of yesterday, the election concluded with 60% votes in favour of the opposing DPJ.

Yesterday....dated 31st August...The day that commemorate the 52nd Anniversary of the independence of Malaysia.

Japan, a country that is most conservative when it comes to lifestyle, decided to side with the opposing party. No one knows how well the opposing party can rule Japan, everyone was well aware that this may even steer Japan into a worse state, threatening their already comfortable life. But, the people realize that they cannot stay contented forever. They realize that anyone who sits on the throne for too long will lose its potency as a ruler.

The people of Japan made a very brave decision.....they decided to progress.

Even the United States of America saw its first Black President. A country which was so well known with their racial issues. They saw that progress goes beyond race and colour.

And that yesterday was Merdeka Day, I can't help but think...what about Malaysia??

Isn't it time for a change?
Times have changed. Things needs to be changed.
And looking at the numerous demonstration which ended shamefully each time, I'd say that many Malaysians feels that we need a change. Looks to me that Malaysians think that they are ready for that new change.

I mean, come on...

Look at the recent news about Black Eyed Peas concert which is banned for the Muslims.

And all this is because the organizer is Guiness.

I can understand that liquor is not allowed for the Muslims because they sometimes cause us to lose our mind and do stupid things. But to ban a music concert is an entirely different thing! What? Just because some Malay dude attend the concert, he's going to lose faith and starts to get friendly with Guiness?

They sing "BOOM BOOM BOOM"...not "DRINK DRINK DRINK"...

Do the government think people's faith in religion is that weak?!!
Not taking a sip of water from morning until evening for a month is way harder than not drinking liquor right?

Sigh...almost everyone I know in Japan is asking me, why is Malaysia doing this?

They can understand why Muslims needs to restrict from pork and liquor...
They can understand why Muslim women needs to cover their head...
They can understand why Muslims need to fast for a month...
They can EVEN understand why Japanese dress up crazily to do cosplay...

But they cannot...thought hard and tried hard...but they cannot understand why Malaysia needs to ban a mucic concert....

I bet that news of BEP being banned got as much attention when Malaysia revealed the Petronas Twin Towers..

If this is Malaysia's idea of bringing the nation to the world's spotlight, GOOD JOB!! You've done the same as Dr. Mahathir did without spending billions of ringgit.

The devil I call Hospital...

2009-07-27T17:12:00.002+09:00

My dad is experiencing waves of discomfort and pain....but good times too(thank god for that).

During one of his good times, he related to me his experience from when he first collapsed until the moment he got admitted. Like me, he is a person who believe "Anything and everything is worth laughing at"...so I got quite a good time laughing while listening to his "experience". But I was concious of the seriousness of the situation punctuated between laughters...

He first noticed that he got a splitting headache, dizziness and nauseous one Thursday night. Realizing that this isn't normal, he got an ambulance to carry him to the hospital where they did a scan at Mahkota Medical and found a blood clot in his brains. My dad happens to also have an artificial valve and is undergoing warfarin medication. So, his condition is more or less a heart + neuro thing....and not forgetting that he is 68 years of age.

Mahkota Medical, Pantai and Putra refused to admit my dad in because he was "too risky". Damn hospitals....that's why we come to you...We have problems we can't handle!!! But I guess reputation is more important than saving people's lifes...god damn monsters.

So, under the recommendation of a trusted heart doctor, my dad was sent to Prince Court Medical Center...the only hospital willing to take my dad in. This hospital is situated in KL...while the ambulance is on the highway, they refused to turn on the siren as the driver said, "in Melaka it's ok...but in KL, only vehicle carrying a VIP is allowed siren". He was suffering and the damn driver refused to drive with sirens turned on...took him 3 fucking hours to get to KL. And what more, when my dad asked for a blanket, "Encik, kalau mau selimut, ada....tapi kena bayar 50 ringgit...". That damn wanker...

After reaching Prince Court, that damn driver refused to let my dad off!!! "Encik, kena bayar dulu!!". And my dad had a brain hemorrage that time...how the hell is he supposed to answer or pay the man?!! Either he's got shit for brains or that he worked as a taxi driver before.

So, now my dad's in Prince Court...bloody expensive as hell. Was asked for deposit of RM10000 before they agreed to do anything...lucky for my dad he had a friend who helped.

Damn hospitals....is money everything for them?? Don't people's lives mater anymore?? What happened to that Hippocratic oath?!! Damn hypocrites.....

Sigh...I am angry and disappointed at the system but, after reading recent headlines about how old folks are being abandoned at hospitals, guess I can't put all the blame on hospitals, can I? But then again...my dad did not deserve the treatment he got from hospitals in Melaka.

What a damn shame...

Sigh...but at least my dad is in good hands right now. Had to pay hella lot though..

If only you can see how beautifully decorated this hospital is, you won't believe that it's a hospital! With valet parking, lavishly decorated lobby, coffee bean in refreshment areas, toilet almost as big as my room in Japan....and the food...omg the food...prepared by Italian chef, they are one of the best I've tasted.

You see, my dad is not in a hospital, but instead a 5 star hotel with doctors...

Dudes and chics...if any of you are going to work in hospital management, doctors too, never forget that a human's life is more precious than all the money in the world.

Practice medicine, not do business...

Life made beautiful by Danger

2009-07-25T12:28:00.003+09:00

It was one fine Thursday night when I got a phone call from home...

Mom was crying on the other end...

"Randy, your dad is in the ambulance now heading to KL. He is bleeding in the head.."

Imagine the shock I had....it's not everyday you get a phone call telling you that your father had a brain hemorrhage. Listened to my mother's almost incomprehensible(due to crying) explanation of the situation....then I had to end put the phone down and allow a few moments to pass before finally registering the fact in my head.

I knew at once that I had to go back....yeah, who wouldn't, right? My brother had work and couldn't just leave so that leaves my mother alone. And my mother isn't exactly a calm lady when it comes to situation such as this. I had to go back for both my parents sake...

I wanted to go back that very weekend itself, but I'm tied by responsibilities in University. You see, I had to hand in a report and give a presentation as finals in a course I was taking. Fail that and I had to repeat the year. And then there was paperwork involving my furthering studies.
This was also the time where everyone start doing their research vigorously as we had to hand in our work at the end of September, but luckily I was consistent until now and already had enough material. And also lucky that my lecturer allowed me ample time in Malaysia.

Anyway, after the phone call I got, I weighted my options and opted for a Wednesday flight the following week.

A friend of mine was kind enough to offer his frequent flier points to get tickets for me to go back. Although his was United Airlines and it only had direct to Singapore, he was a much appreciated help. And since I'm reaching Singapore midnight and had to spend the night there, a friend studying there was kind enough to offer me his place to spend the night.

Things like this makes you remember these people forever...

Day comes and I find myself strapped in my seat, staring at the "put your seat belt on before take off" light above me. Flight captain announced that we had good weather and was expecting a quick arrival....GOOD...
Then, I realized that I had been staring at the "seat belt light" for an awful long time and was wondering what went wrong. And then it came...

"Ladies and Gentlemen, we are experiencing some mechanical problem. The ground crew is inspecting it and the flight will be delayed for an hour"

Of all timings, now? When I'm anxious to go back? But I thought that one hour delay couldn't hurt...what can be worse?

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm sorry to announce that this flight will be canceled. Another flight will be arranged tomorrow at noon"

Great...now I will miss my connecting flight from Singapore to KL. And considering the fact that my dad wanted to see me badly, this will be a big blow to his already depressed and negative mental state. BUT, I suppose that this is much better than having an airplane crash...

Reached Singapore and had to fork out 80 SGD to get the earliest flight out...
Once again, customs officers staring at my passport, walking down the long walkway to my gate, strap myself into the seat...

"Ladies and Gentlemen, there will be a short delay...."

Oh, come on!! Again?!! A lot of things had caused some sort of delay and struggle, not just the cancelled flight but other unmentioned things as well...

Sigh...can't help but be reminded by what my dad said all the time, "When you are in a rush, all the traffic lights will be red"

This time, no cancellation following the delay so...it's all good for me. Reached KL a little after midnight. Was picked up by an uncle of mine. I wanted to go directly to the hospital but my uncle was very very tired and I had to stay very very patient and keep from pestering him to take me to the hospital.

Finally got to see my dad the next day...arriving 2 days later than expected, I could see that the anxiety had taken a toll on my dad.
Got the gist from the doctor saying that my dad had had bleeding inside the skull due to his drug side effect(he's taking some kind of medicine to regulate his blood density to his pacemaker). The bleeding had formed a clot and they are keeping him under observation and will only decide what to do after a week.
Anyway, although everybody's been telling me that this isn't that serious a condition, my dad's been sick for decades and this present scare had affected his mental state a lot...and me arriving 2 days late? Well, let's just say that he suffered quite a bit in that 2 days...

When he finally got to see me, he cheered up immediately and things got a lot better from then on. He started eating again(haven't been eating properly), started moving about(had been bed ridden all the time)....although he still suffers head pains(means no peaceful sleep), things had suddenly gotten much more bearable and he is able to sleep through the night....

He told me a lot of things that he had not before...well, things that I'm not too comfortable sharing here, but important things concerning his past life that I had not known. Told me how much he appreciated the family more than ever before...

This sort of danger had put a new found appreciation of life within both my dad and me...

Truly, there are no appreciation without threat...

Things look okay at the moment, and I hope that with my love and support, things will be okay all the way...

The uncomfortable thought...

2009-07-06T14:03:00.003+09:00

I don't know about you but, for me, time slows down during summer...

As the heat and humidity fills the air, everything goes by in slow motion. As if time expands with rising temperatures....

And it is during this time of the year when I lose all my mood to do anything at all,
Time of the year when lecturer starts to get serious with my work...
Time when a mundane lifestyle stick to you like sweat, where days of the week don't make sense anymore..
Especially now when my friends who were doing medic just graduated...requiring me to call them doctor when I'm still in the process of pursuing my degree...
It is time like this when I start thinking up nonsense....

"What if I had known that it would turn out like this, would I still apply for Japan?"

If I had the superhuman ability of being able to the future, and I knew that it would turn out like this, taking 7 long years just to get a degree...would I still apply for Japan??

Although I do have a lot of fun in Japan, and I met a lot of interesting people and I do gained a lot of experience...but....honestly, I don't think I can give a 100% yes to that question.

I mean, 7 years IS a long time if it's just to get a degree....and as much as anyone would say about my fluency on Japanese, that still doesn't cut it as English is still the mainstream language of global communication.

So, what have I been doing all these years?? I mean, I don't feel particularly "extra smart" for being able to study in Japan....in fact, I actually think that I could have performed better elsewhere...

So,

"What if I had known that it would turn out like this, would I still apply for Japan?"

I somehow recalled my conversation with my friend, Kenny's father. He advised me against going to Japan as it takes too long to get a mere degree. I can always take up Japanese lessons and I can always go to Japan for holidays. It was quite a career-prioritized advise and it didn't feel all that appealing to my immature mind at that time...

Same thing goes with my trusted teacher/adviser/mentor in highschool...

And with a lot of other adults...

I was thinking "No way I'm letting this go!! I want to see the famed mini skirts of Japan"

But now, I'm seriously thinking "What if....."

It used to be said that Japan is more technologically advance and that we should learn from them....and that's why Dr. Mahathir started the "Look East Policy".

But what I learned is that, in order for Malaysia to be technological advance, all we have to do is lessen the number of "coffee breaks"!!! Malaysians here fair quite well academically...and why not since our brains are of the same size! It is the attitude, the mentality, and the dedication that sets us so far apart.

But as you all know, Malaysians can be quite dangerous, aggresive and unrelenting when it comes to cutting down teh tarik breaks....

YES! The existence of teh tarik and karipap is keeping us back in the technology world!

So, even I manage to absorb the essence of Japanese greatness, and I don't deny that being in Japan changed me in some way....how am I to change the infamously stubborn Malaysians?

What, then, is my value??

What, then, is the purpose of me being here in Japan?

What.....if I had known that it would turn out like this......

would I still apply for Japan?

Fireflies and Zazen : Japanese Meditation

2009-06-22T21:49:00.005+09:00

Last Saturday was a day of peace and magical beauty.

Saturday was especially a nice day since I had quite a lousy week before...broke my glasses during a more aggressive than expected game of basketball, needing to spend a lot of money on getting new glasses, faced a roadblock in my research, punctured my bicycle tire causing me to miss an important class....like I said, not a great week.

With irritant factor raging through my reins, I badly needed some peace to cool down. So, I joined an event called zazen, which is Japanese style religious meditation.

We left the main road and the loud engines behind, and entered an old city with little traffic if none. We reached an old temple(not a shrine) which was smaller than I expected. But a nice and tranquil place as there was no crowd....plenty of greens around too.

We then were introduced to the head monk who taught us the basics of meditation..

Zazen stands for : za which means seat and zen...well, you all know what zen is. This seated meditation is actually a copy of Indian cross-legged meditation...but Japanese got a cooler name for it. The only difference is that you get a good whack with a stick in the back if you start to slouch or fall asleep..

After 5 minutes struggling to get my feet on my lap, we meditated for about 30 minutes....what surprised me was that it felt more like 5 minutes of silence rather than a torturing 30 minutes of cramped legs!!

Along with me was a bunch of Chinese guys, Koreans and a Spaniard called Pol. Pol didn't want to join this event at first as it sounded boring...well, when did meditation ever sounded fun, right? But I managed to convince him saying
"Religious meditation sure sounds boring...BUT we'll never know how boring it really is!! If you go back to Spain, and your friends asked you 'Hey Pol, do you know about that boring shit called zazen?' You can never answer them if you don't join this crap....and besides, we can laugh about it on the way back!!"

And he joined!!! Haha...it's good to have someone agreeing with my nonsense once in a while...but I gotta say I had a great time at the temple in the end.

Anyway, after the temple was a trip to see fireflies....have you guys ever seen fireflies? I know, you can see them at Kuala Selangor...but I've never seen them before in my 24 years of life.

From the temple, we walked about 20 minutes to a firefly reserve. We went into the forest in the evening, then out on a clearing devoid of artificial lighting...and as it got dark, one by one the fireflies started lighting up...and within minutes swarms of them started lighting on and off in unison. Almost....ghostly....

How can I ever live for 24 years and never experience something so hauntingly beautiful??!! Just like magical little tree fairies they float among trees, flirting with each other, and with our eyes....

Unfortunately, their beauty can't be captured on camera...well, either that or the camera I'm using isn't good enough. I guess this scene will be a special one to be remembered...beauty known only to me.

This one Saturday shall forever be remembered...

And the Ambassador arrives....

2009-06-08T14:43:00.006+09:00

Yesterday was the day we hold a farewell event for Mr. Ambassador. It was attended by Mr. Ambs, his wife, son and daughter, staff from the Embassy, representative of MSAJ(Malaysian Students Association) and KUJ(Kelab UMNO Jepun) and bunch of students from Nagaoka University and Nagaoka College. The event was a formal event and was held in a hall with everyone wearing a blazer, cushion office chairs(not the one you're sitting on, the better quality ones), air conditioning and a big ass screen on the front wall.

I'm not...I'm never a big fan of formal events. This doesn't mean that I did not dress properly or anything along that line...just saying that there's no fun for me listening to prepared speeches. But I was desperately hoping to be entertain by something....and I was not disappointed!

Attendees(students) entered the hall as soon as the hall opened. I was hoping to meet up with the President of MSAJ, Lee Boon Hon before entering the hall, so me and Calvin hung out outside waiting for him. But he never came, so we went inside.

And that's when I got my first laugh...

All the students gathered at the back....leaving a lonely front and middle area empty. Then, a man from the embassy ordered them to fill the front seats. Hahaha...what are they? Small children afraid of the principal??

ALso, this being an event attended by Malaysians, punctuality is always the main big issue to frown upon (or to laugh at, your choice...but I tend to frown). But what the hell, I'm bored and I need some twisted entertainment...
You see, we had to sing the national anthem and 2 other patriotic song....I predicted that some will be late and they will walk in just when we're halfway through the national anthem. Well, no one came in during 'Negaraku', but quite walked in during the other 2 patriotic songs. As walking during such songs would be rude, they started gathering near the door!! Was quite obvious that uncomfortable awkwardness surrounds them...haha

But luckily, no one walked in after Mr. Ambs started his speech. But un-luckily, someone was stupid enough to bring her infant to the hall. What kind of dumb ass brings her baby to a formal speech?!! I know...I know, I may have gone too far by calling that woman dumb but then again...common sense-lah Makcik... At one point of Mr. Ambs' speech, all of his "comma" and "full stop" was punctuated by that baby's gurgle...

"It is great that we can have stability in a country with many races like Malay 'Eeahh' Chinese 'Eeahh' and Indian 'Eeahh' "

Hahahaha...

Baby continued to speak baby language for a full 5 minutes before everyone's stare made that Makcik uncomfortable and leaves the hall....finally.

Overall, the speech was pretty much very boring....speech contained stuff that every government official would say. The same shit like unity, peace and stability in a multiracial region...except Perak maybe. Although, there's one thing he said that really impressed me. Something about mastering languages...

"Kita dijangka....we are expected to deal with foreigners so....kita mesti belajarlah bahasa..."

Wait a minute, is he trying to tell us to master languages so that we can speak different languages in one sentence?? Well, OKAY... I was having trouble speaking a full sentence in bahasa anyway, but as a master of languages I can always mix in a few languages...hehe..

20 boring minutes later, the MC announced that this is the end of speech and that next is lunch....

Here again, I was hoping to see if anyone was brave enough to stand up and exit the hall before Mr. Ambs himself....

God bless Malaysia. We are a country full of brave souls....

I turned back and saw a few stood up as if it was normal, took a step forward but stopped when they saw a few still seated, signalling them to wait for Mr. Ambs to exit first. Awkwardness once again shrouded the hall.....hahahahahaha.

After that, lunch was pretty much incident free.

Oh, I have to say, lunch was de-li-cious!!
We had nasi minyak, ayam masak merah, daging kurma, and an assortment of kuih.

After lunch was photo session. We decided to take pictures outside, where it's nice, bright and windy. And that's where Mr. Ambs daughter of about 16 years old caught Boon hon's and my attention(Calvin noticed much earlier)...

Mr. Ambs daughter is the one on far left...

You see, a harmless innocent breeze blew by....and suddenly long, slender, beautiful bronze legs was revealed! Apparently, Mr. Ambs daughter came wearing a Baju Kurung, one with a slit that can even compete with a china dress!! With a slit that goes all the way up to the thighs....PLUS the wind blowing, it is very difficult to blame us guys for noticing. After all, she didn't put the slit there hoping that guys not notice when the wind blows, right??

*WARNING* : added exaggeration detected in photo.
I don't have a picture showing the slit, but it was something like this....how can a normal, functioning guy not turn his head and gander??!!!!!

Now, correct me if I'm wrong but, I thought there was the thing about aurat and stuff??
Naughty naughty...

ANYWAY, the event was a success and we didn't encounter any big hiccups. Mr. Ambs was very satisfied with this event as he got to deliver his compulsory but boring speech, and he got to mingle among students during lunch.

Goodbye Mr. Ambs...thanks for everything during your time in Japan.

All the best in Malaysia...

PS: Picture of China Girl was taken from http://www.reallycuteasians.com/

Gotong Royong : The Malaysian spirit

2009-06-08T14:14:00.003+09:00

Good old Mr. Ambassador, TYT Dato Mohd. Radzi. This is his last week in Japan. He has served for....okay, I don't know how long has he served but I do know he is going back to Malaysia this Saturday. Sorry Mr. Ambs...

A farewell event was planned for him on yesterday, in conjunction with Agong's birthday,
here in my University in Nagaoka. About 150 people are expected to attend this event so, as for the preparation, we(us Nagaoka Students committee) organized a gotong royong.

I was put under nasi minyak department. Gosh...I have never cooked 25 kilos of rice before in my life!! Originally a 10 member strong group, only 4 turned up...but what the hell, we managed anyway. By the time I got back home, it was almost 1 a.m and I was dead tired.
But somehow, strangely, I felt a sense of accomplishment!
I felt happy for being able to lighten someone else's load.
I felt belonged as I connected with others...
My spirit felt SO alive!!

So, this is what you call a gotong royong. While i used to participate back when I was a kid, I have somehow forgotten about the joy of gotong royong as I grew older...as I grew more materialistic...and as I grew more selfish. Somehow, at one point I started asking for reward, refusing to help, and only doing things that involves recognition.

Having spoken that, I gotta admit that I wasn't at all helpful last year...

I participated in the Japanese drum group and I devoted myself entirely for practice. I was constantly using "drum practice" as an excuse to not help in any cook outs.

While it is important to pursue materialism, we must never forget that it is always the connection with people that keeps us going...

keeps our spirit strong....

Connecting dots...

2009-06-04T22:21:00.003+09:00

Every hurdle you face in life represents a dot.
They make no sense why you need to
suffer and struggle and sweat...but,
years from now, as you connect the dots,
you'll realize that each dot has a meaning
and they form a beautiful and elegant line...
You cannot connect the dots by looking forward,
you can only do them looking backwards.
So, do your very best and endure, as you will
Surely come to appreciate your effort some day.

You must realize that this is my first, weak attempt at poetry. I have a long way to go before I can write words that 'sing'...

Anyway, this poem is about connecting dots. I heard the general idea from a presenter in Nagaoka, who in turn has heard from Steve Jobs. Now, this have got to be the most meaningful and practical thing I've ever heard in my 20 years of literacy life.

Listening to this reminds me of my high school days where I asked my maths teacher, "Why do all this? What's the point?". She gave me a very lame and nerd-ish reply "To score an A in SPM". I don't mean to be rude to teachers, but what a dumb answer that was....

However, I finally discovered the true purpose of learning mathematics. It's not until 8 years later when it finally made sense as why I need to flirt with numbers....

To build. To design. To create.

Now that I'm in charge of designing a method to reduce a particular set of data, I realize that I need all my knowledge in mathematics, physics and material science knowledge in order to come up with a method that can yield an accurate result.

Ehem...what I'm trying to say here, is that, had I not work hard 8 years ago, I wouldn't be able to do what I do now. This is the same as things we suffer by everyday. They are difficult and we are often tempted to give in to procrastination and neglect....but difficult and trying as they may be, it will no doubt be one of the important dots in our life.

So, all the best to all of us, and may we all smile when we look back on our line of dots...

What it takes to live together...

2009-06-02T15:07:00.002+09:00

One of the most famous phrase written in the bible is "Love thy neighbour".

Knowing that, you can say that only god knows how hard is it to love your neighbour....which means that its pretty damn hard.

We all have our fair share of living with ugly neighbours. While many of us have been a bit shy in talking about it, Borat more or less sums it up :

Borat : Do Jesus like me?
Church Pastor : Absolutely, Jesus loves you
Borat : Do Jesus like my sons?
Church Pastor : Jesus loves your sons
Borat : Do Jesus love my retard brother Bilo?
Church Pastor : Jesus loves your brother Bilo
Borat : Do Jesus love my neighbour Nushuktan Tulyiagby?
Church Pastor : Yes, Jesus loves everyone.
Borat : Nobody like my neighbour, Nushuktan Tulyiagby...

All these time watching movies and dramas, I've never quite understood why couples find it so difficult to decide whether or not to live with each other...just like that scene in Yes Man, where Jim Carrey hesitated when he was asked if he wants to live with that girl.

Before furthering my studies to Uni, when I was speaking to one of my seniors about Uni life, he said that it was very, very difficult to live with other people. Quarrels and disagreement happen on daily basis, and that I had better think very carefully if I want to share apartment with someone else. Said that I was going to live with a friend of mine, and I'm sure that things will turn out ok....but he instead said,
"He may be your good friend, but even that, you'll start to quarrel after a few months. Yeah he's still your good friend, but it will not be easy living with him".

Early last year, I was blessed with the opportunity of living with an old friend of mine. I lived across him back in our UTM days where we studied Japanese before going to Japan, and he looks bearable to live with. And so, March last year, I moved in with him...

Things was okay in the beginning. Garbage and dishes are taken care of, kitchen is cleaned on weekly basis, we cycled to school together...

One year have passed.....

This morning, we headed out to school at the same time....something that have not happen for about 10 months. I was thinking, "Wow, it's been a really long time since we cycle to school together!!". BUT....

as I turned to lock the door, I saw he was already on his bicycle!!

By the time I got both my feet on the pedals, he was already far ahead. Now, that is pretty darn strange considering that we share an apartment.

Wow....how did we end up like this...

This have got me thinking, it's not easy living with another person...and I suddenly had new found respect for my mother as she had to live with me AND my brother for 17 years...

It's amazing that my mother have not gone "completely insane". I use the term "completely insane" because.....well, those who have met my mother will know that my mother isn't exactly "normal".

Sigh...guess I'll just have to be patient for another 3 months. After that, I'm moving out....

This time, I think I'll live alone....

Wild Plants Tempura at Osugi Park...

2009-05-25T22:33:00.005+09:00

Yet another trip organized for foreign students here...
Hah...it's so nice being a foreigner here in Japan.

Anyway, this time, it's a trip to a farm, planting sweet potatoes, then it's a hike up a hill to have sansai (wild plants) tempura for lunch.

The schedule for the day was this:

Gather and depart by bus to some place
Reach a small farm, help turn the soil, fertilize it and plant sweet potato shoots
Hike for about 30 minutes up a hill
Have Tempura for lunch at Osugi Park

Okay, seeing this kind of schedule, what would you choose to wear?

Shorts? A jacket that you won't mind soiling? A comfortable pair of sneakers for hiking?

YOU ARE DEAD WRONG!!!

You should wear a beautiful sari, put on make up, wear cute sandals and paint your little toes!!!
Hahahahah....

You can always count on Indian people to dress up like this to no matter where. They love their clothes very very much...such show of patriotism!

Ever seen a woman in sari and cute sandals planting sweet potatoes?
I have!

Hahaha.....

Okay, now on to the main story.

I originally forgotten about this trip...then a girl contacted me the night before, asking me if I could take her place instead as she had some other stuff to do. Just like Jim Carrey in Yes Man, I said "Yes."
I mean, why not? I have eaten sansai tempura only once before and I enjoyed it a lot.

So, gathering was early in the morning. It was then when I got my first haha in the morning. Me and Farhan saw the lady in the sari and we thought that she was there probably just to wave goodbye to her friends.
Then we saw her get on the bus....needless to say, we instantly hahaha-ed at her.

I don't mean to be rude towards Indians here, but damn....a sari to a farm? I can forgive an eyeliner...but a sari? AND one of them was late....haih.

Anyway, reached the farm not long after that and was at once put into labor...

Honestly, I was expecting a good laugh watching Sari pouring stinking fertilizer on the soil. But I was disappointed to find that she's the designated camera person.

Anyway, we did stuff you see in the photos above. We were invited to come back here again to harvest and consume those sweet potatoes we planted. But too bad, by that time, I would be away doing industrial training.

There were about 20 people working on that small piece of land, so work ended as soon as it started.

Next was the 30 minute long walk up the hill to the park for lunch...

The walk was scenic and very refreshing. Seriously, can't remember the last time I took in so much green into my eyes.

Just in case you're wondering, they gave us the option of riding the bus there as we had old folks amongst ourselves. So, folks with white hair, sagging skin, and sari rode the bus there.

Waiting for us on the table was various kinds of wild plants ready to be drowned in flour and oil.

On the way there, I told Farhan's lab mates; Toyoshima, Oshio and Sakurai, that I had eaten these before, and while I remember the taste, I can't remember their names....so we ended up calling them "Randy no.1", "Randy no.2", "Randy no.3", "Randy no.4".
During lunch, they found out that, while Randy had a unique taste, Randy is sometimes hairy and bitter...but they all liked Randy anyway. Haha...

Oh, I have to mention here that the lady(polka dot top) who joined us at the table was one of the organizers. She is very very Japanese ladylike. And by that I mean the way she was seated with her legs neatly folded beneath her, the way she addresses everyone, the way she carefully dips the wild plants into the flour and then the oil, the way she politely asks if there's anything that we like, the way she partly covers her mouth when she talks....like I said, very very Japanese.
She even went as far as frying only the things that she recognizes, like pumpkin, asparagus and bamboo sprout....Japanese is always cautious of things they don't recognize.

Takes a challenger like Randy to deep fry things like Randy no.1, Randy no. 2, ......don't remember doing anything I already know when it was my turn at the fire. Haha...

Anyway, lunch was great. I even manage to get my hands on some sake. Always nice getting to eat these kinds of things once in a while...a rare break from the usual chicken and fish.

The day ended with the organizers waving hands at foreign students.

The Japanese ladylike bowed...

PS: What I meant by Indians was India's Indians....not Malaysian Indians. Forgive me very much but I have heard a lot of funny stories from my brother who is working for MAS. He hates flights to India, but always comes back with the funnies stories ever on their antics.
Oh, I later found out that they weren't from India after all. They are from Bangladesh. I should have studied Geography more seriously in Form 3.

The melted piece of chocolate.

2009-05-23T22:26:00.002+09:00

Here's something about me; I LOVE chocolate.

One of my favorites is Cadbury's Dairy Milk Chocolate with Fruits and Nuts. Took a piece from a pack today, tore open the small packaging...and instead of finding a block of brown goodness welcoming me, I saw gooey, soft brown mud waiting for me instead.

Damn...Summer heat killed my chocolate.

Yeah...Spring time is over, and Summer's coming. Sigh...the heat, no wait...the heat is inevitable. It's nature, god's idea of making us sweat.

It's the humidity that I should be bitching about!

Great....now I gotta bring out my trusty old fan and clean it before putting it to labor.

I've started sleeping with windows wide open and without blanket....afraid that soon I'll have to sleep naked. Damn....the heat....

I know...being a Malaysian, I'm supposed to have gotten used to heat. But after being introduced to the alternative(autumn, winter and spring), I find that the heat IS something worth wasting your time complaining about.

Not only the heat, the damn cicadas will soon start making noises, trying to "get it on" with its mates.

I wonder if there's anything about summer that is worth looking forward to?

Beaches maybe? Hmm......

Bra for men?? Wtf??

2009-05-12T22:31:00.003+09:00

Many prophecies have predicted that some kind of plague will mark the end of days...yeah, I know, Swine flu is out and about now. But I'm not ready to acknowledge Armageddon just yet...until I saw this.

Umm...what is that dude doing, holding his chest with a sad face like that.
And what's wrong with the mannequins? Did they run out of plasters to make boobs?
And why are those bras on display so small...wait...are they...no...no....NO WAY!!!
Those are men bras!!

Shit, the end of the world is truly coming....Yes, now they have bra for men and it's available in Japan.

I have no idea why they made bra available for men, but this is damn ridiculous.

I've seen guys sitting in front of the mirror setting their hair and trimming their eyebrows.
I've seen guys putting on foundation on their faces as they are "afraid of the sun" or "wants fair skin".
I've even seen guys going on strict diet just so that they can fit into tight pants.

But this....what the hell? Men's bra? Now the Japs have gone too far!!!

Aw shit, this have got to be the most disgusting piece of picture I've ever posted on my blog.

OKAY...let's be fair to those guys who "needs" them. These guys aren't exactly transvestite, nor are they some perverted cross dresser. They are normal, everyday office men. Report says that Japanese men have "requested" for them...asking why can't guys wear bra too. It supposedly have positive psychological effect...boosting self confidence and relieving stress. They are so popular that these men bra sold out on the first day of sales!! And I kid you not when I say, there are request for men bra in the US as well.

This thing isn't exactly new in Japan. The trend where men have become less "manly" started long ago. Many of the guys here are less aggressive, forgoing the masculine look and opting for a softer touch; such as trimming eyebrows, putting on make up, refusing to go out if they're hair/clothes aren't well done....some even refuses sexual relationship with women, preferring "self help" toys instead. In Japan, they are labeled as "herbivors"....as in harmless as a cow kind of herbivors.

See how scary Japanese lifestyle can get? You may have heard about the many suicide cases in Japan, but now you know to what extend the pressure and mental stress people face here. And to think that I MAY WORK HERE someday, this isn't encouraging at all...

Can you imagine...me putting on a bra before going to work? My thick, hairy arms reaching out to the back, trying to hook it in place?

Looking into the mirror, then smiling stupidly to myself....full of confidence with a red bra on my chest....

Can you imagine the sheer horror of that??

Someone please kill me the day anyone sees reddish strap beneath my white shirt....

Golden week that was...part 2 : Ramen Museum

2009-05-10T22:24:00.003+09:00

As all of you may know, Japan is famous for its ramen. As all of you may not know, ramen originated from China....there was a period after the samurai era where people in Japan just got sick of eating sushi.

"What? Raw fish? AGAIN??!! "
"Can't you at least fry 'em? Boil....or steam maybe?"
"Don't go ongiving me that crap such as 'it's healthy' or 'cooking it will spoil the taste'...you lazy bum!!"
"Now, let's go eat out...hey, that shop is selling something yellow..."
"Slurrrp...Mmm...this is GOOD! What's this called?"
"Ramen? Cool...."

And so, ramen became very popular all across Japan. And while the Chinese are contented with only one flavour, Japanese got bored quickly and created new flavours of their own ; shoyu(soy sauce), miso(fermented soy beans), tonkotsu(pork bones), shio(salt)...and they took over the world. Even the Chinese started to like the thing that the Japanese shamelessly copied from them...

You see, most of my peers left early after last night. So, I ended up being the eldest one there. And my schedule for that day left me free to do anything...so, I decided to grab myself a few juniors and headed to Ramen Museum in Shin-Yokohama. Those juniors unfortunate enough to be stuck with me was Jet, Ong, Carine, Wei Ling, Beh(Bear? or something like that), Sin Ying, Dong Shen, Jun Hao...8 innocent young blood waiting to be corrupted by me! Hahaha...

Ramen Museum...this place isn't just place where they display boring ramen made out of wax. This "museum" is a place where they offer you famous ramen from various region in Japan.

This place was so famous that we had to line up for about 30~40 minutes just to get in.

The museum is consist of two levels. The top level where they display information on ramen; what types are there, history, etc...mostly boring stuff encased in glass.

The second level however, ho ho....let's time travel.

As you can see, this set is placed back in ancient Japan, time when samurai only existed in movies and robots have drills on its nose. It's as if I've time traveled...just like The Terminator who went back in time, except that I'm not naked and not as muscular like Arnold.

There were about 10 shops there from regions such as Sapporo, Kumamoto, Hakata, etc etc...The crowd that day was especially big, so big that there were more human than noodles and pork. I went with a group of 8 juniors and....with a crowd like this, its hard to stay together and very very difficult for the shops to seat everyone in. So, we split up to smaller groups and agreed to meet up later.

I paired up with Jet, a junior from Suzuka, Mie Prefecture. A very very cool girl...who else would have a name like Jet? No wait, there's that guy who can do Kung Fu....I mean, which girl would have a name like Jet? Couldn't help but introduced myself as "Hi, my name's Rocket, nice to meet you." Hahaha...

Anyway, it was me and Jet, the rest...I don't know much about the rest. Didn't see any of them at all. After lining up for almost an hour to get into the museum, now, we have to line up even longer to get to into the ramen shops!! But Jet was good company and I didn't mind lining up at all...

This is a mini bowl of Kumamoto Ramen for 500 yen...

Always practicing in "Ladies First", I let her choose which shop she wants to go to....Please don't ask me to describe the taste. All I know is that it's a super-licious tonkotsu ramen from Kumamoto, Kyushu. Good ramen with good company...what else can a guy ask for, eh? Lol...

After finishing, we had about 1 hour plus left before joining up with the rest of the gang. So, we decided to try ramen from Sapporo, Hokkaido this time. The line was a whole lot longer than expected and we lined up for....I don't know how long but we were late by 30 minutes when meeting up with others.
Anyway, she ordered Old-style Ramen, which was some kind of shio ramen...taste quite good. Though the taste wasn't as strong as Kumamoto's, it's something that you won't get tired with even after eating a hundred bowls.
I ordered miso ramen instead. If you'd look closely at the picture, you can see that there's a cruel layer of oil floating above my ramen. Enough oil to lubricate an engine for a month. Taste was ok, but the oil...ugh, just horrible.

We had to gobble it up fast as we were already late. The only good thing about my ramen was that it help me eat faster as I can slurp that slippery thing up my mouth easily....ugh, horrible.

All in all, this is one of THE place to visit in Japan. No need to travel hundreds of kilometers to eat famous ramens from various regions...just head in here. Yeah, you have to line up a lot...but it's definitely worth your time.

PS to Juniors: Eh, sorry la guys. Made you wait for half an hour. Worse, that I keep telling everyone to be punctual and I ended up being the unpunctual one. Very very sorry...

Golden Week that was...part 1

2009-05-09T22:51:00.009+09:00

Last week was probably THE most important week for any Japanese in Japan. It's so important that they decided to name it "Golden" week. Actually, Golden Week don't even last a week....it's just 4 days of holiday. And the ones who named it "Golden" are probably businessmen as Japanese are compelled to spend money during this time of the year.

And this holiday is for everyone!! The 4 days includes a Saturday, Sunday, Greenery Day and Children's day....Nothing escapes the holiday spree, not even the trees.

Anyway, Golden Week is used by us Malaysian Chinese to hold a gathering every year. Some sort of get to know your juniors kind of thing. But in reality, it's just another excuse for us to get together and reminisce about the old days and catch up on gossips about other people's love life while keeping their own a secret....just like what all old people do.

Just like last year, the gathering was held in a forest of somekind somewhere near Tokyo(about 40 minutes or so from city center)

Where last year was a hike up the mountain and camwhoring while making hell of noises, this year we had games where we made even more noise. We Malaysians are always champions when it comes to making noise in public places, but luckily no one took off their clothes while doing that!! haha...

Btw, the game we played was where each person was given a card with a number on it. We then had to form groups corresponding to a number decided by the referees. I sort of cheated and held two cards(given by Koek Seng Chye, second eldest among us. What a way to teach a junior about life..lol). Still, I got kicked out early in the game....

The second game was drinking coke out of a tin cup using a skinny ass straw to suck at. Damn, straw was skinnier than Cristian Bale in The Machinist. In this game, my team won the competition. How? Well, thanks to my genius and teamwork by Jeremy Cheong...haha.

"When pouring coke into the tin cup, some of it are bound to spill right?"
*Jeremy spills some coke*

"When moving, unsteady hands will cause it to spill right?"
*Jeremy spills some more coke*

Oh, and not forgetting the awesome power of sucking by Ben Foo. Teamwork was what made us win. Teamwork guys...teamwork.

The next game played was carry a ping pong ball on a spoon. Classic.

Oh, one person worth mentioning was Lee Boon Hon. You seem he came a bit late, about halfway through the first game. Boon walked towards us and suddenly flings his bag high up in the air, which landed at nearby benches, and lifts both his hands up, just like a politician greeting his supporters. Haha...what a way to make an entrance. Needless to say, most of us are shocked to see such antics...but damn, what a memorable wtf moment. Guess what.....he forgets his bag later that night!! LOL!!!

We later had barbecue for dinner. The usual sausages, chicken wings and sweet potato placed above roaring fires. Clement and Jeremy happened to be in the same group as me....the few other English-ed guys at the site. SO....seizing this opportunity, I unleashed my cheeky jokes on "sausages" and "chics"....haha. Those with mind as dirty as a charcoal will know what I mean, so no need to elaborate here I guess.

So, we've had our fill, eating to our heart's content. What to do after sitting in front of a fire smelling burnt chicken wings? Go sit in front of a bigger fire!!

Then comes the part everybody's waiting for....Juniors introducing themselves. Well, not that we can remember all their names anyway...no one can. But what we do every year is tease couples of their batch. Nothing excites us Malaysians more than childishly teasing people in love, is there?

Most of the seniors left after the bonfire....but I stayed. Thought that they would like to ask about life in Japan, so thought that I'd play the "senior" role and offer "advice" on living in Japan. Haha...sounds so mature and caring when my real intentions were to...ehem, lets not tarnish my image here.

Anyway, it turns out that I didn't have to speak much after all. This guy Yow Keong, did all the talking. This earned me comments such as "Randy, you look serious". Ho ho...just wait till I start telling unending lame jokes.

We kept talking all through the night....and kept talking until they locked the doors to the main building(I stayed in the cabin) and a few juniors couldn't go back to their own rooms and had to crash in with me instead.

It was very nice getting to meet them juniors...although they made me feel sad by reminding me that I'm "old". To me, they seem somewhat quiet and well mannered, and knew how to carry themselves around elders. Don't get me wrong though, I not like a typical Japanese where they stress a lot on junior-senior relationship.

Anyway, welcome to Japan fellas!! Now suffer the culture differences!!!....haha..

The road not taken...

2009-05-01T20:36:00.004+09:00

My lecturer bestowed some very good words of wisdom this morning...

"When a difficult and particularly tough road lies before you, it's probably the right one. Take it! Taking the easier road only means that you are making up another lame excuse to your life."

The professor actually meant attitude towards work....not anything else fancy and far away.

I have a bad habit of believing any scientific paper I read, you see. So, I don't check out the validity of theories and ideas stated in it as I assume that when people write those paper, they do it based on a solid theory.

But apparently, research means much more than that. He said to me, "Paper is not god". Wanted me to take the difficult road of checking out every damn thing written in that paper.

And so, I did what he said, gave a presentation to a representative of a company, and got great response. Said that I made a very good effort in my presentation and understood very well the things I've presented...

The difficult road IS the right one to take after all....

So, yeah.....I cannot but agree with this. Frankly speaking, I can't even think of any better wisdom on living your life.

The irresistable tulip...

2009-04-26T20:13:00.003+09:00

You wake up on a Sunday morning, strongly feeling like going somewhere...and tulips are in season now...

But, weather forecast says rain and strong wind, up to 40kph...

What do you do? Do you give in to your stubborn feelings of wanting to go out to look at tulips despite the weather? or do you do the right thing, heed the weather forecast and stay at home, enjoying a cup of hot cocoa while it's cold outside??
I tried calling a few of my friends if they want to go, but all gave the same answer, "Are you nuts?"...

The answer is obvious, isn't it?

Head out to see the tulips!!

BUT...like all my stories, none of it is "normal".

Managed to borrow a car from a friend of mine, drove about 10 minutes to the park. And just as I stepped out of the car, strong gusts of wind buffeted my body...wind was so strong it was like 'He' had a lot to complain about and tried to tell it all in one blow.

So, how strong was the wind? Here's a brief explanation..

Man fights with wind...

Man's ass got kicked...

I was also forced to pay 710 yen for parking and entrance fee...not to mention that rain is starting to fall now. But never mind that. Headed for the main entrance full of optimism...

But as soon as I stepped in, I was greeted by the sight of people leaving the park...oh, how encouraging. Come on!! I just paid 710 yen and have only been in here for 2 minutes!!

But then again, Randy's not the kind of guy to let small things, like strong winds and rain falling sideways, to hamper his spirits, right?? And so I walked on, looking for the tulip grounds..

Ahh...bright, contrasting colours calling me onwards to them.

And guess what? The wind and rain is starting to let...my day might not be so bad after all!! So, armed with with trusted vid-cam, loaded with freshly charged batteries, I marched to the grounds....and got the biggest laugh of my life!!

It just cracks me up to look at these up close...hahaha. Every tulip in sight was bent at a funny angle!!

Bent to the will of the winds..

Of course not all flowers were this way...there were a few brave souls who defied the wind.

They were destroyed and became "the tulip that was". Never say no to the wind...

By now, the rain started to fall again...so I took off to exploring the rest of the park. Found this fountain which was playing on along with one of Beethoven's..

The wind started to pick up again...blowing stronger than before. And as you can see in the photo, the wind was adding unnecessary exaggerations to the fountain display. Somewhat cool though..

The weather really started to suck big time...but lucky me there was some parasol shelter where I was, so I decided to sit the symphony out. It played two classical songs, then went dead...time to go I guess...

Being far away from the main building and having no other options, I headed out into the grumpy weather once again to explore...

But I'll be damn, the weather proofs to be in a mood worse than a teenage girl suffering PMS. After my humble umbrella turned inside out for the third time, I decided that enough is enough...so I ran to the nearest shelter, a toilet sitting in the deepest part of the park.

While I was taking photos of mangled tulips moments ago, I was thinking "Hey, it's not everyday when you get to take pictures of tulips shape like this, right?!! *laughs*".

But, now that I am stuck at the toilet alone for about 30 minutes, soaked through my socks, shivering from the relentless cold, stomach reminding me that I haven't had lunch, holding an umbrella which committed suicide....I'm REALLY starting to lose my humour and good mood.

While I was shaking all over from the cold, alone and feeling angry....a shuttle bus appeared right in front of me, asking if I need a ride to the main building! According to the driver, he was making the last round and going to stop the shuttle service. I almost cried at his kindness...

My luck's started taking on a good run now..

When I reached the main bulding, I thanked the driver profusely and immediately headed to one of the restaurants. Ordered a pizza for late lunch...

This one is straight from the hearth...

It turns out that I was the only patron there, so the baker gave me extra cheese for the topping. She later treated me a cup of coffee....on the house. How nice...^^

Having finished lunch, and not exactly eager to head out to the wind again, I visited another area of the building selling souvenirs.

This is made using Japanese paper. One piece(the round one) costs 850 yen. A bit expensive...but it was beautiful...and I DID go through all the trouble with the wind and rain...I decided to buy one. The lady who sold me this liked my smile...said that it is very nice to see someone who was totally messed up by the wind, smile brightly like that. So she gave me another piece free of charge...hehe.

Two good things just happened to me, I was feeling very happy and decided to call it a day and head back home. But as I was heading to the exit, it occurred to me that I have not seen all of the building, so I went round exploring again...

I met a bunch of Malaysians sitting around...being in a good mood, I went to greet them. Turns out they were having lunch and asked me to sit with them. They had with them THE most delicious rendang, nasi briani and mee goreng....and not forgetting the warmest hospitality.

Sigh...how can such a bad decision turn to be a good one?!!

So, the next time you REALLY feel like doing something, go for it!! Even if it's going to see ugly tulips bullied by wind.

Good things always happen when unexpected.

PS: I do have some decent pictures taken. Posted on Facebook.

Fall of a celebrity : Kusanagi Tsuyoshi

2009-04-24T21:24:00.003+09:00

Yesterday, Japan witnessed the fall of a celebrity....

Ex-SMAP member Kusanagi Tsuyoshi was found drunk and hollering around at a park. Nothing wrong for a celeb to get drunk, right? Right, except that he was butt naked while he was at that!!

For those who don't know who the hell he is, here's a pic of him.

This guy could very well be the most famous guy in the whole of Japan. Well, after the recent scandal of his, he IS the most famous guy in Japan. Anyway, a brief introduction...

He is one of the 5 members of SMAP, a very popular group in Japan. So famous that not one self-respecting Japanese kid can't sing their hit songs. Other than singing, he's involved in various kinds of TV shows and also in advertisement, like the one above. He is also well versed in Korean and have done quite a few work there. He is well known for his easy going character...well liked by everyone, on and off the industry...

So, now you know that he is a very important figure in Japan. But last night, after a couple of beers and shochu, he got drunk...very drunk. Where the legal limit of alcohol for drivers is 0.15mg, his was tested to be 0.8mg!! He was so wasted that he stripped off his clothes and started shouting in Korean at a public park at 3 a.m. And he was violent too...at least I think he was, news reports that he resisted arrest and that they had to wrap him up in a vinyl sheet and shipped him to the station!!

Following the embarrassing arrest, advertising agencies and TV stations start canceling his shows and commercials. His career was over before he could pull down his pants.

Now, what interests me is that how eager Japan was to crucify this guy...especially one so famous like him. This is so different than America where you can be exposed for the skankiest scandal ever, and still smile for the camera the next day. Leak a sex tape...whatever, you'll get a bigger paycheck yet.

But here in Japan, where every must follow a certain rule...this one involves the rule where all famous people have the responsibility to portray a good image for the young generation to follow. Break it and you'll get the front page news.

So, learn from his mistake!!

If you ever want to go out drinking, make sure you drink A LOT till' you pass out completely! That way, you won't end up doing stupid things...such as a career suicide.

Snack it!!

2009-04-22T10:45:00.003+09:00

Stopped by the convenience store on my way to lab this morning to grab some vegetable juice(yes, we have that in packets here)...was going to start my healthy morning when I saw this..

What you see here is a packet of Cheetos, "siu mai" flavor...

Now, my understanding of this world leads me to believe that cheetos is some kind of cheese flavored snack, right?

Now, since when do people eat dumplings with cheese?!!! Have mankind evolved so far as to forcefully assimilate asian and western food? Do people actually eat this?

So far, we have, spicy/salty/buttered chips, pizza/roast beef doritos....and now this one.
I have known Japanese people to be crazy, but not this crazy...

Will buy one packet and let you know tonight.....

UPDATE:
*Chokes...

What the hell? This thing only taste of light soy sauce and mustard!! Where's the dumpling taste?? Where did the "siu mai" go?!!!

Sigh...what a way to waste 103 Yen...

The spider with big dreams...

2009-04-19T20:16:00.003+09:00

Today I saw a young spider, still green in colour..so young but born with great dreams...

Where spiders normally would build a web of just the right size, this young one wanted build a huge one...about one meter across. Too large for one so young. As tough as it could be for a spiderling to build one so big, it nonetheless worked hard for it...fighting against the wind and gravity to realize its dream....

All our lives, our mentors, parents and elders have advised us to dream, to aim high....but none ever gave those advise seriously. They forget that we all have different strength and qualities in us which affects our "dreams". Looking at the spider, it dawn upon me that we always need to know the difference between "what we want" and "what we can get".

It is always good to aim high, but we have make sure we don't waste time and effort to chase the impossible.

An excellent idea, if premature, is a lousy one...

Getting drunk with the flowers...

2009-04-18T12:24:00.003+09:00

Once again, the all famous sakura trees...

And along with the flowers, we have the season-limited sakura sake!!! Sweet tasting and very nice fragrance..

The shoes with colourful laces are mine...

When it comes to Japanese, they all will have a picnic, which they call hanami or flower viewing. Hanami in University is usually accompanied with booze and barbecue!!

The mandatory cheers before the feast..

It's all food and fun...and everyone does this. Hanami among lab members, among club members, among Malaysians(no booze in this one), among foreign students, among....and the list goes on.

I can be considered to quite active around uni...joining various groups and clubs. And that means many hanami sessions, so I'm practically drunk every night and wakes up with a hangover-special headache for the pass week.

Ahh....a few lecturers called me over to join them for drinks. I don't really know them, but then again that's the joy of being a foreign student...you get invited everywhere. I drank so much I could hardly walk straight and had to ask a friend of mine send me back.

I enjoyed the flowers on the first two days...but after that, I somehow forgotten that the flowers were there and just concentrated on getting drunk...haha

Man's greatest invention is definitely liquor.

Time allocation imbalances...

2009-04-13T11:04:00.002+09:00

Last year have been a hectic one.

Classes, exams, lab projects, MSAJ(Malaysian Students Association Japan) projects, japanese drum events...so much to do with so little time. There wasn't one day that didn't go by without me wishing I had more time.

I have never really believed in god, but I think I do now as my prayers have been answered....I have sooo much time off!!

So little to do with so much time in hand....

I had spent last year taking up almost all classes as my course, mechanical engineering in my Uni can be quite tough...but to my surprised, I passed them all!! So technically, I cleared most credits needed to graduate. Only need to attend compulsory classes now...which is like, only 2 classes to a week. As the student's equation says...

No classes = 24 hrs - 2 classes - ( sleeping + eating ) = shitload of free time!!

Last year had been spent researching info and drafting out my plans on how to proceed with my lab work. During that process, I proved that one project was theoratically impossible(pity my senior, but he managed to graduate anyway), and got entrusted another project....and this year...well, I still don't know how to use the machine and the only one who knows is busy with other things!! As lab researchers' equation says...

Stalled work = Wasted time - blogging - lunch= shitload of free time!!

Last year had also been spent going to and back from Tokyo as I was involved in the student's association. Had a lot of fun growling at people who arrive late to a meeting, not obeying the schedule...you know, handling problems the way gangsters should. But alas, they thought I'm too expensive and too far away to maintain(Half of the yearly spendings on transportation is from me). So I got kicked out of the committee....what a sad thing to happen. Thought of being more agressive in creating new projects and events...but...oh what the hell....

Sigh...

Can't life be more balanced? How about an ideal lifestyle of being busy but free enough to do fun stuff? Is that too much to ask? IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK?? Boredom is eating me from the inside...

or maybe I should stop blaming the holy forces and start planning my life a little wiser next time...

Yozakura...the night sakura

2009-04-12T11:05:00.004+09:00

I've been spending a lot of my time getting fat sitting on my ass. So much time that my eyes are starting to complain being kept within a prison of 19 inches of liquid crystal...

And it is springtime, it's about time I give my pair of balls....ehem, eyeballs a fair treat.

So, I joined in a trip to Takada Park to see yozakura, the night sakura...

The trip started out horrible. Did I mention that this place is famous? Well, it is...and like famous places, almost everyone in 100km radius will visit. Japanese people are suckers for the word "famous". And since I am located within that 100km radius, AND since half of my body is Japanese-ly mutated, I am obligated by community norm and by law to visit this place.

Oh my GAWD the traffic was horrible!! Even a 87 year old lady can walk faster than the car I'm in. And, utilizing modern technology, you could probably find needle in a haystack faster than you can park your car in a maze of metal on tires...

After staring at another car's backlight for 2 hours, I finally reached my destination...ahh...Takada Park at last...

The lights beyond look very very promising....

They even have these cute little pink lanterns to guide you to the center of the park...how convenient.

This oh-so romantically beautiful bridge laid before me....the park itself must be very very beautiful. Boy, I can't wait to get to it!!!

And, suddenly......

BAM!! This mass of meat and nylon greeted me....What the hell are all these stalls doing here!!

Can't even get a decent picture as there are various kinds of stalls blocking the view. This one says takoyaki, which means octopus in a ball of dough. And, like all octopuses, they don't like to die easily...so they leave behind a distinctive smell that fills the air, choking off the sweet scent of cherry blossom. And there's about...10 maybe 20 stalls selling this stinking 8 legged little monsters...

Wait a minute here...I thought I came here to look at cherry trees!!! Damn these shops...and damn japanese who open these shops. I'm totally fine with shops for refreshments...but every which way?? Leave some areas for the trees to bloom!!!

And so I embarked on a sacred journey to find serene, unmolested ground of trees with no shops around...

And this became my precious piece as this one contain NO shops in sight....ahh...night sakuras....
Something about these tree gets me...I prefer sakura viewing in the day time, but night viewing is not bad...not bad at all..

And also these trees along the bank of the lake...it's hard to see but there are rented boats about..you can hire one, row out to the edges, escaping the stalls and noise. How romantic...

This looks kinda nice too...the lights have that firefly-like effect on them...

Me and my friends decided to leave at about 10 plus...and once again...

Oh my GAWD, the traffic is horrible!!! Just like all the suckers who decide to leave at 10, we all got to watch each others car's tail light....reached home at 12.30.

Night sakura is so...exhausting...

The Birthday that was...

2009-04-10T21:10:00.003+09:00

I would like to start this entry by saying special thanks to my housemate, Lai Chee Wei for he remembered my birthday and went as far as secretly buying a birthday cake for me. Complete with candles and all....and what a nice chocolate cake that was.

Also, to my fellow juniors, Calvin and Joann who treated me dinner at a barbeque buffet. We ended up ordering half a cow and a flock of birds...deliberately or mistakenly I don't know, but damn, that was a lot of meat. Thanks to Joann's uncanny talent to lose at scissors-rock-paper game, we somehow managed to finish all that meat.

This time around, definitely was a lot better than my previous birthdays...

The last good one I had was the one before I came to Japan. Wasn't held on April 1st itself(I had to fly on the 31st) but...wouldn't complain about an early Birthday, would I? Anyway, I got lured into playing basketball that day...and a couple rounds of pool with a few buddies. Then I headed back home to find a bunch of people screaming at my face...took me a minute or two to realize they were actually shouting "Happy Birthday"!! It was so sweet of everyone to have done that for me...me, the guy who would talk nonstop till you are forced to laugh at my jokes just to shut me up....
One guy, Lim Kian Min, came all the way from Subang..he had to leave the party early as to catch the bus back. One guy, Egbert, came in such a rush that he accidentally drove his car into a drain and one of his tires got stuck in. We had to all help with lifting his car directly after blowing the fire off the stick of wax....hahaha. One girl, Sueann presented me a scarf that she knitted herself for about a month....most certainly the most beautiful moment in my life so far...

That one must have been to prepare me for the next few un-memorable ones...

My real birthday arrived but we were all in the plane tied down by the annoying "belt light" and grumpy looking, tired stewardess....if I remembered correctly, people were wishing me, then plopped back into their seat and continued sleeping. Hmm...so much for celebrating my birthday 10000 feet above sea level. Well, at least friends were wishing...hehe...

The next one was me busy preparing for lectures as the year starts in April in Japan, not January. Buying books and cleaning room....had a full plastic bag full of dustmites celebrating with me.

And the next one was spent alone in the cold, eating TV dinner!! you see, I graduated from college and had to move to my Uni which is far far away...and since the year starts in April, I had to settle my Visa and register myself with the local municipal. Then I had to settle the paper works in order to move into my new apartment. Had to deal with this fat annoying bitch(now nicknamed FAB, will do your laundry but brings tears to your eyes if you get it in.) who couldn't bothered to be helpful. Had to use my gangster-like looks and get into a staring competition with that FAB just to get a key chain for the keys to my apartment.

I sincerely thought that I had graduated from birthday blues after flying to Japan, and also occasional words of wisdom from my dad, "The best day is pay-day"...which I suppose many workers out there would agree. BUT...

Only after blowing out the candles on the chocolate cake my housemate secretly bought for me, that I discovered that I still have a soft spot in me...

I'm not a cold blooded monster after all...

Spring is in the air...

2009-04-09T10:40:00.003+09:00

I have been absent from writing this blog for...I don't know how long.

"Where have I been????"

Well, as you know, some mammals...like the polar bear, we go into hibernation. Going into seclusion and deep sleep...reserving energy where food is scarce and emerging only when spring arrives.

Yes!! Spring has arrived!! Spring is in the air...every bouncing here and there, stretching and contracting to the hearts content. And like most mammals, here I am too...blogging yet again.

Actually...no, of course I didn't go into hibernation. Unlike polar bears, I have access to convenience stores and the Internet...the INTERNET. Can you imagine if the polar bears had Internet?? God knows what kind of twisted site they would come up with....

Anyway, the reason I was on hiatus for so long is the usual excuse...exams. But exams was 3 and a half months ago...but right after exams was the Malaysian Night event held in Tokyo. Being one of the committee member, I was busy doing the committee thing, ya know..more arguing than actions done. It didn't turn out as well as I wished it would. I guess it can't be help, there were 2 factions with 2 contradicting ideas...me against the rest of the group...haha, yes there are hints of exaggeration and show off here, but you get my point. Anyway, things can always be improved this year...I hope.

And directly after Malaysian Night was New Year!! So...like all self respecting party go-er, I crashed 2 places...one where all the big boys go to, and after that the ones kids like me go to. If you are thinking pubs or disco bar....no, I was at my friends houses. Let me tell you how Japan's New Year is like(not including night clubs). Most people go to the shrine, to pray for good fortune, to pray for cute girlfriends, to pray for the sake of praying...to take pictures of people praying for the sake of praying...so, you can imagine the mass of meat and heat of that overcrowded place they call a shrine. Takes a few hour just to reach the shrine, only to be enveloped by smoke...and don't forget that you HAVE to go through all the meat once again to get out!! Me? I'd rather chill and drink liquor at my friends place.
Btw, New Year at a night club here is...well, everyday is a New Year at a night club...

After that was a one week ski trip at 2 places...4 days at Joetsu International and 3 days at Myoko Suginohara. Boy...I H-A-D FUN!! Skied so hard that I had cramps on both my thigh and suffered the subsequent muscle pain...but that still didn't stop me from doing jumps and skiing like crazy for a week...

And after ski was going back Malaysia!! Boy, do I feel like a tourist back at home...Melaka changed so much!! And it was very, very nice getting to meet old schoolmates back again...ahhh, the old days....everyone else did most of the talking anyway. Spent so much time trying to explain why am I speaking so slowly and the crap-less content of my speech. Come on...I have been away for a long time from the fun and crazy people I'd call friends.

During my trip back, I've had the chance to go to Penang to meet up with a few friends...and along the way, I've me a few new friends...one of them a special one. Truly, I have never met anyone of that character before...*smiles and start reminiscing*

One and a half months pass, and I found myself once again taking flight towards the North-East. To put it frankly, after not blogging for 3 months...I sincerely lost all sense of blogging. Quite a few times when I logged on to blogger.com when I suddenly went blank headed, and decided to watch some cute Japanese anime instead....may sound wrong coming from me but, cute 2D girls interests me too..

So..there you go!! That's why I took such a long break from blogging. The longest lame excuse ever...and the shortest summary of my 3 months of life!!

Locked up in prison!!!

2008-11-27T22:15:00.003+09:00

I have a very very serious thing to confess here...

Before I tell you what it is, I'd like to you to fully understand the condition I am in. As you know, I'm under scholarship of PSD(Public Service Department, or JPA). And being a scholar means that I have to abide by some rules set in an agreement with the Government of Malaysia. This agreement is so serious that I had to sign it in front of a lawyer.
One of the main rule was that I have to obey the Japanese law at all times and if I ever get into trouble of any kind, the Government of Malaysia have all the right to end my contract and demand that I pay back every single cent they spent on me.

But....about two weeks ago, I was caught by the police and had to spend the night in a lockup.

Shit...I have been careful for so long, obeying every existing law...I even recycle and take out the trash properly for goodness sake! But alas, I'm only human and human make mistakes...

See that sexy policewoman holding a camera? She was the one who caught me in crime...yes, she is a policewoman who wears an impossibly short mini skirt baring her sexy legs. I tried to run away from being captured but....strangely, I lost ALL my strength when I saw her chasing me.
Worse when she stuck me against a wall and do that police "tap all over your legs searching for concealed weapons" thing...I really went weak that time...

What was I guilty of? Oh...well, I was guilty of almost forgetting the birthdays of three ladies...hehe..

From left : Happy Birthday to Tiew Chin Chin, Chin Sze Ting and Lim Fong Zyin...

I can't believe that just by forgetting birthdays of my friends, I would be sent to a Lockup!!

Here she is again, booking me in...

I tell you, it's horrible in a lockup!! They performed all kinds of experiments on poor me...

A concoction of various deadly chemicals named "The human experiment"...

They took out my eyeballs and put it in some kind of drink...

Li Jia is SOOOoooo delighted to be able to eat my eyeballs....

Folks...having been to a lockup, I can guarantee you that whatever rumors you heard about lockups are true!!!

The homosexuals of prisons...Michael and Loke Eng...

Crazy people dressing up funny....

There were shortage of food...so we had to rush and fight for one small piece of cake...

They even tried to poison me!!!

Hahaha....ehem....for those still confuse, this is actually about a birthday party held in a hip place called "The Lockup". It's a horror theme restaurant serving special drinks such as the ones above. There was Human Experiment, Aphrodite's Love, Clone Experiment, Eyeball Cocktail, and Electric Shock....I have to say that I had a lot of fun with the test tubes...^^V

Waiter/waitresses there dressed up as inmates, and every 2 hours, zombies will appear and try to scare us patrons....yeah, we were so scared that we laughed. Later, a "policewoman" will appear to "save us".
She was so sexy that when she came asking if everone is alright, everyone shook their head...haha...Oh, forgot to mention that her impossibly sexy mini skirt had a slit at the side that made it impossiblerly sexier!!

This is a very very cool place with interestingly fun drinks...had a lot of fun that night....

Happy Birthday again to the three ladies!!

Strangers have the best candy...

2008-11-19T15:46:00.005+09:00

Recently, a friend of mine, Michael Tiong, have alerted me on a news about a Malaysian student studying in Waseda University being charged for drug smuggling.

Apparently, he went to Netherlands one day, and he was approached by a stranger. The stranger persuaded the poor stupid fellow(shall be called PSF from now on.) to assist him in drug smuggling by mailing hemp(plant to make marijuana) to PSF in Japan.

The court have found PSF guilty of smuggling, but is lucky enough to get away with a suspended sentence. The University however, also found PSF guilty, but guilty of being stupid enough to be persuaded into this, and is expelled from school for being so gawd damn stupid.

Now, unless he is a private student who is poor...we can all say "Well, I understand his situation". But he isn't poor! He went all the way to Netherlands for goodness sake!! Even I haven't been to Netherlands....
And, if he was under scholarship, like me, he would have enough money to undergo education comfortably. Can't buy you a Ferrari, but definitely enough to get you hot meals everyday.

Although he isn't someone I know, and he isn't part of scholarship of my sponsor...I can't help but feel that his actions somehow affected me. Everyone who took the trouble to read the papers(in Japan) will definitely know about this and will think that all Malaysians are alike.

Sigh...

Now, when exams approaches and people are looking for ways to release steam, I won't be surprised if one of them approaches me to buy some marijuana. It's sad to think that impression on Malaysians have gone sour like this.

Imagine the look people will give when they see me on the streets...

Imagine how they will all think of Marijuana when they see me...

Imagine...how much money I would make if I had sold drugs...hmm..

Imagine what I could buy with richness reaped by smuggling drugs!!

IMAGINE IF.....

Oh...ok, now I understand why PSF did it.

Moral of the story:
If you want to smuggle drugs, make sure the one supplying you is a professional. Don't get caught...^^

Pain in the Ass..

2008-11-17T20:22:00.003+09:00

Ever wondered why "pain in the ass"??

I mean, there's so many other types of pain and sufferings, but "pain in the ass" is used to describe irritance, insufferables and annoyance.

Over the weekend, I've come to know the real truth behind it...and I didn't even need to refer to Wikipedia for it. You see.....well, as embarrassing as it is, I contracted some kind of infection on...well, I don't need to tell you where.

And it's been a real pain in the ass!! Literally...

I haven't been able to sit properly, I even came down with a slight fever, which I suspect is caused by the infection. I have no idea how I came to contract it, but I do know that it is very annoying and irritating. Not being able to sit down is one of the most cruel thing that can ever be done to a man.....sigh..

Damn, never have I wanted to curse for no reason as much as I do now..

No wonder sex predators in Malaysia gets punished by caning. Damn...god knows that I'll never sexually assault anyone in my entirely life.

Anyway, I've been to a very cool restaurant last saturday...will blog about it once I get the pictures from Joann.

From a Ferrari to a Kancil...

2008-11-11T20:58:00.002+09:00

For the past few weeks, my life have been on a fast lane....

My research work, trips to parks, being chosen to represent foreign students in an interview...all the things to keep me occupied and busy. But it seems that I have run out of gas...sigh.

Other than shivering and complaining about the cold....I don't have anything to excite my life with.

Damn...

Man of the Year : Barack Obama

2008-11-06T22:32:00.002+09:00

Congratulations to President Obama. Babies are smiling on your success.

Now can someone tell me....why is everyone so happy?

Why yes, a Black dude in the White house...sounds like Yin Yang.
A black dude for President of the United States, that certainly signifies changes that is to come. Everyone in US(well, the ones who voted for him) must be rejoicing.

Fine.

Congratulations.

But I don't understand why is everyone so happy? Even people in Japan!!

Japanese Hawaiian Girls dancing for Obama? WTF??

May be my fault for not being able to see what everyone else is seeing but....why so happy? I mean, it's not like he's elected PM of Malaysia. Or that he will present a big gift to Japan if he won...

All I see is a nation who finally accepted the idea of a black president after years of Hollywood movies projecting a African American for President. And also because of the "superb" job Bush had been doing, people more or less have phobia of war-minded politicians...

So once again...why is Obama's success something to rejoice about?

Don't get me wrong though, I'm not McCain's supporter and I'm not anti-US....but I don't see the point of clapping hands and smiling about it either....

Chrysanthemum tea anyone?

2008-11-04T20:23:00.005+09:00

From left : Ayu, Dibah, Syou, Aan, Umi, Vincent Lai Chee Wei, and the dude in red...

Had a 3-day weekend holiday last weekend...seizing that opportunity, Randy tricked some girls
into providing him transportation to wherever he wants to go. In this, Randy actually means he asked some friends to join him spend the day outside...

I wanted to see autumn leaves so, I did some research on the net....I found a place called Momiji-dani(Maple Valley) in Yahiko, a village north of my place. It is supposedly a very beautiful place with breathtaking view of red maple leaves....so, I made plans with a few of my closest friends over the weekend.

And so I drove for one and a half hour to get there, singing Spice Girls along the way......reached there only to be greeted by rain. Damn, WHY?!!! But luckily, I was with a bunch of crazy people...and crazy people don't easily get depressed by rain.

So what we did was find a spot beside the parking area, and settled down for a little picnic....

Had rounds of delicious nasi goreng that wasn't really nasi goreng, blueberry coffee cake that had no coffee in it, and many plates of laughters for lunch. Was beginning to think that we had to go back as it was raining when suddenly, the rain let up!!

Okay!! Looks like autumn leaves watching is still in plan....

Wha....where are the red leaves? Why are the maple trees still green?!! Damn maples have been photosynthesizing for almost half a year, now they are too selfish to turn red and make me happy...

To early to be disappointed, I walked in a little deeper..

Damn...seems like the leaves are still planning to abuse the sun for another 2 weeks....

And so the truth came crashing down on me...

I came to early.....the leaves are not dying yet...

But the girls were happy nonetheless, grabbing every spot that had little red, and camwhored like there's no tomorrow....

No red leaves? Fine....there's another event nearby anyway. The Annual Chrysanthemum Festival held in Yahiko Shrine...

When someone mention chrysanthemum in Japan, one does not immediately think of Yeo's chrysanthemum tea. You see, while sakura is the hollywood star, chrysanthemum is their royal flower. Yahiko Shrine is one of few places that hold these kind of festivals yearly..

They are quite big in size...about the size of a small pumpkin...and in a variety of colours too..

And these are the tiny ones that we are all familiar with...you know, the ones floating in our tea cup. The way the flowers were arrange...you can see the essence of Japanese art in flower arrangement. Such beauty and harmony...

Highlight of the day....chrysanthemums arranged to resemble some landscape at sea. Beautiful ain't it?

Something like this...

And so the day's main event became Chrysanthemum Festival....not the original autumn leaves. But despite my poor timing of events, I had loads of fun that day.

And I never thought that I would one day sing Spice Girls songs at 23 years-old while driving ......haha.

Malacca : BE a Polygamist Year 2008

2008-11-01T17:01:00.000+09:00

Japanese Gravure Idols....underneath all those greatness.

2008-11-01T17:00:00.000+09:00

Today's attention is Akiyama Rina.....

No, her butt wasn't photoshopped....

Ehem....a pervert I am, but not just a pervert without an opinion. So, please read on...

Akiyama Rina is one of the many godly Gravure Idols in Japan...or you might know them by the term J-Idol. For those not living in Japan, gravure idols means Japanese models who primarily pose in bikinis and underwear(like above), whose sole purpose is to make men like me nose-bleed and slips into a hypnotic state and buy whatever magazines that have her on the cover... and let me tell you, it works. I have piles of magazine on my bedroom floor that I have no memory buying....

Scary, ain't it?

But seriously....no, they don't have hypnotic powers and I don't have a piles of magazines on my bedroom floor. Gravure Idols actually mean Japanese models who pose for photo spreads in magazines(comics mainly) and for photobook(a heavenly photo album of godly girls wearing provocative clothing). And while they are called models, they don't particularly model for companies to be used in advertisements. Their body IS their product....and that's what they are promoting. Just in case you are wondering, no, none of the pictures contain sexual elements, they don't do pornography.

And there's more than just having their pictures taken...

Take for example, Akiyama Rina, girl in the arousing picture above(Go ahead, you know you want to scroll back up). She is named to have the best butt in 2007. Jealous girls out there might think that..

"So what? Her parents gave her that...it's not like she earned it!!"

I thought the same too...until I came across this show on TV. The show was about her giving advices on how to make your butt look good. Yeah, I know....lol right? But after watching the show, I thought "Holy ass...I never knew that such knowledge existed!!!"

There's a whole list of do and don't, that these idols follow when it involves certain parts of their ASSet...Rina gave up some of her secrets of trade in this show....

ALWAYS wear a T-back underwear if you want to wear shorts. Avoid the embarrassing panty-line...

*Show's host starts listening intently...*

Always stand with your hips leaning on one side....it enhances sexiness

Left - Before..."wow, sexy"
Right - After... "OOooohh...se-x-ay!!

After lathering your face with facial wash...

Lather your butt cheeks next. ALWAYS treat your butt like it's your face....it's worth buying extra tube of facial wash. You will be rewarded a pair of silky smooth "cheeks"...
This somehow redefines the vulgar word "buttface"

Caption says "Sleep without your underwear"
Your butt spent one day being 'trapped', it's better to 'let it rest' at night...

The host can barely contain her excitement now....she was nodding and smiling all the way!!

And lastly, it ends with her giving advice on "exercising your butt"....the top being "walk your butt" and "butt-flex" on the bottom...

I don't know bout you guys, butt I find this amusing. Where else other than in Japan that do TV shows about butts? And where else other than Japan where real girls wearing real T-back appear live on TV??

Makes you suspect there's a Butt Faculty in some V-arse-sity somewhere..

In Japan, where gravure idols face somewhat fierce competition among each other, special measures are taken to maintain their Asset. Apparently, you don't get named Miss Ass-Japan 2007 just for being born with potential butts...you have to "develop" them....

I studied long hours to prepare for SPM, went through a lot of interviews, get Malaysian taxpayers to sponsor my coming to Japan, only to watch these kind of TV programs. Now, who said that this world isn't fair??

Shake your ass for the Earth!!

2008-10-27T22:23:00.005+09:00

Up till today, I've gotten sick and tired of the "Environmental friendly" paradigm...

Yes, I know that the Ice Caps is melting and that the Earth's climate is getting weird...Al Gore made that pretty clear in his documentary.

Japan also played a big part in irritating me. With endless campaign of "Use Eco-bags, not plastic bags"....."Use your own chopsticks, not disposables"...."Turn off the lonely light bulb"...all these are no doubt a good move, but too bad, people only embrace these campaigns for so long. Japanese can be quite a hypocrite by doing things so that they "look good" in front of other people....they turn ugly as soon as one turn away.

And compulsory lectures that include "Save the Earth" topics isn't making life any more interesting either....as if scoring an "A" for that particular lecture will help regulate the Earth's climate. That's a worse crap than my blog...

I was thinking...
"To HELL with this save the earth thing...leave me alone and let me live my own selfish life!!!! Fine, I'll recycle and piss in the dark(turn off light bulb in my toilet)....just leave me alone with all these bullshit about 'envirofriendliness'. I have enough friends around, don't need to befriend the Earth. I'm not that lonely."

But then I saw this news report about a night club in Rotterdam, Western Netherlands...

Apparently, a nightclub called Watt, has installed floor panels that generates electricity when people dance on it.

The amount of generated electricity depends on how heavy the person is and the rhythm to which that person is moving. So, yeah..that means the fatter you are, and the more ridiculous your dance moves are, that makes you more earth-friendly. Time to eat more and learn to dance silly!!!

This floor panels can generate enough electricity to power the lights underneath the panels and some more...

To think how much energy could be saved if this technology is implemented in every night clubs...it's a significant amount as night clubs uses 150 times more energy than average household. And if they can install these in train stations in Tokyo where hundreds of thousands of people commute everyday...that's a hell lot more efficient than "Not use plastic bags" campaign.

Never knew that saving the earth could be this much fun. GO DUTCH!!!

Looking forward to see Al Gore dance in night clubs....

"Hey baby, look at how I'm saving the Earth by doing the Chicken Dance..."
"Let me hear you go....Y....M...C....A.....let's all save the earth.....Y...M..C...A..."

^^

The oh...so comfortable bed...

2008-10-26T13:27:00.003+09:00

I'd say, Mother Nature must has been reading my blog....she must have seen the (embarrassing)video of me flirting with two Hong Kong chics, and now she wants to visit Japan. But then again, she's busy dealing with melting ice caps, so she sends one of her sons, Autumn to visit Japan instead.

Nagaoka have been enjoying a long period of warm days, with bright blue sky and trees green with pride.

Then, Randy posts video of himself with two HK chics...and here comes Autumn, wanting to meet cute little girls in Nagaoka too. And along with his visit, comes along clouds and cold winds, bringing the temperature down.

Well, what I'm trying to say is...it's getting colder.

Cold days like this, there's no place better than spending time in your warm, comfortable
bed....embraced by soft, blankets welcoming you with open arms.

I woke up at 8.30 this morning but I just got out of bed at 1.40....it's amazing how much effort I take to bullshit myself with endless list of excuses of why I should stay in bed for just 5 minutes longer. And a person like Randy, who was notorious for his nonsense/crap/jokes during high school....bullshit excuses are my specialty, thus the reason why I was awake in bed for 5 hours. It took me one excuse every five minutes for five hours for me to run out of things to say to myself.

There's only one person out there who is better than me....sleeping beauty. A pinprick to the finger cause her to sleep for a hundred hours? Hah!! She must be the most extreme in insisting that she stays in her big comfortable bed. It took a kiss from a very handsome prince to convince her to get out...
As for me...I waited for 5 hours but no princess/cute chic/pretty girl/any girl came to my house to give me a kiss...

Sigh, I know I should be out of bed experiencing things so that I would have material to write in this Blog but...ahhh...the oh...so comfortable bed...

Now, I will summon all my willpower not to go back to bed. God knows I will slap my hands silly if it ever try to unconsciously reach for the blanket!

The moment of my life!!!

2008-10-24T07:39:00.007+09:00

Remember me mentioning that I was featured on TV in Hong Kong??
Well, Miss Vanko haven't sent me the video yet, but here's the video clip from you tube..

It's only a short clip of me....probably because my Cantonese was very bad for the rest of it.. (^_^;
They even forgot to mention my name....sigh.......

But damn, watching myself on TVB Hong Kong is a little embarrassing...haha.
Looking at the video again reminds me of how I struggled to come up with a reply, and when I did come up with one, the conversation have already progress and I have to think of a new one yet again. Sigh, if only I wasn't intoxicated with alcohol and remembered my Cantonese better...

"Each time I watch the video, I had to laugh...and skip your part. Just too funny...hahaha"
said my housemate. Me too, I just can't bring myself to see the video....it's embarrassing. Makes me wonder how those actor/actresses live their life watching themselves on TV....

Anyway, thanks to Min Ven for allerting me about this vid!!

Apple of my eye..

2008-10-20T19:09:00.005+09:00

"An apple a day keeps the doctor away..."
-English proverb-

"But two apples a day make your friends curious on whether you are dieting or not."
-Randy's Words of Wisdom-

Lately, I have been adopting the style of eating fruits for lunch. Instead of eating a full meal of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats for lunch, I eat 2 apples, last week was persimmons. There's no specific reason to why I started eating fruits for lunch..it wasn't for health, it wasn't to keep two doctors away, and it wasn't because of money....I just felt like it. It's funny how eating fruits sparked all kinds of comments from my loyal-to-rice friends...

"EXACTLY which part of you is fat?" challenged a plump girl....

"So you are on diet, huh? Wanna look good for who??" teased a friend of mine who recently found herself a boyfriend...

"Nasi lah....NASI!!" and she bangs the table to make sure she was heard. hahaha...

Well, no I'm not on diet. I thought that I was being too nice to everyone, so, if one single apple can corrupt Adam and Eve, imagine what two apples a day could do to me!! I'd be a full fledge devil within a week! hahaha...

But no, I just felt like eating fruits. Oh, I eat properly for breakfast and dinner so.....Mom, if you are reading this, don't worry about me not getting enough food and developing gastric. Eating fruits is surprisingly filling, two is enough to sustain me till school ends. And they don't cause afternoon drowsiness caused by eating too much for lunch.

But as for apples keeping the doctor away, that's bullshit. I'm down with flu now even after eating so many apples. Well, either it's bullshit or Japan have more doctors than apples.

Now I'm a quest to find out which fruit really keeps the doctor away(cure my flu)...

PS: Have you heard the rumour about how you will sneeze when someone is gossiping about you? Maybe, since I started eating apples, people talk about me so much that I developed flu...

Old and dangerous...

2008-10-18T21:44:00.003+09:00

So, what do you see in this picture? While most of you may see a sweet old lady, ripe with old age with a pocket full of candies to give to small kids, what her face is really showing is...

"Don't mess with me punk, or I'll beat the shit outta you!!"

All of us young, healthy and strong people have been taking the old for granted. Just because they are old, we automatically assume that they are harmless little angels with saggy wrinkles and head full of white hair....how wrong we are!!

The reality would be that Japanese old folks mostly dye their hair purple and they are far from harmless!!

Recently, Japan's crime rate have been rising....and, believe it or not, most of it(more than 60%) are caused by old folks. Yes, old people have been terrorizing the streets of Japan, especially in big cities like Tokyo. I know...it sounds nonsensical that old folks here manage to achieve what terrorist like Osama bin Laden failed to do in Japan.
Retirement must be hard on them....poor retired folks, they must have gotten so bored that they decided to do crime for fun. Either that or that they are taking their revenge at the young ones. Jealous at us being so youthful and skin as smooth as pearls...or whatever you use to compare smoothness with.

But no, of course that's not the real reason why old folks are making police officers busy..

Autumn is approaching fast, and that means the weather is getting colder. Homeless folks like the guy in the picture faces long, cold, cruel nights sleeping out on the streets. So, they commit crime so that the police arrests them and lock them up. In prison cells, they get heat, food and security...all the things that they wished for when they are out in the streets. While most commit petty crimes like shoplifting and eating without paying, some go to great lengths such as stabbing and slashing at random pedestrians to guarantee that they get a long stay in prison cells.

Once, A 78-year old lady was arrested for slashing two pedestrian. When asked why she did it, she said that if she got convicted and sent to jail, she can spend the cold winter comfortably with ease. She actually smiled when she was sentenced 3 months jail...

With poor plans for the old folks, more is committing crime and prisons in Japan is turning into old folks home. It's kinda sad reading this on the papers...country as advanced as Japan would have problems such as this.

So, the next time you are out on the streets, ignore the spiky hair, blonde mohican style hair, young looking gangsters.....you'd want to beware of saggy lines and hunchbacks. If you see any old folks smiling kindly at you, RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!! Worst, if any old lady smile AND wave at you...RUN AND SCREAM FOR YOUR LIFE!!!!

Randy vs. Disney....

2008-10-16T23:29:00.007+09:00

A remark by a friend today have had me thinking....what do other people think of me?

Today, during lunch, a bunch of my female friends were talking excitedly about attending Disney on Ice, which is to be held on the 25th October here in Niigata Prefecture. They were all discussing about which seats to take, who would be driving in whose car, which favorite character will be skating on Ice...
Then one of them saw me listening on them and innocently asked me if I want to join them...all I could do was smile when another said

"Randy and Disney on Ice? That's just IMPOSSIBLE!! It's so wrong..."

I'm sorry if I have given the tough guy/macho image but, I LIKE Disney...What? Tall, well built guys can't love Daisy Duck? Tough guys can't like Ariel the half-tuna? Macho man can't dance to the Mickey Mouse song? Don't get me wrong though, I'm not saying that I'm macho, tough guy....but I'm just making a point here. What is so weird about a full grown man lining up among small kids to take photos with Mickey Mouse? Disney don't discriminate right?
Yes, I admit that it's damn embarrassing to fight with kids to get a chance at photos....but....nothing wrong, right?

Long have I been understood.....but once again, I'm a sucker for cute cartoon characters. Especially the ones that I grew up watching.

If you really wanna know, I adore Donald Duck and I LOVE Ariel the Sardine.

One of Japan's greatest, The Nagaoka Fireworks Festival...

2008-10-11T19:24:00.008+09:00

Now that autumn is approaching, and summer is but a warm memory, think it's bout time I write about what can be considered one of my fondest memory ever...

Summer....in Japan, there's only one thing in mind when summer approaches....and it is fireworks. Just like Chinese New Year in Malaysia, Japanese have their yearly festivals during summer and it is always accompanied by great displays of fireworks. And my place, Nagaoka, just happened to be the place to host one of the 3 biggest fireworks display in Japan. Internationally famous, the Nagaoka Fireworks Festival boasts 100,000 visitors each year....this year, they had 100,001 visitors. Oh, did I mention that this is my first visit to this event? I wonder who added to the number of visitors...

Now, I think I have decent skill in English Language but I don't think I'm good enough to actually describe the incredibly beautiful fireworks...so, here are some pictures...

FYI, This is "Hello Kitty" firework..

Well, actually, this event was held in August...and it's way past the expiry date, but I have a valid excuse...

You see, during the whole summer, I was busy going everywhere to perform taiko, including the Nagaoka Fireworks Festival. So, as a performing member, we were given VIP seatings during the fireworks display. Joining us on the same seatings that day, was this two very pretty girls(Yes, girls again...Randy is a boy with plenty of testosterone and no girlfriend, so...forgive him). They weren't part of the taiko team, so it was quite strange for them to share the same space as us....but of course, I didn't mind at all sharing seats with them. The moment the girls came, my team leader immediately turned to me..."Damn, those girls are pretty!!!"...but I was already starting to think of ways to break the ice and speak(Randy's dictionary defines speak as flirt) to(with) them....

Then I heard them speak in cantonese...

OK...sweet!! I understand cantonese, so there's my ice breaker..

*in cantonese*
Me : Hello...
Chics : Oh hello...wow, you understand cantonese!
Me : Well, I am Malaysian...
Chics : A Malaysian...wow, and you are part of the taiko team?
Me: Yes...erm....I umm...can you understand English?
*in English....I totally forgot how to speak in cantonese, although I still understand what was spoken*
Me : It's been a long time since I spoken in Cantonese...and my four years in Japan have not been kind towards my Cantonese....

What I learn from speaking to them was that they are actresses from Hong Kong, Vanko Wong Shuk Ling and....I forgot what the other one's name is. Vanko was the friendly one, the other one was quite a stuck up...so, didn't remember her name.

Yeah, "Wow" right? Who would have guessed they were actresses....

They were here in Japan to do a travel program of some sort, and they are doing the story on Nagaoka Fireworks Festival....we chatted about a lot more stuff but...let's not bore you with them "juicy" conversation shall we?

From left : Stuck up girl, Vanko, and Malaysian guy who've forgotten cantonese....

Anyway, not long after, their manager approached me and explained that part of the travel program includes them meeting a "new friend" ...and they wanted me to be that "new friend". Wow, suddenly I'm to be casted on TV!! It's my 3rd time appearing on TV actually, so didn't really get nervous about it though...

You must all be thinking "Randy, you lucky bastard!!"...

but no, being on TV can be quite depressing and stressful. For example, I had to repeat the same conversation a few times cause' our voice wasn't loud enough...cause' the lightings was bad...cause' they wanted to wait for a firework to go up so that they get a good background as well...cause' the stuck up girl was being stuck up and wasn't talking. All kinds of funny reasons to do the same conversation...made me lost count of how many times I have to introduce myself...but all in all, it was a fun experience.

Not only I get to be in VIP seatings watching one of the biggest fireworks display in Japan, I get to be on TV in Hong Kong as well... The show will be aired at tomorrow on TVB HK....was gonna wait till she send me a video clip, that's why I waited so long to post this. But...nah, not gonna post the video here anyway.

Here's a polaroid we took together...and what a nice smile Vanko has...

Oh, did I mention she gave me her e-mail? Haha....nah, we're just friends now. She is only 18, but she's very matured and quite an interesting person to talk to. One of the few person in my life that I have the utmost respect for...

Anyway, hahhhh.....what a nice summer that was....

PS: I just remembered what the stuck-up girl's name was!! Her name is Katy Kung

Raya!!

2008-10-05T00:08:00.002+09:00

Selamat Hari Raya Folks...

Yeah, yeah...I know. Raya was last Wednesday but the selfish Japanese government wouldn't make it a National Holiday, so us Nagaoka folks celebrated it today.

Raya in Japan have always meant celebrating it at the embassy....but after the food poisoning scare last year, embassy didn't make any open-house celebration this year. They made it instead at the Malaysian staff houses. If you ask me, they should have made it at the embassy...if anything go wrong we can always blame China for it...ha ha.

But lucky I'm studying in a University with many Malaysian folks...so, the atmosphere here is still great and full of festive air. Plus, folks here are pretty good cooks.

It's always a custom to pray and thank the lord for the food....
Living in Japan for so long,which means taking god for granted...I forgot that and I almost reach out for a cookie while they were praying. Lucky I stopped just in time...

Satay guys...the most blessed beings of the day...

A few of my close friends, namely Farhan, Nabilah, Umi, made these and I'm eternally grateful for them....

See that lonely fork in the Tupperware? I think they prepared it for the Chinese guest to use as everyone else seems to ignore it and just use their hands. I....I used my hands though. No reason to not behave like a real Malaysian here...

As if to remind ourselves that we're still in Japan, someone tried to be funny by making onigiri or rice balls...Oi! It's Raya-lah...it's ok if it's wrapped with daun pisang, but why the onigiri??

Gathered at a hall, we had a lot of food....satay, rendang, nasi kunyit, murtabak, and a variety of cookies which names are a mystery to me. After we had our fill, we had a long photo shoot session...everybody had their cameras with them, so one picture actually means 3 or 4 pictures. Photo sharing not part of Malaysian culture huh?
And I realized that, they like to take many picture with the same group of people. I helped a group of girls take pictures facing North, East, South, and West....and when I thought they were done, they started facing North East, South East....never ending, never fulfilled desire of having Randy take a picture of them. But it was a fun day, so I didn't mind indulging their needs...

Not long after photo session ended(finally), some started handing out plastic bags. Oh, time to leave....end of celebration.

Here's a picture of Calvin "Ta Pau" some rendang for dinner....always a heart-warming sight to see fellow Malaysians do that, just reminds you of home...

So that's it folks.....hope you had a nice Raya too...

Selamat Hari Raya!!

First ever hand massage...

2008-10-01T22:02:00.006+09:00

Today was the anniversary of the establishment of NUT. So, as a proud student of NUT, I did the one thing every other proud people of the education system would do...

I got a haircut....

And I even add color to it!!

NUT must be sooo proud to have a student like me.

ANYWAY, while I got my hair cut, the salon director graciously gave me a free hand massage service. Wow...she must have really liked me to have given me a free service like that. Guess that all my apple polishing was worth it....ehem...it's always good to say "I think you look cute!" to your hairdresser, especially if she's a woman. But then again, she really is cute...so all I did was spoke the truth　 (^_-)~☆

Hairdresser : How do you like your hair?
Me: Sorry, I can't see without my glasses...
Hairdresser : How bad is your eyesight?
Me : When I don't have my glasses on, everyone girl looks cute and guys handsome..
*Take note that I said "girl" instead of "woman" or "lady"...
Hairdresser : Here you go. *hands me glasses* So, I look less cute now that you have your glasses on??
Me : Nah...you, YOU still look cute after I put these on...(^_-)~☆

Ehem...there, truth spoken. Remember "nilai Kejujuran" back when we had "Pendidikan Moral"??

Anyway, that's not the main point of this post by the way...what I was trying to say was that I got my first ever hand massage. To make things worse, the lady who massaged my hands was a very very attractive lady.

"To make things worse? Isn't it 'To make things better??' " you might ask...

Well, like I said, this is my first ever hand massage...I just don't know how to react to all this. Plus, it's been a very long time since I have my hands held by a beautiful woman. And I kid you not when I say that it felt very good...both the massage, and being held by a pair of soft, beautiful hands. And not forgetting that the lady sat very close to me and I had to summon all my strength and will power to not keep staring at her while she massages my hands.

After a few heavenly minutes that seemed like hours, she was done.....with my left arm.

Now she gotta do my right arm...

This time, salon director started cutting my hair....having someone do my hair and hands at the same time is quite a new experience for me....and I have to be honest and say that I felt a little uncomfortable at this. I...I'm just not used to this, ya know. The salon director must have sensed my rigidness as she asked me how did I feel being treated like a prince.

All I could do was smile sheepishly as I could not think of any smart reply for her...attractive lady with soft hands laughed her cute laugh as she continues working magic on my hands.

Gosh...NOW I know why some people like massage so much...

Nanoindenting my way through University...

2008-09-28T16:04:00.002+09:00

Nanoindentation....

That's the name of my research, and will be the one thing that will keep me busy for the rest of my life here in NUT. For those who feels lazy to click the Wikipedia link...it's a kind of test to find out strength and hardness of thin films of micrometer order. Constant force is applied on indenter and indentations of nanometer order will be made on thin films....surface area of indents are then calculated to find out mechanical properties. Recent test can also be applied to acquire tensile strength and yield strength.

An even simpler explanation will be I punch holes into a thin piece of film, then I see how big a hole I made....sounds simple right? Well, it is. My job is just to make it "sound" difficult, like the explanation above. Haha...if you have a difficult time trying to understand what I wrote above, then that means I'm doing a very good job.

Anyway...yeah, that's my job from now on.

SO, why would I want to write about something as boring as that? That was just like...sponge cake without cream on it...like plain yogurt without honey or sugar....like eating roti canai without dahl or curry.

Randy is NEVER without exaggeration and lies...

You see, yesterday my professor, me and a fellow researcher(Masters Student) had a meeting with a representative from Elionix, a Japanese company making nanoindenter devices(My University is doing a joint research with that company, so we have meetings every 2,3 weeks). We were meeting to discuss the next step to take in developing a new device. So, you now know that the research I'm doing is of quality as results of research will be used to develop a new device.

So, me being a Undergraduate, they were practically ignoring my presence as they thought that I was not up to their level. So discussions mainly went on between the Masters Student and that company rep.

Then came a time where he was discussing about a new indenter....given the required perimeters, he asked the Masters Student if he could acquire the measurements needed to design a new indenter....well, Masters Student humbly replied that he doesn't know....which surprised me a little bit as it is not that complicated to achieve. Anyway, getting no useful answer from Masters Student, that man turns to me instead and asked if I have any ideas on that...and I did have a few.

So, I laid out my ideas on how we could acquire the measurements needed....and suddenly, I was assigned to the job!! I mean...I got the research!! My professor bluntly pointed out that he need people who is capable to get it done....and assigns Masters Student to do other things instead.

Wow...they chose me, a Bachelor Undergraduate.... over a Masters Student!!!

Now, I'm not showing off here....well, maybe I am showing off....but damn, just can't help but feel proud for myself!! Haha...Shows that smarts only are useless without creativity...GO RANDY!!

Nut Fest 3 : Keyword "Nut"

2008-09-21T18:39:00.003+09:00

Woke up to a brightly smiling sun, eager to to get the day on...

While we only get to perform at noon yesterday, today we got the privilege to do the kick off!! Yes, that means we got to announce the start of Day 2 with the beatings of our drums. And clear skies means that we get to do it outside...yes Ai Jun(childhood friend of mine), I get to wow girls in my ridiculous shorts and chest revealing happi coat.

We practically played the same song as yesterday, so, no point putting up videos here...

The performance ended with applauds from the crowd....cheers me up every time. Two weeks of blistered hands and sore shoulders...only to receive claps from strangers. Yes, sometimes I myself wonder why do I even want to take the trouble to practice for days...shedding blood and sweat...only to receive meager claps from the crowd. But then again, thanks to my parents for giving me a simple mind, I quit thinking that hard and just continue on beating the drums...

Anyway, having performed yesterday and today, my job is done. Finally, I get to roam about....attend to the main event, the NUT Fest.

In collaboration with NUT Fest...we Malaysians decide to come up with Satay and PeaNUT sauce....see? it's not called NUT Fest for nothing...

The satay was...DELICIOUS!!! It was very very good...no offense, but thank my god that I'm not Islam and I don't have to fast. The Satay and kuah kacang was too good to give up. Spent more than 3000 yen buying just Satay and Air Bandung, the other thing we also put out to sell. Tasted so good that I forgave them for turning up late for preparation night...

I like to call him the Spokesperson for NUT....far as I know, he's the MC for any event organized by NUT. Be it Freshmen Orientation or Football Tricks Show, he's the man to look for....and yes, he is as nutty as he look.

Just like all Japanese Campus Fest, the "Guys in girl's dress competition" is a must. What the hell is wrong with these Japanese Guys....why would they want to embarrass themselves like that? Are they NUTS?? .....oh wait, they are...just like me...hehe.

Some show by the Karate Club...and just like what you see in the picture, they were doing plank breaking. Too bad they have a nutcase head coach....the coach had them break 5 planks stacked together. 5 PLANKS!!! Unless you are Chuck Norris, how can a hit-the-books-often guys break em' ?? Sigh...this otherwise cool show ended up being a somewhat scraped-knuckle-painful show. The crowd seems to love seeing blood on the planks though...

And this was the performance by a band called "Microphone too tall for the girl" Band...they were singing Yui songs. And they were...hmm....they need more practice.

And then it was 4 p.m ...time for the second performance by Taiko(Japanese Drum) Members. This time excluding newbies such as me. And let me tell you, the seniors' performance had much much more power and beauty than the one I did...

Enjoy...

This is happened to be my favorite of all...

Gotta love the part the guy's drum stick flew from his hands at 2.20 ...haha...

Nut Fest 2 : Rain rain go away...

2008-09-20T23:22:00.004+09:00

Nut Fest unfortunately started with rain fall...

Gawd bless my blistered hands....

Why does it have to rain?? Now I have to perform my drums in the gymnasium...not to mention that people stay at home when it rains...

no....No...NO!! How can I let something like a little harmless rain fall to dampen my spirit!! I've practiced for 2 weeks for goodness sake!!

And here it is...the drum play that moved even the heart of the gods that they cried their holy tears(means that it rained harder)

So...what do you think of our drum play??

Nut Fest 1 : Culture differences...

2008-09-20T22:37:00.004+09:00

Nagaoka University of Technology's Festival....or NUT Fest.

This festival was held last week on the 13th and 14th...but for me starts two weeks before the event as I busy growing blisters on my pitiful palm practicing drums. For two long weeks I've been practicing drums every day from 4 in the evening till 8 at night....trust me when I tell you it's tiring on both physical and mental state. Other than the gawd blessed blisters on my palm, I also "enjoyed" muscle pain and "seduced" by the everyday temptation of wanting to skip practice.

But how can I?

My seniors were all so hard working and dedicated to the practice that I feel bad skipping the practice...there's also a few times where I've been scolded for turning up at 4.03 pm...

Yeah, I was late for 3 minutes and I was scolded....3 MINUTES!!! What the hell?? I know that "Time is gold" but that's just an idiom, right? I don't owe my colleagues 22 karats of gold for being 3 minutes late....but one have to admire the punctuality and the dedication of the drum members.

So finally....the day before the event. My Uni was kind enough to give us the day off for us to prepare for the big event. So, I spent my Friday practicing drums from 9 morning till 6 evening...after that, I headed over to help other Malaysians with preparation as we were presenting a stall as well.

So, tired...sore all over my body, I headed over....only to find out that they are starting later at 8.30 p.m. Okay, FINE...that'll give me sometime to rest before working again...

After a good long shower, checked some of my mails, I cycled for 15 minutes to school again...reached at 8.35 p.m...

And guess what? NO ONE'S THERE!!!

Yeah, there were a few girls preparing kuah satay....but where's the rest of the guys who were supposed to come with the chicken and skewers??

And I waited...and waited...and waited...DAMN IT!! It's already 9.30!! Are they coming or not??

They finally showed up at 9.50 after I called them several times on the phone. And when they finally do arrive, they gave me a sorry excuse saying "Sorry-la Randy, I fell asleep"...

WHAT THE F'%$?!! I fell asleep?

Yes, I know, it's fasting season and I know that they have to get up early in the morning but...like Anwar said, Fasting season is no reason to slack off from things...

I had to struggle soooo hard not to lose my temper....you want my help, fine, I'll help but don't waste my time like this!!

Sigh...to think that my drum members scolded me for being 3 minutes late....and my Malaysian friends come in one hour late with a stupid smile on the face....

Patience Randy...patience.....

Taiko : Japanese Drum...

2008-09-07T22:18:00.004+09:00

So...once again, why was I missing for so long? Was is a girl?....wished it was so....but no. I'm not that lucky. The picture below could probably explain why.

See how my fist was suspiciously wrapped in white bandages? And if you observe closely, you can see that they are also suspiciously dirty.....as if I've been in fights.....

Yes, you guessed it right...I've been practicing Japanese drum all along!! (Otherwise, why the title, right??)

It all started on the second day at University...I was walking towards the convenience store to get a drink when I heard Japanese Drums in play. When I turned to look, I saw a group of people beating various sizes of drums (which I later found out we're playing only 3 types). Everyone, hands moving along a single beat.

Such power...such elegance...such...spirit!

And that's when I decided that I want to join this circle. I want to be part of the group that displays such strength...a group that possess such unmoving spirit. So, I enlisted myself and have been practicing ever since..

The movie you see is the event where I debuted....at the early stages, the guy that stops halfway and says something in Japanese, that's me....heh heh.

I practiced weekly and more often than not, I suffer blisters and had to tape my hands so that I can continue practicing even though I have bleeding hands....as you'd probably guess by now, the practice sessions are tough. I confess that there are times where I felt like quitting as seniors aren't too polite when it comes to "commenting" on us newbies' performance.

And to think that no girls will ever like me now when they hold my "rough" hands....*sobs

But that day....that day when I finally get to perform in front of people......it was the most fulfilling day I've ever had. Although it was a performance at a small town with equally small crowd, about 30~40 people, I felt so much joy when I see people applauding to my performance.

All those blood and sweat...and skin too...they were worth it.....

And the best yet, I got to perform at one of the biggest events in Japan, the Nagaoka Summer Festival. I played on 2 of the 3 days festival. With thousands attending the first day, tens of thousands on the 2nd.....IT WAS EXHILARATING!!! I...I...I don't know how exactly to describe what I felt but I have NEVER felt such sense of accomplishment and joy getting to perform in front of so many people. I mean....there was so many people!!!
You see, summer time is special for the Japanese as that's when they have their yearly festival, so it means a lot to them...while others(foreigners) are just observers, me being able to be part of something special...I just don't know what to say.....

Too bad there aren't any picture or video as my housemate, Lai Chee Wei, stood on the wrong side of the crowd on the first day and he was too far away on the second day.

Sigh...such good friends I have.

But I guess that makes my experience much more special now that everything is chiseled in my memory. This might be the most memorable thing that I'll bring back with me once I get back....probably the best memory in my whole life....well, other than owning my own patent.