the tohoku +a bit of hokkaido train trip (a tecchan travellogue)

i've long thought of travelling across nihon using trains, they even got this ticket called seishun 18 kippu that enables you to do so with less money, a good choice for those who has so much time to kill as it only allows you to use the local trains, no express or shinkansen. (more details here)

the problem was i have no one to travel with. well, it'll be very boring to spend time so much time on trains alone.

and suddenly, on a sunday night, i brought this plan upon my friend who surprisingly eager to do the same thing too! so right after the iftar, we bought the ticket, and then the next day, we took off! yeah, i love you, Arini Nuran to make my wish come true!

what a gloomy post in the first week of ramadan

for some unknown reasons, it seems like i've been away from this blog a quite a while.

nande darou?

is it because i feel like there's nothing worthy to write? well, quite a lot happens, good and bad.

what have i done all this while?

exam's over - good news
meeting friends - good news
travelling for quite a bit - good news
watching magnificent fireworks - good news
flumpool's new single - good news

iftar alone - bad news
not getting part-time work - bad news
not so much money to spend as i like - bad news
my language skill in all languages getting worse - bad news

+some other stuff - bad news

okay, maybe they balance each other. i shouldn't feel so miserable i guess. it's indescribable. but i only know this feeling lies somewhere in the negative zone. shuuh, shuuh, please go away.

btw, i'm stuck with a lot of dramas this season. they're my companions during most evenings.


uurgh, honestly i hate it when actually there's a lot that i want to vent out but manage not to do so. i don't even know whether it's because i unconsciously refuse to or simply am not able to. it's like so many things are running in the mind and everything's in a mess and entangled, and i don't even know where to start to make things in order. let's say a whole lot of shoelaces getting mixed, all in dark colours, when you feel like untangling it, not even a single aglet(the end part of shoelace) can be seen. you're tired but you know you gotta do it. it just makes you frustrated.

in the end, it feels like something is sticking to your chest and won't budge. what a weight.


wishing everyone a happy day, a happy life, a blessed ramadan!

Location:Saitama University, Saitama-shi, Saitama-ken

the end of exam note

it's nearly a month since my last post. that's the longest hiatus i have so far!

so, our exams have ended. well, for other places, they might still be in the middle of it, or it's possibly drawing very near already. the reason my uni finishes the semester early this year is all for the sake of saving electricity. longer semester means longer use of the classes, the airconds and everything following it. so, the whole semester is shortened. usually, our exam is in august. so lucky me this year, we got longer summer holiday!

don't ever ask how the exam went. i don't want to remember about it.

but then, i have barely any plan for the first half of my holiday. i do try to get some part time job, at least, i could find extra money to cover the cost for the later half of my holiday :D but i don't know whether it'll go well or not. okay, gotta ask the seniors about this. i know near to nothing as to how to get jobs here.

i've been here for 3 months already. did a lot of things, schools and stuff. but then i realized, i didn't take as much pictures. like yesterday, i went out with some friends to watch harry potter movie, and we even went all the way to ueno from saitama just for lunch, yet there's no single photo of it. the same goes for quite a number of events before that. i don't know why. and i didn't even get to take photos with my experiment group though i badly wanted to do so, just that i  didn't have much courage to ask for it.

it'll be a waste if i just forget all these precious memories (i doubt lab experiments could count as one though, honestly i have very little of what i like about it) yosh, for the rest of the holiday, i'll make sure there's at least a photo for each event that happens.

these are from my last experiment for the semester, i admit i like this one a bit. it's interesting (the arm moves according to the hand's movement9

or to see how childish these boys look in front of this amazing technology (lia~~~ :"> )

well, the above was typed yesterday. talk about me who tends to leave my work halfway done.

like my report about the experiment above which is due tomorrow. i'm hating this self who always ends up doing last minute works. urgh. i don't know any way to get myself more motivated to do works early. the 1st semester was a mess so i sincerely hope the next one will be better. yeah, hope is a very nice word.

this almost sounds like a random rants already.

so everyone, have a nice day! btw, today is 'umi no hi'/'day of the sea??' in japan, it's a public holiday. it's a hot day in summer, take care of yourselves!!

Location:Saitama University, Saitama-shi, Saitama-ken

i didn't see this coming!

when i purchased my iPhone, it was only the week before the iPhone white was launched. and i originally didn't even have that strong desire to possess an iPhone in the first place, especially the design that does not particularly attract me at all. but i did after all, it's a smart phone, and the line provider is softbank (this is the major reason coz practically everyone close to me is using that, so to use another will be my loss)

and today, i just saw this:

it's a flip and it's smart phone!!

btw, smap in this is sooo funny.

Location:Saitama University, Saitama-shi, Saitama-ken

Baskin robbins a.k.a sa-tiwan

From the first time i went to indulge the srumptiliciousness of baskin robbin's ice-cream here, it took me less than a month to savor it for the third time already. But there's something quite different between the one in malaysia and in japan. It's how it is known.

The first time i went was on 31st of last month. It was chilly at the time, but who cares, there's discount! I invited my friend to go along with me (i don't wanna eat alone at the shop). So i gave a mail:

Me : there's discount at baskin robbins today right? I want to eat icecream, let's go together!

My friend : alright! Where's the place?

Me: i think it's very near to Saizeriya

My friend : u mean Sa-tiwan?

*it took me about a few minutes to figure out what he said, i was like "what korean word he's talking about now?"*

me : yea!

Apparently no one knows the name baskin robbins here. Even the website is www.31ice.co.jp they call it thirty-one (of coz with the katakana english). I wonder why they don't translate it fully like 'sanjuuichi'? Lol but yeah, it's really a delight especially in a hot weather like now. I'm still trying to get used with the recent heat. It's just like malaysia now. Wearing 2 layers nearly not applicable. Back to the topic, actually i also tried another place for ice-cream just the other day. They have many specialty menu with the icecream and they prepare it on the spot, like handling dough on the ice-cold stone slabs. btw, the shop's name is 'cold stone' (and aisya jLo mistook it as 'cold storage' at first :P) what makes it quite special is how merry the atmosphere they personally create! They practically sing a lot songs (mostly that sounds like nursery rhymes) every now and then while serving the customers. But maybe because they are simply attracted to our foreigner self, when it was our turn, they interviewed us instead. Maa ii ka, at least the icecream was truly delicious!!

 

Location:Saitama University, Saitama-shi, Saitama-ken

2 consecutive weekends at home

(okay, i lied as it's not entirely true, for lunch on the recent saturday, i went somewhere which i spent about 5 hours, but yeah, it's only for lunch, with dessert of a very delicious ice-cream).

yet, what i did was just idling time away leaving the works all done at the very last minute. give me no matter how many hours in a day, and i can still fill it with nothing beneficial at all.

what's wrong with my head? can't i feel the sense of crisis by now?

about 2/3 weeks left before the final exam.


p/s: i want a new purse(mine is lost for quite a while). a leather purse specifically. a beautiful one but won't cost me much. is that too much to ask?

something like these perhaps?  (just why these are sooo damn expensive??)

Saitama University, Saitama-shi, Saitama-ken

Thus the 8th weekend

This view is magnificent. For some reason i managed to drag my feet to odaiba last friday, but still no chance to ride this. Anyone would like to ride this together? Odaiba is beautiful and i believe it's even more so if viewed from above, like from inside the gondola.

Everyone, do your best completing all the works! It's school again tomorrow. I'm trying hard doing mine in the remaining of the day while listening to Oceanlane. I love their music, if only there's any of their concerts i can go to....

Location:Saitama University, Saitama-shi, Saitama-ken

Borborygmus

i just found an interesting word.

it's a word that describes what always happens to me recently. it simply means the growling of the stomach.

i just woke up and it makes that sound again.

by the time i'm writing this, it's about a quarter to 5 in the morning and it's already so bright.

this is the sight i get from my balcony at 4:50 a.m. passing that gate at the other side is my university. walking about 100 meters from there is pretty much the engineering department. i love my current house.

and actually yesterday i slept from nearly 8 p.m. until it was nearly 4 in the morning. i missed yesterday episode of BOSS!

okay, i should be grateful i woke up in time for Subuh prayer, but regrettable for the Isya' that i missed (never thought i could actually miss that one, astaghfirullah)

what happened to my body clock? it seems not to be in japan. this is not the first time. it's becoming frequent lately. even on the previous day too (but there was no drama i watch on the tv on that day, so i don't particularly care)

i just hope today it won't behave that way again, i have something to look forward tonite. yeah, nico!

jaa, mata!

Location:Saitama University, Saitama-shi, Saitama-ken