end of 1st year in japan (part 3) - osaka & nara

from the beginning it was funny how i was to reach osaka from okayama. due to my bad habit of sleeping in, i couldn't catch the last bus i should ride to go to the station in order to make it in time for the bus to osaka. it cost me nearly the same to get to osaka just to pay the cab to reach the station, and i was in such a hurry to buy the ticket the last minute before boarding the bus. i know i should already learn from this but i just can hardly fix my sleeping time even now. with that, i reached the final destination of the bus - Nanba (or is it Namba?). my friend, laura was waiting for me there. we had known each other even before i came to japan, and this was my first time to actually meet her.

it was about dusk when i arrived, so we stopped at her house first. it is not so far from the station. it really is a convenient place to live at. as it was already night, we went to get our dinner - okonomiyaki. wow, recently i really had okonomiyaki a whole lot of times. but at this place, even with the grilling pan in front of us, it is the staff who does the cooking, you just have to watch and wait until it's done before stuffing them into your mouth.

we got a seat that gives us a wonderful view from the window. i could see the bridge that laura named 'hikkakebashi' because there's lot of hosts trying to hook you, if you know what i mean - i couldn't even remember the real name of the bridge now. the bridge is always full of people, it's like waiting place for lots of people, a place like hachiko hiroba in shibuya i suppose. then we just strolled at the boardwalk by the river at dohtonbori (do i get the place right?). at first i misunderstood that the dohtonbori laura was talking was name of the shop i always frequent, it actually name of the place/street. but yeah, they do have the same shop here in dohtonbori! but what caught my eyes is that the shops here have very appealing signs! effective advertising i assume, i really love looking at all those. of course, i didn't miss the famous glico ad that somehow represent osaka! (warning: loads of photo will flood your screen)

yes, i mean this!

the view from the okonomiyaki restaurant - the bridge

a while after, laura's friend emm came and join us and we went for karaoke. honestly, i don't go to karaoke much, but this time we really had a good time, i sang a few songs where mostly i can't reach the high pitch the original singer always do. it was nearly midnight when it was over, and before returning home to sleep, we walked through lively night street and stopped by a place run by laura's friend whom she'd really like to introduce, a really nice guy. even though it wasn't that spacious, the place feels so comfortable just to sit and relax and forget your problems for a while.

an interesting menu in the drink machine at the karaoke place, it also serves consommé 

if you can guess what are those little rectangles

again, rain restricted me from going sightseeing much, so what i did during my stay in osaka was visiting the kaiyuukan, my second aquarium in 2 weeks! my favorite exhibit would be the octopus, i don't know why. but of course i just love to stare at the tank with the jellyfishes in it no matter which aquarium i go to. also here, they got this very large tank containing huge creatures and the route you would take is going from the top floor of the building and you go around that large tank until you reach the bottom floor. it's amazing that you got to see different things on different levels even with the very same tank. the ray fish is astonishing too, they look so kakkoii just zooming through the tank. their wings flap like big bird. i love the aquarium! the next day, we decided to visit nara, quite a distance away but still easily reachable. how excited i was to see the how plenty the deers were at the park, even under the drizzles. they sell the biscuit for the deer so you can feed them, but how smart the deers to know you got it in the hand, they'll demand for it, even aggressively! but they're cute!! in nara, it's so peaceful. they have this famous temple with this big buddha statue in it. it's more like a tourist spot that they have to maintain, you have to pay the entrance fee just to see the inside. but yeah, the structure is wonderful, old it may look (it truly is) but they look so majestic. apart from that, nara also got pagoda and some shrines. as laura said, nara can be toured in a day as everything is just next to each other. we also strolled through the merchant district where we stopped by a restaurant based on soy products. the soy cheese is good! that was it for my osaka trip this time. i'll be going again this golden week, just what will i have in store for me next time~~

Actually the one i love is moon jellyfish but this one turns to be a great photo

they would go to such length for food!

this 'ema' at the shrine is really interesting!

who would've thought soy and cheese go together

end of 1st year in japan (part 2) - okayama

by mid march, i already embarked on a journey i planned in the previous few weeks, a trip to the west! though last summer i've reached as far as sapporo in hokkaido (noted in this travelogue), but i have never been to the west of japan before. so, i use this excuse and took the advantage to visit Huda in okayama. the bus ride was more than 12 hours from omiya. it was a night bus and when i reached okayama, it was morning, but i ended up cooping myself in the futon with huda for the whole day XD it was pleasant, to just be able to spend time leisurely, doing nothing. it was only on the second day that we got moving and i did some sightseeing. because it was only two of us, no much time was wasted, we managed to tour Kourakuen and Okayamajou in one go. apparently foreign students in okayama prefecture got free entrance to such tourist spots, if only they make it for all foreign students throughout japan, coz it's not that cheap. nevertheless, the view was priceless! as i'm living in saitama, i have no chance visiting castles, this was my first time. it's more like a museum, but all the descriptions and stories written are in japanese, we were so lazy to read and understand them, we were not taught all these historical terms, so sorry. for all the castle lovers, you have to understand these kind of japanese in order to get into the spirit of it.

Kourakuen

these koi are huge!

Ume!

lots of Ume!

Okayamajou

after we were done with sightseeing, our stomach growled and demands for food. so we satiate them with some okonomiyaki and modernyaki, i'm not sure whether they do it hiroshima style or osaka style(the ones i usually eat here), we were too hungry to take note. maps in iPhone sure is useful in such times, i just typed okonomiyaki and they appear. at first, the shop looks creepy to me, but it was alright. we were full enough to take some home. not only that, for dinner we had ramen! more first time for me, well ramen usually uses pork as the essence, but there is a place here that serves halal ramen. it was awesome! i could understand a bit of the japanese rave with ramen now. there i also got the chance to meet some of the TAs that were with us for a while when we were still in JAD.

modernyaki up-close

THE RAMEN

Yohei - Hide - Kurose

the next day, we continued our sightseeing and went to kurashiki. it is really a beautiful place! it reminds me a bit of malacca, they has this small river and you can ride the sampan as the guide will row you along  it. as any tourist spot would be, it's lined with shops, there were a lot of nice ones, including one specialized in cat-themed stuff! it was so cute, i got one of the stuff as an omiyage for arini, coz i know she'll definitely love it. they also have this one building which is covered with vines, at the time the leaf hasn't come out yet, and it's all chocolate, like a ruin covered in withered branch. very astonishing. i also discovered that there's a place near here that is famous for producing jeans. my brother sure knows about those brands that i just couldn't care less. and later, Kurose n Hide joined us and willing to show me around. so we went to an art museum where it assembles a lot of art pieces which are still a wonder to me. it reminds me when i went to carnegie mellon art museum in pittsburgh last summer with faseeha. it's true when they say u have to know the background of the paintings to be able to get into it. i'm yet to be in that stage, all i can say is those are nice pieces. after that, we looked into some shops at the shopping outlet near the place. huda finally found what she wanted to shop and i spared my wallets this time.

bikanchiku - isn't this view nice

they forgot to make us wear the headgear

ivy square - creepy but looks nice

the cat shop!

it says 'kurashiki - jeans town'

i love this display!

origami - stuff i like

i like taking these pix

even on the previous day, Hide has been telling us of the places i could see in okayama like Setoohashi bridge. it's a huge structure that connects okayama (part of honshuu) and kagawa (part of shikoku). it was so kind of them to actually bring us there. it was funny at first coz i didn't even know they were coming with car when they came to meet us earlier. it was night when we reached the bridge. it was huge just like i imagined! and beautiful. i love to see this kind of structures, to feel how great such things could be built, they really give me wonders. we could also see trains going to and fro under the roads throughout the bridge. btw, yesterday i watched the news when the great strong wind struck the area, that train was stopped in the middle of the bridge and they were stuck like that for about 7 hours. it must be really tiring. i made a wise choice to just stay home when they already warned about the wind. it was scary to hear it howled outside though.

when we took the photos, it was pitch dark at the place, spare some lights some place away. so the first photo was aided by flashlights by a couple of iPhones and the photos with us in it was actually a brilliant idea to utilize the car spotlight. 

that ends my okayama arc. it seems i have to do another entry for the next part of my trip. it's at the heart of Osaka! 

end of 1st year in japan (part 1)

it's already april, yes a new semester, a new year (Japan starts school year in april). but it reminds me how long i haven't been writing here. actually, a lot of good memories have been created in the whole span of holiday i got by the end of my first year here. numerous times i already thought of at least jotting some of them down, but i never really got them done. i'm really lazy. so now i actually has started typing, where shall i start?

so yeah, when my final exam finishes, it was about in mid february. the rest of february was spent going out few times with friends, and some farewell parties. talking about parting, a friend i really got to be close with after i came to japan actually goes somewhere away for one whole year starting last month. i really miss her, a good thing she still keeps in contact from time to time. And some attempts to get part-time jobs that were to no avail. the furthest i went at the time was to shinkiba for some entertainment. okay, that was pretty much it for february as the real stuff begins in march. i moved to a new place, not as close to uni as before, but still close. but now, i'm closer to baskin robbins^^ moving was quite tough even with little stuff i have. but i really love this new place. yes, it's indeed small but sufficient for living alone. 

shortly after i just moved, my dad came for one whole week. at the time, i still did not have much stuff in the house, so it was like empty room when he came except for that TV i bought the first day i came to japan. that week was like a transition from winter to spring, so it was raining all week. not really a good time to go sightseeing, but i still managed to bring him to quite a few places. for tokyo, we went to akihabara, shinjuku, ueno, odaiba in the first few days he was here. at one time, it was surprisingly sunny that it was such a waste because if only we knew it, we would go to someplace nice. but we still took advantage of the time to enter shinjuku gyouen. at least, some plum trees were blooming. 

and as expected of akihabara, he got a classic camera added to his collection. talking about camera, for the first time i knew that a camera museum exists in chiyoda, so went to take a look there. and he really made use of his great camera when we went to trick art museum in odaiba. then, we rent a car for 3 days and drove it to yokohama. i know this is reachable even by train, but at least let him drive and not get tired from all the walking if we only use trains. we stayed a night there and did some sightseeing (though it rained during the day) and spent the next day amidst that rain in hakkeijima sea paradise! initially i was planning to go to enoshima aquarium because i heard they had spectacular display of jellyfish and i was really eager for that but it seems that place was quite far from yokohama compared to hakkeijima. well, next time i got a chance to go to kamakura, i'll definitely include enoshima in the itinerary. even that, how excited i was to be at hakkeijima and i got to touch whales and dolphins. it was super cold though, remind you it was still early march. i even got to bring back a cute penguin stuffed doll from a happy bag they sold there. 

by the way, it surprised me to find chinatown in yokohama really only sells chinese stuff (in japanese price standard) n none of those little souvenirs as memento of the place. when i went to chinatown in NY, there were tons of I<3NY stuff even stuff i could never thought would be worth as souvenirs. so, after we returned home, the next day we went to asakusa, a usual tourist spot (that is after we went to nitori to buy some of my house needs or just something to adorn). there were a lot of people as always, thank goodness when we were there, it wasn't raining. we got what we searched for, and we still had time in tokyo, so we stopped by at akihabara again as it would be the last time to be anywhere, his flight home was the next day. this time, i got what i've been desiring for so long. a new computer! yes, i'm writing this entry in this very computer~ 

part 2 will follow....

What living-in-japan changes me

1. Sleeping with blanket, covering all including my whole head underneath it

2. Whenever in train, i'll definitely target the corner seat

3. Stopping for 2-3 seconds in front of automatic door before it opens as they still remain closed when you approach it

4. Asahi's 'straight tea' which used to taste real weird n close to tasteless feels sweet now

5. Following that, sugar in tea has become quite unthinkable

6. I can eat potato chips with chopsticks

7. I eat less fried food or almost to none in a month

8. Buying CDs is a normal thing

9. Eating ice-cream so frequently (especially baskin robbin's)

10. Places within 1-2km away is just walking distance, no sweat

11. I can eat 'ikura' now, yeah i'm a sushi-lover!


...and no doubt much more

something japanese

yesterday, as always, i skipped breakfast, or more like i slept until past noon to disable me to have one.

i had a date with arini. again. this was for 2 days straight.

we are shopping buddies.

the day before that, it was tokyo where we walked at akihabara and harajuku. GAP's new spring collection is indeed attractive, just that our budget won't allow it, so byebye. but further walk led me to buy another pair of boots. 

and yesterday, it was a place much closer. Omiya.

what's there in omiya, you ask? err, for saitama residents, that's one of the big places you can go, okay, for shopping you might opt for Koshigaya Laketown, as it's the biggest outlet after all, but that'll take more minutes by train.

i arrived with my partner already waiting at the promised spot. apparently she was enjoying it, the time she had to wait.

today(yesterday) was feb 14th, so observing the people around can be amusing it seems.

that was a lot of couples. japanese with all their obsession of this date.

i couldn't care less.

our stomach's growling (it still growls no matter when), we hurried to fill it. the day was raining, we had to find somewhere close.

and we entered a shop.

no couple spotted at all.

SUSHI!

i love sushi. apparently no one dates in sushi shop, so were saved from a choking view of couples being loveyy-dovey or whatever.

and sushi really is delicious. and we entered one with no conveyor belt. to have it arrive to you in wonderful presentation makes it even more delicious.

maguro saikou! (and i actually had quite the same thing last month, but last month is last month)

yesterday's at Gatten Omiya

last month's at somewhere in shibuya (remember this somewhere? yes, a recycled photo)

a really funny video i just found regarding sushi, this really made crack!

winter makes me hungry

it's a fact when your body is cold, your body will counteract with producing as much heat as needed, and even though your body has so many fat, there'll be signals sent to the brain telling it it needs more resources from outside, thus the hunger.

a hungry me is definitely not the best state. the thing is i admit i'm not a good cook, nor i like to cook in the first place. so i can hardly produce any food by myself. i have to get it somewhere. but, winter really is not my best friend. in fact, i dread it quite a bit. while most people i know would be so happy to see snow, i'll smirk. it's hard to move, it's cold. even to walk to the nearest 7-11 is quite a task. like today, i just had spaghetti as dinner (thankfully there's instant spaghetti sauce for people like me), yet i'm now hungry again.

one thing i hate to be in japan is the ambiguity of the ingredient listed. easier said, i'll just be a vegetarian here. i would avoid all the things with meat or animal extracts, and resort to seafood stuff and vegan. yet, for all the processed food available out there, the most problem i'll encounter is these two: 'emulsifier'(乳化剤) and 'shortening'. both of them can be originated from either plants or animal. emulsifier is called by that name due to its function which is to stabilize an emulsion by increasing its kinetic stability of a food. on the other hand, shortening is a substance that prevents cross-linkage between gluten molecules. the problem for me here is those two can either originate from plant (which is okay) or animal (which is definitely a no). i mean, what's the use of listing ingredient by its function? is there anyone who is interested to know there is a substance in the food that is doing what kind of job. what i want to know is what it is derived from. just why can't you write down specifically 'lard' or 'vegetable fat' instead of shortening, those two functions to prevent cross-linkage between gluten molecules (just copypasting the above). don't vegetarian people in japan be conscious of these stuff? or there's practically no vegetarian here. oh yeah, here is asia after all. animal-sourced stuff maybe is cheaper and more economic for food manufacturing, but please be detailed in disclosing the information.

and oh, my bad when i made a call to the manufacturer, to confirm whether there's any animal-sourced ingredients or not, apparently dairy stuff also considered animal. err, and then i don't know how to ask further. how can i exactly ask them, anyone can teach me the exact term for those?

but i wonder why in other places i've been (talking big as if i've traveled the whole world, yet the number of countries i've gone can even be counted by one hand), i never had to bother with these? i mean, these are the common substances used in food industry. is japan (the famous advanced country) is the only who uses animal-sourced subtances as emulsifier? you see, how awkward to not be able to buy bread? i assume at the moment fresh-baked stuff at bakeries is okay as it's less likely to have these subtances. or should i ask every single time, "does this bun has lard? does this one too?". okay, i know no other ingredients than lard that i shouldn't consume.

babi.

the above is the name of their main source of meat, favourite for most. (okay, honestly i just wanted to mencarut)

yes, i'm hungry. i need to drag my feet to 7-11 and get my favourite dango which cost 105yen, and a 1L pack of lipton milk tea (anyone wanna inform me the emulsifier in it is animal-sourced?? i don't know how many hundred of litres i've drank so far).

or maybe i won't after all, it's cold. i'd rather be in my futon. oh no, i should be studying coz i haven't started at all!

okay, otsukare to all who's already done, and ganbarou who still have papers coming. mine starts next week

p/s: feast to the eyes. another delicious food i got to relish last weekend. maguro saikou!!!

first post of 2012

wow, i only had one entry for last month!

well, i tend to write long entries and when i couldn't finish it, it all get stuck in drafts.

in the end, i didn't even write an entry about the latter half of my summer vacation-sorry for those who anticipates it.

and now the semester nearly ends.

honestly, i don't think i'm doing good. i was even figuring out how exactly i survived the last semester. or specifically to remember that vigor to do things. i've lost it now.

okay, in return, i rigorously do something else completely unrelated to school. i'm sorry for myself.

that's all for i feel inside, i actually had been involved in stuff too lately.

i went to a programme in Zao Liza (pronounced as 'raiza') in Yamagata prefecture.

it was good that i went.

i got to experience snowboarding for the first time too.

that was during the short winter vacation i had. (thanks to the super long summer vacation, our winter vacation is cut short)

now it's over, the school is nearing the period we call final exam. while i'm still clueless what exactly i learnt in classes.

oh, quit that rants!

oh yea, before that trip, it was food haven for me~ for a few days straight, i could relish on delicious cuisines or simply food.

for how many times i lost count, i went to dohtonbori and eat okonomiyaki with my friends on the last day of school of the year. i already memorized the only several menu i could eat there, and i've eaten them all.

that next day, i was fortunate enough to be able to savor on delicious sushi! obviously there's a difference between kaitenzushi (the one that goes round the shop on revolving lanes) and the one that are not. thanks to a particular someone who kindly brought me there. i'm very grateful now. oh yea, we took purikura too.

and then the next day, it was a house party at jlo's. she and her housemates made chicken rice, a tasty one! and i met Heng-their junior, and the rest of the day was pure adventure, where it all decided at the spur of the moment. that was fun watching movie, eating ice-cream, taking purikura(now this is 2 days straight), and unexpectedly singing our heart out.

and then, the next day was sunday, christmas. as much i was puzzled as to how christmas is becoming significant to japanese although they're mostly atheist or buddhist/shinto, i still celebrate the day as holiday and i spent it with my girl friend eating cakes all we want. that was a lot of delicacies.


yeah, FOOD MAKES YOU HAPPY.

for some reason, i'm heavily attached to baskin robbin's ice-cream, during new year, i ate various types of them for 3 days consecutively. on jan 4th, i just couldn't continue as i had no money in my wallet.

oh yea, yesterday, i made nasi goreng. in my case, this is a big news! i really want to put the picture, but i'm now typing this from my main notebook, so lazy to transfer the photo from the phone

if only i got macbook, i could easily use it from the photostream.

i want a macbook <-- this is avarice. it's not like i don't have a functional computer to use (even though the monitor is not working)

i should save more money.

honestly, my head is thinking of more things to write. but i don't think it has any more relevance.

so, ciou.

before that, a feast to the eyes!

the sushi! (i wonder why i took from this angle, tamago is not my fav though)

p/s: i changed the look of the blog! somehow the previous one failed me, i really want a layout with snail on it >.<

.... (didn't even know i unposted this)

The last time i wrote here was about a month ago, and just like then, i'm still on a rollercoaster of thoughts and emotions. And i could only laugh just like how i would when i ride the real rollercoaster.

I've been quite disappointed for quite a few things especially when it's regarding my own self. I'm questioning myself where had all the motivation gone and how to retrieve it, worried when i sense no crisis when i think i already should. I have no plan or whatsoever, and the things i'm doing at the present doesn't seem to be in good shapes, it makes my mental goes haywire. At times i took a breather, or should i say a lot of times? Well, they work as effective as placebo.

Okay, that's all for some soliloquy.

Now, i shall write by what's happening lately. I realized my english has gone worse when there's zero demand to use it here. In fact, japanese language has monopolized my language use including inside my head. I know i should do something when i start to have to translate things from japanese first in my head. As a countermeasure, i frequent the english lounge we have here a lot now. And i also took part in the lecturer's research which requires me to take ielts test, in the same time it enables me to know my current language ability. Well, the result significantly shows that i have a lot to improve. But surprisingly i did quite great in listening though i know that was certainly my weak point as i'm not exactly an auditory type of person. On another event but closely related, i was really at a loss for words when someone told me i exude good energy it made her feel good to be around, that was my first time to be told that, i don't know i should be flattered or what, i was simply astonished.

Moving on to another topic, i think i just managed to make miso soup! I'll try to make it again next time all by myself. I hope it'll turn out delicious like the one i made (supervised by my friend) the other day.



While writing this, i'm on a train heading to hachiouji as i'm having nothing to do after i forgot my reading materials at home. The heater located below the seat really makes my legs warm, in fact hot. i actually was (or still am) grouchy since the early morning, i keep listening to 2 songs in my ipod on repeat. As always, Solanin by Asian Kungfu Generation makes me calm. i also found DUGOUT by Radwimps to have a consoling effect too and made me curious with the lyrics as well. Usually Noda always amazes me with his words. I wish i have that kind of skill too, but maybe it's just because the way we think is different in the first place. Now that's something i can't really do anything about. Human minds are so wonderful just by the diverse ways it works by individuals, it makes the world so complex and colourful.

Okay i've been rambling randomly here. Now i just reached my destination, so Byebye